It's A Countdown To RainbowCon Visit From K-lee Klein, And She's Brought A Giveaway

When I sat down to write this post—okay, more like fretted about it for over a week—I had no topic whatsoever in my head, so I made a list of the books I’ve written. I discovered that out of eighteen stories of varying lengths and plots, nine of them, including my new release in May, Tabby’s Pride, involve at least one musician.

The first original I wrote for public consumption was a free story called Outfoxed. I had written plenty of fanfiction that I’d shared, Alexander the Great and a lot of bandslash, so writing about musicians was something familiar to me. It came about when I chose a prompt pic in a m/m romance group on GR. I saw it and knew it was for me. Since then I’ve written a lot of musicians whether music was the main focus of the book or not.

My musicians have been as varied as the stories they’ve inhabited—wild or mellow, up-and-coming or broken, with even a couple of vampire-wolf rockstars thrown in the mix. And they exist because of my love for music and the men who make it. I’m a groupie from way back, and live music is still one of my favorite pastimes.

I also get easily obsessed with songs and lyrics, plus the creativity and passion that musicians put into their work is a big turn-on and inspiration to me. I’ve written lyrics in a few of my stories, too, most notably Unbreak My Heart and Unbroken Hearts, and I can honestly say I adore doing that.

Most songs are poetry set to music anyhow, and because I love all kinds of poetry, it was almost a natural profession for me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any delusions about being an actual song-writer, but I really enjoy writing emotion-filled verses.

But back to the musical characters I’ve written. There’s just something romantic about a man who sings or plays guitar, someone who is expressing their passion in a way they love, and in most cases, making people happy while they’re doing it. Whether it’s pairing a polar opposite rockstar with an average-Joe, two rock and roll hotties falling in love, a singer who gave up his dream out of grief, or a paranormal rocker mated to a witch—they’re fun and fulfilling for me to write.

So before I stop expounding my love for musical characters, here’s some info on what parts they play in my books, including my new one Tabby’s Pride.

1. Outfoxed—which I still hope to make into a full-sized novel—was about two rock band members and best friends, Rylan Rivers & Gage Galeano, in an open relationship who finally decide to take it to the next level.

2. Theme of Hearts was a short sequel to Outfoxed.

3 & 4. Lazy Sundays and Lazy Valentines—also to be made full-length in the near future-starred down-to-earth but OCD-inflicted, Scott Weston, and sweet-as-pie, hot-as-hell, metal rocker Devon Ducaine.

5. The PI & the Rockstar seems like a pretty self-explanatory title since Mason Stason was a PI and Jade Jonathan Lee was a rock/popstar.

6 & 7. Unbreak My Heart and the sequel Unbroken Hearts star former country singer Brett Taylor and city boy, JT Campbell.

8. Ali’s Intuition, the second in the Family of Misfits series, has my white witch and mama-bear of the family, Ali Arbiteur, finding his spirit mate in Kalo Petulengro who is a world-renowned rockstar.

9. Tabby’s Pride will be released from Amber Quill/Allure on May 18. It’s about a band called Lion’s Pride, so that’s also self-explanatory.

Since I’m offering an e-copy of Tabby’s Pride to one winner that won’t be out until May 18, I’ll also give the option of something on my backlist instead. Here’s the blurb for Tabby. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see some of you at Rainbow Con. If you’re there, say hello because sometimes I can be shy.

Good luck!

Blurb: Levi Tabberton dreamed of being a rockstar ever since his brother’s best friend showed him his guitar when he was young. But being a member of Lion’s Pride has overshadowed even his goal of rockstardom.

Alexander Morrison is laid-back, caring and has taken Levi under his wing—paw—but Levi’s guilt and insecurity hold him back from letting Xan see the real him.

Levi wants to prove himself to the band and to Xan, but the lengths he’s gone to have left his mind and body exhausted and in jeopardy. Has he made the right choice or will his dreams fade in a catastrophe of lies and uncertainty?

Excerpt

Xan leaned forward on the table, his head cocked to the right as he stared unblinkingly at Levi. His braids fell perfectly around his face as he frowned. Levi lowered his head again, tugging on his cap until he could barely see anything.

Dammit. Everything was going to hell. Levi could just feel it in the rolling stress of his muscles, the muddled flailing of his thoughts, and the rapidly growing haste of the blood through his veins.

“Levi?” Kevin was talking to him again and Levi recognized that he was acting like a big dumb idiot. “I asked if you were one of those egos.”

“Um, no. I’m good with just going with the flow.” What a stupid thing to say.

“You look really familiar to me. Have we met before?” Xan was still gazing at him and Levi shifted a little more in his stance. He shook his head and licked across his suddenly parched lips. “Can you take the hat off, man?”

Kevin’s accent interrupted the flow of Xan’s words. “Since when are we basing this on looks, Xan? It’s an audition, not goddamn Grindr.”

Xan whispered in his ear, but it was loud enough for Levi to hear as well. “There’s just something about him.”

“Okay,” Kevin said through clenched teeth. “How about taking the hat off for a sec, mate? That okay?”

Levi’s heart dropped into his stomach and the menagerie settled there, immediately attacking. Raising a hand to his head, he gripped the brim between two fingers and tugged it off. His long, black bangs slipped over his eyes, and he habitually pushed them aside.

“You look just like…”

“Tommy,” Levi and Xan said the name at the same time and Xan quickly shoved his chair back. He shrugged Kevin’s tentative hand from his shoulder and moved to stand in front of Levi.

“Who are you? Holy fuck…Tabby? You’re Tabby Tabberton, aren’t you?”

“Not Tabby! But I used to be Malcolm, yes.” Levi took a step back when Xan invaded his personal space, their eye contact making him break out in a sweat. He also had a very uncomfortable, inappropriate urge to hump Xan’s leg. Focus, Levi, focus. “You’re the only one who ever called me Tabby, and I dropped the Malcolm. You used to be Alex back then, too.”

He just stared at Levi, all big, beautiful eyes and sexy look of wonder. If there hadn’t been anyone else in the room, Levi wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have had Xan on the floor beneath him—writhing, moaning, biting, sucking, fucking himself on Xan’s cock. With his hands balled-up into fists at his sides, he took a cautious step back, unsure of just exactly what he would or wouldn’t do.

Luckily, Kevin broke the stand-off, interrupting the pull Levi felt to get closer to Xan.

“Care to share with the class, Alex?”

“Fuck off, Kev.” Xan’s words didn’t match his look. “God, it’s been what? Three, four years?”

“Six since…” Levi tugged his hat back on as he clasped his hands behind his back, his fingers trembling with the exertion. He couldn’t say the rest, stuck with a jumble of emotions on his tongue.

Xan finished for him. “Tommy’s funeral. Wow. Can’t believe it’s been that long already, and you look so diff—”

“Xan?” Don tapped his fingers on the table. “Are we continuing or taking another break?”

Levi broke eye contact with Xan again, reaching down to curl his fingers around the handle of his guitar case. He was uncertain whether they’d even let him play now, or whether he could play at all with the highly adrenalized state of his body, but he had to take the chance. He hadn’t come so far and done so much to be turned away.