Today we have Pride Promotions blog tour of Jude Dunn stopping by at Love Bytes.
There is an excerpt , a giveaway and Jude kindly answered a few questions for us 🙂
Book Name: One Thing Leads
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/26499311-jude-dunn
Author Name: Jude Dunn
I’m a southern boy. Well, “boy” may be a stretch. I’m sixty-one this year, but I still feel like I’m twenty-two and act like I’m nine-and-a-half. Grew up in north Alabama, smack-dab in the middle of the Bible belt.
I discovered I was attracted to boys at age fourteen. Twenty minutes after that, I found out that being gay was the unforgivable sin, not blaspheming the Holy Spirit, as my little Baptist church had taught me. So, as so many like me have always done, I hid from everyone, including and especially myself.
At age forty-nine I came out to myself, my wife, and my three wonderful children. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and the best thing that ever happened to me.
I started writing shortly after discovering anime. There’s this thing called “fandoms,” you see—well, I know you probably know about that. I grew my skills slowly, feeding on the dribbles of praise and criticism my mailing lists provided. In 2011 I decided to try my hand at original fiction and found I have a talent for telling stories that touch people’s hearts and make them laugh. For me there’s no greater high in all the world. The next year I somehow screwed up the courage to submit to a publisher and was given a thumbs up. Now I’m happily sharing my tales with those who care to read them.
My day job is editing and engraving sacred music for a mainline publisher in Chicago, where I live with an antisocial cat who refuses to be named. I enjoy fine wines, jazz, and the darkest chocolate I can get my hands on.
I write in a variety of genres, from gay romance and erotica to science fiction and mainstream thrillers, each category under a different pseudonym. Jude Dunn is the one I use for gay romance. My work is sometimes subtle, sometimes fiery, but always brimming with characters who tackle their challenges with an unwavering love of life.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your time here.
Author Contact: https://twitter.com/jude_dunn
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Aaron Anderson
Blurb:
Dion Bellamy is twenty-seven and studying social work at the University of Chicago. He has lived with Kenji Okamura, a construction worker, for a year and a half. Dion loves Kenji and passionately hopes Kenji feels the same, but he has never said the three big words. Then Grayson Sinclair, Dion’s schoolmate and a vivacious, oversexed playboy, comes between them.
One step at a time, barely aware where his steps are leading, Dion descends the slippery slope into a life of depravity. First, Grayson ensures Kenji is out of the way. Then he entices Dion to go clubbing with him, gets Dion drunk and high, and then takes him to a sex club, where he films Dion giving blow jobs to multiple men. He threatens to put the video online unless Dion signs a contract to work as a prostitute. Though he hardly understands how he reached this point, Dion must now figure out how to escape his fate and save himself.
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LB: Where did this story come from? What was your inspiration?
JD: Story ideas seem to float in the air as thick as Monarch butterflies in October for me. Picking one to turn into a finished story is the hard part. Well, not the only hard part, but certainly my first challenge. The concept for One Thing Leads was born from an argument with a relative. Our relationship was strained—had been for quite a while. One day I looked up and asked myself, “How ever did we get to this point?” That realization set me to thinking about how one small thing leads to another, and that—if we’re not careful—we can travel a path to a destination we never wanted to arrive at. On top of this idea is the love story of two men separated by a devious, oversexed playboy who wants to seduce Dion, the main character, for his harem. Together these strands form the core of One Thing Leads.
LB: Your bio says you live is Chicago, tell us what it was like to set a book in your hometown. Easy? Hard?
JD: I must confess two things: First, I’m relatively new to Chicago, hardly born and raised there. Second, I almost feel that it’s a cheat to use the town I live in as the setting. Well, not really, but doing so certainly cuts down on the research required to be authentic. I’m thinking about setting my next novel—on the drawing board right now—in a town I don’t know specifically to challenge myself.
LB: Where is your favorite place to hang out in Chicago?
JD: The great jazz clubs, no doubt. If you like jazz, you won’t find better fare than what you’ll get at Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, The Hungry Brain, Katerina’s, Jazz Showcase, Andy’s—they’re all great. And of course, the public libraries around town. Hey, I’m a writer and a geek/nerd to boot. It’s where I write.
LB: What is coming up next for you?
JD: Tons. I’m deep into my next novel and have extensive sketches for future novels and novellas. I need to push myself to write more in short form though. It’s a discipline I’d benefit from, and I know it.
LB: Do you like salty snacks or sweet?
JD: Don’t make me choose! Your question reminds me of the legend of the origin of the hot fudge sundae. A mythical king ordered his cook to prepare something both hot and cold, salty and sweet, or he’d cut off the cook’s head. I’m glad he found a solution! But if I must choose, definitely sweet. I tell friends that I’d have been a much better Christian if Jesus had only said, “I am the chocolate of life.”
LB: Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what works best to inspire you?
JD: I admire writers that light the candle and put on soft sounds to inspire them. Alas, I cannot. I’m a musician—a pianist and composer—and music of any kind takes me away from anything else. I have to pay attention to it because I can’t do otherwise. Not only that, for some reason I simply cannot write at home, so I put my lily white rump in a chair at the public library. Something about being surrounded by all those books inspires me like nothing else does.
Buy One Thing Leads Here
More info about One Thing Leads
Read a chapter for free Here
Site: http://www.judedunn.com/
Twitter: @jude_dunn
Pick up a free PDF or two of my unpublished stories: http://www.judedunn.
Tell me what you like, don’t like, and wish gay authors wrote about: http://www.judedunn.
“God,” Dion screamed, throwing his hands in the air in disgust. He and Kenji glared like dogs circling each other before attacking. Finally Dion broke the tension. “I need some air,” he said, then spun on a heel and strode to the bedroom. Kenji sat still as stone, listening to Dion slamming drawers as he found clothes suitable for going out.
How did this happen? I wanted to come clean. I thought if we talked about it—
After quickly dressing, Dion stormed to the front door.
“Where are you going?”
“Out,” Dion said without looking at Kenji. “Does that meet with your approval?”
“Dion, don’t be—”
The sound of the door slamming rang in Kenji’s ears. Footsteps fell hard and fast down the stairs. When they stopped, he looked away from the door. He closed his eyes at the muffled sound of another door slamming hard two floors below. When he opened his eyes a few minutes later, he looked down, surprised to see dots of blood on the seat of the recliner. He opened his hands and saw that his fingernails had broken the skin of his palms.
Categories: Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
Tour Dates/Tour Stops:
October 20: Parker Williams
October 21: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
October 22: Sinfully Sexy
October 23: Cate Ashwood
October 24: Jade Crystal
October 27: Inked Rainbow Reads
October 28: Velvet Panic
October 29: Amanda C. Stone
October 30: Kimi-Chan
October 31: Fallen Angel Reviews
November 3: Emotion in Motion
November 4: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
November 5:
November 6: Love Bytes
November 7: Iyana Jenna
November 10: Prism Book Alliance, My Fiction Nook
November 11: Multitasking Mommas, Wake Up Your Wild Side
November 12: BFD Book Blog
November 13: Cathy Brockman Romances
November 14: MM Good Book Reviews
Rafflecopter Prize: One of FIVE e-copies of One Thing Leads
Hi Jude, looking forward to reading this book.
I love this blurb, looks juicy!