AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: CATE ASHWOOD

It’s Thursday and that means I get to recover from my Wednesday meeting with the personal trainer. It also means a new author to spotlight. Today, Cate Ashwood joins me. Cate’s first novel – Keeping Sweets is already a top seller, siting at #3 on the Amazon list of Gay and Lesbian Fiction Romance. I’d say, not bad for a debut novel, but it’s so much better than ‘not bad.’ Cate’s too modest to say it, but we all know i lack modesty, so I’ll say it for her, It’s Kick Ass Awesome how well her book has been received. I made sure to get mine, adding to the hype that is well deserved.  

Okay, enough patting Cate on the back, so let me turn things over to her so she can tell you a bit about herself and her book in her words:

AUTHOR PROFILE: CATE ASHWOOD

Andrew, thank you so much for hosting me here today. I wanted to mention that I’ll be doing a giveaway at the end of the tour. Every comment that is made on each of the posts will be put into a hat and two winners will be drawn at random to win e-copies of the book. I’ll announce the winners on my website on April 10^th.

When writing romance there are some unwritten rules (and some written ones) that writers are encouraged to follow. Some of the more concrete rules outline things that no one wants to read/write about anyway like: pedophilia, rape, incest, necrophilia, bestiality, and racism, but the unwritten ones are a little more fluid. Some of the ones I have come across are these:

1. HEA: The characters aren’t together at the end? Keep writing until they are. They must ride off into the sunset together happily forever or at the very least, happily for now
2. Hero as a villain: The main character can’t murder/rape anyone
3. Slut for a hero: The main characters should not have sex with anyone else.
4. Don’t kick the puppy: A group of orphans gunned down by a terrorist while on their way to deliver kittens and ice cream to a homeless shelter on Christmas Day. Too harsh.

Obviously, these are not hard and fast rules (okay, so maybe the first one is). There have been many authors who made the decision to fly in the face of convention and colour outside the lines. I’m not quite that brave, but I did bend one of them slightly.

Number three. The slut rule.

Can you successfully write a main character who is a slut? I sure hope so. Since Bran is a porn star, it’d be difficult for him not to have slept with numerous partners. It’s his job. It’s what he does. When I was writing Sweets, I had a decision to make about where the sex with other people would stop. Would it be the day he met Evan? That didn’t seem realistic to me. If they were on a porn set, there would be sex. There just would. I did my best to limit it, Bran receives a blowjob from one of the other boys, and Evan is there to watch. Some people might feel uncomfortable about that. Good. I wanted it to be a little uncomfortable, because I wanted them to experience what Evan was going through. He was uncomfortable. And turned on. And confused.

So, in Keeping Sweets I chose deviate from the rules. I knew that not sticking stringently to them might rub some people the wrong way, but that is where the story took me.

Rules were made to be broken (or bent a little, anyway).

Synopsis

Keeping Sweets:

Days away from high school graduation, with hardly a penny to his name, Evan Lowry needs to earn money for college. When he comes across an ad for modeling, he thinks his luck has changed—until he learns he’s interviewing for an adult film and will be expected to have sex. On camera. With other men.

For gay porn star Brandon Court, the shine has worn off of regular shoots. He and his producer, Les, decide to try something new: a reality-show porno set at a beach house. When he meets wide-eyed and naïve Evan for the first time, Brandon isn’t sure if he wants the kid to get lost or get naked. Naked wins.
On set, Brandon takes Evan under his wing, and over the next month, they are thrown together in every intimate way conceivable—except emotionally. Both Brandon and Evan are terrified of trying for anything deeper, and insecurities and doubts wear on their hopes, but the chemistry between them won’t let them slow things down.

Excerpt

And here is an excerpt from the book. This takes place at the beginning of the story when Bran takes Evan shopping with him for supplies. They hit all the innocuous places first, but Bran saves the best for last.

Evan gulped audibly. “Nipple clamps? What’s the draw of those?”

Bran laughed, his good humor returning despite his best efforts to remain impartial and distant. He slid his hand through Evan’s hair, ruffling it slightly as he pulled the other man toward him. “We really do need to get you an education, don’t we? Now’s as good a time as any.”

They walked into the store, closer together than two platonic friends should be. Evan didn’t make any attempt to pull away with Bran so close. It made Bran feel warmer, happier. He was totally fucked.

Evan’s first foray into sex toys was quite the experience for him, or so Bran assumed. He had taken all the teasing and ribbing like a champ, smiling and laughing instead of freaking out every time Bran tried to shock him with a story or new toy.

They explored the world of cock rings first—something relatively innocuous—and picked out a few to use on set. For the most part, cock rings weren’t needed, but they came in lots of colors, and Bran let Evan choose a handful to buy.

The next destination on their journey of discovery was the dildos. Bran tried his best not to crack up at Evan’s expression. Bran of course had seen it all before, but watching Evan experiencing the different shapes, and especially sizes, was a sight to behold. He was like a kid at the zoo, seeing an alligator being fed close up for the first time. There was deep fascination thinly veiling sheer horror painted across his face.

In the end, Evan seemed to have made a smooth transition from naïve and innocent to curious and horny as hell. He wasn’t a small guy in the dick department, and he was visibly excited over some of their purchases. Although when you were an eighteen-year-old, it was tough to hide your enthusiasm over anything, so Bran tried not to put too much stock into his reaction. He remembered being eighteen. He might have even fucked a girl if one had let him.

E-Book: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3620
Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3621

Bio:

Cate Ashwood wrote her very first story in a hot pink binder when she was in the second grade and found her passion for writing. Her first successful foray into romance writing came five years later when she wrote her best friend, who was experiencing a case of unrequited love, her own happily ever after.
Cate’s life has taken a number of different and adventurous roads. She now lives a stone’s throw from the ocean, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two cats. Her life is filled with family and friends, travel, and, of course, books.
Cate loves to hear from readers. You can find her here:
Website: http://www.cateashwood.com
Blog: http://cateashwood.blogspot.ca/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cate.ashwood
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cateashwood