Welcome Ellen Holiday to the Hot Seat Today :-)
Can you tell
us a bit about yourself?
I’m 34 years
old, working in Washington D.C. and living just outside the city in Northern
Virginia with my husband. I’ve been writing since I was 5, writing romances
since I was 8, and writing m/m romance since I discovered it existed. A healthy
dose of Japan love and the discovery of boys’ love and yaoi comics helped
jump-start me in that direction – I lived in Japan for a year teaching English
at a private language school. Besides my husband and Japan, my loves are
politics, singing, and the wonderful world of fandom.
What made you
write ‘Inside the Beltway’ ?
I fell in love
with politics almost immediately upon moving to the D.C. area. The closer I got
to it the more it fascinated me – not just campaigns but the way Congress works,
the way a scandal breaks down, how the media works and how public and private
lives can intersect. I wanted to explore that, and I wanted to tell a story with
the beautiful backdrop of Washington. And when Senator Davis Hudson appeared in
my mind, I knew exactly the kind of story I wanted to tell for him. It may seem
weird, but I’m awfully proud of him and the growth he experiences through this
book. It really is like watching your child grow up.
Describe a
typical day’s writing for us
I do my best
writing anywhere but inside my apartment. Sometimes I go up into our loft with
my iPod and lean back in the chair, but most of the time I’m on my porch looking
out at the pond or, if the weather’s nice, by the pool. Lately I find that when
if I hit a block, a few laps clears my mind again. I like to have music, have
life moving around me. I also have a long commute to work, so I’m able to do a
lot of writing on the Metro. I touch-type and write with my eyes closed, so I’ve
occasionally gotten some strange looks!
What inspires
you to write?
I get a lot of
inspiration from images, or slices of life that I see go by. I just got an iPad,
and I’ve downloaded an app that lets me keep index cards of characters, so I
have a bunch of pretty faces sitting on my iPad waiting for names and stories to
be attached to them. Music helps the words flow, but it has to be instrumental
music, as I get caught up too much in lyrics. I have a lot of anime soundtracks
from the ‘90s that speak to me emotionally and help me take my characters to
vulnerable places.
What could
not do without when you’re writing?
The universe. I
don’t write in solitude, though sometimes my husband will take one look at me
and know I’m “in the zone” and not to be disturbed! But I prefer life to be
happening around me, even if it’s just the birds flying or the wind moving. I
have to feel connected to the world in order to write about it.
What words of
wisdom do you have for the aspiring authors out there?
I’m still at the
stage where I need the words of wisdom! But what I’ve learned so far is: just do
it. Write it, edit it, and send it out. You’ll probably get rejection letters.
Don’t let them stop you. Just keep putting your vision out there, make it the
best you possibly can, and then let your baby leave the nest. You’ll be
surprised by how well she flies.
Do you have a
favorite quote?
I have many, but
whenever I’m asked, I blank. I’m fond of Emerson, who has a number of quotes
that speak to me personally and as a writer. Most notably, this one:
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you
could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you
can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a
spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Do you ever
suffer from writer’s block?
Oh, all the
time. There are times I think I know exactly what to do and then get to my
computer and nothing happens. There are times the only words that come out are
horribly boring. It’s so frustrating. I try to switch out my environments, put
on music, take off music, look at pictures, anything to get it all flowing
again. If worse comes to worst, I just take a break.
H.C. Trust me, reading through your manuscript works wonders :-)
What other
books can your readers look forward to?
I’m working on
another vaguely politically themed book, this one about a talk radio host. This
time he’s a libertarian, which is far from my political viewpoint, so it’s a bit
harder to write him, but it’s also super-interesting to try and write someone
with a fundamentally different worldview. I also have about twenty tons of story
ideas in various stages of development, and I’m also working on a joint project
with Nessa Warin (author of Sauntering Vaguely Downward) that’s moving slowly
but will surely be done someday.
Can you share
an excerpt with us?
Here’s an
excerpt from Inside the Beltway that hasn’t been shared anywhere else yet. A bit
steamy!
H.C. My readers like it to melt their computer screens. LOL :-)
“And that’s why I feel
so strongly about these trade pacts. They’re good for America, they’re good for
the global economy, and they’re going to create thousands of jobs if we can have
the fortitude to push forward and make sure they get approved.”
Davis paused and took a sip
of water. A wrinkled old man was staring at him from the front row as though
Davis was a three-headed talking monkey. The woman next to him looked like she’d
like to wring his neck. This was the reception he’d expected from the Cato
Institute, which was generally known for its libertarian ideology. For every
business supporter who agreed with him in the audience, there were four
isolationists who thought he was selling them all out to the Chinese.
But Alex was giving him a
thumbs-up from the back of the auditorium, and the C-SPAN cameras were rolling.
And he was sure he’d seen at least a dozen press passes on his way in. He was
getting covered, and that was a damn good thing no matter which way he intended
to go with his ambitions. It was worth the chilly stares.
The moderator opened the
floor for questions, and a man in a suit strolled to the microphone. “Senator
Hudson,” he said, and cleared his throat. “What’s your position on the import
tariffs? There’s been a push from your party’s left flank to hike them
up.”
“I respectfully disagree
with my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus on that point,” Davis said. Alex
wrinkled her nose at him, and Davis hastily added, “Which is to say, I think
it’s a lousy idea.”
A smattering of laughter
lifted from the audience. Davis glanced at Alex, who gave him the
thumbs-up.
“Not that we don’t need to
address the debt, and we do,” he went on, “but when we’re talking about
importing Chinese goods, we should keep in mind that they’re holding our debt,
and there’s only so much of their money we can ask them to spend before they
change their mind about us spending their money too. That is a politically
tricky path, and as much as we have to hold our noses to recognize it, we have
to hold our noses and recognize it until we work our way out of debt in this
country.”
“Some would say, though,
that what you’re really doing is protecting our own corporations from paying
their fair share.”
Davis looked up with a
start. That had been a very familiar voice.
Kurt made his way up to the
microphone. “After all, if Pratco has a factory in China, but their headquarters
are here and their goods are sold here, how much of that is Chinese money?” he
said casually. “How much of it is a corporate tax break that you’re just not
willing to let go because of the influence of the business lobby?”
Davis took a sip of his
water, tried to calm the racing of his heart. A smile slipped onto his face.
“Well, aren’t you left-wing,” he said. “How did they ever let you in
here?”
Kurt’s eyes met Davis’s. “I
told them I was related to you,” he quipped. The audience laughed. Davis felt
his whole heart drop right into his pants. When Kurt’s eyebrows quirked upward
and he gave a soft wink in Davis’s direction, Davis was sure he’d never be able
to walk out from behind the podium without immediate embarrassment. He turned
and offered a wan smile to Mr. and Mrs. Pruneface just to calm down.
“Related to me, huh?” he hissed
into Kurt’s ear. “Let me guess. Long-lost cousin?”
“I thought brother would be
awkward,” came the chuckle and reply, but a moan broke from the end of it, and
Davis smiled around the lobe of Kurt’s ear as he nipped it. Kurt’s hands were
pressed into his shoulder blades, holding fast there, and in the dimness and
silence of the office, his shallow breaths echoed around them.
“Kurt,” Davis moaned, the
sound so much more desperate than he knew he could make, “I told them I’d be
back in five minutes—”
“What, do they have a
stopwatch?” Kurt’s hands were at work at Davis’s belt, loosening and unbuckling
it to the rhythm of their fevered breaths. “Six minutes? Seven?”
“Not—” Davis broke off, a
huffing sigh coming from his mouth as Kurt reached inside his pants to stroke
him. “—not twenty.”
“Point taken, then. Not
twenty.” And Kurt slid down his body, dropping to his knees far easier than
Davis ever expected he would, certainly far easier than in any of their more
leisurely trysts. Davis groaned and leaned back against the wall, fists cinching
hard around Kurt’s shoulders.
“Not nineteen, either—ah!”
His eyes jammed shut as Kurt’s mouth encompassed him, as suction and liquid took
over every nerve in his body.
“Mm-hm” was the only noise
Kurt could make through his tight mouth, and it rolled, vibrating, into Davis’s
core, weakening his knees, making him tremble and shudder against the wall where
he was uncomfortably bracing himself. There was a chuckle too, in the back of
Kurt’s throat at the end of those words, and Davis felt every single tremor and
vibration of his vocal cords, thought he would pass out from that much sensation
radiating up and through him. He gritted his teeth and held on for dear
life.
Kurt was far too good at
this—he was far too good every time he touched Davis—and Davis was lost in a
heart-pounding pure-white wave of pleasure, pleasure magnified with excitement
and fear of discovery and the knowledge that he was cutting it as close as a man
possibly could, far closer than a man in his position ever should. But it had
been a few weeks now since they started this madness, and Davis was completely
addicted. He couldn’t break things off now if he wanted, and God help him, he
didn’t want. He only wanted this wonderful feeling to go on forever.
He looked down with
tenderness at the man below him, his eyes soft, and drew gentle fingers against
the lines of Kurt’s cheeks even as he thrust forward and groaned and lost his
mind.
I have a blog at
ellenholiday.wordpress.com and
you can follow me on Twitter at @ellen_holiday. It’s wonderful to be part of
this community, and I thank you for giving me such a warm welcome!
H.C. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you come back and tell us more about your new releases :-)
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