Authors of Brit Boys: On Boys set explore British hero appeal
The Brit Boys: On Boys boxed set hit digital shelves this week for only 99 cents through the end of January! The set contains eight m/m erotic romance novellas with a distinctly British flavour. The authors join HEA to answer some questions about their stories:
Lucy Felthouse, author of Love on Location
What's so appealing about a Brit hero?
Lucy: I'm a Brit, so I tend to write Brit characters — that way I can write the way I speak, though of course I have to "man it up" when I'm writing my male characters. It's also nice to get more Brit heroes out in the world, as I think they're vastly under-represented. There's also the wonderful British sense of humour — we love ourselves a bit of sarcasm — and, best of all, the sexy accents!
Tell us about your story in the set.
Lucy: When we came up with the concept for the collection — i.e. Brit characters and locations, I knew I wanted to write something set in a rural location. The Peak District in Derbyshire was the obvious choice, as it's my favourite place. It's beautiful and wild, with eerie moors, rocky plateaus, rolling valleys, lush fields, yet has quaint, picturesque, genteel villages. I took a London boy and placed him in one such village, introduced him to a local and let the characters take me where they wanted to go. I was very pleased with the result.
Lily Harlem, author of The Chase
Brit hero appeal? For me writing about a British hero comes very naturally. I'm married to my very own Brit and he's definitely my hero. Thinking about it I've only ever dated British men, I've never deviated from this, so it's all I know. In my experience British men are chivalrous —they hold open doors and some I know even stand when a woman walks in the room. They're solid and dependable and softly spoken, politeness is very important as is having a stiff upper lip. But don't think they're dull or don't have dark desires, because that's certainly not the case!
Story in the set: My story is called The Chase. I've set it in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales and somewhere I know well. I picked a comedy club for the setting, I wanted it to be a fun, light-hearted read showing the frisky, humorous side of British men as they dance around each other, courting and flirting and plucking up the courage to admit to their feelings. The story turns into a treasure hunt, the treasure being a threesome with a particularly cute comedian who although a laugh a minute takes satisfying his sexual urges very seriously. The Chase will make you both giggle and swoon!
Josephine Myles, author of Locked Out
Brit hero appeal? I love writing British men because on the surface they might appear to be uptight and emotionally stunted, yet once you break through the national reserve they can be the most passionate creatures ever! There's something about all that repression leading to a fountain of kinky eroticism that just needs to surge free. Plus we have the best sense of dry humour over here. And bloody fantastic slang. Need I say any more?
Story in the set: Locked Out is an erotic romantic comedy (my favourite genre to write) narrated by Martin Cooper, a hapless schoolteacher who manages to lock himself out of his hotel room on a lonely Valentine's night. Worse yet, he's stark naked! Fortunately Martin's rescuer turns out to be the hunky swimmer he'd been eyeing up in the hotel pool earlier, and it seems a little personal room service might be on the menu. The trouble is, Martin only has the confidence to seduce Rod when he's lying about his career, so when they meet up again he has some explaining to do!
Sarah Masters, author of E2
Brit hero appeal? I think maybe the accent does it for many people. For me, Brit men are all I know, so they appeal because I'm more comfortable writing what I'm familiar with.
Story in the set: E2 came out of nowhere. I sat down to write my usual m/m and this new world appeared in my head. I let it come out as it wanted to, and all the while I wondered where it had come from and what I'd watched on TV that might have set my mind off in that direction. I still have no clue, so maybe it's just one of those stories my subconscious was hiding until it felt the time was right. It's about dual Earths. I don't want to say much about it or it'll give things away, but people have been replicated and the governments of the world are playing dirty.
Ashe Barker, author of Bodywork
Brit hero appeal? I think this question is probably easier for a non-Brit to answer, but I suspect some of the attraction lies in the famous British stiff upper lip. Whether that's a myth or reality I'm not always too sure. I do think though that Brits have a dry sense of humour, are a bit self-deprecating and a lot cynical. Brits tend to set great store by being independent and self-reliant which has its appeal, the elusive, slightly distant hero but with a squishy soft centre when he finds the right lover.
Story in the set: Alex runs a bodywork repair business, which comes in useful when he crashes into Graham's BMW in a car park. He offers to fix the damage, and it isn't long before the chemistry between the two of them is off the scale. Alex is head over heels in love with Graham, but does the other man feel the same? Where Alex is an open book, Graham is older, he has a past he won't share, and neither will he leave it behind. Who, or what, does Alex have to compete with?
K.D. Grace, author of Landscapes
Brit hero appeal? I'm American by birth, but Britain has been my home for a long time, giving me a lot of opportunity to admire and appreciate why British heroes are so sexy. The accents aside (that goes without saying) there's a wonderful understated strength about British heroes. There's less bravado and more … substance. Add to that the fact that they live in one of the most beautiful and evocative places on the planet, steeped in history and alive with ghosts and pubs and Neolithic monuments, and they do so with charm and panache, how could that not appeal?
Story in the set: Landscapes is a paranormal story set in the English Lakes. Alonso Darlington is a vampire returning to his ancestral home after a long absence. His motives are far from pure when he hires landscaper Reese Chambers to restore a medieval garden. In order to keep Reese safe from and oblivious to his dangerous lust, he experiences Reese vicariously with the help of a succubus, who offers up Alonso's passion to Reese in sizzling dreams. But Alonso's true nature won't allow him to stay a dream forever, and when Reese finds out the truth, there are dangerous consequences.
M.K. Elliott, author of Breaking the Marine
Brit hero appeal? British men have a certain kind of no-nonsense attitude. They say things as they are, and tend to be tougher and more stoic than some of their foreign counterparts. Then of course, there is the accent. Everyone who comes across a British guy loves the accent!
Story in the set: My story is Breaking the Marine and is about a young man, Brandon, who is joining the Royal Marine Commando School. The night before enrollment, he has a sexy encounter in a pub car park with a hot guy called Will. But when he turns up to enroll the next day, he discovers Will is also his new drill instructor. The two men then have to figure out how they're going to spend 24 hours a day in each other's company without anyone finding out about what happened, and also holding themselves back from each other. Their feelings for one another start to grow, but they have so many obstacles to overcome, they struggle to imagine a future.
Clare London, author of Dish of the Day
Brit hero appeal? I think it's the way they can be so sexy — but with a wicked sense of humour! We love slapstick and wit as much as we love sentimentality. And I love the way a Brit hero can be a bundle of apparent contradictions, but still fascinating and cute: They can be hunky, insecure, brash, brave, cautious, cheeky ... but always heroic.
Story in the set: All the cookery programmes currently on TV gave me the inspiration for Dish of the Day, and Richie's ambition to have his own restaurant. Thinking about the skills needed for such a project — cooking, customer service, marketing, finance — I wondered how all that could rest on one poor chap's shoulders! So what if he had two good friends who'd pool their skills, if only Richie's pride would let him accept them? And what if they'd always fancied him from afar, and dreamt up a scheme to help him, despite himself?! So the cheeky ménage story was born.
To find out more about Brit Boys: On Boys and its authors, visit lucyfelthouse.co.uk and their Facebook page for fun, gossip, sexy men, exclusive content and more.