For my next Author Spotlight I’m joined by the wonderful Joe Satoria. We chatted writing realistic, flawed characters, book vibes, Daddy kink, and slaying monsters while drafting books.

Take it away, Joe…

First things first, please introduce yourself!
Hello! I’m Joe Satoria, I’m from the small English city of Lancaster, but I’m currently living in Madrid, Spain. I’ve written MM in the past, but I’ve only been Joe Satoria since November 2020.

Tell us a little bit about your writing style.
I describe my writing style as filled with realistic, flawed characters, and you might hate them at first, but you’ll absolutely fall in love with them in the end.

Describe your books in only three words.
Spicy. Sweet. Nom-nom.

What’s your next book about and when is it coming out?
I’m working on a few different projects. I write both contemporary and paranormal with Daddy/boy dynamics.

Nicolas is a contemporary full-length novel with lots of hurt/comfort and a Daddy/boy dynamic. Nicolas Crane is a disgraced high fantasy writer whose life has become a mess. Calvin Alves Santos is new to the area, and he comes with a secret past.

I’ve been working on Nicolas and the upcoming Palmdale Daddies series since last year when I developed a concept around this fictional student town of Palmdale in Florida. It’s also where my Frat Boys series takes place.

It’s coming out in April. Link: books2read.com/PalmdaleDaddies1

Out of all your books, which one are you most proud of?
The book I’m most proud of is Mr. Naughty & Mr. Nice, it’s an MMM Daddy/boy Christmas romance. It was intended to be part of an author collaboration, but mine featured a morally grey character instead of being uber fluffy, so mine was dropped. It’s why I’m so incredibly proud of it, and it did well.

What or who (or both) has influenced you most as a writer?
Stephen King, Trudi Canavan, and Cate Tiernan. Those are the three most influential writers to me. Perhaps not what you’d expect for someone who writes romance since they’re horror, suspense, and fantasy.

I actually wrote YA dark fantasy before finding my voice and identity in MM romance.

What inspired you to start writing?
I started writing at a very young age. In the UK, there’s a TV show and book series called ‘The Worst Witch’. I suppose, I was writing fan fiction before I even knew what fan fiction was. I would put myself into those stories, and that’s what inspired me. I wanted to write books with someone like me in them.

What’s your writing process like? Do you have a typical “writing day”?
I write on 4thewords, it’s a web browser that turns writing into a game. You battle monsters and beasts by writing and hitting different word count goals. I write around 2,500 words an hour, and I can do that because I disable those red squiggle error lines. I also do not edit until way after writing ‘The End’. I find that editing as I write stifles me.

I wish I had a typical writing day. Some days I wake up at 3 PM, other days I’m up at 8 AM. I’ve always considered myself a night owl, but since going full time as a writer, I’ve discovered that I’m just a straight up mess who has no sleeping pattern or schedule. Ha!

What comes first for you – the plot or the characters?
Most of the time it’s the vibe. I might have a character name here and there, but the vibe of the book–tropes, themes, etc. they’re what I like to have in mind when I’m planning. Plot and character usually come hand-in-hand, the plot develops the characters and the characters move the plot.

What’s a book that you wish you’d written?
I wish… and I still one day hope to write a Charmed book. There’s 40+ books in the Charmed book series, and not all by the same author. So I think I’m still in with a chance of doing that one day. But yeah, I really wish I’d written one of them.

If you could only write one trope for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Daddy. There’s so much you can do with it. I mean, sure it’s more of a kink than it is a trope. Age gap then… I love all the possibilities. I have word documents filled with ideas, so who knows, maybe it will be the one trope/kink that I do write for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t be mad about it.

What would be your three desert island books?
Can I choose guide books? If it’s deserted, I’d like to know about edible vegetation and maybe a survival guide. But if we’re talking fiction, I can’t decide. I’m such a mood reader. But I’d probably take some long books like Lord of the Rings by J. R.R. Tolkien, and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown.

If one of your books could be made into a movie/TV series, which would you choose and who would you cast?
I’d love my Frat Boys series to be made into a TV series. In my teens, I was obsessed with a TV series called ‘Greek’, it was mostly straight. I’d love to have mine be a gay version of that. As for cast… give me Manu Rios, Henry Cavill, Jonathan Bailey, Jon Kortajarena, Mason Gooding… I could just list every attractive man I’d ever had a crush on.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Do you have a secret passion or hobby that we don’t know about?
When I’m not writing or reading, I binge TV shows on Netflix and play video games on my Nintendo Switch. I’m a sucker for a life simulation or business management simulation game. 

Finally, what’s your favourite dinosaur?
Dino nuggets. Those ones you buy in the frozen food section. Ok, but for real… It’s the Pachycephalosaurus.

JOE SATORIA is an MM romance author currently living in—who knows—anywhere in the world, really. He’s a hopeful romantic—the hope being in his ability to one day find romance outside of fiction. And he’s also a cat person—but deathly allergic to them.

For more information on Joe and his work you can find him on his website, BookBub, Instagram, and Twitter, and you can also join his Facebook group, Satoria’s Steam Room, for more news and updates.