2014 GRL Blog Tour: Amy Lane
Jul. 29th, 2014 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviews_and_ramblings
Starting from March up until September I will be part of the 2014 GRL Blog Tour as featured blogger. I will host authors attending the GayRomLit Retreat in Chicago (October 16-19, 2014: gayromlit.com/content/2014-grl-featured-bThe Meeting of Heart Gardeners
By Amy Lane
So, I’m just wrapping up a giant project that took up a substantial portion of my life force for about four months.
And now I’m a little bit lost.
I mean, for four months, I ate, slept, breathed, dreamed about Mackey Sanders and Trav Ford. I know what they ate for breakfast (Mackey likes apple fritters, Trav likes oatmeal) and I know what they ate for dinner (Mackey likes London Broil, Trav is a fan of the giant T-Bone steak) and I know where they like to shop. (Trav shops at Nordstroms, Mackey stops at Wal-Mart.) I even know what they smell like. (Mackey smells like patchouli, Trav smells like Mennen.)
These guys literally pervade the oxygen in my lungs.
And now they’re just… just… gone? I don’t worry about them anymore? I give them to somebody else to worry about?
But what if people don’t like them? What if they treat Mackey and Trav badly? Mackey needs love, dammit, nurturing! Who’d going to take care of Mackey if I’m not going to?
Well, my readers, I guess. I mean, that’s who Mackey and Trav were meant for, right? I mean, myself first, but ultimately, they were meant to be read and loved like I loved them, and dreamed about by other people.
Which is why I’m so excited when I go to conventions like GRL.
Because it doesn’t matter how often I hear things like, “Xan and Chris—they were so beautiful, I cried my eyes out!” I can always hear it one more time. It means the boys I loved so very much, whom I wept over and, in a hazy way, became, are being loved. I’ve turned them over to readers and some readers may have been indifferent, but some readers loved them, and loved them in that obsessive, aching, nearly-crazy way that I loved them. It means my boys are in good hands, held by people who will take care of them and think hard on what they have to teach us all.
So Mackey and Trav are gone. No more edits. No more proofs. Nothing more to do besides market them. I only sometimes re-read my own stuff, so I may get a glimpse of them again when the (gigantic) paperback arrives at my door. Oh God. They’re not in my head anymore? How will I know they’re okay? Who’s going to make sure Mackey takes care of himself? Who’s going to take care of Trav’s surprisingly tender heart? They need each other but just because, in the end, they have each other, that doesn’t mean they can just… just… just… exist out in the world without me to tend to their heart-garden, right?
But I have to make room, don’t I? There are other voices in my head, clamoring for attention. So I send these boys, with the finished story, out to my readers…
And when I meet my readers online or at conventions, my readers get back to me. “How did you think of them?” “Who were they based on?” “What do you see in their future?” “I loved they way Mackey didn’t take shit!” “I love the way Trav wasn’t a hugger, and never really became one except for Mackey.” “Where did the music come from?” “Where was the tender place in your heart that spawned them?”
Yes!
There is a place where my guys can live in my head again. It’s the place where readers and writers meet, and we talk about the imaginary people who hold a real place in our hearts and minds. We discuss them like they live and breathe and hurt and think and play and laugh and cry.
That is my sort of place.
That is why I love conventions like GRL.
Because that’s where I go to see how my guys are doing, to see if the readers loved them like I did, to see how my heart-garden grows.
About Amy Lane: A squirrel-brained mother of four, Amy Lane enjoys knitting, reading, music, movies, and the company of her beloved Mate. She lives in a crumbling crapmansion in a colorless Nor Cal suburb, with her family, cats, and an emotionally stunted Chi-who-what. She doesn't keep house, manage money, or organize anything important, but she can knit a sweater while reading a book in front of the television. If you ask her a question, be prepared to pull up a chair--and duck! You never know what's coming out of her mouth. She writes to silence the voices in her head.Website: http://www.greenshill.com
Giveaway: Amy Lane is giving away a package of Beneath the Stain to one reader. Leave a comment below to enter. You can comment on LJ or DW if you have an account (I will send a PM to the winner), if you don't have an account, please leave a comment on DW with a contact email.
Beneath the Stain by Amy Lane Serial PackageISBN-13 978-1-63216-510-7
Cover Artist Anne Cain
Categories Contemporary
Book Type eBook
This product will be in stock on Friday 29 August, 2014
Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5314
In a town as small as Tyson, CA, everybody knew the four brothers with the four different fathers-- and their penchant for making good music when they weren't getting into trouble. For Mackey Sanders, playing in Outbreak Monkey with his brothers and their friends—especially Grant Adams--made Tyson bearable. But Grant has plans for getting Mackey and the Sanders boys out of Tyson, even if that means staying behind.
Between the heartbreak of leaving Grant and the terrifying, glamorous life of rock stardom, Mackey is adrift and sinking fast. When he's hit rock bottom, Trav Ford shows up, courtesy of their record company and a producer who wants to see what Mackey can do if he doesn't flame out first. But cleaning up his act means coming clean about Grant, and that's not easy to do or say. Mackey might make it with Trav's help--but Trav's not sure he's going to survive falling in love with Mackey.
Mackey James Sanders comes with a whole lot of messy, painful baggage, and law-and-order Trav doesn't do messy or painful. And just when Trav thinks they may have mastered every demon in Mackey's past, the biggest, baddest demon of all comes knocking.
Five Ways to Buy
1. Serial Package
•Automatically get each part with special content on your bookshelf as it is released and the digital novel upon release. Serial runs 8/29/14-10/10/14. Novel releases 10/17/14.
•$12.99. This option only available through dreamspinnerpress.com.
2. Serial Deluxe Package
•Automatically get each part with special content on your bookshelf as it is released and the digital novel upon release. Serial runs 8/29/14-10/10/14. Novel releases 10/17/14.
•Also received a signed paperback mailed to you upon novel release.
•$24.99 +shipping. This option only available through dreamspinnerpress.com.
3. Serial Only (7 parts)
•Buy individual parts with special content weekly for $1.99. Serial runs 8/29/14-10/10/14.
4. & 5. Novel
•Purchase the complete novel in eBook or paperback, no special content included. Pre-sales begin 9/17/14. Novel releases 10/17/14.
•eBook $6.99, paperback $17.99
•Upon complete novel release, the serial will no longer be available.
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Date: 2014-07-29 06:57 am (UTC)Amy Lane - YAY!!!
Date: 2014-07-29 12:16 pm (UTC)Beneath the Stain by Amy Lane
Date: 2014-07-29 06:42 pm (UTC)Amy Lane contest
Date: 2014-07-29 07:27 pm (UTC)strive4bst(AT) yahoo(Dot) com
Amy Lane Giveaway
Date: 2014-07-29 07:35 pm (UTC)Jennifer.avidan@gmail.com
no subject
Date: 2014-07-29 09:41 pm (UTC)Trix, vitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com
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Date: 2014-07-29 10:45 pm (UTC)jen.f {at} mac {dot} com
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Date: 2014-07-29 11:59 pm (UTC)jczlapin(at)gmail(dot)com
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Date: 2014-07-30 05:23 am (UTC)comment on Amy Lane ' s post
Date: 2014-07-30 07:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-30 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-31 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-29 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-29 11:00 am (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
Oh - and happy belated birthday Elisa. I hope you had a very celebratory day.
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Date: 2014-07-29 03:21 pm (UTC)