Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews: A Boy Worth Knowing by Jennifer Cosgrove - Blog Tour with Author Guest Post and Giveaway

Title: A Boy Worth Knowing

Author: Jennifer Cosgrove

Publisher: NineStar Press - SunFire Imprint

Release Date: March 20

Heat Level: 1 - No Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 62200

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, NineStar Press, LGBT, gay, bisexual, romance, young adult, contemporary, paranormal, coming of age, ghosts, family drama, high school, bullying

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34337289-a-boy-worth-knowing

Synopsis

Ghosts can’t seem to keep their opinions to themselves.

Seventeen-year-old Nate Shaw should know; he’s been talking to them since he was twelve. But they aren’t the only ones making his high school years a living hell. All Nate wants is to keep his secret and keep his head down until he can graduate. That is, until the new boy, James Powell, takes a seat next to him in homeroom. James not only notices him, he manages to work his way into Nate’s life. But James has issues of his own.

Between dead grandmothers and living aunts, Nate has to navigate the fact that he’s falling in love with his only friend, all while getting advice from the most unusual places.

Ghosts, bullies, first love: it’s a lot to deal with when you’re just trying to survive senior year.

Excerpt

A Boy Worth Knowing
Jennifer Cosgrove © 2017
All Rights Reserved

I loved autumn mornings.

The October air was just cold enough to set my lungs on fire, my breath visible in clouds of condensation, forcing all of the crap clogging up my head into the recycle bin. Bonus, I could pretend I was a dragon. Nothing could touch me; my morning run made everything go away, lost in miles at a time. Down an isolated country road.

Everything changed when I was twelve, and not for the better. That was when I started running. Five years of road I’d put behind me. My mom worried about me the first time I took off alone. Well, when she used to worry about me. I wished she was more worried about the reason I was running instead of the fact I was doing it down an empty road.

I turned the corner about a mile after leaving home, and that was when I saw him. Samuel was always lurking among the sunken headstones. Most people had no clue there used to be a cemetery out there. Looking closely, some of the stones that made up the foundation of the chapel could still be seen. No one else ever paid that much attention to it. Samuel glared at me as I got closer. He was a surly one.

My life was like the horror movies I loved. I talked to the dead. Well, technically dead. They were really spirits, or whatever. Whatever was left behind when people died. And they talked to me, for some reason. There was nothing like sitting in math class and having a ghost whisper in my ear while trying to take notes.

It happened all the damn time. I didn’t know how to handle it at first. And no one wanted to hang out with the crazy kid in the back of the room, muttering away to himself. I got used to it. Really. And the lack of a social life helped me get all of my homework done on time; all of the teachers loved me. That was good. Talking to ghosts wasn’t all bad.

I waved at Samuel as I ran by the cemetery. He shook a fist at me in return. Samuel wasn’t evil or anything, just grumpy. Couldn’t blame him, though. I looked him up one time and found out he’d died in the late eighteen hundreds. The cause of death on record was a heart attack. But Samuel told me his brother-in-law had poisoned him because he wouldn’t sell him his prize mule. I had no clue what was so special about that mule, but his brother-in-law evidently thought it was worth killing him over. I’d have been pretty surly myself.

Past the forgotten cemetery, a few miles to the McGregor farm, and then I’d swing around for home. Yes, I said McGregor farm. Small-town life— I couldn’t have made this stuff up if I’d tried.

There was another house just past the farm where I had to watch out for their beast of a dog. Dogs weren’t huge fans of mine. My Nana had a theory they could sense a bit of whatever it was that let us chat with those who’d “passed on.” I had no idea how that was even possible, but cats loved me, so yay.

Speaking of which, Aunt Susan’s overly fluffy cat waited by our mailbox. Arthur did that every time I went out for a run. He would sit there and then fall in behind to follow up the driveway until we got to the house. Then, it was a shady spot on the porch in the summer or, if it was cold like that day, into the house in front of the fireplace. I loved predictability.

The house used to be my grandmother’s. It was a standard farmhouse, old and creaky just like dozens more all around us, and it could have stood a little paint. But we called it home, and we liked it. It became Aunt Susan’s home. It had been left to her after Nana died, since my mom already owned one. It was a little out of the way and a long drive to the hospital where my aunt worked. But it was paid for, and that meant a lot.

I had to be quiet going in because Aunt Susan was not a morning person, and the floor squeaked just inside the back door. I was very much a morning person, and I followed the same routine each school or work day. Flipping on the coffee maker, I headed to my room to get ready for school. I got the shower running, since it took a while to heat up in an old farmhouse, and took a sniff to make sure a shower was actually necessary. Oh, yeah. I was gross.

Purchase Links

NineStar Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/a-boy-worth-knowing/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBPRFC7

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-boy-worth-knowing-jennifer-cosgrove/1125862426

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-boy-worth-knowing

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/707105

Getting started writing fanfic

I mentioned in another blog post that I got my start writing fanfiction. I know the reputation it has and I’ve kept the fact that I write it quiet from friends and family but I guess that’s all over now! Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of the fact that I write fanfiction. I like playing in someone else’s sandbox and telling a story with a couple of beloved characters that I’ve watched on tv or movies and obsessed about what kind of coffee they would drink. By the way, Steve Rogers drinks black coffee while Bucky Barnes would drink something with lots of whipped cream on it. I don’t know why, I don’t make the rules.

But that is exactly what I’m talking about. Fanfiction is fun. Fanfiction is the stories that we sometimes wish the creators would tell us on screen for everyone to see. Everyone has a pair of characters that they wish would get together in the movie or tv show but, if that’s never going to happen, then we can make it happen in our stories.

I cut my teeth in fanfiction. It was the first thing that I ever tried to write that wasn’t an essay for school and it quickly became a thing that I needed to do. I needed to get stories out of my head and into my computer screen. I learned so much from writing it. I learned about structure and storytelling from dual points of view.

I also learned how to treat different subject matter with respect and how it is up to every reader to take responsibility for what they read. I learned not to shy away from certain things because they made me uncomfortable because sometimes that tells the best story and pushes me to be a better writer.

I learned about fandom and what it means to be a community. How to surround myself with people from all walks of life and listen to them and what they had to say. This was the spark that fed into writing original fiction and I think I’m better for it.

If you want to write about John Watson and Sherlock Holmes as soulmates or wizards or a ballet dancer and a rugby player, there is a fic out there for you. If you want to read about Steve Rogers owning a bakery or Bucky Barnes working in a coffee shop, there is also a fic out there for you. I always say, “I’ve read that fic”.

Meet the Author

Jennifer has always been a voracious reader and a well-established geek from an early age. She loves comics, movies, and anything that tells a compelling story.

When not writing, she likes knitting, dissecting/arguing about movies with her husband, and enjoying the general chaos that comes with having kids.

Author Links

Website: http://www.jcozwrites.com/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jcozwrites

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16469599.Jennifer_Cosgrove

eMail: jcozwrites@gmail.com

Tour Schedule

3/20 - My Fiction Nook - http://myfictionnook.com

3/20 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words - https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/

3/20 - Just Love - http://justlovereviews.com

3/21 - Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews - http://wickedfaeriesreviews.blogspot.com

3/21 - Diverse Reader - www.diversereader.blogspot.com