Thank you so much to Dani and everyone at Love Bytes for hosting me today! I appreciate this opportunity to talk about my latest release, Bitter Heat, the third book in the Heat of Love series.
I’ve shared some information elsewhere about the inspiration for this third book, specifically a song by Amanda Palmer (Voicemail for Jill), a mouthy main character (Kerry), and the book Christy by Catherine Marshall, but I haven’t talked about the death of my aunt.
In November of 2018, my aunt got sick and passed away. It was very fast from my point of view. She lived in West Virginia, about five hours from my home in Tennessee. We didn’t visit as much as we could have, and so I wasn’t aware of how sick she had become until she was in the hospital.
When she passed away, my family traveled up to West Virginia for her funeral, and I was reminded of why we didn’t often go up that way. It’s depressing. The poverty. The stagnation. The buildings that haven’t been improved or changed since the 1940s, and not in the “we should preserve our historical buildings sort of way”, but in the, “we have no industry anymore, the coal mines are mined out, the chemical companies abandoned us, and we’re all suffering up here” kind of way. (Disclaimer: I know that not all of West Virginia is like this, but the area my family was from most definitely is.)
Traveling up in November, when the mountains are bleak and dark, and the snow was early and sad, made it even more depressing. The dark, low clouds, the smothering gray mountains, the way the houses were littered at the base of the mountains like detritus….
The grief of the loss of my aunt.
The sadness of the life there.
It was a lot.And it conflicted with the wild, wonderful memories I had of West Virginia from summer weeks spent there in my youth. Those were of windy country roads, green trees, lush forest, rushing creeks, and a sparkling happiness that I adored. I loved West Virginia in my memory.As I worked on Bitter Heat, I wove the grief of my final visit with the glow of my early memories and the result is a setting that is as much a character as the characters themselves. I dedicated the book to my aunt. She was always supportive of my writing. I miss her very much. But I have the memories of the West Virginia of my youth and of her. And now I have a book that holds the spirit of that, if not the details.
Thank you for reading about how my aunt’s death and West Virginia played into the writing of Bitter Heat. The story itself deals with trauma and grief, but ends with tenderness and love. I hope that readers love it!
Cover Design: Dar Albert @ Wicked Smart Designs
Book #1 – Slow Heat – Amazon US | Amazon UK | Universal Link
A pregnant omega trapped in a desperate situation, an unattached alpha with a lot to prove, and an unexpected fall into love that could save them both.
Kerry Monkburn is contracted to a violent alpha in prison for brutal crimes. Now pregnant with the alpha’s child, he lives high in the mountains, far above the city that once lured him in with promises of a better life. Enduring bitterness and fear, Kerry flirts with putting an end to his life of darkness, but fate intervenes.
Janus Heelies has made mistakes in the past. In an effort to redeem himself, integrity has become the watchword for his future. Training as a nurse under the only doctor willing to take him on, Janus is resolute in his intentions: he will live cleanly in the mountains and avoid all inappropriate affairs. But he doesn’t anticipate the pull that Kerry exercises on his heart and mind.
As the question of Kerry’s future health and safety comes to an explosive head, only the intervention of fate will see these desperate men through to a happy ending.
This gay romance novel by Leta Blake is the third in the Heat of Love universe which began with Slow Heat. It’s 111,000 words, with a strong happy ending and a critically-acclaimed, non-shifter Omegaverse. It features alphas, betas, omegas, male pregnancy, mpreg, heat, and knotting. Content warning for a violent and oppressive society regarding reproductive rights.
Author of the bestselling book Smoky Mountain Dreams and the fan favorite Training Season, Leta Blake’s educational and professional background is in psychology and finance, respectively. However, her passion has always been for writing. She enjoys crafting romance stories and exploring the psyches of made up people. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance between her day job, her writing, and her family.
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