Interview with romance author Carey PW

Today’s special guest author is Carey PW and he’s chatting with me about his debut contemporary LGBTQIA romance, Grayality.

During his virtual book tour, Carey will be giving away a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Carey PW (he/they) is a debut author, college instructor, and mental health counselor. Carey is currently completing his next manuscript, Acing the Game.

Carey lives in Montana, and identifies as nonbinary, transmasculine (AFAB) and panromantic asexual. Due to the lack of resources in rural communities, Carey has discovered that writing about his lived experiences is a therapeutic outlet for him and hopes that his readers relate to his own personal struggles and triumphs shared through his characters’ narratives. Carey is particularly interested in exploring relationship conflicts around sexuality and gender differences. He has also worked as a high school writing instructor and college writing instructor, earning a B.A. in English Literature, a M.Ed. in English Education, and Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education all from the University of Georgia. In 2020, Carey earned his second M.Ed. in Counselor Education and works as a licensed clinical professional counselor, LCPC. He has a strong passion for working with the unique mental health issues of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Readers can learn more about Carey from his blog, www.careypw.com. When he is not writing, Carey is busy training for marathons, parenting his six cats, sharing his culinary talents on social media, serving on the board for the nonprofit Center for Studies of the Person (CSP) and learning photography.

Carey PW loves to hear from readers. You can find his contact information, website and author biography at http://www.pride-publishing.com.

Please tell us a little bit about your new release.
Love knows no gender.

Pate Boone, a twenty-six-year-old transgender man, embarks on a new adventure when his childhood best friend, and yes, ex-lover, Oakley Ogden, convinces him to escape their hometown in hopes for something new.

They land in Cloverleaf, a tiny rural town in Montana, so that Oakley can care for his granny who is battling breast cancer. She pressures the two young men to enroll in a nearby college. Pate immediately becomes enthralled with Maybelle, a young, vivacious freshman to whom he fears revealing his transgender identity. Still, he finds it impossible to resist Maybelle, even after he meets her ex, Bullet, a large, violent man determined to keep Pate away from “his girl.”

But there are others who accept Pate immediately, like Stormy. An outdoorsy, rugged freshman, Stormy warns Pate away from Maybelle and Bullet, but Pate’s too infatuated to heed these warnings.

Oakley tries to support his friend’s new love but finds himself entangled in his own emotional calamity when he unintentionally falls for Jody, a gay and ostentatiously confident drag queen. This new relationship awakens deep internal conflicts in Oakley as he struggles to accept his bisexuality, lashing out at Pate and causing friction between him and Jody.

Oakley must decide if he can overcome his insecurities so he doesn’t lose the love of his life. And Pate must discover if the love between him and Maybelle is strong enough for her to accept him as a transgender man, or if she will break his heart.

Excerpt from Grayality:
We sat on his sofa, me sipping water through a straw and listening to a punk rock station that Stormy had found just for me. He held a bag of ice in a washcloth against my jaw for me, and I eventually laid my head on his lap to make it easier to ice.

“I know it’s hard to talk, but I don’t know what transgender means. Would you explain it to me?” he asked.

Moving my mouth the best I could, I shared my story with Stormy. I told him how I’d never felt like a girl but rather a boy always trying to be something he wasn’t. I told him about the baggy clothes in high school, the sports bras and binders to squish down my breasts, and Oakley, loving me as a girl but not as a man. I even told him about the suicide attempt. At this point, I figured he had already seen me get assaulted. He had already seen my vagina. Everyone in town already knew. What more could I lose?

He just listened in intent silence. Surprisingly, words flooded out of my swollen jaw, and I kept drooling as I talked. Stormy wiped it away with the washcloth and kept listening. The hours flew by until I saw the sun shining in through his blue curtains and heard the early birds chirping outside. I was exhausted.

What does your main character do that makes him/her special?
Pate is a dancer. I wasn’t aware that I had a desire to dance when I wrote that part into his character, but now I know it reflects the dancer inside of me. His dancing reflects his newfound confidence in his body, and it’s the main time that readers see a different side of him other than his usual timid, reserved manner. For me, dancing is about taking risks with movement. It’s a good metaphor for life. One cannot stay still; one must move. If one lives life well, it’s like a delicate dance. Sometimes people step on your toes; sometimes you step on their toes. But you keep dancing, hoping to find those moments when you dance in perfect harmony with life.

What comes first, the plot or characters?
For Grayality and my next novel, Acing the Game, the characters definitely came first because they were inspired by myself and my husband. For my current work in progress, while I had some characters in mind, it feels more plot driven. It’s definitely a new style of writing for me, but I’m enjoying it. Plus, the characters are still awesome!

Where do you get your best ideas?
I get my best ideas from life. Through counseling others, teaching, and participating in encounter groups, I engage in a lot of real, vulnerable discussions. I promise that I don’t break confidentiality, but it inspires me to write about vulnerabilities. I don’t want characters who seem perfect or larger than life. I want to write about the experiences of being human. I cherish the stories that people do share with me.

What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
I could talk about how my husband writes me love poems or leaves me little sticky note messages. But honestly, when I woke up in the hotel room in Tulsa this past April with a massive headache and asked if he could get dressed and find me some Tylenol, he just got up, got dressed, and left. He didn’t complain or groan. He managed to find some, so I was very thankful. For me, that’s the sweetest because it shows that he really loves me.

How would you spend ten thousand bucks?
If I got ten thousand right now, I’d throw it at my mortgage. It’s a boring answer, I know. We purchased our home in 2017 on a fifteen-year mortgage with the goal of paying it off in eight to ten years. So, this money would help us in that goal. The whole purpose of paying it off is to have money to travel and save for retirement. Thus, it would be a good way to spend it. Plus, I like the idea of only being forty-six and already owning my home.

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