Next up, is Andrea Speed‘s Paris from her fantasy series, Infected.

In association with bi pride month, it only seemed right that I share this interview with perhaps the most famous bisexual in my Infected Series, Paris Lehane. (If you haven’t read the series, there are no spoilers. And if you have read the series, leave no spoilers in the comments, okay? Be nice to people who haven’t read it, and may want to be surprised by getting their hearts torn out. Thank you.)

Andrea: Thanks for being here, Paris. When did you know you were a bisexual?

Paris: I think I would have known for certain around thirteen, if I’d ever heard the term before. As it was, I didn’t hear it until I was sixteen. But I was as prone to crushes on boys as well as girls growing up.

Andrea: And you dated both?

Paris: Oh yeah. Girls openly, men … not so much. I hate to say I was in the closet, but … by definition, I suppose I was. I was just happy to be accepted for straight. Kinda ashamed of that now.

Andrea: It’s kind of a cliché for bis to be promiscuous, but you call your past self a man whore.

Paris: Oh, I was, and it had nothing to do with being bi, and everything to do with a combination of commitment phobia and general conceit. I was very pretty! And young. Why settle down with anyone? I wanted to see what was out there, and you can’t sample the buffet that life offers you if you’re tied down.

Andrea: You also said you never fell in love with anybody.

Paris: Yeah. I had crushes, but it wasn’t a deep emotional attachment and never became one. It probably helped that I hooked up with people I liked, but couldn’t stand for concentrated periods of time with our clothes on.

Andrea: No offense, but you sound like you were kind of a dick.

Paris (laughing): I totally was!

Andrea: But that changed.

Paris: Yeah. I could be a great safe sex PSA. I had unprotected sex in college with this woman who I knew was a little unbalanced, but what the hell, right? And she infected me with the tiger strain virus.

Andrea: Holy crap. That’s terrible.

Paris: Oh yeah. My life was over, even on the very rare chance it didn’t kill me outright. Which it did not, because the universe loves irony.

Andrea: It’s not all bad news, is it?

Paris: After the breakdown? No, it isn’t, weirdly enough. I was eventually found and saved by the only person I’ve ever fallen in love with, my husband, Roan McKichan. Again, more of the universe showing it loves irony.

Andrea: Is there any advice you’d give to young bisexuals? With safe sex taken as a given.

Paris: Be out, be proud, don’t make the mistake I made and let fear of other people’s opinion keep you hidden. Yeah, there’s going to be crummy people out there who insist bi isn’t actually a thing, that you’re really gay and trying to hide it, or doing it for attention, or whatever negative horse hockey is out there right now. Nobody knows you better than you. Don’t let anyone else dictate your desires or your expression. Be yourself and damn the torpedoes. Oh, and to quote Roan here, if they can’t accept you as who you are, f*** ‘em. Life is too short for that kind of aggravation.

Infected: Undertow

Sequel to Infected: Lesser Evils
Infected: Book Seven

In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.

Now Roan is locked in a coma as the struggle between his human and werecat sides reaches a new extreme. All Dylan can do is sit, wait, and think.

Meanwhile, Roan’s assistant, Holden, wants to shed his old street life and his relationship with Scott, but he can’t seem to do either. Holden doesn’t want a relationship with Scott but finds himself drawn to him all the same, even if he can never fully reveal his past.

With Roan out of commission, Holden looks into the murder of an old friend. At the same time, Fiona takes on a case about underground death matches between infecteds —one with connections to the Church of the Divine Transformation.

Finally Roan wakes only to discover that his shifts have new consequences. His lion’s strength is growing, and he can’t hide from it any longer….

Andrea Speed writes way too much. She is the writer of the Infected series for Dreamspinner Press and is Editor In Chief of CxPulp.com, where she reviews comics as well as movies and other stuff. She won a Rainbow Award for best horror/paranormal novel in 2012, and feels she may be ubiquitous on the web. But she is not (sadly) the Italian DJ of the same name that often comes up first in Google searches.

Visit her website at http://www.andreaspeed.com and her Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/andrea.speed.3. She tweets at https://twitter.com/aspeed.