On the Road with A. F. Henley’s Road Trip! (guest blog and giveaway)

Let’s turn up the music, roll down the windows

and head out on the road

with A. F. Henley!

A Giveaway and Guest Blog  for my newest release… Road Trip

My Road Trip by A. F. Henley

Is there anything more exciting (and at the same time as nerve-wracking) as the prospect of taking a road trip? If everything goes smoothly, it can be one of the best times of a person’s life – odd places, interesting sights, the freedom of the open road, and the opportunity to experience something brand new. I think the idea calls to those of us who still have some of the wanderer buried deep down under the partitioned, organized, drudgery of day-to-day existence.

I took my own road trip while I was working on Road Trip, although mine was more of the Eastern side of the United States as opposed to Boyd’s journey of ‘sea to shining sea.’ It was crazy exhilarating, at times it was more than a little bit scary (yes, things really are different on the other side of that there border), but I can honestly say that I’ve never felt so empowered by something as simple as taking holidays before. I stopped where I wanted to stop, looked at what I wanted to look at, and if the idea of wondering off my chosen path hit me, I went with it.

I learned a lot as I travelled. For example:

• American border guards art not interested in your sense of humor, thank you very much, please step out of the car.

• The people in New York are either pleasantly content or grumpily hostile, and these two personas can be swapped for the either in less than a second.

• Pennsylvania is beautiful—resplendent in hills and mountains with breathtaking views, full of winding roads and courteous drivers, not to mention all kinds of back-to-nature goodness—and you will spend more time looking at your map thinking, how can I possibly not be through this state YET?!, because of it.

• Maryland is a super cool state to travel through because you get to mark off an entire state in what seems like the blink of an eye.

• When something goes wrong on the roads in Virginia, it goes very, very wrong. (By the time I arrived at my destination I had coined, and already begun overusing the phrase, “I blame Virginia for everything.”)

• The Outer Banks in North Carolina is where I will someday go to die. For all the right reasons.

• Unless I end up in Tennessee, as it is almost as beautiful as NC but doesn’t have those super-icky beach bugs. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have the super-awesome beach.

• There are vending machines in the U.S. for almost everything, including placing food orders (and, apparently, hospital scrubs?!). This makes me far more wary than it probably should. Nothing says technological advancement like the slow but steady removal of human beings from damn near every process known to mankind. One day we’ll have a society with nothing left but the robotics and the government… And there, see? I have digressed. Because that is a story for another time.

See, the most important thing I learned along the way was that there is a whole heck of a lot of truth to the adage that the expedition is just as important (if not more) than where you end up. And if life truly is a journey and not a destination, then I’ll happily take mine behind the wheel of my car, with the sun through the windshield and the radio blasting, any day.

Speaking of the radio blasting… how’s about a playlist to carry us through the rest of the tour?

Until next time! ❤

Blurb & Cover for Road Trip!

For as long as Boyd can remember, he’s been pushing pins into a map. Carson City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque—all places he wants to see, for a dozen different reasons that wouldn’t mean a thing to anyone else. When he finally gets a chance to purchase the ’69 Road Runner of his dreams, at a price that even he can manage, Boyd jumps at the opportunity.

Oliver seems like just another kid with a broken dream when their paths cross in Vegas. Against Boyd’s better judgment, he offers to let Oliver hitch along for the ride when Oliver confides the need to get out and get gone.

But it’s not long before Boyd realizes Oliver’s reasons for running are more complicated—and more dangerous—than Oliver let on. But Boyd doesn’t like people who play hardball, and he definitely doesn’t like people messing with a man who’s managed to light a fuse that Boyd forgot he had.

Gay Contemporary Romance
Copyright © 2015 by A.F. Henley
Published by Less Than Three Press

Please note: Novel contains some explicit content.

Purchase Link:   Less Than Three Press

Excerpt

It was just another day—just another twenty-four hour period between all the rest of them. Sure, thirty-five years prior, Boyd’s mother had been forcing out a nine-pound, some-odd-ounces mound of entirely unimpressed infant from the depths of her lady parts, but Boyd figured that was an event that should win her more kudos than it should him. As far as celebrating his birthday went, Boyd’s big plan was the acquisition of a bottle of Jim Beam, followed by the slow-but-steady process of sipping himself into an alcohol-induced stupor.

It hadn’t taken long for thirty-five to catch up to him, and it was one of those birthdays where three and a half decades hit like seven. His back ached from sprawling on cold concrete for too many hours. His finger joints burned from years of gripping air tools and turning wrenches. He was bitter and disillusioned, tired and worn out, and doing his best not to lament over the possibility that life truly was as good as it was going to get.

Until he saw the email.

The auto trader website had promised the best deals in the country delivered directly to one’s inbox, free of charge. Simply enter some personal info, vehicle preferences, and wait. Boyd had been a member for almost four years, but it had got to the point where most of the ‘awesome’ notifications were marked and deleted before they were even read. This one had pictures, though, and even if it would take his ancient computer several minutes to chug them into existence, opening it would mean Boyd could live vicariously with somebody else’s chromed baby for a few moments.

The car was a beauty. The body was mint, the engine supposedly ran like a clock, and it was drive-away ready. So when he saw the price, Boyd almost ignored it. A typo, he assumed. Someone forgot a one. An asking price of six-point-two was unheard of. He even went so far as to close and delete the email, to shut down his computer, locate his keys, and head for the front door before he reconsidered. Because, what if…?

What if finally…?

The Giveaway

On behalf of the tour, please join the giveaway by taking part in the Rafflecopter below. The prize consists of a Vintage ‘Chrome’ and Leather Road Runner Key Fob (can you say awesome Father’s Day Gift?), a $20 gift certificate to the Less Than Three Press book market (free books!), and a signed, print copy of Road Trip (when available). Click through for terms and conditions, further details, and your chance to win! See all the details here: 

** Please note that this giveaway is being offered tour-wide and there will be one winner awarded for the entire event. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

ENTER RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HERE: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Bio :

Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation. Since the early years Henley has been an enthusiastic writer, from the first few I-love-my-dog stories to the current leap into erotica.

A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.

Henley has been proudly working with LT3 since 2012, and has been writing like mad ever since—an indentured servant to the belief that romance and true love can mend the most broken soul. Even when presented in prose.

You can find or follow A. F. Henley here:
Website: http://afhenley.com/
Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/A.-F.-Henley/e/B00FIODWSK/
Publisher’s Page: http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/author-a-f-henley/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AFHenley
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AFHenley