Questions from Our Facebook Group
Ryan & Josh’s Room
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rjthroom/
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Answers By Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
We thought it would be fun to ask our Facebook group, Ryan & Josh’s Room, to submit questions for us to answer. They came up with a lot of interesting queries, and we hope you enjoy reading the answers. Please check out the group on Facebook (link provided). Thank you for considering reading our new book, Fire in the Ice.
- How long does it take you from start to finish to write a book?
Ryan: It varies. Josh and I spent over a year writing our first book, No Brief Affair, but now we can usually get the writing done in a couple of months.
Josh: That doesn’t include research and travel, or working with an editor and other professionals to get the book ready for publication. About four to six months would be average.
- Who decides which part of a book to write? Is it together or separate, and what if you disagree?
Ryan: When we are initially developing an idea for a book and outlining some of the story, it usually becomes clear which of us has more affinity for each main character.
Josh: Ryan and I write from our characters’ points of view. For the first draft, we write our own character’s chapters, working in tandem so each chapter is a reaction to what the other one just wrote.
Ryan: After the first draft, we revise each other’s efforts. Josh and I both work on the entire book from then on out.
Josh: When we have disagreements, we talk them through. Sometimes, if we don’t want to talk about an issue, or if talking has proved ineffective, we leave each other notes in the manuscript.
Ryan: We’ve never yet failed to come up with an amicable solution.
- Do you have to do a lot of research for any of your books?
Josh: We do considerable research for every book. All our stories have to do with things Ryan and I know a lot about, but that’s never enough. There are always details and parts of the story we have to research.
Ryan: We start with the internet but never end there. You can’t trust something just because it’s on the web, and we always want to know details we can’t easily find.
Josh: Also, we refuse to write about locations we haven’t visited, so sometimes we have to travel as part of our research.
Ryan: We talk to a lot of people—some we already know and some we don’t. For most of our books, we’ve had an expert or two in the background. They answer a lot of questions, and in the case of the hockey books, keep what we’re writing reasonably on track from the standpoint of a player.
- Why did you decide to start writing books?
Ryan: Josh and I had a long, wonderful courtship—so many beautiful things, along with some hard times, and a fair amount of adventure.
Josh: By the time we got married, we’d read a few gay romance books and thought, “Hey, our story is better than anything people can make up.”
Ryan: While that probably isn’t true, we started writing because we wanted to share some of our own story and use it as a launching pad to write about love between men.
Josh: Our first book, No Brief Affair, took quite a bit of inspiration from our life together. The second book, Legally Bound, has some of our real lives in there but contains more fiction.
- Out of all the books you have written, which one has been the “least” stressful in writing from the opening chapter to the epilogue?
Ryan: The Chrismukkah Crisis. It was a fun book and just seemed to flow for me. I was primarily in charge of the character Aaron, and since he and I have a lot in common, it was easy.
Josh: The Chrismukkah Crisis was a lot of fun, but I think What He Really Needs was the least stressful for me. I was in charge of the character Cayo, and I loved him from the beginning. I’m very interested in some of the social issues we touch on in the book, and that made it even more enjoyable.
- What is your favorite part of writing a book?
Josh: To me, it’s after we get into the book, maybe about a third of the way through. You know what’s happening and where you’re headed, and you’re humming along. It’s fun to develop threads and keep the story moving.
Ryan: It’s like the characters are sitting beside you, whispering in your ear and telling you what to write.
Josh: Ryan and I start talking in code to each other, understanding completely what we’re talking about.
Ryan: Sometimes, we even start calling each other the characters’ names. I don’t think that’s ever by design, though.
Josh: I don’t think so either. It’s just that we’re so into the stories, and so far inside the characters’ heads, that whatever we’re doing is almost an extension of them.
Title: Fire in the Ice
Author: Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
Publisher: Wainscott Press
Release Date: May 14, 2021
Length: 81,000 words
Genre: Romance, Gay Romance, MM Romance, Gay Hockey Romance, Gay Sports Romance, New Adult Gay Romance
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Synopsis
What if love threatened to destroy everything you’d worked for?
Hockey right winger Tyler Jensen isn’t thrilled to get the news he’s been traded to the Bethesda Barracudas. The team may be red-hot in the rankings, but there’s someone there he’d rather not have to see every day.
Defenseman Kevin Moore is one of the top-rated rookies in the country. He’s living the dream playing for the Barracudas—until he hears that his old high-school crush Tyler is joining the team. Ty was once everything Kev wanted, but their age difference got in the way. Tyler decided a three-year gap was too much and left Kevin behind.
In Bethesda, Tyler doesn’t take long to notice that Kevin has grown up into precisely the kind of man he can’t resist—brawny, brainy, and beautiful. Kev feels the pull too, and as the men become closer, they work hard to keep their budding relationship secret. Professional hockey may be welcoming gay players now, but Ty and Kev aren’t sure management would like the idea of two Barracudas taking teamwork to an entirely new level.
As the playoffs loom, news of their romance gets out. Ty and Kev, caught in a storm of controversy that threatens to destroy them, need a power play to save their careers. How will they find one before it’s too late?
Fire in the Ice delivers on the promise that second chances can work and dreams can come true. If you like exciting hockey, plenty of humor, a beautiful HEA, new adults, young athletes, and enough heat to burn down the house, this book is for you.
Fire in the Ice
A Novel by Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
Copyright © 2021 Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood. All Rights Reserved.
The fire alarm went off! I sat bolt upright, my heart pounding like a bass drum and the soaring panic making it hard to breathe. Just as I threw a leg over the side of the bed, I realized I didn’t know where the door was. Hell, I couldn’t even remember what city we were in. Sweat ran into my eyes, and I called for Thompson, my roommate. He didn’t answer. Had he run for safety and left me sleeping?
I finally came around enough to realize the noise wasn’t the fire alarm—it was the alarm on my phone. Thompson wasn’t there because we weren’t on a road trip. In fact, he and I weren’t even on the same team anymore. The Seattle Cohos had traded me, and I was a Bethesda-fuckin-Barracuda now. Woo-hoo! The fact that I had a terrible crush on one of my new teammates, who definitely did not return the feelings, made my new life a thrilling prospect. I wondered if there was any chance Kevin might change his mind and give me a chance. Doubtful, after what happened last fall.
It was way too early to get up, and I stretched my way through a big yawn. I’d flown to DC with Birky Ferrell, my teammate who had also been traded, and we didn’t get into town until about eleven the night before. That had only been eight p.m. Seattle time, so I didn’t fall asleep for hours. According to my phone, it was currently seven a.m. in Washington, and I was due in Bethesda by eight thirty. Time to get my ass out of bed and into the shower.
Lucky me, I had a whole new team to get to know. Too bad they’d played in Seattle only ten days earlier, and I’d gotten into it with one of their defensemen, Pierre Gagné. The rest of the game hadn’t exactly been friendly between the Barracudas and me, and I didn’t know what kind of reception to expect at Cuda Arena. I hoped they’d be in the mood to let bygones be bygones.
An hour later, Birky and I were in an Uber creeping its way through rush-hour traffic toward Bethesda. Bob Shuford, the head coach, wanted to see us before our first practice with the team. I studied Birky’s profile while he looked out the window. His craggy face was handsome, and he wore his brown hair in a crew cut. Birky was an enforcer, so he got into his share of brawls, and a few scars gave his face character.
He turned his attention away from the street. “You nervous?”
“No more than you.”
“We’ll be fine. They’re lucky to have us. You heard they made Johnson captain?”
“Yeah, I saw that last night.”
Birky shifted in his seat, so he could see me. “You know him, right? I’ve seen you two talking when the teams played each other.”
“We went to prep school together at St. Mark’s.” I took a deep breath and leaned back in the seat. Nick and I had so much more than gone to prep school together, but that was a lifetime ago. For five of the last seven years, we’d only been friends from a distance.
“Seems like a good guy.”
I smiled. “Nick is one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet. Best thing they could have done, making him captain. He was team captain in high school, and he’s a born leader.”
“Sounds like what they needed. Keefer’s an ass.”
“You’re almost right.”
He cocked his head.
“Nick as captain is what we need, Birky. We’re Barracudas now.”
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Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood met in law school and were married in 2017. They live in a suburb of Washington, DC, and share their home with a big, cuddly German shepherd. Ryan and Josh enjoy travel, friends, and advocating for causes dear to their hearts. Ryan also loves to swim, and Josh likes to putter in the garden whenever he can. The romance they were so lucky to find with each other inspires their stories about love between out and proud men.
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