Today I am so pleased to welcome Z.A. Maxfield to Joyfully Jay. ZAM has come to talk to us about her latest release, Home the Hard Way. She has also brought along two great giveaways. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

HomeTheHardWay_TourBanner

Hellooooooo Joyfully Jay readers and most especially, Jay! So nice to be here on this first day of August. Can YOU BELIEVE IT??? I feel like I just took down my Christmas decorations!

I’m here as part of a big blog tour for my new release, Home The Hard Way. You’re going to want to follow along, because there are a lot of ways to win backlist ebooks and one lucky winner will get a the grand prize, a $25 gift certificate for Riptide Publishing, and believe me. I’ve been reading a lot of books from Riptide lately. You want this! The blog tour dates and information are HERE.

A good question for a blog topic is Finn’s artistic nature. Because everyone in Palladian knows Finn’s the guy to go to for one of a kind leather goods. People wear his belts, carry his wallets, and give their dad’s knife sheaths on Father’s Day. Even people who hate him personally have no qualms about his craftsmanship. So…

What’s with Finn and leather?

Sometimes a character will spring from my imagination fully formed and sometimes he’ll reveal himself in dribs and drabs. While I was writing Home the Hard Way, Finn’s character came to me in bits and pieces. He started with different-colored eyes, heterochromia iridis, which caused a lot of problems for him as a kid. He’s also the son of the town’s notorious wild child Ivy Fowler, who was unapologetically sexual in a small town with conservative values

People called Finn Foulest growing up and the name stuck. He’s a loner. An artist. He’s living in a town he hoped to be free of long since, and the woman who raised him, his beloved Aunt Lyddie, is dying. Finn is bearing all of that because he wants to spend every minute with her she has left.

To keep his soul in tact, Finn needed an outlet for his creativity and a long ago leatherworking session in Scouts gave him an entre into the art of working with leather. He’s proficient in tooling, stitching, shaping, and sculpting leather and he makes everything from wallets to belts to book covers to sell on consignment at the local stores. But deep in his basement lair is his hidden work, a collection of fetish tools and fanciful, artistic leather masques into which he pours all his passion.

AnubisMaskI like to think of Finn creating real works of art and useful tools for BDSM enthusiasts, and in fact, I spent some time learning about working leather online. I wished I had time to learn the craft when I saw pictures from artists like these!

When I found this picture of an Anubis mask, created by Merimask at Deviant Art, it inspired Finn’s Anubis mask.


Blurb

HomeTheHardWay_500x750Dare Buckley has come home—or at least, he’s come back to Palladian, the small town he left as a teenager. After a major lapse in judgment forced him to resign from the Seattle PD, Palladian is the only place that’ll hire him. There’s one benefit to hitting rock bottom, though: the chance to investigate the mystery of his father’s suicide.

Dare also gets to reacquaint himself with Finn Fowler, whose childhood hero worship ended in uncomfortable silence when Dare moved away. But Finn isn’t the same little kid Dare once protected. He’s grown into an attractive, enigmatic stranger who neither wants nor needs what Dare has to offer.

In fact, Dare soon realizes that Finn’s keeping secrets—his own and the town’s. And he doesn’t seem to care that Dare needs answers. The atmosphere in Palladian, like its namesake river, appears placid, but dark currents churn underneath. When danger closes in, Dare must pit his ingenuity against his heart, and find his way home the hard way.

Read more about Home the Hard Way: HERE


Bio

Bn2r_qtCcAIAgFWZ. A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back. Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. Three things reverberate throughout all her stories: Unconditional love, redemption, and the belief that miracles happen when we least expect them.

If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four can find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.”

Readers can visit ZAM at her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.


Giveaway

Z.A. Maxfield has brought two great giveaway opportunities. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter to win a ebook from her backlist.  You can also follow the Rafflecopter link for another great giveaway.  The contest ends on August 2nd.

Rafflecopter giveaway

  • 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.
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