Birthday Bash Kick-off with Tara Lain!

I’d like to welcome you all to my month long birthday bash! So, this month I’m turning 21, and I wanted to do something big to celebrate that didn’t result in a painful hangover. Plus, some of the best gifts are the ones you give to others. So, all month long, I will be having some of my favorite authors visit, offering their thoughts as well as giveaways for you! And to top it off, I’m offering a $50 Amazon GC grand prize! To enter the grand prize and for links to all the posts, click on the birthday bash tab at the top of the page. So come and join the celebration and help me celebrate turning 21!

Now to kick things off, here’s Ms. Tara Lain!

Emily’s Mystical 21st Birthday

I’m so delighted to be kicking off Emily’s gigantic month-long birthday celebration and I’m equally happy to be on that wonderful list of authors that she asked to participate. Thank you Emily.

Imagine, Emily will be 21 on April 30th. Of course, 21 is a milestone in our country legally. But to the mystics, 21 is the beginning of the third stage of life called Inspiration. According to this idea, Emily has spent the last seven years in her energy phase. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Most people are expending a lot of energy from 14 to 21. But now, she enters that part of her life that’s centered on new ideas. What an exciting time. Formulating a profession, embarking on a creative path, and, eureka!, maybe falling in love and starting a family. Each year of the next seven has its own purpose in the inspirational focus. This first year is promotion. It’s like stepping up to the next level, getting the boost, setting yourself up for the inspiration to come and take hold. Following that in order will come Development, Energy, Inspiration (the inspiration of inspiration), Success, Recreation, and Transition. Each group of sevens is significant. Each year is divided into seven 52 day segments. Each year is part of a

seven year cycle, and each seven years makes up one segment of a complete circle so that we start again on our 49th birthday. Fun, huh? And Emily gets to kickoff this important new phase with us!

When I was 21, I had no idea that many decades later I’d be an erotic romance writer with 18 books under my belt and many more, I hope, to come. What a surprise life can be. But, of course, these books are what brought Emily into my life. So today, to celebrate, I’m giving someone who comments a copy of one of Emily’s favorite Tara Lain books. These include Hearts and Flour and the Balls to the Wall Series -- Volley Balls, Fire Balls, Beach Balls, and Snow Balls.  Be sure to leave me a comment with your EMAIL! Contest ends April 30.

Hearts and Flour by Tara Lain

To Micah Truveen, raw, vegan food is his religion. So when his devoted customers show up with white flour cupcakes, Micah could kill. Then Micah comes home to find his boyfriend, Dharamaram, in bed with someone else. He throws the rat out and agrees to go to his friend’s orgiastic anti-Valentines party where he meets a gorgeous cross-dressing guy who gives him a night to remember.

Southerner Quentin Darby wishes he could stop wearing women’s clothes. He so wants to live up to his grandmother’s glowing opinion of him, he’s never even told her he’s gay. And now there’s Micah who makes him wish he could just be who he is. But Micah finds out that Quentin is the baker responsible for the plague of cupcakes afflicting the community! And Dharmaram adds a little blackmail to the mix. Can two hearts rise above the flour?

Excerpt:

Micah took both his hands and led Quentin out of the living room and down the hall to the room at the end. Sigh. His bedroom.

Like the rest of the house, the room was pretty simple, but the bed stretched across the room with clean white sheets and a lovely, deep blue and yellow comforter.

Micah backed himself to the edge of the bed and sat, still holding Quentin’s hands. “May I see your other self now?”

His smile was so sweet, no way Quentin could refuse. Whew. He was nervous as a cat in a rocking chair store.

He freed his hands from Micah’s and slowly unbuttoned the silk blouse. When it gaped open, he pulled it off, leaving him bare to the waist except for the padded bra. He dropped the blouse on the chair beside the bed then reached back and unfastened his bra.

When it came off, Micah’s eyes widened. “Beautiful.”

Quentin grinned. “Why? There’s not much to see.”

“Your chest is very masculine. Well-muscled but boyish. So pretty.” Micah reached up and ran his hands over Quentin’s nipples.

“Oh my.” The buds tightened in anticipation.

Micah smiled and pulled back his hands. “What’s next?”

Quentin giggled. “You’re enjoying this I think.”

“Oh my, yes, as you would say.”

“OK.” Quentin reached up and slipped his thumbs under the edge of his wig.

Micah gasped. “Wait. I thought that was your hair.”

“No. It’s just a very good wig. Shall I leave it on?”

He shook his head. “No. No, I want to see.”

Quentin glanced at him sideways. “You could be disappointed.”

“No. I want to see.”

Quentin pulled the wig off. His own hair was so light, he didn’t have to cover it to wear the wig. As the wig came off, he shook his head like a dog in the water and his curls flew around his head.

Micah smiled. “I’ll be damned. How could you be prettier with your own hair? But you are.”

Quentin’s heart beat fast. He had never done this. He was Quentin or he was Queen. He’d never gone from one to the other with someone watching. “You say the sweetest things.”

Available at:
Amazon
ARe

Snow Balls by Tara Lain

Big, handsome and hunky, JJ LaRousse looks like an alpha male but acts like an interior decorator. And he’s trying to be happy about it -- until a robbery at the famous Laguna Winter Fantasy brings JJ face-to-face with tough cop, Ryan Star. JJ hears Ryan likes guys who are manly men, so he drops his voice an octave, colors over his pink hair, and tries to pass as a football fan. Ryan Star may be tough but he hides in the closet at work since he learned in New York that being a gay cop can cost you your life. His attraction to that big, handsome kid threatens his anonymity, but he can’t seem to resist. JJ is just his type. But then JJ goes skiing and comes face to face with his greatest nemesis-- and all the secrets come out of the closet. Can Ryan love JJ for who he really is? More important, can JJ?

Excerpt:

“So I’ll go and let you get some sleep.”

“Yeah.” Ryan looked up at JJ, his eyes so hooded you could barely tell they were blue. Under those covers the guy had on nothing at all. JJ knew that, too well. After he’d helped Ryan into the bedroom and sat him down, JJ had gone looking for some pajamas or something in the chest of drawers. When he’d turned back, Ryan was under the blanket with his jeans lying on the floor. He might have underwear on, but not likely considering his stated dislike for boxers or briefs.

Right now, the bed covers had an interesting tentlike structure in the center. Hard to keep his eyes off it.

He should go. This was a hard-assed man with whom JJ had nothing in common. Hanging around could compromise every battle he’d fought to be himself. His gaze crept back to the big-top tent.

Why had he come over anyway? Stupid, simple answer. Because he cared. And Ryan didn’t care. Not for the pretend JJ or the real one. Lying there, looking delicious, was heartache on a platter. “’Bye.”

He stood up from the edge of the bed and walked to the bedroom door.

“Don’t go.”

JJ stopped dead. He wouldn’t have bet on hearing those two words. Now that he had, did they

matter? If he’d been a woman, JJ would say Ryan only wanted him for one thing. But then a lot of guys only wanted JJ for one thing. And the difference was, he wanted this guy back. Badly. Pretty much all the time.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

The rough tone of Ryan’s voice made JJ freeze. No wait. He wasn’t a kid anymore. He turned back toward Ryan who had propped himself up on his elbow. “Why do you want me to stay? So you can fuck me and not remember who I am tomorrow? I can have meaningless sex with people who actually like me.” Shit, did he just say that? A hand came up to fan his face but he squeezed it into a fist, turned and walked out the bedroom door.

“Please.”

Two steps down the hall, JJ barely heard the voice. His feet stopped. His heart too. He walked back into the room. Did he really see pleading on Ryan’s face?

The guy shrugged. “We don’t have to have sex. Would you just stay for a little while? I…I could use the company.” Ryan shook his head. “No, I mean I could use your company.”

Well hell. JJ took a couple more steps toward Ryan.

“I do like you, JJ. You know how I know that?”

JJ shook his head.

Ryan looked at his hands. “Because I hardly like anybody, so you stand out.”

Available  at:

Amazon
ARe

Author Bio:

Tara Lain never met a beautiful boy she didn't love - at least on paper. A writer of erotic romance, mostly ménage and male/male, Tara loves all her characters, but especially her handsome heroes. A lifelong writer of serious non-fiction, Tara only fell in love with EROM in 2009 and, through perseverance and lots of workshops, had the first novel she ever wrote published in 2011. In 2011, Tara was named Best Author of the Year in the popular LRC Best of 2011 Awards and her Genetic Attraction series was runner-up for Best Series of 2011. After an exotic life of travel all over the world and work in television, education and advertising, Tara settled in Southern California with her soul-mate husband and opened her own small marketing business. She paints, collages, and started practicing yoga "way before it was fashionable". Passionate about diversity, justice, inclusion and new ideas she says on her tombstone it will read, "Yes".

Tara’s Links:

Website        |      Author blog         |     Book blog

Goodreads    |      Savvy Authors     |    Twitter

Facebook      |      FB Page               |     Amazon

B&N              |       ARe                     |     E-mail