Patricia Logan visits the Naughty Nights Press Blog for an interview with Gina Kincade today!Patricia will be sharing some personal insight into her life as a mother, GBLT supporter and a sultry, exemplary, primarily m/m erotic author!
We will get the opportunity to learn a little about her current release "Undercover Nights" and alot about her as a person.
One lucky person who leaves a comment on the interview will win an ebook copy of "Undercover Nights" too! Wow, now what could be better then that!
Patricia Logan is one amazingly busy woman and a fantastic author!
Hi Patricia! Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to host an interview with you on Naughty Nights Press.
I have truly been waiting with baited breath for your interview! Why? Because I can’t wait to give our followers the info on how to get a copy of "Undercover Nights"!
I think my personal TBR list has now reached the length of my leg but I just can't resist adding a new one that looks like it is going to be so spectacular!
Well, suppose I should stop yammering and get on with it huh..lol
1. Can you share a few “tid bits” about your self?
Sure. I’m an author of M/M erotica and M/M/M erotica. My first M/M/F erotica release comes out in October of this year. I’m also a wife and mother and active in GLBT causes. I’ve had a pretty complex career background including being a nurse in the ISU (immune suppressed unit) where the majority of my patients were HIV/AIDS patients and also being a jeweller and a mortgage broker for a couple of decades.
The decline of my business due to the economy was the catalyst that launched my writing career. So, in my case, the economy was good and bad for me. Now, I do what I truly LOVE.
What is a typical day like for you?
A typical day for me begins with getting my daughter out the door to school and two cups of coffee before I sit down at my keyboard. I check my email, interact on FB with my fans and friends and then write.
My writing takes up the majority of my day and like any other author I have super productive days, 10K words + and lousy ones, if I can’t find my muse. I write every day, even if it’s only a paragraph.
What “pet peeves” do you have if any?
Really, since writing is such a creative process, my biggest pet peeve is that some days I’m just not “on” and being the control freak that I am, this is a hard thing to deal with.
2. How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was small with a large gap in between. I wrote when I was in grade school, lots of short stories, and even then, not to blow my own horn, I knew I was creative. I picked up writing again four years ago, and haven’t stopped.
3. Do you write exclusively gay male erotic fiction?
No, though all of my stories now, have at least one gay male couple in the mix. Sometimes there’s a third man or a woman thrown in but the gay male couple is my absolute must have and my very, very favourite.
4. What was your goal for yourself as a writer when you started?
My goal was to write a full-length novel that was good enough to get published.
Did you meet or surpass it or did it change for you along the way?
Wow. That’s a good question. The first novel I ever wrote is now just getting published in October though it will be my fourth published work. That little gem, “Gypsy Knight” was written as a hetero romance but I couldn’t get it published in the “vanilla” world so, after I had some success with gay male erotica, I rewrote it and made it a M/M/F novel and my publisher liked it and accepted it. The story remained the same, the characters just loved each other differently, LOL.
5. How did you decide to write books in your specific genre?
First of all, I made a transition in my reading. I also read about 400 novels a year in order to keep my plots fresh. I don’t want to repeat what other authors are writing and that is hard, so I read what’s out there. I made a transition in my reading from mild romance, to more racy stuff, to erotica, to ménage, to gay erotica to some pretty heavy fetish stuff.
I found that I loved the gay erotica the most but the heavy fetish stuff was too much for me. I do include some BDSM in my writing but it’s not heavy, just extremely sexy and erotic.
There was a turning point in my writing that lead me to M/M erotica and that was the determination to get published.
Was there anything that influenced your choice?
Yes of course, I think all writers write what they like to read. For me, it was a financial decision as well. I sent out my hetero novel and got thirty-nine rejection letters and so then began the research. I found out that there are only 2,000 titles of hetero vanilla romance published per year and 400,000 submissions.
As a former mortgage broker, I figured that it was only 5 percent possible that I’d get published. Bad odds, even if I don’t live in Vegas. That meant that I was competing as a tiny fish in a gigantic pond for one of those slots.
When I researched the hottest new categories of sales, I found erotica was the hottest and as a sub-group M/M erotica, and since I was already reading it, I figured, this is my niche. Now, I just needed to just the mechanics of gay lovemaking down (I’m a hetero female) and I’d be all set.
I dissected the books I was reading so I could learn how men do it, interviewed my gay male friends over a lot of wine and laughter, watched a little of it and voila, cranked out my first novel “Leather Nights” which has had great success.
6. What is your writing process like? How long does it take you to finish a story from beginning to end?
I have OCD really bad so I have to sacrifice to that god on a daily basis. My writing is extremely methodical as a result. When I get a plot-bunny in my head, usually somewhere I have no pen and paper, I have to sit down and write a synopsis. Sometimes it’s notes on an envelope or napkin. Then I flesh that out to about a thousand words or less but it does contain the whole story, beginning to end.
Secondly, I write a comprehensive outline, about 1,500-2,500 words where I break it out in chapter form. Then, I sit down and write from the outline. The outline remains fluid throughout the writing process though, because I’m constantly going off on tangents.
I wrote the first book “Leather Nights” in 26 days. It’s a 90K word book. I was obsessed to get it on paper before I lost it in my head. That’s an anomaly however. Most full length novels take two to two and a half months before they’re submission ready.
7. What do you love most about writing?
I love my guys and putting their lives on paper and revelling in the love they feel for each other is what I love the best. I live and breathe my men while and long after I’ve written about them. They become real to me, real people and when my fans write about them as a real person that is the COOLEST thing on the planet. It’s like they “got me” like my fans really understood and loved my guys like I did at the time and still do now. So, so, cool!
8. Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
I make myself write every day even if I’m not feeling terribly creative at the moment. If I have to go back and revise later, so be it. At least I’ve done something toward the goal of a completed work each day.
9. Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?
My characters are the first thing that develop in my mind. I tend to write novels in series form or trilogy’s so that helps because the characters for the next novel generally appear in the one before it and so on. Once I have characters I like, I write a story just for them.
If you read me enough, you can pick out the main character for the next novel based on the character development of a certain personality and the way he appears. For example, the gay physical therapist in “Leather Nights” is Gage Neary. He’s gorgeous and gay. You just know that he deserves his own story when you read about him and sure enough you get him and his sexy lover in “Undercover Nights” the next book in the series. You’ll see.
As far as the setting goes, I had originally written the Armadillo series in a real town. My editor and publisher decided that it would work better in a fictional town so there was the birth of tiny “Westburg, Texas”. I actually agree now, though I was a little miffed at the time. I’ve been able to do things with Westburg that I couldn’t have done with a real town. That’s where giving up some editorial control worked for me and I’m thrilled that Torquere Press did that for me. They knew their stuff and my boys and my books benefited from it.
10. What are the elements of a great erotic romance for you?
You have to have hot sex and in my opinion, a lot of it. But, the most important thing about a romance is the “romance”. No one really wants to read a 200 or 300 page orgasm right? Take a breath people. LOL.
No, I think we all need a great story with real characters and guys we fall in love with. That’s the point, falling in love right? Lot’s of sex along the way but ultimately falling in love is the most important.
That said, a great action book works for me. I like my bad guys, well I should say I hate my bad guys, as much as my good guys because they make the story exciting. Whether it’s a bigot, a serial killer, the mafia, a pedophile or something worse, if there is such a thing, it makes a complete adventure for the reader. I want to go along for the ride and I think you don’t need a super complex plot but you definitely need a villain.
A villain can be something as innocuous as poverty, or a bad boyfriend or a jealous former lover, but I personally like something that can maim or kill. LOL! Maybe Bigfoot is my next beastly villain!
11. What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of writing?
Writing when you’re so not feelin’ it, is the most challenging and sometimes the next day, that gets erased from the hard drive and rewritten but those days are rare. The most rewarding for me are the days I can sit down and start typing and the words flow out of my brain and onto the page faster than I can type. I keep word counts. Anything over 3,500 is a great day for me and those rare 7K or 10K days are “DA BOMB BABY”!
12. Is writing your full-time job? How and when do you find time to write?
Writing is my full time job but not our only income. If it was what I had to live on at this young stage of my career, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Fortunately, I have a large family and more than one income earner in the family. That will change as my fan base grows. I can already feel the momentum and I’ve only got two books out and several others coming out very soon. I have fans clamouring for more and that’s SO COOL!
I write from morning until whenever I have enough on the page or my real life interferes with what I call playtime (my writing time). Sometimes I’m done by noon or one o’clock.
13. If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
I’d simply die if I couldn’t write. It’s now so much a part of me, that there’s nothing else I could do that would satisfy me. If I were locked away somewhere without paper and pen, I’d be writing in my head and memorizing it all for the time when I could put it down on paper.
14. Is there a specific bit of advice you would give to an aspiring author who is looking to publish their work?
Don’t give up honey, no matter how much you feel like throwing in the towel. I had one publisher not only reject my novel, but send me a brochure on “how to write a book”! If that wasn’t a slap in my creative face, I don’t know what was. The nerve of some people!
That was about the 30th rejection on the same book and it was about that time I realized that he/she was a complete narcissist and that publishers were just people… like me. Some day, I’d find one that loved my writing as much as I did so I kept going. I eventually found one.
Traditional or Self-Publishing, which would you suggest?
Traditional! I say that because I knew that I needed the support and exposure as a new writer, that a publisher would give me. Although I do most of my own promoting now, I liked having another person or publishing house that “seconded” my work. I’m too insecure to put myself out there and wonder if anyone “loves me”. I needed for personal reasons, to feel that I was doing a good job and that someone else believed in me.
Now to have my publisher use me as the featured author of the month or do an interview like this, wow, that’s unbelievable and so cool. Self publishing is something I considered but rejected for the reasons above.
15. How do you choose a publisher? Who are your current publishers?
I sent out the first book to four publishers and five agents. I got eight rejections and one “eh, we may take it if…” I grabbed that one, and ran with it. I found out from the editor what she wanted changed and it was a heck of a lot. Not because she didn’t like the story, but because I had formatting errors, point of view wobbling and spelling and grammatical errors.
I worked with her, revised the manuscript and sent if back with the fixes and she accepted it. I loved the fact that I’d lucked out and found someone who liked the manuscript enough to not reject it outright.
What’s funny is that I sent it to both the editor and the publisher by accident and one rejected it and one accepted it with changes. Funny huh?
I am exclusively published with Torquere Press at this time and I love them so far.
16. How do you market your work?
I do interviews like this. I have made awesome industry contacts through FB and have several author friends that feature my work on their blogs and special projects like World Autism Day etc.
I take every opportunity to publish great reviews to my FB for other authors/readers/fans to access and I am currently setting up a blog and website. I offer to be a guest blogger wherever I can and spend a lot of time networking with other authors.
I will be going to conventions beginning next year. I also have a lot of friends in the gay community that promote me, passing out business cards for me etc. I’ve done a lot of gay charity work in the past and my friends remember me.
17. Can you share a little bit about your current release with us? Where can we find it?
My current release is “Undercover Nights” and it’s available at Torquerepress.com. It will be on Amazon and other 3rd party retailers possibly by the time this interview appears. It was just released March 9, 2011.
It is the second book of the Armadillo trilogy and it’s the story of Gage Neary a sweet and gentle man with a smokin’ hot body and gorgeous violet-colored eyes. When he becomes entangled in an investigation into the deaths of his patients, the equally sexy Cody Redsun, an FBI agent, is tapped to head up the investigation. Gage is the primary suspect but all Cody can think of is getting him naked. When a connection to the Mexican Mafia is uncovered, Cody’s primary focus changes to keeping Gage alive. It’s a wild ride with super bad villains and a sexy back story about Cody’s tortured past. As you read my stories, you’ll find that usually one of my heroes has had a tragic or hideous incident in their past and is struggling to overcome it.
18. Do you have other published works? If so please tell us about them!
I have the first of the Armadillo trilogy “Leather Nights” which is available at all book retailers and Torquerepress.com. These books should be read in order because some of the characters cross over but they are essentially stand alone novels.
The third book is a M/M/M erotic romance and is called “Warrior Nights”. It’s due out on June 8th.
The next release is “Gypsy Knight” and is a M/M/F erotic romance. It is an epic medieval tale with a couple of gay men thrown in and not as target practice. LOL. Hey it wasn’t easy being gay in the year 1200 A.D. If you like historical fiction, you will love it. The settings are beautiful and come with a few sword fights thrown in.
19. Where can your readers find you?
You can email me at ploganauthor@yahoo.com or patricialogan.author@yahoo.com or friend me on Facebook. I have a blog named Naughty Passions and I hope to see you there. Naughtypassions.blogspot.com. I promise to answer all emails. I love talking to other writers and fans. See you in the funny papers!
We’d like to thank you Patricia for being here on Naughty Nights Press blog today. I personally had a blast and look forward to reading "Undercover Nights" real soon!
We hope you will come back and share more of yourself again!
I can't wait to find out just who the lucky winner of their very own ebook copy of "Undercover Nights" will be today! Woot Woot!
Thank you for the opportunity to be on Naughty Nights Press blog.
Patti
To recap folks: All you have to do to be entered to win YOUR copy of "Undercover Nights" by Patricia Logan is leave a comment for Patti at the end of this interview.
One lucky winner will receive an ebook copy by email in the next few days so please do not forget to leave us your contact information! Good luck to you all!!
About Patricia Logan
Patricia comes from small town America where people still believe in true love. In a house filled with family, friends and pets, she sometimes laments the lack of time just to sit down and write, though surrounded by those she loves, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Patricia’s writing and characters are real stories and real people, well to her they are, and this makes putting their lives down on paper and bringing them to life, a joy. She realized a very long time ago that the world is filled with people who live diverse and amazing lifestyles and she tries to capture the beauty of such diversity in her writing.
Living in a home with family from eleven to eighty-five, two ugly dogs and one beautiful cat, she deals with a little diversity of her own every day. Her best friends hail from Greece, Iran, Michigan, Pacoima and New Jersey and loves more than anything to be surrounded by them laughing and enjoying life. On any given day you’ll find Patricia pursuing her favorite past time, curled up on the couch with a book in one hand and often with a glass of Cab in the other.
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