A warm welcome to author C.B. Lee joining us today here @Love Bytes on their blog tour for Seven Tears at High Tide.
Welcome, C.B. Lee!
Author Name: C.B. Lee
Book Name: Seven Tears at High Tide
Release Date: October 15, 2015
Pages or Words: 234 pages
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: C.B. Lee
Cover Design by C.B. Messer
Blurb:
Kevin Luong walks to the ocean’s edge with a broken heart. Remembering a legend his mother told him, he lets seven tears fall into the sea. “I just want one summer—one summer to be happy and in love.” Instead, he finds himself saving a mysterious boy from the Pacific—a boy who later shows up on his doorstep professing his love. What he doesn’t know is that Morgan is a selkie, drawn to answer Kevin’s wish. As they grow close, Morgan is caught between the dangers of the human world and his legacy in the selkie community to which he must return at summer’s end.
Categories: Contemporary, Fantasy, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance, Young Adult
Today I’m very happy to be interviewing C.B. Lee, author of Seven Tears at High Tide. Hi C.B., thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Hello, I’m so excited to be here today! Thank you for interviewing me. I’m a bisexual writer who grew up in California. My current novel is Seven Tears at High Tide, which takes place on the central California coast and is about a boy who meets a selkie and falls in love. I hope people will enjoy reading it! I definitely enjoyed writing this story— there’s adventure and magic and plenty of romance all tucked into a dreamy setting.
Tell us something no one else knows about your characters.
Something no one knows about Kevin— his passion for geology and his rock collecting habits are borrowed from my own! In the novel I describe a few of his favorite pieces, and one of them is a favorite piece in my own collection, a piece of olivine on basalt that looks like a piece of sushi.
What inspires you in life or in writing?
People and nature are a constant inspiration. I think everyone has a story; where they came from, where they’re going, what’s happened to them. I love getting to know someone and the process where details about what make them who they are start to unfold, they start sharing more and more with you as you become close, and it’s a constant fascination about the common and uncommon experiences that people have. I’m also always inspired by our wonderful and ever changing world; not just the beauty but also how the landscape affects the people, what sort of stories come from people who live in a particular place.
What is the most important thing about your subject/genre that people need to know?
That young adult fiction is important, and I feel like often novels that are popular and enjoyed by young people are often discounted as inconsequential, that it’s not “real” fiction. There’s a lot of this attitude in society today, actually, that devalues things that are aimed at young people or is enjoyed by them, and it’s a shame because I’ve found the most riveting novels in the genre, novels that are unafraid of dealing with heavy topics, novels that take exciting and new ways to look at old tropes, novels that challenge the status quo of literature all the time. Young adult fiction are the stories that the youth of tomorrow grow up on, the type of stories we remember as adults.
How did you become involved in the subject/theme of your book?
I was first inspired on one of my travels when I was on a road trip by myself; it was a transitional time in my life, after college, and it wasn’t the happiest time in my life, but it was good. There was a particularly melancholy day when I was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway and I pulled off to stop and see the seals at the Piedras Blancas rookery. I was just captivated by the landscape and the seals; there was one seal just sitting by itself in the surf, not with the others and just seeming to watch the waves come in, and I thought, there’s a story here.
What famous person (living or dead) would you like to meet and why?
I’d love to meet Cheng Shih, who died in 1804. She was the most famous and successful Chinese pirate who ever lived, and I think she’d have some amazing stories about what her life was like— she commanded over 300 ships and anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 pirates and was feared and respected throughout the Qing Dynasty. Cheng was also one of the few pirates who retired from piracy and lived to old age; I just think she’d be incredibly interesting to talk to about not just Chinese culture but the clash of the other rising empires at the time, and what it was like living as a woman in that era.
They wander into the house, wipe their wet feet on the welcome mat, climb up the stairs and giggle as they pass Ann’s bedroom. She’s dancing with her headphones on, oblivious to the open door, swaying to the beat.
In Kevin’s bedroom, he quickly scrounges up some clean shirts and shorts. “Here, you can wear this,” he says, handing an outfit to Morgan and then ducking into his bathroom to change. He peels off the wetsuit and hangs it up in his shower, then leans his surfboard carefully against the wall, eyeing the crack. He’ll have to fix it tomorrow.
When he returns, Morgan is holding onto the wet board shorts, wearing the outfit Kevin gave him. He looks curiously at the rock collection prominently displayed on Kevin’s bookshelf. “These are beautiful,” he says.
“Here, I’ll take that,” Kevin says, holding out his hand for the bedraggled board shorts to hang in his shower. He’s certain now that they’re the ones from the lifeguard’s lost and found. Kevin’s starting to worry that Morgan doesn’t have any other clothes, but he doesn’t know how to bring it up. Money can be a touchy subject.
Morgan holds Kevin’s favorite specimen, a piece of green olivine on basalt. Kevin once almost convinced Ann it was an avocado roll—it certainly looks like one, bright green speckled with sesame seeds, wrapped in dark seaweed.
“That’s from Mexico. My family went on vacation to Baja last year, and I got that out of an old volcano.” He tries his best to describe the sweltering heat and the excitement of finding geodes and cracking them open with a hammer. Morgan listens in rapt silence as Kevin talks about the find and tilts the olivine so it catches the light. He sets it back in its spot behind its label, slowly so as not to disturb the other specimens, and Kevin is quietly pleased with Morgan’s careful appreciation.
“I changed my mind,” Kevin blurts out.
“About what?”
“I do want this to be a date. For us, to do that,” he says, blushing. “I like you. A lot.”
Morgan’s face breaks into a bright, happy smile.
“And what do we do differently, for this to be a date?”
Kevin can feel the heat on his cheeks. “We can hold hands, if you like. Um, or kiss, if you want to. But we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I’m fine just hanging out and watching a movie with you.”
Morgan tilts his head and steps closer. “I want to,” he says, not specifying what, but Kevin knows immediately.
It’s just the quickest brush of lips, but Kevin feels it all the way to his toes. A warm curl of excitement blooms throughout his body, and Morgan’s mouth is warm and wet against his. It’s not like any kiss he’s had, chaste and sweet and over in a second, and yet his heart is still pounding after Morgan leans back. He’s close enough for Kevin to be able to count the eyelashes dark against his cheek.
Morgan ducks his head and asks, “Was that okay?”
Kevin’s a little dazed, but he finds his voice. “Yeah. Yeah, that was great.”
Buy the book:
C.B. Lee is a bisexual writer, rock climber and pinniped enthusiast based in California. Lee enjoys reading, hiking and other outdoor pursuits. Seven Tears At High Tide is a first novel.
Connect with C.B. at cb-lee.com, on Facebook, on Twitter @author_cblee, and on Goodreads.
Tour Dates & Stops:
15-Oct: Prism Book Alliance, Happily Ever Chapter, Velvet Panic, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Michael Mandrake, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
16-Oct: BFD Book Blog, Books A to Z, The Jena Wade
19-Oct: It’s Raining Men, Hearts on Fire, Bayou Book Junkie
20-Oct: Divine Magazine, Three Books Over The Rainbow, Bike Book Reviews
21-Oct: Amanda C. Stone, Just Love Romance, Mikky’s World of Books
2-Oct: Emotion in Motion, Kimi-Chan, Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings
23-Oct: Molly Lolly, Love Bytes
26-Oct: Boys on the Brink Reviews, Inked Rainbow Reads
27-Oct: Cathy Brockman Romances, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, MM Good Book Reviews
28-Oct: TTC Books and More, My Fiction Nook
Rafflecopter Prize: $25 Interlude Press Gift Card to one grand prize winner plus copies of the Seven Tears at High Tide multi-format eBook to five winners
Congrats on the release. Going on the wishlist.
Thank you so much!
Thank you Love Bytes for hosting me today, it’s been wonderful!
Hi, CB, and congratulations!
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