I’m thrilled to be taking part in this blog tour for my wonderful friend and fellow author, Sarah Madison. I loved this book when I first read it and its’s the one that introduced me to Sarah’s writing. Since then, I’ve ready everything she’s written and let me tell you, it’s worth every word. I wish Sarah all the best on her blog tour and I hope she gets the exposure she deserves.
![BoysofSummer[The]LG](https://creativemindpromotions.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/boysofsummerthelg.jpg?resize=400%2C600)
TITLE: The Boys of Summer
AUTHOR: Sarah Madison
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
COVER ARTIST: Reese Dante
LENGTH: 200 Pages
RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2015
BLURB: 2nd Edition
David McIntyre has been enjoying the heck out of his current assignment: touring the Hawaiian Islands in search of the ideal shooting locations for a series of film-company projects. What’s not to like? Stunning scenery, great food, sunny beaches… and Rick Sutton, the hot, ex-Air Force pilot who is flying him around.
Everything changes when a tropical storm and engine failure force a crash landing on a deserted atoll with a WWII listening post. Rick’s injuries and a lack of food and water mean David has to step up to the plate and play hero. While his days are spent fighting for survival, and his nights are filled with worrying about Rick, the two men grow closer. David’s research for his next movie becomes intertwined with his worst fears, and events on the island result in a vivid dream about the Battle of Britain. On waking, David realizes Rick is more than just a pilot to him. The obstacles that prevented a happy ending in 1940 aren’t present today, and David vows that if they survive this stranding, he will tell Rick how he feels.
“I don’t think we’ve got much choice.” Sutton’s voice was grim. “We’re lucky to have that much. Hold on, these trees are coming up faster than I’d like.”
Still fighting to keep the nose of the plane up, Sutton guided the recalcitrant aircraft toward the so-called clearing, the ground rising up to meet them far faster than was comfortable. David found himself leaning back in his seat, bracing his hands on the console as the tops of trees scraped the underside of the plane. Branches swiped at the windshield, and David had the sudden impression of being in a car wash scene as written by Stephen King.
“Duck your head!” Sutton barked. “Wrap your arms around your legs!”
“And kiss my ass goodbye?” David shouted, raising his voice over the increasing noise as he obeyed Sutton’s orders.
Incredibly, Sutton laughed. It was an oddly comforting sound. Like everything was somehow going to be all right because Sutton was at the controls.
The moment of humor was gone in a flash. The plane screamed with the sound of tearing metal and the sharp, explosive crack of tree limbs and breaking glass. David kept his head down and his eyes closed, praying to a God he was pretty sure had more important things to do than to keep up with the well-being of one David McIntyre. Despite being strapped in his seat, his head and shoulder thumped painfully against the passenger side door as the plane thrashed wildly. There was a moment of eerie, blessed silence, and for an instant, the assault on the plane seemed as though it had lifted. Eye of the storm, David thought, just before the plane hit the ground.
Someone had left the window open and it was raining on him. How incredibly annoying. He shifted, intent on reaching for the offending window, when a jolt of pain ran through his shoulder and he gasped. When he opened his eyes, nothing made any sense at first. Then he remembered the crash, and realized that his side of the plane was pointing up at the sky. The rain was coming down in a steady stream through the broken windshield. The sound of the rain on the metal hull of the plane was nearly deafening.
He winced at the pain in his neck when he turned to look over at the pilot’s seat. Sutton was slumped to one side in his chair, unmoving. His sunglasses were hanging off one ear.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” David murmured, hastily undoing his seatbelt so he could reach across to Sutton. His skin was cold and damp where David touched it, and adrenaline pounded through David’s veins as though he could jumpstart Sutton’s heart by sending his own pulse beating through his fingertips. “Sutton! Rick!”
David fought to free himself of his seat, twisting for greater access to the other side of the cockpit. When the seatbelt came open, he fell half across Sutton. Sprawled practically in his lap, David could now see the nasty cut on the left side of Sutton’s temple. The pilot’s side of the plane had taken a lot of damage, and David yelped as he encountered a sliver of glass. Bits of the windshield and console were scattered like confetti over Sutton’s jacket. “Sutton!” The lack of response was unnerving. He tossed aside the sunglasses and worked a hand down into Sutton’s collar, feeling frantically for a pulse.
He could have kissed the man when Sutton suddenly groaned.
Dreamspinner Press (Paperback)
Sarah Madison is a veterinarian with a large dog, an even bigger horse, too many cats, and a very patient boyfriend. An amateur photographer and a former competitor in the horse sport known as eventing, when she’s not out hiking with the dog or down at the stables, she’s at the laptop working on her next story. When she’s in the middle of a chapter, she relies on the smoke detector to tell her dinner is ready. She writes because it’s cheaper than therapy.
Sarah Madison was a finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards and is the winner of Best M/M Romance in the 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Awards.
If you want to make her day, e-mail her and tell you how much you like her stories.
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Winner’s Prize: E-copy of The Boys of Summer
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WHY CHARACTERS RULE THE WORLD by Sarah Madison
I won’t kid you, I’ll forgive a lot for characters I love. You know what I mean. I bet you feel the same. If you have a set of characters you love, you’ll accept almost any story about them because you’re dying to have more stories in their universe, you want to spend more time with them. It scarcely registered that the story had plot-holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through, or that the story was fairly implausible, even insipid. As long as you adore the characters, as long as their dialog is snappy and full of chemistry, you’ll forgive them almost anything.
If I love something, I’m usually incapable of seeing its flaws until the third or fourth exposure. In fact, a sure sign that a story or movie hasn’t properly engaged me is if I begin nit-picking right away. Sadly, once a story has lost me, it’s hard for me to enjoy it fully again. If I feel the author or producers are taking the characters away from my impression of who they are, it’s upsetting, to say the least. Character love is why we adore series, and keep coming back for more, long past when we feel the series has grown tired. Character love is what keeps people reading stories they know aren’t well-written and sing the praises of an otherwise mediocre tale.
Frankly, the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries were not all that well-researched or written. Even the most ardent fan will admit the ridiculousness of the idea of training a snake to do its master’s bidding by rewarding it with a saucer of milk. A recent re-read of these treasured stories surprised me in how much of the action is passive, and takes place off-stage. But what we find so compelling about the Arthur Conan Doyle legacy is his creation, Sherlock Holmes. As a character, he leaps off the page, transcending the level of the prose, and becoming one of the most enduring fictional characters of all time. The Guinness Book of World Records lists him as being the most portrayed movie character, and that’s not counting all the plays, novels, and television series that have been built around this character. As an ardent fan, I can tell you I’ve seen and read almost every incarnation of Holmes that exists.
In the same way, the Star Trek franchise stayed alive because of the love of three men: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and their starship, the Enterprise. There are Browncoats and Firefly conventions honoring a show that only made thirteen episodes. We quote Ivanova from Babylon 5 (and are convinced the show went downhill when they eighty-sixed her character), imagine ourselves at an Impression on Pern, desperately want to bond with a treecat from Sphinx like Honor Harrington. We write fanfic for our loves because we just can’t get enough of them.
Most of us will never light upon a character that will capture the public imagination the way Holmes or Spock have done. But we authors fall in love with our own characters time and time again, and we share that love with our readers. It’s why it’s so hard to say goodbye to them at times, and why we find ourselves spinning more tales about them when we thought their stories were done. So don’t be surprised if I bring back beloved characters from time to time. It’s because I love them.
January 4: The Novel Approach :: Gay Media Reviews
January 5: Elisa – My reviews and Ramblings
January 6: Louise Lyons
January 7: Diverse Reader
January 8: Prism Book Alliance :: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
January 9: Susan Mac Nicol
January 10: Loving Without Limits
January 11: Kathy Mac Reviews :: Love Bytes Reviews
January 12: Divine Magazine
January 13: BFD Book Blog
January 14: The Purple Rose Tea House :: Man2ManTastic
January 15: Molly Lolly: Reader, Reviewer, Lover of Words
January 16: TTC Books and More :: Sue Brown
January 17: Bayou Book Junkie
January 18: Drops of Ink
What lovely things you’ve said, Susan! You’re making me blush–and grin madly too! Thank you for hosting me here today!