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| • Two Way • Rupert Smith & Paul Burston • | ||
Paul: It certainly looks that way. It's ironic really - my first novel with the word 'gay' in the title, and my most successful so far! I suppose part of the reason is that it's not only about gay characters. None of my novels have been, because that's not the world I live in. I've always written straight characters too, especially women. But it's encouraging to look at the reviews on Amazon and see how so many female readers have taken to Hazel, who's the estranged wife of Phil, the central, gay character who's busy planning his civil partnership. You've always written a mixture of gay and straight characters too. What do you think makes a 'gay novel'? Rupert: God knows. To paraphrase Oscar, novels are either well written or badly written. I've written novels with a lot of gay content, and with minimal gay content, and they all get lumped together as "gay novels" because I'm known to be gay. That's why I'm publishing Silk under a new name, Rupert James, because I wanted to avoid all those preconceptions. I hate to say it but in many cases, being gay is a real disadvantage in publishing - in a way that's not true for other minorities. I used to go on and on about how "it doesn't matter, quality will always win through", but now I'm not so sure. I tend to play it by the market's rules now, and try to sneak the "real" stuff in under the radar. I'm sick of being niche. I think we deserve to be mainstream, don't you? Paul: I do think it's very peculiar, the way gay fiction is somehow seen as genre fiction and therefore not mainstream - unless it's safely historical or comes with just the amount of high cultural references to make it acceptable to the people who decide these things. Because if you look at other media - television, say, or to a lesser degree, film - gay characters and storylines are very much part of the mainstream. If you take something like 'Queer As Folk', that was leaps ahead of the publishing world in terms of contemporary gay storytelling. Even prime time soaps have gay characters and storylines, and they couldn't be more mainstream. One of the reasons I wrote 'The Gay Divorcee' was to illustrate the fact that gay people are part of the mainstream. Or to quote Sister Sledge, 'We are family'! Rupert: All those hours sitting in my bedroom listening to Bowie albums weren't wasted after all then. Yes this is my third literary persona: Rupert Smith does "literary" fiction, Rupert James does commercial, and dear old James Lear does erotica. I never planned it this way. I'd love to be one of those writers whose very name is a brand. But diversifying works for me. I met a woman at a literary party recently who is now in her 60s, and she's had about five different writing names, reinventing herself for each new fashion. Her latest was chick-lit and her biog said she was in her 20s. That's so great - until she has to do readings! Speaking of readings, we're doing another of our great double acts soon, aren't we? Paul: We are indeed. It all started with Lurid and Snide, our first double act, inspired by the fact that someone had described my last book as 'lurid' and someone else had called your last Rupert Smith novel 'snide'. I enjoyed being Lurid and Snide, but I suppose we'll have to come up with a new act now we've gone all mainstream. As "gay London's Jane Austen" (copyright The Independent on Sunday) I'm tempted to suggest we wear matching bonnets and have attacks of the vapours on stage. But Beige magazine's description of me as "the Jackie Collins of the Soho scene" may give us more room for scope. Whaddya say, Joan? Rupert: Animal prints, headscarves and shades. Lucky Bitches! Elle compared Silk to Jilly Cooper, Dynasty and Lace. Do you think they're trying to tell us something? Paul: Quite possibly! Isn't it funny how the word "bitchy" is only ever applied to women and gay men? As if heterosexual men aren't capable of being bitchy! Of course there are some bitchy queens in my books, but they're not the main characters. Yet some people get so hung up on that, they can't see beyond it. How wonderful that Elle compared you to Jilly Cooper! I can almost see a slash fiction version of James Lear meets Rupert James, with lots of stable boys running around naked. Now I am having an attack of the vapours! Rupert: Actually there's a great stable-boy scene in the first James Lear novel, The Low Road, which is being republished this autumn after languishing in the out-of-print section for too long. There's also a scene involving some novel uses for potatoes. I've got a busy few months: Silk in August, new Rupert Smith which is called Man's World in Feb - it's a gay historical romance, sort of - then the new James Lear in spring, another detective story called A Sticky End. And now I'm writing the new Rupert James! What are you working on? Paul: I've started work on a new novel. All I can really say at the moment is that it's very contemporary and yes, there are gay characters in it. It feels strange. It's the first time I've started work on a new novel so soon after the last one, and I'm still doing lots of promotion for 'The Gay Divorcee', so I feel a bit schizophrenic. But you'd know all about that, with your multiple personalities. Rupert: It's the name of the game. I never understand these people who write one book every eight years. I suspect private wealth. That's certainly not something I've been cursed with. I make my living by writing so I have to crank it out and appeal to the widest possible market. It's either that or back to being a trannie go-go dancer. Paul: Well on that note I think we should head off to Elephant and Castle market for some suitable stage wear for Polari in September. I can see it now - animal prints, head scarves, shades... Lucky Bitches!
Paul Burston and Rupert James will be reading at Polari In Concrete at the Southbank Centre on Wed Sep 9
'The Gay Divorcee' is published by Sphere
Silk by Rupert James is published on 6 August by Ebury Press. Support your local bookstore <here> © Paul Burston/Rupert Smith 2009, all rights reserved. |
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| © Paul Burston/Rupert Smith 2009, all rights reserved. |
