WO: Dorien, you've published something like 17 novels, all popular, and increasingly well-known. What made you decide to start writing?

DG: I've always loved the line from "The Elephant Man," in which Joseph Merrick says "I sometimes think my head is so large because it is so full of dreams." I write, too, because my head is so full of dreams I have to let them out. My decision to start writing was not so much a decision as a compulsion, and I've been writing since I was around five years old (well, my first opus was dictated to my mother and was a rousing epic about cowboys, the last line of which was "And the cowboys yelled 'Whoopee' and everything else!') And it just went on from there.


WO: That was about ten years ago, right, with The Ninth Man?

DG: Well, I'd written a book while working as an editor in Los Angeles many years before. My boss needed a western adventure and he needed it, like, the day before. So I wrote one and many years later rewrote it as a "Calico", my only stand-alone novel.


WO: What first suggested a gay P.I. as your hero?

DG: Because I was sick unto death of these ultra-butch, rabidly heterosexual p.i.'s who dominated the genre. On Kinsey's famous straight-to-gay scale, on which 1 represents complete, total, exclusive heterosexuality and 10 represents complete, total, exclusive homosexuality I place myself at about a 12. I wanted to write a gay P.I. because, while there must have been some by other gay writers, I was unaware of them. I wanted there to be a gay p.i. gays could identify with, so I created one.


WO: I admit, when I first saw the name Dick Hardesty, I thought you were writing satire or humour. I take it the pun was deliberate (like your pseudonym?) Yet your books have a serious purpose, don't they?

DG: The Ninth Man was begun as a spoof of straight detective novels, and the first few books of the Dick Hardesty series were written for a male gay audience. But the further I got along in it, I was rather surprised to learn that I was developing a readership among mainstream mystery readers—most of them women, of course. Straight men don't cater to no stories about fags, y'know? I didn't change anything to try to appeal more to straights, necessarily, but I shifted my focus a bit to try to show them, without preaching, that gays are just ordinary human beings, and that what unites us as humans is far greater and important than what divides us. I write characters based on people I know and like, and I hope the reader likes them, too.


WO: Did you struggle to get your first novel accepted?

DG: Oh, my, yes. Writing is not a job for the thin-skinned. I would send out query letters in batches of ten and wait six weeks for someone to say "wonderful! We'll take it!" before realizing that wasn't going to happen and sending out another batch. Eight of every ten queries were not even given the dignity of a reply. If I were lucky to get two of my s.a.s.e.s returned, they usually had a rubber-stamped "Not for Us" or, if they were feeling particularly kind, a handwritten "No, thanks." Finally I got one back that said "Not for us, but you might try GLB Publishers out of San Francisco." I did, and Bill Warner, the publisher, took a chance with me. The rest, as they say....


WO: What do you feel about erotic scenes in a detective whodunnit?

DG: I worked for many years for the largest porn mill on the west coast, so I truly enjoy good old fashioned grunt-and-moan porn. But I wanted to write stories, not sex acts. The first couple books in the DH series have quite a bit of not-quite-explicit scenes, but they left little to the imagination. I prefer leaving things to the imagination. I have full faith in the reader's ability to create their own scenarios, which may well be hotter than whatever I might provide for them. But as the series progressed, and particularly when Dick met Jonathan, the focus shifted, and my publisher did not like it. He simply does not believe in the concept of monogamy and wanted Dick to return to his old bed-hopping days. Our differences grew until, after the publication of The Paper Mirror, the tenth DH adventure, Bill announced that he was dropping the series.

Serendipitously, at about the same time I was approached by Liz Burton of Zumaya Publications who, wanted to do a print version of my rewritten western, Calico, which had been published as an e-book. I agreed, and when GLB dropped me, I stepped right over to Zumaya.

WO:Which is your favourite book? The one you most enjoyed writing, the one whose characters still fill your dreams at night?

DG: I've always been very reluctant to choose any one of my books as my favorite, but using the criterion you listed, it has to be The Butcher's Son. (The Ninth Man, which was the first Dick Hardesty written, was first published as a e-book. The Butcher's Son, the second book written but the first to appear in print, is therefore considered to be the first in the series. Very confusing.) I don't know why, but I poured so much of myself and my emotions and my personal fantasies into The Butcher's Son, it is probably the one that stays with me most strongly. I'm sending along a brief excerpt from it.

WO: Where do you see your writing going from here on?

DG: As for my writing itself, I hope to continue to polish and prune and pare and tweek and tighten. I'll never reach perfection, but I'll never stop trying. As for what I write, well....

WO: Have you done with the Dick Hardesty series, or are there a few more still to come?

DG: And this question picks up on the previous. I truly love my characters. They are, to me, very real people who just happen to exist in an alternate universe, and I am truly delighted that so many of my readers have come to feel the same way. While each book can stand on its own as a separate entity, I've come to consider each book in the Dick Hardesty series as another chapter in the continuing story of Dick, Jonathan, Joshua, and their friends. I plan to write Dick Hardesty novels until my readers tire of them.

WO: The Elliott Smith series are an interesting variant of the hard-boiled P.I. thrillers. Can we expect a few more about these interesting and likable guys?

DG: I began the Elliott Smith series as a counterpoint to the Dick Hardesty series; to keep me from becoming locked in to a set style or pattern; to give me new perspectives with a new set of characters and situations. Alternating the two series will, I hope, help keep both of them fresh.


WO: Are there plans to turn any more Dick Hardesty stories into films?

DG: LOL! My plans, or anyone else's plans? I'd of course love to see Dick and Jonathan and the gang on film, but wanting something and getting it are quite different things.


WO:Which other authors of gay P.I.'s do you admire?

DG: I really admire Anthony Bidulka and Greg Herron, and Kage Alan, and...oh, Lord, I dread questions like this because sure as the devil I'm going to leave people out who should definitely be mentioned.

WO: What do you read yourself?

DG: One of my greatest frustrations is that I am so busy writing I have almost no time to read. But I lately when I can, I try to keep up with other gay mystery writers. I currently am trying to juggle three books at once. Not a good idea.

WO: What are you working on right now?

DG: I'm about 13,000 words into The Peripheral Son, book #14 of the Dick Hardesty series. It centers on the disappearance of the son of a boxing promoter who blames the son for the death of his wife (the son's mother) in childbirth.

WO: That's a most interesting avatar you use on several sites. Why don't you use a photo of yourself?

DG: Because, like vampires, I do not photograph. Whenever friends force me to have a picture taken with them, the resulting photo shows them with some guy I have never seen before and have no desire to ever see again. It's really a perverse form of reverse narcissism. I so love physical beauty and have never possessed it so I borrow it whenever I can. The photo I use for my avatar is from Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, which is the most beautiful production I have ever seen on stage. (I've seen it a total of 10 times!)

WO: So, do you have anything you'd like to say to the reader in closing?

DG: Only that you, the reader, are the most important person in a writer's life. To hear, as I too often do, someone say "Oh, I'm just a reader" drives me to distraction. Without readers, a writer might as well just talk to himself. I fear I'm shameless in trying to convince you to read my books and blogs which, after all I write with you in mind. I'd be delighted to have you stop by my website and look around. You can see the covers of all my books to see if any appeal to you, and/or watch several video book trailers, and/or read the first chapter of any or all of my books. I have several blogs going...every Monday/Wednesday/Friday on my site and at Dorien Grey and Me, plus a blog every Monday on Authors Den . And there is, honestly, nothing I love better than hearing from a reader at doriengrey@gmail.com. So, having said all this, let me also thank Wilde Oats for the chance to drag out my little soapbox and tell you more about myself than you may have cared to know.

[You can read a snippet from The Butcher's Son here]

 

 

If it is possible to have a split personality without being schizophrenic, writer Dorien Grey qualifies. When long-time book and magazine editor Roger Margason chose the pseudonym for his first book, it set off a chain of circumstances which has led to the comfortable division of labor and responsibility. Roger has charge of day-to-day existence, freeing Dorien—with the help of Roger’s fingers—to write. It has reached the point where Roger merely sits back and reads the stories Dorien brings forth on the computer screen.

It’s not as though Roger has not had an uninteresting life of his own. Two years into college, he left to join the Naval Aviation Cadet program. Washing out after a year, he spent the rest of his brief military career on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean at the height of the cold war. The journal he kept of his time in the military, in the form of letters home, honed his writing skills and provided him with a wealth of experiences to draw from in his future writing. These letters will be appearing in book form shortly.

Returning to Northern Illinois University after service, he graduated with a B.A. in English, and embarked on a series of jobs which worked him into the editing field. While working for a Los Angeles publishing house, he was instrumental in establishing a division exclusively for the publication of gay paperbacks and magazines, of which he became editor. He moved on to edit a leading L.A. based international gay men's magazine.

Tiring of earthquakes, brush fires, mud slides, and riots, he returned to the Midwest, where Dorien emerged, full-blown, like Venus from the sea. They’ve been inseparable (and interchangeable) ever since.

He . . . and Dorien of course…moved back to Chicago in 2006, where they now devote full time to writing. After having published thirteen books in the popular Dick Hardesty Mystery series, the western/romance/adventure novel, Calico, and the recent release of Caesar's Fall, the third book in his new Elliott Smith Mystery series, he is busily at work on yet another Dick Hardesty mystery.

But for a greater insight into the "real person" behind Dorien Grey, the curious are invited to check out his website and his various blogs: Dorien Grey and Me and A Life in Photos among them.

There is nothing Dorien loves more than hearing from a reader. If you'd like to contact him, just drop him a note at doriengrey@gmail.

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Wilde Oats is published three times a year, in April, August and December. Click here to be automatically informed of new issues when they are published.

WO: What first suggested a gay P.I. as your hero?

DG: Because I was sick unto death of these ultra-butch, rabidly heterosexual p.i.'s who dominated the genre.  I wanted to write a gay P.I. because, while there must have been some by other gay writers, I was unaware of them. I wanted there to be a gay p.i. gays could identify with, so I created one.