Guest Blog & Giveaway – Friendly Fire by Cari Z

 

Why Write Friendly Fire? Or, Contemporary is Hard, Wah!

Why wouldn’t an author in the m/m genre write contemporary?

I mean, it’s the most popular subgenre!

You can write from real life!

You’ll sell more!

It’s more relatable!

Did I mention it sells better?

All of these are good, viable reasons for writing contemporary stories. So why did I put it off for so bloody long? No, really, I started with historicals, drifted over to sci fi and fantasy, carved a bloody niche out of UF and dystopia, and occasionally—very occasionally—flirted with a little, tiny contemporary piece here or there. Why not dive in? Is it because my life is too boring to draw inspiration from? Am I afraid of the competition? The hell, woman, seriously—why not branch out?

It’s because I’ve always found the contemporary genre to be the toughest one to write. No, truly. I don’t feel particularly boring or uninspired, I’m not afraid of it—not quite—but it’s just so…real. And reality is an exacting place. When I write science fiction or fantasy, I have the leeway to make it almost whatever I want, world-wise. I can write alien sex or magical BDSM scenes and people don’t bat an eye, but writing in the contemporary genre carries a little more weight when it comes to message, I think. People can fact check you. People can call bullshit. And they should, because if you can’t get reality right, what else are you fucking up?

It’s taken a long time for me to see that my reluctance to write contemporaries stemmed more from insecurity than any real preference. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I will always and forever stick with science fiction when I have the leeway, but that’s not the way to grow as a writer. You have to try new things, and Friendly Fire was a very new thing for me. It’s as accurate as I could make it, from the psychiatric help to the teenage awkwardness to the method used for remotely hacking a car. I don’t know if it’s perfect, but it’s a step further in that direction than I managed yesterday. And who knows what I’ll come up with tomorrow?

About Friendly Fire
Elliot McKenzie is the king of reinvention. Five years after losing his job and his lover and almost going to prison, his self-help program, Charmed Life, is more successful than he’d ever dreamed. He thinks he’s put his sordid past firmly behind him, until he starts receiving cryptic threats . . . and realizes it might not be as over as he’d hoped.

Security expert Lennox West has been lost since a deadly skirmish in Afghanistan led to his forced retirement from the Army. His PTSD makes helping his ex raise their daughter a challenge. When his ex’s sister asks him to set her boss up with a security system, Lennox isn’t expecting anyone like Elliot McKenzie—a man who captures his attention and makes him feel relaxed for the first time since leaving the service.

But Elliot is dangerously stubborn. Even as the threats against him escalate, he refuses to involve the police, and Lennox fears that stubbornness could kill him. A battle of wills ensues that brings them closer to each other than either man expected. But if the threats turn real, they might not live long enough to get their future together.

Friendly Fire is available from Riptide Publishing: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/friendly-fire

About Cari Z
Cari Z was a bookworm as a child and remains one to this day. In an effort to combat her antisocial reading behavior, she did all sorts of crazy things, from competitive gymnastics to alligator wresting (who even knew that was legal!) to finally joining the Peace Corps, which promptly sent her and her husband to the wilds of West Africa, stuck them in a hut, and said, “See ya!” She also started writing, because some things she just thought she could do better. She’s still climbing that ladder, but can’t stop herself from writing, or from sharing what she creates.

Cari enjoys a wide range of literary genres, from the classics (get ‘im, Ahab) to science fiction and fantasy of all types, to historical fiction and reference materials (no, seriously, there are so many great encyclopedias out there). She writes in a wide range of genres as well, but somehow 90% of what she produces ends up falling into the broad and exciting category of m/m erotica. There’s a sprinkling of f/m and f/f and even m/f/m in her repertoire, but her true love is man love. And there’s a lot of love to go around.

Cari has published short stories, novellas, and novels with numerous print and e-presses, and she also offers up a tremendous amount of free content on Literotica.com, under the name Carizabeth.

Connect with Cari:

• Website: http://cari-z.net/
• Blog: http://carizerotica.blogspot.com/

Giveaway
To celebrate the release of Friendly Fire, one lucky winner will receive a copy of Friendly Fire signed by Cari Z! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on October 22, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!