Today my guest is fellow Dreamspinner Press author Brynn Stein! She’s a new friend so it was nice to get to know her a little—and get the scoop on her upcoming release, Haunted.  The novella Haunted is available for pre-order and will hit the streets on July 17^th!

First, tell us a little about yourself, your writing, or anything you’d like to share.

I always wrote for fun but never shared anything with anyone but friends.  A real life friend got me involved in fan-fiction and the more I wrote, the more I wanted to write.  Another friend encouraged me to submit an original work to Dreamspinner and to my surprise, they offered me a contract.  It’s all been really exciting.

 

What draws you to romance? M/M romance?

Most of my fan-fiction was not romance but always included a very close relationship between the male leads.  It wasn’t that far a leap to tip into actual romance. I still like to focus on the emotions and the relationship more than the actual physical relationship, but there is some of that there now too.

 

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

A little of both.  I always know (or at least think I know) where I’m going with my stories, but sometimes they take interesting turns along the way.

 

How do you decide where to set your books?

For Haunted, the setting idea of a haunted house came from a prompt in a fan-fiction challenge.  I set it in Virginia, mostly because I live in Virginia.  It could actually be set in any really rural area.

 

Do you have a favorite character out of all the ones you’ve written?

If you include fan-fiction, I love writing from Blair Sandburg’s POV (from The Sentinel).  In original fiction, I’ve only written the one book so far, but I’d have to say Jason Miller is my favorite.

 

Why is he your favorite?

For Blair, I just love his confidence and intelligence.  In those ways, my character of Jason Miller, in Haunted, reminds me a little of him.  Jason is a little cockier, though.  Another thing I love about Jason is his playful innuendo.  Poor Len (the other male lead in Haunted) is constantly trying not to be embarrassed. Of course, he doesn’t mind acting on the innuendo at all, so…

 

What are your daily must-stop blogs and websites?

I’m new at this, so I don’t follow a whole lot of blogs yet, but the other blogs who are posting about Haunted are:

Andrew Gordon http://andrewqgordon.com/

Anne http://annebarwell.wordpress.com/

Charlie Crochet http://charliecochet.com/blog

Jana Denardo:  http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/

Kim Fielding http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/

Lex Chase http://lexchase.com/

 

Speaking of online hangouts, where are yours? Where can your readers find you?

https://twitter.com/BrynnStein

BrynnStein2@wordpress.com

What are you working on now? Will you share a little with us?

I’m working on a story involving an amputee professor who is in a car accident.  He reluctantly falls in love with his private nursing attendant…and his little four year old, handicapped son.

Excerpt (unedited):

Jonah wandered into the kitchen but then just stopped, not quite knowing what to do.
Daniel noticed right away that something more was on Jonah’s mind besides just getting him set for bed.  He came up behind the slightly taller man, and gently grabbed his shoulders.  He turned the other man to face him and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Do you know how long it’s been since I had someone to help at all around the house? Let alone anyone willing to do anything with Ethan unless they were getting paid for it.”
“Too long, I’m sure,” Daniel pulled the other man into a gentle hug.

“Daniel,” he said seriously. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you in my life, but I am so glad you are.” Jonah ran his hand gently down Daniel’s cheek, just barely brushing his lips.
Daniel was stunned, but the caress had felt so good and had been so welcomed, he decided to test his luck. Now or never, he said to himself.
“Jonah,” he put his hand on the other man’s cheek and he leaned into the touch, so Daniel continued. “Would I get decked if I kissed you?”
Jonah smiled. “You might get decked if you don’t.”
Daniel’s lips bent up in a small smile and then met Jonah’s. He had longed to do this for so long, but he had been so afraid of losing the other man’s valued friendship if he pushed it. He felt like he was falling into the kiss. It wasn’t frantic or what anyone would call ‘passionate’, but that didn’t make it any less full of emotion.
When he finally pulled back and looked into Jonah’s eyes, he found a teasing spark there as the other man said. “It’s about time! I’ve been giving hints for weeks!”

Now for the scoop on the book you can buy this week!

Haunted, by Brynn Stein

When Lenard Blake is forced to leave his wife, he divorces not just her but her influential family, who makes it impossible for him to keep his job as a Denver police officer, never mind to find another one anywhere in Colorado. But a rural police force in Virginia has an opening, and the move could be just the change he needs, so Lenard buys a house based on an Internet ad. But when he arrives, he finds that the house looks nothing like the ad… and it’s haunted as well.

Lenard doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but he decides to research his supposed ghost anyway. Soon he learns that fifteen years ago, Jason Miller was murdered in the house, and his entire family died under suspicious circumstances. As he makes friends with his ghostly companion, they join forces to try to solve the old murders. Along the way, they find there are some things that conquer even death.

Excerpt:

LENARD BLAKE wrestled his few remaining possessions onto the wraparound porch as he muttered invectives aimed at his wife. “Ex-wife,” he reminded himself as he expounded on various physically impossible situations he wished would befall the woman. Because of her, he’d had to move practically clear across the county. It had been a particularly nasty divorce and Deborah, his ex, had gone out of her way to make sure everyone knew it was Lenard’s fault. The fact that it was Lenard who had found his spouse in bed with another person, and not the other way around, didn’t seem to deflect any of the blame. Deborah was from a wealthy Colorado family—the Helmsleys—and no one was going to call her on the lie, even though many people seemed to know she had been cheating on Lenard for years.

Her family had strong ties in the police department where he had worked as a detective for the last four years, and as a patrol officer before that, and it had become impossible to stay in Denver. Not only that, but he couldn’t even stay in Colorado. The Helmsley family had long arms, it appeared. Every major police department across the state had been warned off him. He had had to search for small towns on the other side of the country to be sure the senior Helmsley didn’t stand in his way yet again.

He had scoured the Internet for a place of his own that he could afford… far from everyone he knew—and especially away from the influence of Deborah’s family—where he could lick his wounds. He had found this house. A beautiful old farmhouse ten miles outside a small town in Virginia. Jessup was so small, in fact, that it wasn’t even on any map he could find. No neighbors for miles. It had seemed perfect. He’d contacted the agent and paid the ridiculously low price without even thinking about it.

Now that he was here, it was obvious that the picture on the Internet had been of the house in better times. “Maybe twenty or thirty years ago,” he mumbled unkindly, as the front screen door came off in his hand. “No wonder the real estate agent seemed surprised by my interest. Probably laughing his fool head off all the way to the bank, with the last of my money.”

There was nothing he could do about it now, though. It really had been the last of his money, and he had nowhere else to go. So, he wrestled the last suitcase into the foyer. He did have to admit the house had potential. Beautifully carved molding adorned the top and bottom of every wall… well, what hadn’t fallen down and was now lying in heaps on the floor. The staircase was made of sturdy wood and had obviously been beautiful once. Hardwood floors decked the foyer, living room, and study. They could use a coat of varnish or two but otherwise were in decent shape, for the most part.

The Internet ad had mentioned that the house was furnished. That was one of the features that had decided him on this particular dwelling. He had no money to go buy a bunch of furniture and had never really cared about interior decorating, so he was sure whatever was here would be fine.

He was wrong.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Brynn, and best of luck with your new release!

If you have any questions for Brynn, comment and ask away!

After you do that, check out my Christmas in July contest. It runs through the month and 7 lucky winners will grab ebooks, swag, and gift cards!