Today I am very excited to welcome Heidi Cullinan back to the blog. Heidi is here as part of her Dirty Laundry blog tour (check out my review).  She is going to talk to us about the soundtrack that inspired her while writing the book. Heidi has also brought a great giveaway for one lucky reader. So please join me in giving Heidi a big welcome!


Welcome and thanks for joining us along the virtual book tour for Dirty Laundry, the latest release in the Tucker Springs series! Leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win a $10 gift card to Riptide Publishing!

 

Scissor Sisters

I always have a soundtrack in iTunes while I write a novel which becomes integral at least to my mind to understanding the story, but for Dirty Laundry the soundtrack became somehow an even deeper expression of the story’s soul. And though many artists made up that soundtrack, one stood apart from all the rest: the Scissor Sisters.

Why? No idea. The best part is that the album I couldn’t get enough of was Magic Hour, which when it came out I just didn’t like. Now it was on constant rotation. More than once I filtered the playlist so only the Sisters came up.

The song that pinged harder than anything else was “Somewhere,” which at first I couldn’t quite get why, but the more I listened to the lyrics, the more I understood.

Somewhere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V40WL8wK5EA

My favorite line is “diamonds in disguise, hiding like forgotten days.” That combined with the rest of the song to me spoke to the kind of brilliance I saw in Adam and Denver the first second I saw them and others convinced me to follow and make them more than a short story.

Baby Come Home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM2d28lBM3k

Do you have to listen to Scissor Sisters to fully get Dirty Laundry? God, I sure hope not, because then I didn’t do my job. I certainly had to hear them to write, though, and let me tell you–the listening was nothing but a pleasure.

Thank you Mr. Shears and Ms. Matronic. You’re my heroes on so many levels. This one’s for you.

Only the Horses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3m-XH1Kij0


Blurb

The course of true love doesn’t always run clean. But sometimes getting dirty is half the fun.

Entomology grad student Adam Ellery meets Denver Rogers, a muscle-bound hunk of sexy, when Denver effortlessly dispatches the drunken frat boys harassing Adam at the Tucker Springs laundromat. Thanking him turns into flirting, and then, much to Adam’s delight, hot sex over the laundry table.

Though Denver’s job as a bouncer at a gay bar means he gets his pick of geek-sexy college twinks, he can’t get Adam out of his head. Adam seems to need the same rough play Denver does, and it’s damn hard to say no to such a perfect fit.

Trouble is, Adam isn’t just shy: he has obsessive compulsive disorder and clinical anxiety, conditions which have ruined past relationships. And while Denver might be able to bench-press a pile of grad students, he comes from a history of abuse and is terrified of getting his GED. Neither Denver nor Adam want to face their dirty laundry, but to stay together, they’re going to have to come clean.

Dirty Laundry is part of the Tucker Springs universe.


Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren’t enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi also volunteers for her state’s LGBT rights group, One Iowa, and is proud to be from the first midwestern state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Find out more at www.heidicullinan.com.