A warm welcome to author Renae Kaye joining us today here at Love Bytes to talk about her new release “Safe in His Heart”.
Welcome Renae 🙂
Humour in books
I love humour. It brightens your day. It makes you smile which makes you happy, not sad and grumpy all the time. My favourite colour is yellow. Bright, sunny yellow. I like to be happy. You could call me an optimist.
I’m pretty sure I’m a pessimistic optimist. I often say something to my husband along the lines of:
Me: I can feel today is just going to be a bad one. Him: Think positive! Me: I’m positive today is going to be a bad one.
Even when I’m being pessimistic, I’m doing it with humour. It’s a coping mechanism. I make jokes when I’m nervous. People often see me as outgoing and an extrovert. The truth is probably closer to the fact that I’m talking, laughing and making jokes because I’m uncomfortable.
Recently I broke a tooth. Argh. I hate the dentist. I walked into the dentist’s office and greeted the receptionist. “Hi, Adele!” (I try to memorise people’s names and greet them when I see them.) I was happy and upbeat… because I didn’t want to be there and pretending to be happy is my way of making sure I didn’t run screaming from the room.
Adele: Hi, Renae. How are you today? Renae: **putting on fake exasperation** You really should stop asking people that question. We’re coming to the dentist, we’re usually not feeling all that great. And yet we’ll answer you with a “Fine, thanks” and lie. So you’re causing us to lie, did you realise that?
Subsequently, my natural writing instinct is to write humour. We need to laugh. I need to laugh. Things don’t have to be serious all the time.
It seems to be an Australian trait.
Last week I posted a link on my Facebook page where a radio station interviewed the poor Aussie bloke who was bitten on his penis by a deadly redback spider after visiting the portaloo at a worksite. There were jokes about him asking his work mates to suck the venom from the wound, and how this poor bloke walked around the worksite with his hand down his pants, holding the injured part of his body while he waited for an ambulance. The doctor at the hospital apparently told him that he couldn’t have sex for a month… and managed to keep a straight face through the joke for all of three seconds. Christopher Koehler asked me, “What is with you people and your “sense of humor”? I mean, are you all this way?” My answer: “**thinks about it** Yeah, pretty much…”
Safe in His Arms (Safe #1) was the fourth M/M Romance novel I had written. After three novels that I allowed my funny-freak to run amok, I tried to dial back the humour. Tried. Yep. It was supposed to be all serious. Until I reread my draft and found myself laughing and smiling through it. I realised humour had crept in.
Safe in His Heart (Safe #2) is a continuation of the same story, and so I left the humour levels down on my dial. They’re still there in this book, just not as much as The Shearing Gun or The Blinding Light. My next novel to be released will be a spin-off of Loving Jay and therefore it will have the same quirky humour as the first book in the series. I believe that people who like the first book in a series prefer the subsequent books to be similar – similar humour, similar character POV, and similar heat levels. Therefore you will find Safe #2 to be less humour, more heat and third person POV the same as Safe #1.
With Safe #2, you will get some good humour lines in there – just because it’s a Renae Kaye novel. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s just Renae Kaye, or whether it’s the Australian person. In our culture, we’ll often crack a joke when the situation is dire. The man who was mugged and stabbed will say to the reporters, “Lucky they didn’t take me beer. Now that would’ve been a tragedy.”
My favourite line in this whole book?
Excerpt, Safe in His Heart: What does one say when one’s secret gay lover is sitting down at the table purchased by one’s wayward wife, talking to one’s conservatively Catholic mother and drinking coffee?
It’s a conundrum alright. What does one say? We get Andrew’s humour through the book at odd moments like this excerpt above. He will crack a joke, even when he’s uncomfortable.
Excerpt, Safe in His Heart: Father John smiled at Andrew and folded his hands over a protruding stomach. “What? You don’t think priests have senses of humor?”
A smile played around Andrew’s mouth as he answered honestly, “I didn’t think it was allowed. Isn’t it the eleventh commandment or something?”
We also get Paul’s humour through the book. The follow excerpt shows him dealing with a patient at the hospital where he works.
Excerpt, Safe in His Heart: Paul didn’t take offense. Mrs. Haggerty was one of those old ladies who shot straight from the hip, saying her mind and not mincing her words. On her first day in, he overheard her demanding that the nursing supervisor assign him to attend her. “If I’m going to be stuck in this bed for a week, I may as well have something pretty to look at ten times a day. Give me that young man with the nice buns. I can stare at him and pretend I’m twenty years younger.”
Since that would still make her nearly thirty years his senior, Paul decided he liked her forthrightness.
“Have you been practicing that smiling, like I told you to?” Paul teased her back. “If you try it three times a day, soon you’ll be able to do it, just like the rest of us.”
“Bah,” the old lady responded. “It’s a waste of energy. At my age I need all my energy to remember to breathe. Smiling could kill me.”
Yes. Paul adored her. He pulled the blood pressure cuff from the cupboard and wrapped it around her arm. “Are you going to be a sweet old lady for me today when I get you up in the walker?”
She gave him a sly look. “The tissue box fell off the bed. Can you pick it up for me?”
Paul glanced at where she was indicating while the machine took her blood pressure. The tissue box was a good couple of meters across the room, right where Mrs. Haggerty could get a good view of his “buns” as he stooped to pick it up.
“You didn’t hurt your arm throwing that, did you?” he asked with a small grin.
“No. I don’t think so,” she replied. “But you may need to check that too. A nice massage with oil could be beneficial.”
Paul recorded her stats on her chart and moved to pick up the “fallen” box. He snorted, hiked up the back of his nursing uniform’s top so his arse was showing, then bent over and grabbed it. It was unprofessional, but he didn’t mind the gawk. And if it made Mrs. Haggerty cooperate with him when he needed to get her out of bed in an hour’s time, then he would do it ten times over.
He straightened and turned. “Enough?” he asked her. She accepted the box back with surprising docility.
So if you enjoy a giggle or two, don’t hesitate to pick up my book and have a look. I guarantee you two hot, Aussie males who get their happy ending, a story that will touch you, and a few giggles to break it up. And remember my motto in life: Always laugh.
Renae
Safe in His Heart, by Renae Kaye Safe #2
Published by Dreamspinner Press
Released 2 May 2016
Blurb
Andrew and Paul learned about God and Jesus in different churches and realize their views of spirituality are worlds apart. Andrew was raised Catholic and was told his homosexuality was a sin. For his entire life, he hid the truth. He married and had children to present a façade to the world—that of a straight man. It’s not until he has an affair with Paul, who shows him a different side of Jesus, that Andrew realizes he can be gay and still believe in God. Paul’s Jesus is one of acceptance and love, and in Paul’s church, being gay is not a problem. For Paul and Andrew, falling in love is the easy part of their journey. They must make it through the fires of cheating, being discovered, Andrew’s wife leaving, the necessities of childcare and family life, the demands of their jobs, and working on their commitment to each other. Only then can they be safe in each other’s heart.
Buy links
Renae Kaye is a lover and hoarder of books who thinks libraries are devilish places because they make you give the books back. She consumed her first adult romance book at the tender age of thirteen and hasn’t stopped since. After years – and thousands of stories! – of not having book characters do what she wants, she decided she would write her own novel and found the characters still didn’t do what she wanted. It hasn’t stopped her though. She believes that maybe one day the world will create a perfect couple – and it will be the most boring story ever. So until then she is stuck with quirky, snarky and imperfect characters who just want their story told.
Renae lives in Perth, Western Australia and writes in five minute snatches between the demands of two kids, a forbearing husband, too many pets, too much housework and her beloved veggie garden. She is a survivor of being the youngest in a large family and believes that laughter (and a good book) can cure anything.
How to contact Renae:
Email: renaekaye@iinet.net.au
Website: www.renaekaye.weebly.com
FB: www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9
Twitter: @renaekkaye
Renae Kaye is giving away an eBook of Safe in His Heart, so comment below!
Thanks for the chance! I looooved book one and can’t wait to read this one as well.