Welcome to my blog tour stop of A New Dream by C. J. Baty brought to you by Bottom Drawer Publications.
Kathy: To start off with, what motivated you to become a writer? How long have you been writing, and was it a long process to become a published author?
C.J: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in high school. Looking back I’ve always kept a journal or jotted down thoughts and when my son was born I started scrapbooking. The best part of that was the journaling to tell what was happening in the pictures. Becoming a published writer, that took a long time. Mostly because I didn’t think I was talented enough or that anyone would want to read what I wrote. I needed time to work my craft and make it better.
Kathy: Is there a genre you won’t write? Why? Is there a genre you haven’t written but would like to give a try?
C.J: I don’t think I could write horror or BSMD. Why, probably because neither of those genre’s appeals to me as a reader. I’m a HEA girl and it’s hard for me to get into reading something where people are hurt intentionally or not.
I would love to be able to write a historical romance and do it justice. I would have to do a large amount of research to get the settings and the costume descriptions to be as they should be. Little details like that are important to me as a reader and I’d want my readers to have that.
Kathy: Plotter, pantster or a combination of both?
C.J: So don’t laugh; I had to look up what a pantster was! Now that I know, I can say I am a combination of both. I can get a vision of how a story will start, where it will go and how it might end. Then I write, scratch out, and write again and so on until I can clearly see what the characters are telling me about themselves.
Kathy: What types of books do you like to read? Do you re-read books? If so, what is your comfort read?
C.J: Mysteries, a problem to solve with a good love story thrown in are probably my favourite. I have read the classics but I still lean toward the ones with a mystery involved. I do re-read books. I have several books that I keep at the front of my Kindle which I bounce back and forth between depending on my mood. I can’t say I have a comfort read but I do have comfort authors. They are the ones that I go back to time and time again because their stories have touched me in some profound way.
Kathy: Where do you find inspiration for your novels and characters? Real life events? Imagination? Or a combination?
C.J: Here again I have to say it’s a combination and it depends largely on what I’m writing. I once wrote a very short story that was an M/M romance that turned out to be very tender and sweet. The inspiration for the story came from an experience I had with a young man when I was a teenager myself. In that instance, the inspiration was real life but for the two male characters I had to imagine how young men would feel and act in that same situation.
I do get a lot of inspiration from nature itself, especially the mountains. You will always find some scene or mention in my books about the mountains or nature of some kind. I’m working on a book at the moment that takes place at a hotel on a beach. A great deal of the action in the story takes place outside…even the love scenes.
Kathy: What is a typical day like as author C. J. Baty? Do you write every day? How long does it typically take for you to complete a book?
C.J: As I am still an office worker by day and author by night, I write when and where I can. I love to write and I wish I could write every day. But I do find that I write whenever I have a free minute. I carry a notebook with me always. Lunch breaks find me grabbing a bite and writing. The best time of day for me is in the morning at the local diner where I have coffee and breakfast. I get up an hour earlier than I really have to just so I can go there and let them refill my coffee cup and I write. A few of the places that I frequently visit know me and know I write.
Depending on the length of the book, it usually takes me two to four months to complete a first draft. I have a tendency to edit and re-edit as I go. I guess I’m old school in that more than 75% of what I write is hand written first then typed up. I add or delete or change direction as I take it from the handwritten copy to the computer.
Kathy: Could you tell us a little about A New Dream?
C.J: A New Dream is a book about accepting the changes that come in life and learning to move on. Walt’s dream is crushed when he can’t be a competitive skier any longer. His self confidence is shot when his boyfriend can’t stay by him while he recovers. He mistakenly believes no one would want to love a failure with a broken body, like him. Curt has rolled with the heartaches he’s suffered in life and feels pretty good about the road he’s on but he longs for something more than one night stands and the loneliness that comes with his career. They literally run into each other one day outside a barber shop in the little town of Flat Rock and life changes for both of them. Love wasn’t what they were looking for but then love seldom comes around when you are.
Kathy: What projects are you currently working on? What can readers look forward to from you in the upcoming year?
C.J: Oh I am so glad you asked this question. I am currently working on two projects and I hope to have them out by the end of the year. One is a May/December story where a fifty something woman thinks that now that she’s a widow, love and passion are a thing of the past for her. She settles for the everyday routine of life but doesn’t like it. She takes a trip with her best friend to Scotland, meets and is helplessly attracted to a younger man who happens to own the inn where she and her friend are staying. The story involves arson, a murder and a kidnapping all leading up to a HEA. Of course, there is an abundance of sexual tension and desire. It’s called At Any Age.
The other work in progress is an M/M romance where our hero’s ex-lovers keep showing up murdered on a beach near the hotel he owns. Drifting Sands takes place in Beaufort, South Carolina at the Warfield Hotel. It’s a race against time to prove that Justin is not killing the men who keep showing up dead before the local sheriff finds out the truth about Justin and how he is related to the men who have been killed. His brother Peter and his brother’s best friend Marcus are trying to help. But it doesn’t help that Marcus and Justin are incredibly attracted to each other. Oh and did I mention that due to Justin’s and Peter’s father and a clause in his will, Justin is married to a local socialite who can’t stand the air he breathes. It’s going to get hot on the beach in this story.
Kathy: Congratulations on your new release, C. J. Baty, and thank you so much for visiting with us today. Feel free to drop by anytime you happen to be in the neighborhood.
Book Details for the collection:
Sometimes Valentine’s Day is not all hearts and roses …
Love Sucks … until it doesn’t!
BDP has released a collection of individual short stories where the most romantic day of the year redeems itself … eventually.
There are two male/female contemporary romance stories and two male/male contemporary romance stories. To be released on the four days leading up to Valentine’s Day.
Buying Details:
The list price for each book in the collection is $1.99, however all books in the collection will be discounted by 25% for the duration of the blog tour, and until the end of February, when purchased on the BDP website, using this discount code: bdpvdtallrmk01
http://www.bottomdrawerpublications.net
Title: A New Dream by C.J. Baty
Publisher: Bottom Drawer Publications
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, Erotic, Romance
Length: Novella/15,000 words
Summary:
A split-second of time and Walt’s dreams of Olympic gold were crushed along with his right leg when he was involved in a serious accident on the ski-fields during the preliminary trials. Now he’s teaching beginners on the ski slopes of Crystal Falls Lodge, run by his family in West Virginia, and wondering if he’ll ever crawl out of the pit that his life has become. Eventually, the look of devastation on his sister’s face at how much he’s let himself go, prompts him to try harder to experience life again. First on the list: a trip to town and a haircut.
Curt Woodridge is used to traveling light. Ever since he was kicked out of home at eighteen, when his family found out he was gay, he’s been moving from one town to the next, performing in small bars and ski lodges to make his living. He is one of the lucky ones; he was saved from having to live on the streets by his agent and is genuinely happy with the way his life is going. After performing a great set at his latest gig, Curt decides to head into town and look around. He has seven days to kill before he’ll be moving on to the next gig.
Neither man is ready for love, and definitely not on the streets of Flat Rock. But when neither of them is looking, quite literally, they fall hard. But how does a man who thought he’d lost everything dare to dream of a life with someone who is leaving town for good in less than a week?
Author Bio:
C. J. Baty lives in southwest Ohio with her very patient husband and two encouraging children. Her heart however, lives in the mountains of Tennessee where she hopes to retire some day. The mountains have always provided her with inspiration and a soothing balm to the stresses of everyday life.
The dream of writing her own stories started in high school but was left on the back burner of life until her son introduced her to fan fiction and encouraged her to give it a try. She found that her passion for telling a story was still there and writing them down to share with others was much more thrilling than she had ever expected.
One thing she has learned from life and she is often heard to say is: “You are never too old to follow your dream even if it takes you fifty years!”
Title: An Unexpected Party by Henrietta Clarke
Publisher: Bottom Drawer Publications
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, Erotic, Romance
Length: Novella
Summary:
Valentine’s Day sucks! Merry Breton is reminded of this again when he receives a call from his boss to work a last minute job, even though he worked New Year’s as well. And to top it all off he hears from the very man who had ruined this same day last year—Kieran Church. His lover of two years who had stood him up on Valentine’s Day and from whom he’d not heard a word since. He supposes it should be good news that Kieran has finally come out of the closet and is still in love with him, but the news is exactly forty-five days too late.
Forty-five excruciatingly long days have passed since New Year’s Eve—the night Peregrine Harding attended a speed dating function at Sheffield’s premier hotel to appease his terminally ill mother and ended the night in bed with a very cute waiter. Unfortunately, the man who quickly wormed his way into Peregrine’s heart had promptly informed him upon waking that he didn’t date men who couldn’t find their way out of the closet and walked away.
Common sense tells them that they should forget their one night of passion and move on, that neither of them is in the right place for a relationship. But Merry can no sooner forget about Peregrine than Peregrine can forget about him.
Author Bio:
Henrietta Clarke is a highly individual Yorkshire lass who grew up with her nose in a book and is therefore lucky to have only fallen down the stairs once in twenty-one years. Ironically, this had nothing to do with reading and resulted in “traumatic golfer’s elbow.” No, she’s never figured that one out either, but it genuinely was the medical diagnosis. Her parents have long accused her of being “away with the fairies,” so perhaps she was always destined to write in the gay romance genre. She’s had enough imaginary friends to fill the Titanic and set her course towards being a published writer at the age of six. Having achieved that dream, her next goal is to get through two years of postgraduate law study with her sanity intact. She thinks she might just be able to do it with a little help from her family, friends, vodka, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and of course her trusty bookshelves.
Title: Time or Money by Carly Fall
Publisher: Bottom Drawer Publications
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance
Length: Short Story/10,000 words
Summary:
Mason Jackson knows his marriage to Bridget is in trouble. He’s been putting in exhausting hours for months to try to make partner in his accounting firm. He knows that it is putting a strain on his marriage, but he has trouble escaping the memory of the poverty of his childhood. He never wants his wife, or the children they yearn for, to know the struggle that he endured when he can provide a better life for them. But things are reaching breaking point; he and Bridget are more like roommates than a married couple. He needs to think of a way to get their marriage back on track and what better way than to make Valentine’s Day, Bridget’s favorite holiday of the year, a new start for their marriage? Mason puts in place plans for an elaborate evening designed to surprise Bridget.
Bridget is miserable in her marriage, and often longs for the days when they were dirt poor. They may have struggled financially, but at least she had her husband around. Mason is always working, and Bridget feels that he has chosen his work over her. She’s tried to talk to him about the way she feels, but he doesn’t seem to hear her. He just keeps telling her that once he makes partner then everything will be all right. But Bridget is sick of Mason forgetting the things that are important to her … like their anniversary a few months ago. She is at the end of her tether and decides that if he forgets Valentine’s Day, her favorite day of the year, then divorce just might be on the cards.
At the end of the day, this couple has only one decision to make: Time or Money?
Author Bio:
Carly Fall is a wife, a mother and a slave to Nicky the dog.
She loves to laugh, and thinks chocolate and wine should be considered their own food group. She also wishes Christmas happened twice a year.
Three years ago, she decided to take a break from writing business material and dip her toe in the fiction pond, and has loved watching her imagination come to life on the page. She is the author of contemporary and fantasy romance.
Title: The Gift by Elise Marion
Publisher: Bottom Drawer Publications
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance
Length: Short Story/12,000 words
Summary:
All film star Avery O’Dea has ever wanted is a normal home life outside of her career. Meeting Dominic Ramsey, albeit not through the best of circumstances, has made that dream a reality. A few months into their marriage, she’s finally living the kind of life she’s always wished for off-screen. So when their first Valentine’s Day comes around, she expects nothing less than what other girls get on the most romantic day of the year: chocolates, flowers, seduction … the works!
When Dominic Ramsay first met his beautiful wife, Avery, he was a struggling photographer and was able to devote much of his time to supporting her demanding career. Track forward twelve months and Dom is now very much in demand after successful showings of his work. He’s been offered the chance of a lifetime to work on a shoot in Paris and accepts the job, even though he’s been away from home a lot in recent times. Valentine’s Day is just commercialism gone mad, he reasons, and he’s sure Avery won’t mind that they celebrate on a different day.
Avery is crushed when the gift she receives from Dom makes her wonder if he knows her at all. Dom starts to wonder if Avery liked him better when he could devote much of his time to her. A chance meeting in an airport and advice from the most unlikely of sources just might make them realize what they have to hold on to and that the best gift of all is right under their noses?
Author Bio:
Elise Marion is a lover of books and has a special place in her heart for sweet and sensual romance. Writing about love across all walks of life is her passion, as is reaching people through the written word. The Army wife and stay-at-home mother of two spends most of her time taking care of her children. Her second job includes writing stories about characters that people can fall in love with. When the Texas native isn’t caring for her family or writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, singing loudly, or cooking up something new in the kitchen.
About the Publisher:
Bottom Drawer Publications is a new publishing house that specialises in romantic and erotic romance fiction across a range of genres, with both het and gay characters. Our genres include: Contemporary, Historical, Literary/Drama, Alternative Lifestyles, Paranormal/Sci-fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller and Steampunk.
Our books are available for sale on our website as well as over 8 booksellers, including: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, All Romance, Rainbow eBooks, and a range of others. All reading devices are catered for with a comprehensive range of formats.
We are always on the lookout for fresh and interesting manuscripts within these genres, and from time to time will put out calls for anthology submissions.
Visit our website: http://www.bottomdrawerpublications.net for our new release information and our writing submission guidelines.
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