Blog Tour: Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway - Piece us Back Together

Author Names: Raine O’Tierney, L.J. LaBarthe, Cate Ashwood

Book Names: All That Shimmers (Raine), Swimming With Elephants (L.J.), Red Runs Through (Cate)

Release Dates: May 6, May 13, and May 20

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Paul Richmond

Goodreads Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25405465-piece-us-back-together

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25274912-all-that-shimmers?ac=1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25364751-swimming-with-elephants?from_search=true&search_exp_group=group_b&search_version=service

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25405457-red-runs-through

Blurbs:

Piece Us Back Together:

Life can seem bleak for people suffering devastating injuries or illnesses of the mind and body, and every day can be a struggle. But sometimes, when hope seems in short supply, they find a reason to keep up the fight. The men in these stories face some of the most difficult challenges imaginable, but fortunately they won’t be facing them alone, because when everything seems darkest, a point of light appears. With compassion, understanding, and love, these hurt souls have a chance to piece the broken parts of their lives and themselves into something strong and beautiful. Love might even be able to mend the most serious wounds of all—those of the heart.

All That Shimmers by Raine O’Tierney

Beau Bell is a former Olympic hopeful, left paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident. He has every reason in the world to be pissed off and miserable, yet he’s training for the Paralympics Men’s 100m—S6 division. The chair? Just a part of who he is now. Beau’s attitude is golden. If only he could contend with this one little issue: errant erections and no way to relieve them!

Nikša Meríc is a lonely scientist and really bad poet living underneath the old building where he does his research. Every night he watches his neighbor through his basement window as he undresses in his wheelchair. Although there is no apparent reason for Nikša to be unhappy, he’s struggled with depression his whole life and has tried to kill himself on multiple occasions.

When Beau proposes that his “voyeur” come over and help him experiment with the erections he can’t actually feel, the relationship they build is a sexual one. But the relationship they need is one that will heal each other’s heart as well.

Available May 6^th, 2015

Swimming With Elephants by L.J. LaBarthe

After suffering a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder, Garrett believes his life is over. Depressed, bereft, in pain, and unable to return to the career he loves as an arborist, he sees no hope or future for himself. But a trip to Havelock Island in India turns his world upside down. He meets Jai, an Indian nurse, and becomes smitten with him. Near the end of his trip, while swimming with an elephant, he tells Jai how he feels.

After Garrett returns to Australia, he wonders if he can ever be healed of all his pain—physical, emotional, and mental—and fears that love and romance will never be his again. But then Jai turns up in Perth and brings with him astonishing news.

Available May 13^th, 2015

Red Runs Through by Cate Ashwood

Carter McClintock’s life is uncomplicated. For the past five years, he’s spent so much time in hospital scrubs that one day bleeds into the next, and that’s just the way he likes it. That is, until he meets Matthew Nolan. Carter has never had a patient affect him the way Matthew does. During Matthew’s stay in the hospital, the chemistry is unmistakable, and once he is discharged, Carter asks him out.

Despite the obvious attraction between them, Matthew’s HIV status keeps him from handing Carter his heart, refusing to believe anyone could ever truly want him. When Matthew’s past comes to light, their budding relationship is threatened before it has even begun. But Carter isn’t one to give up without a fight and he will do anything to show Matthew the lengths he will go to keep them together.

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance

Sales Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Piece Us Back Together Anthology

All That Shimmers

Swimming With Elephants

Red Runs Through

Who are the authors participating in this anthology?

Raine O’Tierney, L.J. LaBarthe, and Cate Ashwood

Who came up with the idea?

Raine approached L.J. and Cate with the idea to come together to write an anthology of stories. Everyone was excited and the healing theme was quickly decided upon.

Did you share you stories amongst each other? Or write independently?

We all wrote our stories independently and then got together to beta read each other’s stories. We knew the basic outlines for all the stories though, before they were written.

Would each of you like to tell us what you have coming out next?

RO: Next for me is my Love is an Open Road story from the 2015 Don’t Read in the Closet event! I submitted my *hella* late so I imagine it will be one of the last to be released. Other than that, I’m writing the sequel to last year’s Bowl Full of Cherries, co-writing an humorous adventure story, and considering finally tackling that one big “This will emotionally wreck me” story I’ve been putting off for, eh, 20 years? What’s another couple of weeks, right?

L.: For me, there is still a lot of editing to do. I have another three books due out this year, so there’s finishing up the edits on those. Two of those are the last two of the “Archangel Chronicles” novels, and the other is a co-authored book with Cate Ashwood. Then I hope to breathe and catch up on sleep a bit, then dive back in and finish the two works in progress that are glaring at me for ignoring them! One of those is a contemporary and the other is a paranormal. A full length contemporary called Waiting for the Moon and You has *just* been released through Dreamspinner as well, so I’m trying to do a bit of promo for that in between all the editing!

Cate: I have a new novel called The Storm Before the Calm that is coming out from Dreamspinner Press on June 5th. Here’s the blurb:

Charlie has one passion in life: dancing. It’s his salvation when it feels like the world is swallowing him whole. When his mom secretly secures him a spot in the summer intensive at the Free Rein Dance Company in New York, he is thrilled. He knows that once the summer ends, he’ll have to return to Beacon to get a job and help support his family, but for those two months, he can spread his wings.

In New York he meets Max, a junior instructor who is everything Charlie wishes he could be. Bold and self-assured, Max radiates pride in who he is. As they spend time together, Max shows Charlie what life can be like past the walls of his closed-minded home town. But Charlie doesn’t know if he’s ready to show the world who he truly is when standing in the spotlight is the last thing he wants.

Excerpt from Red Runs Through by Cate Ashwood

Carter looked at Matthew, and there it was. That moment of electricity that arced between them. Matthew didn’t let go of Carter’s hand, instead cradling it in his own. Carter inched closer and waited patiently to see if Matthew would do the same.

Slowly, they erased the space between them until they were a fraction of an inch apart.

“Carter,” Matthew whispered a sliver of a moment before Carter closed the last of the distance between them and pressed his lips against Matthew’s. For a moment, Carter thought Matthew was going to pull away, but then he kissed him back, his lips parting slightly and his tongue darting out to lick Carter’s bottom lip. Carter hummed his pleasure and opened for Matthew, letting him in and kissing him with everything he had.

It was a little bit fumbling and a lot sexy as they got their hands involved, touching and teasing one another until Matthew pulled back, pushing Carter away with a firm hand on his chest.

“I’m sorry, Carter, I can’t….”

Stunned, Carter didn’t know what to say other than, “Why not?”

Matthew sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to. God, do I want to. But… you don’t know everything about me, and I can’t take advantage of you like that. You need to know if you’re going to make an informed decision about me.”

Carter’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “So tell me and I’ll make the informed decision to go back to kissing you. I like kissing you, Matthew. Actually, I like everything about you.”

“You don’t know that,” Matthew said sternly. He sat back on the couch and scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Tell me,” Carter said.

Matthew looked at him, his eyes wide, his face pale. “I’m HIV positive.”

Raine O’Tierney

Raine O’Tierney lives outside of Kansas City with her husband, fellow Dreamspinner Press author, Siôn O’Tierney. When she’s not writing, she’s either asleep, or fighting the good fight for intellectual freedom at her library day job. Raine believes the best thing we can do in life is be kind to one another, and she enjoys encouraging fellow writers! Writing for 20+ years (with the last 10 spent on M/M) Raine changes sub-genres to suit her mood and believes all good stories end sweetly. Contact her if you’re interested in talking about point-and-click adventure games or about which dachshunds are the best kinds of dachshunds!

Website: http://raineotierney.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raine.otierney.1?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaineOTierney

L.J. LaBarthe

L.J. LaBarthe is a French-Australian woman, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she went on to write a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school yearbook, her university newspaper, and, from her early teens to her twenties, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English and a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places, urbex, history, and researching.

L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy, and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica. She has won a Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention and another award for Best Historical Gay Novel.

L.J. lives in the city of Adelaide, and is owned by her cat.

Blog: http://misslj-author.livejournal.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lj.labarthe.9?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/brbsiberia

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ljstar239/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dreadpiratestar/

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dreadpiratestarkiller and https://www.tumblr.com/blog/historybuffstar

Cate Ashwood

Cate Ashwood wrote her very first story in a hot-pink binder when she was in the second grade and found her passion for writing. Her first successful foray into romance writing came five years later when she wrote her best friend, who was experiencing a case of unrequited love, her own happily ever after.

Cate’s life has taken a number of different and adventurous roads. She now lives a stone’s throw from the ocean, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, her brand new little boy, and her two cats. Her life is filled with family and friends, travel, and, of course, books.

Website: http://www.cateashwood.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cate.ashwood

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cateashwood