Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Blog Tour: The Same Time by Brona Mills

Title: The Same Time
Author: Brona Mills
Series: Time #2
Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Romance
Release Date: April 23, 2018

Summary:
A brave young mother, a time-traveling good Samaritan, and a love that must endure the tests of time…

Stella is fighting against her circumstances. Pregnant and caring for her own mother, twenty-one-year-old Stella is tough, and doing the best she can.Butin her darkest hour, helparrives in the form of a handsome and mysterious man who knows more about her than seems reasonable.

A scientist, David has unlocked the keys to time travel and uses his knowledge to save Stella’s life, over and over.But will David turn out to be her salvation, or the beginning of her greatest heartbreak? While David strives to assist Stella on her path, he does so without realizing he may be risking his chances of returning safely to his own time in the process.

When Stella meets a younger David on her own timeline—long before his time traveling days have begun—they begin a love affair that will change both their lives. The question is, will their love be strong enough to change the devastating future they share, and how much will Stella tell her love about what she knows of their shared future and demise?

“…a great story of love transcending time against all odds” – Amazon Reviewer

This is the second book in the connected Time Series and can be read as a standalone.


What is the biggest influence/interest that brought you to this genre?
I’ve found so many other authors that I had never read before which I am truly thankful for – but the biggest influence has to be Colleen Hoover.  She along, with a couple other – Tammy Falkner, and KC Lynn made me fall in love with romance books and branch out to the steamy stuff like Kit Rocha.  That’s when I realised I had found my favourite genre! I only found them a few years ago, and I read everything they’ve ever written.  I started to follow Colleen Hoover on social media, and it’s what gave me a push to keep going.  She too, came to writing at a later stage in life (I was thirty before I started writing) and it gave me motivation that we don’t all have to be English Graduates who had been writing since they were kids. She also had a young family when she started writing and gave great practical advice about fitting it all in.  When I joined her fan page, I seen how charitable she was and how she had this great feel to her groups full of positivity and I really wanted to follow in her footsteps! So much support and information has come from finding her books and groups, that even though she doesn’t know me, I can say she really helped shape me and my outlook as an author.

When writing a book, what is your favorite part of the creative process(outline, plot, character names, editing, etc)?
This is a great question!  I think I love and hate all parts of it!  In the beginning, when you are building the world, the characters, what they look like and even their names – it’s all at your mercy!  You can do what you want with them, have them do things and push the plot wherever you want to go.  It’s great to have that freedom.  But sometimes that comes with difficulties in pushing forward and making sure you’re staying on the right track.

Editing, by its nature is something I dread – BUT once I get started, I normally get really excited!  I can see how much it gets better on each pass of editing, and how things really come together. There might be a scene that didn’t work before, and not that you are in a read through, and know how the book ends, the middle part works out so much easier!

Names were never anything that I struggled too much with, but right now I'm writing something new and I had a whole bunch of names in the synopsis, but I didn’t like them so I changed them.  I'm about 30k words in, and I still don’t like the names!  I had a quick think about it and changed them and I'm really excited about the names now ha!
I love technology, ’cause all I had to do was a quick search and replace and it was all changed!  There would have been a time when writers couldn’t change things that big, that quickly!  So John in now Mark, and Justin is now Ollie – doesn’t sound like major changes, but I think it really suits the character more as they are beginning to change shape, and I love the way the names look on the paper – yes I'm that crazy!  I also have a Lisa that I think might need to change to Lara, which was my original idea but I thought it was too close to Lara Croft and she will be a tough kick ass kind of girl. And a Laura that needs to change but I have no idea what so any suggestions will be taken on board!  Thanks! J Oh maybe we should have a competition to get one of your readers to re-name Laura for me!

When reading a book, what genre do you find most interesting/intriguing?
I always go for romance.  Or something with a subgenre of romance in it.  Otherwise, I might like it but I’ll never love it!  Not yet anyway!  I just love falling in love, and getting to experience all those new feelings and heartache.  Yes I love the heartache, it really puts your own life in perspective!

If you could co-author with any author, past or present, who would you choose?
I think co-authoring is a scary thing.  I’d love to do it and it be a success like Kit Rocha (which is a pen name for two joint authors) or Colleen Hoover and Tyrran Fisher – but I think the problem can be that you each have your own voice and direction for a book. And there needs to be a compromise – and how will your own readers feel about your usual books not quiet being the thing they are used to?  I got match up on a project to co-plot a book outline with someone on an online workshop, and it went really well.  We got on great, and were really nice to each other – but we had to combine both our passions, and ended up with a time travel book which also had dragons!  It’s not my usual, and probably not her’s either and it probably wouldn’t have worked if we ever sat down to write – so I guess first things first, choose your partner wisely!  Not only do you guys have to get on, but you have to be on the same page, so to speak! Actually now that I think about it, there was a whole load of other things in there that were actually getting interesting!  Maybe we should dust that one off!  Stay tuned! J

Have you always wanted to write or did it come to you "later in life"?
When I was 27 or just turned 28, a couple of months after I had my first child.  I remember driving in the car and it popped into my head – I want to write a book, I day dream ALL the time, and I wanted to write them down and work them into a story.  It was almost two year later, when I had kid no2 that I realised I had the story of Audrey and Michael (from book one, A Time For Everything) in my head.  I rushed off to write it all down, then I had 10k words and didn’t know what to do with it!

I actually failed high school English and once in university I was diagnosed with dyslexia.  It always annoyed me that I had failed that subject, as I believe with the right help I would have passed.  I used to read books and look at the author page and read how so and so had an English degree, or was an English teacher/journalist/used to write stories as a child and I always closed the book and thought well I’ll never write then.

Once I decided that I was going to write Michael and Audrey’s book (book one A Time for Everything), I decided to read every book I could find on how to write and publish a book.  It took until April 2017 to have the final draft all finished and edited and polished and upload it for publishing!



Author Bio:
Brona Mills has defied the odds of overcoming dyslexia and failing High School English to become an author. Her first book, A Time for Everything, has been met with great reviews from both the romance readers and the sci-fi time travel lovers, that Brona kept the series going. Book two in the connected series, The Same Time is out 23rd April, and Brona's not stopping there. She is currently working on two other projects, a novella in the connected Time Series, and a new stand alone time travel novel with a dystopian element.





The Same Time #2

A Time for Everything #1



Brought to you by: 

Release Blitz: Professor Hot Pants by Ember-Raine Winters

Title: Professor Hot Pants
Author: Ember-Raine Winters
Genre: M/M Romance
Release Date: June 19, 2018
Cover Design: Heather Bryant
Summary:
Ryan
My mom always told me that I was better than random hookups but she was a drug addict, what did she know. Sex fulfilled a need in me. I’m not your average college student, but like many students I have one professor I fantasize about. Professor Marks is a great big no-no in the hookup department, so why can’t I stay away?

Philip
I’m a professor of psychology at the University. Being in my position, it was necessary to keep him at a distance. But, he’s slowly becoming an obsession of mine, the sexual tension between us is stifling. Now, we are expected to work together when all I want to do is bend his ass over the table. How will I be able to keep my hands to myself?

Can an unexpected ally bring these two people together and teach them the meaning of family?


I was shocked when he opened it and I got my first good look at him in more than a week. His dark hair was sticking up all over the place, there were bruise-like circles under his eyes, and it looked as though he’d lost ten pounds. He looked like hell.

“Professor Marks? Uh, what’re you doing here?” He eyed me warily, as he probably should, since showing up at his dorm room was unprofessional at best, stalkerish at worst.

I cleared my throat. If I was going to do this, I’d come off as professional and courteous as possible. “I haven’t seen you in class in over a week.” Looking down at him, I confessed, “Sissy told me what happened. I’m here to talk.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need to talk.” He started to close the door but my hand shot out and grabbed it.

“Sissy is worried about you,” I said softly, trying to conceal the hope in my eyes at wanting him to confide in me. “I can be a really great listener.” He paused, then nodded his head and opened the door wider to allow me entry.

“I don’t know why she worries. It’s not like I’m going to do anything to hurt myself. I’m just grieving. My mom was the only family I had, well, I have my half-sister, but she has her own life and we were never super close.” He kicked some clothes out of the way and sat down on his bed, leaning up against the cement block wall that was covered in posters. “My sister was raised by her grandma and she’s seven years older than me. Mom always felt bad about them taking Court away, so she did everything in her power to make sure the same didn’t happen to me.”

He twisted around, dropping his feet to the floor buried his face in his hands as quiet sobs racked his body. I dragged the desk chair over to where he was sitting and sat down next to him by the edge of the bed. Our knees brushed briefly and I sucked in a lungful of air before moving back a fraction. My hand came down on his knee and I squeezed. “It’s good to grieve for your loss, but would your mom want you to sit here alone, wallowing in that grief?” He looked up at me with red rimmed eyes. “Absolutely not. She’d want you to live. I’m aware of your scholarship, if your grades slip they could take that from you, Ryan.”

“Yeah,” he said attempting to take a few deep breaths and pull himself together. “It just hurts so fucking bad knowing that I wasn’t enough of a reason for her to get herself clean. I know it was a disease taking her life, but honestly, I don’t give a fuck about that at the moment.” His anger was palpable and well deserved, but it’d been a week of him holing himself up in this room alone, suffering alone.

“I know this sounds contrite, and while this is painful, it will get easier. As you progress through your degree—and you will, Ryan, make no mistake—you’ll understand more of the anatomy of an alcoholic and drug addict. It may not be of comfort to you now, but eventually you’ll learn to forgive her.”

Anger flashed in his eyes as he jumped off the bed, pushing me back, and screamed the most guttural heartbreaking sound I’d ever heard in my life.

“I don’t want to forgive her! She left me. That’s the one thing she always promised she wouldn’t do.” He slammed his hand down on his desk. The container full of pencils fell over scattering across the floor. “I did everything for her. I work two jobs so she has a place to stay and a phone to call me. I put food in her fridge every week. Yet, she couldn’t even keep the one promise she made to me.” His hands were braced on the desk, his head slumped forward, and I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I walked over and wrapped my arms around him; it was like the dam burst inside of him. He turned around, then buried his face in the crook of my neck as loud racking sobs tore through his body.

I knew what I’d said was the truth about him eventually forgiving her, but he was still so raw there was no way he’d be able to accept anything until he passed through the overwhelming sadness and anger. “Shhh, it’s okay, I’m here. I’m not judging you, Ryan. If you need to cry, do it. If you need to get angry and throw things, I’ll sit quietly and watch that you don’t hurt yourself. The one thing you aren’t is alone.” I rubbed his back soothingly before I realized what I was doing. Ryan must have gotten the same weird tension because he sniffled before taking a step back.

“Thank y-you,” he stammered. “I’m okay now.”

“Right.” I cleared my throat, shifting from foot to foot, taking a step back from him, now completely uncomfortable with the tension radiating from him. “I, uh, brought the work you missed the last week.” Walking back over to the front door, I grabbed my satchel and dug around for the packet of papers I’d printed for him. He took a few hesitant steps forward and our fingers brushed as I handed him the assignment. A spark of electricity sizzled up my arm and I drew my arm back quickly.

“I’ll be in class Monday with all of this done.” His eyes refused to meet mine.

“My personal cell number is on that card in case you need to talk.”

“Is that... allowed?” He finally looked up.

“Look, Ryan, I’m just a professor making sure that a student is okay. It’s my responsibility, not only as a teacher here, but knowing what had happened, it’s the right thing to do.” I shrugged casually.

“None of my other professors have come to my dorm offering to talk or leaving me their phone numbers.” He pointed out with a lifted eyebrow.

“Look, use the number, or don’t. I don’t really care. I was just offering my help if you need it.” So what if I was a bit righteous in defending myself? He was acting as though I had ulterior motives—and as much as there was something about him, the person before me was in pain, and I’d never cross that line of causing someone more.

“Are you sure that’s all it is, Professor Marks?” Ryan took an aggressive step toward me, his hands balled into fists at his sides, crumpling the papers I gave him.

My jaw clenched tight as I ground out, “Positive, I’ll see you in class on Monday, Ryan,” then I hightailed it out the door, Ryan’s soft chuckle following me.

Shit. What was I thinking going in there?

Author Bio:
Ember-Raine Winters lives in sunny California with her two beautiful kids and a wolf. Also known as Apache her pure white Siberian Husky. She loves writing romance and reading just about anything she can get her hands on. And, football! She loves watching football and going to games. It’s one of her favorite ways to unwind. She dislikes the super-hot temperatures in her city and exercise. She hates to exercise but somehow her sister still gets her to do it every day. She also thinks it’s completely awkward talking about herself in third person. Ember loves connecting with readers so don’t be afraid to stalk her and drop her a line on social media.


FACEBOOK  /  TWITTER  /  WEBSITE
AMAZON  /  B&N  /  GOODREADS



B&N  /  KOBO  /  GOODREADS TBR




Brought to you by:  GAY BOOK PROMOS