Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: I used to write as Nix Winter, but that was a lifetime ago now. I haven’t really picked a new pen name yet. My friends call me Max and you’re welcome to as well. I’m transgender, ftm, and I write mostly m/m romantic stories. I have my degree in history and am fascinated with medieval studies. There are a lot of shifters and weird things in my stories. Someday, I might have advanced degrees in history and I will probably still write about werewolves and were swans and people who never give up on each other.
Thanks so much, Max, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
Max: I wrote my first like… finished stories of a standard type format in 1987. I scribbled out my first story on rainbow paper on the floorboards of a car in 1972. As for being good at it – I think that changes all the time. The style of prose and story construction I practiced and idealized in the 1980s is too difficult to read these days. The trope heavy stuff that seems to be very dominant in the market place right now makes my skin crawl. Who decides what’s good?
JSC: If you could sit down with one other writer, living or dead, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
MM: Today I would like to meet Matthew Gregory Lewis who wrote The Monk in 1796, or at least that was the year of publication. I would want to talk with him about what is goodness and see what he thinks about people still reading his book.
JSC: What do you do when you get writer’s block?
MM: I write a different story for a while or I talk to the characters and get them to tell me why they don’t want to move forward with how I had planned the story.
JSC: Do you use a pseudonym? If so, why? If not, why not?
MM: Sometimes. Having my legal name out in the world seems scary to me. But when I use a pen name, I end up telling everyone what I’ve written anyway.
JSC: If you had a grant to write any book you wanted as a freebie without worrying about sales, what kind of story would you like to tell?
MM: Well, I’m on SSDI now, so as tight as my budget is, I can do what I want. My current favorite story is Stolen. The main character is a swan shifter who is the crown prince of the swan court. He’s also a professor at the Sorbonne. His boyfriend is a jaguar shifter. Together, they have to fend off attempts by Raphael’s adopted sister as she tries to take the crown.
JSC: How do you approach covers for your indie stories?
MM: I commission art. I’m very partial to Rayne Creates.
JSC: Name the book you like most among all you’ve written, and tell us why.
MM: I think Son of the Moon is my favorite! I’m not done with the characters, but it’s not my main project right now. The main character in Son of the Moon is an immortal werewolf who got to Europe during the glacial maxim. So by 2026 he’s about 16,000 years old. He’s fallen in love with a very modern Seattle woman who does not believe any of his nonsense! Just because she can’t explain how he seems to turn into a big dog, doesn’t mean it’s real.
JSC: How did you choose the topic for Stolen?
MM: With Stolen, I was trying to meet the cravings of the modern serial fiction audience. I’m not succeeding, I don’t think.
JSC: Who did your cover, and what was the design process like?
MM: The cover art was done by Rayne Creates. They’re fabulous to work with, but pretty busy.
https://www.instagram.com/raynecreates/?hl=en
JSC: Let’s talk to your characters for a minute – what’s it like to work for such a demanding writer?
MM: “My name is Raphael. I do not believe that the writer is trying to kill me, but he is coming very close! I would like Balam and I to just go back to the university and have nice quiet days!”
Balam: “And then you will go back to grading papers and screaming French obscenities around, which bothers my plants.”
Raphael: “Well, perhaps we don’t need as many of them in the house if they find my venting distressing.”
JSC: What’s your core motivation in this book?
MM: Raphael: “I’m just trying to stay alive, keep Balam alive, and get back to my office!”
JSC: What fictional speculative fiction character would you like to spend an evening with, and why?
MM: Geralt of Rivia! My favorite rp partner introduced him to me and I shall never recover.
JSC: How does the world end?
MM: The sun expands and toasts the Earth. Hopefully Humans will be spread far and wide by then.
And now for J.’s new book: The Prince is Stolen:
Raphael Capet is the crown prince of the Swan Court, a shadow government that has been part of Paris since before there was a Paris. The world is changing though. His boyfriend is a South American jaguar shifter and his adopted sister is trying to kill them. Even if they survive, the world won’t be the same.
Inkitt
Excerpt
“I will always have time for you,” Balam said, lips brushing over Raphael’s black human hair.
The stronger their bond grew, and honestly rushing across country borders and fighting vultures did a lot to strengthen it, but the stronger it grew the more they melted into each other. Balam had grown up in the jungle. The threats were obvious and fast, but they faded away just as fast. Being in Raphael’s dream showed him a cold danger that lingered and grew in the royal hallways. Abandonment.
The big man lay on his side, his swan tucked to his chest, Raphael’s head on his arm as he ran fingers through silky black hair. Swans were nothing like the jungle. When Raphael shifted this dark of night hair would go silver as moonlight.
Balam’s shift was intense. His mass changed. He went from being a 6’2” man to pure apex predator jaguar. As he thought about it, Raphael’s shift was no less physical. The mass differences between 5’5” skinny prince and angry white bird were just as intense if not more so than man to jaguar, but Raphael also shifted colors. Black hair to white. It really wasn’t a big deal, but it seemed like it in that moment.
“I will never grow tired of you, my prince,” Balam promised, lips against that dark carnation scented hair. Author Bio: I used to write as Nix Winter, but that was a lifetime ago now. I haven’t really picked a new pen name yet. My friends call me Max and you’re welcome to as well. I’m transgender, ftm, and I write mostly m/m romantic stories. I have my degree in history and am fascinated with medieval studies. There are a lot of shifters and weird things in my stories. Someday, I might have advanced degrees in history and I will probably still write about werewolves and were swans and people who never give up on each other.