Havan's Heavenly Haven: Book Tour: Desert Foxe @PridePromo @MLRPress #bookcontest

Get ready…get set…let’s blast…

Desert Foxe

Series: The Skyler Foxe Mysteries, bk 5 plus 2 novellas (one due soon!)

Haley Walsh

Release date: November 2014

I have the distinct honor to be able to interview Skyler’s bestie, Ms. Sidney Feldman. Here’s a quickie introduction before the questions begin.

Sidney Feldman is Skyler Foxe’s straight friend. Growing up with him she knows his ins and outs and ALL his secrets. They shared a lot growing up, even—much to her boyfriend and police partner Mike de Guzman’s disquiet—a little sexual exploration. Not that they “did it” or anything (in Skyler’s words, “Eww!”), but she wanted to see his, he wanted to see hers…normal curiosity stuff. But Skyler always knew he was gay even before he knew what it meant. And Sidney was never attracted to the short, slight blond. But after they went their separate ways out of high school—Skyler to the University of Redlands for his teaching degree and Sidney to the police academy—they’d never really been parted. Sidney became the youngest and one of the first female detectives with the Redlands PD and she loves her job. And she loves her best pal Skyler. And though she yells at him and calls him nasty names in Yiddish, she’s secretly proud of him for solving so many murders.

What is your biggest fear?

That Skyler will get himself killed doing his stupid investigations that I keep telling him not to. If he can’t see how dangerous it is then I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I thought Hunk-on-a-Stick (Keith, his boyfriend) might rein him in but he’s supporting the dumbass with investigating. What’s it gonna take? Him coming home dead?

What is your most prized possession?

I’m gonna say my gun. I know this sounds stupid, but I’ve been a cop long enough to see people’s stuff stolen, see fires destroy, and possessions are so ephemeral. Your life is more important than a bunch of stuff. But my gun was a gift to me from my favorite uncle. My dad died before I graduated from the academy but Uncle Irving was always there for me and my mom. It’s a good gun, too. And it has protected me and the citizens of Redlands too many times to count.

What do you enjoy doing on your day off?

Mike and I moved in together not too long ago and so we are kind of fixing up the place. Sometimes we’re too exhausted—physically and mentally after the long week—to do much else. So we like to take it easy. But I love going to the movies, too, and I wouldn’t turn away a trip to the wine country for the day.

Your best childhood memory?

Skyler and I investigated a haunted house in our neighborhood. Jeez, I haven’t thought of that in a million years. I wonder if that was where he got his investigating gene. Anyway we were like nine or ten and it was just an abandoned house—was abandoned for years—and we snuck in through the fence to the back door. Man it was creepy but really exciting. We were kind of playing the Hardy Boys. There was a dead raccoon in the living room and we tried to investigate who killed it. I’ll have to ask him if he remembers that. It was our first case.

Where do you hope to be in five years?

I hope to move up in Redlands PD. I knew they felt pressure to promote me because they needed more women in the position but I think I showed them that I’m more than competent. Of course, where does that leave Mike? We don’t really talk about the future. I think when you’re a cop it’s always in the back of your mind that…you know. But who knows? Something could open up for the both of us. I’m hoping we’ll both be together. He’s someone I could build a life with. Someone’s gotta help me keep Skyler in line. It’s a two-person job at least!

Blurb:

Skyler and his friends go to Palm Springs for the annual White Party and find murder!

Out and proud high school English teacher Skyler Foxe and his posse of friends go to the annual Palm Springs White Party for a weekend of fun, frivolity, and luscious men. But there are boy troubles of all kinds ahead. Skyler's boyfriend and high school coach Keith Fletcher has to endure an embarrassing number of Skyler's former hook-ups, one of the SFC might be going solo, Skyler encounters unexpected and unwelcome participants at the party, and there's a murder on the dance floor, literally at Skyler's feet! Both Skyler and Keith are drawn into investigating more than murder when the FBI asks Skyler to do the unthinkable.

232 pages

Audio about 7.5 hours, narrator Joel Leslie

Categories: Contemporary, Crime Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Mystery, M/M Romance

Publisher: MLR Press

Cover Artist: Winterheart Designs

Excerpt:

Taquito Grill was crowded for a Sunday night. Jamie and Dave had arrived not long after Skyler and Keith. Jamie, hair spiked and a fire engine red in honor of his firefighter boyfriend, clung to Dave’s arm and bounced in his seat. “We’re so excited about Palm Springs,” he squealed. Dave grinned at him fondly. “It’s going to be so much fun with Dave there.” He patted the large bicep. “And we both agreed that we can dance with other people. Isn’t that cool?” Dave nodded. “Just as long as we keep our hands above the waist.” Jamie demonstrated with jazz hands in the air.

Skyler glanced hopefully at Keith, but the man was scowling into his bottle of Dos Equis. With a defeated sigh, Skyler sat back against the bench seat. Part of the fun of the White Party was dancing with a bunch of different partners. But, he had to admit, the other part of the fun was hooking up with them, too. Under the table, he rubbed conciliatory circles on the man’s hard thigh.

Keith’s tensed muscles seemed to relax under Skyler’s ministrations and he flicked a glance at Skyler with a sheepish smile before putting the beer bottle to his lips.

“Oh, and Dave,” Jamie rambled on, “we are staying at a huge hotel. It’s fantastic. Humongous pool. And some of the activities will be there.”

“Activities?” said Keith for the first time since ordering his drink.

Jamie leaned across the bench seat toward him. “Well! One of the activities is the Splash Pool Party, with live music. It’s all day. Nothing but beautiful shirtless men in tiny white swim trunks.”

Skyler wondered if Keith’s brows could furrow any deeper.

“White? So you have to wear white?”

“It’s a ‘white party,’ Keith,” said Skyler. “Hence the name. We wear white. And you’d look fabulous in white, with your dark skin tones.” He squeezed Keith’s thigh under the table.

Keith seemed to be thinking his own thoughts about that as he studied Skyler. “You’d be in white, too. I love you in white.”

Skyler blinked. “You do?” He melted against Keith. He couldn’t help it when the man looked at him with those sultry eyes.

“Save it for the White Party,” said Jamie.

Dave turned his head toward the door. “Philip and Rodolfo. Finally! …Uh oh.”

They were in mid argument and hadn’t taken their narrowed eyes off each other as they made their way to the table. Rodolfo sat hard and crossed his arms over his magenta shirt. Philip settled on his chair and pointedly looked away from his Ecuadorian boyfriend.

Skyler instantly went on alert. “What’s the matter with you two?”

“Nothing this pene doesn’t know about,” said Rodolfo, waving his hand. His wrist clanked from his bracelets.

“Don’t start with the name-calling,” said Philip, rounding on him and pushing up his black-rimmed glasses. “Can we just stow it for now?”

“Stow it? Stow it? Fine. I can ‘stow it.’”

“Then please do,” muttered Philip, menu in front of his clenched mouth.

Rodolfo slapped his menu to the table and jerked toward Philip. “Do you know what is wrong with you, Philip?”

Clutching his menu, Philip closed his eyes and sighed. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me in florid detail.”

“You have no sense of fun or adventure. Now take amante here,” and he gestured toward Skyler.

Skyler grabbed for his margarita. “Leave me out of it.”

“Skyler has a keen sense of adventure. And look. There is Keith. He is more than willing to go to the White Party with his lover.”

“I don’t know about more than willing,” muttered Keith.

“But not you. You with your timetables and schedules and graphs and bullet points.”

“I’m just mapping out our weekend. Is that so horrible? There’s a lot to do! Things to see! Men…to avoid.”

“AHA! That’s it, isn’t it? It all comes down to this.”

“Rodolfo…”

Jamie stuck his long arm between the two. “Hey! You guys! You’re not supposed to argue anymore. Not since you started fucking.”

“Jamie,” said Skyler out of the corner of his mouth, eyes searching the busy restaurant. “Keep your voice down. Family place.”

He scrunched up his face at Skyler—as close to a sneer as he got—and leaned into the arguing couple again. “The fact is that you guys are supposed to get along now.”

“I’m getting along just fine!” said Rodolfo too loudly. “It’s him that isn’t getting along with me!”

Philip slumped back in his seat. “Oh, for the love of God, give it a rest already.”

“Give it a rest? Yes, that's exactly what I should be doing.” Rodolfo threw down the menu and lurched to his feet. “I’m suddenly not hungry.”

Philip clenched his menu so tightly it bent at the edges. “Well I am.”

“Fine! Stay here. Eat. I’m leaving.”

“Bye! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out… Much.”

Rodolfo threw his glare at each in turn before pivoting and stalking toward the entrance. He pushed open one heavy wooden door and let it swish shut. There was a pause as the restaurant patrons fell silent and stared at the double doors a split second before they were thrown open again and Rodolfo stomped toward the table. He stood over Philip with his foot tapping.

“I don’t have the keys to the car.”

You can find Desert Foxe here:

Let’s talk about Haley Walsh:

Haley Walsh tried acting, but decided the actor’s life was not for her. Instead, she became a successful graphic designer and art director in Los Angeles, her hometown. After fifteen years of burning money in the ’80s and early ’90s, she retired from the graphics industry and turned her interests toward writing. She became a freelance newspaper reporter, wrote articles for quirky magazines, published award-winning short stories, and now writes a critically acclaimed GLBT mystery series, the Skyler Foxe Mysteries. She’s lived all her life in southern California, sampling wines and chomping chocolate. Oh, and she also writes a multi-award nominated medieval mystery series under another name. Yeah, it’s a living. http://.SkylerFoxeMysteries.com

Find Haley here: