Blog Tour Stop including Excerpt, Author Interview & Giveaway – What It Takes by Jude Sierra

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Author Name: Jude Sierra

Book Name: What It Takes

Release Date: January 14, 2016

Blurb:

The connection was instantaneous.

Mere moments after Milo Graham’s family relocates to Cape Cod, he meets Andrew Witherell—launching a lifelong friendship built on a foundation of deep bonds, secret forts, and plans for the future. When Milo is called home from college to attend his domineering father’s funeral, he and Andrew finally act on their mutual attraction. But doubtful of his worth, Milo severs all ties with his childhood friend. Years later, the men find themselves home again, and their long-held feelings will not be denied. But will they have what it takes to find lasting love?

Pages or Words: 274 pages

Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance

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Excerpt:

Andrew gladly lets Milo drive his car; he hates driving, especially when he can play radio DJ and watch the scenery go by. He looks at Milo: the way the fading light before dusk changes the tone of his skin; the way the muscles of his arms stand out and his lips curl as he sings along, awfully, to the radio. Milo smiles at him and Andrew flashes a brief one back, wonders how obvious he’s being, and looks back out the window at the slipping sand that spills onto the road and the ramshackle businesses along the road.

“So what got this bee in your bonnet?” he asks suddenly.

Milo shrugs. “You sound like my grandma.”

“Awesome; I like her. Let’s focus.”

“So… okay.” Milo clears his throat and his fingers tighten on the wheel. “I um, think I have something to tell you. But I’m—”

“Is everything okay?” Andrew interrupts, scanning his memory for any signs of additional distress Milo might have displayed in the last few months.

“Yeah. Well. I mean, um… whatever. But I—”

“What? You’re worrying me.”

Milo sighs and pulls into the parking lot of a restaurant with a giant crab on the roof. “I can’t do this and drive.”

“Okay,” Andrew says slowly, then unbuckles his belt and turns to face him. Milo’s face is a little drawn.

“So, I think I might be gay,” Milo blurts. “I mean, I know. I know I am.”

There’s a full minute of silence in the car while Andrew tries to work the words out. Static screeches in his ears, fleetingly numbing his reaction. Focus. He has a few seconds to control his face, to tamp down that sprout of irrational hope seeding despite the chaos, and be ultimately supportive.

“Um.” Andrew licks his lips and tries to pull himself together. That seedling wants to grow into something bigger, and he can’t let it. He looks at Milo’s face, which has morphed into something more vulnerable and worried. Hope is a hollow bell in his chest, ringing loud and dissonant; he wants to vibrate out of his skin with the inappropriateness of his own reactions. This is about Milo, not him. “You aren’t worried that I’m mad or something, are you?” he manages to say.

“I don’t know. Um, your face is doing… a thing,” Milo replies.

Reflexively Andrew puts his hands to his cheeks. His fingers are cold. Okay, so he definitely doesn’t have his face under control. “No, I… wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.” Andrew’s brain, sometimes faster than his mouth, is careening backward. “Maybe I should have had a clue.”

“Oh?”

“Well, for starters, you kissed me back.”

 

 

Buy the book:

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Author Interview:

quotationMarksToday I’m very lucky to be interviewing Jude Sierra author of What it Takes

Hi Jude, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Thank you for having me!

Q:  Is there a character in your books that you can’t stand? (Antagonist for example) And what makes them someone you don’t like?

A:  Milo’s father. You don’t see him directly in the book a lot, but his specter, so to speak, is everywhere. He’s a terrible man who is emotionally and occasionally physically abusive. He does a lot of damage to Milo. He was hard to capture, because emotional abuse is really hard to write well.

Q:  Are there misconceptions people have about your genre?

A:  I’ve experienced a lot of people judging romance and romance readers. Often I hear the term as a pejorative. It’s ridiculous to me. Romance novels are super powers in the publishing industry.  Romance readers move mountains. They create fantasy and escape – which is not easy. They write books that create spaces for women to explore their needs and desires. They can be subversive; in romance where what we want – sex, romance, drama – resist dominant discourses that rule how many women get to experience romantic needs and desires of all sorts in their real lives.

Q:  Is there message in your novel that you hope readers grasp?

A:  That Happily Ever After exists for all of us, even those who come from really painful backgrounds. That we can turn our lives around and forge new stories and lives for ourselves. That therapy is awesome.

Q:  How has your writing evolved since your first book? (If this is your first book, how do you hope it evolves?)

A:  I think I have a better grasp on how pacing can or cannot work for a story, and how putting your foot down about something experimental can work for and against you. Balancing my instincts with reader desires is tricky but honoring both is really important.

I think that in many ways, learning how I can use language in prose rather than poetry has evolved as well.

Q:  One food you don’t care if you never eat it again.

A:  Brussel sprouts! As a kid I loved them, but as an adult I somehow got Brussel sprouted out. I think because my sister made them for every big family meal. I’m so, so over it.

 

Meet the author:

Jude Sierra began her writing career at the age of eight when she immortalized her summer vacation with ten entries in a row that read “pool+tv.” She first began writing poetry as a child in her home country of Brazil, and is still a student of the form.

As a sucker for happy endings and well-written emotional arcs and characters, Jude is an unapologetic bookaholic. She finds bookstores and libraries unbearably sexy and, to her husband’s dismay, is attempting to create her own in their living room. She is a writer of many things that hope to find their way out of the sanctuary of her hard drive and many that have found a home in the fanfiction community.

She is currently working on her Master of Arts in Writing and Rhetoric and managing a home filled with her husband, two young sons, and two cats. Her first novel, Hush, was published in 2015 by Interlude Press.

Where to find the author:

What It Takes will be published by Interlude Press on January 14, 2016. Connect with author Jude Sierra at JudeSierra.com, on Twitter @JudeSierra, on Goodreads at goodreads.com/Jude_Sierra, and on Facebook at facebook.com/JudeMSierra.

 

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27829994-what-it-takes

Publisher: Interlude Press

What It Takes 1600px COVER (RGB) - Front

Cover Art: Nelli I

Cover Design: C.B. Messer

 

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Tour Dates & Stops:

14-Jan: Book Lovers 4Ever, Lee Brazil, Inked Rainbow Reads

15-Jan: Havan Fellows, Love Bytes, Hearts on Fire

18-Jan: Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings, A.M. Leibowitz

19-Jan: Velvet Panic, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

20-Jan: Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, The Novel Approach, Kirsty Loves Books

21-Jan: Molly Lolly, MM Good Book Reviews

22-Jan: BFD Book Blog, Happily Ever Chapter

25-Jan: Nautical Star Books, My Fiction Nook

26-Jan: Emotion In Motion, Bayou Book Junkie

27-Jan: Full Moon Dreaming, Alpha Book Club, QUEERcentric Books

 

 

Final (2)

Rafflecopter Prize: $25 Interlude Press web store gift card + WIT ebook; plus__5 eBook editions of WIT
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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2 Responses to Blog Tour Stop including Excerpt, Author Interview & Giveaway – What It Takes by Jude Sierra

  1. Pingback: What It Takes By Jude Sierra | Pride-Promotions

  2. Jude Sierra says:

    Thank you for hosting me and the great interview!