Ball & Chain Blog Tour - Plus Bonus Interview with Abi!

We've had a lot of fun around here reading Abigail Roux's Cut & Run series, and a number of us count ourselves among the ranks of her Minion Army, interacting with Abi via Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, anywhere we can find her!  So, you can imagine my reaction when the opportunity to host not only a stop on the Ball & Chain blog tour - but to also have an interview with Abi - popped into my inbox.  I think I've been squeeing since January.  Just sayin'.  Anyway, follow me through the jump to see what's on the mind of Wench-favorite author Abi Roux!

Welcome to the Ball & Chain virtual tour! If you’re following along, you’ll be able to win yourself some goodies that might just save your life! I’ve got five Survival Kits in a Sardine Can, perfect for traveling and hiking or taking with you to remote island weddings where people might be dying. And I’ve got five sets of trading cards with original artwork and character work-ups for the less adventurous readers!

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing to win one of five Survival Kits in a Sardine Can or one of five sets of trading cards with original artwork. Entries close at midnight, Eastern Time, on April 1, and winners will be announced on April 3rd. Contest is valid worldwide.

1) Introduce yourself!  It seems silly to say, since you're such a favorite here at The Saucy Wenches Book Club, but just to observe the niceties, tell us a little about yourself!

I’m Abi! I’ve been around for about 7 years now. I started writing in 2003 as a hobby in college and I’m not entirely sure how I got here. Most people know me for Ty and Zane, but if I could write westerns for the rest of my career I’d be a happy girl.

2) Is there any chance of seeing additional Cut & Run books after book 9?

Nope! After book 9, the Cut & Run series is off to pasture. Their story will be done, and bringing it back for any reason would just be to torture the characters. They will, however, be visiting throughout the sidewinder Series, so readers won’t be completely bereft of Ty and Zane.

3) What brings you here? What drew you to the M/M genre, and what do you think sets you apart from other authors?

I don’t know, I don’t think anything sets me apart. We’re all writing because we love to, and we love the genre or we wouldn’t be here. Every author has their own niche, they’re own skillset.

4) Grouping the Ty and Zane questions together, Did Zane ever design that tattoo for Ty as he'd planned? Is there any chance we'll see the Garretts and the Gradys meet on-page? Will we ever meet any of Zane's exes?

Ha! A whole series of questions I can’t answer!

5) What do YOU like to read? Left to your own devices, what would you pick up?

I like adventure novels. Historical adventure novels are even better.

6) And because you really can't have one without the other, the Nick/Kelly questions: Will we ever meet Nick's family? Tattoos - who has what inked where? Will we see Owen find out about Nick and Kelly on page?

We actually meet Nick’s family very briefly in Ball & Chain. Part of it, anyway. The tattoo information will come, I promise! And how Owen handles Nick and Kelly won’t be too much of a mystery at the end of the book.

7) Now, many of us have an author whose work, it doesn't matter what they've written, but when they release something new, we automatically buy it - without even thinking twice about it. Do you have any authors on your auto-buy list?

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, writing together or solo. I have every single book they’ve ever released.

8) Obviously, by the giant fangirl squeeing going around when I mentioned the opportunity to ask you questions, there are several intensely loyal minions around, and with everyone seeming to be drawn to different characters for varying reasons, it speaks volumes about your ability to create stories, and characters, that really resonate with people. How do you create your characters? How is it you can make a group of men that should, by all rights, have at least one guy nobody likes, and have them so complete that everyone loves them all at least entirely too much, if not well past that point?

I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for this! I just try to give as much humanity to each character as I can. If you think about the people in your life, even the ones you dislike have good qualities to them, and the ones you adore have bad qualities even if you choose to ignore them. As readers we have the ability to see below the surface of these characters, to see the good and the bad and to make decision based on what we can see rather than what other characters can see. It gives us a unique ability to love them even if they might not deserve it, or to hate them for what they don’t show anyone else.

9) Ball & Chain is right around the corner!  Can you give us a sneak peek into what's coming our way?

In June Cross & Crown will be coming out, and that’s Sidewinder #2. It’s one of my favorite stories so far, very different from the Cut & Run books and worlds away from Shock & Awe.

Thank you for having me! For anyone who cares to follow me more closely, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr!

Home from their unexpected deployment, the former members of Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder rejoin their loved ones and try to pick up the pieces of the lives they were forced to leave behind. Ty Grady comes home to Zane Garrett, only to find that everything around him has changed—even the men he went to war with. He barely has time to adjust before his brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man. But that isn’t all Deuce asks Ty to do, and Ty must call for backup to deal with the business issues of Deuce’s future father-in-law.

Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott join Ty and Zane at the wedding on an island in Scotland, thinking they’re there to assuage Deuce’s paranoia. But when bodies start dropping and boats start sinking, the four men get more involved with the festivities than they’d ever planned to.

With the clock ticking and the killer just as stuck on the isolated island as they are, Ty and Zane must navigate a veritable minefield of family, friends, and foes to stop the whole island from being destroyed. You can pre-order Ball & Chain from Riptide and get it two days early!