A Fluid State
by Rob Browatzke
Hey Friends and Family!
Thanks for having me here to talk about “A Fluid State”. I’m particularly pleased with this one, and this guest post tells you why.
The idea for this book started off somewhere in SocialMediaLand. Someone was asking about books featuring gender-fluid kids with straight dads. That’s where this started. It was Patrick’s relationship with his son, Peter, that really inspired this book. I looked around my own life and saw the huge number of drag queens in it, saw the huge influence of Drag Race in so much of what’s currently pop culture, and I did the math. If Peter was exploring his gender identity, even just as far as dress, he probably would discover Drag Race, and that would lead him to drag queens in his own town.
Enter Andrew, aka Ann Moore.
What would happen when Peter’s dad met that drag queen, I wondered. I’m sure you’ve all seen about Drag Queen StoryTimes at local libraries and the confusion, anger, and hate that they can breed online. I knew that wasn’t going to be Patrick, aside from the confusion. Of course he’d be a little confused. To find his eleven-year-old son suddenly dressing in skirts and blouses, not to mention having long-flowing hair? What if Patrick found that drag queen attractive before realizing she was a drag queen? What if that attraction didn’t fade when he learned the truth?
Like that, the story of a boy and his dad became this gay-for-you happy-ever-after slow-burn.
I’m not normally much of a plotter, and this wasn’t an exception. I knew it was becoming a romance so I knew that meant at least a happy for now ending, but it’s also my instinct to toss in a lot of grief and anguish and pain to get there. This book was having none of that. Every place I wanted to insert some agony, maybe homophobic comrades-in-arms or an ex-wife freaking out, every single place I tried to up the drama, Patrick and Andrew simply told me, nope. Not in this book, not in this world. We’re here to fall in love, and that’s scary enough without random tragedy intervening.
That’s not to say everything is easy for Patrick and Andrew. Love isn’t easy, at the best of times, and when you factor in a changing relationship between father and son, as well as this first ever same-sex attraction? That road is going to have bumps in it no matter what I do. I mean heck, I’m just the writer. At some point in every story, I lose whatever control I had; it just so happens in this one, I never really had much to begin with.
As for heat level? This is the sexiest story I’ve written yet. Oh sure, pick up almost any of my other books and there will be sex, and loads of it, but this one? Patrick and Andrew sizzle together, and I hope you feel their chemistry as strongly as I do!
About A Fluid State
Patrick returns from a tour of duty to find his son very different. Peter is dressing in girl’s clothes, and his hair is too long, and he’s obsessed with drag queens. None of that sits well with Patrick. Patrick then meets the drag queen Ann Moore, and starts to hang out with them.
Andrew is one of River City’s best drag queens. As Ann Moore, he dazzles adults and children alike. When one of those children’s fathers wants to find out more about what his son is enjoying, Andrew is happy to guide him. It doesn’t hurt that Patrick is ridiculously hot. Hot and straight though.
The friendship that forms is unlikely, and even more unlikely, Patrick and Andrew find themselves faced with a chemistry they cannot deny.
Available at: Amazon
An Excerpt from A Fluid State
“So,” Andrew said, when they were relocated back to the couch, sitting facing each other, beers in hand.
“So.”
“First off, let me, well, set you straight on something. Kent and I aren’t dating, so don’t feel bad about that.”
“Good,” Patrick said. “I’d hate to have some gay guy come at me for hitting on his boyfriend.”
“Is that what it was? You hitting on me?”
Patrick looked away. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Well, what’s going on in that head of yours?”
“You,” he said. “You’re going on in my head. You and only you. Ever since we met. I thought it was all about Peter, but no, it’s about me. You’ve gotten under my skin, Andrew, and I don’t know how to get you out of me.” Their eyes locked. “And honestly, I’m not sure I want you gone.”
“But you’re straight.”
“I’ve always thought that. I’ve never been attracted to a guy before this.”
“Never? Not even in school? Some guys experiment, you know.”
“Never. I’ve looked back and there’s never been anything to make me think I’d ever be into a guy.”
“So you’re into me?”
Patrick’s face turned pink and he looked away. “I don’t know. Yes. Yes, I am.” He swallowed hard and looked back at Andrew. “Look, I know this is out of the blue, and I know what you said at the pool, and-”
“What did I say at the pool?”
“That, you know, that you’re not attracted to me.”
It was Andrew’s turn to blush and look away. “Well, since you’re being honest, I guess I should be too. Patrick, of course I’m attracted to you. You… well, look at you. I just said that to set your mind at ease. I was enjoying hanging out. I am enjoying it. I didn’t want you to freak out thinking I found you attractive or worried that I was going to try to jump you.”
“And it ended up being me that jumped at you.”
Andrew looked at him and grinned. “Seems that way.”
“So.”
“So.”
“Here we are then, both attracted to each other. What do we do now?”
About Rob Browatzke
Rob Browatzke has been writing for as long as he can remember, and is pretty darn excited for someone else to be reading his stuff finally! When it comes to gay bars and booze and drugs and drama, he knows what he’s talking about. He came out in the mid-90s, and liquor and drama went hand in hand. He has 20+ years of experience working in gay clubs in Edmonton, Alberta, and you’ll always find his love for his other career permeating the stories he tells. Rob is now 9+ years clean and sober, although there’s still a bit of drama once in a while, for old times’ sake.
Rob loves the growing market for gay fiction and m/m romance. There are some incredible authors out there, and it’s important to be able to see in print (or on the screen) stories about people just like us. Coming out, our relationships, the issues we face, we all have stories to tell. And this book is just one of the stories coming out of Wonderland.
Feel free to stalk him online. He’s on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @robbrowatzke.
The Blogger Girls 