Interview: Rick R. Reed, author of 'Raining Men'
First up, a review of Raining Men:
Bobby Nelson is the poster boy for "looking for love in all the wrong places." He's selfish, promiscuous, amoral and a sex addict. Why do I want you to read this book? Just trust me on this. I usually try to justify bad behavior, or attempt to understand a character's motivations. When I read about Bobby in the previous book, Chaser, he was so reprehensible that I had no sympathy or understanding whatsoever. He betrayed his best friend without any qualms. I loved Chaser, and when I read that Rick was writing a sequel, I sent him a message, "If you're even thinking about redeeming Bobby in Raining Men, well I trust you can but geez I hate him right now!" Rick said I was supposed to hate him!
I was right to trust this author. In Raining Men I was on Bobby's side from the beginning. We are in Bobby's head this time with his thoughts and feelings that we weren't privy to in the first book. Raining Men begins with Bobby waking from a nightmare and, for the first time, not remembering who he ended up in bed with.
He takes a friend's advice and sees a therapist. So begins Bobby's understanding of his self-destructive behavior and his addiction to sex. Bobby's in a trap of his own making. He uses sex as a panacea for his loneliness, but it leaves him more bereft each time he has a meaningless encounter. When he admits to his betrayal of his best friend Caden to Camille, his therapist, he says, "I just wanted someone to love me."
My cold heart started the big thaw. He needed to be loved but was helpless to go about finding a man to be with permanently. When Bobby's father dies, he has to face some devastating truths. Bobby hated his father, who belittled him and never showed him any affection. At his father's funeral, Bobby leans down over his father ostensibly to say goodbye. What came out was, "You can't hurt me anymore."
My heart was no longer cold. Bobby tries so hard to understand himself and change the path he is on. When his attempt to make amends with his best friend fails, he's back on a downward spiral of frequent, anonymous sex. Bobby joins Sex Addicts Anonymous and makes strides into understanding himself, though he suffers setbacks. However, it's not all gloomy. On his way home one night, he finds an abandoned little dog. I knew Bobby was on his way out of his self-indulgent ways when he decided to take the dog home. I saw the humor that was inherent in Bobby, that had been overshadowed by his negative traits. Bobby names him Johnny Wadd in honor of the dog's attributes.
He petted him. In their little dance, the dog revealed to Bobby that he was, indeed, a male. And, for a Chihuahua, quite a well-endowed one. "You little stud," Bobby whispered, laughing.
I'm convinced that Johnny the dog was the beginning of Bobby's salvation, giving and receiving simple affection. He comes to terms with his resentment of his father. He works hard to resist anonymous sex every time he's stressed. He's trying to accept that he may never fix his relationship with Caden. Aaron, a man from his support group, becomes an important part of his life even though Bobby did not make a great impression on Aaron the first time they met. Aaron sees something in Bobby that he once saw in himself, something worth saving. I enjoyed Bobby's journey out of the dark.
I loved this book. Rick had me at the Prologue and wrote one of my favorite Epilogues. The books can stand alone but if you read Chaser first, you'll see the brilliance of Rick's ability to completely change your opinion of Bobby. With that in mind I had to ask Rick about it.
Mary: Did you have Bobby's backstory in mind when you wrote Chaser?
Rick: Not really. I actually wanted to cast him as an antagonist and wanted people to hate him, and I think I did a good job of that. The funny thing is some people, even some reviewers, saw Bobby being so unlikable as a flaw in the book. Superficially, I never intended for people to like him, although there were clues there for careful readers that Bobby was desperately lonely and unhappy, and a grown man who was completely clueless about how to find love. It's this last aspect that I wanted to explore more fully, which is what made me want to write Bobby's story, which, I think, turned out to be a deeper and more significant book than Chaser. But I didn't have a sequel in mind when I wrote Chaser. Bobby just kept whispering in my ear to tell his story. And when a cute guy whispers in my ear, I'm pretty much unable to resist.
Mary: You're known as the "Stephen King" of gay horror but you also wrote the beautifully romantic Beau & the Beast. How do these two extremes co-exist in one brain?
Rick: I haven't been writing much horror lately; have you noticed? My last several books and stories have all been love stories, and all the ones I am working on or have lined up for the immediate future are romances. I think I have just reached a point in my life where I am more interested in exploring the human heart than I am in exploring reactions to terror. Besides, the physical manifestations of desire—a racing heart, faster respiration, and more—are often the same as reactions to something horrific, so maybe I am not as far afield as you may think at first blush. But really, romance is calling to me much more these days, and even when I was writing horror, I was a softie at heart and an incurable romantic. When I was mainly a horror writer, people were always surprised when they met me that I was such a nice—and dare I say, meek, fellow—and they wondered how I could think up some of the dreadful s*** I did.
Mary: What is your favorite genre to write?
Rick: Right now, it's romance. I love exploring what draws people together, what keeps them apart, and the universal theme of wanting that one special person to walk by our side as we journey through life. I think it's something most people hunger for and not all of us get it, so it's nice to create a world where happily ever afters can and do happen—often.
Mary: What's next on your publishing schedule?
Rick:Hungry for Love (Dreamspinner Press, September 2013): A contemporary romance about who we really are. By turns, comical and touching, Hungry for Love explores online dating, fake gay romance author personas and their consequences, and how trying to be someone you're not can get in the way of finding your happy-ever-after.
Legally Wed (Dreamspinner Press, January 2014): Duncan only wants to be married. When Washington State makes gay marriage legal, he proposes to his beloved—and is turned down, becoming the next in a long line of rejection and heartbreak. Can Duncan find happiness and contentment in a sexless marriage to his best friend, Marilyn? Or is true love with a man closer than he ever imagined, as his handsome wedding planner turns his thoughts away from his wedding and toward possibilities he thought didn't exist for him.
To see more of Rick Reed's work, visit his website rickrreed.com, check him out on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter (@RickRReed).
Mary Grzesik got her start reading cereal boxes. She loves tennis, reading books, talking about books and writing about books. She can't decide which is her favorite thing: her e-reader or her tennis racket.
