Leta Blake

author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.

hurt/comfort

Wild West, Boy Whores, More! — Interview re: A Hard Ride Home by Emory Vargas #mmromance #amreading

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I’m excited to have Emory Vargas on my blog today talking about her gay Western, A Hard Ride Home! She’ll be answering questions about researching boy whores, hurt/comfort, and the Wild West. Check out her interview and her book!

It's hard enough returning to his birthplace to replace a dead man as sheriff. The last thing Emmett needs is to find himself smitten with Jesse, the whore he arrests almost immediately upon arrival. Especially since Jesse works for his half-sister and at her thoroughly disreputable saloon. But being smitten with a whore is only the beginning of Emmett's troubles. Silver Creek is a town full of secrets and people too terrified to talk. Why does Emmett's father, the mayor of Silver Creek, have such a strong hold on the town—and on Jesse?
It’s hard enough returning to his birthplace to replace a dead man as sheriff. The last thing Emmett needs is to find himself smitten with Jesse, the whore he arrests almost immediately upon arrival. Especially since Jesse works for his half-sister and at her thoroughly disreputable saloon.
But being smitten with a whore is only the beginning of Emmett’s troubles. Silver Creek is a town full of secrets and people too terrified to talk. Why does Emmett’s father, the mayor of Silver Creek, have such a strong hold on the town—and on Jesse?

1) Let’s talk about the setting for A Hard Ride Home. The Wild West is always an exciting place to set a story. Did you do much research into the setting or did you rely on the Westerns of movies and books for your inspiration?

As a young teen, I became obsessed with Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove book series and with the less historically accurate but highly entertaining film Tombstone, about Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp. Both stories feature loving male friendships at the core. Both of those settings served as a foundation for A Hard Ride Home, but I spent a great deal of time researching for this book. I didn’t want to use a realistic setting, but I wanted to capture the language and feel of the Wild West. I barely scratched the surface when it comes to historic Western slang. The language of that time period was absolutely fascinating, and so very descriptive.

2) I noticed that there isn’t any/much homophobia in A Hard Ride Home. Jesse, the town’s boy whore, is universally loved, and no one seems to look askance at his existence. Yet, it doesn’t seem entirely free of homophobia because the other MC, Emmett, seems a little ashamed of his sexual attraction and others also seem a little skeptical of it. Did you purposely walk a line there or did it just come out that way?

I wanted to tell a love story about the Wild West without the conflict of historically-accurate homophobia. (This story has plenty of conflict as it is.) I deliberately strayed from many of the cultural norms of the time while drawing inspiration from true stories of cowboy love and unabashed affection between men in that time period.

3) Let’s talk about Jesse! He’s a boy whore in a predominantly female whorehouse in a small town in the Wild West. Was this a common occurrence historically? Obviously, male prostitution is as old as the ages, but did small town whorehouses regularly provide boys for outlets? Or did you take some liberties with that in terms of history?

I took a lot of liberties — the biggest being the fact that despite the conflict with Warren Grady, the Weeping Willow is a pretty positive place. (All things considered.) Sex work can be a very sobering subject, especially in a historic context. I deliberately created a world where these young sex workers feel somewhat empowered. It’s not a fluffy happy whorehouse, but it isn’t a terrible place either. Along those lines, I slipped Jesse into that world as if gay male prostitutes were just as socially acceptable as female prostitutes. The reality of male prostitution in the Wild West was much more grim.

4) There’s a great deal of hurt/comfort in the book. A historical Wild West story seems the perfect place for that trope and you do it well! What was your favorite part of writing the hurt/comfort? The hurting? Or the comforting?

Thank you! My favorite part of hurt/comfort, as a writer and a reader, is the emotional state of the person who is worrying and comforting. It gets me right in the gut.

Wait, I also like tapping into the raw emotion of a character in distress.

I may be a bit of a hurt/comfort junkie.

Jesse’s pain — emotional and otherwise — is a huge element of this story, and that’s due to me writing what I enjoy reading. I’ve always preferred stories with some action and peril and elements of danger. In the context of a relationship, danger creates a sense of urgency and desperation that I find as satisfying as and sex scenes. I’m attracted to characters who remain resilient and retain a grim sense of humor in the face of intense trials. Jesse embodies that for me. (Sorry, Jesse.)

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BUY LINKS:
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Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake AVAILABLE NOW #gay #mmromance

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My next book, Smoky Mountain Dreams, has been a wonderful journey for me and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to write the stories of Jesse and Christopher. I’d like to thank my friend Alice Springs for loving the book first and for encouraging me to finish it. I hope readers love it even half as much as Alice did from the start!

Sometimes holding on means letting go After giving up on his career as a country singer in Nashville, Christopher Ryder is happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee. But while his beloved Gran loves him the way he is, Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. Even when he’s center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.

Bisexual Jesse Birch has no room in his life for dating. Raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother, he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

 

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER

And will soon be available at KOBO.

Cover Reveal: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake #gay #mmromance #amreading

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I am so thrilled to present the cover for my next book Smoky Mountain Dreams. This gorgeous cover is the creation of Dar Albert at Wicked Smart Designs and I think she has once again outdone herself!

Smoky Mountain Dreams will be released to the wild on November 18, 2014. It’s a story that I started about four years ago and then set aside in favor of working on some other books. My dear friend Alice Springs, who had read the initial 20% of the first draft, asked out of the blue last spring when I was going to finish this book because, “I’ve never read a gay romance like that one and I loved it so much.” Cue me pulling up the unfinished manuscript, reading it over, and deciding, “You know what, friend? I think now is your time.” And so it is. Thank you, Alice, for reminding me to love this book. You’re the best.

Sometimes holding on means letting go Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he's still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He's raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There's no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn't want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn't want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart. Find out more on Goodreads.

ETA:

Buy links!

SMD at Amazon
SMD at Smashwords