Happy Release Day to our esteemed guest, DSP Publications author and Lambda Literary Awards finalist (for The Boys on the Mountain), John Inman! We’re pleased to have John here today to tell us about his Spiritual release, The Second Son, and we’re sure you’ll be just as pleased to hear all about it. But first, let’s see what John’s got for us:
The Second Son: It’s an old, old story: a tale of the consequences of good and evil. Plus the limitless power of faith and love, and how they can forever change an empty life.
When Charlie Strickland, a reclusive artist living in the backwoods of Indiana, opens his door to find a handsome young stranger standing naked on his front porch, an astounding odyssey begins.
It doesn’t take Charlie long to fall head over heels in love with his oddly innocent visitor. The young man calls himself Joe. Just Joe. But when amazing things begin to happen, Charlie soon comes to realize who Joe really is.
What follows will turn Charlie’s world, and everyone else’s, upside down.
The Second Son is available now from DSP Publications, Amazon, and most other major retail outlets.
Carole: Sounds intriguing, John, so let’s get right to it. Tell us a bit more about The Second Son
John: With every book I write, I try to stretch myself and do something I haven’t done before. I have always been fascinated with the possibilities of what might happen if the events in this story were to come true. It would not only be cool beyond measure (if one is a religious person and believes in this sort of stuff) it would also maybe give some of the more rabidly religious people out there a reason to step back and rethink some of their less than religious opinions.
The Second Son came about for a few reasons. I wanted, like I said, to write something different. I wanted to use some of the memories I have of being raised in a religious environment. I wanted to write a story that wasn’t strictly a romance, although there is most certainly romance in it. I wanted to write a story without boundaries, I mean physical boundaries. Like a house, a town, a mountaintop. This story is actually global, and that was a challenge for me to write. I don’t know how well I succeeded, but I certainly enjoyed trying. And last of all I wanted to see if I could make the idea behind this plot come to life in such a way as to make it seem real.
Carole: The Second Son is being published through DSP Publications, Dreamspinner Press’s imprint for genre novels that don’t necessarily focus on or even contain romance. Tell us about the relationship in The Second Son and why it doesn’t fit the accepted definition of Romance in the M/M genre.
John: Like I said earlier, while there is romance in The Second Son, it is most certainly not a romance. It’s wonderful to have DSPP available to us now, and knowing we don’t have to write the HEA M/M love affairs if something else takes our fancy. Don’t get me wrong. I love the romances. But sometimes it’s nice to know you can branch out and also know there might just be a market out there for what you’ve written.
Carole: I think we all second that. ;) So what do you do for fun? Do you have a pet who supervises your writing?
John: I have two cats, adopted from Pets Across Borders (they’re from Tijuana) and they are usually with me when I’m writing. Leo likes to burrow through the ocean of index cards I have scattered around everywhere, and Max likes to lay on the couch behind me and snore. We have a symbiotic relationship. Sometimes one or the other (or both) are in my lap, which is not conducive to good typing, but we muddle through.
Carole: How has your writing changed since you published your first book?
John: I don’t know that my writing has changed, but my approach to writing certainly has. No longer does the idea of writing a book seem as challenging to me as it once did. And once I get started, it doesn’t seem so bloody impossible to reach the end. It took me a while to realize you have to think of it in segments rather than as a whole, otherwise it’s simply too daunting to think about. I guess after twenty seven books, I’ve just become a little more sure of myself. Although I have to admit with The Second Son I was nervous all the way through. I didn’t want to blow it. It was too important a subject to take lightly. The readers will have to decide if I succeeded or not.
Carole: Well, if your history and backlist are anything to go by, John, I’m pretty sure you’ve got nothing to worry about there. ;) Thanks so much for being with us today, and thank you, Awesome Readers, for giving us a few moments to bring you something new from an author you all know and love. Buy links for The Second Son are below!
Author Bio: John Inman grew up on a tiny 60-acre farm in Indiana. His childhood was a happy one. He spent most of it barefoot with a cane pole over his shoulder, fishing and roaming the countryside and dragging home every wild creature he could get his hands on hoping to make it a pet, much to his mother’s horror.
Longing to see the world (what kid doesn’t?), he joined the Navy two minutes after graduating from high school. The Navy carried him all across the Orient before finally landing him in San Diego, California, a city he fell in love with at first sight. He lives there to this day with his husband John (yep, John and John), and an assortment of pets they’ve happened to adopt along the way, (Yep, he’s still doing that too.)
The one great longing that has stayed with John his entire life, from his childhood on the farm, to his years in the Navy, and all the way up to retirement from the working world, was the need he felt to write fiction. And he did. He wrote every chance he got, from elementary school all the way through to Social Security.
John calls this passion of his a wonderful addiction, and he thanks God every day that he suffers from it. Since he can’t think of a happier way to spend his remaining years on this marvelous planet, you can now find John seven days a week, merrily slogging along on his computer, doing what he most dearly loves to do.
Writing. (And there’s usually a pet on his lap while he’s doing it.)
You can follow John via his Website or Facebook.
Next time on Genre Talk, Elizabeth Noble will be visiting with Anne Barwell to talk about Anne’s upcoming Historical release Shadowboxing, available for preorder now!
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