Have I got a special treat for you all today!
Please give a very warm Divas welcome to Mr. Douglas Black, a fellow Loose Id author of M/M Erotic Romance of the hottest (and most Britishy) variety!
So without further ado, I give you all Douglas...
Hello
Rachell, thanks so much for letting me stop by to talk about the inspiration
for my new novella, The Bucket List.
The Bucket List was released on August 5th
by Loose Id Publishing. It follows Kade, a young man who has recently broken up
with his long-term boyfriend, Niall. Kade is devastated that his relationship
has ended – he thought he and Niall would be together forever – but when he
turns to his friends for sympathy, he doesn’t find any forthcoming. Instead,
his friends think the break-up is good for him. They think Niall has been
verbally abusive to Kade throughout their relationship and they believe this
has caused Kade to retreat into his shell. They write Kade a bucket list in a
bid to force him to break out of his comfort zone and start experiencing and enjoying
‘life’ again.
You
would think the main inspiration for this story would be the concept of bucket
lists and you wouldn’t be wrong, but as I was writing I started to play around
more and more with the idea of personal comfort zones and the importance of
stepping out of them in order to keep experiencing all the exciting things life
has to offer.
At the
start of The Bucket List, Kade is
very much stuck in his comfort zone, but he’s more than happy with that. He
feels as though his life is falling apart at the seams and all he wants to do
is fall back on what he knows and what makes him comfortable, namely, his
routines. He doesn’t want to follow the bucket list since he doesn’t think his
life needs any more upheaval, but, to keep the peace with his friends, he goes
along with some of the tamer items on the list.
The list
forces Kade to step out of his comfort zone, whether he wants to or not, and
the first thing he ticks off the list manages to give his world another good
spin on its axis when it results in Kade meeting Blake. If Kade hadn’t followed
the bucket list, then his path might never have crossed with Blake’s, and then
where would we be? Well, I wouldn’t be telling you all about my new novella,
for a start!
As I was
writing The Bucket List I kept
finding myself thinking about how easy it can be, and how common it is, to see
your life change before your eyes. We’ve all been there. Usually, it’s the
smallest thing, the split-second decision, the chance meeting or the unexpected
parting that tends to send us spinning off down a path we never expected to
take. And that’s not always a bad thing. In fact, more often than not, I think
it often turns out to be a good thing.
When I
tell you my story concerns a main character reluctant to play ball with his
bucket list (so to speak) who begins the novella very impressed with himself
for going to shop in an Asian supermarket instead of his usual branch of Tesco,
you might think that sounds like a very strange, very plain place to start a
story. But that’s the point. It’s the little things we do, the small efforts we
make when we really can’t be bothered (like the dinner party invitation we want
to cancel, but don’t because we can’t think of a good enough excuse) that often
lead to big changes in our lives that we would never have seen coming.
That’s
the idea at the heart of The Bucket
List. I suppose it can be summed up by saying, ‘you have to be in it, to win
it’ and I think there’s a lot of truth in that. Life is out there and it’s
happy to wait for all of us, but its certainly not going to come and find us.
We have to go find it! Kade learns that in The
Bucket List. If you want to find out how he does it, you can pick up your
copy now!
The Bucket List was
released by Loose Id Publishing in August 2014. It is available from all good
ebook retailers now. Find below the blurb.
Blurb
When Kade
Doherty gets dumped, he expects sympathy from his friends. Instead, he gets a
bucket list. His friends want to help him enjoy life again, but Kade isn’t
convinced a list of outlandish leisure pursuits will help much with that. To
keep the peace he goes along with the plan and in the process, he meets Blake.
Blake’s Australian accent and
surfer-boy looks are the stuff of sexual fantasies and Kade surprises everyone
– including himself – when he wastes no time making a move.
Kade goes with Blake into the
Scottish highlands, but just as he is beginning to get used to life with his
very own Mr. Australia, reality comes knocking. Kade’s newfound happiness falls
apart when his abusive ex demands they meet. Blake senses something is wrong
and he wants to help, but Kade knows he can’t confide in Blake.
After all, Kade hasn’t exactly
been honest. He might feel like a different man when he’s with Blake, but Kade
knows he’s still just an accountant from Glasgow with slight obsessive
compulsions and a bucket list that someone else wrote. He knows Blake won’t
hang around, let alone help, when he finds out the truth.
Or will he?
And now for even more goodies... Here's a snippet of The Bucket List...
Kade made his way slowly over to Blake, keeping
close to the relative calm of the curving bar. He stepped in beside his Mr.
Australia. Blake didn’t turn to look at him.
Kade
assumed that, even given the circumstances, it was still acceptable to start
with, “Hello.”
Blake
turned his head, and Kade felt that warmth he had felt with his back to the
fish tanks in the Asian supermarket. “Hi,” Blake said, his voice deep enough to
carry against the music.
He
turned, opening up his body and inviting Kade to step closer. Kade did. He
wanted to, wanted to see if that strange connection he had felt earlier was
still there between them.
“Who’s
your friend?” Kade asked.
Blake
just shrugged. “Don’t know. Just some kid. Art student, apparently. He was a
good dancer, though.”
“Not
a good kisser?”
Blake
looked Kade up and down, taking his time doing so. Kade had always thought the
idea that someone could undress you with their eyes was a concept fit only for
the cheap romance novels his mum used to read, but he couldn’t think of a
better way to describe what Blake’s eyes had just done to him. The words needed
to describe how that made Kade feel wouldn’t be fit for polite company. Not
that Kade was really in polite company.
“I
wouldn’t know. Didn’t want to kiss him.” Blake reached out and stroked his hand
down Kade’s right arm, from his shoulder to his wrist. He left it there for a
few moments, holding tight, and then he pulled Kade’s wrist toward him. Kade’s
hand landed on Blake’s hip, his thumb teasing Blake’s tight, strong stomach
muscles. When Blake let go, Kade didn’t move his hand away.
“Why
didn’t you want to?” Kade couldn’t stop staring into those bright blue eyes.
Blake
shrugged and wrapped the hand that had been around Kade’s wrist around Kade’s
neck. “He’s not my type. And I was hoping I would meet someone else here
tonight. I thought it was a long shot, but I didn’t want to take the risk and
ruin my chances.”
Despite
his recent drink, Kade’s throat felt dry. He didn’t even care if that was a
lie. Blake’s strong fingers rubbed Kade’s neck just below his hairline.
“Who
were you hoping to meet?” Kade asked.
Blake
tugged him in close so their bodies were pressing together. Kade’s hand slipped
around to Blake’s back, holding on tight as Blake put his lips to the side of
Kade’s neck.
“You,”
Blake whispered. They were so close to the loudspeakers that the word should
have been lost, but Kade heard that loaded syllable and felt it translate like
heat through his body, like he had just stepped into a hot bath.
“Are
you here with somebody?”
Kade
shook his head. He felt Blake spread his legs. There was barely any distance
left between them.
“Then
would you mind if I did this?”
Kade
turned his head to find Blake’s lips less than an inch away from his own. He
smiled and tried for one of those winks he was so not used to giving, and then
let Blake close the distance between them.
Want more? Get your copy here:
Douglas Black was born and raised in bonnie
Scotland. An archaeologist by trade, Douglas started writing MM erotica - as a
means of avoiding starvation at university - before returning to the genre in
2012.
Welcome
to your fantasy.
You can find Douglas here:
Blog: http://douglasblackerotica.wordpress.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Black/e/B00A93HUHO/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1406885803&sr=8-1
Facebook Author
Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Douglas-Black/1632968396841732?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark
Twitter: @DBlackErotica
Thanks so much for stopping today Douglas. It was great to learn more about Kade & Blake!
~ Rach
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