TA Moore & C.S. Poe are here today promoting their Advent stories in their own unique fashion. You can also win stuff so keep reading to the bottom! Good luck!
Anthology: Stocking Stuffers (Advent Calendar 2017)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release: December 1, 2017
Blurb:
Ghostwriter of Christmas Past - Ever since ghostwriter Jason Burke ended up in loco parentis for his orphaned niece, Mallory, he’s been trying. He goes to parent/teacher events, and he makes packed lunches, so he definitely didn’t mean to forget about Christmas. He just hasn’t celebrated it since he left home under a cloud years ago.
Put on the spot, Jason makes the snap decision to take Mallory to see where he and her father spent their Christmases as kids. The last thing he expects is to run into Tommy, his ex—ex-best friend, ex-boyfriend—who is still living in town… and working as a sheriff’s deputy.
It’s hard to avoid someone in a small town—and maybe Jason doesn’t want to. He got Mallory a Christmas, and maybe now it’s time to get himself a Christmas boyfriend. But first, he owes Tommy some explanations.
New Game, Start - Reclusive medieval scholar, Edgar Royal, has a crush. On a guy. Not a big deal, except that said guy, Walter Chase, is a famous online gamer who has no idea Edgar even exists. Edgar has harbored these feelings for nearly a year, and when Walter announces on Twitter that he’ll be visiting New York City as a guest at the GamerOn convention, Edgar decides he’ll be one of the thousands of fans who responds to the message.
He definitely doesn’t expect to be singled out by the humble, gorgeous, out-and-proud heartthrob. And when it comes to dealing with people, Edgar’s skills are pretty nonexistent. Even with Walter giving all the right signals, Edgar lacks the courage do anything about the mutual attraction growing through their online courtship. He’s always been better with the written word, so maybe the perfect Christmas gift will say what he cannot. But if Edgar can’t get the present to Walter before the convention ends, he may miss out on the boyfriend of a lifetime.
Tour:
December 4 - Joyfully Jay
December 5 - It’s About the Book
December 6 - Sinfully Gay Romance
December 8 - The Novel Approach
Post Content:
Welcome to TA Moore & C.S. Poe's Irish/American Christmas Blog Tour! We held short interviews with MCs Jason Burke and Tom Ryan (Ghostwriter of Christmas Past TA Moore) and Edgar Royal (New Game, Start C.S. Poe) who will be answering some questions about the holidays!
What’s one traditional Christmas event you look forward to?
TA Moore - Jason Burke:
Merry Christmas, [insert name of author]
Jason Burke is one writer who doesn’t worry about ghostly visits this holiday season
12/8/2016
‘...never heard from that author again,’ Jason Burke admits as he pushes aviator sunglasses onto the top of his head. ‘Shame really, it was a fun world.’
It seems like a man whose bio boasts he was born and raised in New York -- ‘State,’ Burke challenges this statement with a laugh, ‘Only time I got to the Big Apple was when we had a school trip, and that was hardly the seedy side’ -- would find a sunny, tourist-packed La Jolla Christmas a culture shock. Burke looks amused at the question and takes a drink of his coffee, flavoured with a shot of hazelnut instead of the pumpkin spice the barista had been eagerly upselling (I got the spice).
‘I grew up in a town where a man actually froze his balls off one year,’ Burke says. ‘Trust me, I can adapt to a bit of sunshine and mild winters.’
It’s tempting to ask questions, but it’s not the first time that Burke has tried to skew the interview away from Christmas. Is it possible that the tall, dark, and lazily cynical writer doesn’t actually *gasp* like Christmas?
‘I like Christmas,’ Burke protests good-naturedly. ‘What’s not to like about Christmas? You get presents, you get a couple of days off, and it gives gainful employment to men who like to dress like elves. It’s the perfect end to the year.”
It’s not the most convincing defence of the season. Indeed, when Burke is challenged to prove his love, or ‘like’, with a list of his favourite Christmas traditions the writer falters. He props his elbow on the table and his chin on his knuckles as he thinks.
‘Die Hard,’ he finally says. ‘What? It’s a Christmas classic and it was a Christmas tradition in my family. Every Christmas Eve my brother, he was a bit older than me, would put Die Hard on and we’d sit up late to watch it. Most years, I still watch it if I get the chance. And since I own my own house now, I can even turn the volume up enough that I can hear what McClane is saying without disturbing anyone.’
C.S. Poe - Edgar:
“Okay then.” Caroline put her finger on the tablet screen and scrolled briefly. “You’re doing just fine, Mr. Royal,” she murmured.
“Edgar,” I corrected. “Edgar is fine.”
She nodded. “Very well, Edgar. Next question is from Reader, Swift. He asks, ‘What’s one traditional Christmas event you look forward to?’”
“Well… shopping, I guess.”
She looked expectant.
I cleared my throat. “Not actual shopping, shopping— I like the Christmas Market over at Bryant Park. I never buy anything… it’s pricey. But it’s really pretty. And I think it’s romantic. Oh, I said that the Christmas tree was romantic too, didn’t I?” I muttered. I looked down and ripped the sleeve into a few pieces.
“You find the holidays romantic then?” Caroline prodded.
I smiled to myself, a knee-jerk reaction every time Walter even crossed my mind. “I do now.”
What’s one you don’t enjoy?
TA Moore - Jason Burke:
Merry Christmas, [insert name of author]
Jason Burke is one writer who doesn’t worry about ghostly visits this holiday season
12/8/2016
So if John McClane is Burke’s favourite Christmas tradition, what is his least favourite? Santa?
‘Christmas dinner,’ he says promptly. ‘Growing up, it was just me, my brother, and my Dad. We did ok, most of the time but the whole full Christmas dinner thing was kind of beyond our capabilities as cooks. But you had to try, didn’t you? So raw turkey, one year it was still frozen, and black hockey pucks for potatoes. No dessert, because you’d not eaten your boiled to soup brussel sprouts, and leftover for the next month. First Christmas I was out on my own, I got Kung Pao Chicken from the Chinese restaurant down the road and the only leftovers were the fortune cookies. More people should try it.’
The coffee is finished and new customers, hands full of coffee and Christmas pastries, are hovering pointedly. We get up to leave, our seats promptly filled by an exhausted French family, and head outside. Burke crosses the road to look down over the wall into the Children’s Pool, he is still, he admits with a flash of wry humour, incomer enough to be charmed by the seals who bask on the sands below.
I chance my arm with one last Christmas question: will he be giving out copies of his own books as presents this year?
Burke sticks his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. ‘If I did,’ he jokes, ‘who’d know?’
C.S. Poe - Edgar:
Caroline looked at the tablet again. “All right. Last question. AlexaLuvs2Read asks ‘What is one tradition you don’t enjoy?’”
“Get-togethers.”
Caroline motioned with her hand for me to continue.
“Er— I’m not really a people person.”
“Not even with family or close friends?”
“I don’t… not really….I’m super awkward around everyone,” I answered. “Never know what to do with the lulls in conversation.”
“But next year will be different.”
I nodded.
“Say ‘yes,’” she whispered. “For the recorder.”
“Oh, sorry. Yes. Next year I’ll be spending Christmas with someone and I— Walter doesn’t even mind that sometimes I don’t know what to do with my hands when I talk.”
TA Moore genuinely believed that she was a Cabbage Patch Kid when she was a small child. This was the start of a lifelong attachment to the weird and fantastic. These days she lives in a market town on the Northern Irish coast and her friends have a rule that she can only send them three weird and disturbing links a month (although she still holds that a DIY penis bifurcation guide is interesting, not disturbing). She believes that adding ‘in space!’ to anything makes it at least 40% cooler, will try to pet pretty much any animal she meets (this includes snakes, excludes bugs), and once lied to her friend that she had climbed all the way up to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, when actually she’d only gotten to the beach, realized it was really high, and chickened out.
She aspires to being a cynical misanthrope, but is unfortunately held back by a sunny disposition and an inability to be mean to strangers. If TA Moore is mean to you, that means you’re friends now.
She is a reluctant mover and has called many places home in her lifetime. C.S. has lived in New York City, Key West, and Ibaraki, Japan, to name a few. She misses the cleanliness, convenience, and limited-edition gachapon of Japan, but she was never very good at riding bikes to get around.
She has an affinity for all things cute and colorful and a major weakness for toys. C.S. is an avid fan of coffee, reading, and cats. She’s rescued two cats—Milo and Kasper do their best on a daily basis to sidetrack her from work.
C.S. is a member of the International Thriller Writers organization.
TA Moore - Liar, Liar - Ebook
C.S. Poe - The Mystery of Nevermore - Ebook
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I look forward to my favorite dinner that my mom makes. My sister and I love and she makes it for us most every year and we eat it listening to Andy Williams Christmas music :D What I don't look forward to is the incessant commercials.
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