Hi guys! We have A.E. Wasp popping in today with her series Hot Off the Ice and the newest book in the series Country Boy, we have a brilliant interview with A.E., a great excerpt and a fantastic giveaway, so check out the post and click that giveaway link! <3 ~Pixie~
City Boy
A.E. Wasp
Follow the money or follow your heart? Either way, you lose.
When a blown tire leads directly to mind-blowing sex with a white knight named Dakota, pro-hockey player Bryce Lowery discovers he is most definitely gay.
Being with Dakota opens up a whole new world. Bryce can’t imagine life without him. But he refuses to be Bryce’s dirty little secret. If he wants to keep Dakota, he’s either going to have to come out publicly or retire and walk away from millions of dollars.
Bryce Lowery feels like the answer to all of Dakota’s prayers. But is Dakota willing to leave the only life he’s ever known only to be thrust into the spotlight as the boyfriend of the first out gay hockey player? Would their relationship even survive it? He’ll lose Bryce if doesn’t because Bryce will leave eventually. No one would turn down millions of dollars for a nobody with nothing.
City Boy is a first time gay, fish out of water, May/December love story with a happy ending. It features snarky siblings, a dirty-talking farmer, lots of food, and big choices. (No poultry was harmed in the making of this book.)
Amazon US | Amazon UK
Country Boy
Hot off the Ice 02: Robbie & Paul
Sometimes the toughest thing to have faith in is yourself.
The first time Paul Dyson met Robbie Rhodes, they ended up naked in Robbie’s bed. The last time they met, on the ice the morning after, Paul punched Robbie in the face and called him something he’d rather not repeat.
Two years later, they’re teammates on the Seattle Thunder hockey team.
Being gay is wrong, unnatural, and there is no room for them in his world. Paul’s heard that his whole life. So when it hits him that he is gay, he does the only thing he can: he shoves himself so deep in the closet he would need a map to find his way out again.
When the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream comes along, Paul can’t say no, even if it forces him to share hotel rooms with the only man he can’t resist. It doesn’t take long for Paul to give into temptation and find himself falling in love with his brilliant, caring teammate.
But as much as he cares for Paul, Robbie is finding it harder and harder to justify hiding who he is. It goes against everything he was taught was right. He feels like he has a duty to come out to the public. He’d be the first out gay pro-hockey player.
If Paul wants to be with Robbie, he will have to turn his back on his family and everything he’s believed in. If Robbie wants to be will Paul, he’ll have to do the same.
It’s going to take them a lot of faith to find their way together in this shiny new world.
Country Boy is a love story about figuring out who you are, who you want to be, and how to get there. It contains sweet hockey plays, a 1976 Corvette Stingray, fancy underwear, and the journey of a lifetime.
Amazon US | Amazon UK
Interview!
The temptation you wish you could resist…
Cheez Doodles. Those things are evil. Evilly delicious.
The priority activity if you were invisible for a day…
Sleep.
Sadly so much of my work and social life is on the internet, no one would notice if I were invisible. I could get away with not wearing any pants! I have male room-mates, so sadly, I wear pants. No bra. They can deal.
The film you can watch time and time again…
I think Hot Fuzz is one of the most perfect films ever made. I laugh my butt off every single time. Tropic Thunder is a close second. I like to laugh. Life can be so hard.
The unlikely interest that engages your curiosity…
I know it’s not unusual for a thousands of people, but I never thought I’d become this rabid hockey fan who watches two games at a time on different devices. I didn’t grow up watching sports, my kids don’t play sports. It’s just exciting! I love it.
The poem that touches your soul…
The Desiderata, that opens Country Boy, and that mean so much to Paul, has been my favorite since I can remember. My mother gave me a framed copy of it when I was young, and it just resonated. Now, I love so much more poetry. I’ve actually started keeping them in a Word doc to remember.
Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day is a favorite. She asks
The event that altered the course of your life…
The song that means the most to you…
Music is intensely important to me. It is something I almost never without, if not playing externally, you can rest assured there is a song running through my head.
I start with big playlists of every song I think might fit the book, then whittle them away until I have one song for every scene or two. And then I can never use those songs again because by the time the book is done, I’ve listened to them fifty-thousand times and I instantly think of that book/character/scene when I hear it.
For my own personal soundtrack, Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” is my theme song.
“Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by”
If you knew me, you would know I’m on the road constantly. My dream is to outfit my van so I can live in it and travel around the country for months at a time. I’m a ramblin’ woman for sure.
“Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts has also been a favorite for a long time. Something about the imagery just touches me. That summer night breeze, the scent of night-blooming jasmine, which is overwhelming. I love it.
The happiest moment you will cherish forever…
I could never pick one. I’ve had an amazing life. I have three fabulous children, amazing friends, and have seen so many wonderful things. I could never pick!
The unfulfilled ambition that continues to haunt you…
I have two. The first thing I ever wanted to be was an astronaut. But you had to be a fighter pilot back in the day, and I couldn’t be a fighter pilot.
And I want to be a rock star, despite the fact that I can’t sing or play an instrument.
Other than that, I’ve always wanted to be a writer! So this is basically a dream come true for me. I couldn’t be happier.
Your early recollections of writing fiction…
I wrote a poem about a butterfly that got into the yearbook when I was eight. I have a feeling their submission standards were very low.
I wrote a tragic short story about a family’s pet cat who accidently gets walled up during construction in a room, and then, alas, dies. It comes back as a ghost. It was called (are you ready for this?) Ghost Cat. I feel like my titles haven’t come very much further since that time.
The way you would spend your fantasy twenty-four hours, with no travel restrictions…
The pet hate that makes your hackles rise…
Not a big fan of snakes. J (Fine, I know that’s not the question. But seriously, my one of daughters had a corn snake, and it was always escaping. I found it inside a CEREAL BOX once. And I had to feed it mice. No. Not a favorite.
The piece of wisdom you would pass onto a child…
The Wasp girls’ motto (that’s me and my 3 daughters) is “Get Over Yourself.” As soon as the youngest turns 18 in April, we’re getting matching tattoos.
Does that count?
The treasured item you lost and wish you could have again…
My 28” waist. My ex-boyfriend 1967 Gold Duster.
My father. No contest.
The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it…
I would rob an FDIC insured bank. J
The character you enjoyed writing the most…
Chris from Bronze Star. I adore writing him and would put him in every book with a guest spot if I could. He’s one of my youngest, but a very old soul. His upper class background combined with his time on the streets and addiction issues give him a complex, fascinating point of view.
He’s the perfect foil for Jay-Cee, even though Jay-Cee is 20 years older. I think they are my best overall couple, in that they are perfectly perfect for each other and would drive mad anyone else who tried to be with either of them. They need each other.
The character you found difficult to write…
Paul’s father Stoney was, hands down, the most difficult character to write without making everyone hate him! I had to rewrite his scenes a few times. The interesting this is that he never changed in my head. It was just how I wrote about him.
Oddly enough I expected Paul to be difficult because I don’t share his beliefs, and I wanted him to keep his faith at the end, it is very important to him. But he was just such a fully-formed character from his conception. He just popped into my head. And he’s very sweet, so that innocence was easy to hold onto.
And the promo
The Hot Off the Ice series has been so much fun to write. I’ve made great new friends, found an amazing new thing to fan girl over, discovered the Colorado ECHL team plays 20 minutes from my house, not only do I get to go games, I get to go with the fabulous writer, Marie Sexton.
The research is terrible. J I have to go to games, watch games. Watch YouTube videos of interviews with players, locker room tours, and things like Top Ten Best Passes in the NHL.
All that, and I get to do my very favorite thing, which is create characters that challenge me, and that I fall in love with.
I love, love challenging myself. As a writer. Not physically. Physically, very lazy.
For the next book, Sergei and Alex’s story – tentatively titled Skater Boy and due out mid-December – I want to try to write a scene that takes place completely during a game.
Writing sports action well is difficult for me. So it will be a challenge to write the on-ice action and on-bench action and make it exciting as well important to the character growth, to have it give the reader new information and make them feel like they’re watching a game. Thank goodness for intermissions and locker room scenes!
Excerpt!
He took a slap shot at the empty net, raising his arms to an imaginary crowd and giving an almost silent cheer. Skating slowly to retrieve the puck, he said. “If we wanna make the show, we’ve got to be the best. We got to push harder and want it more.” He tossed the puck on the ice in front of Robbie. “Do you want it more?”
“More than who?” Robbie stared into his eyes, hands resting on the top of his stick.
“More than anyone else does. More than you want anything else. Do you want it that much?”
Their eyes met, glittering in the harsh shadows of the bare lamp light. Finally, Robbie nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
Paul tilted his head. “Then let’s get to work.”
They skated hard for some indeterminate length of time Paul knew he would never forget. The world had narrowed down to a frozen space of biting cold air, moon shadows, and the sounds of metal blades carving through the ice.
As they sped down the ice, Robbie right on Paul’s tail, an owl broke out of the trees, swooping low over Paul’s head with a swish of feathers and an eerie hooting. “Dang,” Paul said, throwing up his arms and ducking.
“Oh, crap,” Robbie yelped right before he crashed into Paul. Down they went in a tangle of arms and legs.
Robbie landed on top of Paul, knocking the air out of his lungs. Paul’s first thought was that the parka did a great job of insulating him from the cold. The second was that having Robbie laying on top of him felt really good.
Robbie started to push away, and, Paul moved without thought, wrapping his arms around Robbie.
Robbie stopped, raising onto his elbows to stare Paul in the eyes. His eyes were such a warm brown. Paul’s breathing grew heavy, and he felt Robbie’s chest pressing against his with each exhalation.
He licked his dry lips, and Robbie’s eyes dropped to his mouth, then back to his eyes. “Can I kiss you?” Robbie asked quietly.
Paul’s muscles tightened, and his breath caught.
Mistaking his silence for a no, Robbie blushed and tried to pull away. Paul grabbed Robbie’s coat awkwardly, fingers clumsy beneath the thick gloves, and pulled him back down.
Robbie’s lips were cold, but his breath was warm as he kissed Paul gently. He lifted his head to check Paul’s reaction.
Oh, Paul thought. Oh. He raised his head off the ice to reach Robbie’s mouth.
Robbie kissed him again, harder this time, pushing him back down to the ice.
Paul whimpered at the feel of Robbie’s lips on his. When Robbie’s tongue flicked against the seam of his mouth, he opened willingly, letting the heat in. Robbie’s thick gloves thumped to the ground as he pulled them off without breaking the kiss.
Robbie shifted on top of him as he explored Paul’s mouth, aligning their bodies in a way that made Paul’s eyes roll back in his head even as the ice numbed his ass through his jeans.
Skates scratching against the ice, Paul bent his knees, clamping his thighs against Robbie’s sides.
Robbie took what he wanted from Paul, tilting his head to the side with a hand, and encouraging Paul to open up with sharp nips to his lips.
He pushed Paul’s head back with pressure on his chin, his mouth moving down the column of Paul’s neck as best as he could through the protective barrier of outerwear.
Paul panted through his open mouth as Robbie set his teeth on Paul’s skin and sucked, tongue flicking against the pulse in Paul’s neck. “Oh, fuck,” he moaned, hips rising of their own accord as his body fought for some friction.
For most of a decade, he’d imagined what it would feel like to be held down by a man, to feel someone strong and hard pressing against him, matching their strength to his. His imagination had not come close to reality.
Robbie pushed up onto his arms, forcing his body down onto Paul’s rapidly growing erection. The place where his mouth had been was suddenly freezing in the cold air. Paul’s head to toe shudder threatened to throw Robbie off. “Oh, God, oh, God,” Paul groaned. “Don’t stop.”
Robbie leaned down for a long hard kiss that stole the air from Paul’s lungs. He smiled as he looked at Paul. “If we don’t go inside, we’re going to freeze to death, stick to the ice, and Mrs. Pierson is going to find our bodies in the morning.” He jumped up and held a hand out to Robbie.
Paul couldn’t process what was happening as he let himself be pulled up. Was that it? Was it over? Would the kissing stop when they got inside? Please don’t let it stop. He needed it so badly. Needed to shut off his brain, just for tonight. Please.
Robbie skated off the rink and headed towards the door. Paul followed him.
About A.E.!
Author Bio: A dreamer and an idealist, Amy writes about people finding connection in a world that can seem lonely and magic in a world than can seem all too mundane. She invites readers into her characters’ lives and worlds when they are their most vulnerable, their most human, living with the same hopes and fears we all have. An avid traveler who has lived in big cities and small towns in four different continents, Amy has found that time and distance are no barriers to love. She invites her readers to reach out and share how her characters have touched their lives or how the found families they have gathered around them have shaped their worlds.
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A.E. Wasp is a fantastic writer and if you haven’t read any of her books yet you need to! An author this talented should not go unnoticed.