Thank you, Michael, for having me here today. I’m giving away a free, autographed copy of Lovers and Liars! For a chance to win (U.S. Residents only for print book), comment on this post by midnight, April 6 (Sunday). Be sure to include your email address. The winner will be selected and notified via email on Monday.

Since you’re focusing on financial literacy for April, I thought I’d mention how my partner, Bob, and I managed to retire. Bob worked for a construction company that went public in 1990. He invested his shares along with a retirement package and retired early. I continued to teach for the next 18 years, and we lived off my salary. When I retired in 2008, we were able to live comfortably on my retirement and the investments we made. Not saying this will work for others but just how we made it happen.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ll try to keep my answers short in hopes that you will comment and ask questions. I love talking to readers and other writers. I’m a former teacher in higher ed, now retired, and I write gay historical romance for JMS Books, a small LGBT publisher in VA. My most recent book, Lovers and Liars, is a series of novella length stories set in Britain during WWII. To be honest, books set during this time frame are a dime a dozen, but I’ve tried to reimagine the period by having my characters—one gay and one straight couple—discuss issues that are still with us today such as PTSD, gay marriage, and gender equality, to name a few. I find it a challenge and great fun. My motto and guiding principle for the series is “if you can’t add something new to a genre, then why do it at all?”

What would people be most surprised to learn about you?

I had to ask Bob about this but we both agree it would be my Peace Corps experience in Africa. In my early twenties I was stationed in Eritrea, then a province of Ethiopia. His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, had several palaces throughout the country, and for over two years I lived across the street from one of them in Asmara—the coolest highlight was being lulled to sleep by the lions in his zoo. Six months into my service, two other pals and I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. (That might be more surprising because I’m the most sedentary person on the planet and have to be lured away from my laptop for any kind of exercise these days.)

What’s your favorite part of writing a book?

I think most writers would say “when they’re in the zone.” When the writing comes easily and flows, characters cooperate, and you make it safely through a scene without stepping all over your toes. But for me, I’d say it was the prewriting planning. I won’t go into it here. If you’d like more info, you can find it here in an article I wrote for Anne Allen. In short, before I begin to write, I use screenwriting techniques to fill in as many plot points as I can. If I know the book’s theme, the logline (story in 25 words or less), how the book begins, and hopefully how it ends, I feel confident to start writing. It’s in this prewriting stage that I become most excited about the story, and, even though I know plot points will change and the characters will resist me at times, I look forward to the fun ahead. For me, the most exciting part of the writing process is always what I’m writing now. Not what I’ve written.

Please tell us something about your most recent release.

As I mentioned earlier, the print version of Lovers and Liars is my most recent release and contains the first three novellas and a short story originally released as e-books. Bomber’s Moon introduces the main characters and deals with Leslie Atwater’s investigation into his lover’s fatal automobile accident during the Blitz. In Weep Not for the Past, the characters find themselves embroiled in a traditional English village murder mystery, while A Manx Tale, set on the Isle of Man, pits the British agents against a cunning German spy out to sabotage the Atlantic Conference, a historic meeting off the coast of Newfoundland between Churchill and FDR.

What can we look forward to in the future from you?

In April, JMS Books will release my first paranormal gay romance, Too Long Among the Dead.

Short blurb: DR. HALEIGH HUGO thinks he has found the perfect setting for his experimental treatment plan—a mountain home called DEVONSHIRE. He and his lover, DR. GUY SANFORD, take six of their most fragile female patients for a weekend of relaxation and therapy in the high Sierras. But Devonshire has other plans as the house harbors a terrible and painful secret that haunts anyone who comes near.

I’m currently working on the next Lovers and Liars novella titled, A Deadly Game of Malice, which is a return to the English village mystery. Someone is circulating poison pen letters. Is the motive malicious fun or is something more sinister at work?

If you’d like a bit more, here’s a very short excerpt from the beginning of Bomber’s Moon.

One of Us

Leslie Atwater’s days were lived in light, darkness, and shadow. Outwardly, he seemed normal, but within, he was empty and shattered. His core or essence was gone; it disappeared the night Edward died. Leslie walked among the living, but he felt he was not a part of them. He saw no future for England, and especially no future for himself after the terror of the Blitz. It was all one unending nightmare. They used to laugh together on their way to work—Edward rushing to pick up his daily assignment for The Globe, and Leslie to The Cozy Corner, where he clerked for a small bookshop. Edward would point out a fellow who’d glanced their way or a couple of gents walking close together, chatting, and he’d say, “Wonder if they’re one of us?” One of us. Leslie had met others like him and some even became acquaintances, but he never had intimate male friends. And no one had lit the spark like Edward had. One of us meant something then, to both of them, but now Leslie rarely looked at other men. He had no reason to. He kept his head down when he passed them on the street or he looked the other way, pretending to be fascinated by a billboard on a passing bus, or some other street attraction. In September the Blitz came, and he and Edward in their life together snatched what moments they could in between the nightly blackouts, air raids, and bombings. But by December Leslie’s status had changed markedly and irretrievably. He was no longer Edward’s loving companion. He was now on his own, and alone, and one of us meant very little to him.

Stop by my website for more information about me and my books (https://paulalanfahey.com).

Buy Links for Lovers and Liars:

JMS BOOKS: https://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=1036

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1494361973

B and N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lovers-and-liars-paul-alan-fahey/1118047647?ean=9781494361976