A warm welcome to author Joy Lynn Fielding visiting Love Bytes today on her pride promotion blog tour for new release “Blowing Off Steam”
Joy Lynn kindly answered some questions for us , shares an excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome Joy Lynn 🙂
Author Name: Joy Lynn Fielding
Book Name: Blowing Off Steam
Release Date: May 26 th 2015
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Cover Artist: Syneca
Pages or Words: 66,000 words
Blurb:
Two guys, a train, and lots of steam.
Sam Chancellor has been in love with the steam engine Old Bess since he was six years old. Well, maybe not literally, but even when he’s lost everything else in his life, he’s always had her. But now her place in his heart has been unexpectedly challenged. Her new driver, Ryan Saunders, is the embodiment of all Sam’s fantasies.
Ryan has written off Sam as just another geeky trainspotter—until the moment Ryan sees him without his usual shapeless hoodie and realizes that, for a nerd, Sam’s pretty built.
When Ryan overlooks Sam’s awkwardness long enough to suggest a hook-up, Sam seizes the opportunity—and Ryan—with both very eager hands. Finding common ground in their shared love of Bess, their time together is better than Sam ever dared dream.
But there’s a reason Ryan never talks about his past. And when Ryan’s job is threatened, Sam’s well-meaning intervention puts both Ryan and Bess in deadly danger.
Warning: Contains train geekery, bed-hogging, a hero with no experience and another with plenty to spare, and a spider called Mabel.
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, M/M Romance
Buy Links:
Tell us a bit about Blowing off Steam. What was your inspiration for this story?
Blowing Off Steam is the story of a trainspotter, an engine driver, and the locomotive they’re both in love with. It features train geekiness and skullduggery, along with enough cups of tea to drown a small country.
I actually have no idea where this story came from, although I can identify the origins of bits and pieces. As a child I’d stand by the railway line at the bottom of our lane and wave to passing trains and be thrilled whenever the driver sounded the horn in response. And I still bear the mental scars from travelling with a trainspotting colleague who got incredibly excited by the fact the engine pulling our train was a 44/7 class loco (apparently) and proceeded to share his enthusiasm for the 44 class for the entire two-hour journey. But there’s no specific trigger I can identify for the story or the characters—they just turned up in my head one day.
What was challenging for you in writing this book?
Stopping myself from editorializing Ryan’s thoughts. He’s an arrogant sod at times, and part of this finds expression in the way he judges and categorizes people. I’m uneasy with some of those categories because they reflect age and gender bias, among others, but they’re part of his world view and so I had to sit on my hands and leave them in.
What was easy about it?
Writing Sam. I can’t remember the last time I encountered such a talkative character who was so eager to share every last detail of his life, especially those relating to the most beautiful steam locomotive in the world.
Where would be your perfect train trip?
Am I allowed two? After writing this book and falling a little in love with steam trains, I’d love to travel the West Highland Line in Scotland by steam train. The route winds through beautiful countryside and crosses the Harry Potter viaduct. I’d also love to take the Rocky Mountaineer trip from Banff to Vancouver that I had to cancel a few years back due to ill-health. I was lucky enough to take the Whistler Mountaineer a couple of years ago from Vancouver to Whistler, and the absolutely stunning scenery on that trip went a long way to making up for the disappointment (the gallons of Canadian wine we were plied with en route made up for the rest of it!).
What is your secret (or not so secret!) vice?
Coffee. And wine. Not at the same time, of course.
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I’m eager to get started on the final book in my Strength of the Pack series. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll be writing next, other than that it will be m/m romance. As Blowing Off Steam demonstrates, I can never tell from where inspiration might strike!
Blowing Off Steam by Joy Lynn Fielding
“You’re kind of built for a nerd, aren’t you?” Ryan said. “I guess trainspotting’s a more active hobby than I’d thought.”
Sam should have walked away because this guy was insufferable. Except there was humour gleaming in those eyes as well as something else. Something that if he wasn’t entirely losing his mind was actual, sexual interest.
In him, Sam Chancellor.
“It’s all that running alongside the engines to get the numbers down,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
To his amazement, Ryan laughed. A true laugh that caused his eyes to crinkle at the corners. It made him even more gorgeous than he already was.
“Ryan Saunders,” he said. “I drive old Bessie.”
“Bessie?” Sam was horrified at the heresy. “She’s Bess. She’s always been Bess.”
“Given I’m the one whose hands have been over every inch of her, I guess she’s allowing me intimacies the general public doesn’t get,” Ryan said.
The low seductive voice and the thought of Ryan’s hands stroking over him the way they did over Bess meant Sam was getting hard. He clutched his satchel in front of him like some sort of shield, except that wasn’t helping at all because it was pressed against his dick and, God above, he was about to get a hard-on, here and now, right in front of Ryan Saunders.
“You haven’t told me your name,” Ryan said.
“Sam,” he choked out. “Sam Chancellor, and I have to go.”
He put his head down and fled.
Joy Lynn Fielding lives in a small English market town, where she indulges her passions for vintage aircraft, horse-riding and gardening (though not all at the same time).
Joy has a tendency to wax lyrical about the fascinating facts she discovers during her research for books. Thankfully she has a very patient Labrador who has a gift for looking interested in what she’s saying while he waits for the food to arrive.
Where to find the author:
Email: [email protected]
Blog: http://www.joyfielding.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joylynn.fielding
Tour Dates & Stops:
25-May
26-May
Book Reviews and More by Kathy
27-May
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
28-May
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
The Fuzzy, Fluffy World of Chris T. Kat
29-May
Rafflecopter Prize: $20 Amazon gift card
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Congratulations on your new release! I’ve never been on a train other than to get from A to B but I’d love to visit Canada and go on a leisure train trip it would be wonderful.
ShirleyAnn(at)speakman40(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk
Hi Shirley and many thanks! I’m not a big fan of commuter trains, but the idea of a leisurely train trip through beautiful countryside is just my cup of tea. 🙂
Thank you so much for having me here today! I’ll be around all day if anyone has any questions for me, about trains or anything else. I’d love to find out if anyone else has a dream train trip they’d like to take.
Can’t wait to read this book!
Thanks, kp! I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Hi! I’ve never took a train ride but would love to.
I hope you get to take a train trip one day, Sherry – they can be great fun, sitting and watching the world go by, and getting a different perspective than from the road.
Hi Joy – I have ridden trains in Verde Valley, AZ and also to a ghost town in Southern AZ (that one no longer runs :-(). I have also ridden the wine train in Napa, CA. 🙂
Love the cover of your new book and the synopsis sounds great.
I think you’ve just given me more train trips to add to my bucket list. They sound wonderful! And thank you very much. 🙂
I love train trips. I use to take one from San Diego to Los Angeles to visit a girlfriend.
That sounds like a lovely route, Laurie. I always love the way trains provide a different perspective from being on a road (and you don’t have to watch out for other traffic, either!).
I took a train ride in 3rd grade as a field trip from a town about 15 miles away to my hometown! I remember we had so much fun!
Oh, I bet. 🙂 Your school knew how to do field trips – we never did anything that much fun!