Welcome to author Joe Cosentino and the tour for his latest addition to the Nicky and Noah Mystery series, Drama Fraternity. Joe has put together an interview with his MCs and is here to share that with us today as well as a giveaway, so be sure to check out the Rafflecopter details below.

Joe’s Interview with Nicky and Noah

Welcome Nicky and Noah. Thank you for leaving Treemeadow College to speak with us.

Nicky: Our pleasure. There aren’t too many people left in Treemeadow. Sorry, bad murder mystery joke.

Noah: We’re happy to get out of your brain for a bit and stretch out.

Since the readers can’t see you, how about telling them what you look like.

Noah: Nicky is tall, muscular—

Nicky: Thanks to the gym on campus.

Noah: And he has gorgeous emerald eyes, rich dark hair, a sexy Roman nose, smooth olive-colored skin, and long sideburns that I love to kiss.

Nicky: And since I was born in Kansas, I’m a true friend of Dorothy’s. Oh, I also have a nearly foot long penis. Thankfully Noah is open (pun intended) to new adventures.

And Noah?

Nicky: He’s gorgeous with long wavy blond hair that smells like strawberry fields forever, crystal blue eyes, porcelain-like skin, and a soft lean body. He’s also the most caring, considerate, and kind (try saying that three times fast) person I’ve ever known.

For any readers not familiar with your mysteries—

Nicky & Noah: Shame on them. Sorry, it’s a cute couple thing we do.

Tell them a bit about Treemeadow College.

Nicky: The college was founded by Tree and Meadow, a gay couple.

Noah: We are proud to follow in their footsteps.

Nicky: As you know, I have absolutely no ego and I always shy away from talking about myself.

Noah: (coughs)

Nicky: But I’ll say I’m an Associate Professor of Play Directing, and Noah is an Assistant Professor of Acting.

Tell us about the first five books.

Nicky: Gladly. In Drama Queen (Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite LGBT Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Novel of the Year) college theatre professors are dropping like stage curtains at Treemeadow College, and amateur sleuths/college theatre professors Nicky and Noah (that’s me and my hubby) have to use our theatre skills, including impersonating other people, to figure out whodunit. Reviewers called Drama Queen hysterically funny farce, Murder She Wrote meets Hart to Hart meets The Hardy Boys, and a captivating whodunit. Who am I to argue? One reviewer wrote Drama Queen was the funniest books she’d ever read! Now there’s someone with a great sense of humor.

Noah: In Drama Muscle (Rainbow Award Honorable Mention) Nicky and I don our Holmes and Watson personas again to find out why bodybuilding students and professors at Treemeadow are dropping faster than barbells. Our relationship reaches a milestone by the end of the novel. That’s my favorite scene.

Nicky: Mine too. But there’s more! In Drama Cruise it is summer on a ten-day cruise from San Francisco to Alaska and back. Noah and I must figure out why college theatre professors are dropping like life rafts as I directs a murder mystery dinner theatre show onboard ship starring Noah and other college theatre professors from across the US. Complicating matters are our both sets of wacky parents who want to embark on all the activities on and off the boat with us. I love how Noah’s father is also somewhat of a sleuth. As they say, men marry their fathers.

Noah: And marrying Nicky was the highlight of my life, as was our honeymoon in Hawaii. In Drama Luau, Nicky is directing the luau show at the Maui Mist Resort, where he and I need to figure out why muscular Hawaiian hula dancers are dropping like grass skirts. Our department head/best friend and his husband, Martin and Ruben, are along for the bumpy tropical ride.

Nicky: And in Drama Detective, I am directing and ultimately co-starring with Noah as Holmes and Watson in a new musical Sherlock Holmes play at Treemeadow College prior to Broadway. Martin and Ruben, their sassy office assistant Shayla, my brother Tony, and our son Taavi are also in the cast. Of course dead bodies begin falling over like hammy actors at a curtain call. Once again Noah and I use our drama skills to figure out who is lowering the street lamps on the actors before we get half-baked on Baker Street. They’re all terrific cozy gay mysteries, if I do say so myself.

Explain for the readers what you mean by a cozy mystery series?

Nicky: In the case of the Nicky and Noah mysteries, the setting is warm and cozy. Treemeadow College in Vermont is the perfect setting for a cozy mystery with its white Edwardian buildings, low white stone fences, lake and mountain views, and cherry wood offices with tall leather chairs and fireplaces. Also, in our series the clues and murders (and laughs) come fast and furious, and there are enough plot twists and turns and a surprise ending to keep the pages turning faster than a conservative politician running away from an environmentalist.

Noah: At the center of our story is a touching gay romance between Nicky and me. As we fall in love, I’ve heard the readers fall in love with us.

Nicky: Who can blame them?

Tell us about your current release.

Nicky: I thought you’d never ask. In Drama Fraternity, I am directing Tight End Scream Queen, a slasher movie filmed at Treemeadow College’s football fraternity house, co-starring Noah, our son Taavi, Martin, and Shayla. Rounding out the cast are members of Treemeadow’s Christian football players’ fraternity along with two hunky screen stars. When the quarterback, jammer, wide receiver, and more begin fading out with their scenes, Noah and I once again need to use our drama skills to figure out who is sending young hunky actors to the cutting room floor before Noah and I hit the final reel.

Can you give the readers a run down on some of the characters?

Nicky & Noah: There’s us.

Joe: And?

Nicky: We are joined by favorite regular characters like Martin, Ruben, Shayla, Taavi, Detective Manuello, my parents, and Noah’s parents.

Noah: And book six adds a number of new characters.

Nicky: Right, like Alejandro Gallo, the handsome and muscular star (who plays a vampire on TV’s Suck Off) cast as the detective in the film. There’s also hunky heartthrob (of the film Full Moon) who plays the lead role of Davey Doubt, the football team’s taunted and misunderstood tight end. And I can’t leave out the adorable and shy young screenwriter, Robert Lee, who penned Davey Doubt’s story based on his own.

Joe: Should Noah be jealous?

Nicky: Never. I’m a one-man man, and that man is Noah Oliver.

Noah: And I’d have it no other way.

The Nicky and Noah mysteries are quite cinematic. Rather than Logo showing reruns of Golden Girls around the clock, and Bravo airing so called reality shows, would you like to see them do The Nicky and Noah Mysteries?

Nicky: Yes! I want Matt Bomer to play me.

Noah: And Neil Patrick Harris to play me.

Nicky: They’re almost as cute as Noah and me.

Noah: I can also see Rosie O’Donnell and Bruce Willis playing my parents, and Nathan Lane as Martin’s spouse, Ruben.

Nicky: Wanda Sykes would be a riot as Martin’s office assistant, Shayla. Joe Manganiello would be perfect as my brother, Tony.

Noah: I can also see Valerie Bertinelli and Jay Leno as Nicky’s parents.

Who would play Martin Anderson?

Nicky & Noah: Joe Cosentino of course!

Nicky: You made us say that.

Noah: You’re very good at putting words into our mouths. 

Who was your favorite character in Drama Fraternity?

Noah: Nicky of course. I love Nicky’s never say die attitude, wit, smarts, and perseverance in the face of adversity.

Nicky: After me, Noah is my favorite character. I adore how Noah is genuinely concerned for others, and will do anything to help me solve a murder mystery.

Noah: I also love Martin’s paternal instincts toward Nicky and me, sense of theatricality, and his inquiring mind. I also like how Ruben keeps Martin in line with hysterical barbs. The older couple stay sharp by engaging in their verbal warfare, but it’s all done in deep admiration and respect. I hope Nicky and I follow in their footsteps one day.

Who is your favorite new character in the sixth book?

Nicky: Robert Lee, the adorable, shy young screenwriter of Tight End Scream Queen. His crush on Malcolm Kahue, the hunky star of the slasher film, is touching and heartwarming.

Which character do you like the least in book six?

Noah: I started out not liking Alejandro Gallo, the TV star playing the hot detective in the slasher film. He seems conceited and always on the make. But then I realized he was a closet gay actor terrified of losing his heart throb status if his fans were to find out the truth about him. It must have been quite a heavy burden for him to hold. It’s always so much more difficult to hide and lie than to simply be yourself.

How about you, Nicky?

Nicky: Comey Collins and Pastor Karl Bounty. I will never understand how people can use “religious freedom” to try to take away the civil rights of LGBT people and their families. Religious freedom means having the freedom to practice whatever religious you choose, not disobey the law and/or persecute others.

Which new character was the sexiest?

Nicky: Malcolm Kahue, the handsome, muscular, Hawaiian, rebel without a cause actor playing the leading role of Davey Doubt, the tight end, in the slasher film. Like Robert Lee, the screenwriter in the novel, I think readers will be quite captivated with Malcolm.

Noah: But enough about us.

Nicky: It’s never enough about us.

Noah: I think readers will also like your other mystery series, Joe.

Nicky: Even though Noah and I aren’t in it. Pout.

Tell the readers about it.

Noah: In the Jana Lane mysteries published by The Wild Rose Press, Joe created a heroine who was the biggest child star ever until she was attacked on the studio lot at eighteen years old. In Paper Doll Jana at thirty-eight lives with her family in a mansion in picturesque Hudson Valley, New York. Her flashbacks from the past become murder attempts in her future. Forced to summon up the lost courage she had as a child, Jana ventures back to Hollywood, which helps her uncover a web of secrets about everyone she loves. In Porcelain Doll Jana makes a comeback film and uncovers who is being murdered on the set and why. In Satin Doll Jana and family head to Washington, DC, where Jana plays a US senator in a new film, and becomes embroiled in a murder and corruption at the senate chamber. In China Doll Jana heads to New York City to star in a Broadway play, faced with murder on stage and off. In Rag Doll Jana stars in a television mystery series and life imitates art. Since the novels take place in the 1980’s, Jana’s agent and best friend are gay, and Jana is somewhat of a gay activist, the AIDS epidemic is a large part of the novels.

My Dreamspinner Press novellas (In My Heart/An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, A Home for the Holidays, The Perfect Gift, and The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland) were so well received as books and audiobooks, winning various awards. What would you say to people who loved them and might be surprised that the Nicky and Noah mysteries are quite different?

Nicky: I’d tell them to get over it. Variety is the spice of life. Everyone should give Noah and me a chance. As my mother said to me as a kid about creampuffs, “Just try it, you may like it.”

Noah: Now cream is one of Nicky’s favorite things.

Nicky: Pun intended.

And you both also aren’t in my New Jersey beach series. Tell the readers about that one too.

Nicky: (whimpers)

Noah: NineStar Press published Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, and Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out, and Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings about handsome Cal Cozzi’s gay beach resort on a gorgeous cove. Joe spent his summers as a kid on the Jersey Shore, so it’s a special place for him. The first novel was a Favorite Book of the Month on The TBR Pile site and won a Rainbow Award Honorable Mention. I love the intertwining stories so full of surprises. Cozzi Cove is a place where nothing is what it seems, anything can happen, and romance is everywhere. Some reviewers have called it a gay Fantasy Island.

Nicky: But we’re here to talk about the Nicky and Noah mysteries, Joe’s best and most popular series. Readers, if you haven’t paid a visit to Treemeadow College with Noah and me, get reading.

Noah: The purchase links for Drama Fraternity are below, as are Joe’s contact links, including his web site.

Nicky: Noah and I love to hear from you readers via Joe. He tells us everything.

Thank you, Nicky and Noah, for sharing with us today.

Nicky: It was our pleasure.

Noah: It is also our pleasure to share this sixth novel in our series.

Nicky: So everyone, take your front row seat. Lights, camera, action, frat house murders!

About the Book

Theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza is directing Tight End Scream Queen, a slasher movie filmed at Treemeadow College’s football fraternity house, co-starring his husband and theatre professor colleague, Noah Oliver. When young hunky cast members begin fading out with their scenes, Nicky and Noah will once again need to use their drama skills to figure out who is sending the quarterback, jammer, wide receiver, and more to the cutting room floor before Nicky and Noah hit the final reel. You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining sixth novel in this delightful series. Lights, camera, action, frat house murders!

Buy the Book: Amazon || Other Online Retailers

Connect with Joe: Website || Facebook || Twitter || Goodreads || Amazon

The Giveaway

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