In yet more personal excitement about my murder mystery “Blinded by Our Eyes” being OUT THERE at Carina (and I’ll continue to be shameless about the BUY link *lol*), I’d like to share how grateful and excited I am to be at Carina, and how precious the book is to me.
Yes, everyone says, they ALL are 
.
So indulge me!
I’ve lived in and around London all my adult life. It’s a vibrant, gritty, shocking, exciting, startling, heartening, frightening, welcoming city – all mixed in together!
But I didn’t start writing for public consumption in the UK. I mean *I* was there, personally, but my fiction wasn’t. Like many male/male writers, I came from a fanfiction background. I’d always written original stories as well - and my (unpublished) 300k words Bodice Ripper set in 18th century Devon, England is a testament to that! – but fanfiction was my first real exposure to writing for an audience. I LOVED IT! *lol* But that audience was mainly in North America, or was used to US vocabulary. The series I was a fan of (Gundam Wing), although a Japanese anime, was broadcast on US channels. So although I usually avoided any specific mention of location, and I didn’t really write in what they ‘canon’ (i.e. the actual setting of the original series), it seemed right to keep my stories about the guys in a US setting.
Then I took the plunge into original publishing in 2007. Pressed that SEND button to a publisher and held my breath, for a story I wrote during NaNoWriMo. Then, after I turned blue after a week (LOL) - and had to press SEND a few more times, in a few more places! – I had my first novel published in 2008, The Gold Warrior. It was set in a fantasy world.
Still not really in my home country!
It took until 2009 to offer a book for publication that was set in the UK, Freeman. Still a m/m romance, but with a grittier feel, with more of the British humour and – blessedly – British spellings . I didn’t have to worry about confusing trousers and pants, apartments and flats, pavements and sidewalks. And I kept that “U” in words like colour and favour that we Brits are so territorial about LOL.
And guess what? When I submitted Blinded by Our Eyes to Carina, I tried again. London setting, London, people, London language…
And they accepted it! Despite being a US publisher, I’ve been allowed to tell my story in the place and context it was written. I can understand that a book has to be intelligible to its audience, that they want to connect with the characters, feel they’re involved in the locations. But it’s a real joy to be able to share London with readers – and I hope they’ll all love it as much as I do.
THAT’S what’s so precious .
Please read my other post for the excerpt. And come and visit Carina’s site for great fiction of all genres.
You can find my own website and other networks (links below). I have free fiction for visitors at the website, and news of all my other books, whether published or struggling to hold their head up in my ever-growing, often-neglected work-in-progress pile.
Happy Reading!
Clare London, Author
Writing… Man to Man
Website
Blog
eharlequin Author Page
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Good Reads
GLBT Wiki
Tags: author, clare london, erotic romance, GLBT, male/male, mystery
As a Brit myself, I love reading m/m books set in Britain and using the proper spelling (*g*). I don’t know London that well, but that setting especially in the way that people think and speak and act can easily be similar to any British city and it’s great that I have the opportunity to read a book where I can wholly identify with the character types – cowboys and LA city types are all very well, but sometimes it’s nice to have something a bit closer to home.
I’m glad that Carina Press have been broadminded enough that you have been able to use British spellings because there’s nothing that annoys me more than a British set romance with the ‘wrong’ spelling.
It’s lovely being able to write about (and therefore, share) the place we call home. And since I’ve never been to London, books are the way I wander through it
Hi to you both!
Jen, thanks for your fabulous review of the book (shamelessly adds link here: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/?p=26518). It’s a real treat to write in the UK, I hadn’t really realised how much until now. We’re a global community of readers, we should be able to cope with and enjoy the differences.
Jenny – what a great viewpoint! We use books as our gudebooks, as well as the real thing. And with reading fun attached! I’m certainly going to write more in my home setting in the future.
I love writing about where I live and reading about the place. Everyone seems to bring a different perspective to a given area.
Lately I’ve been enjoying books set in Scandinavia and now I’m eager to pay a visit. Tsk.
Blinded by our Eyes sounds like a terrific read!
Hi Shirley, thanks for dropping in! Scandinavia would be marvellous to visit. My mother spent some time in Norway when she was a young secretary and she loved it. I think when I was younger I was too timid to travel – now, I grab all the chances I can get! But yes, there’s still no place like home ^_~.