The lovely Shehanne Moore tagged me for The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, a fun little meme allowing authors to spotlight a book or project they’re working on.  Since I’m waiting for my Thanksgiving rolls to get through their second rise, here’s my entry!
What is your working title of your book?

Coping Mechanisms
Where did the idea come from for the book?

It’s a short that I pulled out of my 2010 NaNo manuscript to help promote my Christmas story, COMFORT AND JOY.  I wanted to write about when Sam and Charlie first met and their early romance, and this is part of that story.
What genre does your book fall under?

M/M Erotica.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Charlie is easy.  Before I got to know him well, I pictured him as Nathan-ish (from the British version of Queer as Folk), but a little older.  I still think Charlie Hunnam would be the one to play Charlie Price (except my Charlie would be clean-shaven).

[Redacted]

Sam is harder.  I did a lot of searching for actors I’d want to play him (yeah, it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it!), but haven’t found anyone who’d be perfect.  Sam is built like a tight end, something like Jared Padalecki.

[Redacted]

But my Sam has beautiful dark brown skin with brick red undertones and shiny black hair (kind of styled like Padalecki wears his to play Sam Winchester, now that I think about it) so for now I’m going with him.  Plus, I really like this picture.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

 

A hot young man bothered by circumstances beyond his control tests his theory that the cure is to take charge of something he can control.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Actually, I’ll be giving it away on blog hops and other appearances.  I thought it’d be fun to offer a free short in the lead-up to the release of COMFORT AND JOY since it’s Christmas (and nobody has ever read my writing before :)) and my wonderful editor agreed!  She’s graciously offered to help me polish it up and format it for easy-reading.  So stay tuned and I’ll be sure and give everyone who’s interested a chance at the freebie!
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Since it was part of a NaNo manuscript, the official answer is one month.  But I wrote so many sex scenes that month I couldn’t say how long it took to write this one.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

If I say that you’ll just go out and buy that book!  (Which is to say that I don’t really know of any offhand.  :))
Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve known Sam since before he was born (my first published short story was about his mother!).  He left for college and basically dropped off the family radar for a while.  All I really knew for a long time was that he stayed in Chicago after college and was with a pianist named Charlie.  Originally I thought Charlie was a girl, but nope!  He’s a pretty blond boy with blue eyes and mad musical skills.  The first time I saw them together it was obvious they have one of those timeless loves every Romance junkie wants to read about, so I had to write it and see for myself!
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s short, only about three thousand words, but has a nice bit of submission (and character development too, if you like that kind of thing).  Oh, and it’s free!

The rules want me to tag five authors, but I’m late to this party so almost every author I know has already done this.

I’m tagging these authors:

KC Shaw

Dan-Lyn Alexander

Alix Bekins

Just to be official, here are the rules:

Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.

***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.