Hi guys! We have Eloreen Moon popping in today with the tour for Together, we have a brilliant interview, a great excerpt and a fantastic $25 Amazon GC giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤️ ~Pixie~
Together
Eloreen Moon
Victor has loved El and En since high school. The problem is, they love each other and only see him as a friend. Victor leaves town, unable to cope with watching them together, but now he’s back—and his heart still feels the same.
El and En have had feelings for Victor for a long time, they just haven’t said anything. After all, a poly relationship isn’t something society looks upon kindly. But that isn’t going to stop them, not now they understand what missing Victor is like. They want their third, no matter what anyone says—they just have to find out whether Victor is up for the challenge.
Together again, individually, the three men know they’re meant to be a trio. The thing is, who will say so first? And will the dynamic work if Victor joins a stable couple? Can Victor fit in and have the relationship he’s dreamed of with the two men who have held his heart in their hands for what feels like forever?
Find out in Together.
Interview!
How did you choose the topic for this book?
Once I knew what kind of characters I was writing about, I asked for feedback from friends on Facebook about what troupes they liked. There were several and I wanted to do multiple topics, genres, and relationships. From those suggestions, a contemporary, threesome, friends-to-lovers story was born.
When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
I wrote poetry when I was younger. I tried to start a novel as a teen. I got to an outline, and then just stopped. Life happened: I graduated from high school and college, got married, had kids, and worked. Somewhere around 20 years later I found M/M romances (big romance reader anyway) and I was hooked. A couple years later, several authors I beta read for suggested I should start writing. I wanted to see more stories that I liked to read, and I started writing late 2012. I didn’t finish anything until 2014. People who beta read for me liked it enough that I kept going.
Do you use a pseudonym? If so, why? If not, why not?
My name is a pseudonym. Sort of. It’s not my legal name but I’ve been going by Eloreen for years in my spiritual, gaming, and lifestyle communities. I chose to write with it because of some of my blood family and my full-time work industry. I keep my writing separate from my general life but my chosen family, some friends, partners, and our children know. I tend to be a private person anyway, so this was an easy option to do. I don’t necessarily hide it, but I don’t advertise it either. It’s very similar to LGBTQ+ people who are finding themselves and their comfort level of being “out”. As I’ve gotten older, I started not to care who knew but I still tend towards only talking about it with close family and friends.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I grew up in Florida and was fascinated with the now defunct space shuttle launches. The Challenger explosion happened when I was pre-teen in elementary school, and I watched it live since Cape Canaveral is not that far from where I lived with my parents. You could see launches on a good, clear day since it is really flat there. That had an impact with me, and I wanted to be an astronaut for a long time.
Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics and minored in Mathematics. I use math in my day job practically every day, and space and science has always fascinated me. In a way, I got pretty close to being an astronaut. I just didn’t launch into space. So, to get my space fix, I volunteer annually In the Space fan track with the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention Dragon Con (dragoncon.org) that happens every year over Labor Day weekend. The con will be virtual this year in early September and it’s going to be a great show even if it’s in a different format than usual. They will be streaming three channels and it will be mostly pre-recorded content but some live 24 hours for the four days. The tracks themselves will be doing separate social media content that will include live streaming on their respective social platforms. All of that should be updated on the website if you are interested in attending or watching. Who knows, you might see me as my alter ego in some of the Space events. *wink*
We know what you like to write, but what do you like to read in your free time, and why?
Yes. Oh, you need a longer answer? I like to read. Period.
Ok. I’ll expand on the topic. *smile*
I pretty much read most everything LGBTQ+, especially M/M, but I do read F/F, ménages with different pairings and sizes, mainstream M/F (I have a few authors with long running series I still read.), and space and/or science articles. Not that I’ve had time to read recently with the work thing taking over my life. I haven’t even blogged all that much this year. My followers probably are wondering what happened to me.
I do other stuff with my family, but I haven’t had a lot of free time recently so reading has been it. With Covid-19, it’s been a challenge to do other things besides work. We have chickens, a garden to grow food and herbs, and a random Mallard duck that decided to stay at our pond in the front yard. I recently started helping with the grocery shopping ordering and pickup because I needed to get out of the house. I also don’t mind shopping, unlike most of my partners.
What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
I have a lot of stories in progress but not a lot of time to finish them. I’m looking towards the end of the year of revamping a couple of older stories, maybe finishing a work in progress or two, and possibly work on a couple sequels to release later. Follow me, or stalk, whichever you prefer, on social media to find out when I will have the next thing out. Following the blog, or the newsletter, will be probably be the first notifications of new stories coming out.
I do contribute to an annual flash fiction contest anthology, and my story gets picked for the anthology for every year that I’ve entered. Never won anything, but that’s alright. It’s fun to do a “micro” story in 300 words or less with a speculative fiction theme. I’ve done everything from ménages, multiple pairings, and different gender identities in a science fiction or paranormal story. Eventually, I will probably write some new ones and compile them into a collection of my own. If you would like to ready the newest release of speculative fiction, check out Innovation that released 8/5/2020 provided by Queer Sci Fi.
Excerpt!
Sitting on the patio outside our favorite North Atlanta diner on a spring-like April Friday should not have been cause for melancholy. This was, after all, our regular weekly lunch whenever we were all in town. But it had been around this time, three years earlier, when my best friends, El and En—Miguel Armenta and Enrique Cruz—had dropped a life-changing bomb on me. I couldn’t help thinking back to high school when they’d told me they were moving in together after graduation.
My world had gone dark that day.
I hadn’t let it show. I’d hugged them gently, told them that they were my best friends and we would keep in touch, while hiding behind my shoulder-length black dreads. I quietly changed all my post-graduation plans, embarrassed that I was running but certain I didn’t have any other choice. My pain was too great. Fortunately, I hadn’t told them of my plans before it had happened. It was around that time I had begun to realize I had feelings other than a simple crush for my best friends in the months before we got our diplomas.
I almost had another panic attack shortly after heading for university when I realized I wanted both of them; I couldn’t choose between them and proceeded to break up with my then girlfriend so I wouldn’t string her along for any protracted length of time than I already had. I had to get as far away from the ones I desired so I hightailed it to California like my ass was on fire.
The subsequent change of scenery had triggered a lot of soul-searching. During that time, I came to the realization that I could have feelings for both men and women. Following that, ménages were not unheard of as far as committed relationships went. I returned home from school three years later after graduating early with my newly minted degree in systems engineering. I went back to my hometown in Metro Atlanta because of the availability of tech jobs even though I knew returning would put me in their zone again. They had never left the small town north of Atlanta where we’d grown up. The lower cost of living in the region and my initial salary made it an easy decision. In reality, I had missed them while in school too much to stay away. I was sad sometimes but I had other interests and friends, kept in shape with kick boxing, and hung out with them on a semi-regular basis. I had made my peace to be near them again but was about to find out that may not continue.
I had taken another bite out of my sandwich while they had been quietly talking and reminiscing when a shout of surprise penetrated my consciousness. It was the expectant looks on their faces that finally registered, and I realized that someone had asked me a question while I hadn’t been paying attention.
I chewed quickly so I could focus on the two dark-haired, golden-skinned, Latino men sitting across from me.
“What? Did I miss something?”
My heart squeezed as I looked at their gorgeous faces. They both had slightly oval-shaped jaws, and mustaches, but En had trimmed scruff along his jaw while El was clean-shaven. My attraction to them had never waned, but I wasn’t going to break them up to satisfy my selfishness. I ignored the familiar pain, just as I had for the previous eight years, and waited for them to respond.
El rolled his dark blue eyes at my tendency to get stuck in my head and answered for them both. He usually did—being the one who was six-two standing and slightly taller than En, while En was the quieter one. El was protective of him, too. Considering En is a writer and El a lawyer, they fit. The thought flitted through my mind that I wanted to hold and protect them both. I mentally shook my head and focused on the repeated question.
“Vic, would you be our best man at our wedding in two weeks?”
I reared back in shock. “What! How? When did this happen?” I stood instantly to my full height of six-five, almost toppling the chair in my haste. Slightly embarrassed at my reaction, I continued to deflect, “Of course I’ll be your best man. Together?”
El and En stood with me, and we migrated close to each other as we talked.
At En’s nod, I continued, “That’s going to be some interesting coordination. Yes, sure! Where?”
I smiled through the searing pain that lanced my heart. I had gotten used to hiding my feelings from them for so long it was second nature.
Seemingly a little nervous, En showed the rings he had and said softly, “I just asked him now spontaneously.” He gazed at El lovingly while holding him around the middle, his head tucked under El’s chin, and his pretty brown eyes radiating happiness.
El wrapped his arms around him, grinning widely, and he eyed me intently.
“I said yes,” he confirmed as well.
“Awww, that’s cute,” I said, outwardly amused but inwardly I was shattered. “Sorry about missing the request the first time around. You know how I get lost in my head sometimes.” I walked the few steps to them and gathered them both in a group hug, my long arms almost encircling them.
I had no hope now, since I never saw any signs they were interested in me romantically, but I didn’t want to lose their friendship and so I’d never told them of my feelings. While I knew about polyamory, I wasn’t sure they did, and they never gave any indication that they were interested in something more than friends. I enjoyed the contact for a few more seconds then pulled back a little, catching my dreads in a loose ponytail with a hair looper I had on my wrist most of the time. “You haven’t figured out how to do the deed yet, huh?”
“Actually…we have,” El answered excitedly, practically jumping in our three-way hug. “We’re going to ask one of our friends who have their online ordination to marry us in Piedmont Park that Saturday. I’d been about to ask En tonight at home as I already got a marriage license last week.” He focused on En sheepishly, kissed him on the top of his short-haired head, and only separated some as he continued, “Apparently, great minds think alike and all as he had the rings with him today.”
Adorable. My heart turned over at how cute they were. God, I loved them so much. I’d thought it was just friendship with them growing up as I hadn’t ever had any feelings for guys. I’d liked girls as a kid and loved touching them. I’d noticed guys but only in passing, and it was fleeting, so I’d never thought about guys that way for many years. For fuck sake, I had a typical high school sweetheart cheerleader to my wrestling jock self!
It had never occurred to me that I was bisexual when I’d transferred to Appleton Middle School at the tender age of thirteen. My parents and I moved from Jamaica because of political unrest at the time. With a June birthday and different grade entrance laws in Georgia, I had to repeat sixth grade, so I was two years older than them. I was the ebony dark guy to their golden Latin American in a school system with only a smattering of non-whites to satisfy the diversity in the upper middle-class school system we had attended. People eyed me warily when I’d first arrived. Whispers of that N word and occasional other derogatory name-calling crept up over the years. I came to realize the stories of discrimination I had heard but hadn’t paid attention to before the move about the US in general, and the southeastern states in particular, were true. En and El became my best friends despite the lack of true diversity at the time and had me join them for lunches in the school cafeteria from day one. We’d continued the lunches over the years and only interrupted them when I went to college.
It hadn’t surprised me much when they’d started behaving differently with each other in sophomore year. They came out to me as gay about the same time they told me they’d begun their romantic relationship toward Christmastime that same year. It was a wake-up call, and I realized I had a crush on El first, then En invaded my heart later. Since I was eighteen at the time, I considered running from the feelings they evoked. Even then, I couldn’t leave as I didn’t want to lose our friendship. At Appleton High, I dated the head cheerleader, probably more due to being on the Varsity wrestling team despite the mixed-race pairing we were. I hadn’t understood why my heart ached even though I had no issues being intimate with Gwen until that fateful day that spring.
And now they’d done it to me again.
About Eloreen!
Eloreen Moon is a pen name for a writer, reviewer, proofreader, and reader of all things romance, including alternate lifestyle (LGBT) stories and novels. Inspiration is all around and life will not limit her to one particular topic.
Her first story published is Charon’s Dilemma with the 2014 Love’s Landscape event from M/M Romance group on Goodreads.com. Her second story to be published is also with the Don’t Read in the Closet’s (DRitC) 2015 Love is an Open Road event, with Coil Me Up. She also finished five 300-word shorts for the Discovery: QSF’s Second Annual Flash Fiction Contest, Flight: QSF’s Third Annual Flash Fiction Contest, Renewal: QSF’s Fourth Flash Fiction Contest, Impact: Queer Sci Fi’s Fifth Annual Flash Fiction Contest, and Migration: Queer Sci Fi’s Sixth Annual Flash Fiction Contest (QSF Flash Fiction Anthologies 1-5).
She likes to read and write a blend of #LGBTQ science fiction, fantasy, historical, paranormal, and sometimes more than one together, especially if romance is involved. However, cowboys, lawmen, and contemporary times are fun too. In Real Life, she works full-time, has a blended family with children, and enjoys gardening, computer games, and enjoying nature.
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Thank you Pixie!
Looks like a great read thanks for the chance to win.