A warm welcome to authors Lisa Henry and JA Rock who are joining us to talk about their new release “The Preacher’s Son”.
They show us the profile of one of the main characters Nate and they brought a giveaway that everyone can participate in!
Welcome Lisa and J.A. 🙂
Character Profile: Nate Tull
Nate Tull is the son of Reverend Tull, an influential preacher in Pinehurst, Washington. The Tulls run a conversion therapy camp for LGBTQ youth. The reverend’s ostensible kindness toward the campers has always led Nate to view his father’s work as righteous. When Nate is publicly outed after years of struggling with his own same-sex attractions, he turns to his father for support and comfort, and the reverend helps Nate banish his homosexual urges and live a straight life.
Nate was an interesting character to write. He’s somewhat naive and hopeful in the beginning, when he’s starting to come to terms with his sexuality and views Jason Banning as a sort of savior–the man who will give him the courage to come out to his father and live as an out gay man. The layers of self-protection he puts up in order to survive Jason’s humiliating betrayal range from denial to hypocrisy to a dubious, Stepford-y sort of inner peace. When Jason comes back into his life, those walls all start to crumble, and Nat finds himself more confused than ever. He’s forced to confront in a much deeper way the possibility that his father is wrong–that the work he helps his father do at the camp is damaging, both to himself and to the kids they rehabilitate.
Nate doesn’t see himself as strong, but he does have a good deal of inner strength. He tries so hard to do the right thing, but repeatedly finds himself caught up in what other people want him to be. His journey is one of self-actualization, as he struggles to make sense of his sexual orientation, his relationship with God, and his feelings for Jason, the man who once hurt him deeply. He never lets that struggle turn him bitter and cynical, no matter how angry or confused he gets. And that ability to see the good in the world is what draws Jason to him, makes Jason want to help Nate see the good in himself.
A Preacher’s Son by Lisa Henry & JA Rock
Release date: January 16, 2018
Book Blurb:
Jason Banning is a wreck. His leg’s been blown to hell in Afghanistan, his boyfriend just left him and took the dog, and now he’s back in his hometown of Pinehurst, Washington, a place that holds nothing but wretched memories…and Nathan Tull. Nathan Tull, whose life Jason ruined. Nathan Tull, who will never believe Jason did what he did for a greater good. Nathan Tull, whose reverend father runs the gay conversion therapy camp that Jason once sought to bring down—at any cost. Nathan Tull is trying to live a quiet life. Four years ago, when Nate was a prospective student visiting UW, his world collapsed when senior Jason Banning slept with him, filmed it, and put the footage online. A painful public outing and a crisis of faith later, Nate has finally begun to heal. Cured of the “phantoms” that plagued him for years, he now has a girlfriend, a counselor job at his dad’s camp, and the constant, loving support of his father. But when he learns Jason is back in town, his carefully constructed identity begins to crumble. As desperate to reconcile his love for God with his attraction to men as Jason is to make sense of the damage he’s done, Nate finds himself walking a dangerous line. On one side lies the righteous life he committed himself to in the wake of his public humiliation. On the other is the sin he committed with Jason Banning, and the phantoms that won’t let him be. But is there a path that can bridge those two worlds—where his faith and his identity as a gay man aren’t mutually exclusive? And can he walk that path with the man who betrayed him?
Links:
Lisa Henry likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever afters.
Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.
She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied history and English, neither of them very thoroughly.
She shares her house with too many cats, a dog, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.
Connect with Lisa Henry:
Website: www.lisahenryonline.com
Blog: http://lisahenryonline.blogspot.com.au
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaHenryOnline
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.henry.1441
J.A. Rock is the author of over twenty LGBTQ romance and suspense novels, as well as an occasional contributor to HuffPo Queer Voices. J.A.’s books have received Lambda Literary, INDIE, and EPIC Award nominations, and 24/7 was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews. J.A. lives in Chicago with an extremely judgmental dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.
Connect with JA Rock:
Website: www.jarockauthor.com
Blog: http://jarockauthor.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jarockauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ja.rock.39
Win 1 of 3 e-copies of any Lisa Henry or JA Rock back catalog book! Open Internationally.
a Rafflecopter giveaway