Welcome to author Tara Lain and the High Balls blog tour! Tara’s joining us today to talk about writing kids in romantic fiction, and there’s also a giveaway, so be sure to check out the Rafflecopter widget for entry details.

Writing Kids!

Hi. I’m Tara Lain and I’m so happy to be here celebrating my new romance, High Balls. High Balls is the first entirely new book in the Balls to the Wall series since 2013. All of readers’ favorite guys from the previous books in the series appear in this book, but the two main characters, Theodore and Snake, are also brand new. (BTW, this book like all of them in the series, can stand alone, so you can start anywhere.)

In the story, my hero Theodore is the father of a seven-year-old boy named Andy. Theodore shares no DNA with Andy, but no one knows that and he desperately wants to hide it. A lot of the conflict in the book revolves around this boy and Theodore’s desire to protect him.

It’s interesting. The first child I wrote in a story was in Trex or Treat, a Halloween short story I wrote back in 2012. Before that, I included a baby in my Genetic Attraction series, but she never really participated in the story. After the Halloween book, I wrote no kids in stories for a while. It makes sense. Most of my heroes are young gay men who aren’t yet married, so not tons of children in the picture yet.

I broke my streak in Wolf in Gucci Loafers when I introduced Jazz. Jazz isn’t really a child. He’s a teenager. But he still kind of counts since he plays an important role in the story. Then last year, I must have had a biological clock episode, because kids started showing up in my stories. In Lord of a Thousand Steps, Braden Lord’s children are a central issue in the plot. He’s going through a divorce and doesn’t want to expose his children to his newly expressed gay life.

That opened some floodgates and next I wrote Cowboys Don’t Come Out in which Kai Kealoha has taken responsibility for his much younger siblings and issues of custody are central to the story. Those kids appear in Cowboys Don’t Ride Unicorns as well, and following like a parade comes Tom’s teenage sister Lily in Fool of Main Beach, Theodore’s son in High Balls, followed in November by my hero Wendell Darling’s siblings in Never. Good grief, I’ve got a whole private school of my own fictional kids!

The books that follow Never – Snow Balls, Bleu Balls, Rome and Jules, Love You So Hard and Love You Like Crazy, and the Case of the Sexy Shakespearean  — are once again child free. Go figure! LOL.

About the Book

Sometimes only the wrong guy can bring the right happy ever after.

Though only twenty-six, single father Theodore Walters lives with his head in the clouds and his feet firmly planted in reality. At the center of his life is Andy, his seven-year-old son, with whom he shares no DNA, though nobody—including his religious-fanatic in-laws—knows that, and Theodore will do anything to keep them from finding out. Theodore works hard to get his PhD and the tenure and salary that might follow to make a better life for Andy—but the head of his department thinks his dissertation on Jane Austen and romance novels is frivolous.

Theodore’s carefully planned life goes off the rails when he walks into a popular Laguna Beach bar and meets the bartender, “Snake” Erasmo, a pierced and tattooed biker who sends Theodore’s imagination—and libido—soaring. Snake has even more secrets than Theodore and couldn’t be a less “appropriate” match, but he might be the only guy with the skills to show Theodore that happily-ever-after is for real.

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Tour-wide Excerpt

He flipped on some Chopin and let it seep into his bloodstream like antistress pills. Such a weird feeling he got each month when Andy visited his grandparents. Kind of lost. Aimless. Sure, he had hella studying to do, but he did that every night, curled in his chair, sometimes with Andy sitting on his lap figuring out his homework. When he sat for his orals, he’d probably start quoting second-grade spelling instead of defending his dissertation on the modern romance novel as the inheritor of the tradition of Jane Austen. But that was how life was supposed to be. His life, anyway—all based on one decision made almost on the spur of the moment when he was eighteen years old. A decision made possible by an asshole named JP Rellico.

He stopped at the light at Pacific Coast Highway. The traffic going north wasn’t too bad yet, but the south lane toward Laguna already backed up to Ruby Ridge. The drivers had that Friday afternoon look of combined relief and weariness.

A rumbling roar sounded and Theodore jumped. Threading through traffic came a shiny Harley, moving with more assurance than such a big machine should muster. But the motorcycle definitely took second place to the rider. The guy stopped and put his foot down just yards from where Theodore waited, the booted foot attached to long, long legs with thigh muscles that challenged the black denim covering them. Unlike a lot of Harley drivers, this man had no fat of any kind; his long-sleeved T-shirt hugged a narrow waist and broad shoulders. Theodore strained to see his face, but a dark-visored helmet hid it, although strands of shaggy dark hair escaped the bottom. Most of all, Theodore noticed the tattoos that crawled in beautiful winding patterns up the guy’s forearms where they showed below his pushed-up sleeves. Whoa. Just the energy of the rider screamed free. One of those tats had to say, I don’t give a shit.

It was like Theodore could feel the vibration of the bike all the way across the street and deep in his balls. What would it be like to live so unrestrained? Go and do what you want and not worry about anyone else? His cock rose like sunrise on a summer day.

A beep behind him woke him up. Shit. Quit dreaming, idiot. He stepped on the accelerator and pulled out into the northbound lane just as the rider turned his head toward Theodore. Theodore’s foot faltered, he craned his neck to see the guy’s face—just a glimpse—and got the squeal of tires and another, more pissed-off beep for his trouble.

Hell! He stepped on it and sprang—to the extent the Toyota had any spring left—toward the college.

The Balls to the Wall Series

Find The Series HERE

About the Author

Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in gay romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 40. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Paranormal Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, Best Romantic Suspense, and more. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog near the sea in California where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!

Author Links: Website || Blog || Twitter || FB Author Page || Goodreads || Pinterest

The Giveaway

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