SALES and Friendy Friday with CJane Elliot
Greetings and salutations! I'm so excited to have CJane Elliot on the Rock 'n' Romance blog today, but first...
I hope you all survived Black Friday! I ventured out to the doctor's with my son, the pharmacy for his asthma medication, treated him at GameStop and then treated myself to some vinyl at Rasputin Records. But in the middle of all that, my finger might have slipped and LOWERED PRICES ON SOME ROCK 'N' ROMANCES! The Teacher Trilogy and The Rock Season are on sale for 99 pennies through the weekend. You can also order SIGNED PAPERBACKS through the Totally Talented Promotions event! Have fun with it! Also, just a hint, if you are as anxious about the January release of Typhoon Toby as I am, you might want to read Teacher, Teacher: Act Two and Teacher: The Final Act before January *wink wink nudge nudge.
And now... CJane Elliot.
I met this lovely lady when I went down to Los Angeles for the LA Times Festival of Books and we were roomies. We had one of those experiences where you just hit it off and friendship ensues. I've read her books and I just really dig her. Her latest, The Kinsey Scale, was soooo adorable. I hope you all will pick it up. CJane took a shot at my interview my questions and shared with me some goodies about her books...
What should every reader know about you? I’m a Scorpio and an Enneagram 4. If you don’t know about those things, that’s a double whammy of deep, dark, angsty significance. So most of my stories have at least a hint of angst and a lot of realism.
Have you had a major setback as an author, and how did you overcome it? See “angsty significance” above. A writer’s path is full of setbacks. There was the time when I was first published and the only review on Amazon was a 1* accusing me of plagiarizing the plot. Yeah, that was fun. The times I’ve read scathing reviews on Goodreads. Whee! And then those periods of complete blockage, where I couldn’t seem to write anything to save my life for weeks or months. Ugh. In all instances, the best ways I’ve found of overcoming the setbacks are 1) live through them and let time heal the wound, and 2) reach out to others – my publisher, editors, writing friends, and writing cheerleaders. Invariably, their encouragement and belief in me gets me out of the dark place.
What’s your favorite music to dance to? I’m not all darkness and angst! I adore dancing and those who’ve been to GRL can tell you I’m on the dance floor every night. My favorite music to dance to is soul, R&B, and funk. Go Motown!
Name the first book you read as a young person with sexy times in it. How many times did you read it? Believe it or not, the first “sexy times” book I read was Fanny Hill, a famous erotic novel published in 1748. The actual title is Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, and it’s considered the first erotic novel ever to see print. I was at my friend Margaret’s house when I was in 5th grade. How she got a hold of the book, I don’t know, but we read it avidly with a delicious sense of naughtiness. I don’t believe I ever re-read it but it made a lasting impression on me!
Here's a little bit about the book...
Title: The Kinsey Scale
Author: CJane Elliott
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 9, 2018
Cover: Enclosed. Cover artist: Adrian Nicholas
Blurb:
Life is good for Eric Brown. He’s a senior theater major, an RA for a freshman dorm, and has a great circle of friends. Single since sophomore year, Eric isn’t looking for love. Then Will Butler—fellow senior, co-RA, and the cutest guy Eric’s ever seen—walks into his dorm. Will has a girlfriend he sees off campus—a minor disappointment that becomes a major problem when a housing shortage causes Will and Eric to become roommates, and Eric is forced to witness Will’s hotness day in and day out. For protection, Eric asks Jerry, his ex-boyfriend, to pretend they’re still together. Jerry warns him it’s a stupid idea, but he reluctantly agrees.
Too bad it won’t save Eric from losing his heart.
Will Butler has never believed in himself. His dysfunctional family saw to that. Although Will has loved music since childhood, he’s never seriously considered pursuing it, and the person he’s dating doesn’t encourage him. Then he and Eric Brown become roommates, and everything changes. Eric believes in Will and his talent. He’s also gorgeous and playful and fast becoming Will’s best friend. And that’s not good, because Will is hiding some big things, not only from Eric but from himself.
Tagline:
Forced roommates, fake boyfriends, fiery attraction, and a secret or two… are they fooling themselves or falling in love?
Buy Links:
Excerpt:
“So how’s it going with Hottie the Roommate?” Jerry asked. He lounged in the armchair at the coffee shop and took a languid sip of his latte.
“Fine.” Eric made a face. “We stay out of each other’s way. It sucks, but nothing we can do about it now.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t taken advantage of the situation.” Jerry arched his eyebrow.
“He’s straight. He has a girlfriend who doesn’t go here. I guess he sees her on the weekends. I don’t know. We don’t talk about that.”
“Don’t talk? Oh honey, that doesn’t sound like you at all. What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know. Shut up.”
“Touchy, touchy. God. You’re not usually this grumpy. Maybe you should look at changing this RA thing, because it sounds like it’s causing you stress.”
Eric shifted in his chair and sipped his latte. Jerry knew him too well. He was grumpy lately, but it wasn’t the RA thing. He enjoyed being an RA and counseling the kids. He and Will functioned well as an RA team, seeming to know instinctively when one of them would do better than the other in handling a situation, and then debriefing about it later. They talked about stuff really easily, and laughed a lot, having discovered they shared the same kind of crazy humor. And Will composed his own songs, which Eric thought was totally cool. He loved lying on his bed listening to Will play his guitar and sing.
“Yeah, it’s not that bad. We get along great, actually.”
And it wasn’t true that they never talked about Will’s girlfriend. Her name was Jessie, and Will sometimes mentioned her in passing, but Eric never pressed for details. In fact he had a strange reluctance to regale Will with his own sexual escapades, the way he always had in the past with friends or roommates. It was a weird thing, almost like a force field or something. They both shut up whenever the conversation veered too close to sex or relationships.
And then having to look at Will every day, with his bedhead when he woke up and his naked chest when he came out of the bathroom in his sleep pants, or when his face was animated and he threw back his head and laughed at something Eric said and…. God. No wonder he was grumpy.
“Let’s go out tonight. You need to dance and get laid.” Jerry’s voice brought him back.
“Okay.” It was Friday, so Will would be out of the room, thank God. Maybe Eric would even get lucky and bring someone back with him tonight… or go to their place, given the shitty dorm beds. He yawned, all of a sudden weary.
“Oh yes.” Jerry peered at him critically. “We’ve got to get you back to your perky self, my dear. I’m getting you another latte, for starters.”
Author Bio:
After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.
CJane is an ardent supporter of LGBTQ equality and is particularly fond of coming out stories. In her spare time, CJane can be found dancing, listening to music, or watching old movies. Her family supports her writing habit by staying out of the way when they see her hunched over, staring intensely at her laptop.
CJane is the author of the award-winning Serpentine Series, New Adult contemporary novels set at the University of Virginia. Serpentine Walls was a 2014 Rainbow Awards finalist, Aidan’s Journey was a 2015 EPIC Awards finalist, and Sex, Love, and Videogames won first place in the New Adult category in the 2016 Swirl Awards and first place in Contemporary Fiction in the 2017 EPIC eBook Awards.
E-mail: cjaneelliott@gmail.com
Website: http://www.cjaneelliott.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJaneElliott
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cjane.elliott
Thank you so much for joining me on this crazy day and I hope you'll check out CJane Elliot and her kick ass books. I also hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful...And if it wasn't? Well, check out Worst Holiday Ever and you'll feel better.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE ROCK 'N' ROMANCE...
