I’m excited to be the opening stop on Andrew Q. Gordon’s First Love tour! Not only is it part of his popular “Champions of the Gods” series, it’s a freebie! Thank you for sharing it with us, Andy!
Thank you Charley for letting me come by and talk about the new free release.
First Love has its origin in what was basically one sentence in The Last Grand Master. At one point Farrell tells Prince Peter of Belsport in passing about his first love. It was ten years before the opening of The Last Grand Master and Farrell’s mother—Queen Zenora—and teacher—Heminaltose—were still alive.
First Love not only shows what Farrell was like before the war began, it also let’s me show his mother and teacher, through his eyes.
Of all the characters in the series, Farrell is naturally the most fleshed out. The story is through his eyes. But what of the secondary characters? The Champion of the Gods series is well over 2 million words long. Much of that is filler and background that I wrote to flesh out the story that will never see the light of a Kindle. Writing it, however, made it easier to write the entire story.
Since this is the first day and first stop of the blog tour, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about one of the main characters we meet in First Love; Lieutenant Cameron of the Queen’s Guard. He is Farrell’s first real crush. In the original draft, Cameron had a much bigger role in the story, but was removed during the rewrite. He may, however, make an appearance later on. The changes I made that wrote Cameron out in Book 2: The Eye and the Arm might will require a bit of a rewrite later that may give Cameron an opportunity to make an appearance.
In the first draft, Farrell finds Cameron alive along with other survivors of Yar-del. Unknown to Farrell, Queen Zenora sent the better part of the Navy elsewhere to prevent Meglar from capturing the ships. Given the size and power of Yar-del fleet (perhaps second only to Dumbarten) denying the enemy this weapon was vital to the war effort. With these ships, Meglar would have the means to attack Dumbarten, Yar-del’s closest ally. To prevent this, Zenora made an agreement with the King of Dumbarten to use a small island well off the Dumbarten coast as a naval base. Cameron is one of the officers sent with the fleet.
First Love doesn’t show much beyond their first date. In The Last Grand Master Farrell explains that the romance didn’t last. In the original draft, when Farrell meets Cameron, they have a heart-to-heart and Farrell learns that after Cameron broke his heart, Queen Zenora removed him from the guard and sent him off with the navy. In Yar-del, the naval was a vital and respected branch of the military. So while this might not have been what Cameron wanted, it did offer him more opportunities to advance his career than would be available in the guard. In the unused part, Cameron does take advantage of his new position and rises to high rank among the survivors.
My real hope is to rescue some of the unused bits on the cutting floor at a later date, but for now, First Love will be the only appearance for the dashing young Lieutenant Cameron.
Enjoy!
First Love by ~ANDREW Q. GORDON~
Prequel to The Last Grand Master
A Champion of the Gods Story
On a visit to Yar-del with Grand Master Heminaltose to celebrate his age of majority birthday, Farrell catches the eye of Lieutenant Cameron, a handsome young officer in the Queen’s Guard. But having spent most of his life cooped up at Heminaltose’s school for wizards, Farrell is clueless as to palace intrigue. He is unaware that his access to the queen is something others would greatly prize. When the queen points out that his suitor is the son of a social climbing minor noble, Farrell must decide whether to heed the warning or meet with Cameron anyway.
EXCERPT
Tenth hour would take an eternity to arrive, but they both had to attend to their duties. Although Cameron seemed suitably impressed by his appointment, it didn’t improve Farrell’s mood.
He stopped himself as he started to think of ways to get out of dinner. Not going wasn’t an option. More importantly, Heminaltose only allowed Farrell brief visits to Yar-del City to see his mother. Skipping dinner meant one less chance to spend time with her. And he’d see Cameron at tenth hour.
“Boy.” The deep voice behind Farrell made him freeze.
He turned slowly but already knew who he’d find. “Master Heminaltose.”
Dressed in his formal blue-gray robe, he leaned on his white wooden staff and tilted his head to the left. “What brings you to this out-of-the-way place? And why are you just standing there?”
Farrell had been in trouble often enough to know his master suspected him of something. When he tried to answer, his mouth went dry and his tongue turned to stone.
“Well?” The older man raised his bushy white eyebrows and peered down his nose at his student. “I’m waiting for an answer.”
His euphoric mood dashed, Farrell knew better than to lie. “I came here to meet someone.”
“Someone?”
“Yes, Master, someone.” This approach never worked, but he’d been too embarrassed to answer directly.
“Don’t treat me like a fool.”
Despite being at least an inch taller than his teacher, Farrell felt like Heminaltose towered over him.
“I’m not, Master. I… I just….” His cheeks flushed and he started to sweat. “I’d rather not say.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s private.”
“Private? You mean…?” Heminaltose jerked his head back and his eyes opened wider. “By the Six! Now? Your hormones have decided to kick in now?”
Get your free copy of First Love:
DSP Publication – http://www.dsppublications.com/books/first-love-by-andrew-q-gordon-72-b
All Romance eBooks – https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-firstlove-1729343-234.html
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/First-Love-Champion-Andrew-Gordon-ebook/dp/B00SM1UTOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422104210&sr=1-1
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Andrew Q. Gordon is giving away the following:
– $15 DSP Gift Card
– An E-copy of “Third Eye” by Rick R. Reed
– An E-copy of “Ghost” by Carole Cummings
– An E-copy of a book by J. Tullos Hennig
Contest Begins: 27th January, 2015
Contest Ends: 9th February, 2015
FIRST LOVE BLOG TOUR
1/27 – Charley Descoteaux
1/28 – Anne Barwell
1/29 – Kim Fielding
1/30 – Cheryl Headford
2/2 – Amy Rae Durreson
2/3 – Rebecca Cohen
2/4 – Draven St. James
2/5 – Nic Starr
2/6 – Chris T. Kat
2/9 – Amanda C. Stone
About Andrew: Andrew Q. Gordon wrote his first story back when yellow legal pads, ball point pens were common and a Smith Corona correctable typewriter was considered high tech. Adapting with technology, he now takes his MacBook somewhere quiet when he wants to write.
He currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his partner of nineteen years, their daughter and dog. In addition to dodging some very self-important D.C. ‘insiders’, Andrew uses his commute to catch up on his reading. When not working or writing, he enjoys soccer, high fantasy, baseball and seeing how much coffee he can drink in a day.
Contact Andrew:
Website: http://www.andrewqgordon.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/andrewqugordon
Twitter: @andrewqgordon
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AndrewQGordon
E-mail: andrewqgordon@gmail.com
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
SERIES: Champion of the Gods
RELEASE DATE: 27th January 2015
LENGTH: 40 Pages
TOUR ORGANIZER:
CREATIVE MINDS PROMOTIONS
https://creativemindpromotions.wordpress.com/ 
Charley Descoteaux 