Wade Kelly on Bankers’ Hours ~ Cover Reveal, Guest Blog

Prism Book Alliance^® would like to thank Wade Kelly for stopping by today.

Title: Bankers’ Hours
Author: Wade Kelly
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anne Cain
Genre: Contemporary

Blurb:

Even though bankers’ hours leave long weekends for romance, cosmic intervention is Grant’s only option when money doesn’t buy happiness, and he’s got virginity in spades.
Grant Adams is a twenty-six-year-old bank teller who’s unlucky at love, yet hopelessly hopeful. After years of horrific first dates, he’s convinced he’s saving himself for true love. Surely he had bad taste in men because it couldn’t possibly be his persnickety nature that’s sent them packing.
Tristan Carr’s life has been in a holding pattern since his daughter was born. Fifteen years later, he’s still alone, and that suits his workaholic lifestyle just fine. For Tristan to rearrange his workaholic lifestyle and weekend fatherhood, a guy needed to be special. Or in the case of the newest employee at his bank, the guy would need to be adorable, shy, and open to the prospect of forever when it shows up at his window.

Cover reveal for Wade Kelly’s new book

Hello, wonderful people! This is Wade Kelly writing a special guest post. I am so excited to reveal the cover of my upcoming release Bankers’ Hours. It comes out March 25th from Dreamspinner Press.

This is a book I wrote last summer. It’s cute, fun, and slightly quirky, but then again it’s from ME—Wade Kelly. What I want readers to understand—if you’ve not read my books before—is that my work can’t be weighed against any one, single novel in my backlist. So far, all my stories are different. Even the ones in the JOCK Series! I often describe my mind as a pinball machine, and I think my stories reflect that. Each one is driven by my idea of how the lead character thinks and feels, hence why they are all different. This most likely stems from ME being an unusually different kind of person.

I write emotion. If you followed my last blog tour for No! Jocks Don’t Date Guys, you may have read that I put my emotions into my characters and each one is based on different parts of my personality. My JOCK 2 tour talked about all the different parts of ME that are in all my books. For Bankers’ Hours, I’m going to talk about my characters, interviews with characters, where they came from, why the pink, and some of my favorite things.

Since this particular post is a “cover reveal,” let’s talk about the pink.

Pink is the color I chose because my main character, Grant Adams, wears pink in the book and there is mention of his six pink shirts in his closet of various shades. I also hoped PINK would stand out on readers’ bookshelves next to other, darker, spines. On my personal bookshelf, I only have one book with a pink spine. Also, when potential readers peruse Amazon book lists for new releases, I want them to notice MY COVER, so I wanted it to POP!

You may also notice this cover is not like my other covers. I told Anne Cain she had artistic freedom to do whatever she liked. She suggested a sort of retro and illustrative approach and I was all for it, after looking for models who resembled my characters. Um, note to any and all authors, it is SO MUCH EASIER to have a cover model first and then describe them, than to have an idea in your head and go search for someone who looks like what is in your head. Yeah. I couldn’t do that.

Ya see, the love interest in Bankers’ Hours is bald, hot, muscular… and apparently NOT able to be found in the stock photos I looked through. I spent way too much time searching and gave up. An illustration was a welcomed idea! Thus, this cover was born. Originally, the cover was green and peach tones, which was beautiful! I loved the green cover, but in my head I wanted pink. Pink because it was significant in my head to what Grant Adams was like. Lavender would have also been acceptable, but I just really wanted pink because I wanted it to look different.

As I said before, all my books are different. This cover symbolizes my quirkiness, I guess. I have different books containing elements of gay suicide, church persecution, child abuse, religion, labeling sexuality, not labeling sexuality, understanding yourself, and/or accepting a gay friend. If I was to describe this book, it would be about taking chances and not giving up on love.

Ya see, Grant Adams has had a long history of terrible dating experiences. One of which I took from a friend’s bad date, but many that seem to ring true for other people. He’s hopelessly romantic and determined his “true love” is out there. He’s also never-been-kissed. Fear not, Grant Adams, for your new job also brings with it new people in a new town to meet. One of which will catch your eye and give you a chance at forever—HELLO, Tristan Carr!

And oh wait, what’s that on the bottom left corner of the cover—an illustration of an engagement ring? Hmmm, what might readers find in this tale, I wonder?

This story is meant to be fun, so I hope it comes across that way. On the Wade Kelly Scale (if you are familiar with that), I rated Bankers’ Hours a 3. You may want to check out the pic of the scale on this post.

As far as prizes and contests and comments and such…. this is the basic “comment to win” deal. But if you want to make this cute, and to give you something specific to post if you lack ideas, tell me your favorite color or colors. (or colours)

Last time I toured, I offered a couple Amazon gift cards, and ONE gift package for the grand prize winner who commented on every blog stop. I’ll post on MY BLOG links to ALL THE STOPS because this tour is being coordinated by Dreamspinner Press. My posts are being written and handed in to them for distribution and therefore I will not be able to post the links to other posts on each and every one. For that, VISIT MY BLOG.

Here is the post prize list and rules:
I have several giveaways. Leave a comment on THIS BLOG (Your favorite colors or something else) for a chance to win an Amazon gift certificate. I am going to take ALL the names, from all the comments, from all the blog stops, and put them in a drawing. I have 10 stops including this one. The more comments you make then higher your chances of winning. I will have 3 winners of a $10 Amazon gift certificate to be announced when the tour ends!

Additionally, for those who comment on ALL 10 STOPS, I will enter each of them into a grand prize drawing good for:

1. An eBook from my backlist of your choice, OR the next book I publish this year. (*Excluding Bankers’ Hours)
2. A $10 Amazon gift certificate,
3. A Wade Kelly Spoon in the colors of your choice ☺, and
4. One autographed paperback copy of the novel of their choice, OR the next book I publish this year. (*Excluding Bankers’ Hours)
5. A promo code for the download of the audiobook Misplaced Affection.

Note: I am willing to mail things to other countries so don’t let that stop you! Please, post on ALL the posts. I had fun with this last time. ☺

Thank you all for stopping by. If you’ve never read my books, please visit my website, or Goodreads, and read some excerpts and comments about what others have had to say. But be prepared, each book is different and you need to prepare yourself for which novel you pick.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Links

Bankers’ Hours on Goodreads
Dreamspinner Press

Giveaway

About the Author

Wade Kelly lives and writes in conservative, small-town America on the east coast where it’s not easy to live free and open in one’s beliefs. Wade writes passionately about controversial issues and strives to make a difference by making people think. Wade does not have a background in writing or philosophy, but still draws from personal experience to ponder contentious subjects on paper. There is a lot of pain in the world and people need hope. When not writing, she is thinking about writing, and more than likely scribbling ideas on sticky notes in the car while playing “taxi driver” for her three children. She likes snakes, can’t spell, and has a tendency to make people cry.