Guest Post & Giveaway: Author Josephine Myles

A warning and a note from Brie: this post contains a NSFW picture, so careful when reading it. The comments on the pictures are mine.

We are very excited to welcome author Josephine Myles to our little corner of the blogosphere. If you like m/m contemporary romance you’re probably familiar with her work. Her stories are fun and touching, filled with great characters that feel real and relatable. Oh! And they are quite steamy as well. 

Musings on Muses

This is Josephine.

Artists and writers often refer to their “muse” as the fount of their creative inspiration, and as something that speaks through them as if from somewhere else. The idea of the Muses has been around since classical Greece—they were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. I can only cope with the one muse as he’s a difficult so-and-so, and I thought I’d share with you today the tale of how I first encountered him, and the merry dance he’s led me on since then.

Keep reading,
the NSFW pic is coming.

After a long period of being scared off writing by the strange things that came out of me when put pen to paper (or fingers to keys), I finally relaxed enough to write when I discovered the strange world of slash fanfiction—Torchwood fanfiction to be precise. At last I’d discovered a community happy to read the kind of tales I wanted to tell, where men loved men in a very detailed, physical manner. I revelled in writing my humorous and smutty little stories, but soon discovered I wanted to take things beyond the limits imposed by the show and write original m/m fiction.

This was the point where I started reading every writing book I could lay my hands on. One of them talked about personifying your muse in your imagination so that you could communicate with her better, and I rather liked the idea. The author in question had some kind of fluffy animal as her muse, so I tried to go down that route. I wanted a red squirrel muse as I’ve always adored them, but for some reason it just didn’t work. I couldn’t see a cute and shy squirrel inspiring my kind of stories. Especially not a female squirrel.

I can see why someone
would like to have a muse
that looked like that.

Then I wrote a story called First Impressions and I realised I’d met my muse. He’s called Steve, he’s smart and funny, he wears a pinstriped suit with garish underwear and he has a dominant streak. He does bear a certain resemblance to one of the characters in Torchwood, I’ll admit, but I think of him differently to Ianto. You see, Steve the muse has a wild side.

Just in case you were wondering,
he isn't peeing. And yes, this is the
NSFW pic. Disappointed?

When the mood strikes him, Steve strips off his pinstripes and saucy undies, messes up his hair, streaks himself with mud and prances around like a wild thing. He loves Bacchanalian orgies, and sometimes I picture him as a proper satyr with hairy goat legs, horns and a raging hard-on. He’s no Mr Tumnus—he’s more like Pan, spreading mischief and lust everywhere he goes. I like to think of this as Steve’s “goat boy” persona—in tribute to the late comedian Bill Hicks’ lascivious alter ego.

Of course, I know deep down that my muse is in some way an aspect of myself, and I’m not entirely sure what that says about me. Still, calling him Steve or Goat Boy allows me to compartmentalise that part of my imagination, and provides a convenient scapegoat for when he gets difficult. For instance, I recently sat down to write a sweet and romantic holiday story, and ended up with kinky BDSM erotica. Or there was the time I wanted to write kinky foot erotica and ended up with a rather sad and moving story about love and death. My muse delights in throwing me off the path I’m following, but I’ve learnt to trust his instincts and follow him deeper into the forest of my imagination.

Has anyone else out there met their muse, and if so, what’s he or she like?

About the author:

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

If you want to find out more about Josephine you can visit her website and follow her on Twitter.

Giveaway

Josephine has kindly offered a copy of one of her books to one lucky commenter. The winner gets to choose between Tailor Made and her First Impressions series (if you choose this one you get the whole series: First Impressions, Fuzzy and Last Chance). All you have to do is leave a message commenting on Josephine’s post, answering her question about your personal muse or telling us about your favourite m/m romance. Remember to leave an email on the comment so I can contact you if you win. Contest open internationally.

Rules:

• Winner gets e-book of choice between Tailor Made and the First Impression series.
• Open internationally.
• Winner will be chosen using random.org and announced here and via email and will have 72 hours to respond.
• Ends on 02/12/12
• Comments must have email address.