Welcome to the Shira Anthony Weekend!
Thanks, Sandy, for
hosting me! It’s been a busy
holiday season so far, since I have two releases in my Blue Notes
Series of music-themed gay romances: Encore (released November 11th) and Symphony in Blue (to be released on
Christmas day). Symphony in Blue also happens to be my
10th Dreamspinner
Press release, so I’m going all-out with a Blue Notes Holiday 2013 Tour
giveaway contest featuring a grand prize of a Kindle loaded with e-books as
well as other fun goodies (details at the end of the post).
The Blue Notes
Series books, with the exception of Symphony
in Blue, are standalone novels and can be read in any order. Encore
shares themes in common with the other Blue Notes books: music and musicians, a
heavy focus on character development, and long-term, committed
relationships. It’s this last
theme I’d like to talk a bit about:
love for the long haul.
I’ve never been a
fan of insta-love. Not only that,
I was the kid who wanted to know what happened to Cinderella and her prince after they got married. When people talk about
happily-ever-afters, I’m thinking years
down the line, not wedding days.
Maybe I wanted a road map for happiness. Maybe I just wanted more realism than I got from
cookie-cutter Harlequin romances.
It really doesn’t matter.
What matters to me is that readers see what it is that makes the men in
my stories want to stay together and how they grow after they tell each other “I love you.” Those are the books I wanted to read, and those are the
books I write. Symphony in Blue and Encore are perfect examples.
Encore is chronologically the first
book in the series. It begins in
the 1970s and ends in the present day.
Talk about a long haul!
Roger and John meet in high school. They are meant for each other. But it’s the 1970s, and being gay was a million times harder
back then than it is today. I
lived through the 70s and 80s. I remember the whispers and the judgments, the
finger pointing and horrible suggestions that AIDS was some sort of retribution
for the “sin” of homosexuality. I
knew men who lived their lives in the closet. I knew men who died of AIDS. I knew men who struggled to find a way to make relationships
work in spite of the lack of role models for same-sex partners (we weren’t even
talking about marriage back then!).
These are the men who inspired John and Roger’s story. The road to a lasting
happily-ever-after is a very long one in Encore. It’s
a story of young love, and it becomes a story of mature love. The perfect representation of how I see
happily-ever-after. And it takes
John and Roger nearly 30 years to figure out how to make their love work.
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Symphony in Blue is also about the
long haul and watching relationships come into their own. It is also the only sequel in the
series—a direct sequel to the first four books. In it, I revisit the first four couples in the series, and
show how their relationships have grown and the new challenges in their
lives. Is there a
happily-ever-after in each of the first four books? Of course.
Die-hard romantic that I am, I don’t write books without them. But Symphony
in Blue is a perfect illustration of how a happily-ever-after isn’t a
particular place of mind: it’s a
state of mind. So you might think
of it as a second happily-ever-after for each of the couples.
Looking for sexy
hot romances with fluffy scenes? I
think you’ll like the Blue Notes books.
But if you’re also looking for something more—for something more real than
Cinderella and her prince? I think you’ll enjoy these stories about real men in
real relationships. You can find
all of my Dreamspinner Press books by clicking here. Want to read more about me and about my
books, including free fiction and excerpts? Check out my website, www.shiraanthony.com.
Don’t forget to
enter the Blue Notes Holiday 2013 Blog Tour giveaway by clicking here (Rafflecopter). There are plenty of ways to enter, and
you can enter more than once by commenting, tweeting, buying books, and liking
pages. I’ll be drawing winners on
New Year’s Eve at midnight! Good
luck! –Shira
ENCORE
EXCERPT:
Roger watched
the snow fall outside the window of his apartment before glancing over
at the clock. It was nearly 9:00 p.m., and John should have arrived an hour
before.
“Promise me you won’t come if the snow gets too bad. You know how I-23
can get,” he’d told John that morning over the phone.
“I’ll be fine,” John had reassured him. “With the opera rehearsal
schedule and Professor Menard’s vocal performance class, I’d never get to see
you if I waited for perfect weather.”
Now, an hour after John was supposed to be here, Roger was pacing the
apartment. Worrying. Imagining John’s car somewhere in a ditch. Or worse.
He pulled a beer out of the fridge, popped the top, and resumed his
pacing. Ten minutes later, the phone rang.
“Hello!” he practically barked into the handset.
“Roger?”
“Oh, hey, Mom.” Fuck. “How’re you doing?”
“Fine.” She paused, and Roger tried to think of something to get her
off the phone. If John needed to get a hold of him, he didn’t want him to get a
busy signal. “I’m surprised you’re around on a Saturday night. You usually
aren’t.”
“I’ve got an exam on Monday,” he lied. “I can’t talk long.”
“No, of course. I wouldn’t want to keep you from it.” She’d been
thrilled when he’d told her he planned on finishing school in three years. He
hadn’t told her he planned on moving to New York, where John had already been
accepted to do his master’s in conducting at Juilliard.
“Thanks, Mom.” Roger pushed back the curtain on the window in the
kitchen with his foot—the long telephone cord didn’t go quite that far. From
here, he could see the parking lot. A blanket of white covered the stripes on
the asphalt. No John.
“… aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
“I asked if you were coming over on Monday for dinner.” She sounded
irritated.
“Oh, yeah. Right. Sure. I’ll be there.” He had to get her off the
phone. “Look, Mom. I gotta get back to studying. I’ll see you Monday, okay?”
“Are you sure everything is all right, dear?”
“It’s great, Mom. I really need to go.”
Her huff was audible through the handset. “Of course.”
“Bye.”
He hung up the phone before she could say anything more, and opened the
drapes a bit farther. There had to be at least six inches of snow outside. He
pressed his nose against the cold glass like he had when he’d been a kid, then
closed his eyes. A moment later, the buzzer to the apartment sounded.
Thank God!
Roger scrambled over to the door and opened it to find a disheveled
John smiling back at him. “Had to ditch the car over by the Woolworth’s. Forgot
my keys. The ploughs haven’t made it this far yet—”
Roger grabbed John and pulled him inside. He was soaking wet, his
shoulder-length hair curled at the ends, but Roger didn’t care. He drew John
against him, wrapped his arms around his shoulders, and just held him.
“You okay?” John’s voice sounded muffled against Roger’s cheek.
“I am now.”
“Can I take this backpack off?” John asked with a soft laugh. “It’s a
little heavy.”
“Oh. Shit. Sorry.” Roger grabbed the pack off John’s shoulders and
kicked the door shut behind them.
“You were worried about me.” Not a question, and the way the edges of
John’s mouth edged upward, Roger could tell he was teasing.
Roger was tempted to lie, but he was so relieved, he just sighed and
said, “Yeah.”
John stared at him in surprise. “You really were worried.”
“Fuck, John, I—”
John kissed him. He tasted of snow and Coca-Cola. Roger closed his eyes
as their tongues skirted each other in a now-familiar dance. God, he loved
John! More than he could get up the nerve to admit.
For two years they’d stolen every moment they could, working around
John’s busy schedule and Roger’s mother. Miranda suspected something. Roger was
sure of it. She’d even shown up at the apartment early in the morning on the
weekend. John said he was sure she was trying to catch them together. It made
things a bit more difficult, but they’d worked it out. John stored his things
under the bed, and the bedroom closet was big enough that he could slip inside
and hide. They’d left a few pillows behind Roger’s clothing, as well as a
flashlight and a few books.
“Don’t worry about it,” John had said the first time he’d hidden there.
They both knew Roger needed his parents to pay tuition—at least they hadn’t
threatened to stop when Roger announced he was getting his own apartment. “It’s
just for a little while.”
Roger came back to himself and realized John was shivering. “Shit,
John. You’re freezing your ass off.” He took John by the hand and led him into
the bedroom. In the light, John’s cheeks looked pink in contrast to his pale
skin. Roger unzipped John’s wet jacket and pushed it off his shoulders. “Stay
right there,” he said before stepping into the bathroom to retrieve a towel.
John smiled as Roger dried his face and hair. “Feels good. I like it
when you fuss over me.”
Roger’s cheeks heated. “Your pants are soaked,” he said in an effort to
mask his embarrassment. He reached for John’s belt, undid the buckle, and
unbuttoned the waist of John’s pants. The room was silent except for the sound
of the zipper and Roger’s heart pounding in his ears. His hands shook as he
pulled John’s pants down—he still hadn’t quite moved past the sinking feeling
in his gut that had lodged itself there when he’d worried something had
happened to John. He could handle a lot, but the thought of losing John
terrified him.
“Are you okay?” John was studying him with a strange expression.
“Yeah.” I am now.
Roger focused on helping John step out of the cold, damp pants. He knew
if he met John’s gaze, everything he felt would be obvious. It wasn’t just that
he was embarrassed. What he felt was something he’d only begun to understand:
vulnerability. The feeling you get when you realize your entire world would
come to a screeching halt if the certain someone in your life were to vanish.
John shivered again.
“Get under the covers. I’ll be there in a minute.” Roger watched John
pull the warm comforter over himself as he got undressed. He joined John
underneath and skated his palms over John’s cold thighs until they warmed to
his touch.
“Feels good.”
“You’re still cold.” Roger wrapped his body around John’s and held him.
John’s skin was slightly damp against his own.
“I’m fine.” John tucked his chin into the space between Roger’s neck
and shoulder. “Really.”
Roger just held him tighter.
“Roger?”
“Hmm?”
“You okay?” John pulled away a bit and looked at him with obvious
concern.
“Yeah.”
“Talk to me, Roger. What’s up?”
It was Roger’s turn to shiver. “I told you. I was just a little
worried.”
“About me?” John reached for Roger’s face and pulled it gently so that
Roger had no choice but to look at him.
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to talk about this. He just wanted to hold John
and reassure himself John was safe. He looked away again.
“Hey.” John rolled onto his side so his face was next to Roger’s. “You
can tell me, you know. I’m not going to laugh or anything.”
“I know.” Roger hesitated another moment, then said, “It’s just that I
feel like an idiot.”
“Worrying about me doesn’t make you an idiot.” John leaned in and
kissed Roger’s nose. “It makes me feel good.”
Roger’s breath stuttered. “I kept thinking back to that night… the
accident. I kept imagining you in a ditch somewhere. Hurt…. Shit.” He grabbed
John and buried his face in his chest. “I dream about that night sometimes,
except in my dreams, you’re….” He clenched his jaw and blinked back tears. He’d
had a lot of those dreams—nightmares, really—since John had started driving
down from Ann Arbor to stay with him. He dreamed he woke up in the hospital and
instead of John being all right, the doctor told him they’d done everything
they could, and then he was standing in front of a headstone and he knew, he
just knew whose headstone it was.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” Roger whispered. “I’d lose my
mind. I love you so fucking much, I don’t know what I’d do.” It took him a
moment to realize what he’d just said.
John leaned over and kissed him again, this time on the lips. In the
semidarkness, Roger saw John’s eyes sparkle. The edges of his mouth curved
upward in a tentative smile as the kiss broke. “You love me?” he asked.
Roger could only nod.
“Thank God. Because I don’t know what I’d do if I was the only
one who felt like that.”
“You love me too.” He said the words as though he didn’t believe them.
“Always, Roger.”
Blue Notes Holiday 2013 Blog Tour
Info
This blog
tour is to celebrate TWO Blue Notes Series releases: Encore (Blue Notes #5) on November 11, 2013, and Symphony
in Blue (Blue Notes #4.5) on December 25, 2013 (Christmas Day). Symphony in Blue is my 10th
Dreamspinner Press release! I’ve
put together a special prize list to celebrate.
Blue Notes
Series Holiday 2013 Giveaway:
· Begins on release day for Encore,
November 11, 2013
· Ends on New Year’s Eve, December 31,
2013, at midnight
· Drawings are open to both U.S.
readers and international readers, but physical prizes (Kindle, necklace, book,
and t-shirt) are for U.S. readers only. I will award a virtual set of the first
4 Blue Notes Series books to one winner from outside the U.S.
· Prizes (U.S. Only):
o Grand Prize: A Kindle loaded with the
first 4 Blue Notes Series books and some of my other back titles
o 1st Place: A sterling silver music
themed necklace
o 2nd Place: Winner’s choice of one of
my back titles in paperback (i.e., not including the 2 new releases)
o 3rd Place: Blue Notes t-shirt, cover
of the winner’s choice
******
Remaining Blog Stops
Currently Scheduled:
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