Anne Brooke – The Interview

r my fantasy series (with some GLBT content – the main character is gay) however, as I think it’s seen as too literary and there isn’t enough sex in it for the usual GLBT fantasy market. I do think it’s a shame that gay fiction is somehow automatically linked with erotic fiction – after all, straight fiction isn’t. The understanding of what’s on offer needs to be a little wider, I think.

Do you feel the big publishing houses turn their back on gay fiction? Is so – why?

Yes, absolutely. Only small publishing houses tend to publish gay fiction in any quantities. I think, for the big publishing houses, it’s seen as something for which there isn’t a big enough market. They also don’t like it when a gay fiction writer turns out to be a girl. Maloney’s Law was turned down by two agents purely on that basis alone (they were totally honest about it!), even though it was placed in two UK awards. That was hard.

Where is it easier to get published, America or UK?

No question – America for sure! The UK industry is far too narrow-minded and insular, sadly.

Is there hope for the future, indeed where do you think the GLBT publishing industry will be in 10 years time?

I’m hoping it will be a mainstream part of publishing, but I fear it won’t. I’m hoping that the small publishers who currently offer GLBT literature will grow in strength and be seen as a vital part of the publishing world, rather than a poor relative, as I think they currently are. More power to our elbows is what I say!

Other writers, like Maria McCann or Patricia Duncker have been a very strong influence. I don’t think I would ever have written my first proper novel, A Dangerous Man, without reading McCann’s As Meat Loves Salt. Even though she writes historical and I write contemporary. I loved the idea of a psychotic hero – it really clicked with me.

I’ve alwasy found it hard to sit and actually do some writing, how do you start to write, whats the actual ‘Anne Brooke’ process?

I always write the first scene and then I feel I’ve got myself grounded in the book. Then I write an end scene, and start filling in the middle. 9 times out of 10 the end scene will change dramatically when I finally get there in reality, as I’ll have got to know the characters so much better by then. For instance, with Maloney’s Law, when I got to the end, I totally changed the ending, as I realised Paul Maloney would never in a thousand years do what I had him doing at first. So that was a surprise. I tend, on the whole, to write in a linear fashion although occasionally I’ll dot around if I’ve got inspiration for a scene that comes later. I wouldn’t want to forget it!

Whats the hardest part of writing, is there a part that’s harder than others?

When something isn’t going well, I beat myself up about it way too much, when maybe I should just step back and give it some time – writers are the most obsessive of people, I’m sure. I also find the 30,000-40,000 word zone really tricky – it’s a mid-novel slump and I have to think of something to type that will wake me up and wake the reader up. I hate the thought that the book might be sagging.

“Every writer I know has trouble, writing” so said Joseph Heller, Mae West gave the adice “Keep a diary, and one day it will keep you” “If one other person is moved by what my pen creates, then I am a happy man” JS, so what’s the best and the worst thing about being a writer, Anne?

The best thing is creating a world of my own in the pages of a book and getting to know a character. I also love writing the sex scenes and the violence scenes – it’s odd how easily they get written, but then again we’re all human! The worst thing is the long trog to publication, if it happens at all – that’s utterly killing.

It’s pretty unusual isn’t it, a straight married woman writing gay fiction?
Actually, there are a lot of us about! There are a lot of straight married women publishing gay fiction in the US, and it’s also an interesting fact that so many of us are connected with the church too. Seriously though, I’m not really sure how odd it is. After all gay men, such as EM Forster, can happily write novels about straight women, and it didn’t do him any harm. I think everyone’s human – the important thing is to write about people in all their variety. I’m also convinced that the current age does have a real obsession with sex – I’m often asked how I can write gay fiction when I have no direct experience of being gay, but nobody has ever asked me about the other issues that occur in my books, such as murder, rape, torture, people trafficking, child abuse and incest. I don’t have any direct experience of those either (you’ll probably be pleased to hear in those cases), but I think we’re all human and can imagine what such experiences would be like.

How do you think the GLBT community has changed over the last 10 years?

I think people are more open about the issues of sexuality which is great, and society as a whole (at least western society) is more accepting about people with different preferences. About time too! But there’s still a horrendously long way to go – it makes me so cross that gay people can’t get married in church – why not!!??? I keep asking myself. It’s ridiculous that it’s not permitted and the church makes way too much of a fuss about it. I’m also shocked by the recent anti-homosexuality stance in Uganda – that’s been a deeply saddening eye-opener. Prejudice is still here – far too much of it too.

Anne Brooke, The full and exclusive interview on GayAgenda.com  by Jason Shaw