Virtual Book Tour ~ Watch Point by Cecilia Tan (Giveaway)
Hello! I'm Cecilia Tan, and right now I'm virtually touring my gay Navy SEAL romance, WATCH POINT. At each stop on the tour, leave comments to be entered to win a gay/queer romance prize pack from yours truly, including not only a copy of Watch Point, but a few of my other books (The Prince's Boy, Magic University) and a Daron's Guitar Chronicles swag pack with notebook and stickers.
About Watch Point
Eric Sakai-Johnson joined the Navy SEALs to protect his country and the people he loves. After discharge, he finds himself relegated to protecting big pharma billionaire Aiden Milford from assassination attempts and kidnapping. Until Aiden reneges on a promise, fires Eric, and lets Eric’s mother die with millions of dollars in medical debt.
Now Eric is the kidnapper. Snatching Aiden’s twenty-two-year-old son, Chase, for a multi-million-dollar ransom is the only way to get justice. It’s time for Aiden to learn what it’s like when someone you love is at the mercy of forces beyond your control. Eric has it all planned out. The one thing he didn’t plan for is the intense erotic spark between him and Chase.
Chase has been chafing under his father’s autocratic control. A gay hookup app has been his only ticket to rebellion—to clandestine moments of freedom, excitement, and danger. Now it’s his ticket to a deep connection and amazing sex with his “captor.” On the rocky island where they’re sequestered, Chase finds Eric to be everything he wants in a man: quiet, strong, capable, and honorable . . . until he finds out he’s been captured for real.
Available now from Riptide Publishing. http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/watch-point
20% of all proceeds from this title will be donated to the Russian LGBT Network.
Each year, Riptide Publishing releases a holiday collection in support of an LGBTQ charity. Twenty percent of the proceeds from this year’s collection will be donated to the Russian LGBT Network.
The Russian LGBT network was founded in April 2006. It is an interregional, non-governmental human rights organization that promotes equal rights and respect for human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. They unite and develop regional initiatives, advocacy groups (at both national and international levels), and provide social and legal services.
To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit their website: https://lgbtnet.org/en.
This collection would not be possible without the talent and generosity of its authors, who have brought us the following holiday stories:
- Cecilia Tan, Watch Point
- Roan Parrish, The Remaking of Corbin Wale
- Katie Porter, Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Pre-ordering this collection will allow you to download each story two days prior to its official release date, as well as save 20% off the list price of the individual books.
Guest Post
Intensity and Present Tense by Cecilia Tan
"I used to think I was a good man. My mother died believing that I was. If I am, though, there’s no way I should be here. I check the equipment: gag, restraints, hood, all in place. Target acquired."
With these words we get our first glimpse of Eric, the main character in Watch Point. As a point-of- view character Eric was a bit of a challenge for me, a puzzle I could only solve by nailing his voice. Eric is an ex-Navy SEAL driven by grief and revenge into kidnapping his former boss's son. He has a lot going on in his head, and at the same time he has to tamp that all down completely in order to function. Getting his voice right was crucial.
"Voice" is a combination of point of view, characterization, and narrative style. One of the first choices I have to make whenever I sit down to write a book is whether it should be in first person or third person . First person is often more intimate and more colloquial since it can literally be the speaking voice of the main character, while third person allows the writer to give the reader a wider view.
In the case of Eric the puzzle I needed to solve was how to let the reader see what's going on in Eric's head even though Eric himself avoids introspection? It was important to give the reader a deep look inside because so much of what Eric does-- like kidnapping Chase-- looks villainous from the outside. Butinside we know he's deeply concerned with honor and justice. This parallels Eric's sexuality, which includes role playing and BDSM which may look abusive from the outside, but from the inside we experience as deeply caring, careful, and loving.
I needed to show important aspects of his character while at the same time keeping Eric from deep introspection. He doesn't want to think about the past-- it's too painful-- and he can't think about the future or he might lose his nerve. Once he's set on a course, he doesn't look back. That mentality servedhim well on the battlefield, but the question is whether it will see him through the emotional minefield of falling in love with his captive. Since Eric tries to stay "in the moment," I not only went with first person, I made the narration present tense. I had always been told in writing classes never to write in the present tense. I wrote the first chapter of Watch Point without knowing I was going to write a whole book.
Inspiration struck and I sat down and banged it out on my laptop one morning at the RWA convention in San Diego. (Maybe all the Navy ships around there helped bring Eric to life!) When I looked at it later I realized it was in present tense. I thought I would throw it out and start over in a more conventional past tense voice. But every time I sat down to write, I would "slip" back into present tense. Eric's viewpoint just wouldn't allow for anything else. The way he lives for the moment made it completely necessary. And in the end that was perfect for the book. We live through Eric's trials and tribulations, through his falling for Chase and through every moment of doubt, fight, and triumph.
Guest Post
Intensity and Present Tense by Cecilia Tan
"I used to think I was a good man. My mother died believing that I was. If I am, though, there’s no way I should be here. I check the equipment: gag, restraints, hood, all in place. Target acquired."
With these words we get our first glimpse of Eric, the main character in Watch Point. As a point-of- view character Eric was a bit of a challenge for me, a puzzle I could only solve by nailing his voice. Eric is an ex-Navy SEAL driven by grief and revenge into kidnapping his former boss's son. He has a lot going on in his head, and at the same time he has to tamp that all down completely in order to function. Getting his voice right was crucial.
"Voice" is a combination of point of view, characterization, and narrative style. One of the first choices I have to make whenever I sit down to write a book is whether it should be in first person or third person . First person is often more intimate and more colloquial since it can literally be the speaking voice of the main character, while third person allows the writer to give the reader a wider view.
In the case of Eric the puzzle I needed to solve was how to let the reader see what's going on in Eric's head even though Eric himself avoids introspection? It was important to give the reader a deep look inside because so much of what Eric does-- like kidnapping Chase-- looks villainous from the outside. Butinside we know he's deeply concerned with honor and justice. This parallels Eric's sexuality, which includes role playing and BDSM which may look abusive from the outside, but from the inside we experience as deeply caring, careful, and loving.
I needed to show important aspects of his character while at the same time keeping Eric from deep introspection. He doesn't want to think about the past-- it's too painful-- and he can't think about the future or he might lose his nerve. Once he's set on a course, he doesn't look back. That mentality servedhim well on the battlefield, but the question is whether it will see him through the emotional minefield of falling in love with his captive. Since Eric tries to stay "in the moment," I not only went with first person, I made the narration present tense. I had always been told in writing classes never to write in the present tense. I wrote the first chapter of Watch Point without knowing I was going to write a whole book.
Inspiration struck and I sat down and banged it out on my laptop one morning at the RWA convention in San Diego. (Maybe all the Navy ships around there helped bring Eric to life!) When I looked at it later I realized it was in present tense. I thought I would throw it out and start over in a more conventional past tense voice. But every time I sat down to write, I would "slip" back into present tense. Eric's viewpoint just wouldn't allow for anything else. The way he lives for the moment made it completely necessary. And in the end that was perfect for the book. We live through Eric's trials and tribulations, through his falling for Chase and through every moment of doubt, fight, and triumph.
About Cecilia Tan
Cecilia Tan is "simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature," according to Susie Bright. RT Magazine awarded her Career Achievement in Erotic Romance in 2015 and their prestigious Pioneer Award. Tan's BDSM romance novel Slow Surrender (2013) also won the RT Reviewers Choice Award in Erotic Romance and the Maggie Award for Excellence from the Georgia Romance Writers chapter of RWA.
Her professional writing career began when she was still a teenager and her father offered to match every dollar she earned from writing while she lived at home. She immediately landed a gig writing a monthly column for Superteen magazine and provided articles to Teen Machine and other teen magazines. Her first professional fiction sale didn't come until after college, though. While working a day job in book publishing in Boston, she began sending out erotic short stories. On the day she left her job to pursue a master’s degree in writing, her first short story acceptance arrived.
That was in 1992, several months after she'd founded Circlet Press, Inc., then the only book publisher dedicated to erotic science fiction and fantasy. Her first book, Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, was self-published through Circlet because there was literally nowhere else that would even consider it.
Since then, Tan has authored many books, including the ground-breaking erotic short story collections Black Feathers, White Flames, and Edge Plays, and the erotic romances Slow Surrender, Slow Seduction, and Slow Satisfaction, the Secrets of a Rock Star series, The Prince's Boy, The Hot Streak, and the Magic University series—as well as various nonfiction books on baseball including The 50 Greatest Yankee Games and The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games.
Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Nerve, Best American Erotica, Asimov's Science Fiction, and tons of other places. She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame for GLBT writers in 2010, was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Leather Association in 2004, and won the inaugural Rose & Bay Awards for Best Fiction in 2010 for her crowdfunded web fiction serial Daron's Guitar Chronicles.
She is the editor of the Baseball Research Journal and is publications director for the Society for American Baseball Research. She is also a part-time taekwondo instructor and is a certified therapist in an Asian bodywork style known as Okazaki restorative therapy. (That's a fancy way of saying she can break you and then fix you up again.)
Tan has also been a lifelong activist in the BDSM and leather/fetish community. She is the founder of the Fetish Fair Fleamarket, the largest BDSM event in New England, and served for twenty years on the board of directors of the New England Leather Alliance (NELA) before stepping down to concentrate on writing and education.
She lives in the Boston area with her lifelong partner Corwin and three cats. Find out more at www.ceciliatan.com.
Connect with Cecilia:
Giveaway
To celebrate the release of Watch Point, one lucky winner will receive a swag bag including a copy of Watch Point, The Prince's Boy, Daron's Guitar Chronicles Vol 1, a DGC T-shirt, notebook, and stickers! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 11, 2017. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
Cool to get a peek into your process!
ReplyDeletevitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com
Thanks for the insight into your writing process.
ReplyDeletejlshannon74 at gmail.com
love it
ReplyDeletejmarinich33 at aol com
Thank you for sharing the lines that gives us a glimpse of the depth and intensity of Eric and sharing your process.
ReplyDeletehumhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
Thanks for the interview and giving us a peek into your writing process.
ReplyDeleteheath0043 at gmail dot com
I love posts like this. Such insight.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
sounds intriguing
ReplyDeleteleetee2007(at)hotmail(dot)com
Even though the story was narrated only on Eric's POV, the book didn't fail to deliver the voices & thoughts of both characters. And I was so happy that we got to know Eric's thoughts to soften the blow of what he had done & to humanize him. It was really important. Also, I know that using present tense is much trickier & I'm glad that you pulled it off. Additionally, I agree with Eric's mentality about living in the moment. We can certainly get some advice from a man who led a very hard life. <3
ReplyDeletemushyvince(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks for sharing. This sounds like a good book. colby69@verizon.net
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the release!
ReplyDeletelegacylandlisa at gmail dot com