Today I am so pleased to welcome TC Blue to Joyfully Jay. TC has come to talk to us about the Coastal Magic Convention and her book Matchmen, Ltd. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Once upon a time, there was a starry-eyed girl who wrote gay romance.

Okay, less starry-eyed than weary-eyed (I don’t sleep well or often. It’s a curse), and much more woman than girl, but you know what I mean.

In any case, this woman-girl with the weary-starry eyes went to a magical place in Florida one year. No, not Disney. This particular woman-girl — or girl-woman, whichever — is more the Universal type.

Anyway, it was a wondrous place, full of fun, frolic and friends. (Full disclosure, she may have a borderline unnatural love of alliteration.) It was a place called… well, okay. St. Augustine isn’t necessarily magical, but it sure was pretty that first year, back when Coastal Magic was Olde City New Blood. And there. I spoiled the surprise. It was Coastal Magic, which moved to Daytona and has been amazing each year!

Last year, I conducted the Great Angry Tribble Hunt, in which I hid these totally adorable little angry tribble looking things around the hotel’s convention spaces for attendees to find. Then at the end of the event, I held a drawing for prizes (can I get a woot for Kindle Fires? WOOT!). It went well, too, though SOME people (I’m looking at YOU, Andrew Grey) seemed to think the point was to get as many Angry Tribbles as humanly possible. (He was adorable, wandering around with his arms full of equally cute little fuzzy angry balls. LOL And he did re-hide most of them, because he’s a darling, darling man.) In fact, the Hunt went so well, I’ll be doing it again in February, this time with Unicorns!

Yes, you heard me right. The Great Unicorn Hunt is going to be a thing… and this makes me giggle.

This year at Coastal (because the other two syllables — Magic — are apparently too taxing, right?) are actually going to be a new experience for me, though I’ve been to Coastal each year. See, this time I am not only dipping in a toe, but diving head first into the wide world of self-publishing, which is both scary and exciting!

I’m choosing to see it as an opportunity to re-edit and add this-and-that to some of my older works. In effect, they will (I hope) be like brand new books! WITH brand new covers! Yay!

One of the first books I’ll be releasing under my own umbrella is actually one of my favorites (of my own books, I mean). It’s called Matchmen, Ltd, and is actually a collection of three novellas revolving around the employees and clientele of a primarily gay matchmaking service in Los Angeles.

The new cover, created for me by the fabulous Kris Norris, is gorgeous! Hopefully the story lives up to it, right? LOL (If you like the cover as much as I do and are at Coastal in February, I’ll be signing flats, as well as have some other titles available in trade paperback.)

And since I’ve gone on about Matchmen, Ltd, I figure I’ll give you an excerpt. Just a little one.

Many thanks to Jay for having me, and I hope to see you guys at Coastal Magic in February! Maybe you can capture the winning unicorn! *grins*

Excerpt

“Parker!” She smiled and stood, grabbing her purse from the small bookcase behind her chair. “I’m so glad you made it. Would you mind having our meeting elsewhere today?”

“Not a problem,” the man replied quickly, that rock star grin shining out easy and wide. “How about I buy you an early dinner? Unless you need to be back here later.”

Well, Parker was technically her last client of the day, really, and the rest of her paperwork could wait for morning. Jacks had late appointments every Thursday, so why not?

“Sure thing, honey,” she agreed, taking his arm as they left her office. “Dinner would be lovely. After all, a boy’s got to eat, right? So feed me.” And God, please let that be obvious enough for Puppy. She really didn’t want to have to have the I know I’m beautiful, but you don’t like cock so we’d never work even if I were single talk ever again. The last time, she’d been seventeen and fresh out of high school, and it hadn’t gone well. For her. At all.

“Okay,” Parker said carefully, once they’d ducked into the café a couple blocks over, “I’m not trying to pry, but…”

Oh, shit. Parker hadn’t known, had he? Well, apparently not, though he’d obviously pieced it together during their short walk. God help her, he was going to freak, most likely. Not that Melody had lied or anything, but it wasn’t the sort of thing she usually volunteered unless it actually mattered.

“Yes,” Melody said quickly, trying to keep her voice down. “It’s true, okay? And I would have mentioned it if I thought it had any impact on being able to do my job. But it doesn’t, so I didn’t think it was that important.”
Parker blinked, then frowned a little. “You don’t think it’s important that your new receptionist thinks we’re fucking? Because I sort of think he’s gonna get all protective and maybe not so helpful if he thinks matching me up with someone else will hurt your feelings, Melly. He likes you, even if he’s not quite gay.”

Okay, not what she’d been expecting. At all. Plus, it sort of sounded like… “You know.” Blank stare. “About me. Being…”

“What?” Parker whispered back, leaning closer over the table. “Packing a penis under all that pretty? Well, yeah. You’re fucking gorgeous, but sure I know.” He grinned, showing white teeth. Rock star smile.

It was Melody’s turn to blink, and she did. Repeatedly. Then she reached out for the glass of water on the table, only to stop when she noticed how much her hand was shaking. God, she should have been relieved, and on a certain level, she was. On the other hand, she was suddenly scared, like maybe she didn’t look the part as well as she’d thought. Like maybe everyone who’d seemed so oblivious had been laughing at her careful wardrobe and make-up, behind her back.

Getting a kick out of her belief in her own skill.

“H-how?” She wasn’t aware of speaking, but the question was right there, lingering in the air like a scrolling bit of smoke. God, so helpless; so pitiful.

Parker’s hand was on hers, and when she finally dared to look at him again, he didn’t seem to be laughing at her. Not even a little bit. In fact, he looked kind of embarrassed.

“I don’t know how to say this without upsetting you,” the man said, those hazel eyes glancing away, and that was a bizarre kind of look for Parker Adrian, but he was going on. “You’re really, really good, Melly. Incredibly hot. I didn’t have a clue, right at first. But my body did.”

Parker paused and cleared his throat, then took a sip from his water glass. “My body knows guys, okay? And the first time you got close enough to brush against me, it was like…” Another sip of water, then a playful little smile. “Let’s just say I felt it, okay? Felt it all over. Then Trevor said something about your boyfriend being a hairdresser at La Tresse, and everyone knows none of the guys there are straight, so it just clicked, you know?” He shrugged.

“Jacks is a stylist. And you could have told me,” Melody heard herself snapping. “God, I thought I was going to have a heart attack when you said… when I realized… oh, you know what I mean!” And had Parker Adrian really just said that he’d sported wood from a touch? Good God.

The man shrugged, eyes shining under that mop of blond hair. “I thought you knew. I mean, you were all ‘a boy’s gotta eat,’ remember?”

Bio

TC Blue is the top hat wearing, every-day-is-Halloween believing originator of such rarely-repeated phrases as “I’m digging the homoerotic insinnuendo,” and “Oh, my debatable goodness.”

She resides near Washington, DC and has NO cats, while living by the mottoes “More is more,” and “Meh.”

Stalk TC on Facebook as T.c. Blue, and on twitter as @tc_blue (she doesn’t use twitter much, but when she does… Heh-heh.)