Hi, and welcome to the Burnt Toast B&B blog tour! We’re
Heidi Belleau and Rachel Haimowitz, the authors of the book, and we’re so
thankful to have you along for the ride, and thankful to our hosts, [blog
title], for having us here today!
Normally on a blog tour, we like to share all kinds of behind
the scenes goodies to do with the book: inspiration images, glimpses into
research and plotting, deleted scenes, conversations about our process,
character bios, etc. For this tour, though, we’re doing something a little
different, but we hope you’ll still find it worth your while.
When Heidi first pitched The Burnt Toast B&B, it was as
an opposites-attract story centring around the world’s worst B&B . . . and
an M/M romcom where one of the lead guys just happened to be transgender.
Writing solo, she’d done a trans book before, but that was very much a Trans
Book, all about exploring gender identity, defining who you are, and coming out
to your friends and loved ones. This book . . . isn’t that. It’s the story of
an optimistic hipster stuntman and a pessimistic lumberjack who learn to make
espresso, fix up a failing B&B, and generally butt heads in between loads
of laundry.
Ginsberg, our hipster, is much like many of our other
favourite M/M heroes: he’s funny, resilient, romantic, and sexy as hell. He’s
also transgender; secure in his identity, his body, and his sexuality; and
working in a career he loves. But his life isn’t without hardships. Ginsberg
made his own family after his biological one turned out to be too toxic to live
with. He scrimped and saved and borrowed to pay for the medical care he needed
to be happy and healthy. He found a roof over his head as a “considerate
couchsurfer,” living with friends and acquaintances on a temporary basis when
money got tight. In Derrick and his failing B&B, Ginsberg finally finds an
opportunity to have a real home, if only he can convince Derrick to keep the
place open.
Ginsberg’s background of financial hardship and lack of
family support is all too common among many people who, like him, are trans and
trying to live happy, fulfilling lives as their true selves. As such, we the
authors, our publisher Riptide, and our generous blog tour hosts will be using
the next few days to highlight the personal fundraisers of real trans people in
need. We hope that if you’ve got a little extra money this month, you’ll
consider donating, and if money’s tight, maybe you can help by spreading the
word, too.
For our
part, Rachel, Heidi, and Riptide will be giving donors a $5 Riptide credit code
for every $10 in donations you make (up to $50 in codes per person, up to
$5,000 in codes overall)--just email your donation receipt(s) to info@riptidepublishing.com with the subject line “Burnt Toast Tour
Donation,” and Riptide will send out all $5 codes a week after the tour ends.
(It’s totally cool, by the way, to spread your donations across multiple
fundraisers if you’d like; we’ll add up all your receipts sent in a single
email and base your credit vouchers on the grand total.)
We’re also
hosting a special contest for people who donate: every dollar in donations to
any of these fundraisers will earn you an entry into a drawing for a full
paperback set of Riptide’s current Bluewater Bay lineup, OR two signed
paperback copies of The Burnt Toast B&B. We’ll draw one week after the blog
tour ends. Every dollar helps, and every dollar counts!
Lastly,
we’ll randomly select three commenters from all the tour stops and donate $50
apiece in each winner’s name to the trans charity or fundraiser of their
choice. (Please be sure to leave a way for us to contact you if you win!)
Today’s featured fundraiser is for Arianna, a trans woman of
color saving money for gender affirming surgery. You can find it at http://www.gofundme.com/axol18.
And here’s Arianna :)
Arianna is a proud trans latina
woman born and raised in Peru and living now in Florida. She currently works as
the Director of Transgender Services for a nonprofit in Fort Lauderdale, and is
the East Coast chair of the Translatina Coalition. She began her medical
transition about fourteen years ago, and has been paying out of pocket for her
hormone therapy this whole time. Now, after giving so much of her time, energy,
and passion to the transgender community, she is asking for the community to
help her reach her own otherwise unreachable goal: raising money for top
surgery. You can learn more about Arianna and help this amazing woman realize
her true self at her fundraiser page, http://www.gofundme.com/axol18.
Thank you so much for following our (slightly unconventional)
blog tour! Be sure to leave a comment on this or any of our other tour stops
for a chance to have $50 donated in your name to a trans-related
fundraiser/charity of your choice. And if you choose to donate to any of the
fundraisers we’ve highlighted over the course of the tour, don’t forget to
forward proof of your donation to info@riptidepublishing.com with the subject
line “Burnt Toast Tour Donation” to claim your $5 coupon(s) and enter your name
in the extra special drawing!
Lastly, if you or someone you love is transgender and going
through a difficult time, please check out the Trans Lifeline, http://www.translifeline.org/.
This crisis helpline is staffed entirely by trans volunteers and runs at least
twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in the US and Canada. If you’re in
crisis, please call them. If you’d like to support this nonprofit, please visit
http://www.gofundme.com/translifeline.
About The Burnt Toast B&B:
After breaking his arm on set, Wolf’s Landing stuntman Ginsberg Sloan finds himself temporarily
out of work. Luckily, Bluewater Bay’s worst B&B has cheap long-term rates,
and Ginsberg’s not too proud to take advantage of them.
Derrick Richards, a grizzled laid-off logger, inherited the
B&B after his parents’ untimely deaths. Making beds and cooking
sunny-side-up eggs is hardly Derrick’s idea of a man’s way to make a living,
but just as he’s decided to shut the place down, Ginsberg shows up on his
doorstep, pitiful and soaking wet, and Derrick can hardly send him packing.
Not outright, at least.
The plan? Carry on the B&B’s tradition of terrible
customer service and even worse food until the pampered city boy leaves
voluntarily. What Derrick doesn’t count on, though, is that the lousier he gets
at hosting, the more he convinces bored, busybody Ginsberg to try to get the
B&B back on track. And he definitely doesn’t count on the growing
attraction between them, or how much more he learns from Ginsberg than how to
put out kitchen fires.
Read an excerpt or order at http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/burnt-toast-bb
Learn more about Heidi Belleau at http://www.riptidepublishing.com/authors/heidi-belleau
Learn more about Rachel Haimowitz at http://www.riptidepublishing.com/authors/rachel-haimowitz
