Sage Marlowe author of Gay Erotic romances is chatting with the ladies of Joyfully Reviewed this morning….


Sage (I hope I can call you Sage) what is your most current release we can purchase?
My current release is titled A Life as a Ghost. It’s the third book in my Romeo & Julian series. Romeo is a mysterious former cat burglar-slash-art thief who becomes a consultant with the FBI. Julian is the agent who shares an office and a bed with him. The two have great chemistry, even though poor Agent Julian Harris seems to be one step behind sexy Romeo most of the time.

Like all my books, this story is gay erotic romance. It is published with Siren-BookStrand

This is the blurb:
After leading a life as a ghost for years, will former thief Romeo’s love for FBI agent Julian be enough to make him settle?

The tragic losses of his home and a dear one take FBI agent Julian Harris one step closer to a shared life with his consultant and lover, former art thief Romeo aka Paris Moore. They have just moved in together and are trying to re-establish a certain normalcy when Romeo once again shuffles the cards. He surprises Julian by finally revealing some information about his true identity along with some unexpected news regarding his position in Julian’s division.

During the nerve-wrecking hunt for the person that has been pulling the strings all along, Julian once again comes to realize that when dealing with Romeo, the only certainty is that all is not as it seems. But one question is more important than ever—after leading a life as a ghost for years, will Romeo’s love for Julian be strong enough to make him settle at last?

Tell us a little about A Life as a Ghost, what inspired you to write A Life as a Ghost
Readers of this series will very soon realise that there are some parallels to the TV show White Collar, starring Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay. Although Romeo & Julian is in no way fanfic and the story lines are different, art thief Romeo’s character was inspired by that of Neal Caffrey.

When you start writing, do you already have the story plotted out or do you let the characters dictate what will happen?
A friend and fellow author recently accused me of being a pantser (flying by my pants), and he’s very right about that. Most of the time when I start writing, I have no more than a very basic idea, and sometimes it’s really no more than a line or a specific character. I make it all up as I go along.

What inspired you to write in your genre?  Is this the genre you started writing in or have you morphed to this one?
Gay erotic romance is the genre I started out in and the only one I have written so far. I honestly can’t tell what makes me write books with such explicit content. It seems that was only a matter of time though as I shocked my poor mum quite a bit when I invented some raunchy stories well before I’d reached adolescence.

Do you have a favorite character you have written?
It’s hard to name one favourite but the characters that will always be extra special to me are Noah from Sub-Mission and Sub-Culture and Caelan from the Ink, Sweat and Tears series. Incidentally, they’re also the characters most of my readers seem to fall in love with.

Who was the toughest character for you to “get right” that you have written so far?
Hm, writing the characters is never much of a problem for me as I don’t try to put them into stereotypical shapes but just write down what they give me, no matter how contradictory they may seem. Life and people in particular aren’t black and white, and I enjoy discovering all the different colours my boys present to me. The hardest story for me to write however was the Romeo & Julian series, above all the last book as Romeo wasn’t very forthcoming with his true identity and the way he wanted it revealed.

Do you draw inspiration for your characters from real life? Any fun stories you could share?
My characters aren’t really inspired by real life experiences but there is a scene in Catching a Phoenix were Jazz and his brother talk about how Jazz nearly blew up the house. The tale itself is hilarious and it is an anecdote a friend told me around the time I wrote the book, so I wrote the entire scene around it just to include this anecdote. I’m afraid I can’t repeat it in detail here simply because it’s too long.

What do you find the hardest part of writing?
Making the time to write and not giving up after about half of the story is written.

Name one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you.
Perhaps that I’m basically a very boring person who leads a spectacularly unspectacular life.

Do you have a guilty pleasure?
I love a glass of red wine or two while writing.

What TV Show are you addicted to?
Heh! Do I even have to tell you? White Collar of course.

What do you need before you start writing?  Anything that is just a must have or the creative juice don’t flow?
All I need is my laptop or phone – yes, I have an app and type a lot of my books on my phone – and I’m good to go.

Does music influence your writing?  If so, do any of your stories have a theme song?
Funny you should ask that. Most of my books have their own soundtrack and in the Romeo & Julian series I took this a step further. The stories are musically influenced by the British band Editors, one of my absolute favorites, and I named the books after their songs, or rather lines from their songs. A Life as a Ghost, the current one, is the only identical title. The story to that is a bit quirky because the book had a different title, then while I was getting the submission email ready, I listened to that particular song and knew it was the perfect match. I went back, changed the title, rewrote the final scene so it would fit and realized that the story was a hell of a lot better for it. Fortunately my editor agreed. He loved the title.

If your story was optioned for a movie, who would play your characters?
Needless to say, the perfect actor for Romeo’s role would be Matt Bomer and I think Jake Gyllenhaal would make a fantastic Julian.

Where were you when you got your first contract?  Who did you tell first?
I was at home, in the living room and the first person I told about it was my partner.

How old were you when you read your first romance book?
Not sure but I guess at some point in my teens. I didn’t get started on the erotic stories until later, though.

What author causes you to “go fan girl”/ squeal over/anticipate upcoming books?
I adore Harper Fox’s work. I’m picky about what I read because I have so little time for it, but she’s currently the only author who can make me set aside my own writing to enjoy hers.

If you still have one of those pesky non-writing jobs what is it?
As I’m currently on parental leave I’m sort of in between jobs. The last job I had was assistant to the CEO of an international company but I have no idea what position I’ll get when I return to my employer. I’m still hoping to make enough money with writing so I won’t have to take up the day job again, at least not until my daughter is a bit older.

Do you have a favorite movie you have seen in the last few months and/or an all time favorite?
Um… (blushes). The only movie I’ve seen in the last six months was Magic Mike and although the plot’s too weak to make it a favourite, I enjoyed it. As to all-time favourites, it’s hard to pick one but a film I really like is The Thomas Crown Affair (the remake, starring Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo). It’s a very elegant, slick film with excellent visuals.

What are you currently working on, and what else is in the wings?
I always have several WIP on the go. My plans include the long-awaited sequel to Re-Submission, another book in the Romeo & Julian series and a follow-up to my new, self-published novella Shifting Changes, which started out as a story written according to my readers’ wishes. There are plenty more stories on my back burner. If you’re interested, check my website where I post updates on my WIP.

If you could co-write with another author who would it be?
That’s not easy to say, because it largely depends on the story and personal writing techniques. Also, I’m a real control freak when it comes to my work and a perfectionist, so I’m not sure I would want to put some poor soul out there through that.

How do you pick your characters names?
Very often my characters appear with their names already in tow, which is great. If they don’t, I use a website for baby names and just scroll through the lists until I find the one that feels right.

Do you prefer the love at first sight approach or a steady growth throughout?
It depends on the story and the characters. Either can work, but I seem to mostly end up writing stories where it’s love at first sight for one hero and steady growth for the other.

Where can readers find you?
Sage’s website & blog: www.sage-marlowe.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sage.marlowe0
e-mail: marlowe.sage@yahoo.co.uk
Twitter: @SageMarlowe
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/SageMarlowe
Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/sagemarlowe
For all books published with Total-E-Bound, go to: http://www.total-e-bound.com/authordetail.asp?A_ID=224
For all books published with Siren-BookStrand, go to: www.bookstrand.com/sage-marlowe

And for the silly side – What is your favorite type of chocolate? 
It depends on my mood. I like almost any type of chocolate, from plain dark to Cadbury Fruit and Nut.