Today I am so pleased to welcome Courtney Maguire to Joyfully Jay. Courtney has come to talk to us about her latest release, Drive. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!
Exclusive Excerpt
Sean leaned back on one arm, his other hand wrapped loosely around the rod with a finger resting on the line. He closed his eyes and just breathed the open air. He seemed so at home here, I struggled to picture him in a city, surrounded by concrete and glass.
“Just ask,” he said without opening his eyes.
“What do you mean? Ask what?” I asked, flustered.
“Whatever it is you’ve been sitting on this whole time.” He opened one eye and peered at me out of the corner of it.
“I…haven’t been—”
“You have.” Both eyes were open, now, and they gleamed in the fading light. “If we’re going to be friends, we can’t have anything hanging between us. So, spill.”
“I don’t want to offend…”
“You won’t,” he said with a dry laugh. “I’ve developed a high tolerance for the shittiness of people.”
“Okay…” I took a deep breath, licked my dry lips, wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. “Do you ever regret it?”
“Regret what?”
“Being…you know…”
“What? Gay?” He released a barking laugh. “Well, it’s not like I picked it.”
“No, I mean…” What did I mean? “Do you regret people knowing? Coming out or…whatever. Just seems like it would be easier…”
“Easier?” he scoffed. “No.”
“But you’re a pariah. The whole town hates you. Your own family disowned you.”
“Well, since you put it like that—”
“I’m serious.”
“Being in the closet is like being one of those mascots you see at football games. Some kid running around in a big chicken suit or something. On the outside, they look like they’re having fun, running around making people laugh. But inside, they’re sweating and tired and all they want to do is take that suit off.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“No. I don’t regret it,” he said firmly, pinning me with his eyes. “Leaving this town was the best thing I could have done. Did I miss my family? Did it hurt that my father, even on his deathbed, didn’t want to see me? Yes. But I got to be myself. Austin’s not perfect, but there’s a supportive community there.”
A thrill ran through me, making the small hairs on my arms stand on end. What would it be like to have people who knew me, really knew me, and accepted me for what I was? Someone to guide me when I got lost. Someone to comfort me when I was hurting. A place safe from the world’s judgement.
“I had a couple of boyfriends, one who was good to me, one who wasn’t.” He sniffed, his eyes drifting back out over the water. “They may not have all been good experiences, but they were real. Had I stayed, I may have had the privilege of my father’s name, but it would have been a lie.”
“Like the mascot pretending he’s having fun?”
“I just wanted out of the damn chicken.”
Blurb
Red has all but resigned himself to a life in the closet when he’s propositioned by the dashing, wealthy Victor Itachi. The small East Texas town of Black Creek isn’t the most hospitable environment for those who are different.
His secrets keep him–and more importantly, his sixteen-year-old half-sister, Katie–safe. But Victor’s dominance challenges everything Red thinks he knows and he finds himself swept up in an intense sexual relationship that forces him to confront his deepest desires, both in and out of the bedroom.
When an unlikely friendship with the only out gay man in town triggers Victor’s jealousy, Red must make a choice: submit fully to the relative safety of Victor’s control or risk it all for a chance at something real.
Bio
Courtney Maguire is a University of Texas graduate from Corpus Christi, Texas. Drawn to Austin by a voracious appetite for music, she spent most of her young adult life in dark, divey venues nursing a love for the sublimely weird. A self-proclaimed fangirl with a press pass, she combined her love of music and writing as the primary contributor for Japanese music and culture blog, Project: Lixx, interviewing Japanese rock and roll icons and providing live event coverage for appearances across the country.
Connect with Courtney:
Website: https://www.courtneymaguirewrites.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PretentiousAho
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CourtneyMaguireWrites
Mastodon: https://mas.to/@CourtneyMaguire
Giveaway
To celebrate the release of Drive, Courtney is giving away an e-copy of Bloodlaced! Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
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- Void where prohibited by law.
