Kayla Jameth: July 2015

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tyler, Dilbert, and the GRPFATAAHDSS

Hi, my best mate, Tyler Knoll, is a bit shy and hates having to tell everyone how great his book is, so I offered to write this blog for him. Thanks so much for the invite.

Who am I? Well, most of my friends call me Dilbert. You'd think I'd be offended at being compared to a nerdy cartoon character, but it's much better than my real name, so I don't give a rat's arse. As long as they don't call me Dil.

Tyler and me got on like a house on fire right from the start. Unlike some of the other guys I met when I arrived in the States, he was fair dinkum. A real bonzer bloke. At first we thought we were speaking different languages. What with his Southern drawl and my ocker accent, but after we spent a few Friday evenings, chewing the fat and sharing a few tinnies, we did just fine.

There were a few misunderstandings though. I still can't get over the fact that you can't drink alcohol until you're twenty one. How backward is that? But then if I had known, I'd never have invited Tyler along on that memorable Friday night, and our lives would have turned out quite differently.

So there you have it, my mate Tyler. He may not be Aussie, but he's true blue. Some guys think he's a few shrimp short of a barbie, and spends half his time away with the pixies, but they're barking up the wrong tree. The thing is, Tyler doesn't say much. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized his brain is going flat chat and his mouth can't keep up.

Don't believe me? Read the book and you'll see what I mean! You won't regret it.

At times it's side-splittingly funny. Or at least giggleworthy. Mind you some of the situations Tyler found himself in weren't funny at all. He came a gutser on more than one occasion. But he's like one of those toys that bounces back no matter how hard you push him. I had to intervene every now and then, otherwise some of the pricks he met would have walked right over him.

Some people accuse me of being manipulative, but I can assure you that I always had Tyler's best interests at heart. The trouble is that because he doesn't have a mean bone in his body, he doesn't realize other people are not as nice.

Take Rupert for example. I was furious when I discovered he set Tyler up. Threw him to the wolves or wolf in this instance. Extricating Tyler from that predicament took some tough negotiating on my part. Then there was that dickhead Gareth Evans who virtually kidnapped him. I suspected Tyler was in trouble, but what could I do? Still he survived thankfully.

After that I kept a closer eye on him. A much closer eye. I think it was worth it in the end. Why don't you do yourself a favour and read the book to find out for yourself.

May I close by saying a big thank you on Tyler's behalf. While he was too shy to appear on the blog, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions you might like to ask.

Blog Tour – Tyler Knoll’s Just for Fun by A.B. Gayle

Title: Tyler Knoll's Just For Fun Series (Books 1-4)

Author: A.B. Gayle

Genre: Satire, humor, gay, gay romance, LGBT

Length: Novella

Publisher: Wayward Ink Publishing

Synopsis

Tyler Knoll was born one wild, stormy night in April 2013.

Of course, Tyler might tell you he was born twenty years earlier, but should we believe anything he says? That’s for you to decide.

In Tyler’s first adventure—like many a gay man before him—he was SNARED by gay porn, wallowing in tales of bigger, stronger, harder….

Then his fickle mind was seduced and SHREDDED by the prospect of BDSM and slavery.

When a Big Misunderstanding SLASHED at Tyler’s sanity, almost costing him his life, he turned to another genre for his salvation. But even this encounter proved potentially hazardous—not from freezing temperatures, but at the hands of irate fans.

Finally, tired and SCREWED by his all his trials and tribulations, he discovers—like many storybook heroes before him—that sometimes Mr. Right is closer than we think.

Buy links

Everyone who bought SNARED gets a 20% discount at buying the Just for Fun composite from the WIP website! Check the website for details.

WIP: http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/?p=1278

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Tyler-Knolls-Just-Fun-Books-ebook/dp/B00ZW6552U/

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tyler-Knolls-Just-Fun-Books-ebook/dp/B00ZW6552U/

Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/Tyler-Knolls-Just-Fun-Books-ebook/dp/B00ZW6552U/

Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/Tyler-Knolls-Just-Fun-Books-ebook/dp/B00ZW6552U/

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-tylerknoll039sjustforfuncompositebooks14-1839904-149.html

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tyler-knolls-just-for-fun-ab-gayle/1122175760?ean=9781925222548

Book trailer

Giveaway

Prize: $20 WIP Gift Card and 1 ebook copy of Tyler Knoll’s Just for Fun

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author

Unlike many authors, A.B. Gayle hasn’t been writing stories all her life. Instead she’s been living life.

Her travels have taken her from the fjords of Norway to the southern tip of New Zealand. In between, she’s worked in so many different towns she’s lost count. A.B. has shoveled shit in cow yards, mustered sheep, been polite to customers, traded insults with politicians. Sometimes she needs to be forgiven as she get confused as to who needs what where.

Now living in Sydney, Australia, A.B. finally has time to allow her real life experiences to morph with her fertile imagination in order to create fiction that she hopes her readers will enjoy.

A.B. values feedback on her writing, both negative and positive.

A.B. Gayle can be found at:

Website: https://abgayle.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abgayle.writer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/abgaylewriter

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/abgaylewriter/

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Just for Fun

It's my pleasure to welcome AB Gayle to my blog. She's here to discuss her new release Just for Fun.

I've read all your m/m novels and novellas. One thing I've noticed is that you frequently write stories with one or more American protagonists. While you have been to the US more than once, you are a died-in-the-wool Aussie (pronounced Ozzie for us Americans). But strange pronunciation is not the only challenge when crossing cultures. Aussies seem to like to come up with obscure references and strange nicknames for everything. Such as calling Americans yanks or Yankees. While many Americans would just roll their eyes at such a "quaint" term, southerners often take offense.

Tyler Knoll: Y'all mind if I butt in here? Yankee and yank are mild terms to them. Dilbert tells me that back home, we're often referred to as Septic Tanks or even Seppos! Apparently it's rhyming slang (Hopefully I've spelled that right. Autocorrect switched my first attempt to "rimming slang." At least it wasn't "rimming tang" as that is something quite different. Musky. Yum.

Tyler, the main character in Just for Fun, is not only an American, but a Texan to boot. He wouldn't much care to be characterized as a Yankee. Would probably even set anyone straight on that point.

Tyler Knoll: Yes, ma'am, I sure would, and did on many occasions. Politely, of course. In the end, I said to Dilbert, "How would you like me to call you a Kiwi?" He never repeated the insult after that.

Care to share some of the challenges presented by Tyler because you chose a southern boy for your MC?

Tyler Knoll: She didn't have a choice. I am what I am.

A.B. Gayle: Shoosh! It's my turn to answer a question! Can I just say for the record that it was a pleasure and an honor to work with a Southern Boy; they are so genteel. Though I must admit that at times he was a tad garrulous. Yet to his credit, he was always guiless.

Tyler Knoll: Hey, enough of the "G" words. You know I hate them, anyway, you have a typo, it's spelled "gentle."

A.B. Gayle: It's a different word. Look it up.

Tyler Knoll goes off muttering, "I'm fixin' to."

A.B. Gayle: Quick, before he gets back. If it had been written down exactly as he speaks, noone would have understood him. Thank goodness there's no audio version. And are Southern Boys always so d...?

Tyler Knoll returns Thesaurus in hand. Genteel: polite, refined, or respectable. Well, it's better than being a Johnny Reb running around in a jacked up pick-up with the southern flag in the back window! And if you want to use big words, at least I'm not a pernicious, petulant, prick full of platitudes.

A.B. Gayle: Are you calling me a prick?

Tyler Knoll: Heck no , ma'am. I'm a Southern gentleman. I'm merely saying that it's lucky I'm not like that.

What kinds of misunderstandings did the differences in culture present the characters?

Tyler Knoll: The age thing was the first one. See, back in Australia, they can go to pubs and clubs as soon as they turn 18. Dilbert didn't know I was underage when he took me out that fateful evening. Of course I didn't tell him I was using fake ID, because he didn't ask, did he? Mind you, I wondered why he asked whether I was eighteen or not. I mean I don't look eighteen, do I?

A.B. Gayle: It wasn't so much a cultural problem. Dilbert did his best to avoid misunderstandings, but was hampered by the fact that Tyler doesn't actually say much. Very little of what goes through his brain comes out of his mouth. It needed a massive fracture of the fourth wall to allow him to reach that conclusion and get to know his friend better.

What was your favorite bit of Aussie-ism that had to go because your POV character wouldn't have understood it?

A.B Gayle: Knee trembler. Tyler didn't know what it was.

Tyler Knoll: Hey, once you explained what it was, I understood. I've had plenty of those. Not back then maybe, but plenty since we got together. In the shower....

A.B. Gayle: Shoosh. I don't think she wants specifics about your sex life. But we should thank, Kayla, at this juncture for ensuring that you were only given terms and references you would understand. Why she even spent hours helping me find a suitably sized city with multiple story office buildings, no smoking bans, sports bars and gentlemen's clubs that had penthouse suites to stand in for the real thing.

Tyler Knoll: Well, I told you we had to be vague so people couldn't track me down!

What is your favorite bit that remained? And what did you have to do to keep it there?

A.B. Gayle: "tickets on himself" but more on that later.

So tell me, AB, what American term did you find to be the strangest?

A.B. Gayle: Roomies or roommates. We call them flatmates here.

Tyler Knoll: Hey, "flat" "mates" sounds just as crazy to me. One of my roomies was quite round!

Do you have an excerpt that illustrates these differences?

Dilbert’s normally happy-go-lucky expression disappeared as he commented bitterly, “But you’d be nothing more than his personal slave.”

“Slave?” I sprang to my feet and strode over to the window. Reaching it, I turned and leaned back against the glass. There wasn’t anything to see anyway: a parking garage and sunshine that I hadn’t felt on my face for ages. “What’s wrong with being a slave? Half the PAs in this building seem to fulfill that function in one form or the other. You always hear them complaining that they’re tied to a desk all day.”

At least I wasn’t an intern. They didn’t even get paid for the privilege!

Dilbert stared at me without speaking. Probably as astounded as I was by this atypical burst of emotion. “Anyway,” I continued. “What about the guy you work for? You’re always complaining that he fucks you around.”

Dilbert always maintained Toby Metcalfe had tickets on himself. As you could imagine, I’d been a bit confused as I’d never seen him walk around with little pieces of cardboard stuck to his suit. But Dilbert had explained that it was a figure of speech back where he came from. It meant his boss had an overinflated opinion of how great he was. As far as Dilbert was concerned, if Metcalfe did have tickets on himself, they’d read: Out-of-date stock. Must go.

Dilbert gave a snort of laughter. “Not literally. He wouldn’t dare. I’ll grant you that he’s an idiot, but so are most of the guys in middle management around here. Having to fuck someone should never be part of your job description.”

I wish I hadn’t told him now. But when I arrived at work on the Monday following that unforgettable Funtastic Friday, I’d told Dilbert about the role Gareth had “interviewed” me for. His subsequent outburst of fury had taken me by surprise. Then he started apologizing, saying it was his fault. He shouldn’t have left without me, but I’d taken so long in the bathroom, he’d figured I’d bailed because I was bored. It turned out that Rupert had told him I’d gone home.

Mind you, it took me ages to translate everything into English. There’d been lots of bloody this and bloody that, even though I’d stressed the fact that Gareth hadn’t actually drawn any blood. I’d even peeled down my trousers to show Dilbert. I’m not sure why he went bright pink. The red welts had faded by then. Shame.

In the end, I didn’t get the chance to tell him the whole story, as he went nuts when he discovered I shouldn’t have even been there because I was underage. His rant switched to the stupidity of a system that allowed people to vote and be killed while fighting for their country, but didn’t consider them old enough to drink alcohol.

I’d never seen that side of Dilbert before. Usually he was laid back and ultra cool. Almost as polite and law-abiding as a properly-brought-up Texan boy. It was lucky there was no one within earshot. I’d never heard anyone swear as much as he did. It was awesome.