Hi! I’m Nell Iris and I want to start by giving a big thank you-kiss to Love Bytes for having me. I’m here to talk about my new release Promise Me We’ll Be Okay.
Do you sometimes wonder if the author models characters after themselves in their work? I say the answer is yes, at least bits and pieces.
I love music, it’s been an important part of my life since I was little. My Mom likes to tell a story about me when I was just a baby and couldn’t even stand without support but refused to go to sleep unless she played ABBA for me (I’m from Sweden and born in the 70s…I got ABBA with my mother’s milk!) I would cling to the crib and refuse to lie down, but when she put on a song (any ABBA song, I wasn’t that picky), I would wiggle my diaper butt and when the song ended, I’d fall asleep like a little angel.
This has stayed with me my entire life. I listen to music all the time: when I’m writing. When I’m cooking or cleaning. Even when I’m asleep (Ten New Songs by Leonard Cohen is the best album in the world to sleep to). I listen when I’m angry or sad or happy or need an energy boost.
In my youth, I had a friend who didn’t like music. At all. Who didn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Take a second to think about that. Do you actually know anyone who doesn’t like music? I mean, I realize that not everyone listens to it as much as I do, but most people have a favorite song, or listens to the radio, or sing along in church, right? Isn’t it weird to not like music at all? I try to be open and understanding to everyone who’s different from me, but this particular thing is really difficult for me to wrap my head around. I feel things when I listen to music. It’s happened more than once that I’ve started crying because the song has touched me to my core. How can you not like something like that?
When I wrote Promise Me We’ll Be Okay I took my love of music and gave it to main character Jude.
Jude loves music. He’s a high school music teacher and plays the piano and the guitar and lives and breathes music. He plays his beloved piano that he inherited from his grandfather when he’s sad. When he needs to think, when he needs to calm down, or when he’s happy. He even plays on tabletops, as if it was a real piano.
When his ex-fiancé Vincent—Vee for short—shows up on his doorstep two years after he broke off their engagement, Jude is at first shocked and angry and works through his emotions with the help of his music. By singing the song that he sang the first time he met Vee, Vincent by Don McLean. By playing his piano for hours and hours. And when he needs to decide if he should give Vee another chance, he does so with the help of his piano and songs that help him sort through his emotions.
Music plays a very big part in Promise Me We’ll Be Okay, and in the end of the book, I’ve included a list of all songs that are referenced.
What kind of person are you? Are you Team Nell/Jude living and breathing music? Or are you maybe like my teenage friend who didn’t like music at all?
Blurb
What do you do when your past comes knocking?
Six hundred and ninety-five days. That’s how long it’s been since Jude’s fiancé broke off their engagement. With the help of his brother and his all-encompassing love for music, Jude glued the broken pieces of his heart back together, but when his ex shows up on his doorstep late one evening, Jude fears it will fall apart again.
Two years ago, Vincent made a terrible mistake. He left the love of his life for stupid, ill-advised reasons. It took a traumatic event to bring what was truly important in his life into focus. Older and wiser, he’s now ready to do whatever it takes to win Jude back.
Their chemistry is as explosive as ever, but will they be able to work through the real issues? Can trust once broken be rebuilt?
About Nell Iris
Nell Iris is a romantic at heart who believes everyone deserves a happy ending. She’s a bona fide bookworm (learned to read long before she started school), wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without something to read (not even the ladies room), loves music (and singing along but let’s face it, she’s not Celine Dion), and is a real Star Trek nerd (Make it so). She loves words, poetry, wine, and Sudoku, and absolutely adores elephants!
Nell believes passionately in equality for all regardless of race, gender or sexuality, and wants to make the world a better, less hateful, place.
Nell is a 40-something bi-sexual Swedish woman, married to the love of her life, and a proud mama of a grown daughter. She left the Scandinavian cold and darkness for warmer and sunnier Malaysia a few years ago, where she spends her days writing, surfing the Internet, enjoying the heat, and eating good food. One day she decided to chase her life long dream of being a writer, sat down in front of her laptop, and wrote a story about two men falling in love.
Nell Iris writes gay romance, prefers sweet over angsty, and wants to write diverse and unique characters.
Contact Nell Iris
Email contact@nelliris.com
Web www.nelliris.com
Twitter @nellirisauthor
Facebook page www.facebook.com/nellirisauthor
Facebook profile www.facebook.com/nell.iris.12
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/nelliris
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nell_iris/
QueeRomance Ink https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/nell-iris/
comment with your favorite song for a chance to win a backlist title by Nell !
Good luck with the book and thanks for the interview. I have always loved music and as one that grew up in the 70’s I love most music from that time. I like too many songs to say I have a favorite, I guess it depends on my mood at the time.