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Shira Anthony is here today on her Dissonance Book Tour! In her Blue Notes series, each story has a musical title and that continues with Dissonance. But what is dissonance and how does it relate to music? Shira Anthony gives us some insight into her love of music, its many aspects and of course, how it fits into her latest release, Dissonance!
Contest: There is a very special prize, a cuff inscribed with the NYC Subway on it, associated with this tour. Make sure to enter at the Rafflecopter link here or provided at the end of the post. Good luck and of course, you must be 18 years of age or older to enter!
Striking the Right Note: Discord and Redemption, by Shira Anthony
Thanks, Melanie, for hosting me today! And thank you for the chance to talk about my newest book release, Dissonance, a Blue Notes novel. For those who might not have heard about the Blue Notes Series from Dreamspinner Press, these are interrelated, standalone books that can be read in any order. All of the books in the series share one common element: music.
I’ve been a musician nearly all my life. Being a musician isn’t only about performing or teaching—it’s about living with music. For me, music starts and ends my day. I usually have a stubborn ear worm playing on an endless feedback loop in my brain (that is, until another song or piece of music displaces the current ear worm!). I grew up singing. My mother is a professional musician. My sister and I both were, as well. It’s in my blood. It’s part of me. So I suppose it isn’t a big surprise that in my writing I use music to help bring emotions into focus.
Dissonance, the sixth novel in the series, is no exception. The title says it all. What is a “dissonance?” Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “a mingling of discordant sounds; especially : a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord.” In classical music written before the 20th Century, dissonances usually ended in resolution. You know what I’m talking about, even if you haven’t put a name to it. It’s the twang you hear before the music smoothes out and your ear says “ahhhhh.” Like the tension in a romance that builds and finally ends with the happily-ever-after. Your ear tells you it wants the tension in the music to resolve. Your human brain craves it. (If you’re interested, here’s a short Youtube video that explains consonance and dissonance .)
In the novel, Dissonance, Cam Sherrington’s life is all about dissonances. He loves opera singer Aiden Lind, but he cheats on him. He wants to do something more satisfying with his life than flitting from project to project, but he’s afraid he’ll fail so he doesn’t try. He’s burned plenty of bridges, and he’s convinced himself he isn’t worthy of friendship or love. He’s also tells himself he doesn’t need either, because if he admits that he cares, he’d hurt, and he doesn’t want to hurt.
If Cam’s life is a series of dissonances, then his happiness, if and when he finds it, is about the consonances. How do you find happiness when you’ve hurt people and, in the process hurt yourself? For Cam, his chance at redemption and happiness comes in the form of Galen Rusk, who plays in the New York City subway for tips. Galen’s Zen attitude and calm support are the consonances that help a broken Cam turn his life around. But before that can happen, Cam has become the kind-hearted man Galen believes him to be. He has to believe he’s worthy of redemption.
Dissonances are about striving for resolution. Moving toward the consonances. The tension we hear in dissonant sounds cries out for consonance. And that’s just what happens to Cam. He knows his life is empty, but until things come crashing down around him, he’s content to live in the dissonance. Through Galen’s calm and patient support, Cam has a chance at happiness. To find out whether he grabs that chance, you’ll have to read the story (no spoilers here!).
-Shira
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Book Name: Dissonance
Series: Blue Notes
Author Name: Shira Anthony
Author Bio: In her last incarnation, Shira was a professional opera singer, performing roles in such operas as “Tosca,” “i Pagliacci,” and “La Traviata,” among others. She’s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M/M romance on her Kindle.
Shira is married with two children and two insane dogs, and when she’s not writing she is usually in a courtroom trying to make the world safer for children. When she’s not working, she can be found aboard a 36’ catamaran at the Carolina coast with her favorite sexy captain at the wheel.
Author Links:
Title: Dissonance by Shira Anthony
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Buy Links: Dreamspinner Press Amazon ARe (All Romance)
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Blurb:
British lord Cameron Sherrington has hit rock bottom. The love of his life, opera sensation Aiden Lind, is marrying another man, and Cam knows it’s his own fault for pushing Aiden away. Then someone tries to set him up and take away his family business. Facing arrest by US authorities on charges of money laundering and with no money to return to London, Cam decides to run. But with no money and no place to stay, it’s not exactly the Hollywood thriller he’d imagined.
When Cam hears Galen Rusk play in a lonely subway station, he’s intrigued. But his assumptions about Galen are all wrong, and their unusual relationship isn’t exactly what Cam bargained for. Add to that the nightmares that dog him nightly, and Cam’s world is shaken to its core. Cam figures he had it coming to him, that it’s all penance due on a life lived without honesty. He just never figured he might not be able to survive it.
Note: Blue Notes Series novels are standalone stories, and can be read in any order.
Excerpt:
“Oh.” Cam eyed the seat warily, his first thought that his black jeans would pick up the fur like a lint brush. Then he reminded himself that he’d been sleeping in the subway and a bit of fur was hardly the worst of what he might find on his pants. Still, as he settled into the seat, he dusted a few stray hairs off the armrest.
The drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and on into Jersey was an easy one, too late for there to be much traffic. Cam looked out the window, unwilling to engage Galen in conversation. Galen didn’t seem to mind. He whistled—a tune Cam recognized but couldn’t remember the name of—then tuned the radio to a jazz station that played bebop.
Thirty minutes later Galen exited the freeway, and they drove another ten minutes before turning down a small street lined with cookie-cutter houses. Postwar, Cam guessed, each with the same boxy structure, some with dormers, others with vinyl siding. Galen pulled into a driveway between two of the houses, but to Cam’s surprise, the driveway didn’t end at either house. It continued on, snaking behind them a few hundred feet to an old farmhouse. Probably the original house on the land that was now cluttered with homes. Built in the 1800s, he guessed.
A single light lit the walkway from the driveway to the front porch. White, with blue shutters, the house was nearly three times as large as its neighbors. A dog barked, although in the semidarkness, Cam couldn’t see it. Max, no doubt.
Cam followed Galen up the stairs and through the front door. Galen flipped on the light to reveal high ceilings and wide-planked wooden floors. To the right, in what Cam guessed was supposed to be the dining room, stood two trestles supporting a large piece of wood—a makeshift table stacked high with more than a dozen fiberglass cases and several instruments. On one side, Cam saw a battered french horn and what looked like a tuba; on the other side, a clarinet with some of its keys missing. Between the cases and the instruments were a bevy of tools, neatly arranged by size and shape, most of which Cam didn’t recognize. Maybe Galen repaired instruments on the side. Playing in the subway couldn’t pay that well.
Tour Dates: 8/8 – 9/5
Tour Stops:
8/8 – Prism Book Alliance
8/11 – Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
8/12 – Smoocher’s Voice
8/13 – Fallen Angel Reviews
8/14 – The Hat Party
8/15 – Amanda C. Stone
8/18 – Tara Lain
8/19 – The Novel Approach
8/20 – LeAnn’s Book Reviews
8/21 – Kimber Vale
8/22 – Full Moon Dreaming
8/25 – Love Bytes
8/26 – Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
8/27 – Hearts on Fire
8/28 – Wicked Wolves and Dreaming Dragons
8/29 – Velvet Panic
9/1 – Decadent Delights
9/2 – Rainbow Gold Reviews
9/3 – My Fiction Nook
9/4 – Emotion in Motion
9/5 – BONUS DATES: MM Good Book Reviews, Book Suburbia
Rafflecopter Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway
Rafflecopter Prize: NYC Subway cuff. Neat cuff that shows the subway system of NYC!
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and contests. Plus I am getting ready for GRL in October. Wow.
John & Jackie
Semper Fae
Finding Jackie
Out in the Cold
” 
Prevailing Winds 
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 