We’re so pleased to welcome author Shae Connor today, joining us on the tour for her new novella, Tongue & Groove.
Enjoy!
Building a Backdrop
First, great big thanks to Lisa and co. for having me to celebrate the release of my new novella, Tongue & Groove!
This series of novellas has been built around two basic components: a main character who’s involved in a music-related field, and a renovation project. For Tongue & Groove, that mean Saul Wilder, lead singer of a rock band called Hail Core, and the home he inherited from his grandmother. And to be perfectly honest, the home renovation project has probably been my favorite part of writing these stories.
I live on the edge of an Atlanta neighborhood called Virginia-Highland. For all you Walking Dead fans, if you remember the area where people holed up in houses in the first episodes? That’s Virginia-Highland. One of the oldest in-town neighborhoods in the Atlanta metro, VaHi sits just east of Midtown and north of Downtown and encompasses about 1 square mile of mostly residential streets. The houses were mostly built in the early 1900s, many of them Craftsman-style bungalows.
When I started writing Tongue & Groove, I had a certain type of house in mind, based on structures I’ve visited or viewed online, but I realized I needed something a little more concrete to make it all come together. I searched online to find homes for sale similar to Saul’s, and I hit pay dirt: an open house for a fully remodeled Craftsman-style bungalow for sale. I headed out on a Sunday afternoon to check things out.
I fell in love.
This was basically my dream home. It’s on a quiet street with a little creek in the backyard, a deck off the back, and a sleeping porch on the top floor.
The renovations were done beautifully, and I would have snapped the place up if I’d had the budget. Sadly, it was several hundred thousand dollars out of my price range.
But! I had another way to use it. With some modifications (like a larger front porch), I turned it into Saul’s house. You can credit this gorgeous kitchen redesign to Perry:
I had a great time incorporating this real-life home into Saul and Perry’s story. And yeah, if I stumbled into a minor fortune, that’s the kind of house I’d look for. In the meantime, though, I’ll just keep living vicariously through my characters. Might as well get some extra mileage out of those dreams, right?
About the Book
Title: Tongue & Groove
Author: Shae Connor
Cover Artist: AngstyG
Length: Novella (27,000 words)
Price: $2.99
Blurb: Sometimes home is what two hearts make of it.
After fifteen years on the road, rock singer Saul Wilder doesn’t know if he remembers how to stay in one place. While healing from a vocal cord injury, he decides to restore the cozy but neglected Atlanta home his grandmother left him. When home renovation specialist Perry Abrams arrives to assess the job, Saul’s on board with mixing business with a little pleasure. The sex is scorching hot, but the more they learn about each other, the deeper they fall emotionally as well. Trouble is, Saul’s a traveling man and Perry’s a homebody, so finding common ground to share could put the brakes on their relationship before it has a chance to get started.
Links: Amazon || B&N || All Romance || Kobo || Goodreads
About the Author
Shae Connor lives in Atlanta, where she’s a lackadaisical government worker for a living and writes sweet-hot romance under the cover of night. She’s been making things up for as long as she can remember, but it took her a long time to figure out that maybe she should try writing them down. Shae is part Jersey, part Irish, and all Southern, which explains why she never shuts up. When she’s not in front of her laptop, she enjoys cooking, traveling, watching baseball, reading voraciously, wearing tiaras, and hugging a lot. She’s also the volunteer Director/Editor for the Dragon Con on-site publication, the Daily Dragon.
You can find Shae hanging out on Twitter most any time @shaeconnor, but for the more direct route, you can visit her website at shaeconnorwrites.com or email her at shaeconnorwrites @gmail.com. You can also sign up for her mailing list.