June 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Blair Fell joins the podcast to read DISCO WITCHES OF FIRE ISLAND. A multi-hyphenate writer of TV, theater, and novels, Blair set this story during the AIDS crisis in 1989 - a distinctive time period that he lived through. We discuss the point at which he realized he had written a historical romance, his creative journey from plays to novels, and how his story about 1989 resonates with today. Plus, he shares the romance rules he loves to break!
00:00 Introduction to the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast
00:33 Meet Blair Fell: Multitalented Writer and ASL Interpreter
01:55 Blair Fell's Personal Connection to 'Disco Witches of Fire Island'
04:49 Reading from 'Disco Witches of Fire Island'
18:13 Discussion on Writing and Personal Experiences
29:04 Love It or Leave It: Rapid-Fire Questions
32:10 Conclusion and Where to Find More
Find out more about Blair Fell at https://blairfell.com/
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to the historicalromance sampler podcast.
I'm your host, Katherine Grant, andeach week I introduce you to another
amazing historical romance author.
My guest reads a little sampleof their work, and then we move
into a free ranging interview.
If you like these episodes, don'tforget to subscribe to the historical
(00:24):
romance sampler, wherever youlisten to podcasts and follow us
on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
I am super excited to bejoined today by Blair Fell.
Blair writes and lives in NewYork City and is a multihyphenate.
His television work includesQueer as Folk and the Emmy
(00:48):
Award-winning California Connected.
He has written dozens of plays,including the award-winning plays,
naked Will, the tragic and horriblelife of the Singing Nun and the
downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits.
His personal essays have appeared inHuffPost Out Daily News, New York.
And more.
(01:09):
He's a two time winner of the prestigiousDoris Lipman Prize in creative writing
from the City College of New York,including for his early unfinished
draft of the Sign for Home, and alsoconcurrently with being a writer.
Blair has been an ASL interpreter forthe Deaf since 1993 and has worked
as an actor, producer, and director.
(01:32):
Blair, I am so excited tohave you with us today.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, I mean one of the reasonsI'm excited is historical romance
sometimes seems synonymous withBritish Regency and Victorian era and
we've seen other eras on the podcast.
But I'm very excited 'cause this is,I think, bringing us up the farthest
(01:54):
in history that we've gone so far.
Because you're reading from us, readingfor us from your summer hit Disco
Witches of Fire Island, set in 1989.
Correct, correct.
It's like it's hard to believe1989 is like history, but
it's very much history now.
And it's one of the reasons I wrote thisbecause a lot of people, younger people
(02:18):
especially, aren't really aware of whatthat moment was like, especially for,
for queer people, just how difficultit was, especially in the, in the
realm of romance, in the realm offalling in love at that point in time.
If you were a young gay man,you thought of two things.
This person that I'm attracted to, theymight infect me if they're positive or
(02:40):
they might die on me if they're positive.
And it is this book is very much rootedin my own history, which was the story.
I'm, I'm negative, and I wasof course negative back then.
And my first partner actually my first andsecond partner were both HIV positive and
at that point in time in 1989, there was.
(03:01):
No medicine that could prolonga life of someone who had HIV.
And so it was assumed thatif you had HIV you would die.
And so I fell in love with this guy.
Then he revealed his status to me.
And then in the period of time that Iwas with him all I could think of was.
Am I gonna get infected?
Is he gonna die?
Am I gonna get infected?
(03:22):
Is he gonna die?
Needless to say, for a 24-year-old,at the time it was crazy making he
was 22 and, he ended up dumping mebecause I just couldn't deal with it.
I was madly in love with himstill, but he broke up with me
and then never spoke to me again.
Then two years after that , he passed awayfrom complications due to the AIDS virus.
(03:46):
And that's the backstoryof when this novel begins.
The main character who's a, you know,substitute for me is this 29-year-old
young gay man who has this tragic historywith his first lover, and his best friend,
this crazy hot blonde jock is like, let'sgo to Fire Island and be bartenders.
(04:08):
I have it all worked out for us.
We'll have housing, we'll have a job,you'll get to get over your broken heart
finally.
You need to get out of Philadelphiaand get, get out there.
And so he goes to Fire Islandbut finds out there is no
job and there is no housing.
Because his best friend saidthat just to get him out there.
And so he is kind of stuck and heends up moving into the attic of
(04:31):
these three older gay men, likekind of 1970s old disco queens.
They clean houses for a livingout there and they're like, oh,
we have a room in our attic.
You can stay there.
And they end up being thiscoven of disco witches, which
is the whole setup for the book.
The chapter that I'm gonna read now is,it's actually a little ways into the book.
(04:53):
It's chapter 15.
And one thing I need to tell you aboutthe book is something else happens
in the book, the, the Disco Witches.
They have a manifesto calledthe Disco Witch Manifesto.
And at the beginning of every chapterin the book, you have, a quote from
the Disco Witch Manifesto, which is alittle bit of wisdom the disco witches
have for themselves and for people ingeneral about how to live your life
(05:18):
and what to be aware of in your life.
That's part of the setup now, asI said, this is chapter 15 when
Joe, who's the main character, JoeAgabian, is coming over on the ferry.
He sees this hot straight deckhand whoseems to be laughing at him, and he makes
all these assumptions about this guy.
(05:40):
He's this tall, lanky, handsome, longIsland, you know, douche, bag, he thinks,
with these really beautiful blue eyes.
But he just like writes 'em off.
Later he sees him in the harbor witha woman he thinks is his girlfriend.
And again, he seems to be laughing at Joe.
So Joe just makes all theseassumptions about them.
His name is Fergal.
In the chapter, though hedoesn't know his name yet.
(06:03):
Later in the book, he's called Fergal,the Ferry Man, but in this chapter
he's just referred to as the deckhand.
The other thing that happens when Joefirst arrives is as the ferry is pulling
in, he sees the most passionate hot imageof a man he's ever seen in his life.
This big, hunky, late thirties, earlyforties, muscle man with a beard,
(06:25):
with a dollop of gray in his chinpulsing, you know, just gorgeous
who looks both like every desireJoe has ever had, but also his fear.
This man looks like he willeither kiss him or kill him.
And that just touches Joeat his most base level.
And he just like desires this mana lot, but then the man disappears.
(06:49):
But in the chapter I'm gonnaread, we have another introduction
to both these characters.
Okay, I'm gonna read.
Chapter 15.
Sunrise.
Surprise.
Disco Witch Manifesto number 13.
The great balance is our eternalaim, but we can never stop
dancing even if the great darknessis spinning in the DJ booth.
(07:14):
At 5:03 AM Joe had finished mopping thefloor and hosing down the sludge mat.
All in all his end of the night barcleaning duties took on one entire side
of Elliot's mixtape love songs one.
Joe's pulse wouldn't stop buzzingfrom the first night's excitement,
not to mention the devil dog sizeof dollar bills in his pocket.
(07:38):
In order to blow off steam before bed,Joe decided to watch the sunrise on
the beach while finishing the leftoversin his Charlie's Angels lunchbox.
Barely a 70 foot walk from the bar door,stepping onto the beach at dawn was like
arriving in a temporary paradise with itsmiles of empty sand, raging ocean calling
(08:01):
gulls and spectacular awakening sky.
Red sky at night, sailors delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailors heedwarning, he whispered out loud to himself.
How to identify
coming storms was one of the few thingshis late father, a former Navy man, had
taught him, although beyond a few wispsof red, that morning sky was mostly
(08:26):
orange, yellow, and a little purple.
What did that foretell?
Elliot had been obsessed with sunrises.
Once he and Joe had spent a week togetheron Ocean City, New Jersey, and he'd
insisted they depart Philly at threein the morning so they could catch
(08:46):
the sunrise over the ocean together.
When they reached the Great EggHarbor Bridge, Elliot had shouted
"I spy the bay!" With glee.
It had been his family's traditionthat whoever was the first to see
their watery destination shouted itout as if they had won something.
Joe loved how Elliot was able tomix his powerful grown man self
(09:08):
with a child's sense of wonder.
As the sun's blazing headtipped over the horizon,
a strong breeze, blue, salty,sweet air up Joe's nose.
Just then from the corner of hiseye, Joe noticed a tall brawny
man in a gray sweatshirt and jeanswalking along the edge of the water,
(09:32):
a hundred yards down the beach.
It was him.
The gladiator man.
Remembering Ronnie's adviceto never miss opportunities,
Joe dropped his lunchbox and dartedonto the sand, waving his arms wildly.
"Hey, you! Can you talk to himfor a minute?" He screamed.
"Stay right there just for a second." Thegladiator man stopped walking, adjusted
(09:58):
his stance so the rising sun illuminatedhis perfection, and then he waved back.
Joe's heart kicked like a rabbit.
It was going to happen.
He was finally going tomeet the gladiator man.
Joe planned to ask where he lived,talk about how he was new to Fire
(10:18):
Island, let him know he was single.
He would not talk about Elliot.
Joe hoped he wasn'tappearing too enthusiastic.
Ronnie, his best friend, had once told himthat after, you know a guy likes you, it's
necessary to play it cool for a while.
Guys without barriers look broken,
ronnie had warned.
(10:40):
That morning on the beach, therewasn't a cool bone in Joe's body
as he charged across the sand likea desperate soldier at Iwo Jima.
The closer he got, the morehandsome gladiator man appeared.
His massive pectorals and shoulders pushedagainst the fabric of his gray sweatshirt.
His two hairy forearms, muscular andforeboding, hung by his sides with hands
(11:05):
thick and powerful, like two leashed
pit bulls ready to either embrace or kill.
He was all that Joe had everdesired, sexually speaking.
"Hey, I saw you the other day," Joehuffed and puffed a cramp in his side,
the soft sand shackling his legs.
(11:26):
"I wanted to say hi, but you leftbefore I could." Joe was just 15 yards
from the gladiator man when anothervoice called out from behind him.
"Hey buddy. Yo buddy, whereare you running? You forgot
something." Joe turned.
There shouting from the top of thesteps was that blue-eyed deckhand, the
(11:49):
one with a girlfriend in the harbor.
He started down the steps andacross the sand toward Joe.
He appeared to be soaking wetunder his pine's ferry sweatshirt.
"What do you want?" Joe asked, hopingthe gladiator man wouldn't hear.
"Hey, you forgot your Charlie's angelslunchbox on the steps," the deckhand
(12:09):
teased as he dangled the campy lunchbox.
Couldn't the straight idiot see, Joe wasin the middle of something important?
And who went swimming in theocean at five in the morning?
"I left it there on purpose," Joe said.
He turned back toward the gladiatorman who had begun walking away.
(12:32):
Did he think Joe and thedeckhand were together?
"Hey!" Joe shouted.
"Wait a minute." "Well, which is it?"The deckhand said from behind him.
"You want me to stay or go?" "Iwasn't talking to you," Joe snapped.
"Right," the deckhand said.
(12:53):
"So what are you doing on the beach thistime of morning anyway, taking a run?"
"Look," Joe said sharply.
"I can't talk right now." He thenreadied himself again for the chase.
But when he turned to look forGladiator man, he was gone.
Joe fell to his kneesand punched the sand.
(13:14):
"Fuck." The deckhand step back.
"Jesus.
What's wrong?
Did something bad happen?" "Yeah, no it'sjust, I was trying to catch up to someone.
Sorry I didn't mean to snap at youbefore and-" "No worries." The deckhand
said pulling a swig from a bottle ofJohnny Walker from his board shorts.
(13:36):
Joe noticed the deckhand's eyes again,even while bloodshot and glassy.
They were an even morestunning blue than before.
For some reason near the oceanand in the morning light, the
deckhand's eyes appeared to be almostcobalt blue or was that indigo?
And they were framed by long blackeyelashes, flecked with wet salt and
(14:00):
sand, much like the rest of them.
"You know it's not safe to go swimmingdrunk," Joe said, "especially when
no one's around to save you ifsomething happens." "I didn't swim
drunk," the deckhand retorted.
"I swam hung over." "You woke up hung overand decided it was a good idea to swim?"
(14:21):
"Nah, I never went to bed.
In fact, come to think of it,I better catch another swim
before I work the first boat out.
By the way, you said you weretrying to catch up with someone.
Who was that?" "Who doyou think?" Joe said.
"You know that that big musculardude, the one you scared away."
(14:42):
"Muscular dude?" The deckhand gestureto the completely empty beach.
"Nobody on this beachbut us in the seagulls.
You sure i'm the only one who'sbeen drinking?" "For Christ's sake,"
Joe said, "how hungover are you?
You didn't see that huge guy with abeard literally standing just over
there?" "Chill out, shortstop," thedeckhand said, "don't get your skirts
(15:07):
all bunched up." The deckhand's smirk andgay baiting comment were the last straw.
Joe mustered his most threateningglare, which wasn't very threatening.
"You always act like such an ass?""I was just joking with you."
The deckhand made the peace sign.
"It's weird that I missed seeing anotherhuman being that close by, but then again,
(15:29):
I wasn't really focused over there."
The deckhands eyesmomentarily latched onto Joe.
But then he quickly lookedaway like he was embarrassed.
"Or maybe I'm still a littledrunk. I better get back in the
ocean and make myself right."He yanked off his sweatshirt.
His lean torso was more muscularthan Joe had imagined, with a perfect
(15:52):
little patch of hair at the topand a small treasure trail between
his belly button and board shorts.
When he turned and joggedtoward the water, Joe noticed
he had an almost comical gait.
There didn't seem to be anythingwrong with his legs, though.
Still long and hairy andtoo sexy for a straight guy.
Then Joe noticed something odd.
(16:14):
The deckhand had huge paddle like feetwith toes ever so slightly webbed.
Thus, the reason for the funny jog.
Any awkwardness disappeared thoughas soon as he dove into the waves.
His arms, like twin porpoises,sliced through the water while
his legs kicked fountains.
(16:37):
When he was 25 feet from the shore,he dove under and disappeared.
10 seconds passed 20, 30, 60.
At 90 seconds, Joe walked to the water'sedge and recounted the CPR class he had
been forced to take in his last job.
Tilt the head, make sure nothing was inthe passageway, then press your lips.
(17:01):
At that very moment, the deckhand,like a deranged seal, exploded
from the waves in robed, in aspray of iridescent water droplets.
He was gasping and laughing.
That guy's nuts, Joe thought, beforelooking back at the stretch of beach
where he'd last seen the gladiator man.
(17:22):
Sand, bushes, trees, and nothing else.
Wow.
What an intriguing scene.
I don't know what to believe.
Exactly.
That's the point.
Very good.
Very good.
Well thank you so much.
I've got a lot of questions foryou and first we're gonna take
a quick break for our sponsors.
(17:45):
Hey, audiobook listeners!
Have you checked out the officialHistorical Romance Sampler
Season 1 playlist on Libro.
fm? On the playlist, you'll findhistorical romances you heard here first
that are available to listen to on Libro.
fm. Plus, if you're not yet a Libro.
fm subscriber, use code HISTORICAL toget extra credits in your first month.
(18:08):
Head on over to the Historical RomanceSampler link tree to learn more.
I am back with Blair Fell, whojust read a sample of the Disco
Witches of Fire Island, a veryintriguing historical romance.
When you were setting this up, youtalked about how this is a very personal
story that come is very informedby your own personal experiences.
(18:31):
And I also know that, you know, you haveall these different creative roles where
you've been a playwright, you've been anactor, you've done all sorts of things.
So I'm curious, how long has thisstory been whirling around in your
head, and what is it about the novelas opposed to a play or a television
script or whatever that appealedto you as a medium to tell it?
(18:55):
That's a great question.
With the story itself, I mean,again, it's based in life.
I moved to Fire Islandsight unseen when I was 29.
I moved into the attic ofthese three older gay men.
And I guess forming that story intothem being witches started like
probably about like 30 years ago.
(19:17):
I was asked to do a serializedstory in this magazine, this little
weekly gay magazine in New York.
I had been writing serialized plays andthe editor who had liked my serialized
plays asked me to do something.
I'm like, I know nothingabout writing fiction.
It wasn't, in my opinion, very good,although some people really liked
it, but I, I would like write it lastminute, like literally, if it was due
(19:41):
on Tuesday, I would write it on Monday.
Like didn't take it seriously, but Ilike the idea of it about this young man
Being cared for by these older queer men
witches, like that kind of thinglike bringing like mythology
and stuff in, into this thing.
It wasn't a period piece at thetime because this was the nineties.
Then when I started writing my first novelnovel, which is called The Sign for Home,
(20:05):
which is a contemporary coming of agestory about a young, straight deaf-blind,
Jehovah's Witness, and his gay interpreterand their friendship, and then their
journey to find the lost love of the youngman who's this young, deaf, deaf woman.
And while I was writing thatit, I never had written a novel.
(20:26):
I fell in love with like, beingcompletely in control of the story
and getting to like really delveinto the world in the first novel.
So I kind of at that point had alreadysaid like, I, I do want to keep trying
this novel thing even if nothing sells.
I have to imagine that all of yourexperience writing plays and writing for
tv, it all is cumulative and is informingthis amazing, absolutely novel experience.
(20:51):
Absolutely.
So it's like, to me to like say like,oh, that's just a miraculous thing.
It's like.
I worked in television, I wrotedozens and dozens of plays.
The fact of being a playwrighthelped so much with dialogue.
I have no problem with dialogue.
Dialogue I can like shoot out my leftnostril like without even thinking.
Not a problem.
Yeah.
So I had all that experience.
I didn't know it couldtranslate to writing a novel.
(21:14):
'cause like you, you novelists.
Katherine are, you know,they, you were my heroes.
I just wanted a lover who was a novelist.
I had no desire to be a novelist myself.
Not that I had no desire, Ididn't think it was possible.
Yeah.
And like, I just wish I wasnot so afraid of it earlier.
'cause I just like, you know,it's to get so involved in a
(21:36):
story and what's cool about this,because it is now a history piece.
Yeah.
To have to go back to thatperiod and like research the
songs, there's a lot about music.
There's actually a playlist available onSpotify that goes along with the book that
my editor put together called The DiscoWitches of Fire Island Spotify playlist,
which has all the songs in the book,plus the inspirations songs that I used.
(22:00):
And having to do that research, having toresearch the clothes they were wearing,
what the colors they were wearing.
But what also was like the, likethere's a thing where he just, the.
The ferry man Fergal, the ferryman says to Joe, Hey, what?
He says?
Like, yo, hey, be cool.
Shortstop.
Shortstop was somethingyou said back then.
No one says that now, but it was kind oflike, you know this, it's not a dig, but
(22:24):
it's kind of like this affectionate thingyou say to someone who's shorter than you.
Hey, shortstop, whatcha doing?
Like pip squeak?
It's a little bit sexierthan pip pip squeak.
It's like it's.
Hey buddy, what are you doing there?
You know, your big lug, you know, kindof more like, like that kind of thing.
Mm-hmm.
(22:44):
And, and so it's like Igetting that kind of thing.
Like they use the word rad, which,you know, we don't really, some
people use it 'cause it's a coolthing to say, now I'm cool thing.
Like, oh, I'm being retro and saying rad.
Right?
Yeah.
But then it was the thing you said.
You know, you know, that'sbitching, that's rad.
You know, all of those things in,in creating that history again, was
(23:05):
really a challenge, but super fun.
Yeah.
And at what point when you werewriting it, did you realize that you
were writing a historical fictionpiece versus just kind of going back
to the story that you wanted to tell?
That's such a great question because Ididn't write it as a historical piece.
I wrote it as, okay.
(23:25):
I. Well, I was, I was not onFire Island in the eighties.
I was there in the early nineties,which is just a few years from then.
But I wanted to write it at theheight of the AIDS crisis, which
I first came out around 1982.
So the virus, you know,was maybe nine months old.
The first time I went to agay bar, there was a sign on
(23:45):
the door about the gay cancer.
So I never was sexual beforethe virus was out there.
And I, I wanted to capture that essence.
I didn't think aboutwriting historical piece.
I'm like, I want to capture what itwas like for me as a young man coming
out and having to deal with falling inlove, which is hard enough for someone
(24:07):
in the early twenties falling in love,but also dealing with this issue, will
you face death if you are infected?
That's what it was.
And not only that, you walked aroundthe streets and people would look at gay
people and they called them carriers.
You know, they made jokes likehow does a gay guy roller skate?
Roll AIDS.
You know, like, you know these awful,awful jokes and you were looked at,
(24:30):
people didn't want to be near you, andI wanted to kind of capture that moment.
I mean, unfortunately, we're gettingback to a moment of that in this awful
country we're living in right now.
Which is the other interestingthing about the book.
I began this in the firstTrump administration.
And I didn't think about that.
I was just writing about that period.
(24:51):
And there's this force because it'sa magical realistic thing too, and
there's this force in the book calledThe Great Darkness, which is that
thing that, you know, caused AIDSthat caused the hatred towards people
with AIDS, but is is everything thatis opposite of loving and kindness.
And the book speaks so muchto the moment we're living now
(25:13):
because Joe at the beginning ofthe book is just such a victim.
To the virus, to the hatred of thegovernment for people with AIDS and
people who are gay, and he goes from thatposition of being a victim to someone
who takes action and finds his voice.
And he's inspired by the DiscoWitches who are these old sixties
(25:35):
radicals who are part of Act Up.
Who if you don't know what ACT UP is,it's, it's the AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power, which is the activist organizationthat actually protested enough to lead the
way to the medicines now that, you know,keep people alive that have HIV I was
part of Act Up, so I wanted to make thataspect of the history in there as well.
(25:58):
It is a history piece becausethat's a damn long time ago,
but I didn't write it that way.
I wrote it just to capture thismoment of my own personal history.
But now it's like being selectedas like, you know, one of their
favorite history romances.
Both New York Times and Goodreads like selected it as that.
(26:20):
Historical romances, queer historicalromances for the New York Times.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's sometimes a funny thingthat happens when we're selling our
books, which is that there are thesecategories that readers are accustomed
to that then get applied onto our books.
And it's true and it's alsonot true like any label.
So
100%. Yes, absolutely.
(26:41):
I think it's very interesting thatpart, that this story is structured
on the idea of the older generationkind of, you know, passing on wisdom
and teaching Joe these powers.
So now this is another, like youare sharing your generation's wisdom
with my generation and with thegenerations younger than me than so,
(27:05):
yeah.
Striking.
Yeah, that's, that was an important partof the book for me was this passing on
of knowledge and passing on of wisdomand what, what I think got me really
excited about writing this book is asthe characters come to life, I'm not
sure if you write this way, but it's,it's like the characters write the book.
And so he lives with Howie and Lenny.
(27:25):
Howie is, you know, the, the big motherman, the one that builds the hats, the one
that has all this wonderful loving wisdom.
And then there's Lenny.
Lenny who's this little short, bald,like Italian guy with a big mustache.
Who's sober and has his own kind ofwisdom, but they're very different.
And what they have topass on is very different.
(27:46):
And I got excited because like whenI was writing those characters, they
really had important things to say.
And then there's Ronnie, his best friendwho's this butch blonde, glam jock.
He is all about being macho gayguy, wants to teach Joe how to be a
successful gay, you know, and he hasall these words of pseudo wisdom.
(28:07):
Some of them are really good advice andsome of them are like totally bullshit
because it's based on like gotta bethis macho gay guy to be successful.
But it was like fun becausethat's also part of myself too.
You know, this shallow vein gayguy that wants to say, yeah, if you
want to get laid, don't wear that.
Don't wear that.
Shave a path through youreyebrow, all of this stuff.
Yeah.
And it was just fun passing on all thesedifferent ways of passing on wisdom
(28:32):
to these different characters.
And, and then there's the DiscoWitch Manifesto, which is a whole
other level of collective wisdom.
And the book is very much about community,found family, collective wisdom.
And that's another way that thewitches pass on their knowledge to,
to Joe and, well, he doesn't knowabout the Disco Witch manifesto.
(28:54):
So that's really between the reader andthe Disco Witches when they get these
glimpses of the Disco Witch Manifestoat the beginning of every chapter.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
All right, well, it's time for usto move to Love It or leave it.
[Musical Interlude]
All right.
Love it or leave it?
Protagonists meet in the first 10% of the
(29:17):
story.
I leave it when I first write, and thenI'm forced to love it when I realize,
oh, I'm taking too long to get there.
I love that.
Okay.
Love it or leave it?
Dual point of view narration.
Oh, absolutely.
Love it.
Do it all the time.
Love it or leave it?
(29:37):
Third person, past tense.
This book is told in thethird person past tense.
My first book was told infirst person past tense.
Second person present tense.
Oh, interesting.
And my third book very much a historicalromance and classic sense, which is
(29:59):
a pansexual Elizabethan romance istold in the first person past tense.
All right.
You just love switching it up.
I like that.
I do.
Love it or leave it?
The third act breakup or dark moment.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know.
(30:20):
'cause I don't thinkthat way when I write.
I just write and then I'm like, Ooh,I feel I need to do something here.
That's my method of writing.
Ooh, I need to do something here.
Yeah.
So I can say, you've gotan, an intuition about it.
All right.
Love it or leave it?
Always end with an epilogue.
I hate to say this, but I do.
I, so, I, I guess I loveit 'cause I always do it.
(30:42):
Always, always I do it.
All right, love it or leave it?
Always share researchin your author's note.
Hmm.
No, I don't do that.
I do like on a an Instagram page.
I share like research andinspiration stuff, but I don't
(31:04):
think I do in my author's note.
All right.
In the, in the nextbook I do a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, 'cause I say wherelike, the inspiration for the
book came from, and also not totrust any of the history in it.
All right.
Well, and are there any otherromance rules I didn't ask about
that you know, and you like to break?
(31:27):
You know, I think the one rule I like tobreak is I don't like to make the romance
the only central important relationship.
I think friendship and romancesh are on equal footing and one
is not better than the other.
And that we need to see the valueand importance of our friendships
because that whole hierarchicalsystem, you know, screws us up.
(31:50):
It's why men die earlier than women.
Women know their friends are important.
Men don't.
And so that's like, I make sure Igive equal footing to friendships and
the value in that and not say, oh,romance is the most important thing.
I love that.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for playing love it.
(32:10):
Or leave it, and thank you forcoming on the show and talking to us
about Disco Witches of Fire Island.
Where should our readers goto find you and the book?
Well Google a book.
You'll find it everywhere.
But it, it's, you could go to mywebsite, which is blair fell.com,
B-L-A-I-R-F as in Frank, EL l.com.
(32:30):
That's fall down in the past tense.
Blair fell.
You can find like lots of linksand information there, but
also follow me on Instagram.
Blair fell at Instagram and also DiscoWitch is a fire island at Instagram.
There's a lot of greatphotos from my own past.
And historical things that inspired this.
Photos I took in Act Up demonstrations.
(32:52):
Also, some very steamyphotos for those of you.
Ooh, who'd like to see some steamystuff for uncensored photos.
If you want to get a little bit deeperthere follow me on blue sky where
you can show some uncensored photos.
And that's stuff that directlyinfluences the book and that I pulled
from for the book so they're fun.
That's Blair fell at Blue Sky.
(33:14):
That's awesome.
I will put a link to your website inthe show notes so listeners can just
head on over and find everything.
Yeah.
Thank you.
This has been so great.
I've, I've reallyappreciated talking to you.
Thanks for coming on.
Loved it.
Thank you, Katherine.
That's it for this week!
Don't forget to subscribe to theHistorical Romance Sampler wherever
you listen, and follow us onInstagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
(33:38):
Until next week, happy reading!
Welcome to the historicalromance sampler podcast.
I'm your host, Katherine Grant, andeach week I introduce you to another
amazing historical romance author.
My guest reads a little sampleof their work, and then we move
into a free ranging interview.
If you like these episodes, don'tforget to subscribe to the historical
(00:24):
romance sampler, wherever youlisten to podcasts and follow us
on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
I am super excited to bejoined today by Blair Fell.
Blair writes and lives in NewYork City and is a multihyphenate.
His television work includesQueer as Folk and the Emmy
(00:48):
Award-winning California Connected.
He has written dozens of plays,including the award-winning plays,
naked Will, the tragic and horriblelife of the Singing Nun and the
downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits.
His personal essays have appeared inHuffPost Out Daily News, New York.
And more.
(01:09):
He's a two time winner of the prestigiousDoris Lipman Prize in creative writing
from the City College of New York,including for his early unfinished
draft of the Sign for Home, and alsoconcurrently with being a writer.
Blair has been an ASL interpreter forthe Deaf since 1993 and has worked
as an actor, producer, and director.
(01:32):
Blair, I am so excited tohave you with us today.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, I mean one of the reasonsI'm excited is historical romance
sometimes seems synonymous withBritish Regency and Victorian era and
we've seen other eras on the podcast.
But I'm very excited 'cause this is,I think, bringing us up the farthest
(01:54):
in history that we've gone so far.
Because you're reading from us, readingfor us from your summer hit Disco
Witches of Fire Island, set in 1989.
Correct, correct.
It's like it's hard to believe1989 is like history, but
it's very much history now.
And it's one of the reasons I wrote thisbecause a lot of people, younger people
(02:18):
especially, aren't really aware of whatthat moment was like, especially for,
for queer people, just how difficultit was, especially in the, in the
realm of romance, in the realm offalling in love at that point in time.
If you were a young gay man,you thought of two things.
This person that I'm attracted to, theymight infect me if they're positive or
(02:40):
they might die on me if they're positive.
And it is this book is very much rootedin my own history, which was the story.
I'm, I'm negative, and I wasof course negative back then.
And my first partner actually my first andsecond partner were both HIV positive and
at that point in time in 1989, there was.
(03:01):
No medicine that could prolonga life of someone who had HIV.
And so it was assumed thatif you had HIV you would die.
And so I fell in love with this guy.
Then he revealed his status to me.
And then in the period of time that Iwas with him all I could think of was.
Am I gonna get infected?
Is he gonna die?
Am I gonna get infected?
(03:22):
Is he gonna die?
Needless to say, for a 24-year-old,at the time it was crazy making he
was 22 and, he ended up dumping mebecause I just couldn't deal with it.
I was madly in love with himstill, but he broke up with me
and then never spoke to me again.
Then two years after that , he passed awayfrom complications due to the AIDS virus.
(03:46):
And that's the backstoryof when this novel begins.
The main character who's a, you know,substitute for me is this 29-year-old
young gay man who has this tragic historywith his first lover, and his best friend,
this crazy hot blonde jock is like, let'sgo to Fire Island and be bartenders.
(04:08):
I have it all worked out for us.
We'll have housing, we'll have a job,you'll get to get over your broken heart
finally.
You need to get out of Philadelphiaand get, get out there.
And so he goes to Fire Islandbut finds out there is no
job and there is no housing.
Because his best friend saidthat just to get him out there.
And so he is kind of stuck and heends up moving into the attic of
(04:31):
these three older gay men, likekind of 1970s old disco queens.
They clean houses for a livingout there and they're like, oh,
we have a room in our attic.
You can stay there.
And they end up being thiscoven of disco witches, which
is the whole setup for the book.
The chapter that I'm gonna read now is,it's actually a little ways into the book.
(04:53):
It's chapter 15.
And one thing I need to tell you aboutthe book is something else happens
in the book, the, the Disco Witches.
They have a manifesto calledthe Disco Witch Manifesto.
And at the beginning of every chapterin the book, you have, a quote from
the Disco Witch Manifesto, which is alittle bit of wisdom the disco witches
have for themselves and for people ingeneral about how to live your life
(05:18):
and what to be aware of in your life.
That's part of the setup now, asI said, this is chapter 15 when
Joe, who's the main character, JoeAgabian, is coming over on the ferry.
He sees this hot straight deckhand whoseems to be laughing at him, and he makes
all these assumptions about this guy.
(05:40):
He's this tall, lanky, handsome, longIsland, you know, douche, bag, he thinks,
with these really beautiful blue eyes.
But he just like writes 'em off.
Later he sees him in the harbor witha woman he thinks is his girlfriend.
And again, he seems to be laughing at Joe.
So Joe just makes all theseassumptions about them.
His name is Fergal.
In the chapter, though hedoesn't know his name yet.
(06:03):
Later in the book, he's called Fergal,the Ferry Man, but in this chapter
he's just referred to as the deckhand.
The other thing that happens when Joefirst arrives is as the ferry is pulling
in, he sees the most passionate hot imageof a man he's ever seen in his life.
This big, hunky, late thirties, earlyforties, muscle man with a beard,
(06:25):
with a dollop of gray in his chinpulsing, you know, just gorgeous
who looks both like every desireJoe has ever had, but also his fear.
This man looks like he willeither kiss him or kill him.
And that just touches Joeat his most base level.
And he just like desires this mana lot, but then the man disappears.
(06:49):
But in the chapter I'm gonnaread, we have another introduction
to both these characters.
Okay, I'm gonna read.
Chapter 15.
Sunrise.
Surprise.
Disco Witch Manifesto number 13.
The great balance is our eternalaim, but we can never stop
dancing even if the great darknessis spinning in the DJ booth.
(07:14):
At 5:03 AM Joe had finished mopping thefloor and hosing down the sludge mat.
All in all his end of the night barcleaning duties took on one entire side
of Elliot's mixtape love songs one.
Joe's pulse wouldn't stop buzzingfrom the first night's excitement,
not to mention the devil dog sizeof dollar bills in his pocket.
(07:38):
In order to blow off steam before bed,Joe decided to watch the sunrise on
the beach while finishing the leftoversin his Charlie's Angels lunchbox.
Barely a 70 foot walk from the bar door,stepping onto the beach at dawn was like
arriving in a temporary paradise with itsmiles of empty sand, raging ocean calling
(08:01):
gulls and spectacular awakening sky.
Red sky at night, sailors delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailors heedwarning, he whispered out loud to himself.
How to identify
coming storms was one of the few thingshis late father, a former Navy man, had
taught him, although beyond a few wispsof red, that morning sky was mostly
(08:26):
orange, yellow, and a little purple.
What did that foretell?
Elliot had been obsessed with sunrises.
Once he and Joe had spent a week togetheron Ocean City, New Jersey, and he'd
insisted they depart Philly at threein the morning so they could catch
(08:46):
the sunrise over the ocean together.
When they reached the Great EggHarbor Bridge, Elliot had shouted
"I spy the bay!" With glee.
It had been his family's traditionthat whoever was the first to see
their watery destination shouted itout as if they had won something.
Joe loved how Elliot was able tomix his powerful grown man self
(09:08):
with a child's sense of wonder.
As the sun's blazing headtipped over the horizon,
a strong breeze, blue, salty,sweet air up Joe's nose.
Just then from the corner of hiseye, Joe noticed a tall brawny
man in a gray sweatshirt and jeanswalking along the edge of the water,
(09:32):
a hundred yards down the beach.
It was him.
The gladiator man.
Remembering Ronnie's adviceto never miss opportunities,
Joe dropped his lunchbox and dartedonto the sand, waving his arms wildly.
"Hey, you! Can you talk to himfor a minute?" He screamed.
"Stay right there just for a second." Thegladiator man stopped walking, adjusted
(09:58):
his stance so the rising sun illuminatedhis perfection, and then he waved back.
Joe's heart kicked like a rabbit.
It was going to happen.
He was finally going tomeet the gladiator man.
Joe planned to ask where he lived,talk about how he was new to Fire
(10:18):
Island, let him know he was single.
He would not talk about Elliot.
Joe hoped he wasn'tappearing too enthusiastic.
Ronnie, his best friend, had once told himthat after, you know a guy likes you, it's
necessary to play it cool for a while.
Guys without barriers look broken,
ronnie had warned.
(10:40):
That morning on the beach, therewasn't a cool bone in Joe's body
as he charged across the sand likea desperate soldier at Iwo Jima.
The closer he got, the morehandsome gladiator man appeared.
His massive pectorals and shoulders pushedagainst the fabric of his gray sweatshirt.
His two hairy forearms, muscular andforeboding, hung by his sides with hands
(11:05):
thick and powerful, like two leashed
pit bulls ready to either embrace or kill.
He was all that Joe had everdesired, sexually speaking.
"Hey, I saw you the other day," Joehuffed and puffed a cramp in his side,
the soft sand shackling his legs.
(11:26):
"I wanted to say hi, but you leftbefore I could." Joe was just 15 yards
from the gladiator man when anothervoice called out from behind him.
"Hey buddy. Yo buddy, whereare you running? You forgot
something." Joe turned.
There shouting from the top of thesteps was that blue-eyed deckhand, the
(11:49):
one with a girlfriend in the harbor.
He started down the steps andacross the sand toward Joe.
He appeared to be soaking wetunder his pine's ferry sweatshirt.
"What do you want?" Joe asked, hopingthe gladiator man wouldn't hear.
"Hey, you forgot your Charlie's angelslunchbox on the steps," the deckhand
(12:09):
teased as he dangled the campy lunchbox.
Couldn't the straight idiot see, Joe wasin the middle of something important?
And who went swimming in theocean at five in the morning?
"I left it there on purpose," Joe said.
He turned back toward the gladiatorman who had begun walking away.
(12:32):
Did he think Joe and thedeckhand were together?
"Hey!" Joe shouted.
"Wait a minute." "Well, which is it?"The deckhand said from behind him.
"You want me to stay or go?" "Iwasn't talking to you," Joe snapped.
"Right," the deckhand said.
(12:53):
"So what are you doing on the beach thistime of morning anyway, taking a run?"
"Look," Joe said sharply.
"I can't talk right now." He thenreadied himself again for the chase.
But when he turned to look forGladiator man, he was gone.
Joe fell to his kneesand punched the sand.
(13:14):
"Fuck." The deckhand step back.
"Jesus.
What's wrong?
Did something bad happen?" "Yeah, no it'sjust, I was trying to catch up to someone.
Sorry I didn't mean to snap at youbefore and-" "No worries." The deckhand
said pulling a swig from a bottle ofJohnny Walker from his board shorts.
(13:36):
Joe noticed the deckhand's eyes again,even while bloodshot and glassy.
They were an even morestunning blue than before.
For some reason near the oceanand in the morning light, the
deckhand's eyes appeared to be almostcobalt blue or was that indigo?
And they were framed by long blackeyelashes, flecked with wet salt and
(14:00):
sand, much like the rest of them.
"You know it's not safe to go swimmingdrunk," Joe said, "especially when
no one's around to save you ifsomething happens." "I didn't swim
drunk," the deckhand retorted.
"I swam hung over." "You woke up hung overand decided it was a good idea to swim?"
(14:21):
"Nah, I never went to bed.
In fact, come to think of it,I better catch another swim
before I work the first boat out.
By the way, you said you weretrying to catch up with someone.
Who was that?" "Who doyou think?" Joe said.
"You know that that big musculardude, the one you scared away."
(14:42):
"Muscular dude?" The deckhand gestureto the completely empty beach.
"Nobody on this beachbut us in the seagulls.
You sure i'm the only one who'sbeen drinking?" "For Christ's sake,"
Joe said, "how hungover are you?
You didn't see that huge guy with abeard literally standing just over
there?" "Chill out, shortstop," thedeckhand said, "don't get your skirts
(15:07):
all bunched up." The deckhand's smirk andgay baiting comment were the last straw.
Joe mustered his most threateningglare, which wasn't very threatening.
"You always act like such an ass?""I was just joking with you."
The deckhand made the peace sign.
"It's weird that I missed seeing anotherhuman being that close by, but then again,
(15:29):
I wasn't really focused over there."
The deckhands eyesmomentarily latched onto Joe.
But then he quickly lookedaway like he was embarrassed.
"Or maybe I'm still a littledrunk. I better get back in the
ocean and make myself right."He yanked off his sweatshirt.
His lean torso was more muscularthan Joe had imagined, with a perfect
(15:52):
little patch of hair at the topand a small treasure trail between
his belly button and board shorts.
When he turned and joggedtoward the water, Joe noticed
he had an almost comical gait.
There didn't seem to be anythingwrong with his legs, though.
Still long and hairy andtoo sexy for a straight guy.
Then Joe noticed something odd.
(16:14):
The deckhand had huge paddle like feetwith toes ever so slightly webbed.
Thus, the reason for the funny jog.
Any awkwardness disappeared thoughas soon as he dove into the waves.
His arms, like twin porpoises,sliced through the water while
his legs kicked fountains.
(16:37):
When he was 25 feet from the shore,he dove under and disappeared.
10 seconds passed 20, 30, 60.
At 90 seconds, Joe walked to the water'sedge and recounted the CPR class he had
been forced to take in his last job.
Tilt the head, make sure nothing was inthe passageway, then press your lips.
(17:01):
At that very moment, the deckhand,like a deranged seal, exploded
from the waves in robed, in aspray of iridescent water droplets.
He was gasping and laughing.
That guy's nuts, Joe thought, beforelooking back at the stretch of beach
where he'd last seen the gladiator man.
(17:22):
Sand, bushes, trees, and nothing else.
Wow.
What an intriguing scene.
I don't know what to believe.
Exactly.
That's the point.
Very good.
Very good.
Well thank you so much.
I've got a lot of questions foryou and first we're gonna take
a quick break for our sponsors.
(17:45):
Hey, audiobook listeners!
Have you checked out the officialHistorical Romance Sampler
Season 1 playlist on Libro.
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that are available to listen to on Libro.
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(18:08):
Head on over to the Historical RomanceSampler link tree to learn more.
I am back with Blair Fell, whojust read a sample of the Disco
Witches of Fire Island, a veryintriguing historical romance.
When you were setting this up, youtalked about how this is a very personal
story that come is very informedby your own personal experiences.
(18:31):
And I also know that, you know, you haveall these different creative roles where
you've been a playwright, you've been anactor, you've done all sorts of things.
So I'm curious, how long has thisstory been whirling around in your
head, and what is it about the novelas opposed to a play or a television
script or whatever that appealedto you as a medium to tell it?
(18:55):
That's a great question.
With the story itself, I mean,again, it's based in life.
I moved to Fire Islandsight unseen when I was 29.
I moved into the attic ofthese three older gay men.
And I guess forming that story intothem being witches started like
probably about like 30 years ago.
(19:17):
I was asked to do a serializedstory in this magazine, this little
weekly gay magazine in New York.
I had been writing serialized plays andthe editor who had liked my serialized
plays asked me to do something.
I'm like, I know nothingabout writing fiction.
It wasn't, in my opinion, very good,although some people really liked
it, but I, I would like write it lastminute, like literally, if it was due
(19:41):
on Tuesday, I would write it on Monday.
Like didn't take it seriously, but Ilike the idea of it about this young man
Being cared for by these older queer men
witches, like that kind of thinglike bringing like mythology
and stuff in, into this thing.
It wasn't a period piece at thetime because this was the nineties.
Then when I started writing my first novelnovel, which is called The Sign for Home,
(20:05):
which is a contemporary coming of agestory about a young, straight deaf-blind,
Jehovah's Witness, and his gay interpreterand their friendship, and then their
journey to find the lost love of the youngman who's this young, deaf, deaf woman.
And while I was writing thatit, I never had written a novel.
(20:26):
I fell in love with like, beingcompletely in control of the story
and getting to like really delveinto the world in the first novel.
So I kind of at that point had alreadysaid like, I, I do want to keep trying
this novel thing even if nothing sells.
I have to imagine that all of yourexperience writing plays and writing for
tv, it all is cumulative and is informingthis amazing, absolutely novel experience.
(20:51):
Absolutely.
So it's like, to me to like say like,oh, that's just a miraculous thing.
It's like.
I worked in television, I wrotedozens and dozens of plays.
The fact of being a playwrighthelped so much with dialogue.
I have no problem with dialogue.
Dialogue I can like shoot out my leftnostril like without even thinking.
Not a problem.
Yeah.
So I had all that experience.
I didn't know it couldtranslate to writing a novel.
(21:14):
'cause like you, you novelists.
Katherine are, you know,they, you were my heroes.
I just wanted a lover who was a novelist.
I had no desire to be a novelist myself.
Not that I had no desire, Ididn't think it was possible.
Yeah.
And like, I just wish I wasnot so afraid of it earlier.
'cause I just like, you know,it's to get so involved in a
(21:36):
story and what's cool about this,because it is now a history piece.
Yeah.
To have to go back to thatperiod and like research the
songs, there's a lot about music.
There's actually a playlist available onSpotify that goes along with the book that
my editor put together called The DiscoWitches of Fire Island Spotify playlist,
which has all the songs in the book,plus the inspirations songs that I used.
(22:00):
And having to do that research, having toresearch the clothes they were wearing,
what the colors they were wearing.
But what also was like the, likethere's a thing where he just, the.
The ferry man Fergal, the ferryman says to Joe, Hey, what?
He says?
Like, yo, hey, be cool.
Shortstop.
Shortstop was somethingyou said back then.
No one says that now, but it was kind oflike, you know this, it's not a dig, but
(22:24):
it's kind of like this affectionate thingyou say to someone who's shorter than you.
Hey, shortstop, whatcha doing?
Like pip squeak?
It's a little bit sexierthan pip pip squeak.
It's like it's.
Hey buddy, what are you doing there?
You know, your big lug, you know, kindof more like, like that kind of thing.
Mm-hmm.
(22:44):
And, and so it's like Igetting that kind of thing.
Like they use the word rad, which,you know, we don't really, some
people use it 'cause it's a coolthing to say, now I'm cool thing.
Like, oh, I'm being retro and saying rad.
Right?
Yeah.
But then it was the thing you said.
You know, you know, that'sbitching, that's rad.
You know, all of those things in,in creating that history again, was
(23:05):
really a challenge, but super fun.
Yeah.
And at what point when you werewriting it, did you realize that you
were writing a historical fictionpiece versus just kind of going back
to the story that you wanted to tell?
That's such a great question because Ididn't write it as a historical piece.
I wrote it as, okay.
(23:25):
I. Well, I was, I was not onFire Island in the eighties.
I was there in the early nineties,which is just a few years from then.
But I wanted to write it at theheight of the AIDS crisis, which
I first came out around 1982.
So the virus, you know,was maybe nine months old.
The first time I went to agay bar, there was a sign on
(23:45):
the door about the gay cancer.
So I never was sexual beforethe virus was out there.
And I, I wanted to capture that essence.
I didn't think aboutwriting historical piece.
I'm like, I want to capture what itwas like for me as a young man coming
out and having to deal with falling inlove, which is hard enough for someone
(24:07):
in the early twenties falling in love,but also dealing with this issue, will
you face death if you are infected?
That's what it was.
And not only that, you walked aroundthe streets and people would look at gay
people and they called them carriers.
You know, they made jokes likehow does a gay guy roller skate?
Roll AIDS.
You know, like, you know these awful,awful jokes and you were looked at,
(24:30):
people didn't want to be near you, andI wanted to kind of capture that moment.
I mean, unfortunately, we're gettingback to a moment of that in this awful
country we're living in right now.
Which is the other interestingthing about the book.
I began this in the firstTrump administration.
And I didn't think about that.
I was just writing about that period.
(24:51):
And there's this force because it'sa magical realistic thing too, and
there's this force in the book calledThe Great Darkness, which is that
thing that, you know, caused AIDSthat caused the hatred towards people
with AIDS, but is is everything thatis opposite of loving and kindness.
And the book speaks so muchto the moment we're living now
(25:13):
because Joe at the beginning ofthe book is just such a victim.
To the virus, to the hatred of thegovernment for people with AIDS and
people who are gay, and he goes from thatposition of being a victim to someone
who takes action and finds his voice.
And he's inspired by the DiscoWitches who are these old sixties
(25:35):
radicals who are part of Act Up.
Who if you don't know what ACT UP is,it's, it's the AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power, which is the activist organizationthat actually protested enough to lead the
way to the medicines now that, you know,keep people alive that have HIV I was
part of Act Up, so I wanted to make thataspect of the history in there as well.
(25:58):
It is a history piece becausethat's a damn long time ago,
but I didn't write it that way.
I wrote it just to capture thismoment of my own personal history.
But now it's like being selectedas like, you know, one of their
favorite history romances.
Both New York Times and Goodreads like selected it as that.
(26:20):
Historical romances, queer historicalromances for the New York Times.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's sometimes a funny thingthat happens when we're selling our
books, which is that there are thesecategories that readers are accustomed
to that then get applied onto our books.
And it's true and it's alsonot true like any label.
So
100%. Yes, absolutely.
(26:41):
I think it's very interesting thatpart, that this story is structured
on the idea of the older generationkind of, you know, passing on wisdom
and teaching Joe these powers.
So now this is another, like youare sharing your generation's wisdom
with my generation and with thegenerations younger than me than so,
(27:05):
yeah.
Striking.
Yeah, that's, that was an important partof the book for me was this passing on
of knowledge and passing on of wisdomand what, what I think got me really
excited about writing this book is asthe characters come to life, I'm not
sure if you write this way, but it's,it's like the characters write the book.
And so he lives with Howie and Lenny.
(27:25):
Howie is, you know, the, the big motherman, the one that builds the hats, the one
that has all this wonderful loving wisdom.
And then there's Lenny.
Lenny who's this little short, bald,like Italian guy with a big mustache.
Who's sober and has his own kind ofwisdom, but they're very different.
And what they have topass on is very different.
(27:46):
And I got excited because like whenI was writing those characters, they
really had important things to say.
And then there's Ronnie, his best friendwho's this butch blonde, glam jock.
He is all about being macho gayguy, wants to teach Joe how to be a
successful gay, you know, and he hasall these words of pseudo wisdom.
(28:07):
Some of them are really good advice andsome of them are like totally bullshit
because it's based on like gotta bethis macho gay guy to be successful.
But it was like fun becausethat's also part of myself too.
You know, this shallow vein gayguy that wants to say, yeah, if you
want to get laid, don't wear that.
Don't wear that.
Shave a path through youreyebrow, all of this stuff.
Yeah.
And it was just fun passing on all thesedifferent ways of passing on wisdom
(28:32):
to these different characters.
And, and then there's the DiscoWitch Manifesto, which is a whole
other level of collective wisdom.
And the book is very much about community,found family, collective wisdom.
And that's another way that thewitches pass on their knowledge to,
to Joe and, well, he doesn't knowabout the Disco Witch manifesto.
(28:54):
So that's really between the reader andthe Disco Witches when they get these
glimpses of the Disco Witch Manifestoat the beginning of every chapter.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
All right, well, it's time for usto move to Love It or leave it.
[Musical Interlude]
All right.
Love it or leave it?
Protagonists meet in the first 10% of the
(29:17):
story.
I leave it when I first write, and thenI'm forced to love it when I realize,
oh, I'm taking too long to get there.
I love that.
Okay.
Love it or leave it?
Dual point of view narration.
Oh, absolutely.
Love it.
Do it all the time.
Love it or leave it?
(29:37):
Third person, past tense.
This book is told in thethird person past tense.
My first book was told infirst person past tense.
Second person present tense.
Oh, interesting.
And my third book very much a historicalromance and classic sense, which is
(29:59):
a pansexual Elizabethan romance istold in the first person past tense.
All right.
You just love switching it up.
I like that.
I do.
Love it or leave it?
The third act breakup or dark moment.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know.
(30:20):
'cause I don't thinkthat way when I write.
I just write and then I'm like, Ooh,I feel I need to do something here.
That's my method of writing.
Ooh, I need to do something here.
Yeah.
So I can say, you've gotan, an intuition about it.
All right.
Love it or leave it?
Always end with an epilogue.
I hate to say this, but I do.
I, so, I, I guess I loveit 'cause I always do it.
(30:42):
Always, always I do it.
All right, love it or leave it?
Always share researchin your author's note.
Hmm.
No, I don't do that.
I do like on a an Instagram page.
I share like research andinspiration stuff, but I don't
(31:04):
think I do in my author's note.
All right.
In the, in the nextbook I do a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, 'cause I say wherelike, the inspiration for the
book came from, and also not totrust any of the history in it.
All right.
Well, and are there any otherromance rules I didn't ask about
that you know, and you like to break?
(31:27):
You know, I think the one rule I like tobreak is I don't like to make the romance
the only central important relationship.
I think friendship and romancesh are on equal footing and one
is not better than the other.
And that we need to see the valueand importance of our friendships
because that whole hierarchicalsystem, you know, screws us up.
(31:50):
It's why men die earlier than women.
Women know their friends are important.
Men don't.
And so that's like, I make sure Igive equal footing to friendships and
the value in that and not say, oh,romance is the most important thing.
I love that.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for playing love it.
(32:10):
Or leave it, and thank you forcoming on the show and talking to us
about Disco Witches of Fire Island.
Where should our readers goto find you and the book?
Well Google a book.
You'll find it everywhere.
But it, it's, you could go to mywebsite, which is blair fell.com,
B-L-A-I-R-F as in Frank, EL l.com.
(32:30):
That's fall down in the past tense.
Blair fell.
You can find like lots of linksand information there, but
also follow me on Instagram.
Blair fell at Instagram and also DiscoWitch is a fire island at Instagram.
There's a lot of greatphotos from my own past.
And historical things that inspired this.
Photos I took in Act Up demonstrations.
(32:52):
Also, some very steamyphotos for those of you.
Ooh, who'd like to see some steamystuff for uncensored photos.
If you want to get a little bit deeperthere follow me on blue sky where
you can show some uncensored photos.
And that's stuff that directlyinfluences the book and that I pulled
from for the book so they're fun.
That's Blair fell at Blue Sky.
(33:14):
That's awesome.
I will put a link to your website inthe show notes so listeners can just
head on over and find everything.
Yeah.
Thank you.
This has been so great.
I've, I've reallyappreciated talking to you.
Thanks for coming on.
Loved it.
Thank you, Katherine.
That's it for this week!
Don't forget to subscribe to theHistorical Romance Sampler wherever
you listen, and follow us onInstagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
(33:38):
Until next week, happy reading!
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