Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Escapist Book Tours virtual book tour for A.K. Faulkner’s LGBTQ+ urban fantasy novel Jack of Thorns! Today, I am excited to help kickoff the tour by sharing an interview with the main character from the book!
You can find our Q&A below, along with all of the info about the book, the author, and links to purchase a copy of Jack of Thorns for yourself! Also, be sure to take a look at the schedule at the bottom of the post and follow along to see the stops from our other awesome hosts!
Book Information:
Jack of Thorns by A.K. Faulkner
Series: Inheritance #1
Genre: LGBTQ+ Urban Fantasy
Intended Age Group: Adult
Pages: 378
Published: September 2019
Publisher: Ravensword Press (Self Published)
Blurb
You’d think seeing the future would make life easy, but Laurence Riley knows better.
No matter how hard he tries to master the chaos, everything slips out of control. His violent ex-boyfriend, his supernatural talents, his drug addiction—seeing what’s coming doesn’t help with any of them.
He needs help and he knows it. Help that only a god can provide.
The answer to his prayers is Jack, who offers help reining in his powers and mastering his life. In exchange, all Jack asks is regular offerings of sexual energy from Laurance’s conquests. A month ago, that would have been just fine with Laurence. If not for Quentin, it still would be.
Devastatingly handsome, incredibly desirable, and so far out of Laurence’s league it’s not even funny, Quentin is the flame to Laurence’s moth. Laurence doesn’t want anyone else, he can’t think of anyone else, and neither Quentin’s frustratingly chaste behavior nor his uncontrollable telekinesis are enough to put him off. Not even if his focus on Quentin means breaking his bargain with Jack and facing the consequences of disappointing a god.
Laurence doesn’t need to see the future to know that’s a bad idea, but he has no clue how dangerous Jack really is…
See Also:
Doom Patrol • X-Men • The Magicians
Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SS7RBW9
Apple: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1466949949
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940161429259
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=O5KbDwAAQBAJ
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/jack-of-thorns
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781912349111
Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/1605841280_jack-of-thorns/9781912349111
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/jack-of-thorns/ak-faulkner/9781912349111Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51264767-jack-of-thorns
Character Q&A
What music do you listen to?
Laurence: Indie folk, mostly. You know, Fleet Foxes, Daughter, Iron & Wine, that kind of thing.
Quentin: Khachaturian, Shostakovich, Mozart, Beethoven… The list goes on, I shan’t bore you further.
What are 3 items you can’t live without?
Laurence: Phone, car, weed, in whatever order makes you less likely to judge me.
Quentin: Passport, piano, clothes.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what is one thing you’d like to have with you?
Laurence: A GPS phone.
Quentin: Sunscreen.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
Laurence: Biphobia.
Quentin: It would be rude of me to say.
What do you do in your free time?
Laurence: I like clubbing. Okay, I like one night stands, but clubbing is a great way to get them.
Quentin: I don’t understand the question. Isn’t all time ‘free’?
What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
Laurence: Literally nothing, dude. What I want is to stay in bed, but I gotta work, right?
Quentin: Routine, I suppose.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Laurence: Advice is all about what the giver feels is important, not what matters to you. That’s, uh, not advice I received. That’s what I’m telling you. Which ironically I guess is all about me, huh? Shit.
Quentin: Walk away.
What do you carry in your bag?
Laurence: My glovebox is my bag, and it’s full of weed. It’s legal in CA, don’t have a cow, man.
Quentin: What do you mean by ‘bag’? Carry-on? Well then, that would include toiletries and grooming necessities, pajamas, slippers, fresh clothing, and any documentation required for the trip.
What’s your favorite animal?
Laurence: I’m more of a plants guy, but I like birds. They’re pretty cool. And they get to fly away, which is a whole mood.
Quentin: The temptation is to say ‘dogs’, but the truth is that I adore all animals, so I cannot truly say that I have a firm favourite. Mosquitoes are certainly my least favourite, though.
What do you think about [other MC(s)]?
Laurence: Quen? He’s infuriating, man! Have you met the guy? He’s all like “do what I say” and before you know it you’re doing it and he acts like that’s totally normal. Plus he’s all kinds of British weirdness and I know that’s not normal levels of British weirdness ‘cause I’ve met plenty of tourists who aren’t like him, but he’s all “no of course I don’t understand your weird American mouth-words, what is this ‘vacation’ of which you speak?” like someone forgot to install his British to American translator before he left home.
And he’s hot, which is totally unfair.
Quentin: Laurence is utterly delightful, if somewhat baffling. Spending time in his company is a privilege.
Do you have favorite saying?
Laurence: “Am I being detained?”
Quentin: No, I don’t think so. Do I? No, no, I don’t believe that I do.
What is your favorite holiday?
Laurence: Vacations? In this economy?
Quentin: Milan, although any fashion week is worth the trip.
If you could go anywhere in [the book’s world], where would you go and why?
Laurence: Uh, I dunno. It’d be pretty nice to go to San Francisco and see my grandpa. I haven’t seen him since I was a kid.
Quentin: Really, at this juncture, the question is where haven’t I already been? I’m running out of options, to be honest.
What do you do to relax?
Laurence: I feel like I’m saying ‘weed’ a lot, but, weed. Also, hookups. Also, beer. Beer, hookups, and weed; life’s relaxation trifecta.
Quentin: I’ll pick an invitation and attend whatever event it is for. Whether or not I remember it by morning is another matter entirely.
What is your favorite food?
Laurence: Can’t beat a good shrimp taco, man. Fresh, juicy, full of flavors, exactly what a body needs!
Quentin: Eating is such a chore. I don’t understand what there is to enjoy about it.
What is your favorite season?
Laurence: Summer! The days are long, the skies are blue, and we get all our best events: Pride, the Brew Festival, Comic-Con, plus the summer solstice to kick it all off in the first place. Amazing!
Quentin: Winter, certainly. It carries a stark beauty as life hunkers down to wait for spring.
How would you define happiness?
Laurence: I dunno, that’s a tough one. I guess I’d be happy if I’d never gotten hooked on heroin, but on the other hand I promise that you have never experienced next-level happiness unless you’ve tried it. It kind of has me questioning whether happiness is even any good for us if we have to hurt ourselves so much to get it, and even when we do, it doesn’t last.
Quentin: Honestly, any Speyside single malt whisky is happiness in a glass, though I’ve heard there are some excellent whiskys coming out of Japan nowadays. I really should give them a try.
What are you passionate about?
Laurence: Flowers. Yeah, yeah, I know. Ooh big whoop, a guy who’s into flowers. Deal with it. Flowers are amazing. Plants are amazing. Did you know there’s a tree in Australia that will sting you so bad you’ll still be in pain two years later? Horses have jumped to their deaths off cliffs to get away from the pain. One dude shot his own hand off rather than live with it. Plants are fucking weird, dude. I love them!
Quentin: Music. Well, the piano, specifically. I was taught at a young age, and it has been with me ever since.
How do you feel about your government?
Laurence: [long string of expletives]
Quentin: They do a job, I suppose? I don’t know what that job is, but I imagine that someone must do it.
If you could change one thing about [the book’s world], what would it be?
Laurence: Just one thing? Oh man. I guess if I could wave a hand and make bigotry disappear that would be a start. And while we’re at it, how about some fucking reparations? And Fox ‘News’ has got to go, seriously, though I guess if there was no more bigotry in the world they’d just self-destruct anyway.
Quentin: I would not be dismayed if my Father were no longer breathing.
What’s your biggest secret?
Laurence: Uh. I don’t really have any secrets, I guess. You kind of lose those the moment you go into rehab for like your fifth time. Who has time for those?
Quentin: I’m really far too uninteresting to harbour secrets.
[They are both lying to themselves – AK].
What do you hate?
Laurence: Dan. Fuck you, Dan.
Quentin: Father.
What’s your biggest fear?
Laurence: Dying old and alone, I guess? Not being worthy of love? Ha ha, that sounds stupid… Right? Shut up.
Quentin: Turning into my father.
What do you think your best quality is?
Laurence: I’m super hot. Like, have you seen this ass? These eyes? Check me out, I am one hundred percent pure fuckin’ snack. You know you wanna bite.
Quentin: Would it not be supreme arrogance to claim to have any such thing?
How would you describe the world you live in?
Laurence: It’s like a shit sandwich. There’s just enough bread wrapped around the shit to make you think it’s not gonna be shit, but then you take a bite, and suddenly your mouth is just flooded with fuckin’ shit, man. And tomorrow’s not gonna get any better, because guess what? The only thing on the menu all day every day is yet another fuckin’ shit sandwich.
Quentin: Transient. I do not get to settle in one place long enough to truly form an opinion of it, and so my world is a collection of liminal spaces which all blend together after a while.
About the Author
AK Faulkner is the author of the Inheritance series of contemporary fantasy novels, which begins with Jack of Thorns.
AK lives just outside of London, England, with a charismatic Corgi. Together they fight crime and try not to light too many fires on the way.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PoopRaven
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poopraven/
Discord: https://discoverinheritance.com/discord
Series Site: https://discoverinheritance.com/
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