• Contemporary

    Interview: Authors Erin McRae / Racheline Maltese @erinmcrae @racheline_m #RLFblog #LGBT

    Starling 
    Title Starling
    Genre Contemporary Gay romance
    Authors Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese
    Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R

    Interview with Erin and Racheline

    What were you like when
    you were in school?
    Erin: When I was a junior in high school, I was bored out of
    my mind in English class and one day I guess my teacher got tired of me just
    sitting on the windowsill at the back of the room, doing my own thing, and took
    me down to the school book room. Like, this massive room, with these weird
    concrete walls because it was adjacent to the room under the pool, which was
    also a nuclear fallout shelter — my school was built in the 60s — full of
    shelves crammed with all the non-textbooks the school owned. And she just walked
    me through the whole room, and pulled off a copy of every book she thought I
    should read that the curriculum didn’t cover anymore. I still have them all.
    Racheline: Most of my pre-university education was at a
    private school that had been known as Miss Hewitt’s Classes for Young Ladies at
    one time. I got a fantastic literature and Latin education there, and I am
    grateful for it. But I was extremely awkward, and didn’t fit in in terms of
    class and background. I spent a lot of time hanging around with adult artists
    outside of school because my parents are painters. No one knew what to do with
    me, and I got bullied a lot, but I also learned tons of trivia about forks and
    courtesies.
    Would you rather stay
    inside and watch snow falling, or get out in it and build a snowman?
    Erin: Snowman. We don’t get a lot of snow in DC — and when
    it does, it tends to be a disaster — so most of the snow I know is in my
    hometown in upstate New York. There’s an incredible silence when snow is
    falling, that’s not quite like silence anywhere else. I love all the cities
    I’ve lived in, but I miss that silence.
    Racheline: I am deeply superstitious about the first snow
    each year. I’ve had a lot of really magical (and usually romantic and/or
    sexual) luck happen around those first snowstorms. But I also hate the cold.
    I’ll stay outside for the first one, then I am over it.
    What is your favorite
    quote?
    Erin: “The work is the prayer.” For which even
    Google isn’t giving me a proper attribution. But it’s one of those things you
    hear everywhere.. And when a lot of people say it, it’s this sort of zen thing
    about not being preoccupied with results and just letting the effort be what
    counts. And there’s definitely value in that. But where I first encountered the
    quote was from Baz Lurhmann, who says it all the time and it’s always like a
    curse. From him, it’s about putting everything you have into the work and kind
    of just fucking the obstacles that get in your way. On the hard days, it’s a
    reminder to me to just put my head down and keep going.
    Racheline: “Tomorrow is the first lie of the
    Devil.” — Robert Fripp. I don’t really believe in the devil, but I think
    it’s a useful quote, not just about procrastination, but about how seductive
    time is. You never know when you’re going to be hit by a bus. If you want to do
    a thing, do it now.
    What was your favorite
    book as a child?
    Erin: I read Little House in the Big Woods so many times the
    cover fell off, and I still come back to that book and everything else written
    by Laura Ingalls Wilder. History was my first love, because for me it’s always
    just about people, living their lives in so many different circumstances and
    situations. Which is just what all stories are, really.
    Racheline: When I was twelve, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat
    came out. For some inexplicable reason, it was available to buy at my school
    book fair and a friend who knew I was afraid of vampires dared me to read it. I
    read it again and again and again, because it was the first thing I had ever
    read that said big emotions were truthful and okay and necessary. It was also
    the first time I encountered any sort of queerness in text. It really saved me,
    I think, from being more miserable than I already was at that age.
    What was the last movie
    you watched (home or theater)?
    Erin: Marie Antoinette, for research purposes.
    Racheline: Guardians of the Galaxy. That entire movie
    succeeds on its soundtrack,which may tell you my age. But that film is all in
    the hips.

    Buy This Book

    Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Starling-Racheline-Maltese-ebook/dp/B00NH0MFOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1410387761&sr=1-1

    About the Book

    When J. Alex Cook, a production assistant on The Fourth
    Estate (one of network TV’s hottest shows), is accidentally catapulted to
    stardom, he finds himself struggling to navigate both fame and a relationship
    with Paul, one of Fourth’s key writers. Despite their incendiary chemistry,
    Alex’s inexperience and the baggage they’re both carrying quickly lead to an
    ugly break-up.
    Reeling from their broken hearts, Alex has an affair with a
    polyamorous co-star and Paul has an ill-advised reunion with an old flame.
    Meanwhile, the meddling of their colleagues, friends — and even the paparazzi!
    — quickly make Alex and Paul’s real life romance troubles the soap opera of
    the television season.
    But while the entertainment value may be high, no one knows
    better than Alex and Paul that there are no guarantees when it comes to love in
    Los Angeles.

    Author bios

    Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese’s gay romance series Love
    in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry, is published by
    Torquere Press. The first novel, Starling, was released September 2014; its
    sequel, Doves, is scheduled for January 2015. Racheline is a NYC-based
    performer and storyteller focused on themes of sex, gender, desire and
    mourning. Erin McRae is a writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. You can
    find them on the web at http://www.Avian30.com.

    Previous Books

    Starling, from Torquere Press
    “Lake Effect,” in the They Do anthology from
    Torquere Press

    Books Coming Soon

    Doves, coming January 2015 from Torquere Press
    Room 1024, coming April 2015 from Torquere Press

    Author Social Media

    Joint Blog: http://Avian30.com
    Racheline’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/racheline_m