Hope Ryan on Location, Location, Location

My guest today is YA author Hope Ryan, here to talk about her first release, The Geek and His Artist. Don’t miss the giveaway!

Hello and thanks so much to Shae for giving me some space today! I really appreciate it.

One of the things I like to do for my stories is to have firm pictures in my head of the locations things take place in. Whether it’s a school, a home, or some other place that’s important to the characters or plot, I like to collect pictures of them. I unashamedly scavenge from Google Maps, as well as a number of other places.

The Geek and His Artist takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a town I am very familiar with. I lived there for several years (and hope to again!), so I like to set stories there. Without further ado, let me show you some of the places important in Geek.

The guys in Geek attend Carrick High School. I used to live not too far from this one and my amazing editor still lives just up the street!

Early in the story, Jimmy, Ronnie, and Sean go to the AMC theater in an area called The Waterfront to see The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies. I’ve always had a particular fondness for the theater, if for no other reason than just how pretty it is on the outside.

But the inside isn’t anything to sneeze at, either. The theater Jimmy sees Simon in doesn’t have that middle section, but otherwise, is the same as the picture below. I have seen more than a few movies here.

After the movie, the guys head down to the Barnes & Noble in the same shopping area. It’s cold—just before Christmas, but not too far to walk in the cold. There aren’t a lot of brick-and-mortar bookstores anymore, sadly, but this one was still open as of June 1st.

Jimmy and Simon go to the same theater for their first date, but skip the bookstore afterward, heading to the Starbucks, instead.

Simon, Tony, Deck, and Kip are all skaters, living on their boards. Turns out, Sean does a bit of skateboarding, as well and one day after school lets out early, they head over to the skate park at McKinley Park.

Really? They call these benches? I don’t know any >6 foot tall guy who could be comfortable on this and Jimmy at 6’6″, well, let’s just say he was happy to move when Simon suggested it.

The half-pipe they moved to when the benches got to them. They were sitting up on the platform to the left.

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Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for chances to win a paperback copy of Geek and $25 to spend at Harmony Ink! Each comment below also qualifies you for an entry to the giveaway. One reader today will win a Geek character trading card of your choice!

http://hoperyan.com/geek-tour

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Simon Williams spends his lunch periods drawing his geek and trying not to think about the terrors waiting for him at home. He needs to get away from his abusive father before he suffers the same grisly fate as his mother. Because he’s learned the hard way running away doesn’t work, he’s counting the days until his eighteenth birthday.

Jimmy Bennet should be spending his lunch studying so his senior GPA is good enough to get him into college, but he can’t seem to focus thanks to his distracting artist. When he’s given the opportunity to tutor Simon in Trig and discovers Simon’s home-life nightmare, he wants nothing more than to get Simon out of danger. This need becomes more urgent when Simon comes to school the Monday after their first date with bruises, but it takes a broken leg before Jimmy can convince his boyfriend the Bennets really want him.

But the danger Simon thought was past shows up at the most unexpected time, and he must stand up to the fears he’s held so long to protect not only himself, but the man he wants to spend his life with.

You can get Geek here:

Harmony Ink Press ◊ Dreamspinner Press ◊ Amazon ◊ AllRomanceebooks ◊ Kobo ◊ Barnes & Noble

About Hope:

Hope Ryan is an out and proud bisexual, wife of a loving guy and mother to three, including an amazingly brave gender fluid son. She loves to write about the tough stuff, but also wants to see her characters happy in the end. She feels strongly about showing there is hope for everyone, no matter where you come from, how you identify your gender or who you love.

Hope likes to play board and card games and can often be found playing God with her Sims or running around, fighting monsters in a virtual version of Middle Earth. Her TV and movie preferences lean towards anime, sci fi and fantasy, though she’ll never turn down a good happily ever after love story, either. As long as there are explosions or action, she’s happy. She loves to read books of all kinds, though prefers stories about love in its many forms.

Find Hope at her website, email her (hoperyanauthor@gmail.com), or on Facebook.