Giveaway + Blog Tour: Counting Down (Counting #2) by Kelly Jensen


Kelly Jensen's here today talking about Counting Down (see our review here) & she's offering a tour wide giveaway for one lucky commenter!


What’s next for Henry and Marc?

One of my favourite scenes in Counting Down is where they are crawling through ductwork looking for a way out of the basement. It’s silly and sort of fun and something not many dates get into. In fact, if you’re crawling through an HVAC system looking for a way to escape a building, you’re probably not on a date.

While they’re crawling, Marc and Henry talk about their dating history and decide that being stuck on the side of the road in a blizzard counts as their first date. The fact they’re stuck in a basement on their second date makes their history rather short and terrible—but that’s half the fun, right?

Though the dates could be considered disasters, each does give Henry and Marc a unique opportunity to really get to know each other. There are marriages that wouldn’t survive an hour trapped in a snowbank. The fact they got through that and went on to lock themselves in a basement shows there’s something there.

If I were to write a third date for these guys, I wouldn’t trap them somewhere again for a couple reasons. The first is that Counting Fence Posts and Counting Down are supposed to be echoes. I had only hours to get these guys from “I don’t particularly like you” to “I want to get to know you better” in Counting Fence Posts, so it felt right that they should have only a handful of hours to get from “I’m really interested in dating you” to “I want to date you exclusively.” Or “I want to see where this goes.”

The second reason is that contrary to popular opinion, I’m just not that cruel. And a joke is rarely as funny the third time. ;)

I have in fact written a third story for Henry and Marc, outside of the fluffy free Christmas short I posted last year. It’s called Counting on You and it’s where I felt their relationship should go next. Henry and Marc travel to D.C. together on assignment. The train does not derail and no one bombs their hotel. There is no food poisoning and the elevators at the client office all run without a hitch.

It wouldn’t be a Henry and Marc story without something happening, though. I’ve set it two months on from New Year’s Eve, late February, and it’s time for these guys to figure out if this is it. If what they have together is both real and worth keeping.

I’m looking forward to sharing the final chapter with you and I promise they get a sweet HEA. (Details regarding all my upcoming books are on my website.)


Counting Down

It’s been a week since a Christmas Eve blizzard changed the course of Marcus Winnamore’s life. Plan A is now Plan B, and the first item on his new agenda is taking Henry Auttenberg on a date. They’ve been invited to a New Year’s Eve party, and Marc is counting down the hours until midnight… until he can kiss Henry in front of his colleagues and friends.

Things don’t quite work out to plan. Finding the elevator out of service, Marc and Henry check the stairs, only to choose the wrong door, and become locked in the basement. Close quarters once again make for close conversation, and as they explore every avenue of escape, they also explore the deepening attraction between them. For Marc, this isn’t an experiment. Will he still feel that way when he has to admit to someone other than Henry that he’s gay?


Bio

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, co-written with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Connect with Kelly: Twitter | Facebook | Website





Follow the Tour!

3/29     Sinfully Gay Romance “Marc’s Book”
3/29     Tibby Armstrong “Excerpt: The Laundry”
3/30     The Novel Approach   “There’s Something About Henry”
3/31     Joyfully Jay “Excerpt: The Hidden Something”
4/4       MM Good Book Reviews “The Basement Playlist”
4/3       Love Bytes “New Year’s Eve Traditions”
4/3       The Dreamspinner Press Blog “Dating Ideas for Henry and Marc”
4/5       Boy Meets Boy Reviews “What’s Next for Henry and Marc?”

Thanks for following my tour! At the end of every post, I’ll be asking a question. Leave a comment with your answer (and your email address). Every comment throughout the tour counts as an entry in my giveaway. One winner will receive $15 (US or equivalent) to spend at the Dreamspinner Press store.

Question: What’s the weirdest date you’ve ever been on?

19 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I haven't gone on any weird date. As a matter of fact I didn't go on many dates at all. I am married to my first love for 33 years. We met, fell in love, dated a few times and 12 months later we were married.
    tankie44 at gmail dot com

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  3. Congrats and thanks for the post. The book sounds great. I had a blind date once, off of one of those matching services, and we just didn't click at all. Weird only because I expected we'd have at lest one thing in common. - Purple Reader,
    TheWrote [at] aol [dot] com

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    1. I've never actually been on a blind date! I always wanted to, though. It's such a great story device, lol.

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  4. I went to the movies on a first date and we were the only two in the theater!

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  5. I've had a lot of fixups, especially in college, which (because they were for dorm dances where everybody's fixed up) were always weird. Or, there was the time I asked my crush out and we sat at the campus coffeehouse. Halfway through, his best friend showed up and sat with us for ages. Long after the fact, I discovered it had been intentional, since he apparently had a girlfriend. Geez...

    vitajex(At)Aol(Dot)com

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  6. I don't know if I'd exactly call it a date, but I did this weekend reunion/get together with one of my high school exes almost 10 yrs ago at his sister's house. He spent the majority of the time ignoring me & flirting with someone else. I got stupid drunk & had a meltdown. The whole weekend was really a disaster. And the last time I tried to date anyone.

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    1. Forgot my email address: legacylandlisa(at)gmail(dot)com

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  7. No weird date, but an awkward one. It was my first date with my now-husband and we double dated with my friend and her boyfriend. At dinner, my date went to pay for our meals and my friend's data just sat there. So my date ended up paying for everything. And we were all broke students, so it was pretty bad of my friend's boyfriend. My date (now husband) was pretty gracious about it, though.

    jen(dot)f(at)mac(dot)com

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    1. Sounds like your husband was a keeper, even then. :)

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  8. As an asexual and aromantic, I don't do dates :)

    amie_07(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  9. As a first date, once I went to his house to watch the Eurovision song contest... and I take the ESC seriously and he did not - thus this was the first and last date we ever went on. You do not joke with the ESC, you just do not :D

    gali [dot] giving [at] gmail [dot] com

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  10. My first date with my long term partner... We went for lunch to a sort of fancy restaurant, and half way durning lunch he realised he had forgotten his wallet at home. He did not tell me, though, till we finished eating, but he spend most of the lunch freaking out. When he told me he was terrible ashamed, which I considered incredibly cute, because he is a sort of really tough gay... This was ten years ago, and we are still together so...
    susanaperez7140(at)gmail(dot)com

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  11. Thanks for all the comments! This giveaway is now closed.

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