Welcome to the Stars & Stripes virtual book tour! Thank you for helping me celebrate the release of the 6th book in the Cut & Run series.
I’ll be giving away tons of prizes. For every stop I have a digital copy of the first book, Cut & Run, a personalized autograph, and either a Team Ty/Team Zane T-shirts or an autographed trinket! To enter to win one of the prizes, just leave a comment here at the Smexy Books. To win the grand prize, one complete electronic set of the first 5 books, you’ll need to finish a treasure hunt, which you’ll find on my blog on the last day of the tour! Many thanks to Smexy Books for hosting me on my very first Riptide Publishing virtual book tour!
Meet Ty and Zane
If you’re here and reading in anticipation of the 6th book in this series, it’s a good bet you know Ty and Zane already. There’s not much I can tell you about them that you don’t already know, right? Well, that’s partly true.
I’m always asked, ‘Do you ever write characters based on people you know?’ The answer to that is a big, resounding yes. Several of the people in the series are based on real people, people I know or have known, even people in my own family.
Mara, for example, is a mash of my mother, my granny, and my great-grandmother. Several lines from the books are taken directly from their mouths and put on page. “Just step on the nails, you won’t fall through!” was said to me by my mother just before I missed a nail and fell through the tin roof. “When we take a break, we’ll paint the chicken house!” was my great-grandmother during the course of moving her furniture. And perhaps my favorite from my Granny, “Well, if I’m going to Hell, at least I’ll be with all my friends when I get there.”
Chester, as well, is based on that same great-grandmother. Instead of a shovel, however, she would sit on the front porch with a shotgun and shoot snakes out of the trees in her yard. When she fell and broke her hip at 96, she crawled across her house to the front door to unlock it and let help in, then two days later she vaulted over the rails of her hospital bed and almost outran her nurse to escape the hospital.
Zane’s father, Harrison, is a reincarnation of my Pop. You’ll get to know him in Stars & Stripes. I loved him with every fiber of my being, and he taught me everything I know about fair play, honesty, and loyalty.
Zane’s mother, Beverly, is also based on real people in my life. It takes all kinds.
The most prominent character I’ve ever based on someone real, though, is Ty. He was a Recon Marine, crazy as can be, and one of the sweetest, gentlest people I ever knew. Unless you got between him and his knife, and then things got squirrely.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts with a Major in Arabic while he was in the military, then after he got out he earned a Master in Business Administration. He was fluent in five languages when I met him, and he went on to learn four more. Some of them, like Dari, he taught himself during the course of duty. Anything he put his mind to, he could learn. He spent 13 years in the Marines, serving in Cuba, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He rounded out his career by earning a Bronze Star for acts of heroism above and beyond the call of duty.
His skills weren’t spectacular or unusual for a member of the Special Forces, nor was the fact that he was just a little crazy. I believe that’s something a lot of readers don’t realize when they read through the list of Ty’s credentials and abilities. Ty may be fictional, but people like him are real, they’re out there, and they’re amazing. They are, in fact, better than Ty could ever be because fiction has to be believable. Real life knows no bounds.
Many readers write to me and tell me these characters feel real, like family, and thank me for creating them. To be honest, I only put them to page. To me, they are real. And for the most part, they are family.
Stars & Stripes
Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have managed the impossible: a few months of peace and quiet. After nearly a year of personal and professional turmoil, they’re living together conflict-free, work is going smoothly, and they’re both happy, healthy, and home every night before dark. But anyone who knows them knows that can’t possibly last.
When an emergency call from home upsets the balance of their carefully arranged world, Ty and Zane must juggle family drama with a perplexing crime to save a helpless victim before time runs out.
From the mountains of West Virginia to a remote Texas horse ranch harboring more than just livestock and childhood memories, Ty and Zane must face their fears—and their families—to overcome an unlikely enemy and bring peace back into their newly shared world.
You can read the first chapter and purchase Stars & Stripes here.
Abigail Roux was born and raised in North Carolina. A past volleyball star who specializes in sarcasm and painful historical accuracy, she currently spends her time coaching high school volleyball and investigating the mysteries of single motherhood. Any spare time is spent living and dying with every Atlanta Braves and Carolina Panthers game of the year. Abigail has a daughter, Little Roux, who is the light of her life, a boxer, four rescued cats who play an ongoing live-action variation of Call of Duty throughout the house, a certifiable extended family down the road, and a cast of thousands in her head. You can stalk Abi in various places, including her website, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook.
Thanks Abigail! As she mentioned above, she has lots of prizes to giveaway today – a digital copy of the first book, Cut & Run, a personalized autograph, and either a Team Ty/Team Zane T-shirts or an autographed trinket!
To enter, just leave a comment. Contest open through August 16.
I love this. Team Ty!
Hi! I’m so happy to get this book – I’ve been eagerly waiting to meet Zane’s family and it was definitely worth it. They were so different from what I had imagined them to be and the surprise was definitely worth it! Send me some fun gifts ;-)
Wow, it’s wonderful to learn new things about the characters and the people behind them!
Thanks for this post! Love learning things about the characters!
Gotta support my fellow Southern Belles, especially when they’re snarky!! Can’t wait to read the latest installment in this book!
I have been dying to read this series ever since Mandi brought it to my attention. She is my book crack pimp. Definitely need to take a weekend and read this entire series!
Thanks for this post!
I just finished the first novel and I loved it! So I told my friends here is the next series what you have to read too.
No need to enter me in the contest. (I have them all.) But I just wanted to chime in and say what a great post this is. I LOVE these books… and they feel real to me too.
Thank you, Abi, for writing such amazing stories.
More blog tour…yay! I love learning a little bit more each day about the books and the characters in them. Thanks for such a wonderful series, Abi!
-Traci
Don’t enter me. But had to comment and say that Abigail Roux rocks! And I need a real life Ty in my life. *sigh*
Wow, you’ve had some very interesting women in your life, lol. Pretty neat.
Thanks for more insight to your characters, Abigail!! It’s great how so many characters are based on people you know…thank you for putting them to paper and breathing life into them for us readers! :)
I wanted to drop by and say thank you to Mandi for hosting me today! Everybody make sure you comment all over the place, because I’m running out of places to hide these prizes from the evil kitty and little girl and I need to get rid of them!
Just out stalking my favorite boys. Always great to learn a little behind the scenes info.
So interesting to read about who the characters were based on and to get a more background feel for the characters. Thanks for the giveaway! strive4bst at yahoo dot com
Thank you for the blog tour I love Cut & Run series and Ty and Zane so much ^^
I love Ty and Zane :) Thank you for the post, I love learning more about how you create the characters and the characters themselves. Awesome job once again with Stars and Strips :)
I didn’t realize that Ty was based on a real person! I’m now even more amazed by him!
I can’t agree more. These characters have life. So many of them remind me of my own family, and I relate to Ty in more than one way. It makes reading the books so much better when you can connect with the characters. When you can match up the emotions and actions of a scene with an event or person in your real life, it just makes everything more vibrant. Thank you Abi for sharing your characters, your family, with us.
Really interesting post! The Cut & Run series are my absolute favorite books.
Love the series and the characters. Thanks for the insight. I can’t wait for the next one!
this post is awesome. i love that u have given us some more insight on the characters and who insprired them. thank u for that. i really enjoyed it. look forward to more. and thanks for doing the giveaways. :)
I think we all have a Mara in our family. That strong matriarch who we all love, respect…and maybe fear a little ;) Thank you for sharing with us a glimpse of the people who have influenced you and thank you for an incredible series.
Thanks for the post, love to hear from the authors about how their stories come to life.
I love Chester’s shovel.
I love Ty and Zane :D
Thank you for the post and for those amazing characters.
Great post, Abi. It’s awesome getting to learn new little tidbits about what went into creating these characters.
I love these guys! Thank you Abi for giving us another wonderful look into their world..
Loved it! Mara reminds me a lot of my grandmother, too. Harrison reminds me a little of my Pop.
So far I’ve managed to avoid any Beverlys….. so far.
rachel_ann94@yahoo.com
Can’t wait to read this!
Oh, you’re right…. Ty & Zane are like crack, but after five books they became like family. It’s one of my favorite series ever, can’t wait to read what are our boys getting into in Texas…
I think these little infos help us all to survive – barly! – till book 7 =)
Thank you!!!
oopss, left of the email again…so here it is:
kersten73@citromail.hu
I’ve heard such good things about this series- it’s at the top of my TBR pile!
I love this series so much. I am so glad you are adding to the series.
Lisa
This is in my TBR pile so it would be great timing
I have wanted to read this series! It would be great to have.
I stayed up all night reading this after my son woke me up at 0115 this morning. When is the next one coming out?? I love Ty and Zane!!
Zomg! Team Ty! Team Zane! Team Ty!
I’m sorry, the voices in my head keep arguing over who they love more, but really, we love them both very much and would greatly love a Team t-shirt.
I loved reading a while back that Ty was based on a real person, and more of the story behind him. And coming from the South myself, many of the people in these remind me a lot of people in my own life.
Wow…I knew the characters were based on people, but I didn’t know it was to that extent. It sounds like Abi has a great group of people around her. Ty is such a great character. It makes me happy to know there are real people like that in the world!
I absolutely love this series. Will always be at the top of my all-time great reads! Thanks so much!
Loved Stars & Stripes, it really felt like we got to know the characters on a totally different level. Brilliant job as always!
Great post, thank you Abi! Love Cut & Run series and can`t wait for the next book.
Love Ty&Zane! Great post. Abi. How much do I love that you did a sex chart for the boys on your tumblr. You are made of awesome.
I just discovered Ty and Zane three days ago. I’m so happy to have found a great m/m series.
I love this series! And I was happy to learn about the characters and how people in your life have influenced them! Thank you Abigail!
It was because of Stars & Stripes that the Riptide Publishing website crashed when everyone tried to log on and download their copy once the e-book was released. That tells you how many fans of Ty and Zane were anxiously waiting for their next book. Congratulations!
I love these characters! I have to say I was part of the site crash problem because I wanted my book.
Love the insights into the character creation! Thank you!
scarletrose9(at)hotmail(dot)com
I have to say that I love the fact that someone else uses the word squirrely :)
This is an awesome giveaway!
Thank you!
I love this series. I must admit, I change teams with every book I read. That is a good problem, right? Can’t wait to read Stars and Stripes.
i did not know Ty was based in a real guy. That made me want to meet this real life Ty so much! Awesome!!!
Much as I love Zane I have to admit Ty is my favourite :)
I love these guys and have been impatiently waiting for Stars & Stripes. I’ll finally sit with my Kindle tonight and dive in!! Thanks for the chance to win.
sigh….ty and zane are just…..epic. it was so nice reading about them being in love and being comfortable in it. Lord knows they deserve it after all they’ve had to get through. And dammit i deserved to read about it too :P heartfelt thank youz Abigail!! You’re awesome!
Loved hearing about your Ty! Thank you for sharing your inspiration for your characters. I “know” many Chesters, Earls, and Maras and love reading them in your books.
It’s great to learn about your inspiration. samati75 at gmail.com
I have not read any of this series yet but will have to, they sound really great. Thanks for the great post & giveaway.
manning_J2004 at yahoo dot com
Thanks for the info! I love getting to know characters.
tiger-chick-1(at)hotmail(dot)com
Oh, wow. I think this has been my favorite blog tour stop so far. So awesome to learn about the real people that some of my most favorite characters in the world are based on. Might just be hormones on my part but that last little bit made me tear up. Made me realize that these books are…in a way…Abi sharing her family with all of us and that just makes them that much more special to me. (hedwig2213 at yahoo dot com)
Love everything I read about the boys. Favorite series…ever.
mswickedtruth at gmail.com
Thank you for another amazing book Abi.
the tiger is so cute.. hope i can win this
the “real” ty sounds amazing! i love you and your crazy characters, abi! thanks for anither amazing book>3
I’ve been seeing these books continuously pop up on my goodreads & twitter streams for at least a month. And after this fantastic post I’m certain that I am missing out on something pretty damn great! Now I’m just sad I missed out on the other stops of the tour. I cant wait to read about Ty & Zane!
Thanks for the chance to win, and the wonderful post about the books! :)
I mean great post about the characters. (sorry I’m a dope)
This books sounds really good. I had never heard of it before. I thought it was a kid’s book by cover, but luckily I read the description. I will definitely be adding this to my ‘To Be Read’ pile.
It’s great that you have such brilliant people in your life, Abi! Thanks for making them part of our family too through your stories. Harrison was one of my favourite characters in the new book and to hear now that he is based on your father is just awesome.
Codename_Sherry[@]hotmail.com
This sounds like an amazing storyline. I love when the characters are not all angst-ridden with regards to their relationship.
sandy@thereadingcafe.com
I haven’t read any of the books yet, so thank you for the giveaway!
Ok, this blogpost got me a little choked up. I adored Harrison and I’m so glad to know that he was based on a real life person – the world needs more humans like him. His reaction to Zane’s coming out was pure beauty. Thank you!
The characters sound intriguing.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
OMG, thank you for that background information! Your charcters are always soooo real, it’s great to know who inspired you.
rory@wolke7.net
I’ve heard so many fantastic things about this series…don’t know how I missed it, but I plan to remedy that!
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
I have heard fantastic things about this series. I guess no time like the present to add to my towering digital TBR pile!