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: Originally from Northern Virginia, Rebecca James now lives in Southeastern Tennessee. She is the mother of three grown children and a former high school English teacher. She has been writing MM Romance for close to ten years.
Website: https://www.rebeccajamesmmromance.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccajamesromance
Tiktok: @rebeccajamesromance
Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaJamesromance/
Bluesky: @rebeccajamesmm.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Rebecca, 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?
Rebecca James: I’ve always wanted to write but never seriously thought I could do write a novel from start to finish. It was when I was writing fanfiction online for fun that I realized that I could. When I heard about something called “MM” romance, I’d found my niche!
JSC: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
RJ: A total pantser. I know that, even if I was somehow able to outline a book all the way through, it would totally change as I wrote it. My characters always take control. I have learned to be a little more structured over the years, but you’ll never see me using one of those romance outlines. Oddly, my books seem to basically follow the main beats anyway.
JSC: What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has said to you?
RJ: Not long ago, a reader told me that one of my books had kept her calm while staying up all night with her family during a hurricane. That made me feel really good.
JSC: What advice do you wish you’d had before releasing your first story?
RJ: Mostly to do a little research before starting. Research author names in the genre, figure out your brand, etc. I would say to research the genre, but I honestly think it helped me not to have read much (if any) MM romance when I started because the shifter romance series I wrote, which were not written like all the others, really took off. (By the way, I started my writing career with a small publishing company and later went indie.)
JSC: How do you approach covers for your indie stories? Â Â
RJ: I have a different cover artist for every series. I have an illustrator who does my Boys’ Love series and then a cover artist who designs the covers. They all have a different feel.
JSC: They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice…what do you Know?
RJ: Since I taught high school for 20 years, the most obvious plots for me to write would be those taking place in a high school setting. But there is absolutely no way I could write those. It would just feel really…ick. I have written about dementia, which I knew about from being my mother’s care-giver. I could write about having children, since I have three. I have a boys’ love series—Lord knows I’ve watched plenty of those!
JSC: What book is currently on your bedside table?
RJ: Currently, I am reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. It’s about a midwife in the 1700s. As I am in the middle of writing a book right now, I have not read any MM in a while. (I prefer not to so I won’t inadvertently pick up something from what I’m reading and use it in my writing.) I am also reading my all-time favorite book aloud to my daughter and her husband. (This started over Christmas, but the book is long and we only read around once a week.) The book is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
JSC: How did you choose the topic Out of Nowhere?
RJ: This is the fourth book of a series, which can be read as a standalone. The main characters, Dex and Seo-jun, have been in the last two or three books, so I knew their romance was coming up. They were already friends who had an obvious (to their coworkers) attraction, so it seemed to me that they’d have to work a case (or cases) together to get closer. The first case came about because Dex was a mountain climber. I figured the client being the owner of his climbing gym made sense. Dex is a bit of a geek and Seo-jun is a sexy, mysteriously calm and quiet guy. I wanted to make sure Seo-jun had some depth. His backstory of escaping North Korea and moving to the USA by himself as a teen gave him that.
JSC: Would you rather be in a room full of snakes or a room full of spiders?
RJ: Let’s just say that none of the snakes and spiders are venomous, shall we? I think I would choose snakes because all the little spider legs crawling on me would freak me out. I’ve always admired snakes. They are beautiful and interesting creatures. I appreciate spiders, but, like I said—the legs. (Centipedes and millepedes are the WORST!)
JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!
I am wrapping up writing book three of my SOS omegaverse series, which had stalled for like…five years. I just could not get that third book out. I had a block. Readers would ask about it, and I’d always say I intended to get to it in the summer, during my off time from work, and I meant it; but summer would come but the words wouldn’t. It took retiring from my stressful job for me to burst with inspiration. In fact, I’d originally intended to wrap up the series, but now I’ve decided to continue it. Subscribers to my newsletter will be able to preorder it this month with a discount and added bonus scenes at the end, weeks before it’s released anywhere else (without bonus scenes.)
And now for AUTHORNAME new book: TITLE:
Sometimes, you have to leave your comfort zone to get what you want.
When Dex and Seo-jun are paired on a case, Dex is both nervous and excited to work closely with his secret crush of the past two years. To his delight, Seo-jun begins to open up to him, and, in return, Dex tries not to stare in open-mouthed wonder at Seo-jun’s gorgeous self. If only Dex wasn’t juggling his bodyguard duties with his usual tech work, his sister’s problems, and his mother’s interference, maybe he could enjoy himself.
Burned by love at a young age, Seo-jun hasn’t given romance much thought in the past decade. Until Dex. The cluelessly sexy tech specialist at Falcon Security has been teasing his way under Seo-jun’s skin for months. As partners on a case, the two men have to share a bed in their client’s home, and no one’s more surprised than Seo-jun that he enjoys those moments in close quarters. Dex is easy to talk to and fun to be around, and Seo-jun feels comfortable with him–something he doesn’t normally feel with people. It isn’t long before Seo-jun comes to the realization that, if he wants to be with Dex, he needs to deal with unresolved issues.
As Dex tries to help Seo-jun face his past, Seo-jun supports Dex when he finally comes out to his dysfunctional family.
Amazon
Excerpt
Dex, a techie, has created a virtual assistant named Gary. It has a few gliches.
“What the fuck?”
When Seo-jun pulled through the gate, all the lights were on in the mansion, and, even through the closed car window, he could hear music playing from inside. “Why are the sprinklers on at this time of night?” he asked, looking out at the drenched lawn.
“Oh, crap!” Dex opened the passenger door and jumped out before Seo-jun had come to a full stop and ran for the house.
Every single light in the house is on, Seo-jun thought when he walked in a moment later, wincing at the blasting music assaulting his ears. Clamping his hands over them, he barely managed to side-step the Rumba as it whirred past. Movement to his left had him swinging that way to see Jase and Colt hurrying up the stairs from the lower floor.
“Turn off that music!” Seo-jun yelled, hands still covering his ears.
“Don’t you think I fucking would if I—“ Abruptly, the house went silent, the last couple of words Jase shouted echoing in the marble-floored foyer.
“Oh, thank God,” Colt said, rubbing his eyes. His blond hair stuck up everywhere and the pair of gym shorts and blue tank he wore were damp and wrinkled like he’d been through a rinse cycle and someone forgot to throw him into the dryer.
“What happened to you?” Seo-jun asked him.
“I was having a late work out in the gym when the sprinkler system in the ceiling suddenly came on. Fortunately, it was only in that room, or we’d have bigger problems.” He looked at his watch. “That was at least two hours ago.”
“The sprinklers were on outside when we pulled up,” Seo-jun said. “With all the lights on and the blaring music, it looked like you were having a party.”
Jase made a sour face. “Believe me, we weren’t.”
“I’m really sorry,” Dex came hurrying from down the hall. “I don’t know what set Gary off. He’s only supposed to activate to his name followed by a command.”
Gary, Dex’s virtual assistant.
“A brief storm came up and the electricity blinked on and off just before it happened,” Colt told Dex.
“I guess that’s what activated it.” Dex sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll have to work on that. Fortunately, not everything is connected to the same circuits, or we’d be standing here in the dark right now.”
“Where is everyone?” Seo-jun asked. Several of the team lived in the mansion, yet the house seemed empty except for the four of them. No way anyone could have slept through that music, even wearing earplugs.
“They took off after the first hour. Colt and I have been trying to turn off the virtual assistant.” Jase turned to Dex. “I’ve been calling you for the past two hours. Is your phone dead?”
Dex pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “Shit. I turned off the volume in the bathroom when I heard someone in there and never turned it back on. I’m sorry.”
“We were worried maybe something happened, but Jase finally got ahold of the owner of Trend. He said you caught the vandal and left.“ Colt ran his hand down his damp, wrinkled shirt and winced. “I’m going to go shower and go to bed. See you guys in the morning.”
“Me, too,” Jase said tiredly. He patted Dex on the arm. “Don’t worry about all this tonight. It can be fixed later. Just make sure Gary doesn’t start blasting music again. Hawk’s playlist sucks. The neighbors had the police at our door and they only left when we proved we couldn’t get it to turn off.”
“I totally disabled the music; don’t worry,” Dex said, suppressing a yawn as Jase headed upstairs. “God, I’m tired,” he said to Seo-jun.
Seo-jun couldn’t resist touching him lightly on the shoulder as he said, “Have a good sleep. I’d better head home. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Dex smiled at him.