A warm welcome to author Kaje Harper joining us here today to talk about new release “Fair Isn’t Life”.
welcome Kaje 🙂
Thanks so much for having me on your blog. I thought readers might enjoy a little conversation with Luke and Mason – the MCs from Fair Isn’t Life.
Kaje Harper: Hi guys, thanks for joining me in this chat.
Mason: Did we have a choice about showing up?
Luke: Hey, Mase, c’mon, that’s not fair. It’s our book too. Anyway, you know you love to talk.
Mason: Sorry, author person. Just giving you a hard time. Go for it.
KH: I don’t want to spoiler the book, so why don’t you tell me how you guys first met, back in high school before this story starts.
Luke: We kind of knew each other for years.
Mason: Yeah, Buffalo’s not as small-town as it used to be, but it has just one middle school and one high school. Whether you hate someone or have a crush on them, it’s hard to avoid them.
KH: Is there a hint in there?
Mason: Let’s just say that a big, blond, built guy who can play baseball will never fail to catch my attention, even when I think they’re straight.
Luke: Wait, is that why you follow Noah Syndergaard of the Mets? Should I be jealous?
Mason: Well, his nickname is Thor… no, babe, you don’t need to be jealous of anybody.
KH: So what happened in high school?
Luke: We’d both noticed each other kind of randomly for years, but we didn’t really hang out till eleventh grade. I was still trying to get through basic algebra, and Mason signed up to tutor my stupid ass.
Mason: Your ass isn’t stupid, and neither is your brain. You had reasons for being behind in your classes.
Luke: I guess.
Mason: Come on. You were working the dairy farm with your dad, pulling a grown man’s weight in chores, and going to school too.
Luke: Whatever. I didn’t work that hard. Dad made sure I took off time for homework and school stuff.
Mason: Uh huh. I know your definition of not working hard. You allowed yourself ten minutes of video games once every full moon?
Luke: I played more games than that with you. Video games, I mean. Not, like, playing games. Back then. Ug.
Mason: I like the games we play these days. Even more fun. Strip poker…
Luke: We do not!
Mason: But we totally should. Baseball strip poker, like, remove a piece of clothing and advance a base. I could come up with some fun rules for you. I particularly like your third base.
Luke: Ngh. Mase, not now!
KH: So Mason, you tutored Luke in school and you fell in love?
Mason: Not in love, but I did have one hell of a crush. Luke was gorgeous and strong and thoughtful and sweet—
Luke: I wasn’t sweet!
Mason: Yeah, you were. That’s not a bad thing. Sweet, and as far as I knew, straight, so I talked myself out of the crush, eventually. I told myself we had fun hanging out together, and I’d figured out the kind of guy who turns me on, so it was all good. I dated a couple of other guys before graduation, nothing serious. And then I left for college.
Luke: And I didn’t.
KH: So you split up?
Luke: Yep.
Mason: I hate to call it split, because we weren’t ever really together. Except in my fantasies, maybe. More like we fell out of touch, without realizing that mattered, until we met up again.
Luke: Mattered to me. Not that I expected different, so it’s okay.
Mason: Come on. High-school-me was a total dweeb. You didn’t miss much. This way you got me with two years worth of the awkward and inept knocked off me by all the guys I dated in college.
Luke: I liked high-school-you.
Mason: Aww, you were so sweet.
Luke: Maybe better than I like right-now-you.
Mason: Nah, you love me almost as much as your cows.
KH: If you could go back to high school and change something, what’s one thing you’d do differently?
Luke: I’d notice how Dad— no, wait. Um. Maybe I’d get a better jump and catch that fly ball in the championship sophomore year. Sucker went over the tip of my glove and I got ragged about it forever. Be nice to be the hero who won the game instead.
KH: Mason?
Mason: I’d take a chance and kiss Luke when I was tempted to.
Luke: Wouldn’t have changed anything. You were still going to college. I wasn’t. What happened to Dad woulda still happened.
Mason: But I’d have been there for you.
Luke: Maybe. Or maybe you’d have still gone off and I’d have been even more alone. Ya know? Nope. No do overs. No what ifs. I like where we’re at right now. We’re settled and happy.
Mason: We are settled, right author person? No new disasters coming our way? No, like, cow plague on the horizon?
KH: I can’t predict the future but for now you have your happy ending. I promise.
Luke: Good enough for me. C’mon, Mase, time to head out.
Mason: You go on. I’ll be out in a minute.
…
Mason: Listen up, author person. Luke’s one hell of a good guy, and he’s had a rough few years. You’d better not rock the boat, okay? Let him have his good stuff, to make up for all the hard. Or else.
KH: Or else?
Mason: You think a gay figment of your imagination in lip gloss and eye shadow can’t kick ass? Don’t mess with my boy.
KH: Got it.
Mason: Oh, and… um. I should say thanks for making my third year of college a hell of a lot better than the first two. Just, y’know, don’t mess it up. See you later.
KH: Thanks for coming by.
* Read about Luke and Mason’s journey to that happy ending in Fair Isn’t Life from Dreamspinner Press, releasing Nov 16, 2018.
-Kaje Harper
Nov 2018
Fair Isn’t Life – blurb:
Luke Lafontaine survived the past year by not thinking about the father he lost, the dairy farm he couldn’t save from bankruptcy, or his way of life that vanished with the rap of an auctioneer’s hammer. Cleaning up city folks’ trash at the Minnesota State Fair is just another dead-end job. But at the Fair, surrounded by a celebration of farm life, ambitions he’d given up on and buried deep start to revive. And seeing Mason Bell in the parade—gorgeous, gay, out-of-his-league Mason—stirs other buried dreams.
Mason left his hometown for college in Minneapolis without looking back. Student life is fun, classes are great, gay guys are easy to find, but it’s all a bit superficial. He’s at the State Fair parade route with his band when he realizes a scruffy maintenance worker is Luke, his secret high school crush. Luke should be safely home working on his dad’s farm, not picking up litter. Mason wishes he hadn’t fallen out of touch. He’s an optimist, though, and it’s never too late for second chances. Now he just has to convince Luke.
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I get asked about my name a lot. It’s not something exotic, though. “Kaje” is pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname. I’ve been writing far longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty years*), mostly for my own entertainment, usually M/M romance (with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi…) I also have Young Adult short stories (some released under the pen name Kira Harp.)
It was my husband who finally convinced me that after all the years of writing just for fun, I really should submit something, somewhere. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out from MLR Press in May 2011. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks and print, both free and professionally published, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow Award Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact. A complete list with links can be found on my website “Books” page at https://kajeharper.wordpress.com/books/.
I’m always pleased to have readers find me online at:
Website: https://kajeharper.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KajeHarper
Goodreads Author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4769304.Kaje_Harper
I just finished the book, and I really enjoyed it. This interview was so much fun–I laughed out loud twice. That Mason! Thanks for a great story.
Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment. I’m glad you enjoyed a bit more of Mason 🙂