The Boys in the Band blog tour is stopping here to visit Sid Love today, with authors Rowan Speedwell, Paula Coots, Cecilia Tan, and L.A. Witt,. Each of these writers has brought a rock star to life in a recent romance release, so they got together to talk about music, musicians, love, and good old “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Today they answer the question: “What makes your main character unique among all the other novels with rock stars as protagonists?”
Scroll down for the answer and a chance to win a prize pack of all four books!
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Hard rock band Schadenfreude is finally on the verge of the success that’s eluded them for the last several years. With Aaron McClure as their new lead singer, nothing’s going to stop them…except maybe a steamy, secret relationship between Aaron and bassist Bastian Koehler. Aaron knows all too well what can happen when band members get involved with each other. After all, his last band was a casualty of his last relationship, and Schadenfreude forbids band members from dating for that very reason. But Bastian is too hot to resist, and besides, it’s just sex, so what’s the harm? Their passion in the bedroom is rivaled only by their ambition as musicians, though, and pretty soon, it’s going to tear them, and Schadenfreude apart, if they can’t get back to playing with the band.
ANO
THER ROCK STAR by Paula Coots
Music is the driving force in Reed Lang’s life and he’s hit the jackpot when it comes to signing a major label deal and scoring a hit single or two. It’s never an easy task and certainly not for an out and proud gay man, even in this day and age. Now, it’s time to hire the backing band, shoot the videos, do all the promotion work and get out on the road. But what happens onstage is only half the show. When the wild energy onstage can’t be contained some become more than just hired hands. Friends. Mentors. Tormenters. Lovers. Surviving the circus of the music business, the rigors of the road, staying true to your art and discovering your heart show Reed that maybe there is more to life than being just another rock star.
DARON’S GUITAR CHRONICLES by Cecilia Tan
It’s the 1980s, the era of MTV, AIDS, and Just Say No. Daron Marks is trying to make it as a guitar player in an industry where the whole world is the closet. Keeping his sexuality a secret would be a lot easier if he hadn’t developed a huge crush on his band’s lead singer, Ziggy Ferias. In fact, everything would be a lot easier without his crush on Ziggy… except for fame itself. In the latest volume of Daron’s Guitar Chronicles (volume 5), Moondog 3 are on the road. Is the tour bus the pressure cooker that will meld them together or will the pressure blow them apart?
ILLUMINATION by Rowan Speedwell
Adam Craig is burned out. Lead singer of the hard rock band Black Varen, he’s tired of the empty life of groupies, paparazzi, and hotel rooms. Worse, a life in the closet. Miles Caldwell is a brilliant artist, tied by agoraphobia and social anxiety to his family’s lodge. Alone but for his parrot, he spends his days illuminating manuscripts and hiding from the complexities of life. Somehow, the man who’s never home and the man who never leaves it must find the strength to fight for a future together.
Today’s question: What makes your main character unique among all the other novels with rock stars as protagonists?
Rowan Speedwell: In “Illumination,” Adam has the success that other artists would kill for, and doesn’t care. He sees it as a job. The other guys in the band love the life, but Adam doesn’t. But he’s the one that brought them to the place they are now, and they know it. He’s mature enough to know that they depend on him, so he can’t blow them off, but he’s also irresponsible enough to give in to his self-indulgence. He’s not completely focused on the band, and that’s both his strength and his weakness.
Paula Coots: Reed, the lead character in “Another Rock Star,” tells this story. He’s beautiful and knows it, but he’s not some super human, perfect rock god. He also knows he’s good, but he still suffers from insecurities and struggles with the scars of growing up gay in a society that is still far from accepting. He has a lot to learn, and he learns it, mostly the hard way. I tried to translate every thought, feeling and sensation of his experience. He’s very in touch with himself. Whether it’s his music or his lovers, he never does anything halfway.
Cecilia Tan: I haven’t read a ton of other rock star books to compare with, actually, but what’s interesting to me is that now a lot of them seem to be popping up! (Hence this blog tour!) A lot of them tend to have the lead singer as the main character. In “Daron’s Guitar Chronicles” I do it backwards. Daron is the one behind the guitar, off to the side, while someone else stands at center stage in the spotlight. But of course that person, Ziggy, is who he falls for. Ziggy isn’t even introduced at the start of the book because if I did, he’d dominate the story. Ziggy, being a lead-singer-type, is always the center of attention. I had to give Daron’s Guitar Chronicles a slow buildup in order to give Daron time to establish his voice and his presence before Ziggy could take over.
L.A. Witt: Well, most rock band books I read center around the lead singer of a signed, established band. Usually a rock star in the truest sense. In With the Band, the POV character is the lead singer, but his love interest is the bassist, a softspoken German named Bastian Koehler, who remains one of my favorite characters from my own books (the book was written in 2010). I’m not even sure what it is about him. He’s just got this quiet charisma that gives me goose bumps. In the book Cat Grant and I are writing right now, our band is signed and well-established, and the lead singer has….well, dude’s got some issues, and he’s also got some kinks he has a hell of a time exploring because most of his partners have been afraid to go there. Now he’s with his bodyguard, and if real life would stop interfering, they might actually get the hang of this kink thing.
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a prize pack including all four ebooks below!
About the Authors:
Paula Coots: After seeing David Bowie and his lead guitarist, Mick Ronson, when she was eleven, Paula knew what she wanted to do with her life. Her plan was to play lead guitar in a band and hopefully make it big, and then after that focus on writing. Well, she didn’t “make it big” as a rock star, but she has had her share of traveling band adventures as a lead guitarist over the past twenty five years. And now she writes!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulaCootsBooks | Twitter: @PaulaRCoots
Rowan Speedwell lives in a tarpaper shack in the North Woods, without so much as cable TV to keep her warm. She is allergic to publicity and loathes marketing, so her books only sell one or two copies. If you have one, she thanks you, as your purchase enables her to buy cat food for her diabetic feline companion, Kimball O’Hara.
Webite: www.rowanspeedwell.com | Twitter: @RowanSpeedwell
Cecilia Tan mostly writes erotica and science fiction/fantasy, but she started writing Daron’s Guitar Chronicles back in the eighties and is still writing it today. She is the author of Slow Surrender, The Prince’s Boy, the Magic University books, and many other novels and stories. She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners GLBT Writers Hall of Fame in 2010 and is currently a nominee for the RT Magazine Career Achievement Award in erotic fiction. She lives in the fantasy utopia of Cambridge, Massachusetts with her three cats and her partner of 23 years.
Daron serial website: http://daron.ceciliatan.com | Blog: http://blog.ceciliatan.com | Twitter: @ceciliatan | Facebook: thececiliatan
L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer currently living in the glamorous and ultra-futuristic metropolis of Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, two cats, and a disembodied penguin brain that communicates with her telepathically. In addition to writing smut and disturbing the locals, L.A. is said to be working with the US government to perfect a genetic modification that will allow humans to survive indefinitely on Corn Pops and beef jerky. This is all a cover, though, as her primary leisure activity is hunting down her arch nemesis, erotica author Lauren Gallagher, who is also said to be lurking somewhere in Omaha.
Website: http://www.loriawitt.com | Blog: http://gallagherwitt.blogspot.com | Twitter: @GallagherWitt
Other stops on the Boys in the Band Tour: Dec 4 Sinfully Sexy Books | Dec 6 MM Good Book Reviews | Dec 10 Pants Off Reviews | Dec 11 Mrs. Condit Reads Books | Dec 12 Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words | Dec 13 3 Chicks After Dark | Dec 14 Sid Love | Dec 16 Em Lynley’s Literary Love Shack | Dec 19 Joyfully Jay | Dec 18 Boys in Our Books | Dec 23 Elisa Rolle’s Reviews and Ramblings
I’ve always loved the sidemen in bands, and bands with no clear “star” (Sloan, the Posies). Already love WITH THE BAND, and can’t wait to read the others!
It’s always interesting to see how they handle the fame, whether they are already famous or they are still working toward it. Thank you for the giveaway.
I love stories about rock bands.