Let the touring begin…
Lunch with the Do Nothings at the Tammy Dinette
Killian B. Brewer
Release date: January 12, 2017
Interview time :)
Hey, y’all! I’m Killian Brewer, though most
people just call me Brew. I’m a Southern boy, raised in the land of peaches and
peanuts. I grew up in a tiny little town in a house where we would entertain
each other by telling stories. My father can spin a yarn with the best of them
and taught me early to enjoy the fellowship of storytelling. I went to college
and earned my degree in English Literature, mostly because of my love of a good
story. Of course, like most English majors, I don’t use that degree at all in
my day job, but it does come in handy for my writing.
My current novel, Lunch with the Do-Nothings at the Tammy Dinette, was inspired by
the people I grew up around in South Georgia. I wanted to explore what life
could be like for a young gay man who is suddenly transplanted in a small town
with little understanding of the way of life there. In particular, I wanted to
follow his search for love and a sense of family in a world where he feels like
a fish out of water. I also wanted to write about older southern women, because
I think they are awesome.
Tell
us something no one else knows about your characters.
I don’t usually like to give examples of
celebrities or inspirations for a character’s physical traits. I prefer to let
the reader come up with their own mental picture of the character. I think this
is especially important in romance, where the character needs to be seen as
desirable. Since what I find sexy may be different from the readers, I like to
leave it open for interpretation. However, the characters of Marcus Sumter and
Hank Hudson both have a real life person that I loosely based their looks on.
The irony is that the two characters are very Southern, American guys who
aren’t particularly into sports but their looks are based on British athletes.
In my mind Marcus looks something like Greg Rutherford and Hank looks like
Steve Lewis, both British Olympic pole vaulters. I guess I am an anglophile!
Have
you ever had writer’s block? How did you overcome it?
I think all writers have a block at some
point, even if it is as minor as just being stuck on a scene or a piece of
dialogue. When I get stuck, I find the best thing to do is to step away from
writing for a bit and find something mindless to do. My usual task is housework
of some kind or I go to the grocery store. I can dust or vacuum and let the
troublesome spot roll around in my brain while I do my chores. Sometimes I will
just walk the dog because it allows me time alone with my thoughts without the
cursor blinking at me. I often find that when I stop focusing so intently on
the problem that the answer will reveal itself.
What
book you’ve written would you like to see made into a movie?
I think both of my books would be fun
movies. My first novel, The Rules of Ever After, is a twisted fairy tale and I
think it would work best as an animated movie. I think Lunch with the
Do-Nothing at the Tammy Dinette would work well as a film as well. I think some
older actresses could have a ball playing the members of the titular Do-Nothing
Club. Also, since so much of the book takes place in just a few places (the
diner, an auto repair shop, and old barn) locations would be easy to find!
Do you
work on an outline or plot or just let the story takes you where it wants to
go?
I am a planner in just about every aspect of
my life and this carries over to my writing as well. I tend to plan out the
overall arc of the story and then break it down into what needs to happen in
each chapter and scene. I am not so strict that I don’t allow myself deviations
from the plan if a new idea presents itself, but I fear that if I tried to just
“go with the flow” the story would wander all over the place and I would get
lost in tangents. I also like to make copious notes about characters so that I
can refer back to it to make sure I didn’t magically change an eye-color
halfway through the book!
Rapid
fire questions:
Favorite meal-Chicken and
Dumplings. And my mama’s homemade macaroni and cheese. Bring on the starches!
Favorite color-I love yellow. I
can’t pull it off in clothes but I like to have the color around me. My kitchen
is currently a bright yellow. It just makes me feel sunny even when the sky is
gray.
Favorite ice cream flavor-I love a good
old-fashioned vanilla. I can be wooed into the crazier flavors on occasion, but
I love to stick with a classic, clean flavor.
Blurb:
When Marcus Sumter, a short order cook with dreams
of being a chef, inherits a house in small town Marathon, Georgia, he leaves
his big city life behind. Marcus intends to sell the house to finance his
dreams, but a group of lovable busybodies, the Do Nothings, a new job at the
local diner, the Tammy Dinette, and a handsome mechanic named Hank cause Marcus
to rethink his plans. Will he return to the life he knew, or will he finally
put down roots?
Categories: LGBT Fiction,
Contemporary Romance, Gay
70,000 words – 232 pages
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: CB Messer
The diner took up a quarter of the city
block; its silvery siding glimmered in the morning sun. A metal bracket jutted
over the diner door and held a bright neon sign that flashed The Tammy Dinette:
Stand By your Ham and Eggs. Below the sign, two tall and wide single-paned
windows showed the bustle of the crowd inside. Marcus could see that most of
the booths along the windows were occupied, and a tall redheaded waitress stood
next to one of the booths furiously scribbling on a pad and nodding her head.
“Let’s go,” Skeet said as he hopped to the
door and yanked it open. He swept his arm across his body and said in a
terrible British accent, “After you, my good sir.”
Marcus grinned at the boy and stepped into
the diner. The sudden rush of country music mixed with the murmur of the
restaurant crowd, the smell of greasy food and coffee, and the glare of
fluorescent lights from the Formica tables and counter tops flooded Marcus with
a sense of relief and comfort. The last bits of tension slipped from his
shoulders as he watched the two waitresses in pink uniform tops and skirts
scurry from table to table as different patrons raised their hands to get each
woman’s attention.
Buy the book
It’s all about the author…
Killian B. Brewer lives in his life-long
home of Georgia with his partner and their dog. He has written poetry and short
fiction since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. Brewer earned a BA in English
and does not use this degree in his job in the banking industry. He has a love
of greasy diner food that borders on obsessive. Lunch with the Do Nothings at
the Tammy Dinette is his second novel. His first novel, The Rules of Ever
After, is available from Duet Books, an imprint of Interlude Press.
…and stalking them :)
And here comes the
Rafflecopter…
Grand Prize $25 IP Gift Card + Multi-format eBook of Hold // Five winners receive Lunch With the Do-Nothings at the Tammy Dinette eBook
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This tour & must
read brought to you by Interlude Press
Thanks for hosting me today!
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