Andrew Q. Gordon

Today’s guest is Cooper Davis.  Cooper is here to talk about herself, her approach to writing and her latest release, A King Undone. She also has an eCopy of her book to give away. Read through to the end for a chance to enter.

Welcome Cooper.  Why don’t we begin by you start by telling everyone a bit about yourself.

Thanks for inviting me to talk a bit about my work. I’ve been writing since before I could actually spell! I’m not kidding. I’ve written scripts, movie reviews, and in my thirties, finally began writing narrative fiction. My previous male/male romances were all contemporary, although one was a paranormal werewolf romance. I couldn’t help myself on that one, as what could be hotter than two alpha werewolves who had to mate to stop a feud between their packs?

Your latest book is A King Undone. Tell us a bit about that?

I have a great love for historical romance—I mean, even really old school classics. It occurred to me that it would be extremely fun to turn that genre on its head, and create a world where most of the same conventions still existed. Peers, nobility, courtship, manners…but cast all that in a world where men could openly marry and court men. It’s meant to be a bit tongue in cheek that way, even as it’s a tender and emotional book, as well. Well, and I like to think there’s some great humor in all the banter, as well.

This is part of the Noble Pleasures Series – how many books do you envision the series going?

Book two, A KING AWAKENED comes out in September, and is the sequel to this book, with the same two heroes. Book three, A GENTLEMAN REVEALED publishes in December, and will be about King Arend’s royal secretary. That takes the series in a somewhat new direction, in that each book will have the HEA in a single volume. Arend and Julian’s story just turned out to be too big for just one book. Then, I have two more books already begun that continue the series. I can’t say more about the heroes, except…well, I’ll tease a bit and say that A GENTLEMAN REVEALED takes the series in a bit of an Austenian direction, focusing on a group of brothers and their widowed father. So imagine Elizabeth Bennett’s sisters…but if they were men instead. It’s also more of a drawing room romance, that third book. More akin to the Victorian m/f romances—it even begins with a ball!

In your world, same sex pairings seem acceptable, the nobility seem to be able to acquire concubines from a temple that exists for that purpose. Where did the inspiration for this world come from?

Ah, great question. In my writing, I tend to very much be a “what if” writer. I start with a nugget of an idea, then begin to say, “But what if?” I adore m/m historicals, but it’s hard to arrive at a believable happy ending without a bit of plot wrangling. And I will likely write a conventional m/m historical—because inherent in those difficulties is also the potential for a metric ton of conflict. But in this world, I just pictured all the doings of the ton and balls and scandal sheets, and thought how very fun it would be if all that were going on between gentlemen.

What part of the book was the most fun to write and why?

I love when they meet at the temple and how Arend starts off huffy and trying to keep his royal reserve, but then winds up unstoppably charmed by Julian. The banter was so much fun, it just came alive with a force all its own.What part made you struggle them most?

The fact that I seem constitutionally incapable of writing a short book! And finally realized that the story I had for them was much too long for one digital book. So then I had to figure out the HFN ending, one that would satisfy, but leave all the intrigue and conspiring of the Lords Council still a threat.

Have you ever based characters on anyone you know?

No, honestly not. I draw on parts of myself for some of them, and then close friends see parts of me in my characters that I don’t even realize I’m channeling. To me, my characters just gain a life of their own in my head. It becomes like they’re real people I know. It’s strange, I know.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

I love dialogue and repartee and when that comes alive for me, I’m in my favorite zone. I also love coming up with the most perfect piece of prose—which often happens very late in the game. For instance, I loved this bit in A KING UNDONE, and it was added late in my many iterations of the book:

For a virtual eternity Arend remained, willing his father to raise a glance, to acknowledge the love he bore for Darien. To acknowledge precisely the depth of what Arend would sacrifice upon the pyre of their bloodline.

To see the brokenness forming inside Arend, hewing itself out of his substance and manhood like a fissured iceberg, adrift in their most northerly sea.

But his sire, the king of their fine realm, could not be bothered to offer another thought in Arend’s direction; therefore, at last, he spun on his heels and did as he’d been bidden.

What’s your least favorite?

I sometimes like starting a new book, but often, the disparity between the most recent finished project—and the new one, with its blank canvas and unformed essence—gets to me. I just try to work the mantra that each book I’ve written started way, way back with nothing. That I can’t compare to the most recent finished product, or forget the rough start of a new work, just because I’ve recently finished something to that happy-shiny, finished state.

Since there is always another story to tell, what are you working on now?

A KING UNDONE is a HFN story, and the final HEA awaits in book two, so I’m hard at work on giving Arend and Julian that happyily ever after. I know fans are clamoring, and HFN stories can be frustrating. So I just encourage readers to remember that…we’ll get there with book two!

What have you read lately that most people haven’t read but should?

I can’t say that it’s a book most people haven’t read, but it’s one I adored—Tibby Armstrong’s NO APOLOGIES which is set against a Hollywood backdrop and has an enormously clever story structure revolving around the film they view at the premiere. It’s very intelligent, emotional and has superbly drawn characters.

If you could meet any writer, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

I would love to have met and hung with Truman Capote. Talk about a character and amazing writer. Fitzgerald. Jane Austen for sure. Probably Jane most of all. A woman with a truly romantic, brilliant heart who lived and wrote at a time when doing so was audacious for her gender.

What’s a fun – non-writing – day for you?

I am a total television hound. I love doing a series, back to back episodes until I have the look of a cave-dwelling hermit.

Besides reading and writing, what else do you enjoy?

I’m crazy about traveling the world over, and learning new things—everything from languages to baking pie. I enjoy the challenge of something new and mentally stimulating.

Last question is all yours – feel free to talk about anything you want your readers to know about you, your book, anything at all.

I love to hear from my readers! I’m on Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter. Or you can email me at Cooperdavisbooks@gmail.com

Twitter is: @cooperdavisbook

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cooperdavisbooks.

BLURB:

Sometimes you have to risk everything, to follow your heart…

Noble Pleasures, Book 1

In a world where gentlemen openly court and marry fellow noblemen, the threat of scandal still lurks behind every velvet drape for kings and princes. Such has been the fate for King Arend Tollemach, forced to sacrifice his heart on the altar of regal duty.

Now that his wife is dead and his royal obligations are at an end, he’s ready to take an unthinkable risk. King Arend seeks a concubine from Temple Sapphor, a secretive, gated world where he will finally shed his virginity—as least as it pertains to making love to a man.

Julian never thought he’d spend ten years on the temple shelf, passed over again and again. Just when he despairs of ever finding placement in a nobleman’s bed, Arend walks into the temple. A lonely eyed, beautiful king who could easily steal his heart.

Arend discovers he has no problem opening his bed to the exquisite concubine. The problem lies in finding the key to his long-shuttered heart.

Warning: Contains a beautiful, virgin king desperate to bed another man, a concubine who fantasizes about being claimed and revered by a strong monarch, and a sea of scandal set against a sensual, palatial backdrop.

BUY LINKS:

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AUTHOR BIO:

Cooper Davis first discovered the allure of m/m storytelling when she watched My Beautiful Launderette with a college roommate. Later, her passion for stories about men falling in love and finding their HEA together was stoked by online slash fiction. After years as an avid fan of m/m and slash, Cooper finally decided to try her hand at penning her own stories about same-gender romance and love.
A voracious reader across all subgenres of m/m fiction, Cooper is particularly fond of courtships set against the breathless backdrop of scandal and intrigue found in period drawing rooms. She is thrilled that her first historically themed m/m romance series debuts this December with A KING UNDONE (Samhain).

AUTHOR LINKS:

Contact info: http://cooperdavisbooks.com/contact/ Website: http://cooperdavisbooks.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CooperDavisBook Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooperdavisbooks

Giveaway:

Leave a comment to be entered to win a free eBook copy of A King Undone. One winner will be selected from all comments made by midnight on 1/19/15.