{"id":1852,"date":"2012-09-20T09:54:36","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T16:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/?p=1852"},"modified":"2012-09-20T09:54:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T16:54:36","slug":"i-have-a-shirt-that-says-karaoke-champ-and-im-not-afraid-to-admit-it-by-nico-jaye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/i-have-a-shirt-that-says-karaoke-champ-and-im-not-afraid-to-admit-it-by-nico-jaye\/","title":{"rendered":"“I have a shirt that says ‘Karaoke Champ,’ and I’m not afraid to admit it,” by Nico Jaye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest is Nico Jaye, another contributor in y Going for Gold M\/M Olympic Anthology. If you’ve never been to London, her story gives a great feel for the city. She won me over with the first scene,\u00a0 set in a pub where the two main characters meet. Sizzling! Get to know her and how she came to write a story about a diver.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a blurb for “Into the Deep” and, later, we get to know a little bit about the author:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sparks fly at the 2012 Olympic Games when platform diver John Sloane meets Blake Gallagher, a local bartender. \u00a0After a chance encounter at Blake’s London pub, fate brings them together once again as John prepares for his debut on the Olympic stage. \u00a0Will these unlikely lovers realize they’ve found a winner in each other or will the pressures of competition keep them apart?<\/p>\n

Warning: Contains wet Speedos, gratuitous toplessness, a cheeky redheaded Brit who might be a tad unsure of himself, and an American sports god who wants him just the way he is.<\/p>\n

Intrigued? You just might find an excerpt at the end of this interview. Just sayin’… \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0What do you like most about the Olympics? Do you have a favorite sport you like to watch?<\/em><\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0To me, the Olympics are about two things: unity across nations and people performing to the best of the human body’s ability in a variety of sports.\u00a0 It’s awe-inspiring to see so many athletes who are, literally, at the top of their game.\u00a0 I definitely have a case of “admiring that which I cannot do.” I’m totally NOT an athlete in any way. I can’t ride a bike (seriously), am a disaster on skates (of any kind), and can barely tread water.\u00a0 I can bowl (according to ESPN, bowling’s a sport, I swear!), but um\u2026last time I checked, it’s not an Olympic sport.<\/p>\n

I have so much respect for the Olympic athletes who have the discipline, drive, and talent to do what they do at the world-class level that they do it.\u00a0 My favorite sport to watch would probably be anything water-related.\u00a0 Whether it’s the swimming relays, diving, or water polo, I’m just fascinated by their ability to thrive so naturally in an environment that, for me, is so foreign.\u00a0 The viewing opportunity for Speedos doesn’t hurt, either. *winks*<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0Have you participated in the sport you wrote about? (If not, what inspired you to choose that sport?)<\/em><\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0Ha!\u00a0 I wrote about a 10m platform diver, so no\u2026definitely not. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Before writing this story, I knew next to nothing about diving other than that I thought it was really beautiful and looked insanely difficult. \u00a0I chose to write about it because I figured any man who could succeed in such a demanding sport (and look amazing in a Speedo, too!) would make a fantastic romance hero.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Yay, Speedos! No, the story is not about Tom Daley, but trust me – my diver John has just as many adoring fans.<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0How long have you been writing and what inspired you to start?<\/em><\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0I’ve been writing since the night of February 27, 2012, and all thanks to the Goodreads M\/M Romance group.\u00a0 Sort of on a whim, I took part in their big Love is Always Write<\/em> writing event, in which members submitted pictures and letter prompts for authors to choose as inspiration for a story.\u00a0 There was a football picture and prompt that nobody had claimed after a couple of days.\u00a0 You know what people say about plot bunnies?\u00a0 Well, yeah\u2026a cute little bunny started twitching its nose in my head and refused to go away!\u00a0 The group and members were incredibly supportive, so I figured it was the perfect place to give writing a try.\u00a0 So I just jumped into writing with both feet, and now there’s a freebie out there<\/a>\u00a0(and now a\u00a0sequel<\/a>, too!) with my name on it that I’m proud to call my own. \u00a0After that, I saw a call for submissions for a certain Olympics-themed anthology, and the rest, so they say, is history.<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0What books or authors inspire your own work?<\/em><\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0Almost anything and everything inspires me. \u00a0I’ve been a reader all of my life, but I’ve been reading romance<\/em> since high school, when I happened to pick up my mom’s traditional Regency romance novel.\u00a0 I was sitting in the car while waiting for my mom to run an errand, and I’d just finished my own book (a bestseller along the lines of John Grisham or Stephen King).\u00a0 With nothing to read (the horrors!), I started flipping through my mom’s book (The Scandalous Wager<\/em> by Olivia Fontayne) and was sucked in right away from page one.\u00a0 Even before that, though, I realize now that I couldn’t help but focus on whom Stacy or Claudia was dating in The Babysitters Club series or what was going on in Elizabeth and Todd’s romance in Sweet Valley High. \u00a0So, yeah, romance has always been on my reading radar, and nowadays, romance (of many many varieties) is pretty much all I read.<\/p>\n

Within the m\/m subgenre, some of my favorites are Hot Head<\/em> by Damon Suede, Handyman<\/em> by Claire Thompson, Discreet Young Gentleman<\/em> by M.J. Pearson, and my latest finds, free online fictions like Drunk Text<\/em> by seventhswan (yes, that’s the title!).\u00a0 I also love J.L. Merrow’s unique and extremely British narrators, especially Al in Muscling Through<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0What interesting thing would readers be surprised to find out about you?<\/em><\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0I love karaoke. Loooooooooove it. I have an entire iTunes playlist called “Karaoke Jamz.”\u00a0 To me, karaoke isn’t about being the World’s Most Super Awesome Number One Singer; rather, it’s about loving the stage and having fun.\u00a0 I have no shame, and I freely admit it. *shameless grin* In recent years, my go-to karaoke song has been Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.”\u00a0 However, I’m also partial to crowd-pleasers such as “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson, “More Than Words” by Extreme, and “Umbrella” by Rihanna.\u00a0 If you’re in NYC, let me know and you can join our next unofficial Karaoke Club outing. Warning: Be prepared to sing Oasis’s “Wonderwall” loudly and sans microphone with a huge group of people. *evil grin*<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Workin’ the microphone like a champ…a Karaoke Champ!<\/p>\n

Q: \u00a0What are you writing now or what upcoming releases do you have scheduled?<\/p>\n

NJ: \u00a0I juuuuuust finished up the sequel\/follow-up to my Love is Always Write<\/em> story.\u00a0 I was super nervous about my LiAW story since I’d never released any writing “into the wild” before.\u00a0 When some of the folks started asking what happens next, I was incredibly flattered by the interest people took in the characters and figured “hey, I know what happens next, so I may as well write it, too.”<\/p>\n

Now that I’m done with that?\u00a0 Well, so far, I’ve only written about sports and athletes (oh, the irony, since I’m such a non-athlete!), so maybe it’s time to branch out into something different.\u00a0 That said, I have my eye on a submission call, and a plot bunny started nibbling at my ear that pairs a questioning-his-sexuality college jock with an out-and-proud art student. So, yeah…we’ll see where that inspiration leads me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Nico Jaye thinks reading is awesome and may or may not have a cat named “Nico” from whom she borrowed this pen name. \u00a0You can visit them online here:<\/em><\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0www.nicojaye.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter:\u00a0@nicojaye<\/a><\/p>\n

Goodreads: Nico Jaye<\/a><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

You can find a sneak peek of Into the Deep<\/em>, showing us the day John walks into Blake’s life, here<\/a> on Nico’s blog, and pick up your copy of\u00a0Going for Gold<\/em> today on MLR Press<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, or All Romance eBooks<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Today’s guest is Nico Jaye, another contributor in y Going for Gold M\/M Olympic Anthology. If you’ve never been to London, her story gives a great feel for the city. She won me over with the first scene,\u00a0 set in a pub where the two main characters meet. Sizzling! Get to know her and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,63,102,323],"tags":[31,307,918,344,345,271,343],"class_list":["post-1852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-guest-posting","category-new-release","category-olympics","tag-anthologies","tag-going-for-gold","tag-guest-posting","tag-interview","tag-karaoke","tag-mlr-press","tag-nico-jaye"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzLgx-tS","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}