Diane Adam's new books release

Hi guys! Thanks for stopping by to help celebrate the release of If the Stars Fall, fifth in the Making of a Man series. I thought I’d share a few little known facts about how the series came into existence and afterwards give you the chance to win a very sweet prize.

The Making of a Series 

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Alex and Jared made their first appearance in a story I wrote after a heartfelt discussion with a good friend of mine about being gay and his experience going to church. He and his partner attended together but he noted something that occurred regularly both before and after the service. If he and his partner were not standing together people said hello and stopped to speak as if everything were fine, but when they stood together, as a couple, it was as if they were invisible. Gazes slid right past them as if they were not even there.

It was during that conversation I was introduced to the idea of the “Gay Wall.” My friend told me a story about a child coloring a wall with a brick red crayon. Unfortunately I can’t remember the details, which is a shame because it tied into our conversation remarkably. He allowed me to see the world through his eyes and what I saw hurt. Afterwards I was unable to get experience out of my head and so I wrote about it. The story is titled The Color of Pain and you can read it here.

Though Jared and Alex are first introduced an emotionally painful way their story, as it has evolved in the series, is much happier. The gay wall is absent in the books and they live a life of acceptance by their family, friends and the community as a whole that is more fairytale than reality. Their story is how I wish the world could be, or more accurately the way I think it should be.

After I wrote The Color of Pain, I featured Alex in Jared in several original stories. The stories were the foundation of the first book, Our December. Written first as ‘snapshots’ of Jared and Alex, the short stories looked at the guys not only from their personal point of view but also from the prospective of those around them. The effort of pulling the individual stories into a single book is how the idea was born to share a look into the couple’s future at the beginning and end of each book. Those of us who enjoy romance with a happy ending know going in that the main characters will get together. We don’t read for ‘if’ we read for ‘how’. For fans of romance every story is about the journey, and knowing that I decided to tell Alex and Jared’s story in a unique way. I think having that image of them together and happy from the beginning and knowing for sure things are going to work out is comforting.

Of course the real foundation of the Making of a Man is the relationship of Alex and Jared, present and future. Many stories begin in the mind of the author with a simple question.

“What if…”

The love story of Alex and Jared began exactly that way. What if a young boy fell in love, real forever and always love? What if the man he loved was older, yet loved him in return? How would such an event shape the life of such an impressionable young person?”

It seems odd to me to think of Alex and Jared in such abstract terms at this point. Alex is that boy, full of youthful energy, hope, and courage; and Jared the ‘older’ man with his feet firmly planted in reality and brimming with unmatched integrity.

Soon after I began writing the Series I discovered it is impossible to tell the story of one life intimately influenced by another. Influence is never a one way street. The result is that, as the books progress and the story of Alex and Jared unfolds, we learn how their love shapes the men they become to such an extent it is impossible to know what one would have become without the other.

As it says in the blurb on the back cover of Life Should be Beautiful, the print edition of the first three books in the series: Through the years they begin to understand something many never learn. Life teaches the lessons, but love is the making of a man.

Well, that’s pretty much it… I hope everyone enjoyed reading about the origins of the series.

And now it’s time for some fun! Contest! Free Stuff! (What’s better than that?)

I’m giving away a double prize by random drawing.

A T-shirt with the cover of If the Stars Fall on the front and an autographed copy of my print book, Life Should be Beautiful, The Making of a Man Volume One.

I don’t have a picture of the shirt as I will not know what size to make it until someone wins! Good Luck!

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of If the Stars Fall, The Making of a Man Book 5. 

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Blurb:
Jared Douglas and Alex Ross share a life many people envy. When disaster strikes, it hits hard and their long standing relationship is put to the test, making Jared realize how fragile love can be.

Buy If The Stars Fall, The Making of a Man Book 5 here »

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Many thanks to RJ Scott for letting us take over her blog today!