A warm welcome to author Helena Stone joining us today to talk about her new release “Pride of Place”.
Check out Helena her guestpost and have a chance to win an ecopy of the first two Mitch & Cain books!
Thank you Dani for inviting me to your blog today to talk about Pride of Place, the third instalment in Mitch & Cian’s story. It is very much appreciated.
Romance in the Real World
If you’ve read any of my books and stories you will know I write almost exclusively contemporary romances; love stories firmly set in my real-life world. I’m not sure I could have written those books in any other way. My characters live in the real world and therefore encounter real issues and those issues don’t always only centre on them being gay. It does leave me with a dilemma though. How much of the real world do I put in my stories keeping in mind that they are first and foremost romances and not discourses on the state of the world we live in.
Pride of Place, the third novella in the Mitch & Cian story, is no exception. While the story focusses on Mitch and Cian’s developing relationship, and takes it to the next level, the real world does intrude to make their lives more complicated. Because I didn’t want their story to be all doom and gloom, I decided to give them a happy ‘real life’ experience too.
Which is why Mitch and Cian get to enjoy a most wonderful day at Dublin Pride. It is Mitch’s first Pride event and the first time he gets to experience not being the odd one out but really being part of a community. It also brings home to him how badly he wants to move to Dublin and that his place is with Cian.
Dublin Pride *sighs*. It is such a wonderful event. Which makes it a bit frustrating that I wasn’t able to go to the last two and will be missing it again this year. Of course, the reason I won’t be there is in itself joyful; I’ll be travelling to Amsterdam to take part in the Euro Pride Con for the fourth year in a row, and I wouldn’t want to miss seeing my friends or the opportunity to interact with other writers as well as readers. Still, I’m very happy that EPC will be taking place a week earlier next year because that should mean I’ll be able to enjoy both events in 2020.
I took the following images the first and last time I was able to take part in Dublin Pride in 2016.
Poor Mitch & Cian. I’m afraid they don’t get a lot of time to luxuriate in the delights of Pride because shortly afterwards they discover that Cian is about to lose his accommodation in Dublin, which puts their plans to live together in serious jeopardy. Unexpectedly they have to deal with the conundrum of finding a place to live in a city where available housing is few and far between and mostly unaffordable and/or decrepit.
The housing situation in Dublin is desperate at the moment, and not just for students and other young people. No, everybody who would like to live there or needs to be in or near Dublin because of their job or education finds they are fighting a losing battle. We’ve reached the stage where people offer ‘half a double bed’ for rent. I don’t mean that the room is only available to (and affordable for) a couple. No, in these cases two strangers would end up sharing a bed. And people do, because they don’t have a choice.
These two pictures give a good indication how desperate the situation is. The first photo shows what landlords are getting away with these days. Surely that’s a kitchen with a bed in the middle? The second image shows a long line of people queuing for what is a tiny and unremarkable house. Trust me when I say every house, room and garden shed (I’m not joking) available to rent will attract a similar crowd.
If I’m being honest, I have to admit that I was (maybe too) cautious when I wrote Pride of Place. Sure, I paint a bleak picture and Mitch & Cian appear to be fighting a losing battle, but the real world out-bleaks my story by a considerable margin. Then again, Mitch & Cian’s story is, first and foremost, a romance, so maybe we should allow them to be luckier than most. 😉
For a chance to win the first two Mitch & Cian stories (A Miracle in the Library and Lessons in Love) I’d love to hear how you feel about real life and politics showing up in romantic stories. Do you like it or does it pull you straight out of the developing romance?
Pride of Place
Blurb
Six months after meeting Cian, the start of the rest of Mitch’s life is so close he can almost taste it. With his high school exams behind him, he can look forward to a long summer, his first Pride festival in Dublin, and, best of all, moving in with Cian when Mitch starts college in September.
Cian can’t wait to accompany Mitch to his first Pride, or for the moment they’ll start sharing a home and their lives. But while the festival is everything they could have hoped for, unexpected news that Cian is about to lose his room in Dublin puts their life together under threat.
Objections to their plans from the home front and a shocking lack of affordable housing in Dublin could shatter Mitch and Cian’s dreams, but perhaps a second miracle is exactly what they need to find their pride of place.
Buy links: Universal | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Also available to read in KU
Related stories:
Helena Stone can’t remember a life before words and reading. After growing up in a household where no holiday or festivity was complete without at least one new book, it’s hardly surprising she now owns more books than shelf space while her Kindle is about to explode.
The urge to write came as a surprise. The realisation that people might enjoy her words was a shock to say the least. Now that the writing bug has well and truly taken hold, Helena can no longer imagine not sharing the characters in her head and heart with the rest of the world.
Having left the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam for the peace and quiet of the Irish Country side she divides her time between reading, writing, long and often wet walks with the dog, her part-time job in a library, a grown-up daughter and her ever loving and patient husband.
Helena Stone can be found hanging out in the following places:
Facebook and Facebook Reader’s Group | Facebook Author Page | Twitter |
Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Pinterest | MeWe and MeWe Reader’s Group |
i don’t mind politics in the storyline as long as it fits and not thrown in for shock value
jmarinich33@aol.com
I like real life in the book but not real politics.
I do like real life in a book. It gives realism to the story, and that’s something I enjoy. but I like my romance basically romantic, so it is all a matter of balance
It can be in a romance but I don’t want it to be focused just on politics. I get enough of that in RL and don’t need my only escape to bring it back into focus when I’m trying to relax.
There are fantastic stories written that involve politics. A good example is Tal Bauer’s the Executive Office series where the president and his guard fall in love. Another one is Dan Skinner’s Experiment. So, yeah, I really don’t mind politics in my stories as long as they are well written.
It depends on so many factors of the story (time period, setting, etc)…some stories would sound stilted with a political element, and others would be lacking if it were left out!
congrats Sandra R