Today I am so pleased to welcome C.F. White to Joyfully Jay. C.F. has come to talk to us about her latest release, Extra Time. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Thanks so much to Jay for inviting me on here to tell you all the exciting news about my latest release.

Extra Time (The District Line #4) hit shelves a couple of days ago and is the book I never intended to write but once I started, I couldn’t stop!

The District Line is a very dear to me series and I’m so glad I had my arm twisted to give it a final proper goodbye and Happy Ever After that Jay and Seb deserve.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The District Line is an MM Contemporary Romance series that centres around the relationship between a professional football player (that’s soccer to the Americans here) and a rock musician. The three initial books chart their first collision as young men, to becoming more than friends, to falling in love and having to navigate their relationship with their high-profile careers. With Jay’s professional sports career calling for him to stay in the closet, and Seb’s affluent/elite background forcing him into a career he doesn’t want, there are so many external obstacles getting in there way, least of all their own lifelong dreams.

The books were only meant as a trilogy, but after the release of the audios this year, I had quite a few nudges from fans to read more about them. So I pieced together a few extra scenes and snippets that I’d written for my own pleasure into a full novel that gives Jay and Seb their real Happy Ever After.

Whilst there are still a few angsty moments and obstacles to overcome, Extra Time is a homage to the love that these two deserve having been through so much already.

So if you want to start the New Year with a huge smile on your face, then board the District Line now and give yourself a little Extra Time.

To get you up to speed, I am offering a giveaway to one lucky winner of the full trilogy boxset. Here’s what you could be getting….

The District Line series

A footballer forced in the closet. A rocker forced into his birth right. The collision that kicks off a star crossed romance.

Kick Off (The District Line #1)

mybook.to/KickOff-DistrictLine

What happens when men from the opposite sides of the track collide?

East Londoner Jay Ruttman has only ever wanted one thing? to be a professional footballer. But after a disastrous brawl on the pitch gets him released from his pro-Academy, he has to follow plan B and enrolls as university Sports Scholar. Head down, train hard and get scouted is his motto. Until he crashes into the man who might just shoot his dreams out of the park.

Kensington elite Sebastian (Seb) Saunders has only ever wanted one thing?to be a rock star. But his father has other plans for him, including taking the helm of his multimillion-pound new business venture across the pond. Live it up, chase the dream and rock out for as long as he can is his mantra. Until he crashes into the man who might just rock his world off its scale.

Jay and Seb live at opposite ends of London’s District Line, separated by wealth, status, family traditions and their own life-long dreams. This startling and gritty contemporary romance series sees them both having to overcome barriers, face fears and beat rejection to fight for the love they need to achieve it all.

Break Through (The District Line #2)

mybook.to/BreakThrough

Should falling in love really get in the way of your lifelong dreams?

Sebastian Saunders is 3,000 miles away from home. Working for his father’s expanded business in New York, he’s left behind the music career he craved, the friends he relied upon, and possibly the love of his life. In a city that never sleeps, how can the nights cure a broken heart?

Jay Ruttman is in London, throwing himself harder into football and his quest to make it on the professional playing field. Locking himself back in the closet, how can he ever open the door, and his heart, again?

A chance encounter in New York where Jay and Seb rekindle their lost romance sets them both on a path to self-discovery and coming to terms with their past, their present, and their future.

This is the second part of the District Line serial, where half-time oranges are swapped for the Big Apple.

Come Back (The District Line #3)

mybook.to/ComeBackDistrictLine3

The bigger you become, the harder you fall.

Sebastian Saunders is a rising rock star. Jay Ruttman is a Premier League football player. Their year-long relationship is hot commodity. Hounded by the press and fans alike, the lovers struggle to keep their private lives private.

Flying high in the charts and having Jay by his side, Seb is finally living his dream. But Jay’s new, promising career is threatened when a horrific injury on the pitch has him side lined—not only in the game but also in his relationship with Seb.

Jay’s crippling self-destruction spirals out of control, tearing them apart. To move forward, both men must learn to leave their past behind—not so easy when it keeps coming back to haunt them.

Can their hard-fought relationship survive the ultimate test?

This is the concluding part to the District Line series where the full-time whistle could signal an end to their turbulent journey… or is it just the beginning?

Excerpt

After Seb had done the formalities, which consisted of schmoozing in the bar area with the press along with a few PR photographs and interviews, he bundled out to the street. Jay was waiting there, gazing up at the lights of Leicester Square that illuminated him against the cool night. Seb smiled. Just knowing what Jay had done to get here warmed him enough that he didn’t need his jacket.

“Hey, Champ,” he said and bumped his shoulder.

Jay smiled in greeting, but there was a melancholy in those blue eyes that Seb had hoped never to see again. It was like a goodbye.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jay breathed out, steam billowing from his lips. “I just gotta chip.” He met Seb’s gaze. “And I don’t really wanna.”

“You’re going back now?” Seb widened his eyes and looked at his watch. “It’s hitting midnight. There won’t be a train until morning.”

“I’ve called a car.”

“That’ll cost you a fortune. You’re okay with splashing your cash now, are you?”

Jay twisted, wrapping his arms around Seb’s waist to draw him closer and kissed the tip of his nose. “You’re worth it.”

“That I am.” Seb reached up to kiss his lips. “Thank you. For coming. I don’t doubt you’re in a whole heap of trouble for it.”

Jay shrugged. “I don’t care. If they chuck me out, so be it. I couldn’t not be here, babe. Not for this.” He peered up to the banner stretching along the front of the theatre, on which held the two actors playing him and Seb. Their life. “It’s too important. You did this for us.”

“I did it because I’m too conceited for my own good.”

“Nah. You did it because you wanted to show the world it ain’t been easy for us. That had it been easy, had it been accepted, we wouldn’t have gone through so much crap. That’s quite somethin’.”

“Something else.”

Jay laughed. “Yeah.”

Seb rested his head against Jay’s chest, breathing in the moment of self-indulgence to be held by the man he loved. The car pulling up against the curb caused Seb to slump against him. That Audi would take Jay away again. Not forever. But long enough. It didn’t seem to matter how much time they spent apart when following their dreams, it didn’t make it any easier. Especially now. This moment. When the proposal was legal, and their family was growing.

Ann tapped her pumps onto the pavement then, wrapping a pashmina around her shoulders. “Hey, Squirt.”

Jay held out an arm to bring her into the mix. “How you feeling?” he asked. “All okay?”

“Yes,” she sighed in exasperation. “As fine as when you asked this morning and he asked earlier.”

“We’re invested in your wellbeing,” Seb said, holding onto Jay.

“Your investment is noted,” Ann replied.

The driver side window of the car wound down and a suited man stuck his head out. “Ruttman?”

“Yeah,” Jay called over. “Just a sec.” He let go of Seb to kiss Ann’s cheek. She waved him off and clambered back inside, finding Noah’s outstretched arm at the door. Jay took Seb’s hands, linked their fingers and kissed him.

Seb could almost hear the violins raging as they kissed, instead of the real heckles, foot stamps and car horns akin to Leicester Square nightlife. It was romance at its finest. A perfect moment enveloped in each other’s arms with twinkling lights from the nearby bars and moonlight shining down on the scene.

Until they were shoved out of the way, a fierce spit landing in the gutter from a pair of drunks passing by. One of them grunted an insult as they bundled past.

Jay stepped back, glaring over Seb’s shoulder at the culprit.

“Eyes on me, Champ,” Seb said, voice soothing and he pressed a palm to Jay’s cheek. “Let’s keep this night ours, eh? You don’t need to be getting in any more trouble. There’s a bunch of journalists in that bar right now.”

Jay peered through the window of the theatre, then back to Seb. He nodded. Then kissed him. “Catch ya laters,” he said, then let go of his hands to clamber over to the car and into the back seat.

Seb watched him leave as the car joined the bumper to bumper Charing Cross Road. Once they were out of view, the door to the theatre opened and out stumbled a woman who had press scrawled on her forehead. It was on the lanyard around her neck too, but Seb could read it on her scheming face.

“Isn’t he supposed to be under lock and key at the England training camp?” she said, metaphorical pen poised.

Seb twisted to face her. “You print it, you’ll lose any exclusivity to future Drops material.”

The woman mimed zipping her mouth shut.

Blurb

Extra Time (The District Line #4)

When it’s time, it’s time.

Professional footballer Jay Ruttman and rock superstar Sebastian Saunders are back.

Used to the press, used to the public interest, and used to being just the two of them, they’ve forged a life juggling their high-profile careers with their low-key relationship. And it’s working. Mostly.

There are only two things left hanging that could elevate their contentment to perfection—marriage and a child.

Six years since bridgegate, and Jay’s spectacular proposal on the Millennium Bridge, the bill has now passed for legal same-sex marriage. It looks like they might be able to finally tie the knot, and the pitter patter of tiny feet isn’t as far flung an idea as it might have first seemed.

Until Jay has his first call up to play for the national team and must, once again, decide what’s more important—family or football.

Bio

Brought up in a relatively small town in Hertfordshire, C F White managed to do what most other residents try to do and fail—leave.

Studying at a West London university, she realised there was a whole city out there waiting to be discovered, so, much like Dick Whittington before her, she never made it back home and still endlessly search for the streets paved with gold, slowly coming to the realisation they’re mostly paved with chewing gum. And the odd bit of graffiti. And those little circles of yellow spray paint where the council point out the pot holes to someone who is supposedly meant to fix them instead of staring at them vacantly whilst holding a polystyrene cup of watered-down coffee.

She eventually moved West to East along that vast District Line and settled for pie and mash, cockles and winkles and a bit of Knees Up Mother Brown to live in the East End of London; securing a job and creating a life, a home and a family.

After her second son was born with a rare disability, C F White’s life changed and brought pen back to paper having written stories as a child but never the confidence to show them to the world. Now, having embarked on this writing journey, she can’t stop. So strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Follow C F White:

• https://twitter.com/CFWhiteUK
• Facebook/CFWhite
• www.cfwhiteauthor.com
• www.cfwhiteauthor.com
• instagram.com/c.f.whiteauthor/

Giveaway

CF has brought an ebook copy of The District Line boxset to give away! The contest closes Wednesday, January 6th at 11:59 pm ET. Leave a comment below to enter. 

• 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.
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• Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize. In order to facilitate prize distribution, the winner name’s and email may be provided to a third party awarding the prize.
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• Void where prohibited by law.