Interview with Dave Thome author of Fast Lane

Sadly, I've neglected this blog, and a lot of other things as well. The good news (for me, anyway) is that I've finally finished a novel called The Road Trip. Yes, it's true and I say it proudly. I even typed "The End" on the last page, even though that's a complete dork-move. It felt good though, typing those words. Very satisfying.

I realized, once I came out of my writing vortex, that I'd promised my friend Dave Thome that I'd post his interview about his new book, Fast Lane, quite some time ago, and then I didn't because I was in a self-absorbed, have-to-finish-this-novel haze. Now I'm going to be seeing Dave this coming Wednesday and we'll be spending at least two hours in the car as we drive to and from a Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum meeting, and the conversation could get really awkward if I still haven't posted his interview by then.

Here's the description of Dave's novel Fast Lane:

Lara Dixon is determined to bring down billionaire Clay Creighton, because she believes his Fast Lane media empire, promoting “fast women, fast cars and fast living,” helped bring down her marriage. She convinces Gina Wray, feminist owner of HardCoreGrrls.com, that someone should infiltrate Clay’s empire—and to her surprise, Gina says Lara should be that someone.

Lara’s mission: become part of The Rotation, three gorgeous women who attend Clay 24/7 in his lavish lifestyle. Every six months, Clay boots the most senior member and replaces her with fresh meat. Lara tones her body and her lying skills while a Fast Lane insider talks her up to Clay. When she finally meets Clay at his notorious Malibu play house, they hit it off immediately. It’s not long before Lara finds herself in The Rotation—and quite possibly in over her head.

For nothing at Fast Lane is what it seems. The empire’s Bambi-eyed C.O.O., Sushma Vishnuveda, viciously stalks Lara's every move. Taequanda, the senior Rotation member, is friendly but hides a secret, while Corynne, the other member, plays fast with the truth. Lara finds herself second-guessing everyone, even her perky personal assistant Tiffany.

And Clay…Clay is nothing like what Lara expected. She’s surprised as she learns what he thinks and feels. She’s startled at how much they have in common. And she’s drawn to him in a way she never dreamed possible, as he treats her the way she’s always wanted to be treated. She’s falling in love, but is he?

Pressure builds on Lara from all sides. How can she deliver the expose she promised Gina? How long can she keep her secret from Sushma? And what if she confesses all to Clay? Will he help her—or will Lara become just another woman booted out of The Rotation?


So without further ado, here's my conversation with Dave about his new book, Fast Lane!

K.M - What prompted you to write Fast Lane?

D.T. - My wife, Mary Jo, and I had been self-employed as advertising and journalism writers for ten years in late 2009. When the bottom dropped out of the economy, our accounts receivable got low and new work slowed to a trickle. Mary Jo knew a woman who was regularly publishing “erotic” romances online and thought she could break into that while waiting for business to spring back. That genre is not what I would expect her to write, but she was being pragmatic. So I thought, “If she’s man enough to do that, I should be, too.”

I had a bunch of ideas that could easily be adapted to the erotic romance genre. Plus, I’d read Penthouse Form when I was nineteen, so I thought I could write erotic romance. Honest-to-god, erotic romances written for women now read like male-oriented porn that women would have reviled and scorned thirty years ago. The only difference is that erotic romance is from the woman’s point of view.

So I started writing Fast Lane, but after twenty or so pages I realized that since there was no sex, it wasn’t an erotic romance. But it did have the makings of a romance novel, so I continued writing it as a cotemporary romance.

K.M. - I confess to not reading a lot of in this genre, so maybe it’s me, but is there always so much sex in romance novels?

D.T. - Hard to answer. Sex is the whole point of the previously mentioned erotic romances, so I guess they have to have a lot of sex. But I don’t think there’s been more sex in the romance novels I’ve read than in any other genre.

There seems to an idea in our society that sex and romance should not be related. But I think they can be as related as an author wants to make them--or as a couple in real life wants them to be.

A couple of romance authors who do a good job with sex are the queen, Jennifer Cruisie, who usually incorporates a lot of humor into her scenes. Face it: Sex is kind of funny lots of the time, and should be fun most of time--not just serious and breathy. The other is Donna McDonald, whose specialty is older people in new romances showing they can keep up with whippersnappers in the bedroom.

K.M. - Your blog is called Man Writing A Romance (ManWAR http://manwritingaromance.blogspot.com/). Why do you think there aren’t more men writing romances?

D.T. - Couple of reasons. First, I think a lot of guys think writing romance is unmanly. Which is kind of strange, since there’s usually a guy involved--and what’s more manly than getting a woman? Men are always thinking about romance. Listen to classic rock radio. How many songs are about guys pining away for love or whatever?

The second reason, I think, stems from the first. Sure, men can easily, in their minds, stick themselves into romantic situations. But romance novels--because the audience is going to be almost entirely women--pretty much have to be told from the heroine’s point of view and explore her thoughts, feelings and personal growth. I hate to think the cliche that men can’t empathize is a reason men don’t write more romance fiction, but it’s probably true. The thing is, if you’re a writer, you absolutely have to empathize with your characters so the readers will, too. So if you’re not a spy and you write a spy novel, you have some empathizing to do, right? If you’re not a woman and you write a woman’s novel...

It may be a stretch for a man to empathize with a woman--but so what? Stretch.

K.M. - You have a background in (among other things) writing screenplays. Any chance Fast Lane will someday be a movie?

D.T. - Oddly, it probably has a better chance as a novel than if I had written it as a screenplay. I’m not being cynical here. Right now it seems Hollywood is less interested in spec scripts and more interested in adapting materials that have a track record. That includes novels, graphic novels, short stories published on websites that have a handful of readers, You!Tube shorts. So the better Fast Lane sells as a novel, the better chances it has of being a movie.


K.M. - Thanks so much, Dave! It was a pleasure having you on the blog, and I wish you and Fast Lane  ( $2.99 on Kindle) the best of luck.