Kerry Freeman's Blog, page 3

GayRomLit Day 1: Getting over my shyness

Wednesday night, Hubby and I boarded a plane (well, actually two) on our way to Albuquerque. Both flights were nice and relaxing (thank you Xanax and American Airlines), and we landed in ABQ just in time to put out my swag and order room service before we crashed for the night.

The next morning I headed for the GRL registration desk. How awesome is the welcome mat? I sat outside the swag room with Hubby, who was trying to convince me to go inside. “But I don’t know anyone.” *whine* I was terrified to go inside. I even tweeted about it. And my peeps at Southern Magic tweeted for support.

Someone keep our gal company! MT @kfwritesbooks Sitting next to reg scared to talk to anyone. Glad when @bellaleone gets here #GRL2012

— SouthernMagic RWA (@SouthernMagicRW) October 18, 2012

Finally I saw someone I recognized. I waited until I saw her going through her registration packet and read her name. It was Leaundra Ross! She and I talked, and we braved the swag room together.

The swag room was definitely the place to be! Everyone was there: readers, authors, publishers. I met authors (Andrew Grey gives great hugs, just sayin’), awesome readers (yes, I do plan sequels to What We Deserve), and just generally got over my shyness.

And then it happened.

Like a movie, I saw Bella Leone across the room. I called her name, and we approached each other in slow motion. Then we squealed and hugged like crazy [image error]  Finally after three years, we got to meet in person. It is the highlight of my trip.

Then the stalking began. I met Z. A. Maxfield *squeee* Turned into a total fangirl. I tried not to, really I did. But there’s no way I could suppress it. Bella, ZAM, and I took a picture to immortalize the moment. Yep, I’m the insane person on the right.

Later, Bella and I attended an author Q&A with, left to right, Z. A. Maxfield, Cat Grant, Isabella Rowan, and Karenna Colcroft. They talked about writing and their books. And of course I asked ZAM a question about Drawn Together.

Note to self: the only pair of shoes you brought to GRL suck. Now you must wear your husband’s Crocs the rest of the trip. Plan better next time.

The afternoon session was the Rainbow Romance Writers scrapbook event. It was great fun, and there were so many people who dropped by my table. Oh, see that blur in the middle of the picture. That’s Damon Suede. I’ve learned he’s always a blur, running around with the other organizers to make the event a success. They’re doing a great job!

I had a great time working with everyone to put together my page for the scrapbook. I had lots of stickers, and people could decorate to their hearts content. I was pretty shocked the first time someone asked me to sign their page. Me? You want me to sign it? It was very very cool.

I must admit, I wimped out on the evening events. My poor feet just couldn’t take any more. But tomorrow is my reading and the trip to Old Albuquerque, so I’ll have plenty of opportunity for pictures.

Oh, and they announced the location of GRL 2013. Atlanta baby!! [image error]

GayRomLit Day 1: Getting over my shyness

Wednesday night, Hubby and I boarded a plane (well, actually two) on our way to Albuquerque. Both flights were nice and relaxing (thank you Xanax and American Airlines), and we landed in ABQ just in time to put out my swag and order room service before we crashed for the night.

The next morning I headed for the GRL registration desk. How awesome is the welcome mat? I sat outside the swag room with Hubby, who was trying to convince me to go inside. "But I don't know anyone." *whine* I was terri...

GayRomLit Kickoff: When and Where to Find Me in ABQ

I can’t believe it. It’s finally time for GayRomLit! This is the second year it’s been held and the first year I’ve attended. They had a blast last year, and all indicators point to another great retreat.

By the time you read this, I will be on well on my way to getting my crap together to head to the airport. Hubby and I will arrive in Albuquerque tonight and head straight for the hotel and the swag room.

Swag, you say? Why, yes, there will be an entire room at GRL devoted to author swag, and attendees will be able to grab the swag they want from their favorite authors. Looking forward to pinching a few pieces for my giveaway [image error]

I will appear at several events during the retreat. If you want to say hi, here’s where I’ll be:

Thursday, Oct. 18th

Rainbow Romance Writers Scrapbook

Come make a scrapbook filled with pages supplied by your favorite authors

3:20 PM, Rio Grande Room

Friday, Oct. 19th

Author Readings

I will read a selection from Pine Tar & Sweet Tea. Other authors appearing are Rick Reed, Kate McMurray, and Jade Buchanan.

11:20 AM, 505 Fusion Bar

Saturday, Oct. 20th

Loose Id Publisher Spotlight

See and hear from Loose Id authors.

10:10 AM, Bosque Room

Booksigning

I will sign covers of Pine Tar & Sweet Tea and What We Deserve.

2:15 PM, Ballroom

I’ll also attend lots of the other events, so make sure to say hello [image error]

For the next four days, the blog tour stops will all be right here. I will post daily updates from GRL (with pictures!) and a wrap-up of the festivities on Sunday. On Monday, we’ll begin the last week of the blog tour and head toward the super-duper giveaway.

ABQ, here I come! [image error]

Pine Tar & Sweet Tea Tour Kickoff and Super-Duper Giveaway

I can’t believe October is already here! That means it’s time to kick off the Pine Tar & Sweet Tea virtual tour.

Week one of the tour will be full of guest posts, an interview, and two book giveaways.

Week two will kick off with five days of GayRomLit blogging and will end with two guest posts another book giveaway.

Week three will wrap up the festivities with more guest posts and a book giveaway.

But that’s not all! To celebrate the release of Pine Tar & Sweet Tea, I am having a super-duper giveaway. One lucky person (who is at least 18 years old and lives in a place on Earth that allows naughty books) will win the following:

- Two pinup potholders from Originals By Lauren

- Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. Recently included on Queerty’s 10 Books Too Gay To Read banned books list, Stuck Rubber Baby is a “groundbreaking graphic novel that addressed growing up queer in the South, gay liberation and the advent of the AIDS crisis.”

- Some swag from GayRomLit.

- And your very own copy of Pine Tar & Sweet Tea.

To enter, leave your email address in a comment on this post by 11:59:59pm US Central time on Sunday, October 28th. I’ll use Random.org to pick a winner and announce the name in the tour wrap-up post on the 29th.

Good luck, and be sure to visit the blogs along the tour!

Pine Tar & Sweet Tea is now available!

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I am happy to announce that Pine Tar & Sweet Tea is now available on the Loose Id website. It will also be available from Amazon soon.

There are a ton of people I’d like to thank:

My editor Jules Robin, my cover artist Fiona Jayde, and everyone at Loose Id for working so hard to release my book
My beta Trinity Stanley and my pre-reader Bella Leone for holding my hand during the writing process
The Book Bunnies for encouraging me to write this story
My family and friends for being the wonderful people they are
My awesome hubby for, well, being my awesome hubby

And most of all thanks to all the readers who have told me how much they enjoy my writing. I hope you like the new book too.

The Pine Tar & Sweet Tea Virtual Book Tour is coming to a blog near you

Only one week to go until Pine Tar & Sweet Tea will be released to the masses, and to celebrate, I’m going to travel the internets for a huge virtual book tour. In addition to visiting a number of great blogs, the tour will also include daily reports from GayRomLit and a super-duper giveaway.

10/9: Tour Kickoff & Super-Duper Giveaway announcement

10/10: Lori Toland – Guest Post

10/11: MANtastic Fiction – Guest Post & Book Giveaway

10/12: Alyssa Linn Palmer – Guest Post

10/13: Bella Leone – Guest Post

10/14: Tessa Conte – Interview

10/15: Joyfully Jay – Guest Post & Book Giveaway

10/16: N.R. Walker – Guest Post

10/17: GayRomLit Kickoff

10/18: GayRomLit Day 1

10/19: GayRomLit Day 2

10/20: GayRomLit Day 3

10/21: GayRomLit Wrapup

10/22: Chicks & Dicks – Guest Post

10/23: Tara Lain – Guest Post & Book Giveaway

10/24: Kate McMurray – Guest Post

10/25: Sasha Conte – Guest Post

10/26: TBA

10/27: TBA

10/28: Shae Connor – Guest Post

10/29: Tour Wrap-up and Announcement of Super-Duper Giveaway winner


I hope you’ll visit me and all the great host blogs and say hi [image error]

Revealed: Pine Tar & Sweet Tea cover

The countdown to release day is on, and I am so happy to be able to share the cover of Pine Tar & Sweet Tea, designed by the talented Fiona Jayde.

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Isn’t it awesome? I just LOVE it [image error]

A few other things of note:

I now have a monthly newsletter, which will include exclusive content that won’t appear on the blog. You can sign up here.
I am putting together a blog tour that will begin on October 9th. I’ll post the final schedule here soon.
GayRomLit is only three weeks away! I will have a reading and will be at the signing, so make sure to come by and say hi.

I’m looking forward to sharing this story with everyone, and I may have a giveaway planned for the end of the blog tour. So stay tuned!

Wordy Wednesday: Guest Post by Alyssa Linn Palmer

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This week, I’m happy  to have a guest post from Alyssa Linn Palmer, author of Prohibited Passion. Thanks Alyssa!

Butt in chair, I need to be there!

I hear the siren call of the vacuum cleaner, tucked away in the corner of the cupboard, patiently waiting. Cat litter is stuck to my bare feet as I walk from the kitchen to my sofa, where my laptop sits, ready to work.

Just a moment! I’ll just get the vacuum and tidy up that cat litter. (Three cats mean there’s usually some litter being tracked somewhere.) Writing can wait a moment, or two. A cat hair tumbleweed drifts under the dining room table, and I just have to get that as well. Only another few moments. It won’t take long. But the bookshelf is dusty. And there are dishes in the sink.

My writing time has been whittled down to nearly nothing today, so why should I even attempt it for the fifteen minutes before I have to get dinner started?

And so goes the myriad reasons why I didn’t get very much writing done. And once I’m sitting at the computer, there’s the even stronger siren’s song of Twitter, email, and blogs. I’ve tried turning off my wifi, but that’s an exercise in frustration. So, what have I done to increase my productivity?

I’ve gone old school. At least, for the first draft.

I’m not going to fetishize the type of notebook I write in, or the pens I use. (Though if you must know, I like those Mead 5-Star 2 or 5 subject notebooks you can buy at most corner shops, and I have a whole box of Papermate Comfortmate medium point black ink clicky pens. The notebooks are basic so I don’t treat them as too pretty to write in, and the pen tip glides comfortably and easily across the page.) They’re not pretty, they’re functional. They fit easily in my bag, and I’m not going to go broke buying them, even though I do rather like some of those lovely hardback notebooks sitting in the bookshop that are far too much for my budget.

A notebook means I can spend my lunch break at work writing. It means keeping the shiny objects at bay, and keeps me from checking Twitter obsessively. It even means that I can get so into my writing that I forget about the cat litter sticking to my toes, at least until my hand complains an hour or two later that I haven’t given it a break. Plus, it doesn’t need batteries, though I have been known to run out of ink a time or two.

What do you do to keep yourself free of distractions so you can write? Do you have a routine?

Blurb

Ruth wants to escape the boredom of Bandit Creek and the strict expectations of her father, the local pastor. Her life changes the day she meets CeeCee, a world-wise flapper, and an irresistible attraction develops between them. She’ll be disowned and shunned if anyone discovers their prohibited passion, but can they keep their growing affection a secret?

CeeCee is drawn to Ruth, but things become complicated when her gangster companion disapproves of their liaison. He’s in town to broker a deal with the owner of the local speakeasy, and he’s not above using them to further his own plans. Can CeeCee protect Ruth and their budding relationship?

As Ruth gets drawn further into their world, she must decide between her familiar life and a new, dangerous path with the woman she loves.

Buy Prohibited Passion at Amazon

About the Author

Alyssa Linn Palmer is a Canadian writer and freelance editor. She splits her time between a full-time day job, and her part-time loves, writing and editing. Her novella PROHIBITED PASSION and short story BETTING THE FARM are available as ebooks. Her short story VEE will be available in the upcoming charity anthology FELT TIPS in December 2012. She’s currently working on two new projects, one of which is a novel set during the gangster heyday in Chicago in 1925. You can find her online at www.alyssalinnpalmer.com, or on Twitter @alyslinn.

Music Monday: My latest earworm (ZZ Ward)

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No, I don’t have some parasite in my ear. Although maybe I have one in my brain, because I can’t get this song out of my head.

As I get older, my hair gets more frizzy. (Yes, this is related. Shush.) I go every 4 months to get it chemically tamed, which, btw, is SO worth the money. The salon pipes in satellite radio, and I sit and listen while the stylist wrestles my hair.

Last week, as my hair is being pulled and blow dried and yanked and ironed, I heard the first few bars of a song. Neither the stylist nor I had ever heard the song or the singer before, but we agreed the song was awesome. I decided I must download the song as soon as I get home, but then I remembered: I have an iPhone.

Within a minute of the song playing on the radio, I downloaded it and added it to my “play in the car on the way to work” playlist. I’ve listened to it every commute since.

 

Wordy Wednesday Guest Post and Excerpt from Lex Valentine

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This week I’m excited to have Lex Valentine, whose new book Scrambling will be released by Loose Id on September 25th. Take it away, Lex! [image error]

Lately the NFL and same sex marriage have been all over the news. A Baltimore Ravens player says he’s for same sex marriage. A Maryland legislator sends a letter to the owner of the Ravens asking him to silence the player. The owner of the Ravens refuses to violate his player’s freedom of speech. Lots of media attention ensues.

You’re probably wondering why this author of gay romances has led her guest blog post with this information. Well, it’s because on the 25th of this month, my first novel with Loose Id will be released. Scrambling is a novel about the first two men to come out in the NFL. Seems rather timely in view of the attention the press has given the situation I outlined above. But this book isn’t about controversy. It’s very much a love story.

Love stories are what I do best. I don’t read anything except books with HEA’s and HFN’s. Honestly, I even limit how much I read HFN’s because to me, the happy ending is my favorite part of a book. I love a story where the author drags you into the lives and minds of the heroes and makes you wonder if these guys will ever find each other and be truly happy. I like a little bit of nail biting and angst in my gay rom. I want the guys to have issues to overcome and I love it when something happens that really hits one of them like a ton of bricks and makes them realize OMG. I love this guy and if I don’t get my shit together, I could lose him!

All my favorite gay roms make me cry when that happens or when one of the two completely loses it because he thinks he’s lost the man he loves. My favorite authors are the ones who can write emotional fear and pain in such a way that it has me sobbing and wrung out at the end. Yes, I know. It’s a little weird to say that my favorite books and authors are the ones that left me crying like a baby.

In Scrambling, I’ve paired two best friends who are afraid to tell each other the truth of their feelings. It’s a novel filled with angst and sexual tension. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that the HEA made me cry when I wrote it. After all, everyone knows I always have a HEA. That’s no secret!

Here’s an excerpt and some info on Scrambling.

Scrambling, an Out in the NFL novel by Lex Valentine

Release Date: September 25

Publisher: Loose Id

Trailer: http://youtu.be/DKf9I3q7Ei8/

Blurb

Evan McAdam has two constants in his life—football and his friendship with Reed Matthews. From the age of six, Evan’s played football alongside Reed. In his teens, he realized he was gay and loved Reed, but fear kept him from confiding his deepest emotions to his best friend. When he and Reed are drafted to the L.A. Stars, Evan decides to come out. His decision impacts Reed who’s been in the closet too. The two men struggle with secrets of unrequited love while facing the world as the first two openly gay NFL players. When injury forces Evan to retire, the love he bears Reed can no longer be hidden. But will Reed be able to reciprocate? Or will Evan lose both football and the man he’s always loved?

Excerpt

Evan didn’t think his career would end this way. He also never thought he’d hear Reed call him babe or speak to him in that intimate tone. All his defenses evaporated, and he ached for Reed in a way that hurt far more than his leg. He wanted Reed so badly he was a hairbreadth away from breaking down.

“I love you too,” Evan blurted out, the morphine and the pain giving him the sense that he was floating in a world where only the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth—should ever be spoken between him and Reed. He hurt like hell, and half the pain was because he needed Reed and Reed wasn’t there. Except he was. On the phone. The lifeline of his voice in Evan’s ear making everything better.

“I know you do.”

Reed’s words and tone held warmth, caring, and relief. Evan figured Reed had panicked when he’d seen the late hit. He would have been frantic to reach Evan by phone since he couldn’t just drive to the hospital from clear across the country. He also figured Reed didn’t know what he meant when he said he loved him.

Irritation washed over Evan. How many fucking years had he said the words without Reed knowing the truth. “No, you don’t know. I’m in love with you.”

Silence met Evan’s ears. And then he heard a muffled sound. A sound that could easily have been a sob. Evan’s heart thundered. Everything he’d locked away inside his heart burst free, racing toward his lips as a full confession of the emotions he’d suppressed for half his life, but a very thin thread of control stopped the words. He needed to know if Reed really was crying, if he really felt the emotions Evan thought he could hear coming through the phone.

“My God, Evan. How long? How long have you been in love with me?” Reed’s voice was hoarse, heavily tinged with tears and emotion.

Evan couldn’t hold anything back now that the morphine, the broken leg, and too many years away from Reed had made him confess the truth of his heart. “Forever. Since I knew what romantic love was.”

The sob came again, but this time it wasn’t muffled. Evan knew in an instant that Reed was crying, and he somehow knew why. Reed loved him. Had always loved him. All the years that he’d held back, hiding his love from Reed, seemed stupid now. Confessing his love would never have driven Reed from him, but hiding it had caused them to end up thousands of miles apart. Fear had caused them both years of pain and suffering.

Reed’s voice came through the phone then, speaking the words Evan had longed to hear from the moment he’d left California, colored with the distinctive broken tones of begging.

“Come home, Evan. Please come home.”

 

For a chance to win a copy of Scrambling check my Facebook page on release day September 25.

Many thanks to Kerry for having me on her blog this week!