Interview with Author Edie Montreux (Spread Your Wings, Pika Perfect)

Today I’m interviewing MM author Edie Montreux, whose Quality Assured I reviewed back in 2020.

Q1. Hello, Edie, and welcome to my blog! Let’s start with the basics: tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started writing.

I started writing investigative journalism when I was six. We had a feral kitten living in our furnace ducts (before we had a furnace – no kittens were harmed) and I was helping my parents figure out how to get her out of our house by following her around and asking my mom how to spell every other word, like “jumped.” This was in the early 80’s. My childhood memories are filled with arena rock bands like Queen and HIV/AIDS headlines. These both feature prominently in Spread Your Wings.

I studied to be an English teacher, taught for two years, and then changed jobs when my dude moved us back to his hometown. I’ve had many, many jobs, from retail to fast food to clerical and office jobs. I now work in web design, combining my favorite college course on HTML with my writing background. I love talking about jobs, which is why I jumped at the chance to write for the Working Stiffs anthology last year.

Q2. Who are your favorite authors, and do you think they’ve influenced your work?

My favorite author in M/M is Amy Lane, not only for the variety she writes, from light to dark, but also for how kind she has been to me as a newbie author. We met at YaoiCon in 2015, and, like that little girl jotting down everything her cat did, I had a notebook full of questions for Amy. I would love to one day be as prolific and varied as she is, but this pesky day job keeps getting in my way. I also hope to see her again once I’m able to return to California to visit my best friend Ro, who introduced us.

Q3. You’ve just re-released your Spread Your Wings; tell us a bit about your novel. Also, is this a different version than the previously published one?

I have always been a huge fan of Freddie Mercury, the voice and the man behind the music. Spread Your Wings was written for a submission call about a concert, so I started with a specific concert, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992, and worked backward. Who would have been there? What else was happening in the world? That’s how I came up with my news reporter, Sammy (a name from the Queen song Spread Your Wings) and my hotel staffer, Mustafa (the spelling variation from the Queen song better fits the Bosnian name). Sarajevo in early 1992 was a powder keg. I may yet lengthen the story from novella to novel with additional war stories and a reunion of Mustafa and his friend, Vasily, in the US after the war. For now, there are minimal updates. I changed the feel of a few scenes and cleaned up some grammar, but the story itself is the same. I’m hoping to find a wider audience this time!

Q4. What are you working on now and when can we expect it?

I am working on re-releasing my previously traditionally published novels. I’ve done some extensive edits to Pika Perfect, my biracial contemporary m/m romance, after finding it was missing the second half of the second act. I’ll be re-releasing it on June 15^th.I’ll have a new paranormal m/m romance out in August, called Medium to Well. I’m planning on releasing a compilation of shorts about Vampires in October (with a longer version of Quality Assured, from Working Stiffs) and an enemies-to-lovers novel in time for the new year: New Year, Not You. 2022 will be full of high fantasy (five-book Farbonnur Elves series), along with at least one contemporary title.

Q5. I’ve already reviewed Working Stiffs and I’m looking forward to Pika Perfect! Now, tell us, who is your biggest supporter and what would you like to say to them?

My biggest supporters have been from my writing group on Slack. They are a wonderful group of diverse writers, most of whom write M/M, and all of whom have helped me along this journey toward self-publishing. They know what they’re doing and they’re willing to help newbies like me.

Q6.They sound lovely, giving a helping hand. If you could give other authors one piece of advice, be it about writing, editing, promoting or increasing their audience, what would it be?

Find your people, wherever they may be. I’ve found mine on social media and workgroups like Teams, Slack, and Discord. Have conversations with other authors. Ask tons of questions. Read ALL THE BOOKS on craft, marketing, etc. Write what’s missing in the world.

Q7.Thank you for giving me this interview! Before we part, tell us: where can we connect with you online?

Thanks so much for having me!