I am delighted to welcome Faberge Nostromo onto my blog today, author of His Secret Dancer, recently published by Breathless Press.
Faberge burst on the social network a fair few months ago now and was an instant hit. Having followed his progress from contract to publication and beyond, I cannot wait to dig a little deeper with a game of twenty questions.
ACT ONE – all about you…
I grew up in the East End of London before escaping to East Anglia. I’ve been a civil servant, a tea boy, sound engineer, a librarian and an IT consultant but deep down, I always knew that I was a writer. I now live deep in the heart of Suffolk with my wife, son and too many guitars.
1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?
I'd always thought that I was a writer until I actually became one then I realised that I'd not been one at all. A writer writes, writes and writes – and has readers. Writing in an echo chamber – tweeters tweeting to tweeters, bloggers blogging about blogging – isn't being a writer. Writing a book is a bloody pain in the derriere and takes time and effort and then more time and more effort. Then a bit more. And a little bit after that. Then it comes out and you realise you should have done it better.
2) You’ve already had a pretty varied career, but out of all your skills and experiences, which one would you say has helped you the most in your new writing career?
I've had a career in the true sense of the verb – 'move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way'. I think it's that very aspect of it that's helped. I've banged off a lot of walls and fallen over a lot of obstacles and gathered a lot of moss on the way. Just got to try to make sense of it and wrap it up in a story… or two… or three.
3) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?
Mostly I sit at a keyboard (MacBook Air or Smartphone) whenever I'm not doing anything else and try to think of reasons not to write. Then maybe a sentence will fall out unexpectedly and if there's a following wind I'll have a paragraph eventually and then – and sometimes I'm really lucky – it all starts flowing and I'll look up and there's a chapter on the screen in front of me.
More annoying is when a scene, or character, or crucial event occurs to me and I'm meant to be busy doing something else and I have to find a way to scribble it down somewhere. Being in a business meeting and suddenly realising that your transgender hero/ine is going to wear the six-inch heels and fishnets on his first date can make for some interesting note taking.
4) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?
Meeting Raven McAllan kick started me. I read Almost Entente Cordiale after meeting her as she sat, glass of wine in hand, MacBook on lap, by a swimming pool in South Africa and decided that, finally, I was going to write a book.
5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?
I'm too tall to buy trousers in Marks & Spencer, I'm a Reiki healer and I recently qualified in Indian Head Massage.
6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?
I'm glued to my MacBook Air when I've not got my face in my Android Smartphone, so that's two but I really can't be without a guitar or a ukulele - and my Kindle would make five!
ACT TWO – all about your new release…
Dan's drab life is a world away from his secret life as Danielle, the burlesque star of Tomasz's transvestite nightclub, Trans-Action.
Having found 'her' inner T girl as a student, Danielle has discovered the power of her femininity and her talent to entice and excite - but she realizes that Dan's life is losing the passion it once had.
As Danielle's relationship with Tomasz takes her deeper into both her lover and his world, encountering passions neither thought they dare explore, demure Francine is too often left to her own devices and desires. Her only release is in the fantasies inspired by the customers who pass through her life and her patisserie.
Does she want a man in her life or a woman? Or both…
Seeing her man exploring her wardrobe she decides to embrace the power of her own sexuality. Then a sizzling encounter with Tomasz unlocks the vixen in her and sets their two worlds on a collision course.
Can Dan bring Dan's world and Danielle's together - especially when he discovers Danielle's secret lover secretly loving Francine?
Or will Tomasz come between them both?
7) Congratulations on your recent release of His Secret Dancer, what was your inspiration for writing Dan/Danielle, Tomasz and Francine’s story? (no, I didn’t make a mistake then folks, intriguing isn’t it!?)
It was two things – meeting Raven McAlland and then a few days later I actually met a man who'd been a transvestite burlesque dancer! So I thought – well, that's my twist on boy-meets-girl.
8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?
The story did sort of flow and tell itself – mostly - but writing the scenes between Danielle and Tomasz took me miles out of my comfort zone.
9) I know His Secret Dancer is your debut (and hopefully the first of many), but how long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk?
Funnily enough, almost exactly a year to the day from that swimming pool meeting and meeting the real life Dan/Danielle. His Secret Dancer was rejected at the first attempt but with such positive comments I had to revise and resubmit.
10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?
Two paragraph from the scene that's had the most comments –
She idly ran one finger along a flour-dusted rolling pin, tracing its long smooth wooden lines and rounded end as she licked the warm chocolate dripping from the index finger of her other hand. There was a private sensual pleasure in baking. It was so very tactile and sensual, so very full of evocative aromas to accompany the textures of pastry, warm dough, and melting chocolate.
Sexual, almost, and so feminine. The mixing and blending of ingredients, the creation of something new. She ran her tongue over her lips to catch the last traces, like a sweet chocolate kiss, closing her eyes and letting the heady aroma of the rich, dark chocolate fill her senses.
11) Over to you, what can you tell us about His Secret Dancer, to make us rush out and buy it?
Tired of boy-meets-girl? Try boy/girl meets boy who meets boy/girl's girlfriend. Twist, turns and some hot scenes – and chocolate!
12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now?
Well, I am hard at work on a sci-fi erotic romance. I'm a full-on Trekkie, having been brought up on the original Star Trek series so at this very moment I have a shuttle being flown by a mysterious alien empath down to a planet where gender is a very big issue while back at the star ship the Captain and his green skinned First Mate are having relationship problems.
QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…
13) Plotter or pantser?
Total, total pantster… well, not quite. I have an idea and a more or less complete picture of the arc of the story and the characters involved but I realised early on that my job is to let those character tell me what their story is about.
14) Secret Seven or Famous Five? (please tell me you know them!?)
Famous Five! But I'm really a Swallows and Amazons kid.
15) Digital books or print books?
Ah, well, you see it's like this… having my Kindle has revolutionised my reading (I'd never even looked at Milton, Dickens and Jane Austen but since I got it, I'm all over those writers) but, really, books every time.
As Giles, the librarian/watcher in Buffy says when asked why he doesn't like books on computers he say "it's the smell" to which Miss Callender says "but computers don't smell". "Exactly," he replies.
16) Tea or coffee?
Coffee in the morning, tea (roi boos or earl grey) in the afternoon.
17) Cats or dogs?
Cats. Dogs are pack animals that follow leaders. Cats are having none of that.
18) Extrovert or introvert?
An introvert disguised as an extrovert.
19) Save or spend?
Spend. It's not that life is too short more that you're a long time dead.
20) Facebook or Twitter?
Facebook for maintaining relationships, twitter for making statements.
And that’s a wrap!
Thank you so much for taking part, Faberge, I wish you every success with your writing career, and hope it grows from strength to strength.
To discover even more about Faberge, and to keep up with his latest projects and shenanigans, you can visit him at:
Fabs on the web -
Buy it now...
ISBN: 978-1-77101-986-6
Heat Rating: 4
Word Count: 34000
Release Date: March 15, 2013
Breathless Press
Amazon /
Amazon UK
All Romance
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
iTunes
Kobo
Excerpt…
A woman, slim, tall, smart business attire – dark blue jacket, strong shoulders, just above knee length skirt, black tights – possibly stockings, but an expensive pair – and a very nice pair of black court shoes, heels just under the low side of slutty but just above the high side of sensible. Her friend/partner was a little shorter; her hair a very neat, jet black bob over piercing eyes very subtly made up and the sexiest mouth Francine had ever gazed upon. Full, almost pouting dark red lips, shimmering with an understated but overwhelming moist invitation to kiss, if you dare. She seemed to smolder with an androgynous sexuality that made Francine catch her breath. They were plainly together, holding hands, eyes on each other and when the taller woman picked up one of the samples of cake that Francine had out on the counter and placed it with an innocent nonchalance, but oh so sexually, in the shorter woman's mouth Francine felt a shiver tingle from her clit through to the depths of her pussy. The shorter woman’s eyes closed as the fingers brushed her lips, dropping the sweet pastry onto her tongue. Her lips closed on the fingers and a soft ‘mmm’ escaped like a sigh as they were pulled away.
