Virtual Tour: Finding Your Feet by Cass Lennox (Guest Post + Giveaway)

The music behind Finding Your Feet

Finding Your Feet began life as a Nanowrimo project. It was meant to be an exercise in writing something completely different to anything else I'd done before, so I decided on a sweet, fluffy romance. Honestly, I was so excited about writing it! I set up a playlist for the month of November and had it on during the Day Job to get me into the right frame of mind for writing Finding Your Feet in the evenings.

This is a different playlist to the one for Blank Spaces. For Blank Spaces the songs were ones I happened to be listening to at the time. For Finding Your Feet, I had a theme and deliberately chose songs with that theme in mind (exceptions being Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet, which is the song Tyler and Evie dance to, and Find You by Zedd, which is in there because I just really liked it). Here you go:

For those who don't have two hours to listen to my lack of taste in music, these are the ones which were replayed each time they came up:

Fall For You by The Whitlams

The first time I heard this song was as a snippet in the TV ad for a "Best of" album back in the early 00s. The dreamy, introspective melody was enough to induce me to buy the entire album, and I've never looked back. I love the quiet, sad self-awareness of the song, the realisation that this is your person, and maybe you're not wise enough to handle them, but you're still going to take the plunge.

Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) by Buzzcocks

North American audiences (and, uh, people of a certain age group) may be more familiar with the Pete Yorn version of this song, featured in the excellent movie Shrek 2. This is wry in a hilariously British way--well, I find it funny. The singer is so resigned to this relationship! Because being in it is better than not being in it! And that's a bad thing, but the music is so upbeat! We all know what that feels like, mate, sure (/sarcasm).

First Day of My Life, Bright Eyes

Oh my god. This is self-explanatory, right? Right.

Fallin’, Alicia Keys

The raw emotion of this song sent shivers over me the first time I heard it as teen!Cass, and now, (many) years later, it never fails to keep making me feel amazing things. This was my introduction to Alicia Keys, and it's a damn good one.

That's When It Hit Me, Ezra Furman

I love this song with an intensity that hurts. The singer sounds almost bewildered by his feelings, and the song is a whirlwind of imagery that spits those feelings at you. "You broke into my heart/ And you gave me no warning/ You're a heart attack/ And I'm a dead man walking." This song isn't sweet - it's fierce, angry, and blisteringly happy.

About Finding Your Feet

While on holiday in Toronto, Evie Whitmore planned to sightsee and meet other asexuals, not audition for a dance competition. Now she’s representing Toronto’s newest queer dance studio, despite never having danced before. Not only does she have to spend hours learning her routine, she has to do it with one of the grumpiest men she’s ever met. Tyler turns out to be more than a dedicated dancer, though—he might be the kind of man who can sweep her off her feet, literally and figuratively.

Tyler Davis has spent the last year recovering from an emotionally abusive relationship. So he doesn’t need to be pushed into a rushed routine for a dumb competition. Ticking major representation boxes for being trans and biracial isn’t why he went into dance. But Evie turns out to be a dream student. In fact, she helps him remember just how good partnering can be, in all senses of the word. Teaching her the routine, however, raises ghosts for him, ones he’s not sure he can handle.

Plans change, and people change with them. Learning a few steps is one thing; learning to trust again is another entirely.

GoodReads ~ Riptide ~ Amazon

About Cass Lennox

Cass Lennox is a permanent expat who has lived in more countries than she cares to admit to and suffers from a chronic case of wanderlust as a result. She started writing stories at the tender age of eleven, but would be the first to say that the early years are best left forgotten and unread. A great believer in happy endings, she arrived at queer romance via fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, and manga, and she can’t believe it took her that long. Her specialties are diverse characters, gooey happy ever afters, and brownies. She’s currently sequestered in a valley in southeast England.

Connect with Cass:

• Blog: casslennox.wordpress.com/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cass-Lennox-1704635609768647/
• Twitter: twitter.com/CassLennox

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Finding Your Feet, one lucky winner will receive $15 in Riptide Publishing credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 21, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!