By Cornelius A. Fortune
Author Kage Alan
3-5 p.m. July 24
Affirmations
290 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale
http://www.kagealan.com
If you're a fan of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation" and "Andy Stevenson Vs. The Lord of the Loins," Kage Alan's latest book, "Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell," has all the wit and banter you've come to expect. Only this time, the Harrison Township native isn't using Andy Stevenson's voice – these are new characters. And yes, some might call it a departure. In actuality, it was his muse pointing to an unexpected destination.
Alan was deep into writing the third Andy Stevenson book when a song by German metal vocalist Doro led him on a different path. The song was called "Thunderspell."
"I listened to this song and the film trailer played in my head," Alan says. "I could see all these different scenes. I stopped writing the book I was writing and I started writing the 'Gaylias: Thunderspell' book. I threw every idea into this book. I needed to get away from writing the Andy stories. The problem was trying to figure out what came next."
He hopes that the book is well-received, as he already has ideas for the next one, and for the third, making it a trilogy.
Alan's editor describes "Gaylias" as "I Spy" meets Monty Python.
"It is a slight departure in that the other two books were dealing with an 18- and a 19-year-old as my primary character," Alan says. "In this one, the two main characters are (in their) early 30s. I was able to get away from humor geared toward that (teen) age group."
"Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell" centers around the relationship between Nicholas Inker and Anthony Hamilton, two agents who equally love and annoy each other. Their assignment: the League, a terrorist group with an unknown agenda. Alan cites the "Thin Man" film series as inspiration for the colorful banter the main characters delve into.
"These people know each other, (but) they don't always like each other," Alan says. "These two characters don't really give a crap what's going on around them. They're determined to irk the shit out of each other if at all possible. You can take this set-up and you can turn it on its head and really have some fun with it."
Alan's own relationship with his partner spans 15 years, and he drew on some of the playful exchanges they enjoy.
The book should be identifiable for anyone straight, gay, married, or in a long-term relationship, he adds. Though these are new characters, he hasn't turned up the sex scenes in search of pure shock value; or perhaps worse yet, genre conventions. Those hardly interest him.
"I'm not a person who writes a lot of sexual situations," he says. "My parents read these books, so I'm very aware of that, and I'm very aware that I have a lot of straight friends that will read the book. If there doesn't need to be graphic sex at all, why have it in there? That's not what they're about."
With gay novels, notes Alan, there's a preconceived notion that it must have explicit gay sex to meet the expectations of not only the public, but sometimes even the critics.
"I think that's a huge fear, and that's why a lot of people don't give these books a try," he says. "They're afraid it's going to be all about 'that,' and they're going to be freaked out, and that just does not exist in the books that I'm writing. There are some situations, but they are in no way graphic. These could very easily be mainstream books."
Alan is amazed that the bulk of his new readers have discovered him through e-books and consequently, not under the banner of "gay and lesbian fiction"; rather, it is often filed simply as "humor."
"I do know that (my) e-books are outselling the paper copies," Alan says. "I knew nothing about e-books until two years ago when 'A Funny Thing' was republished and 'Andy Stevenson Versus' came out. 'A Funny Thing' has had really stellar ratings, and for the last two years, both books have usually stayed in the top 20."
Alan says he is very pleased with "Gaylias" and looks forward to sharing it with the world.
"The more I read it, the happier I get," he says. "I think people who have read the previous books are going to have a really fun ride with this one, whether you're straight or gay."
