I just signed a contract with Dreamspinner for A Tested Love, the second book in the Apollo's Men Spartan arc! I'm so excited.
Blurb:
Abandoned and once more alone on his homestead, Andreas goes
about his life trying to forget the seductive promises Theron made.
Theron is given his first kill list for the annual Krypteia.
Part way down the scroll, he finds Andreas' name. Someone must have seen them
together. Now that person wants to punish them both and test Theron's loyalty
to Sparta at the same time.
Sent to kill Andreas, Theron must find some way to come to
terms with his former attraction to the man, before it destroys him as well as
Andreas.
The third book in the Spartan arc, A Shared Love, is already in third draft stage. So I know what I'll be doing between editing and promoting A Tested Love.
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.
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 thatshe hopes
her readers will enjoy.
A.B. values feedback on her writing, both negative
and positive.
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.
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.
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 thatshe hopes
her readers will enjoy.
A.B. values feedback on her writing, both negative
and positive.
Whether in
real life or on the page, a question people and characters face is: How to keep
a relationship hot and interesting, after years of being together?
When Phoenix (Love in Los Angeles, Book 3)
opens our protagonists and leading couple, Alex and Paul, have (spoiler alert!)
been together for eight years and married for three. They’re deeply invested in
their own careers and friendships, and reeling from the tragedy that has struck
their social circle.
In this
context, sex and physical intimacy is different than it was in the honeymoon
phase of their relationship. Which left us with a problem: How could we, as
writers, keep Paul and Alex’s sex life interesting enough to capture the
attention of readers?
Our solution
was largely to write the problem. Couples that have been together that long do
face the challenge of how to keep life in bed interesting. And so we had Paul
and Alex deal with that themselves: Not only do they have to negotiate
interpersonal crises together, they also have to figure out how their evolving
relationship and their own personal grief are reflected in sex. We -- and they
-- hope their journey on the page is hot, interesting, and truthful.
Sometimes
the end of everything…
Now
happily married to writer and producer Paul Marion Keane, television star J.
Alex Cook’s life has been a fairytale of success and romance for years. But
when an unexpected tragedy throws his and Paul’s social circle into chaos, the
alumni of hit TV show The Fourth Estate are forced to pick up the creative
pieces left behind.
...is
just the beginning
Confronted
with his own mortality, Paul suggests he and Alex start a family. But figuring
out what family means when your best friends’ polyamorous marriage may be
melting down and you have Hollywood’s most malevolent fairy godmother to thank
for your success is no easy proposition.
As
Alex questions whether anyone in a profession full of make believe can truly
have fame, fortune, kids, and the happily ever after of their dreams, he sets
out to take control of his own life and discover that the best love stories
never truly end.
Phoenix is Book 3 in the Love in Los Angeles series.
Bio:
Erin McRae
is a queer writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. She has a master’s
degree in International Affairs from American University, and delights in
applying her knowledge of international relations theory to her fiction and
screen-based projects, because conflict drives narrative.
Racheline
Maltese lives a big life from a small space. She flies planes, sails boats, and
rides horses, but as a native New Yorker, has no idea how to drive a car. A
long-time entertainment and media industry professional, she lives in Brooklyn
with her partner and their two cats.
Together, they are co-authors of the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry -- Starling (September 10, 2014), Doves (January 21, 2015), and Phoenix (June 10, 2015) -- from Torquere Press. Their gay romance novella series Love's Labours, set in the theater world -- Midsummer (May 2015), and Twelfth Night (Fall 2015), is from Dreamspinner Press. They also have a story in Best Gay Romance 2015 from Cleis Press and edited by Felice Picano. You can find them on the web at http://avian30.com/.
Alex's eyes flutter shut when Paul slides his hand into his back pockets and pulls him closer. They're not dancing so much as grinding together, but they're hardly alone in that regard--at least they still have their shirts on, and if Alex is willing, Paul has absolutely zero desire to stop.
Paul can't hear it, but he can feel the breath of a moan on his neck when Alex gets insistent about digging his fingers into Paul's hair while he mouths a the skin above his collar. Six months apart, with only two weeks in the middle, was a very long time, and the time they've had since has barely been enough to get used to sharing space with each other again, much less fall back into their relationship with all their knowledge of each other's bodies and hearts intact.
"This is possibly a stupid idea," Alex murmurs at some point.
Paul isn't sure how much time has elapsed since things crossed into slightly inappropriate but totally expected territory. "I don't think you care."
Thanks so much for having me today! My first novel, A Place to Call Their Own, has been
released as a Second Edition and is now available from JMS Books. Kayla: It's a pleasure to have you with me today. As you know, I'm a bit of history geek and I always enjoy learning more.
I will apologize for the white box around your excerpt. I tried several different ways that normally clear it, but no go today. It appears to be part and parcel of the copy and paste. I guess I could have retyped it from scratch, but I was afraid I might change something if I did.
Many people ask me why I write historical. The quickest answer
that comes to my mind is because I love to read them! I grew up reading the
Little House books over the summers. As I grew older, I graduated right to
Roots and, of course, John Jakes. I may be dating myself, but there was no YA
category in the 1980s.
In 2008, after a visit to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Mansfield, Missouri home, I read the
entire Little House series during a period of unemployment. Still searching for
a premise for my first novel, I ran across the quote at the beginning of the
book. Frank and Gregory’s story
unfold in my head and four years later, I finished their story on virtual
paper.
I don’t know
why I’m drawn to stories about the
western expansion. Maybe it was the sheer guts it took to come out into the
middle of nowhere and try to make a life. At the mercy of nature, hundreds of
families came West to claim land and build their lives. Some made it and their
families still farm the land today. Others didn’t.
I hope you enjoy, A Place to Call Their Own. It was my first
novel and a labor of love. It combines all the things I love: history,
adventure, and, of course, what the happily ever should be like.
I am happy to announce that the Second Edition of A Place to Call Their Own is available
from JMS Books, LLC and other online retailers.
Blurb:
Frank Greerson and
Gregory Young have been discharged from the Army and are headed to their
childhood homes. They both defied their parents in 1861 when they joined the
Army. After battling southern rebels and preserving the Union of the United
States of America, the two men set out to battle the Kansas Prairie and build a
life together. Once they find their claim, they encounter common obstacles to
life on the Kansas Prairie in 1866:
Native Americans, tornadoes, wild animals, and weather.
When a prairie fire
destroys their crops and takes their neighbor’s lives, Frank and Gregory are
instructed to find their young son’s aunt. Faced with leaving a destroyed
claim, the railroad coming through their land, and dwindling funds, Frank and
Gregory must decide whether to leave the place they have worked hard to make
their own or fulfill their friends' dying wishes.
You two together, or…” Mr. McAvoy asked with a puzzled look on his face.
Mrs. McAvoy raised an eyebrow, also curious about the situation.
Gregory gave Frank a nervous and mischievous look and answered, “Ah, yes, sir. We planned to each get a claim and build one house for now, help each other out.”
The answer seemed to satisfy both Mr. and Mrs. McAvoy. “That sounds like a good idea. It’d be nice to have a few neighbors around to help with things once in a while. And what I wouldn’t give to have had just one other man to help me with some of the house building and stable. You stay around here, and you’ll need a stable. Wolves and coyotes will get your livestock if you don’t.”
“How did you protect yourself before? This stuff doesn’t get built in a day.” Gregory asked.
“It takes ’em a while to figure out you’re here. And of course, it’s worse in the winter than this time of year. They haven’t been quite so bad the last few weeks, have they?” he directed to his wife.
“No, they calmed down. Hopefully they’ve been preying on the deer that are eating my potato plants.” answered Mrs. McAvoy. “You two want to stay for supper? I’ve got a big pot of rabbit stew on the stove.”
“It’ll be good, I promise. She’s done great cooking whatever I can find for us,” Mr. McAvoy added.
Gregory ignored the invitation. “How’s the hunting around here? You do good during the winter months?”
“Yeah, in the fall it’s the best—the animals are all fat and sassy from the summer. You can tell the bucks from the does, and you don’t have to worry about orphaning a young deer like you do now. There are plenty of rabbits and prairie chickens right now. You can find squirrels…”
“And the meadowlarks do fine, too, in a pinch,” piped in Mrs. McAvoy. “Now, what about supper?”
“We appreciate the offer, ma’am,” Frank spoke up. “But we’re just trying to find us our claims and be done with traveling. We’ve been traveling nearly six weeks now. It has been that long since we had a decent home-cooked meal, but we need to keep moving on today.”
They both remembered the last time they joined anyone for dinner. The McAvoys seemed harmless, but Frank and Gregory were both a bit shy about joining anyone else at this point.
“Yeah, we’re getting close to where we want to settle,” Gregory added. “We appreciate the offer and all, but we just want to keep moving.”
Mrs. McAvoy smiled, turned, and ran into the house with her load of laundry. Neither Frank nor Gregory knew if she was hurt because they declined the supper invitation or just needed to get back to her household chores.
“We understand that. Took us nearly six months to get here from New York, where we come from. We stayed with some relatives along the way, but the missus did appreciate it when we finally stopped here.”
“Well, we appreciate your hospitality and all your help. We should probably get going,” Frank said, glancing at Gregory.
“If you happen to end up around here, don’t be strangers. Just let us know where you’re at,” Mr. McAvoy replied.
“It’s a deal, sir,” Frank said and extended his hand.
Mr. McAvoy walked over and took it. After they were done, McAvoy stepped away from the wagon.
Gregory slapped the reins and yelled “giddyap,” and the horses sprang forward.
A frantic Mrs. McAvoy yelled from inside the house, “Wait!”
Frank grabbed Gregory’s arm to stop him. Gregory pulled back on the reins.
Mrs. McAvoy came out of the cabin with a small basket covered with flour sack cloth.
“This here isn’t much, but maybe it will allow you to rest once you stop for the night. I put two crocks of my stew in there and part of the bread I baked for our supper tonight. I don’t know why I did it, but something told me to make extra bread today.”
“We’re mighty obliged, ma’am. This will help. Now we don’t have to worry about hunting anything for our dinner. We’ll just warm this by the fire and be ready to go,” Gregory spoke up.
“Yes, ma’am. We are getting a bit worn out by this trip,” Frank said. He grinned at Gregory and said, “Hopefully, we’ll be finding our home soon.”
Both men tipped their hats once more, and Gregory got the horses going again.
Dove and Daisy lumbered along for the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening. Before they realized it, the wagon climbed a gentle, gradual grade. The early evening sun blinded them as they reached the crest of the ridge. At the top, Frank looked over his shoulder where the wagon had just been. There he saw the trail left by the wagon and horses in the prairie grass. To the west, a line of trees indicated a creek, river, or some sort of waterway. The sun drenched the entire landscape in its golden hue. He looked at Gregory, and they both knew this was their new home. They had arrived on the homestead.
“Welcome home, Frankie!” Gregory yelled at the top of his lungs.
Giveaway:
In celebration of the release of A Place to Call Their Own, I am giving
away a copy of my novel, Disappear With
Me.
With inspiration from historical tourism sites, the love of reading, and a desire to write a novel, Dean started crafting his debut novel, A Place to Call Their Own, in 2008. After four years of writing and polishing the manuscript, it was accepted and originally published in 2013. His second novel, Disappear With Me, set in Edwardian England was published later that same year. Both novels were re-released in May 2015.
Dean lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his husband, Thomas (legally as of February 14, 2015), and their two cats. They are involved in their church and enjoy watching movies, outdoor activities in the warm weather and spending time together with friends and family. In addition to writing, Dean's hobbies include reading and patio gardening.
Dean is currently working on a standalone title, Need Your Love, set in 1966, and The Higher Law, continuation of the story of Frank and Gregory's family set in the 1930s.
