Ethan Stone - In The Flesh

'm so excited to be hosting Ethan Stone today. He's an up and coming author and he's talking about his current release, In the Flesh and how it's connected with his upcoming release, Flesh and Blood. Welcome Ethan to my little corner. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The idea of Cristian Flesh, the star of my first book In the Flesh and the sequel, Flesh & Blood, due out in March, started with only his last name. I loved the idea of using the name Flesh. I knew Flesh was a very visceral character, one who spoke his mind and loved sex. And it grew from there. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. But, like dozens—hundreds—of other people I had plenty of excuses. I was married, had kids, going to school full time, working full time, starting a career, ending a career, accepting I was gay, getting a divorce, being a single father and plenty of other excuses. I just didn’t think I had it in me and most of all, I didn’t think there was a market for what I wanted to write. I had absolutely no idea there was such a huge market for the stories in my head—fiction starring gay men with a strong sexual content. Then a few things happened the first was discovering a magnificent website Paperback Swap. I discovered the existence of the m/m genre and also made a wonderful friend. She read m/m books as well and proposed we trade books amongst ourselves. We also learned we were both writers and it wasn’t long before she had her first book accepted by Dreamspinner Press—Promises by Marie Sexton.

With Marie’s help I saw that it was everyday people getting published in the m/m genre. I messed with a few things I had written years before but nothing clicked. Then, like I said before, I came up with an idea for a character with the last name of Flesh. I wrote out the basic concept of Cristian Flesh on my down time at work. Page after page of notebook paper with character and plot notes. Names of supporting characters changed even within those pages, but the plot stayed the same from there until my first draft. Forcing myself to write that first draft wasn’t easy at all, but thanks to Marie, I pushed on. And then she read my first draft. And that’s where the plot changed. I had been so set on the plot I had originally envisioned that I didn’t see the major problems. The biggest problem was that Cristian looked like a dirty cop and a jerk. And not even a lovable jerk, just a downright asshole. So that meant a major rewrite and then more rewriting and more rewriting. Thank God, Marie was patient with me, especially since she was busy working her own novels. Cristian Flesh did end up being very similar to how I originally envisioned him. He can be a dick, and he’ll tell you that, but when he loves, he loves completely and totally. I don’t know if there’ll be any stories with Cristian after Flesh & Blood, though I do have some basic story ideas—including a short which would take place before In the Flesh and involves Cristian and a pair of red-headed twins. Flesh & Blood is due to be published in early April and Wolf Moon, a paranormal story, is due out at the end of April. I’m slowly working on my fourth novel, a story starring Gabe Vargas who was a supporting character in both In the Flesh and Flesh & Blood. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Awesome, Ethan! I love to hear about how other people's book are born. I would say created but to me, it's the work, nurturing, molding and polishing to make a good book a great book. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing with us. You can find Ethan's books here: His website is here: