Character Interview with Ty from The Windup
By Kate McMurray
I thought, in honor of the release of the first book in my Rainbow League series, The Windup, it might be fun to sit down for an interview with Ty, one of the heroes of the book. The book is out now for your reading pleasure. So let’s just get right into it.
KATE: Hi, Ty. How are you?
TY: Can’t complain. Looking forward to the new baseball season.
KATE: Aren’t we all. So, tell us about yourself. How did you end up in New York?
TY: I grew up outside Dallas. My family is Texas, through and through. I was what you might call different. My family wanted me to do something manly like join the army or become a firefighter, but I wanted to be an artist. So I moved to New York for college and I’ve been here ever since.
KATE: Artists can be manly.
TY: Don’t I know it! I may design things for a living, but I’m all man, baby.
KATE: How did you get into baseball?
TY: Honestly? I played a little in school. Barely. Really, I joined the Rainbow League to meet guys.
KATE: Not for a profound love of the game?
TY: *laughs* Oh, honey, no. Baseball player butts, that’s all I’m in this for.
KATE: Can’t say I blame you.
TY: I knew you would get where I’m coming from. *holds up fist for bumping*
KATE: *fist bump* You have something of a reputation for being the token slut of the league.
TY: I don’t think that rep is entirely deserved. I mean, I get around, sure, or I used to before I met Ian. But tales of my exploits are greatly exaggerated.
KATE: Does that bother you?
TY: Nah. I don’t really care about what other people think.
KATE: Let’s back up for a moment. Tell us about the Rainbow League.
TY: It’s a hobby sports league for LGBT people. They offer a bunch of sports, but we, of course, are primarily concerned with baseball.
KATE: Of course.
TY: I mean, talk about reputations. You’re obsessed with baseball.
KATE: Not obsessed.
TY: Aren’t, like, all of your books about baseball?
KATE: No. I mean, maybe, like, half. But my last three books had almost no baseball-related content at all! I’ve written about opera singers and army vets and regular guys who live in New York who don’t even watch baseball. Just because I’m best known for this little book called Out in the Field about two Major League baseball players…
TY: Sure, lady. Anyway, the baseball part of the Rainbow League is co-run by my buddy Josh. He and this guy Will, who is kind of a competitive jerk-off if you ask me, manage eight teams. They all have dumb names, but they’re kind of fun. I play for the Brooklyn Hipsters.
KATE: Sure, dumb names. If by “dumb” you mean “cute and clever.”
TY: Keep telling yourself that. So, we play games once a week all summer and have practice in Prospect Park on the weekends, which is convenient because it’s right near where I live in Brooklyn.
KATE: Me too. We’re neighbors, you know.
TY: Wow, Katie. Your creativity runs over. Having a character live in your neighborhood, you must have broken your back doing research.
KATE: Look, bud. I could have made you live in the suburbs. Or Staten Island.
TY: Perish the thought.
KATE: You mentioned Ian, your boyfriend. What’s he like?
TY: He’s great! He works in hotels. He’s like that guy with that show on the travel channel where he goes to a hotel and makes it over in three days because it’s about to go out of business. Except Ian is hot and less shouty. Also, it takes him a year or two to rehabilitate a hotel.
KATE: How did you meet?
TY: He joined the Rainbow League. He went to high school with my friend Josh. When Ian moved back to New York after a while traveling around for work, Josh persuaded him to join. We recruited him to our team. It was lust at first sight, you know. I’m irresistible.
KATE: Sure you are.
TY: Anyway, Ian’s an anxious, neurotic sort, but I’ve figured out some ways to, uh, help him relax.
KATE: I’m glad, but keep it PG. We’re just about out of time, but I’ll let you have the last word. Tell us a little bit about what happens with you and Ian in The Windup?
TY: I don’t want to spoil anything, but basically, Ian and I meet and instantly fall hopelessly in love.
KATE: Uh, that’s not what happens.
TY: Okay, fine. We meet and start dating and, you know, I fall for him pretty hard because he’s a great guy, but we have some communication problems, and also, he’s determined to leave New York City when his job ends in a year. So I spend a good part of the book trying to persuade him to stay in New York. With me. So it’s not all sunshine and homeruns. There, happy now?
KATE: Yes, thank you.
TY: Want more? Check out The Windup, now available everywhere!
KATE: Thanks, Ty.
TY: My pleasure.
Blurb: Ian ran screaming from New York City upon graduating from high school. A job offer too good to turn down has brought him back, but he plans to leave as soon as the job is up. In the meantime he lets an old friend talk him into joining the Rainbow League, New York’s LGBT amateur baseball league. Baseball turns out to be a great outlet for his anxiety, and not only because sexy teammate Ty has caught his eye.
Ty is like a duck on a pond—calm and laid-back on the surface, a churning mess underneath. In Ian, he’s found someone with whom he feels comfortable enough to share some of what’s going on beneath the surface. The only catch is that Ian is dead set on leaving the city as soon as he can. Ty works up a plan to convince Ian that New York is, in fact, the greatest city in the world. But when Ian receives an offer for a job overseas, Ty needs a new plan: convince Ian that home is where Ty is.
Buy Link: Dreamspinner Press
Bio: Kate McMurray is an award-winning author of gay romance and an unabashed romance fan. When she’s not writing, she works as a nonfiction editor, dabbles in various crafts, and is maybe a tiny bit obsessed with baseball. She has served as President of Rainbow Romance Writers, the LGBT romance chapter of Romance Writers of America. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Visit her website at katemcmurray.com
