Welcome to our Grand Finale celebrations for the fabulous
In today's post, we will look at two series - Turning Point and Thomas Elkin - as well as conduct our author interview. There's also one more chance to win, all the way at the bottom.
First up, Point Of No Return (Turning Point #1)
Matthew Elliot is one of LA's best detectives. He's been labeled the golden boy of the Fab Four: a team of four detectives who've closed down drug-rings all over the city. He's smart, tough and exceptionally good at his job. He's also a closeted gay man.
Enter Kira Takeo Franco, the new boxing coach at the gym. Matthew can't deny his immediate attraction to the man his fellow cops know as Frankie.
But in allowing himself to fall in love with a man known to his colleagues, Matthew risks outing them both. Matt and Kira work to keep their relationship and private lives hidden from Matt's very public life, fearing it would be detrimental to their careers.
But it's not the other cops who Matthew should be worried about finding out his deepest, darkest secret... it's the bad guys.
Excerpt:
Kira and I sparred for a good five minutes or more. He gave me a few light taps to the face, and when I gave it back to him, he grinned at me. “Now, why couldn’t you do this the first time we sparred?”
“Because the only way for me to not get a hard-on around you was to let you hit me.”
He laughed—really fucking loudly—and he dropped his hands. So I jabbed at him with my right, not expecting him to be so close, and my fist connected with his mouth.
“Oh, fuck!” he said, pulling back quickly, holding his hand to his mouth.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” I said, but I also kind of laughed at the same time.
“Was that a diversionary tactic?” he asked.
I laughed again. “No, seriously. I mean, I meant what I said about the hard-on. But you shouldn’t drop your hands.”
“You shouldn’t mention hard-ons.”
I laughed again, and he chuckled. But he was still holding his hand to his lip, so I told him, “Let me have a look at it.” I pulled his hand away to inspect his lip. It was split, there was blood, but his teeth were still intact. I smiled at him. “You’ll survive.”
I grabbed his water bottle and threw it to him. And when I handed him his towel, he wiped his face, dabbing it to his lip.
“Am I still beautiful?” he asked with a smile. His tongue darted out to lick his swollen lip.
I looked at him, split lip and all, and nodded. “Yep.”
He grinned then, making his lip bleed again. “Shit,” he cursed, holding his towel back to his lip. “I don’t know,” he mumbled through the material. “I think this will cost you dinner.”
I snorted, and he groaned. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to fill out an incident report,” he said, holding up his towel to show me. “Blood spilled.”
He walked out of the room, and I presumed our training session was over. Jeez, it was just a split lip.
I pulled the tape off my hands, collected my things, and walked out into the main room, where Kira was behind the counter writing in some book. Chris, the gym owner, smiled and shook his head at me. “What are you doing giving my staff a bloody lip?”
I shrugged. “He zigged. He should have zagged,” I said, making Chris laugh.
Mitch jumped off the cross-trainer. He tried to catch his breath. “You couldn’t have done that last week? When it cost me twenty bucks?”
I rolled my eyes at my partner. He was never gonna let me forget that. Ignoring Mitch, I walked over to the counter, where Kira was still writing. “Do you really have to fill out an incident report for a split lip?”
He grinned and handed me a slip of paper. “Something like that.”
I opened the folded note to find it wasn’t any kind of incident report. It was an address and phone number. And three words.
Dinner. Eight o’clock.
I folded the piece of paper and couldn’t help but smile. I hid it in my hand just as Mitch walked over. He was mumbling at me, something about it being my turn to buy at the bar. “Frankie,” my partner said, “you should come to the bar with us. Elliott here owes you a drink for the fat lip.”
Kira looked at me, then back to Mitch. His swollen lip curled into a smile. “Thanks. But it’ll have to be another time, guys. I’ve got a date tonight.”
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Book 2, Breaking Point
A fight for what’s right becomes a fight for his life.
As guilt plagues him, Matthew Elliott’s world begins to spiral out of control. The harder he holds on, the more it slips through his fingers, and he’s helpless to stop it.
Entering into the underground cage-fighting scene, he starts out fighting for what’s right. The deeper he gets, the more guilt consumes him—the more pain he takes for his penance—and he’s soon fighting for more than justice.
He’s fighting for love.
He’s fighting for his life.
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Book 3, Starting Point
After going past the point of no return and finally reaching breaking point, the only thing Matthew Elliott can do now is start over.
Matthew Elliott is a recovering man. As an ex-cop and ex-fighter, his new job teaching kids at the local community gym about drug awareness and self-defense, is a little bit of both. His new focus on helping street kids is helping him heal, and with Kira by his side, he’s making strides.
Brother and sister, Rueben and Claudia, are homeless kids and they're very much alone. As they strike a chord with Matt, he does everything in his power to help them.
But when Ruby and Claude need more help than he bargained for, it stops being about work, and starts being about home.
The day he met Kira, Matt’s life changed direction, and it’s only now he realizes that everything he’s been through was a lead up to this. It was never about endings. His life, his purpose, was just beginning.
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Elements Of Retrofit (Thomas Elkin #1)
A successful New York architect, Thomas Elkin almost has it all. Coming out as gay and ending his marriage before his fortieth birthday, he needed to start living his life. Now, four years later, with his relationship with his son back on track, and after a few short-lived romances, this esteemed traditional draftsman thought he knew everything about architecture, about life.
Cooper Jones, twenty-two years old, is about to take the architect world by storm. Talented, professional, driven, and completely infuriating, Cooper is the definition of Generation Y.
Starting an internship working with Thomas, Cooper is about to knock Tom’s world off its axis. Tom can teach Cooper about the industry, but Cooper is about to teach Tom a few things about life.
Excerpt:
I was in the office on Monday early, like always, and had forgotten about the intake of interns, until Jennifer buzzed me on the intercom. I looked up from the job specifications. “Yes, Jennifer.”
“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Elkin,” she said. “If I could trouble you at my desk for a moment.”
The only time Jennifer ever asked me to come to her desk was when she wanted me to have a visual of a client—or opposition—before I met them. “Sure,” I told her.
Jennifer’s desk ran along the left-hand side of my double doors, which ensured no one got to see me without checking in with her first. I opened the door and she handed me a file, which I took. “Interns,” she said quietly. “There are three to choose from. That’s them over there.” She looked pointedly toward the waiting room without moving her head.
I looked over to see two young men and one woman, all eager to impress and impeccably dressed. Usually the four executive senior partners got to choose from the top four candidates, so I knew any of the three remaining candidates were good. I read through the very brief credentials lists first, not even looking at names or gender. I just wanted talent.
Academically, they were all relatively evenly matched, but then a name stood out. I risked a glance at the suited man who I hadn’t even recognized as the kid who’d had dinner in my apartment just three nights ago.
He looked different. Gone was the backpacker look. Gone was the kid who drank beer and talked about drunken antics with my son.
In his place was a professional, serious man, dressed in a well-tailored suit.
Without another thought, without any thought, I looked at Jennifer, handed her the file, and said two words that would change my life.
“Cooper Jones.”
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Book 2, Clarity Of Lines
When some lines blur, others become crystal clear.
Absolutely smitten, Thomas Elkin and Cooper Jones have decided they're prepared to give a relationship a try.
What they're not prepared for is the reaction from their families, who try to force them apart. Both men are about to learn that there are lines that define us. Sometimes the lines blur, sometimes the lines become crystal clear.
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Book 3, Sense Of Place
Designing homes is easy. Finding home is something else entirely.
Thomas Elkin and Cooper Jones finally have the support of their families, and their love grows stronger every day. Now living together, they think nothing can stand in their way.
But there are outside influences trying to pull them apart.
Cooper encounters a man, closer to his age and with connections high up the property development chain, who wants Cooper as his own. Tom encounters discrimination and a hidden agenda from a fellow senior partner who’s trying to take him down.
No matter what the world throws at them, Tom and Cooper are the real deal. Age differences aside, Tom has finally found his sense of place. His one true center, his home.
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Author Interview:
1. What inspires you? What gets you writing?
Anything from a movie, a song, or a picture. Though I need to let the story and characters to flesh themselves out before I start which can take months. I normally just let them percolate for as long as I need. I always have the characters first and foremost. Story and plot is up to them! LOL I also need silence. I can’t write with noise.
2. What's your writing process? Seat of your pants, lots of sticky notes, complex spreadsheets?
I’m a pantser, the whole way. I don’t outline, I don’t plan. I’ve tried and it’s really not for me. I don’t even make notes. LOL I always start with the characters first. They talk in my head for a while before I start, but once I start to write, I will sometimes write the end scene first though, so I know the destination. Then I go back to the beginning and let the characters tell the story and enjoy the journey with them. If a scene isn’t working, I’ll write out of sequence. My brain is hotmess. LOL
3. Which character from your books is your favorite, and why?
It’s so hard to answer… I will always have a place in my heart for Charlie from Red Dirt Heart. He’s such a part of me, and I know him so well, he’s like a real person to me. Henry from The Weight Of It All is the most “me” character I’ve written. He has my sense of humour and snark.
4. Which character is your least favorite, and why?
I’ve never been asked this! LOL Um… I’ve never disliked any main character. I loved them all, but there were plenty of secondary characters that I’ve hated. Usually a parent or co-worker that was horrible or bigoted; I hated all of them. Like Joshua in Through These Eyes (Blind Faith 2) or CJ’s father in On Davis Row.
5. If you could go back into one of your books and change one thing, what would that be? And why?
Um, wow. I’ve never been asked this either. And I’d have to say, honestly, none. I think all books and characters were written the way they were for a purpose. I’m certain my writing has grown, and hopefully improved, over the years so of course I wish my earlier books were as polished. But there’s no plot or character development I’d change.
6. What's next for you? What amazing book are you working on?
I have a late January/early February release called Finders Keepers. It’s m/m of course, fluffy and fun, full of sunshine and golden sand of the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.
7. Anything else you'd like to share with your readers?
My current WIP, currently untitled, is very different to anything I’ve done. And it’s a bit different from anything I’ve seen. I can’t give too much away, but it’s a little bit futuristic and a little bit sci-fi. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I can’t argue with the characters who want their story told.
About the author:
N.R. Walker is an Australian author, who loves her genre of gay romance. She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it, but wouldn't have it any other way.
She is many things; a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer. She has pretty, pretty boys who live in her head, who don't let her sleep at night unless she gives them life with words.
She likes it when they do dirty, dirty things...but likes it even more when they fall in love.
She used to think having people in her head talking to her was weird, until one day she happened across other writers who told her it was normal.
She's been writing ever since...
For more info on N.R. Walker, you can find her at:
Giveaway:
Thanks for celebrating with us this month. We hope you found a few new books to end to your TBR and learned some cool things about this fantastic author.
Until next time, happy reading!
I'm a huge fan of N.R. Walker!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post and interview! It reminded me that I need to catch up on some your books yet.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interview!
ReplyDelete