Author Saturday Spotlight: Ethan Day #Interview #Giveaway

Happy Saturday, everyone. I'm so excited about my spotlight author! He's is so immensely talented and someone this community can look up to. We will do a wonderful interview, take a look at his work, and wrap it up with a giveaway. So, kick back and enjoy.

Sno Ho - Boone Daniels seems to have trouble finishing things. Along with the half dozen or so novels he's started, only to abandon mid-way through, his love life could be best described as a series of drive-bys. Boone has spent the past week staying at a ski lodge in the tiny mountain town of Summit City. He's been using his time alone to write while waiting for his boyfriend to join him for their anniversary. What happens to Boone when he winds up dumped on the eve of his one-year anniversary and ends up at a bar having one too many cocktails? Wade Walker. 

 Buy on Amazon

 Life In Fusion - Aspiring author, Boone Daniels, always figured love would be as easy as he was. Fresh off a whirlwind winter-vacation romance with ski-god and would-be boyfriend, Wade Walker - Boone was certain that saying goodbye would be the hardest part. He'd survived the unconventional way in which they came together, proven himself somewhat worthy to Wade's hometown of Summit City, and felt certain the self-imposed, six month boy-buffer would prove one thing - their fate was to be forever entwined. Once real life settles in, Boone suffers the realization that no one ever actually said love was easy and that even after you fall, you can still break. As their two worlds collide, he begins to understand that if he can navigate the landscape of life in fusion, he just might get that happily-ever-after...after all.


 Buy on Amazon

 Both books are also available in a print combo pack as well SO COOL 

Buy on Amazon 

Interview

Thank you, Ethan, for being here today and answering my questions. I am a big fan of yours and admire your work. My questions hopefully won’t be too painful.

Thank you for having me on your Saturday Author Spotlight, and for the lovely compliments! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy reading the books. : )

I just recently finished Sno Ho and Life infusion. I have to know, where did the idea for those books come from? I laughed until it hurt!

Oddly enough, the concept for that story was themed around an idea for an anthology with MLR Press involving a winter/skiing setting and some sort of a cocktail. The anthology was titled, Melting the Slopes. My cocktail was the Irish Coffee that Boone gets drunk on—thus ending up in the arms and in the bed of Wade Walker. From there, the story really took off for me. I knew I wanted my protagonist to be irritated by his one-night-stand, mainly due to the fact he couldn’t really remember that much about it. I’ve always personally been a bit of a smart-ass, so the fact Boone ended up being the same doesn’t seem like much of a stretch, lol. It was important for me that he remain likeable and I remember being motivated by the fact that, for once, the sarcastic, smart-mouthed, boy-next-door was gonna get the guy—and the guy he ended up with was going to be a really awesome guy.

So yeah…likely my own wish-fulfillment being word-vomited onto the page, there, lol. The actual writing of those two books went really quickly, but I did spend a considerable amount of time pre-writing, figuring out who each guy was and making sure they complimented one another while also remaining very distinctly individual men. Hopefully, amongst the pages of their love story, underneath all the snarky banter and comedy, what comes across to those who read the books, is that Boone and Wade are fated—meant to be.

If you had to come up with a book title to describe your life, what would it be?

You Wanna Stick That Where?

What would you say is your biggest strength when it comes to your writing?

Honestly, I’m not sure. You’d likely need to ask readers that question. To this day, I’m still shocked and awed by the fact anyone wants to read any of the books I’ve written. It feels a little like winning the lottery in the sense I get to justify continuing to do something I love doing.

Characterization is first and foremost with me when I start any story. I may have the story idea or basic concept worked out initially, but nothing truly happens until I feel as if I know who my characters are. I certainly hope that comes across to readers, that my characters seem real—authentic. Beyond that, I just want readers to have fun and be entertained.

Are you currently reading anything, if so what?

I am, and allow me to clarify that I have hundreds of books I’ve purchased and haven’t had time to read just yet. That being said, over the past few months I’ve read JP Bowie’s The Vampire and the P.I., Josh Lanyon’s book three in the Holmes & Moriarity series, The Boy With The Painful Tattoo, and Mary Calmes All Kinds of Tied Down.

Next on my to-read list is JK Hogan’s Shadows Fall, Amy Lane’s Candy Man/Bitter Taffy, JL Merrow’s Played, Lone Wolf by Aleksandr Voinov & L.A. Witt, and Blowing It by Kate Aaron.

How long does it usually take you to write a book?

This really varies for me depending entirely upon the book. Token of Time took me years, Life in Fusion took me two months, Love Me Tomorrow took three months, At Piper’s Point took me six months. It ends up being all over the place. If a lot of research is required, the books will take longer(mainly because I hate doing research, lol). Some stories end up being more personal to me than others, and often those books take a little longer to complete because I have more of myself invested in them. Working on the Summit City books goes quickly, likely because I’m having a really good time while writing those characters.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

I was definitely an adult when I first started writing, late twenties, early thirties. It took getting to college before I ever imagined myself having the ability to write. When I was younger I was under the impression that only really super-smarty-pants people could be writers. Thankfully for me, that isn’t the case, lol.

I’ve always had an overly abundant, inner-fantasy world going on inside my head—a total day-dreamer from a very young age. I think there were a couple of factors which nurtured that quality in me as a child—the first being I was the youngest of 4 kids and the only boy, along with the fact I was about 5 years younger than my youngest of my sisters. I ended up playing by myself a lot, which meant entertaining myself back in the day before cable TV or streaming content, lol. The other thing I attribute to fostering my love for storytelling goes back to George Lukas. I joke about it in my bio, but playing with those Star Wars action figures as a child allowed me to take the characters Lukas created, off the screen, letting me create my own story lines—an early form of live-action, verbal action-figure fan-fiction, if you will. : )

What do you think makes a good story?

The characters are key for me. If I love the characters, I’ll pretty much follow them wherever the story takes them. Everything else is gravy, but if I don’t believe in or like the characters, I won’t be able to finish the story. That’s not to say all the other elements of storytelling aren’t important to me as a reader, but it all starts with the characters. That’s really no different in real-life—the people you meet and enjoy spending time with in real-life are the ones you end up wanting to know more about. I think that’s human nature.

Can you tell us what you are currently working on?

I’m currently working on a few things, all very slowly, mind you. I have the first book in a new Paranormal/Romance series titled, Welcome To Meteor Springs. Assuming readers like it, I’m planning at least three, potentially four more books. It will have a little mystery, some dashes of sci-fi and witchcraft, some comedy, some sexy times—basically everything including the kitchen sink, lol.

Geoff Knight and I are working on the sequel to the first book we wrote together, To Catch a Fox. The sequel is titled, A Fox in the Hole, and will pick up where book one left off, with Jon Fox and Tucker Wilder smack dab in the middle of more life-threatening danger.

I have a couple of rom-com’s in the works as well, one centered amongst the backdrop of the gay rodeo and another about a stand-up comedian who’s less than enthusiastic about love. The latter of which I’m still struggling over the concept—not really sure I can write a story about a stand-up comedian that doesn’t show him doing stand-up. Yet I’m not real confidant that stand-up comedy is something that can actually be successfully translated from screen to page. Thus is my conundrum, lol. I’m very attached to the character, though, so I’m hopeful I can make it work. Time will tell.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That I was able to do so. I was never a great student until I got to college, so I didn’t have an abundance of confidence in myself when it came to anything relating to English or literature. I enjoyed reading and going to the library as a kid, but never imagined myself actually writing until I took my first college creative writing course. I was completely hooked from that point on.

What is the easiest way for your readers to follow your career? Facebook, Website?

I think I’m on facebook more than anything else at this point, which I have tied to my twitter account, so things I post on facebook, pop up on my twitter feed…which is awesome considering I’m incapable of constructing a post on twitter due to their fascist word-limitation ways! : )

I am also working on updating my website(with most of the heavy lifting being done by the lovely Reese Dante). Hopefully that will go live sometime after the first of the year.

Thank you, Ethan, for your time and for answering these questions. I look forward to reading more of your work.

Thank you again for having me! : )

 Author Bio

I am a gay man living in Missouri...I can hear the gasps already!! How very un-chic of me, yes I know. It was here I was born and here I have stayed. The youngest of four children and the only boy, I’ve always suffered from an extravagant fantasy life. When I played with my Star Wars action figures as a child, I liked to make up my own stories. Naturally, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were totally meant for each other, and Princess Leia made a bitchin' wise cracking Fag Hag.

 

I managed to survive high school living in a small, racist town in Southeast Missouri and emerged unscathed, realizing life was too short to pretend to be anything other than who I was. It was very Lifetime Movie Network meets After School Special, I assure you.

 

After several stints in college, I signed up for a Creative Writing course, choosing the class because there were no tests. For once my scholastic laziness paid off, and I found an outlet for all the fantasies running amuck inside my head. It was love at first write, and I've been doing it off and on ever since.

 

Website: http://ethanday.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethandayonline

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethanday 

 Giveaway

Ethan Day will be gifting one winner a copy of Sno Ho and Life in Fusion. Just enter the rafflecopter below. Contest will run until  December 18th. Winner will be contacted via email so please be sure to check your spam.

I want to thank Ethan for being here today and for writing such amazing books!

Good luck everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway