Icarus Ascending by Lee James + Interview

First, permit me to say I enjoy reading Shooting Stars’ reviews, and I pounced on your offer for an interview, thank you. I remember my first trip to London, seeing road signs such as, “Give Way,” as opposed to the United States’ brusque, “YIELD,” notices in busses reading, “Mind Your Head,” in contrast to our “Watch Your Head, and store clerks calling me, “Lovy.”  I appreciate British civility, which is standard in your reviews.

Now, to your question. There are several reasons why I wanted a second edition of  Errors and Omissions. First, after E&O was published, several readers and friends asked me if I planned to write a series of private detective novels. Such was not my plan. By the time I had my next crime noir novel in about its umpteenth draft, I saw the potential for a Los Angeles private detectives series. Along came Icarus Ascending, with revisions facilitating a series. In addition, the second edition is approximately 8k words lighter than E&O; although the characters , plot, and story lines remain the same; in addition, there are new scenes and a drastically different ending in Icarus Ascending.

Readers may notice a Greek-Roman mythology undertone in Icarus Ascending. For anyone unfamiliar with the Icarus myth, here’s a synopsis. Icarus’ craftsman father builds wings of wax and feathers for he and his son to escape war-torn Crete. The father warns Icarus not to fly too high, for the sun will melt the wax. This myth teaches the dangers of complacency and hubris. Icarus flys too high, the wax melts, and he drops into the sea. End of story.

2.
The book states that this is the first in the LA Detectives
series. Will the second book follow Kirk MacGregor or focus on new
characters?

 The second novel, Threads, has new characters with an MC private dick named Mike Hauser. As in Icarus Ascending, Threads is a crime noir mystery-thriller with M/M and M/F relationships in the background. In Threads, the son of a Hollywood legend disappears, and Hauser is hired to find him. Threads continues with Greek-Roman mythology undertones set in modern-day Los Angeles. Threads’ epigraph is, “Sic volvere Parcas,” (So spin the Fates.)  Book Three, titled The Furies, will have Kirk MacGregor and Mike Hauser working together after Kirk’s ex-wife is accused of murder.

3. What inspired you to write a mystery/suspense novel?

 I enjoy reading mysteries, true crime, and crime noir. I do not write romance tales; never have, never will. Here’s the kicker: As a male writer, I write M/M crime noir mystery-thrillers that do not include slowly developing romances and all that annoying angst. My main characters are in an established relationship from the start.

It must be mentioned that an overwhelming majority of M/M writers are women, and around ninety percent of the M/M audience is female. (Boys, get away from your cell phones and idiot boxes and expand your horizons — start reading!) Mind you, I’m not suggesting those data are somehow negative. I’ve over 600 M/M novels in my iPod, and it’s not escaped my attention that many, maybe most, female M/M writers tell their stories from women’s standpoints, too often making the gay-male main characters a bit effeminate. (Women are indeed from Venus, and men are assuredly from Mars.) As a male M/M author, I write from a man’s perspective.  As a result, some may think that men are my targeted audience. Such is not the case– as with mainstream authors, I make every effort to write novels that will appeal to both men and women. It must be mentioned that my novels do not have happy or happy-for-now endings — they have hopeful endings. And yes, I’m truly a male M/M writer — no “boy pen name, girl writer” gender games here.

4. Do you have the entire mystery figured out before you start writing, or do you write and then see where the story leads? 

Every novel starts with a problem that must be solved, and the story is built around your characters. I know some authors who write detailed outlines of their entire novels. Such isn’t my approach to fiction writing. I briefly outline my novel’s opening chapters, and know what the new project’s beginning, middle, and ending will be before I begin writing. This may be difficult for those who don’t write to grasp:  by chapter five or six, the manuscript has a life of its own. Once the first draft is completed, I allow the manuscript to “gel” for several months. Then I begin paring away the manuscript — again, and again, and again. Think you want to write fiction? Be advised that it’s the most difficult and frustrating job you’ll ever have. You must love fiction writing to death to do it.