Multi-Award-Winning Fiction Author Josh Lanyon
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Multi-Award-Winning Fiction Author Josh Lanyon |
| Interviewer: | DA Kentner |
| Interviewee: | Josh Lanyon |
| Date(s): | August 30, 2013 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | Multi-Award-Winning Fiction Author Josh Lanyon, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Multi-Award-Winning Fiction Author Josh Lanyon was conducted in August 2013.
Introduction
Josh Lanyon has been producing bestselling, award-winning books for over a decade, and still, when it comes to mainstream readers, few know of this mega-talented author with legions of loyal fans. Conduct an Internet search for “Josh Lanyon” and you will see page after page of listings, be they books, interviews, blogs, and even a few drops of Josh’s name just to try and wrangle readers to an article Josh knew nothing about. That’s the notoriety and recognition associated with this particular author. Josh writes some of the finest mystery, suspense, and adventure stories on the market today, lives in LA, and is absolutely devoted to his family. He is also a genius at marketing who readily shares tips with anyone willing to listen, explores every option of providing his stories to readers (including audio books), and isn’t afraid to venture into joint projects or dabble in subgenres he hasn’t tried yet.
Excerpts
Q) You keep your family and private life out of the limelight. Why is maintaining a high level of privacy so important to you?
A) I truly want readers to focus on the stories and not me. The work is what matters. I’ve achieved a sort of celebrity along the way, but more than anything it makes me uneasy and a little anxious. I appreciate my readers and I love interacting with them, but I do feel like there needs to be some kind of firebreak between the real life me and the author persona of Josh Lanyon. I don’t want “Josh Lanyon” getting in the way of my real life obligations and responsibilities.
Q) “Fatal Shadows” was considered a book written for gay audiences. You have said your writing has shifted to focusing on female readers of male/male romance. What changes in style did you make to accommodate female readers?
A) This is such a perilous question! And of course what was true in publishing for a gay audience thirteen years ago isn’t necessarily relevant now. For me the crucial difference was that M/M was by definition romance fiction, and so the emphasis had to be on the relationship and the romance. The first story I wrote for the M/M market was The Dark Horse, and there is a fair bit of explicit but yet romanticized sex, a lot of emphasis and exploration about feelings and emotions. There’s a little bit of a mystery, but it’s mostly backdrop. Whereas with Fatal Shadows, the emphasis was on the mystery and about the sexual identity of the two main characters. So we had Adrien English who, though gay, was a protagonist that straight readers could easily relate to -- that was important to me -- and we also had Jake Riordan who hates himself for being gay. That series is as much about Jake’s journey to come to terms with who he is, as it is Adrien solving various murders.
Q) Good writing is good writing and yours is amongst the best I’ve read. Why do you believe your books haven’t found their way to mainstream readers yet?
A) Thank you, David. That’s very kind. To answer your question: for the same reason that books featuring racial and ethnic minorities don’t tend to do as well as books featuring Caucasian protagonists. We’ve experienced -- and continue to experience -- encouraging political and social gains, but GLBT people remain a minority, and publishers are in the business of making money. It is all about the bottom line. A mainstream publisher needs to hit different profit margins from an indie or specialty publisher. So what constitutes a huge hit in my little publishing realm does not necessarily look viable to a legacy publisher looking to move 40,000 units of any given romance novel.
That said, there are encouraging signs that mainstream romance publishers are beginning to look at the possibilities of M/M Romance. I won’t deny that I’m excited about the potential for all of us.
Q) How do you view Josh Lanyon the author vs Josh Lanyon the person?
A) Ha! Well, as I’m sure you yourself know, we try to be our witty, smartest, personable selves when we’re on line. Social media is a stage, and we’re on that stage trying to sell our author brand. But off stage, I’m your typical writerly type. I’m quiet, introspective, and largely preoccupied with the voices in my head. I’m impatient with interruptions and I’m often oblivious to what’s going on around me. But I will say that I’ve learned two important lessons along the way. To be of any use as a writer, you have to have something to write about. That means getting out in the real world and interacting with real people. And, most important, we are defined by our relationships with others. As much as I want my work to last and be remembered, being there for the people I love and who love me, must always come first. Time is fleeting and second chances are rare.