Interview and Giveaway: The Redesigning Max Blog Tour with Pat Henshaw

Today we extend a warm welcome to author Pat Henshaw as she tours the web to promote her newest release Redesigning Max. Will Parkinson threw a few interview question Pat’s way, so enjoy their chat with each other, and then be sure to click on the Rafflecopter widget below for the chance to win ONE of THREE Starbucks Gift Cards.

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WP: Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Pat Henshaw, author of Redesigning Max.

Hi, Pat, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Pat: Hi! I’m originally from Nebraska and have lived all over the U. S., landing here in Northern California. Now retired, I’ve held a number of jobs including theatrical costuming for the Alley Theatre in Houston, public relations for radio and television at WETA in D. C., and teaching English composition at a junior college in California.

Redesigning Max, the second of the Foothills Pride novellas, revolves around the unlikely pair of interior designer and architect Fredi Zimmer and the CEO of an outdoors equipment store and wildlife guide Max Greene. When he hires Fredi to redesign and update his Sierra Mountain mountain cabin, Max finds his life and heart undergoing a makeover too.

Not everyone in the small Stone Acres, California community is as excited about Max and Fredi getting together as the guys are. Because Max’s been in the closet so long, he not only has to convince his friends that he’s gay but he also has to convince Fredi, who keeps getting mixed signals from him.

WP: What genre is your book and what drew you to this genre?

Pat: I write contemporary gay romance mainly because I want two different groups of readers to know the possibilities of gay men falling in love. The first is gay men themselves, who haven’t traditionally been the protagonists of romances. Many of my former students who were gay wrote in their personal essays about how unlikely they were to fall in love and have marriages like their parents’. The second group of readers I want to touch are traditional romance readers, often housewives who might be uncertain about the recent decision to make gay marriage legal in all states. I think if these women are introduced to the idea of gay love and marriage in a setting they are familiar with—romance fiction—that they will come to understand and accept gay marriage more readily than they will from the rhetoric bandied about these days.

WP: How many days a week do you write?

Pat: I write everyday. Some days I write less than others, but I find I need to write all days of the week.

WP: On average, how long does it take to write a book?

Pat: My Foothills Pride series are all novellas of between 20,000 and 30,000 words. It takes me three to four months of writing, rewriting, and editing to come up with something I like and want to submit for publication.

WP: Do you have a trailer for your book? If yes, give us the link. If not, do you think you’d like to have one done at some point?

Pat: No, I don’t have a trailer, but I’m considering the idea of making one. I just wonder how many readers actually look at them. By YouTube count, m/m trailers get between a few hundred to a few thousand views. Compared to other YouTube offerings, that seems a little low. I’m wondering if it would be more worthwhile coming up with an author vlog instead.

WP: If I could be a character in a book, I would be _______?

Pat: I would be feisty, inquisitive, and lovely in an off-beat way. I’d definitely have auburn hair and tiger eyes. I would be an older, sexy, romance version of the Hardy Boys, someone who would get caught up in adventures and wasn’t afraid to fight his way out of situations that called for fists and martial arts. I’d be a great friend or sidekick.

Blurb: Renowned interior designer Fredi Zimmer is surprised when outdoorsman Max Greene, owner of Greene’s Hunting and Fishing, hires him to remodel his rustic cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Fredi is an out and proud Metro male whose contact with the outdoors is from his car to the doorway of the million-dollar homes’ he remodels, and Max is just too hunky gorgeous for words.

When Max starts coming on to Fredi, the designer can’t imagine why. But he’s game to put a little spice into Max’s life, even if it’s just in the colors and fixtures he’ll use to turn Max’s dilapidated rustic cabin into a showplace. Who can blame a guy for adding a little sensual pleasure as he retools Max’s life visually?

Max, for his part, is grateful when Fredi takes him in hand, both metaphorically and literally. Coming out, he finds is the most exciting and wonderful time of his life, despite the conservative former friends who want to stop his slide into hell.

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