Today we have Piper Vaughn and Avon Gale and they are here today to talk about our sexy new contemporary romance, Permanent Ink, in which the worlds of street art and tattooing collide when a silver-fox tattoo artist falls for his much younger apprentice – who also happens to be his best friend’s son.
What was the inspiration for this book?
Hello! I’m Avon Gale, and I’m here to talk to you today about Permanent Ink, co-written with the lovely and talented Piper Vaughn!
Permanent Ink is the story of a young, somewhat aimless graffiti artist named Poe, who has just been arrested for defacing public property…and not for the first time. Poe’s father, Landon, is a bit fed up with his son’s lack of direction (not to mention the court costs) and is at his wit’s end about what to do with him. Luckily, Landon’s best friend, Jericho, has a solution – he’ll hire Poe as his front desk receptionist, and if Poe can prove he’s responsible, he’ll take Poe on as a tattoo apprentice.
Of course, Jericho doesn’t expect to find Poe so attractive, especially considering he’s seventeen years younger than Jericho and the son of Jericho’s best friend. Poe, for his part, always knew that Jericho was hot…but he’s seriously distracted by it now that they’re around each other all the time. He starts having some intense daddy kink fantasies while Jericho tries to deny there’s anything between them…and fails. Of course there’s a happy ending, and we think our boys worked hard for it!
The inspiration for this novel came from my own tattoo artist (who has sadly moved ☹ ), back in January. My husband and I got tattoos to celebrate the fact we’d been together for twenty years (we started dating in college, back in 1996), and we decided to get Crow Robot and Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theatre 3000, which is both of our favorite show (one of our first dates was to see the movie on campus!). Anyway, my tattoo artist was amazing but not the fastest, and by the time he’d finished with Mr. Gale’s tattoo, it was close to 10 pm and I still had to get mine. So the shop empties out and it’s just the two of us, and my artist starts telling me a little about his life story and how he got into tattooing.
It’s not exactly the same as Jericho’s backstory, but there are similarities. Basically, my tattoo artist was friends with a kid whose uncle was a tattoo artist, and said uncle sort of stepped in and gave my artist a chance to learn tattooing to help him get his act together. My artist told the story with a lot of obvious affection (and liberal usage of the f-word, LOL), and remarked that the best thing he ever did was skateboard out in front of this guy’s shop. I immediately loved the idea of someone learning tattooing as a way to find direction, and his story put the May/December idea into my head (because my brain immediately filters all stories into romance).
I told Piper about it (the next day, since I was there until close to 1 am, haha) and thus, Permanent Ink was born! We knew we wanted to write a book together and I thought she’d be totally into the idea, since I know she loves tattooing as much as I do. She was the one who suggested Poe be into graffiti, and things sort of fell into place after that.
There’s a character in the story, Jericho’s mentor, whose name is Chris. He’s named after my tattoo artist in homage for telling me that story!
About Permanent Ink
At twenty-three, Poe Montgomery is going nowhere. He still lives in his father’s basement and spends most of his time tagging with his friends. When an arrest lands him in debt, Poe accepts the front desk job at Permanent Ink, the tattoo shop owned by his father’s best friend, Jericho McAslan. Jericho is nearly twice Poe’s age, but with his ink and prematurely graying hair, he quickly takes the starring role in Poe’s hottest fantasies.
Jericho is known for his ability to transform poorly designed tattoos into works of art, but he was once as aimless and misdirected as Poe. Wanting to pay it forward the way someone once did for him, Jericho makes Poe his apprentice and is determined to keep things strictly professional. Easier said than done when Poe makes his interest—and his daddy kink—abundantly clear.
Jericho can’t resist Poe or their intense chemistry for long. But between the age gap, tension with Poe’s father, and Poe’s best friend calling him a sellout, they’ll need to ensure they’re both on the same page before they can rewrite their rocky start into something permanent.
Now available from:
About Avon Gale
Avon grew up in the southern United States, and now lives with her very patient husband in a liberal Midwestern college town. When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music or yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together, already. Avon is always up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress relieving as a good rock concert, and will never say no to candy.
At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare. This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.
Connect with Avon:
- Website: www.avongalewrites.com
- Blog: www.avongalewrites.com/category/blog/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/avongalewrites
- Twitter: @avongalewrites
- Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/avongalewrites/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/avongale/
About Piper Vaughn
Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great book—fantasy, young adult, romance, sci-fi, she loves them all (and has an over-two-thousand-book library to prove it!). She’s an avid tea drinker, a hockey fanatic, a vintage typewriter collector, and loves to travel so much she has “wanderlust” tattooed on her ankle and dozens of countries on her bucket list. Recently, she discovered the world of nail art and realized she’s pretty handy with a paintbrush—as long as it’s a miniature one.
As a bisexual and Latinx person, Piper takes great pride in her heritage. She grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood and strives to put faces and characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real one. She currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, son, and a cat that has Piper wrapped around her little paw. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life … even if it’s only in a book.
Connect with Piper:
- Website: http://pipervaughn.com/
- Blog: https://pipervaughn.wordpress.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pipervaughn
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pipervaughn
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pipervaughn7/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piper.vaughn/
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104698982870458063898
To celebrate the release of Permanent Ink, one lucky winner will receive a $20 Amazon gift card and a “Poe” coffee mug! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on August 12, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
I can’t wait to read this book!
kathleenpower at comcast dot net
This looks like a good read. I would love to be entered into the amazon contest. Bernie W BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
This sounds sooo good! And I love the cover!
susanaperez7140(at)Gmail(dot)com
I love learning about story inspirations. Thanks for sharing it to us! I’m sure that Chris, your tattoo artist, would feel honored if he learn about his involvement in the creation of this book. <3
mushyvince(at)gmail(dot)com
This is the kind of inspiration post I love to sink my teeth into. I’m so glad you shared it. Congrats on 20 years! peachescon(at)gmail(dot)com
What a great inspiration for a story, it’s always fun to learn where the ideas come from and I absolutely love this cover! <3
jenndonald00(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks for the background of the inspiration for this story. The book sounds great!
heath0043 at gmail dot com
I Enjoyed reading the background. It is nice to have insight.
debby236 at gmail dot com
This looks so interesting!
Sylvie dot weir at yahoo dot ca
Congrats on the release!
legacylandlisa at gmail dot com
Thanks for the post. Congrats on the release and the collaboration. Have it on my buy list, and look forward to reading
redmd@juno.com
congrats on your new release
leetee2007(at)hotmail(dot)com
Congrats on your collab work together =)
humhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
I saw the movie on campus, too! Didn’t find true love, though (sad trumpets)…
vitajex@aol dot com
Loved this book! Cannot wait for the next one. I hope it’s Chris’ story with Blue =)
amie_07(at)yahoo(dot)com
Congrats, Avon & Piper, and thanks for the sharing about your inspiration. I imagine it’s good for writers to be open to different things to write about, and I’ll bet there can be a lot of ideas, just which ones to pursue to fruition must be tough. – Purple Reader,
TheWrote [at] aol [dot] com
Great post! I love hearing how stories come together . So glad the two of you collaborated on this one. I plan on starting Permanent Ink tonight. 🙂
lkbherring64(at)gmail(dot)com
Congrats on the new release! And thanks for the guest post.
serena91291@gmail(dot)com