A warm welcome to author B.G. Thomas joining us today to talk about his new release “Blue”.
Welcome Ben 🙂
From Little Acorns….
I am not sure just where he came from. He was just…there.
I was writing what has turned out to be one of my most popular Christmas stories, a tale called Bianca’s Plan, a story tale about a little girl who starts setting her father up on dates because she doesn’t want him to be lonely—and she wants a family. Sadly, these dates turn out to be…well…not so good.
While shopping for a Christmas tree, they meet a beautiful airheaded young man named Blue—and yes that is his real name. Bianca’s dad goes out for a few drinks with the pretty lad only to find out that Blue just isn’t his type.
That should have been it. That should have been the end of Blue’s story. He was a secondary character and his role was to be a bad date so that Bianca’s father could open his eyes and find the perfect man who had been there all along.
Except it wasn’t the end! Blue wasn’t done. And I saw that he was much more than meets the eye. He was more than a pretty little space cadet. And that maybe he was a little smarter than I realized….
Then when I was writing one of my favorite novels, Hound Dog & Bean, who should pop up but Blue! It was as if he gave me no choice but elbowed his way in, just as he did when he burst through those Christmas trees in Bianca’s Plan. Once more his part was small, but there he was and to my surprise, the readers loved him. They wanted to know who he was. They wanted more of him.
So, I did what they asked. Blue showed up again for another small scene or two in my Seasons of Love series. And instead of satiating my readers, they demanded more than cameo appearances. They wanted Blue’s story. They wanted to know where he came from. Who he was. If, as I had suspected, he was more than meets they eye. And they wanted this sad boy/man to find love….
So, with the approval of the Powers That Be over at Dreamspinner Press, I finally wrote his story. It was the first time I had ever done anything like it before. I had no idea that one day a minor character would rise up to get his own novel! Who knew the pretty little boy could stand so high and proud?
I guess he did! LOL!
Here’s the blurb….
Blue McCoy has lived on the streets for a long time, surviving by his wits and doing what he must, and he’s not above using his youthful appearance and air of innocence to his advantage. It’s not an easy life, but he’s happy. He has everything he really needs: the clothes on his back, a house to squat in, a sweet dog. Everything except that special someone to love him.
Six months ago, John Williams’s wife left him because she was bored. “Even your name is boring” were her last words to him before she walked out. Now he’s by himself in a big house, trying to figure out what direction his life should take. He’s never been so alone.
A chance encounter sets John on a new path, a path that becomes clearer when loneliness sends him to a local animal shelter to get a dog—and he finds an angel instead. An angel named Blue. A crisis brings them together, but it is something else that keeps them there. Could it be love? A love that can forever end two men’s deep loneliness and bring them the support and sense of belonging they’ve searched for all their lives?
Now I want to make something clear! If you think that you need to go and buy the stories that Blue has previously cameoed in before you read this one, you’re wrong! Totally and completely wrong! The novel Blue stands totally on its own and in fact is a true tale of who he really is, and not the character who has been misunderstood by the people he met in those other stories. They didn’t see who he really was. And since you will see Blue from his POV, you will get an intimate view of who him for the very smart guy he is.
I hope you will give him a chance. I totally love this little guy. And I like the fact that despite all kinds of rough roads and tragedies he’s seen, his spirit rises above it all and Blue—lovely inside as well as out—finds the love that is perfect for him. I dare you not to let him into your heart!
Here is a little bit of the story, right after something tragic has happened to Blue. His companion, a dog named Chewie, has been hit by a car. He’s worried to death, but then he meets a shy man who not only takes him away from the animal clinic to get away for a bit, but just might wind up saving being all that Blue has ever dreamed of!
Blue’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the car, and then… then… he turned and looked up at the big hunky man and remembered.
Remembered where he had seen the guy before.
And the car.
The guy had almost hit him with this very car several months ago. Blue had been flying along on his skateboard—a thing of the past now; he’d sold it for grocery money—and he’d been lost in his head, singing a song probably. He’d been on the sidewalk, where he admittedly shouldn’t have been, and the big copper-colored luxury tank had come down a steep driveway and almost rolled right over him.
The car had stopped on a dime, but the driver had burst out of it like a jack-in-the-box, and Blue had steeled himself to be screamed at. To his surprise, the man—big and broad shouldered, with a businessman’s very short hairstyle and piercing hazel eyes—had just frozen and then fumbled over his words and stared at him in a way that made Blue hard almost instantly. The big dude, a good head taller than him at least, really didn’t say anything after that, and then Blue had gotten this overwhelming desire to touch him and he’d thrown his arms around him and….
I kissed him. I kissed his cheek.
Blue’s own cheeks heated at the memory, and he didn’t know if was embarrassment or something much more primal.
“I remember you,” he whispered. There was a flash in the man’s eyes, and then John was blushing, and damn, Blue loved it when a big ol’ hunky man blushed. It was so fucking sweet. So sexy.
“Yeah—ah, yes,” the man said.
John.
John Williams was his name, and wasn’t that a fucking sexy name? Strong. Secure. None of those silly names like Chaz or Sly or even Blue—although he did like his name, more or less. And everything about John was so… man. Tall and shouldery, and—Blue shivered—he was wearing a suit. On a Saturday afternoon. Was there ever anything as sexy and assured as a man in a suit? He wasn’t wearing a tie. No undershirt either, and his shirt was unbuttoned just enough to show a hint of hair.
“It was the day,” John said, “that I stupidly almost—”
“The day I stupidly almost got myself run over.”
John nodded once. “I should have been paying attention.”
“You paid attention enough,” Blue said, and he would have said more, but the dizziness hit him again, dammit. It had been a way-too-much day, what with sweet, sweet Chewie being hit by that car, and Blue being sure he was dead, and then he wasn’t and then he was running with his dog to Four-Footed Friends and then the operation and then this big kind man—so many big men weren’t kind, it seemed—was holding him and letting him cry.
As Blue felt the world go light, John leapt forward and helped him to the car—it was such a beautiful car, some part of him noticed—and all but lifted Blue inside, where he settled into the mind-bogglingly comfortable seat. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen anything like this. It was as if he were in some kind of leather-upholstered spaceship.
Then John let himself in on the driver’s side and asked Blue to put on his seat belt, and Blue almost said, as he always did, “I don’t wear seat belts,” which he mostly got away with. But now—he had no idea why—he didn’t want to argue with John or put up a fuss or anything.
So Blue clicked it on. For a moment there it’d looked like John was going to help him—like he was a kid or something—and it gave him a shiver of delightful goose bumps. Then John asked him where he wanted to eat, and the truth was he didn’t know. And didn’t care. Blue was quite suddenly ravenous and would have eaten anything.
A pang of pain hit him from nowhere, and Blue looked out the window at the big tan building—Four-Footed Friends painted along its length—and thought of Chewie and the way his dog had screamed when the car hit him.
“Think of him resting,” John said, as if he were reading Blue’s mind.
Blue trembled and looked at him, at that masculine face and that strong jaw and those kind eyes, and he felt that maybe everything would be okay.
“He’s not in pain now, and Elaine said he’s going to be okay. I can tell that woman is a no-bullshit kind of lady. Can’t you?”
Oh, those eyes. So caring. His little smile so sure. What a wonderful man. Mysteriously reassured and feeling a tiny bit better, Blue nodded. “Okay,” he said and closed his eyes and imagined it. Imagined Chewie resting. No. Sleeping. But not in that kennel. At home. On the mattress in the abandoned house where he lived with Chewie. Their bed.
He opened his eyes to find John looking at him, and Blue felt a little bit better still. Then John asked him again where he wanted to eat.
Blue shook his head. “I don’t know.”
John looked out the windshield for a long moment, then bit his lower lip and nodded. “Okay,” he said, and they were off.
Blue settled in. Pretended he really was in a spaceship of some kind. Something from Star Wars maybe. Not an X-Wing…. “What is this thing called, anyway?”
“Thing?” John asked.
“This car,” Blue said.
“Oh. A Lexus.” John pursed his lips. “An LS 600h L.”
Blue burst into laughter. He couldn’t help it. It felt good to laugh. “A… what? LX 600?”
“LS 600h L,” John corrected.
“That’s the name of the car?” What kind of name was that?
John rolled his eyes. “I know, right? What happened to a car being called a Saturn or a Sentra or Taurus or Mustang or Focus or—”
“It’s like a robot from Star Wars!” Blue cried. “C-3PO, R2-D2, BB-8, and now… LS-600!” And then he clapped his hand over his mouth and realized he’d done it again. No filter. Something entered his head and then flew right out his mouth and—God!—this guy was taking him out to eat and Blue was making fun of his car.
To Blue’s relief John laughed, and it was all rumbly and manly. “I’m never going to think of this car as a Lexus again.”
“Is that okay?” Blue asked.
John smiled at him. “It’s fine. I’m just happy you’re laughing.”
Buy Links:
BY THE WAY!!! Did you know that when you buy the paperback from Dreamspinner Press, you get the ebook for free??) Dreamspinner Paperback
B.G. Thomas lives in Kansas City with his husband of more than a decade and their fabulous dogs Sarah Jane and Oliver. He is blessed to have a lovely daughter as well as many extraordinary friends. He has a great passion for life.
B.G. loves romance, comedies, fantasy, science fiction, and even horror—as far as he is concerned, as long as the stories are character driven and entertaining, it doesn’t matter the genre. He has gone to literature conventions his entire adult life where he’s been lucky enough to meet many of his favorite writers. He has made up stories since he was a child; it is where he finds his joy.
In the nineties, he wrote for gay adult magazines but stopped because the editors wanted all sex without plot. “The sex is never as important as the characters,” he says. “Who cares what they are doing if we don’t care about them?” Excited about the growing male/male romance market, he began writing again. He submitted a novella and was thrilled when it was accepted in four days. Since then the romantic tales have poured out of him. “It’s like I’m somehow making up for a lifetime’s worth of story-telling!”
In 2015 he made and entry every day in his blog “365 Days of Silver,” where he found something every day to be grateful for. You can find it right here: https://365daysofsilver.wordpress.com/
“Leap, and the net will appear” is his personal philosophy and his message. “It is never too late,” he testifies. “Pursue your dreams. They will come true!”
Website/blog: https://bthomaswriter.wordpress.com/about-2/
I love the sound of this story. I love romance. I love the promise of being together forever stories… Ones you can feel once you’ve turned the last page.
Good luck on the release!
Thank you for the post. It sounds like a wonderful book. Best of luck with the release =)