A warm welcome to author Meg Harding joining us today to talk about her new release “The Last Favor”.
Meg surprised us with an interview by fellow author Avon Gale , shares an excerpt and also brought along a giveaway.
Welcome Meg 🙂

Thanks for having me today Love Bytes! I’m here to introduce readers to Flynn and Andy, the two angsty men leading The Last Favor. I’ve got an exclusive excerpt, and I thought it would be fun to let Avon Gale (author of a certain fantastic hockey series) interview me about the novel and my writing process. So here goes!

Hi Meagan! Congrats on the new book release, and thank you for letting me interview you!

1. What gave you the idea for this novel? This started as a possible submission for a Christmas anthology in which the holiday took an unexpected turn. I got about 10k into it, and realized I wasn’t feeling the direction I’d have to take it in to make it work as an anthology submission. So I rewrote it, expanded it, and let Flynn and Andy have at.
2. I loved the whole thing about the search for the white Christmas tree. Is that by chance inspired by a true story? It’s not, though I have gone on a few Christmas tree hunts, and I remember feeling much like Flynn.
3. I love finding out if authors name their characters certain things for a reason. What’s the story behind your MCs names, if there is one? Not as such. I really like the name Flynn, and Andrew came about because I needed a name that I could shorten so Flynn could refuse to call him by it. Originally, Andy started out as Johnny.
4. If you had to make up a cocktail (alcoholic or otherwise) for one of your characters, who is it and what’s in the drink? I think Andy’s drink of choice would be something smooth, with whiskey probably, and pretty straight forward. Flynn would be a spiked hot chocolate type of guy. I can’t really see either of them going for the fruity cocktail lol.
5. Do you write your stories in a linear fashion, or do bits and pieces of certain scenes as they come to you? I write in a linear fashion, and then when I decide something needs to be changed 20k words later, I go back and delete scenes and rewrite them. So, actually, it’s linear and not, depending on the story.
6. Are you one of those writers who can work with music in the background, and if so, were there any particular songs that inspired you while writing this novel? I can’t listen to anything with words while I write, because it’ll distract me or lead to me writing the song lyrics in place of what I’d intended. I do listen to the Pirates of the Caribbean sountracks while I write sometimes though. I like the quick pace, and it helps me with some of the tenser scenes.
7. One thing I loved about “The Last Favor” was that I could totally see the action so clearly in my head, like it was a movie. If they did make a movie about this, who’d be starring in the main roles? Tom Hiddleston would be Flynn. And Andy would be Martin Freeman.
8. Given all the decorating that goes on in your story, are you an intense sort of decorator for the holidays or other occasions? Ironically, no. We do decorate in my house for things like Christmas, but only inside now, and I don’t actually do the decorating. My mom does. Yep.
9. What’s the best compliment a reader can give you about your writing? I’ll take any and all compliments, lol. It’s hard to say this is the “best” compliment. I guess if the compliment really showed an understanding of one of the characters, it would give me an extra kinda “awwww yes *blush*” moment.
10. What’s up next for you, as far as projects go? I’m working on the fourth and final novel in an upcoming series being released with Dreamspinner (book one and two coming this year!), and I’ve got a couple ideas that I’m itching to get out sooner rather than later. I seem to be veering toward a certain amount of angst….

 

He isn’t expecting much when he opens the door, just a reasonably attractive man by Clint’s standards, which aren’t always credible. He hasn’t given any thought to what color hair the man would have (rich sable), or the color of his eyes (bright blue like the sun off a lake), or how tall he might be (several inches taller than Andy himself).

He hasn’t given any thought to whether he’d know the man.

He closes the door in that familiar face only moments after opening it, his stomach plummeting so far down it feels like it’s at his feet. His breathing is fast, his heart thumping away double time. He braces himself against the door, letting his head hang between his arms. There’s a good chance he’s having a panic attack. Flynn Barnett is standing on his doorstep. He tries to take a slow, long breath in.

“Seriously?” asks a deep, familiar voice in a slow drawl that’s somewhat muffled by the door. “This is a bit petty, no?”

Andy is going to kill Clint. He is going to tear him to pieces. “There’s been a misunderstanding,” he says. “I think you should ask your driver to take you to a hotel for the night.”

“My driver left.”

“Andy?” asks his mom, appearing in the hall behind him. “What’s going on? Let the poor man in.”

Andy shakes his head no. “He can’t stay.”

“You’re being ridiculous and very rude,” she says, eyeing him with concern. Her concern doesn’t stop her from gently prodding him out of the way so she can open the door. “You,” she breathes, standing frozen in the doorway, staring at their guest.

“Hello, Mrs. Wilson. Pleasure to see you again. It has been quite some time.”

She shuts the door in his face.

Andy can’t help it. He starts to laugh, and he can’t make himself stop. His mother doesn’t say one word, waiting for him to calm down on his own time. “You know he’s not going to leave if we don’t let him in,” points out Andy. “Probably climb the side of the house and come in through one of our bedroom windows.”

“I’ll go check and make sure they’re all locked.” And bless her, she starts to move like that’s exactly what she’s going to do.

“No,” says Andy, rubbing at his eyes, which are watering from his laughter. “I’m going to let him in. It was just the shock at first. That’s all. I’m fine. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.” He can be a mature adult about this. Clint wouldn’t have sent Flynn to him if it weren’t important. He knew their history.

He reopens the door and stares into a face from his past. A face he’d never thought to see again. Had kissed and stroked and even at times mended. The face of a man he had loved beyond words. A man who had given him the absolute happiest and the horrifyingly worst moments of his life.

“Hello, Flynn.”

Blurb:

Three years ago Andrew Wilson and Flynn Barnett were in a relationship, until Flynn made a mistake that nearly cost Andrew his life. Andrew walked away from the FBI, his home, and his partner, and started over back in Montreal, running a restaurant.  Fast forward to the present and Andrew is knee-deep in preparations for his sister’s wedding. When an ex-colleague calls to ask for one last favor, the last person he expects to walk through his door is Flynn, in need of a place to stay. Only thing is, Andrew can’t say no.  Two weeks of wedding hijinks bring back all the old feelings that have simmered below the surface. Caught in a cycle of fighting and making up, the two men try to figure out if there’s anything they can salvage. And even if there is, Andrew can’t be sure this time will be any different.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner

Amazon

ARe

Meg Harding is a graduate of UCF, and is completing a masters program for Publishing in the UK. For as long as she can remember, writing has always been her passion, but she had an inability to ever actually finish anything. She’s immensely happy that her inability has fled and looks forward to where her mind will take her next. She’s a sucker for happy endings, the beach, and superheroes.  In her dream life she owns a wildlife conservation and is surrounded by puppies. She’s a film buff, voracious reader, and a massive geek.

Website: Megharding.wordpress.com

Facebook: facebook.com/meghardingwrites

Twitter: twitter.com/cumberstone61

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