Hi, all! Piper here. Thanks for joining us on the second to last blog stop for our latest joint release, One Small Thing. For those who haven’t heard of it, One Small Thing is a contemporary romance set in Delaware. If you’ve read our Lucky Moon rocker series, this book has an entirely different tone. Our characters are average guys dealing with real-life issues and less prone to the type of drama that can crop up when you’re dealing with rich, entitled, emotionally wounded rock stars. But that’s a subject for another day.
You can read the blurb at the end of this post, but for now we’d like to share the character profiles for our two MCs and talk about why sometimes opposites really do attract and why we don’t consider the story “gay-for-you.”
First we have Erik Van Nuys…
Age: 27
Occupation: Sci-fi/fantasy novelist
Erik is a very introverted guy who suffers from a variety of social anxiety issues. He has a stutter, he’s reclusive and rarely leaves his apartment, and he’s more than a little obsessed with Star Wars. He’s an only child and fairly close to his mother, although presently he lives in Wilmington, DE and his parents are up in Boston, MA, where they moved shortly after his high school graduation. He has a degree in English and writes full time, though lately his books have been selling less and because of his dwindling royalties, he’s started to stress about keeping his bills paid.
If I had put a label on Erik’s sexuality, I’d probably say asexual. Erik has never really had friends outside of the people he knows online. Aside from his parents, he tends to isolate himself and his anxiety issues have prevented him from getting really close to anyone… until he meets Rue, that is. He’s always had the ability to see/recognize beauty, but he’s never experienced physical attraction. Over the course of One Small Thing, that changes slowly, as Erik makes discovery after discovery—about himself, friendship, jealousy, desire, and all the other things that come along with human relationships.
While writing One Small Thing, we never set out to write a GFY novel. In my opinion, it really isn’t. Erik wasn’t straight before meeting Rue, and he wasn’t gay. He fell into the gray area of sexuality. He’d never wanted anyone of either sex, and even now the only attraction he’s ever felt is for Rue and only Rue. Erik doesn’t consider himself gay. He doesn’t label himself at all, actually. In his mind, what he comes to feel for Rue transcends gender. It’s just love, and it’s indefinable.
And now here is MJ with a little bit about our other MC, Rue Murray…
Okay, I’m not going to be as precise as Piper…but that’s ok. Rue is, well, a little younger than Erik 24 or 25. He’s tiny with dark hair and pale skin, quite flamboyant and sure of his sexuality (other than one little tiny misstep that leads to his daughter). He likes his makeup, jewelry, headbands, and of course lots of glitter. I would call his look bubblegum goth (or bubblegum emo I suppose). He’s a party boy, with no real ties to his biological family and only one close friend.
He’s filled his life with boys and parties and color, and is honestly happy with it all until he finds a reason to change everything.
While this post is about opposites attracting, quiet finding flamboyance, flightiness finding stability, I honestly think the book is more about two souls who both need the same thing finding each other when they least expected it. Sure, Erik’s reclusive and odd, and sure Rue’s social and image conscientious. When you get past the surface, however, Rue and Erik needed to find each other because they have a lot more in common than apparent at first glance. Both of them are hungry for some kind of connection in their lives, Rue for family beyond his best friend Dusty, and Erik for someone to challenge him and connect with him in a level that’s not parental. They both fill some hole in the other’s life, some connection that was missing beneath the surface. And the longer they’re together, the outward differences grow less and less until even to an outsider, they fit.
“Daddy” is not a title Rue Murray wanted, but he never thought he’d have sex with a woman either. Now he’s the unwitting father of a newborn named Alice. Between bartending and cosmetology school, Rue doesn’t have time for babies, but he can’t give her up. What Rue needs is a babysitter, and he’s running out of options. He’s on the verge of quitting school to watch Alice himself when he remembers his reclusive new neighbor, Erik.
Erik Van Nuys is a sci-fi novelist with anxiety issues to spare. He doesn’t like people in general, and he likes babies even less. Still, with his royalties dwindling, he could use the extra cash. Reluctantly, he takes on the role of manny—and even more reluctantly, he finds himself falling for Alice and her flamboyant father.
Rue and Erik are as different as two people can be, and Alice is the unlikeliest of babies, but Rue has never been happier than when Alice and Erik are by his side. At least, not until he receives an offer that puts all his dreams within reach and he’s forced to choose: the future he’s always wanted, or the family he thought he never did.
~*~
Piper Vaughn and M.J. O’Shea have been writing jointly since January 2011. Their first joint title, Moonlight Becomes You (released August 2011), was Piper’s publishing debut, while M.J. already had several published titles under her belt. Both authors have solo titles available in addition to their co-written projects. You can visit them at their joint blog, Babes in Boyland too.
Yeah, it’s the oldest advice in the book. We’ve all heard it. Write what you know… and sure, none of us know about vampires or werewolves, or maybe being in the CIA (as far as you know at least…hehe) BUT even in the most fantasy based novels, I bet you can learn some things about the author who wrote the book you’re reading. Because whether we mean to or not, we tend to seep into the pages we’ve written. I know I do it. Probably more than I should.
So here are some things you can learn about me from my books…
One very obvious fact about me
My first love, and the love of my life is music. I played two (maybe three) instruments before I ever thought of writing my first story and even if my books aren’t all blatantly music based, the music is still there. Always. Even in my very first book, Unintended.
The general plot for Unintended came into my head one day when I was listening to one of my old favorite songs. I wrote the entire story out, with the idea of the song in the back of my head, and at the last minute decided to put the scene below into the story and name the book after the song just for a little bonus for massive Muse fans like me I’ve done it a few times since!
Here’s the clip from that first book:
A few hours later Taylor had mustered up the willpower to put some clothes on and at least attempt to start his research paper. Alex was sitting next to him plodding away at his calculus homework. He had his pencil in one hand and two pieces of licorice in the other. Taylor chuckled under his breath and wondered for the hundredth time where Alex put all that food. It seemed like he was constantly munching on something.
Alex had turned some music on in the background when they first started working but Taylor hadn’t been paying much attention to it. He got involved in the research he was doing about Vikings settling in the New World. Eventually, though, he noticed the music was something he’d never heard before, a sweet melancholy melody and lyrics about loving someone forever.
“Hey, you’ve never played this one for me, have you?”
“No, I guess I haven’t. I heard these guys perform right before I left England last year. When I saw the CD in a record store downtown I had to buy it. They’re not much older than us but I swear they’re going to be huge someday.”
“What’s the song called?” Alex picked up the case and looked. “’Unintended.’ It’s pretty, huh?”
“Yeah, it is,” Taylor answered absentmindedly, deep in thought. He was spinning, freaking out, and happier than hell because it had hit him for sure right at that moment. He didn’t know if it was the words in the song or he’d just halfway thought it enough times that it finally sank in, but he knew.
He was in love with Alex.
Taylor wasn’t ready to say it out loud; the feelings were too new, too scary. But they were there for sure and the word that seemed to keep going with them, the one that wouldn’t leave his head:
In case you didn’t know it, and thought I might have just made the song up…oh, no, no, no. Lol. Here it is:)
P.S. Did you know “The Luckiest” is also a song? One of my favorites! (Ben Folds for the curious) I’ve been playing that one on the piano for years If you know the song, you’ll find a part in the book where we paid homage to our title song’s lyrics. It’s not an exact match, of course, but I’d love to hear if anyone ever figured out where we snuck it in. On first listen, it has zero to do with Nick Ventura (and his attitude) but Piper and I decided that on second or third listen, it fit perfectly
Next MJ fact:
I LOVE to cook. LOVE. I bake, make up recipes, and have grand plans to start a youtube cooking channel. Someday. To tell you the truth, sometimes it’s hard not to make all my characters chefs. I think there’s something really sexy about cooking and it comes out in my books quite often…
Frankie put the bowl of cream and eggs over a pot of water that he set to boil. Then he started splitting black stalks that looked like beans over the bowl and scraping out the tiny bits of seeds until they were swirling in the cream before dropping the pods in whole. The vanilla smell was instant and intense. Frankie added a cascade of sparkling sugar and began to stir with an old wooden spoon.
“I get the vanilla from Madagascar and Tahiti. The flavor is gorgeous. It’s all sexy and rich.”
Addison’s mouth watered. He wanted sexy and rich. He wanted to feel it on his tongue. Frankie sprinkled in another spoon of white powder.
“What’s that?” Addison asked. He sat on the stool that was on the other side of the island from Frankie’s cooktop. He couldn’t stop staring.
“A bit of cornstarch. It helps everything to get nice and thick.” Why did everything he said sound so damn hot?
Frankie kept stirring. It looked like he was concentrating, he closed his eyes and gripped his spoon a little tighter.
“What are you doing now?” He had never seen anything like Frankie cooking.
Frankie grinned at him. “Just adding the magic touch. My relatives are…French. I got some odd customs from my mother’s side of the family.”
Addison nodded. Ahh. Frankie poured a small measure of liquid into the warming mixture, it was amber-dark and rich and caught the light as it trickled from his measuring cup.
“Rum,” Frankie told Addison before he could ask. He grinned wickedly. “Can you handle it?”
Addison felt a little light headed. The smells coming from that pot were enthralling, stirring his belly and settling in his chest. He felt warm and melty, like he could close his eyes and float. Frankie leaned his head over the bowl and inhaled. Addison wanted to lean closer too, to the bowl and Frankie, he wanted to inhale and kiss and taste and…ohhh. How much wine did he have?
“Needs some caramel I think,” Frankie murmured. He took a jar from the ancient monster of a refrigerator, stirring and murmuring until the golden ribbon of sugar was all gone, assimilated by the swirling creamy white.
“Are you talking to the food?” Addison had a hard time speaking at first. He’d been enthralled.
Frankie smiled. “I think all chefs do. Here, taste.” He took another spoon and dipped it into the warm mixture. Addison leaned across the island before he even could think, and let the spoon slip into his mouth. The flavors melted across his tongue, filling him until he was tasting and inhaling and reaching out to cup Frankie’s jaw in his hand. “Good?” Frankie’s voice was a rough whisper.
“Amazing.”
“Here…” Another spoonful found its way into Addison’s mouth, even more intoxicating than the first. He savored the exotic flavor, licked the sweet warmth off of the spoon.
That’s probably enough of me babbling… Yeah, something else. I talk a lot. There are quite a few people who can attest to that. But I’ll stop now. Promise
Time to leave you with an excerpt from Coming Home, which is my newest book from Dreamspinner Press (released today!!). This scene gained a bit of infamy in my critique group. All you gotta do is mention Red Velvet cupcakes and they already know. Yep, it’s food again…I swear I don’t have a fetish. Much.
“Ugh, if I never see another red velvet cupcake again, it’ll be too soon.” Tally placed his newest perfectly-made cupcake in one of the huge bakery boxes that lined Lex’s living room wall.
Lex chuckled “This definitely ranks up there with one of my weirder Saturday nights. I still can’t believe their oven broke.”
It had been the mantra of the night, ever since the frantic call earlier from the bakery that Lex had contracted to make a shit ton of cupcakes—two hundred to be exact. It had been annoying when Lex thought he could get another bakery to make the cupcakes, but when none had been available and it became more and more clear that he would in fact be baking two hundred red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sugared orchid garnishes for the lovely ladies of the coastal gardening convention, the annoyance had turned to panic. If Tally hadn’t offered to help Lex didn’t know what he would have done. On his own he probably wouldn’t have been able to do even close to half of them, especially with his still sore and newly stitch-free arm.
Armed with a large pepperoni pizza, two bottles of Moscato, and more industrial sized blocks of cream cheese than Lex had ever seen in his life, they’d set out on an epic cupcake-making journey. Six hours later, they were nearly done, but they had a messy red pile of screw-up cupcakes nearly as large as the collection of neatly boxed keepers.
“Wait hold on,” Lex counted. Seven boxes of twenty-five, ten, fifteen… “Oh my god, Tally. I think we’re done.” Words he’d never thought he’d utter.
“Hallelujah!” Tally crowed and collapsed onto Lex’s brown leather couch, floury ass and all. Lex was so tired and sore from being hunched over squeezing frosting out of borrowed pastry bags that he didn’t even worry about the couch he’d spent an arm and a leg on. He flopped on the adjacent couch cushion and brushed a soft kiss on Tally’s lips.
“Thank you so much for helping. This whole thing would have been a disaster without you.”
“Hey what are hired sex slaves for if not baking five million red velvet cupcakes until,” he looked at his watch, “three fifteen in the morning. God, what time is the luncheon?”
“It’s at eleven. And at least Travis is perfectly capable of opening the shop.” Travis was the college kid that Lex had hired a week before to open on weekends. He was luckily working out well.
Lex chuckled. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, making all those cupcakes. And since the bakery was willing to sell us all the ingredients at below cost, the profit on the whole luncheon will be better than I planned.”
Tally groaned. “It was that bad. My fingers are going to be cramped forever. Don’t get any ideas about doing it again. You already owe me many, many hours of mind-blowing sex for this.”
“Which I’ll happily start repaying if we can please get in the shower first.” Lex made a face. “Every centimeter of me is sticky.” He dragged his shirt off, chuckling when it got stuck on his head for a moment before it popped off and was tossed aside.
Tally stood and reached down to haul Lex up with him.
“I’ll lick the frosting off.”
Lex found himself giggling at the thought…giggling. Shit. “Did we drink all of that wine?”
Tally made a show of eyeballing down into the bottles. “Yep.”
Lex groaned. “And we forgot about dinner.” He eyed the mostly full pizza box on the table. “No wonder I’m feeling kind of loopy. I thought it was from all the sugar.”
Tally reached down and dug a finger full of frosting from the mess-up pile and slowly wiped it down Lex’s cheek before licking it off.
“Mmmm. Sweet.”
“Hey,” Lex mumbled, distracted by the spark in his belly. “I’m already all sticky.”
Tally waggled his eyebrows, then reached down for another big gooey glop of cream cheese frosting. With one challenging look he wiped it right into Lex’s hair.
“Really, Tal, knock it off. My living room is already such a mess.”
“Living room?” Tally murmured. “I didn’t say anything about getting frosting on your living room. Only on you.” Then with a grin he picked up a lopsided cupcake and dragged it down Lex’s chest, making a white creamy trail all the way to his jeans. Then without warning, he shoved the whole thing into Lex’s waistband and ground it in as hard as he could, bursting into laughter.
“Oh, you suck!” Lex chuckled before taking another cupcake and squashing it into the side of Tally’s face. “Game on.”
Tally ripped his shirt up and over his head then grabbed two handfuls of messy crumbling cake and squatted defensively behind the oak coffee table. Lex squatted down too, nearly falling, and snaked an arm out to grab his own squishy ammunition. Lex took aim first and fired, catching Tally square in the chest. The moist thud was very satisfying. So was watching red cake and gooey frosting drip down that perfect chest. He got distracted by looking and barely noticed the projectile coming towards his face. Just in time, he dove to the side—but groaned when the cupcake hit one of his newly painted walls instead of his face.
“Hey! I just re-painted this room a few months ago,” He complained, lunging towards Tally with the hugest pile of frosting he could scrape together. The frosting ended up in a big swath down the front of Tally’s chest, getting rubbed into his skin by Lex, who’d managed to fall all the way on top of him. Tally chuckled and wrapped his arms around Lex’s back.
“I do believe I’ve won,” Tally murmured with a superior smirk.
“No way! You missed when you threw it at me and I’m the one on top of you.” He leaned over and nibbled the bit of cake that was balancing on Tally’s nipple.
“Yeah, but now I can do this.”
Lex arched his back in shock as a long thick trail of frosting and cake was smeared from his neck all the way down his spine into the back of his pants. “See? I totally won.”
Lex was squirming and trying to dislodge the hunk of cupcake that had gotten stuck between his cheeks.
“You know, it would be easier if you just took them off.” Tally’s chuckle made Lex’s slightly drunk stomach weak.
He rolled off of Tally and worked at the button of his jeans that was caked with halfway-hardened sugar. Tally took the opportunity to lick at Lex’s chest, cleaning up frosting and nuzzling his nipples while he was at it.
“You’re not making this any easier for me, you know,” Lex muttered, finally yanking the stuck button free and tugging at his zipper.
“I was hoping to make it harder.”
Lex groaned at Tally’s dumb joke, then lifted his hips and shoved his jeans down and off. He wiggled then, and brushed as many of the remaining crumbs from his body as he could. Lex saw Tally gulp, and it made him grin. “C’mere.” He spread his legs invitingly and reached out for Tally. Tally scrambled to get his own jeans off then he crawled between Lex’s bare legs.
Their bodies came together in a squelching sugary mess that neither of them could muster up much concern over.
“Mmmm, you feel good. Smell nice too.” Lex smiled and twined his legs around Tally’s hips.
“You always feel good,” Tally murmured. “Shower? I wouldn’t want to get this shit all over your pretty designer sheets.”
Lex poked him and bucked his hips. “I don’t hear you complaining about the sheets when you’re on them.”
Tally gave him a soft smile and kissed him. “Nope. No complaints at all when I’m in your bed.”
“Cheeseball,” Lex grumbled. “C’mon. This frosting is going to end up sticking my asscheeks together.”
Tally rolled his eyes but stood up. “Such a romantic.”
Lex smirked at him and hopped up, swaying dizzily for a moment before scampering off to the shower…
Dead broke and newly homeless, Tallis Carrington is on the walk of shame to end all walks of shame. Back to Rock Bay, where he’d once ruled as high school aristocracy with his band of jocks, and tormented a freshman named James Barry. Until a scandal reduced his family’s name to little better than a curse word. He needs a job, and fast, so he can put the town in his rearview mirror once again. But the people of Rock Bay haven’t forgotten him, or the kid he used to be.
The only person in town willing to overlook his less than stellar reputation is Lex, the new coffee shop owner, who seems to despise Tally based on his reputation alone. Tally is desperate, so he takes the job, not understanding Lex’s hot and cold routine until he discovers that his gorgeous boss isn’t the newcomer he thought, but the very same kid he used to torture in school. Now he’ll pull out all the stops to prove he was never really the jerk everyone thought him to be. And if he can win Lex’s heart, the rest of the town should be a piece of coffee cake.
Check out M.J. and Piper’s new release, One Small Thing, now available from Dreamspinner Press in both ebook and paperback formats. (Also available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ARe.)
Alec
Jazz
Thorny
All blue "emotional emoticons" courtesy of LazyCat at 
