The Family Affair, a book by Calgarian James Gainer, tells the story of Jack Perry, an attractive and successful 30-something television producer living on the coast of California. His perfect world is severely shaken when, a year prior to the start of the novel, he loses his long-time partner.

Steeped in grief and moving through the world on autopilot, Jack’s life is then upended when his sister’s stepson Rick comes to stay at his house. Rick, an attractive man in his early 20s, ignites passion in Jack, and while they both consummate the (what some would call taboo) affair, it sets in motion a series of events which forces Jack to work through his grief. Ultimately, it makes him consider changing the status quo.

While author James Gainer didn’t live permanently in California, he travelled frequently in his previous career working for Shiseido cosmetics and he spent about 4 months of the year in Pasadena, just north of Los Angeles. While living in the area may have helped inspire him, the novel practically came to him overnight.

"It just came to me one day – almost like a movie," he told GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine. "...One day it just showed up from start to finish. I could tell you the whole story and I just had to get it down on paper." Doing this became the main struggle, as he had to turn this movie-in-his-head into a novel on the page.

While it is considered a gay romance novel, it doesn’t have a standard ending. Jack overcomes his grief, but a traditional romance ending was "never in the cards," James said. He knew it was a romance but he saw the story more as "one man’s struggle to heal himself..." In the end Rick serves a purpose beyond that of a love interest – he’s instead more of a catalyst for change in Jack’s life.

The character of Rick was also something different from what you’d expect. His sexuality is never fully nailed down. "That was very much deliberate...that generation, it is a little more fluid. I thought that was an important part of his character," James said. We both discussed how in real life you are seeing a lot of the younger generation – especially males – refusing to label their sexual orientation.

James actually finished the novel in 2008 but it took about a year to find a publisher, with the hardcover edition of the book being published in 2010.  Since then, he tells us, "the numbers have been good. It debuted strong...it’s pretty much stayed on the top 100 list of Gay and Lesbian literature on Amazon."

The e-format of the novel was made available for download just a few months ago, but unfortunately James didn’t have any statistics available at the moment, beyond telling us it seems to be selling well. However, anything to do with traditional print media right now is still suffering. James confirmed this: "what I’m finding in the publishing world...nothing moves very quickly...until you actually get your name out there really strongly, it’s not something you can make your full living off of."

As for any future work from James, on occasion he writes for Synchronicity magazine. More importantly, he has been working on a second novel, which is currently about 3/4 done. "It’s a murder mystery...main character again is a gay man, but there’s no real romance story involved in this one."  He is finding it a bit of a challenge, because with The Family Affair, he was writing dialogue for essentially two main characters, while his new novel has about eight primary characters.

Hopefully he completes it soon and publishes a strong second novel. As the first novel in James’ literary career, The Family Affair is an enjoyable read. Like any first novel, there is some room for improvement, yet it’s an entertaining story. We hope any future novels James writes will build on this success.