Poster Boy Blog Tour & Giveaway – Anne Tenino
Welcome to the Poster Boy Blog Tour! *confetti*
As you may or may not know, Poster Boy is the fifth in the Theta Alpha Gamma series, and (at least as far as I’m able to be sure about such things) the last TAG book. No, no, don’t be sad, be happy—we’re gonna go out in style!
Let’s discuss the nitty-gritty: the Blog Tour Giveaway. The prize package this time includes: one lovely “Theta Alpha Gamma Beer Terrorist Response Team” sweatshirt (I believe I have sizes M-XXL available, choice of two styles); one paperback copy of Frat Boy and Toppy with the new cover art, signed and inscribed to the winner; a bar of soap I bought in Les Baux (was going to send olives from Sainte-Remy, but we ate them . . . sorry about that) and; of course, one penis crocheted by moi.
How does one win, you ask? By following the tour, collecting all the official “prize” words (posts will have them clearly marked), and using them as directed at the end of this post (it’s complicated).
Happy word hunting, and enjoy the tour (psssssst, this one is heavy on the cut scenes).
* * *
Poster Boy buy link.
It’s all fun and games until someone puts his heart out.
When Jock meets sexy grad student Toby at a frat party, things finally start looking up. After having been outed to his hockey team and then changing schools, he figures he’s due something good—like the sex he missed out on in the closet. Toby seems like a great place to start, and their night together is an awesome introduction to the fine art of hooking up.
Toby’s heart takes a bruising after the near-perfect experience with Jock leads to . . . nothing. He’s been left on the outside as his friends pair up into blissful coupledom, and he’s in danger of never completing (or starting) his thesis. Can’t something go right?
Then Toby’s coerced into chaperoning a Theta Alpha Gamma trip to France. Not that he’s complaining. What better place to finish his thesis and get over that frat boy? Except Jock’s outing is leaked to the press, making him an unwilling gay rights martyr, and he decides France is a great escape, too. It’s a break from reality for both guys, but they soon find their connection is as real as it gets.
* * *
I remember, as a kid, reading a book that described seeding clouds to make it rain. I think it was an Encyclopedia Brown book, but I can’t be bothered to try and figure it out, so let’s just say it was. “Seeding” clouds means littering them with chemicals that act as a nuclei for ice crystals to form around. The idea is that eventually the ice crystal ball will grow big enough to fall as precipitation. It’s similar to starting a tiny snowball rolling at the top of a long, steep hill. By the time it gets to the bottom, it’s picked up tons of snow (and dirt, dead leaves, small sticks, and God knows what else) and grown in size, a lot.
In my creative process, I do both of those things. I begin with a kernel of an idea. Occasionally, I even start the writing as soon as that kernel-idea hits. Well, I used to. Now I tend to think, “Let’s see if this really turns into anything, first.” Because seriously, my hard drive is littered with half finished “chapter one”s. Instead, I let the kernel—or nucleus—float around in my brain and see if it attracts any ice crystals. If it’s a viable idea, it’ll attract enough to “precipitate” into a stub of a plot idea. Then I start writing.
When the actual work of putting words into a document begins, I move on to the snowball-hill analogy. I start that stub of plot rolling at the top, and see what it picks up. Except I’m also riding down with it. Things get confusing at this point, my analogy starts to fall apart, my book is careening way out of control, I’m hanging on for dear life, digging us out when we hit a tree, starting us up again. Eventually, we get to the bottom, me and the story, in all our snowy, dirty, leaf-detritus-decorated glory. And I’m usually out of breath, red-faced and sweaty, to boot.
It’s really not very glamorous. And Poster Boy—in spite of setting it in France—was no less messy, misshapen snowball than other things I’ve written. It was, in fact, messier and bigger and had more moldy vegetation ground into it. (Some of the snow it picked up along the way was even yellow, but I try not to think of that.)
But here’s the thing (and, I might add, the point of this post)—I had help fixing it up and digging out the dirty parts and patting it into a round (ish) shape. So, so much help. It began with my friends on Facebook, who answer random, weird questions at all hours. In this case, I’m particularly grateful to Indra Vaughn, Bénédicte Girault, and Mike Garzillo.
I’m also particularly thankful for the beta readers I have, who tell me where I’ve screwed up and sometimes even how to fix it: MC, EJ Russell, Andy Canada, Steve Leonard, Alec Edge and Thorny Sterling. Emotional support comes from the Husband, Taylor V. Donovan, LC Chase and Edmond Manning. In other words, they help keep me sane.
The biggest influences on the final novel are my editors, Sarah Frantz and Rachel Haimowitz. I go into every edit knowing I might get annoyed, but in the end their suggestions will result in a better story.
Wondering why I’m posting about this? Because, when I read, I rarely look at the acknowledgements at the end of the book. And, of course, Poster Boy has those acknowledgements, but I decided, this one time, to make a bigger deal out of it. These people—and many others, who should be mentioned but I have a memory like a sieve—are very, very important to me, and to my creative process. When I’m careening downhill, not sure what the hell is going on and just hoping we hit bottom sometime in the near future? Knowing these people have my back makes all the difference.
So, I guess I’m saying, “Thanks, guys.”
* * * 
For those of you playing to win the blog tour prize cache, here’s the word: dreams.
The word game—the rules are that I provide a bunch of words, and you have to create an ode to testicles. Hey, it’s fair—I gave you an ode to testicles in the book (well, part of one), you should give me one in return, using all the words from the tour.
You may add any other words you need to, but it must include every word I gave out on the tour.
Of course, creative cheating might receive a pass from me . . .
At the end of the tour, send your ode to me at anne @ annetenino.com and I will choose one lucky winner from all the entries I receive by paying one of my children some exorbitant amount to draw an ode out of a hat (or other handy receptacle). All masterpieces must be to me by May 4th, 2014 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -7:00).
For a schedule of all tour stops, you can go here.
Oh, and:
*If the winner will be at GRL, GayRomance Northwest or the RT Booklover’s Convention, I’m also offering a lunch with me. And yes, I’ll pay. 😉
Rafflecopter Link: http://www.rafflecopter.
* * *
Raised on a steady diet of Monty Python, classical music and the visual arts, Anne Tenino was—famously—the first patient diagnosed with Compulsive Romantic Disorder. Since that day, Anne has taken on conquering the M/M world through therapeutic writing. Finding out who those guys having sex in her head are and what to do with them has been extremely liberating. Anne’s husband finds it liberating as well, although in a somewhat different way. Her two daughters are mildly confused by Anne’s need to twist Ken dolls into odd positions. However, other than occasionally stealing Ken’s strap-on, they let Mom do her thing without interference. Wondering what Anne does in her spare time? Mostly she lies on the couch, eats bonbons and shirks housework. Check out what Anne’s up to now by visiting her site. http://annetenino.com
Search Our Site
Weekly Deals
Books of the Month
BLOG EVENT
Featured Books
Coming Soon
Fun post and giveaway!
😀
The prize package is pretty awesome. I love this series. I hate to see it come to an end.
[…] days 2 and 3 of the Poster Boy Blog Tour there are stops at On Top Down Under Book Reviews, Creative Deeds Reads, and Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words. I also (a while ago) did an […]