Today we have authors Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James here @Love Bytes. They are here to talk about their new release “Winging It”. They talk about the new book in a guestpost , share an excerpt and there is a giveaway to attend to
Welcome Ashlyn & Morgan!
Gabe Martin has a simple life plan: get into the NHL and win the Stanley Cup. It doesn’t include being the first out hockey player or, worse, getting involved with one of his teammates. But things change.
Dante Baltierra is Gabe’s polar opposite—careless, reckless… shameless. But his dedication to the sport is impressive, and Gabe can overlook a lot of young-and-stupid in the name of great hockey. And Dante has a superlative ass in a sport filled with superlative asses.
Before Gabe can figure out how to deal, a tabloid throws him out of his comfortable closet into a brand-new world. Amid the emotional turmoil of invasive questions, nasty speculation, and on- and off-ice homophobia, his game suffers.
Surprisingly, it’s Dante who drags him out of it—and then drags him into something else. Nothing good can come of secretly sleeping with a teammate, especially one Gabe has feelings for. But with their captain out with an injury, a rookie in perpetual need of a hug, and the race to make the playoffs for the first time since 1995, Gabe has a lot on his plate.
He can’t be blamed for forgetting that nothing stays secret forever.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Winging It blog tour! Thanks for joining us, Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James, to talk about our newest release.
Ashlyn: Some of you may be wondering: “Why hockey?” In fact, if this were a little over a year ago, I’d probably be wondering “Why hockey?” Sure, I’m Canadian, but before this year, I just did not give a puck about the sport, at least not outside my national pride during the Olympics. That includes the year my parents lived next door to a guy playing in the Cup final. So I think I’m being fair when I say this is All Morgan’s Fault.
Morgan: You say that like I’m not perfectly content to accept all the blame.
Ashlyn: But the answer to “Why hockey?” is still partially “because Canada.”
Morgan: Writing a gay romance about hockey players in Canada is probably the most Canadian thing I’ve ever done. Also, I felt we owed it to ourselves and others to explore our national pastime. And merge it with smutty romance. Because of reasons.
Ashlyn: That said, um. We didn’t actually know that much about hockey before we started writing this.
Morgan: Excuse you, some of us did actually watch hockey before this!… Though I’m a much bigger fan now.
Ashlyn: We had to do research! It was awful. Do you know how many creeper shots of hockey players’ butts we looked at? And sent to our long-suffering friends? (We’re not proud.)
Morgan: Hey! Some of those pictures were promo shots put out by the NHL!
Ashlyn: In all seriousness, we did actually do a lot of research—everything from how the draft works (we said that we looked it up, not that we understand the process) to the approximate number of points needed to make the playoffs to point production for Calder Trophy contenders (the Calder is awarded to the NHL’s rookie of the year). We read large portions of the official NHL rule book and dived deep into the NHLPA CBA (the players’ association’s collective bargaining agreement) to figure out important details like how much time they get off at Christmas and who has to share a room. We talked to people who’ve been fans longer than we are to make sure we understood correctly, and to people who don’t follow hockey at all to make sure they too could enjoy it.
And we watched games. We watched games that made us fist-pump and games that made us hang our heads. We followed trade rumors right up until the trade deadline. We speculated over who was hiding an injury. Like most hockey fans, we had our hearts broken by the playoffs.
Morgan: Playoffs are terrible! It’s like watching a series finale that airs over several months and has no care for the narrative or viewer satisfaction. Why do they do it to us?!
Ashlyn: And then the season ended and we thought, Now what? By that time, though, we’d already finished the rough draft, so we had edits to work on as well as a wonderful thing called the Ice Bucket Challenge to keep us occupied (and also to raise awareness for ALS).
A year later, I’m still watching hockey. Sometimes I wish I could turn off the part of me that cares about the sport, because it’s frustrating when a perfectly good day is ruined by your team getting shut out at home.
Morgan: *sighs. *
Ashlyn: But most days I’m perfectly content to watch dumb footage of my team attempting to sing along to “Uptown Funk.”
Morgan: Even if they’re tone deaf and can’t properly time a “woo!”
whole impending disaster was his idea, Baller insisted on paying for their
tickets. Gabe let him, too overwhelmed by sunshine and happy families to do
otherwise. Baller forked over the money, ushered Gabe through the stiles,
grabbed a couple of maps, and then basically frog-marched Gabe onto the
railroad.
really excited about this,” Gabe observed with mounting trepidation.
grinned manically and threw his arm over Gabe’s shoulders. “Disneyland, Gabe,” he said, as if that
explained his completely bizarre behavior. Maybe it did, in his world. “We are
going to have fun today if it kills us.”
thought it actually might.
off at the first stop, according to Baller’s extremely detailed plan of attack,
and Baller just stood there for a moment, beaming, like he couldn’t imagine
anywhere he’d rather be than Anaheim, California, in the middle of a losing
streak. Gabe gave in to his own sentimentality and snapped a picture with his
phone.
Baller sighed happily, grabbing Gabe’s arm and herding him to the right. “Come
on. Maybe they have some poor sucker dressed up as Will for you to ogle.”
reasonably sure the people dressed in costumes were for the kids to interact with, but he decided to
keep it to himself. Even if today did nothing more than deepen Gabe’s pit of
ill-advised feelings for his teammate, Baller still deserved to have a good
time.
turned out, Gabe did not have to worry about Baller having a good time. The
line for the ride was surprisingly short, and Baller spent the whole ten
minutes bouncing on his toes, peering around at the scenery and humming “A
Pirate’s Life for Me” under his breath like a loser.
I forget you’re only twenty,” Gabe said with a self-deprecating smile as they
reached the front of the line and took their seats on the ride. “Today’s not
one of them.”
being so old for five minutes and relax. I’m trying to cheer us up.”
raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. You’re in charge. I’m just along
for the ride. Rides.”
admitted to Baller (and himself) that he was not in charge of the situation, it
made for a pleasant afternoon. At the end of the ride, they emerged into the
sunshine again and Baller made a beeline for a cart selling elaborate hats to
match the theme. He tossed a tricorne at Gabe, then grabbed something in mauve
with an ostrich feather plume and shoved it on his own head. “What do you
think?” he asked, running a finger along the brim, his eyes dancing.
wanted to kiss him, but he distracted himself by trying on his own silly hat.
“Well, you’re no Will Turner, but I suppose you’ll do.”
stuck out his tongue and forked over a handful of bills for the hat.
bought them Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream for lunch, and they ate standing in
the shade of a big tree by the Haunted Mansion.
on this one too?” Gabe asked.
knows you have to work up to Splash Mountain,” Baller said loftily. He threw
his stick away and licked a drip of ice cream off his thumb.
probably wasn’t purposely pornographic. Probably.
Indiana Jones Adventure, Baller tried to buy Gabe a fedora that looked even
worse on him than the tricorne.
douche bags wear fedoras.”
smirked and took a picture with his phone. “So, no problem, then.”
a face.
you said I was in charge,” Baller wheedled.
think that meant I was going to have to cede control of my wardrobe.”
rolled his eyes. “Grouch.” He tossed a headband with Mickey Mouse ears at Gabe
instead.
Baller hadn’t invited anyone else along to witness Gabe’s humiliation. He would
definitely never hear the end of it if any of these pictures got out. Fifi
would chirp him forever, and there’d probably be a whole media circus if they
got caught goofing off when they couldn’t win a hockey game for love nor money.
sighed internally and put on the headband.
a half hours later, when they stumbled out of Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters for
the fourth time, he was smirking. “Another rematch?”
no, you smug bastard.” Baller pouted, but he couldn’t hold it. His grin won out
a second later. “Seriously, are you hiding a secret video game addiction?”
I just have better hand-eye coordination than you,” Gabe said, adjusting his
ears as he preened. They were starting to hurt his head, but the deal was
Baller had to wear the stupid hat as long as Gabe kept the ears on. Gabe wasn’t
going to be the first to give in.
not what the statistics say, buddy.” Baller had pulled ahead in their points
race since that game against the Sabres. “In fact, I—” He stopped midsentence
and cocked his head at Gabe, an odd smile twisting his lips. He took a step
closer and raised a hand to the headband. “Duck your head a little? You’ve got
something on your…”
when Baller grabbed his right wrist for balance as he reached up. His hat
tipped back precariously, but Gabe couldn’t have made a grab for it if his life
depended on it. He was stuck, not breathing, while Baller shuffled closer until
Gabe could see his pores. He brushed his fingers over Gabe’s mouse ears.
you walked into a cobweb. You’ve got a leaf…. There.” Baller pulled his right
hand away but left the other where it was, clasped around Gabe’s wrist. There
was a papery sound as whatever he’d pulled from Gabe’s head hit the asphalt.
caught.
eternally stupid second, Gabe thought Baller was going to kiss him.
moment passed, and Baller let go and took a step back. He slapped Gabe on the arm.
“Much better. Good thing you have me to look after you.”
forced himself to unfreeze and shake his head in mock disbelief. “Right,” he
said as they started walking again, toward Space Mountain this time. “I’m such
a handful.”
snorted. “Too easy. You know better than to feed me a line like that. Come on.”
you something,” Gabe promised
jokingly, regaining his equilibrium.
tripped over nothing on the pavement. Gabe grabbed him by the back of his shirt
before he could take a dive. Crap. He’d gone too far.
himself, Baller righted his hat, then poked Gabe with his elbow. “You know, I
was starting to be afraid you were never going to make that kind of chirp
again. Good to have you back.”
once Gabe let himself be honest. “It’s good to be back.” Then he saw the line for Space Mountain and winced. “Good
thing we have Fast Passes.” They only had an hour left before they had to leave
the park to be back in time for team dinner.
forgotten all about their stupid headgear by the time they returned to the
hotel. When they walked into the lobby, Fifi looked over from the concierge
desk, a gym towel slung over one of his shoulders, and barked out a laugh. “I
guess I don’t have to ask what you got up to today.”
to Disneyland!” Baller said unnecessarily. The feather on his hat flopped from
one side to the other in time with his enthusiasm.
Fifi rolled his eyes and reached up to flick Gabe’s ears.
them off.
better have plenty of energy left for the game tomorrow.”
bristled. “What? I got him home in time for curfew.”
wide-eyed, earnest innocence, Baller nodded. “Yeah, Dad. He was a total
gentleman. Didn’t even try to steal second.”
smacked the brim of Baller’s hat down over his eyes. “Fine, fine. Hurry up and
get ready for dinner or we’re eating without you.”
Chef snuck into his room and stole the ears while Gabe was showering, and he
showed up to dinner wearing them, so of course he and Baller got ragged on.
Gabe hoped Chef didn’t put it up on Twitter, but at least Gabe wouldn’t be
featured wearing the ears in any pictures. The teasing only got worse when they
begged off going out for a drink because they were both too tired to do more
than flop on Gabe’s bed and finish watching Pirates.
Banksy?”
Gabe said. His eyes wouldn’t quite focus on the laptop screen.
thanks.”
gritty eyes, Gabe managed, “For what?”
Baller answer, but the words got lost on his tired ears as he finally fell
asleep.
Absolutely frothing at the mouth to read this! I adore how 99% of hockey boys will somehow slash themselves with a teammate within two minutes of being interviewed. I feel you on the playoffs, though trade deadline day and free agency day are the ones that make me a wreck…
Hockey, hockey, hockey!!!! Major fan! TBR list.
I’m raging to read this! I love how hockey boys always slash themselves with teammates within minutes (often seconds) of being interviewed…
I love reading a book with a sports theme.
Can’t wait for this one! I love the way hockey boys immediately slash themselves with teammates during every interview…
Hockey boys slashing themselves with teammates in interviews is one of life’s great pleausres!