J.S Wayne is a guest on my blog today

I'd like to welcome J.S. Wayne to my blog today.  Let's find out more about him and his book.

Hi, Lily! Thank you so much for having me here today.  J

1-How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing since I was eleven, but it wasn’t until I was seventeen that I actually tried to write a novel. It took me fifteen years to get that first novel out, and I’ve been writing professionally ever since. This surprises a lot of people, but I didn’t start off in romance. My first novel was an urban fantasy! But I wrote a couple of erotic romance stories just to see if I could and wound up getting them published.

2- What is your favorite genre to write? 

I love to write romance. I think there’s a power and an emotional capacity within the genre that simply can’t be found anywhere else. I have the opportunity to make a reader cry, laugh, scream, feel erotic arousal, or sleep with the lights on for a night or two. To my way of thinking, having just one reader tell me “I loved your story because __________” makes the effort of writing a given story well worth the time. J

3- What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on a couple of different stories. I have one with the working title “A Demon For Dinner” which was inspired by a Changeling Press flash fiction call. It’s a lesbian paranormal romance about a BBW who finds herself entertaining a seductive demon from Hades as part of a cultural exchange program and learns as much about herself and her real beauty as she does about loving a woman. Then I have a story called “Always a Bridesmaid…” which is set at the same wedding reception where Ben and Melanie, from “Even Groomsmen Get The Blues,” start their happily ever after. Finally, I’m working on a novel called Artistic License, an interracial BBW BDSM romance set in Detroit. (There seems to be a theme here. ;) ) My hope is to have the stories off my desk within the next two weeks and the novel by the first of July, but that depends on whether my day job writing blogs cooperates! All told, I write about seven thousand words a day.

4- When you start a new story do you begin with a character or plot?

I always start with a plot. It’s usually a simple “What if/what then?” that snowballs. I like to have the rough outline of a plot (always in my head; I’ve tried being an outline Nazi and it’s just not my style) and then create characters to fit. It’s not unusual for me not to know the names or physical descriptions of my characters until I’m about six thousand words in! When I do that, I write something like [FL] for “female lead,” and then go back and add in the details where appropriate. Sounds kinda weird when I say it that way, but it works!

5- Tell us about your latest/upcoming release. What inspired it?

I have to thank the folks at Changeling Press for “Even Groomsmen Get The Blues,” because it was also inspired by their weekly flash fiction challenges! (No, I’m not a shill…the prompts are just that good!) The prompt was to write two people hooking up at a wedding in 150 words or less. I wrote a reply that was exactly 150 words. Then another. Then another. By the time the night was over people on the loop were asking for “MORE!” and I’d posted 1,350 words. Not bad for a guy doing eighteen credits of college and working to boot! So I sat down and wrote the rest of the story over the next four days, gave it a once-over to make sure I hadn’t made any egregious editorial errors (there were, of course, a few I missed and which my kick-ass editor Vicki Burklund picked up!) and fired it off. About three weeks later, I had a contract and started my association with Changeling. Been a hell of a ride, and I’ve met some really awesome people as a result! 

 Here’s a taste before I take off. Thanks again, Lily, and all you wonderful readers! I appreciate each and every one of you! J

An awkward wedding. A beautiful woman. A gunshy groomsman. Does love stand a chance?

Ben Grimm hates weddings on general principle. The fact he would have been one of the intended if his fiancée hadn't been sleeping with half of Grove Park isn't improving his outlook. Ben does his duty as Mike's groomsman, but once the ceremony's over Ben's had enough. As he's trying to decide how soon he can politely leave, Melanie Carson, one of the bridesmaids, comes over and makes Ben an offer he can't resist.
One-night stands aren't Ben's style, and the sultry redhead who took him to new heights of erotic pleasure assures him she's not interested in being an angel of the morning. Somewhere along the line, without ever having met him, Melanie decided to offer Ben her heart. Now it's up to Ben to decide whether the exquisite sex is worth giving another woman a chance to break his heart... or if he's ready to try to let Melanie heal it.

Excerpt: Rated R (and probably NSFW) for language and suggestive dialogue

Being single and lonely sucked even worse when he had to dress up in a monkey suit and dance around acting all happy for his best friend, Ben Grimm reflected. He loved Mike like a brother, but right now he wanted nothing more than to "adjust" Mike's teal bow tie until he choked the idiotic, I'm-so-in-love grin off the groom's face.

"Jack and Coke," he yelled to the bartender over the thudding beat of the music. The bartender nodded and bustled off to take the order of a rowdy crew at the other end. Ben sighed, running a hand through his ash blond hair, and peeked at the clock surreptitiously, wondering how much longer good manners demanded he stay. Being a single guy at a wedding sucked syphilitic goat peckers, Ben ruminated. The few decent-looking women on display were either taken, too young, or eyeballing another potential conquest, which left him out in the cold.

He didn't begrudge Mike and Lacey their happiness, and he certainly didn't want to be a cloud on their day. If Veronica hadn't done what she had, this would have been a double wedding.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, he thought sardonically, checking the clock again. His feet ached from standing for most of the day, his lower back was starting to spasm from an overly enthusiastic turn on the dance floor with a cute nine-year-old girl who had a charming lisp and who'd developed the kind of prepubescent crush he just didn't have the heart to turn down, and he felt the beginnings of a low-grade migraine settling in at the back of his head. He'd have one drink, make his excuses, and get the hell away from all this lovey-dovey bullshit.

"Got a date?" a husky feminine voice murmured in his ear, downy soft lips brushing his sensitive lobe.

He whipped his head to the right ruthlessly enough to wrench his neck and provoke a strangled curse. When he saw the speaker, whiplash tumbled to the bottom of his priorities list. She can't be... His jaw dropped, and a gibbering voice in his head screamed, Say something, stupid!

"Were you talking to me?" Ben's mouth felt even drier.

The redhead laughed, exposing the creamy sweep of her throat and rolling her shoulders so the tips of her breasts pressed against the teal satin of her gown. "I thought if I didn't come talk to you, you were either going to slip out the door or jump out the window." Her large eyes, the exact shade of her dress, played over him appraisingly. "I'm Melanie."

He stuck his hand out awkwardly. "Ben."

She took the offered hand. His cock pressed uncomfortably against his zipper, responding to her heat. Six months of enforced monkitude had done nothing to make his errant manhood behave itself, and Melanie was sexy enough to push every hot button he had just by engaging in basic social contact. For a moment he entertained a fantasy of her spread-eagled on a bed while he took her, and he locked the erotic thought down fast. If he'd been a little quicker, he might have avoided the painful erection the woman before him had triggered.

Melanie pulled away, sliding her gaze south of his cummerbund as if mentally subtracting his tuxedo from the equation.

"You planning to drill through the wall? Or can I suggest a better use for that?"

Ben flushed. "I'm not sure what you mean..."

Melanie cut him off with the faintest hint of an eye roll. "Sure you're not. Look, I'm lonely, horny, and need to fuck. You're obviously up to the job -- unless you're here with someone?"

He growled a little. "Unless you count the groom, no."

She nodded. "I'm with Lacey's party." She paused for a moment, looking up at him with great significance. "I've been watching you."

Ben's eyebrow lifted skyward. "Oh?"

"Lacey told me what Veronica did to you. We work together," she added. "I've always thought Veronica was a stuck-up little c --"

"Young lady?" Ben asked, keeping his tone just on the socially acceptable side of polite as he parried the epithet he knew trembled on Melanie's luscious lips. He didn't want to talk about Veronica. He didn't want to think about Veronica, even though he privately agreed with Melanie's stance on his ex-fiancee at this point. At the moment he only wanted to take Melanie anywhere he could hike up the hem of her expensive dress and ball her into Nirvana without the immediate universe seeing him.

Melanie was hot enough to melt steel, but that clearly didn't make her dense. Quickly, she changed the subject. "Do you want to... go somewhere else?"

Ben didn't need to be asked twice. "Where did you have in mind?"

Melanie grinned and seized his hand. She started towing him across the floor, adding a little extra flounce to her backside as she walked for Ben's benefit. "How would you like to do something really naughty?"

Buy link: http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?upt=book&ubid=2028

Also, here’s an excerpt from my first review for “Groomsmen!”

"There are very few guys that I know of that write romance really well and J.S. is one of them."

-- Barb Hicks, Bad Barb's Place

 Bio:

Author Bio: Born in Amarillo, Texas, J.S. Wayne has lived, worked, and traveled in approximately three quarters of the North American continent, and has amassed a résumé that could kindly be described as "eclectic." He currently resides in Southern Utah, where he attends Southern Utah University as an undergraduate English major with a creative writing emphasis. He is actively involved with the Kolob Canyon Review, SUU's literary journal, as well as the Red Thread Movement, is an Honors student and a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors society, and is the founder and CEO of Writing Out Child Abuse, a charitable initiative to raise funds and awareness for survivors of child abuse worldwide.

J.S. Wayne's work has been or is being published by Noble Romance Publishing, Cleis Press, Black Velvet Seductions, the Kolob Canyon Review, Changeling Press, and Erotic Romance Authors (ERAuthors.org). He describes himself as "a male romance writer, without apologies!" J.S. can be found on Twitter @jswayne702, maintains a blog at jswayne.wordpress.com, and can be contacted via email at jswayne702@gmail.com. He enjoys talking with and hearing from his readers, and he invites you to drop him a line!