A warm welcome to the next author in our 2016 GRL Featured Author Blog Tour: Pat Henshaw.

Pat talks to us about her series , answers the question asked and brought with her a giveaway for our readers!

Welcome Pat 🙂

GRL is almost upon us, and quite frankly since this is my first time attending it, I have no idea what to expect. But as an author, I think I’m prepared as far as my writing goes.

Relative Best, number five in my contemporary Foothills Pride series, was released in August along with a paperback compilation of novellas one through four, Foothills Pride Stories, Volume 1. Relative Best looks at how red-haired musician and hotel owner Zeke Bandy finds the love of his life in red-skinned Vic Longbow. It’s a story of non-traditional guys who realize that they must make their own family because their blood relations aren’t available.

Then Short Order, number six in the series, will be published in December or January. When recent horticulture graduate Fen Miller meets John Barton, the sous chef for Adam of When Adam Fell, sparks fly. Together they prove that short, dark, and handsome is a powerful combination.

I’ve got another holiday story in Dreamspinner’s anthology this year, The Orpheum Miracle. Last year I gave readers a taste of my favorite holiday treat in Blame It on the Fruitcake. So this year’s short story places a homeless man in a vintage movie theater where his favorite romantic comedy just might come true.

Meanwhile, I’m finishing up revisions on Right Sort, Foothills Pride number seven, which concerns the love life of closeted everyman Frank McCord, Stone Acre’s hardware store owner, who falls for newcomer Christopher Darling, a Silicon Valley games developer. The novella looks at the possibilities between the beloved small town nice guy and a stranger with a teenage son.

I’m also about to submit the eighth novella in the Foothills series, Seared. In the story, laid-back good-old-boy contractor Ben Behr, the younger brother of Abe from Behr Facts, and successful San Francisco entrepreneur Mitch O’Shea discover that sometimes opposites aren’t quite so different after all.

For icing on my publishing cake, I’ve just gotten word that the first novella in the series, What’s in a Name? about burly bartender Stone and coffee shop owner Jimmy Patterson, will be available in audio format shortly.

In terms of what I’ve got to offer, I’m primed for GRL, right? In fact, I’m excited to share my good fortune with readers by giving away two books to people who stop by my table and sign up.

But having never attended the event before, I really don’t know what’s actually going to happen.

So that I don’t have to face this uncertainty alone, I’ll be attending with my younger daughter Becca, who also traveled with me to RT one year. Since we get along so well, I’m fairly confident that we’ll have a great time.

Also, to help prepare myself, I decided a few months ago that I’d read a book by each of the attending authors.

As plans go, that one has been both a real pleasure and a unbelievable challenge. First, I went through the list crossing off authors like Rick Reed, Jacob Flores, Jeff Adams, Lex Chase, and many others whose books I’d already read. That took out about a third of the list. Then I went through the rest of the authors, discovering a lot of books I’d put on TBR lists.

To make this project easier, I set up an Amazon wish list so that I’d have books ready to load into my Kindle. Brilliant, right?

Well, actually not so brilliant as it happened.

One of the first books I read was by N. R. Walker, mainly because the story was set on a contemporary Australian ranch and I write about the contemporary American West. I figured we’d have a connection of sorts. What happened was I loved Red Dirt Heart and ended up reading the entire series. And things just slid down hill (in a very good way) from there.

This same problem came after I resumed my GRL reading with Edmond Manning, L. E. Franks, Hank Edwards, and a number of others. It wasn’t enough to read one book from them. I had to read more.

I’ve done a lot of reading in preparation to meet my fellow authors, but I hate to admit I haven’t read one book by every author yet—and probably won’t by the time I get to Kansas City. But I’ve got a great Amazon wish list and am set up for the rest of this year and probably into the next.

So what do I expect from GRL?

To meet and talk to the authors whose works I know and whose works I don’t. I hope to meet people who enjoy the Foothills Pride series and give away some copies of the paperback.

I expect to wallow in the presence of writers and books with my daughter by my side.

Question asked by Lynn Lorenz: What would your last meal be, if you could have anything, cooked by anyone?

Answer: Oh, that’s an easy one. I’m from Nebraska, so my comfort meal is always a medium rare steak or medium rare roast beef, mashed or baked potato, and corn on the cob with iced tea as my preferred drink and lemon meringue pie for dessert. If there were ever a time I’d need comfort, I think my last meal would be it!

My question to author Lane Hayes is: If you could learn to play any instrument in the world instantly, what instrument would you like to learn?

Title: Relative Best

Author: Pat Henshaw

Series: Foothills Pride #5 (can be read as standalone)

Genre: Contemporary gay romance

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Publication date: August 17, 2016

Blurb:

Blurb:

Sometimes love sneaks up when you’re least looking for it….

 

Zeke Bandy, owner of Bandy’s Finest Hotel in Old Town Stone Acres, California, is too busy for love. Not only does he oversee the operations of the historic hotel and uphold his family’s tradition of offering refuge to strays and runaways, Zeke also sings and plays down-home music two nights a week at the Stonewall Saloon and for occasional celebrations. Then Zeke meets Victor Longbow, the man of his dreams.

 

Vic isn’t looking for love either. In fact, because of his upbringing in a strict, white foster family, Vic’s not sure he believes in love. He’s in Stone Acres to open a branch office of a national brokerage firm. He’s also hoping to find a vintage photo of what might be his Native American ancestor.

 

After their paths cross, they become friends, then more. Connected by their experiences as orphans raised by flawed fathers, Zeke and Vic realize that some men must find love, hone it, and create families for themselves.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

 

Pat Henshaw, author of the Foothills Pride Stories, was born and raised in Nebraska where she promptly left the cold and snow after college, living at various times in Texas, Colorado, Northern Virginia, and Northern California. Pat enjoys travel, having visited Mexico, Canada, Europe, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Egypt, and Europe, including a cruise down the Danube.

Now retired, Pat has spent her life surrounded by words: Teaching English composition at the junior college level; writing book reviews for newspapers, magazines, and websites; helping students find information as a librarian; and promoting PBS television programs.

Her triumphs are raising two incredible daughters who daily amaze her with their power and compassion. Fortunately, her incredibly supportive husband keeps her grounded in reality when she threatens to drift away while writing fiction.

 

Author media links:

Website: http://patbooked.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.henshaw.10

Facebook Foothills Pride group: https://www.facebook.com/foothillspride/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenshaw

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Henshaw/e/B00BPDEDEA/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1436131610&sr=8-1

Email: FoothillsPrideStories@comcast.net

Pat brought with her a $5 Starbucks card

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