*Giveaway & Guest Post* Santuario by G.B. Gordon *Riptide*

Ladies and Gent of the Lair, I am happy to announce that I am part of Riptides One Year Anniversary!!!!!

And I am happy to announce this great author today.....

G.B. Gordon.....

Thank you for coming out to celebrate my first book launch, and to meet the guys. And a deep grateful bow to Cecile for letting me lounge on that luscious purple silk of hers. This tour is about peeking behind the curtain on all things Santuario, which is now available for purchase via the Riptide Publishing website. If you followed me here from yesterdays tour stop, you know this already, but for those who just joined:  

Don't forget to comment for a chance to win a $10 credit to Riptide Publishing. All comments with email address included that are left by 11:59 pm on Sunday, Oct 14th will enter into the draw.

So, you want to meet the guys? So did I. In that respect Santuario was an out of the ordinary book for me, because it started with an idea. More often than not my stories start with a character, a voice in my head that won't shut up until they've told me everything I never wanted to know about them, and then some. This one was different. I had background (one near perfect, one scary society), I had setting (the planet they both settled on), but I didn't hear any voices. Now, for most people this might be a good thing. For me it's a disaster.

In a rare show of agreement the muse and I decided on one character from each of the two cultures (because she wanted kaboom), and that they would both be cops (because I like me a good mystery). After that? Crickets. I put the story idea aside and wrote a whole other book, completely different genre, then tried again. Nothing happened. The truth is, I can build worlds, I can build plots, but I can't, for the life of me, 'build' characters. I tried different character sheets, and filled them all in with eye color, and favorite foods, and all that sugar. And when I poked what I'd made, it wasn’t moving. I'd made a puppet. Dead, Jim.

Characters form somewhere in my subconscious, so deep down that I can't see anything. They need amorphous influences to form, mood, style, atmosphere. So I got busy thinking about plot and what the muse's darn island looked like. It was somewhere hot, and she'd wanted palm trees and beaches. I wanted hills and dusty roads, and hovels in villages, and cities like ancient Granada. Just as we'd discovered skeletons in the closet of my perfect society, I now discovered beauty in her cruel one. When I started collecting songs for my playlist (I always write with music) I realized I was picking mostly Son Cubano. And I noticed someone dancing to it. Just a shadow at first, long legs, a wide brimmed hat, definitely male, definitely a man with rhythm in every bone of his body.

I had to clear my throat.
"Shhhhh," said the muse. "Don’t scare him away."

He briefly looked over at that, his face completely deadpan; then he looked away again. Over the next few days I noticed more details about him, but he wasn't talking to me. I got emotions, very suppressed for the most part, except for a strong sense of longing, but no voice. Still, I knew who he was. I knew what made him tick. And I started writing. That was Alex.

Bengt was a lot harder. He talked all the time. I knew everything about his family, his boss, his house. I knew he was this huge, blond guy with a taste for good food and quality clothes. But all the while his talking kept me at arm's length. I realized he had a secret, and that I wouldn't know the real Bengt, until I figured out what it was. But *that* wasn’t what he wanted to talk about. That was 'ancient history' and 'none of my business'. He needed a bit more … persuasion. And, let me tell you, Bengt is not an easy guy to wrestle into compliance. But the muse? She kicks ass, even Skanian ones. So we finally got there.

I’d written two full chapters of Alex before I typed one word of Bengt. But once that started, it just kept going. They don’t ever shut up. They’re in my head 24/7. Santuario? Is just the beginning.

Full tour schedule available here.

Blurb:
Police teniente Alex Rukow has spent his life trapped on Santuario, his people’s isolated home-slash-prison-island. They’ve been living in poverty under the tyrannical regime of their own elite familias for the last two-hundred years, ever since their generation ship landed on the planet and found it already populated by earlier Earth settlers, the Skanians, who banished them to the inhospitable south.

Increasingly shamed by the decisions of their ancestors, the Skanians seek to open their borders. But dissent exists on both sides, and in the midst of this explosive political situation, a dead body appears on the island.

Bengt, a Skanian investigator, is shipped to Santuario to lead the murder investigation—which, he quickly realizes, the local teniente wants nothing to do with. As far as Bengt is concerned, things can’t get worse than the brutal climate, his own memories, and a growing attraction to a partner who will barely say two words to him. But then he and Alex run afoul of the local familias, and the problems with their investigation and their budding relationship seem like nothing compared to just getting out of this whole mess alive.

Read an excerpt and purchase Santuario here.

G.B.Gordon worked as a packer, landscaper, waiter, and coach before going back to school to major in linguistics and, at 35, switch to less backbreaking monetary pursuits like translating, editing, and writing. Having lived in various parts of the world, Gordon is now happily ensconced in suburban Ontario with the best of all husbands. Santuario is G.B. Gordon’s first published work, but many more stories are just waiting to hit the keyboard.
Find Gordon blogging at http://gordon.kontext.ca, tweeting as @gb_gordon and wreaking general havoc on Goodreads: or send an email to gordon[at]kontext.ca.

***Giveaway Time!!!!***

Don't forget to comment for a chance to win a $10 credit to Riptide Publishing. 

All comments with email address included that are left by 11:59 pm on Sunday, Oct 14th will enter into the draw.

Okay, you heard G.B... Comment away WITH your email address to enter!!!

That's all... No hoops to jump through... No list of things to do...
Just.... Comment.... With.... Your email address...

Contest ends... Sunday, October 14th @ 11:59pm EST!

Good Luck!!!

And remember... Always keep it Dirty, Smutty & Hussy!