Today I am so pleased to welcome Shane K. Morton to Joyfully Jay. Shane  has come to talk to us about his latest release, Fault Lines. He has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving Shane a big welcome!


Thank you for having me on your blog today Jay. I am looking forward to meeting you and so many of my fellow writers at GRL this year.

I found my way into the gay literature world 6 years ago with The Trouble With Off-Campus Housing. I come from a background in the theatre and TV/film. Up until this point, I had written plays, lyrics for musicals and the odd TV script. The other gay writers have been very embracing and I am so happy to be a part of this wonderful and supportive community.

Someone asked me recently what my author brand was and all I could do was cackle at the question. They were very serious and smirked at me, waiting for me to take what they were saying with the importance that they meant it. The only way I could respond is, I write whatever I need to get out of my head in that moment. My books range from dark and dirty to YA to humorous adventure stories. My brand is writing stories about the LGBT community- MY community, and showing their strength, desires, needs, and fears. They are about perseverance, struggle, love, growth and finding the ability to love ourselves. They are autobiographical at times and whims of fancy at others. They are serious, funny and filled with everyday existence as well as paranormal (at times) or suspense (my next novel). They are me. They are the stories of a gay man who has lived life. The stories of a trans woman deciding to live her life authentically. The stories of a lesbian finding the strength to accept love after having her heart broken. They are the stories of a people who will not be silent and demands to be heard. They do not stay within one genre or fit in a box. They are what they are… And I am okay with that.

Fault Lines is a fun and frothy story filled with romance, intrigue, mystery, kidnapping, and prostitution- set in the sunny hills of Hollywood. Red carpet meltdowns, celebrity sex tapes, closeted daytime soap studs, shopping with drag queens, mortgages and murder tell the story of a group of people loving and living in a small LA townhome community called Descante Gardens. I do hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun writing it!

Happy reading!



Excerpt

Rotting Flesh and Gossip

Ursula was tired. She had seen Kris two nights in a row, and he had even spent last night in her bed. He was the one she would never be able to get over, and deep down she recognized that she didn’t want to. This time, she hoped they could stick. He wanted to, that was obvious, and she knew that she had been as lost without him just as he had been without her. >

He was ravenous in bed, as always. Kris didn’t make love; he was a caveman in bed; all hot and steamy, an erotic novel come to life. Nothing had changed there, thankfully. They fit as they had always fit, perfectly together.

“Grrrrl!” Bettye Devious yelled. “Wake up, ho. What’s with you?” She grabbed the wig that she had been teasing and stuck it backward on her head.

“Oh, Ms. Moolay is in love,” Joan Crawfish replied, butting in as usual. She turned around in her chair to face Ursula, pursing her bright red lips. “He’s baaaack,” she teased, spinning around in the chair.

“Stop it. No… Well, maybe. Girls, I just don’t know,” she said shaking her head. “Momma’s a little tore up from the floor up tonight.”

“Child, that man wants to make an honest woman out of you,” Judy Ghouland said, trying to get her zombie face to stay in place. “He always has. Let him,” she said pointedly.

“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? I’m not an honest woman,” she leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. These sisters from other misters drove her crazy sometimes, but they were the closest thing to family she had in LA. “I’m still me. I still have Mr…” She continued, as she pointed to her panty-hosed penis. “I have thought about it, but… Jesus! I am scared.”

Bettye came over and knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his long taloned fingers. “Ursula baby, I know that I don’t know. None of these drag queens here are transgendered. We are just men in a dress making money using what the good lord gave us. But, I am here for you, honey. You knew who you were and you decided to be you, and to live your life honestly. Girl… your mangina… Only means what you make it mean. You can keep it, or get rid of it, but you my dear are a true lady, regardless.”

“Thanks, Bets, I know this, I do,” she said, trying not to get maudlin. “I think about it more often than I want to admit. I know I’m a strong black woman, I know.”

“You are Blanche, you are,” Bettye said with her trademark impression. “You are beautiful and amazing, and he loves you for you. Go get married and live the happy ending that is destined for you.” She stood up and caressed her face with a long nail. “Just be, Ursula…”

“Can someone please come and help me hold this piece of rotting flesh in place,” Judy roared. “It’s pissing me off!”

“Girl, give me that cheek,” Joan said, annoyed. “You need help with this horror show, every night.”

“Being beautiful is hard work,” Judy said as she applied the glue liberally.

“One day you’re gonna pull these prosthetics off, and your face is gonna come off with it,” Ursula said, silently thanking her for lightening the mood. “That’s a lot of glue bitch.”

“It has to stay on during the Trolley number, last week a piece flew off and landed in a martini glass!” Judy laughed at her own absurdity.

“You’re sick,” Bettye said, pointing at her rotten flesh. “Literally. You’re falling apart.”

“So- feeling better, missy,” Joan asked, winking at her with a heavily mascaraed lash.

“Sure book my appointment and bring me a drink,” Ursula said trying to make light of her mood. “I’m fine. I just need to figure out what I’m gonna do. I am crazy about him, and I know that will never change, so… What’s a girl to do?”

“I’ll drink to that” Bettye said lifting her glass high. They all did.


Blurb

Drag goddess, Ursula Moolay, left Kentucky as fast as her size twelve pumps could carry her and has created a new life for herself in Los Angeles. Here, she has found herself surrounded by a group of people with their own secrets and lies:

A daytime Soap stud hiding in the Hollywood closet.

A reality television producer prepared to destroy his star.

An aging showgirl- the complex’s mother hen, fighting to survive.

A married male escort desperately hiding his profession from his pregnant wife.

And finally, Ursula, pulled into a terrifying ordeal of drugs, murder, and deception as she grapples with her own identity.

Enter the world of red carpet meltdowns, sex tapes, shopping with drag queens, earthquakes, mortgages and murder.

Can they survive or will they each fall into the cracks of LA’s fault lines?


Bio

Shane K Morton lives in Studio City, CA with his husband Jody and their fur baby Slayer. His first novel, The Trouble With Off-Campus Housing was published in 2016. When not writing, Shane can be found at a film festival or performing cabaret somewhere in a dark dive bar in LA.


Giveaway

Shane has brought along a great giveaway to a reader on his tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter. 

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