Welcome Jacob Z. Flores today/Giveaway

Please give a warm welcome to author Jacob Z. Flores today. So take it away Jacob *claps loudly*

                First of all, thank you for agreeing to be one of my stops on my Chasing the Sun blog tour. The last time I was here, I was promoting the first book in the Provincetown Series, so it’s great to be back to promote the second book as well.

                As part of my blog tour I’m holding a contest. All you have to do is leave a comment to this post, and your name is entered to win a free copy of Chasing the Sun. If a reader happens to follow all my blog stops, then she or he can leave a comment at the other sites a well. At the end of the tour, a winner will be chosen and announced.

To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?

                Of course. I just love talking about my books. As I mentioned earlier, Chasing the Sun is the second book of the Provincetown Series. One of the great things about this series is that readers don’t have to read the books in order. Each book is a standalone piece, and the main characters in one book appear as supporting characters in the other books. This way, readers have a good idea of who the characters are in the remaining books in the series.

                Chasing the Sun is the story of Gil Kelly, a fifty something doctor, who is trying to move past the guilt and shame he’s been living with since his wife shoved him out of closet a few years prior. Gil is the type of man who lives for others instead of himself, and he’s always believed that his dreams, what his father called “chasing the sun,” were impossible achievements. Since he has failed at marriage and relationships, he feels it is his lot in life to suffer and remain forever alone. However, Gil has a chance encounter with Tom, his son’s childhood best friend. In Tom, Gil finds the light he’s spent his life searching for, but if he embraces the potential that Tom represents, he might embroil himself in further scandal and also further alienate himself from his children.

                Gil has to decide whether he wants to chase the sun one final time or remain forever in the shadows. 

If we asked your muse to describe you using five words, what do you think they would say?

Oh, my poor muse. I think he’d say I was a demanding control freak but also surprising sweet. What can I say? I expect a lot from my muse, but he’s well taken care of.





If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?

                I’d recommend a reader start with the first book in the Provincetown Series, When Love Takes Over. I don’t say that because the books have to be read in order, but readers have really responded to the fun, flirty nature of the Provincetown books. When Love Takes Over is about a bumbling, goofball author who meets and falls in love with a sex-craved, suave porn star. The situations that Zach and Van find themselves in are sweet and sizzling. What reader doesn’t like that combination?

Where do you find the inspirations for your stories?

                My inspirations come from a variety of places. The Gifted One, which is a story about a man who falls in love with his guardian angel, came from a dream. My dystopian novel Moral Authority was actually inspired by the political climate at the time that plot bunny hopped into my brain. 3 and all the books in the Provincetown Series were actually born in Provincetown. 3 was inspired by a trio we met the first year we vacationed there. I wondered: how did three men decide to enter into a trio? My answer was the novel. And lastly, the books in the Provincetown Series are all based on events that I’ve lived through or witnessed in Provincetown, and the people I’ve met on P-town’s sandy shores inspired the characters in the book.

 If you could collaborate with one author who would it be? 

                I’d love to write a paranormal romance with Poppy Dennison. I think that would be both the easiest and the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Why is that you ask? Well, it would be easy because Poppy and I are such good friends, and I love her to pieces. I think we would gel well together.

                However, it would be difficult because I’m not used to writing with a partner, and I don’t think Poppy is either. We are both headstrong and stubborn, and that’s why we gravitated to each other. I think the two of us could create an amazing book. We might be a little battered and bruised afterward, but I have no doubt we could create something phenomenal.

What is coming up from you in 2013? Anything you want to tease us with?

Actually, all my releases for 2013 are done. But in 2014, I have a lot planned. In January, the third book of the Provincetown Series releases. It is titled When Love Gets Hairy. It tells the story of cocky, vain Nino, who meets Teddy, an affable bear. It is loathing at first site for these two, who wake up in bed together after a party they cannot remember. They vow never to see each other again, but in Provincetown, such promises are hard to keep. Friends and circumstances beyond their control keep bringing Nino and Teddy in each other’s orbit, and the two of them must learn to navigate the same social waters as well as cope with the attraction growing between them.

The final book of the Provincetown Series should come out in April 2014. When Love Comes to Town features reformed horn dog Brody O’Shea who is searching for true love. However, Brody has some pretty high requirements. His man must be hot, sane, single, employed, and childless, and he doesn’t understand why he can’t find the perfect man. Enter Eric Vasquez, who comes to town for a big celebration. Eric is everything that Brody has been looking for. The downside is that Eric has a daughter and Eric has no interest in love. He has already been there and has the scars to prove it. But what Brody and Eric expect and what they find are two different things when they meet in Provincetown.

After that, I’m planning on releasing a new series set in Key West. It will explore the relationship of three college best friends who are reuniting after a few years. Each book will tell each man’s life and how he finds love at the tip of Florida and in one of the most sexually charged locations in the Keys—The Island House.

If you were to replenish your cabinets with one junk food, what would it be?

                Easiest question ever. Snickers bars. I LOVE CHOCOLATE, and Snickers are my all-time favorite. I could eat myself sick. Okay, I often eat myself sick with Snickers bars, but why not? They are so darn good!

What makes your characters so vulnerable yet strong? Can you describe them to us?

                Quite simply my characters are human. We all possess a quiet strength and vulnerability. I try to capture that in my characters. As people, we are flawed and we make mistakes, and most of us try to grow and make amends for what we’ve broken. I think that’s why my characters are vulnerable and strong.

                Take Gil Kelly from Chasing the Sun. He’s extremely vulnerable at the beginning of the novel. His ex-wife and the social elite of his small town have put him through hell. He’s basically been living as a social pariah, and the only human contact he enjoys comes from anonymous hookups on gay dating sites. Gil knows his life is crap, and he has to do something to fix it. He’s not certain what that is because he’s not looking at his life and his choices logically. All he can see is the mess he’s made. But when he gains perspective, as we must all do in life, he slowly moves forward, making amends.

Has there been any character that started off as supporting character, but then developed into a more prominent character?

                Yes. Brody O’Shea was never supposed to be one of the main characters for the final book in the Provincetown Series, When Love Comes to Town. His purpose was merely to be Nino’s foil in When Love Gets Hairy. However, after writing Brody, I realized how much potential he had to be a main character, and I switched up the fourth book entirely. His story appealed to me that much. It always amazes me when my muse becomes so inspired that I change what I had already planned to do, and I was glad I did it. I couldn’t have ended the Provincetown Series any better than I did. When it comes out in April 2014, I hope the readers will agree.

It was a muggy summer by me. What is your favorite cool drink to enjoy during the summer?

                A Planter’s Punch can cure what ails you. They are very popular at Tea Dance in Provincetown. The Tea Dance is a party that takes place every day in the summer from 4-7 pm on the deck of one of the hotels called the Boatslip. There, many guys walk around with a Planter’s Punch, which is a mixture of rum, grenadine, orange juice, and pineapple juice. It is quite yummy and can quest your summertime thirst. The drawback? Well, let’s just say that too many Planter’s Punches can be hazardous to your health. Believe me. I’ve been there.

Chasing the Sun by Jacob Z. Flores

The Provincetown Series Book #2

Genre: m/m romance

Publisher: Dreamspinner

Available at Publisher

As a physician and prominent citizen of Victoria, Texas, Dr. Gil Kelly took a hard fall when his vengeful wife revealed his infidelity with other men. Closing ranks around her, the town’s elite ostracized him, and his relationship with his children was nearly destroyed.

After spending his life focused on living for others, he has no idea how to live for himself. He wants to find love but now settles for anonymous sex that only further clouds his world with shame and guilt. Gil believes finding true love is an unobtainable dream, what his father used to call “chasing the sun.”

Then he runs into Tom Martinez, his son’s childhood best friend, who returned to town a grown man and offers everything Gil needs. But Gil hesitates to fall into Tom’s arms, because after his high-profile divorce, the potential scandal of loving a younger man could separate him from his children permanently.

Spin off of When Love Takes Over (1st Provincetown Series book)

Teaser Excerpt: 

“Is that why you still live here?” Tom asked, looking around. “I figured after the divorce, you would’ve moved away, but if you feel staying here somehow punishes you for what you did, I guess I can see that.”

Damn. How did Tom know him so well? No one had ever understood him like that. “I did stay as penance. This place reminds me of what I did. How my being gay and my affairs destroyed my wife and my kids.”

A shiver fluttered down his spine as the ghosts of a once-happy family floated around him. Every square inch housed a memory, and like vengeful phantoms they terrorized him daily.

“Do you plan on punishing yourself forever?”

“Maybe I’ll let myself off the hook when I turn eighty.” Gil attempted a smile, but it faltered on his lips.

Tom put his glass down on the table and closed the distance between them. He patted Gil’s left shoulder. Tom’s warm touch caused a fire to spread down Gil’s arm until it fully ignited in his groin.

He wanted to withdraw before Tom glanced down to see the growing hardness in his tan pants, but Tom’s gaze held him fast. Gil couldn’t move or even conceal his obvious erection.

As Gil stared back, he noted a change in Tom’s eye-color. No longer their usual light brown, his eyes turned dark, mirroring the severity that replaced Tom’s usually cheerful demeanor.

“You can’t do that to yourself,” Tom said. “You did hurt your wife and kids, but it wasn’t done maliciously.”

“That’s not what Donna thinks,” Gil added. “Or Zach.”

Tom rubbed Gil’s shoulder, as if trying to massage the tension out of his body, but only succeeded in making Gil’s cock fully engorge.

“I think you’d be surprised by how much Zach’s grown in the last few years.”

“You’re right, I would be surprised, since we don’t speak to each other,” Gil admitted.

“Communication is a two-way street, you know?”

“I tried. For years, I tried. But he’d never meet me halfway.”

Tom drew closer. A hint of amber and patchouli lingered in the air between them. The musky, earthen scent caused Gil’s cock to jump in his pants.

This shouldn’t be happening. Tom was trying to console him, and he was standing there sporting wood. Could he be anymore pathetic?

“Here’s some truth for you,” Tom said, finally breaking the silence. “If your child doesn’t meet you halfway, then you go all the way to him. You are the parent, right?”

Tom then withdrew and crossed back to where his glass of wine awaited his return. As Tom drank, Gil pondered his words. If there was something wrong between him and his son, the burden of responsibility to fix it rested upon his shoulders.

 About the Author

Jacob Z. Flores lives a double life. During the day, he is a respected college English professor and mid-level administrator. At night and during his summer vacation, he loosens the tie and tosses aside the trendy sports coat to write man on man fiction, where the hard ass assessor of freshmen level composition turns his attention to the firm posteriors and other rigid appendages of the characters in his fictional world.

Summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, provide Jacob with inspiration for his fiction. The abundance of barely clothed man flesh and daily debauchery stimulates his personal muse. When he isn’t stroking the keyboard, Jacob spends time with his husband, Bruce, their three children, and two dogs, who represent a bright blue blip in an otherwise predominantly red swath in south Texas.

I urge readers to visit me at any or all of my social media sites:

Website/blog: http://jacobzflores.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jacob.flores2,

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/JacobZFlores,

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5142501.Jacob_Z_Flores

Jacob Z. Flores Chasing the Sun Blog Tour

10/21/2013 It’s Raining Men

10/22/2013 The Novel Approach

10/23/2013 Mrs Condit Reads Books

10/24/2013 Literary Nymphs

10/25/2013 Romance Reviews Today

10/28/2013 Joyfully Jay

10/29/2013 Books Books and More Books

10/30/2013 Lynley Wayne

11/1/2013 Mama Kitty

11/5/2013 Dawn’s Reading Nook

11/6/2013 Fallen Angel

11/21/2013 Michael Rupured

a Rafflecopter giveaway