Today I am very excited to welcome author Cat Grant back to Joyfully Jay!  Cat is here to talk to us about her new book Fearless.  Cat has also brought a backlist book to give away to one lucky commenter on this blog.  She is also giving away a Kindle Fire HD to a commenter drawn from all the tour stops.  Hurray! So check out the give away details at the end of the post and please join me in giving Cat a big welcome!


Hi! Thanks for joining me on my blog tour for Fearless, Book three in my Irresistible Attraction series from Riptide Publishing. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook from my backlist! I’ll also be giving away a brand new Kindle Fire HD to one lucky commenter drawn from all the tour stops, so follow along and party with me at each–you can earn an entry at every stop! Winner of the Kindle Fire will be announced December 31st.


I try to set a challenge for myself with every new book, but Fearless posed one I’d never faced before – trying to get in the Christmas spirit in the middle of summer. I wrote most of Connor and Wes’s winter wedding during an unseasonable (for foggy Monterey, California!) heat wave last June and July, which meant I had to get my holiday inspiration elsewhere.

So I plugged into iTunes and scrolled through my huge collection of Christmas music – everything from Glee to Los Straitjackets (surf guitar Christmas carols – I kid you not!). I started with Glee – or more accurately, I put Kurt and Blaine crooning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” on an endless loop until I got in the groove.

Connor and Wes have to go through a lot of emotional upheaval and soul-searching before they get their happy ending, so I needed moodier music to get me through the middle of the book. I settled on Kate Bush’s Fifty Words for Snow. The album’s stark, even somewhat bleak musical landscape helped keep me in the winter mindset while I sank into the angsty center of Connor and Wes’s conflict.

Towards the end I mixed it up a bit with my other holiday favorites – Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong, Tori Amos’s Midwinter Graces and the song that became the theme for Connor and Wes’s wedding, “Snow” by Loreena McKennitt. Soprano voice with a simple harp and flute accompaniment, recorded in an Irish church. Breathtakingly beautiful!

In fact – here, listen for yourselves:


Bio

Cat Grant lives by the sea in beautiful Monterey, California with one persnickety feline and way too many books and DVDs. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her watching movies or TV (Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries are among her favorite shows), singing along to whatever’s on her iPod, or fantasizing about kinky sex with Michael Fassbender.

Here’s Cat’s various hideouts on the Internet:

You can contact her directly at: cat@catgrant.com


And here’s a taste of Fearless…

How can you plan for the future when escaping the past seems impossible?

After over a year together, Connor Morrison and Wes Martin decide to tie the knot. But an ethics complaint regarding their deeply non-traditional relationship threatens Connor’s job and Wes’s Ph.D. The fact that Connor tried to keep it from Wes—even with the best of intentions—makes the situation even worse and casts a pall over their plans for a Christmas wedding in New York.

It doesn’t help that Connor still treats Wes like glass, though Wes insists he’s recovered from the brutal assault he suffered a year and a half earlier. Wes may be okay, but Connor isn’t. Memories of taking a battered, terrified Wes to the emergency room that night still haunt him, and he can’t let go of the need to protect Wes from any and everything life might throw at him.

But Wes has had enough. Between the specter of the ethics complaint and Connor’s overprotectiveness, he’s already beginning to question their plans. Add in a family ashamed of and angered by his choices, and Wes might just leave Connor standing at the altar.

Available for pre-order at Riptide Publishing: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/fearless

Available for Kindle & Nook starting December 10th, 2012.


Giveaway

Don’t forget to leave a comment to enter for one of Cat’s backlist books. And be sure to enter here and at all the other tour stops for a chance to win a Kindle Fire HD!