Carly's Book Reviews: Bowerbirds by Ada Maria Soto: #AuthorQ&A #Excerpt #Giveaway @adamariasoto

Cover Artist - Paul Richmond

Bowerbirds

(Nested Hearts, Book 2)

by Ada Maria Soto

Length: 60,790 words
Genres: Gay (M/M), Contemporary, Romance

Two very different men have a chance at happiness, but only if they can let go of their painful pasts and allow love to take precedence.

After spending his teens and twenties raising his son, James Maron is now dating Gabriel Juarez, the wealthy and sophisticated CFO of the TechPrim technology empire. But after a life of proudly holding his head above the poverty line with the ethos of work, priorities, responsibility, and thrift, he is not looking for a Sugar Daddy, he does not need to be rescued, and Gabe’s wealth is as terrifying as feeling love for the first time.

Gabe has never been good at balancing his high pressure job with his relationships. Money usually clears most of the bumps, and when a boyfriend walks away, Gabe figures it’s for a good reason. But James isn’t like other boyfriends. He doesn’t want Gabe’s money for one, and if Gabe wants to keep his relationship together he will have to finally face the ghosts of his own past and reconsider his priorities.

Today I’m hosting Ada Maria Soto while she's on tour with her latest release, Bowerbirds and she's brought along a Q&A to share. Hi Ada and welcome! Before we get to the Q&A, what can you tell us about yourself, your background, and your book?

Hi, it's nice to be here. I'm Ada. I'm a born and raised Californian who has been living in New Zealand for the last decade. I studied theater, film, and television and worked a little in each. Currently I'm an almost full time mom to a two year old and I write when I can. In my tiny scraps of free time I do things like knit and make jam. I'm also a sports fan but I'm not great at picking winning teams to support.

Bowerbirds picks up pretty much right where Empty Nests left off. James and Gabe are properly together now but they still come from very different worlds each of which brings its own baggage. Gabe is very much a fixer and wants to 'fix' James's life to make up for how busy he is with work. James is very proud and does not want or need a sugar daddy to fix anything. He's also terrified at the very idea of being in love since it's something he's never done before.

Author Q & A

1) Favorite thing about building your own world?
That I get to build my own world. I get to set up a few rules and some internal logic then wind it up and watch it go.

2) What inspired you to write your first book?
It's hard to say. It was a slow descent into madness. I know the first short story I had published came out of a writer I used to know saying something I found really snotty and the story was a form of petty passive aggressiveness. This is also how I chose my college when I was in high school. The second short and first novella came from Cooper West poking me with a virtual pointy stick. The novels just snowballed out of that.

3) Do you have a specific writing style?
I don't know. You'd probably have to ask my readers that. I know I write a lot of dialog and am often lite on description and internal monolog. That comes out of my years trying to be a script writer. That's also why the first outlines of my books usually have a three act structure.

4) Who are some of the authors that influenced you to write?
Ray Bradbury is a big one. Dashiell Hammett. David Mamet. Tony Kushner. Tom Stoppard. D. C. Fontana. J. M. Straczynski. Joss Whedon. Mercedes Lackey. Anne Rice (before she got too weird). David Eddings. And if you ask me tomorrow I'll probably give you a completely different list.

5) What are some jobs you’ve held? Have any of them impacted your writing, and if so, how?
My last major job allowed me to write because it was a night job and there were usually four or five hours a night where I had nothing to do. I got a lot of writing and knitting done during those years. I have an entire major plot point in one of my WiPs that comes directly from my time substitute teaching. I was working for a software company is the 90's in the SF Bay Area so I was there for the entire tech bubble. That's probably why the Nested Hearts books take place in the computer business. One of these days I'm going to write about the theater but only after I'm 100% positive I will never see certain people again. You can change the names to protect the guilty but some things just bleed through. I've sold makeup, books, and fabric. Worked Christmas retail, cleaned rooms, done volunteer security, moved harpsicords, then there were all those years working historical reenactment events. We are the result of our experiences. I guess our books are too.

FOR THE millionth time, a load of baseball gear left by the apartment door nearly sent James tumbling. It was one of the very few things he would not miss when Dylan left for college. He checked his watch and saw it was pushing five in the afternoon. He could technically still make it to the laundromat and get a couple of loads through, but the place filled up quick after five and it became difficult to get the good machines.

Dylan came out of his room, his hair sticking up at odd angles from his postpractice shower. “Hey, Dad. I was starting to worry. How did the concert go last night?”

As a last-second surprise, Gabe had gotten them tickets to the California Honeydrops at the Fillmore. After a couple glasses of wine, Gabe had even talked him into dancing. “It was good. Stop leaving your gear by the door.”

“Good?” Dylan tried for a scolding look, but there was too much humor in his eyes. “No, just good does not end with you coming home… um… twenty-one hours later than expected.”

Dylan had been nagging him about getting a social life and a boyfriend for years, but James hadn’t realized he would become so nosy about it once it happened.

You’d think he was the parent here. “The concert ran a bit late, and we got a room in the city.” Then they decided not to leave that room until a few hours after the normal checkout time, followed by a late lunch.

“Which hotel?”

“Does it matter?” James asked as he picked up Dylan’s baseball gear.

“It might.”

“The Saint Francis,” James muttered, deciding to risk a Monday wash.

“Again? Well, here’s to scoring a sugar daddy.”

“What?” James froze for a second as he tucked a baseball bat under his arm.

Dylan headed for the kitchen and rummaged around the fridge. “I mean, a guy with a steady job is a good thing these days, but one who can score you concert tickets and hotel suites on a whim is a pretty sweet deal.” He pulled an apple from the veggie bin.

“He’s not—”

James felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He juggled around the gear until he could pull it out and saw he had missed a call ten minutes earlier.

“He’s not what?

“Hi. It’s me. Stuck in traffic. Seriously, traffic on a Sunday. I think the Niners are playing or something. Don’t worry, I’m on the hands-free setup. Just wanted to say I had a really nice time this weekend. The concert was a lot of fun. The other activities were fun too. Don’t know how busy I’m going to be this week, but I’d love to be able to come up there for lunch or dinner. Catch a movie or something. Oh, Tamyra left me nine messages, the last one informing me that I’m getting ‘Genie in a Bottle’ for my new ringtone. I’m hoping I can pass it off as a postmodern ironic statement or something. Oh look. Traffic is moving. Well, I’ll talk to you later. Drive carefully. Bye.”

James kept the phone to his ear even after the message ended. Dylan stared at him, one eyebrow raised. He had a funny feeling Dylan practiced that look in the mirror. James hung up the phone. “You know what? My love life is none of your business.”

ADA MARIA SOTO is a born and raised Californian Mexican-American currently living as an expat in the South Pacific with her toddler and partner.

She has studied and worked in theater, film, and television with all the usual crummy side jobs of a struggling artist. She has dysgraphia and phonological dyslexia but refuses to let that slow down her writing.

She is a sports fan dedicated to the Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Auckland Blues, USA Eagles, New Zealand All Blacks, New Zealand Black Caps, and the Chennai Super Kings.

She loves to hear from her fans, or really anyone who has read her work.

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