Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Sex, Sports and Writing... Ryan O'Leary Is In The Hot Seat!

Today we have the handsome and witty Ryan O'Leary guesting in the hot seat! Ryan pens erotic romance for Beau Coup Publishing and often teams up with the gifted Sable Hunter. Ryan is giving away an e-copy of Happy to be Stuck With You

Enjoy! 

~Mia

Interview questions for Ryan O’Leary

Quick round:


Coffee, tea or…what’s your vice? 
 Lately it seems to be shopping. I know, not the manliest thing, but I golf a lot, so I’ve been spending money on hats and golf clothes a lot lately. And shoes. I seem to have filled my closet up with shoes without even realizing it.

Favorite Movie: 
Tough one. The first time I saw The Usual Suspects I was glued to the TV. I didn’t want it to end and every time I see it’s on the television I just have to watch it again. I’m a big Fight Club fan though also. Let’s say I’m stranded on a desert island and can only take one movie to watch for the rest of my days, I think it’s going to be The Usual Suspects. But if there’s a girl on the island with me (or 2 or 3 hopefully), I’m bringing Basic Instinct along with me.

Favorite Color: Red…I guess. I’m a pretty patriotic guy. I liek colours.

Favorite book/author:
Chuck Palahniuk probably. I used to read a lot of Stephen King, but after seeing Fight Club, I picked up the book and I’ve read every one of Palahniuks book to date. I’d say Survivor is my favourite book by him. I liek the celebrity obsession angle.

How do you feel about bacon? 
Funny thing about that. I love bacon. That is to say, I ‘loved’ bacon. Recently I cut meat out of my diet. The last meat I ate was a 6 inch meatball sub from Subway on July 6th. If I do decide to go back to meat though, you can bet bacon will be my first stop.


Going vegetarian is noble. How about a bacon beer stein???
Useful and you don't have to eat it. 


The REAL questions…


Tell us a little about yourself. 

Hmmmmm…Well, I’m Ryan. Nice to meet you. What can I say really? I like sports and sex and writing, and not necessarily in that order. I’m a pretty average guy, I just happen to have an awesome hobby. Oh. I’m Canadian also. And no, I don’t say a-boot.

Connect with Ryan on Facebook
 
What’s under your bed? 
Ghosts. Monsters. Dust. And a putter.

What comes first, plot or characters?
Crap. I’m supposed to plan that stuff? I can’t say. I just get an idea for a book and I start writing. I used to get an ending in mind and write towards that, but now I just kinda write. I guess you could say plot, but that’s isn’t the kind of stuff I really think about when I write. Now that I say this out loud, it might be a good idea to think about that kind of stuff. It might make things easier…But what fun would that be?

Pantser, plotter, or hybrid? Tell us about your writing process. 
Ummmm. I don’t know what that first one is, so I’ll go with hybrid. I’m not the kind of writer who really thinks things out. I just kinda sit there and mash keys. If I have a direction, I follow it, if not, I make it up as I go. It’s terrifying and fun all at once. Does it smell liek bacon in here?

Oddest thing on your desk? 
A grey statue of a woman’s silhouette with a silver chain around it. Both I bought at an auction a few years ago. I planned on selling the chain and keeping the statue, but when I put the chain around the statue, it just looked so damn good that I kept it that way.

What’s your most interesting writing quirk? 
Is being a lazy writer a quirk? If not, I’d have to say that I do something unique every time I write a book. I buy something different for each book and keep it near me while I’m writing. I bought a toy gun and a holster for one book and wore it every time I wrote that book. For another book, I bought an old clock at a thrift shop and hung it over my desk. I do that for each book. That’s kinda quirky, right? And I throw back a shot of Jack when a project is complete as a celebration.

What’s your favorite thing about the genre you write in?
Sex. :-) Well, that’s not entirely true. The sex stuff is fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the flirting that I enjoy hands down the most. I liek the interactions between the couple. I liek using my male characters to seduce my female characters. That’s what gives me the greatest charge of all.

What is the hardest thing about being an author? 
Writing. I don’t write full-time, it’s more of a hobby that I do when I have the time and drive to do it. I’ll be the first to tell people that I don’t have it in me to be a full-time author. I’m a ‘writer’, I do it as a hobby. In my mind, an ‘authour’ is someone who does it for a living. I know authours and man-oh-man, the amount of hours and work they put in every day blows my mind. I couldn’t do it and I respect the hell out of those who do.

What’s the easiest thing about being an author? Not sure. I’ll ask around.

What do you wish someone had asked you for an interview question? Here’s your chance to get the soap box out! 
Wow. That’s a tough one. I don’t know. Liek I said above, I’m a pretty average guy. I’m laid back, whatever people want to talk about, I’ll talk about. I’m sure you could find more than one person to dispute this fact, but probably my least favourite topic is myself, so the fewer questions I’m asked, the less I have to talk about me, which is fine with me. Although hockey would be nice to talk about. If someone would ask me why the Leafs suck, I could go on and on.

Tell us about your latest release!
The last book I put out was a co-authouring venture I did with 
Sable Hunter. The book is called Thunderbird and it’s the first book in a series titled The Equalizers that we are writing together. The series follows an elite squad of soldiers who come back from Afghanistan. Hang-on. Sable wrote the blurb, so let me share it instead of me messing up the description.

Blurb for Thunderbird (Hell Yeah! Book 13-Equalizers)

Soulmates. Twin souls. Two people destined to be together. Their journey to love is never an easy one, but when they meet – their hearts beat only for one another.

Kyle Chancellor is a hero, an honest to God hero. After winning the Heisman, he turns down a lucrative career as a professional football player to fight in Afghanistan. Not many know he enlisted because his heart was broken. When his time is up, Kyle comes home to form the Equalizers with the members of former Seal Team 7, they band together to fight battles for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Hannah Montenegro is a woman who has sacrificed her life to help her family, never knowing the joys and freedom a young girl should enjoy. She lives in constant fear of being discovered in a country where she has no citizenship and no hope for the future.

But fate has a plan…the night Kyle comes back to Texas, they meet in a bar where he is drowning his sorrows and she is spreading her wings to learn how to fly. From the moment they touch, the heat between them is undeniable. But unfortunate circumstances separate them and neither dares dream they will see one another again.

Kyle is from a powerful Texas family. Because of his work with the Equalizers, his stance on stem-cell research and internet security, he is the only one surprised to find the people of the Lone Star state want him to run for Governor. Many get behind him, including the McCoys. But the one person he wants at his side eludes him.

Hannah is always on his mind. From the beginning their relationship is complicated, but when she comes back into his life, he grabs onto her with both hands. Politics, a sex tape, immigration issues and a baby complicates their pathway to happiness. But Kyle is the Thunderbird and Hannah is his soulmate in the truest sense of the word. Their journey to love is one you’ll never forget.

A modern day Cinderella story with a twist…

Available at Amazon

There. I’ve found it’s best to just let her handle things. I’ve met some impressive people in my life, I think we all have, but Sable Hunter blows me away every single day. I can’t say enough good things about this woman. Her brains, generosity, drive, kindness, and talents are liek nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. I always tell her I’m in awe of her and I truly am. Sorry. I got off topic there a little bit. I just liek bragging about my awesome friend. What were we talking about? I swear I can smell bacon.
Oh well. About Thunderbird. I just really had a great time with it. It took us awhile to write it, that was mostly my fault and schedules of course, but we managed to get it completed. Wait a minute. Thunderbird wasn’t the last thing I wrote. Sable and I actually co-authoured a 4th of July story as part of a multi-authour release we participated in with a whole host of amazing authours. That book was called Come With Me and it stayed near the top of the holiday best-sellers list on Amazon for quite some time. It might even still be there, I haven’t checked in a while. You know what? This would be an awful lot of erasing and re-typing for me to do to fix this and as we’ve already established, I’m a lazy writer, so let’s just leave this how it is. I will say though, that Come With Me was a blast to write, as I said, we wrote it after we were done Thunderbird. Seriously? You don’t smell that bacon? Anyways. As I was saying. We wrote it after Thunderbird. I talk a lot, don’t I? I’m just realizing that after typing all of this. We wrote Come after we’d written Thunderbird, so we had a better grasp of each other and how we would write together, so Come came along much faster and I can’t speak for her, but I found it much easier to write. So I’ve now discussed 2 books I’ve written with Sable Hunter and the excerpt below will be from a book I wrote on my own. I think I’ll stop now. I’ve completely forgotten the original question. I’ll let your readers make what they will of my inane ramblings.


Blurb for Happy to be Stuck with You:

Love at first sight?


Travis Ross didn’t believe in it until he laid his eyes on a mysterious brunette across the room at a party. From the very first word out of her mouth, Travis is smitten by this feisty little girl with the one letter name.

Just back from Mexico, Travis’ mystery girl is full of surprises, some exquisite and some not so nice, but no matter what fate throws at them, Travis is determined to keep them together, determined to win her heart and make sure she’s happy to be stuck with him forever.

Find out what happened before J got her closet.

Available at Amazon


~*~

Excerpt for Happy To Be Stuck With You...

I got into position behind mystery girl as she rooted around in the fridge; a cold beer sounded almost as good to me as finally seeing her eyes.

She turned, startled by my presence and looked up at me. Jesus. I must have had at least a foot and a hundred pounds on her. She was tiny, but didn’t seem delicate. Her eyes were the darkest brown I’d ever seen and I lost myself in them momentarily. Mystery girl offered me a shy smile and smoothed her hair back behind her ear with her free hand before looking down at her feet. I smiled at her and waited a second, letting her decide whether to say hello or not.

But she didn’t say anything and I could feel my face getting warmer when she looked me over. She wasn’t obvious about it. There was no deliberate looking up and down, but she glanced at my shirt for a second and then back up at me.

“Thanks,” I said and took the beer out of her hand.

I unscrewed the cap and took a sip, watching her over the rim of the bottle. She looked dumbstruck.

“This beer is terrible,” I said.

She reached for the bottle. “Then give it back.”

I pulled it away from her. “No.”

There it was; that dumbstruck look on her face returned. This was going to go one of two ways—either I’d crash and burn, or we’d click. If we clicked, this girl was in trouble, because she’d already intrigued me before we’d even met.

“I’ll get you a new one,” she offered.

“But I want this one.”

“Why?”

I wanted to say, ‘Because it’s the first thing both of us touched.’ I wanted to say that in case I never saw her again, I’d still have this bottle to remind me of her. But that seemed a little intense.

I took another sip. The beer was terrible, skunky, but she had her arms crossed over her chest and an expectant look on her face; like she was waiting for an answer to her question.

“You just going to keep staring at me, weirdo?” I said after a long draw from the bottle.

She shook her head and furrowed her brow. “Weirdo? You’re the one drinking skunky beer.”

I liked her even more. I was used to women fumbling their words around me, but this spunky little girl had a spark.

I took another sip and she returned the grin I gave her.

“Taste better the more you drink?” she asked.

“God, no. Worse actually.”

I emptied the bottle with one last gulp.

“Another one?” she asked.

“Please.”

She put one hand on her perfectly formed hip and stuck her palm out to take my empty; the bangles around her arm jingled over the din of the crowd around us. I watched them move back and forth on her slender, tanned wrist. God, it looked kissable.

“Empty, please,” she said, breaking me from my trance.

“I’ll keep it if that’s okay.”

“But I’m the weirdo?”

“Got that drink for me yet?”

She let out an exacerbated huff and retrieved another beer from the fridge.

I took it from her. “Don’t worry, I’ll open it myself.” I unscrewed the cap and tossed it on the counter beside me. “Worst service ever,” I mumbled under my breath and she crossed her arms again.

“You always like this?” She wanted to know.

“Like what?” Another swig.

She balked for a moment, seemingly unsure of what to say next.

Did I have the upper hand?

“So cocky,” she finally said.

~*~

Contest Details 
Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for an e-copy of Happy to be Stuck With You!

Thanks for stopping by!

14 comments:

Kathy said...

love Ryan's books :)

Unknown said...

Ryan is a sweet guy and a fabulous writer. I loved the interview. The only Hockey I know about is what I have learned from Ryan. Thanks for sharing Ryan!!!!

Unknown said...

great interview Ryan I enjoy Hockey as well !!!!!!!!!!!!

Terra Oenning said...

Awesome interview Ryan And Tis The Season For Hockey!

Unknown said...

Love all his writing! Go STL Blues!

Emily's Romance Hangout said...

Great interview! Ryan's awesome. If you haven't read his books you need too! Don't pick me I already have Happy to be Stuck With You!

Unknown said...

Great interview Ryan!! Love all your books��

Unknown said...

Great interview Ryan! Share that bacon. :)

Unknown said...

I already have the book but wanted to say hi. Totally in love with you and Sable!, Great separately but rock solid as a team!! I can't believe you gave up bacon!!

Unknown said...

I'm a member of Sable's Tag Team and found this interview through her. Good interview and your books sound good. And, go STL Cardinals.

Unknown said...

Hi fellow canuck ;) You and Sable team up really good. I really enjoyed Happy to be Stuck with you. I'm glad Sable has you to help with her male characters. It's nice to know what the male is thinking and feeling.

bn100 said...

Interesting bacon cup

bn100candg at hotmail dot com

Unknown said...

I enjoyed your interview and have enjoyed the books that you have co-written with Sable Hunter. I read Thunderbird and loved especially Hannah and what she endured. I felt for her and wanted her to finally have love and happiness in her life.

Unknown said...

Great interview and I like the "flirting" also Ryan

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