We welcome McKay of Ari McKay writing duo fame is here today! She's here to promote their latest Dreamspun Desires novel, Breaking Bonds too! Don't miss our 5 heart review HERE!
Hi, everyone! I’m the McKay half of Ari McKay, and I’d like to start by thanking Boy Meets Boy Reviews for hosting us on our blog tour for our newest release, Breaking Bonds. I thought it might be fun to do a brief author interview for this post, so let’s dive into the Q&A! Just as a side note, I’m speaking only for myself with these answers. Ari might have different responses.
Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?
I was read to a lot pretty much from the time I was born, so it’s unsurprising that I began reading early and had a pretty big vocabulary from a young age. My love of books became ingrained, and I’ve always been a voracious reader. I started writing stories (Disney fanfiction, basically) when I was around 9 or 10, and I’ve been writing ever since.
What books have most influenced your life?
Jane Eyre is a big one. I’ve always loved stories focused on love and romance, but I think reading Jane Eyre at a relatively young age (I was around 12 or 13) helped shape my preferences. Jane is such a strong and strong-willed character who wants to be an equal partner. “Reader, I married him” is such a wonderfully feminist and subversive line.
What is the hardest thing about writing for you?
Putting my butt in the chair and doing it. Ari and I will often say we’re spoiled because it’s so much easier and faster to write with someone than to write alone, and it is, but that doesn’t mean we can make ourselves write every day. Sometimes, one of us will be exhausted or emotionally/mentally drained after a hard day. Sometimes, one of us won’t feel well. Sometimes, one of us just isn’t feeling it that day. Sometimes, the character is being balky.
Deadlines certainly do help with motivation, but we don’t always have a looming deadline to keep us on track. For my solo writing, I’ve found it helpful to assign myself deadlines with a planned reward if I make it, and I check in with Ari about my progress to hold myself accountable. Knowing I have to admit that I didn’t meet my goal to someone else will often give me a little push to keep going.
Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?
There are a couple of different messages that Ari and I would like people to take away from the book. The title comes from the inner struggles that both Carter and Liam have to face over the course of the book. Carter has to deal with his toxic, controlling parents, which is an obvious bond that needs to be broken if he wants to be happy. Liam’s bonds are more subtle, but they exist, and he has to deal with them.
So the main theme of the book focuses on making choices about the direction of your life. What are you willing to put up with in order to maintain the bonds you have? Are the bonds supporting you or holding you back? Making big changes is scary, but sometimes the results are worth it.
What are your future project(s)?
Let’s see… Currently we’re working on a third book in the Walker Boys series, the first book in a series for Dreamspinner Press’s Dreamspun Undercover line, and a short story for Dreamspinner’s holiday Daily Dose. We’re also working on a contemporary romance that we’re planning to self-publish; if it does well, it could easily turn into a series as well. That’s what is in our immediate writing queue. Beyond that, we’ve got the second and third books in the Asheville Arcana series to write. The first book, Out of the Ashes, will be released by Dreamspinner in August. With us, it’s always a case of too many books to write and too little time!
From the frying pan into the fire.
After a critic’s review attacks both Chef Liam Walker’s culinary skills and his personal life, Liam can no longer take the heat of the cutthroat New York City restaurant scene. He needs to get out of the kitchen—at least long enough to cool down and regroup.
At the Overlook Resort in North Carolina, Liam meets owner Carter Galloway. Carter has a passion for the hospitality business to rival Liam’s own, and it’s not hard to see where their shared interests—and attraction—could lead. But Carter has no interest in a fling, and Liam has no intention of walking away from the career he fought so hard for. If they want a taste of happiness together, they’ll have to find the courage to break the bonds threatening to pull them apart.
Buy Links:
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
BIO:
Ari McKay is the professional pseudonym for Arionrhod and McKay, who have been writing together for over a decade. Their collaborations encompass a wide variety of romance genres, including contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, gothic, and action/adventure. Their work includes the Blood Bathory series of paranormal novels, the Herc’s Mercs series, as well as two historical Westerns: Heart of Stone and Finding Forgiveness. When not writing, they can often be found scheming over costume designs or binge watching TV shows together.
Arionrhod is a systems engineer by day who is eagerly looking forward to (hopefully) becoming a full time writer in the not-too-distant future. Now that she is an empty-nester, she has turned her attentions to finding the perfect piece of land to build a fortress in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, and baking (and eating) far too many cakes.
McKay is an English teacher who has been writing for one reason or another most of her life. She also enjoys knitting, reading, cooking, and playing video games. She has been known to knit in public. Given she has the survival skills of a gnat, she’s relying on Arionrhod to help her survive the zombie apocalypse.
CONTACTS:
Website: http://arimckay.wordpress.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ari-Mckay/266185570179748
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ari.mckay.7
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AriMcKay1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6153630.Ari_McKay
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