by Matt Lubbers-Moore
On behalf of the Facebook LGBTQ+ Mystery-Thriller-Suspense Fiction Group and King’s River Life Magazine, we want to thank Meg Perry for giving us a little of her time today, answering questions fans of the genre really want to know.
Q: Where do you live?
Meg: Daytona Beach, Florida, on a barrier island that we call Beachside. I can see the ocean from the corner of my front yard.
Q: Without getting too personal, can you share a little about your home life?
Meg: It’s pretty boring! I live with my 12-year-old cat, Ace. He’s in charge of the schedule.
Q: Writers rarely like to toot their own horns; seriously! What would you say is your greatest accomplishment?
Meg: I guess it’s building a kinder, somewhat gentler parallel universe––the Brodieverse, if you like––that has lasted for 12 years so far and still keeps my readers engaged. Thirty-two books in, my readers still want to know how everyone is doing. They worried about my characters during the Los Angeles fires! One of my readers said that he wants to go live in the Brodieverse. I think that’s awesome.
Q: What inspires and challenges you most in writing? And can you describe your writing process?
Meg: Inspiration comes from my characters. I want to see what they’re going to do next and how they’ll react to whatever new situation I put them in. The challenges come from writing mysteries that are interesting enough to hold readers’ attention and from making sure that my characters stay in character. I write from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, in a comfy chair with my laptop on my lap, usually with the cat and a Coke Classic nearby. I have two desks and don’t use either of them.
Q: You’ve probably answered this question a hundred times, but please indulge our readers (and fellow writers): Do you fly by the seat of your pants when writing or plot out your storylines?
Meg: I am absolutely a pantser. I usually know who does what to whom before I start writing, but I never outline it, because I know it’ll change, and I don’t want to cramp my creativity. Occasionally I’ll get stuck in the middle of a complicated book and have to make a calendar of events and the movements of people to make sure everything happens the way it’s supposed to.
Q: How do you sustain serialized, continuing characters?
Meg: One thing that’s helped me is having my characters live in real time. Jamie Brodie was 32 when I started writing his books; he’ll be 45 in May. They’re experiencing events right along with real people, such as the fires in Los Angeles, and I think that gives them an authenticity that is sometimes lacking in writing. I also like my characters! A lot! I’d love to step across the event horizon and spend time with Jamie and Pete and the gang.
Q: Have you ever had to deal with homophobia when it comes to your books, and if so, what form has it taken?
Meg: Only in the form of a couple of reviews. There was one book where Pete and Jamie talked a LOT about their sex life, trying to work out some of their issues. There wasn’t any depiction of sex, they were just talking about it! The reviews were snarky comments about “everything you could possibly want to know about gay sex.” Um, no, ma’am, that’s certainly NOT everything you could want to know. And did she read the blurb? I had to laugh. This isn’t homophobic, but one reader said, “I had no idea what ace and aro meant! I had to look them up!” Very good, sir.
Q: What got you into reading and writing gay mysteries?
Meg: I’d been reading mysteries my whole life, but I didn’t know gay mystery was a genre until I met Neil Plakcy at a Florida Library Association conference when the Florida Mystery Writers hosted a breakfast. I read the first Mahu book and loved it. Then I started reading more in the genre and discovered Marshall Thornton, Joseph Hansen, Michael Nava, Richard Stevenson, Anthony Bidulka, Dorien Grey… As a reader, I was hooked. It’s funny, I didn’t intend to write gay mystery. I set out to write about a crime-solving librarian. But––and I know this sounds crazy––Jamie told me he was gay. So I had no choice, LOL.
Q: Who have your role models as an author been? And what books are currently on your reading list?
Meg: If I was going to pick one role model, it would probably be Anthony Bidulka. I adore his Russell Quant mysteries. Russell lives in a slightly altered parallel universe with a large cast of friends and family, and I’m sure that influenced my creation of Jamie Brodie. In terms of reading list, I just finished the latest of Marshall Thornton’s Pinx Video series and Gregory Ashe’s First Picks series, and I have The Fall and Rise of Henry Milch (Marshall Thornton again) and Silence of the Missing by Rick R. Reed dialed up on the Kindle. I’m also reading Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough.
Q: Last two questions; can you share with us a little about your current release, and/or Work In Progress?
Meg: The current WIP is Spotted to Death, Angeles Investigations #6. A planespotter is found dead at Los Angeles International Airport, and the investigation leads to some shocking places and to major consequences for Angeles Investigations and friends. My readers like learning new things; this time, they’ll get the inside scoop on planespotters and air cargo.
Q: And where can readers buy your books?
Meg: Wherever eBooks are sold. I don’t use Kindle Unlimited, so they’re available on all platforms. Print is available through Amazon. The links are on my website: megperrybooks.wordpress.com
Upcoming LGBTQ Mysteries
Tunnel Vision by Wendy Church
Out March 4, Severn
Maude Kaminski, technical analyst for the Chicago PD, takes her place on the task force created to end the bloody territory wars. But Maude’s world is upended when a child’s backpack is discovered among the possessions of a dead homeless woman. The backpack belonged to Maude’s two-year-old brother, Michael, and is the first trace of him since he was taken––since Maude let someone take him––over twenty years ago. As Maude desperately searches for other signs of Michael, she turns for help to her best friend, chef Sags Pfister, who harbors a dark past of her own. Long-buried secrets begin to surface, forcing Maude from behind her computer into undercover work and underneath the dark streets of Chicago, where she has to confront her deepest fears.
The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes
Out March 4, William Morrow Paperbacks
When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work. Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe. More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.
Walk Softly on this Heart of Mine by Callie Collins
Out March 18, Doubleday
Austin, Texas is a town in the throes of social upheaval and the Rush Creek Saloon, five miles on its outskirts, is a bar without a crowd. Until a strange new house band transforms it from moribund honky-tonk to thriving blues bar. But are the throngs of people and the rowdy music worth the chaos that comes with therebirth of Rush Creek and for the violence that follows in the afterbirth? Doug Moser, a country-and-blues guitarist from San Antonio, is seizing his long-awaited chance at fame but cannot turn away from the easy booze and drugs that come with the life. Deanna Teague owns Rush Creek. Her marriage is rocky and so is her sense of herself, but she sees a crack of light if she can just hold it all together. And Steven Francis is a boy who loves too fiercely. He grapples with his sexuality, his God, and his place in a town where he badly wants to belong.
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
Out March 18, Tordotcom
Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers?just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot. Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor?and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting?knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work?and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes.
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E. M. Anderson
Out March 25, MIRA
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants. Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death. But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.
We are Villains by Kacen Callender
Out March 25, Amulet Books
Ari’s death was ruled an accident, but for her best friend Milo, it’s shrouded in mystery. Why was she in the woods on the night of the fire? Had she been alone? Figuring out what happened the night Ari died is the only reason Milo returns to Yates Academy, even knowing he’ll be in constant danger. . .
Liam is the King of Yates, a role he keeps hold of through his family’s old money—and the threat of violence. So when he begins receiving ominous letters from another student accusing him of murdering Ari, the suspect list is long. Desperate to prove his innocence before the accusation ruins his reign, Liam enlists Milo’s help to find the blackmailer. But the more Milo helps Liam, the more he becomes certain that Liam has something to hide.
Smoke and Silk by Fiona Keating
Out March 27, Mountain Leopard Press
Pearl Fitzgerald arrives in Limehouse––London’s very first Chinatown––to settle her late father’s affairs and claim her inheritance. But when she unwittingly finds herself at the scene of a murder, her plans are thrown off course. Even more so by the alluring Mei, sister to the dead man. Utterly infatuated, Pearl promises Mei that she will bring her brother’s killer to justice, and she dives into the East End’s criminal underworld.
A Merciful Sea by Katie Daysh
Out March 27, Canelo Adventure
Arthur Courtney is a commander without a ship and without purpose. So when old friend Captain Henry Harrison offers him a place onboard HMS Lion, bound to join Nelson’s fleet in the Mediterranean, he is eager for the opportunity. But onboard discipline has broken down; Harrison is not the captain he once was. Added to this, Courtney has agreed to a troubling deal in order to serve: marriage to Harrison’s sister-in-law, Tabitha Sandham. He fears he will have to choose between his career and his love for Hiram Nightingale. In England, Nightingale’s life is shaken by the death of his father and by the re-appearance of the Lion, the ship that caused him such pain. When threatening notes are received at his and Courtney’s cottage on the Isle of Wight, he vows to find out the truth behind them. But it appears there is more trouble on the island than simply the threatening messages. So while Courtney defends the sea, Nightingale must help protect England’s shores from calamity.
Daddy Detectives by April Wilson
Out March 28, Wilson Publishing LLC
In book 2 of Tyler and Ian Jamison’s Daddy Detectives series, Ian is getting the hang of being a stay-at-home dad to their infant twins. Tyler is investigating the source of the blackmail threat made against Ian.
Spotted to Death by Meg Perry
Out March
A planespotter is found dead at Los Angeles International Airport, and the investigation leads to some shocking places and to major consequences for Angeles Investigations and friends.
Other Releases:
Dream a Little Dream by C. F. White, out March 3
The Martini Shot by Shane K. Morton, out March 4
Stealing Mexico by Matti Martinez, out March 6
Reading Between the Lines by Nicky James, out March 6
Chasing Tropical Ice by Elizabeth Worley, out March 11
Peep by Rianne Elizabeth, out March 14
Ride or Die by T. S. Ankney out March 16
A Forgotten Mistake by Alice Winters, out March 18
His Wicked Wants by Leighton Greene, out March 27
The Valrais Legacy by J. F. Miev, out March 28
False Morality by Shelby Rhodes, out March 31
Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.
Click on this link to take you to Mysterious Galaxy’s website where you can purchase many of these books & a portion will go to help support KRL:
Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.
0 Comments