Author interview for 'Men for Hire' anthology

The last of the anthology authors is being interviewed this month – and it’s me!

This is the first anthology I have got into, so it is very exciting, apart from the fact that this anthology was something I proposed to our lovely publisher, Luminosity, and I’m delighted to have such wonderful co-writers.

The questions below are ones that each of the four authors have answered on my blog over the past few months.

Your Writing

The ‘Men for Hire’ anthology has a specific theme. That of a firm in London run by Jennifer Archer offering ‘men for hire’ to do any job from dog walking, house sitting, DIY, chauffeuring, etc…. How did you find this theme easy (or hard) to work with?

It was easy because it was a theme that I came up with in the first place. It had been sitting in my ‘ideas’ pile for some years and seemed perfect for an anthology. As for my particular story, I enjoyed writing about Jennifer Archer, the owner of the ‘Men for Hire’ firm and showing her story.

This is Luminosity’s first anthology. Have you had any short stories accepted in an anthology before and tell us the title of your story in the Men for Hire anthology.

I have written several short stories of a similar length, including ‘Kink After Dinner’ for Luminosity which was a taster story for the ‘Manor of Decadence’ series, but ‘Marital Duties’ is the first story I’ve had accepted in an anthology. Although I have only tried submitting one once before (which was rejected) – I don’t find it that easy fitting a story to a pre-existing theme.

‘Men for Hire’ is contemporary MF/MFM stories (there will be a follow up anthology with MM stories later on). What other genres do you normally write?

‘Marital Duties’ is an MF story and I have written several MF stories, in addition I do ménage and MM stories in contemporary, sci-fi, BDSM and paranormal genres.

The stories in the anthology are all between 8-12,000 words. What is good (or hard) about writing a short story?

The great thing about writing a short story is that it is finished so quickly! This was the quickest one I have ever written. J The hard part is being selective about what you write – you cannot show the whole journey of a romance in a short story. Instead you have to write an episode from that journey. In all of my short stories I have chosen to write about people who already know each other so that makes it easier.

Tell us about the characters in your story.

Jennifer Archer – 31, chestnut brown long hair, married to Robert Fletcher, owns ‘Men for Hire’. She loves him but is getting frustrated at the lack of sex in their life because Rob is so busy.

Robert Fletcher – 31, Doctor, tall and lean, married to Jennifer Archer. About to take time off to spend with Jennifer when he gets a strange request…..

Blurb for ‘Marital Duties:

Delighted her ‘Men for Hire’ business was doing so well, Jennifer wasn’t expecting several of her clients to fall in love with her employees. At least they were getting sex. She was married and didn’t even get that most basic of husbandly tasks.

An idea came to her, and she amusingly completed an employee request form asking for her husband to do his marital duties.

Rob was stunned when he received the form mistakenly sent out by Jennifer’s assistant. Well, if his lovely wife wanted him to perform his duties, he would undertake them. Only, it wouldn’t be what she was asking for….

About You

Although Luminosity Publishing is based in the UK, we have authors from several different countries in this anthology. Which country are you from (and name of county/state). Did you grow up there?

I am English born and bred (in Essex to be precise). I left home at 18 and lived in various parts of England (and a year in Germany). For the last 15 years I have lived in the beautiful city of York.

When was your first book published and with whom?

 

My first book ‘Just Good Friends’ was published by Siren Publishing in 2011. I am still astonished they took a chance and accepted this as it was riddled with new author mistakes like ‘head hopping’ and passive voice. These were (hopefully) ironed out before it was released and that story still holds a soft spot for me as it was my first one.

Give one thing about yourself that you would like to change?

Lots of things! If I had to choose just one it would be to have a lovely singing voice (I am tone deaf).

Name three people you would like to be shipwrecked with (and why)?

George Clooney (he can smile and charm me every night)

Channing Tatum (he strip and do wicked things to me every night)

And Jamie Oliver-the chef (well someone has to do the cooking and cleaning… and it ain’t gonna be me!)

What’s the strangest (bravest, funniest etc) thing you’ve ever done?

Probably having nude photos taken professionally to prove I could still be sexy and desirable despite middle aged body issues!

Please give links of how fans can find you on the internet/buy your books.

Website/blog: http://jennifer-denys.blogspot.com/  

Email: Jennifer.Denys@yahoo.com    

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JenniferDenys/   

Facebook: http://facebook.com/JenniferDenys/  

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5273795.Jennifer_Denys/