A warm welcome to author Becca Burton joining us today here @Love Bytes on her blog tour for Something Like A Love Song.
Welcome, Becca.
Author Name: Becca Burton
Book Name: Something Like a Love Song
Release Date: November 19, 2015
Pages or Words: 308 pages
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: C.B. Messer
Blurb:
One tragic night left Landon and Dylan’s dreams of happily ever after in apparent ruin. Forced to overcome physical and emotional trauma, the young lovers turn to a network of family and friends as they attempt to rebuild their lives. But can their one constant—their love—survive the changes both undergo on the road to recovery?
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
Today I’m very happy to be interviewing Becca Burton, author of Something Like a Love Song. Hi Becca, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Thank you for having me. Something Like a Love Song is my first novel, a story about two long time boyfriends who find themselves facing a life changing tragedy and have to find the courage and love for each other to fight through.
While this is my first novel, I have posted many stories online, and have been writing ever since I learned how. I currently work as a nurse in a Neonatal ICU, and medicine has been a big interest in my life, and always seems to find a way into my writing. I am passionate about diverse, LGBTQ fiction, and am very excited to contribute to this genre.
Tell us something no one else knows about your characters.
Landon really loves to sing in the shower. Full operatic performances, really. Dylan secretly records Landon singing, but he’ll never tell him. (Landon knows).
Have you ever had writer’s block? How did you overcome it?
I don’t know if I’ve had true writer’s block, but I’ve definitely been blocked in my writing before. If I find I’m really blocked in a certain scene, sometimes I’ll completely delete the scene and try and start it fresh, or write it in a different way to see if that helps. Or sometimes I’ll get away from my computer and go for a walk and try to clear my head and work through whatever problem I’m having that way.
What book you’ve written would you like to see made into a movie?
Something Like a Love Song is my first novel, but I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have something I’ve written turned into a movie. It would be too surreal, I don’t know how I would feel about it!
Do you work on an outline or plot or just let the story takes you where it wants to go?
It really depends on what I’m writing. I can be pretty terrible about outlining actually, but if I have a deadline or a goal for a scene, I’ll try and jot down an outline of what I want to happen. Most of the time the plot just ends up going wherever it wants to go!
Rapid fire questions:
Favorite meal: Mashed potatoes
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite ice cream flavor: Coffee chocolate chip
Landon’s bed is in the center of the room, and Dylan’s heart begins to pound in his chest as he takes a step forward, hesitates. Landon looks so small, tucked into the middle of the bed, and everything about the scene is unnatural and wrong. His head is wrapped with thick bandages, for which Dylan is grateful—he isn’t sure he could handle that. Just the thought of what’s happening to Landon, to his fiancé, is enough to make his throat constrict, his chest tighten.
A ventilator tube parts Landon’s lips, and his chest rises and falls in equal, rhythmic whirrs. IVs line his arms; the wires snake from under his hospital gown. His freckles stand out starkly against the unnatural pale hue of his skin, except where the deep purple of a bruise creeps from under the bandages and swells down to his left cheekbone. It seems impossible that only hours ago they were laughing in the park, holding hands and eating ice cream from the small corner stand; it’s like some distant memory, a fading dream. But the ache deep in Dylan’s chest, the way his stomach is knotting itself, the too-clean smell of the hospital burning his nose, Landon’s face, battered and bruised—Dylan can’t look away—all this is too real to be a dream, no matter how badly Dylan wants to just wake up, wants all this to go away and everything to be okay.
“You can touch him, if you want,” Brittany says, her voice soft. “We need to make sure to reduce extra stimulation, to allow his brain time to recover, but it’s okay to hold his hand.”
Dylan looks up at her. Her smile is kind and understanding. Then he turns back to Landon and takes a small step forward. Landon’s hand is right there, resting above the covers, and Dylan doesn’t know why he’s so nervous; he’s held Landon’s hand more times than he could begin to count. But, surrounded by machines and tubes, Landon has never looked so utterly fragile, as if he could shatter at the lightest touch.
“It’s okay,” Brittany says from behind him, and Dylan squeezes his eyes shut, tears pricking behind his eyelids. “You won’t hurt him.”
Landon’s skin is cold; his hand is unnaturally still. Even in sleep Landon’s hand would always find Dylan’s, their fingers would curl together like a reflex.
Not now.
“I’m so sorry,” Dylan whispers, holding on a little tighter. “I’m so…”
His voice catches, the words bottling up in his throat, unable to escape. Landon’s chest rises, falls, in, out.
In, out.
“You’re so hurt, and it’s my fault,” Dylan manages, his voice barely audible above the machines keeping Landon alive. “It’s all my fault and I’m…” He exhales slowly. “I’m so sorry.”
He swipes his thumb across Landon’s knuckles, over the dips and grooves, and vaguely notes that Brittany has left them alone. He sinks down into the small chair beside the bed, not letting go of Landon’s hand.
“You need to fight, okay? I need you here, with me, and I can’t…” There’s nothing left inside him except an empty, hollow feeling and the knowledge that Landon can’t hear him. Landon’s engagement ring is in a dish on a table beside the bed, along with his watch, and Dylan fishes them out and tucks them into his pocket.
Buy the book:
Becca Burton penned her first Nancy Drew fan fiction at the age of nine and has been an avid writer ever since. Currently working as a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse, Becca is a recent Oregon transplant from the Midwest. Becca has a weakness for coffee, the smell of old books, rainy days and her cat, Luna. Something Like a Love Song is her first novel.
Where to find the author:
Twitter: @missbeccaburton
Tour Dates & Stops:
19-Nov: Lee Brazil, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Velvet Panic, It’s Raining Men, Cheekypee Reads and Reviews, Hearts on Fire
20-Nov: Three Books Over The Rainbow, Mikky’s World of Books, Happily Ever Chapter
23-Nov: Jessie G. Books, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, Michael Mandrake, Boys on the Brink Reviews
24-Nov: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, Divine Magazine
25-Nov: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, MM Good Book Reviews
26-Nov: Bayou Book Junkie, BFD Book Blog
27-Nov: Alpha Book Club, The Blogger Girls, Elaine White
30-Nov: Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings, Dawn’s Reading Nook, QUEERcentric Books, Love Bytes
1-Dec: My Fiction Nook, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
2-Dec: Gay Media Reviews, Just Love Romance, Inked Rainbow Reads, Two Chicks Obsessed With Books and Eye Candy
Rafflecopter Prize: Grand Prize: $25.00 Interlude Press Gift Card. First Prize: 5 e-copies of ‘Something Like a Love Song’
Becca here – thank you so much for the interview and the feature!