Title: All That is
Solid Melts into Air
Series: The Lives of
Remy and Michael: Book Two
Author: Christopher
Koehler
Publisher: Harmony
Ink Press
Publication Date: 22
Jan 2016
Cover Artist: Bree
Archer
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, New Adult
Blurb
The Lives of Remy and Michael: Book Two
A CalPac Crew Story
I thought life after high school would be easier. I’d go to
California Pacific for a year while I got a handle on my HIV, then after
Michael graduated from high school, we’d blast out of here for colleges—and
life—on the East Coast. Then I visited Boston and everything changed. I
realized I like CalPac. Turns out, Boston didn’t have anything for me beyond
one of the biggest regattas in North America.
Life grew more complicated when I got home. I couldn’t find a
way to tell Michael that I’d just blown our plan for our lives out of the
water. Then my CalPac coaches dropped a bomb on me. Those rowing officials
who’d been watching me? They were recruiters for the national team, and my
coaches wanted me to try out. They’d even let Lodestone coach me. Now I have to
choose, school or crew, CalPac or Michael, and I still haven’t told Michael I
can’t transfer. Is there even a place for Michael in my life? Somehow we have
to withstand training at the highest levels and having different goals. Will
love hold us together… or tear us apart?
Buy links:
Dreamspinner eBook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7344&cPath=1314
Dreamspinner Print: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7345
Guest Post
What am I currently working on?
Thanks for having me here today to talk about my work. If
you’ve stopped by the other blogs on this blog tour you already have an idea
when you’ll see the third book in the “Lives of Remy and Michael” series—not
for a while—which raises the question of What
am I working on?
Interesting question, that, and the answer requires a bit of
background. Have you ever wondered what happened in Britain between the retreat
of the Roman legions after 410 and the arrival of the Saxons by roughly the end
of the sixth century? Sure you have! I have a PhD in history (okay, not that
time or place) and I had no idea at all. So I went wandering, as one does, on
Wikipedia. Apparently that particular era is called sub-Roman Britain
(remember, we can’t call it England because there were no Angles yet…Angle Land
become England). Who knew? Apparently I do, now.
What makes sub-Roman Britain more interesting to me is that
this era is when Arthur would’ve existed, if exist he did. Arthur is a Welsh
name, and he would’ve been a Welsh warlord in on the cusp of the Anglo-Saxon
era. What makes it all so much more fascinating to me as a reader, a writer,
and an historian is that there is not a single shred of historical evidence any
such person existed and that the Arthur legends of later writers, whether they
be early medieval writers like Gildas or later medieval writers like Geoffrey
of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, or Sir Thomas Malory is that they depict
Arthur as a paragon of medieval chivalric virtues. Their Arthurs reflect their
cultures and their cultures’ needs, not any attempt to capture a “real”
historical Arthur. It’s easy to understand why. They predate the development of
an historical consciousness in the West, the idea that the past is different
from the present. Still, those Arthurs have no possible bearing on the only
time Arthur could’ve lived in, whether or not there are any historical traces.
But the picture becomes ever more complicated and, to my way
of thinking, more fun. As it turns out, while there may be no traces of Arthur,
be he a pre-Saxon warlord or a mirror of medieval virtue, the historical record
remembers some of the figures depicted in the Arthur legends: King Urien of
Rheged and his two sons, Owain mab Urien (later known as Ywain) and Owen (or
Ywain) the Bastard. Rheged was part of what was called the Old North (Yr Hen
Ogledd in Brittonic), part of what is now Cumbria. The Eden Valley is the
heartland of what was once Rheged. Urien ruled Rheged at the end of the sixth
century AD, and his existence and reign are attested to in the surviving works
of his court bard, Taliesin.
I’m taking these historical tidbits, along with a healthy
dose of fantasy, and knitting them into a novel tentatively called Bullsh*tting Your Way To Camelot. I’ve
taken Ywain the Bastard (he preferred to be called Ywain the Adventurous…I
wonder why?) as one of my protagonists, plus an entirely made-up character,
Baru, a refugee from a future Earth colony who’s a magician banished to Earth’s
past. By “bullshitting”? Because Urien’s queen and Ywain mab Urien’s mother was
allegedly Morgan Le Fay and that’s where the historical record jumps the tracks
entirely.
Along the way I’ll introduce you to Novafornia, its
indigenous inhabitants and their non-linear causality, and how they dealt with
humans and a disastrous first contact; show how two men from such different
times and places can fall in love and what love means to them; as well as drag
you headlong through Welsh mythology before Ywain and Baru strike out for
Camelot.
I need a break from rowing novels for a while, and it’s my
hope that this will be it.
Author Bio
Christopher Koehler learned to read late (or so his teachers
thought) but never looked back. It was not, however, until he was nearly done
with grad school in the history of science that he realized that he needed to
spend his life writing and not on the publish-or-perish treadmill. At risk of
being thought frivolous, he found that academic writing sucked all the fun out
of putting pen to paper.
Christopher is also something of a hothouse flower. Inside of
almost unreal conditions he thrives to set the results of his imagination free,
and for most of his life he has been lucky enough to be surrounded by people
who encouraged both that tendency and the writing. Chief among them is his
long-suffering husband of twenty-two years and counting.
When it comes to writing, Christopher follows Anne Lamott’s advice: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your
stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have
behaved better.” So while he writes fiction, at times he ruthlessly mines his
past for character traits and situations. Reality is far stranger than fiction.
Christopher loves many genres of fiction and nonfiction, but
he's especially fond of romances, because it is in them that human emotions and
relations, at least most of the ones fit to be discussed publicly, are laid
bare.
Writing is his passion and his life, but when Christopher is not
doing that, he's an at-home dad and oarsman with a slightly disturbing interest
in manners and other ways people behave badly.
Visit him at http://christopherkoehler.net/blog or follow him
on Twitter @christopherink.
Tour links:
22 Jan - Dreamspinner Press Blog
23 Jan - Scattered
Thoughts and Rogue Words
26 Jan - BFD Book Blog
28 Jan - The Land of
Make Believe
30 Jan - Prism
Book Alliance
1 Feb - MM
Good Book Reviews
3 Feb - JP Barnaby
6 Feb - The
Novel Approach
9 Feb - The
Purple Rose Teahouse
10 Feb - Diverse
Reader
Giveaway
I totally just fell in love with your current WIP!!! Bullshiting your way to Camelot sounds like so much fun and my kind of book. Good luck and have fun writing!!!
ReplyDeleteI've already had a ball just on the research and the world-building. I'm looking forward to writing. I have one more thing to clear off my desk...
DeleteSounds really interesting, thanks for sharing your research with us
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :-) It really wasn't what I thought I'd write next, but I don't always get that much of a say in it. I write when the words come, and sometimes I write what shouts the loudest.
DeleteTHe Camelot book sounds to funny!
ReplyDeleteI love the photo on the cover of all that is solid melts into air. Its beautiful and just says please read me .