The Writers Who Read series continues this week with writing team Racheline Maltese and Erin McRae.
Who are you?
We are Racheline Maltese and Erin McRae, and we’re a cowriting team of awesome. Together, we write the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles (Torquere Press), set in the film and television industry, and Love’s Labours (Dreamspinner Press), set in the theater world. We have stories out in several anthologies, and are currently working on a number of projects featuring everything from spies to faeries to royals to demons.
Which book or series was your gateway into the world of reading?
Erin: For me it was the Little House books. I made my mom reread them to me until the covers fell off, and then once I was old enough to read myself, I took over and basically destroyed what was left of them. I loved the immersion into another life and another world. Also, I really wanted a sunbonnet.
Racheline: My primary school had a massive book fair every year, where we had to buy the many many books on our summer reading lists that we had tests on during the first week of school, but there were also fun things to buy. I was a precocious reader but wasn’t really into reading until I was 12 and a friend dared me to read The Vampire Lestat because we found it on the table for the older students and she knew I was afraid of vampires. That was the first time I read something that lingered with me, that made me feel like I was someone other than who I was, like the book knew the truth about me that no one else did.
Nowadays, what makes you crack open a book instead of pressing play on your favorite Netflix show?
Erin: Basically travel. Most of my reading these days, I do at the airport or on a train. I love TV as a storytelling medium, and usually watch an episode or two a day of something with my partner, usually over dinner. But carving out time for reading is harder. I wish I did more, but there’s always one more thing I want to write first — or a nap I need to have!
Racheline: In a lot of ways, TV can be my medium of choice, but reading feels so much more private and intimate. I also can be easily overwhelmed by sensory input, so for me reading is always about needing to be soothed, and needing to take the rest of the world away. TV can be multitasked, books can’t.
Which authors are auto-buys for you? Why?
Erin: Neal Stephenson. I don’t even read the blurbs of his stories before I start reading them — I know I’m in for a solid ride, and I love going into his worlds cold and watching them unfold.
Racheline: Steve Erickson. Lucie Brock-Broido. Elizabeth Hand. Ellen Kushner (which is probably cheating to answer with because we’re actually working on a project together right now, but it’s been true for years prior to this opportunity).
What is your book kryptonite–those unique settings, tropes, or character types that make you unable to resist reading? (Ex. Other writers have mentioned things like being drawn to reading about dead bodies in ponds or erstwhile rivals teaming up.)
Erin: It’s funny that “dead bodies in ponds” was an example kryptonite given. I grew up in a house in the swamp where Arthur Shawcross, the Genesee River Killer, dumped the bodies of his victims. True story. That said, I am a huge sucker for behind the scenes stories. Whether it’s something like The West Wing, which is backstage to the machinery of American politics, or Noises Off which is a hilarious farce that takes place, literally, backstage to a play, I love stories about everything happening behind the formal façade.
Racheline: Backstage stories are the thing that brings Erin and I together. I’m also always desperately interested in narratives about class differences and about passing, just because of my own experiences. I’m also really driven by newness of experience for the characters in a story — obviously, tons of romance hits that button, but tons of other things do too.
What is your ideal time and place to read?
Erin: I feel like I should say “On the couch, curled up with a mug of tea and a cat while it rains outside.” But I think the answer actually is, in the little moments: on the train, in between meetings, waiting for the light to change. I savor stories more in those little stolen moments than I do when I get a whole afternoon to devote to a book.
Racheline: I don’t think I get to have ideal reading moments. For me, it’s always in transit. I travel a lot internationally, so often my TBR pile is only addressed before I’m about to do another 6 – 8 hours east or west for work. There was a three month period in my life a few years ago where I was on another international flight every three days for two months. That was good for reading; I’d also really prefer never to do that again.
Are you a re-reader? Why or why not?
Erin: Voracious re-reader here. I love the experience of stories — not just finding out what happens, but sinking into a world I love and staying there. I keep a tally in my most re-read books (Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter among them) to keep track.
Racheline: Books are talismans for me. I’ve reread some things until they’ve split into fragments and been held together with rubber bands.
Which books have had the biggest influence on your writing?
Erin: Lucy Maude Montgomery’s stories. Not so much in style, and I rarely write as sweetly, but her Anne books put people and relationships — friendships as well as romantic entanglements — front and center, and really taught me how people’s everyday lives and struggles make very good stories indeed.
Racheline: I really, really love the work of Annie Ernaux, who is a French author of personal essay. I’ve read some of it in the original language, but my French isn’t good enough to claim influence from anything but the English translations. It’s very poetic and her work understands the power of generalizations — it’s like the difference between “My mother never loved me” and “Sometimes, I think my mother never loved me.” Ernaux makes her choices on which to use when very clearly, and I’ve found it helpful. Her work is also profoundly driven by cadence. I’m always writing to sound. So that’s key for me.
What makes a book a satisfying read for you?
Racheline: The characters for me. Again, my life comes back to airplanes. Is there someone in a book that I wish could hold my hand when the plane takes off?
Erin: Depends on the genre. If it’s non-fiction, or history, I want a narrative to make sense of the world, even if it’s not one I agree with. If it’s fiction, I want complex relationships and character development.
What are you reading right now?
Racheline: Graveyard Sparrow by Kayla Bashe. It’s a lesbian YA steampunk mystery.
Erin: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, by Karen Abbott. It’s about four women undercover during the American Civil War.
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Erin McRae is a queer writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. She has a master’s degree in International Affairs from American University, and delights in applying her knowledge of international relations theory to her fiction and screen-based projects, because conflict drives narrative.
Racheline Maltese lives a big life from a small space. She flies planes, sails boats, and rides horses, but as a native New Yorker has no idea how to drive a car. A long-time entertainment and media industry professional, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their two cats.
Together, they are co-authors of the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry — Starling (September 10, 2014), Doves (January 21, 2015), and Phoenix (June 10, 2015) — from Torquere Press. Their gay romance novella series Love’s Labours, set in the theater world — Midsummer (May 2015), and Twelfth Night (Fall 2015), is from Dreamspinner Press. They also have a story in Best Gay Romance 2015 from Cleis Press and edited by Felice Picano. You can find them on the web at http://www.Avian30.com.
Joint Blog
Joint Facebook Page
Erin’s Twitter
Racheline’s Twitter
Erin’s Goodreads
Racheline’s Goodreads
Erin’s Amazon Author Page
Racheline’s Amazon Author Page
“reading is always about needing to be soothed, and needing to take the rest of the world away” – love this – so true!