The lovely J. Roman has stopped by to tell us about her young adult series, Keeping Secrets, and offer up some prizes! Keeping Secrets is a wonderful series so if you haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet, you're definitely missing out.
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As far as the contest goes, you can enter by simply leaving a comment below with your email address. The winner will receive a copy of A Gentleman's Agreement by J. Roman and a $5 giftcard to Bookstrand.com. The contest ends at midnight on April 6th so enter while you can!
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Welcome
to Asheville, North Carolina, home of the Erwin Warriors. I thought I’d pop
over to give a brief tour of the city where the Keeping Secrets series takes
place and to share some of Jason, Tommy, and the rest of the Erwin crew’s
haunts. Asheville is located in the western part of North Carolina nestled
between the hills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. I grew up within a
stone’s throw of the city. Needless to say, it’s near and dear to my heart. So
it only made sense that Jason and Tommy would live in and around my old
stomping grounds.
“Let me just say this
as a disclaimer: We lived in Asheville, North Carolina. For those of you who
have never been to Asheville let me explain to you why this is significant.
Asheville may be located in the middle of redneck country but they call it the
San Francisco of the South. It has an abundance of three things, great food,
hippies, and gays. So when I say that going to Erwin High allowed for more
liberal minded social norms such as Kevin having a gay best friend and my punk
rocker friends to be on the football team I’m not kidding.”- Jason, Heartless

“When I said I was a
social glutton, I wasn’t kidding and the drum circle that was put on every
Friday night by the locals was like my heroine. There were always at least
thirty to forty people there. During the summer the park would cram full of
people, hundreds of them, and they would all drink and trip and drum the night
away.
The rhythm always got into my blood and it
would never take long before my hips were swaying to the beat. I would
inevitably find myself grinding and gyrating for the crowd. I loved it. I was
an attention whore that way.” –Jason, Heartless

““Take em’ down, baby!”
I shouted, raising hell from the brown wooden benches above the chaos going on
below. I was wearing Tommy’s letterman jacket and screaming my head off.”-
Jason, Fearless

“We pulled into his
driveway in little under fifteen minutes. Biltmore forest was a section of town
similar to how I’d imagined Beverly Hills was to L.A. It was an exclusive zip
code which came complete with twenty-four hour security, extremely well
maintained sidewalks, and absolutely no loitering whatsoever. Oh, and a friggin
private lake.”- Jason, Heartless
And last but not least on our
little tour of Asheville, Kevin’s house in Biltmore Forest. This exclusive
neighborhood was definitely the inspiration for where my wealthier characters
called home. The house on the left is Kevin’s. His wing of the house is
upstairs, the left set of rooms. Jason and Tommy are all in a little bit of awe
every time they go to hang out at Kevin’s place. It’s easy to understand why.
The place is downright stately with its white columns and well-manicured
lawn. Houses like this are in abundance
around the area.
And
that is my tour of Asheville and the world of Keeping Secrets. I hope you’ve
enjoyed it. Asheville is a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of reality, and a
lot of fun. It’s definitely worth checking out if you ever get the urge to go
somewhere off the beaten path.
A big thank you to Lexi for having me on her
blog. J Comment below
to win a copy of A Gentleman’s Agreement as well as a $5 giftcard to Bookstrand.com.
The contest ends at midnight on April 6th
I just love to read about the background where books take place. These sound great! romanczukc@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteGreat a YA gay series, we need more of those out there. And the backgroud sounds beautiful.
ReplyDeleteosorgini@gmail.com
Enjoyed the post.
ReplyDeleteSounds like such a wonderful setting for a series. Ahh! If I didn't have so many other books I wanted to read I'd get to these right away. LOL...
So excited to see book 3 come. XD
Judi
arella3173_loveless@yahoo(dot)com
The winner is Judi. Thank you for everyone who participated. J. Roman will be contacting the winner soon. Be sure to check back for more prize giveaways in the future!
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