MJ Pearson
I met MJ Pearson back in 2005, after her agent, Sharene Martin-Brown, sent me a manuscript titled Courting Jamie. The author was Marlys Pearson, who would later be called MJ Pearson. At the time I was starting a new company and didn’t want anyone to think that Marlys’s book would be “less real” because a woman wrote it. And so, after working hard with Marlys on revisions, The Price of Temptation by MJ Pearson was born.
The Price of Temptation garnered all-around favorable reviews and MJ Pearson began to gain fans. Her following title, Discreet Young Gentleman, sold out of its first pressing in less than a year.
Discreet Young Gentleman and Helpless were both pure perfection when they crossed my desk. MJ Pearson had learned from our first editing process and had grown as a writer.
MJ Pearson’s third title, Helpless, is a masterpiece. It shows how far gay 
rights have not come while painting a clear picture as to why we need gay marriage. Yes, all of this disguised in a fun, romantic story. Who says romance is irrelevant? I am so proud to be a part of this book. It is my favorite MJ Pearson novel to date.
Over the years, via e-mails, cocktails at The Algonquin and telephone conversations, I’ve gotten to know the woman behind the stories. I find her to be vibrant, thoughtful and…well…a bit of a rebel. And with that in mind, I decided to ask her a few questions so her readers would get to know her.
What made you write M/M romance? Specifically historic.
I started reading historical romance when I was seven (see question below), and have read literally hundreds of them over the years—gothics, Regencies, bodice-rippers, other assorted historicals. Ate ‘em like candy. Nom nom nom. I always figured I’d write one someday, but wasn’t sure I had the skills to craft something original enough to stand out in the genre.
Then, when I worked in a bookstore and was in charge of both the GLBT and romance sections, it became a backroom joke that I would someday write a gay Regency romance (more on that on my website). I couldn’t get that out of my head—finally I had something to wrap my head around, an exciting take on a traditional genre that I knew very well. So I sat down and wrote the first draft of what eventually became The Price of Temptation. And I liked it so much I wanted to do it again.
Where did you get the idea for Helpless? What inspired you to write Helpless? There’s a lot of mystery and darkness in Helpless. Where did that come from? (Ken—I’m combining these because the answer covers both.)
When I was younger, I had recurring dreams about being unsafe in my own house. In these dreams, I would go throughout the house, checking and re-checking the windows and door locks, but nothing could make me feel safe. Somewhere, there was a flaw. Somewhere, HE or SHE or IT—the threat was never defined—would get in. Typical anxiety dreams, I suppose, but vivid and intense. I decided to try to translate that to the page, to use the experience of feeling so afraid—helpless, even—to drive a story. The atmosphere came first, and the plot was built around it. And once fear and uncertainty are central to a romance, you’re naturally getting into romantic suspense territory.
This excerpt, where Douglas tries to calculate how many people it would take to help him search the house to convince him there was no intruder, is straight out of one of my dreams:
Douglas remained on his knees, frozen. He knew the routine so well now. First he would rise and force himself onto the porch to approach the back door, hanging open to the garden to let the warm air into the house. Then he would begin the search. Room by room, floor by floor. There would be nothing, no one. But how can one person thoroughly search a house of three floors—four with the basement? Someone could so easily hide, slip just ahead or behind the searcher, creep up the stairs to another story while he was searching the one below. How many people searching would it take to be certain? Three, just to cover the staircases. One—no, two for each floor, so the intruder could not sneak into one room while another was being investigated. Four more stationed outside, one on each side of the building to watch that their quarry didn’t slip out a window and off into the street.
Fifteen. It would take fifteen people to convince him that there wasn’t, had never been someone in his house. How could you trust so many? If one, just one were to be in league with the intruder…
What about the characters in Helpless sparked your interest?
I like to put complementary characters together. In this case, Douglas has a 
materially comfortable life, but it’s rather stagnant. So he admires Mark for pursuing an interest in books and running a bookstore despite having no need to work, and is attracted to Warren’s creativity and the freedom of the artistic crowd. The setting works almost as another character: at the same time that Douglas is starting to consider furthering his interest in these two other men, the Oscar Wilde case has closet doors slamming all over England. It was a dangerous time to fall in love, and so a very interesting one. The story became one of trying to live your life in a time of paranoia, when it seems the whole world is against you. Throw in any parallels you like with the so-called Defense of Marriage nonsense that is still going on in America…
Then, just when things are getting quite dark in Helpless, I felt the need to add a few flashes of light. In come Donnie and Keith, the art students who show up to look after Douglas. A bit of comic relief, but they also play an important part in the story.
Will you only write historical romance?
No, probably not, although I think even if I stray I’ll always come back to historicals. I’m a huge pro cycling fan, so I’ve been thinking about a contemporary cycling romance. Possibly including zombies. Oh, shut up—it’s a good story.
editor’s note: I would love a good zombie story! I love zombies.
What was the first romance book you read? Why did you like it?
The first romance novel I read was my grandmother’s copy of The Secret Woman, by Victoria Holt. I loved it and re-read it many times, but oddly I don’t remember the romance part of it very well—the things that stand out in my memory are the historical setting and the conflict between the main character and her elusive, adored, and murderous best friend. Yep, even in the very first romance I ever read, the same-sex relationship was the most interesting. I wish I’d paid attention to that earlier!
What would you like to accomplish with your writing career?
I want to write novels that I’m proud of, stories that other people connect with and get lost in the way I get lost in the books I love. For virtually all my life I wanted to be a writer, but got caught up in thinking that I had to wait until I had something “important” to say. All the while, I put myself to sleep every night by telling myself stories, long serials that could go on for months in my head. It finally occurred to me that the stories that entertained me might entertain other people, and that telling a good story WAS important.
Writing gay romance adds, for me, another level of importance. We live in a world where same-sex relationships are still controversial (once again, look at the struggle over marriage rights), so every author, every publisher who produces a same-sex romance is claiming a place in a very longstanding and traditional genre. The world needs that. People need to walk into a bookstore and see GLBT romances, mysteries, thrillers, adventure novels—visibility, I think, is vital to acceptance.
This post was written by: Ken Harrison
