Book Tour: There You Are by CJane Elliott

Author Name: CJane Elliott

Book Name: There You Are

Series: Wild and Precious

Book: Two

Series should be read in order to best appreciate this book

Release Date: December 23, 2015

Pages or Words: 33,000 words

Categories: Bisexual, Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27919852-there-you-are

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: AngstyG

This is a sequel to Wild and Precious:

Aspiring writer Brent Granger has good friends and a great job at an arts magazine in DC, but he’s batting zero in the arena of love. Brent begins to get a clue why things aren’t working with women from his strong attraction to his gorgeous, gay, and already attached boss, Graham Stoneford. When he sees a personal ad from a man that quotes his favorite poet, Brent decides to do something wild and answer.

Enter Cody Bellstrom, easygoing bisexual musician, who is happy to initiate Brent in the ways of gay sex. Brent now has a new problem: he realizes he’s gay and no one in his life knows it. Cody tires of hiding their relationship, but Brent finds it challenging to come out to family, friends, and especially to Graham. In the end, Brent must confront the truth of where – and with whom – his heart lies.

Purchase links

Dreamspinner: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5893

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Precious-CJane-Elliott-ebook/dp/B00RCFFTYS

Review

http://www.inkedrainbowreads.com/wild-and-precious-by-cjane-elliott-bisexual-mm-cjaneelliott/

Bisexual musician Cody Bellstrom is a free spirit, easygoing and unattached. On a cross-country trip, Cody befriends young Sandy Nixon and gets him safely to Portland and his uncle, Phineas MacDonald. Beautiful Phineas turns Cody’s life upside down, and Cody learns he’s not as unattached as he aspires to be. With the hard-won knowledge of what lies underneath his need to be free, Cody wins a chance at real freedom and true love.

Ever since his longtime lover Allen died, Phineas MacDonald has lived a circumscribed life. He stopped performing as fierce drag queen Phanny Hill and works part-time in a bookstore. Phineas never expected to find love again. But when sexy and caring Cody Bellstrom turns up, Phineas feels his orderly life slipping out of his control. Cody brings him alive again, but now Phineas must find the courage to let go of his grief over Allen and give love a second chance.

Dreamspinner: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7223

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thereyouare-1937850-149.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/There-You-Wild-Precious-Book-ebook/dp/B019BI3F6W

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/there-you-are/id1065972643

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/there-you-are-3

Barne&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/there-you-are-cjane-elliott/1123128281

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/CJane_Elliott_There_You_Are?id=WJEvCwAAQBAJ

“YOU SURE about this?” Bette’s pointed glance packed a world of meaning as she maneuvered the car through the DC traffic and Union Station came into view.

Cody shifted, touching the door handle to ready his escape. “Yes, I’m sure. Didn’t we go over this?” In excruciating detail, he added silently but didn’t dare say aloud. Not with the mood Bette was in.

“I’m giving you one more chance to come to your senses.” Bette pulled up outside the train station, frowning, and turned off the engine.

She looked so unhappy, Cody wanted to change his mind. I can’t, he thought.

Won’t, you mean, said the Bette in his head. He reached over and laid his hand on top of hers. “You’ll get along fine without me.”

“That’s not the point.” She nailed him with a baleful scowl. “We don’t want to get along without you. Dang you, Cody Bellstrom, you have no idea who you are to us.” At his puzzled expression, she turned away and stared stonily through the windshield.

“Well… I guess this is it.” Cody waited, but she didn’t respond. “I love you, girl, you know that, right? You and Aurora.” He meant it. He, Bette, and Aurora had been friends since they were college freshmen ten and a half years ago. Cody sometimes found it hard to believe that he’d known them since before Bette and Aurora had become a couple. It seemed like they’d been together forever.

A barely perceptible nod.

“Come on, Bette, don’t be mad. I’ll be back. I swear.”

“Sure you will.” She sighed and turned a softer face toward him. “Goddammit, you better. We love you. If you gotta do this, of course we can’t stop you. All we want is for you to be happy.”

A car honked behind them, and a uniformed officer motioned them to get moving.

“Shoot,” Bette muttered. “All right, babe. Get outta here.”

Cody leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll text. And call. And Skype.”

“Okay. Send us a postcard from every stop, and take a picture of yourself in Powell’s Books when you get to Portland.”

“Will do.”

Cody opened the door and unfurled himself from the passenger seat, then hauled out his luggage, such as it was. He traveled light; always had. A knapsack, one rolling suitcase, and his guitar, and he was good to go.

He stood on the curb and waved as Bette pulled away, then strode into the station, his spirits lifting, while Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” played on a loop in his mind.

After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.

CJane is an ardent supporter of LGBTQ equality and is particularly fond of coming out stories.

In her spare time, CJane can be found dancing, listening to music, or watching old movies. Her husband and son support her writing habit by staying out of the way when they see her hunched over, staring intensely at her laptop.

E-mail: cjaneelliott@gmail.com

Website: http://www.cjaneelliott.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJaneElliott

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cjane.elliott

Today I’m welcoming CJane Elliott to chat about writing, life, and their current project. Welcome! Let’s talk a little about There You Are.

Hi there! Thank you for having me on the blog today to share about my new novella, There You Are, which is the second book in the Wild and Precious series. There You Are picks up the story of Cody Bellstrom where we left him in Wild and Precious. He moves to Portland, Oregon to join a funk band and meets the man who is to become the love of his life, Phineas MacDonald. But they both have issues to work through before they can get to their happy ending.

What inspired you to write this story? I wasn’t planning to write a follow up to Wild and Precious. But many readers said how much they liked Cody Bellstrom and wanted a book about him. I enjoyed bringing his friends Bette and Aurora back for this story and then inventing a whole new set of characters that Cody meets when he leaves the DC area for Portland.

Is there a character you feel especially connected to? Why? I love both Cody and Phineas, but I feel connected to Phineas because of his grief (I’m a hospice social worker in real life) and his journey to step into life again. I also love his drag queen persona Phanny Hill!

What was the hardest part of writing this? I can’t think of a particularly hard part of writing this story. I loved the characters and the setting. It was the first story I set in Portland and it was fun to bring in the elements that make Portland so weird and wonderful. The hardest part about my writing is the fact that I work 32 hours a week, so finding the time and energy to produce stories on a regular basis is a challenge.

Choose a favorite line or short passage. What do you like about it? Let’s go with the line I lifted from the movie Buckaroo Banzai: No matter where you go, there you are. It’s so true, yet it sometimes takes a long time for a person to get that they’ll never outrun their problems.

Tell us a little about any upcoming projects. The third story in the Wild and Precious series, Sand-Man’s Family, has been contracted by Dreamspinner and is in the editing stage. This gives the story of Phineas’s nephew Sandy, who is bisexual and ran away from home at the beginning of There You Are. There are some wonderful new characters as well as the return of the crew from There You Are, including Dare Tyler, the guy Sandy was involved with in that book.

I’m also working on a novel to submit to Dreamspinner’s category romance line, Dreamspun Desires, and thoughts are brewing about a possible fourth book in my Serpentine Series.

Are there any types of scene you find hard to write (action, love, death, etc.)? I don’t have many action scenes in my books, which tend to be character-driven and more about inner than outer journeys (so it was fun to have Cody take a train journey at the beginning of There You Are.) I also don’t like to write anything extremely violent or major character death, even though my stories often have an angsty streak.

What do you do when you feel stuck (writer’s block)? I exercise (I take a dance/fitness class called Nia that’s awesome). I also talk to one of my fellow writer friends or one of my betas and toss some ideas around.

How do you handle a story that doesn’t go as you planned? I don’t think any of my stories have ever gone as I’ve planned. My ideas about the story’s trajectory at the beginning usually get scrapped somewhere in the middle because the characters take on lives on their own and take the story in unforeseen directions. I know this going in, so it’s not a problem for me. I revise the story outline and keep on trucking.

Word Sprints!

Plotter or pantser? Half and half.
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Musical theater or rock concert? Love them both
What was the last thing you read? A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
As a kid, were you a Goody-Goody or a Wild Child? A Goody-Goody who was secretly a Wild Child.