Guest Author day with Jamie Samms

Welcome to Dawn’s Reading Nook, Jaime. Please let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink and make yourself at home.

Ooooh! Cabana boys! Excellent. Drinks are good, too, of course :D

Comfortable?

Perfect

Great…now let’s get down to business.

So tell us about yourself. What got you interested in writing? Who are your publisher(s)?

What got me interested? I don’t really know, since I’ve always done it. Like walking, talking, breathing, just something that’s always been a part of how I live.

Now, I write for Freya’s Bower, Loveyoudivine Alterotica, Pink Petal Books, Total _-Bound and Dreamspinner Press.

How did you start your writing career?

The very first story I ever sold ws to a now defunct publisher for an anthology called Connections, and I still remember how easily that story flowed out, and I just knew it was something special, and I was right, because it sold the first time out. Not all my stories have done that, but I think that was an auspicious start.

Tell us about your favorite character(s) from your books.

Really? Like picking a favorite kid, that….but Lil, a secondary character from Fight and the first cross-dresser I ever wrote is a favorite, as is Caleb, another cross dresser staring in his own story called Lace, that is contracted at TEB, bit scheduled for release until the fall. Also, Sofia, a transgirl in another upcoming release called What We Do was a lot of fun to work with, as was Andy, also from that story. He’s the Main Characters’ best friend, and so down to earth and brutally honest with them he makes me cringe.  Funny, a lot of my really favorite characters seem to be secondary ones. Maybe I just spend so much time with the main characters, I am intrigued with the glimpses of their friends and family, and that’s why I can’t seem to quite let them go when the stories are told.

Where do you dream of traveling to and why?

Europe. There’s so much that’s old and mysterious compared to Canada, where our history isn’t nearly as long.

Tell us about your current/upcoming release. What inspired it?

Well, I guess I sort of already did that lol! Lace is out in the fall, and I do think Lil, from Fight (that I co-wrote with Sarah Masters) inspired Caleb, a young college student struggling to come to terms with his cross-dressing, and difficult relationship with the uncle he lives with, as well as trying to overcome a lifetime of bullying. All that, and it’s also a tender love story between him and his very patient boyfriend, Levi.

Also, What We Do is coming form Dreamspinner in September, and it’s about Lawrence.  He’s mourning his ex and battling alcoholism, while struggling to figure out if his past relationship was about manipulation or submission. His best friend, Jeff, is either his savior in this struggle, or his ruin, and neither of them quite know which.

Has someone helped or mentored you in your writing career?

Gosh. So many people. Faith Bicknell-Brown challenged and encouraged me right from the start, and Emmy Ellis has always been a strong influence, in so many ways, from editor, to writer, to friend…Patric Michael, Ariel Tachna, I could go on for days…

Who are some of your favorite authors/books?

Clare London has never written a book that I didn’t love. Tanya Huff, and recently, I’ve discovered Lynn Flewelling and her Night Runner books. Yum. The Slayer’s Apprentice, by Zathyn Priest has long been on my list of very favorite books, too.

What was your first sale as an author?

When I was Three was the first short story I sold, but The Runaway, published by Freya’s Bower was the story that truly launched me into the publishing world.

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?

I do my best work at the end of the day, when I’m just relaxed enough to open up my imagination, but not so tired all my brains fall out. :D

I write as mush as I can reasonably get away with every day, though my family does demand I not sleep with the computer or bring the ipad to the kitchen table.

If you could visit any time and place, where and when would it be and why?

I would visit myself in my past life and ask a whole shit-load of questions, because I highly suspect that whoever I was before now, that’s where a lot of these stories are coming from.

If you could be any shape shifter, what form would you take and why?

I’m torn between a mustang or a bird. Speed and flight, and all that freedom. Although I could do without the burrs and the molting…

What else would you like readers to know about you or your work?

Hmmm…Maybe don’t believe the rumours. It isn’t all dark, and while I do seem to drift into angst, I never leave my guys there. They always get their happy ending, even if the book itself ends on the dawning of that new hope, I know in my heart I write couples hat are meant to be.

Who's more fun to write: bad boys or perfect gentlemen and why?

Bad boys, obviously, because breaking all the rules is one of the surest paths to self discovery.  Besides, there is no such thing as a perfect gentleman. Somewhere in the heart of every Golden Boy is a bad-ass or a vulnerable man looking for their perfect match.

If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and what would you do together?

Here’s crazy for you, but it would be Yfandes, the horse-like Companion of Vanyel, from Mercedes Lackey’s Last Harold Mage series. Not sure what we’d do. I just know that that entire story broke my heart, and ever since I was tiny little kid, the idea of talking horses was pretty awesome. So there you go. Not entirely rational, but yes, I’d chose a talking horse. Lol!

Out of all your books, do you have a favorite one? If not, then which one is closest to your heart?

This is something to that seems to change constantly. I don’t know if I could pick just one, but right now, What We Do is very uppermost in my thoughts, and that could be because it’s the story I most recently finished, or because I connected so strongly witht eh image that inspired it, or I don’t know. Like I said, it changes, and sometimes, I end up drifting back and forth. I just love them all.

What character out of all your books is the closest to your personality?

I think I’m going to plead the fifth on this one…

Anything else you would like to add?

Just my thanks for your time and your readers’ time, and I wish everyone happy reading J

Paying the Piper by Jaime Samms

Michael isn’t used to casino blackjack dealers telling him to cash in, but that’s what Daniel Aldaine does, recognizing the group of men waiting to collect what Michael owes them. He even fronts Michael the money he’s short to get the goons off his back. It’s the beginning of the best relationship Michael’s ever known, but a problem he doesn’t even recognize he has could end it all.

Buy: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2928

Excerpt:

“You should cash in,” he told me quietly.

I laughed at him and tried not to pay attention to the eyes or the hands anymore, definitely ignored the accent because that would set me off, and I made a motion with my fingers over the table. “Just deal.”

He hesitated, and I had to look into those eyes again.

“Isn’t telling a customer to cash in just a little bit against your job description?”

He smiled, the most disarming of all disarming smiles, and jutted his chin out, past me to a knot of men at the far end of the room. “They’ve been watching you.”

I turned to look and had that dropping sensation in the pit of my stomach you read about in suspense novels. My hands went clammy, sweat popped out on my upper lip, and my whole body seemed to turn a little jelly-like around the edges.

“Just cash in, give them what you owe them, and call it a night.”

“That’s a good idea.”

He nodded and dealt the rest of the table back into the game. I gathered up my winnings and headed for the cashier. They met me there, collected all I had, which was just about what I owed, and ushered me out into the street, around back, probably to collect the rest out of my hide.

I might have lost my kneecaps, and my mobility, if Daniel hadn’t taken a smoke break at that moment. Right from the beginning, his timing has been impeccable. He 

approached me with a smile and a nod to the “gentlemen” with me and pulled out his wallet.

“Glad I ran into you, finally. Got paid, so, here.” He handed me a wad of bills while I tried not to look as confused as I felt. I didn’t know this guy from a hole in the ground, and he was handing me a fistful of money like we were old friends.

“That money I borrowed?" Daniel prompted. “Might as well give it to you now, right? Who knows when I’ll see you again?”

I didn’t even get to touch it. The man with the beefy hand reached past me and closed his hand over the money.

“Now you see, Michael?" he asked, "That is how you pay off a debt in a timely manner. Imagine the inconvenience to you if he had waited another month to pay up?”

I sneered at the man. Probably not a great idea, but since he had his money, he seemed in a more congenial mood than he had a minute ago. “I’m sure I wouldn’t have threatened his wellbeing if I had to wait a while longer.”

“Perhaps not.” The glare was back in his beady little eyes. “But he’s saved you a lot of pain and suffering. You should thank him.”

I grunted.

The man shrugged and patted my shoulder, which sent me stumbling into Daniel. “Much obliged, Michael. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Mutual,” I muttered and stood there awkwardly as they rambled off to their car, stuffed themselves in, and drove smoothly away. 

Men like that can only be smooth when encased in tons of sleek black steel and shiny chrome. On their own two feet, they lumber and lurch like juggernauts, which is exactly what they are if you can’t pay your tab.

“I guess I owe you,” I said at last, because Daniel just stood there, puffing on his smoke and squinting into the bright lights of the strip.

“I guess so.”

“I don’t have anything to pay you back with.”

He stamped out his cigarette on the sidewalk, smoothed his hands over the front of his red vest, and tilted his head. I was surprised when he reached a hand over and used two fingers to lift my chin.

“Oh, I think we can come up with something.”