Goddess Fish Presents K.C. Burns - Pen Name: Doctor Chicken

 

Pen Name: Doctor Chicken

by K.C. Burn

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon Gift Card to one randomly drawn commenter and a $20 Starbucks Gift Card to a second randomly drawn commenter during the tour. A randomly drawn commenter at each stop will be awarded an autographed copy of the book (international giveaway).

Please follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/01/virtual-book-tour-pen-name-doctor.html

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BLURB:

Sometimes Stratford Dale feels like Doctor Chicken consumes his life. It’s his pen name for a series of wildly popular children’s books. They were his brainchild; he meant for them to be a way to pay his many bills while he pursued his dream of publishing graphic novels. But the Doctor Chicken contract was a raw deal. Instead, he churns out book after book for a pittance, leaving him broke and no closer to his dreams.

Stratford’s dreams of love have fared no better, but he’s still trying. After yet another disastrous date, he’s intrigued by a man going into a cooking class—so he takes the class too. Vinnie Giani is a successful, self-made man who is charmed by Stratford’s bow ties, sharp humor, and clumsiness—which leads to an opportunity to take Stratford in for stitches. Vinnie is, above all, responsible, having taken on the care of his mother and sisters from a young age. Perhaps it’s natural when he begins to treat Stratford more as a child who needs a parent than as an equal partner. But when Vinnie tries to “fix” Stratford’s career woes—including the Doctor Chicken problem—and ends up making the situation worse, their fledgling relationship may not withstand the the strain created by blame and lies.

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Excerpt:

“ABBY, I swear, I’m never going to find my own Thad.”

Stratford should have waited until he’d gotten home to call Abby, because the wind was going to freeze his fingers into a permanent curl around his phone. Gloves, scarfs, and wind-resistant fabrics hadn’t suited his super-sexy Barry-bait outfit. Unfortunately, the Barry bait had been too enticing. Or the wrong kind of enticing. Sluts might wear shirts and pants as tight as his, but they didn’t wear bow ties, did they? At least he was able to grab a latte on the way home. Aside from being one of his few expensive indulgences, it was keeping his left hand warmish.

“Of course you will. Are you sure you’re not judging him too harshly? You sometimes have unrealistic expectations.”

He snorted. No one had to know he’d had a sneaking little thought that he’d so dazzle Barry with his erudition and joie de vivre that the man would immediately become smitten and fall in love. Besides, Abby already knew he was a hopeless romantic.

“There was a certain romantic touch to the butt plug discussion over shrimp devolving into a dessert discussion on whether silicone, rubber, or glass was preferable for dildos. A dead giveaway, if I’d been paying attention. I mean, anyone who has enough information to write a dissertation on dildo production materials is either way too oversexed for me or hasn’t had enough sex with other people… and probably for an excellent reason, as I discovered.”

An older man in a fedora, walking in the opposite direction, gave Stratford a raised-brow look, and Stratford simply rolled his eyes and shrugged.

“Ford, you slut. You didn’t! On a first date?” Abby’s light, teasing tone hadn’t the slightest hint of censure, but it could have. After all, Stratford had had his slutty moments, to be sure, but slutty wasn’t the best way to snag a boyfriend. He didn’t think. Or at least, not too slutty. What man didn’t like a hint of slut? Monogamous slut. If there was such a thing.

“Uh, hello, you still there?”

“What, oh, yes. Sorry.” Stratford had to stop drifting to his fantasies of a fairytale ending.

“You dog. You did it, didn’t you? And how was it?”

“No. Really, I didn’t. I mean, he blew me a little bit.”

This time it was Abby who snorted. “Blew you a little bit? Kind of like being a little bit preggers, you know.”

“It’s never a good sign when you have to say ‘watch the teeth,’ followed closely by ‘don’t bite that.’ Puts a damper on things.”

“You think?” Loud gales of laughter buffeted him across the wireless waves, and Stratford pursed his lips. Why was his dating life such a fucking joke?

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

KC Burn has been writing for as long as she can remember and is a sucker for happy endings (of all kinds). After moving from Toronto to Florida for her husband to take a dream job, she discovered a love of gay romance and fulfilled a dream of her own – getting published. After a few years of editing web content by day, and neglecting her supportive, understanding hubby and needy cat at night to write stories about men loving men, she was uprooted yet again and now resides in California. Writing is always fun and rewarding, but writing about her guys is the most fun she’s had in a long time, and she hopes you’ll enjoy them as much as she does.

Website: http://kcburn.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorkcburn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcburn

Buy Links:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Pen-Name-Doctor-Chicken-Series-ebook/dp/B00GU9P6WW

Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4395

Now, for the interview!

~How do you come up with a title?

Ugh – no idea. I prefer to leave the title until the very end and hope inspiration strikes.

~Which character caused you the most difficulty to write?

R’kos in Alien ‘n’ Outlaw was tricky. He needed to be sexy and relatable but still… an alien.

~When do you do your best writing… morning, afternoon, evening, night?

Depends. If I have insomnia, the morning. If I’m sleeping well, the evening.

~Out of all the stories you’ve written which one are you most proud of?

Tough question but probably Trompe L’oeil. I pitched it to my publisher based on a two paragraph idea, which sounded pretty cool (a guy cursed to live as a painting) but when I actually had to execute it, I basically had to have two guys fall in love without ever speaking to each other!

~Do you plan your stories and, if so, to what extent?
Almost no planning. A couple of paragraphs, and sometimes I’ll create a rough timeline with post-it notes, but I’m not good at planning ahead.

~How many stories do you work on at any one time?

I try to only work on one, but at the moment I have three in various stages of completion.

~Is there anything you’d like to tell? Maybe something in the works you would like to promotion? Feel free!

I’ve got a third sci-fi up for release in May, called Voodoo ‘n’ Vice. It’s the third in my Galactic Alliance series and the jerk captain in the previous Alien ‘n’ Outlaw has to take a hard look at some of his prejudices in order to be redeemed. I’m also working on writing an erotic paranormal/cozy mystery romance – not sure how it will turn out! 

 ~ What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?

Board games - are you sensing a theme? We both love playing board games, and we own just about everything the guys have played on The Big Bang Theory (always fun to watch and say, Hey, they’re playing Talisman, or Settlers of Catan or whatever) and quite a few more.

~ You’ve just been let loose in the world of fiction, with permission to do anyone you want. Who do you fuck first and why?

Oh, that’s easy. Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. A strong alpha male perfectly at ease with a strong woman, a warrior, a lover, a dreamer, a family man, and we can’t forget the kilt… yum, yum!

~ Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

Um. Yeah. I don’t watch musicals. I don’t really like people singing at me.

~ Of all the modern conveniences, which one would you most likely say you couldn't live without?

Electricity!

~ What are your favorite TV shows?

So, so many. Psych, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Firefly, Leverage, Better Off Ted, Castle, Face Off, The Big Bang Theory

~What is your favorite meal?

Cheesecake? Honestly, I don’t know if I have one. It depends on my mood. 

~ What was your favorite character to write, and why?

I know we’re supposed to love our babies equally, but I definitely have a soft spot for a few of my characters. Rick, from Cast Off, is probably where my softest spot is. Broken inside and a thick shell of nonchalance on the outside. I just submitted a book to my publisher about an actor and a construction manager, and the actor, Jimmy, might end up rivaling Rick. Jimmy’s just a bit different from my other characters, but I’m not exactly sure if I can define why.

~ Take one of your stories and tell us what you would change about it if you would do it over again.

For the most part, I try not to think about changing books that are already out there in the world, because that way leads to crazy town! However, the one thing I would love to change? One of the heroes in Alien ‘n’ Outlaw is an alien named R’kos. I introduced him in the previous Spice ‘n’ Solace not really realizing I was going to want to give him his own story. When I decided to write Alien ‘n’ Outlaw, I was stuck with the name R’kos. If Steve has a hammer, it’s Steve’s hammer. If R’kos has a hammer, it’s R’kos’s hammer and I HATED the way “R’kos’s” looked. Hated with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. If you read Alien ‘n’ Outlaw, I totally cheat. I never ONCE use R’kos’s in the entire book, but that was a pain to arrange.

~ What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

Two sides of the same coin. I can’t possibly write a male POV properly because I’m a woman, and conversely, gay men telling me I must have been a gay man in a previous life because I’ve done the male POV right. 

~What was the hardest book for you to write, or the hardest scene in one of your books to write, and why did you struggle with it?

The hardest thing was probably developing and writing the alien culture in Alien ‘n’ Outlaw. I had fun with it and I think it was ultimately successful, but it was difficult. I also struggle with how much emotion is too much or not enough – strong emotions make me uncomfortable so I sometimes have problems judging the depth of emotion a scene requires.

~When you sit down to write a book, do you go with the flow? Or do you outline and plot all the important details out first?

Go with the flow! I’ve attached an image of the “planning” for the book I submitted last month. This is about as detailed as it gets, and the book itself diverged from the plan quite a bit.

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