3.5 and 4 Stars for Underground: Special Teams by Sean Michael – #M/M Romance

Often referred to as “Space Cowboy” and “Gangsta of Love” while still striving for the moniker of “Maurice,” Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to “Chicago.”A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.Barring any of that? He’ll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.

• Can you describe in detail what your writing environment is like?

Messy. My desk has my computer on it, pens all over the place, bits of paper with notes, reminders, ideas, and a very lopsided pile of ‘things to deal with’. Every now and then I clean it (usually when I’m procrastinating) but it never stays neat for long.

• Is there one of your characters that you relate to (from any of your works)? Why?

From Underground: Special Teams? I’d say I relate more to Hunter than to Keifer. Hunter isn’t quite as… focused and single minded as Keifer is.

• If you couldn’t be an author, what would you do instead?

Go to outer space – I always wanted to be an astronaut and I still do.

• Is there anything that you learned during the writing process that you wish you had known before hand?

I didn’t always write linearly. After I had to put together a few books and write new stuff for where I’d skipped ahead (or back) I learned that it made more sense for me to write from the start to the finish. Sometimes I still have to add stuff as I go through a completed first draft, but if I’ve made the effort to write the story linearly, it’s much easier to get ready for submission.

• Is there anything that you wish you could change about your book now that it is out?

I try not to do that. That way lies madness.

• How do you come up with new ideas for your story?

There are stories all around – very often I’ll see someone or a situation and in the back of my head I might go, what’s his story, or what if he… Then the characters introduce themselves to me and insist I write down their tale.

• What’s next for you as a writer?

I’m always working on several books at once, so there’s always something on the go. And I write every day, so even when I finish one book, there’s another waiting to take its place.

• Where do you live? Do you think this influences how or what you write?

I live in Canada so a number of my books are set there instead of in the US, but on the whole, I don’t think it really does.

• What is your favorite genre outside of the one you write in? Why?

I’m a big sci-fi fan, and my favorite within that is post-apocalyptic fiction.

• Do you have any vices? Shoes, coffee, shopping…etc?

I watch too much TV and I love to eat.