Today we are rounding up a  new feature here at Love Bytes: Anthology Week!

Our reviewers picked up an anthology to read and during this last week we reviewed them all here at Love Bytes !

The reviews were  posted Monday to Saturday and today we are finishing up posting an  interview with a few of the authors who participated in this anthology.

There is also a great giveaway attached to this post with big thanks to the authors!!

Campus Cravings

General Blurb:

Welcome to Cathia University, where school is in session! Nine of today’s hottest gay romance authors have crafted brand-new interrelated novellas celebrating everything wonderful about college, including sophisticated professors, sexy teaching assistants, ambitious grad students, and spirited undergraduates, all looking for the same thing: an A+ in true love.

Overall Rating :

 

Reviews :

Private Lessons by KyAnn Waters

Solid Education by Bianca Sommerland

Winning Bracket by Annabeth Albert

Lessons Learned by Dalton Diaz

Did Someone Order a Pizza ? by L.A Witt

The Eloquent Jock by Cassandra Carr

The Dust of Everyday Life by Sara York

Switching Leads by Mia Downing

Artistic Endeavor by Whitley Gray

 

Hi all 🙂

 

Thanks for offering to answer these questions and for participating in the final piece of out first anthology week featuring your new release , Campus Cravings.

 

So first question seems pretty obvious, how did you all decide/come to write an anthology together?

Cassandra Carr I’ve project-managed a bundle before (Bring On the Heat) so when I didn’t find any male-male focused bundles out there, I decided I wanted to do one. I started talking to my friends who write in the genre. Soon, we had our “cast of authors” and started talking about what we wanted to do. I knew I wanted to set it in a college town and do interrelated stories and the authors seemed to like the idea. They put a lot of faith in me and I hope they feel like they put that trust in the right place!

Mia Downing Cassandra invited me, and I was honored to say yes and drag KyAnn Waters along with me.

Whitley Gray Cassandra contacted me last spring and asked if I’d be interested in working on a story bundle set on a college campus. I had some character idea notes about a college professor sitting in a file, and it seemed like a perfect way to create a story about him.

KyAnn Waters I have my friend Mia Downing to thank for the invite to write with these amazing authors.

Annabeth Albert I have beta read for Cassandra for a long time now. One night in chat we were brainstorming possible bundles for m/m, and being the amazing person she is, she put this amazing group together. I’m honored to be included.

 

Why choose this particular (college) subject to write about?

Cassandra Carr College is a great time to set stories with LGBT characters. Many of them are finally out of their parents’ clutches and have a little more freedom; but despite that, many still feel they can’t be their true selves. The setting is rife for both conflict and love.

Mia Downing It’s fun and lends a wide variety of topics that readers can enjoy and relate with in some manner.

Whitley Gray A college setting allowed for a wide variety of characters: younger men to older men; experienced guys and naïve ones; jocks to geeks. The community gave us a lot of off-campus locations to utilize. It’s an exciting time of discovery in a guy’s life.

KyAnn Waters Hot college men appeal to me.

Annabeth Albert I was a Resident Assistant. Choosing two competing RAs was like revisiting one of my favorite times, but I also got to put a fun twist on it. March Madness was a natural for me because I’m a huge basketball fan.

 

If you need to name one story in this anthology you liked best (mean question I know because they are all great !) which one would you name?

Cassandra Carr Oh wow. I loved them all – I truly did! Annabeth Albert’s two RA’s were pretty adorable, though. But then again, I could say that about Gage and Derek in Bianca’s story, or Adam and Tyler in Dalton Diaz’s story…I could go on, but you get the point. I know I’m the project manager, so I should be saying good things about the bundle, but the stories truly, truly are magnificent. I’m so proud of all of us!

Mia Downing  I liked them all! One of the reasons I said yes to writing a piece for the anthology is the depth of talent surrounding mine. A reader just can’t go wrong.

Whitley Gray One story? I can’t choose; just can’t. I inhaled them, savored every last one. I was thrilled to be asked to work with this group of authors, many of whom were already auto-buys for me.

Annabeth Albert I love them all. I beta read Cassandra’s so I have special fondness for her hockey player, but this is such an amazing collection of stories.

 

How was your own college experience like ?

Cassandra Carr I wasn’t a big fan of college. I couldn’t wait to get out and “only” work forty hours a week. I took fifteen or sixteen credit hours a semester, went year-round, worked in a restaurant twenty or twenty-five hours a week, and did two internships. However, now that I’m a writer, the forty-hour work-week is a fantasy. It’s probably closer to sixty.

Mia Downing My college experience involved working full time, taking an overload of classes, and playing set-back in the cafeteria. Not very exciting.

Whitley Gray In college I was a hard sciences major with a Fine Arts bent. The science was a must for a career in healthcare; art allowed me to get a completely different experience, and art has remained a way to relax ever since. It was natural for me to create characters involved in art.

KyAnn Waters Fun, free and over too quickly.

Annabeth Albert I was a total nerd. Obsessed with grades and making honor roll. Looking back, I don’t think I made enough time for fun, but it still gave me some amazing memories.

 

Did you as authors discuss the underlying connection between the stories?

Cassandra Carr We have a secret Facebook group where we had lots of debates and brainstorming. As part of that, there’s a huge “bundle bible” with information about our different characters, so we could add them to other stories, locations both on and off campus that our characters might frequent, and a ton of other little details that many readers may not even notice. But it was so much fun having commonalities, and the readers really do seem to love the bundle so far!

Mia Downing We did discuss the underlying connection between the stories and had several documents laying out the buildings, courses, outside businesses and other aspects. It was a lot of fun!

Whitley Gray We discussed some of the basics underlying the stories, like the location and name of the campus. Thereafter, we each contributed to a master document as we went along. This allowed us to pull common locations, like Sunshine’s Café and integrate them in several stories. This was my first time working on this kind of a project, and I enjoyed it very much. This was a great group to work with!

KyAnn Waters Sharing our stories as they developed, I think, inspired all of us.

Annabeth Albert That was the fun part! We created a whole town together and our shared conversations were so much fun!!

 

Last question, The praise is very high for this anthology, does that mean there will be a sequel coming someday?

Cassandra Carr Could be, you never know! 😉

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions!

Dani

Rafflecopter Prize : 6  ( Yes 6 !! ) backlist choice titles  from an author featured in this anthology

a Rafflecopter giveaway