Renowned interior designer Fredi Zimmer is surprised when outdoorsman Max Greene, owner of Greene's Hunting and Fishing, hires him to remodel his rustic cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Fredi is an out and proud Metro male whose contact with the outdoors is from his car to the doorway of the million-dollar homes' he remodels, and Max is just too hunky gorgeous for words.
When Max starts coming on to Fredi, the designer can't imagine why. But he's game to put a little spice into Max's life, even if it's just in the colors and fixtures he'll use to turn Max's dilapidated rustic cabin into a showplace. Who can blame a guy for adding a little sensual pleasure as he retools Max's life visually?
Max, for his part, is grateful when Fredi takes him in hand, both metaphorically and literally. Coming out, he finds is the most exciting and wonderful time of his life, despite the conservative former friends who want to stop his slide into hell.
Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Pat Henshaw, author of Redesigning Max.
Hi, Pat, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Hi! I’m originally from Nebraska and have lived all over the U. S., landing here in Northern California. Now retired, I’ve held a number of jobs including theatrical costuming for the Alley Theatre in Houston, public relations for radio and television at WETA in D. C., and teaching English comp at a junior college in California.
Redesigning Max, the second of the Foothills Pride novellas, revolves around the unlikely pair of interior designer and architect Fredi Zimmer and the CEO of an outdoors equipment store and wildlife guide Max Greene. When he hires Fredi to redesign and update his Sierra Mountain mountain cabin, Max finds his life and heart undergoing a makeover too.
Not everyone in the small Stone Acres, California, community is as excited about Max and Fredi getting together as the guys are. Because Max’s been in the closet so long, he not only has to convince his friends that he’s gay but he also has to convince Fredi, who keeps getting mixed signals from him.
Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?
No, I don’t. I’m one of those rare people who actually listens to music and is distracted if I’m supposed to be doing something else while music is playing. What do I listen to when I’m relaxing or daydreaming? I’m very eclectic, so my playlists have Mozart and other classical composers as well as Los Lobos, Arlo Guthrie, Jay Brannan, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and other modern artists. In between, I have Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Dire Straits, the eternal Rolling Stones, Doc Watson, Billy Joel, Scott Joplin, and so many others.
If your book were made into a movie, what actors would you like to see star?
For Max, I’d like to see Chris Hemsworth (not in his Thor persona) or a young Aaron Eckhart. For Fredi, I’d like Chris Colfer, or Johnny Weir, if he ever decides to try acting, or Jim Parsons, if he can break away from Sheldon long enough.
What genres do you write in?
My gay romances are all contemporaries so far, but I’m intrigued by Dreamspinner’s call for shape shifter stories. I might try my hand at that. I also write vampire fiction, having self-published the first in a trilogy, The Vampire’s Food Chain, which will be followed by Devil’s Food, and then Angel’s Food.
Where and when do you prefer to write?
I’m most comfortable writing in my writing room—the tiny fourth “bedroom” in our house. It’s very messy, very cluttered, and very cave-like. See photo of my lair.
I don’t have a writing preference as far as time of day goes. Whenever I have a chunk of time where I can sit, think, and write undisturbed is wonderful. Fortunately for me, I have a husband who helps carve out these chunks for me.
Tell us your writing goals for this year.
Right now, I’m working on a holiday short story and the next in the Foothills Pride novellas, When Adam Fell, which I hope to get finished soon. Then I’m working on the fifth and sixth Foothills Pride stories and the second vampire novel. Somewhere in there, if I get the time, I’m thinking about writing the shifter story, planning another gay romance series, and working with my writing partner Sydney. I’m not so sure I have goals as much as I have writing hope for the rest of the year.
By the time we got to the Rock Bottom Cafe, I felt like I’d bottomed out. I was hungry, tired, and feeling the first twinges of a headache.
Max hadn’t exaggerated about how much I’d hate the Rock Bottom’s decor. It was the worst of rural cafe: hellacious plastic flowers, grotesque plastic-covered booths, peeling gangrene-painted beadboard walls, pockmarked linoleum floor, and faded food-stained menus. It made the cabin look almost palatial, except it didn’t smell as bad.
As Max slid into one side of a booth and I into the other, he said, “Food’s great here. Okay?”
I glared at him, but I had to admit the odors coming from the kitchen wove seductively around us.
After we’d ordered and had gotten glasses of iced tea, which I liberally dosed with artificial sweetener, Max leaned back in his side of the booth and blew out a little breath.
“So guess here’s what you need to know about me.” He was looking at the tabletop. “I was an only kid when my folks died. Raised by my aunt and uncle with their four boys. I was the youngest and nobody cared what I thought, so I don’t talk much.”
Oh dear. I wasn’t sure which of those statements I should answer, if any. My heart bled for the beautiful man in front of me who would give me a raging hard-on if I let my libido take control.
His words and lack of self-pity made me want to create a unique space where he’d feel completely at home and that would soothe him when he needed it. I probably wouldn’t end up his BFF or someone he could unbend with, but I could create a warm cocoon to shelter and coddle the man or let him entertain his friends comfortably.
The image of the young Max feeling like an outsider when he was thrust on his uncaring aunt and uncle to raise was banished by the waitress who put lunch in front of us.
“Oh. My. God!” I nearly drooled into the chili and homemade bread as I tasted them. “This is incredible.”
“What’d I tell you?” Max gloated. “Said you shouldn’t be put off by the decor. Some of us are more than our decor.”
I spooned up a couple of bites, then looked at Max. “You really do think I’m a snob, don’t you?”
Why was it so easy to get him to blush? I hadn’t a clue, but his quick, mercurial red cheeks had me intrigued.
“No, no, I don’t think you’re a snob,” he protested. “I mean, you’re just so….” He waved a couple of fingers at me, but kept his elbows on the table as if protecting his bowl of chili.
“I’m so what?”
Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Beautiful. And fancy,” he added, ducking his head over his bowl.
Ah, I understood now. Max was intimidated by my suit.
“Look, you came to get me in the coffee shop. I was dressed to take a rich lady through her house later this afternoon. I can work in jeans and a T-shirt”—did Max think I wore suits every day?—“or anything I want. Pajamas even. You just caught me on a suit day.” Which, I didn’t add, was too often for even my overblown sense of style.
Now Max was staring at me.
“Yeah, right. You wear jeans,” he scoffed, but looked interested, intrigued.
I shrugged. “Okay, not when I’m with a client. At home I’m way more casual.” I might have sounded a tad defensive.
“Yeah, right,” Max muttered with a grin.
I left it lying there. It wasn’t worth fighting about. But it bothered me that he saw such a divide between us. I was just a man, wasn’t I? Just like him, right? What was he going on about? Sheesh.
Pat Henshaw, author of the Foothills Pride series, was born in Nebraska but promptly left the cold and snow after college, living at various times in Texas, Colorado, Northern Virginia, and Northern California. Pat has visited Mexico, Canada, Europe, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Egypt, and regularly travels to Rome, Italy, and Eugene, Oregon, to see family.
Now retired, Pat has taught English composition at the junior college level; written book reviews for newspapers, magazines, and websites; helped students find information as a librarian; and promoted PBS television programs.
Pat has raised two incredible daughters who daily amaze everyone with their power and compassion. Pat’s supported by a husband who keeps her grounded in reality when she threatens to drift away writing fiction.
