Lilah Suzanne, author of Broken Records, is here today on Love Bytes with her blog tour.
Welcome to the blog, Lilah!
Author Name: Lilah Suzanne
Book Name: Broken Records
Series: Spotlight #1
Release Date: December 17, 2015
Pages or Words: 280 pages
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: Victoria S. with CB Messer
Blurb:
Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo-shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms. Can Nico make peace with show business and all its trappings, or will Grady’s public persona get in the way of their private attraction to each other?
Categories: Bisexual, Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
Today I’m very happy to be interviewing Lilah Suzanne author of Broken Records. Hi Lilah, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
How do you feel about e-books vs print books?
I think reading by any method or means is fantastic. I read both, I publish both, I’m a fan of both. There is something special about holding a physical book in your hands, though, and you can’t beat that sweet “old book” smell.
What process did you go through to get your first book published?
I was extremely fortunate and got approached by a new publisher who was familiar with some of my other writing. That said, being with a new boutique publisher just starting out was risky, I don’t think anyone involved knew how that first year would go. But I’m happy and proud to say that I’m on book three now and doing well and the publisher is gaining more success and respect with every book they put out.
How do you find or make time to write?
I’ve had to learn how to squeeze it into my life, after spending years waiting for unlimited time to write for hours and days on end, which never happened! It’s motivating in a way, because I know that if I don’t write in the spare hour or so here and there, that I lose my chance. So it’s sit down and do it now or do it never.
Name one person who you feel supported you outside of your family members?
My best friend for over a decade now is very supportive, though she’s also very busy! She does what she can, and I appreciate it.
Tell us about a book you’re reading now.
I just finished a book called Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis, which is a retelling of a myth about a girl raised as a boy to save her life. The book is about family and feminism and and falling love, and explores the fluidity of gender and sexuality. Lovely book, really gorgeous prose. I enjoyed it!
Grady presses his lips flat, looks up at the ceiling again to gather himself, sniffs and nods, then tugs Nico’s foot closer by his ankle. “Do you think… If we’d met at a bar. Or through a friend of a friend. Or the gym.” Grady’s thumb strokes the tender skin of Nico’s calf beneath the hem of his pants. “If we had just been two regular guys? We really could have been something.”
There’s a question in his voice, a hesitancy that maybe Nico would have rejected him eventually anyway. Nico scoots across the cramped bunk, crowds against Grady, shoulder to shoulder. “Well, we never would have met at the gym because I would have taken one look at you and gone home to mourn the body I’ll never have by consuming gallons of ice cream.”
Grady bumps his shoulder. “Shut up, you’re gorgeous.” He tips his head against the wall and grins. “If I’d first seen you at a bar I probably would have humiliated myself by trying to win you over with bad karaoke and shameless flirting.”
Nico’s eyebrows raise. “You mean to tell me you’ve been holding back on me? You have a level of flirting that’s even more shameless?”
“Oh yeah. You ain’t seen nothin’, sweetheart.”
“That is truly terrifying.”
Grady laughs, bright and uninhibited. Nico is so relieved to hear it, a moment of light in the darkness. Grady’s hand rests on Nico’s knee, Nico watches his own hand brush his fingers there, but he doesn’t linger.
“We aren’t, though. Just two random guys.”
Grady’s fingers flex, curving over his kneecap. “No.”
Nico exhales harshly. “I have never wanted to be a groupie so badly.”
Grady shoves at his leg. “Come on, you didn’t really think that I would do that to you—”
“In my weaker, more insecure moments?” Nico scrunches his face, embarrassed. “Yeah, I did.”
“You think that little of me, huh?” He says it with a teasing grin, but Nico’s heart sinks.
“No, Grady. I think you’re…” A million adjectives flash through his head: beautiful, amazing, stunning, compassionate, kind, generous. A supernova. He settles on, “Really special.”
Grady gives a skeptical lift of his eyebrows. “Uh oh. I’m really special, huh?”
“I’m so, so into you and it’s…” He cringes at the words but it’s true, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
“Oh lord.” Grady laments with a laugh. “Not that, please.”
“I’m the guy on the sidelines. I’m the one who makes everyone else shine. I don’t belong there, in the spotlight. I like that at the end of the day I can go home and just walk away from the cameras and the red carpets and the scrutiny. And you—you’re a star. And you can have anyone.”
Grady turns, the cramped space of the bunk making his limbs bump and nudge and curl around Nico’s body. During Grady’s shows, in the moment just before he starts singing the opening line of “Broken Records,” there’s this pause, this moment suspended in the air when the audience is silent and waiting and doesn’t even dare to inhale because in that moment, Grady’s soul is laid bare. He looks at Nico just like that and Nico can’t breathe around it.
“I don’t want anyone,” he says, voice low and serious. “I want you. How do you not get that?”
Buy the book:
Lilah Suzanne has been writing actively since the sixth grade, when a literary magazine published her essay about an uncle who lost his life to AIDS. A freelance writer, she has also authored a children’s book and has a devoted following in the fan fiction community. She is also the author of Interlude Press books Spice and Pivot and Slip. Broken Records is Book One in Lilah’s Spotlight Series.
Where to find the author:
Twitter: @lilahsuzanne
Tour Dates & Stops:
17-Dec: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Hearts on Fire, Cheekypee Reads and Reviews, Dawn’s Reading Nook, Velvet Panic, Michael Mandrake, Mikky’s World of Books
18-Dec: My Fiction Nook, Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings, All I Want and More Books, Nautical Star Books, Havan Fellows
21-Dec: Prism Book Alliance, It’s Raining Men, V’s Reads, Bayou Book Junkie
22-Dec: Books A to Z, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Cathy Brockman Romances, MM Good Book Reviews
23-Dec: Unquietly Me, Sassygirl Books, The Day Before You Came
24-Dec: Love Bytes, Lee Brazil, Happily Ever Chapter
25-Dec: Divine Magazine, Inked Rainbow Reads
28-Dec: QUEERcentric Books, Alpha Book Club, TTC Books and More
29-Dec: BFD Book Blog, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, : Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
30-Dec: Jessie G. Books, Molly Lolly, Just Love Romance, Moonbeams Over Atlanta
Rafflecopter Prize: $25 Interlude Press Web Store Gift card plus five multi-format eBooks to runners-up
Thanks so much for having me!
I prefer DVD, thank you for the post 🙂
I prefer DVD 😀