A warm welcome to authors Ariel Tachna & Nicki Bennett joining us today to talk about new release “Out of Bound”, part 1 in their new Out and About series.
Welcome Ariel & Nicki 🙂
Usually when we think about world building, it’s in connection to fantasy worlds or maybe historical settings where all the details might not be immediately obvious to the reader, but a presentation at the Dreamspinner Press author workshop recently reminded us that world building applies to all writing, even contemporary romance with a familiar setting. Setting a book in New York gives a reader different expectations than if the book were set in San Francisco, but even within the same city, different neighborhoods can lead to different experiences.
For Out of Bounds and indeed the whole Out and About universe, we picked Houston as our setting for a variety of reasons. We debated between Houston and Dallas, our respective homes, and decided on Houston because it gave us some options with beaches and cruise ports nearby that Dallas didn’t.
So what does the setting tell us in Out of Bounds?
Liam Gruene and his best friend Kate own a condo in Midtown. They’re young, single, upwardly mobile professionals with no kids. They like being in the center of the action, even if it means sharing an apartment instead of each having a place of their own.
Erik Jansen works in the Galleria area. He’s passed the upwardly mobile stage and is firmly in the category of professional adult. He lives in an apartment because he’s single with no kids and he hasn’t been in Houston long enough to decide where he’d like to invest in real estate.
Several Out and About events take place in the Montrose area, the closest thing Houston has to a Gayborhood, but they don’t limit themselves to that area, proof of the city’s generally liberal attitudes.
Houston’s arts and culture venues are on display as well, with concerts at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and Miller Outdoor Theatre as well as a trip to the Alley Theater and visits to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Archway Gallery.
It also lets us show the effects of local events such as Hurricane Harvey that devastated the city in September, 2017. While neither of the main characters in Out of Bounds was directly affected by the storm, we talk about some of the issues still facing the city as cleanup continues, even a year later.
For future installments, we’ll peek into old Pearland and the oil and gas refineries on the east side of town as well as expanding our horizons outside of Houston to include surrounding areas like Austin and the Hill Country. We hope you’ll join us!
Blurb:
An Out and About Novel
Out and About: No commitments, just fun.
Liam Gruene and his best friend, Kate Weaver, start Out and About to give LGBTQ singles fun, safe, stress-free events where they can meet other LGBTQ singles. Liam hopes—but doesn’t really expect—to meet someone for himself in the process.
Erik Jansen moved to Houston a few months ago after a bad breakup. Since his move, he’s thrown himself into work at the expense of a social life. When Liam withdraws funds managed by Erik’s firm to finance his new venture, it brings Out and About to his attention, and he thinks what the hell. It can’t be any worse than trying to meet someone at any of the gay clubs and bars around the city.
Erik and Liam hit it off right away, but Erik can’t forget that Liam is a client and Out and About is Liam’s job. Erik has an ironclad rule against mixing business and pleasure, and that puts Liam firmly out of bounds.
“Keeping an open mind is never a bad thing,” Kurt agreed as Erik took a glass from the server. “Have you been in Houston long?”
“About four months.” He sipped the wine—a rioja, according to the server—and let it linger on his palate before continuing. “I transferred from our LA offices to manage the branch here. It’s been a bit of an adjustment.”
“Just four months? You’ve got some catching up to do, then. I hope your coworkers have been introducing you to the finer points of being a Houstonian,” Kurt said with a grin. “Or I’d be happy to show you around, if they haven’t. No expectations or anything. Just a couple of finance guys hanging out.”
“Not a lot of singles among my coworkers,” Erik admitted. “That’s partly why I’m here. I hope to make some friends and get to know more about the city at the same time.” That didn’t make him sound too desperate.
“Yeah, this was a great idea they had. I mean, the wine tasting, but just in general as a chance for people to meet. I’m looking forward to the next one already. I like wine as much as the next guy, but the softball game is much more my style. But that’s a month away. I’m sure we can find something to do between now and then if you’re interested. The Rockets are still playing, or there’s always stuff going on at the Wortham or the Alley—downtown theaters, in case you aren’t familiar. The Museum of Fine Arts has a big exhibit of Flemish paintings right now. Houston is really a great city to explore, but it’s kind of overwhelming at first, until you get to know what’s out there.” Kurt looked at Erik hopefully. “What do you say?”
“I’ve never been much of a jock,” Erik said, hoping that wouldn’t end their potential friendship before it started. In fact he’d usually been among the last picks for team activities during gym, especially before he switched from glasses to contact lenses in junior high. “But I used to catch at least a couple of Laker games every year. How do your Rockets stack up to them?”
“We’ll see how this season finishes out, but they had a better record than the Lakers in 2016-2017,” Kurt replied. “But if sports aren’t your thing, there’s plenty else to do. Houston has some amazing community theater, if that’s more your style. Let me give you my number, and we’ll figure out something that appeals to us both. It’s a big city. I know we can come up with something.”
“That sounds good.” Erik took out his phone and typed in the number Kurt gave him. Once it was programmed, he sent Kurt a quick text so he’d have Erik’s number too. He wasn’t quite sure how to read Kurt, but getting together with him to watch a basketball game or a play with no expectations sounded good to him. He hadn’t come expecting to meet a soul mate the first time around. He’d be happy with making a few new friends.
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Growing up in Chicago, Nicki Bennett spent every Saturday at the central library, losing herself in the world of books. A voracious reader, she eventually found it difficult to find enough of the kind of stories she liked to read and decided to start writing them herself.
You can find Nicki on her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011754789784
When Ariel Tachna was twelve years old, she discovered two things: the French language and romance novels. Those two loves have defined her ever since. By the time she finished high school, she’d written four novels, none of which anyone would want to read now, featuring ayoung woman who was—you guessed it—bilingual. That girl was everything Ariel wanted to be at age twelve and wasn’t.
She now lives on the outskirts of Houston with her husband (who also speaks French), her kids (who understand French even when they’re too lazy to speak it back), and their two dogs (who steadfastly refuse to answer any French commands).
Visit Ariel:
Website: www.arieltachna.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArielTachna
E-mail: arieltachna@gmail.com