Title Change....Serving Love at Carnival

Hey everyone,

T.A. here.

I thought I'd let you all know that Devon and I ended up changing the title to the Rio/volleyball book. It's now Serving Love at Carnival. :)  We're just finishing up first round edits and waiting on the cover. As soon as we get it and it's approved, we'll be sharing it with you here.

Hope you're all having a great day.

Love,

T.A.

Hey everyone....

T.A. here. I thought maybe I'd do a little post since Devon's done all the work in setting this place up for us. :)

It's been a crazy ride...writing the first six books of our International Men of Sports series.  But we got them done and in. Now on to the next six...lol

Devon and I met in New Orleans at the very first GRL and our friendship grew from there. Then in Albuquerque (really? That's how it's spelled? So weird...lol), we planned out the first six sports books and discovered we share in a hive mind.

I think we're going to share some of our chats with you all from time to time. And you can see what I'm talking about when I say Devon and I are linked psychically. I live in the Midwest and she lives in the Northwest, but we still are able to talk every day. :) While we chat, we'll post the exact same thought at the same time. Or we'll be watching the same show and be thinking the same thing.

It can be a little weird at times, but it's fun when we're writing because we're usually on the same wavelength for our characters.

We have a lot of new books in store for you all. So I hope you'll keep stopping by and checking in on this crazy adventure Devon and I are on. :)

----Love, T.A.

Blurb Reveal for Brazil, and the photos that inspired our characters

Rio during Carnival

We always try to find photos to work from for our settings and characters. I think that's even more important when you're co-writing, since the image of a main character is in the other author's mind, not yours.

Here are the inspirations for our MCs, and a couple of the secondary characters too!

For Diego Melo, our professional beach volleyball player, we looked to JP Calderon, who played volleyball and is openly gay.

 And for Pablo Silva, our Carnival dancer and physical therapist, we chose another Brazilian Pablo--Pablo Morais.

Diego's volleyball partner, Carlos Barbosa, we took from pro basketball player, Robin Lopez.

And when I saw a picture of Miles McMillan, I immediately knew he was Pablo's long-time best friend and roommate, Argentinian Thiago Vazquez.

Serving Love at Carnival is in to our editor, and we're still waiting on a cover, but that's no reason to make you guys wait for the blurb! Here it is (just a warning, it is unedited and might change slightly):

Anything goes during Carnival, and two men are about to discover just how hot the nights can get in Rio.

A long-time member of a samba school, Pablo knows that Carnival in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro is always hot, and the tall, sexy man he hooks up with during the festivities is even hotter. He usually doesn’t go back for repeats, but something about Diego has him working harder than he ever has to try to meet up again.

Diego travels all over the world on the pro beach volleyball tour, but has found that the sexiest man he’s ever met lives right there in Rio. After a few false starts, they finally seem to hit a groove, but as time goes on, ghosts from Pablo’s past begin to affect their present.

It’s tough being the partner of a professional athlete, competing with travel, fans, and training for their limited time. Pablo’s always been let down by people who found it easy to leave him behind. Is he prepared to accept what Diego can offer?

********

As soon as we have our cover we'll post it here! Meanwhile, we're planning a fun giveaway to christen our blog and celebrate the release of our Australia book, Blindsided. More details tomorrow! Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything!

xoxo Devon

Kicking things off!

I decided to celebrate finishing our sixth book by...setting up a blog. I know, I aim high! But given that we've completed six novels together now and have many, many more planned, I thought it was time to create a shared space for us. :)

Here is a little post I made on FB yesterday that tells a bit about how this collaboration started:

I wanted to give a shout out and major kudos to my co-author T.a. Chase. We just submitted our sixth International Men of Sports book last night after a 20k-in-two-days push. 

We first came up with the series idea at GayRomLit 2012 in Albuquerque, laying in bed one night brainstorming. That turned into a handful of notes on hotel stationery and Starbucks napkins...and now we have six novels done, the original six that we plotted out that GRL. 

There's something very cool about having those done, but that's far from the last of them. We have a dozen more in the works, but those first six are kind of special to us. 

I wanted to share what a great co-author TA is and how much I appreciate her creativity, work ethic and endless patience. 

I'd also like to thank the fans of the series who we love to hear from and really keep us excited about these books. It's been so much fun researching countries you don't always see in MM romance, as well as sports that need more love.

I'll be back tomorrow with an exclusive sneak peek at our Brazil book: Serving Love at Carnival, including the blurb reveal and the pictures we used to visualize our characters. :)

xoxo Devon