We’re so pleased to have author Megan Reddaway stopping in today on the tour for her new Historical Romance, A Position in Paris. Megan is here to chat a bit about writing, and there’s also a giveaway so be sure to check out those details below.

Welcome, Megan!

What I Don’t Dare Write

This may sound weird, but sometimes it takes courage to write. Or I guess it’s not so much the writing, but writing for publication. For me, writing isn’t frightening at all, but publishing definitely is.

This can be for a ton of different reasons. Sometimes a story reveals things about me that are scary to put out there. I use a pen name to make this easier on myself, but generally I’m a very private person who doesn’t talk much about my feelings (or at all). I always thought that this is a big part of the reason why I write—to express things I don’t say, or don’t express well in speech—but it’s not why I publish. For a long time (decades) I wrote without ever publishing anything.

Sometimes I love a story so much that I’m terrified of bad reviews because they’re actually painful to read. This is true of my latest novel, A Position in Paris. It means so much to me that harsh criticism hurts in the way that it hurts when a child you love is bullied and there’s nothing I can do about it. Publishing that kind of story approaches what I think it would be like to send a child to school for the first time. It’s scary. You worry. But it has to be done.

I don’t always feel this way. If I don’t care so much about a story, I can read bad reviews and think, “Yes, that’s a fair criticism,” or “Okay, they didn’t get what I was doing there, but you can’t please everybody.” Even if they really trash the book, I might be angry for a few hours or even days, but then I’ll tell myself that I just ran up against a person who thinks criticizing others makes them look smart or whatever, and I’ll move on.

Then if authors publish through a commercial company, we’re taking a risk. Some publishers have folded, leaving writers struggling to get back the rights to publish their own book. The company that was going to publish my two latest novels had serious issues at the beginning of the year, and I withdrew the books rather than be associated with that, which was a huge disappointment for me because I’d hoped to reach a wider readership by going with a commercial publisher.

But I was also lucky to have had the editors’ input into those two books before the publishing relationship fell apart. Both of them had three different editors picking up things I would have missed myself. In A Position in Paris, one of the main characters is disabled, and since I’m not disabled myself, that was a challenge. I was very happy that the publishers found a sensitivity reader who came back with positive and constructive comments.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if we’re overstepping with a story. I often write characters who present as arrogant or thoughtless, but later see their mistakes. Darius, my “Darcy” character in Out, Proud, and Prejudiced, is like this. So is the original Darcy, I think. But in my early drafts, Darius could have been hard to forgive. I’m very grateful to the editor who pointed out something I would never have seen myself because I was too deep in the story and understood Darius in a way that readers might not.

I’ve always had characters acting out stories in my head, for as long as I can remember, and some of them I know I’ll never write. In some cases it’s because life is too short—it takes way longer to write down a story than to imagine it. But in other cases, I don’t commit them to paper/screen because I don’t think they’d be well received. For example, the first male/male romance I ever started to write was a trilogy where the first couple broke up at the end of book one and the romance that led to an HEA was one of those guys with someone else who didn’t appear until book two. Readers would hate that!

But I guess in the end there’s nothing I wouldn’t dare write. There are just things I wouldn’t dare publish.

About the Book

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Length: 65k words approx.
Cover Design: Natasha Snow
Blurb: Paris, 1919. World War One is over, and wounded hero James Clarynton is struggling to face life without one leg, one eye, and the devilish good looks he had before the conflict. Now he must pay for affection, and it leaves him bitter. He’s filling the time by writing a book—but it’s the young man who comes to type it who really intrigues him.

Edmund Vaughan can’t turn down the chance to be secretary to the wealthy James Clarynton. He’s been out of work since the armistice, and his mother and brother depend on him. But he has secrets to hide, and the last thing he wants is an employer who keeps asking questions.

As they work together, their respect for each other grows, along with something deeper. But tragedy threatens, and shadows from the past confront them at every turn. They must open their hearts and trust each other if they are to break down the barriers that separate them.

A heartwarming romance with some dark moments along the way.

About the Author

MEGAN REDDAWAY lives in England and has been entertained by fictional characters acting out their stories in her head for as long as she can remember. She began writing them down as soon as she could.

Since she grew up, she has worked as a secretary, driver, barperson, and article writer, among other things. Whatever she is doing, she always has a story bubbling away at the same time.

For news of Megan’s gay romance releases and two free stories, visit her Website || Facebook || Twitter || Goodreads