A.M. Arthur’s Stand By You and Foundation Of Trust

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of A.M. Arthur’s books yet, you need to. They are fabulous and hit you in the feels every time. Her two newest books, Stand By You and Foundation Of Trust, are out now and I can’t wait to read both of them. I had the chance to sit down and ask questions about these two stories and learned some about the difference between writing adult and New Adult romance. After the interview be sure to read all about the books and an excerpt from each that you won’t want to miss. At the very bottom be sure to enter for a chance to win a copy of Foundation Of Trust.

Amanda C. Stone: Fangirl squee! Ok, I’m good now.
AM Arthur: Hi! It’s always nice to be welcomed with a squee. *grin*
ACS: I’m so excited for these two books to come out. But I’m especially excited for David’s story in Foundation Of Trust. He was a character I fell in love with when he was introduced in Acts Of Faith. I knew he had a heartbreaking story to tell. Did you know that he was going to get a book when you wrote him in as a character? Or did he grow on you over time?
AMA: And I love David, too. When David Weller first showed up in Rey’s kitchen and Samuel’s hackles went up, I knew that David was going to have a story. I knew that behind David’s easy, flirty smile and happily-single attitude was something dark and angry. I just didn’t know what it was until he blurted it out to Rey over a pitcher of beer. From that moment on, I knew he’d have his own book, and I knew Owen would be a part of it. All of the fun was in figuring out how.
ACS: It’s interesting how a character’s story just comes to you in one line. Some of the topics you deal with in Stand By You are hard for people to read. Was it hard to write about them and research them?
AMA: Definitely. The heartbreaking reality is that while readers may think “oh, another book about a homeless gay kid who turned tricks and did bad things to survive,” there are thousands of teenagers and young adults out there just like Romy. We hear about them in the news once in a while, but studies show that up to forty percent of homeless teenagers are LBGT youths. These kids have very difficult lives, and so many of them meet terrible ends. They exist and they need help. In Romy, I wanted to show someone who’d fallen to the very bottom, but whose heart was too big, his spirit too determined to give up. I wanted to show that no matter how very broken or dirty you think you are, there is someone out there waiting to love you.
ACS: I remember being completely floored by the statistic the first time I heard it. It’s amazing how many youth end up on the streets. Heartbreaking. Do you prefer writing adult or New Adult romance? Do you handle topics differently based on the age of the characters?
AMA: It’s funny, because I never set out to write New Adult specifically. I’d previously written two other books that fall within the NA spectrum (Weight of Silence and What You Own), but when I submitted No Such Thing to Carina Press, I called it a contemporary romance. Carina marketed it right away as NA, and I do think that the Belonging series works well as an NA series, because the characters are younger. They are also dealing with serious topics, such as sexuality, coming out and determining their futures. I think those topics sort of naturally come out of writing characters in the 18-25 year old age group.

For adult romance, the conflicts tend to be a little different, in that these characters have careers, they have more life experiences to draw from. Often times my characters have experienced a life-altering moment, or they’re finally ready to settle down. I honestly don’t prefer adult over NA, or vice versa. All I do is tell the story that the characters want me to tell. The rest is marketing.
ACS: It seems New Adult is the new term for that age range. I hadn’t heard of it until pretty recent. I would have called those books contemporary as well! Alright, time for fun questions! Anyone can buy the rights to name a star. What would you name a star bought for you?
AMA: Oooh, that’s such a cool question. I’m going to let my geek flag fly, and say I’d name the star “I am Groot.”
Question 5: I love Groot. He’s such a fun character. If you could be famous/infamous for one thing, what would you choose?
AMA: Ack. Um…will is sound silly to say for adapting and co-producing a film adaptation of one of my books? I don’t care which book. And I want Charlie David involved. I don’t care how. And for the film to win all kinds of independent awards before sweeping the Oscars? It would awesome to be famous for that.
ACS: I’d watch the hang out of a movie based on one of your books. Especially if Charlie David is involved. That man is all kinds of hot. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today. I had such fun.

Foundation Of Trust
Blurb:
David Weller thought he had it all—a loving partner who gave him a ring, a steady job he didn’t hate, and so much hope for the future. But in the wake of a devastating diagnosis, everything he thought was solid and real lay in pieces at his feet.

Four years later, he’s still sifting through the rubble of his life. His catering partnership occupies his days, while his nights are filled with dangerous sexual hookups and very bad decisions. Then the last person he ever expected to see again walks back into his life.

Owen Hart’s single biggest regret is the way he was forced to leave David behind—no explanations, no chance to make it right. Until now. Finally free of eight years of lies, Owen’s back for the only man he’s ever loved.

An incendiary encounter in a club proves that time hasn’t weakened their physical connection, but David’s wounds run deeper than Owen’s deception. And if David can’t first forgive, Owen doesn’t have a second chance in hell.

Warning: This book contains an Australian transplant with a head full of secrets, a party planner with enough baggage to sink a battleship, and a surly teenager who just wants them both to get over themselves.

Excerpt:
A shadow drifted across Owen’s face—the same shadow that had been there almost constantly that first year. An angry shadow that had diminished under the brilliance of their love for each other. “We had to, me and my son both. Michael was born Benjamin Hadley Swenson.”

“But why?” David needed to know why he’d been lied to for so long. Why he’d fallen in love with a man whose name he never really knew.

“To protect us from the man who killed Michael’s mother and grandfather.”

“You told me his mother was killed during a home invasion.”

“I used parts of the truth to fashion the lie. Makes it easier to remember. She was killed by a man who had no business in that house, but he wasn’t there to rob anyone. He was a dangerous man, and I did what I had to do to protect my son.”

Stand By You
Blurb:
Three months after his rescue from an abusive boyfriend, twenty-two-year-old Romy Myers has landed his first legitimate job—bussing tables at his friend’s new coffee shop. The job has brought him some stability after years of abuse have left him feeling damaged and broken. He’s working hard on his panic and social anxiety, and those things are often tempered by the big, burly presence of Brendan Walker.

From the moment ex-football player Brendan helped rescue Romy from his ex’s abuse, he’s wanted to protect him. And he does, from a distance, with joking text messages, a new gym routine to toughen him up and a genuine friendship. So far it’s been easy—but Brendan’s feelings aren’t just friendly anymore…

When an argument spirals out of control, a hot and heavy make-out session causes Romy’s friendship with supposedly straight Brendan to reach a new level. The last thing Romy wants is to fall for another guy who could potentially shatter him, but Brendan also wakes up a part of him he thought had been destroyed by violence—his heart.

Excerpt:
“So make a plan for yourself.” Romy was getting excited over the idea of Brendan going back to college—maybe because Romy had never gone and probably never would. He didn’t even have his GED. And here he was giving Brendan career advice when the longest job he’d ever held in his life was as a hooker. “Figure out what it will cost to go back and finish. Figure out how you’ll save the money. Nothing is impossible, Bren, not if you want it bad enough.”

Brendan looked at him, chocolate brown eyes catching his, and something in that moment changed. Like a snap or a zing, Romy couldn’t describe it. Only that his words had touched something in Brendan, and that something leapt across the space between them and right into Romy. His pulse raced.

Oh crap.

Romy broke eye contact first, using the untwisting of his bottle cap as an excuse to kill the odd charge between them. Not happening. Not again, and not with Brendan. Brendan wasn’t even gay!

Was he?

About A.M.:
A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone’s throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland. She’s been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn’t been coined yet back then) and “The Young Riders” with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories.

When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she’s an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.

Contact her at am_arthur@yahoo.com with your cooking tips (or book comments). You can also find her online (http://amarthur.blogspot.com/), as well as on Twitter (http://twitter.com/am_arthur), Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/am-arthur), and Facebook (A.m. Arthur). A.M. Arthur’s work is available from Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, and Musa Publishing.

Buy Links:
Foundation Of Trust
Samhain: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/foundation-trust-p-73638.html
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/foundation-of-trust-am-arthur/1119742287?ean=9781619221765
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Trust-Cost-Repairs-Arthur-ebook/dp/B00KT23WJU/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_d_1

Stand By You
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stand-by-you-am-arthur/1119947645?ean=9781426899195
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Stand-You-The-Belonging-Series-ebook/dp/B00LSDQNJK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0BZ79FSDEP1MA7EYVZ82

Tour Stops:
10/20: Emotion in Motion, Multitasking Mommas
10/21: Amanda C. Stone, MM Good Book Reviews
10/22: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Velvet Panic
10/23: Wake Up Your Wild Side, Smoocher’s Voice
10/24: The Novel Approach
10/27: Hearts on Fire, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, The Blogger Girls
10/28: Iyana Jenna, Foxylutely Book Reviews
10/29: Love Bytes, My Fiction Nook
10/30: Prism Book Alliance, Cathy Brockman Romances
10/31: Parker Williams
11/3: Book Reviews and More by Kathy, All I Want and More Books
11/4: LeAnn’s Book Reviews
11/5: Havan Fellows
11/6: Romance the Night, Queer Town Abbey
11/7: Crystal’s Many Reviewers

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