Guest Post & Giveaway: Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

 

Welcome to the Second Hand virtual book tour! All week long, authors Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton will be stopping by some of our favorite sites to celebrate their new release. Be sure to comment at all the stops along the way—one lucky reader who follows the tour will win a $10 gift certificate to Riptide Publishing! To enter, simply leave a comment below, making sure to include an email address where we can contact you if you are the winner. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm EST on 9/16, and the complete tour schedule can be found here. Thank you to all of our terrific hosts this week for helping us deliver another exciting book tour from Riptide Publishing!

Living in a College Town

The fictional world of Tucker Springs is set in a college town, which wasn’t much of a reach for either of us because we both live in one, Heidi in Ames, Iowa and Marie in Fort Collins, Colorado. Iowa State University and Colorado State University are both land grant universities too, which means we have the whole agriculture thing going on. Heidi likes to point out that whenever there’s a weird animal disease to be tested, you’ll notice on the news that they send it down the street from where she lives. 

CSU is also known for its veterinary school and equine science. It’s also sort of billed among Coloradans as a down-to-Earth, almost blue-collar school (as opposed to CU in Boulder, the rich-kid party school, and UNC in Greeley, which is known for nursing, music, and education). (For the record, UNC is also historically home to a damn good football team that nobody knows about because they’re Division II.) Not that the Aggies (which we CSU alumni still seem to be referred to, even though we’re the Rams) can’t party, but our officially sanctioned College Days were banned back before Marie graduated from High School. 

Iowa State can’t quite claim to be a non-party school. Every year it celebrates VEISHA, which was meant originally to put Iowa State on display (name is comprised of the five original colleges: Veterinary, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture) but now is that plus a lot of partying which has seen rioting so bad it destroyed campus town. The year Heidi moved to Ames it was so bad the president of the college suspended the festival altogether. The celebration is more muted now, excepting the two nights which feature outdoor concerts the reverberations of which reach Heidi’s house until 2AM, usually causing her to scree like a madwoman on twitter on Facebook until it’s all over.

Both of us love living in a college town by and large, though. There’s always something interesting going on, always an event or festival, and the college tends to attract a more diverse than usual population. It’s no wonder when Marie suggested a college town we all said, “Oh yes! That sounds lovely.” Because those of us who do live in them know that lovely is usually just what college towns are.

Second Hand doesn’t see much of Tucker Springs’ universities themselves, but it reaps full benefit of a college town: quaint local businesses, a bustling central square, and lots of interest in the arts. And like most Colorado cities, its citizens revel in the outdoors and the beautiful Rocky Mountain setting. We hope you visit our fictional college town soon. Be sure to come back often. There’s always something new in Tucker Springs!

Find out more at www.TuckerSprings.com.

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Second Hand

by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Paul Hannon moved to Tucker Springs for his girlfriend, but she’s left him with a house he can’t afford and a pantry full of useless gadgets. All Paul wants is to get back to normal, even if he's not sure what that is anymore. When he wanders into Tucker Pawn for a gift to win her back, he meets El Rozal, pawn shop owner and all-around cynic.

El Rozal doesn’t do relationships, especially not with clueless straight boys still pining for their ex. El may make his living dealing in castoffs, but that doesn't apply to men. Still, when Paul starts clearing out his old life, pawning kitchen equipment he never wanted in the first place, El is drawn to Paul in spite of himself.

Paul and El have nothing in common except a past full of disappointments. There's no reason to believe the two of them could fit, but in El’s line of work, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. When it comes to love, El and Paul may learn that secondhand doesn't mean second best. 

This title is part of the Tucker Springs universe.

 

Read an excerpt and buy the book here

 

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About the Authors

Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren't enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn't writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi also volunteers frequently for her state's LGBT rights group, One Iowa, and is proud to be from the first midwestern state to legalize same-sex marriage. Find out more about Heidi, including her social networks, at www.heidicullinan.com.

 

Marie Sexton lives in Colorado. She’s a fan of just about anything that involves muscular young men piling on top of each other. In particular, she loves the Denver Broncos and enjoys going to the games with her husband. Her imaginary friends often tag along. Marie has one daughter, two cats, and one dog, all of whom seem bent on destroying what remains of her sanity. She loves them anyway. You can find her at www.MarieSexton.net.

Comments

[Sophie @ NJ Moving]

I’ll be really glad to read this. I’m in.

[Suze]

Not knowingly been to US college towns bit the picture on the cover does remind me a bit of the 18 yr old image I have in my head of Steamboat Springs, when we went skiing there!

[Andrea]

I've been excited about this book since I found out they were writing a book together. Please count me in.

[Jbst]

College towns have that interesting vibe of activity and vibrancy.

strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com

[Amanda]

Can't wait to read this one

carolinareader75@gmail.com

[gigi]

Great blurbs! Please count me in. Thanks.

[Michelle (MiMi)]

I've really been looking forward to the next Tucker Springs...count me in! chellebee66 at gmail dot com

[Tara]

I lived in a pretty awesome college town. (One of the freshman in my class went on to become the mayor and he was performing gay marriages before it was legal in the state.) The book sound awesome and I'd love to be included.

tkny(dot)done(at)gmail(dot)com

[Amazon Doc]

I enjoy both of these authors. Looking forward to the new book. Please enter me, thanks!

amazondoc at mindspring dot com

[Heidi Cullinan]

Fort Collins is a heck of a lot more urban than Ames. We joke that we're a small town that thinks it's a big town.

[Trix]

I live pretty close to a (rather eccentric) college town, and I enjoy it, too. The campus is relatively tucked away compared to the rest of the city, but it definitely influences all the stuff going on in town.

vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

[Erica Pike]

Wow! Love the blurb. Definitely going on my to-read list.

Erica
eripike at gmail dot com :)