[Mystery]

[Government Gay cover]

An Interview with Fred Hunter

Author of Government Gay

Fred Hunter is the author of Government Gay as well as three previous mysteries in a separate series. Cynthia White, an avid reader of mysteries, resides in Chicago and writes for Outlines, Chicago's gay & lesbian newspaper

Cynthia White: In your new book, amateur sleuth Alex Reynolds is gay. Why was it important for you to write a gay mystery?

Fred Hunter: Well, it wasn't important to me to write a specifically 'gay mystery'; it was only important to me to do something new. I wanted to create another series and make it as different as possible from the Ransom books. Since I was already doing standard murder mysteries, I decided to tackle something that had more to do with espionage. One of my favorite sleuthing teams is Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. I wanted to do something like that. Just like Tuppence, poor Alex ends up getting involved in a foreign plot simply because of a chance encounter. The fact that the team ended up being gay probably just reflects the fact that I'm more comfortable writing about a romantic gay relationship than I would be writing about a straight one.

CW: Is it much different than doing a "straight mystery"?

FH: Yeah. I use bigger words in the gay series. No, really, again the difference between the two series has nothing to do with sexuality, it only has to do with style: The Ransom books are in the third person, and the Alex Reynolds books are in the first person.

CW: Do you see a lot of yourself in Alex?

FH: My friends see more of him in me than I do, and I'm not sure whether or not I should take that as an insult. I don't think you can do a first person narrative and not have a lot of yourself enter into it. Alex shares my perspective of life, both in terms of humor and, I guess, perplexity. He always seems to be surprised and excited by the things that he happens into, even when those things are bad. And like me, he's a bit of a movie hound. He could probably provide a movie quote to fit any occasion. He also shares my old feeling that he's luckier in love than he deserves to be. Even the title of the book is a play on an old Olivia DeHaveland movie, Government Girl.

CW: Often times, the main character in a mystery series is a loner with some sort of tragedy in his or her past. Alex certainly breaks away from this mold. Why did you decide to place him in a loving, long-term relationship with Peter?

FH: Alex and Peter are really based on my late husband and me. We had a similar type of relationship. As far as the fiction element goes, I thought it would be fun to have a sort of gay "old married couple" (even though they're in their thirties) sleuthing together.

CW: I also found it curious that the two men were sharing a house with Alex's mother, Jean. Once again you're breaking the stereotype of the Lincoln Park (an upscale gay neighborhood) fag.

FH: Wouldn't you want to live with Jean? If my mother had been like her, I'd still be living at home!

CW: I really enjoyed the character of Alex's mother. Jean was not just Alex's mother, but a very vibrant & real character in her own right. What was your inspiration or motivation for creating such a character?

CW: Oh, God, she'll probably kill me for saying this, but the inspiration was my friend Joan Edwards (the woman to whom the book is dedicated). She's my oldest friend in the world and is from Oldham, England, but has lived here in the states for well over twenty years. I like to think of her as what would have happened if Julie Andrews and Lucille Ball had had a child together.

CW: Why didn't Alex's boyfriend play a more active role in the sleuthing?

FH: Uh, that's Alex's husband. Neither of them are boys. In answer to your question, the first rule of comedy is that somebody has to be the straight man (you should excuse the expression). Peter does go along with Alex to question people at times, but he serves as the sane, fixed point in the midst of all the lunacy.

CW: Do you plan to continue writing Alex Reynolds mysteries?

FH: Oh, yes. The second book in the series, Federal Fag, will be out in May of 1998. It's also from St. Martin's Press. Alex and Peter go to Los Angeles to try to wrestle an old friend of Alex's out of the gay porn industry. They find themselves embroiled in a government plot, while Jean . . . oops! I can't give that one away!

CW: If you could sit down & have a dinner party with any other writers or characters from books, who would you choose? By the way, this is an intimate dinner party -- no more than 6 people total.

FH: Actually, I have had dinner with Ellen Hart, RD Zimmerman, and Mark Zubro. It was probably one of the most delightful evenings I've ever had. I wouldn't want to have dinner with characters from books. They'd be kind of flat.

CW: Is it hard to promote your own books? Do you like giving readings?

FH: It's hard only in that it requires you to meet a lot of strangers, which I think would be difficult for most people. I do enjoy giving readings, because I used to be an actor, and it's the only way you get to appear before an audience with a script in your hand.

CW: Would you ever do a screenplay of Government Gay?

FH: Not on your tintype. I think that getting involved with Hollywood is the quickest route to a nervous breakdown. I don't have enough clout to have control of a project like that yet, and without that control, having anything to do with it would probably be excruciating. But I hope to God somebody else will make a movie of it!

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