{"id":9092,"date":"2022-03-01T01:05:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T06:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=9092"},"modified":"2022-01-25T13:58:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T18:58:21","slug":"interview-with-jack-brightside-brightside_jack-lgbtqromance-billionaireromance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/?p=9092","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Jack Brightside @brightside_jack #lgbtqromance #billionaireromance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"Hello and welcome, Jack! Where are you from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello! I\u2019m originally from Connecticut, which is why many of my stories lovingly poke fun at conceited New Englanders. I lived in Los Angeles for ten years but moved after the pandemic shut everything down. It was hard to justify paying so much to live in a place where everything was closed. In general, it was hard to justify the cost of living in Los Angeles. I made a collage out of some of my parking tickets from when I lived there. My husband did the math, the tickets in the collage add up to over a thousand dollars. Everything is more expensive in Southern California and there is not enough parking. After moving to Colorado one of my first thoughts was \u201cWow, I can just park outside the grocery store? For free?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I have a soft spot for LA. Instead of writing a book about LA to commemorate my time there I wrote a book series about 18th century Europe. Everyone is a rich jerk who only cares about themselves, which is the vibe in LA. I threw multiple parties where all the guests canceled the day of because they got invited to better parties. This is a real place, you guys.<\/p>\n

What genre do you write in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write paranormal contemporary romance, historical romance, and I\u2019ve recently branched out into erotica. Basically what happened is I got a bunch of letters from readers like \u201cyou remember that thirst trap you wrote into your book? I\u2019m gonna write a fanfiction about it.\u201d And that got me really thinking. There were a lot of pairings I left on the table in my books because they wouldn\u2019t make sense in the stories. Like, Klaus from \u201cThe Assassin\u2019s Captive\u201d can flirt with his evil ex-boyfriend but if they actually hooked up it would change the course of the story too much. I started writing one-off erotica shorts to explore what would happen if I let these characters hook up. It started out like a character development exercise. What would that encounter be like? What would the actually say to each other? You know, there\u2019s a lot of unspoken tension between a these characters and having them hook up is a way to explore the underlying dynamics. The first one I wrote, \u201cThe Assassin\u2019s Rendezvous\u201d totally surprised me. I was planning on making an emotionless scene where three characters hook up. The dynamics came out of nowhere. Suddenly there\u2019s like a love triangle? I\u2019m writing this like \u201cwow didn\u2019t see this coming!\u201d Keep in mind, I am the literal author.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tell us about your latest book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My latest book is \u201cThe Warlock Billionaire\u2019s Soulmate.\u201d I like giving books titles that let the reader know what they are about, lol. I love the billionaire genre for the same reason I love historical romance, because I lowkey fantasize about a rich guy sweeping me off my feet and spoiling me. The problem is I spent too much time living in LA, and I loathe rich people now. I know what these dudes are really like, and they are terrible. I have a hard time viewing wealth without viewing the exploitation behind it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like how in a lot of regency romance, the male romantic leads are rich dudes who live off exploiting the tenants on their land. They have backstories that somehow make them even less sympathetic. Usually, they lament about their time as an officer in \u2018the war\u2019 (its regency so Napoleonic wars): \u201cAh yes the caviar during the war was very low-quality. Many hardships on campaign\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I read contemporary billionaire romances I always feel bad for the billionaire\u2019s employees. I was a personal assistant for about six months in LA but I got fired because I dropped my boss\u2019s tiny dog. Also, because I was terrible at my job. I was like \u201cWhy do I need to return your clothes? What\u2019s wrong with them? Why did you buy them if you don\u2019t want them? This seems very inefficient? Are you sure I need to return these? This dress costs like $300, I\u2019m sure its very nice, why don\u2019t you give it another try?\u201d My boss would invite me to eat lunch with her and her other assistant and I think it was just so they could make fun of me. I was like \u201cYou know, at the burger place down the block you can get a burger, fries, and a soda for only $7? What a deal!\u201d They are eating like $40 diet salads like \u201cTell us more, Jack.\u201d She used to take naps on the couch in her office because there wasn\u2019t enough work to do. Again, I think of those poor suffering, regency romantic leads: \u201cThe HARDSHIPS!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I decided to write a billionaire romance that addressed some of the realities in the dynamic. The billionaire\u2019s love interest is a bartender named Conway who gets whisked away to the billionaire\u2019s mansion because of a prophecy that he dies at the end of the month. Conway is critical of the billionaire\u2019s lifestyle. He asks the billionaire to stop ordering his assistants on errands at 2 am. He\u2019s like \u201cI can\u2019t love someone who treats their employees like this.\u201d There is a scene where the billionaire orders his assistants to buy Conway new clothes. The assistants resent Conway because they have to do this for him. Like when I was an assistant, doing dumb stuff like that just made me mad. Even Conway is like \u201cits super awkward that you are buying me clothes.\u201d I think most people who work for a living feel would feel awkward in a situation like that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Tell us something about your (hero, heroine, or villain) that wasn\u2019t in the book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was really hard to make the billionaire, Redford Archer, a likable character. Basically, Redford is a seven hundred year old warlock who uses divinations to predict financial markets. He is completely dependent on his assistants to run his personal life. As I was writing him, I kept slipping into villain-mode where I would give him some despicable character quality. There\u2019s asides where he talks about like, buying the mansion in Colorado. He explains that he never goes there, so its just something he has. Conway is like \u201cbro I cannot even afford my one apartment how can you afford an extra house?\u201d Or like, Redford is disappointed that he didn\u2019t invest in rocketships sooner because now every billionaire has one except him, womp womp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even his magic is not immune to this. In this universe, magic users get to decide on their own whether they identify as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cevil\u201d and Redford has decided he\u2019s a \u201cgood warlock.\u201d Hannah, a necromancer, points out that divination is technically considered \u201cdark magic.\u201d She points out all the bad stuff Redford does, like the fact that he never praises his employees because he thinks negative reinforcement makes them work harder. I made it a cornerstone of Redford\u2019s personality that he really believes he is a good warlock, and a good person. Almost to the point of delusion. A lot of the rich guys I met in LA really believed that.<\/p>\n

Do you listen to music when you write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love those hours-long Youtube playlists like \u201cyou are a princess in a secret garden\u201d or \u201cyou are a villain in 18th century France plotting to overthrow the king.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s 1758 and you\u2019re in the French army, remembering the battle of Fontenoy 1745.\u201d Give me some VIBES.<\/p>\n

How does your family feel about your writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My husband reads everything I write except the erotica. I let him read a couple scenes from \u201cThe Warlock Billionaire\u2019s Soulmate\u201d but not the whole book because it\u2019s too spicy. He fact-checks for what I call \u201cboy accuracy.\u201d He used to be a bartender so I let him read those scenes for bartender realness. This didn\u2019t make it into the book but all the warlocks play Call of Duty with each other and my husband made up their gamer tags. Conway\u2019s tag is \u201cConWeezy\u201d. Redford is so in love with Conway he\u2019d do anything he asked, even learn how to play video games. His gamer tag is: \u201cCpt_beefstick.\u201d Conway made the tag up and Redford doesn\u2019t understand its a joke. My husband decided that Kevin\u2019s gamer tag is \u201cImadoctor69\u201d and he is terrible at Call of Duty. Everyone signs off when he signs on so they don\u2019t have to play with him. I thought that was so mean! Kevin is two thousand years old, give him a break.<\/p>\n

Where can we find you online?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are my links!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Website<\/a><\/span>:\u00a0www.JackBrightside.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook<\/a><\/span>:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100070650890430<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter\u00a0<\/a><\/span>:\u00a0www.twitter.com\/brightside_jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Tiktok:\u00a0https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@jackbrightside<\/a><\/p>\n

Youtube<\/a><\/span>:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCI3YgOJlIo2HCu7kwL9mu3g<\/a><\/p>\n

Instagram<\/a><\/span>:\u00a0www.instagram.com\/jkbside<\/a><\/p>\n

Author page: www.<\/span>amazon.com\/author\/jackbrightside<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Thank you for being a guest!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for having me!<\/p>\n

Link to \u201cThe Warlock Billionaire\u2019s Soulmate\u201d :\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/<\/a>B09P84BKQ7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello and welcome, Jack! Where are you from? Hello! I’m originally from Connecticut, which is why many of my stories lovingly poke fun at conceited New Englanders. I lived in Los Angeles for ten years but moved after the pandemic shut everything down. It was hard to justify paying so much to live in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1072],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","category-jack-brightside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9096,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions\/9096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}