A warm welcome to author Aidan Wayne joining us today for their Riptide Blog tour on new release “Loud and Clear”.

On the Writing fluff all the time:

A while back, a friend asked me to help them come up with pick-up lines for a regular guy who was trying to date a necromancer.

This is what I came up with:

“If my *insert dead relative here* knew we were dating, s/he’d roll over in their grave. Want to make it happen?”

“So you’re a necromancer! No wonder you make me feel so alive.“

“I may not be a zombie, but I’m still really into your brain.”

“If you went on a date with me, I’d be so happy I could die. Which wouldn’t even be a problem!”

“You don’t have to raise me from the dead to make me want to follow you.”

My friend branded these all as, “really goofy but genuinely sweet.” Which does, a lot of the time, define my writing style to a T. While I do include as much angst or hurt as the story itself needs, I definitely enjoying writing sweet stories. With happy endings, and often happy middles. Sometimes even happy beginnings.

I like to write happiness. I don’t think it happens often enough in this genre, and even less so with characters who might be POC, or differently abled, or something else that falls neatly into the category of “not well or often represented.” Is there room for conflict there? Of course there is. Every story needs some sort of stumbling block for the characters to move past, or over, or around. That helps a story go forward.

But honestly, I’m a little sick of suffering. I don’t want a character I’ve invested in, I’ve cared about, I’ve grown to love, to just keep being unhappy and unhappy and unhappy–and then that’s it. Story over. No positive redemption or hope. Some writers do that well and beautifully, but it’s still something I have trouble reading. Often I chose not to. I read about sadness often enough in the news.

My characters are people who I want to have happy endings in real life. The dyslexic cab driver who finds love in a near-mute businessman. The demisexual woman who worried about having a partner until she realized that caring about someone that much made all the difference. The man with burn scars who is sought after, the wheelchair user who gets by just fine thanks, the totally regular people who live in the world and get by in the world and wake up and go to work or school and eat lunch just like everyone else. Who deserve happiness, just like everyone else. So I write it. Because with happiness, I think the world could always use a little bit more anyway.

About Loud and Clear

Jaxon is getting by fine, severe dyslexia or not. Being a cab driver means he doesn’t need to read much, and the job has its perks. The pay isn’t bad, the people can be interesting, and having memorized the city streets keeps him from feeling too stupid.

When he picks up Caleb, a quiet fare in a nice suit, Jaxon doesn’t think anything of it. Then he ends up driving Caleb home the next week too, and the next, and the next. Eventually Caleb tries to communicate—by writing things down. Turns out that Caleb has such a bad stutter he spends most of his time mute.

If only Jaxon had an easier time reading what Caleb had to say. But he’s interested in trying, and Caleb seems interested back. They discover that, with a little bit of effort, it isn’t so hard to make themselves understood. Especially when what’s growing between them is definitely worth talking about.

Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

About Aidan Wayne

Aidan Wayne is a big believer in character-driven stories with happy endings. This is not to say that stories can’t contain a little (or a lot) of grief, just that at the end of it all expect there to be bandages and hugs. They particularly like to write about minority characters because damn it, they deserve happy endings too.

When not writing, Aidan enjoys practicing aerial, martial arts, and ASL, and watching reality cooking shows. They are probably in the middle of twelve projects as you read this.

Tumblr: justsayins.tumblr.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/justsayins

To celebrate the release of Loud and Clear, Aidan is giving away $15 in Riptide credit. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!