We’re thrilled to be publishing Hardball Productions Presents…, a new M/M romance that is decidedly NSFW. We sat down with debut author Trixie Domino for some hard talk about size difference, tropes, kinks, and other literary topics.
What was your inspiration for Hardball Productions Presents…?
In short, porn stars and size difference.
Honestly, is anyone not fascinated by the porn industry? We all know it’s fake, it’s a business, it’s selling a highly-curated (and often problematic) fantasy, etc. etc. But also those are living, breathing people with real feelings doing really intimate things. So what is that life like? How do you build a career out of that and stay sane? What happens if you do find something that might be genuine amid all the body makeup and cheesy dialogue? The tension between real and fake is a fun place to explore.
For the size difference, I was interested not just in the kinky logistics but in how it shaped my main characters as people. Like it or not, height plays a big role in how men are perceived, and I’m sure we all know at least one guy who got messed up by that, one way or the other. So I wanted to look at two stereotypical roles in mainstream gay porn based solely on body type and examine who was under there, how the way they look—in an industry that’s all about how you present yourself—has helped make Colby and Owen who they are.
What are your favorite tropes?
Playing around with power differentials is probably my favorite, and there are strains of it in “Hardball,” in some of the assumptions of how physical size gets equated to power. Going along with that, role reversal is often particularly delicious, when someone who’s used to having power either loses it or gives it up, willingly or unwillingly. Unsurprisingly, BDSM in all its many flavors makes the list, too.
What should readers expect from a Trixie Domino book?
All of the above? Well, maybe not all at once. “Smut” is the obvious answer, but there is a reason for that. Often, my inspiration is a kink or a trope or a specific type of sexual relationship that I find compelling, and my brain won’t stop poking at it. The characters tend to evolve from there—what sort of person would find this thing enjoyable? Who would they find it enjoyable with? What does that say about them? Rarely do I write a romance and then plug in sex scenes; usually, I start with the smut and explore a romance around that.
And humor is very important to me, particularly in the context of smut. Sex is, objectively speaking, a very silly thing to do, and I find it’s important not to take it too seriously, even in fiction. That’s not to say that I’ll never write angst or serious themes, but I think that humor can and should coexist with the heavier parts of human existence. Dialogue is my favorite thing to write, so I nearly always find a way to get some banter in there.
What’s next for Trixie Domino?
I’m kicking around a couple of ideas about some of the funnier elements of BDSM—there’s a certain Tumblr post that involves the sentence “Now dip my ass in the chili!” that I keep thinking about. Though I also have a decent number of side quest ideas for Colby and Owen, so if you particularly enjoy “Hardball,” please let me know!
If you enjoyed Trixie’s work, please let us know on our social accounts, or leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon.
Here’s a snippet:
When Colby walks up and Owen’s eyes turn to him, it’s like being caught in headlights. Owen’s eyes are brown, but that kind of pale brown that’s almost amber in the right light. “Intense” is accurate, and Colby could be into that. That gaze is penetrating, appropriately enough, and Owen looks Colby up and down with an eye that could be actively critical or just assessing.
from Hardball Productions Presents…
“Bloody hell,” Owen says, “your neck really is that thick in person. I thought it was just a trick of the camera.”
Oh, hell, he’s got an accent. Yeah, okay, Colby gets it now.