author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.
“It was sweet, emotional, funny (the quips from Gran are LOL-good), poignant, and SO damn well written. I wish I could visit Smoky Mountain!! And the sex w/Christopher and Jesse??? Off. The. Page. Scorchingly. Delicious!!!!! I look forward to reading more books from this author.”
via Amazon.com: Elaine’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams.
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“What I really appreciated about this story is the way the author takes her time telling it. So many times these days, we get category length romance stories that can be fun, but don’t always allow us to really understand the characters and their motivations. In this book, you can sit back and relax.
Recommend this one.”
via Review: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake.
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“Smoky Mountain Dreams is a beautifully rendered love story, of family, heartbreak, love and finding a way to carry on even after the unthinkable happens. Jesse and Christopher are truly one of my favorite book couples and their story is going on my list of favorites. I can’t recommend this gorgeous book more. If you’re an M/M addict like me, than you definitely need to check this book out.”
via Me, Myself & Books : Review: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake.
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“Leta Blake takes her time in letting the readers get to know both Christopher and Jesse. They have messy pasts and messy present-day lives, and she lets everything unfold with care for the reader. Christopher and Jesse have great chemistry together — they are both mature and can handle conflict thrown their way without overreacting. I also appreciated the extra-steamy romance scenes in this one. Oh my, my, my. A very solid romance book with a lot of sexy thrown in.”
via Must-read romances: ‘True Pretenses,’ ‘Party Lines,’ ‘Smoky Mountain Dreams’.
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When I went on up to Gatlinburg to work on Smoky Mountain Dreams last June, I took some pictures of the town and my little rented condo. Not all the pics are awesome, but they’re all being shared here. 😀
Driving toward Parkway, there was this view of the mountains through my car windshield.
Driving up the mountain to Gatlinburg.
The little condo.
Oy, this is a bad pic. But I wrote most of the book on that sofa with my feet on that ottoman.
The view out the window. 
Now on to Gatlinburg itself!
The taffy stretcher and piecer.
This is 
This is a thing that exists. For real. 
Puckers!
The chair lift over the creek before it ascends up the mountain.
Because OF COURSE.
The shady drive to my condo.
So, I think what we learned from this is that I’m a shoddy photographer. 😛 And that Gatlinburg is weird. 😀
I lost so many hours the other day watching random stranger’s vidoes of Gatlinburg on YouTube. I don’t even know why. Heh. I mean, I am doing it to make these blog posts but I know no one is even gonna watch these videos. Still, here’s a favorite. See, we don’t get snow in this area and this is considered insane–snow on Halloween! Highlights of this video: THE ACCENT. I don’t speak like this, but these are examples of how many people in this area sound, including Gareth and others in the book. And the views. <3 Love it.
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A decent YouTube video that accurately portrays the Gatlinburg experience. Bonus! It’s clearly filmed in November or December, the same months Smoky Mountain Dreams is set, so you can see what the characters experienced. I don’t know that you need to watch it second by second, but if you skip through it then you’ll see a lot.
Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:
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So, the Christmas Tree farm that Jesse and Christopher went to is a real place. I’m going to post some pics I might’ve stolen from their Facebook page.
I’ve never been to it, but I’d love to go. It seems dreamy and magical.
Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:
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Here is a VERY SPOILERY epilogue for my book Smoky Mountain Dreams. I wrote it and it just didn’t fit as an ending, so, snip! It was cut from the book itself. But as a Christmas gift, I’ll share it here on my blog for those who might be interested.
I’m going to put it behind a Read More cut. Hopefully that will work, so those who don’t want to be spoiled can look away now.
Okay, here we go, everything below this? SPOILERY!!!
I don’t always cast my books, though sometimes it does help me to get a handle on a character if I have a very clear view of what they look like. While I absolutely love and am entirely satisfied with the cover of Smoky Mountain Dreams, the guys don’t fit the image I had in my head for Christopher or Jesse, nor do they fit the almost-good-enough attempts I made at casting them with photographs. I thought it might be fun to show readers the closest, but not quite right, approximations I’ve got for a few of the characters in the book.
First, let’s talk about Christopher. The inspiration for Christopher was originally a real human being that I saw performing at Dollywood. He was handsome enough, but not stunning, thin enough but not cut, cute but not amazing, and his singing talent was well beyond my own but he’d never be famous. I have no idea what his name was, but I decided then and there to write a book about him. Well, eventually, I wanted to describe Christopher in more detail and I set about trying to find a photo that captured what I’d found so compelling about this performer at Dollywood. I finally settled on this picture of Jesse Spencer. Though I feel compelled to say that not every picture of Jesse Spencer works for Christopher, in fact, this may be the only one. But I returned to this one time and again to try to capture the feeling the character of Christopher gave to me.
Now, Jesse was a lot harder. I had a couple of pictures I referred to for him, actually. One that mainly just captured the body confidence I thought Jesse had. But this one is probably the closest in terms of the face. Only, uh, without that full, messy beard .Jesse just had scruff, and the hair is shorter by a bit, and his eyes are tired here because of the burdens of his life (and maybe the sex he had with Christopher all night long), but, yes, this was the closest I could find…probably. It’s still not just right, but whatcha gonna do? 😀
More pictures of that model (Maximilio Pantane) that I used as references for Jesse:
Both of these were my references for Young Jesse:
Now, Gareth. Yes, he was pretty easy. I saw this picture one day and was like, “Holy crap, what is Gareth doing on Pinterest??” So, yes, this is what I think Gareth looks like.
Every reader obviously has their own idea of what the characters look like and I hope seeing my thoughts doesn’t taint your own. I also hope it was fun to see these! 😀 If you’ve got ideas of what Christopher and Jesse look like and pics to go along with that, please to be sharing in comments below!
Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:
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ETA: I just saw this yesterday and he would make an acceptable Jesse too, I think.
Yesterday afternoon, I got this crazy message! 😀
Congratulations!
Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake has just hit the Allromance.com Bestseller List!
You can check out all of the Allromance.com Bestsellers here: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/bestsellers.html.
I am absolutely thrilled. Thank you, Readers, for loving this book! I’m so proud to be able to add the ARe Bestseller icon to this book’s page! (Uh, when I finally make it!)
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.
ETA:
Buy links!
Currently I’m working on another contemporary m/m romance titled Smoky Mountain Dreams. I started this one about four years ago and when I needed to take (yet another) break from the four book series I’ve been working on for nearly ten years (omg it will never end! probably because I keep taking breaks from it!), I planned to finish up the prequel to Stalking Dreams, but when I opened that file none of the characters felt like talking to me.
Around that same time, a friend said, “Hey, whatever happened to that book you were writing about the theme park performer and the jeweler with the angsty past? I’ve never read another m/m book like that one and I’ve always wanted you to finish it.” Assuming, as I always do, that the unfinished book was crap, I opened it up to see just why my friend thought it was special, and lo and behold…well, IT DID NOT SUCKETH.
(Confession: I have a problem with thinking everything I’ve left unfinished actually sucks. Luckily, my friends tend to remind me that I should look at those books again just to make sure. Then I realized I might be wrong after all. Training Season and The River Leith were both books with this unfinished-so-must-suck history.)
So! I had the epiphany that if I managed to get Smoky Mountain Dreams done by July and hold it to release in November, then I will have almost a full year before I’d need to put out the first book in the four book series. Then, since I’m (hopefully) 2/3 done with Book 3 of that series, I’d have nearly a year and a half to have Book 4 finished, and hooray! The twice yearly timeline works out for me! Though I plan to put the series out one book every two or three months, so it will be more than twice annually in that year.
Holy crap, no one wanted to know that! This must be the most boring blog post I’ve ever written so far!
To sum up: I’m working on a book about a theme park employee and his jeweler love interest and it’s a lot more complicated than that makes it sound.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Hmm. You know, the only way I can answer this is to say, simply, they are written by me and I don’t think anyone else writes just exactly the same way that I do? There’s no value on this reality, just that I’m pretty sure I have a voice that is my own. I will say that I think I’m unapologetic. I write what the characters want and that’s that. If that makes someone unhappy then I can’t really be sorry about that because characters are who they are and I don’t always approve of their behavior either.
3) Why do I write what I do?
This is a big topic. I write romance because I have always loved the joy of them, the happy endings, the trials on the way to them. They’ve always made my heart beat faster. I write m/m romance for a ton of reasons, one of the biggest being that if I ever write a m/f book, then I want to make sure I’ve broken my mind free enough of the traps society has instilled in my mind about women, heroines, and what that looks like. Quite frankly, writing m/m helps with that. What is that saying? You can’t imagine freedom if you don’t know what it looks like? Well, m/m helps me imagine a m/f reality that doesn’t fall back on the rules and regulations that society has drilled into me.
4) How does your writing process work?
It’s a process made up of three prongs:
1) Inspiration
First, I need to be inspired. Where that inspiration comes from is always a mystery and it can hit at any time. Music, poetry, taking a walk in the park, getting dinner in a restaurant, a random comment from a friend. Boom! Characters show up in my head and start talking to me and I’m all, “Wait, wait, let me get this down. Hold up!” (Or sometimes I say, “Wait, wait, I can’t with you right now. I’m swamped with another book, you see. Come back later.”) I can never tell what’s going to inspire me, but there’s no doubt that inspiration is required and part of the process.
2) Work
Second, I put in the time. I make the time. I have to make time because there are only so many hours in a day, a week, a year. And writing’s in my blood. It makes me go. I have to do it and I have to work at it. So, I am a writer. What am I not? Let’s make a list:
a) I’m not the perfect mom! Why? Because, oh, sometimes I tell my kid to make her own dinner (PB&J and some applesauce) because Mommy is writing. Or I hire a babysitter so I can write. Or I set her up on her iPad and say, “Play on this and when you’re bored watch tv or read a book, but don’t come talk to me because I’m writing.” Now, am I a good mom? Hell yeah. I’m a damn good mom. I’m at the important things and by writing I teach her that moms have reasons to be on this earth that don’t consist of “being focused on the kid 100% of the time”.
b) I am NOT a good housekeeper. In fact, my house is a disaster. I should take pics. Okay, fine, I actually will! Here is what my sink looks like RIGHT THIS SECOND. This is reality. I work a job, do a ton for my kid, spend time with my husband and write books. Something’s gotta give.
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3) Dogged Determination
My process involves ignoring new inspiration in the interest of finishing an older work that is no longer making my blood pump with joy. My process involves ignoring the very loud chorus of voices in my head saying, “You can’t do this. This books can’t be finished. It’s stupid. Everyone will hate it. You’re going to make an ass of yourself. Who do you think you are writing this book???”
Luckily for me, I’m a bit of a contrarian. If you tell me I can’t do something? God, that just makes me want to do it so much more. Even if it’s me telling myself that. Sure, I’ll whine about it–(sorry friends who have had to endure a lot of this!)–and take to my bed for a day or so and feel like I suck and want to give up. BUT I DON’T. I eventually say, “Can’t do it, huh? SHUT UP. WE’RE DOING THIS.” And I do it.
So, the last part of my process is simply NOT STOPPING.
