A warm love Bytes welcome to author Wendy Qualls who is joining us today to talk about new release “Rockets and Romance”.
Welcome Wendy 🙂
Hi! So happy to be here today to tease you with my new book Rockets and Romance, out now from the Dreamspinner Press “States of Love” series. Dreamspinner was looking for one book set in each state that could only happen in that state. I grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, but I’ve lived in Huntsville, Alabama for nearly half my life… and I can guarantee you that this mix of sweet southern drawl and rocket geekery can only occur in one place on earth.
This book didn’t involve me creating any recipes, playlists, or major felonies, so instead you can all play along with my heroes and me in seeing how well you’d fit in here with all of us southern space nerds 🙂 Julian and I might not Cody’s lifetime’s worth of experience, but we’re learning…
QUIZ: Do You Belong in Huntsville, Alabama?
What is the plural of “y’all”?
Julian: Umm… I’d just say “you,” honestly.
Cody: Either “y’all both” or “all y’all,” depending on how many people you’re talking to.
Julian: Isn’t “y’all” already plural?
Cody: Not always. “Y’all come back now, you hear?” is totally valid when there’s only one customer leaving the store.
Me: Don’t look at me; I grew up with “youse” and “youse guys.” Dont’cha know.
How many syllables in the word “South?”
Julian: …One?
Cody: Somewhere between one and two.
Me: My kids had such a hard time in first grade when they learned to clap syllables. Anywhere between one and three around here.
Do you enjoy bacon in every dish?
Me: I won’t turn it down.
Cody: I always enjoy bacon, so theoretically yes.
Julian: I’m a pescetarian and I can’t trust anything. Potlucks are a dangerous place.
Do you fry all your vegetables?
Me: Well not ALL of them…
Cody: Of course!
Julian: Why is this a question? Have you people never heard of salad?
Me: Correction: Have y’all never heard of salad.
Julian: You’ve gone native.
Me: It’s a survival mechanism.
How much snow does it take to make you panic?
Julian: Dunno–the last time Los Angeles got snow was well before I was born.
Me: I grew up in Wisconsin, so a lot. We got school canceled when it was under 40 below or when there was more than 12” of snow in the last 24 hours.
Cody: Schools here don’t even have snow days, we have “weather days.”
Julian: What other “weather” would there be?
Cody: Hurricanes.
Julian. Oh. Good point.
Me: A quarter inch of snow here is enough to shut down the city and send everyone to the store for eggs, milk, and bread.
Cody: It’s because french toast is a traditional Alabama delicacy in the colder months.
Julian: Month.
Cody: Fair.
Julian: Seriously?
Cody: No.
How many emotions can you convey with the phrase “Bless her heart?”
Julian: Personally? None. But I get the concept.
Me: It’s such a useful phrase!
Cody: At least five or six. My mother could probably get an even dozen.
Julian: She could. It’s like a secret language, delivered entirely in fake smiles. She’s scary good at it.
How many NASA missions can you name?
Me: Hmmm. Voyager, Discovery, Challenger, Endeavor–
Cody: You’re just listing all the elementary schools.
Me: Yep.
Julian: Hang on, I’m still counting. I think I’m blanking on one or two.
Cody: Show-off.
Julian: I was a NASA nerd before Alabama, you know.
Cody: Sure–but now that you’re here, you’ve got NASA and me.
Julian: *distracts Cody from the rest of the quiz by whispering in his ear for several minutes and turning Cody really red*
For more blog posts, nerdery, and sarcasm, come find me on Twitter at @wendyqualls 🙂
Releasing 8/2/19
blurb:
Julian Barlow has finally landed his dream job working for NASA. The catch? He has to move to Huntsville, Alabama—a daunting prospect for a gay pescetarian from Los Angeles who’s never been south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Fellow engineer Cody Ewing is an Alabama boy through and through, and Julian’s casual assumptions about the South in general and Southern homophobia in particular makes it dislike at first sight. Then NASA throws them together on a months-long project, and they have to make it work.
Forced to rely on each other, the two men develop a tentative friendship that becomes something more as Cody shows Julian Alabama’s good side. Julian’s insistence on secrecy and Cody’s hot-and-cold act could scuttle their chances before they ever get off the ground, though…
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Wendy Qualls was a small town librarian until she finished reading everything her library had to offer. At that point she put her expensive and totally unrelated college degree to use by writing smutty romance novels and wasting time on the internet. She lives in Northern Alabama with her husband, two girls, two dogs, and a seasonally fluctuating swarm of unwanted ladybugs.She is represented by Moe Ferrara of BookEnds Literary Agency.
Author page: http://wendyqualls.com/books/rockets-and-romance/
Twitter: @wendyqualls