I asked EE Montgomery what makes her story different than other contemporary M/M Romances. This is what she had to say:
I don’t think I do anything different than other writers
when writing a story. I write what I know, I research what I don’t, and I ask
“what if?” a lot.
My aim with the Just Life series was to write vignettes of
real life happenings. The beginning scenes in each of the books actually
happened to someone. A lot of other scenes that follow on in those books also
really happened. I’ve just changed the people and some of the circumstances
around them… and exaggerated a little… and added a few other things in. You
know—turned it into a story that someone might find interesting.
I think a lot of authors also bring something of themselves
into their stories. We all write from experience, whether ours or someone
else’s. I do the same thing. Every one of my stories has something of myself in
them: something I’ve experienced in my life, or something I’ve learned.
My experiences come through in snippets, changed so all the
surrounding prose makes them unrecognizable to anyone else who was there, but
the core is there. The core might be someone else’s response, or it might be an
emotion, or it might be a lesson learned, but it’s in there somewhere.
Other people could have very similar experiences to me but
no two people are going to respond to the same action in the same way.
Sometimes my sisters and I reminisce about our childhood. We all grew up in the
same house, went to the same schools, had the same neighbours but even
significant events in our lives are remembered differently by each of us. Our
perceptions of the events are different, our understandings of the meaning of
the events are different, our reactions to the events are different.
I bring the same sort of thing to my writing. My own
experiences, perceptions and reactions to everything are different to what
anyone else would have. I show a unique viewpoint and make it belong to my
character.
It’s that personalization that will make my stories
different to anyone else’s, because no one else will have exactly my
perceptions, realizations or reactions to the same events. (Of course, it’s
exactly that, that makes everyone else’s stories different to mine.)
Just the Way You Are is at once the least real story of the
series and the most real. It’s the least real because only the very beginning
(perhaps the first page or two) is an actual real-life event extrapolated and
retold. It’s also the most real because Jonathan lived in a primarily
emotionally abusive relationship for a very long time. The insidious nature of
emotional abuse is something that’s very real to me. I actually had a lot of
difficulty teasing out Jonathan’s reactions to living with Anthony, leaving him
and being stalked by him. It’s incredibly difficult to be aware of what you’re
feeling and how you’re reacting to things and why, when you’re in the middle of
a situation like that. So much of what you do is reactionary and fear-filled,
with only one goal in mind: survival. There’s very little deep thought and
self-awareness happening at that time.
So that’s why my stories are different to anyone else’s.
They all contain part of myself.
Blurb(s):
After ten years in an abusive relationship and a
near-fatal knife wound, Jonathan Watson is finally free. Unused to being able
to make even the smallest decision and smothered by family and well-meaning
neighbors, he’s floundering in the real world. Jonathan is afraid of falling
into another relationship too quickly and realizes he needs time to rediscover
who he is before he attaches himself to another man.
He never counted on meeting Ben Urquhart, though. Ben tempts Jonathan to forget everything and take a leap. For Ben, it's love at first sight, and he doesn't want to take it slow. He wants to build a life with Jonathan, free from harm and full of laughter. But before they can take the next step, they must protect Jonathan from his possessive, threatening ex. Jonathan must find the courage to confront him and break the chains of his past before he can be truly free to build a future with Ben.
He never counted on meeting Ben Urquhart, though. Ben tempts Jonathan to forget everything and take a leap. For Ben, it's love at first sight, and he doesn't want to take it slow. He wants to build a life with Jonathan, free from harm and full of laughter. But before they can take the next step, they must protect Jonathan from his possessive, threatening ex. Jonathan must find the courage to confront him and break the chains of his past before he can be truly free to build a future with Ben.
Pages or Words: 70,000 words
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay
Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
Excerpt:
Chapter
ONE
JONATHAN
SHIVERED in the early morning air but not from the chill. He wrapped his arms
around himself and groaned as his wound tugged against the movement. He relaxed
slowly as the pain eased. From where he stood, he could see between the two
apartment blocks to where the sun glinted off the Brisbane River. Five years
ago he used to watch the ferries puddle their way up and down the river,
dropping passengers here at Hamilton and across the way at Bulimba. He’d missed
that view for a long time. He wondered if he’d miss the house now that he was
leaving it.
The
house was gray—morning gray, Anthony had called it, but it had always looked
like unwashed, neglected underwear to him. The lines of the house were precise
and symmetrical, unlike the yard. The front lawn bore scars, just like his
chest. They were from his Cruiser skidding to a stop the night Anthony had sent
him to kill Mark. His eyes burned as he thought how close he’d come to doing
what his boyfriend told him to.
At
the time, he didn’t think he had any other choice. It was kill or be killed.
Literally. By the end of that night, Mark had been the only one left uninjured.
Liam’s leg had thankfully healed quickly where Anthony had stabbed him. Anthony
was still in hospital with a self-inflicted knife wound to the stomach, and
Jonathan… Jonathan was done with that life. Anthony’s knife in his chest—so
close to his heart it was clearly intended to be fatal—had cured him of
whatever delusions he’d held onto that let him believe he was in love with the
man. Even Anthony’s assertions that Jonathan was responsible for him being in a
wheelchair since the car accident two years before wouldn’t get him to stay.
He
was out of it now, or at least he would be as soon as the removalists came and
took his stuff away. Then he could begin to heal. The first step had been to
learn to breathe again after his lung collapsed when Anthony stabbed him. The
next step… he didn’t know what the next step after this was. He wasn’t going to
admit it to anyone, but he was just as terrified now,
starting a life of his own—on his own—as he was when he thought he was going to
die.
The trembling began again. Dizzy. Couldn’t catch his breath.
He leaned beside the front door and forced himself to bring his mind back to
the here and now and looked around again. There was a new section of fence now,
and the Cruiser had been repaired and sat at the curb, waiting for him. His
cousin must have had the damage repaired while Jonathan was in the
hospital—learning how to make his lung work again after his boyfriend had tried
to kill him. He shook the thoughts from his head. He had to stop thinking like
this or he’d go mad.
Sleep last night had been impossible. The house had been
cleaned, but nothing was going to completely remove the blood splattered on the
white carpet. His blood.
A low rumble burbled through the air, and a truck turned onto
the street. Jonathan’s heart raced. “You can do this,” he whispered, although
he wasn’t quite sure which part of “this” he was talking about. It could be
dealing with strangers on his own, or it could be leaving Anthony—finally. He
pressed the heel of his hand over the dressing on his chest. Staying with
Anthony was no longer an option.
The truck stopped and turned to reverse into the driveway.
The high-pitched beeping made Jonathan jump and, to calm himself, he focused on
the two men sitting in the cab. The driver looked young and blond, the
passenger older and shriveled, his hair sticking out in unkempt tangles.
“Two people. Not Anthony. You’re outside, everything’s
marked. You don’t need to go inside with them at all if you don’t want to. You
can do this.” He counted his breaths in and out. The beeping stopped, the
engine cut out, and the driver’s door opened.
Long, well-formed legs slipped from the cab,
by-passing the step completely as a muscled body slid to the ground. Khaki
cargo shorts bunched enticingly around a spectacular package before settling
loosely around slim hips as the man’s boot-clad feet landed on the ground and
he stood away from the truck. Jonathan moved his gaze up the body. The worn
T-shirt did nothing to hide the trim stomach and prominent pecs and the sleeves
framed the rounded deltoids perfectly. Jonathan sighed as he lifted his focus
higher to see the man’s wide smile.
Sales Links:
About the
author:
E E Montgomery wants the world to be a better place,
with equality and acceptance for all. Her philosophy is: We can’t change the
world but we can change our small part of it and, in that way, influence the
whole. Writing stories that show people finding their own ‘better place’ is
part of E E Montgomery’s own small contribution.
Thankfully, there’s never a shortage of inspiration
for stories that show people growing in their acceptance and love of themselves
and others. A dedicated people-watcher, E E finds stories everywhere. In a
cafe, a cemetery, a book on space exploration or on the news, there’ll be a
story of personal growth, love, and unconditional acceptance there somewhere.
Where to find the author:
You can contact E E Montgomery at eemontgomery11@gmail.com;
on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ewynelaine.montgomery; on Twitter:
@EEMontgomery1; or at her web site: http://www.eemontgomery.com/
and blog: http://www.eemontgomery.com/blog.
Goodreads
Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25163510-just-the-way-you-are
Cover
Artist: Catt Ford
Tour
Dates & Stops: April 20 – May 1, 2015
20-Apr
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Prize: One copy of the each of the first three books in the series
