Giveaway + Blog Tour: Runaway Rock Star by C.J. Anthony

C.J. Anthony is here today with an excerpt from her new novel, Runaway Rock Star.

Don't forget to comment for a chance to win the prize pack! Good luck!

Thank you Boy Meets Boy for having me on the blog today! I’m finishing up my Runaway Rock Star Road Blog Tour! —I’ve been visiting some great blogs, sharing background about the book, about Ohio, and there were a couple of fun interviews with Lucas and Brandon along the way. The stops are listed below and any posts you comment on during the tour will enter you for a fun prize pack at the end that includes a $20 GC to the eBook retailer of your choice.

Runaway Rock Star is a part of the States of Love series from Dreamspinner Press. A little background on the series for those who may not know what it is, the States of Love series is a series with one book about each state in the United States, all written by different authors.

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I’ve had a blast writing these blogs and getting to share some things about Ohio and also share my love of music.

I’ve also enjoyed sharing bits of the story. I think I’m going to close out the tour by sharing another excerpt. This is how Lucas and Brandon ended up on their road trip.

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Two hours later Brandon found himself in the first row at the front of the stage at Quicken Loans arena, his eardrums shattering from the screams of thousands of girls and women behind him. The opening act had played, the roadies and techs had readied the stage, and now the arena was darkening once again. Brandon couldn’t believe he was here. He should have been pulling into his parents’ drive right about now, happy to be done with the drive and ready for the requisite hug from his mom, and a dish of one of her home-cooked meals warming in the oven. Instead he was still in Cleveland, at a Lucas Black concert. When he had called his mom earlier, she had tried to convince him to just stay the night and drive home in the morning, but he swore he would be okay to drive home after the concert. He’d load up on coffee or Red Bull™ and drive with the window down to keep himself awake if he needed to.

The backing musicians entered the stage and settled in with their instruments, starting the opening notes to one of Lucas’s numerous number one songs. The screaming behind him got louder as the final person to walk out on stage was, of course, Lucas himself. His signature glow-in-the-dark guitar was slung across his body, and all that could be seen at first was a guitar bobbing forward on stage seemingly by itself. Once Lucas had reached the microphone, the lights came up. The guitar changed colors, LED lights on it flickering and moving in a preprogrammed pattern. Lucas was dressed in tight jeans, a stretched-out V-neck T-shirt, and a battered leather motorcycle-style jacket that he abandoned three songs into the set.

Although the songs were not to Brandon’s personal taste, he had to admit Lucas was a mesmerizing performer. He was full of energy, running all around the stage. He acknowledged the fans and talked between songs, bringing them into the performance, at least as much as one could be intimate with twenty thousand people. Visually, his stage show included an impressive amount of lights and strobes, and there was one huge video screen that stretched across the entire back of the stage. Preprogrammed video clips were intercut with a live feed of what was happening onstage for everyone in the cheap seats to have a better view.

Brandon strictly focused on Lucas, ignoring the pop songs that all sounded the same (to him anyway). He knew why Lucas had such a female following. The man was sex on legs, swaggering and flirting his way through the performance. His T-shirt was so drenched with sweat by the end, his nipples showed through the wet fabric.

After the final encore, as Lucas and his band stood at the front of the stage waving their goodbyes and appreciation to the fans, Lucas broke away and bent down to shake hands with some of the fans in the front row. When he got to Brandon, he gave Brandon a big smile and reached out to shake his hand. Brandon felt awkward since they knew each other in a professional manner and Brandon was not there as a fan, desperate to make contact with an idol, but he reached his hand out as well and when he pulled back, he realized that Lucas had slipped a piece of paper into his hand. Brandon unfolded it, barely able to make out the scribbled scrawl of blue pen on the paper.

Come backstage mate, hang out for a few. L.

Brandon sighed. He really wanted to get on the road, but of course, he didn’t want to rock the boat and ruin any relationship between the museum and Lucas, so as the rest of the fans around him were leaving their seats and heading toward the exits, Brandon walked around to the side of the stage, not sure exactly where he was going. He told the first burly, muscled security guy he ran into that he was with the Rock Hall and had been invited backstage by Lucas. The mammoth guy’s tight expression slackened, and he let Brandon by.

Backstage was a madhouse. Brandon had to jockey around an obstacle course of people and equipment and navigate a confusing maze of hallways. Finally, someone wearing a laminated badge and holding a clipboard pointed him in the right direction. He approached a security guard standing in front of a door with a “Lucas Black” placard in bold capital letters, but he was surprised to find he didn’t even have to announce who he was. As soon as the guard saw him, he knocked on Lucas’s door. After a faint “come in” from the other side, the guard opened the door for Brandon.

Lucas walked out from the bathroom rubbing a towel over his wet hair. He was in a different pair of jeans, but barefoot and shirtless. Brandon couldn’t help but glance at his naked chest and then felt awkward for doing so. Lucas was lithe and fit. His biceps were slight but looked strong.

He smiled at Brandon and threw the towel toward the bathroom doorway. “Harris, you made it!”

Brandon smiled back at him. “Yes, thanks for getting me in. It was great.”

Lucas snorted. He sat on a couch, pulled some socks on his bare feet, and then shoved on a pair of black Chuck Taylors. “I know you thought the music was shit. You don’t have to lie about it. If I were in the audience, I probably would have thought the music was shit. But the show was a’right, wasn’t it?”

“The show was really good. You work the crowd well.”

“Yeah, well… there’s nothing like playing live in front of people, ya know?”

By this time Lucas had thrown on a clean white tee and was running his fingers through his hair. His other hand was tugging on the hem of his shirt. Next he began pacing erratically, his normally smooth swagger off. Brandon began to wonder if he was hopped up on something.

“So… you probably have to get going, right? I mean, you’re still driving to your mum’s?”

Brandon looked carefully at Lucas. “Yes,” he said slowly. “I’m actually heading down tonight, as soon as I leave here.”

“Cool. Cool.” Lucas wasn’t even looking at Brandon as he spoke. He was peering out a small window. Just as Brandon was going to make his goodbye and hightail it out of this weird situation, Lucas spun around to face him.

“Could I come?”

Brandon’s eyebrows shot up. Those were the last words he expected to hear from the rock star. “What?”

“Can I hitch a ride, mate? My next show is in Cincinnati.”

Brandon scratched his head. “You have a multimillion-dollar tricked-out tour bus. And you want to bum a ride?”

Lucas sighed. “The loo on the bus is broken. It’s really nasty. And I’m stuck on there with Nate, my tour manager, and he farts up the most toxic gas storm. Come on, help a poor down-on-his-luck rock star out, eh?”

This is unbelievable, Brandon thought. Lucas still seemed agitated as he looked out the window again.

“Are you on something?”

Now it was Lucas’s turn to give Brandon a confused look. “What? You mean drugs? Hell no! I never touch the stuff. What the fuck, mate?”

“Well, you just seem really on edge, not like the guy I met earlier.”

“Oh it’s just… you know… the extra energy from the show. So come on, Harris. What do you say?”
Against his better judgment, Brandon agreed. “Sure… okay, I guess.”

Lucas lit up at his answer. “Super, awesome!” Lucas turned and bent over the couch, rummaging around for something. He finally came back up with a handful of items. Brandon watched in confusion as Lucas put on a baggy black shirt that said “SECURITY” across the back in bold yellow letters. He threw on his Ray-Bans and a black trucker hat that also said “SECURITY” on it.

Lucas looked at Brandon. “Disguise, Harris. Easier to get by the fans this way. Trust me, I’m an expert by now.” He grimaced. Nodding toward a steel gray door, he motioned with his hand toward Brandon. “Come on, we should go.”


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If you enjoyed this excerpt, pick up the book, there are more shenanigans to be had. And the itinerary for my blog trip is listed below; I hope you’ll visit each blog along with me! Don’t forget to leave comments to be entered for the prize giveaway. Also be sure to check out the blurb and info about the book.


May 3 MM Good Book Reviews
May 10 My Fiction Nook
May 11 Love Bytes Reviews
May 12 Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
May 15 Open Skye Book Reviews
May 17 The Novel Approach
May 18 Boy Meets Boy Reviews


Buy Links: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Blurb:

Just hours before Brandon Harris is supposed to head home to Cincinnati for a Labor Day family picnic, his boss at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame forces him into giving a private tour to bratty British pop rock star Lucas Black. Before he knows it, he finds himself swept up in a whirlwind road trip through Ohio with Lucas riding shotgun.

Lucas grabs hold of this wild opportunity to run away—even for a few precious days—from the gilded cage that is his carefully managed life. He's just looking for a little fun and freedom as a normal person. From roller coasters to a college football game, Brandon begins to see the real Lucas Black buried under the famous persona. But by the time he and Lucas discover their mutual attraction, they only have one night left before both of them have to go back to their real lives. The fun is over...unless Lucas can run away for real this time and keep their adventure going.

Author Bio:

C. J. Anthony grew up watching soap operas and reading piles of books. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother, who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging piles of books home for her. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and traveling to the moon with her best friend.

C. J.’s favorite stories to read and write include “opposites attract” pairings—couples who appear to be an odd couple to the rest of the world, but fit together perfectly, finding their own happily-ever-after with a little hard work and a whole lot of love.

Not surprisingly, C. J. is a big lover of rom coms—she’ll gladly take Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant asking him to love her over car crashes and shoot-em-up movies any day. She also watches way too much TV and every singing reality show there is. She loves music of all genres and attending live concerts.

She spends most of her time juggling a day job and a commute and freelance and falling asleep on her couch, dreaming of a day when she can write all day in her pajamas while living in a house by the beach.

E-mail: cjanthony70@gmail.com
Blog: https://cjanthony.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cjanthony.writer
Twitter: @C_J_Anthony

All comments tour wide are entered to win a prize pack that includes a $20 gift card!