Author Saturday Spotlight: Rick. R. Reed #Interview #Giveaway

The outstanding author of IM, Bashed, Chaser Series, and so many more amazing books is my author spotlight this Saturday! I am extremely excited to spotlight Rick Reed today. We are going to of course interview him, check out his work, and wrap it all up with a wonderful giveaway! First, let's check out some of his books.

Someone--or something--is killing Seattle's gay men.
A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city's gay gathering areas.

Someone--or something--is falling in love with Thad Matthews.
Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places--a new Italian restaurant called The Blue Moon Cafe. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into. And Sam can cook! But as the pair's love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being, why do Sam's unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon? Prepare yourself for a unique blend of dark suspense and erotic romance with The Blue Moon Cafe, written by the author Unzipped magazine called, 'the Stephen King of gay horror.' You're guaranteed an unforgettable reading experience, one that skillfully blends the hottest romance with the most chilling terror...

Love comes along when you least expect it. That’s what Duncan Taylor’s sister, Scout, tells him. Scout has everything Duncan wants—a happy life with a wonderful husband. Now that Seattle has made gay marriage legal, Duncan knows he can have the same thing. But when he proposes to his boyfriend Tucker, he doesn’t get the answer he hoped for. Tucker’s refusal is another misstep in a long line of failed romances. Despairing, Duncan thinks of all the loving unions in his life—and how every one of them is straight. Maybe he could be happy, if not sexually compatible, with a woman. When zany, gay-man-loving Marilyn Samples waltzes into his life, he thinks he may have found his answer.

Determined to settle, Duncan forgets his sister’s wisdom about love and begins planning a wedding with Marilyn. But life throws Duncan a curveball. When he meets wedding planner Peter Dalrymple, unexpected sparks ignite. Neither man knows how long he can resist his powerful attraction to the other. For sure, there’s a wedding in the future. But whose?

The Internet is the new meat market for gay men. Now a killer is turning the meat market into a meat wagon.

One by one, he’s killing them. Lurking in the digital underworld of Men4HookUpNow.com, he lures, seduces, and charms, reaching out through instant messages to the unwary. When the first body surfaces, openly gay Chicago Police Department detective Ed Comparetto is called in to investigate. At the scene, the young man who discovered the body tells him the story of how he found his friend. But did this witness play a bigger role in the murder than he’s letting on?

For Comparetto, this encounter is the beginning of a nightmare—because this witness did more than just show up at the scene of the crime; he set the scene.

Comparetto is on a journey to discover the truth—before he loses his career, his boyfriend, his sanity… his life. Because in this killer's world, IM doesn't stand for instant message… it stands for instant murder.  

Life can change in the blink of an eye. That's a truth Andy Slater learns as a young man in 1982, taking the Chicago 'L' to work every morning. Andy's life is laid out before him: a good job, marriage to his female college sweetheart, and the white picket fence existence he believes in. But when he sees Carlos Castillo for the first time, Carlos’s dark eyes and Latin appeal mesmerize him. Fate continues to throw them together until the two finally agree to meet up. At Andy’s apartment, the pent-up passion of both young men is ignited, but is snuffed out by an inopportune and poorly-timed phone call.

Flash forward to present day. Andy is alone, having married, divorced, and become the father of a gay son. He’s comfortable but alone and has never forgotten the powerful pull of Carlos’s gaze on the 'L' train. He vows to find him once more, hoping for a second chance. If life can change in the blink of an eye, what will the passage of thirty years do? To find out, Andy begins a search that might lead to heartache and disappointment or a love that will last forever….

INTERVIEW

Thank you so much, Rick, for being here today and indulging me in my nosiness. I promise not to make this painful. Just answer the questions and no one gets hurt! Kidding. I’m just going to ask you a few questions. 

Thanks for having me. And I actually like your ‘take no prisoners’ approach. Makes me feel all warm and tingly.

Can you tell us 3 interesting facts about yourself that isn’t in your biography?

Well, I don’t know if they’re ‘interesting’ or not (such a subjective thing!), but here goes:

1.      As a child, I suffered numerous serious head injuries and lots of stitches. Some might say this explains a lot.

2.      I hate to talk on the telephone. Unless it’s an immediate family member, the idea of it stresses me out. Thank god for texting!

3.      I am Sicilian on my mother’s side and, according to family lore, my great grandfather had mafia ties and came to the states to escape big trouble.

Are there any movies or TV Shows that have inspired you when it’s come to your horror or paranormal books?

When I was a little boy, I was a huge, huge fan of the horror soap opera, DARK SHADOWS. I used to run home every day to watch it. I had Barnabas and Quentin posters on my wall, a scrapbook and even the series soundtrack album. I believe that series, and its trafficking on horror tropes, was definitely an inspiration.

I would also mention a couple of movies that probably also taught me a lot about horror and especially how things unseen can be scarier than in-your-face gore and blatant shock value. Those are: THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and CARNIVAL OF SOULS. They’re both so moody, atmospheric, and truly nightmarish. They stick with you.

I see that Stephen King is an influence in your writing (He is amazing) Needful Things is by far a favorite of mine. Do you have a favorite of his?

I probably have more than one! I’ve been reading him since I was a teenager (I started at the beginning with CARRIE—so that book is a sentimental favorite). But I think my very favorites are DOLORES CLAIBORNE. I just love the strength and resilience of that character and how he went to our darkest places in the book. I also love MISERY—a book that most authors can relate to, and not in a good way! Interesting that both of these featured the incomparable Kathy Bates.

When did you first start writing and what was the very first thing you did?

I started when I was a child, maybe six years old, with a short story. I wrote my first play, “The Jinx” in fourth grade, cast it, produced, and directed it myself. In fifth grade, I remember writing a story about a kidnapping that I read in installments to the class every day. I think those experiences kept me on this life-long course, for better or worse. I’ve always written. Professionally, Dell published my first novel, OBSESSED, in 1991 in their cutting-edge horror line, Abyss.

Can you tell us what conventions or meetings you’ll be attending this year?

In September, my hometown of Seattle is the host to Gay Romance Northwest and, once again, I’ll be a featured author at the event on September 26.

October 15-18, I’ll be a featured author at GayRomLit in San Diego. GRL is always an amazing time.

What was the best and the worst subject for you in High School?

Sorry to be predictable, but, of course English was my best subject (especially creative writing). My worst? Math of any sort. I’m a pretty right-brained kind of guy, I guess.

If you could go back in time and talk to your 16-year-old-self, but only tell him ONE thing. One sentence. What would you say?

Follow your heart.

We all get asked, “Where were you and what were you doing when…” questions about disasters and such. But I would love to know where you were and what were you doing when SCOTUS made the ruling that same sex marriage was now legal in all 50 states? What did you feel in that moment?

Appropriately, I suppose, my husband called me from his office to tell me the news. It was such an exciting day. I couldn’t get any work done. I was overjoyed.

If you could collaborate with any author, whom would you choose?

If she were still alive, I would just the maven of British mystery and psychological suspense, Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine). She’s one of my all-time favorites and just reading her taught me so much about elegant simple language, building suspenseful plots, and creating characters that may not always inspire love, but always fascination. I could learn so much!

Can you tell us what you’re currently working on?

I don’t really talk a whole lot about what I’m working on when it’s in progress. I’ll just say that it’s called BIG LOVE and it’s a sort of coming-out “gentle giant” story. Coming up is THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, a romantic suspense novel about a young gay man and the mysterious couple next door who move in and turn his world upside down in more ways than one. Also in the pipeline: re-releases of my dark romance, TRICKS, set in the world of erotic entertainment (October) and A DEMON INSIDE, about a very sinister house in the wilds of Wisconsin (August).

How can your readers follow your career and work? Website, Social Media?

Here’s my bio and my social media links follow.

Rick R. Reed Biography

Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love. He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation and The Blue Moon Cafe). Raining Men and Caregiver have both won the Rainbow Award for gay fiction.  Lambda Literary Review has called him, "a writer that doesn't disappoint." Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever "at work on another novel."

Web: http://www.rickrreed.com
Blog: http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rickrreedbooks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/rickrreed.
E-mail: jimmyfels@gmail.com

Thank you, Rick for your time. I can’t thank you enough!

Yes, you can. You just did. And thank YOU so much for this opportunity!

 GIVEAWAY

Rick is giving one person a chance to either win either a horror book or a romance book:

Horror (ebook of THIRD EYE) or Romance (ebook of DINNER AT FIORELLOS)

Simply fill out the rafflecopter below and if you win, you can choose.

Contest will run until  August 7th. Good luck everyone! Remember to review what you read.

I want to thank Rick for being on my blog today, talking with us, and for being so generous!

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