Today we are happy to welcome author Ada Maria Soto to Love Bytes. Ada Maria kindly answered some questions for us , shares an excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in !
Welcome Ada Maria 🙂
Author Name: Ada Maria Soto
Book Name: Empty Nests
Series: Nested Hearts Book #: One
Release Date: June 12, 2015
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Paul Richmond
Pages or Words: 68,835 words
Blurb:
Neither James nor Gabe has ever had a real relationship. They might make a connection if they can get past their differences—and their fears.
At age fourteen, James Maron decided to prove he wasn’t gay despite vast evidence to the contrary. Now at thirty-two, he’s getting ready to send his son to college and wondering what he’s supposed to do next. Outside his son, his life consists of an IT job he hates and watching telenovelas with the women in his apartment building.
Gabriel Juarez is the CFO of a technology giant. He has looks, charm, fantastic wealth, a workaholic personality, and a string of boyfriends who only stick around because he’s too busy to tell them to leave.
A bad laptop/projector interface causes James and Gabe’s paths to cross. Friends, family, and coworkers jump to match Gabe with a nice guy, and James with anyone. But are they too different? Everyone will have to tread very carefully to keep things from ending before they start.
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance
Sales Links:
Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Ada Maria Soto author of Empty Nests
Hi Ada, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Hi, I’m Ada. I’m a born and raised Californian Mexican-American currently living as an expat in the South Pacific with a toddler and my partner. I have studied and worked in theater, film, and television with all the usual crummy side jobs of a struggling artist. I have dysgraphia and phonological dyslexia but I try not to let that slow down my writing. I love sports and am dedicated to the Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Auckland Blues, USA Rugby Eagles, New Zealand All Blacks, New Zealand Black Caps, and the Chennai Super Kings.
Empty Nests is about James Maron and Gabe Juarez. At age fourteen, James decided to prove he wasn’t gay despite vast evidence to the contrary. Now at thirty-two, he’s getting ready to send his son to college and wondering what he’s supposed to do next. Outside his son, his life consists of an IT job he hates and watching telenovelas with the women in his apartment building.
Gabriel Juarez is the CFO of a technology giant. He has looks, charm, fantastic wealth, a workaholic personality, and a string of boyfriends who only stick around because he’s too busy to tell them to leave. A bad laptop/projector interface causes James and Gabe’s paths to cross. Friends, family, and coworkers jump to match Gabe with a nice guy, and James with anyone. But they might be too different. Everyone will have to tread very carefully to keep things from ending before they start.
Tell us something no one else knows about your characters.
It’s touched on a little in the sequel to Empty Nests, Bowerbirds, but James has panic attacks that he manages to hide, but not as well as he thinks he does.
Have you ever written something that made you cry?
The sequel to Empty Nests has two parts that make me cry. One is in the second chapter the other is in the last chapter. I’m not sure if the scene in chapter two will make anyone else cry, it’s certainly not the intent of the scene but for some reason I cried when I wrote it.
Have you ever co-written with someone before?
No. I do have a couple of close friends that I’ll let put ideas into my head. I’d like to co-write at some point but I don’t know if I have the personality type for it.
What is the most difficult part of writing for you?
I have phonological dyslexia so I can’t sound words out or even be sure if I’m saying them correctly, making text to speech software useless. I can know a word, use it in a sentence, but have no idea how to pronounce or spell it. It has led to some severely embarrassing moments.
Lately I have been forcing myself to use these words in my writing, no matter how disheartening the little red squiggle in Word still is. Spelling. I am severely dyslexic. On a good day when I’m focused, rested, and caffeinated I spell at about a seventh grade level. Between school and the work place I taught myself to dumb down my written vocabulary to words I wouldn’t misspell too badly. However this puts my writing at a seventh grade level on a good day.
Name your four most important food groups.
Caffeine, chocolate (dark), avocados, BCB (Burnt Crunchy Bits).
“So,” Dylan started as he scraped the last of the noodles from his plate. “Remember that conversation we were having about the new AP English teacher?”
“If you pull a piece of paper out of your pocket right now, I will never forgive you.”
Dylan grinned and pulled a tightly folded piece of paper from his pocket. “Saturday after next, if you want, you have a date.”
James was pretty sure teenagers were not supposed to be as hung-up on their father’s love life as Dylan was. “No. No, I do not.”
Dylan pushed over a printout from his school’s faculty webpage. There was a phone number handwritten at the bottom. “Thirty-five, no kids. He likes music.” Dylan had highlighted that line. “You like music, he likes music. He said he’d love to take you to see a band he likes.”
“Goddammit, Dylan! I do not need you setting me up with strangers.”
“He’s not a stranger, he’s the school’s AP English teacher, and I wouldn’t have to if you’d get out of the house once in a while. Seriously, Dad, I’m out of here in less than a year. I don’t want you moping around this place alone. I worry about you turning into a crazy old cat lady.”
Ada Maria Soto is a born and raised Californian, Mexican-American/WASP, currently living as an expat in New Zealand. She got her Bachelor’s degree in Theater Directing at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, which she attended in a fit of stubbornness. She got a Master’s degree in Film and TV Producing from the University of Auckland in New Zealand which she applied to on a manic whim. Nine years later she’s still in Auckland with a partner, kid, and mortgage.
She has dysgraphia and phonological dyslexia which can lead to some interesting typos.
She is a sports fan dedicated to the Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Auckland Blues, USA Eagles, New Zealand All Blacks, New Zealand Black Caps, and the Chennai Super Kings.
Where to find the author:
Official Website: http://adamariasoto.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ada.m.soto.568
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AdaMariaSotoAuthor
Twitter: @adamariasoto
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+AdaSoto/posts
DSP Author Arcade: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/AuthorArcade/ada-maria-soto
Tour Dates & Stops:
12-Jun
16-Jun
19-Jun
23-Jun
26-Jun
30-Jun
3-Jul
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
7-Jul
Rafflecopter Prize: Both books of the series (one will not be out for a few months)
Welcome to M/M world in your release.
Welcome! I enjoyed the interview and the excerpt. Thanks for the giveaway.
Congratulations and welcome, Ada Maria!
Congratulations on your release and welcome to the world of M/M books.
Congratulations on your new book and a hearty welcome to the world of m/m publishing! I am looking forward to reading the book!