Love Bytes is happy to welcome author Aimee Nicole Walker to their blog

Aimee wrote a fabulous guestpost for us you need to check out!

Welcome Aimee 🙂

NOBODY’S PRINCE CHARMING

AIMEE NICOLE WALKER

M/M ROMANCE

RELEASE DATE: 03.23.18

COVER DESIGN: JAY AHEER/ Simply Defined Art

COVER PHOTOGRAPHER: WANDER AGUIAR

BLURB

Fire and ice. Oil and water. Vodka and decisions. That’s what Darren McCoy and Wren Davison are: two opposites that shouldn’t mix well. Dare believes in fairy tales, true love, and happily ever after. Wren believes in fast cars, freedom, and no-strings sex. What can these two men possibly have in common? A magnetic pull strong enough to obliterate logic and reason.

For more than a year, Dare and Wren have worked together at the Curl Up and Dye Salon. Dare has pursued the mysterious, brooding man, and Wren has resisted his provocative charm. Then one day, something happens that allows the men to see each other in a new light. Wren learns that Dare hides a heavy heart behind his brilliant smile. Dare realizes that beneath Wren’s gruff exterior beats the heart of a prince.

Passions ignite once the men stop fighting their attraction, but will it be enough to overcome their differences? Is Wren the prince that Dare is looking for? Can Dare teach Wren that true love does exist?

Nobody’s Prince charming is a modern-day fairy tale where some princes ride Harleys, and castle walls are built to scale. It is the third book in the Road to Blissville series but can be read as a standalone book. This book contains sexually explicit material and is intended for adults eighteen and over.

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

Adventures in Writing: Am I Crazy?

By Aimee Nicole Walker

 

First, I want to thank Love Bytes for having me back on their blog. I sincerely appreciate everything they do to promote and support authors in our genre. Dani has bravely given me the choice of topic, and I thought it would be fun to share my musings about writing and my growing concern for my sanity. I mean, who voluntarily bleeds their souls onto a page and sends it out into the world to be dissected and possibly ridiculed? Creators do! Artists, performers, writers, musicians, etc. We’re all a little crazy; we must be to survive. Today, I want to give some advice to new authors and also those who are still on the verge of taking that leap. Here are some practical rules that I created for myself when I began this journey. I hope you will find them helpful.

 

Rule #1: Write. The. Damn. Book. You can’t publish or market a book that you haven’t written yet. Write. The. Damn. Book. If you’re like me, uncertainties about self-publishing can hinder your creative ability. You might have moments where you ask yourself, “what is the point of writing a book if I don’t know how to publish it?” Okay, that’s a fair question, and I have some recommendations.

 

Rule #1a: Write the book for yourself first. The only person you should worry about wowing while writing your first book, or any book really, is yourself. Write the book you want to read. Write the stories that your characters, aka crazy voices in your head, tell you to write. Don’t bog yourself down with trending tropes. Focus on writing your story one word at a time because those words will form a sentence. That sentence multiplies and becomes a paragraph. Those paragraphs turn into pages. Before you know it, the pages turn into chapters and the chapters become a book. Your book.

 

Rule #1b: Still can’t relax enough to write? Google is your best friend. Look up how to set up accounts on Amazon, iBook, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, or anywhere else you’d like to sell your book. See what kind of information they will want and the process you’ll go through to make it happen. There are tons of articles offering advice for self-publishing authors. Never pay a company for this information, especially if they guarantee you success. Listen closely because this part is very important. There are no guarantees in life, love, and publishing. You can find everything you need to know about self-publishing for free if you put in the time and effort. If you’re serious about writing a book, then you put in the time and effort. When I wrote my first book, I googled every step of publishing from setting up the accounts to filing for copyrights. I filed that knowledge away, and it helped me relax to focus on writing.

 

Rule #2: Plotter versus Pantser? What’s a pantser? It’s someone who writes a book by the seat of their pants. Some authors have to spend a lot of time doing outlines, story arc boards, and character development while others just sit down and write. I think a vast majority of us are hybrids, meaning we do a little of both. I am a proud hybrid, although I lean mostly to pantser. I usually have no idea what I’m going to write on a given day. When I write a mystery, I know who the victim is, but I don’t often know who killed them or why. I learn as my characters relate the story to me, and I freaking love that about my writing process. You might ask which is better or preferred. Neither is wrong. You have to choose the method that works best for you. Ideally, I do believe advance plotting, even a little, helps new writers focus and not feel overwhelmed. That blank page is scary, so having a little bit of guidance can lessen that fear for some. Others love the thrill of the unknown. I’ve been writing for three years, and I haven’t stopped looking for ways to improve my processes.

 

Rule #3: Find beta readers who will tell you the unvarnished truth. Surrounding yourself with people who only want to blow smoke up your ass will not help you grow as a writer. Trust me; you’d much rather find out that something is drastically wrong with the storyline or character development before you publish the book. Some beta readers will read the story as you write it and offer advice on the story and character development. That’s a great thing when writing your first book, and it also helps seasoned writers when they switch genres.

 

Rule #4: Expectations. Don’t have any. The world owes you nothing after you’ve hit the publish button. You write the story for yourself, and you publish it because you think its something others will enjoy. Don’t set your sights on banners and best-seller lists. Write it because you need the words as much as you need air. Publish it because you want to touch someone’s life who can relate to your characters or the message you’re trying to convey. That is the most rewarding part of writing. The rest is just whipped cream and sprinkles on top of an already awesome sundae.

 

Rule #5: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Other authors are your friends, not your competition. Readers don’t just read books by one author. It’s entirely possible for them to love dozens of authors. Respect the success that other authors have achieved and work hard to do that for yourself. You do that by writing quality books not by attacking authors you don’t think deserve their success. There’s no room for that in our tiny community.

 

Rule #6: Never give up! There will be days you doubt both your sanity and your place in the writing community. Sanity is relative and boring, and you do belong. You will become someone’s favorite writer, and hearing those words soothes all the doubts you experienced on the journey. Let me be frank here; you will doubt yourself with every book you write. Don’t shy away from it; embrace the doubt and use it as fuel to motivate yourself.

 

In closing, you might be asking why you would subject yourself to the ups and downs of writing? It’s the most incredible journey. The highs make you feel like your soaring while the lows keep you grounded and humble. You need one to appreciate the other. Our writing community is amazing, and I feel at home here in ways that I’ve never found anywhere else. That alone is worth any negative review.

 

If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’ll indulge me a little longer while I talk about my latest release…

 

Fire and ice. Oil and water. Vodka and decisions. That’s what Darren McCoy and Wren Davison are: two opposites that shouldn’t mix well. Dare believes in fairy tales, true love, and happily ever after. Wren believes in fast cars, freedom, and no-strings sex. What can these two men possibly have in common? A magnetic pull strong enough to obliterate logic and reason.

 

For more than a year, Dare and Wren have worked together at the Curl Up and Dye Salon. Dare has pursued the mysterious, brooding man, and Wren has resisted his provocative charm. Then one day, something happens that allows the men to see each other in a new light. Wren learns that Dare hides a heavy heart behind his brilliant smile. Dare realizes that beneath Wren’s gruff exterior beats the heart of a prince.

 

Passions ignite once the men stop fighting their attraction, but will it be enough to overcome their differences? Is Wren the prince that Dare is looking for? Can Dare teach Wren that true love does exist?

 

Nobody’s Prince charming is a modern-day fairy tale where some princes ride Harleys, and castle walls are built to scale. It is the third book in the Road to Blissville series but can be read as a standalone book. This book contains sexually explicit material and is intended for adults eighteen and over.

 

Thank you again for letting me visit, Dani!

 

XOXO

We didn’t say anything on our way up to Dare’s room because neither of us wanted to risk waking Ralph. We were lucky that we didn’t get caught when we pulled that stunt in the laundry room. Okay, the stunt that I pulled. I knew that Ralph liked me, and I even suspected he knew that his grandson had become very important to me, but that didn’t give me the right to be disrespectful in his home. It wasn’t because we were gay either. I would’ve felt the same if we were a straight couple sneaking up to… Couple? I rolled the word around in my head a few times, expecting a negative thought to refute its validity but none came. I discovered I liked the way the word felt, sounded, and even tasted on my tongue. Just because I didn’t speak it out loud didn’t mean it was less true.

When we got to Dare’s room, we silently undressed each other in between soft kisses in the muted light from the lamp on the bedside table. The mood between us was different like we both had realized something important that day: what we shared was poignant and real. There was a confidence in Dare’s hands when he touched me and in his eyes when he looked at me. Did he see and feel the same changes in me?

Even my arousal was different. Rather than the all-consuming fire, it was a slow-burning flame that never seemed to diminish or burn out. It vibrated through me like normal, but new emotions joined the passion: tenderness and a desire for something I didn’t deserve and shouldn’t want. I’d been stingy with my heart for my entire life, giving it only to my mom who had died and a boy who was nearly rejected by his family for loving me. My mom didn’t choose to willingly leave me, but the boy did. I didn’t blame him, but it still hurt, especially when our breakup was only a few months after my mom’s death. I had no one in the world I could count on until I met Jimmy and Danny. I sure as hell couldn’t count on Falcon. Just thinking about him brought on a fresh wave of exhaustion, which killed my arousal.

Dare didn’t seem to mind. He pulled back the sheets and blankets then gestured for me to climb inside. He joined me after I got situated then turned off the light before he rolled over and lay his head on my chest. In the dark, it was easier to find the words that I couldn’t speak to anyone else. Hell, Jimmy and Danny didn’t even know that Falcon was my sperm donor, yet here I was about to tell Dare everything.

“Wren,” he said softly in the darkness. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, okay? If you do want to talk, I promise you that nothing you say will leave this room.”

“I know, Sparkles.” I trailed my hands up and down his back, finding comfort in the rhythm and already familiar feel of my fingers bumping along his spine. “You’d never betray my trust.” I knew it as certain as the sun would rise in the east. No matter what happened between us, Dare would keep my confidence. “Once upon a time,” I began to lighten the mood. I expected Dare to snort, but he giggled. “What?”

“That’s a phrase I use frequently in my head. I tend to work everyday events into fairy tales.”

“Yeah? Who am I?” I asked.

“Prince Charming, duh. Only with longer hair, biker boots, and a beefier body. My prince rides a Harley instead of a horse.”

“Sparkles, I’m nobody’s Prince Charming.”

“You don’t get to decide that,” he said in a singsong voice. “I decide who my Prince Charming is and no one else.”

I ignored the fluttering in my stomach and dug deep for a gruff response. “Fine, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

“Once upon a time…” Dare prompted.

 

I am a wife and mother to three kids, three dogs, and a cat. When I’m not dreaming up stories, I like to lose myself in a good book, cook or bake. I’m a girly tomboy who paints her fingernails while watching sports and yelling at the referees. I will always choose the book over the movie. I believe in happily-ever- after. Love inspires everything that I do. Music keeps me sane.

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