A warm welcome to author Kelly Jensen joining us today to talk about her new release “Counting Down”. Kelly talks about traditions and there is a giveaway to participate in!

Welcome Kelly 🙂

New Year’s Eve Traditions

I have one New Year’s Eve tradition: I buy a bottle of my favourite champagne ever year and share it with whomever I’m spending the evening with. For the past few years, that’s been either my husband or a small group of friends. I’m not really a big party person, especially on New Year’s Eve. But I used to be.

Back in my twenties (several years of which have blended together into a kaleidoscope of experience) I went to all the parties. For a couple of years, I went to raves for NYE and one of them was the longest night of my life. The party started early in the afternoon and by the time we should have been ordering a cab, we were wandering the neighbourhood with a shopping cart full of bottles. The shopping cart actually ended up perched atop the clothesline behind our house the next morning. None of us remember how it got there. Or where the roll of AstroTurf came from.

Things hanging from places was a theme for the rave, too. They had a Volkswagen Beetle suspended from the ceiling in the main room and these weird plastic curtains everywhere that people kept getting tangled up in.

The hangover was awful. It lasted for days.

We also had parties in the woods, where we all took tents and hung lights from trees and danced for two days under the stars (I’m sure there was daylight at some point, but there were always stars).

I decided in my twenty-sixth year, after waking up with one hangover too many, to skip New Year’s Eve. My friends were all aghast, but I was tired of partying. I bought my first bottle of Veuve Clicquot (which actually cost less than a night out, all up) and… I can’t actually remember what I did besides having a single glass of champagne. I probably had something yummy to eat and curled up with a good book. The next morning, I rose with the sun and walked up to the shops to buy croissants and bread for breakfast for all my hard partying roommates, and that’s the moment I remember best: being nearly alone on a quiet and beautiful morning, walking along a deserted street and smelling the bread baking and the coffee brewing.

That became my new tradition. Not going out, or going out, but doing something quiet. Being able to enjoy the dawning the first day of a new year. Some of my favourite New Year’s Eves after that were spent at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. Good weather, lots of grass for picnicking, a free concert and fireworks. It was all very civilized and I lived walking distance away, so the parking wasn’t as hassle.

For the millennium, we had a LAN party at our place (everyone brings a computer, we network them and play games together). At midnight, I was probably bombing the crap out of one of my friends. Virtually, of course. We ordered a big sandwich in the shape of “2000.” We all loved that sandwich.

The past few years, I’ve had my quiet glass of champagne while watching my husband and daughter set off fireworks in the driveway.

When I write characters like Henry and Marc, who I only visit now and again, I do wonder what their holidays will be like and how they will celebrate things like New Year’s Eve. Maybe I’ll have to write a new story for them toward the end of this year. Give them a date that actually works and a chance to celebrate, quietly, the passing of a full year together. Have them wake up at dawn and go out walking (in Boston, in the middle of winter—good plan, Kelly) and greet the first day of the New Year together.

That can be their tradition too.

Thanks for following my tour! At the end of every post, I’ll be asking a question. Leave a comment with your answer (and your email address). Every comment throughout the tour counts as an entry in my giveaway. One winner will receive $15 (US or equivalent) to spend at the Dreamspinner Press store.

Question: Do you have a New Year’s Eve tradition?

Counting Down

It’s been a week since a Christmas Eve blizzard changed the course of Marcus Winnamore’s life. Plan A is now Plan B, and the first item on his new agenda is taking Henry Auttenberg on a date. They’ve been invited to a New Year’s Eve party, and Marc is counting down the hours until midnight… until he can kiss Henry in front of his colleagues and friends.

Things don’t quite work out to plan. Finding the elevator out of service, Marc and Henry check the stairs, only to choose the wrong door, and become locked in the basement. Close quarters once again make for close conversation, and as they explore every avenue of escape, they also explore the deepening attraction between them. For Marc, this isn’t an experiment. Will he still feel that way when he has to admit to someone other than Henry that he’s gay?

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If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, co-written with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Connect with Kelly: Twitter | Facebook | Website

 

3/29     Sinfully Gay Romance “Marc’s Book”

3/29     Tibby Armstrong “Excerpt: The Laundry”

3/30     The Novel Approach  “There’s Something About Henry”

3/31     Joyfully Jay “Excerpt: The Hidden Something”

4/4       MM Good Book Reviews “The Basement Playlist”

4/3       Love Bytes “New Year’s Eve Traditions”

4/3       The Dreamspinner Press Blog “Dating Ideas for Henry and Marc”

4/5       Boy Meets Boy Reviews “What’s Next for Henry and Marc?”