Today I am so pleased to welcome Fiona Glass to Joyfully Jay.  Fiona is here to tell us more about her new rent boy story Necessity’s Door, which I reviewed earlier today.  She also has a great giveaway so be sure to check out the details below.  Welcome Fiona!

Hi, my name is Fiona Glass and I write darkly humorous fiction, usually with gay characters and almost always with a twist in the tail…

Hmm. That makes me sound more like a member of Alcoholics Anonymous than an author. Perhaps I should start again! My name is Fiona Glass and I have a newly published book I’d like to tell you about. The book is called Necessity’s Door, it’s just been published by Riptide Publishers, and I had an absolute blast writing it. A very speedy blast, mind you, since I only discovered the call for submissions ten days before the deadline, and had an entire sixteen thousand word story to write in those ten days. Eeek.

It was my own fault really. A friend had mentioned Riptide some time ago and usually I trot along to check out new markets but for some reason this one had slipped through the net. Then the same friend mentioned that another friend, Anne Brooke, was having a book published by Riptide and I decided I really had to investigate it for myself. I hared over to the website, found the button marked “calls for submissions” and had a look.

The first thing I saw was that they specialise in gay fiction, which I’ve been writing for years. The second thing I saw was a call for stories about male prostitutes. I knew I had an old story wilting in my files that was about exactly that, so I hared off again, this time to rummage through old folders and boxes until I found the story I remembered. I’d hoped it wouldn’t need much work and could be sent in after a brief polish, but when I re-read it I realised it wouldn’t do at all. Part of the middle was effectively missing and the ending trailed off into nothingness, and it was far too short. So, I’d to settle down and pretty much re-write it from the ground up… in only ten days!

Well, I parked my arse in a chair and got typing and the result, as they say, is history. After a bit more rewriting and re-working the Riptide editors said ‘yes please’, I had a happy screaming fit in my study, and the book is now on the Riptide catalogue as part of the Rentboy collection.

So what’s Necessity’s Door about? Basically it tells the story of Jake, a British detective who goes undercover as a rentboy to try to trap Frank Warren, an unpleasant new crime boss in town with a liking for rough trade. Even with the help of his partner and best buddy Mac, Jake is getting nowhere fast and worse, he finds himself lured by the lifestyle he’s forced to lead, and lured even more by his latest client Graham. Will he get to Warren before it’s too late? Will he get out again with his virtue, his honour and even his life intact?

You’ll just have to read Necessity’s Door to find out!

Blurb
Being an openly-gay detective in Birmingham comes with its share of problems. For one, the pay is awful. For another, Jake always gets stuck with the crappy undercover jobs. Like posing as a prostitute to catch the new crime boss in town—a man notorious for rough sex with pretty young rentboys.

Jake’s latest op is fraught with difficulties, all of them men. Like his partner, Mac, who he’s secretly fancied for months. And his new client, Graham, who he keeps sleeping with for reasons far beyond maintaining his cover. And of course there’s the target, Frank Warren, who’s much harder to lure than Jake had anticipated.

The longer the job drags on, the tougher it gets for Jake to juggle his own needs with those of the job. They may be closing in on Warren, but Jake’s heart—and moral compass—are slipping through his fingers. Mac is there to back him up, but is he really the man Jake needs? Tough to tell among all those lies Jake’s been telling himself and everyone else.

Like the sound of it? Want to read more? There’s an excerpt and further details at the Riptide Publishing website so feel free to click on over there and have an explore.

Giveaway
During this blog tour I’m holding a little contest with a variety of prizes. There’s a perfect-bound (ie print) copy of my earlier gay cop story, Any Means Necessary, a print copy of Radgepacket Volume 2 which contains my gay short story, Rock and a Hard Place, and various bits and pieces of general swag!

All you need to do is answer the following three simple questions, the answers to all of which can be found in Necessity’s Door. When you have the answers, email them to me personally and I’ll put all the correct entries into a hat (well, actually a willow-pattern bowl, but who’s checking…) and the first correct entry drawn from the bowl at the end of the blog tour will win the prize.

Here’s the questions:
1. What is the real name of The Blue Baboon gay club?
2. What colour is Frank Warren’s hair?
3. How much does Warren pay Jake for sex?

Think you know the answers? Then get emailing and good luck! I’m looking forward to hearing from you. And in the meantime if you’d like to find out more about me and my work, then please just drop into my website or my blog.