Welcome and thanks for joining us along the virtual book tour for Dirty Laundry, the latest release in the Tucker Springs series! Leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win a $10 gift card to Riptide Publishing!
Tucker Springs has two universities, a land-grant and a private liberal arts institution. By rights I should be more familiar with the latter, but I have to tell you, my heart belongs to the land-grant, and it’s all because of Iowa State.
I live in Ames, Iowa, and I’m almost literally a stone’s throw from Iowa State University, one of Iowa’s three public universities. Like East Centennial, Iowa Sate has a heavy agricultural and science component. Frequently driving across town takes me past the university horse barns and rows and rows of greenhouses. No one blinks an eye when huge fields are covered with nets and odd apparatus and students walking up and down the rows with clipboards and stern expressions.
Iowa State also has a huge horticultural bent, and as such you can’t go down your city block without tripping over a master gardner. When my daughter was young, we bought a season pass to Reiman Gardens, the university horticultural center which features a butterfly garden and rolling cultivated grounds. The main university grounds look like a garden too: old trees, nooks and crannies filled with flowers, herbs, and shrubs carefully maintained. We love to bike through campus in the summer and marvel at it all–I can’t imagine going to school within that beauty every day.
In Dirty Laundry we never got much further than the entomology department (there’s not just one building for that department at Iowa State but several), but I plan to go back to East Cent someday, and you can bet I’ll be using Iowa State’s campus as a model. I practically lived on their website while I drafted Dirty Laundry, and I was always touring the buildings in my head. Though I never attended Iowa State, it’s a huge part of my life now. The university brings so much to Ames, and like Tucker Springs, my small town immediately becomes a lot bigger than it has a right to be because of its educational component.
If you’re ever in Iowa and get a chance, swing through Ames and check out Iowa State. Stroll through Campustown. Visit Lake Laverne. Have a slice of pizza at Pizza Pit, enjoy yourself some Fighting Burrito, and enjoy some atmosphere at Cafe Beaudelaire. Swing by the Rose Tree Fiber shop and get some yarn. Kiss your sweetheart under the campanile.
Iowa State is so much more than Moo U. And it’s so, so much fun to put into novels.
Title: Dirty Laundry by Heidi Cullinan
Tucker Springs Series Book Three
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance, M/M, BDSM
Length: 259 pages/Word Count: 71,400
Summary:
The course of true love doesn’t always run clean. But sometimes getting dirty is half the fun.
Entomology grad student Adam Ellery meets Denver Rogers, a muscle-bound hunk of sexy, when Denver effortlessly dispatches the drunken frat boys harassing Adam at the Tucker Springs laundromat. Thanking him turns into flirting, and then, much to Adam’s delight, hot sex over the laundry table.
Though Denver’s job as a bouncer at a gay bar means he gets his pick of geek-sexy college twinks, he can’t get Adam out of his head. Adam seems to need the same rough play Denver does, and it’s damn hard to say no to such a perfect fit.
Trouble is, Adam isn’t just shy: he has obsessive compulsive disorder and clinical anxiety, conditions which have ruined past relationships. And while Denver might be able to bench-press a pile of grad students, he comes from a history of abuse and is terrified of getting his GED. Neither Denver nor Adam want to face their dirty laundry, but to stay together, they’re going to have to come clean.
Dirty Laundry is part of the Tucker Springs universe.
Read my review of Tucker Springs HERE.
Author Bio:
Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren’t enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi also volunteers for her state’s LGBT rights group, One Iowa, and is proud to be from the first midwestern state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Find out more at www.heidicullinan.com.
She makes Iowa sound enticing. Strange as it sounds I do like going through college campuses in different cities. Lucky for me I’ve seen a few when my kids went college searching. LOL
great blog post today!
parisfan_ca@yahoo.com
Awesome post and the book sounds amazing.
avril.ashton@yahoo.com
I’m so looking forward to reading this book! It’s on my list for February.
JYL22075 at gmail dot com
Can’t wait to read this book. 🙂
In the unlikely event of ever going to Iowa, I shall make sure to put Ames on the list! Sounds like I may have to get the map out when reading the book!
If I ever have the chance to visit Iowa I will make sure to visit some of the places you mentioned. 🙂
goingtoreadnow (at) gmail (dot) com
Your love and pride for Ames, Iowa State and the surrounding area comes through in your post. Agriculture and farmers are so important for this nation.
I feel like I am stalking you, please count me in here too. Since I did not go to college my fond memories are of visiting my daughter. Loved everything about Tulane’s campus and the city. While she was in grad school at Princeton I loved to watch the rowing teams practice on the river behind grad housing.
Iowa does sound intriguing!
vitajex(at)aol(Dot)com
When we are young we usually don’t appreciate the beauty of our universities let alone our state, even though there is so much to do and see. When I was younger, I lived in NJ and truthfully, other than the beaches, I can’t say much of the state and I lived there for seven years! As I grew older, I loved taking trips, visiting other states, their cities, learn about their past, etc. Now, I wish I had the money to travel once again. It is good to know how other people see their own states as well. Thanks for the post!!
~Rush~
taina1959 at yahoo dot com
The Midwest is full of hidden treasures. Shhhhhh, let’s keep this to ourselves so my rent will remain ridiculously cheap.
Happy in The Lou,
Urb
Great post! Just finished Second Hand by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton, two of my favorite authors. Hope to read this one ASAP!
So that’s why East Cent seemed familiar – I grew up in a Midwestern town with a land grant university and I recognized whatever that vibe is.
I have heard really good things about this story. I have never read any of Heidi Cullenan’s books. I can’t say that I have ever thought about touring a college campus when I go on vacation. It’s an interesting idea. jepebATverizonDOTnet
You had me at Rose Tree Fiber shop. Yesss, yarn! lol
ashley.vanburen[at]gmail[dot]com
Sounds like a very good book. I’ve never been to Iowa but my hubby’s nephew lives there.
Loved the short and can’t wait to read the novel! Congrats on the release!
OceanAkers @ aol.com
Congrats on the latest release. Can’t wait to get my copy.
Enjoyed the post.
Judi
arella3173_loveless@yahoo(dot)com