Thanks for stopping by, Anna!
Hi everyone! Thank you so much to Love Bytes for allowing me to come and talk about my new novel Lone Wolf.
This is the last stop on my blog tour talking about the book, so I thought I’d go back to one of the other key points I knew I wanted to write about, which was the process of brewing beer. One of my friends is an amateur brewer, and makes a lot of home brews in her garden shed. The Lone Wolf Brewery – which is owned by Jackson, the main character – is partially based on her dream brewery that she’d like to own one day.
There’s a few local breweries where I live in Bristol, so I went on some very fun research trips to learn more about the process. Though I’m not a big beer drinker myself, we definitely had a some tipsy afternoons – all in the name of authenticity, of course!
It turns out brewing was a great profession for my ‘lone wolf’ Jackson. He’s a bit of a hipster werewolf, not that he’d ever confess to that, and I found that I could really push him to open up when he was talking about one of his passions. For a character that’s so closed off and wary of other people, the brewing process became what started to open him up.
Here’s a little excerpt from when Jackson shows Leo, his soulmate, around his brewery for the first time.
“Welcome to where the magic happens,” Jackson said, grinning as he threw the big door to the brewery open.
The smell of earthy hops and fermenting beer was almost part of the framework of this building. It had started life as a brick-built stable, expanded constantly by the family who had lived here. It hadn’t taken much converting to make the site a brewery, just a few walls put up to segment the space and replacing the roof. Valerie always joked that she could still smell the horses, but Jackson was pretty sure the beer overpowered any lingering scent of beast.
“Wow.” Leo stepped farther into the building and turned in a slow circle. “This place is incredible. I have no idea what I’m looking at, though.”
“Let me show you.”
When it came to beer, Jackson was a traditionalist, so when it came to spending his startup loan he’d invested in big copper urns. Not only did they look beautiful, which was definitely a bonus when he was showing potential investors around, they produced better quality beer. The urns were set up against the aging red brick of the old stables, farthest away from the house. Everything else filled the space between: the huge round mash tun, where the grain steeped into hot liquid that would eventually become beer, then the urns that took care of each stage of the process, from fermentation to conditioning. Postproduction was farther back—the bottling section, the printing section where he made his own labels and stuck them on by hand, the storeroom.
Jackson Lewis isn’t a typical werewolf. He isolates himself in a small town outside Spokane and dedicates himself to making his business—Lone Wolf Brewery—a success. If it leaves him little time for romance, he’s okay with that. His soul mate could be out there somewhere, but he isn’t actively looking.
So he’s in for quite the shock when he literally bumps into his soul mate—Leo Gallagher, an adorable, nerdy, vibrant music therapist who’s Jackson’s polar opposite.
But he’s human. And a man.
Jackson is straight—or at least he’s always assumed so. Though he can’t deny his attraction to Leo, it’s a lot for both of them to deal with.
While Jackson and Leo figure out what their future might hold, they face prejudice from both the human and werewolf communities—including a group of fanatics willing to kill to show humans and werewolves don’t belong together.
October 9 – Joyfully Jay, OMG Reads, Valerie Ullmer, Urban Smoothie Read, Archaeolibrarian, The Blogger Girls, BooksLaidBareBoys, Two Chicks Obsessed, MM Midnight Cafe, Lelyana’s Reviews, Xtreme Delusions, October 11 – The Novel Approach, October 12 – Momma Says: To Read Or Not To Read, Bonkers About Books, Megan’s Media Melange, Cupcakes & Bookshelves, Mikku-chan, October 15 – Diverse Reader, October 16 – Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Making It Happen, MM Good Book Reviews, October 17 – Gay Book Reviews, October 18 – Book Lovers 4Ever, Drops of Ink, October 19 – Love Bytes, October 20 – Mirrigold, Bayou Book Junkie, Lillian Francis, Nerdy Dirty & Flirty, Wicked Faerie’s Tales & Reviews, Book Review By Virginia Lee
Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the southwest of England and now lives in the Bristol, a city that embraces her love for the arts. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theater (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), going to visit friends in other countries, and reading anything that’s put under her nose.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, prereading, and creative ass kicking provided by her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept responsibility for anything Anna has written.
Find Anna on Facebook: www.facebook.com/annamartinfiction
Instagram: www.instagram.com/missannamartin
www.annamartin-fiction.com
anna-martin@hotmail.co.uk
and on Patreon for exclusive outtakes from Lone Wolf and other novels! Pledges start from $1: www.patreon.com/annamartin
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