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Year: 2010

Yaoi, M/M Romance Character Interview: Shannon Sullivan

I thought it would be fun to post some “character interviews” from my books and maybe give some further insight to their background and such. First off – Shannon Sullivan, the main character from “A Summer Without Rain.” If you haven’t read the book, here’s a quick blurb and you can access more information here. If you’ve read it, feel free to skip the blurb;)

The picture to the left there is my first character sketch of Shannon. It’s very rough and I used charcoal and paper as the medium, then of course took a photo of it and uploaded it from my camera. The paper this is drawn on is 18×24 inches, so it’s huge! I wanted him to look pensive and a bit shy:) Anyhow, thought anyone reading this might get a kick out of seeing my first impression of him. Maybe I should call this “Behind the Book”, LOL.

Blurb:

In 1920’s Ireland, Shannon understands all too well that the love and hunger he feels for his best friend, Ciaran, is forbidden.  He’s already shunned by his town and emotionally damaged from enduring painful confessions after a male teacher’s molestation at age fourteen.  But when he finds Ciaran in a barn, grieving over the sudden death of his mother, a hasty and desperate embrace shatters an unspoken boundary between them.  Then, Shannon and Ciaran are sent on a journey to Dublin to bring a family heirloom to Ciaran’s aunt.  Along the way, a drunken evening leads to an illicit act in a hotel room, confusing Ciaran and forcing them both down a treacherous path of deceit and desire.  Can love overcome the obstacles of Irish society, the Catholic Church, and political unrest?

So, on with the interview (and yes, we’re back in 1920’s Ireland. Fiction is magic, you know):

Me: I’m sitting here at a small square table in a dark Irish pub called, McFlynne’s Whiskey River, with Shannon Sullivan from “A Summer without Rain”.

Me: *turns to Shannon* Hi, Shannon, it’s great to see you again after what was it, two years now?

Shannon: Almost two years. I’ve been quite busy, you know, in all that time.

Me: Busy doing what?

Shannon: *blushes and looks away* Getting ready for a serious thing with Ciaran.

Me: Serious? What sort of serious thing?

Shannon: *wringing hands* Well, seems we’ve come to a point where just living together in Aunt Iona’s flat isn’t enough. We want our own place, a bloody right place for us. One with thick walls and windows that shut real tight now.

Me: *laughing* So no one hears you having sex?

Shannon: *eyes wide* Christie, I can’t believe you would bloody say that! I thought you were a right decent woman…

Me: I’m the one that wrote all those torrid sex scenes, remember?

Shannon: *blushes again* Right… *he looks up at me with a twinkle in his eye* And I bloody well thank you for that.

Me: Okay, so how are you and Ciaran doing?

Shannon: Ah, he’s all right. I do love the bloody bastard and all, but sometimes he angers me something fierce. *sits forward in his chair* Like the other day, he thought it was a grand idea to write a letter to me ma and da, trying to explain how much their silence over these years pains me. And now they’re coming out from Enfield to see me. Can you bloody believe that? I about shat myself.

Me: *smiling and taking Shannon’s hand* I’m glad they’re finally coming to see you. And you should thank Ciaran for loving you so much that he did that for you. It must have been one hell of a letter to get them to actually come out. It’s got to be  a very tough thing for them to face.

Shannon. Yeah, Aunt Iona and Ciaran’s da say they’ll stand behind me no matter what when they come. But I’m bloody petrified. What if me da tries to have me arrested or sent off to the bloody nuthouse?

Me: Arrested? I don’t think so…

Shannon: But he bloody well could.

Me: I don’t think so.

Shannon: *looks around a moment* I s’pose Aunt Iona and Mr. O’Kelly would put  stop to it.

Me: Don’t worry, Shannon. Ciaran would be the one who’d put a stop to it. You know he’d find a way and I doubt he’d allow your dad to visit knowing that something like that might happen. He loves you and I know he’d do anything for you.

Shannon: *smiles* Yeah, the bloody bastard.

Me: So how’ve you gotten on here in Dublin?

Shannon: Bloody great, actually. I have lots of friends now and even female friends that don’t care so much about me and Ciaran. I guess they’re more like Aunt Iona. See, we all belong to this sort of underground club. One that’s just for people like us, you know, *chuckles* people who like mint ice cream. In fact, that’s what we call it.

Me: Mint ice cream?

Shannon: *sits back and shakes head* No, the Mint Club. Aunt Iona started it before we even came down here the first time. Now it’s all bleedin’ political and stuff.

Me: *smiles* So did you ever learn how to drive a car?

Shannon: *frowns and rubs table surface with fingers* Sort of.

Me: Sort of ? Is that a no? *chuckles*

Shannon: No, that’s a sort of. I bloody hate driving automobiles and I can’t fathom why Ciaran can’t just leave it be.

Me: I got a hint for you, *sits forward* they’re not going away.

Shannon: Ah hell.

And there you have it. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I liked writing it;) Oh, and the picture on the right, there, is the final drawing of Shannon for the book cover. If you click on it, it’ll open up bigger:)

My Top 10 Anime Opening JRock Songs

Okay, so I have updated my site, finally, after enduring much mental anguish because of a crashed hard drive:( That’s a whole blog in itself… and I’m still waiting to get my data back so I can finish my next book >.<

But, I did post on Twitter and Facebook about another blog that listed the “10 Best Anime Songs” and most of these songs were not to my taste, so I thought I would do my own. Granted, this is really hard because I like so many, but I’m giving it a shot. So here goes. Remember, I am no music critic. I like what I like and that’s about it. So please forgive some of my lamer comments, LOL. Let me know what you think!

Honorable Mention: Gundam 00 – Daybreak’s Bell by L’arc en Ciel

 

This song captures Gundum 00 so well, it’s just stunning. But I already have a place for a L’arc en Ciel song… alas…

10. D Gray Man – Innocent Sorrow by Abingdon Boys School

 

I just found this song (because I’m stupid and I just found D Gray Man, LOL) and it’s fast becoming a favorite.

9. Gankutsuou – We Were Lovers by Jean-Jaques Bernel

Okay, so not a JRock song specifically, but a very beautiful song for a really well-done anime. The artwork is fantastic and let’s face it, it’s yaoi:)

8.  Full Metal Alchemist –  Ready Steady Go by L’Arc en Ciel

This was the song that started it all for me. I literally fell in love with JRock after hearing this song for the first time and I’ve never looked back. I even stayed up one night until 4am turning this song into a ring tone for my old Motorola Razr cell phone. Yes, I’m that dedicated;) Thank you, L’arc en Ciel!

7. Bleach – Life is Like a Boat by Rie Fu

If you’ve never heard the full version of this beautiful song, you’re missing out.

6.  Casshern Sins – Aoi Hana by Color Bottle

What can I say? Awesome artwork and a very angst-ridden plot, but a happy sounding song. I have to say I listen to this song pretty much every day right now…

5. Death Note – The World by Nightmare

Ah, a cool song for an anime that has some of the best artwork ever (my opinion). I love the way the music gives you a feel for the story and how the opening follows it.

4. Blood + – Season’s Call by Hyde

Um… Hyde is a vampire, isn’t he?  This was also a ring tone of mine, he he he. I love Hyde’s voice…

3. Blood Trinity – Dress by Buck Tick

This song says vampire all over it. Haunting. Perfect. And love that bass line!

2. Bleach – D-Technolife by Uverworld

Just a plain cool song. The way they pull off the changes in tempo in the full version is awesome. They used this song back before Bleach turned into Inuyasha and had a million episodes that were all the same – just a new character to fight:( Sorry, but I got a bit tired of Bleach…

1. Ergo Proxy – Kiri by Monoral

I will never tire of this song and I must say this is in my top three all time favorite animes. The song fits the anime so well, it’s uncanny. The plot is just like the song – philosophical, dark and brooding and put together so well, every time I play it for my non-JRock friends, they all stop and listen in awe of it’s greatness:)

Death Note Yaoi Fanfiction: Why We Make Men Who Hate Each Other Fuck Each Other

This is a common theme in yaoi, is it not? Us fangirls and fanboys taking two characters of a series on clearly opposite sides, who clearly hate each other and then making them, well, fuck. I can think of so many it’s not even funny (okay, maybe it is). There’s Kira and Athrun, Ed and Roy, Ed and Envy (isn’t Envy really his homunculus brother?), Lalouch and Suzaku, Zero and Kaname and of course pretty much all the men of Death Note including Light and L, Near and Mello, and every combination in-between.

I think this may be a left over from the classical romance days. Wasn’t the heroine always supposed to hate the man she was secretly attracted to? And the man is always an ass to the woman initially, until he’s been scorned repeatedly and then somehow miraculously decides he’s in love with her, changes over night and off into the sunset they ride on their gleaming white horse. Oh my, I seem to have gotten off on a tangent. Tsk tsk to me for having so much hetero talk on a yaoi and M/M romance blog! Ack! So my point is that in yaoi and M/M romance fandom, it seems like we’re following this age old theme. We take two hot guys on the opposite sides of a war, who battle against each other (and if they happened to be childhood friends and very angst-ridden it’s even better;) ) and somehow in our fanfiction world, they come together and their passion for each other is so overwhelming… they fuck. In the ass. First time. Okay, so maybe not the first time. You want your reader to wait for that, but you want to give them a little something so the characters like, bump into each other, get drunk, whatever and soon they’re kissing on each other and groping like the sexually frustrated virgins we make them out to be;)

And it’s hot, I have to admit. So what makes it so hot to read about Light and L getting it on? Well, there was that handcuff thing, but I think I’ve beat that one to death, LOL. Maybe it’s because it adds an even higher level of the forbidden. I mean, for me at least, the “forbidden” is part of what makes yaoi and M/M Romance such a great love story to read. It adds angst and lots of drama for not only these guys to be OMG, gay for each other, but to not supposed to like each other at all. And in Death Note, we have two extremely smart individuals who in the series are playing this sort of cat and mouse game with each other. Can you imagine the reaction of Light’s father if he found out his son was sticking it to L? Hah!!! How about the other guys on the case? And Misa would be heartbroken. Good, I hated her anyway. The shock and horror on her face if she walked in to L and Light in the middle of a hot and heavy boinking session would be a sight to behold. But back to the cat and mouse game, I wonder how many fanfiction stories have this being played out in the bedroom as well: 

Pinning L’s arms up above his head on their bed, Light looked down upon a naked L with a smirk. The chains connected to their handcuffs jingled. He ground his hips onto L’s erection and leaned down to savor L’s lips, sweet with the mint candy he’d eaten. “You know, I’ve heard mints are great for blow jobs.”
“So…I guess I’ll be giving the blow job tonight?” L’s eyes sparkled with mischievous intent.
Light thought a moment. If he gives me the blow job, then that means he knows I’m Kira. But if he doesn’t give me the blow job, then maybe he wants to fuck me instead. If he wants to fuck me, then maybe he’ll find out that Kira can kill with more than just heart attacks. But if we just kiss, then maybe he’s found out about it already.
Ryuk leaned down and peered up into Light’s face. “Jesus, kid, would you just do it already? I need my apple fix.” 

See what I mean? LOL. So why do you think we love to make men who hate each other fuck each other?