book tour

Title: Bread, Salt and Wine

Author: Dev Bentham

Series: Tarnished Souls #4

This can be read as a standalone

Release Date: September 13th 2016

Genre: MM Contemporary Romance

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Find the rest of the Tarnished Souls series here: Goodreads

Some wounds never heal. George Zajac grew up in a religious family with a father who beat “the swish” out of him. At thirty-eight he’s a troubled man. Escaping his miserable life as a banker in New York, he moves across the country to start again in Los Angeles as the catering chef for a prestigious French Restaurant. Kenny Marks, a writer who’s currently waiting tables, is everything George cannot be—flamboyant, proud and sexually confident. Enthralled by Kenny, and against his own better judgment, George agrees to a date. Sparks fly. The sex is amazing. But even after the two get close, George is crippled by humiliating sexual hang-ups. Still haunted by his childhood, he lingers in the closet and can’t commit to a relationship with Kenny.

Love is the great healer, but is it enough? George’s emotional scars could drive Kenny away, and with him, George’s last chance at happiness.

**Bread, Salt and Wine was previously published by Loose ID in June 2013, but is being re-released with a fabulous new cover, designed by Jordan Castillo Price.**

Amazon

It was after midnight by the time we got everything cleaned up and stowed away back at the restaurant. I got change for the five one-hundred-dollar bills the financial manager had pressed into my palm as we left, and doled out fifty dollars to each of the four waiters, the busboy/dishwasher, and the bartender. I stuffed one into my pocket and the others into an envelope to give the kitchen crew.

The group started toward the staff locker room, and the kitchen emptied out. Except the cute one, Kenny.

He waved his money at me. “And the momma? Was she pleased?”

I shrugged. “She says she’ll call if she needs catering. We’ll see.” He watched me expectantly until I added, “Thanks for pointing her out.”

“No problem. Glad to be of service.” He shifted his weight onto one hip and looked at me from under his eyelashes. “Chef sometimes forgets to schedule me. Maybe you could put in a good word.”

I nodded. He smiled and turned to leave, throwing a “good night” over his shoulder as he sauntered out the door. I stayed behind to check on the preparations for the next event, Sunday brunch for a hundred. I reviewed the work schedule and was surprised by the pang of disappointment I felt when Kenny Marks’s name wasn’t on the list.

I write contemporary gay romance. My stories are set in the real world where gay men have gay friends, families who do or don’t accept them, personal histories they’re not necessarily proud of and a myriad of experiences that have made them who they are.

I live in Northern Wisconsin with my Boston Terrier and Chicago spouse. I’ve published short stories, poetry, newspaper articles and academic papers and have worked in nearly every profession from restaurants to retail to open-water diving and now write m/m romance.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads

Giveaway: 5 lucky winners will receive an ebook copy of Bread, Salt and Wine!!

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Author: Julie Lynn Hayes

Title: Civil War and Broken Hearts

Series: Rose and Thorne

Book: Two

Release Date: August 24, 2016

Length: 50,000 words

Categories: Contemporary, Crime Fiction, Gay Fiction, Humor

Goodreads Link: : http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3442231.Julie_Lynn_Hayes

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Paul Richmond

Hollywood comes to Roanoke when a major film studio announces they’re shooting part of their Civil War film at a local plantation. Vinnie is dismayed to discover that the lead actress is none other than the beautiful and popular Caroline St. Clair. Ethan and Vinnie made her acquaintance in LA the previous Halloween, while undercover, and Vinnie still hates her for hitting on his man.  Ethan reassures his partner that Roanoke is big enough for all of them to co-exist without running into one another.

But Fate has it in for Vinnie and Ethan, and they find themselves assigned to a new case involving the actress. Apparently she requested Ethan specifically, to Vinnie’s dismay. But he doesn’t have a choice, he has to play nice. It’s small consolation to Vinnie that his new undercover identity involves Hollywood heartthrob Troy McGarrett, who is very handsome and openly gay. Troy isn’t shy about letting Vinnie know he finds him attractive.

Jealousy abounds in the second book of the Rose and Thorne series, and time is not on Vinnie and Ethan’s side. If they don’t solve the case before the film shoot is done, there’s a good chance they’ll be separated for the first time since they were partnered.  Assuming Vinnie doesn’t kill Caroline St. Clair himself.

The author is donating 10% of the royalties from this book to No Kid Hungry. Visit nokidhungry.org for more information about this organization.

Dreamspinner: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/civil-war-and-broken-hearts-by-julie-lynn-hayes-7371-b

Amazon: Civil War and Broken Hearts (Rose and Thorne Book 2)

AllRomance: Civil War and Broken Hearts

“Hey, Vin, did you see who’s in town?”

I was slumped at the kitchen table, my head cradled on top of my arms. I was grumpy and sleepy—and maybe a few of the other Seven Dwarves—and I needed my first cup of morning coffee before I could even consider being slightly civil.

We’d spent most of last night sitting in our car, in the goddamn middle of nowhere, staring at nothing, assigned to a fruitless surveillance in a small town about an hour from Roanoke. As it turned out, all the real action was in a different small town in the complete opposite direction from where we waited, because our so-called informant couldn’t spell the name of the place correctly.  What a difference one letter makes. So we’d ended up completely wasting our time, got lost trying to find the rest of the task force at the end of the night, almost got hit by a deer that came out of nowhere and took a sudden shine to our car, and then suffered the indignity on our return of being asked where the hell we’d been all night—and we still needed to do the paperwork. And now Ethan wanted to play Twenty Questions?

“Don’t know and don’t care,” I mumbled.

I heard him slap something down on the table. I forced one eye open, just in time to see him sashay toward the coffeemaker. Okay, for that ass, I’d open the other one too. I watched as he poured the blessed elixir into two mugs, added the appropriate amount of creamer and sugar to each, then returned to where I still watched him and set one in front of me.

Right next to the morning paper. Real subtle, Ethan.

Julie Lynn Hayes first began publishing short stories and poetry in the 1990’s, when it was a different ballgame altogether, and Ebooks hadn’t been dreamed of yet. That changed in 2010 with the acceptance of her first romance novel. She’s come a long way since that first book appeared, and is finding the journey a very educational one.

She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and her cat Ramesses. She often writes of two men finding true love and happiness in one another’s arms, and is a great believer in the happily ever after. She likes to write in different genres, to stretch herself in order to see what is possible. Her great challenge is to be told something can’t be done—she feels compelled to do it.

When she isn’t writing, she enjoys crafts, such as crocheting and cross stitch,  needlepoint and knitting, and she loves to cook, spending time watching the Food Network. Her favorite chef is Geoffrey Zakarian. Her family thinks she’s a bit off, but she doesn’t mind. Marching to the beat of one’s own drummer is a good thing, after all. Her published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, eXtasy Books, and Wayward Ink Press.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julie.l.hayes.7

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/authorjulielhayes

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ShelleyRunyon

Blog: http://julielynnhayes.blogspot.com

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Rafflecopter Prize: Win a Dreamspinnere gift card courtesy of Julie Lynn Hayes!

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Title: Midlife Crisis

Author: Rob Rosen

Release Date: August 20th 2016

Genre: Gay fiction, romance, comedy

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30992218-midlife-crisis?ac=1&from_search=true

Jack is thirty-five and single once again. He is not, as he as quick to point out, going through a midlife crisis. Still, it would be nice to have a partner, and so he sets out on an adventure to find the one-time love of his life, Bing, a man he hasn’t seen in more than fifteen years, a man who has seemingly vanished off the face of the planet. With the help of his family and friends, not to mention the family dog and his high school bully, he goes searching for Bing, only to unearth an ages-old mystery that puts them all in grave danger. In this hysterically funny tale, the question remains right on up to the surprise ending: can we return to our past in order to better our future?

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“Parsnips?” Greg asked me.

I looked over at him from the living room couch as he in turn poked his head out from the kitchen. “Um, huh?” I said, wondering if this was some new pet name he’d thought of for me, as he was forever coming up with new ones. Last I checked, I was being referred to as Professor.

FYI, I teach business at a local college. My students call me Jack or Mister Nelson. Professor makes me sound a.) old and b.) like a character in a television show. Also FYI, I am neither, though if he had to come up with anything from the latter category, I was rooting for Pepper, a la Angie Dickinson in Police Woman.

“Parsnips,” he repeated, already looking peeved with me, which was, sad to say, par for the course as of late. Par, bogie and eagle, in fact. Heck, let’s just toss in the entire golfing green and call it a day.

In any case, it wasn’t a question or a comment anyone had ever thrown my way. I squinted my eyes as I pondered this. In truth, I hadn’t a clue what a parsnip even was. Had I ever eaten one before? Would I still seem professorial if I asked what the hell one was? Did I even want to ask and risk his wrath, which consisted of him ignoring me the rest of the evening? Greg, you see, hated confrontation―though he loved being a world-class bitch.

“Just to be clear,” I asked, forcing a smile so as to divert the inevitable kerfuffle, “are you asking me if I want some with dinner?”

He matched my squint with a scowl. He started to say something, realized a fight of some kind would probably ensue, took his nine-iron and golf ball, and promptly left that aforementioned course. In other words, Professor zero, kerfuffle one. And yes, we had parsnips with our entirely silent dinner. Yuck.

Rob Rosen is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, Sparkle: The Queerest Book You’ll Ever Love, the Lambda Literary Award Nominated Divas Las Vegas, which was the winner of the 2010 TLA Gaybies for Best Gay Fiction, Hot Lava, Southern Fried, the Lambda Literary Award Nominated Queerwolf, Vamp, Queens of the Apocalypse, Creature Comfort, and Fate, winner of the 2016 TRR Readers’ Choice Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. His short stories have appeared in more than 200 anthologies. You can find 20 of them in his erotic romance anthology, Good & Hot. He is also the editor of Lust in Time: Erotic Romance Through the Ages, Men of the Manor, Best Gay Erotica 2015 and Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volumes 1 and 2.

Today I’m chatting with Rob Rosen about writing, life, and his current project. Welcome! Let’s talk a little about what inspired him to write Midlife Crisis.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like if I could go back and date an early love of mine. What would I do differently? I mean, I’m not the same person that I was fresh out of college, so presumably I’d be more mature if I could go back, would do and say things differently than I had. Perhaps on of those relationships would’ve ended differently as well, or maybe not ended at all. This is the general theme of Midlife Crisis.

Jack, my narrator, is thirty-five and single. He has a good job, a good life, great friends, but he’s lonely. An odd conversation makes him realize that he never really broke up with his first boyfriend, the great love of his life, Bing. And so he sets out to find Bing, for a chance to do it all over again.

That was my inspiration, the do-over part. Of course, me being a comedy writer, just because you get the chance to do it all over again doesn’t mean you’ll get it right the second time around either. I wanted to explore this as well, to see if what you know now can actually fix something in your past, can actually fix you. Life being what it is, and humans being who they are, the answer is rarely yes. Jack is no exception, though the situations he soon finds himself in are exceptional.

And then I wanted see how Jack would react to finding his first love, even though he might not be worth keeping fifteen years later. To add some spice to the mix, another love interest gets added to the pot, that and a juicy murder mystery.

In the end…well, you’ll have to read the book for that part!

Are there any types of scene you find hard to write (action, love, death, etc.)? Love ‘em all. I like to make myself laugh. I like to make myself cry. And so I enjoy writing everything, every genre, too. The only thing I don’t write is standard drama. Everything I write has comic undertones. This I can’t help. Even when I start writing a story without comedy, it ends up being funny just the same. Chalk it up to watching too many sitcoms.

What do you do when you feel stuck (writer’s block)? Here’s the answer that many writers will give you: put the story down. Leave it alone. Your brain will almost always keep working on the plot, even when you’re not thinking about it. Soon enough, it will offer up the solution to your block. I know it sounds odd, but it works every time. I can be in bed or walking down the street, and, boom, there it suddenly is, the solution!

How do you handle a story that doesn’t go as you planned? Hah! Almost none of my stories go as planned. Sometimes they veer off right from the very beginning. Sometimes in the middle. Or sometimes the ending completely changes. To me, this is the fun part about writing. It’s like being given a jigsaw puzzle you have to solve, and one without the picture on the box. I just keep putting the pieces together until I have the finished puzzle.

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Author: Pene Henson

Title: Into the Blue

Release Date: July 7, 2016

Length: 236 pages, 72,600 words

Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28764284-into-the-blue

Publisher: Interlude Press

Cover Artist: Colleen M. Good

Tai Talagi and Ollie Birkstrom have been inseparable since they met as kids surfing the North Shore. Now they live with their best friends in a pulled-together family, sharing life and the saltwater in their veins. Tai’s spent years setting aside his feelings for Ollie, but when Ollie’s pro surfing aspirations come to fruition, their steady world shifts. Is the relationship worth risking everything for a chance at something terrifying and beautiful and altogether new?

Interlude Press Web Store: http://store.interludepress.com/collections/into-the-blue-by-pene-henson

Amazon: http://amzn.to/29gJvfv

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/into-the-blue-pene-henson/1123818321?ean=9781941530849

Apple iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/into-the-blue/id1114833401?mt=11

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/637136

All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-intotheblue-2058731-149.html?referrer=55feb862851f8

Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Into-the-Blue/9781941530849/?a_aid=InterludePress

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781941530849?aff=Interludepress

Across from them, one of the Brazilians plays guitar. Ollie doesn’t recognize the song even when a couple of others sing along. The beach is wider and the sand finer than on the North Shore, but every beach is a little like home. Ollie misses the Blue House; he misses the surf and the palms and the shoreline he knows so well. He misses Jaime and Sunny and Hannah. Still, though he’s as far from home as he’s ever been, Ollie’s comfortable. These are his people, too. He leans back on his arms and looks up into the dark.

He’s watched the night sky since he was a little kid, but down here in the Southern Hemisphere he doesn’t recognize the hundreds upon hundreds of stars. The Southern Cross is up there. Ollie tries to orient himself.

Tai shifts toward him, then looks up and follows Ollie’s gaze. The warmth of Tai’s body settles into Ollie’s heart, grounds him. Ollie leans into him a little, and their arms brush to the elbow. The contact simmers in the air between them.

Unexpectedly, Ollie knows what he wants. “Come back to the hotel,” he says quietly to Tai. He pitches his voice low. It hums across the tiny space between them. No one else can hear him over the pounding surf and the sound of the music. It’s easy to be bold in the dark of a beach where Ollie’s never been before. He’s shocked by that same boldness.

Pene Henson has gone from British boarding schools to New York City law firms. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, where she is an intellectual property lawyer and published poet who is deeply immersed in the city’s LGBTQIA community. She spends her spare time enjoying the outdoors and gazing at the ocean with her gorgeous wife and two unexpectedly exceptional sons. Into the Blue is her first novel.

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/penewrites/?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/penehenson

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14918436.Pene_Henson

Blog: www.PeneHenson.com

Today I’m chatting with Pene Henson about writing, life, and their current project.

Welcome! Let’s talk a little about INTO THE BLUE.

What inspired you to write this story?

I wanted a book about sunshine and the ocean and bare feet and best friends in love. But also a real book where things are sometimes ordinary and people aren’t perfect and you have to build a household because you don’t always have anywhere to go. I’m sure there are other books out there but I haven’t found one so I had to write my own.

Is there a character you feel especially connected to? Why?

I feel enormously connected to Tai. He might be a young surfer and shaper and way more skilled with his hands than I but I feel his awareness of others and his way of looking at the world as though it’s all good. I also understand his need to step in and fix things and make things work for other people, rather than letting them get things wrong themselves. Of course there are other ways he’s different to me. The boy is way more physical than I am.

What was the hardest part of writing this?

For me the hardest part was simply lacking time. I was tired a lot because I was trying to squeeze writing into short short hours. There’s a benefit to that. It’s hard to feel blocked when you only have an hour to write in.

Choose a favorite line or short passage. What do you like about it?

Ollie lets himself be hustled and high-fived back into the house.

I love that it’s lighthearted but there’s a lot of soft feeling in it. Ollie’s not particularly articulate or self aware so he sees most things through the actions that surround them. This line shows Ollie’s social discomfort and his sweet love of this ramshackle family. And it shows how they all support one another and look after one another.

Tell us a little about any upcoming projects.

I just finished my second novel which is a romance between two women set on the east coast of Australia. I intentionally set it in places and with people I know, among indie musicians and along my coast, because I’ve heard second novels are tough. It was still tough but also a great joy. I love these women and their dreams and connection and their friends.

Who do you write for (your audience or who you hope to reach)?

When I start writing I am writing for myself, writing the book I want to read, though I am aware that two of my dear friends and fierce editors will read too. Once I’m in the middle I find I’m writing for the characters, because I love them and want them to be so happy. And then I give the book away and it’s for people who like things to be beautiful and real at once, for people who want to read something that’s simple and still has depth. It’s also for queer folk like me who want a happy story not just a happy ending.

What do you wish people knew about your books or characters?

Hmm. I feel like all the things I want them to know are there in the books. I wish people could really go to all the places in my books.

Are there any common themes you see in your work?

There are a couple. One theme is the ways which people are changed by setting, how we become willing to take risks when we are out of our comfort zones. Another is the families we build around us. And lastly that even happy situations sometimes need breaking down and rebuilding.

Word Sprints!

1. Coffee or tea? Tea. Black tea no milk. I’m new to it and slightly obsessed.
2. Musical theater or rock concert? Rock concert every time.
3. What’s a charity/cause you support? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and opportunity
4. Do you enjoy watching or playing any sports? I watch a lot of football (soccer) and cricket. Honestly I’d watch anyone play almost any sport.
5. What’s the best part of the day? Dawn, when everything is pale gold and blue and there’s the hush of things that will happen later.

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Rafflecopter Prize: Grand Prize: $25 Interlude Press Gift Card, Five first prizes of an e-copy of ‘Into the Blue’ by Pene Henson

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