My woohoo moment for the week was editing, formatting, and uploading Kerry and Dayton to the Zon. I also sorted out my ARC team, and I am taking a few days off to rest before I dive into the series finale! I hope you are all smiling!
Please welcome Raquel Riley to the blog!
Author Bio
Raquel Riley is a native of South Florida but now calls North Carolina home. She is an avid reader and loves to travel. Most often, she writes gay romance stories with an HEA but characters of all types can be found in her books. Raquel weaves pieces of herself, her family, and her travels into every story she writes.
Stop by her author page on Facebook for the exclusive updates, new releases, and excerpts of her current work in progress. You can also visit Raquel and her characters from Cooper’s Cove in her Facebook reader group Raquel Riley’s Romantics.
Raquel’s Quirky Questions
Holly: Do you have any strange writing habits or rituals?
Raquel: I wouldn’t say so, I tend to write in short bursts rather than one long run. When I’m blocked, I either go for a drive or take a relaxing bath. Either one is guaranteed to make all the creative juices flow.
Holly: If you could create a new holiday, what would it be? Why?
Raquel: That’s a great question! If I could choose a new holiday, or a new tradition for a holiday, it would be a day where we receive handmade gifts from each other. Some thing we created with our hands, or our hearts and minds, a poem, or a handwritten letter, a meal cooked by someone who knows your favorites, a hand drawn picture, and so forth. gifts from the heart.
Holly: Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favorite?
Raquel: I always play music while I write. I have different playlists for different books. I also have a master playlist with just general inspiring music that does not pertain to certain characters. Imagine Dragons is one I listen to a lot, Jelly Roll, and of course my 80s and 90s playlists.
Holly: What was the weirdest thing you had to Google for your story?
Raquel: I was positive that SWAT was coming to break down my door when I was researching proof of life. I looked up so many articles on IED bombs, questions about the hierarchy of the military and the government, how to collapse a building with a bomb… You get the idea. I’m sure that I’m on a no-fly list somewhere.
Holly: If you could visit any place you’ve created for a holiday where would you go?
Raquel: I would definitely spend the day in Cooper’s Cove, South Carolina with all of my favorite men and aunt Sadie.
Holly: Are you a plotter or a pantster?
Raquel: total pantser!
Holly: How many books are you usually working on at the same time? How many unfinished WIPs do you have?
Raquel: I can only focus on one thing at a time. Sometimes I see a scene unfold for a future project, and I write it down before I forget, but I don’t have several manuscripts going at once.
Proof of Life
Proof Of Life is a double bi-awakening MM romance between best friends, with a heavy dose of healing and angst and tackles themes such as healing after loss, suicide and depression, disability and bodily injury, loss of life, and mental health issues. I hope there is enough snark to balance out the heartache and enough volcanic heat to keep you fired up.
Love heals even the deepest wounds.
–West
After giving twelve years of my life to the service, I didn’t just lose my leg. I lost everything, including my career. When the dust settled, the only person still standing by my side in the rubble was Brandt —the single lifeline I had left to a world I didn’t want to live in anymore.
With painstaking care, he healed my body and my mind. When he eventually started healing my heart, I realized I didn’t just need him in my life, I needed him in ways I’d never wanted him before.
–Brandt
Watching West struggle every day was tearing me apart. If he could only see what I do, he wouldn’t see flaws and hopelessness. He’d see a courageous, selfless, brilliant leader. A guy with no filter, who always makes me laugh. Someone who never asks questions before offering to bail my ass out of trouble.
He’d see the man I’ve come to love as more than just my best friend.
Excerpt
Chapter 7 West’s POV
Now that I’m here after being gone for nearly a year, I can’t say it feels like home anymore. Like I lived here in a different life. To be fair, the man that used to live here was a different man than the one that came back home.
A silver-framed picture sits on the entry table in the hallway of me and Brandt, taken years ago when we were first transferred to this base. It’s the only thing I feel any attachment to in this house. The knickknacks and pictures that used to define me or bring me comfort just feel insignificant now. None of it holds any sentimental value or connection to who I’ve become.
Maybe it’s because I don’t know who I am anymore. I’m a stranger in my own skin.
“Let’s get you upstairs, so you can settle in and rest,” Brandt suggests, coming up behind me. He kicks the front door shut with his boot and drops his ruck.
Staring up at the flight of stairs seems daunting, nearly impossible. It used to be something I took for granted. Now, it would be my greatest challenge.
“Where’s all your stuff? You can’t just have one bag.”
“Don’t you remember? I stored a few boxes in your garage before we were deployed. I’ll grab them later. There’s not much in there, just some pictures and medals, civvies, and a bunch of junk.” With his hands on the handles of my chair, Brandt sighed deeply. “How should we do this?”
“Fuck it, just leave me here. I’ll live on the couch.”
“Cut your shit. I came by earlier and put fresh sheets on your bed. Now we’ve just got to figure out how to get you up there in it. We can try using your crutches, and just sort of hop up each step. Or, you can climb on my back.”
I gave him the look, the are-you-fucking-kidding-me West Wardell special. “Just fucking shoot me and be done with it.”
Brandt smacks me on the back and laughs, and then he crouches in front of me, presenting me with his back. “Come on, hop up.”
I hate you. I hate myself, hate what I’ve become. Nothing more than a parasite. A fucking leech.
If there’s an ounce of pride left inside me, it dies a quick death as I wrap my arms around his neck and let him haul me up from my chair. Our ascent up the stairs is slow going, and Brandt struggles under my weight, grunting as his breathing becomes heavier. He pauses at the top of the stairs to catch his breath with his hands on his knees before shuffling into my bedroom, where he dumps me unceremoniously on the mattress. Huffing and puffing and laughing, he collapses next to me in a breathless heap.
“Welcome home, Professor.”
I remain quiet until he nudges me. “I don’t even know where home is anymore.”
He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Do you feel this?” His big solid body bounces on the mattress. “A real bed. Not a cot, or a sleeping bag, or even that paper-thin hospital bed. A real fucking bed. How long have we dreamed of a good night’s sleep on a soft mattress?”
With a shrug of my shoulders, I brush off his excitement. “Doesn’t feel like home.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I’ve lived in so many countries—so many places I’ve laid my head—and said ‘I’m home’, but I never really felt it.”
He folds his arms under his head. “You know what? Home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling. Doesn’t matter if I’m standing on American soil, or my boots are covered in a sandbox in the middle of hell halfway across the world. As long as you’re by my side, I’m home.” His words bring all these feelings up that I’m trying to keep buried so I can make it through the day without falling apart, and I can feel tears burn the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. Brandt rolls into my side and smiles at me. “You are my compass. A strong and steady presence at my back holding a rifle.” The hand that squeezed mine for weeks in the hospital finds mine and squeezes again. “You’re my home. Always, no matter where we are, I’m home with you.”
This time, I squeeze back and the tears fall unbidden. “Same.”
Raquel’s Socials
Find her on Instagram @authorraquelriley
Follow her Linktree to find her everywhere. https://linktr.ee/raquelriley
Website https://www.raquelriley.com for signed copies and merch
NEW FROM ME (Holly Oliver)
When a plan for revenge goes wrong, the Array find themselves ill-equipped and underprepared for the monsters on their doorstep.
Kerry, a hedgehog shifter, finds himself facing the demons of his past and is filled with a rage that won’t quit. His loyalty to the Array is put to the test, and an unexpected mate turns his world upside down.
Dayton, a fennec fox shifter, had one job, but from the moment he arrived at Helena’s, he felt forces moving him in another direction. Torn between his duty to the Array and his heart, Dayton attempts to honor both, but at what cost?
Kerry and Dayton is a story featuring magic, shifters, and death. It also mentions the deaths of parents and gruesome monsters, but if all goes well, there will be a happily ever after for the unlikely couple by the time we reach the end.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of Holly’s Quirky Questions.
A huge thank you to Raquel.
Next week we have Alex J Adams.
Until then: Find a Spark of Magic Every Day.
