Friday 27 July 2012

Boxer Falls: A Gaytime Drama & Interview with Poppy Dennison

Boxer Falls is a weekly homoerotic soap opera being posted at the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads. Penned by a group of fan favorites and new voices, a roster of unparalleled talent brings this "gaytime drama" to life with high camp, low blows, and intense sexiness.
Our writers produce episodes as interconnected short stories about the ongoing adventures of the residents of a tightknit Berkshires resort town with a queer reputation as it gains a reputation as a homo hot spot for the discerning traveler. You should expect sex, scandal, secrets, and happy endings that come at a high price.
Every week a new guest star will take up the pen. Join Ellis Carrington, Poppy Dennison, and Damon Suede along with a host of your favorite gay romance scribes as they cut loose with suds and studs in abundance. And since Brita Addams has joined the team, Boxer Falls has been churning like never before. 


What goes up always comes down.

Peek behind the fly of Boxer Falls, and see what mischief lurks in its quiet streets and secluded spots of a small New England town with a queer reputation. Around here, the family closets hold more than skeletons and the fights are strictly gloves-off. With folks this gorgeous, the feuds are bound to get ugly.

When the wealthy Cotten family decides to turn their country estate into a luxurious resort, the residents of Boxer Falls face an influx of affluent tourists who rub their sleepy little town in the worst ways. Lust, greed, betrayal, and ambition might just yank the town to its knees.

Tune in each week to get the latest on scorching affairs, family dysfunction, and secret desire.

Excerpt: 

Grady ran his fingers through his shower-damp hair as he headed for the kitchen. He’d left Phil snoring in the bed, still passed out from their wild bout of sex the night before. With a grin, Grady tightened his robe and gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Zach stood in the kitchen, hips swinging to music blaring from the headset of his iPod. A loaf of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly were spread out on the counter in front of him. 

Grady gave his son’s back a quick rub as he went by and headed straight for the coffee pot. 

Zach jumped a bit and spun around. “Morning,” he said as he pulled the ear buds from his ears. 

“Hey. What are you up to?”

Zach’s cheeks turned a bit pink as he turned back to the sandwich fixings. “Taking Adam on a picnic. We both have the day off.”

Young love. Grady remembered those days well. Phil used to do romantic things like that for him, and now that they’d pieced their nearly broken relationship back together, that side of his husband was slowly emerging again. 

Grady selected his coffee and popped the choice in the machine. While he waited for it to brew, he went to the pantry and stretched to the highest shelf. He’d stuck the small cooler Phil had used for years as a lunch box up there a while back. 

“Will this help?”

Zach grinned at the beat up red and white container. “You kept that old thing?”

Grady shrugged and sat it in the sink. “It wasn’t broken or anything.”

“Uh huh. Sure. Kind of like how I still have my G.I. Joe one up in the attic, huh?”

Grady bumped his shoulder into Zach’s. “Don’t pick on me. I’m sentimental.”


Now, enjoy the interview with Poppy Dennison!

1. What inspired you to write Boxer Falls?

After meeting Damon Suede and Ellis Carrington at the 2011 GayRomLit Retreat in New Orleans, Damon approached me about an idea he’d come up with for an online serial fiction. We wanted a dynamic world, populated by characters authors and readers alike would want to know more about.

Boxer Falls, A Gaytime Drama developed out of that initial idea. The soap format provided us lots of juicy friction with a no holds barred approach to the storylines. Our writers could have fun and play in our sandbox, leaving fun messes for the next author to clean up.

We premiered in January 2012 on the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads. This week, we’re posting our thirtieth episode and have had many of the bestselling authors in the M/M genre pen episodes for us!

2. How would you describe Boxer Falls?

Boxer Falls is a web serial, updated weekly. It’s fun and campy, just like the daytime soap operas that inspired us. I think our blurb says it best:

What goes up always comes down.

Peek behind the fly of Boxer Falls, and see what mischief lurks in the quiet streets and secluded spots of a small New England town with a queer reputation. Around here, the family closets hold more than skeletons and the fights are strictly gloves-off. With folks this gorgeous, the feuds are bound to get ugly.

When the wealthy Cotten family decides to turn their country estate into a luxurious resort, the residents of Boxer Falls face an influx of affluent tourists who rub their sleepy little town in the worst ways. Lust, greed, betrayal, and ambition might just yank the town to its knees.

Tune in each week to get the latest on scorching affairs, family dysfunction, and secret desire.
Boxer Falls: The bigger they are…

3. Which character have you had most fun writing?

Oh, that’s a hard question! Boxer Falls has a cast of twelve core characters. I think the most fun for me is taking any one of those characters and pushing him into an unexpected direction.

One of our older characters is Grady Boxer. Grady’s in quite the fix. His husband Phil is a philanderer and his ex-love Conrad Cotten has returned to town ready to pick up where they left off. The Grady/Phil/Conrad love triangle is fun for me to write because they’re older, more mature characters who have a lot of life experience under their belt—yet they’re still affected by love as much as their younger counter parts.

Grady has a tough decision to make. Does he stick with his husband of twenty odd years, for better or for worse, or does he give in to the allure of his first love, the one that got away?

4.   How did you come up with the title of your book?

 Boxer Falls developed from a brainstorming session between Damon, Ellis, and myself. We wanted a title that gave an idea of the setting—waterfalls was an element of the northeast we liked. Romantic, with a hint of danger. Then we wanted a hint of the soapiness the show would inspire. We came up with a list of sexy words that would suit a town, and Boxer won our votes by a landslide. It captures the sexy elements of conservative underwear, while also showing the ongoing dramatic side of the town. Who better than a professional fist fighter to give a hint of the give and take between the characters?

5.  Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

 Our readers contact us through the discussion thread over at the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads as well as through our website (http://www.boxerfalls.com/). There’s always a debate each week as our episodes are posted with readers wondering what will happen next!

We quote some of our reader’s responses in our weekly newsletter, The Boxer Brief. (You can subscribe here: http://boxerfalls.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=5ed8de295112ae1bb33fd7e5e&id=c9331e09f8)
Some of our favourite quotes are:

Pixie-It’s a soap opera. There are no endings, only new beginnings!!
G-I hope that it will still go on and on and on…
Eden-Now that was satisfying!

6.  What was one of the most surprising things you learned in writing this serial?

Boxer Falls is a surprise every week. The fun of being a serial project, with a different author every week, is that you never know where the story is going to go. Each author brings their unique voice, and passion for their favorite characters. One week, our dynamic duo of Oz, the sexy silver fox, and his bartender lover Quinn will be at the forefront. The next week, star-crossed lovers Zach and Adam may come together. And there’s always our sheriff, the sexy sub Vic who is looking for a man who can meet his every need!

Any last thoughts or words of wisdom you would like to share with the readers?

One of our favorite aspects of Boxer Falls is our plans for the future. Season one will be anthologized into a paperback at the end of the year. All proceeds from the sale of volume one will go to support GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation http://www.glaad.org/) We’re excited to support this wonderful cause and to give our writers a chance to give back to the community that does so much for us.

Links:

Boxer Falls: http://www.boxerfalls.com/

Goodreads M/M Romance Group (must be a member): http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/20149-m-m-romance

Bio:

A sassy southern lady, Poppy Dennison developed an obsession with things that go bump in the night in her early years after a barn door flew off its hinges and nearly squashed her. Convinced it was a ghost trying to get her attention, she started looking for other strange and mysterious happenings around her. Not satisfied with what she found, Poppy has traveled to Greece, Malaysia and England to find inspiration for the burly bears and silver foxes that melt her butter. Her love of paranormal continues to flourish nearly thirty years later, and she writes steamy love stories about the very things that used to keep her up all night. If her childhood ghost is lucky, maybe one day she’ll give him his own happily ever after.

Visit her on her web site: http://www.poppydennison.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/poppydennison

Twitter: http://twitter.com/PoppyDennison

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5108648.Poppy_Dennison


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