Category: Uncategorized

Garrett Leigh on House of Cards, the Porthkennack series you Can’t Miss! (Interview & Giveaway)

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House of Cardsby Garrett Leigh

Riptide Publishing

1. What was the inspiration behind the story?

The inspiration was the wonderful world that Alex Beecroft created for every author that took part in the project. All the books are individual stories, but there was a real sense of teamwork going on. We all contracted our books several years ago, and to see them come to fruition now is wonderful. Alex gave us magic to play with.

2. When you use various locations in a story, is it to places you have traveled or places you have researched or both?

Both. I’ve never been to any of the American locations I’ve used in my earlier books, but London is very familiar to me, so it’s swings and roundabouts. On occasion, I create fictional towns too, which is always fun, for me, at least. Not so much my editors who I forget to tell, so they end up goodgling facts on a place that doesn’t exist.

3. I know so many people love a friends to lovers story which this sounds like it is…what draws you to that storyline?

Relationship development is a huge hook for me when I’m writing, particularly with men who can sometimes be more reticent than women when it comes to communication. Non-verbal clues are key, and so are all the senses. I like to write warmth between my characters, and F-2-L is the perfect platform for it.

4. Is there some mystery here as well? Do you love to read mysteries too?

Porthkennack is the real mystery. There’s so much to it, and more and more is revealed with every book that comes out. That being said, Brix has his secrets, and so does Calum, so yeah, I guess there is a dash of mystery.

Reading wise, a mystery has to be extremely well done to keep me interested. In romance, there’s a lot of melodrama and that irritates me too much to keep me reading.

5. What is the most magical place on earth in your opinion? What speaks of home to you?

Home to me is my bed with a cuppa and my whole family—furry and human—all piled in to watch Star Wars. Away from home, we have a campervan that carries its own magic wherever it takes us. We love being on the road and truthfully, we all make our own magic, right?

 

About House of Cards

Calum Hardy’s life has unravelled. Reeling from the betrayal of a man he once loved, he boards a train heading south, with no real idea where he’s going except a world away from London.

Brix Lusmoore can hardly believe his eyes when he spots one of his oldest friends outside Truro station. He hasn’t seen Calum since he fled the capital himself four years ago, harbouring a life-changing secret. But despite the years of silence, their old bond remains, warm and true—and layered with simmering heat they’ve never forgotten.

Calum takes refuge with Brix and a job at his Porthkennack tattoo shop. Bit by bit, he rebuilds his life, but both men carry the ghosts of the past, and it will take more than a rekindled friendship and the magic of the Cornish coast to chase them away.

Available now from Riptide Publishing. http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/house-of-cardsn

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About Porthkennack

Welcome to Porthkennack, a charming Cornish seaside town with a long and sometimes sinister history. Legend says King Arthur’s Black Knight built the fort on the headland here, and it’s a certainty that the town was founded on the proceeds of smuggling, piracy on the high seas, and the deliberate wrecking of cargo ships on the rocky shore. Nowadays it draws in the tourists with sunshine and surfing, but locals know that the ghosts of its Gothic past are never far below the surface.

This collaborative story world is brought to you by five award-winning, best-selling British LGBTQ romance authors: Alex Beecroft, Joanna Chambers, Charlie Cochrane, Garrett Leigh, and JL Merrow. Follow Porthkennack and its inhabitants through the centuries and through the full rainbow spectrum with historical and contemporary stand-alone titles.

Check out Porthkennack! http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/universe/porthkennack

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About Garrett Leigh

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id, Riptide Publishing, and Fox Love Press.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.

Social media:
Website: http://garrettleigh.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighbooks
Cover art enquiries: blackjazzdesign@gmail.com

 

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of House of Cards, one lucky winner will receive a $25 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on July 22, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

 

Another Day-Another Storm-Another Zapped Power Cable

So waiting for Amazon to ride to my rescue this time… our schedule will be delayed but hopefully not our posts.  They may look a tad different but hang on their with me while a new infrastructure i.e. Cord and Surge Protector arrives and is put into service!

A VVivacious Review: Rent Mate by Ash Penn

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Liam and Martin are roommates with a bad case of hate at first sight.

Liam, Katie and Martin share an apartment and Liam doesn’t approve of Martin’s profession especially so in light of how friendly Martin and Katie have gotten. Liam can’t seem to get over his best friend Katie, no matter how much she doesn’t want to be anything but friends with him.

Martin is a rent boy. His profession isn’t ever the safest but it seems to have gotten particularly dangerous all of a sudden with a man threatening and bullying Martin. But it seems like it just isn’t Martin’s year with the way the timing of his bullying seems to coincide with a surge in Liam’s hatred towards him and how now Liam will do just about anything to get Martin to leave.

But all the trouble that Martin finds himself in, has the advantage of getting Martin and Liam to have to actually start talking to each other and once they start talking it isn’t too late before they find themselves attracted to each other. But it remains to be seen if their attraction will survive the vendetta that Martin seems to have attracted.

What got me interested in this book was its blurb, a rent boy who hates gay men and his flatmate who hates rent boys. The amount of intrigue this line generated was unprecedented and I just had to read it. While this line is slightly misleading, because Martin doesn’t exactly hate gay men (he just avoids them for personal reasons), but I can totally forgive the misdirection because the blurb is the reason I picked up this book and I quite frankly loved the book.

This book is a raw diamond, it lacks polishing but you really don’t need to dig deep to find the value in it. There are certain plot elements that aren’t as well fleshed out as you would want them to be and these are quite minor details but I truly felt like this book just needed a little extra to be brilliant. I feel like the biggest shortcoming of this book was its villain because he kind of fizzes out in the end and while I can’t express the amount of relief I felt as everything righted itself in Liam and Martin’s world because truthfully it was enough to cloud over any realisation I had that the resolution of the conflict looked a little bit too easy.

But remember no matter how unpolished, a diamond is a diamond and the real heart of this story is Liam and Martin and these two were amazing. I loved Liam and Martin separately as characters as well as their relationship together because it was just so awesome. I mean Liam and Martin totally have that we hate each other vibe going on so it is extra sweet and extra fun to see these two having to sit down and really talk instead of just teasing each other and making each-others’ life miserable with their antics.

This book is actually about the changing phases of Liam and Martin’s relationship. They start of as Liam being the guy without any sense of humour and Martin going out of his way to irritate the hell out of Liam to Liam going from passively hating Martin and wanting him out of their house to actively doing the same. And then, we get these two actually having to talk to each other to figure out the problems that have cropped up in Martin’s life. I especially loved the transition when the author changes the animosity that defines their relationship to caring, which is just such a unique transition and it was exceptionally well done in the context of these characters. And finally, all this getting to know the real Liam and the real Martin, leads to a blooming romance that is unforgettable.

Some couples share some really good banter with each other and while these two characters did have some amazing banter between themselves what I truly loved was when they talked to each other. I feel like I could read about these two talking to each other forever, their conversations were just so insightful and funny and deep and intimate.

Reading this book was an amazing experience because of Liam and Martin, they are an amazing couple and awesome people. While the strength of this book is its MCs I also loved the plot of this book that focused around Katie and Liam because it is the first time I have read such a plot element used in such an intricate and well-developed manner and it was nice to know that Liam wasn’t in denial and he actually does have feelings for Katie no matter how misguided. Even the plot surrounding Martin’s troubles, which provides the impetus for Liam and Martin to start interacting and is basically the reason this book is amazing, is really well developed but at the same time I felt like that particular plot point is resolved a little unsatisfactorily, though truthfully I didn’t mind because I loved the ending for this book in terms of the place we see their relationship at, in the end of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and despite the fact it could use a little bit more work, it still made for an amazing read.

Cover Art by Posh Gosh. I really don’t get how the cover ties into the book.

Sales Links:  Pride Publishing | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 1st edition, 260 pages
Published April 18th 2017 by Pride Publishing
ISBN139781786515476
Edition LanguageEnglish

A Jeri Review: The Other Five Percent by Quinn Anderson

Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
This was a new to me author. What drew me in was the blurb- as it should. Opposites attract, second chance love story, etc.
And while it was a good story and the blurb gave a good hint at it, a lot of the book was spent with Ellis either still mad at Logan from “ghosting” him in college or trying to get Logan to label himself. For someone (Ellis) who went out of his way to track down Logan a second time and to basically not accept his apology was pretty lame.
And the whole label thing. More than once Logan said he was “mostly” straight. Hence the title- The Other Five Percent, because he considers himself 95% straight. And yet he still wanted Ellis. He wanted him in college but got scared and wanted him again 4 years later. But Ellis would not give in until Logan gave  himself the label of bisexual.
I did enjoy Logan’s growth- from being a totally strict 9-5 worker climbing the corporate ladder to wanting to just be happy. Realizing that life is not just about the almighty dollar.
It was mostly a cute story that had points that really bugged me.
Cover by L.C. Chase
Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Amazon
Book Details:ebook
Published July 10th 2017 by Riptide Publishing
Original TitleThe Other Five Percent
ISBN 162649598X (ISBN13: 9781626495982)
Edition LanguageEnglish

Letting Go (Love by Design #1) by Morningstar Ashley Release Day Blitz (excerpt and giveaway)

Letting Go RDB Banner

LETTING GO

Love by Design, Book 1

MORNINGSTAR ASHLEY

M/M ROMANCE

RELEASE DATE: 07.14.17

Letting Go Cover

COVER ARTIST:  Jay Aheer/Simply Defined Art

COVER PHOTO:  StockPhoto

 

GOODREADS: http://bit.ly/2sZFfqC

 BLURB

 Years ago, before tragedy struck, Alex made a child’s promise to always protect and care for his little sister, Evie. Then piece by piece, all the good in his life was taken away until Alex was left alone as guardian to his much younger sister. Suffering and loss scarred Alex, causing him to withdraw from the world. Struggling with anxiety and trust issues, Alex attempts to help Evie heal from their shared traumatic past, but each day is harder than the last. To make matters worse, Alex’s best friend, Ben, is pushing him to get out of his rut, confronting him with the fact that what Alex thinks is contentment is just stagnation and fear. The last thing he needs is for an old acquaintance to reappear in his life, making him feel things he hadn’t dealt with in years.

The executive of the marketing department at graphic design firm Vivid, Kelley has his life together. While not perfect, he’s happy with his career and his three best friends. A chance encounter with Alex, the guy he was once attracted to, is icing on the cake. Fighting through Alex’s defenses to find the breathtaking man underneath will be hard, but Kelley is up to the challenge. Kelley believes that the things most worth fighting for never come easy.

To accept all that Kelley is offering means Alex must drop his barriers. Kelley will need to keep trying and prove that Alex can trust him, even when grief and anxiety try to pull him back.

Alex 2

Kelley 2

EXCERPT

Pushing him back on the couch Kelley straddled Alex’s body, using his weight to hold the squirmy man in place, Kelley put his hands on Alex’s abs, fingers at his sides as his possessed Alex’s.

Shoving Alex’s shirt up as Alex lifted to give enough room for Kelley to pull the shirt off, dropping it to the floor. Attacking his nipples with teeth and tongue making Alex whimper and moan. Fuck! Hearing those sounds just turned him inside out. Turning the heat between up to lava level.

Moving back up to his neck Kelley sucked, tasted as he reached down with one hand greedily rubbing Alex’s dick through his pants. Running his hand up and down giving him the same of the pressure that Kelley’s throbbing cock was begging for.

“Oh, God.” Alex groaned with a rough edge to his voice as he arched his neck giving Kelley even more room to explore and mark. He wanted his mark on this man. Wanted everyone to see that he was Kelley’s. Fearing that with all the pain locked inside Alex he would never truly be his.

“Your shirt. Take off your shirt. I need to feel your skin.”

Kelley did exactly that.

He flattened Alex to the couch again, pressing their chest together once again, Alex had spread his thighs, Kelley slotted himself right there. Their groins meet and slide together. And holy fucking hell did that feel good. The pressure of Alex’s steel length against his rock hard cock sending relief and pleasure throughout his body.

Alex scratched his nails down his back making him growl. He had his legs bracketing Kelley’s body holding him in place. Like he would be so fucking stupid as to move.

He can feel Alex’s heart jackhammering through his chest. Their breaths panting out between kisses and moans.

What had started out slow had built and built until Kelley wanted to say fuck it and rip Alex’s clothes off to get at every inch of his skin. To have their bodies, slippery from sweat, sliding together.

And just like that Kelley knew exactly what he was going to do. Oh, sweet jesus the thought alone sending lust hurtling to his aching balls, making him want to shoot.

He was going to drive Alex to the brink over and over. Making him forget anything and everything except the need that would be coursing through his body. The need Kelley would put there. Have Alex begging and pleading Kelley to let him come.

Within minutes they lay back on the couch completely naked, kneeling between Alex’s thighs once again. All of Alex’s gorgeous fucking skin on display. His cock seemingly begging for attention, the crown purple and leaking pre-come onto his stomach. Kelley mouth waters with the thought of sliding it between his lips. But not yet.

Unable to stop himself he slipped his hands, fingers spread wide, to his ankles, over his thighs, across his chest. Gliding with the lightest touch around Alex’s erect nipples, back down his arms. Over and over he did this, needing to get his fill of this beautiful man. No one should have this effect on another person. He sat there with a naked Alex in front of him in awe of every lean muscle that pushed up to meet his hands, every scar his traced.

“Kelley,” Alex bites out as his body trembled under Kelley’s gentle touches.

“Yeah, baby. You need something?”

“Fuck. Don’t be an ass. You know want I want.”

Kelley sank back down on top of him. Licking a path up his collarbone to his throat and then their mouths meet stifling any more words that Alex was going to say. Their cocks align perfectly, and Kelley begins to thrust his cock against Alex’s as their kisses turn desperate and needy.

Kelley pulled away, and before Alex could utter a protest, he moved, swallowing his cock to the back of his throat. Letting his saliva pool in his mouth, needing all the wetness he could get for the slide of their cocks. With every groan that Alex had let out Kelley’s cock would twitch and throb tightening to epic proportions.

Each time he could feel Alex getting close Kelley would back off. Time and time again bringing him to the brink before pulling his mouth and hand away. Alex would whimper and wiggle, unable to lay still. He was so out of it that he words were reduced to grunts and groans.

When Kelley was satisfied that he had sufficiently teased Alex, he pulled off his cock with a pop. Using the spit that was now covering his hand, he coated his own cock with it before laying on top of Alex, lining their cocks up.

His body fitting tightly to Alex’s. Wrapping one arm around Alex’s shoulders, holding as close to him as he could, both needing the closeness this position gave them. Kelley began thrusting his cock against Alex’s.

“I’ve got you, baby. Just feel.”

Profanities had started to spill from Alex’s mouth. Kelley’s whole body was so overwhelmed by the slide and friction of their cocks he felt like he could’ve blown his load at any moment, hoping that Alex was feeling even a silver of what he was.

Alex had begun to counter thrust, writhing his tight body under Kelley. His head was tipped back, the muscles of his neck corded and straining.

“That’s it, baby. Let go.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morningstar Ashley is a transplant from the Yankee-controlled territory of New York, and now finds herself in the heartland of cowboys and longhorns—Texas. Armed with her imagination, wit, and trusty sidekicks in the form of her two crazy kids, devoted dorky husband, big lap dog, and rambunctious cats, Morningstar spends her time reading the books she loves, crafting her own characters, and arguing the merits of hot chocolate over the bitter brew known as coffee (Hot chocolate wins, FYI.).

Morningstar loves graphic design, so much so she returned to school for a degree and regularly tromps her exams and maintains a stellar GPA that occasionally leaves her confounded and pleased. She can while away the hours on new designs, and perfection isn’t too much to hope for when it comes to her art.

Her ideal career would be full-time artist and author, and so far, she hasn’t come up against anything to stop her on her journey. A fierce and devoted friend, Morningstar tries her best to always be kind, always be learning, and always improving. Giving up isn’t an option, and her greatest talent may be in her ability to convince others not to give up, either. After a lifetime of trying to get people to realize her first name wasn’t Ashley, Morningstar decided the best way to settle the debate was to put her name on a book cover. An avid reader and fiction reviewer for the blog and site Diverse Reader, Morningstar harbored a dream to one day join the ranks of her heroes, and she sweeps into the contemporary gay romance genre with her debut novel, LETTING GO. With plans to conquer gay, lesbian and LGBTQA+ romance, Morningstar has her gaze set on the horizon, her determination her own guiding star.

 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/morningstar.ashley

TWITTER: @starzehashley

 GIVEAWAY

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c86a967028

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Check Out The Escape by Nicky James! Out Now! (giveaway)

Title: The Escape: Soren’s Saga
Author: Nicky James
Genre: M/M Romance Contemporary
Release Date: July 14, 2017
 
Dancing, loud music, drinking and sex… 

 


Who wouldn’t love a job that entailed all these things?

After giving up on school and being cast aside by an unsupportive family, Soren Matheson figured he’d landed every young man’s dream job.

But… there is a catch. 

Not everything is as it seems and at the end of the day… 

Maybe even dream jobs don’t exist.

Remy Moretti lives in a world of precision and order. When a chance run-in with a sassy, sarcastic blond one evening upsets his structured world, Remy needs to find out who he is.

What he discovers makes his hair stand on end. 

The defeat and fear hidden behind the young man’s eyes gives him nightmares.

Someone needs to get to the bottom of this.

Until then, Remy will need to do whatever it takes to keep Soren safe.

Nicky James lives in the small town of Petrolia, Ontario, Canada. She is mother to a wonderful teenage boy and wife to a truly supportive and understanding husband who, thankfully, doesn’t think her crazy.

Nicky has always had two profound dreams in life; to fall back hundreds of years in time and live in a simpler world and to write novels. Since only one of those dreams was a possibility, she decided to make the other come alive on paper.
Nicky writes MM romance books in a variety of styles including contemporary, medieval, fantasy, and historical.

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A MelanieM Review: Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy by Andrew J. Peters

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

The final installment of the Werecat series, a finalist in the 2016 Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Awards.

A fugitive from two murder investigations in New York City and a bizarre, big cat attack at a bank in Barbados, Jacks Dowd flees to South America to find the ringleader of a shifter terrorist organization deep in the Amazon. The world is on the brink of all-out war between shifters and humans, and Jacks needs to somehow broker a deal for peace.

But a special U.S. intelligence agency emerges as a new, possibly even more dangerous enemy. Both the terrorists and the U.S. government will stop at nothing to get an arcane codex that could unleash an unstoppable threat to mankind or exterminate werecats everywhere.

While Jacks dodges danger from both sides and decodes the ancient book, he’s left with the impossible choice of how to use it.

Final installment?  Hmmmm, maybe…..

I say that because when I finished the story, the first thing I did was write the author asking if, surely, there was another story just around the corner because you couldn’t leave Jacks and the Werecat series like this.  No, there wasn’t a cliffhanger. But there was left open the possibility that Jacks still had a huge task to accomplish, one I very much wanted to read about because this is a wonderful series.

Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy takes up right after the last story, The Fugitive ends, with the threat of interspecies warfare, Jacks trying to track down the head of the murderous werecat splinter group called The Glaring and the world on the edge of exploding.  Peters continues to build his intriguing mythology here, bringing in more ancient history and god elements.  As Jacks investigates how the werecats came into being in his search for the werecat leader Tepe in the jungles of South America, the reader gets pulled deeply into the mysteries the author is constructing.  There are more murders, increasing mystical elements and of course a government/military conspiracy worthy of any major action/adventure movie.

Throw in Jacks and his human lover, Farzan, still trying to steady their relationship, and Jacks realizing the reality of the human/werecat age span, and still have a romance /love affair and this story has oodles to offer.  That is if any of them get out of this alive.  The odds are definitely not in their favor!

I gobbled up this book in one quick read, I couldn’t get to the next scene fast enough.  So much action, so much  suspense and yes, a ton of surprises here.  And I can’t talk about any of them because everything is folded in together, melded like one great riveting mythological tapestry, that to give out one fact, just points to another spoiler and that’s just not going to happen.  Wonderful writing and great storying telling here.  It made me want to smack all four books together for one continuous read.  I just may do that.

The characters are real and believable, the settings vivid and authentic and the situations tense and suspenseful.  Trust me it’s a white-knuckle ride most of the time.

Why not five stars?  Because of that little nudge towards another story.  Peters would only say it’s not in the works yet.  Argh!!!!  We need to know what Jacks is going to do next…the future awaits him and us.  Andrew J. Peters, are you listening?

Until he does, grab up all the Werecat stories and read all the way through to this one.  What an amazing saga!  It’s a series I highly recommend.

Cover art works, especially with that wall in the backdrop.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 287 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Vagabondage Romance
ASINB072WT8PPN

An Author’s Interview with Gene Gant of In Time I Dream About You (author guest interview/new book release)

In Time I Dream About You by Gene Gant
Harmony Ink Press
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh

 Available for Purchase at Harmony Ink Press

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Gene Gant here today talking about writing, books and In Time I Dream About You, the author’s latest release from Harmony Ink Press!

How much of yourself goes into a character?

Very little, if anything at all. I strive to make every character as distinct a person as possible. In the process of writing, each character becomes a separate individual to me, with his or her own personality, history, political views and opinions. As such, they often take off in directions that surprise me, pulling the story in an entirely unexpected direction. I always work from an outline of the plot, but I’m forced to be flexible with it when a character takes control of things. There really isn’t much opportunity for me to insert any of my experiences or personal views under such circumstances. (Although a character occasionally likes my favorite food, reads one of my favorite books, or dresses in a style I personally favor.) Besides, I’m not all that interesting. Readers want compelling characters. Unlike Gavin Goode, for example, I’ve so far lived a fairly uneventful life. Or, as Donald Trump might tweet: BORING.

How do you choose your covers? (curious on my part)

My publisher has a team of artists who work with authors to create covers. They begin with a series of questions to get an understanding of the plot, setting and characters along with the writer’s preferences. Using that information, they prepare two or more drafts of what will eventually become the cover. A great cover has to be eye-catching, convey a general sense of the story’s mood and pull the reader in. I usually go for the one that invokes the biggest emotional response in me, the one that makes me want to jump in and inhabit the world it depicts.

Has your choice of childhood or teenage reading genres carried into your own choices for writing?

Yes, definitely. I’ve always enjoyed fiction across a variety of genres, some of my favorites being contemporary, romance, mystery, fantasy, science fiction and horror. The stories I write fall mostly in the genres I love to read. I sometimes combine genres, as in the case of In Time I Dream About You, which is a blend of romance and science fiction/urban fantasy. Ironically, as a teenager, I read mostly adult novels by the likes of Stephen King, Peter Straub, James Patterson, John Grisham, J.R.R. Tolkien, Eric Jerome Dickey and Sue Grafton. Now, as an adult, I find myself reading an awful lot of—some would say far too much—young adult fiction.   

Have you ever had to put an ‘in progress’ story aside because of the emotional ties with it?  You were hurting with the characters or didn’t know how to proceed?

I’ve had to put stories aside for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I lose interest in the main character, which is never a good sign. Occasionally, I discover that an idea just doesn’t come together in the writing and needs to be revamped

In Time I Dream About You actually began as a tale more heavily tilted toward romance than science fiction, with Cato as the main character who falls in love with Gavin while observing him from the future. He knows Gavin dies in a tragic event and is torn between letting history take its course or violating the law against changing the past and saving Gavin. Perhaps a third of the way into the story, I found myself getting stuck. I’d fire up my computer and sit there staring at the screen, unable to write a word. I moved on to another project, unsure whether the story would ever get finished. After a few months, I read through what I’d written so far and realized I was focusing more on Gavin than Cato, because Gavin’s life was resonating more emotionally with me than Cato’s. Once I shifted the point of view to Gavin, I finished the story rather quickly. Gavin’s tale was less romantic than Cato’s would have been, but for me, the heart of the story was with him.

What’s next for you as an author?

At the moment, I’m working on a young adult novel about a lonely fifteen-year-old boy who gets dumped by his girlfriend and is surprised to find himself falling for one of his male teachers.  It’s more of a coming of age story than a romance, with the kid having to face certain truths about himself and the people in his life. I also have this idea percolating in my head about a boy who discovers he is adopted when his birth parents surface unexpectedly in his life, just as he is settling into a relationship with his new boyfriend. Beyond that, I have no other stories planned…yet, I should add. Ideas for stories tend to pop out of the blue on me, and I’m sure it won’t be long before my mind is conjuring up new characters and situations.

Blurb

Gavin Goode, a promising high school athlete with good grades, forfeited his future when he joined a brutal street gang called the Cold Bloods. The gang’s leader, Apache, discovered Gavin is gay and framed him for murder. Now in prison, Gavin faces rape and abuse on a daily basis as gang members there attempt to break him. When his father is critically injured and Gavin reaches his lowest point, a mysterious ally appears. Cato is much more than the guard he seems. He has come from the future, and he possesses the technology to undo everything that’s gone wrong in Gavin’s life.

But meddling in the timeline has dire consequences, and Gavin faces an impossible decision: sacrifice himself and his father, or let thousands of innocents die instead.

About the Author

‘m Tennessean by birth, a resident of Memphis for most of my life. I tried living in a few northern cities after graduating from college, but I couldn’t take the brutal winters, and I missed good ol’ southern barbecue. Now I make my home on a country lane outside of Memphis. When I’m not reading, working out, watching movies or spending time with family and friends, you can find me tapping away at my computer.

Website
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=welcome#!/pages/Gen…