2014 GRL Blog Tour: RJ Scott
Starting from March up until September I will be part of the 2014 GRL Blog Tour as featured blogger. I will host authors attending the GayRomLit Retreat in Chicago (October 16-19, 2014: gayromlit.com/content/2014-grl-featured-blogger-program). To my guests, I asked to brainstorm around the common theme "inspiration". Today author is RJ Scott:
The Inspiration behind the Bodyguard series
Thank you to Elisa for the invite to talk inspiration in time for GRL… Hugs xxx
I am an acknowledged geek. I have had my obsessions over the years, starting way back with Battle Of The Planets, then various other shows until my next big obsession, the original Battlestar Galactica, then following through until I discovered Supernatural, and with it fan fiction. I met a lot of my writing friends in writing fan fiction (Meredith Russell, Chris Quinton, Sue Brown…). We all shared an obsession with the show. I finally gave into my inner geek and went to a Supernatural convention in Birmingham, England.
Well, unless you’ve been to one of these things you can never have seen up close the intensity with which people try and get close to the stars. I admit my first year, buoyed by alcohol and embarrassment and being flustered and jumping the queue, I told Jared Padalecki I loved him. Yep. *shame*
What I meant was that I loved how he acted Sam. I was a BIG Sam fan. It was the year of the Bird Flu and we weren’t allowed to touch the actors, I scared Jared, he nearly fell off his stool. Then, I added, as I turned to Jensen, *I kinda like you too*. Yep. Really screwed up. ROFL. Security were *interested*, but I apologized and went to hide with Meredith.
I’ve heard stories of girls turning up in wedding dresses for Jensen, girls jumping the actors, and the convention was the year of the bodyguard. Strong silent (and not awfully pretty compared to the ones I write!) they stood and hovered and made sure none of us jumped the stars.
My first bodyguard book was a tip of the hat to this experience. I know how conventions work, I’ve been to three Supernatural ones. So I could flesh out the story with all the weird experiences you can only get in a fan-fuelled adulation that was *the Con*.
Only ever intended as a stand alone I enjoyed writing it so much that I realized I wanted to write 2, and 3, and 4 and OMG I have so many stories. Of course, being set in the UK there isn’t a big call for guns, but I decided this series wasn’t going to be the formulaic stalking storyline. I wanted to focus on the bodyguards and give the one they guarded good stories. Hence the abuse storyline in book 2.
Book 3 is new in my head, but imagine a prince at university refusing a bodyguard, but being persuaded to have someone who *fits in* i.e. looks young and can fake academia. Hence book 3 was born.
The Ex Factor (Bodyguards Inc. Book 2) by RJ Scott
Publisher: Love Lane Books Ltd (June 26, 2014)
Amazon Kindle: The Ex Factor (Bodyguards Inc. Book 2)
When Bodyguard, Ben Collins, finds Daniel Lincoln in a room, hiding and hurt, he doesn't immediately think Daniel is the victim of abuse. Daniel is good at pretending and being a finalist in a TV singing competition he seems like he has it made.
But something about Daniel calls to Ben's need to protect and he hands Daniel a card to contact him if ever Daniel needed help. Abruptly, after one frightened phone call from Daniel, Ben is racing to Daniel's aid and what he finds is a horror he can't imagine.
Daniel is trapped in a relationship where anger and controlling hate are the only emotions he is given. When his boyfriend crosses the line and leaves Daniel vulnerable and broken there is only one man that he wants to call.
The sexy bodyguard who promised he could help him.
Excerpt
Ben moved to a crouch in front of him. “Please, we need to get you some help.”
Ben’s tone was gentle and encouraging. He’d said please. He’d actually considered softening his tone just for Daniel. Something snapped inside Daniel in that second. He had to get help. This was worse than last time, and he needed to rest.
“Please.” He used Ben’s word back at him. “You have to know what to do.” He inhaled sharply. “I’ve dislocated my shoulder. Push it back for me.” Not like the pain could get any worse, right?
“What the hell? Daniel, if you’ve dislocated your shoulder, it’s not as simple as pushing it back.”
“Okay, then I’ll do it.” Daniel inhaled sharply and pressed the shoulder against the wall, letting out a thin wail of pain as he did so.
“Fuck, Daniel. No!” Ben shouted.
Why was Ben shouting, and who was crying? Am I crying?
“Let me see, you stupid idiot.”
Yep that’s me, fucking stupid. An idiot who can’t even stop another man’s pushing him to the ground and treating me like shit… I am shit… fuck.
“It’s not dislocated, I just think you’ve-” Ben gasped. “What the fuck?”
Daniel realized the man was pulling at his stage shirt, and he’d be able to see some of the marks on Daniel. The marks that Cam took so much time to lay in the places people wouldn’t look. The marks not even wardrobe would see because Daniel demanded that he be allowed to dress in private. The marks he tried not to look at himself.
“I fell down the stairs at the hotel,” Daniel lied. He didn’t know what the light in this place would show.
Ben said nothing. He was feeling all over Daniel’s shoulder so gently, but it still hurt.
“Okay, we need to get you somewhere. Medical. Can I at least take you to Medical?”
Daniel grabbed at Ben’s hand. If Cam found out someone else was involved-hell, if Cam discovered Daniel had told anyone, then Daniel would pay for it and Ben would as well in some twisted way. Cam would know some way to hurt Ben, and there was no way Daniel was letting someone else be hurt on his account.
“No,” Daniel pleaded. “I took codeine. It’ll be enough to let me get out there.” He attempted to clamber to his feet and dizziness assailed him. He really was fucked.
“You can’t think that you’ll be okay to go out on stage… Dress rehearsal is now.”
“No… I can’t,” Daniel admitted. “I know what to do. I just need to get to my dressing room. I have stuff there to take…” Inspiration hit him. “You could stand outside my door, tell them I was missing dress rehearsal, that I was in there and that I was resting my throat for finals. They’ll listen to you.” He couldn’t believe he was doing this, asking for help from someone so intimidating and angry. It was just opening himself up to more hurt. He should have tried to get to his dressing room earlier instead of hiding in that room, but there’d been so many people there in the way.
“Please help me.” Because, hell, asking for Ben’s help was the only thing he could do now. He’d only meant to sit in the dark for a short while, but codeine always made him sleepy, and he’d found a position where he could sit and let the morphine haze slide over him. Stupid move.
Competition
Win a copy of an ebook from my backlist, or first sight of a new book when it’s available. Leave a comment below to enter. You can comment on LJ or DW if you have an account (I will send a PM to the winner), if you don't have an account, please leave a comment on DW with a contact email.
Connect with RJ Scott
Email: mailto:rj@rjscott.co.uk
Blog: http://www.rjscott.co.uk/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.rjscott?ref=ts&fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rjscott_author
Library Thing: http://www.librarything.com/author/scottrj
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3432558.R_J_Scott
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/rjscottauthor/
Full list of books and WIPs: http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/p/published-writing.html
List of all print books: http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/printbooks.html
Reviews for RJ’s books: http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/reviews
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