Monday, August 4, 2014

Virtual Book Tour: That You Are Here

Please welcome author Meredith Allard, who is here to discuss her newest release, That You Are Here. Meredith will award one randomly drawn commenter a $25 Amazon or B&N GC, and a runner-up will receive a digital copy of the novel. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. To find out where the rest of the stops on the tour are, go here. Look for the rafflecopter at the end of this post.

1. You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you have?

The one person would be my boyfriend and the item is my computer. This way I could still write stories. Hopefully there would be wifi for internet connection!

2. Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

I don’t know of Les Miserables exemplifies my life in any way. It’s such an epic story. But I think I can  relate to most of the characters in one way or another. After I saw the musical, I read the book, and it was one of those novels that made me want to write fiction. I wanted to write a story as big as life like that with interconnecting storylines. I haven’t done it yet, but it’s a goal.

3. You’ve just been let loose in the world of fiction, with permission to make love to anyone you want. Who do you choose and why?

I would actually choose my own character from my Loving Husband Trilogy—James Wentworth. In a lot of ways, I created him as my perfect man. Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice would probably be my next pick.

4. What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?

I’m pretty easy going so going out to a nice restaurant or on a nice vacation works for me.

5. When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?

            I begin by plotting out the story from beginning to end so at least I have a blueprint           to work with when I start. But I know that as I continue writing often the characters    will take over the story and bring it in directions I hadn’t originally thought of. That’s all part of the fun of writing fiction for me—I can start with the greatest plan,   but I know it’s going to change along the way and I like that.

6. If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

 Interesting question! I’ve never been told that I look like any particular actress so no         one jumps out at me. In all honesty, I think my life would make a pretty boring         movie! I for one wouldn’t pay to go see that movie! I think that’s why I love writing         fiction so much. I experience things in my stories that I haven’t experienced in life.

7. Who’s your favorite horror villain and why?  



  I’d have to say Dracula. That was one of the first vampire novels I read and it really          captured my imagination.

 8. Do you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?

            I wouldn’t say Dickens is a crush, exactly (he wasn’t very nice to his wife), but he is         someone from the past I admire. His novel David Copperfield is one of the reasons I   started writing fiction, and Dickens has been a big influence in my writing.

 9. Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to receive  it?

            If there was a story I wanted to write, I’d write it whether or not I thought readers were ready for it. I had some concerns about writing That You Are Here because it’s  a love story between two men, and I’m not a gay man. I’m not a gay woman, for that   matter, so I wasn’t sure what people would think of the story coming from me. That     didn’t stop me from writing the book, though. I saw the two love interests, Andrew Whittaker and Mark Bryce, so clearly. I saw their deep love for each other, and I saw  the struggles they had to overcome, so I decided to write the novel anyway and I’m  very glad I did. Even if I had concerns, if the story struck me hard enough and I   was compelled to write it, I   would write it anyway.
            



THAT YOU ARE HERE
by Meredith Allard

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BLURB:

On the outside, handsome, successful attorney Andrew Whittaker has everything in life. On the inside, he has everything too, only he doesn't know it. He hides the love of his life, Mark Bryce, from his family and everyone else where he lives in Portland, Oregon. Soon the weight of the secret becomes too much for Andrew. After wrestling with himself and his place in the world, he must decide how he’s going to live—with or without Mark.


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EXCERPT:



Andrew’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He put his lunch bag on the counter, nodding at the message from Lisa Bloom, his secretary. He scanned his e-mails and grimaced at the phone. “I have to go.” He left at a sprint through the kitchen door to his silver Mercedes in the attached one-car garage. He didn’t even like the car, but that’s what the senior partners at his firm drove, so that’s what he drove too. Andrew opened the garage door, got into the driver’s seat, slid the key into the ignition, started the car, and jumped at the knock on his window. He shrugged sheepishly, opened the window, and took his lunch bag.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m a little distracted today.”

“Today?” A sigh. “That car is such a gas guzzler. You need a hybrid. This is Portland. You’re supposed to be green.”

“Kermit the Frog green?”

“Any kind of green you want to be.”

Andrew looked at the person watching him with such open-hearted love in those soft gold-brown eyes. 

“Mark?” Andrew said.

“Yes, Andrew.”

“Thank you.”

Mark Bryce leaned his head through the open window and kissed Andrew’s cheek. “Anything for you, beautiful boy.”

When Andrew stopped at the red light on Bancroft Street he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled his phone from his pocket, saw the screen and cringed, peering at the nearby drivers as though they were reporting his every move to some great eye in the sky. The text was from Mark.

Stop looking at your phone!



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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Meredith Allard is the author of The Loving Husband Trilogy, That You Are Here, Victory Garden, Woman of Stones, and My Brother’s Battle (Copperfield Press). She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from California State University, Northridge. Her short fiction and articles have appeared in journals such as The Paumanok Review, The Maxwell Digest, Wild Mind, Muse Apprentice Guild, Writer’s Weekly, Moondance, CarbLite, and ViewsHound. She has taught writing to students aged ten to sixty, and she has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction seminars at Learning Tree University, UNLV, and the Las Vegas Writers Conference. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Website - http://www.meredithallard.com/
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/copperfield101
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/authormeredithallard
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/That-You-Are-Here-Novel-ebook/dp/B00I17XBBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401234223&sr=8-1&keywords=that+you+are+here





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