A warm welcome to author Jaime Samms joining us today to talk about new release “Wheels and Heels”

Welcome Jaimee 🙂

Best. Office Ever.

One of the things my husband has always been interested in is the dynamic around a local pub. He’s always thought it would be great to own a pub with a small, competent staff and a family of loyal regulars. I like the idea of that. (Honestly, more than I would like the reality of it. I’ve worked in bars and restaurants, and I make a pretty snarky server!)

But just because I don’t necessarily want to be the owner of a real pub doesn’t mean the idea doesn’t have merit. So why not make a pub just like this the focal point for some characters? I invented a place something like Cheers, but better and of course, more queer.

And then…

After getting part way through the first book, I had the chance to visit Toronto and stay a few weeks in a great little apartment in Cabbagetown, on the top floor of a building with just such a pub at street level: The Stout Irish Pub.

It is, as described in the first chapter, a cross between an Irish pub, a hang-out where you can play board games and drink beer, and a gay bar. Lots of wood. Lots of big, open tables, lots of friendly staff.

The first year I took this trip to Toronto, I ate in the pub a couple of times. It has good food and great staff. It was comfortable and friendly. I felt at home.

The second year, well into book two, but stymied for a few plot points, I thought why sit in the empty apartment on my own trying to stay off the internet and focus, when I could take a break and go downstairs for a beer and a bit of a break.

I ended up staying for hours scribbling in a notebook, and so, my handwriting being the atrocity that it is, the next day I brought my computer down with me. And the next…and the next. I had found my inspiration for the Hen and Hog. And, incidentally, a bartender who managed to serve me quite a few really good brands of beer.

 

I haunted that pub every day for two weeks, and it was the most productive two weeks o my summer, which just goes to show that sometimes the advice of “have a dedicated writing place” isn’t necessarily the same place for every book!

 

Now, of course, my Hen and Hog isn’t exactly like The Stout. There are some similarities, but a lot of differences, as well. I do hope I captured the friendly, cozy and comfortable atmosphere I found there. I also hope I managed to portray a fictional staff worthy of the great staff who let me perch on one of their stools all afternoon, many afternoons in a row, to write my book. I didn’t model the characters after them so much as try to recreate the feel of a place I will always remember with fondness and gratitude.

 

 

About Wheels and Heels

As a teenager, Ira Bedford fled a troubled home life and people who didn’t understand his penchant for feminine things. In the city, he fell in with Cedric, who found him work as an underage stripper. It took him years to escape Cedric’s influence and try to build a life of his own.

Now, he just wants to be left alone to create his art. But Cedric’s on-going harassment means Ira had to drop out of art school, is squatting in a friend’s apartment, and is still relying on his allure as a sexy, skirt-wearing exotic dancer to pay his bills.

Then he meets Jed. Part-time bartender and the apartment building’s superintendent, Jed is just the right mix of strong, kind, and protective to pull Ira out of hiding. He also welcomes Ira into his chosen family at the Hen and Hog Pub. But Ira yearns for more. Still, he doesn’t dare to hope that Jed will want him and his questionable past, his skirts and high heels, his hang-ups, and the profession he seems unable to escape. But Jed will do anything to prove him wrong.

Available now from Riptide Publishing!
Amazon

About Jaime Samms

Jaime has been writing for various publishers since the fall of 2008, although she’s been writing for herself far longer. Her Stories about men falling in love are the stories that she loves to read, so it seemed to make sense if she was going to write, they would also be the stories she wrote.

These days, you can find plenty of free reading on her website. She also writes for Various Publishers.

Spare time, when it can be found rolled into a ball at the back of the dryer or cavorting with the dust bunnies in the corners, is spent crocheting, drawing, gardening (weather permitting, of course, since she is Canadian!), or watching movies. She has a day job, as well, which she loves, and two kids, but thankfully, also a wonderful husband who shoulders more than his fair share of household and child-care responsibilities.

She graduated some time ago from college with a fine arts diploma, and a major in textile arts, which basically qualifies her to draw pictures and create things with string and fabric. One always needs an official slip of paper to fall back on after all . . .

Connect with Jaime:

Website: http://jaime-samms.com

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000982219151&ref=tn_tnmn

Livejournal:http://dontkickmycane.livejournal.com/

Deviantart: http://dontkickmycane.deviantart.com/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/JaimeSamms

Amazon Author page: amazon.com/author/jaimesamms

To celebrate the release of Wheels and Heels, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 17, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!