Author Interview: Eden Winters

Today I'm very pleased to introduce, in what will probably be my final author interview here at Well Read, the lovely Eden Winters. Eden came to my attention before she was even published when we had a short email exchange about a review that I had written. After that, I kept an eye out for any new releases by her and was delighted to find, after reading her first published story The Pirate's Gamble, that I liked her writing a great deal. Since that point, I've read and enjoyed all the books she's written and have avidly followed her as she's grown in confidence with her writing. Her books have garnered a great deal of praise from reviewers - and not just me! - so I was really interested to know what made her tick and what inspired her as a writer, and I know you will too.


On Writing

How did you get into writing m/m stories?
While waiting for the next book by a favourite author, I stumbled onto something called fan fiction, and found a section labelled “slash.” At that time the only ‘slash’ I’d ever heard of was the guitarist for Guns N’ Roses. (Oops, age giveaway!) Wondering what it was, I opened a file and started reading. There were two of my favourite male characters, and they were…..OH MY GOD! I closed the file.

What had been seen couldn’t be unseen. The story kept invading my mind. I have a very close gay friend who once said, “You’d never understand my world.” Because I love him dearly, and really, really wanted to understand, that evening I tried again and I made it a little further. Instead of horrifying, the action between the two familiar characters was sweet and major kinds of hotness. It took about a week to finish the story. The thing about slash is, the stories are like potato chips: you can’t stop at one. I went from site to site getting my fix, and then saw an advertisement for a m/m book. They made those?

I ordered Laura Baumbach’s A Bit of Rough from the local book store, stalking the place until it arrived. I fell in love in chapter one.

I mentioned my find to a friend and who casually replied, “Why didn’t you just buy an ebook?” Ebooks?
Fast forward six months to my massive collection of m/m fiction. While it is fiction, I think I now understand my friend’s world better.

One night while chatting online with a fellow fan fiction writer (yes, I had progressed to that, just not slash) about a m/m book we’d read, she said, “We could do this, you know.” We both started that night. I’d never before written a sex scene, let alone a m/m one. My, how times changed.

The book? The Telling. My friend, now known as P.D. Singer, wrote a little story called Fire on the Mountain. Neither of us has stopped writing since. I’ve discovered what was missing in my life. If I couldn’t write I’d probably go crazy and take the rest of the world with me.

You’ve written in a range of different lengths of stories from shorts to full length novels. What is your favourite length and why?
I don’t really have a favourite length. Once I begin a story, the characters take over. Sometimes their happy-ever-after works out quickly, sometimes not. The Telling was 120,000 words at one point. After trimming off the excess it’s about 68,000 now.

One of my latest projects was to be a Sip (under 8,000 words). Unfortunately, even at 9,000 there was more to tell, so it has been put into my novel folder to become full length.

Duet started as a Sip, too. It gained 50,000 words and is now a novel.

How much time do you spend writing each day (or each week, if you prefer)?
Every day I try to do something to move one of my stories forward, be it writing, researching, revising, proofing, etc. I suppose about twenty-five hours per week is average, although I have been known to dedicate entire weekends to the effort when the weather’s too bad for hiking or other outdoor pastimes.

Apart from a couple of short stories, most of your books or stories are contemporary m/m romance. Is there a reason why you have stuck mostly to this genre and do you have any plans to branch out into other genres?
I don’t really write to a genre; I tell what’s in my heart. Each book contains a message. The Telling was designed to deal with my own feelings about certain topics, and hopefully, help readers to understand the very real issues faced by our servicemen and women. There’s also a bit of a plea for accepting people for being themselves, and a personal show of support for gay men and women.

In The Wish the message was, “Maybe they’re not bad, just misunderstood, and even those who may seem to have it all are struggling and need love.” Also, “Love never ends.”

The Angel of Thirteenth Street was written after I read articles on the sad phenomenon of teens aging out of foster care. While the book is contemporary, I think it’s more drama than romance.

Duet’s message isn’t so profound. It’s simply, “Sometimes you have to wait awhile to find them, but there’s someone for everyone.” Duet is a mix of genres. It’s historical/contemporary/paranormal, if that makes any sense.

Sorry, I’d love to say the novel I’m currently writing is also championing worthy causes, but I’m actually planning a bit of silliness, instead. I need an angst break. It is contemporary, though.

There’s also a futuristic piece on the horizon, as well as a solid paranormal.

How easy did you find it to get published?
I mentioned before that my writing was prompted by a friend. By the time The Angel of Thirteenth Street and The Wish were ready to submit, she’d already gained some publishing experience that helped me, and I sent my stories to Torquere Books. At this point I think I need to mention that my editor, Michelle, and the proofers, whose names I don’t know, have been a blessing in taking what I sent and turning it into what the readers see.

There are also several people who’ve held my hand throughout the process as beta readers and encouragers. Without them, these stories would have never made it off my hard drive and into an editor’s hands. As I learned, a whole lot goes on between submission and publication. Easy? Not really, edits can be gruelling. Worth it? You betcha! But having your manuscript accepted is just the beginning.

What advice would you give to fledgling writers who want to get their foot in the door of m/m romance?
Write every day, or in some way forward your writing. Have at least two friends with some writing background act as beta. Posting free stories at the site of your choice helps you hone your skills and learn what readers like through feedback. Also, read m/m books, but understand you do not have to emulate them. Write what you love, or what’s the point?

Much knowledge is also to be gained from review sites. Not only will you learn what reviewer and readers’ expectations are, there’s also plenty of good articles that will help you avoid common mistakes.
Do your research. There are plenty of publishers out there. Like any good partnership, you need to find the one that’s right for you in order to be successful.

Who or what inspires you?
Almost anything can create a plot idea, but bouncing them off friends helps, and I get a lot of inspiration from music. Many ideas came from reviews and most of my main characters sprang from pictures I’ve seen on the internet. Jay is my favourite; I’d be happy to share him. Noah and Willie are rather inspiring too. (I’m trying to say that with a straight face.)


On Your Books

You call your first novel, The Telling, a gift to your readers and give it away free. It’s quite unusual for authors to give away a full length novel. Why did you choose to do that?
I won’t go into specifics, but my personal road had gotten a bit bumpy (okay, great looming chasms had appeared). Life as I knew it ended, and I had to recreate myself. The Telling is therapy. I started by pouring out my pain, fears, and insecurities into the characters. Each of my bad qualities was thoroughly exposed.

Then something unexpected happened. Those flawed characters began to show strengths. It took awhile, but I finally came to realize they were my strengths, too. The only main character in the book who isn’t a facet of myself is Jay. He represents the type of person I strive to be.

This book is a piece of me, too personal to sell. I initially posted it on different sites, and met some wonderful people online throughout that process. The emails I received brought me to tears, made me smile, and really touched my heart, for as much as I’d laid myself open with this book, the readers reciprocated, sharing bits of their lives and what about the book they related to.

The kind words were a blessing in a time when I really needed kind words. This book is my way of saying thank you. It also serves as an introduction to my work. Money is tight. Why should a reader risk their hard earned cash on an unknown writer, when there’s so many established authors that they know and like? The only sad part is that I’ll never get to see it in print. The very talented Jared Rackler made the cover of me, and I’d so love to see it sitting on my bookshelf.

While the book is free, if someone wants to buy the movie rights, I’d happily take the check and be outta the trailer park so fast my neighbours would think a tornado had struck. Again.

Your story The Pirate’s Gamble included an interracial romance. Why did you decide to include that as part of the story?
Sometimes the characters write themselves. I had a clear picture of Ian, but until he arrived in the bedroom after returning from the sea I didn’t have an image of David. Then the silvery moonlight illuminated the bed and I saw ebony skin on white sheets, and when he spoke, it was with a lyrical Jamaican accent.
As I mentioned above, in some small way I try to engender acceptance in each of my stories. A very wise young person told me recently that it’s the person he’s attracted to, regardless of colour or gender. I was truly impressed by such open acceptance. Perhaps there’s much to be learned from the younger generation. It was this young man’s attitude that was adapted for Ian.

Do you have a secret longing to be a time-travelling pirate, like Ian in The Pirate’s Gamble?
I love the sea, but wouldn’t want to be a pirate. I’d much rather write (or fantasize) about them. I’d gladly be Ian’s cabin boy anytime, if David wouldn’t get pissed and throw priceless artefacts at me. Time travel? Yes, that might be nice.

I love a story containing a bit of angst, and many of your stories have a strong vein of sadness and poignancy running though them. What attracts you to writing that type of story?
That’s an easy one. First, that’s the kind of book I personally like to read. Secondly, the angst sets you up to deliver hope. All of us have dark days when we feel like the world is against us. My characters have those, too, and overcome their obstacles with the help of those who love them. I’m all for happy endings, and the happiest are the one that were fought long and hard for.

Which has been your favourite character to write so far?
That would be a tie between Alex and Byron of The Wish. I really feared being able to write a realistic jade whose redemption was believable, and was quite surprised at how much fun Alex was. He said and did the things I may have wanted to, but was too polite to. Byron was just plain fun and the love in his heart too big to die.

Honourable mention goes to two others: Willie Carnell, the pimp in The Angel of Thirteenth Street is the first. Not only is he jaded beyond redemption, he’s unrepentant. He is who he is. He’s also a tough little bugger.

The second honourable mention goes to Michael’s grandfather in The Telling. He provided a voice of reason while getting a few great lines in.

In The Wish you set two characters with opposite goals and ideals against each other. How fun was that to write?
Hee hee. That was loads of fun. Paul was all the things parents drum into us to be. Though he’s in his mid-twenties, he still toes the line like a child afraid of a scolding. I enjoyed pitting him against Alex. The two of them were written to be total opposites. Sadly, Paul has never in his life “stepped out of the box.” Alex, who was raised chained inside the box, escaped, doused it with gasoline, and tossed a match.

Your recently released short, Boy Under the Bridge, takes a very minor character from The Wish and tells his side of the events concerning him. It’s an interesting idea. What made you want to write James’ story?
Several reviewers mentioned concern for James, the young man Alex picked up at a club and later dumped, but one in particular stated that she “worried for him and pictured him starving under a bridge.” Being a visual person, an image immediately popped into my head that simply wouldn’t go away. I’m all about happy endings, and by the time I’d finished that review, I had an outline. Strangely enough, it changed drastically, and what you read in Boy Under the Bridge is not the story I started out to tell. James still ends up happy, however. I also enjoyed portraying Alex through a younger man’s eyes. What would Alex say if he knew James thought him “a bit older”?

Do you have any plans to write a sequel to your fantasy story, Flame, or even to set another story in that world?
Thanks for asking! Yes, I’m currently working on a novel tentatively entitled, Galen and the Forest Lord. It contains more humour than Flame, but is set in the same world, and the plot line of “feeding the wolves” by the villagers is revisited. Kai and Rayken will only be mentioned in passing, unless they decide to take over. You never know what characters might do.

It has been said that it is important for authors such as yourself to keep up an internet presence. How easy or difficult to you find that aspect of self-promotion?
Thanks to wonderful reviewers such as you, Jenre, it’s not been as hard as I thought. My work has been blessed with many wonderful reviews, which helps prospective readers get acquainted through the words of someone they know and trust. I have a page on the GLBT bookshelf, and at Good Reads, as well as a Live Journal. Also, The Telling started off on CRVboy and Nifty, so I was known to a lot of readers before I even began publishing with Torquere.

Without really meaning to, I’ve had a novel or short story published every month since October 2009, with the exception of November. I may have a lapse in June and July, but my plate is pretty full otherwise. I also hang out at your site and others, for I’m a reader as much as a writer, and often comment on posts. Facebook is also a great place to connect with readers and fellow writers.

You have a new book out in May...tell us about it.
Here’s the blurb:
The Angel -- that’s what the young hustlers call Noah Everett, the man who’ll help them get off the streets. Once a hustler himself, he doesn’t take his own good advice: “Don’t let this ruin your life.” Haunted by the past and those he couldn’t save, Noah carefully keeps others at bay, until his self-imposed loneliness is shattered by determined, ambitious, but homeless eighteen- year-old Jeremy Kincaid.


A ruthless pimp has targeted Jeremy, but if Noah will fight to get anonymous young men out of the life, he’ll fight harder to keep Jeremy from getting in, even if it means a return to old stomping grounds to make a deal with the devil. To save Jeremy, Noah risks more than just his body: he risks his soul as well, because Willie Carnell, pimp, was once Billy Cordell, Noah’s lover.

Because of his past, Noah thinks himself unworthy of love. Plus, he carries a huge torch for someone who no longer exists, carefully keeping his distance from those who’d get too close. His loneliness is part of his self-enforced penance for past misdeeds.

Then Noah meets someone who reminds him of both himself and his former love. While Jeremy’s affections may start as hero worship, that admiration leads to more and before Noah knows it, his defences have been breached.

To Noah, Jeremy represents what he himself could have been if he’d walked a different path. Though Noah is older and more world-weary, it’s the younger Jeremy that teaches him how to let go of the past and finally live. The story is a bit dark at times, and lacks the humour of The Telling and The Wish. The secondary characters also don’t play so big a role; the focus in on Jeremy and Noah.

Or rather, the emphasis is on homeless and troubled youth. Noah spends his free time helping those who want to get off the streets and into a new life. Each bus ticket he buys that whisks another young man away from the streets is celebrated by carving a notch in the door frame of his bar. Still, no matter how many he saves, he can never quite forgive himself for the ones he couldn’t.

The book comes out May 12 from Torquere Books.

What’s next for you?
I have a short story, based on Mark’s (from The Angel of Thirteenth Street) homecoming as part of the A Place for Me anthology from Torquere Books. Mark was a young prostitute Noah intervenes for and sends home. The anthology is tentatively slated for September.

My one and only m/f story, a BDSM spoof, Betty’s Arrival, was submitted to Changeling Press. I have my fingers crossed. I should know something mid-May.

After The Angel of Thirteenth Street, my next novel, Duet, is due out August 25 at Torquere. A blurb has not yet been written, but the story is about a young school teacher, Malcolm Byerly, in Kent, England in 1763. He accepts a position in Scotland, teaching Laird Eoghan Callahan’s four younger sons. An older son and heir, Aillil, hates all things English, including Malcolm.

I don’t want to spoil the plot, but half of the story is historical, the other contemporary, with strong paranormal elements courtesy of a druid priestess -- and violins! There are sad moments, but like The Telling and The Wish, I hope those are offset by the overall message of hope.

My current writing projects include a short story for Torquere Book’s Charity Sip Blitz, to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. If accepted, it should publish in September.

I just finished a first draft of a novel tentatively titled, Settling the Score, a character driven piece about a little organized vengeance, and am working on Galen and the Forest Lord, based in Rayken and Kai’s world from Flame. There are also a few chapters hiding on my hard drive that will one day be the sequel to The Telling, starring Ryan. If possible, he’s even more broken than Michael. Look for Angie, Michael, Jay, Terry, and Gideon to put in appearances.

A futuristic piece, based on the sacred warrior-lovers of Thebes, is still kicking around in my brain. About one third of the first draft has been written.

There is also a shape-shifter trilogy in the works, but for now it’s not m/m. There’s a good possibility it will wind up in the young adult category.

Thank-you, Jenre, for interviewing me for your site, and thank you, readers, for allowing me to ramble. A dear friend once said, “Never mentioned writing in Eden’s presence, unless you have an hour to kill and don’t mind listening.” Thanks for listening.


Thank you Eden for such a warm and informative interview.  I'm so happy to have got to know you over the last few months and I'm astounded by all the projects that you're working on at the moment!  


You can find all of Eden's books at Torquere Books HERE.
You can find Eden on her Livejournal blog or her GBLT Bookshelf page or at Good Reads.


Eden is giving away a copy of her newest release The Angel of Thirteenth Street to one lucky commenter today - although you will have to be patient and wait two whole days until the release date :) - so leave a comment and WIN!