A warm Love Bytes welcome to author Charley Descoteaux stopping by our blog today to talk about her newest release “Buchanan House”.

Charley shares also an Exclusive Excerpt and also brought along a Giveaway to one lucky reader who comments on this post answering Charley ‘s question !

Welcome Charley 🙂

To Angst or Not to Angst?

Thank you for having me! It’s great to be back at Love Bytes.

I like angst as much as the next gal—more than some, because I love it—but sometimes I just want to write something happy. A story where the characters don’t have to walk through fire to get their happy ending. Considering that the first solid image I got for Buchanan House was a dead guy on the beach in Lincoln City, the story is very low angst. The dead guy might show up in Book #3 (if there is a Book #3), I haven’t decided yet.

My usual M.O. is heavy on the angst, most of my stories include someone going to the hospital or recovering from grief, or something emotionally heavy, so I had to take control of Buchanan House. I had to take control of BH many times—steering it back into the light whenever it began to stray into the darkness and angst.

For instance, there’s a scene in which my main character, Eric, does something without thinking (which is sort of his usual M.O.) and gets into trouble. At first the story wanted to end up at the hospital because who doesn’t love a little hurt-comfort, right? But no, I dialed it back a little and remembered my first inspiration for the story—no, not the dead guy—walking on a beautiful beach in Lincoln City.

Do the guys in Buchanan House face challenges and heartache? You bet they do. Anything as bad as a hot dead guy on the beach? No. Eric might disagree with that because his grandmother’s death hit him hard, but I’m steering his opinion too.

But I don’t want to steer your opinion, I want your opinion to steer me! As of the day I’m writing this post I don’t know whether Book #2 will be contracted, but I like to live dangerously so I’m working on Book #3 and I need your help.

Vote on what happens in Buchanan House Book #3—should the dead guy show up? Or would you rather I let him live? It’s up to you, dear readers.

If you’d rather not decide the fate of a character, you can enter by telling me how you feel about angst in your Romances. Love it? Hate it? Favorite angsty trope? I want to hear all about it.

Every answer is a chance to win a copy of Buchanan House. If the winner already has it, they can choose any ebook from my backlist.

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Release Date: August 19, 2015

46,658 words

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

Blurb:

Eric Allen, thirty-three-year-old line cook, moved in with his grandmother, Jewell, after a disastrous coming-out when he was in middle school. She raised him, and he cared for her when she fell ill. When Jewell died she left everything to Eric—angering his parents and older brother. The inheritance isn’t much, but Eric and his bestie Nathan pool their money and buy an abandoned hotel on an isolated stretch of the Central Oregon Coast. The hotel isn’t far from Lincoln City—a town with its own Pride Festival and named for a president—so they christen it Buchanan House after James Buchanan, the “confirmed bachelor” president with the close male friend.

Eric and Nathan need a handyman to help them turn Buchanan House into the gay resort of their dreams. Eric finds Tim Tate in the local listings and over the months leading to opening weekend Tim reveals himself as a skilled carpenter with many hidden talents. Eric falls hard for Tim, but before he can see a future with the gorgeous handyman he has to get over twenty years of being bullied and shamed by his birth family. It would be much easier if Eric’s brother Zach weren’t trying to grab part of the inheritance or ruin opening weekend.

This exclusive excerpt includes Alex, one of my favorite supporting characters, and is a makeshift introduction for several more. I hope you enjoy it!

 

She stopped just inside the kitchen doorway. “What do you need help with? Maybe I should’ve brought the gloves—”

“No, you won’t need those dirty things. Come and sit.” Eric patted the seat of a wooden stool, so old it had a groove worn in the center, just like its three friends. “I need your opinion on a new recipe. I can’t decide—”

“A what?” Alex quickly looked away and mumbled an apology.

“Dessert, that’s what.” Eric grinned and plunked a deep-dish pie plate down in front of her. By the time he returned with the second cheesecake, her expression had changed from skepticism to just short of drooling. “I’m not sure if this needs salted caramel topping, or sweet, so I made one of each.”

“Wow, those look great.”

“Thanks. They’re both the same, basic apple cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, but I can’t decide which topping is better.”

“Why not get everyone’s opinion?”

“Because you’re my only impartial observer, and I want the real dirt on which works best.” Alex looked dubious, so Eric spelled it out for her. “Tex is basically my aunt, and Maria is her gal, so they’re out. Nathan’s been my bestie forever, and he can’t be counted on to give a straight answer anyway.”

“And Paulie would agree with whatever Nate said.”

“Oh, you’re an observant gal. Turn your powers of observation loose on these.” Eric cut a fresh slice from each cheesecake and handed Alex a fork.

“Which is which?”

Eric tsk-tsked, shaking his head. “I’m not taking a chance on swaying your opinion. Try either one first.”

Alex loaded her fork with a dainty amount of cheesecake from the slice closest to her. She ate it slowly and then tilted her head toward the ceiling. Eric thought she would speak, but instead she took the remaining fork from his hand and slid the other plate in front of her. That bite disappeared and her eyes fell closed as she moaned softly.

“I guess you like the salted caramel better?” Eric grabbed another fork from the drawer for himself, and a cup of coffee.

Alex popped another, larger, bite of the cheesecake with salted caramel topping into her mouth and then went to the coffeemaker. She returned to the island with a cup of coffee and considered the cheesecakes for a moment before speaking. “They’re both good. Excellent, really. But the other one is a little too sweet. Maybe if you drizzled the caramel instead of a solid layer….”

“Don’t stop. I want to hear what you think. Honest.” Eric smiled and dug into the slice with sweet caramel topping.

She blushed a little, her attention focused on the dessert in front of her. “The sweet caramel overpowers the cheesecake like this. I couldn’t taste the apple at all under the sweet topping. The salted topping compliments it.”

 

Buy Buchanan House:

Dreamspinner Press

All Romance eBooks

Amazon US

Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they’ve agreed to let her sleep once in a while. Charley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. She has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.

Rattle Charley’s cages:

Blog: http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charley.descoteaux.3

Dreamspinner Author Page: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=879

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharleyDescote

Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/aqe7g7r

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/charleydescote/

e-mail: c.descoteauxwrites@gmail.com