Hi everyone!
I’m Ava Hayden. Thanks to Dreamspinner for letting me post a few thoughts here for the release of Highballer, #17 in the World of Love series, set in Alberta, Canada. Alberta happens to be where I live and write, so it was an obvious choice for me to pitch to Dreamspinner for a World of Love series entry.
Alberta is a many-faceted province. We’ve got the Calgary Stampede and lots of cows and cowboy culture, but also the Rockies with vast national parks. Plus we’ve got badlands and fossils, forests, oil sands, endless fields of wheat (barley, oats, lentils, canola, alfalfa, and more), and wild northern spaces where you can find herds of wood bison and the world’s largest beaver dam.
I’d already written one MM romance about an Alberta farmer on the prairies (His Fallow Heart). Other people have written MM romances about paleontologists and cowboys in Alberta, so I decided I was going to tackle tree planting, which I hadn’t seen in any MM romance to date. Every year thousands of Canadians, many of them twentysomethings, are out planting millions of seedlings. Tree planting is a huge industry. Why is tree planting a big deal? Because, bottom line, in Canada if you harvest a tree, you plant a tree (if you are a lumber company and you want to keep harvesting, that is). These businesses contract with tree planting companies.
I knew nothing about tree planting before I heard first-hand stories from family members who paid much of their university costs through planting. One of the best stories involves a brother-in-law who decided to visit his girlfriend on the way home after a summer of tree planting—ratty planting clothes, planter’s beard, and all. The girlfriend’s father answered the door only to find every dad’s worst nightmare standing on his front porch (or so he thought). Luckily the story has a happy ending! The girlfriend eventually became his wife, and they’ve been married over two decades now.
To refresh my memory, I “interviewed” one planter veteran in the family and looked through his old photo albums. For a moment (a really short one) I wondered if I could have cut it as a tree planter. Realistically? Like Remy, I love my piped-in running water and flush toilets, but unlike Remy, I don’t think I could have given them up for a summer. Throw in the constant aches and pains, injuries, bug bites, claw hand, and crazy Alberta weather, and you see why tree planting companies want you to say “I really want the money” when they ask why you want the job.
Besides the money, tree planting has a few other upsides too. You get up close and personal with nature. You see parts of Alberta that many lifelong residents never will. You make good friends. And you know you’re tough enough to do one of the hardest jobs in the world.
Check out Highballer today!
Dreamspinner: http://bit.ly/2x8X7BC
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y9eb5jsp
Rakuten Kobo: http://bit.ly/2z3W3B6
iBooks: http://apple.co/2xYb5L4
Nook: http://bit.ly/2ycpyTT
Google Books: https://goo.gl/RLsjbE
Blurb
What happens when the man is as tempting as the money?
Remy Delacour’s family doesn’t believe in mainstream medicine, and when Remy’s boyfriend reveals that Remy is majoring in nursing, they cut him off. He has to find money to finish his education—fast. And he is so done with boyfriends.
Levi Aronson met the guy of his dreams and followed him to Australia. He knew the chances for a lasting romance were slim—and boy, was he right. Now he’s back in Canada, a year behind in his university program, and short of funds. He needs money, not another man.
Tree planting is a way to make a lot of money fast, but it’s one of the hardest jobs in the world. When Levi, an experienced planter, sees pretty, sloe-eyed Remy, Levi is certain he’ll never last.
They’ll have to pry Remy’s shovel from his cold, stiff fingers, because he won’t quit—or let anything take his eyes off the prize. When a storm brings Remy and Levi together, each finds the other a distraction from the big goal. But can anything develop between two men who have sworn off relationships?
World of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the globe.
Author Bio
Ava Hayden lives and writes in Alberta, Canada. When not writing, she loves reading yaoi manga and gay romance, baking, seeing plays, hearing live music, and hiking (even though she once came face to face with two grizzlies on a trail). Most of the time her life isn’t that exciting, and that’s fine by her.
More about Ava
Ava Hayden Writes: https://avahayden.com/
Ava Hayden on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avahayden.ab/
Ava Hayden on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/avahaydenab/
Ava Hayden on Facebook: fb.me/avahayden.ab
Ava Hayden on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/avahayden
Ava Hayden on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Ava_Hayden
Ava Hayden at Dreamspinner Press: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/authors/ava-hayden-812
where dreams come true... 