- When you start a book, do you have the whole story in your head or does it build?
When I start to write a book, it’s usually because the characters have been talking for a while. Usually most of the book is in my head but it really develops once I start writing it.
- What is the hardest part about writing your books?
Hardest part would be the extensive research. I try to make sure I’m knowledgably of my characters professions, the setting/environment of the book, etc.
- How do you come up with the titles?
I usually don’t have a title until I’m almost completely done with a book, and it literally will just pop into my head. I’ve only needed help with two of my book titles, and that was: Nothing Special and Defined by Deceit. I took suggestions on both of those when nothing was coming to mind.
- How do you celebrate a new book?
Always first. My husband will take me to my favorite restaurant for my favorite dinner. Surf and turf. Prime rib and lobster. After, I’ll take a short break and pamper myself: shopping, movies, dancing, lots and lots of pleasure reading, before I start the next book.
- Do your characters ever take over and take the story in a different direction?
Yes, which is often. For example in Defined by Deceit, Ace was supposed to be a very bad guy that Llew constantly had to fight; but that changed the more I typed. Ace became a good guy. Llew was also supposed to get arrested again and go through a similar situation like when he was first arrested, but Moss had a different idea, he chose to come to Llew and apologize instead of standing up in a court room at the end. I didn’t know any of this until I began writing those scenes.
- What makes you want to write?
EVERYTHING!
- What are you working on now?
Hopefully, my editor doesn’t see this interview yet. But I’ve set another excruciating deadline. I’m trying to put out the next Nothing Special book and the final installment in the Blue Moon series in the next two to three months.
- ebooks or paperbacks?
I’m old fashioned. I miss the days of going to Barnes and Noble and picking out title after title. But when I switched to exclusively MM reads ten years ago, I had to go more electronic after a while. I still prefer print over ebooks, but I still mostly read electronic for convenience of course. It’s simply faster, easier, and space saving.
- Where do you read and write?
I have a writing room in my home on the far side of the house. I usually read in my bedroom at night.
- Favorite book?
GA Hauser: The Wedding Planner.
Author A.E. Via
Title: DEFINED BY DECEIT
M/M GAY ROMANCE CONTEMPORARY
Edited by: Tina Adamski
Cover Art by: Jay Aheer
300 Pages
Release Date: March 27, 2015
SYNOPSIS
Life isn’t always fair, and that’s something that Llewellyn Gardner knows about first hand. His life was on the fast track until one night of extreme passion changed everything. Now eight years later, he’s still living with the aftershocks of that night. Everywhere he turns or runs, there’s another reminder. What the hell do you do when you try to drown your demons only to find out they can swim?
Shane Smith, Jr. owner of Smith Construction, could see the emotional turmoil within his new employee — it’s why he hired him. There was something about the gorgeous, misunderstood man with the overly expressive eyes that came to their small town with a past no one was willing to overlook. Shane could see the good in Llewellyn, and those eyes of his were a clear window to his soul. Shane wasn’t going to let the man live a future of solitude because his past had been plagued with deceit.
Llewellyn wasn’t sure what to think about Shane. After years of protecting himself from being tricked twice, he was now faced with worry again. What would happen to him if Shane didn’t believe his truth, and walked away? Llewellyn wasn’t sure he’d be able to survive being left alone. Again.
Available at: Amazon ♥ Barnes & Noble ♥ AllRomance
Excerpt:
“Jessie, did anyone come by today applying for a job?” Shane asked, bursting through the trailer door. He had one ear trained on her response while the other was tilted towards his hand-held radio, listening to his foreman’s directions to where he’d stashed the architect’s blueprints.
“Yes. Three people actually. One man and two women. I know you were hoping for more, but give it some time. We’ve only had the ad up for a couple days.” Jessie swiveled around in her chair and dug out three manila files from one of her many file cabinets. The woman was a stickler about leaving items in their assigned place. She was meticulous, and her organization skills bordered on OCD. No one dared mess with her side of the trailer. Shane’s desk; however, had a nonexistent system. His motto was to ask someone else where something was.
“What was the guy’s name who applied?” Shane tried to sound nonchalant as he pushed aside
numerous papers on his drafting table.
“Um. Llewellyn Garden… no… Gardner,” Jessie said, flipping through the application. “I flagged this one.”
“Hire him,” Shane said, hurrying back to the door, trying to hide his excitement at the possibility of seeing Llewellyn in worn jeans riding low from the weight of a tool belt hanging on his strong hips.
“Shane Jr. there’s something you should know about that applicant. I had him flagged for no hire. I mean, he has good experience and references checked out but—”
“Sounds good. Call him today before he accepts a job someplace else,” Shane said, cutting off whatever else his office manager was going to say. He was half out the door, his arms weighed down with rolls of paper. Jack was radioing him; barking about the hold up on the blue prints. “I gotta go Jess. Just call him, now.”
“Shane, there’s something you don’t know about Mr. Gard—”
Shane let the trailer door slam behind him. Jessie could go on and on about the smallest things sometimes. Not everyone was so attentive to detail. Llewellyn probably had bad handwriting and Jessie deemed him as a no hire. As long as the man worked hard and showed up every day, Shane could use him.
I read this book because I have enjoyed other books by this author, in particular A.E. Via’s Nothing Special series featuring the steamy hot detectives God and Day. I picked this one up as soon as it came out; it’s a stand-alone novel, not part of a series, at least not yet. The story starts off really heartbreaking because the incident that lands Llew in prison occurs fairly early in the book. You could see it coming, yet there was no way to stop the forceful event from blowing Llew’s life completely apart. Llew is such a sweet guy; his years in prison were pretty tough to read about, though the author does not dwell on anything too horrible during this time. Llew manages to survive with the help of a gang leader, Ace, who befriends him.
Once Llew is out of prison and gets a fresh start in a new town with a new job, the story really starts rolling. He has some major hang-ups about sex due to the cause of his imprisonment and his dominant personality. Fortunately his new boss, Shane, is the right man for the job. These two have an amazing dynamic and it was a lot of fun to experience the chemistry between them. This author can write a smoking hot sex scene, yet maintain a sense of balance and romance between the characters so it’s not overdone.
All in all, I enjoyed the unique premise and well-rounded characters in this story.
8 out of 10 pots of gold ♥
A.E. Via is still a fairly new author in the beautiful gay erotic genre. Her writing embodies everything from hopelessly romantic to spicy to scandalous. Her stories often include intriguing edges and twists that take readers to new, thought-provoking depths.
When she’s not clicking away at her laptop, she devotes herself to her family—a husband and four children, her two pets, a Maltese dog and her white Siamese cat, ELynn, named after the late, great gay romance author E. Lynn Harris.
While this is only her seventh novel, she has plenty more to come. So stalk her – she loves that – because the male on male action is just heating up!
Go to A.E. Via’s official website http://authoraevia.com for more detailed information on how to contact her, follow her, or a sneak peak on upcoming work, free reads, and where she’ll appear next.
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