I have the pleasure of havingone of my favorite authors here today, celebrating his brand new release (TODAY!!!) and sitting down with me to chat about chocolate, books and more. Welcome author Andrew Grey to Dawn's Reading Nook. *clap and the reader hears a woo hoo in background*
To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out? Today is Valentine’s Day and the release day for Accompanied by a Waltz. I also have the next installment in the gym series, Crunch Time, and A Troubled Range come out next month. I also have Seven Days coming out in April.
What makes a book great in your eyes? Emotion. The story can have plenty of action, but if it doesn’t engage me emotionally, I’m going to read it and go on to the next one. The greatest books of all time are the ones that move us to tears or make us laugh, hopefully both.
Do you have any guilty pleasures? Chocolate. I’m an absolute fanatic for it, especially dark and Belgian. If you mean reading pleasures, I don’t think so. I hope I write other people’s guilty pleasures.
How much of the book is realistic? In every story I write there is a basis in reality. However in Accompanied by a Waltz many of the places are real and some of the situations are real as well, but the characters themselves are strictly from my imagination.
What is the hardest scene you have had to write (published or not)? Why? In A Taste of Love, I had to write the scene where Billy learns that the boys he always thought of as his brothers, weren’t in fact his brothers and that he was going to lose them to their real parents. I went through more tissues writing that portion of the book. Although I will confess that at some point in almost every story I get choked up and have been known to ball my eyes out. That’s how I know it’s good.
If you had a reporter follow you around for the day, what would the readers get to see in your daily schedule? Just how completely and utterly boring a life I lead and how sweet and wonderful my partner is for putting up with me.
When you begin your stories, do you go with the flow, or go with an outline? I almost always go with the flow. I never have an overall outline, but I may have ideas of where I want to go. My vision for a story often includes the beginning and the end. The rest in the middle happens.
Is it hard coming up with titles or characters names? God yes!!! Character names are tough, but I work through them. My partner comes up with most of my titles. I’m crappy at it, but he seems to have a gift.
What does your workstation look like? I write at home sitting on the sofa with my laptop on the coffee table so I can ignore the television. All the material for my current story is in my bag or files. I tend to work wherever it’s comfortable or convenient. I’ve written on planes, trains, in cars, you name it, very little stops me.
Are you the type of individual who gets weepy at the end of a good movie, or a sad movie, or do you just stay neutral through it all? I cry like a baby. If you put on a sad movie, I’ll be crying with the best of them.
Is there any books coming that you are itching to read (either electronic or print) from your favorite authors? It’s funny. I read quite a bit and I find I never have a shortage of material. I am looking forward to the next Nightrunner book from Lynn Flewelling. I met her at Yaoicon and she gave me a copy of one of her books and got me hooked. I read everything in a few weeks and am anxiously awaiting more.
If you were to replenish your cabinets with one junk food, what would it be? Godiva Chocolate.
What is one thing scientists should invent? A cure for climate change.
Are you a morning person or a night person? I’ve become more of as morning person although I rarely write early in the day. I get most of my writing done after noon and into the evening.
Do you like thunderstorms? No, I absolutely hate them. I was a crawl under the bed kid and they still scare me to death.
Where can readers find you on the ‘Net? www.andrewgreybooks.com
Accompanied by a Waltz
MM/Contemporary
Jonathon Pfister’s life has settled into a maudlin existence since the death of Greg, his lover of seventeen years. But Greg’s daughter Jeana has decided she’s had enough, so she rents a small apartment in Vienna for him as a Father’s Day present. Jonathon agrees to go, against his better judgment.
Surprisingly, Jonathon finds the change of scenery refreshing, and he even makes a young friend in Hans, his landlady’s son. Then Hans’s older brother returns home, and Jonathon begins to truly awaken. Fabian touches something inside him, especially when the younger man takes it upon himself to woo Jonathon in full Viennese style, with a waltz. But shadows of the past and expectations for the future loom over them both and will have to be banished for their lovers’ dance to stay in step.
Excerpt
At the docks, Jonathan removed the cover from their small boat. When they’d first bought the cabin, they had just had a fishing boat with a motor. After the first time they’d gotten caught in the rain, Greg had bought a larger boat with a Bimini top. After transferring their gear from the car to the boat, Greg parked the car while Jonathon started the boat motor, and soon they were skimming over the surface of the water, Greg at the wheel, Jonathan sitting next to him.
Greg took his time, like he usually did, keeping the speed down and letting the peacefulness of the lake, trees, and sky work their magic. A few homes could be seen, but most of them sat back far enough that most of the lake looked like the trees came right to the water, like they were in the middle of nowhere.
Almost at the far north end of the lake, Greg slowed the motor and eased the boat against the dock. Jumping out, Jonathan secured the craft, and Greg cut the engine. The sound echoed for a split second and then faded away. There was nothing to replace it except the slosh of the water on the shore and the birds calling from the trees.
The sun was already starting to set by the time they’d hauled everything up from the dock to the four-room log cabin. Outside and in, the place was rustic domesticity at its best. Carrying the suitcases inside, Jonathan placed them in their bedroom, the larger of the two. He loved this room, with its log walls, pine plank ceiling, pine windowsills, and rough beams.
“Would you like me to unpack in here while you check out your kitchen?”
“Okay,” Jonathan answered, “but I’ll meet you on the porch in twenty minutes.”
“Deal.”
Jonathan checked out what had been provided and smiled when he saw fresh steaks, chicken, and a foil packet marked “use first” in rough script. “Looks like lake trout for supper.” God bless their caretaker, Winston, a lifelong laker and their neighbor one cove up.
Grabbing two beers from the fridge, Jonathon carried them to the porch, setting them on a table before standing at the birch-branch railing, looking out over the water. It wasn’t long before a pair of arms snaked around his waist and a head rested on his shoulder. “When you asked to buy this place ten years ago, I didn’t understand why.” Greg’s breath tickled his ear.
“Do you know now?” Jonathon leaned into the touch as a loon called to its mate from the lake below.
“The peace and quiet gets into the soul. I didn’t know how much I needed it.”
“That’s why I bought it, but not why this place is so important now.” Jonathan turned in Greg’s embrace. “This place is important now because when we’re here, you’re mine and mine alone.” Jonathan couldn’t help hugging Greg tightly. “There are no phones, no office, no kids, no courts, no lawyers,” he whispered in his lover’s ear, “and before you say it, you don’t count. You’re not a lawyer when you’re here. You’re just my lover. That’s why this place is so important. I would have sold everything I owned to have a place like this with you.” Jonathon felt a hand on his hair, petting softly. His emotions were very close to the surface, and he didn’t look up.
