Tag: BaIT

I talked about D.I. Jolly’s BaIT earlier this afternoon, and now I’m pleased to bring you this Q&A with him. I’m particularly grateful to him for this because I sent them the questions under the mistaken impression that we’d previously discussed doing a Q&A. He graciously replied quickly anyway.

Could you take a moment or two to introduce yourself to my readers? What set you on the path to writing, describe your path to publication, genre choices, and so on?
My name is D.I. Jolly, I’m a South African author living in Germany. I first wanted to be a writer when I was about seven years old and played a video game called Gabriel Knight, where the titular character was an author and just the coolest person I could imagine, so I decided I would be him when I grew up.

I currently have seven published books, five novels and two short story collections. When I moved to Germany is started a writing group called Poetry Club, and in the last seven years I’ve written over 270 short stories for this event, and all the ones that aren’t in the published collections are uploaded onto my website. So, if anyone is interested in dipping a toe into my writing you can read over a hundred short stories for free on my site.

When it comes to genre, my aim is always to use it as a story telling element. Rather than a setting. So, with Mostly Human, I used the elements of lycanthropy to display mental health and bipolar disorder. With Counting Sheep, the sci-fi elements are there to create an exaggerated environment of capitalism and consumerism, the two key themes of that novel. With Bait, I wanted to have what is seen now as a cliched paranormal romance novel, but focus on themes of consent rather than lust.

What was the genesis of Bait—both the story and the themes (assuming they didn’t pop up together in your mind)?
As I said, the main theme for me in Bait is consent. I had often joked that I could just write a romance novel and publish it on the Inkitt platform and get thousands of reads no problem. And I joked about it so much that I was challenge to put my money where my mouth was. So, I did, and in researching what was the current focus and trends in romance, I noticed something I really didn’t like. Something called ‘soft consent’. For those who don’t know, soft consent is when a book is written in the first person and the reader is in their head, so even though a character is saying “no, no, no, get off me.” The reader knows that in their head the character is thinking, “actually yes I want you.”

Now, I’m not here to shame anybody, your fantasies are yours, enjoy them. But what bothered me was that a lot of the audience for these kinds of books on those kinds of platforms are younger teenagers. And I saw a pattern of the snake eating its own tail, in that, an adult with experience and understand would write a soft consent novel to live out their fantasy. Absolutely fine. That would then get read by a teenager who learns something about themselves and expresses it in their own book. But now you’ve lost the experience and some of the understanding behind that kind of story. That then gets read by another teenager who does the same thing, and now it’s just focused on the sex and lacking consent but being displayed as, ‘this is what love looks like’.

And I wanted to throw a wrench into that spiral. So, I wrote Bait and made sure to show that consent was vital and very important, that consent could still be very sexy, and that consent taken away was traumatic. Both sexually and in the case of not listening to your partner while they’re in crisis.

And low and behold it got hundreds of thousands of reads on Inkitt, and was so popular that the digital rights were licensed by Inkitt and published on their pay to read app Galatea, and the publishing company TinPot acquired the print rights and put it out into the world.

I picked up a nod or two to your Mostly Human books—does this take place in the same world? If so—these werewolves seem different from Alex and the rest. Am I wrong about that? Or do you have multiple species wandering around the world (which is kind of cool), and do you plan on having them intersect?
They are different worlds in my head, but I did just want to put Easter Eggs to my other books in the story. Mostly for my own entertainment but also just to have a little nod to people who maybe go from Bait to reading some of my other books. I like the idea of someone who loved Bait diving into Mostly Human and going. “Ooooooooooohh!”

Jessica is a big personality. I know people like her and they can (fully unintentionally) take over a room/conversation in a moment—was it a challenge to keep her as a secondary character and/or keep her from taking over most scenes she’s in?
Because Bait is written in the first person and Jessica is always preserved not given her own perspective it actually made it very easy to have her be a big personally but not stealing the story. Having the boundary walls of not getting her own point of view, made it safer in a way to let her steal the scenes she was in, and to really be herself. It was also a lot of fun to write.

You’ve got a few books now under your belt—I’ve often heard that writers, or artists in general, will forget hundreds of positive reviews but always remember the negative. What’s the worst thing that someone’s said about one of your books, and has it altered your approach to future books?
There is a two-star review of my first book A Guy A Girl and A Voodoo Monkey Hand that is about 2 pages long, that point by point breaks down everything I apparently did wrong.

There is also a review of Mostly Human with the line. “…and the author didn’t really know what Thai Chi was.” Which always makes me think. “I don’t think you know what a joke is.” But hey. It’s still a four-star review. But these are the comments that live rent free in my head.

Is there a genre that you particularly enjoy reading, but could never write? Is there one you’re dying to try?
I read a lot of classics, Russian and Japanese literature. Which goes from brutal to psychedelic realism. Which I really enjoy reading but really don’t think I could write in that way. The way I think and tell stories doesn’t lend itself to that sort of world building and descriptions.

here’s a game we play around here, called “Online Bookstore Algorithm”. What are 3-5 books whose readers may like BaIt?
I’ve been told that if you enjoyed the Twilight series, you’d really like Bait. There is a very popular book on the Galatea app called Millennium Wolves, and those readers would also get behind Bait I believe. Otherwise, I don’t know, Vampire Academy? Or the Sookie Stackhouse books.

What’s next for D.I. Jolly, author?
I wrote a dark psychological thriller called Blurred Lines that I’m currently shopping around. I’m also working on a new novel Milton (working title) which is a family comedy drama. That I’m really enjoying working on. I’m waiting for a video game to be announced that I can finally tell people which game I wrote the story for, which is exciting. Poetry Club is still on going, the last Monday of every month, so there will be some new short stories going live on my website the next day. Yeah, lots of things going on, and they’re all writing.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Bait, and hope you have plenty of success with it.
Thank you, me too.

I’m Sending Some Mixed Messages about BaIT by D.I. Jolly (and picked up some from BaIT, too)

By HCNewton

On June 8, 2023

In Fiction, Urban Fantasy

A little later this afternoon, I’ll be posting a Q&A with the author!

BaIT

by D.I. Jolly

DETAILS:
Publication Date: February 21, 2023
Format: eBook
Length: 240 pg.
Read Date: April 14-15, 2023

What’s BaIT About?

Amber is a few short months away from leaving high school behind, going to college, and studying to become a teacher. It will be difficult saying goodbye to her best friend, Jessica, who is moving across the country, and to her boyfriend (and almost certain future husband), Frankie, who is also moving out of state for college—but she’s going to be okay. She has a plan, she’s got her hunk of a boyfriend, and life is looking good. Her future’s so bright, she’s gotta wear shades.

Until one day when a young man comes into the coffee shop that she’s working in and takes her breath away. He’s gorgeous, he’s shy, and she can’t stop thinking about him. It’s not just her, Jessica, is almost as smitten—but Bastian (as they learn he’s called) really only seems interested in Amber.

What neither girl realizes that beyond their giggling lusting and certainty about true love—Bastian coming into their lives brings threats and complications that they didn’t know existed. It’s not long before Amber is involved in ages-old struggles between werewolves and vampires, werewolves and werewolves, and a father and son. None of these characters will move on unchanged.

Worldbuilding

This is the best part of the book, period. The particular take on Werewolves here (and to a lesser extent, Vampires) really worked for me. There’s a little bit of the flavor of The Marrok from the Mercy Thompson series—but there’s group of elders instead of just Bram (and many other differences, but like I said—flavor).

There’s reason to think that this exists in the same world as his Mostly Human books. But it feels like the werewolves are organized differently (for lack of a better term). This raises some questions: are there multiple types of lycanthropes in this world and different types of lycanthropic magics? Has Jolly changed the way he thinks about them in this world? Has he just been inadvertently inconsistent? I ask about this in a Q&A with Jolly that will go up in an hour or so, but I haven’t read his response yet. So go see what he said to get a better take on this paragraph.

There’s also this Djalia-esque place/plane of existence where Bastian communicates with some people who I won’t identify. That was an excellent touch and proved to be a good way for Bastian to develop.

Even the concept of soulmate is an intriguing addition to this world—and if it had been presented differently, I might not have the concerns I’m about to talk about.

Consent

Vague spoilers ahead. Feel free to skip to the next section header.

This novel was pitched to me as “a Paranormal YA-Romance novel focusing on the theme of consent”. This is not my typical cup of tea, but I’ve read enough of all of those to be interested in Jolly’s take on them (especially in combination). When I wrote about his Mostly Human 2, I talked about wanting to see a Lad Lit novel by him, and this might be something in that direction. So I went for it.

First, this is not what I’d call YA. NA/New Adult—sure. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

There is a storyline that comes up later in the book all about consent in the ways you typically think about that storyline. Impaired judgment tied to underage drinking (not for a second saying it’s deserved or excusable, just painting the scene) and some jerk not bothering to get consent (or care about it in the first place). It’s dealt with well, Jolly is really good here. I do wonder if the punishment fits the crime, but hey…when you deal with werewolves and vampires (even if you don’t know it), things happen.

If that’s all that happened, I’d wonder why it was described as “about consent” because while it’s a vital storyline, it happens relatively late in the novel.

I can’t help but wonder, however, how the novel undercuts what it wants to say about consent. Throughout the novel Amber, Jessica, Frankie, and Bastian are really careful along those lines, and everyone is open and honest about their desires. But there’s this magic whammy of the Soulmate at work. Where Amber and Bastian are tied together emotionally, physically, and supernaturally before they know each other.

Can Amber and Bastian truly be said to consent to anything? It’s definitely not an informed consent. Had the whole soulmate thing grown out of their bond, or enhanced what happened naturally, that’d be fine. But truly they had no agency here—they chose to spend time together, to love each other, to be intimate with each other, and so on. But could they have made any other choice? I can’t buy it.

I might have missed something. I might be misinterpreting something—I absolutely am open to that. But for now…ick.

So, what did I think about BaIT?

This is a tough one to write. Jolly and I have interacted a bit over the years and I like him as much as you can like someone you’ve emailed with a couple dozen times. I enjoy his writing on the whole and look forward to seeing new books by him. And I have no doubt that there are people who are really going to get into this book and want more like it. And more power to them.

I am not one of those people.

It’s not just the consent issue (although that’s part of it). It’s not that I’m a prude and this book is definitely (and almost aggressively) “sex-positive” (although both are true, I’ve read and enjoyed more graphic work since this book).

Some of what put me off were the intensity of every thought and emotion expressed—it really felt like everything said, thought, or felt by the characters in their teens and twenties should’ve been accompanied by 5+ exclamation points. The pacing of the relationships, personal growth and change, and the story felt off and too accelerated to be believable.

I really think that this book plays into his strengths (it’s very much along the lines of the parts of Mostly Human 2 that I thought were the most successful). There are some great moments (Frankie witnessing werewolves changing and realizing what he was seeing, for example). There were some promising characters. Again, I really liked the Elders council idea. But for every “pro” in this book, I had two or three “con”s.

I’m not—very carefully and deliberately—saying, “don’t read this book.” I’m saying, “go into it with open eyes.” It’s a book that feels to me like it needs—like its primary characters—to grow up and mature a bit.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.