A warm welcome to author Amy Spector joining us today to talk about new release “That Rat, Carter Janson”.

Amy talks about Chicago where the book takes place, shares an exclusive excerpt & giveaway.

Welcome Amy 🙂

Hello, everyone. This is Amy Spector. I’m absolutely thrilled to be here today on Love Bytes to tell you a little about myself, share an excerpt from my new book from Dreamspinner Press, and tell you why That Rat, Carter Janson just had to take place in Chicago.

 

The very first trip I took with my—now—husband, that wasn’t driving to meet his parents, was a one day trip to Chicago for our employer. In a little over twenty-four hours, we got lost countless times, managed to check into the scariest hotel ever built—I’m convinced thirties’ mobsters offed a guy in the hallway—and, after only a few hours sleep, literally ran through The Art Institute of Chicago in an attempt to see as much as we could before it closed.

 

On our second trip, we were stopped on the freeway by a police officer for only driving the speed limit—Did we want to get ourselves killed?—I discovered I couldn’t be behind the wheel in the city because the streetlights were “weird” and we learned that rush hour traffic consumed about six hours a day.

 

Still, we kept going back, because Chicago is magic.

 

We returned again and again for the museums and galleries, the Comic Conventions—I once stayed in the same hotel as Chewbacca!—the skyscrapers and Lake Michigan. Not to mention some damn fine pizza!

 

So, when Dreamspinner Press announced a States of Love series, I knew the state I wanted to claim. Every state has a story to tell and every city a uniqueness that is wholly its own, and I thought maybe, I could be the one to bring my love of Chicago, Illinois to the series.

 

That Rat, Carter Janson (States of Love 35)

Dreamspinner Press

Release Date (Ebook): January 19th, 2018

Genre: Contemporary gay romance

Blurb:

Every man has secrets, but some are bigger than others….

Felix Peake escaped a shady past to carve out a successful career as an expert in Mesopotamian art and gain the respect of the Chicago art community. But when an assistant curator—a man Felix could easily see himself falling for—asks him to reauthenticate a cuneiform tablet to avoid a looming scandal, Felix’s carefully constructed life could crumble.

The tablet is a fake, and Felix is intimately familiar with the artist. Master forger Carter Janson—Felix’s ex and first love—disappeared from his life six years before without a word of explanation. Now, to hold his world together, Felix must find the original tablet, steal it back, and replace the forgery—all before the museum exhibit debuts. It’ll mean slipping back into a role Felix wanted to leave behind and risking his promising future. But even then, he can’t do it alone. He’ll have to confront that rat, Carter Janson.

States of Love: Stories of love that span every corner of the United States.

 

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon US

Amazon UK

B&N

“Are you selling drugs?”

Carter looked up from his canvas to where Oliver stood in the kitchen. It was a bit of a mess. A half week’s worth of dishes filled the sink, cabinet doors stood open—Carter was endlessly forgetting to close them—and what looked like a lifetime worth of sketchpads and loose sheets of paper covered the island that separated the kitchen from the rest of the loft.

Instead of answering he used his brush to point. “You’re going to burn that.”

“Shit.” Oliver whirled around to pull the skillet off the burner, the smell of charred bread starting to fill the air. “Goddammit.”

Carter went back to painting.

“So, no grilled cheese, then.” Oliver started banging cabinets closed. “You’re out of bread. You want soup? I think you have soup.”

“Nah, let’s go out and grab something. Do you mind getting my wallet off my dresser?” Carter asked, starting to clean his brushes.

He could hear Oliver walk into the bedroom, but when he returned, instead of Carter’s wallet, he held a roll of bills in his hand.

“I found this in your top drawer.”

Carter set the brush he was cleaning down and pulled the rag that hung from his back pocket to wipe his hands. “Okay. What sounds good?”

“What sounds good is you answering my question.”

“No, I don’t sell drugs.”

“Well, you sure don’t make it off your shitty paintings.”

“Hey, now.” Wasn’t it way too early in their acquaintance to say mean things about his artwork? That sort of thing was supposed to be saved up for years and years and only voiced when they started hating each other. Certainly not after a single hookup. “Plenty of people love my paintings.”

Well, maybe not plenty, but some.

Three. There were three people that Carter knew just off the top of his head who loved his work.

“Well, no artist I know of can afford a place like this one, not in the city. Not unless they’re living on daddy’s dime or selling drugs.”

Carter had to admit the loft was nice. He fell in love the moment he’d seen its exposed brick, high ceilings, and wood beams. Still, he didn’t think it was too nice. Not drug-money nice.

“It’s not drug-money nice.” Even Carter thought he sounded like he was lying, and he knew he wasn’t.

“Oh my God.” Oliver started making that face nearly every man Carter had ever slept with eventually made. “You’re a prostitute.”

“Of course not.” Though he couldn’t help but feel a little flattered.

 

About Amy Spector

Amy Spector grew up in the United States surviving on a steady diet of old horror movies, television reruns, and mystery novels.

After years of blogging about comic books, vintage Gothic romance book cover illustrations, and a shameful amount about herself, she decided to try her hand at writing stories. She found it more than a little like talking about herself in third person, and that suited her just fine.

 

She blames Universal for her love of horror, Edward Gorey for her love of British Drama and writing for awakening the romantic that was probably there all along.

 

Amy lives in the Midwest with her husband, children, and her cats Bowie and Poe.

 

Connect with Amy online: Facebook || Twitter || Goodreads || Website/Blog

 

Amy generously brought a copy of her release with her

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