Interview with Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood
Authors of the New Book Ice Angels
Questions by Amy Stauffer
Answers by Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
- Who wrote which character? How did you decide?
Ryan: In Ice Angels, like our other books, each character narrates a chapter at a time. We’ve always chosen one character to be “in charge” of. That continues as we write the first draft, at which point we begin working on both characters.
Josh: As we wrote the outline for the story, we decided Ryan would write Cleevs, and I’d write Drew. It seemed a very natural choice.
Ryan: But when we got into it, things changed. Josh wrote the first chapter from Drew’s POV, and then I followed with the second from Cleevs’s POV.
Josh: By the time Ryan finished chapter two, it was clear that it just wasn’t working. We’d paired up with the wrong characters.
Ryan: We traded characters, started over again, and it worked like a charm. I wrote Drew, and Josh wrote Cleevs.
- What inspired this storyline?
Josh: Ryan and I are both eager for there to be openly gay players in the NHL. There are junior hockey and college players who have come out, and some have been drafted by NHL teams, but none are yet playing for an NHL team.
Ryan: One of the things we explored in Fire in the Ice was what would happen if teammates fell in love. We settled that question, and when we began talking about Ice Angels, Josh asked, “If being teammates in love was tricky, what would happen if players on different teams fell in love?”
Josh: Talk about complicated! There would be two sets of teammates, a long-distance relationship, and a lot of travel to complicate things further.
Ryan: We decided to use that as part of the plot of Ice Angels, and it produced a beautiful romance with a big dose of passion.
Josh: The most important thing was that Cleevs and Drew were madly in love. They were both determined to make their relationship work, not simply blame each other or wallow in their misery.
- When did you know who your main characters were going to be? Was it an easy decision? What was the “aha” moment that these were your guys for this book?
Ryan: We spent most of the summer working on another book, which will be released in January. Obviously, it has different main characters.
Josh: As we wrote, Cleevs and Drew came up as side characters. They have small roles that are nonetheless important to the story, and we began discussing the possibility of building a tale around them for the holiday book.
Ryan: When the time came to sit down and work on the book that eventually became Ice Angels, it was obvious that our entire perception of the story had Drew and Cleevs in the main roles.
Josh: We started writing and never looked back. Their story told itself, so we were confident we made the right choice.
- Did writing this story spark any ideas for future books?
Josh: Yes, though we can’t say too much about that yet.
Ryan: We will tell you that we’ll be changing our approach to future storylines somewhat. We’ve thoroughly dissected the question of whether hockey players can be in relationships with each other.
Josh: There are so many aspects of love between men who play hockey, and those have different slants for storytelling. Don’t expect the Bethesda Barracudas or the characters you love to go away, though. They’re here to stay.
- When you finished writing Ice Angels, how did you feel?
Ryan: Finishing a book always leaves us with mixed emotions.
Josh: We’re happy to have finished, but sad to be leaving the characters—who by then have become good friends—behind.
Ryan: We’ll write about them again, but they won’t be the central focus.
Josh: And there is always so much more we wanted to tell, but time or length constraints always get in the way.
Ryan: At this point—we’re answering these questions just before the release—we’re happy to get the book into readers’ hands, but a little nervous too. We hope they’ll love the characters and story as much as we do.
Title: Ice Angels
Author: Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
Publisher: Wainscott Press
Release Date: 10/29/2021
Length: 200
Genre: Romance, Gay hockey romance, Gay holiday romance
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Synopsis
Drew and Cleevs love hockey, but they love each other more. How can the men find a way to save what matters most?
Todd Cleever and Drew Simon are crazy about each other. They started dating three years ago when “Cleevs” was a rookie defenseman for the Chicago Ice. Drew, the team’s captain, was a few years older than Cleevs. Both men were deep in the closet, but it didn’t take long for them to fall in love.
Cleevs was traded to the Bethesda Barracudas a year later, causing a heartbreaking separation. Ever since, they’ve skated around the problem with occasional stolen nights together and brief vacations under the guise of “friends,” but two years of living apart have taken their toll.
As the holiday approaches, Drew and Cleevs decide things have to change. Still, with their careers and two professional hockey teams in the way, how can they score the game-winning goal and save everything they cherish most?
If you like fierce love, a smallish age gap, exciting hockey, and a steely determination to make things work—not to mention enough steam to fog up all your windows and a fantastic HEA—this is the book for you. The novella contains about 43,000 words of sparkling holiday romance.
I arrived at the Hilton about three o’clock. Todd wasn’t due for another couple of hours, so I took a shower and dressed in jeans and an Ice T-shirt. Afterward, I switched on the TV but was too excited to be still, and I must have walked back and forth to the window a hundred times. When the news came on, I settled into a chair to watch. Someone knocked on the door a few minutes later.
Running over, I pulled it open, and there he was. Wearing a gray peacoat and matching beanie, with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, Todd looked like a Hollywood heartthrob. He broke into a crooked grin.
“Hey.” My breath had caught in my throat, and I couldn’t get anything else out. “Hey.”
My pulse raced as my sight and hearing went into overdrive. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
“Drew? You think I could come in?”
“Oh yeah.” I grinned and stepped aside. “Please.”
He rolled his suitcase in and set it and his messenger bag beside the dresser while I made sure the door was locked. When I turned, he placed a finger on the tip of my nose and traced it down to my lips. “You get more beautiful every time I see you.”
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
He reached for me, and I relaxed into the safety of his arms. The relief of being held was profound. As a hockey player and captain of all my teams since high school, I’d always had to be
strong. Before I met Todd, as a closeted gay man, I rarely had hookups because there was too much risk of being recognized. When I occasionally met up with someone, what we did wasn’t about affection or support; it was about getting off.
“Love you, Drew.
“Oh, Todd.” I nibbled his lip, and when he hugged me tighter and kissed me, the heavy burden of my loneliness fell away. I relaxed for the first time in a while.
“I’m happy you could come and spend the night,” he whispered between kisses. I leaned back to look at him. His face was flushed, and his eyes were already dark with arousal. Sliding a hand up his back, I cupped his head. His mouth twitched as I moved in, and he moaned softly when our lips touched. I pressed against him, not ready for the moment to end but needing more.
Slowly, he glided his hands down my back to my butt, and we teased each other. When he licked my lips and probed softly, I opened for him. His tongue reassured me somehow, and I sucked it while my senses did somersaults. Hints of cedarwood and iris, mixed with his soft musk, surrounded me. We were both hard, and a thrill flickered up my spine as we rubbed our cocks together. Tiny, needy sounds filled the air while we enjoyed a taste of what was to come. I pulled away, took his hand, and started toward the bed. “Come with me.” He didn’t move, and I turned to look at him.
“I should shower. It’s been a long day, and I’m not at my freshest.”
Taking a step forward, I gave him another kiss and whispered, “I like you this way, remember? My sweaty D-man.”
He gulped a breath. “Lead on, then.”
We took our time undressing each other. When I removed Todd’s shirt, I gaped at his impressive physique as always: brawny arms, massive pecs, and a rippling six-pack. A large tattoo, a beautiful depiction of a wolf in the forest, ran from the nape of his neck to the middle of his back. Todd said it symbolized loyalty and family, as well as a willingness to become ferocious to protect what was dear to him. He’d told me he wanted to have one about us done on his chest—over his heart—and we’d design it together when our relationship was no longer a secret.
ICE ANGELS Copyright © 2021 Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood. All Rights Reserved.
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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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