Crashing the Beer Bar with Eden Butler and Her Rugby Series

Ok, quiet down Liz acolytes and bar patrons…Today I have a special author guest Eden Butler, here to chat about rugby….


Liz: Welcome to my beer bar Eden! What can I pour for you to start?
Eden: Guinness, please, room temperature.
Liz: Sorry sweets. This bar doesn't serve anything but craft beer. Here, try this Dragon's Milk Stout from New Holland Brewing Company. It's about 1000 times better, promise (I'm a beer wench, trust me)



 So….the “Serenity Series” is set in the world of rugby. Tell the folks around the bar here why you chose that sport.

Eden:Here’s the deal…growing up in southeast Louisiana, you can’t get away from sports, especially football. It’s sort of a sin in this town not to love the LSU Tigers and I guess you can call me an awfully sinful girl. I don’t like college football. I do, however, have a long and abiding love with the New Orleans Saints. Not the NFL, not any other team JUST my Saints.

 But I came across a New Zealand All Blacks game online years ago and though “well, my God, those are real men.” I also fell in love with rugby back in grad school when I’d sit in my car like a total creeper watching out rugby squad practice. I think it all comes down to the fact that these men are essentially playing one of the roughest sports imaginable and they’re doing it without a single pad.

Liz: And how do you weave the sport into the novels in your series?

Eden: The first book, Chasing Serenity, is set in a fictional Tennessee town called Cavanagh. It was founded a hundred years or so ago by Irish settlers that never quite managed to release Ireland’s influence and in Cavanagh, rugby is God. The hero in that book, Declan Fraser, is an Irish ex-pat and new to the Cavanagh rugby squad. Autumn, the main character lives right in the middle of campus and she and her friends are as mad about rugby as anyone in town would be. Rugby is in their blood and that sport and that town come alive in the novel; both become as much a character as Autumn and Declan.

Liz: Do you have another book planned for the series? Will it also have sports elements?

Eden: Yes. There will be two more books in the series and one last novella. The series essentially follows Autumn and her friends Layla, Sayo and Mollie. Each girl will get a book.

Liz: Oh look, empty glass…can’t have that! What can I get for you next?

Eden: Hmmm…I’ll stick with the Irish theme and take some Bailey’s please and thank you!

Liz: *pours herself another milk stout and eyeballs the bartender to break out the liqueur*

I note that you are a Saints fan. I myself and am ever-positive Detroit Lions fan. But I will admit that professional American football is not my fav sport (insert “it’s because you’re a LIONS FAN” thought here). I do enjoy college football, and basketball, and soccer. I have friends and one relative who played rugby though and one of the years we lived in England their national team won the Rugby World Cup which was cool. I really try to understand it. If all other sports were one day eliminated from the face of the earth but for ONE, which one would you want left behind and why?

Eden: Oh, that’s a tough choice. For me, the bloodier, the better and I do love how raw and real rugby is. (Say that three times fast! LOL) But, I’m gonna say I couldn’t do without seeing my Saints play. I do not care about any other team, but I have to watch my Saints.

Liz: I see that you call yourself a “New Adult” author. What does that mean to you?

Eden:It means exploring the lives of characters who are just starting to figure out who they are mentally, spiritually and sexually. It means that point in our lives where we are first responsible for ourselves and the consequences of what happens when we forget to be responsible. That could happen anywhere; on a stage, on a field or in a dorm room. I just love telling stories about people who have no clue who they are. Discovering who you are, I think is fascinating.
Liz: And do you have some Sci Fi books planned?

Eden: I absolutely have many, many SciFi/Fantasy projects planned, but they will likely not be released under Eden Butler. My start, under my “real” name was in that genre and I will go back to it in the very near future.

Liz:  Finally, who is your pick to win the soccer world cup?
Eden:Um, I have no real clue. LOL! Sorry, soccer’s not my sport so I’ll just go with, um, Ireland? Are they playing? J
Liz: Um. No….And for a nightcap…what’s your poison?

Eden: Jameson’s will do me just fine! Cheers!

Liz: Finally, something we can agree on! I'll join you.


Here are the details:
CHASING SERENITY
Graduate student Autumn McShane has had her share of heartbreak. She’s been abandoned and betrayed and she lost her beloved mother in a tragic car accident five months ago. That loss damaged her body and fractured her spirit but she’s learning to recover, until her ex-boyfriend returns to town, intent on making her life miserable.

Declan Fraser hates her ex as much as Autumn does, but the last thing she needs is to put her trust in the hands of another man, especially one like Declan: his hard body and lulling Irish accent makes more than a few girls weak-kneed. The talented rugby player is rude and sarcastic, with tattooed, muscular arms and a cocky attitude, but he's the only one who can help Autumn win an ill-advised bet that, if lost, could cost her more than she's willing to pay. The reluctant alliance between Declan and Autumn stirs up cravings she doesn't want to admit, but Declan is a hard man to resist.

Just when Autumn starts letting down her carefully constructed walls to the sexy bad boy, he betrays her when she needs him most. Autumn suspects Declan has secrets, and she is determined to uncover what drove him away from her, even if that means fraternizing with the enemy. But will the truth return Declan to her arms or add to the scars on her heart?

BEHIND THE PITCH 
Expat Irish rugby player Declan Fraser only wanted to play the sport he loves. He didn’t want to be stuck in this middle-of-nowhere town at this all too quaint university. He didn’t want his team captain to be an entitled jackass who switched Declan's position on the squad just to make himself look good. And he sure as hell didn’t want to fall in love with graduate student Autumn McShane.

Autumn is stubborn, but gorgeous; she bristles at any hint of dependency on anyone or anything, but she’s also a survivor. She’s everything Declan didn’t know he wanted. When Autumn finds herself in the middle of a challenging bet with her ex-boyfriend - who just happens to be the arrogant team captain that Declan hates - he feels honor bound to help her out. But he didn’t expect to fall for her in the process.

“Behind the Pitch” reveals the most twisted and erotic thoughts in Declan’s head as he navigates through his on again/off again, frustrating and deeply erotic relationship with Autumn McShane.

And lordy, does he have a filthy mind.


FINDING SERENITY
Mollie Malone's mom skipped out on her. Her biker dad, always loose and easy with the law, still was able to make her feel loved, and to keep her safe. But thirteen years ago, when his luck finally ran out and he landed in prison, Mollie found herself a new family - a group of friends in the sleepy little college town of Cavanagh, Tennessee, where now they all attend the local university. These girls know about the rotten roots of her family tree but accept her anyway, and the bond between them is so strong and supportive that Mollie is finally able to see past graduation to a future that is bright and secure.

But sometimes the past doesn't stay buried.

Suddenly, inexplicably, there's a shadow behind every step Mollie takes. Someone is lurking in that shadow, threatening not only Mollie, but also the new family she has claimed for herself.

And it isn’t just the past that has Mollie’s life in upheaval. Hunky former Marine Vaughn Winchester - who Mollie really would like to get to know much better - thinks Mollie is just a kid; he's made it clear she wouldn't ever be able to understand the demons haunting him. But if that's what he believes, then why does he keep sticking his nose in her business? And if he thinks she’s such a kid, why does he keep trying to kiss her?

Vaughn’s mind games are frustrating, especially since Mollie knows enough about secrets to be convinced that there's something he isn’t telling her, something he's so far been able to keep hidden. But when that secret is revealed, Mollie is forced into a situation that tests her loyalty and threatens even her closest friendships - just when the shadow of her past returns, and she's going to need them the most.

'Finding Serenity' is book two in the Seeking Serenity series.
Eden Butler
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Eden Butler is an editor and writer of New Adult Romance and SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. Her debut novel, a New Adult, Contemporary (no cliffie) Romance, “Chasing Serenity” launched in October 2013 and quickly became an Amazon bestseller.

When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football. She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.Please send help. 

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