QUEER LIT Q&A: CHRIS COLBY

Mark Ward was on my Q&A a fortnight ago, but this week is the turn of his more-salacious alter-ego Chris Colby. Colby’s first story, Fancy Dress, appeared in my anthology Threesome, and has received some rather nice reviews since then, and I’m sure there’s more to come from the the Colby name…

CHRIS COLBY

1. Tell me about a piece of yours that you’re particularly proud of…
Well, this is a really easy question for me, as so far, I’ve only had one piece published under the name Chris Colby, which I used for romance/erotica. Fancy Dress is a story set in a college dorm, the tense friendships within and the unlikely threesome that occurs. It also has drag queens dancing with superman, erotic viking dreams, drunken bets and some one time only shagging! I’m hoping to do more as Chris – I’m currently working on a novel, a romance between a private investigator and a computer programmer, set in San Antonio, Texas. I have two follow-ups planned too – it’s just getting the time to write them is the main thing!

2. Recommend me a novel/short story/poem/collection by someone else that you think everyone should be reading… 
Return on Investment by Aleksandr Voinov. This comes to mind because I’ve recently just read the sequel, Risk Return. Aleks has written lots of m/m romance, solo and a good few with another favourite of mine, L.A. Witt, but Return on Investment is less romance and more of a gay financial thriller. Which is not something that I thought would be “Oh My God Amazing” but it was. Be warned, it’s darker than most romances but the story is tightly plotted and the characters deftly drawn. And, I’ve just finished the sequel which is very different but just as good.

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Chris Colby is a pseudonym of Mark Ward who is from Dublin, Ireland. His short story, Fancy Dress, was featured in Threesome: Him, Him and Me (Lethe Press). He is currently working on his first novel. Under his real name, he writes poetry and has been featured in Assaracus, Tincture, The Good Men Project, HIV Here + Now, Off the Rocks, The Wild Ones, Emerge andGlitterwolf, for whom he was the 2015 Poet Laureate. He has recently completed his first chapbook, How to Live When Life Subtracts and is currently working on a novel-in-verse called Circumference. http://astintinyourspotlight.wordpress.com