Country Boy

My guest on the blog today is A.E. Wasp, who brings the latest book in her popular Hot off the Ice series. Once I’d realised the book features one of my all-time favourite cars, I simply had to give it some house room! 🙂 Amy’s also brought us an excerpt from Country Boy, and explains why writing her stories is such exceedingly hard work! Amy, over to you!

The Hot Off the Ice series has been so much fun to write. I’ve made great new friends, found an amazing new thing to fan girl over, discovered the Colorado ECHL team plays 20 minutes from my house and not only do I get to go to games, I get to go with the fabulous writer, Marie Sexton.

The research is terrible. I have to go to games, watch games. Watch Youtube videos of interviews with players, locker room tours, and things like Top Ten Best Passes in the NHL.

All that, and I get to do my very favorite thing, which is create characters that challenge me, and that I fall in love with.

I love, love challenging myself. As a writer. Not physically. Physically, I’m very lazy.

Fun fact, I try to make all my characters have speech patterns that are unique to them. I do a lot of research on idioms, syntax, and vernacular of different areas of the country and world.

For Paul, who is from Alabama, and Troy, (from Incoming) who is from West Virginia, I watched a lot of YouTube videos to get the accurate sound.

Sergei Pregov, the main goalie for the Thunder, was born in Russia and moved to Quebec, Canada as a young teen. He speaks a mix of English, Russian, and Quebecois French with a Russian accent. His story is next, and writing his dialogue should be fun. I have some Quebecois friends I’m going to hit up for him. Their cursing is fascinating. Russian cursing is an art unto itself. I will probably avoid most of it.

Paul’s father Stoney was, hands down, the most difficult character to write without making everyone hate him! I had to rewrite his scenes a few times. The interesting this is that he never changed in my head. It was just how I wrote about him.

Oddly enough, I expected Paul to be difficult because I don’t share his beliefs, and I wanted him to keep his faith at the end, it is very important to him. But he was just such a fully-formed character from his conception. He just popped into my head. And he’s very sweet, so that innocence was easy to hold onto.

For the next book, Sergei and Alex’s story – tentatively titled Skater Boy and due out end of December – I want to try to write a scene that takes place completely during a game.

Writing sports action well is difficult for me. So it will be a challenge to write the on-ice action and on-bench action and make it exciting as well important to the character growth, to have it give the reader new information and make them feel like they’re watching a game.. Thank goodness for intermissions and locker room scenes.

Length: 310 pages
Genre: M/M Romance
Buy at: Amazon

Blurb

Sometimes the toughest thing to believe in is yourself.

The first time Paul Dyson met Robbie Rhodes, they ended up naked in Robbie’s bed. The last time they met, on the ice the morning after, Paul punched Robbie in the face and called him something he’d rather not repeat.

Two years later, they’re teammates and Paul is so deep in the closet he’ll need a roadmap to find his way out again.

Robbie might be his compass. But to be with Robbie, Paul will have to turn his back on his family and everything he’s ever believed in.

It’s going to take a lot of faith to find their way together in this shiny new world.

Country Boy is a love story about figuring out who you are, who you want to be, and how to get there. It contains sweet hockey plays, a 1976 Corvette Stingray, fancy underwear, and the journey of a lifetime.

Excerpt from Country Boy

Paul rolled his eyes. He was seriously tired of having to justify the way he lived his life to everyone. As if he needed their seal of approval on his choices. “Really? You don’t understand why someone might not be ready to walk around waving a rainbow flag? That’s why I saw pictures of you and your boyfriend on the cover of Sports Illustrated? Because you’re so out and proud?”

“You sound like Drew,” Robbie frowned. “Just because I don’t want my relationships dissected by the fans and the media, doesn’t mean I’m in the closet. If I were dating a woman, I’d feel the same way. Probably. Besides, everyone who needs to know knows,” he said defensively.

Paul shoved him back with a finger to the chest. “That’s bullshit. You don’t know who needs to know. Some kid down in the bible belt might need to know he’s not the only one, so he doesn’t go trying anything stupid.”

Robbie pushed Paul’s finger away. “Like what?”

“Like trying to freeze himself to death in the middle of fucking nowhere Minnesota,” Paul spit out. “You’re a fucking condescending ass, but you saved my life that night.”

Robbie’s jaw dropped. “You were trying to kill yourself?”

Paul crossed his arms and looked away. “No. Not directly. Kind of. I don’t know. Suicide is a sin, too.” Paul’s laugh held no humor. “A literal ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ situation.”

About A.E. Wasp

After time spent raising children, earning several college degrees, and traveling the world with the U.S. State Department, she is returning to her first love – writing.

A dreamer and an idealist, Amy writes about people finding connection in a world that can seem lonely and magic in a world than can seem all too mundane. She invites readers into her characters’ lives and worlds when they are their most vulnerable, their most human, living with the same hopes and fears we all have. An avid traveler who has lived in big cities and small towns in four different continents, Amy has found that time and distance are no barriers to love. She invites her readers to reach out and share how her characters have touched their lives or how the found families they have gathered around them have shaped their worlds.

Born on Long Island, NY, Amy has lived in Los Angeles, London, and Bangkok. She currently lives in a town suspiciously like Red Deer, Colorado.