Category Archives: guest blog

Today’s guest is Andrea Speed, whose Infected series is being re-launched under the banner of DSP Publications, Dreamspinner Press’s new imprint for genre fiction. You can find links to all the Infected books and the other DSPP books released so far on the website.

With the relaunch of the Infected series, I decided to interview some of the characters. But this time, I’d let the internet spit out random questions for my characters to answer. Today’s vict- I mean interviewee is Holden Krause.

1. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

Holden: Glitter. I’d be the first and only glitter crayon in existence.

2. What do you like to cook?

Holden: Nothing. I prefer other people do the cooking.

3. What class in school has proven to be the least useful?

Holden: All of them.

4. What question should you never ask a man?

Holden: That’s the best you’ve got, huh?

5. What is your favorite season?

Holden: Fall, probably. I’m not really sure why, as it was a real bitch when I was homeless. But then again, all seasons are a bitch when you’re homeless.

6. What three adjectives best describe you?

Holden: Sexy, mysterious, ruthless.

7. What would be your personal hell?

Holden: Living with my parents.

8. What cartoon character do you identify with?

Holden: Brock Samson

9. Do you have any hidden talents?

Holden: A few. But if I show them to you, it might be the last thing you ever see. So let’s just leave it there, shall we?

10. How would your friends describe you to someone you have not met?

Holden: I’m a fixer. If you have a problem, odds are I can help you find a solution. For the right price, of course. I can be altruistic to my friends, but you’d better be a good friend. I’m open to bartering.

11. If you were to write a novel what would it be about?

Holden: Street kids. Throwaways, people who fall through the cracks, people you ignore every day of your goddamn life. Not that I’m singling out anyone in particular.

12. How do you think the world will end?

Holden: However it ends, stupid old straight white men will be behind it. They always are.

13. Who is there in your life that you would take a bullet for?

Holden: Oh fuck. Roan, I suppose. I’ve come close.

14. Is there anything that you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances?

Holden: Water sports and scat play. We all have our things, but those are so not mine. I know some people who will go along with it if the price is right. Let me know if you need numbers.

15. If you could have one superpower what would it be?

Holden: Reality warping. Go big or go home.

16. If you were in a band, what part would you play?

Holden: I’d be the dynamic front man, of course, with an insatiable appetite for drugs and groupies. I would hope I’d die of excess before I got fat and old and ended up on some goddamn reality show.

17. What do you believe will last forever?

Holden: Styrofoam and stupidity.

18. On a scale of 1-10 how honest are you?

Holden: Zero. Oh, maybe minus ten. Can we get into imaginary numbers? I think that’s best. I’d never trust a single thing I say. Hell, I might be lying right now.

19. If you had a 60 second Super Bowl ad, what would you want to show a billion people?

Holden: Hardcore man on man porn. It could only do the world some good.

20. I’m really good at …

Holden: Evening the score

Infected: Book One

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.

The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was “cat” obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli.

Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind… and occasionally worships them.

Buy link

My guest today is Brynn Stein, here to talk about her new book Through the Years and how real-life events seem to find their way into our stories.

Thanks Shae, for hosting me today.

I’ve noticed over the years (for fan fiction) and year (for original fiction) that real life likes to creep in.

In Haunted, the fact that Jason kept his journals stuffed in a locked drew in a desk came from real life where my mother had a bazillion journals stuffed in her desk. She insisted that we get them before getting rid of the desk. It was years and years of random thoughts. Not so much a diary as just everyday things. She had grocery lists and reminders of PTA meetings. All sorts of stuff. Jason’s were much more organized and of more import to the story. But the idea came from there.

In Living Again, the trip to the zoo drew from my own trip with my daughters to the zoo. They wore me out running ahead, hollering, “Mommy, look” and then running back to get me and drag me to the next exhibit.

In Through the Years, there are quite a few things taken from real life. I already mentioned, on other blog tour stops, that the prologue came from a real life scene at the hospital, and Luka is based on two different students of mine. But little things like reading Winnie the Pooh to the girls before bed, or living with (or around) alcoholics, crept into the story.

There are some books coming up that have touches of real life in them. In Ray of Sunlight, CJ’s road trip mirrors that of my daughter’s and mine coming back from the beach. We kept seeing signs that could be taken dirty, or made into innuendo and we laughed all the way home. CJ has an even dirtier mind than either my daughter or me, so it’s a funny scene.

In For Mac, Liam and Branson go to see “Rise of the Guardians” because Liam loves all things Chris Pine. In the story, there are three teens sitting in front of them and the five of them collectively are the only people in the theater. My youngest daughter and two of her friends were literally the only people in the theater when they went to see that movie. In the story, the teenagers’ giggles make Branson uncomfortable. When my daughter read that part, she said, “Oh, sorry Branson. This scene is my fault.”

Liam and Branson are also big Isaac Asimov fans, and avid trekkers, as am I in real life. In fact, several of my characters in various stories are Star Trek fans. In a story I’m writing now, Cody is trying to teach Adam “Texas Hold Em” and Adam says it would be easier to learn to play Fisbin. (Go to YouTube and watch the clip from the original Star Trek series where Kirk is making up a card game to provide a distraction. It’s hilarious).

What about you, writers? Do your interests or odd things that have happened to you or your family or friends, make it into your stories? Readers, have you ever read something minor in a story and wondered if it had really happened to the author or someone the author knew?

Comment below to be entered into the raffle.

Here’s how the raffle works:

I’ve listed the tour stops on my website. Feel free to stop by as many as you want. For each stop that you comment on, you will receive one entry to the giveaway. I’ll check all the stops numerous times throughout the tour and will draw five winners on Thanksgiving Day, so even if you come in late to the tour, you can go back through the list and comment on past stops.

I’m giving away five prizes. Prize 1) a signed paperback copy of Through the Years; Prizes 2 and 3) electronic copies of Through the Years, Prize 4) your choice of either a signed paperback copy or an audiobook of Living Again (the audiobook won’t be available until December), and Prize 5) an electronic copy of Haunted.

Edward and Gene were instantly drawn to each other when they met at college in Maryland. Fast friends, they developed a “closer than brothers” relationship. But then Edward began to feel more for Gene. In 1967, those kind of feelings would not be tolerated. Not even by Edward himself.

Gene always thought he was asexual. He had never been attracted to anyone… until he met Edward. He dreamed of Edward as more than a friend throughout college, but he knew Edward would not welcome that kind of attention. So Gene wasn’t surprised when Edward reacted badly to a drunken kiss just before Edward’s graduation. He was surprised when Edward moved to Florida and had little to do with him for years afterward.

When fate finally brings them back together, Edward is married and has a little girl. Gene gladly accepts the role of “Uncle Gene,” happy to have Edward in his life in any capacity. Together, they face all the trials and tribulations life throws at them, including the death of Edward’s wife, and as each grows and matures, their life views change. The relationship they’ve secretly wanted all along is closer than ever, and if Edward can break free from his homophobic upbringing and admit his feelings for Gene, there might still be a chance for them to share their lives in the way they both desire.

A Bittersweet Dreams title: It’s an unfortunate truth: love doesn’t always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

Buy from Dreamspinner Press

Brynn Stein has always loved to write. Fan fiction, original fiction, whatever. While Brynn wrote in numerous genres – everything from mystery, to contemporary, to supernatural – she had always tended toward strong male characters. And then she discovered ‘slash’, male/male romance, and all those strong male characters were finally allowed to express their love for one another. It seems that there are always at least two characters clamoring to tell Brynn their story.

Brynn lives in Virginia with one of her two two-legged children, and two four-legged ones. Her supportive family encourages her writing and provides a sounding board for fledgling stories. When she isn’t writing, Brynn teaches children with special needs. In free time, when such a thing exists, she reads anything she can get her hands on, and haunts bookstores. She draws and paints, and enjoys the outdoors—especially if she can get to the beach—and is always thinking about her next story.

Please feel free to contact Brynn at any of the following:

https://twitter.com/BrynnStein
http://brynnstein2.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/brynn.stein
or brynnstein2@gmail.com

Outted at thirteen, Orin Merritt left home after high school hoping to escape the hell his life had become. Ten years later when a tornado destroys his childhood home and kills his parents, Orin finds himself in an entirely new nightmare. One he can’t run away from.

Blaming himself for failing the two people who always loved and supported him, he returns home and confronts his past in the person of his one-time best friend, Thomas Kennett.  Thomas not only rejected him when Orin came out, he led the group that tormented Orin into leaving.  

As he struggles to deal with his grief, Orin also labors to fulfill the pledge he made to his parents before their death.  In the process, Orin learns that sometimes when you go away to find yourself, you leave the answers you’re looking for behind.

Cover Artist: Lily Velden and Jay Aheer

Publisher: Wayward Ink Publishing

Buy Links:

Wayward Ink Publishing

Amazon US

Amazon Australia

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon Canada

Excerpt:

“Orin, I won’t.” Thomas stood a bit straighter and his eyes lost the sad, pleading shine. “I won’t hurt you again.”

“You can’t promise that. Things happen.” Orin watched as his words dragged Thomas back from the brink of hope.

“If you truly believe that, then there’s nothing I can do. You have to believe there’s a chance or else I can’t prove it.”

“That’s not what I’m telling you.” He locked his gaze on Thomas’s. “If I say yes, I’ll have to take down the walls I surrounded my heart with to keep it safe. Once it’s gone, I won’t be able bring it back if I get hurt. Not now.

“So what I’m saying is, think about what you’re asking me to risk. If you really love me, ask yourself if are you willing to risk what will happen to me if you can’t keep your promise.”

He knew how unfair he’d been, but self-preservation had been a skill he’d honed over the past fifteen years. He needed Thomas to know just how serious the repercussion could be for his actions.

“Orin, I . . . I . . . how . . .?” Their faces were inches apart, and Thomas moved in for another kiss.

This felt different than the first—less urgent, but no less intense. Orin trembled at the leap he was about to take. When they stepped back, Thomas rubbed his thumb across Orin’s cheek.

“I do love you, Orin. More than I can say. So much, that I’m not willing to risk what will happen if I fail you again. I don’t have that right.”

Thomas’s lips quivered and the tears welled at the bottom of his eyes. He kissed Orin’s forehead gently.

“Good-bye, Orin. Please be happy.” Without looking back, Thomas walked to the front door, opened it, and walked away.

Author Bio:

Andrew Q. Gordon wrote his first story back when yellow legal pads, ball point pens were common and a Smith Corona correctable typewriter was considered high tech. Adapting with technology, he now takes his MacBook somewhere quiet when he wants to write.

He currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his partner of eighteen years, their young daughter and dog.  In addition to dodging some very self-important D.C. ‘insiders’, Andrew uses his commute to catch up on his reading. When not working or writing, he enjoys soccer, high fantasy, baseball and seeing how much coffee he can drink in a day.

Author Contacts:

Website: www.andrewqgordon.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/andrewqugordon

Twitter:  @andrewqgordon

Email: andrewqgordon@gmail.com

Other Books:

The Last Grand Master:  (Champion of the Gods – Book 1)

Purpose

(Un)Masked

Ashes of Life

Today my guest is Sarah Madison, here to talk about following your instincts and her new book, Walk A Mile.

There are times when you should go with your gut. You know what I mean. That little voice that says, “Don’t take that job” or “That guy is bad news” or “You know, if you don’t want to end up with diabetes, you should lay off the Cheez Doodles.” That voice is serious and quiet. It expects you to listen, and you should. Every. Time.

The only time I’ve ever made a serious mistake was when I didn’t listen to that voice. I took the job that filled me with misgivings. I trusted someone I shouldn’t have. I wound up with health problems I could have avoided.  Does your gut ever lie to you? I don’t think so. I think that instinct was honed deep within us to keep us from eating the wrong plant or entering a cave in which a saber tooth tiger was lurking.

Oh yes, it fails us sometimes. When something blindsides us, we tell ourselves we didn’t see that coming; we didn’t have any warning. But we probably did. We’ve spent a lifetime ignoring that little voice. Many times it speaks, but we’ve learned to drown it out. Many times we’re so frazzled and out of sync with our gut that is only in the aftermath of disaster we can acknowledge to ourselves we did know better.

Occasionally we’ll get the outlier—the screaming sense of panic that tells us not to get on that plane, or to take the next taxi cab. Oftentimes, that is a symptom of something else, some larger problem that we haven’t yet identified but instead are focusing on the thing in front of us. Well, you know what? I’ve listened to that gut statement, too. And I’ve never regretted it. Once, as I was getting ready to leave the house for a day of fun at the barn, I looked down at the bouncing, eager dog and said, “You know what? It won’t kill you to stay home one day.”

On the way home, I flipped my car on the interstate.

The first question everyone asked me, once they knew I was okay, was if my dog was okay. Everyone knew my dog went everywhere with me. Not that one time, however. Other things can masquerade as your gut, too. That small voice that tells you you’re not good enough, attractive enough, talented enough or smart enough? Yeah, that’s not your gut. That’s the part of you that has been shaped through the years by other people’s perceptions of you. Maybe you threatened their own sense of self-worth. Maybe they were trying to protect you from heartache. But that small voice isn’t centered in your gut. That’s the reflection of the Dream Killers in your life. Dream Killers feel compelled to destroy your dreams because someone effectively killed theirs. So don’t listen to that voice. Funny how we tend to listen to that voice all the time. Why? Because is it familiar. Because it doesn’t challenge us to leave our comfort zone. Because it matches the story we tell ourselves about our lives.

When I wrote Unspeakable Words, I had a plan for a three to four book story arc. It was my first major publication, and it went to the Dreamspinners bestseller list and stayed there for over a month. I was delighted, and happily began working on the next in the series. But a couple of lukewarm reviews shook my confidence in the planned storyline. Yeah, I was the rawest noob. They weren’t even bad reviews, just a couple of less-than-enthusiastic ones, but the old self-doubts set in. I began reading a ton of books on writing mysteries, and OMG, I was doing *everything* wrong! I discounted the sales, I conveniently forgot about all the wonderful emails and positive feedback I’d received. I set aside the series and worked on other projects.

Every time I thought about picking up the Sixth Sense series again, I did so with completely revamping the storyline. Gutting it. Ripping out the paranormal aspect and making it a straightforward mystery series. I couldn’t do it, though. I felt hamstrung by my indecision. The more time that passed, the more I figured no one would care about John Flynn and Jerry Parker anymore.

I was wrong.

One day I was seized with a moment of fierce determination. Damn it, they were my characters and it was my story arc, and instead of just waffling around about it, I should just write the stories I wanted to write and let the readers decide if they liked it or not. That was the last day that reviews had the power to wound me. Oh sure, everyone likes good reviews. A slew of stellar reviews makes you more visible on Amazon, makes people take a chance on your work. But you know what? That only matters if I am counting on writing to rescue me from a stack of bills or let me quit my day job. I’ve stopped fretting about that, too. What will be will be.

And so I wrote Walk a Mile, the story the way I had envisioned it four years ago. The response has been tremendous. Not only do people really like this story, but I’m getting emails and comments from people telling me how much they loved Flynn and Parker and how long they’ve been waiting for the next installment in the series. I’m both humbled and ashamed—I feel bad that I kept readers waiting so long.

I should have gone with my gut.

I’m working on the next in the series now.

Excerpt from Walk A Mile:

Jerry could sympathize. His palms dampened at the idea of meeting Flynn’s former lover. His former female lover. He wiped his hands surreptitiously at his sides and wished there was time for him to dash into the men’s room and straighten his tie or something. If he put his sunglasses back on now would he look cool or pretentious? Crap. Would anyone noticed if he stood with his gut sucked in for the rest of this visit? Maybe she’d be a frumpy librarian type. Oh, who was he kidding? This was Flynn’s ex-girlfriend he was talking about. She’d be the sexy librarian that would knock your socks off just by saying hello. The echo of a woman’s shoes on the tiled floor made him realize she was here and he’d run out of time to make a better impression. Slowly, he turned to face the woman approaching them. Oddly, when he briefly caught Flynn’s eye, he looked as reluctant as Jerry felt.

Nancy Glover was absolutely stunning. She couldn’t have looked better for the ‘run into the old boyfriend’ moment than if she’d planned for it. Her hair was that vibrant Dana-Scully red that could only come from a professional colorist, and suddenly Flynn’s remarks about him not dying his hair that color had a lot more meaning than before. The intense shade complimented her pale skin and illuminated her green eyes. Of course she would have green eyes. Dressed in a black pencil skirt and white blouse, she had the cool demeanor of Agent Scully as well.

“John,” she said, walking up to the counter where Flynn and Jerry were waiting. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here at the museum. In fact, I’m surprised you’re in town at all. I would have bet good money that you weren’t coming in for the reunion.” Her smile was pleasant but cautious, like a stray cat that wanted to be friendly but wasn’t sure she wasn’t about to get shoved in a carrier and taken off to the shelter.

The woman behind the desk watched their interaction avidly. Jerry thought about offering her some popcorn. Flynn glanced at him sharply.

“I’m not here for the reunion.” Had it been anyone else, he would have sounded curt, but Flynn’s charm didn’t fail him. “I didn’t know you were working here. Last I heard you were at the Smithsonian.”

She shrugged. “There were cutbacks. You know how it is in a down economy. To be honest, I prefer working at a smaller museum. Less bureaucracy.” A real smile cracked her cool exterior. Damn. Under other circumstances, Jerry suspected he’d like her. She raised a questioning eyebrow at the two of them. “So what are you doing here? And who’s your friend?”

“My partner, Special Agent Jerry Parker. We had to come to D.C. on business and I was curious about this trinket box that was listed as part of the Smithsonian’s collection. How’d it end up here?”

“Come with me, I’ll show it to you. You can go ahead and close up, Betty. I’ll see them out.” Nancy turned on a glistening black heel and walked back down the hallway from which she’d come, her shoes clicking authoritatively as she moved. “As to how it ended up here, the Smithsonian had no idea what to do with it. It didn’t seem to be particularly valuable and no one could tell precisely what its origins are. You’re telling me you saw one of these in California?”

“Yes,” Jerry said, entering the conversation for the first time. “Though this one appears to be a bit larger. The designs on the casing are similar, but not identical.”

Six months after starting their hunt for a serial killer who is still at large, FBI agents Jerry Lee Parker and John Flynn are partners in every sense. But Jerry has serious doubts about their relationship and whether they would even be together if not for the way Flynn changed after touching a mysterious artifact in a museum.

Flynn hates the extraordinary power bestowed on him by the artifact and wants nothing more than to have a normal life again. Jerry fears that without the unusual connection they forged, Flynn will no longer want or need him. Chasing after a similar artifact takes them back to Flynn’s old stomping grounds in Washington D.C., where his newfound abilities uncover long-buried secrets, the kind people would kill to protect. But they aren’t the only ones looking for these powerful relics, and what they discover will threaten their relationship—and their lives.

Buy link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5521

Sarah Madison is a veterinarian with a big dog, an even bigger horse, too many cats, and a very patient boyfriend. She is a terrible cook, and concedes that her life would be easier if Purina made People Chow. She writes because it is cheaper than therapy.

Website: http://www.sarahmadisonfiction.com/

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004K9QY5C

On Facebook (Author page): http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sarah-Madison-Author/106445646104338

On Facebook (Profile page): https://www.facebook.com/akasarahmadison

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahMadisonFic

On Dreamspinner: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Sarah+Madison&osCsid=i8qhvu8sb7150s11croi48klc3&x=31&y=8

Goodreads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4057853.Sarah_Madison

On Tumblr: http://sarahmadisonfiction.tumblr.com/

My guest today is Kim Fielding, here to talk about how she learned about vodou for her story in the second Gothika anthology, Bones. Take it away, Kim!

Hi! I’m Kim Fielding. Until recently, I knew almost nothing about vodou, apart from the old stereotypes about voodoo dolls and zombies. I saw The Serpent and the Rainbow a million years ago. I have a friend in San Francisco whose official polling place used to be a vodou/Santeria store, which makes me slightly envious (I used to vote in a Baptist church) but doesn’t teach me anything about the practice of vodou.

Then I agreed to write a story for the second Gothika anthology, Bones, which has a vodou theme. In doing so, I’d be joining some wonderful authors: Eli Easton, Jamie Fessenden, and B.G. Thomas. Clearly, however, I was going to have to do some research.

I ended up buying a couple of books and spending a lot of time online, and what I learned was fascinating. Vodou originated among Caribbean slaves, who were forbidden from practicing African religions. But these people managed to mesh their African traditions with the Christian ideas that had been forced on them, to create a new and vibrant practice. The negative reputation vodou received had little to do with the religion itself and much more to do with attempts to disempower and demonize the people who practiced it. Vodou is not Satanism. It reveres love, family, and generosity, and fosters respect for one’s ancestors.

One thing I admire about vodou is that although its practitioners have often been oppressed people, it is a lively religion. Vodou art and artifacts are bright and colorful; vodou music is made for dancing.

In fact, that’s the title of my novella: “The Dance.” The protagonist, Bram Tillman, begins as I did, with nothing but misconceptions about vodou. But then his boyfriend dies and Bram is nearly killed on multiple occasions, and Daniel Royer appears to offer a warning and assistance. Bram learns a great deal more about vodou than he anticipated—and also learns something about life and death.

“The Dance” is actually one of five (!) new releases I have available. I’m doing a Fieldingpalooza blog tour, complete with prizes. Please join me! Contest details and a complete tour schedule are on my website.

***

Kim’s new releases:

Bone Dry—book 3 in the Bones series—releases October 10—available now for preorder!

Brute—French translation!—releases October 7—available now for preorder!

Standby—in the Stranded anthology—releases October 10—available now for preorder!

The Dance—in the Bones anthology (Gothika vol. 2)—releases October 27—available now for preorder!

The Festivus Miracle—releases November 1—all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders—available now for preorder!

Contests! 

Win an ecopy of Kim’s novella The Pillar!

Win a $20 Dreamspinner Press gift certificate!

Win a Bones-themed goody bag!

For more details on Kim’s books, as well as some free stories, visit her at http://kfieldingwrites.com/ .  You can also follow her on Twitter @KFieldingWrites and on Facebook.

Today my guest is Suki Fleet, with a discussion of guilt and responsibility as themes in her new book, Skeleton. There’s an excerpt, too! 🙂

Many thanks for having me on your blog today, Shae. My new release Skeleton came out on the 1^st Oct.

Although Skeleton is what I’d consider a light sweet read it does tackle the subject of personal responsibility, and how hurting someone affects you even if you try to deny it—if you have a heart anyway 😉

This is one of the main themes of the story—how everyone does things they feel guilty about, like hurting someone or treating them badly (it’s human nature, we mess up) but ultimately it’s how we deal with our mistakes that is the important thing. Whether we bury them and struggle with our guilt or whether we are strong enough and have a big enough heart to do the right thing. And sometimes, of course, we need a shove in the right direction 😛

I hope readers can sympathize with Jan’s character. While he does have a skeleton in his closet (not literally), he also has a big heart.

Here is a short excerpt:

“Oh, I don’t know, I’m not sure it is,” Jan says, though he knows without a doubt Henry is right. He picks up their pace, leaving the figure behind them.

“If he’s still standing there, can we invite him home for a hot chocolate? Everyone likes hot chocolate,” Henry says as they walk slowly back home from the shop.

Please be gone, please be gone, Jan mutters to himself, though he’s not sure his heart is in it.

They turn into their street and see the figure is still standing on the corner, head bowed against the now freezing onslaught of rain.

Henry takes off at a run, and Jan doesn’t stop him. His chest feels tight. He’s nervous, and sure Matthew is going to think he’s a creep, even though he can’t think of a concrete reason why.

Matthew staggers as Henry launches himself at him, but then sinks down, kneeling in the dirt and wet of the pavement to hug the small boy.

As he gets closer, Jan can see Matthew’s shoulders trembling as though he’s crying. Jan’s not sure what to do. When he reaches the corner, he tentatively holds the umbrella over them, trying to find the right words to ask Matthew if he wants to come home with them to get dry. But before he can say anything, Henry takes Matthew’s hand, tugs him up, and leads him to their house.

Jan’s hands are shaking as he tries to fit the key in the lock. They are, all three of them, cold and wet. Matthew’s hair is plastered to his head, but even soaked and upset, Jan thinks he still looks heart-stoppingly beautiful.

Leaving them in the kitchen, Jan brings down all the warm towels he has from the airing cupboard. He throws one over Henry’s head and hands two to Matthew, who is slumped in a chair.

“Thank you,” Matthew says softly, balling the towels in his lap. His clothes are so drenched, they’re leaving puddles on the kitchen floor.

Jan goes back upstairs and searches through his wardrobe for a T-shirt and some sweatpants. Everything he has is huge, much too large for Matthew. He stands there for ages staring at his clothes. In the end he grabs a soft grey jersey and some grey sweatpants, if only because he thinks the color will suit the faint blush of Matthew’s skin.

“Here.” He holds his clothes out. Jan is fully aware he comes across as cold and standoffish when he’s nervous. “I’ll put your clothes in the tumble dryer. You can get changed in the bathroom at the top of the stairs… if you want…,” he continues hesitantly, sure Matthew probably doesn’t want to.

But Matthew takes them, his expression still slightly tearful, and makes his way upstairs.

“Henry, can you get me the hot chocolate and the milk please?” Jan asks, pulling a pan down from the rack.

The process of cooking anything is distracting, which is exactly what he needs right now.

Then with a groan he remembers the cake.

“How about I make some pancakes for tea?” he asks, knowing this suggestion is not going to go down well and inwardly wincing.

Even though he loves pancakes, Henry is not so easily duped. “You said we could make a cake for Matthew,” he says accusingly.

Jan sighs. Suddenly he feels very tired. Putting the pan on the cooker, he sinks down in front of Henry so they’re at the same level and rests his hands gently on Henry’s small shoulders. “I know I did. But as Matthew is here, and he’s a bit upset, I think it might make him feel a little uncomfortable. Do you understand?”

They look at each other a long while. Henry bites his lip. “Can I put sparkles on his pancake then? And a candle?”

“Well, if he wants a pancake, and you ask him first, then yes, you can put sparkles on it, but no candle, Henry, okay?”

Blurb

Jan has given up on love, at least the romantic kind. He loves his five-year-old son Henry more than anything. 

But when Henry starts school, Jan is introduced to Matthew, a very sweet but shy young man who helps out in Henry’s class. Although he tries desperately to ignore his attraction, Jan finds himself falling for Matthew—he’s everything Jan needs. 

But amid creepy silent phone calls and possible break-ins, things start to fall slowly apart for Jan. Matthew wants to trust Jan, but the skeleton Jan has been trying to keep buried in his closet and the guilt he feels threatens to destroy everything good in his life.

Buy Links

Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
All Romance

My guest today is Louise Lyons, here to talk about her car-themed inspiration for her new story, Conflicted. There’s a giveaway, too, so be sure to check it out!

My Inspiration for Conflicted

My story is based around the world of cars, for example drag racing, exhibiting cars at events and so on. This is a big love of mine, and I regularly attend drag racing events. I’m also a member of an owners’ club for my little sporty Mitsubishi, and I enjoy putting it on a display stand along with several others, for members of the public to look at and photograph. This is what gave me the idea to write Conflicted.

I pictured my main character, Paul Appleton, in a similar position to me – struggling to get a great car and make it nice, with not very much money. Of course, I don’t have Paul’s temperament, thankfully!  He’s a troubled young man, who has lost several people he cared deeply for, and I’m happy that I didn’t write that part of the story from experience.  But the basics came from my own, rather tomboyish love of cars and fixing them up.

Inspiration in general

I started writing short stories when I was very young – about 8 years old – but it was only in my late teens that I got into M/M romance.  It was prompted by a school friend inviting me to watch a video at her house when I was 15 or 16. The movie was My Beautiful Launderette starring Daniel Day Lewis, and it featured both racism, and homophobic attacks, but it also had some sweet moments between the two main male characters. I started writing M/M romances for my own entertainment, featuring favourite rock stars, more often than not. Years later, I jumped into Fan Fiction, and eventually, after developing a large following and growing in confidence, I decided to try to publish something. And here I am!

My Writing Process

I don’t have a set plan for the way I write a story. I will get the idea for a basic outline of a plot and make notes and gradually it begins to fill out in my head. I make a list of important scenes or events in the order I want them to happen and then think about how I want to start. As I do this, my main characters begin to come to life in my head. I write a biography for them at that point, including appearance, family, background and anything else significant about them. Once that’s done, I get started and simply write. The story or its characters often tell me the way they want things to go and I use my notes on the main events to guide me. That works best for me. I don’t have a rigid plan to stick to, which for me, would make things more difficult. I like to go with the flow.

Two competing gangs of car and drag racing enthusiasts with a shared history of pain and rivalry leading to outright hatred. Two men from opposite sides of the tracks, yet more in common than they’d like to admit.

Paul Appleton is a troubled man who has never been in a relationship, having lost everyone he cared for in his life. His mother died when he was very young and subsequently, he lost his brother and his best friend. Now Paul is convinced love will always end in tears. 

Greg was living on the streets after his parents died and was stabbed by a junkie, ending up in hospital. The Buchanans took Greg under their wing while doing charity work, and Greg joined their loving family when he was adopted. He and his siblings are also car enthusiasts with much more money and therefore better cars than Paul Appleton’s gang.

When they eventually find a connection, Paul fights his feelings and tries to convince himself his lover is only a temporary bit of fun, but Greg has other ideas.

BUY LINKS: Ebook || Paperback

Giveaway: $10 Amazon voucher

Louise Lyons comes from a family of writers. Her mother has a number of poems published in poetry anthologies, her aunt wrote poems for the church, and her grandmother sparked her inspiration with tales of fantasy. Louise first ventured into writing short stories at the grand old age of eight, mostly about little girls and ponies. She branched into romance in her teens, and MM romance a few years later, but none of her work saw the light of day until she discovered FanFiction in her late twenties.

Posting stories based on some of her favorite movies, provoked a surprisingly positive response from readers. This gave Louise the confidence to submit some of her work to publishers, and made her take her writing “hobby” more seriously.

Louise lives in the UK, about an hour north of London, with a mad Dobermann, and a collection of tropical fish and tarantulas. She works in the insurance industry by day, and spends every spare minute writing. She is a keen horse-rider, and loves to run long-distance. Some of her best writing inspiration comes to her, when her feet are pounding the open road. She often races into the house afterward, and grabs pen and paper to make notes.

Louise has always been a bit of a tomboy, and one of her other great loves is cars and motorcycles. Her car and bike are her pride and joy, and she loves to exhibit the car at shows, and take off for long days out on the bike, with no one for company but herself.

Blog:  http://louiselyonsauthor.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/louiselyonsauthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/louiselyons013
Email: louiselyons013@gmail.com

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My guest today is Ashley Ladd, talking about how having family around affects her writing process and the journeys of her main characters in her new novel, Business or Pleasure.

It’s Hard To Live With Family

It’s wonderful, but often tough, to live with family. Don’t misunderstand—I love my family to pieces, but they certainly make it difficult to write.

Earlier this evening for instance, I was hot and heavy in the middle of promotion, surfing from blog to blog to Facebook page to Triberr to Twitter, in a total frenzy, when dear daughter number three bee bopped into my office wanting me to drive her to the gym to work out. Her exercise bike broke last week and she’s in the middle of losing weight and she doesn’t want to lose her momentum. She usually gets her sister to drive her to the gym, but her sister was sleeping. So she set her eyes on me.

Oh oh!

Although I desperately need to unplant my butt from the chair and give my body a work out, I wasn’t in any mood to interrupt my momentum. I was hot on the trail of several blogs that offered authors guest features! With one book that just released and four more books coming out in the near future, I’m in heavy-duty promotion mode.

Even though I didn’t want to, I finished the promotion request I was working on and shut down. Then we headed to the gym. After all, at the end of my life, what will I look back on with more love and joy? How many book tours I set up or the happy times I spent with my family?

In Business or Pleasure, both heroes, Guy and Tommy, experience the same kinds of problems with their families. They love them too. But they can be a pain.

Guy is an avid vegetarian and animal activist. He can’t stand it when his father cooks meat in the house and he gets absolutely livid when his dad uses his good pans to fix meat. He gets so furious he throws his pan in the garbage! Just as bad, his dad doesn’t understand Guy’s sexual orientation and yells about it in the middle of the yard so all the neighbors can here.

Tommy’s father doesn’t understand his sexual orientation either and also gives him a hard time. At least he doesn’t scream it out loud to the neighbors. He drives Tommy crazy when he insists that Tommy quit his real estate career to run the family’s new barbecue restaurant. He doesn’t respect Tommy’s wishes and desires.

Unfortunately, although our families love us and we love them, we don’t always get along well. Still, we are family and in the end, we should overlook the little things like special pans and a couple hours worth of book promotion and focus on the bigger picture. If we practice mutual love and respect we’ll all wind up winners in the end.

Guy Rogers is extremely attracted to his new realtor, Tom Beaudreaux. As a passionate vegetarian and animal activist, he’s ecstatic that Tom is a kindred soul. He could never be with a carnivore. Unfortunately, Tommy isn’t really a vegetarian or animal activist. He never said he was either, he just didn’t eat meat when he was with Guy. And maybe he emptied his house of all meat and dairy products before inviting Guy over. In fact, Tommy’s family owns the most popular barbecue restaurant in town and if his family has their way, he’ll manage the new location.

When Guy finds out that Tommy eats meat and his family owns a restaurant that is a monument to eating meat, he’s livid and doesn’t know if he wants anything else to do with Tommy.

But then Guy’s life gets crazy—his dad’s paranoia blossoms into violent dementia, he gets arrested for picketing a doggy mill, and then he winds up in even more legal trouble. When Tommy sticks by him through all his trouble and does everything he can to help him, Guy wonders if he’s been too militant and narrow-minded. Perhaps he can learn to live with people who have opposite views.

Excerpt

Guy’s dad, Glen, bailed him out of jail with a furrowed brow and a crinkled nose. As he stuffed his wallet into his pants’ pocket, he sniffed. “If your poor mother was alive, she’d be bawling her eyes out at this shame. Why can’t you learn to live and let live? If people want to follow the Good Book’s teachings and eat the food God gave us, you shouldn’t go around sticking your nose in their business.”

Guy rubbed his aching wrists the handcuffs had made raw. Then he swallowed a deep breath that hurt his lungs as he followed his father to his beat-up van. “Look who’s talking about live and let live.”

“It ain’t natural for men to love men, to sleep with men. He intended for you to meet up with a good woman and give me some grandchildren before I die. Now don’t be waiting too long. I want to be in good enough shape to enjoy them.”

Not this again! Guy twisted his hands together to keep from wringing his dad’s neck and winding up back in the pokey. “Your God is a forgiving, forgetting god, or did you forget? He’s the only one supposed to judge.”

“My god? He’s your god, too. You’d best start paying attention to His word, then you mightn’t be so darned pissed off all the time and marching around with that band of lunatics.”

By now he should know that the best way to win this argument was not to get involved, so he shut up. He had to put some distance between himself and his old man soon! Like yesterday.

“Calm down, Dad, before you give yourself another heart attack.”

“You should’ve thought of that before you went picketing that farm. At least you didn’t show up on TV and shame me in front of all my church friends. Don’t you be blabbing about what you’ve been up to. No one wants to hear it. And I don’t want that old coot next door or any of his followers to hear.”

Guy couldn’t help but retort, “The old guy next door is harmless. His daughter says he never leaves the house, that he can barely walk. He’s almost ninety.”

Glen peered at him as if he was crazy. “That’s why he gets his followers to do his dirty work. He’s been jealous of me for years.”

As much as his dad annoyed him, he loved him with his whole heart and didn’t want him to get sick. At seventy-one, he was frailer than most men his age. And he was obsessed with the neighbor, Mr Cary, to the point of being paranoid. Soon, he might have to go into an assisted living environment, but he was fighting it. If he tried to put his dad there now, he’d have the biggest battle on his hands in their history.

“Let’s drop it. I’m tired and hungry.”

Glen shook his finger at Guy. “You’ll be sorry when I’m proven right. I fixed some dinner, but of course, you won’t be wanting any of it seeing as it’s animal flesh and potatoes.”

Guy convulsed and almost threw up. “No. I don’t want that.”

When they got home, bile rose in Guy’s throat. Not only were the leftovers raw, bloody and mutilated, they were in his best pan!

Disgusted and angrier than he’d ever been in his life, he flung the pan in the garbage. The thing was no good to him anymore. He wasn’t going to put his food in a casket!

It was time to move out.

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Ashley Ladd lives in South Florida with her husband, five children, and beloved pets. She loves the water, animals (especially cats), and playing on the computer.

She’s been told she has a wicked sense of humor and often incorporates humor and adventure into her books. She also adores very spicy romance, which she weaves into her stories.

How you can contact Ashley:
chinara@aol.com
http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/ashleyladdauthor

https://www.goodreads.com/AshleyLadd
http://www.shelfari.com/search/books?Keywords=Ashley%20Ladd
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ashley%20ladd&sprefix=ashle%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aashley%20ladd

Jamie Fessenden is here today to talk about a cool mountain-climbing railway for the release of his new book, Murder on the Mountain.

Day Three of the Murder on the Mountain Blog Tour!

The Mount Washington Cog Railway always fascinated me as a child, but at about $65 a ticket (now—I don’t recall what it was at the time) it was out of my family’s price range. Alas, I still have yet to experience riding on the Cog. When my husband and I visited the area last December to research Murder on the Mountain, we stopped at the railway station, but the train wasn’t running.

First conceived of in 1852 by Sylvester Marsh, it took him six years to get permission to build the railway, largely putting up his own funds. But the Civil War intervened, and construction didn’t begin until 1866. By 1868, paying customers were riding the train, though it was still incomplete. It finally reached the summit in 1869.

It is the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway, and the second steepest in the world, with a maximum grade of 37.41%. In order to deal with the steep grade of the tracks, it uses a cog (pinion) in the center of the engine, fit into a rack that runs the length of the track. It originally had boilers which were vertical, mounted on trunnions to keep them upright as the grade changed. Those have since been replaced by horizontal boilers, but as you can see in the photo, they’re positioned an angle so they remain relatively flat during the climb.

At one time, workers on the mountain used to ride “devil’s shingles” down the tracks to make the trip quickly. These were just flat sleds attached to the tracks, big enough for just one person. They plummeted down the mountain at about 60mph, reaching the bottom in about 15 minutes. The record was two minutes and forty-five seconds! Devil’s shingles were eventually banned, when someone accidentally killed himself on one.

For the next four weeks, Murder on the Mountain will be touring the blogs of several MM Romance authors. If you leave an email address in the comments or email me at jamesfessenden@hotmail.com, you’ll be entered into a drawing for either a free copy of Murder on the Mountain or a $40 gift certificate to Dreamspinner Press!

When Jesse Morales, a recent college grad who aspires to be a mystery writer, volunteers to work on the summit of Mt. Washington for a week, he expects to work hard. What he doesn’t expect is to find a corpse in the fog, lying among the rocks, his head crushed. The dead man turns out to be a young tourist named Stuart Warren, who strayed from his friends while visiting the mountain.

Kyle Dubois, a widowed state police detective, is called to the scene in the middle of the night, along with his partner, Wesley Roberts. Kyle and Jesse are instantly drawn to one another, except Jesse’s fascination with murder mysteries makes it difficult for Kyle to take the young man seriously. But Jesse finds a way to make himself invaluable to the detective by checking into the hotel where the victim’s friends and family are staying and infiltrating their circle. Soon, he is learning things that could very well solve the case—or get him killed.

BUY LINK

My guest today is the awesome Ariel Tachna, talking about her new novel The Path, which she researched up close and personal on a trip to Peru. 🙂

Integrating Fact into Fiction
by Ariel Tachna

How many times have we as writers made one comment or another about including someone who annoyed us in a book as revenge? How often have we modeled a character after a friend or loved one… or enemy?

It’s so easy to do. After all these are people we know well enough to do justice to. The challenge changed for me when it came time to write an entire book based on something that really happened, and recently. Last August, my husband and I spent a week in Peru hiking the Inca Trail. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but also one of the most rewarding. I saw amazing things and met inspiring people. It came as no surprise, then, that I wanted to write about it and share that with my readers. Except I wasn’t writing about some generic setting I could move to another location to protect the innocent. The Inca Trail can’t be anywhere other than between Piskacucho and Machu Picchu. The guides and porters can’t be anyone other than Quechua Indians. Sure, I can make Benicio from Cancha Cancha when our guide Leonardo was from Ollantaytambo originally. I can create a fictional travel agency instead of the one we actually used, but how do I separate my real trip from the fictional story I want people to read about?

Part of that comes from the romance. Our group of fourteen had six couples, two singles, and of course our two guides, but nobody met and fell in love (although Smith, our other guide, talked about a guide who had fallen in love with and ended up marrying a tourist in his group). So any romance I wrote into The Path was fictional. Smith and Leonardo were hilarious together, but they weren’t in love with each other. And from the pictures they had on their phones, they both had girlfriends to hold their attention when they weren’t on the trail together.

Part of making it fictional comes from drawing on the stories Smith and Leo told us about other groups they’d gone with instead of writing only about what happened while we were actually there. The climactic sequence at the end of The Path is based on an experience Smith shared, embellished with my own imagination, of course.

The rest of it, though, was accepting that it was okay to describe our experiences where they fit into the greater story. The tourists teaching Benicio to play bocce ball really happened. I really stood at the Sun Gate watching the light come down the mountain and into the valley and cried. In the end, it isn’t about fact or fiction. It’s about believability and the emotions of the story. Maybe some of the events didn’t happen or didn’t happen to me, but the experience of hiking the Inca Trail did, and I like to think that will carry over to my readers.

All his life Benicio Quispe has dreamed of being a guide on the Inca Trail. He gets his chance when the top travel agency in Cusco, Peru hires him. Alberto Salazar, his assigned mentor, fits Benicio’s idea of a perfect guide, but he’s also everything Benicio never dared to dream of in a boyfriend.

Alberto learned a long time ago to be discreet about his sexuality. It’s a necessary sacrifice to keep the respect of the guides and porters whose help is critical in a successful hike. So he pushes aside his attraction to his new junior guide and goes on as usual. But when a group of old friends arrives to hike the trail again, they convince him a relationship with Benicio is worth pursuing. His newfound resolve is enough to get them on a first date, but no amount of courage can change the attitudes of their family and friends. The risks on the trail are easy compared to finding a path through the challenges keeping them apart.

Buy from Dreamspinner Press

Ariel Tachna lives outside of Houston with her husband, her daughter and son, and their two dogs. Before moving there, she traveled all over the world, having fallen in love with France, where she met her husband, and India, where she hopes to retire some day. She’s bilingual with snippets of four other languages to her credit and is as in love with languages as she is with writing.

Web site: http://www.arieltachna.com
Blog: http://arieltachna.livejournal.com
Twitter: @arieltachna
Facebook: http://tiny.cc/29npd