Skate Cute Blog Tour
Skate Cute and I went on tour!
For two weeks in July/August 2022, I had the pleasure of stopping by eleven book blogs to share fun details about myself and my debut novel, Skate Cute. The tour was managed by Goddess Fish Promotions, and the list of book blog sites and summaries of the guest posts are below.
Hope you enjoy the posts!
I’m human. I stare Fear in the face, sometimes daily. I roll out of bed, put my feet on the floor, and find Fear already parked on my slumped shoulders, whispering lies into my ear. It’s hungry, ravenous even. It gobbles up insecurity, shame, comparison, scorn, failure, rejection—the table scraps of a diet no human should sustain. And just like that, it’s bigger, meaner, hungrier, ready for the next day.
But I’m still human, which means something else too: I’m stubborn. Tenacious. And equipped with the one weapon Fear fears most…
Excerpt from July 25 Guest post “How do you fight Fear in Creativity?” Long and Short Reviews
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I first started writing because I had an idea about a story involving “Great” and “Wonderful,” both artists, painting works of art together. Wonderful looked over at his friend’s canvas and praised: “That’s great, Great!” Only to receive the immediate and obvious reciprocal praise: “That’s wonderful, Wonderful!”
I was five years old. Everybody loved it…
Excerpt from July 26 Author Interview for Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
I want the characters to work for it, to fight their flaws (and flirt aplenty) before they fade off into the sunset. I want to extrapolate the character arcs I’ve followed for 200 pages into a plausible future for the lovers I’ve fallen in love with, one that includes at least the pursuit of happiness. Bonus points if a romance can get me to believe the characters could work through any future difficulties in addition to those they’ve already solved between the covers. (Of the book. Book covers. What did you think I meant?)…
Excerpt from July 27 Guest post “What are the main components of a romance?” Sandra’s Book Club
Why should we read your book?
Skate Cute is such a fun sweet romance, but it’s the layers of the story and characters that make it worth reading. Kriss is an astronomy grad student, and I’ve peeled back a few of the layers to share the raw reality of her life. She struggles with “impostor syndrome,” always asking if she’s good enough to deserve a degree or worrying that everyone around her will figure out the “truth” that she’s not smart enough to do science. She has faced harassment at many points along her academic journey, a cruel reality for so many women in academic fields. I don’t want these stories to go untold.
And yet, all is not hopeless. Skate Cute offers a hero who, at first glance, fits the macho type. Chase could easily choose to be part of the problem, to fall in line with all the warped masculinity that has haunted Kriss her whole life. But he chooses instead to fight for her, valuing her and helping her heal. Chase is a tribute to the guys out there who use their strength for good, many of whom I interact with on a daily basis. Good heroes exist, and their stories need to be told too…
Excerpt from July 28 Author Interview for Candrel’s Crafts, Cooks, and Characters
I had just about forgotten my childhood love of skating until I found a pair of scuffed up skates in a thrift store in Boulder, CO, about seven years ago now. My children were both under two years old at the time, and I needed a faster way to locomote them around town in the jogging stroller. From the moment I held those skates in my hand, I knew that my genius idea for “strollerblading” was about to become a brilliant reality.
(The not-so-brilliant reality: I promptly “strollerbladed” too fast down a hill with a sharp curve at the bottom and dumped all three of us in a nearby ditch. But never mind that. Onward.)
Excerpt from July 29 Guest post “A novel comes alive” Westveil Publishing
It’s the people that make the small town, and thus it’s the characters that make a good small town romance. Small towns grow quirky characters like beans in a backyard garden. Writers love to write (and readers love to read) these characters, to watch them come alive with a simple touch of imagination. And small towns tend to mix and mingle everybody together in the most charming ways: senior pickleball tournaments on Saturdays, karaoke nights at the diner downtown, oatmeal festivals and peach festivals and Gus Macker festivals and tulip festivals…
Excerpt from August 1 Guest post “Why are readers drawn to small town romances?” Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
What is your favorite part of this story?
The meet-cute moment. That’s where the story of Skate Cute began, when it popped into my head while I was skating by myself at the rink: Skater Girl has an emotional moment and lies down on the concrete, only to be interrupted by Paramedic Guy who rushes to her “rescue” then proceeds to sweep her off her skates…
Excerpt from August 2 Author Interview for Literary Gold
You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them?
C. S. Lewis. “Which way to Narnia?”
Excerpt from August 3 Author Interview for The Key of Love
Ten-year-old me lay on my back on my water bed staring up at the speckled drop ceiling and dreaming of galaxies far, far away. Someday, I promised, I’ll learn as much about the stars as I possibly can.
What I really wanted was to take my lightsaber to a cantina somewhere and ride off into the double sunset, but, not seeing any such options and being a practical-minded girl, I chose the next best thing: a career as an astrophysicist. Nobody told me I couldn’t, so I went for it…
Excerpt from August 4 Guest post “Science or Fiction? How Passion Brought My Career Full Circle” for Fabulous and Brunette
And last but definitely not least… my favorite in fact…
The short sailor’s blue eyes sparked with excitement as he tumbled out my front door. No shirt, no shoes—no surprise. His brother followed, shoed at least, thanks to his extra two years of responsibility. And experience with wood splinters.
Blond heads bobbed across the yard in the direction of our worthy vessel, stooping to grab garden gloves from the rock next to the path. The elder captain barked orders to the younger cook as we all bent to clear the detritus from the dock, shoving aside the accumulation of too many chilly months of neglect. Broken bits of wood and foam from the neighbor’s construction projects, grocery bags blown in by the wind, and of course the shoots of new greenery from the Lilac Ship’s enthusiastic efforts at its own upkeep.
At long last, we pushed aside the low-hanging branches and stepped on board…
Excerpt from August 5 Guest post “The Lilac Ship,” a cute short story snippet for Gina Rae Mitchell
