Welcome Cat Grant & Rachel Haimowitz today

Thank you for joining us on the Power Play: Resistance virtual release tour! *throws penis-shaped confetti borrowed from Anne Tenino* No party is complete without favors, so we'll be giving away some cool Power Play swag to one lucky commenter from this blog at the end of the tour. We'll also be giving away a classic Nook pre-loaded with six of our titles to one lucky commenter drawn from all the tour stops, so follow along and party with us at each--you can earn an entry at every stop!

Co-writing Power Play, by Cat Grant

I try to push myself a bit farther with every new book, but with Power Play: Resistance I did something I told myself I’d never do – I collaborated with another author.

Generally I’m not the “plays well with others” type, but when my BFF/brain twin Rachel Haimowitz and I started brainstorming this project on Twitter last summer (and who knew it was good for something besides DM’ing hot pics of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender to each other?), we knew neither of us could write it alone. So, after a few more months of brainstorming (in between me editing/revising my novel Once a Marine and Rachel preparing Riptide Publishing for its grand opening), Rachel flew out to visit for a couple of weeks, and we started drafting.

First, let me say that Google Docs is a godsend for co-authors, even when they’re sitting in the same room together. It’s exciting to watch the words fill the page when your co-author’s seized by inspiration, never mind the added convenience of not having to email files back and forth.

We’d originally envisioned Power Play as one long novel, but it became clear halfway through the first draft that this project was about to sprout another volume. So the pivotal sequence where Jonathan, our Dom, takes his sub Brandon to his house in Big Sur got moved to book #2. Luckily, Rachel and I had a chance to drive down to Big Sur to scout locations for Jonathan’s house and have lunch at Nepenthe, an amazing open-air restaurant overlooking the Pacific.

Best. Research. Trip. Ever!

I’d never worked this way before, and initially I doubted I’d be able to. Most of the time I count myself lucky to pull a thousand words a day out of my brain. But fortunately, this book just flowed. Rachel and I managed to complete the first draft of book 1—close to 90,000 words!—in a little under a month.

It turned out to be one of the most amazing learning experiences for me as a writer. I learned how to draft a lot faster, untangle plot and pacing snags before they became a problem, and—most importantly—learned to compromise. On the upside, for once I didn’t have an entire book riding on my shoulders alone.

Rachel and I were a good fit. We filled in for each other’s weak points. One of us was always able to pick up and run with the story when the other got stuck. I’ll admit, I got a bit spoiled. My current solo project isn’t going anywhere near as smoothly!

Blurb:

Give me six months, and I'll give you the world.

Brandon McKinney has scraped and sacrificed for what little in life he’s ever had. Though it’s been fifteen years since he escaped his father’s abuse, the damage remains. Trust seems as far out of reach as his dream of becoming an architect, and though he’s come to accept being gay, he can’t deny the shame and confusion he feels at other urges—the deeply-repressed desire to submit.

Jonathan Watkins is a self-made Silicon Valley billionaire whose ex-wife took half his money and even more of his faith. Comfortable as a Dominant but wary of being hurt again, he resorts to anonymous pickups and occasional six-month contracts with subs seeking only a master, not a lover.

When a sizzling back-alley encounter cues Jonathan in to Brandon’s deep-seated submissive side, he makes the man an offer: Give me six months of your life, and I’ll open your eyes to a whole new world. Brandon doesn’t care about that; all he wants is the three million dollars Jonathan’s offering so he can buy the construction company he works for. But he soon learns that six months on his knees is no easy feat, and shame and pride may keep him from all he ever wanted—and all he never dreamed he had any right to have.

You can read an excerpt and order Power Play: Resistance here.

About the authors:

Rachel Haimowitz is an M/M erotic romance author, a freelance writer and editor, and the Managing Editor of Riptide Publishing. She's also a sadist with a pesky conscience, shamelessly silly, and quite proudly pervish. Fortunately, all those things make writing a lot more fun for her . . . if not so much for her characters.

When she's not writing about hot guys getting it on (or just plain getting it; her characters rarely escape a story unscathed), she loves to read, hike, camp, sing, perform in community theater, and glue captions to cats. She also has a particular fondness for her very needy dog, her even needier cat, and shouting at kids to get off her lawn.

You can find Rachel at her website, Tweeting as RachelHaimowitz, chatting in the Goodreads forums, and blogging at Fantasy Unbound. She loves to hear from folks, so feel free to drop her a line anytime at metarachel (at) gmail (dot) com.

EPIC Award–winning author Cat Grant lives by the sea in beautiful Monterey, California, with one persnickety feline and entirely too many books and DVDs. When she's not writing, she sings along (badly!) to whatever's on her iPod shuffle, watches lots of movies, and fantasizes about kinky sex with Michael Fassbender.

Where to find Cat:

Website: http://www.catgrant.com
Blog: http://catgrant.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cat.grant
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CatGrant2009
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1912055.Cat_Grant