Histrom fans will have had The Gentleman’s Book of Vices on their radar for quite some while, I’m sure. Well, in little over 6 weeks, the wait will be over, but if that’s still (understandably) too long a wait, then we have the interview for you today! You can sate your curiosity and/or whet your appetite for this book right here, right now!
And don’t forget: for more information and snippets, you can follow Jess on instagram too!
Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? How old were you when you wrote your first story?
I was always into reading, stories, and characters of all kinds. I played a lot of “make believe,” often featuring characters from books or shows I liked. In middle school, my love of character spurred me to write my own stories (very terrible X-Men 2 fanfic that I wrote longhand on loose-leaf notebook paper and passed around to my friends.) When I was 14, I wrote my first attempt at an original novel, and just never really stopped! Since that point, I figured I’d either be a stage actor, a writer, or some combination of the two.
What are your favourite genres to read and write, and are there any genres or tropes you wouldn’t write?
I read all over the genre map. Lately, it’s been mostly romance and non-fiction, but I also love sci-fi/fantasy, many of what are considered classics (especially from the Victorian Era, surprise, surprise!), and wacky memoirs. Though I don’t seek them out often, one of my favorite novels is actually a Western!
As for writing, I’ve only really tried my hand at fantasy and romance, though I might be interested in attempting something “literary” eventually. While there aren’t really any genres that are totally off-the-table, I don’t see myself straying far from romance for the foreseeable future. I’m having so much fun with it!
When you close your eyes and imagine an apple, what do you see? An actual apple, a sketch of one, a blackness? Do you think that impacts your writing process?
I see the actual apple, and it can be as simple or as detailed as I want it to be. I always find this to be a fascinating question, because until I saw it posed online, I just assumed most people had the same movie-like screen in their minds. It most definitely impacts my writing process—it gives me a bias toward visual details. I have to challenge myself in later drafts to add things like smell and sound to the scenes.
Which three authors would you say influenced your writing the most?
So hard to pick! I’d probably have to go with Elizabeth Gilbert, David Levithan, and Tony Kushner (he’s technically a playwright, but Angels in America was a vital influence on my life and work).
When you’re building your world, what do you focus on? How do you try to make it come to life?
I like to focus on what it feels like to live in a time and place, emotionally. I like to understand how people related to each other, how they saw themselves and their place in the world, the sort of language they used with each other. Particularly in genre fiction, a few well-placed physical details can set a scene well enough, but getting that interpersonal stuff right is what matters most to me. Because of that, I focus my historical research more on things that were written during the time period rather than about the time period: their letters, fiction, newspaper articles. I’m comfortable with getting a few practical details wrong, so long as I get that emotion right.
What projects are you currently working on? Can you share any details yet?
I’m just about ready to turn in my first draft of the as-yet-unnamed Lucky Lovers Book #3. I can’t give too many details yet, but it’s my first full-length Sapphic romance and brings back some characters from earlier books that I think readers will have a lot of fun with. I know I am!
Three images that capture the aesthetic of your book?
A top hat with a ribbon and peacock feather, a dusty old bookshop, a Victorian parlor filled with cakes and wines.
Three songs you would put in your book’s soundtrack?
I love a historical with modern background music, so:
Elton John’s Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters;
Adele’s Someone Like You;
The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun.
What would be your dream project?
A Robin Hood adaptation.
Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?
The main characters would honestly be useless, so I’m going for David Forester, Charlie’s friend and the proprietor of The Curious Fox Gentlemen’s Club. He’s loyal and a little scrappy.
You’re stuck on a desert island and you’re allowed only three (LGBT) books. What are you taking?
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the biggest volume of Oscar Wilde’s collected works I can find, and The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde.
You can collaborate on anything with anyone in the LGBT community: who would it be and why?
Visual artist Marlowe Lune. I am inspired daily by the prints I have on my office wall of their gorgeous, queer, historical artwork.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jess Everlee writes decadent romance from the Northeast Ohio split-level she shares with her small family of furballs and fellow humans. She holds a B.A. from The Ohio State University, where she studied English and Gender Studies, focusing on Victorian Literature and public health topics. While that background resulted in an eclectic resume, her passion for reading and writing has never wavered. She has a deep love of interesting art, offbeat communities, and admittedly pretentious coffee brewing systems.
Follow on Goodreads | Preorder The Gentleman’s Book of Vices
