It's Valentines Day and I've got a special treat in store. Please join me in welcoming the best-selling, award-winning Tara Lain back to the Biskit! It's always a delight to have Tara visit, she brings such magnificent friends with her. Today she'll be talking about her new bestseller, Fire Balls, and sharing some three-alarm hotties with us while she's at it.
Take it away Tara!
Hi Jessica and all my friends at Friskbiskit. Happy Valentine’s Day! It is so good to be back here.
I gotta tell you I have learned a lot since I saw you last and one thing I know for sure is that women LOVE firefighters. I asked my readers to complete the sentence “I am looking forward to the release of Tara Lain’s new book, Fire Balls, because…”And what were their answers? My grand prose? Nope. Nine out of ten said hot firefighters!
What is it do you think? The fact that they have to be so physically fit for the job? The idea that they are risking their lives somehow for us (think Last of the Mohicans, “Just stay alive. I will find you!”)? The fact that they all group together in one big homoerotic bundle?
Well, in honor of Valentine’s Day I have supplied some pictures of firefighters for Jessica to scatter through this post as she sees fit. The pictures have no significance beyond sheer yumminess. Enjoy while I tell you about my new release, Fire Balls.
In Fire Balls, Rodney, a tiny, flamboyant artist who happens to also be a black belt in karate, has a passion for a hunky firefighter. But you know I love the unexpected, so my firefighter, Hunter, is not the stereotype. He loves to read poetry and secretly yearns to be a teacher. But he’s plenty alpha enough for Rod. Problem is, Rod thinks Hunter could never want him so, when his friend Jerry develops an unexpected crush on the fire guy, Rod helps Jerry woo him--while breaking his own heart. None of these pictures are quite as gorgeous as Hunter but still mighty pretty. Enjoy!
Would you like to win a copy of Fire Balls? Enter my contest. I’m having a drawing this coming Friday. Leave a comment here with your email and you’ll be entered in that drawing. Go over to my Contest Blog and leave another comment with your email and you will be entered Again. And there are more chances to Win. Go to my Web Site and look under events. It’s all there. First leave your comment here. And don’t forget your email. And thank you to Jessica for hosting me and to you for coming to say hi. : )
Excerpt: Fire Balls by Tara Lain -- MM Contemporary
Available from Etopia Press at: Amazon
Rodney Mansfield is tiny, flamboyant and, oh yeah, a black belt in karate. He is also one of southern California’s greatest artists. Too bad the work of art he really wants is firefighter, Hunter Fallon. But the gorgeous “straight gay” guy could never want the Runtback of Notre Dame, so when Rodney’s handsome, surfer friend, Jerry, develops an unexpected passion for the beautiful firefighter, Rodney breaks his own heart by helping Jerry land his man. And then Rod makes it worse by embarrassing Hunter when he protects him from a firehouse bully. Hunter hates gay guys like Rodney – doesn’t he? Then why can’t he get the powerful pipsqueak’s face out of his mind… and cock out of his ass? And why does he risk his job and his life to rescue Rod from a burning building? Isn’t it time for him to admit he’s not an alpha male after all and that he is the property of the artist?
“So what the hell is a poet doing in the fire department?”
“There’s a lot of poetry in fire.”
“Sure, darling, if you’re staring at a fireplace with a glass of wine!”
Hunter laughed, which seemed to drain a little of the tension. “I became a firefighter for my dad. Kind of living his dream because he wasn’t able to. He’s confined to a wheelchair.”
Interesting. “That’s great for him, but what’s your dream?”
“Making him happy, I guess. Not disappointing him.”
The boy was cracked. Rod put his hands on his hips. “Shit, darling, you can’t live someone else’s dream.”
The words hung in the air.
“I’ve got to try.” Hunter’s words were barely audible.
Rodney dropped his brush in the turp. Somebody had to get through to the man. He took a step forward. “Tell me what you would do if you didn’t have to think about anyone but yourself.”
Hunter shook his head slowly.
He took another step. “Tell me, dammit.”
The blue eyes looked startled. “I’d teach. I’d teach literature, maybe in college.”
“There, that wasn’t so hard.”
“Doesn’t change anything.”
“Like hell it doesn’t. Declaration is a big step in the battle. If you can say it out loud, you can manifest it.” He took another step. “Do you know what my father wanted me to be?”
“What?”
“A lawyer. A fucking lawyer, probably so I could keep the bastard out of jail when he cheated his customers. He wanted to pay for me to go to fucking Stanford Law.”
“Wow. You turned him down?”
“Do I look like a lawyer to you?” He struck his favorite pose à la Marilyn Monroe. “I worked my ass off to put myself through art school. I waited tables and painted pictures of people’s pets to make extra money. I even appeared in a drag show one time.”
“No shit?”
“You should hear me sing 'Let Me Entertain You.' But my point is, it’s your life and you have to live it. You probably don’t get another chance and even if you do, you won’t be conscious of it, so this is it, darling. Get on with it.”
“Yeah, but my dad is different.”
“I’m sure he is, and I’m happy for you.” He moved closer. “And you know what my father mostly wanted me to be?”
“What? I mean you’re a great artist, he must have seen that and wanted that.”
“No, you know what he wanted me to be so much he would have given every dime he had to make it so?”
Hunter shook his head, eyes wide.
“He wanted me to be not gay.”
Hunter stared. “My dad too.”
Shit. Rod was now at the platform’s edge. “So that’s it. You make up to your dad for being gay by putting on this damned hero fireman act when you want to read your books in the sunshine and teach a few kids about immortality. Right?”
Hunter shook his head.
“I said right?” Rod was beside Hunter now. Within reach. “Say I’m right.” He climbed up the platform’s step. “Your dad doesn’t want you to be gay, so you don’t want to be gay. But there’s not one fucking thing you can do about it so you compromise the whole rest of your life trying to make up for the way God made you. Say I’m right.”
Hunter dropped down onto one elbow. “You’re right.”
“Louder. I can’t hear you.”
“You’re right, dammit.”
His knee hit the daybed and in a fast two count his body pressed down onto Hunter’s, his hands grabbing the other man’s head. Holy shit, what was he doing? Mouth to mouth got a whole new meaning. Jesus, he was starving and Hunter Fallon was the only food.
Forcing Hunter’s lips open, Rod’s tongue pressed deep, deeper, and he licked the inside of the sweetest mouth he had ever known. Hunter’s tense body gradually relaxed against Rod’s, then began to writhe. Oh shit, Hunter’s hips pressed hard against Rodney, who couldn’t miss the steel of that hot cock.
More About Tara:
Tara Lain never met a beautiful boy she didn’t love – at least on paper. A writer of erotic romance, mostly ménage and male/male, Tara loves all her characters, but especially her handsome heroes. A lifelong writer of serious non-fiction, Tara only fell in love with EROM in 2009 and, through perseverance and lots of workshops, had the first novel she ever wrote published in January of 2011. Then she capped off the year by being voted Best Author of 2011 in the LRC Awards and had her Genetic Attraction Series named runner-up for Best Series of 2011! A very good year. After an exotic life of travel all over the world and work in television, education and advertising, Tara settled in Southern California with her soul-mate husband and opened her own small marketing business. She paints, collages, and started practicing yoga “way before it was fashionable”. Passionate about diversity, justice, inclusion and new ideas, she says on her tombstone it will read, “Yes”.
E-mail: tara@taralain.com
Website: http://www.taralain.com
Author blog: http://taralain.blogspot.com
Book blog: http://beautifulboysbooks.blogspot.com
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4541791.Tara_Lain
Savvy Authors: http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/member.php?2398-Tara-Lain
Twitter: http://twitter.com/taralain
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