Book Name: Have a Little Faith In Me
Series? No
Release Date: January 28, 2015
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24738368-have-a-little-faith-in-me?ac=1
Author Name: Brad Vance
Author Bio: Brad Vance writes gay romance, erotica and paranormal stories and novels, including the breakout hits “A Little Too Broken” and “Given the Circumstances.”
Where to find the author:
Keep up with Brad at BradVanceErotica.wordpress.com, email him at [email protected], and friend him on Facebook at facebook.com/brad.vance.10.
Guest Post by Brad:
Let’s chat about all the charities you have been donating portions of your proceeds to – I’ve seen several on your blog. Can you tell us about your top 3 charities and why you chose those? Do you plan on donating a portion of the proceeds from this book to a charity and if so which one?
I’d love to talk about the charities. I give 50% of all gross royalties and Kindle borrow bucks from “A Little Too Broken” to veterans’ charities. The book idea came to me when the New Adult genre started, and I rolled my eyes and said, oh boo hoo, they’re young beautiful and broken, can they fix each other, of course they can, then they both get a perfect lover. And I just had this image pop up in my head of an HIV+ guy and a soldier who’d lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. Now THERE’S a pair of guys who are a little too broken to fix! That led to Jamie’s statement:
It’s too bad, Jamie thought calmly. If only I didn’t have the bug, I could do this, I could…well, at least fantasize realistically about this becoming something. People liked it when you were just a little broken, he knew from experience. It lets them think that you’re not so unattainable, gives them the confidence to make a move. Then, they can fix you, be the one to un-break you, so they get to have it all, get the perfect lover in the end by coming to it through the side door.
Yeah, he smirked. But they don’t want you when you’re just a little too broken, just a little bit beyond where you can be repaired back into perfection, their reward for accepting those lesser flaws for a while. Some things stay broken, and nobody wants that.
I ran away from the novel for a while, because oh my God it could have turned out so horribly wrong on so many levels. Writing sex scenes when one guy is poz and the other has lost his legs? So many ways that could be a disaster. But then the characters wouldn’t leave me alone. I thought, well, fuck it. I’ll write it and if it’s awful, I’ll chuck it in the trash.
And then I started doing what I always do with my novels, which is researching my characters’ lives, to make them “real.” And when I got to Tom’s story, I was just appalled at what I was seeing happening to veterans who came back from trillion-dollar wars, who couldn’t get ten-dollar healthcare. Like Jamie, I’d vaguely remembered the Walter Reed scandal, where vets were just left in squalor like we were some fourth world country. But then I read about the delays at the VA in getting into the system, the penny-pinching ways of Republican legislators who were all too eager to spend 1000x as much on sending these people to their potential deaths than they were willing to spend on helping those who survived. This was in 2013, so it was way before the whole VA scandal blew up big, so it was just shocking to me.
And when I was done with the book, and was surprisingly pleased with it, I thought, I’ll donate 10% to veteran’s charities. But it didn’t feel right. Like I was profiteering on the suffering of these wounded vets. And that’s when it hit me: 50% of this story is not mine. It belongs to the men and women who are going through this every day. And so I made the lifetime commitment to donate 50% every month to veterans’ charities – sometimes I get a wild hair and donate 100%, depending on how good a month I’m having with other stuff, and how pissed off I am at whatever is going on in Washington around veterans’ issues. As of the end of January 2015, I’ve donated about $2,850, which I feel really good about.
I started by splitting the money 50/50 between Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Wounded Warrior Project. I wanted to divide it between advocacy and direct services. Over time, I became disillusioned with WWP – they didn’t have a four-star rating on Charity Navigator, which is important to me in terms of transparency and accountability. I was seeing lots of complaints on message boards from many of the vets and their families about how the organization worked. And I was seeing way too much money com
ing back out of the organization in the form of endless fundraising letters, swag (calendars, car magnets, etc.) and tons of expensive TV commercials. So I switched that half of the money to Puppies Behind Bars, which is a four star Charity Navigator organization, that has prisoners train service dogs for wounded vets.
IAVA is a magnificent organization, and they just managed to get the Clay Hunt Act through Congress, which will increase the availability of mental health care to veterans – I mean, holy crap, being able to get anything through Congress is a miracle, right? So I’m really proud to feel like I was part of what helped that happen.
And the best part of all happened in mid-December of last year. I got a call and the caller ID said “Iraq&Afghanis” with a 212 area code. So I picked up, knowing it was IAVA, figuring it was a request for donations. I was all ready to say, thanks for calling, and I give every month, etc.
Instead, the gentleman on the other end of the line told me that he wasn’t calling to ask for anything. He was a veteran, who’d served in Afghanistan, and he and his wife (also an Afghanistan vet) were in New York City on holiday to see “Christmas in the city.” IAVA had helped them out on their return home, and they’d stopped in the IAVA offices to make some calls to donors and thank them.
Well, I was flabbergasted. He and I talked for about 20 minutes. I told him about my dad’s Army career and how the war in the Pacific fucked him up, which on consideration I realized was part of what drove me to do this charity thing in the first place. In my dad’s time, you came home and if you had psychological issues, everyone just said, well, you have all your arms and legs, what you bitchin’ about?
He told me he was a writer, and which point I said, I’m a writer, too. And then I just thought, you know, fuck it, if he’s a writer he’s probably not gonna have a cow about the gayness. So I told him all about “A Little Too Broken” and how that was where the money I sent to IAVA was coming from.
I was just…stunned by the whole thing. All I could do was thank him for calling me and thank him for his service, and talk about “thank you for your service.” Which, if you read ALTB, you’ll see I have strong feelings about people who think that just saying that is all they have to do to support veterans. I kept talking about what a brilliant idea it was for an agency to reach back to donors, blah blah. I was just…very cerebral about the whole thing, reaching for purely rational responses. It was only after the call that the whole thing hit me in the feels and I was overwhelmed by the emotions, and realized I’d been avoiding them the whole time I was talking to him. I mean, I’m not gonna say any “it touched my heart” shit. I’m gonna say it hit me in the feels 🙂
It was definitely the coolest thing that’s happened to me as a result of “A Little Too Broken.” And yeah, to be cerebral again 🙂 it’s a great experience as a donor – you find an agency, you send your money down the rabbit hole, you get a form letter of thanks, and you cross your fingers and hope it’s going where it’s supposed to. But to hear directly – directly! from someone who’s benefited from your donation. Wow.
No, I have no plans to do any donations out of “Have a Little Faith in Me,” but I’m pleased to see that the more it sells, the more my backlist rises, and the more I can continue to donate from “A Little Too Broken” to IAVA and Puppies Behind Bars!
Publisher: Self-published
Cover Artist: Aubrey Watt
Blurb(s):
When Rocky met Dex, it was hate at first sight. Country superstar Dex Dexter represented everything that budding rock star Rocky McCoy had left behind him in the Deep South – the religion, the homophobia, the hypocrisy, the lies. And Rocky represented everything that Dex had denied, had turned away from, had refused…
When Rocky met Dex, it was love at first touch. Double booked in the same slot on the main stage at CrossFest, they fought for the microphone like two dogs fighting over a bone. And when their hands met…
Rocky has had enough. “No more falling for straight guys. No way. No matter how hot. Especially if the ‘straight guy’ looks to me like a major closet case.”
Dex has had enough. “No way. I can’t be gay. I can’t lose my family, my friends, my career. I can’t.”
What they’ve had enough of doesn’t matter. It’s what they’ve never had enough of that will bring them together…
Categories: Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Humor, M/M Romance
Excerpt:
Rocky picked up the Gibson Hummingbird. Chris Cornell played one of these. What more did he need to know?
He knew exactly what he wanted to play. How many times had he played this song, how many times had he stretched his voice, discovering his own vocal range. The notes of “Like a Stone” flowed from his fingers in a waterfall, and the words were a flock of birds banking wildly in front of the cascade, flirting with disaster.
He came to the end, the roaring finish, his eyes closed as he sang the epic wave of notes in the last word of the song, “alone.”
He’d only ever played the song when he was alone with Korey, who was no cheerleader. Korey would nod, say, “Good job.” And then tell him where he missed something.
When he was done, he opened his eyes. His new friends were speechless. “Was it okay?” he asked doubtfully.
“Holy fucking great mother of God,” Rick gasped. “Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from?”
Rocky smiled. “Under a rock. I’ve been living under a rock.”
Pages or Words: 291 pages
Tour Dates & Stops:
16-Feb
17-Feb
Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
18-Feb
19-Feb
Because Two Men Are Better Than One
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
20-Feb
Wicked Wolves and Dreaming Dragons
23-Feb
24-Feb
25-Feb
26-Feb
27-Feb
2-Mar
3-Mar
4-Mar
5-Mar
6-Mar
Sales Links: Kindle Select exclusive: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SW53368
Rafflecopter Prize: 3 copies of the E-book
Pingback: Blog Hoppin’! My interview on “A Little Too Broken” and my IAVA/PBB Donations! | Brad Vance - Romance and Erotica
I’m a little bit country and a little bit rock-n-roll! I’ve just discovered you and look forward to reading your books. That’s sooo cool about your donations and the veteran actually calling you with a personal “Thank You”! Keep up the Awesome work! =)
I am a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. I love books having to do with musicians.