Wicked Wednesday: Beat Your Winter Blues Blog Tour

Welcome to the latest post in the Beat Your Winter Blues Blog Tour, where sixteen authors will do their level best to make your winter brighter in January, February, March, and April. (Unless you’re south of the equator, and then we’ll just be jealous of your summer.) Every Wednesday will be a new stop on the tour.

Be sure to leave a comment at each stop for up to sixteen chances at the grand prize: a $200 USD gift certificate to the e-retailer of your choice! Also keep an eye out for links to individual authors’ sites on their release dates for a chance to win some free books.

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Ethan: I haven’t done a lot of traveling and the trip to New Orleans for GayRomLit was one of furthest trips I’ve ever been on. I do make several drives a year to Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City Zoo is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Very cool exhibits and an albino alligator. Vegas for me has been more about the bars and the strip. Well, and the adult theaters. And the bathhouse. In Reno I like…the bathhouse and the adult store. Yeah, I got a one track mind!

Andrew: I have traveled throughout the world, but the place I most want to go back to is Australia. Warm, crystal clear waters, the friendliest people in the world, scenery that will take your breath away, and wildlife unlike any place else in the world. When I was there I did a number of things including having a kookaburra steal French fries right off my lunch plate, went swimming in the South Pacific and I got to hold a koala. Outside Brisbane, there a koala preserve and some of the animals are sensitized enough for you to hold them.                                                                                          

Where else on earth, could you get a picture like these? Someday I want to get away from the coast and visit Ayers Rock and the Great Barrier Reef. 
                                                                                                                                                                                    

Blaine: I'm addicted to 'Escape to the country' a BBC programme in which people want to move to the country. I love the tours through cute cottages and gorgeous barn conversions. I love the great views, the gardens, the nooks and crannies, the original features and the combination of modern and old.

For a while now I've been seriously thinking about moving to the UK when my husband retires—which won't be for a while, yet— and my husband hesitantly acknowledges the possibility. My husband is swamped in work—which is good in these not so good times, and he's a bit of a workaholic—and more often than not comes home tired and his mind still on the job. And let's not forget those fanatical gamers we're surrounded by.

But, as I said, retiring isn't on the agenda yet, so, in the meantime, I'd love to rent a cottage in the rural British countryside, for a well-deserved—fanatical gamer free—getaway with my husband. I'm already imagining long walks, soaking up the atmosphere, and staring out the window, enjoying the magnificent views, as I write.

Sue: I travelled a fair bit in my younger years, when finances allowed. One of my most memorable trips was a trip along the Silk Road. I could fill blog post after blog post with tales from that ten day trip. It wasn’t so much a holiday/getaway as an expedition. I saw some amazing places, met some great people and came away with a shed load of memories. There were one or two places that really stayed with me and one, in particular, I’d return to in a heartbeat.

The Hunza Valley in Pakistan is where I’d love to go for a bit of peace and quiet. I’d love to sit on the veranda of that hotel again and watch the stars appear, one by one, above the shadowed, jagged mountains. Sadly, no alcohol allowed, but I’d settle for a cold tonic water with ice and lemon, a pack of cigarettes and a fine summer’s evening.

If you ever get the chance, if circumstances change and you want a glimpse of what Shangri-La is like, get yourself there. It really is beautiful.

Clare: My ideal getaway at the moment is a quiet weekend on my own LOL. Ideally, I'll be in a small but cozy guesthouse, by the sea and/or the countryside. I'd like a small kitchen to be able to make plenty of coffee and the occasional sandwich, and internet access to keep in touch - but only for emergencies! My e-reader and a TV for a snuggle up and relax in the evening. But most of all I'd like a quiet room with a view and a comfy chair and table to set up my laptop for writing during the day. Perhaps then I'd get one of my WIP novels finished at last!

I'm away at Easter with Hubby in the Lake District, and I'm hopeful I can meet some of these plans then. He likes to walk the hills, so I can spend time on my own while he's out, then we can meet up for an evening meal and take that snuggle together :)

Blaine D. Arden is a purple haired, forty-something writer of gay romance with a love of men, music, mystery, magic, fairies (the pointy eared ones), platform shoes, and the colors black, purple, and red, who sings her way through life. Born and raised in Zutphen, the Netherlands, Blaine spent many hours of her sheltered youth reading, day dreaming, making up stories, and acting them out with her Barbies. When not writing, reading, or at choir practice, Blaine has singing lessons and hopes to be in a band someday. Blaine can be found at: http://blainedarden.com

Andrew Grey grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived throughout the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in information systems for a large corporation. Andrew's hobbies include collecting antiques, gardening, and leaving his dirty dishes anywhere but in the sink (particularly when writing) He considers himself blessed with an accepting family, fantastic friends, and the world’s most supportive and loving partner. Andrew currently lives in beautiful, historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania. You can find out more at www.andrewgreybooks.com, on facebook, twitter, or email him at andrewgrey@comcast.net

S.A.Meade lives in deepest Wiltshire and is pathetically happy to see rain after eight years in the desert of south central Arizona. She stumbled into writing m/m by accident when she realised that her historicals put agents to sleep. Since then she’s realised she’s addicted to the genre and keeps writing more dirty books. She loves cooking and eating what she cooks and shares her home with a patient husband and son and two heat-seeking cats. S.A. can be found boring people witless with her blog - kestrelrising.blogspot.com/

Ethan Stone lives in Nevada. But not Reno or Las Vegas. There are other cities there, you know. Where he lives, gambling isn’t on every block, just every other block. He has been obsessed with two things in his life: books and all things gay. After spending years trying to ignore the voices in his head, he finally decided to sit down and listen to them. What he discovered was a perfect union of his two obsessions. Ethan has a day job that pays the bills. He wears a uniform to work and he looks damn sexy in it. Find Ethan at ethanjstone.com

Clare London  Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She's written in many genres and across many settings, with three novels and a smattering of short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she's just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn fiction, she's happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters. Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home. Find Clare at  http://www.darkpearldiva.com/