Hey, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Carey PW and his new book, “Grayality,” here on FAB!! For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $50 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also, come back daily to interact with Carey and to increase your chances of winning!!
Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!
Grayality
Love Knows No Gender
by Carey PW
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GENRE: LGBTQIA Contemporary Romance
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BLURB:
Love knows no gender.
Pate Boone, a twenty-six-year-old transgender man, embarks on a new adventure when his childhood best friend, and yes, ex-lover, Oakley Ogden, convinces him to escape their hometown in hopes for something new.
They land in Cloverleaf, a tiny rural town in Montana, so that Oakley can care for his granny who is battling breast cancer. She pressures the two young men to enroll in a nearby college. Pate immediately becomes enthralled with Maybelle, a young, vivacious freshman to whom he fears revealing his transgender identity. Still, he finds it impossible to resist Maybelle, even after he meets her ex, Bullet, a large, violent man determined to keep Pate away from “his girl.”
But there are others who accept Pate immediately, like Stormy. An outdoorsy, rugged freshman, Stormy warns Pate away from Maybelle and Bullet, but Pate’s too infatuated to heed these warnings.
Oakley tries to support his friend’s new love but finds himself entangled in his own emotional calamity when he unintentionally falls for Jody, a gay and ostentatiously confident drag queen. This new relationship awakens deep internal conflicts in Oakley as he struggles to accept his bisexuality, lashing out at Pate and causing friction between him and Jody.
Oakley must decide if he can overcome his insecurities so he doesn’t lose the love of his life. And Pate must discover if the love between him and Maybelle is strong enough for her to accept him as a transgender man, or if she will break his heart.
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EXCERPT TWO:
“Do you not realize that all these things you do hurt me?” he asked.
“I apologized for that. I thought we were over that,” I pleaded.
“Then you call me your boyfriend, but you don’t tell your parents,” he continued. “And you know that people around here already know about us, yet you won’t hold my hand at lunch. Not to mention that you still won’t touch me.”
I looked down in shame. “I told you it’s hard for me.”
“So when does it get hard for me, Oakley? How long am I supposed to date someone who seems repulsed by me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what to say. You know I’m straight.”
Jody wiped some tears from his eyes. “Maybe that’s the problem. I shouldn’t be wasting my time on a straight guy, or at least a guy who keeps insisting that he is straight. I told you upfront that we could be friends and that if you wanted to pursue this, then you needed to be ready to actually do it.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” I asked desperately. Jody finally made eye contact.
“No, not yet anyway. But I’m not waiting for you, Oakley. You need to figure this out because my heart isn’t a tool for you to figure out your sexual orientation.”
“I promise. I’ll try harder. Don’t give up on us yet.” I grabbed his hands.
Jody smiled and went to touch my cheek with his hand, but I pulled away. He shook his head in disappointment.
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GUEST POST:
From Doubt to Publication:
My Journey into Publishing
I just remember third grade. We were assigned to write stories and make picture books. While my classmates wrote about vacations and fantasy destinations, I wrote about a mosquito who befriends a newt and together, they enjoy various adventures in the classroom until the mosquito dies and the newt must face grief. I hadn’t ever experienced grief myself at that point, but I wanted a strong theme that invoked feelings and empathy. Everyone clapped and cheered when I finished reading. That’s when I thought, I can actually do this!
While
I didn’t write much in middle school, my passion returned in high school but
mostly through poems. I liked the flexibility with poetry, and it helped me release
all the darkness that flooded my brain during those years. In eleventh grade, I
submitted a poem to the Young Georgia Author’s Contest and won. With my
confidence high, I was going to be an author.
Like most authors, I needed another job. Reluctantly, I enrolled in college, majoring in English. My goal was to write my first full novel during my freshmen year, and I succeeded. I mostly wrote short stories afterwards but was ready to continue on the novelist path as soon as I graduated. But that didn’t happen.
When I shared my ideas one day with my first husband, he immediately shut me down. Without ever reading anything I had written, he told me that my ideas would never get published. Since I was an unconfident little mess, his words stung. I didn’t write for ten years.
In 2013, I found myself in Beijing, China. One day, inspired by the owner of the company where I worked, I started writing. I created a whole background story for this owner and some of my work colleagues, too. Before I knew it, I added four more narrators, and it turned into a novel. Albeit, a quite dark, Kafka-like novel, but it felt so good to be experiencing the words pouring out of me again. I never submitted it for publication, though.
Around 2017, a work colleague self-published a book. While I was impressed, I was also envious. Why hadn’t I considered self-publishing? About a year later, I came out as transgender and started medically transitioning. I knew that I wanted to write a book about my experiences. I originally planned a memoir, but I always felt better writing novels. I love creating characters. Thus, I went with a fictionalized novel loosely based on myself and my husband. By December 2020, I completed the manuscript for Grayality.
That same year, I found myself in a meditation encounter group where a group member was publishing a memoir. Again, envy burned inside of me. That’s when I realized that I had done little to try to publish my work. With a strong determination, I promised myself that when summer came, I would do whatever it takes to get published. I would send the manuscript to as many places possible. If I needed to rewrite, I would. If I needed to hire a professional editor, I would. But I would not give up. I started sending off manuscripts in June and received a contract in September.
Now, I have submitted another manuscript, Acing the Game, and am working on a dark fantasy LGBTQIA romance series. I also got into blogging last year and writing book reviews.
I became a writer because it has always felt natural for me. But more importantly, like my days in high school, writing helps me release my thoughts, my fears, my triumphs, and my conflicts. I can explore different personas through my characters. I can delve deep into the reality of the human condition. I love exploring people with all their complexities. I like showing that people are inherently flawed yet still wonderfully loveable. I hope that my stories find readers who adore them as much as I do.
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AUTHOR BIO:
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Carey PW (he/they) is a debut author, college instructor, and mental health counselor. Carey is currently completing his next manuscript, Acing the Game.
Carey lives in Montana, and identifies as nonbinary, transmasculine (AFAB) and panromantic asexual. Due to the lack of resources in rural communities, Carey has discovered that writing about his lived experiences is a therapeutic outlet for him and hopes that his readers relate to his own personal struggles and triumphs shared through his characters’ narratives. Carey is particularly interested in exploring relationship conflicts around sexuality and gender differences. He has also worked as a high school writing instructor and college writing instructor, earning a B.A. in English Literature, a M.Ed. in English Education, and Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education all from the University of Georgia. In 2020, Carey earned his second M.Ed. in Counselor Education and works as a licensed clinical professional counselor, LCPC. He has a strong passion for working with the unique mental health issues of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Readers can learn more about Carey from his blog, www.careypw.com. When he is not writing, Carey is busy training for marathons, parenting his six cats, sharing his culinary talents on social media, serving on the board for the nonprofit Center for Studies of the Person (CSP) and learning photography.
Carey PW loves to hear from readers. You can find his contact information, website and author biography at http://www.pride-publishing.com.
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CONNECT WITH CAREY:
Blog:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kerri.p.singer
Twitter:
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/careypatrickwertz
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22484366.Carey_P_W_
Goodreads Book Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61118057-grayality
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon US Kindle eBook:
Amazon US Paperback:
Amazon CA Kindle eBook:
https://www.amazon.ca/Grayality-Carey-PW-ebook/dp/B0B1F4TJJX
Amazon CA Paperback:
https://www.amazon.ca/Grayality-Carey-PW/dp/1802509623
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grayality-carey-pw/1141494008?ean=9781839432101
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grayality-carey-pw/1141494008?ean=9781802509625
Kobo US eBook:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/grayality-1
Kobo CA eBook:
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/grayality-1
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Carey will be awarding a $50 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
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