Today I am so excited to welcome two of my favorite authors to the blog, Josephine Myles and Lou Harper.  Jo and Lou are here to talk about their latest re-releases: two books that were originally published as part of Amber Allure’s Hot College Daze series, Academic Pursuits and Tailor Made. They’re answering a few questions about the links between their stories, and sharing some raunchy teasers!  They also each brought a copy to give away.  So please join me in giving them a big welcome!

How much of your own experience of college went into your books?

Lou: A lot of little tidbits from my own college experience went into Academic Pursuits. I loved English classes although they weren’t part of my major, and took film studies as a minor. I also studied photography and took many art classes, including figure drawing. Sadly, I was never very good at it, but I tried. I remember one time we had a virile young man as a model and I struggled to do him justice. The professor strolling around the room looked at my drawing, smirked and said “you drew him too big.”

Jo: I remember life drawing classes at college too! My very first one featured a rather out-of-shape naked bloke and the only easel left in the room was the one directly opposite his open legs. Definitely a baptism by fire. My experience of art college was fairly brief in the end, as I didn’t want to conform to the tutors’ ideas about what fine art should be (conceptual rather than traditional painting and drawing). I definitely borrowed some scenes from my year there, though, like the girl who made tent sculptures out of melted bin bags.

You both have slutty young men in your stories. What draws you to characters like that?

Jo: I’ve always enjoyed writing and reading about promiscuous characters. It could be because I started out thinking I’d be writing erotica rather than erotic romance, but I’m just not into “slut shaming”. I consider it perfectly natural for people to have the urge to experiment with different partners, and am somewhat uneasy with the expectations of monogamy in erotic romance. That’s why I had such fun with having Felix seduce Andrew: the young man who was determined to save himself for “the one”.

Lou: Jamie, my narrator is a bit of a slut, with a penchant for seducing straight boys. I know it doesn’t conform m/m standards, but in my opinion it’s normal for young guys like him to play the field. He’s not out to hurt anyone and makes sure everyone’s having a good time. There’s also a distinct possibility he’ll meet someone he can settle down with by the end of the story. But till then he gets into a few situations that are sticky in more ways than one.

While writing Academic Pursuits I had a great time playing around with a few Jane Austen themes. You don’t have to squint too hard to notice a thread of Pride and Prejudice and a hint of Emma. All sexed-up, of course. I can’t read Austen without fantasizing about the rampant hanky-panky that must go on behind gilded doors.

How important is sex in your stories?

Lou: I read m/m for the characters and the story, and while I enjoy hot sex scenes they’re not a must for me. I’d rather have them fade to black than be mechanical and by the numbers. When writing, I like to make the sex either dirty or funny. Preferably both.

Jo: Very important! Admittedly, my last couple of novels haven’t had quite as much sex in them as previous ones, but I’m making up for that with the work in progress. I just love reading and writing erotic stories, where the sex is plotty and leads to the growth of the romance. Having two characters start by falling into bed, then gradually falling for each other, is a favourite trope I intend to explore more in the future.

Lou: Yeah, insta-lust is far more believable than insta-love.

And now for a couple of juicy excerpts…

Academic Pursuits Excerpt

In this excerpt from Lou Harper’s Academic Pursuits, Jamie is visited by a previous conquest, one he didn’t expect seeing again:

I opened the door and found Butch Hollins standing there. That was a surprise.

“Hey,” he said nervously.

“Hi, what’s up?” I asked in a genial sort of way.

He shifted his weight from one foot to another—it looked weird from a big guy. “I have a problem with Professor Brown’s homework assignment. I thought… Can I come in?”

“Yeah, of course.” I waved him in. “Would you like something to drink?” I asked, just to be sociable.

“No. Yes! Water, please.”

He didn’t look like he was there to deck me for any perceived affront to his manliness, I noted with relief, but the awkwardness in the air was inch-thick. I pointed him toward the sofa and headed for the kitchen for a glass of water.

“Nice place,” he said, as I put the glass in front of him. He held it in his hand, but didn’t drink.

It really wasn’t; the apartment had the mishmash second-hand ambiance of any other student pad. Jo was even less domestic than I, and I was pretty sure neither of us had vacuumed in a month, and you could forget about dusting.

“Anything wrong, Hollins?”

For a reason I couldn’t fathom he seemed cross. “You know, you really don’t have to call me by my last name, especially after…”

“After I had your dick down my throat?” I thought it best to name the pink elephant in the room. Whatever was bothering him, it had something to do with that blowjob.

I swear he blushed. It was adorable and made my cock stir in an inappropriate manner.

I went on. “Sorry, I can’t call you Butch. It makes me think of bull dykes.”

“You can call me William. Or Bill, if you want.”

“Okay…Bill. Why are you really here?”

He gulped and looked very determined all of a sudden. “I want to have sex with you.” He came out with it in one big rush.

I simply stared at him for a long second before finding my voice. “You already did, kind of, you know?”

His jaw set in a stubborn line. “I want to do it for real. The whole thing.”

“You can’t even say it!”

“I want to have penetrative sex with you,” he said determinedly, but he blushed even deeper as he did.

He was so fucking cute. A big pink teddy bear. I was totally getting a boner, but this whole scene was all so wrong. Did he have some hidden psychological issues I’d managed to unhinge with my friendly blowjob?

“I don’t think you really mean that,” I said in my most soothing tone.

“Yes, I do! I even…uhm…cleaned up…err…hygiene, you know?” I didn’t think he could get any redder, but he did. “I Googled it,” he added.

Oh-kay. It was time to change tactics. “Well then, how could I refuse? The bedroom is that way.” I pointed to my room. I figured if reasoning didn’t work, he’d chicken out before we did the deed.

Hollins marched straight down the hallway to the bedroom like a Spartan heading for his last battle. Come to think of it, my analogy sucked: those Spartans were pretty damn gay, and I still had serious doubts about Hollins. I trailed behind him less militantly.

He stood by the bed, as if waiting for orders.

So I gave them to him. “Well, strip.”

He did. Hollins was a truly fine specimen: big and brawny, but in a smooth, curvy fashion. Blond hair covered his chest, thinning out going south. In the nest of thick blond curls of pubes, his cock was limp as a wet sock. I knew already how it reacted to oral stimulation, but it would’ve been cheating now. Instead, I undressed and let him get a good look at me. His eyes kept flickering to my erect cock. He looked nervous as hell, but still didn’t bolt. Time to turn the screws.

“On the bed. Face down,” I instructed him.

He complied. Instinctively, he crossed his legs at first, but then deliberately uncrossed them. His buttocks beamed at me like two big, happy marshmallows, generously sprinkled with golden fuzz. I nudged his legs farther apart and kneeled between them.

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Under a prickly, cynical surface Lou Harper is an incorrigible romantic. Her love affair with the written word started at a tender age. There was never a time when stories weren’t romping around in her head. She is currently embroiled in a ruinous romance with adjectives. In her free time Lou stalks deviant words and feral narratives.

Lou has misspent most of her life in parts of Europe and the US, but is now firmly settled in Los Angeles and worships the sun. However, she thinks the ocean smells funny. Lou is a loner, a misfit, and a happy drunk.

• Website: LouHarper.com
• Blog: LouHarper.blogspot.com
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/louharperwrites

Tailor Made Excerpt

Felix and Andrew’s second sexual encounter, from Josephine Myles’ Tailor Made

“Let me have a look.” Andrew grabbed up the sketchpad before Felix could protest. The drawing was rough, covered in wild pencil marks and cross hatching, but there was an energy to it that lifted it far above Andrew’s neat little sketches. Did he really look that intense while sewing? “This is amazing. The way you’ve captured the motion and the play of the light.” He searched for the pretentious term his high school art teacher had been so fond of. “The chiaroscuro.”

“It’s not what I was after,” Felix muttered, but he looked pleased, despite himself.

“What were you after?” Andrew asked.

“You looking like you did earlier. With the rats.”

“You want me with a rat on my head? That’s kind of surreal.”

“No, not like that. Like the expression you had when I was touching you.”

Andrew felt the flush rise from his neck and there was nothing he could do to stop it. And to make matters worse, Felix was studying his fashion drawing again with a lascivious gleam in his eyes.

“So you want me to wear a suit and tie, but no shirt, right? Is that what gets you hot, then?”

Andrew worried the collar of his T-shirt, trying to get some air to his super-heated skin. He didn’t know how to reply, so he kept silent until Felix started removing his own T-shirt. “What are you doing?” he protested.

“Just testing out a theory, since you won’t answer me.” When he’d bared his delicious chest, Felix slipped back into his battered suede jacket, leaving it hanging open, then undid the button at the top of his jeans. He knelt there on the bed, looking like every one of Andrew’s wet dreams all rolled into one, and Andrew couldn’t do a thing but stand there with his mouth hanging open. Thank God he wasn’t drooling…yet.

“Yeah, thought so.” Felix grinned so smugly Andrew wanted to punch him. His dick had other ideas, though. His dick told him to push Felix down and take what was on offer while he had the chance. He could call it a practice go for the real thing with the man he fell in love with, like Felix had suggested earlier. He was already a sinner in the mind, so he might as well sin with his body, too.

Andrew wasn’t aware of moving closer, but he must have done so because there he was, kneeling on the bed and slipping his hands into Felix’s open jacket. Felix smiled maddeningly, but kept still, letting Andrew explore the taut muscles underneath. The brush of the satiny lining against the back of his hands combined with the hot skin underneath his palms nearly undid Andrew. He moaned, seeking Felix with his mouth until their lips mashed together in a hungry kiss, all teeth and tongue and panting breath.

They tumbled onto the mattress, Andrew landing on top of Felix. He felt clumsy, too big, too fumbling to be any use, but Felix’s eyes burned in a way that gave him confidence.

“I don’t know what to do,” Andrew confessed.

“It’s fine, babe. We all have a first time. No need to panic.”

Andrew held himself up on his arms and knees, watching as Felix set to work on their trouser fastenings. He gasped when he felt Felix’s hot hand stroke his dick, before reaching down to yank Andrew’s balls out of his pants.

“Are we not getting properly undressed?” Andrew asked.

“We don’t need to for what I have in mind,” Felix promised, his voice like velvet.

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English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo publishes regularly with Samhain. She’s one of the organising team behind the UK Meet, an annual event celebrating GLBTQ fiction. She has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion.

• Website and blog: http://josephinemyles.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles.author
• Twitter: @JosephineMyles
• Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3499509.Josephine_Myles
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/josephine_myles
• Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hrQ4s

Giveaway

Jo and Lou have brought a copy their book to give away. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Tuesday,  March 18th  at 11:59 pm EST.

• By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win.  The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
• If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
• Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
• Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
• By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
• Readers may only enter once for each contest.  Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
• Void where prohibited by law.