Welcome to the Second Hand virtual book tour! All week long, authors Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton will be stopping by some of our favorite sites to celebrate their new release. Be sure to comment at all the stops along the way—one lucky reader who follows the tour will win a $10 gift certificate to Riptide Publishing! To enter, simply leave a comment below, making sure to include an email address where we can contact you if you are the winner. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm EST on 9/16, and the complete tour schedule can be found here. Thank you to all of our terrific hosts this week for helping us deliver another exciting book tour from Riptide Publishing!

The World of Tucker Springs

Tucker Springs is a multi-author collaboration between LA (Lori) Witt, Marie Sexton, and Heidi Cullinan.

The idea of a project like this had been brewing in my mind for quite some time — stand-alone novels written by different authors but with a central setting and a few overlapping characters. Basically, I wanted to mimic my Coda series, but with help. The concept came to fruition one day on chat with LA Witt. We were brainstorming story ideas. I said, “Hey, you know what would be fun?”

The next thing I knew, we were making a yahoo group, coming up with a name, and talking about which authors we should invite to join us. It just happened that my husband was going out of town on business the next week, and Lori had just moved to Omaha, which isn’t that far from me. She said, “How about if I drive over there and keep you company?” I took her to Old Town, which is Fort Collins’ historic district, and we decided to use it as a bit of a building block for the Light District in Tucker Springs. In fact, that picture on the cover? That’s a photo Lori took while visiting me.

Still, Tucker Springs isn’t Fort Collins. It’s a fictional town on Colorado’s western slope, about where Montrose is actually located (although it’s much bigger than Montrose). Lori came up with most of the history of the town. She also wrote the first book in the series, Where Nerves End.

We invited several authors to join us. Ironically, we had a couple who said yes, and one who said no: Heidi. So what’s she doing here now? Well, I guess you’ll get the details about that tomorrow, when we talk about our experience co-writing Second Hand! We still have other authors we may rope into the series with us down the road, but for now, we each have other books planned. The third book in the Tucker Springs universe will be Heidi’s Dirty Laundry, which is slated for release in early 2013. At some point after that will be Covet Thy Neighbor, by LA Witt, and an as-yet untitled novel by Marie about Nick, the hunky veterinarian.

The theme of Tucker Springs is what you see isn’t necessarily what you get, that you should be ready to be surprised. Like when someone says they’re not going to work on a project and they end up co-writing the second book and offering up the third. What does this mean for Nick the hunky veterinarian, Denver and Adam in Dirty Laundry, and Lori’s minister and tattoo artist in Covet Thy Neighbor? What secrets do they have in store?

Stay tuned to www.tuckersprings.com, and you’ll find out.

SecondHand

by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Paul Hannon moved to Tucker Springs for his girlfriend, but she’s left him with a house he can’t afford and a pantry full of useless gadgets. All Paul wants is to get back to normal, even if he’s not sure what that is anymore. When he wanders into Tucker Pawn for a gift to win her back, he meets El Rozal, pawn shop owner and all-around cynic.

El Rozal doesn’t do relationships, especially not with clueless straight boys still pining for their ex. El may make his living dealing in castoffs, but that doesn’t apply to men. Still, when Paul starts clearing out his old life, pawning kitchen equipment he never wanted in the first place, El is drawn to Paul in spite of himself.

Paul and El have nothing in common except a past full of disappointments. There’s no reason to believe the two of them could fit, but in El’s line of work, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. When it comes to love, El and Paul may learn that secondhand doesn’t mean second best.

This title is part of theTuckerSprings universe.

Readanexcerptandbuythebookhere

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About the Authors

Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren’t enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi also volunteers frequently for her state’s LGBT rights group, One Iowa, and is proud to be from the first midwestern state to legalize same-sex marriage. Find out more about Heidi, including her social networks, atwww.heidicullinan.com.

Marie Sexton lives in Colorado. She’s a fan of just about anything that involves muscular young men piling on top of each other. In particular, she loves the Denver Broncos and enjoys going to the games with her husband. Her imaginary friends often tag along. Marie has one daughter, two cats, and one dog, all of whom seem bent on destroying what remains of her sanity. She loves them anyway. You can find her atwww.MarieSexton.net.