Hi! Today, i’m welcoming my friend, K-Lee Klein, to the blog, but before i put you in her hands, if you are here for the BACK TO SCHOOL BLOG HOP where you can win a $100 GC Click HERE!
Now, here’s K-Lee with yumminess and a Rafflcopter for you —
Hello and welcome to my book tour for my new and first novel from Amber Allure, Unbreak My Heart. Tara has graciously allowed me to do a little pimping for my story that comes out tomorrow, August 25th. Thank you, Tara. *hugs and squishes*
Before I begin, here’s the blurb:.
*UNBREAK MY HEART
Brett Taylor has been doing just fine living in his own little world for the past three years, thank you very much. Losing someone special is life changing, and Brett doesn’t understand why everyone and their damn dog thinks they can get all up in his business about him needing to move on. He managed to make the transition from musician to rancher without relying on anyone else’s opinion or help, and he certainly doesn’t need some city kid coming into his life to disrupt his routine–one that involves grief, isolation, and a whole lot of Jack Daniels.
Moving from one meaningless job to the next, JT Campbell is on a quest to escape his old life and figure out who he is and where he belongs. He’s not looking to save anyone, let alone a secretive, hotter-than-hell rancher who wears his heart on his sleeve. JT likes working for Brett, but Brett’s made it perfectly clear that any relationship between them other than a professional one will never see the light of day.
But when JT’s lust turns to love, and he gives in to his desire to find out what makes Brett tick, will his interest push Brett away? Or will he, through his patience and support, be the one who can finally unbreak Brett’s heart?
*
I’m very new to the book/blog tour circuit so I took the time to look around a bit to see what types of posts might be interesting to do. Today I’ve chosen something I saw somewhere on the web—10 strange or just plain facts about my book. So here we go…
- Unbreak My Heart didn’t have a title until it was completely finished and ready for submission. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those authors who has a title before the book begins, but generally the title pops into my head at some point. This one definitely did not do that.
- The title did in fact come from the 1996 song of the same name by Toni Braxton. I was in Colorado visiting my BFF, and we were toying with titles with a play on ranches or barns or guitar cases, but nothing worked. Our next big idea was using the word heart because the story really revolves around Brett Taylor’s damaged heart. Song titles came to mind, and poof, that one finally fit. Silly random fact – more often than not when I read or type the title, I involuntarily start humming the song.
- Brett Taylor was inspired by the super-sexy and awesomely talented Christian Kane so much so that Brett’s original name was Eliot (named for Christian’s character in Leverage). The comparison ended up a little too similar so eventually Eliot became Brett, and his counterpart became JT. Then about a month or two ago, Christian did a guest appearance (recurring role actually) on a new show called King and Maxwell, and his character’s name was JT. Spooky, right? Lol.
- The smatterings of poetry (or something similar to poetry) in the story are something I hate to admit I really liked writing. I’ve always written poetry, but this is the first time I’ve included any in a story.
- There were a couple scenes—one in particular—that I had to stop writing because I couldn’t see my computer screen through my tears. Same thing happened on edits and galley proofs. It’s very hard to see the screen when you’re crying.
- Clocking in at roughly 107,000 words, Unbreak My Heart is the longest book I’ve written, and I wrote it over the span of six months, the last few of which I was also writing another book that is 92,000 words. I hope to never do that again. 😉
- Writing my two secondary characters actually made me laugh out loud a few times as they were being written. I definitely love Ray and Millie.
- I listened to nothing but Christian Kane for most of Unbreak’s writing until I got to the sex scenes–which I left mostly until last—then Backstreet Boys made their way onto the playlist. (Random – I have vastly differing tastes in music that includes a not-so-secret love for The Backstreet Boys, as well as Christian Kane, Seether, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Three Days Grace, Skid Row, and Iron Maiden. 🙂
- When I was writing the story, mostly Brett’s parts, or even editing, afterwards I’d find myself walking around thinking or even talking in a Southern accent. Luckily, my family already knows I’m a little strange. 😉
- 10. Out of all my characters, Brett Taylor is the one I tormented (psychologically) the most, and he’s also the one I fell most in love with.
Now an excerpt from Unbreak My Heart:
Buy Link http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/UnbreakMyHeart.html
*The first shot went down like he was gargling with glass. The second burned just as bad, but by the fifth, the whiskey was smooth as silk. Brett pushed the bottle to the corner of the desk as he scrubbed his hand over his face. He should have gone to bed, or cranked up the hot tub and spent the rest of the night looking at the stars. Instead, the yellow pad of paper sat in front of him—the page still blank.
He knew he had something to say, but the words wouldn’t come. Usually the alcohol helped. Usually the fog in his head cleared and he was able to concentrate by the third shot, but he still felt stuck, still felt like there was something hidden in the gray of his brain—something important.
He picked up the pen, letting it hover over the page, twisting it between his fingers, willing the damn thing to write on its own. He didn’t know why he was so wound up. He’d even dropped his goddamn beer bottle in the sink because he couldn’t control the shaking of his hands or the force of the need to shut himself away in his office with a different bottle altogether, the photo in the frame, and his words on the page. He studied the happy couple staring back at him in the frame, barely recognizing himself as he purposely drew his gaze to Walt.
“Gonna help me out here, Darlin’? Don’t seem to have the mind to help myself tonight so I sure could use the assistance.”
Pulling the bottle so it sat smack dab in the middle of the daunting yellow page, Brett caressed the shape, fingers running the full length, then down again. He’d never even liked the damn stuff until Walt died. The first bottle he’d finished had been Walt’s, and he’d downed it in an attempt to feel closer to him—like drinking the damn stuff would somehow make Walt stick to his insides. But all it had done was send him running into town the next day to get another bottle, and only The Good Lord himself knew how many more there’d been after that.
His anniversary blues didn’t generally last more than the day itself, but today had been different. He’d already assured himself he’d been productive so it hadn’t been a complete waste, and he’d even made that damn phone call he’d been fretting about for over a week. Supper had gone better than he’d expected, too, and talking to the kid afterward had been pleasant enough, but something still felt unsettled inside him.
Maybe he’d revealed too much about himself when he’d actually been planning on saying as little as possible. But the kid was comfortable to be around, and the conversation hadn’t been one-sided by any means. They’d both talked and listened, and it had been nice.
Nice. Familiar. Safe. All those things were good, but there was still a leftover confusion in his head. He was generally a forthcoming type of man, not hemming and hawing about things that could be said outright, but now he couldn’t remember a time when he’d blatantly told someone he barely knew that he was gay. He didn’t consider it to be a secret or anything to be hidden…at least not anymore, but once JT started stealing glances at him, he’d suddenly felt like a trapped animal.
The last thing he wanted was for the kid to get some weird idea in his head about seducing his boss, and Brett definitely didn’t want to lead him on. Not that JT looked the type to be interested in forty-year-old ranchers with bad dispositions. The idea would have been funny if it weren’t so damn nice to think about holding someone close again. Brett knew that person was not JT though, and he’d have to nip any ideas to the contrary in the bud before they flowered up into something neither of them could handle.
By the time JT had run his eyes over him for the fourth time, Brett hadn’t been able to get the damn bottle in his hand fast enough. It just wasn’t right—not JT’s interest, not the alcohol, not the stir of warmth in his groin, and not the pang of guilt in his heart. It wasn’t something he’d given into with such determination in a while. Yet there he was with five shots under his belt, his mind still reeling and not a goddamn word written on the page.
He forewent the tumbler for his sixth and seventh swallows, the amber liquid finally warming his belly and washing away the fog in his brain. Unfortunately, it didn’t cloud the shame in his heart so once he’d screwed on the cap and shoved the bottle away again, he put the frame back in the drawer.
*
Well, I hope there were a few entertaining facts that I chose. Thanks for joining me and thank you again, Tara. *whispers – she is honestly one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met*
Unbreak My Heart will be available in all ebook formats on Sunday, August 25, then in print some time in the middle of September. I’ll have a few copies with me at GRL if anyone is interested in having me sign one. *blushes*
And finally, for a chance to win one of three draws just fill out my Rafflcopter form below and you’ll be entered to win one of three prizes—two ebook copies of Unbreak My Heart, and one print copy. You can have another chance if you leave me a comment here—what’s your favorite trope or subject matter in what you read?
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BIO
K-lee Klein has lived in one part of Western Canada or another for her entire life. She’s a doting mother of three now-grown kids, and has had characters and plots running around her head for as long as she can remember.
She lives with a patient husband who totally does not get her thing for gay men, two spoiled but wonderful sons (who don’t get it either), and two also spoiled but beautiful cats. Her days are filled with texts and phone calls with her daughter who has already left the nest, and an abundance of fabulous gay men, large and small, bouncing off the walls of her skull, competing for their turns to tell their stories.
You can find all of K-lee’s books on her website:
http://www.kleeklein.com
And K-lee herself at
http://chaosinthemoonlight.blogspot.ca
https://twitter.com/Klee_Klein
https://www.facebook.com/kleemoon