Blog Tour Stop, Guest Blog & Contest: Brita Addams’ Tarnished Gold

Welcome to my stop on Brita Addams’ Tarnished Gold Blog Tour.

To celebrate the release of my old Hollywood era novel, Tarnished Gold, I have embarked on a virtual book tour.

Giveaway:

*Ebook giveaways at each stop. Random commenter’s choice from my backlist (Tarnished Gold excluded)
*Signed 8×10 glossies of Jack Abadie

Grand Prize is a Kindle, along with the winner’s choice of five (5) of my backlist titles, sent to them by email.

Rules:

Easy. Leave a comment at one or all the stops. At each stop, a random commenter will be selected to win their choice of backlist book (Tarnished Gold excluded.) This selection will be made daily throughout the tour, except where blog owners wish to extend the eligibility. Be sure to leave an email address in your comment.

All names of commenters and their email addresses will be put into the drawing for the Kindle, even if they have won the daily drawing. The more comments you make the more chances you have to win.

Other prizes include five (5) 8×10 glossies of Jack Abadie, signed. The winners will be selected on April 10, from all the commenters at all the stops, and notified by email.

The Grand Prize winner will be selected on April 10th and notified by email. Once I have heard from the winner and obtained a shipping address, I will order the Kindle and have it shipped directly to the winner. They will also be eligible to select five (5) of my backlist titles and I will email them to the winner.

Contest valid in the United States.

Full schedule for the Tarnished Gold Virtual Book Tour

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The Beginning of a New Book

Yes, I am in the middle of a huge blog tour, which required me to write a couple dozen blog posts and interviews, but I love every minute of it. As I settled in to the tour, a thought came to me about a new project, and voila, Tarnished Gold became the first book in the Tarnished series.

The reception TG has gotten has assured me that I selected a unique time period, something that historical romance writing doesn’t often do. Historical oftentimes evokes nobility, which it certainly has with me, and will likely do again. I love the elegance of nobility, as well as digging deeper to find the everyday man.

The new project, titled Tarnished Soul, is a look into what helped “the studio system” thrive for so many years. The studios operated, for years, with complete autonomy. They were almost a government unto themselves. They policed themselves, ruled with iron fists over the actors, padded the pockets of the police and newspapers, all in the name of keeping the illusion alive.

Many crumbled under the weight of the persona they were forced to carry. Many didn’t feel worthy of the quick rise in fame that nearly all experienced. Stars like Fatty Arbuckle, were plucked from obscurity and given vast amounts of money to play the fool, do his prat falls, and act the dupe for others.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was a plumbers helper in 1913, when he went to Mack Sennett’s house to unclog a pesky drain.

Sennett, known for his famous Keystone Cops, thought the 266 pound Fatty would make a great foil in his rambling, scrambling silent farces and hired him on the spot. Fatty was willing to take pies in the face, fall down, and generally be the dupe.

From $3.00 a day in 1913, Fatty worked his way through the Keystone Cops and on to starring vehicles, such as Fatty’s Flirtations, with Mabel Normand, who would find some notoriety in 1923 when she was the last known person to see director William Desmond Taylor alive. In 1917, for Flirtations, Fatty pulled in $5000 a week.

Things for the Prince of Whales fell apart when fame went to his head. He threw himself a grand party and a young actress by the name of Virginia Rappe died as a result of an encounter with the rotund actor. After three trials, he was acquitted, mainly because MGM Studios publicity department had done a great job covering up the incriminating details.

However, the public had turned their back on Fatty and in a great many ways, on Hollywood itself. The decadence on film and off, had worn the movie goers thin, and they wanted Hollywood to clean up their act.

The studios had, for so many years, cleaned up after their players. Drinking, drugging, and rampant philandering characterized the Roaring ’20s. While the ’20s came in like a lion, by the end, Will Hays had instituted production codes, which dictated, in no uncertain terms, what could and couldn’t be in films. Morals clauses in contracts dictated the behavior of actors on and off the screen. The police force in Los Angeles got a police chief who was immune to the bribery that had corrupted the force to that point.

The days of carefree living, with little consequence were over. Hollywood was under scrutiny.

Tarnished Soul will have a romance at its core, but it will also be a rough and tumble story of how one character negotiates first the police force and then the studio, while his eventual lover is deeply immersed in the studio system.

I’m thinking of a third as well, Tarnished Heart. I want to take on the gossip columnists of the era and their strangle hold over actors and studios alike.

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Title: Tarnished Gold by Brita Addams
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Historical, Erotic, M/M, Romance
Length: 350 pages

Summary:

In 1915, starstruck Jack Abadie strikes out for the gilded streets of the most sinful town in the country—Hollywood. With him, he takes a secret that his country hometown would never understand.

After years of hard work and a chance invitation to a gay gentlemen’s club, Jack is discovered. Soon, his talent, matinee idol good looks, and affable personality propel him to the height of stardom. But fame breeds distrust.

Meeting Wyatt Maitland turns Jack’s life upside down. He wants to be worthy of his good fortune, but old demons haunt him. Only through Wyatt’s strength can Jack face that which keeps him from being the man he wants to be. Love without trust is empty.

As the 1920s roar, scandals rock the movie industry. Public tolerance of Hollywood’s decadence has reached its limit. Under pressure to clean up its act, Jack’s studio issues an ultimatum. Either forsake the man he loves and remain a box office darling, or follow his heart and let his shining star fade to tarnished gold.

Read an excerpt and purchase the Tarnished Gold ebook or print, signed by the author (if one of the first twenty sold.)

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Title: For Men Like Us by Brita Addams
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Historical, M/M, Erotic, Romance
Length: 186 pages

Summary:

After Preston Meacham’s lover dies trying to lend him aid at Salamanca, hopelessness becomes his only way of life. Despite his best efforts at starting again, he has no pride left, which leads him to sell himself for a pittance at a molly house. The mindless sex affords him his only respite from the horrors he witnessed.

The Napoleonic War left Benedict Wilmot haunted by the acts he was forced to commit and the torture he endured at the hands of a superior, a man who used the threat of a gruesome death to force Ben to do his bidding. Even sleep gives Ben no reprieve, for he can’t escape the destruction he caused.

When their paths cross, Ben feels an overwhelming need to protect Preston from his dangerous profession. As he explains, “The streets are dangerous for men like us.”

A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.

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About Brita Addams:

Born in Upstate New York, Brita Addams has made her home in the sultry south for many years. Brita’s home is a happy place, where she lives with her real-life hero, her husband, and a fat cat named Stormee.

She writes, for the most part, erotic historical romance, both het and m/m, which is an ideal fit, given her love of British and American history. Setting the tone for each historical is important. Research plays an indispensible part in the writing of any historical work, romance or otherwise. A great deal of reading and study goes into each work, to give the story the authenticity it deserves.

As a reader, Brita prefers historical works, romances and otherwise. She believes herself born in the wrong century, though she says she would find it difficult to live without air conditioning.

Brita and her husband love to travel, particularly cruises and long road trips. They completed a Civil War battlefield tour a couple of years ago, and have visited many places involved in the American Revolutionary War.

In May, 2013, they are going to England for two weeks, to visit the places Brita writes about in her books, including the estate that inspired the setting for her Sapphire Club series. Not the activities, just the floor plan. 🙂

A bit of trivia – Brita pronounces her name, Bree-ta, like the woman’s name, and oddly, not like the famous water filter.

Find Brita on the Web: Website * Blog * Twitter * Facebook * Facebook Fan Page * Goodreads * Bookshelf * Amazon Author Page * Pinterest

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