1-How
long have you been writing?
Pretty much always. I did some creative
writing through school, then later wrote non-fiction articles for sports and
fitness magazines. I dabbled with writing a novel for a long time, but it
wasn’t until about three years ago now, that I started getting serious about
it.
2-What
is your favorite genre to write?
MM romance! J I love the idea of two people meeting, destined for each
other, falling madly in love, and overcoming all obstacles, including
themselves, to find their happily ever after. I mostly write contemporary,
though I do have some vampires in the plot bunny folder.
3-What
are you working on now?
Well, I was working on a story about a
nerdy young man finding his worth. It’s a contemporary MM with a touch of
magic. But I’ve put that aside temporarily for two holiday themed stories with tight
deadlines. One is a sweet MM contemporary that stems from the same snowstorm
that triggered Riding with Heaven,
and the other is a bit of a rom-com contemporary MM that bunny-hopped into my
head after a conversation with some friends. After those three I’ll be working
on the second Long Tall Drink story.
4-When
you start a new story do you begin with character or plot?
It depends. Sometimes it’s a character,
sometimes it’s the plot. But more often than not it’s a combination of the two.
Most of my stories start with a scene in my head, or a conversation between two
characters, when I’m waking up. Dream fragments. Then I mull them over and
wonder what the rest of their story is.
5- Tell us about your latest/upcoming release,
what inspired it?
My latest
release, Riding with Heaven, was
inspired by one of my old roommates, actually. I was living in Colorado when
the big snowstorm of 2006 hit just before Christmas. It was crazy—two feet of
snow in four hours, and it shut down the Denver International Airport for two
full days. My roommate was supposed to fly out the next morning, so instead of
cancelling her trip or waiting to be rescheduled the following week, she placed
an ad on Craigslist for a rideshare home. I never really thought about how
crazy that was until I dropped her off at a gas station the next morning. But
off she went and all was well.
It wasn’t until
last year when I was out walking my dog that I thought about that and asked
myself, “what if?” The whole story played out in my head while walking, and the
second I got home I went straight to the computer and wrote the entire
synopsis.
Riding
with Heaven Blurb:
When
his flight home for his brother’s birthday is canceled due to a Category 5
hurricane on the Eastern seaboard, art major Evan McGrath places an ad on
Craigslist for a rideshare from Colorado to South Carolina. He hadn’t expected
an immediate reply, nor had he expected to fall head-over-heels for the
handsome and mysterious driver, Lucas Briscoe.
As
the miles disappear behind them Evan grows more and more attracted to the
enigmatic Lucas, and the desire is mutual. The only problem is that a serial
killer dubbed “The Domino Slasher” has just escaped a federal prison transfer,
and funny little coincidences keep pointing toward Lucas – who looks like
Heaven incarnate, but who could be the Devil in disguise.
Riding
with Heaven Excerpt:
Evan fumbled with the card key before the
little light on the lock flashed from red to green, and the meaning of that
wasn’t lost on him. He slowly pushed the door open, somewhat disbelieving what
he was doing, yet at the same time unable to stop. He wanted Lucas. Never
wanted anyone as much so quickly, and there was no denying that his desire
wasn’t one-sided. Who was Evan to argue? He could break his own rules if he
wanted to, and good God, did he ever.
He stepped inside and flicked on the
light, then turned around—suddenly feeling very out of his depth—to find Lucas
leaning against the door with fire in his eyes. It seemed like an eternity to
Evan as they stood there, practically eye-fucking each other.
Lucas pushed off from the door and closed
the distance between them like that big bad lion stalking that wee little
mouse. But the little mouse would not run. Their gazes remained locked until
their bodies were mere inches from contact. Evan couldn’t look away if he
tried. His every sense heightened into sharp awareness. The soft gust of
Lucas’s breath on his skin washed over him like warm ocean waves and reminded
him of home. The subtle scent of leather mingled with the bitter hint of coffee
Lucas had drunk at the restaurant. Even their breathing, increasing in rate and
decreasing in depth, sounded desperate and ragged to his ears. Beyond that,
beyond them, the world didn’t exist. Just he and Lucas and what they were about
to do.
Evan dropped his gaze to Lucas’s parted
lips, and Lucas took it as a green flag. He reached out and cupped the back of
Evan’s head, then leaned in and brushed his lips lightly across Evan’s. Just
that light touch, that brief silken caress, and the synapses in Evan’s brain
began to misfire.
Lucas placed his other hand on Evan’s hip
and gently pulled him closer until their bodies were flush. The heat of Lucas’s
body, the hard ridge of his erection pressing against Evan’s, was enough to
buckle Evan’s knees. Evan wrapped both arms around Lucas’s waist and hung on
for dear life. Lucas captured Evan’s bottom lip and gave a playful tug, then
released and teased the line of Evan’s upper lip with his tongue. But Evan
wanted more, needed more. He opened, and Lucas accepted.
Lucas tilted his head to deepen the kiss,
and then their tongues met in an erotic slide. Heat zinged through Evan’s body
in every direction, his heart banged a rapid staccato against his rib cage, and
a guttural moan rumbled deep in his throat. He pressed closer to Lucas, trying
to crawl inside his skin.
And the kiss went on in a tangle of
tongues and bump of teeth and moans of pleasure and groans of restrained
desire. Good God, the man knows how to
kiss! Lucas buried both hands in Evan’s hair and tugged his head back,
finally breaking the endless kiss and exposing his neck. Evan moaned a
complaint, wanting Lucas’s lips back on his, wanting their tongues to continue
their sensual dance. But Lucas ignored his plea and nipped and kissed at the
sensitive skin behind Evan’s ear, down the column of his neck, and then sucked
gently on his Adam’s apple. Evan closed his eyes and shoved a hand up into
Lucas’s hair.
“Yessss,” he said on a reedy breath.
“Lucas.”
Then with a frustrated sigh, Lucas
stopped his seductive ministrations and dropped his forehead to rest against
the base of Evan’s neck. His breath huffed harsh and shallow on Evan’s bare
skin. He disentangled one hand from Evan’s hair, slid it slowly down the side
of his torso to his hip, and gently pushed so their lower bodies were no longer
in contact. Evan whined his dismay, and Lucas chuckled softly. If Evan hadn’t
been so beyond turned on, that might have embarrassed him, but just then, he
couldn’t see much past the need to strip Lucas naked and taste every inch of
his skin.
“No hookups, remember?” Lucas mumbled.
Evan lowered his chin to rest on Lucas’s
head, the hair against his skin soft as silk, and growled. “Who the hell said
that?”
Lucas stepped back to the door, opening a
respectable, if reluctant, space between them.
“Good night, Evan McGrath.” And with that
he turned, opened the door, and disappeared into the night.
“Bastard,” Evan whispered after the door
clicked softly shut, then smiled.
* * *
Riding with Heaven
is available at Loose Id, Amazon
and ARe.
Artist
by day, author by night, L.C. Chase is a hopeless romantic and adventure seeker.
After a decade of road tripping on three continents, she now calls the Canadian
West Coast home. When not writing tales of beautiful men falling love, L.C. can
be found designing book covers of said beautiful men, reading, drawing, running
the trails with her goofy four-legged buddy who, if he were human, would be a
stand up comedian, and fighting her root beer addiction.
Find
L.C. on her website, Blog, Goodreads, Twitter and DeviantArt.
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