Blog Tour & Giveaway – Lying with Scorpions by Aleksandr Voinov

Today, we’re happy to be participating in the Lying with Scorpions Virtual Book Tour!
Click the banner below for more tour stops.

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Note: I fell in love with Kendras in Scorpion. Find my post here.

Please welcome Aleks to the blog!

Hi, thanks for hosting me!

I’m Aleksandr Voinov and I’m here to talk about my newest release, Lying with Scorpions, which is he sequel to Scorpion and part of the Memory of Scorpions gay military fantasy trilogy. I’ll be checking in to answer any questions you might have, so feel free to ask questions in the comments. At the end of the post, you’ll find more information and details for a backlist giveaway. Good luck!

LyingWithScorpions_600x900(1)Blurb

If you lie with scorpions, you’d better have a taste for poison.

Now that Kendras’s lover Adrastes has claimed the throne of Dalman, Kendras is tangled deeper than ever in politics and intrigue. As the new leader of the Scorpions and Adrastes’s one true friend, he and his men stand between Adrastes and those who wish him dead.

And many do. Adrastes openly challenges the ocean priesthood for power while establishing himself at court and brokering with the realm’s various factions. He means for the Scorpions to become a fearsome legion again, but Kendras must first learn how to be a good officer and recruit to replace the fallen. His choices will determine the future of a group steeped in hundreds of years of history and tradition.

As both Kendras and Adrastes settle old scores, a new enemy arises in Commander Graukar, a war hero loyal to the old order. In his formidable mountain fortress, Graukar may hold the balance of power. But while Adrastes aims to either rule or destroy Graukar, Kendras finds himself doubting Adrastes for the first time, and sharing more with Graukar than he ever thought possible.

Buy link: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/lying-scorpions

Biography:

Aleksandr has been published for twenty years, both in print and ebook. He has ten years’ experience as a writing coach, book doctor, and writing teacher, and he works as a financial editor in London.

After co-authoring the M/M military cult classic Special Forces, Aleksandr embarked on a quest to write edgy, dark, sometimes literary M/M and gay fiction (much of which is romance/erotica)—the only way he can use his American Literature degree these days.

He’s been published with Heyne/Random House, Carina Press, Samhain Publishing, and others.

Connect with Aleks:

Website: www.aleksandrvoinov.com

Blog: aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com

Twitter:@aleksandrvoinov

Goodreads: goodreads.com/Vashtan

Contest:

To win an ebook from my backlist (not Lying with Scorpions), email me at vashtan@gmail.com with the answer to the following questions (and your preferred file format):

– Name the Scorpions that join Kendras’s unit in this book

– What is Runner’s secret?

– Who was the first officer of the Scorpions, and what happened to him?

Fast Five Questions

Alexs kindly agreed to answer our Fast Five!

1 Star Wars or Star Trek?

Alexs says: Star Wars

2Coke, Pepsi or other?

Alexs says: Other

3Salty or sweet?

Alexs says: Salty

4Monsters or Space Aliens?

Alexs says: Either

5Spaceballs or Galaxy Quest?

Alexs says: Both!

Charlee here again. I don’t know about you, but I find that unexplained answer of “other” very intriguing. I do love a good mystery.

Thanks for being here, Alexsandr!

13 thoughts on “Blog Tour & Giveaway – Lying with Scorpions by Aleksandr Voinov”

  1. Hello Aleksandr, Welcome to the blog! I love to read dark and gritty stories. Kendras’s realm sounds brutal. How did you start building this world? Did you have any particular influences?

    • Hi Trina – thank you for hosting me! Dark and gritty is what I do (well, I also do slightly lighter, sexier books in the Market Garden series, for example). For Scorpion, the first book, a big influence was Turkey – I went on holiday to Turkey between jobs and the heat, dust, landscape and that sense of two thousand plus years of history somehow sparked off Scorpion in my brain.

      I also have a degree in Ancient History, so there’s a Roman/Persian influence in there. (We have gladiators and corrupt priesthoods, for example.)

  2. I discovered you on Goodreads, Aleksandr, and have been enjoying your work ever since! Your voice is so easy and elegant. I’m constantly keeping an eye out for your new work.

    • Hi Jamie – thank you! I’m absolutely aiming for “easy” – ideally the reader will never notice the blood and sweat that went into it making it look so simple. The best bet to keep track of me is my blog, Riptide, and, absolutely, Goodreads (I have a readers’ group there for people who have questions or want to talk about my books or other books). 🙂

  4. Hi Aleksandr! Thanks for including us in your blog tour! I would love to hear your thoughts on writing such an emotionally challenging series. You work that special magic where the reader lives the story along with the character. I felt a bit rung out after reading Scorpion. I’m sure this books will be the same. Is it intense for you to write as well? Does that intensity come in the creative draft or with much revision/fine-tuning/editorial effort?

    • Hi Charlee – Thanks, that’s a great question (and almost its own blog post).

      It’s a mysterious process, isn’t it? I guess I’m one of those semi-crazed “method actor” type writers – I have to feel the character and turn a bit into him while I write, so those emotions? Yep. That’s me on the page – me, that is, if I were a mercenary with that specific background (and I’m glad I’m not, I prefer my slightly more boring life).

      I try to get as deeply into the character as I can, so I know what drives him or her, and then I test them, a lot, on their own principles and drives and ambitions. Kendras is all about loyalty and how a loyal man turns into a loyal leader by strength of his virtues – a terrible growth process that’s all about growing up and taking responsibility and admitting failure and trying to learn from mistakes.

      I definitely have to tap into those parts of me that Kendras and I share, and I have to stay true to him even if he goes down a path I wouldn’t choose or I think is wrong. In the end, I’m just not compromising on that stuff.

      In real life, my partner can tell if the writing is going well or I’m stuck – I apparently exude a slightly manic energy or withdraw and am definitely not nearly present in this reality. This gets worse towards the end of the book, too.

    • RK – Thank you! I think/hope Lying with Scorpions achieves the same thing – or I wouldn’t have written it. I wanted to get the same intensity (and it’s strange, because at the same time, it’s pretty understated) and stay true to that throughout the whole series, which was 80% of the battle of writing the sequels.

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