Joining me on my blog today is the wonderful Nic Starr.  She is a wonderful author and I am counting down the days until her next release.  I've already paid for it, I just need it to go live so I can dive into the story.  I love Nic's style - romantic and ALWAYS a happy ending.  {squishy hugs}

Nic has a couple of novellas out - It's Not Easy and Waiting, Hoping, Wishing - which I loved, so I'm very happy to host Nic on my blog today.



Thanks for joining me Nic, to talk about your new novella A Day at a Time which will be released on the 29th of October.

Blurb:  Sean Vargos is quiet, well respected, and dedicated to his job. But Dave Simpson sees Sean as more than a coworker. He's fought his attraction to Sean for months but can't get him out of his thoughts. 

They tentatively embark on a relationship, but Sean isn’t all that he seems. He struggles to put his past behind him and overcome his fears. 

Dave, with his good looks and open nature, accepts that sometimes Sean’s doubts get the better of him and he runs. Dave just wants the chance to show Sean he can be trusted and the past doesn't have to dictate their future.

Hi Renae! Thank you so much for having me visit. It’s a pleasure to be here.



Tell me about your new novella.

A Day At A Time is a contemporary romance. Dave and Sean, work together in the marketing department of a large company. Dave has a crush on his colleague and the story starts when he decides to act on his feelings. It’s a story about taking things slowly, overcoming past hurt and learning to trust.

How would you describe this romance?  Dark and angsty?  Sweet and romantic?  Hot and erotic?

I write on the sweeter side. I love an emotional story and definitely have a soft spot for romance. Sean has a lot of baggage. He needs to come to terms with aspects of his past which prevent him from trusting other people. So there is a bit of angst but there’s also a dash of romance and some sweet loving.

Your first novel was It’s Not Easy. Now this one is A Day at a Time.  It sounds like your characters need a lot of inner strength.  Coincidence?  Or is this a theme of yours?

I‘ve had a few good laughs over the titles I’ve chosen for my books – they could well reflect my writing/publication journey! My next release is called More Than A Superstar so I’m hoping that’s prophetic. *grin*

Overcoming life’s challenges, good rising over evil, finding true love, happy endings – it’s the stuff of fairy tales but also real life, and where my stories seem to head. I haven’t made a conscious decision to place my characters in these situations but I am comfortable there. I enjoy taking my characters on a journey— experiencing their pain and their happiness, watching them grow and rise above all obstacles, and eventually bringing them together. I love big happy endings, public declarations of love…I’m very much a romantic.

Give us a brief description of each of your characters – Sean and Dave.

Sean is very focused at work. He’s a high achiever, a good leader and a loyal friend. However Sean is shy and reserved when it comes to relationships and he struggles to trust after experiencing heartache.  He’s a good looking guy but he lacks confidence and has let his past tragedy alter his enjoyment of life.

Dave’s career has been his focus but he’s now looking for love. He’s naturally outgoing but prepared to take things slowly with Sean. Dave has movie-star looks and is confident but doesn’t give his own appearance a second thought. It’s what’s inside that’s more important to Dave.

Check out the cover if you want a glimpse of these gorgeous boys look like. Don’t you just love a man in a suit? *grin*

What compelled you to write Sean and Dave’s story?

I started to write this story in response to a submission call for stories with a hurt/comfort theme, although it’s being published as a stand-alone novella. I have many ideas for stories just waiting to be told, and Sean and Dave seemed to fit the theme perfectly.

This is your second novella.  Do you have another one coming?  What is that one about?

More Than A Superstar is long novella length story soon to be published by Dreamspinner Press.

In this story, Sam has lost his parents and spent the last few years establishing a catering business with his aunt. He wants to give back to the aunt who supported him, and dreams of having a family of his own. When his aunt is hospitalised for an extended period, he struggles under his responsibilities. Sam meets Rob and it is Rob who provides him with support.

Rob has secrets. His life in the public eye has taken its toll and he now lives with the repercussions. But when he falls for Sam, he thinks things are finally going his way. But just as Sam and Rob find their happiness, another secret threatens to tear them apart.

So keep an eye out for the book which is expected to be published 17th December 2014.

Is a novella length story your choice of word count?  Do you think you will write more novellas in the future?

I don’t set a word count at the start of the process, novella length is just how the stories have evolved. It’s not until I’m part the way in, with a clear idea of the story outline, that I get a true sense of how long the story will be. The stories come to their own natural conclusion.

That being said, A Day At A Time was limited somewhat by submission criteria. It was written for a submission call with an 18k word limit. But I don’t think additional words were required to tell Dave and Sean’s story, and I planned the story to make sure I would be able to do it justice at that length.

So in answer to your question, yes, I do think I will write more novellas in the future. However, my current WIP, has reached over 60k words. So if all goes well, expect a full length novel sometime next year!
 
Thanks, Renae!


My absolute pleasure, Nic.

You can purchase this book from:
Dreamspinner
Amazon

You can contact Nic Starr on any of the following:
Website: www.nicstarr.com
Email: nicstar000@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicki.nicstar
Twitter: @nicstar000
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/nicstar000/

Blurb:  In the late-night quiet of the caravan park shower room, Lon Taylor washes away the filth of the Western Australian mines. He’s not looking for anyone, but when Casey offers, Lon doesn’t turn him down.

Welcoming the young man in his big, hairy arms, Lon provides a safety to Casey that he has never known, and Casey wants to stay forever. Still reeling from the breakup of his family years ago, Lon’s not sure he’s ready for the responsibility of the comfort and security Casey craves.

But perhaps Lon can risk opening his heart again and hoping for a brighter future. Casey has some pretty big skeletons in his past to deal with.  And Lon wonders what Casey will do when he finds out how badly Lon failed at protecting the ones he loved eight years ago.

Scheduled release date:  28th of November 2014
From Dreamspinner Press.  (Links to come)

Whaddya think??  I'm so in love with it!  My cover artist was Anna Sikorska and I think she has done a FABULOUS job.  Thank you Anna!

Gah!  I'm going to print this one off and plaster my writing space with it!  

Thanks for joining me on my blog today, Jack, to talk about your new novella Dingo Run which will be released on the 22nd of October.

Jack Byrne:  Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog, Renae!  I appreciate it!

Blurb:
Sequel to Billabong and Walkabout.  Book Three in the series.

New South Wales, Australia, 1876. As captured outlaws, Jim Kelly and Mark Turner face the gallows. Help comes from an unexpected quarter, but their hasty escape goes wrong and now Jim's life hangs by a thread. Mark is driven by desperation to form an alliance with an infamous bushranger who may hold clues to his mysterious past. But as Jim and Mark’s relationship intensifies, it is also tested. Their secret is discovered, tempers fray, and jealousy flares.


Hi Jack.  Tell me – just exactly what is a “dingo run”?

You’re an Aussie, but since you’re from Perth I’ll forgive you for not knowing that one!  (Somebody should do a study on the geographical distribution of slang terms throughout Australia!  It’s like everyone from overseas expects us to speak the same language, when in reality our slang can be as different as the slang from Georgia vs New York!)  For those of you who don’t know, Renae lives about 4,000 km from me in another time zone!

“Doing the dingo run” means running for every waking moment, basically someone or something who never stops running.  It comes from the habit dingoes have of constantly running or loping around.  I used to own a dingo when I was on a big property, and that dog would never stop moving.  Other dogs would sit and rest, but the dingo would jog constantly around, patrolling the borders of the property.

My main characters in the Bushrangers Series (The Billabong, Walkabout and Dingo Run) are Jim Kelly and Mark Turner.  They are forced to flee the law constantly and can never stop in one place for too long, for fear of being tracked down and shot, because there is a price on Mark’s head.  So they are doing the ‘dingo run.’

This is the third book in a series of novellas.  Does the reader need to know what happened in the first two books?

Yes, really they do.  To read ‘Dingo Run’ on its own would be kind of puzzling I think.  This novella completes a story arc between Jim Kelly and Mark Turner. Before the end of Dingo Run they were not that secure in their relationship or even their ability to survive.

By the end of Dingo Run, they are each starting to gain a deeper understanding of the other's character and to develop some confidence in each other. That's not an easy thing to have done considering the dangers they faced every day and the fact that they were basically thrown together as complete strangers.

Is there a Book Four?  What is it called and when should it be out?

There certainly is, but it’s longer!  ‘Rainbow Dreaming’ is a novel, from about 50,000 to 70,000 words, so that for the first time readers (and the author!) will be able to hold a printed Bushrangers book in their hot little hands!  I’m up to 40,000 words on that one!

Do you find it hard to get the historical aspects correct when writing a period piece?

Not really, but this is an era and a location I’m familiar with.  I’d find it hard to write about say, 15th century France.  But with series, because I have worked stock myself, the old saddles and the lifestyle are all familiar to me.  Also in Australia our local history is pretty well covered in school, so a lot of this stuff is familiar to me from that.  In addition, as a child I often listened to my grandmother and uncle tell long stories about their grandfathers/grandmothers and other relatives who actually lived back in this era (my grandmother was born in the second half of the 19th century).

There is a slightly unusual aspect to writing the Bushrangers series, which still puzzles me.  A couple of times I have written down historical place names or character details that I’ve made a vague guess at (to be frank, several times I’ve made them up) figuring I’ll come back and replace them with more accurate details later.  But when I research them, I find out that they are already accurate.

This book is set in Australia.  Do you always write in this setting, or do you like to spread out and do some other settings too?

Of course as an Australian I am familiar with this country, so I tend to write what I know.  (This gives the Dreamspinner editors kittens.  They put a glossary of Australian terms in the front of every book I write.)  I try very hard not to put slang into my stories but apparently it sneaks in anyway.  I have written one short story set in America, and even have the guy looking out at the ‘Nebraska countryside’ in the second paragraph.  Then after about five reviews noting that the story is ‘set in Australia’ I gave up gracefully. I am always going to sound Australian and there’s nothing I can do about that.

Do you really think gay relationships happened as described in our gay romances?  Back then, were gays romantic, do you think?

Despite all the attempts over the millennia to whitewash gay literature out of existence, it’s obvious to any serious student of same that there is a rich culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual relationships throughout recorded history.  When you consider that often throughout those times, the penalty for being homosexual was often imprisonment or death, it is amazing that any details of such relationships were recorded at all.  I think it shows how powerful the urge to love and be loved has been, even in the face of horrendous opposition.  I think that’s immensely romantic.

Mark Turner is very much aware of the forbidden nature of his relationship with Jim.  In fact you’ll find if you read ‘The Billabong’ it’s the reason Mark is a fugitive.  Jim would know simply that such things have never been spoken about by his parents or family, that it is a taboo subject, and he would follow Mark’s lead.  But to some extent their isolation in such a wild, backwards country, and their fugitive lifestyle, would protect them from exposure and prosecution.

And lastly, just what exactly is that rider doing on the cover of your book?  Does he have his hands down the other man’s pants???  <shocked look>  Is that even possible when riding?

You’d be amazed what a couple of really good riders can get up to on horseback (enigmatic smile).  Australia is a vast, empty country.  I actually toned that scene down a great deal *grin*.

Click the following links to buy Dingo Run:
Direct from publisher website:  Dreamspinner
Available also on Amazon.

You can contact Jack Byrne on any of the following:

Website:              http://fugitive1701.yolasite.com

Email:                 jackaroo_byrne@hotmail.com

Facebook:           https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007062756906

Twitter:               @JackByrneAuthor

I have a theory – which you shouldn’t take too seriously, because what would I know?  But my theory so far stacks up.  The evidence is not conclusive, but it is an interesting conversation point.

What is the difference between an author and a wanna-be-author?  Talent?   Ideas?   Luck?

No – my theory is tenacity.  An author sticks at it.  An author is simply someone who managed to finish the job of writing a manuscript.

You can all argue with me about this – and I look forward to the debate – but at this moment, I stick by my statement.

Which means, at this moment, I’m firmly in the wanna-be-author camp.

I have lots on the go, but nothing finished.  There are two more releases of mine to come – Safe in His Arms which is about 6 weeks away from publication (watch this space for the cover reveal next week) and then another story called Shawn’s Law which will be coming in early 2015, but I’m still working on other stuff.


<------------  OMG - Cover hint for my new book!!  Cover reveal coming next week....

My problem has been too many ideas – and that has come from the readers. 

By far, the most-asked about book has been Loving Jay – will there be a sequel?  My answer, at the moment: no.  BUT I do have the beginnings of a book where Jay and Liam feature heavily.  It takes place about nine months after the end of Loving Jay.  It’s the story of Jay’s friend – Kee.  He’s had some relationship troubles, and has been out of the dating scene for a while, so hasn’t met Liam yet.  It turns out that Kee and Liam get along really well.  Therefore the readers will get look at how Liam and Jay are travelling in life.  Will Jay and his dressing room fit into Liam’s apartment?  How is Liam finding life as a “gay man”?  You will also get to find out why Jay is sulking in the bathroom.  I’ll give you a hint – Liam is denying him something extremely… ahh… pleasurable because he’s been a bad boy…

The second most asked about book has been The Blinding Light.  I was leaving this story alone, until someone said to me:  What’s Davo’s story?  The ideas flooded into my brain and I have about a third of this book finished.  Davo’s story starts when Maxine is three weeks old.  Davo is not really into the girly stuff – you know, like babies and domestic partnerships and clothes and dancing and anything pink and everything else that may get you labelled as one of those gays.  So when he sees Jake embracing family life, it scares the shit out of him.  Then Davo meets Lee.  **cue the romantic music and the white doves**

In 6 weeks, you'll get to meet Lon and Casey, my next couple.  I’m sure that when this book is finished, you will be asking me about their friends.  So, I’m busily writing more on their stories.  (So don't ask - because the answer is YES!)

Therefore you can see I’ve got a lot on my plate – and now the test comes.  Will I be able to knuckle down, finish these novels, and get them out to you?

Feel free to bug me about them every couple of weeks to make sure I’m doing my work.

If you answered yes, then you're in for a treat.  Both Loving Jay and The Blinding Light are going to be recorded.  I'm so excited, I'm doing happy dances in the car park! (Not a good look, people.  Shield the eyes of your young ones.)

So tell me?  Do you think the narrator of the book should be an Australian?

The other great news is this - Loving Jay is heading to translation territory.  That is going to be MASSES of fun!

The amount of times that Jay screeches "Oh my gawd!" in that book?  The Italians will be sick of their "Dio Mio!"

Always laugh, people.  xx, Renae.