A Promo Chat With Marie Sexton (and strange new nickname for Josh Lanyon. Sorry, man.)
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Subject: Chat with Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan
Marie: Okay. I think I'm ready. What are we doing?
Heidi: We're going to have an interview, casual and hopefully cute/entertaining, to introduce your release. We'll start with the basics. What's your release, Marie?
Marie: Paris A to Z, which is the last story for Zach and Angelo, and really, the culmination of the entire Coda series where fans finally get to see all three couples together.
Heidi: Which is a good place to point out that for this book, unlike Strawberries for Dessert, you should probably have readA to Zand ... fuck, the other one.
It has a z in it.
LETTER Z.
Marie: The Letter Z
Heidi: That’s it.
Marie: Yes, this book does not stand on its own.
Heidi: What was the most fun about writing this book?
Marie: Making Matt deal with Cole. Add Angelo into the mix, and it's all downhill from there.
Heidi: I love Cole. I was Team Ang, but now I'm Team Cole.
Marie: Yeah, Team Cole stole from the entire rest of the league.
Heidi: Should we give the backdrop? That this is Cole and Jonathan's wedding?
Marie: Sure, it's in the blurb.
Some people might be disappointed that they're not seeing Jon and Cole's POV of their own wedding, but really, they're just happy, gushy in-love. What's to tell?
Heidi: Let's see. Another question. Worst part of writing this? Or most frustrating? Just the usual writing funnel? Or did something stand out as particularly challenging?
Ooh, the poem where you wanted to include the whole thing but alas, copyright.
Marie: Yes, the poem.
Heidi: But see, now you can link to it, or reference it or...something.
Perhaps I should stop talking over you and let you explain.
Marie: I also had a point where I wanted them to come back from Paris, and have the ending be back in Coda. But that didn't work.
That's where Randy got me unstuck, early on. I just gave him a shout-out for it on my blog, too, btw. Remember that? Randy emailed Zach?
Heidi: Oh! I forgot that Randy grilled Zach! Yes! Good old Randy. The shit.
Marie: Let me grab that link. hang on...
Heidi: God, it would be a kill if they were all together. All our boys. But I'd be too afraid we'd break things.
Marie: Did you see that part of [the interview] on Jessewave? Somebody in the comments said, "HELL YEA!"
Heidi: Maybe we'd get to see Cole and Randy go all stoic again. God.
[That is in reference to another interview between Cole and Randy, which we thought would be hilarious. It was just weird, as they both went to their respective corners and refused to perform, only exchanged the minimal pleasantries. And recipes.]
Marie: Okay, this is the entire poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-country-of-marriage/ But it doesn't all fit. It's section V that Angelo shows to Zach. And I had to cut the part where Zach asks about the first few lines of section VI, and Ang says, "not that part. That's just fucking weird."
Heidi: Alas.
So would you say Paris A to Z is about "marriages" of all kinds?
Marie: Well, it did sort of end up being a theme. I didn't go into it thinking that, but that's how it came out.
Heidi: So let's do a wrapup. You have a book out today. Novella called Paris A to Z from Dreamspinner Press. And they should read A to Z first and The Letter Zfirst if they haven't already. And should read Strawberries for Dessert because Sam and Randy say so. Well, and Promises and One More Soldier. They should just drink the koolaid already.
I miss anything important?
Except to say that the prequels are available anywhere? And the new release is already in a lot of places as well and will be everywhere else shortly?
Marie: uhhh... think that's it?
Heidi: You have info on your website about the series, right, and the prequels?
Marie: http://mariesexton.net/book-list-and-timeline
Heidi: Coolness. And they should read your blog, and follow you on twitter, and your tumblr for sure. And read our joint blog of porn, natch.
Marie: of course.
Heidi: Cool. So I'll take this out of a chat and put it into text form, and send it over for you to preview. After which I'll add all sorts of internet scandal material secretly to gain you notoriety and sell you a bunch of books. Maybe I could write a nasty review next and you could scream at me in the comments to fuck off. Repeatedly. That seemed to work for that one chick.
Marie: good idea!! "But everybody else loves me, and I have the Amazon ratings to prove it, so fuck you!"
Heidi: That's right. You're really getting into it.
Marie: Except, you know, don't look at the Amazon ratings for TLZ, because some of those people were mad!
Heidi: Of course we're going to have to come up with some new material. We should add misspellings. That ought to really add some color. You should also go switch all your author pics to you wearing a weird hat and holding up a toy poodle while wearing too much eye makeup. And looking at the wrong camera.
Hey, this could be your meal ticket, baby. You could be an INTERNET MEME.
Marie: Does that mean I just get to say, "Fuck you!" all the time, and it's called good publicity? I'm in! I probably have a toy poodle around here somewhere...
Heidi: OH!!! We have to talk about the space pirates!!!! Your work in progress!
Marie: Sure, space pirates!
Heidi: Space pirates rule!
Marie: Valero and Captain Tristan Kelley. And yes, he's named for a gas station. See HaMEMA for details. [Except Heidi has accidentally broken the site. Alas. Will try to fix ASAP.]
Heidi: AND THERE IS A SECRET FETISH. Which has nothing to do with the gas station.
Marie: yes. A couple of fetishes, really. Although one much bigger than the other.
Heidi: What's the other one?
Marie: [redacted for spoiler]
Heidi: oh yeah! That worked. Well. Lots.
YAY for the space pirates! PUNK space pirates.
Marie: Yes. They're Wraeththu. Except not hermaphroditic.
Is 'hermaphroditic" a bad word now?
Heidi: I think the proper term is intersexed, but in scifi it's different.
I don't know anything about Wraeththu. I vaguely remember you saying something though.
Marie: Wraeththu is AMAZING. But it's on my love/hate list. It fucking shredded me, and I'm afraid to read anything else now.
Heidi: Jesus. Um, you’re not exactly selling that.
Marie: It goes with Adrien English in the, “turned me into an emotional basket case” category.
Heidi: Huh.
Marie: Well, I'm just not good with angst. It's SO good, and yet, I had to psych myself up to read the rest, because I knew I'd be all blubbery for a fucking week.
Heidi: It doesn't end happy?
Marie: It does. But it takes for fucking EVER to get there. An entire giant trilogy.
Heidi: Hmm. I would probably get impatient. Though this is me saying this about to launch a six book series in which it will take that long to get to full HEA. Oops.
Marie: With Adrien English, it was a bit different. But i shouldn't talk about Josh. He is the master.
Heidi: Jedi master. Gay jedi master. Kicked both our asses in DABWAHA too. Just like Yoda in that prequel thing. Except he wasn't even CG.
Marie: I never went up against him. Thank god.
Heidi: You didn't?
Marie: No.
Heidi: Oh that's right. ME TWICE. Fucking hell.
Marie: James Buchanan knocked me out in the first round and Josh beat out Amy Lane.
Heidi: He was the wall Randy and Sam could not defeat. They were probably too turned on to fight.
Marie: Probably. They weren't paying attention at all.
Heidi: Cole was probably off practicing not caring. With Randy.
Marie: Cole said, "Honey, I'm rich. If I actually cared enough to bother, I would have bribed my way to the final four."
Heidi: Ha! Randy just flips poker chips in his fingers and shrugs.
We create them whole worlds and get them great sex, and this is the thanks we get.
Marie: Right!
Heidi: Well, that and royalties. Which I'll take.
Okay, that was a lot of wit and banter. So we're good, you think? Interview in the bag? Because if they found this fun and exciting, they'll find the book AMAZING.
Marie: If the part about Josh Lanyon stays in, I do want to say, He really is the master. That wasn't sarcasm.
Heidi: Oh yes. He is. We bow to Yoda Josh.
Yosh.
Joda.
Marie: Yosh. For sure.
Heidi: Do you think he'll kick us for calling him Yosh?
Marie: He probably should, but I think he's too nice of a guy to do that.
Heidi: True. Well, here's to Yosh. Buy Paris A to Z.
I'd say that's a wrap.
Marie: Works for me.
-FIN-
Subject: Chat with Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan
Marie: Okay. I think I'm ready. What are we doing?
Heidi: We're going to have an interview, casual and hopefully cute/entertaining, to introduce your release. We'll start with the basics. What's your release, Marie?
Marie: Paris A to Z, which is the last story for Zach and Angelo, and really, the culmination of the entire Coda series where fans finally get to see all three couples together.
Heidi: Which is a good place to point out that for this book, unlike Strawberries for Dessert, you should probably have readA to Zand ... fuck, the other one.
It has a z in it.
LETTER Z.
Marie: The Letter Z
Heidi: That’s it.
Marie: Yes, this book does not stand on its own.
Heidi: What was the most fun about writing this book?
Marie: Making Matt deal with Cole. Add Angelo into the mix, and it's all downhill from there.
Heidi: I love Cole. I was Team Ang, but now I'm Team Cole.
Marie: Yeah, Team Cole stole from the entire rest of the league.
Heidi: Should we give the backdrop? That this is Cole and Jonathan's wedding?
Marie: Sure, it's in the blurb.
Some people might be disappointed that they're not seeing Jon and Cole's POV of their own wedding, but really, they're just happy, gushy in-love. What's to tell?
Heidi: Let's see. Another question. Worst part of writing this? Or most frustrating? Just the usual writing funnel? Or did something stand out as particularly challenging?
Ooh, the poem where you wanted to include the whole thing but alas, copyright.
Marie: Yes, the poem.
Heidi: But see, now you can link to it, or reference it or...something.
Perhaps I should stop talking over you and let you explain.
Marie: I also had a point where I wanted them to come back from Paris, and have the ending be back in Coda. But that didn't work.
That's where Randy got me unstuck, early on. I just gave him a shout-out for it on my blog, too, btw. Remember that? Randy emailed Zach?
Heidi: Oh! I forgot that Randy grilled Zach! Yes! Good old Randy. The shit.
Marie: Let me grab that link. hang on...
Heidi: God, it would be a kill if they were all together. All our boys. But I'd be too afraid we'd break things.
Marie: Did you see that part of [the interview] on Jessewave? Somebody in the comments said, "HELL YEA!"
Heidi: Maybe we'd get to see Cole and Randy go all stoic again. God.
[That is in reference to another interview between Cole and Randy, which we thought would be hilarious. It was just weird, as they both went to their respective corners and refused to perform, only exchanged the minimal pleasantries. And recipes.]
Marie: Okay, this is the entire poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-country-of-marriage/ But it doesn't all fit. It's section V that Angelo shows to Zach. And I had to cut the part where Zach asks about the first few lines of section VI, and Ang says, "not that part. That's just fucking weird."
Heidi: Alas.
So would you say Paris A to Z is about "marriages" of all kinds?
Marie: Well, it did sort of end up being a theme. I didn't go into it thinking that, but that's how it came out.
Heidi: So let's do a wrapup. You have a book out today. Novella called Paris A to Z from Dreamspinner Press. And they should read A to Z first and The Letter Zfirst if they haven't already. And should read Strawberries for Dessert because Sam and Randy say so. Well, and Promises and One More Soldier. They should just drink the koolaid already.
I miss anything important?
Except to say that the prequels are available anywhere? And the new release is already in a lot of places as well and will be everywhere else shortly?
Marie: uhhh... think that's it?
Heidi: You have info on your website about the series, right, and the prequels?
Marie: http://mariesexton.net/book-list-and-timeline
Heidi: Coolness. And they should read your blog, and follow you on twitter, and your tumblr for sure. And read our joint blog of porn, natch.
Marie: of course.
Heidi: Cool. So I'll take this out of a chat and put it into text form, and send it over for you to preview. After which I'll add all sorts of internet scandal material secretly to gain you notoriety and sell you a bunch of books. Maybe I could write a nasty review next and you could scream at me in the comments to fuck off. Repeatedly. That seemed to work for that one chick.
Marie: good idea!! "But everybody else loves me, and I have the Amazon ratings to prove it, so fuck you!"
Heidi: That's right. You're really getting into it.
Marie: Except, you know, don't look at the Amazon ratings for TLZ, because some of those people were mad!
Heidi: Of course we're going to have to come up with some new material. We should add misspellings. That ought to really add some color. You should also go switch all your author pics to you wearing a weird hat and holding up a toy poodle while wearing too much eye makeup. And looking at the wrong camera.
Hey, this could be your meal ticket, baby. You could be an INTERNET MEME.
Marie: Does that mean I just get to say, "Fuck you!" all the time, and it's called good publicity? I'm in! I probably have a toy poodle around here somewhere...
Heidi: OH!!! We have to talk about the space pirates!!!! Your work in progress!
Marie: Sure, space pirates!
Heidi: Space pirates rule!
Marie: Valero and Captain Tristan Kelley. And yes, he's named for a gas station. See HaMEMA for details. [Except Heidi has accidentally broken the site. Alas. Will try to fix ASAP.]
Heidi: AND THERE IS A SECRET FETISH. Which has nothing to do with the gas station.
Marie: yes. A couple of fetishes, really. Although one much bigger than the other.
Heidi: What's the other one?
Marie: [redacted for spoiler]
Heidi: oh yeah! That worked. Well. Lots.
YAY for the space pirates! PUNK space pirates.
Marie: Yes. They're Wraeththu. Except not hermaphroditic.
Is 'hermaphroditic" a bad word now?
Heidi: I think the proper term is intersexed, but in scifi it's different.
I don't know anything about Wraeththu. I vaguely remember you saying something though.
Marie: Wraeththu is AMAZING. But it's on my love/hate list. It fucking shredded me, and I'm afraid to read anything else now.
Heidi: Jesus. Um, you’re not exactly selling that.
Marie: It goes with Adrien English in the, “turned me into an emotional basket case” category.
Heidi: Huh.
Marie: Well, I'm just not good with angst. It's SO good, and yet, I had to psych myself up to read the rest, because I knew I'd be all blubbery for a fucking week.
Heidi: It doesn't end happy?
Marie: It does. But it takes for fucking EVER to get there. An entire giant trilogy.
Heidi: Hmm. I would probably get impatient. Though this is me saying this about to launch a six book series in which it will take that long to get to full HEA. Oops.
Marie: With Adrien English, it was a bit different. But i shouldn't talk about Josh. He is the master.
Heidi: Jedi master. Gay jedi master. Kicked both our asses in DABWAHA too. Just like Yoda in that prequel thing. Except he wasn't even CG.
Marie: I never went up against him. Thank god.
Heidi: You didn't?
Marie: No.
Heidi: Oh that's right. ME TWICE. Fucking hell.
Marie: James Buchanan knocked me out in the first round and Josh beat out Amy Lane.
Heidi: He was the wall Randy and Sam could not defeat. They were probably too turned on to fight.
Marie: Probably. They weren't paying attention at all.
Heidi: Cole was probably off practicing not caring. With Randy.
Marie: Cole said, "Honey, I'm rich. If I actually cared enough to bother, I would have bribed my way to the final four."
Heidi: Ha! Randy just flips poker chips in his fingers and shrugs.
We create them whole worlds and get them great sex, and this is the thanks we get.
Marie: Right!
Heidi: Well, that and royalties. Which I'll take.
Okay, that was a lot of wit and banter. So we're good, you think? Interview in the bag? Because if they found this fun and exciting, they'll find the book AMAZING.
Marie: If the part about Josh Lanyon stays in, I do want to say, He really is the master. That wasn't sarcasm.
Heidi: Oh yes. He is. We bow to Yoda Josh.
Yosh.
Joda.
Marie: Yosh. For sure.
Heidi: Do you think he'll kick us for calling him Yosh?
Marie: He probably should, but I think he's too nice of a guy to do that.
Heidi: True. Well, here's to Yosh. Buy Paris A to Z.
I'd say that's a wrap.
Marie: Works for me.
-FIN-