Welcome to the second edition of TELL ALL TUESDAY! This is the day when I invite one of my fellow authors to tell all. When we find out what makes an author tick – what they write, what they love.
Today, I’d like to welcome one of my fellow Ravenous Romance authors Kilt Kilpatrick!
I admit I love Kilt – um, I mean his writing! He was one of the first erotic romance writers at Ravenous Romance that I read and I’ve been fascinated by his writing ever since.
Tell us a little about yourself, Kilt Kilpatrick.
Oh, I was afraid you would ask a question like that! Okay, tell you what: I give you seven fun facts about Kilt Kilpatrick – And see if you can guess which one is not true?
1) I speak bits & pieces of about two dozen languages – so I can say almost nothing in almost everything!
2) I’m a biblical historian and an atheist activist. Go figure…
3) My girlfriend Dana was a stunt woman and B-Movie queen in Hollywood (and is now a famous writer) In fact, we met through sword fighting…
4) I love swordfighting! I’ve been a saber fencer for over 25 years. And Dana and I love to do sword-and-dagger bouts in the street in front of our house – the neighbors love it. But I hate wearing the jacket, and we use real swords and daggers for that (one of the swords is in my profile picture) so I have lots of little scratches and scars all over my arms…
5) One of my ancestors was Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
6) I piloted a small passenger plane from take-off to landing once as a young boy.
7) I’ve been bitten in the head by a 500 lb. Sumatran Tiger.
Okay, I give. Which one is it?
I’ll tell you a little further down…
Actually, I know most of those from reading your Author Bio at Ravenous Romance. Speaking of which, you say there that you’re known as “the Ferris Bueller of San Francisco.” Can you say more about that?
My girlfriend started calling me that, and it caught on with my friends because everywhere we go, I run into people who know me. It’s not just in SF, either. I’ve bumped into people I know in L.A., New York, Germany and Ireland, too. Small world…
How long have you been writing?
My first book was non-fiction: “How to Catch Alligators.” I wrote it when I was about 6 years old (illustrated it too). Then I took a break from my professional writing career to do other things, and now I’ve been writing full-time for about two years.
Do you write exclusively erotic romance?
No, when I’m not writing erotica, I’m writing, um… biblical history. No, really… I’ve been researching the Historical Jesus question for almost ten years - and just between you and me, I no longer think he was a real person at all. There’s a lot more I could say about that topic, but that’s it in a nutshell. I’m just saying. By the way, THAT book will be coming out this year, too.
What inspires your stories?
Usually I’ll start with a germ of an idea, a single image or a cool idea, and just start running with it. I love writing stories that go off in completely new directions; “The Tiger’s Tale” was this lush, sadly beautiful, Merchant-Ivory style romance set in British India; “Later Days, Saints!” was wickedly sexy and lots of fun too; “Handsome and Grateful” was another fun cheeky romp, and “Last Times at Ridgemont High” was a Zom-Rom-Com.
I love all three of those stories, but you know your zom-rom-com is my absolute favorite!! You’re all over the map! With all your linguistic ability, do you ever write in other languages?
Not yet, but I do tend to slip bits of other languages in my stories. I don’t even mean to, they just sort of sneak their way in.
For instance, I love the Gaelic song about the Selkie in “The Tiger’s Tale” – is it a traditional Scottish Song?
I was going to use a lovely sad Irish song called “Turas go Tír na nÓg,” but then I realized Elspeth should sing something in Scots Gaelic. The only problem is I don’t speak much Scottish Gaelic (“Gàidhlig”). So I wrote a song about Selkies in Irish Gaelic, and then used my dictionaries to translate it from Irish to Scottish. The languages are close enough that it worked like a charm; it really was more like a spell check. I was really pleased with how well it worked.
What do you love most about writing?
There’s a lot (and a lot that drives me crazy!) but one thing is I love going back to something I wrote later and then reading it again with fresh eyes. At least, I love it when it sounds better than I remember - sometimes it’s not such a treat!
Who are some of your favorite authors and books?
Between writing for Ravenous and being on the board of Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime, I’ve met so many absolutely wonderful, sexy, intelligent romance and mystery writers in the last two years that I could hardly name them all, But I do want to give a shout out to just a few: Inara Lavey, who also just happens to be my girlfriend Dana in real life ( yeah, yeah; I know it’s favoritism – quiet, you!) has written two of my favorites Ripping the Bodice and Champagne. I love her sense of humor and the sexy situations she puts her characters in.
Another I love is C. Margery Kempe’s sexy spy novel Chastity Flame. There’s been some amazing writers in the anthologies I’ve been in, like K. Ann Karlson, Regina Perry, E.M. Lynley, and so many more I better stop now before I get in trouble!
One author who continually delights me is a science fiction writer named Rudy Rucker, with Bruce Sterling and Irvine Welsh right up there, too.
How do you choose a publisher? Who are your current publishers?
Dana started writing for Ravenous Romance. Then one day she surprised me by submitting a story I wrote for her to them. They liked the way I write, and I’ve been writing for them ever since.
So what’s your latest release?
The Manny Diaries, my debut novel. It’s a funny, sweet, sexy m/m story set in San Francisco about a young art student’s sexual awakening and subsequent romantic adventures (and misadventures!). I wasn’t sure I could write a full-blown romance novel, let alone a gay male/male one, but I found once I fell in love with all the characters, the book started coming together. I’m so proud of it, and I’m just knocked out by the tremendous response it’s getting – thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU to all of you readers!!!
To further entice, here’s a blurb:
Young art student Evan Ross falls out of the closet and into the fire when an unexpected sexual encounter with a friend changes his life forever. His rocky - and surprisingly hot - search for true love and a real job (not necessarily in that order) takes him on a series of romantic adventures and misadventures, from the lofty hills to the seedy streets of San Francisco.
When he lands a job as a male nanny for a precocious 8-year old, his career and romance paths start to converge - and he finds himself falling for a dead-ringer of his dream man, Clive Owen. The only problem? It's the girl's straight father.
Can he land his dream job and his dream man? THE MANNY DIARIES is sexy, warm and hilarious novel with a supporting cast of quirky, lovable characters, a fun pace, and a true-to-life setting.
You know I have to ask: What do you wear under your kilt?
Only Dana knows for sure…
Darn! I’m going to have to ask her about that… Hey, one last question - why does an Irishman wear a Scottish kilt?
It’s all Celtic... There actually are some Irish family tartans, too. The Fitzgeralds have one, for instance. The one I’m wearing in my profile pic is the All-Ireland national tartan.
Oh wait! So which was the fake fun fact?
The last one. It was actually a 500 lb. Siberian Tiger (but just a little love bite).
"The Tiger's Tale" - A historical fantasy set in the British Raj. A young Scottish girl, reluctantly wed to a driven colonial officer, finds herself falling in love with a beautiful Indian temple dancer. Through the course of the story they experience romance, intrigue, danger, tigers and gods in Victorian India (in Regina Perry’s anthology I Kissed a Girl).
"Later Days, Saints!" - A fun and wicked story of a Berkeley Anthro grad student and the two Mormon missionaries she seduces, with surprising results. (in Lori Perkins’s anthology Threesomes).
“Handsome and Grateful” -A fractured fairytale take on the classic Brothers Grimm story of Hansel and Gretel, complete with a celebrity narrator, a slightly more mature Hansel and Gretel, a wicked witch, and a heroic woodsman – or are they? (in Em Lyndley’s anthology Bedknobs and Beanstalks)
"Last Times at Ridgemont High" - When the zombie apocalypse hits, is it a nightmare come to life or a surprisingly sexy dream come true for our high school hero? Maybe a little of both... (In Lori Perkins' anthology Hungry for Your Love)
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