Today Love Bytes is happy to welcome to our blog author Ashavan Doyon , who is here to talk about his double new release in the Sam’s Cafe Romance series.
Ashavan sits down with Cafe owner Sam to catch up check out the fabulous conversation that folds out of that one 🙂
Welcome Ashavan 🙂
“You look like you need a coffee. Not surprised. Writing is an exhausting occupation. Here.” He slides across a cup. “It’s a premium roast.”
I’m sitting at Sam’s Café. It’s a little weird sitting in a construction I built in my head. I can see all the gaps, places where the café looks a little too thin. I wish we were at the strong central square of the coffee bar. It’s described so well and often in the series that it’s got the most secure seats in the house.
I’m here to talk to Sam about my new releases. A second edition of The King’s Mate. The Rodeo Knight. It’s an exciting topic, especially since along with the two new ebooks, there’s also a print release of a collection of books 1-3 of the Sam’s Café Romances—The Chess Master Chronicles.
“Sorry, Sam. Don’t drink coffee.”
Sam frowns. “There’s something unwholesome about a man that doesn’t drink a good coffee. You sure you didn’t just get started on some swill. This is good coffee.” The man is proud of his craft and it shows. The shake of my head is not appreciated. He pulls the coffee back to his side and disappears behind the bar, returning with a glass bottle of Coca-Cola and a donut. “Mexican, with real cane sugar.”
Like everything at the café, it’s just a little bit luxurious, but still everyday. The café is crowded, and it’s nearing exams. That doesn’t stop the small crowd around the chessboards off to one side. “So Sam. These books are about you.”
“Nah. Series is about me, maybe. But only as the background. I’m just a part of the setting.”
“An important part.”
Sam nods an acknowledgement. While I struggle with the bottle cap, he adds sugar and cream to his coffee. He stays silent till he’s had a sip.
“This story is your fault, you know.”
This time the nod is accompanied by a grin. “You wanted to write about a chess master. I just wanted my friend to stop wallowing, you know?”
“How’d you become friends?”
“Russ came in one day with his dad. Don’t even know if he remembers. We’d just opened and his dad came in because the corner store didn’t have power. No power, no coffee. When I told him how much the coffee cost I thought he’d walk out. But he was one of those guys that had to have his coffee in the morning.” Sam shook his head. “Dragged Russ out holding his coffee. But he was in the next day, and the one after. He left Russ’s mom and moved away. But Russ kept coming, from that day on. Poor kid.”
“So, he was lonely?”
“I’d just had a baby with my wife. Justin. You know all about that. Things I don’t want to know, I’m sure.”
I laugh. “Probably not.”
“Anyway, I was feeling paternal. But the kid grew up fast. He was getting dour, like his father. I couldn’t bear to watch that. So I talked to him. Every day. Did all the things a dad should really do. Asked him about his homework. Talked to him about his day. Made sure his mom was doing all right. Then he was grown up and that felt weird. My wife, she thought we should go out to dinner, just us with him. We kept doing that, even after he met Brian.” Sam shook his head. “She did not like Brian.”
“Tell me about that. About Brian. They met here?”
“Right at that counter. He was here late. Mostly now he’s here in the morning, but in college he’d study here till we closed. There was one croissant left. They had a fight over it. You could see the sparks fly.”
“It was serious?”
“They were teenagers. Well, Brian was. Russ was just barely twenty, I think. I’d bet money they ended up in bed together that night.”
“Your wife didn’t approve?”
“She thought it was too fast. Hard to blame her for that. It was fast.”
“People say that about Russ and—”
“That’s silly.” He stopped. “Well, I probably thought it too. But it wasn’t. Not if you think about it. There was years of angsty buildup. And then there was Peter.” Sam practically spat the name. “Doesn’t surprise me that he’d go back to a childhood crush.”
“You pushed Russ because he was wallowing. Was he really? He was dating.”
Sam grimaced, arching an eyebrow at me. “Dating? No. He was being social.”
“Do you regret pushing him, knowing what you know now?”
“Regret it? No. I lost my wife. And I get what he was doing. I was doing the same thing. But he was wandering around in that great big house in the woods, alone. That push helped him find love. It’s hard for me to regret that.”
I’d skipped over a hard part in The Rodeo Knight. The conversation between Sam and Brian, when he first came back to the café. “What were your thoughts when you saw Brian walk through the door.”
“Shit.”
“That’s it.”
“Pretty much. What do you say to that? I wanted to blame him, of course, and I’m just thankful I let him talk first. Walked right up to me like I was a stranger. I had him play Sergei, right over there. Sergei can beat Russ on a good day. Brian trounced him like a newborn pup. I knew it was him. But I knew he didn’t recognize me.” Sam pulled out a red handkerchief and wiped at his eyes.
“It was a hard talk?”
“If it was easy you woulda wrote it.” Sam replaced the handkerchief. “My wife, she hated Brian. But I gave him a job. First work the kid had ever done, but he was a hard worker, dedicated. Formulaic. My son will tell you how precise we are, how long we train our baristas before we let them make drinks without measuring. He never needed to measure more than once. Perfect, every time—precise. We got close. Like I had with Russ.”
“How did he take it?”
“Better than I expected?” Sam shrugged. “How are you supposed to tell someone that they can’t get back their life? Of course, I have other reasons to want Russ’s life to go on as it is. So, yeah, that was hard. On the same token, there he was, couldn’t remember a thing about himself, just found out his partner of ten years had remarried while he was presumed dead, and what does he do? Exactly what I knew he’d do. He went outside and smoked.”
“He tells me you used to smoke.”
“We all did. Ashtrays on the tables. He complained about washing them. It was the only thing about working here he ever complained about.”
I took a bite of the donut. “If you had to guess who in the café we might see next, who do you think it would be?”
“My new junior barista is my best guess. But he’s bi, and you’ll probably only be interested if he goes after a guy. He’s currently scoping out Sergei, and that’s never happening. Also Amanda. I don’t think that’s happening either. But someone for him to love could walk through the doors tomorrow. Sam’s Café loves a good romance.”
Sam drained his coffee and pulled a bill folder from his apron, sliding it across the table. “Don’t forget to settle up with my junior barista.”
I looked at the bill with its hand-scribbled notes. The bastard. He charged me for his coffee.
The Rodeo Knight releases today, along with the second edition of book 1 The King’s Mate, and a print only anthology edition of the first three books of the Sam’s Café Romances — The Chess Master Chronicles. Thanks to Love Bytes Reviews for hosting me today! See you at the next stop (December 1, Open Skye Book Reviews).
For fifteen years, Ashavan Doyon worked with students in the student affairs office of a liberal arts college. He recently decided to shake things up a little, and is now working in the publications and communications office at the college. During lunch, evenings, and when he can escape the grasp of his husband on weekends, he writes, pounding out words day after day in hopes that his ancient typewriter-trained fingers won’t break the glass on his tablet computer. Ashavan is an avid science fiction and fantasy fan and prefers to write while listening to music that fits the mood of his current story. He has no children, but lavishes attention on his sole remaining fur child, a very elderly pug. A Texan by birth, he currently lives in New England, and frequently complains of the weather.
Ashavan went to school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, getting his degree in Russian and East European Studies, with a focus in language and literature. He has two incomplete manuscripts from college that he goes back compulsively to fiddle with every so often, but is still not happy with either of them. He still loves fantasy and science fiction and reads constantly in the moments between writing stories.
You can find me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashavandoyon.writer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashavandoyon
Web: www.ashavandoyon.com
The Rodeo Knight
Sam’s Café Romances: Book Three
Struck by amnesia after a car crash, Brian Stouten has been living a life laid out by his family, a heterosexual life that just doesn’t fit. When he learns it was all a lie, he returns to the small college town that’s his only clue to his past. But the town is still unfamiliar, and the man he’d hoped would make all his memories return is on a honeymoon with another man. To add insult to injury, everyone thinks Brian died in the crash. It’s only when an out-of-place cowboy asks to bum a smoke that Brian realizes this trip was meant to be.
Sylvester Thomas has always fought a secret desire, and done it successfully. But when geeky Brian offers him a smoke and a light, a simple brush of hands has Sylvester’s hidden passions burning deep. Did he make a mistake letting Brian walk away?
Buy link:
The Rodeo Knight (Dreamspinner)
The Chess Master Chronicles (Dreamspinner)
Sam’s Cafe Romances books 1-3, print only
