Hi guys, we have Jeff Adams popping in today with his newest release Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa, Jeff chats about Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa, we have a great excerpt, a brilliant giveaway and Lisa’s review, so enjoy the post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa

Jeff Adams

Ethan is a grad student stuck in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the summer. Though he’s thrilled about his teaching assistant position at the university, he’s not at all excited about the record-breaking heat wave that’s plaguing the area.

In the midst of an oppressively hot summer night, Ethan meets fellow grad student Marcus. While their initial encounters are scorching, can two busy student have more than a heated seasonal fling? Or could it be the beginning of something that will last beyond the stormy southern nights?

Jeff Adams!

Thanks, Pixie, for having me over. It’s great to be hanging out on MM Good Book Reviews to talk about my latest short story, and to give one away, too!

Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa was a lot of fun to write because I lived in Tuscaloosa for 15 years during the eighties and nineties, and that included middle school, high school and college. It’s changed a lot over the years, all for the better as you can actually be out relatively safely and even get married there.

Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa is written in the present and includes several places that hold meaning to me. Ethan’s apartment complex is based on the place I lived after I graduated college. Ethan and Marcus end up at one of my favorite restaurants. Certainly the University is a central place for the grad students to be. There’s even a mention of the Alabama Hockey team since neither Ethan or Marcus or football fans (and, as you might have guessed from that, neither am I).

I also send Ethan and Marcus to a farm that’s outside the city. It’s Marcus’ family farm, which we find out is really some land, the house his retired parents live in and a couple horses. With Marcus’ parents out of town, he’s taking care of the horses and he invites Ethan to come out with him to escape the city for a few hours. Of course, it’s a bit cooler in the country, so Ethan is happy to go even though he’s very much a city boy.

The farm is very loosely based on the fact that my grandfather owned a farm, several miles outside Tuscaloosa. As a teenager, I didn’t fully appreciate the visits I made there to explore the woods, hang out by the pond and in general take part of the adventures that could’ve been had there. I regret that now and so Marcus has a much better take on farm life, and even in his late twenties that he enjoys being there.

The boys end up at the farm a couple times, and both of those trips rank as some of my favorite in the book. The first one is an opportunity for them to get to know each other better while the second is a turning point that likely leads them into a relationship that goes far beyond a steamy summer romance.

I’m giving away one free ebook of Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa to someone who leaves a comment. Say hello, ask a question, leave a comment, whatever you’d like. I’ll come back to talk to you all, and Pixie will pick one lucky commenter to win the ebook.

Jeff

Excerpt

“So you grew up out here?” I asked as the we entered the rural part of the county, an area I’d never visited before. It was more rural than anything you could see on the Interstate between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

“I did. My dad worked this farm for years. It was a wedding present from his folks. He’d grown up working their farm and they got him started with his own. He made a good living off of it. My mom taught school, and helped out on the farm in the summer. I was free labor until high school when they insisted that extracurriculars were important, but even then I still helped out when I had time because I enjoyed it. They both retired when I graduated college and sold a lot of the property to neighbors. They’ve still got a lot of land, a lot of it woodsy, plus a nice house. They keep a couple horses, too, which is why we’re going out. When they’re traveling, I take care of the horses.”

“Horses? Really?”

“Yeah.” He raised an eyebrow my direction.

“That’s cool. Can I feed them?”

“Sure.” He looked my way again and chuckled. “You’ve never been around a horse have you?”

I shook my head. “No. Closest I’ve been to a farm is when my family took me out to one of those self-pick apple orchards. I’m sure there were horses around Seattle somewhere, but I never saw them.”

“I don’t think it was properly revealed just how much of a city boy you are in our first thirty-six hours together,” he said, not taking his eyes off the curvy road.

“What were you expecting?” I asked. “Seattle’s a pretty major metropolitan area.”

“But there’s some amazing countryside around there, right? Trees, outdoors, lakes all that?”

“Yeah, and we went camping and stuff. I loved sleeping under the stars, but mostly I was happiest reading, or playing video games, or whatever.”

“Well, let’s see what the city boy thinks of this,” Marcus said as he pulled into what might be the longest driveway ever. Except it wasn’t paved, at least not like I usually thought of driveways. It was gravel that looked liked it’d been driven over about a million times since it’d been put down. “We’re here.”

There was plenty of pride his voice and with good reason. The place was beautiful. The trees along the drive were gorgeous and when the house came into view I was impressed. I’d imagined something slightly rundown, but this was a beautiful, but modest, home. My first thought was that I wanted to spend a quiet evening on the front porch with Marcus.

“This is amazing,” I said as he parked the truck in front of the garage. My eyes darted around to take it all in. There were trees everywhere, beautiful flower beds in front of the house, and a barn that looked about a hundred years old but still in good shape. There was an amazing tree house in a large tree on the west side of the house and in the distance I saw part of a lake, which was mostly hidden by forest. The lawn around the house was well trimmed, and there was a lot of it. “If I lived here I might not ever leave.”

Marcus gave me a big smile and raised his eyebrows a couple times.

“I’m glad you like it.” I shrugged and he laughed. “I do come out here a lot. We usually have dinner together on the weekend. I do a fair bit of my work up there when it’s not so hot.” He pointed to the treehouse. “When we got wifi, I made sure the treehouse was in range of the router.”

“Oh man, that sounds nice. I’ve spread out my stuff on the balcony before, but up there it must be cool.”

“Yeah. It’s nice. Lots of good times up there. Sleepovers, think time, good place to hide porn from the parents.”

“And make out with boys?” I said as we walked over to the barn.

“That’s never happened.”

I shot him a disbelieving look. “Really?”

About Jeff

Jeff’s written stories since he was in middle school and became a gay romance writer in 2009 when his first short stories were published. Since then he’s written several more shorts and novels, including some in the young adult genre, and he plans to keep writing as long as wonderful readers keeping picking up his books.

Jeff lives in rural Northern California with his husband of twenty years, Will. Some of his favorite things include the musicals Rent and [title of show], the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey teams, and the reality TV competition So You Think You Can Dance. If forced to pick his favorite book it would be a tie between Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and David Levithan’s Every Day.

You can learn more at jeffadamswrites.com or on Twitter and Facebook

Giveaway!

Win an ecopy of Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa

Review

Title: Heat Wave: Tuscaloosa

Series: Heat Wave

Author: Jeff Adams

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novella (52 Pages)

ISBN: 978-1-61152-832-9

Publisher: JMS Books (August 9th, 2015)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.5 Hearts

Reviewer: Lisa

Blurb: Ethan is a grad student stuck in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the summer. Though he’s thrilled about his teaching assistant position at the university, he’s not at all excited about the record-breaking heat wave plaguing the area.

In the midst of an oppressively hot summer night, Ethan meets fellow grad student Marcus. While their initial encounters are scorching, can two busy students have more than a heated seasonal fling? Or could it be the beginning of something that will last beyond the stormy southern nights?

Product Link(s): http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=183&products_id=1483 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/564126

Review: Ethan is out on a hot night, and spots a sexy man in the shadows. He is turned the hell on, but doesn’t know how to approach. Then Marcus takes it out of his hands, and approaches him. Things heat up with these two.

It is a short and very hot little story that will turn anyone on. My only problem with it is the fact that it is just too damn short and comes off way too fast for me to get into all the way. However it does give you a taste that will heat you up.

I did have a blast reading it and look forward to reading more by this author.