Good evening LB, and welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule and coming to chat with us today!

Thanks for having me! It’s a pleasure.

Interviews being what they are let’s begin with a few questions to see where your interest lay today. If you had to choose would rather have… a gourmet meal or comfort food, TAZO or Starbucks, Maurice or To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar? Personally, I love my comfort foods I make a mean chili, I have a tea fetish, and give me humor give me To Wong Foo!

I’m passionate about my coffee—Dunkin’ Donuts, Coffee Magic, or Green Mountain—Hazelnut, light roast, skim milk and NO sugar. (My children learned to order that for me at the drive-thru very early in life). I love food, whether gourmet or comfort, as long as I don’t have to prepare it.

While Maurice is lovely, I choose comedy every single time.

Um, I might need to send my son to you for training. For those readers who aren’t acquainted with you or your work, please give us some background on LB Gregg the person?

I’m the blogger formerly known as Lisabea—I used to run a weekly gig called ManLoveMonday at my blog Nose In A Book. I’m female, fetching, and fun. I have three teenagers and a smoking hot hubbie I refer to either as ‘G’ or Mr. Darcy. My dogs are smelly and fat, but I love them. My favorite sport is skiing. I love wine.

I also write m/m fiction—romantic comedy, mystery/suspense, contemporary, gay romance. I have three novellas out through Aspen Mountain Press, and a new series on the way from Samhain.

LB your Smithfield series has been a huge success. How did you come up with the concept?

Huge? Thank you. I just wanted to write love stories that take place in New England. I wanted this series to be one of place rather than character. There really aren’t any m/m books I can think of that capture what I most love about this region—the people, the changing seasons, the small towns, the crazy New York weekenders. I love it here.

I have these wonderful four season prints my husband bought for me when he was on one of his trips to Asia—I think he paid a dollar for all four. Water color and ink—they were the inspiration for the Smithfield books. Each picture depicts the same scene in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

That goes to show you inspiration is all around us. I’ll have to look up that collection it sounds lovely.


Your book covers grabbed my attention and before I could consider reading the blurbs, I found myself adding the Smithfield series to my cart. How important is having the right cover to you?

Covers are hugely important, of course, but the new writer at a smaller press often has to make do. I feel like I won the lottery. Aspen Mountain Press has been phenomenal. I hoped the covers would be a variation on the four season themed prints I mentioned. Celia Kyle improved my vision with her cover for Gobsmacked and I just loved it.

How much time do you spend on that process of getting your new books ready for publication?

It takes 6 weeks for this old gal to write a novella, then it goes to my crit partner. I revise. Then it goes to Celina Summer, my editor, and I edit it three times with her. Then it’s bye bye—off to market. It’s a LOT of time, revisions, edits, and tinkering. My favorite part of the process is editing. That’s when the magic happens.

By the way, Happy Ending will be available in print sometime soon from ManLoveRomance Press.

That doesn’t surprise me, but it’s definitely great new for readers who love printed copies of books.


I’ve just finished reading Gobsmacked and couldn’t put the book down. You have a way of writing about real life issues while adding a healthy dose of humor to your stories.

I try not to create a perfect hero—real people are flawed, and the flaws make us interesting. Mark Meehan is a character people either love or, er, don’t love because he’s so reactive in the first half of the book. He’s utterly gobsmacked by the direction his life has taken. He is impulsive and he’s self absorbed—but understandably so! Of course, he’s equally off balanced by this burgeoning relationship with his old friend and former heartache, Tony Gervase. By the middle of the book—Mark is slowing things down and starting to use his head again, and I think he becomes very lovable as he takes charge.

Mark definitely isn’t perfect, but you’re right it makes him more believable, real, and memorable. His moment of going postal was one of the funniest scenes I’ve read in a while. How did you come up with his character?

I was sitting in church and I wondered what would happen if one of the elderly ladies came down the center aisle, lost her cool, and smacked her husband in the head with a bible. I mean the scene unfolded while I was in the pew one Sunday. Yes. I tittered. (Unsurprising. I’m a known titterer). That’s how Gobsmacked was born. I’m ashamed to say I have no recollection of the sermon that day.

Giggling hard, I can truly understand why! I’ll admit I have a fondness for men who carry guns (legally), and Tony Gervase is mouthwatering. He seems to be what Mark needed all along.

Tony is a solid presence; he appears in all four Smithfield books. He’s just deliciously manly. MEROW. And he is the perfect balance for Mark. When he finally gets angry—it’s meaningful. Those still waters run pretty deep.

If you could create a movie from one of your books or based on a certain character, which book or character would you choose?

Oh…I think my new book, Catch Me If You Can. It takes place in New York City and it’s a fun, sexy caper. There’s a laid back, witty ex-cop and a feisty gallery assistant and it’s just an insane story. Caesar Romano is a pip. That book, the first in this new series called Romano & Albright, will be released on March 16 from Samhain.

From the Smithfield books? I think Gobsmacked. There’s a cinematic quality to the scene on the lake. The ice, the cold, the starkness, the snow. It’s a great stage for Mark’s moment of heroism.

Max Douglas and Michael “Finn” Finnegan heat up the pages of your latest release for the Smithfield series is Cover Me. You added moments of humor and disbelief to their first intimate encounter. How do you know you’ve written the perfect erotic scene for your characters?

Well, I write those scenes about fifty times. You just know when they work. (I hope!) Striking a balance between the physical experience and the emotional, internal dialog during sex, while still keeping the characters true to themselves, is both a challenge and a lot of fun. Max and Finn were blazing—because they are such opposites.

I do believe that something about a character should be revealed in a sex scene—something the reader, or the characters, didn’t know before. I think that’s critical to the success of a love scene.

Your characters are believable, so I have to ask how much time you use to research their professions.

Each book takes place over a very short period of time—and other than Finn, we don’t usually see my guys at work. So, not as much time as I would if the stories involved their jobs, but enough time to get an understanding of their professional lives.

I think depth of first person pov lends to believability. It’s an effort to keep going deeper and deeper into the character, like an actor taking on a role.

Where do you see this Smithfield series headed?

My intention was to write four books—one for each season in New England. Nothing is set in stone, but a lot of readers have asked me if there will be another Mark and Tony story. To that I say—quite possibly.

What do you consider the most important part of a story?

Character voice. If you as a reader like the voice, you’ll stay with the story. I love Stephanie Plum, even when she’s utterly head-bangingly ridiculous, because Steph has become my book friend. The same is true of Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse and Lanyon’s Adrien English. Hearing a favorite character voice is like getting together with someone I love. If my characters are likeable—readers respond.

It would appear we enjoy some of the same book characters. Each author approaches finding new characters differently, some people watch, others dream them up. How do you find the characters for your stories?

I dream them up. I use first person pov so it’s essential that I find the right character to tell the story. Tony appears in every Smithfield novel, but we never get inside his head for a reason. Mark had to tell that tale. I’m writing the fourth Smithfield now and getting a handle on this new character and making sure that he sounds fresh is a challenge. But that road to discovery is the reason I write.

Holden Worthington is an agoraphobic former TV star—and he’s falling for his lawn boy, the quiet and socially awkward Adam Morgan. Their love affair begins in the midst of a murder investigation. Tony Gervase plays a larger role in this story than he has since Gob because he’s Holden’s only friend in town and it’s just too much fun to write Tony. *g*

Have you ever had a song inspire you to write?

Yes. Absolutely. In Gobsmacked I mention Beck’s Devil’s Haircut (which I love) and I also listened to Incubus’ Dig. I turned to Incubus again for Happy Ending (Oil and Water) and for Cover Me, I listened to Guys and Dolls. No, just kidding. I listened to a lot of The Killers and Beck’s Love You Madly. And Incubus’ Love Hurts.

But the pièce de résistance? Catch Me If You Can was inspired by Adam Lambert’s Feeling Good.

While writing do you prefer the quiet or do you play music while you create?

When I’m in the groove you could probably send a marching band through the house and I wouldn’t notice. I try to find the zone.

Has being published changed you at all? If so, how?

Yes. I was a blogger for a long time before I was published and I really didn’t hold back in those days. Now I am far less likely to offer my opinion publically because authors are held to a different standard than readers. It is what it is. Although I’m still irreverent and outspoken on my own blog, these days I keep a low profile elsewhere.

I’m an aspiring author, what one piece of wisdom could you share with me?

Don’t let the bitches get you down. Whether that is the naysayers, the voice of your own fear and doubt, or life, the universe and everything—there is an audience out there. They are waiting to hear your voice.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Two things—my new contemporary rom/com m/m series will be released from Samhain—book one on March 16th. Romano & Albright: Catch Me If You Can. Here’s the blurb:

The fear of getting caught is half the fun.

Lowly art gallery assistant Caesar Romano is freely out of the closet. Now he’d just like to get out of his Nana’s guest room. Everything—his reputation and his financial freedom—is riding on the success of tonight’s gallery opening. If only he could shake free of the past so easily.

A mysterious gatecrasher, Dan Green, looks like a promising addition to his pending new life—until Caesar’s ex shows up and suddenly the opening disintegrates into a half-naked dance melee. When the glitter settles, a missing sculpture of Justin Timberlake has Caesar up to his eyebrows in extortion, intrigue and a wild sexual adventure underneath, inside, and on top of a variety of furnishings.

As the cast of suspects piles up, so do the questions. Like who’s really blackmailing whom. And what does a stolen paint-by-numbers clown matter when Dan is so outrageously capable of blowing Caesar’s resistance to smithereens?

And…drum roll…the ink isn’t dry yet, but a very favorite author of mine and I will partner in a Halloween Anthology called: Double Feature! I’m super excited. Expect an Oct release from Aspen Mountain Press. Spooky- scary and funny- sexy. That’s all the info I have for now.

Would you share your website, blog, myspace, or Facebook, twitter, with us please?

My blog - NoseInABook
Facebook
Twitter

And my author site is www.lbgregg.com. My fabulous webguy put together a fun site.

LB, thank you once again for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this interview. I enjoyed spending time with you today. You are a passionate write, who knows how to add humor and life issues to your stories making them believable and captivating your reader. It was a distinct pleasure to interview you for our readers.

Aw. Thanks so much for the nice words, NeNe. I’m thrilled you enjoy my work! Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.

Interviewed by: NeNe