Monday Meet: JP Barnaby

Today’s guest is JP Barnaby

B:  JP, Tell us a little about yourself to get us started.

JP:  Hi guys, I’m JP Barnaby, the girl who makes gay men hard™ according to my porn star friends.  I would say I like romantic nights in front of the fire, and long walks on the beach, but I’m more of a sex on the beach kind of girl. I write software for a firm in Chicago, and in my spare time, I write gay porn. As to my age, well, I’m old enough…

B:  How long have you been writing? And do you write in any other genres besides m/m?

JP:  My first novel was self-published in December of 2009 – an innocent little tale about a Dom recovering from sexual abuse, and his wayward tenant. To date, I have written strictly M/M and M/M/F, but that’s not to say I may not wander from time to time.

B:  Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

JP:  The inspiration for Charlie, Rentboy came from a beautiful NYC rentboy and friend named Eli Lewis. He has such a unique outlook on life, and I absolutely love his snarky Facebook/Twitter posts.

B:  Tell us something interesting that’s not in the blurb.

JP:  Charlie is a Cubs fan!

B:  Do you have a favorite character out of all the ones you’ve written? Why is he/she your favorite?

JP:  I have a lot of favorites, for a lot of different reasons. Brian and Jamie from Little Boy Lost have been with me the longest – a six book continuous series. Though, I have to say that the one who really got under my skin deeper than any other, was Aaron. I still hear him in my head, whispering about monsters in the dark.

B:  What’s your favorite part of the writing process? What’s your least favorite?

JP:  My favorite part of the writing process is starting a new book. I love that moment when you see it all so clearly in your head, when the characters talk faster than you can keep up taking notes. I love that time when it plays in your head like your favorite movie.

My least favorite part of the writing process is probably promotion – though I do it, because I have to – it takes time away from writing about my boys.

B:  Do you outline or plan your stories first or make up the plot as you go along?

JP:  I use a diagram outline to plan the major scenes on the timeline, and then Scrivener to add notes for each scene on “index cards”. It’s a great program, because I can move scenes around without cutting and pasting in Word—I never seem to get everything and then it’s a jumbled mess.

B:  Tell us about your latest release. Did it start with the plot or character or something else?

JP:  My latest release to date is Bane of Boston. It actually started out while talking to Edmond Manning one day. We’re both Cubs fans, and were talking trivia for something he’d planned to use in a story. We moved on to different things in Cubs history including the Steve Bartman catch. Bane of Boston is based on a real event—a 2003 catch during which poor Bartman was vilified in Chicago, and eventually moved to Florida to escape persecution. I always felt bad for him because some of us realize that it’s just a game.

B:  If you could write anything, with no constraints on genre and a guarantee of publication, what would it be?

JP:  I’d write something that isn’t fantasy. Not every story ends in a happily ever after.

B:  How do you decide where to set your books?

JP:  Based on the story. Little Boy Lost may not have worked the way it did if it hadn’t originated in the bible belt. The Survivor Series (Aaron, Painting Fire on the Air, and Spencer) were set in a suburb of Chicago because that’s where I’m from and I have a good base to work from. Bane of Boston and Charlie, Rentboy are also based in Chicago.

B:  How do you decide the time period for your books?

JP:  I write strictly contemporary. History was not my best subject, so I won’t be writing historicals any time soon. Though, I wouldn’t be opposed to writing something futuristic.

B:  What are you working on now? Will you share a little with us

JP:  Currently, I’m working on a few things. I like to keep more than one project open so that if I get stuck on one story, I can work on another. My main project, however, is Spencer, the sequel to Aaron. I’m also working on an interesting mystery that I’m getting totally into. I’ll share a bit from that:

The house loomed above me like a monster from one of my nightmares, blocking out the sun, and stealing all warmth from the day. I stood frozen on the walk, in its shadow, trying to find the courage to take another step forward. Gavin, it whispered on the cool autumn breeze, beckoning me to enter. After yet another death within its walls, I could not escape the dread which slithered up my spine and lodged itself into my chest. I wanted Ryan in a way I hadn’t in years. Ryan, who had kept the monsters away on countless sleepovers spent in impenetrable forts made of zombie repelling blankets and chairs made of force fields to keep ghosts at bay. But Ryan was at the station, protecting the good citizens of Goose Creek, South Carolina from real dangers, not just my imaginary ones. Ryan would laugh if he saw me, cowering in front of an abandoned house. He’d ask me why I’d spent the last eight years earning a Masters in Criminal Justice, and one in Psychology if I was too much of a pussy to be a cop. Time to put my big boy pants on and get shit done.

The next few steps were easier to take with Ryan’s laughter ringing in my head.

I didn’t want to climb those stairs, the ones Ryan and I had hid under as children, playing cops and robbers. With mounting trepidation, I scanned our old neighborhood. I hadn’t lived there for nearly ten years—almost a third of my life, an eternity spent at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. It was nearly a two hour drive home every weekend, but I never made it, because I hated this Goddamned house. Only my father’s death had brought me back here. The house on Archibald Drive had belonged to my father, and my father’s parents before him, and their parents before that.

It was now mine.

B:  To wrap up, tell us anything else you’d like us to know.

JP:  The thing I want readers to know about me is that I sincerely appreciate their love and support, book after book. Seriously, you guys mean the world to me—thank you. ❤

Blurb:

Got two hundred and fifty dollars for an hour of fun? Then say hello to Charlie, a hot little rentboy working his way through an engineering degree on his back. He’s got shaggy blond hair that’s great to hang on to while you fuck him from behind, and sweet innocent blue eyes that look very enticing when he gazes up at you with your cock in his mouth. That is, until he’s hired by innocent rich boy John Middleton, head of Middleton Communication. John is so far in the closet he could find Narnia. But when John and Charlie get together for an explosive weekend of sex, everything goes to hell.

Facebook Page for the Working Boys series: https://www.facebook.com/WorkingBoysSeries

Excerpt:

When I was a young, tousle-haired boy, my mother told me I could be anything I wanted to be—a fireman, a teacher, even a pro wrestler. I’m sure she never guessed that I would grow up to fuck strange men for money. So, thank God we skipped that little chat when I went home for Christmas, because a stroke would have put a damper on the old holiday spirit. Hi, my name is Charlie, and I am a rentboy. Why, you might ask? Because college is fucking expensive, and if I’m going to become an engineer at some point before I die, I need to pay for school. So, the question is, do I want to make seven dollars an hour at McDonald’s, or two hundred and fifty dollars for an hour long out call and still have time to study? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Now, for that two-fifty, guys definitely get their money’s worth. I’m easy to talk to, charming, and I’ve been blessed with an amazing ass. Besides my brain, it’s by far my best asset. And even though I’m versatile, my ass is what’s showcased on my escort ad, which means I get hired to bottom… a lot. That’s cool, though, since it pays my rent and keeps me in textbooks. I even get to eat when I remember between classes and clients.

My ad also says that I’m twenty-one which is true, five-foot-eight-inches and 140 lbs which is also true, and that my name is “Charlie,” which isn’t. My real name is something rather mundane like Timmy or Paul, but you don’t get to know that. I shield my identity like Clark Kent or Peter Parker, except my superpower is far more fun than strength or swinging from buildings; I am able to bottom tall tops in a single fuck. I can suck the chrome off a bumper and leave the car still standing. In other words, I am sexually gifted, a hero among gay men.

What my ad doesn’t tell you is that I have shaggy blond hair that’s great to grab while being fucked from behind, and sweet, innocent blue eyes that look very enticing when I gaze up with a cock in my mouth. See, hot right? My own cock is pretty average, nothing I haven’t seen a dozen times on a normal Chicago night. One thing to remember, though—I’m always safe. If you want to bareback, don’t bother calling, but if you want me for the weekend, it will cost you a shade over a grand.

Interested?

JP’s Bio:

J. P. Barnaby, an award-winning gay romance novelist, is the author of over a dozen books including the Little Boy Lost series, the Forbidden Room series, and Aaron. As a bisexual woman, J.P. is a proud member of the GLBT community both online and in her small town on the outskirts of Chicago. A member of Mensa, she is described as brilliant but troubled, sweet but introverted, and talented but deviant. She spends her days writing software and her nights writing erotica, which is, of course, far more interesting. The spare time that she carves out between her career and her novels is spent reading about the concept of love, which, like some of her characters, she has never quite figured out for herself.

Website: http://www.JPBarnaby.com

Blog: http://www.jpbarnaby.com/#blog

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JPBarnaby

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JPBarnaby