Hello my little mob of demons! Hope everyone is starting to feel the summery vibes here in the Northern Hemisphere, it was a long and brutal winter for some of us. And to welcome that introduction, today we have Andrew Peters here on the blog. We’re going to learn a little more about him and his last release with NineStar Press – Irresistible – which takes place in the incredible Greek Isles – and let’s face it, you can’t get much more summery than that!
Andrew, welcome to my blog.
Andrew Peters: “Hi, thanks for having me!”
JP Jackson: “I’m thrilled you’re here. You’re book Irresistible is a bit of a different flavor than what we’ve had on here before, but I think those of us who like a little gay rom-com, will be happy for a new book recommendation.”
Andrew Peters: “I really appreciate the opportunity to spread the word. And I love the Rapid-Fire questions part of your interviews.”
JP Jackson: “Oh man, we’ve developed a reputation. Alright then, let’s go. Here’s your first question: What topic is just beyond you?”
Andrew Peters: “Star Wars canon.”
JP Jackson: <Gasp> “Really!? I’m not sure I can ask why – it’s rapid-fire, but now I’m dying to know. I think that’s fodder for another interview altogether.”
Andrew Peters: “I don’t know. It was just the first thing that came to mind. Probably because I’m connected to a lot of sci-fi/fantasy fans and authors on Twitter, and it’s kind of simultaneously fascinating and mind-numbing how deep people get into Star Wars and Star Trek mythology.
JP Jackson: “Damn, okay. Next – Name a book whose book cover you’ll never forget.”
Andrew Peters: “Wicked by Gregory Maguire”
JP Jackson: “Confession time. I had to look this up, and then the minute I did, I was like, oh man! Of course. The second admission on my part – I’ve only seen the musical! Favorite song is Defying Gravity. But see, now there’s even more reason to have you back. We’re gonna have to talk about this book and if you’ve read Son of a Witch, too.”
Andrew Peters: “Rapid-fire!” <laughs> “It’s the quick answers that keep you guessing!”
JP Jackson: “Oh man, true enough. What city would you love to stay in and write a book?
Andrew Peters: “Santorini, Greece”
JP Jackson: “The hubby and I were there a few years ago – summer 2012 – it was amazing and beautiful. We have a small collection of hand-blown glass we bought from one of the local artisan shops, and all the pictures you see of the blue rooftops and white stucco buildings is no lie. It’s just serene there.”
Andrew Peters: “My husband and I went to Mykonos for the first time in 2004, and we loved it so much, we started a tradition of going there every five years to celebrate our anniversary with friends. So we went in 2011 for our 10th and 2016 for our 15th. 2021 is coming up pretty soon. I thought of Santorini because I’m also an Atlantis nerd (so your Star Wars fanatics can hate me for ragging on them while I’m pretty obsessive about Atlantis folklore). Anyway, Santorini is a little quieter than Mykonos, and it may have been the birthplace for the Atlantis narrative – the ancient Minoan city of Thera that was destroyed by a volcano. So lots of inspiration there.”
JP Jackson: “I can totally see that. I already feel my stress melting away just thinking about it. Alright, can you describe yourself in three words?”
Andrew Peters: “Cautiously optimistic idealist.”
JP Jackson: <Giggle> “You guardedly see the best the world has to offer. That’s a safe way to move through life – but I dare say – a slightly better way than my ‘Set the demons loose’ mentality I can devolve into.”
Andrew Peters: “I’m not sure which one is better. I’m a Virgo, so I’m pretty deliberate and methodical, which can be taken as uptight. Just ask my students.”
JP Jackson: “I wish I could be a little bit more like that, but as a Libra, I’m constantly balancing all sides and trying to make everyone happy. How about the next question: Define success for me.”
Andrew Peters: “Inner Peace.”
JP Jackson: “You’re killing me! I love it – goes hand in hand with optimistic idealist and Grecian Islands. Add in a shot of Sambuca and some dolmathes.”
Andrew Peters: “Exactly.”
JP Jackson: “I ate them everywhere while I was in Greece – anywhere I could. So yummy.”
Andrew Peters: “My weakness is tiropitakia (cheese filled fried phyllo).”
JP Jackson: “Good lord. Cheesy goodness. I could have some of that right now too! Alright, moving on. Mountains or Prairies?”
Andrew Peters: “Mountains.”
JP Jackson: “Oh, me too. I grew up on the Prairies and I remember the first time I saw the Canadian Rockies. Stunning. Won’t ever forget how magnificent and massive they were. It made you feel so small, and yet, it wasn’t an alarming feeling. I was just awestruck. How about this, running shoes or high heels?”
Andrew Peters: <laughs> “Running shoes.”
JP Jackson: “For day to day wear, yes. But on the odd occasion, a classy pair of heels goes a long way.”
Andrew Peters: <laughs again> “I’ll take your word for it. My husband can pull off heels, but I’ve never tried.”
JP Jackson: “Oh, they look so good but by the end of the night your feet feel like ground hamburger. Okay, speaking of food – ice cream or frozen yogurt?”
Andrew Peters: “Ice cream. It’s a go-big-or-go-home thing. Though not so great for my waistline.”
JP Jackson: “See, we’d get along great, except I don’t pay nearly enough attention to my waistline, which is why I happily identify as ‘bear’. Okay, veering off in a completely different direction, do you believe in magic?”
Andrew Peters: “Slightly.”
JP Jackson: “See, now I’m surprised by that answer. I know we’re talking about Irresistible today, but I happen to know you’ve written some Urban Fantasy too. So…”
Andrew Peters: <shrugs> “Next visit – explanations then.”
JP Jackson: “Deal! Final rapid-fire question. If you could be any animal, which animal would that be?”
Andrew Peters: “A tiger.”
JP Jackson: “Interesting. Now if I look up the symbology of tigers I get willpower, courage and personal strength. Would you say that’s accurate?”
Andrew Peters: “I’d say I’m a cautiously optimistic idealist. Especially regarding the willpower part. I’ve got lots of bad habits. But tigers can be a conversation for the next visit.”
JP Jackson: “Damn you!” <laughs> “Okay, so, to be fair to everyone it’s probably only nice to tell people that you and I have a special little project coming up later this year. I’m saving all these half answers and I’ll get more out of you during that process.”
Andrew Peters: “Yeah, I can tell we have a ton to talk about regarding urban fantasy.”
JP Jackson: “True – but then you know what they say? Always leave them wanting a little more. So there you have it, folks – you’ll have to keep a watch out for our next visit. I think it’s going to be really cool.”
Andrew Peters: “I do too. I’ve already got my homework done. How about you?”
JP Jackson: “Gah, no. But I will. Don’t you worry. Alright, book time! Tell us all about Irresistible.”
Andrew Peters: “Well, as you already mentioned, it’s a Romantic Comedy and it takes place in Greece. It was released last August with NineStar Press.”
JP Jackson: “We’ll put some links down at the bottom of the blog here so folks can find it. Are you writing more on this theme? I know you also have that Urban Fantasy series I mentioned that features some Werecat shifters too. Which genre do you prefer to write?”
Andrew Peters: “I did start writing another story with humor sometime after I finished the umpteenth draft of Irresistible. Irresistible was a lot of fun to write and kind of took me back to my writing roots. As a teenager and in college, I wrote a lot of absurd satire, but when I returned to writing, some fifteen or so years later, I became more focused on fantasy and mythology in particular.
So I ended up writing a young adult comedy adventure based on Telemachus’s journey to find Odysseus. My story about Telemachus is not quite as over-the-top as Irresistible and it’s more of a buddy comedy with lots of adolescent humor and some romance thrown in. Telemachus’s buddies are Theseus and his hus-bull (the Minotaur) and the sea godling Nerites who is Poseidon’s kept boy.
The easy answer to your question: which genre do you prefer to write, would be contemporary, more realistic stories. Given my typical subject matter, the Werecat series and Irresistible are on the “realistic” end of my spectrum in that they’re set in the real, modern world. It’s just a matter of being able to get from A to Z quicker. With epic fantasy, I could kill an entire day doing research to write a short scene, and my writing time is somewhat limited.
The longer answer honestly is that I find there are different rewards with writing different genres. I mentioned expediency writing contemporary. It’s just less complicated. I can draw on things I know, sometimes experiences I’ve had, and you feel that sense of accomplishment a lot quicker. I’ve got some high fantasy work I haven’t even finished for example because it got so gnarly.
With epic fantasy, and paranormal as well, the creative process is more immersive and intricate, and when it works out well, that’s tremendously rewarding too.”
JP Jackson: “I love mythology, and as much as I’d like to think I know about several mythos, it always surprises me when I hear of yet another deity/story I’m not familiar with. I had to look this one up as well.”
Andrew Peters: “You’re not the only one. The source material is really obscure. Just about every review the book has gotten starts out with: ‘I’d never heard of Callirhoe, but…” It’s pretty much only known to classics scholars.”
JP Jackson: “Myths can get complicated with lots of interweaving stories and characters. Some of the stories are quite lengthy. Tell me, how long did it take you to write Irresistible?
Andrew Peters: “Irresistible was a quickie for me, and in part that’s because it’s a retelling of an ancient romance: Callirhoe by Chariton. The beginning, middle, and ending were there for me, though I did have to reimagine things extensively, queering the romance and bringing the entire thing from 1st century C.E. to the 21st century. So start to finish for the first draft, I want to say six months. Then it went through beta readers and some rewrites – another two months or so. Then I did some fine tuning, maybe another month, before submitting a final draft to the publisher.”
JP Jackson: “I found my second book was far quicker to write than my first, but then I really think it depends on the project. I love the fact you’re ‘queering up’ these stories. Now that these stories have been released into the world if you could go back and change anything about Irresistible, what would it be?”
Andrew Peters: “Lord, I’ve read it so many times, and of course little things annoy me. But they’re all pretty little. You know, finding a line of dialogue that could be snappier. Seeing a word or phrase that could be replaced by something more elegant. I totally stand by the big stuff. I love how the characters came to life, and my editor Elizabetta at NineStar helped a ton.”
JP Jackson: “Our editors are deity in their own right, as far as I’m concerned. I know my books are all the better for it. The story is slicker and the characters are more interesting. If you could be any character in your book/or from your series, who would you choose? Why?”
Andrew Peters: “Oh goodness. Well, from my fantasy work, I wouldn’t switch places with anyone because their lives are so damn complicated and dangerous, even if they have amazing powers. So I guess I’ll say Callisthenes (Cal) from Irresistible because he’s literally irresistible to any man or woman, and I’m not above vanity.” <laughs>
JP Jackson: “That would be fun for an afternoon. And there’s another segue. Is writing fun, or cathartic for you?”
Andrew Peters: “Both. Sometimes simultaneously, in the case of having a good laugh over something I’ve written. But it does make me cry sometimes or just see the world differently and reevaluate some of my life experiences.”
JP Jackson: “Oh wow, that’s fascinating. I don’t think I’ve got to that place with my writing. For me it’s fun, something I enjoy doing. I haven’t used it yet as a means to reflect. I should try that.”
Andrew Peters: “I’m not going to claim that my writing is too deep. In some ways, what I mean could have more to do with experiencing the world differently as I get older and exploring that through storytelling. Like a lot of people I think, I appreciate more and more the old expression: the older I get, the less I know. Or maybe it’s: the more I learn, the less I know? Anyway, I’m fascinated by the gray areas in life, which sometimes come through via my characters’ choices. Just as an example, in Irresistible, the two guys who the love story is centered around fall in love within like twenty-four hours. And you could look at that and roll your eyes and think: yeah, that’ll never work. They’re naïve and it’s just a temporary fascination or lust.
But I think the truth is, sometimes relationships start with a bang and fizzle, and sometimes they start with a bang and they’re for real. And sometimes they start with a bang, and then there’s a period of re-evaluation—recognizing it’s not all high-powered sex and lovey-dovey—and you decide whether or not you’re going to put the work in to compromise and live with each other’s faults. Anyway, that’s some of the stuff I meant by my writing sometimes being cathartic and perhaps a method for clarifying what I’ve noticed about the world.”
JP Jackson: “I think most authors have a different perspective to begin with, and we wander around viewing the world around us, come across ideas and write them down or tuck them away to use at a later point in time. Where does your inspiration come from?”
Andrew Peters: “Yes, I’ve believe that too. I have overheard a conversation on an elevator or at a coffee shop, and it’s given me ideas. But for me, my inspiration point typically starts with a story I already know, or something I’m reading or a TV show or movie that makes me think: “How could I do this queer?” I’m not talking about fan fiction. More in terms of genre or setting queer characters in a world inspired by fantasy lore.
That’s how Irresistible came about. I stumbled upon that novel Callirhoe while I was doing research for my fantasy The City of Seven Gods, just looking for translated material written in the classical era to get an ear for how people talked and thought about their daily lives. I discovered that people in that era actually wrote romance novels in addition to the better-known plays and epic poems. Then with Callirhoe, I discovered not only did they write romance novels, they wrote really schmaltzy, OTT romance novels!
It’s this ridiculous comedy of errors with Shakespeare-style soliloquies with the heroine cursing her fatal beauty. So as I often do, I thought: Hmmm. What would this look like if the characters were two gay men, in the modern world? And with some toning down (it is toned down from the original believe-it-or-not) and some rewriting of the plot points, it turned out to resemble a gay mash-up of There’s Something Like Mary and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. My goal was to send-up a lot of rom-com conventions, but I also wanted to keep it heartwarming like the original.”
JP Jackson: <goes to buy> “That sounds like way too much fun. And My Big Fat Greek Wedding is one of my all-time fave movies. Nia Vardolos is from my hometown, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Okay, last question – Do you have any new projects you’re working on that you’d care to tease us with?”
Andrew Peters: “Why yes. I have a short story collection coming out later this year from NineStar! It’s based on mythology and fairytales from around the world. Meanwhile, I’m shopping around the Telemachus novel I mentioned.”
JP Jackson: “Fantastic! Congratulations. So, tell me, how do I let our readers know where to get your works?”
Andrew Peters: “Right here!”
Click any of these links to go to Andrew’s books:
Amazon | NineStar Webstore | iTunes | B&N | Kobo
JP Jackson: “Thank you so much for dropping by, again, we have our secret project we’re working on…so make sure you all check back in later this summer to see what Andrew and I have been up to! In the meantime, if you have any questions or simply want to stop in and say hello, you can find Andrew here:”
Andrew Peter: “I’m so glad I stopped by, and I can’t wait to finish our ‘thing’.”
JP Jackson: “Me neither, this’ll be fun! Later folks!”
J.P. Jackson 