Acing the Game
Carey PW
Publication date: February 10th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
Is food really the way into a person’s heart?
Shep Lee thought he had it all. A successful restaurant, a loving husband who understood his asexuality, and most of all, the ability to be himself, a popular chef in the small town of Cloverleaf, Montana. That is, until his husband, Elmer Eshler, began pushing Shep more on sex.
Elmer doesn’t understand why he can’t turn his partner on—aren’t they perfect for each other? And Shep loves him, right? Shep, meanwhile, while confident with his body, is and forever will be sex indifferent. Why has Elmer suddenly changed his tune? But he doesn’t want to lose the man he loves so much. What can they do?
Shep convinces Elmer to try a polyamorous relationship. Elmer gets to have Shep and the sex life he’s always wanted. Shep gets a cooking buddy and a chance to experience a relationship and even try sex with a woman as his authentic gender. At first, Shep isn’t sure, but finds himself coming around—this feels safer than opening up the relationship. All three of them will be romantically involved, so that should ease any jealousy, right?
But when Willow Saint, a free-spirited, boisterous, and saucy young woman, comes into their lives, neither are prepared for the emotional and sexual rollercoaster that follows. Enthralled by Willow’s charm and kindness, Elmer and Shep struggle to understand what this means for their own bond. Can they become one happy family? Or will this ruin everything?
Where are you from and where do you call home?
I’m originally from Covington, Georgia and lived in GA until I was about thirty years old. The sweltering humid weather tormented me, and I also had a burning desire to see the world. So I got out of there. From 2012-2015, I lived in China, both in Beijing and Shanghai. For the past eight years, I lived in Harlem, Montana, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. But rural living inspired me to create the fictional town of Cloverleaf. It’s definitely been an enriching experience. In March 2023, the need for adventure filled my veins again, and I moved to Waterville, Maine, which is now the place I call home.
What inspired you to start writing?
I got my first taste of writing in the third grade. We were assigned to write short stories, and we even illustrated them and made little books. When reading mine aloud to the class, my classmates hung on to every word, leaning forward with eyes filled with wonderous anticipation. As the year progressed, the teacher started saving my stories for last, and everyone applauded and cheered after my readings. Honestly, I don’t know why my peers enjoyed my tales of mosquitoes who befriended lizards, but hey, it gave me the confidence to say, “Maybe I can do this.”
How long have you been writing?
I’ve loved writing since I learned to write in grade school. By high school, I crafted poetry as a way to cope through the awkward growing pains of adolescence. During my undergrad years, I wrote my first novel, even calling into work “sick” so that I could type away for hours on my manuscript. I also composed a book about the quirky people I met in China. Writing is like thinking and breathing. It flows naturally, and there’s no other way that I wish to express myself.
What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?
Success is a long process and takes work. Writing isn’t a hobby; it’s a job, which means that it’s a second career on top of my full-time gig. I improve my craft with each novel and am building a fan base. It all takes time. I’d also encourage them to learn to take professional criticism from publishers and editors. They don’t always need to apply others’ input, but it helps sharpen one’s skills.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
I hardly wrote anything for almost ten years. With all kinds of stories buzzing around in my head, I sat down with my laptop, but nothing flowed out of me. I got stuck in my own insecurity because someone close to me said that I’d never get published. Years later, a lot of turmoil occurred in my life, and I craved an outlet. Thus, I started writing about my lived experiences, though the novels are still fictionalized. It worked! So I’d suggest drafting whatever comes to mind even if it doesn’t feel good at the time. A paragraph a day is something, and writers may find themselves pleasantly surprised at works that emerge from those brief writing sessions.
What authors in your genre do you read?
When it comes to books, I haven’t gravitated toward certain authors. I loved going into large bookstores and randomly grabbing a book that just spoke to me. Sometimes I don’t even read the blurb. However, one of my fellow Extasy Books’ authors, Adriana Kraft, writes some interesting erotic romance based on body positivity and family folktales. Like me, she’s integrated a lot of her lived experiences into them. I appreciate her ability to weave these themes into her works rather than focusing only on erotica.
What comes first, the plot or characters?
It's consistently been the characters for me. Acing the Game is loosely based on my marriage to an allosexual man. I wanted to convey the ways that my husband and I navigate through our differences in sexuality. My current work-in-progress is more plot-driven, but I had created the main heroes before diving into the plot. As a reader, if I can’t connect on a deep level to the characters, the plot won’t do much for me, no matter how well-crafted it is.
Are you working on anything at the present you would like to tell us about?
I’m always hungry for a new challenge, so I decided to throw my hat into series writing. I submitted the first book in my Dark Pride series to my publisher last month and am halfway through drafting the second one. It’s a dark fantasy romance about queer shapeshifters whose abilities match their key LGBTQIA+ identity. I hope it can inspire people to see these identities as gifts. After all, diversity makes the world a richer place.
Describe the perfect writing space.
I enjoy a nice, cushiony armchair, a cup of black coffee in my skull mug, and a cat in my lap. After moving to Maine, I now have an office of my own that also contains all my art supplies. I plan to decorate the walls with framed photos of my book covers and may add some candles to make it cozier.
Do you do research for your book? If so, what does that entail?
Since I choose to write about the places I live, it minimizes the amount of research needed because I portray my own experiences. However, there are times when I need to do a quick internet search and read a few articles to get my facts straight. Mostly, it’s small topics, such as “what do lizards eat?” For Acing the Game, I explored a lot of polyamorous and open relationship dating sites, which added a nice comical chapter to the book.
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve written five novels, two unpublished. I must admit that one of the unpublished ones is my favorite. It was the first one I wrote after a long hiatus from writing, so it’s the work that revived my spark. I doubt I’ll ever publish it because it’s a super dark novel that, nowadays, feels too risky to go public. But that’s exactly what makes it my beloved one, too. It’s called The Tragic Fate of Misfits.
Do you hear from your readers much? What do they say?
I’d love to hear from them more. I had one person on Twitter who claimed that my first published novel, Grayality, changed their life. I had another fan on Instagram share that they got Grayality stocked in their local library upon their request. Those messages feel great, but I’d love more personal messages about what they loved about my book or regarding any questions they had about it. I’d happily respond to emails through my website.
Carey PW (he/they) is an author, college instructor, and mental health counselor.Carey currently lives in Montana, and identifies as nonbinary, transmasculine (AFAB) and panromantic asexual. Carey has discovered that writing about his lived experiences is a therapeutic outlet for him and hopes that his readers relate to his own personal struggles and triumphs shared through his characters’ narratives. He has also worked as a high school and college writing instructor, earning a B.A. in English Literature, a M.Ed. in English Education, and Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education all from the University of Georgia. In 2020, Carey earned his second M.Ed. in Counselor Education and works as a licensed clinical professional counselor, LCPC.
Readers can learn more about Carey from his blog, www.careypw.com. When he is not writing, Carey is busy training for marathons, parenting his six cats, sharing his culinary talents on social media, and serving on the board for the nonprofit Center for Studies of the Person (CSP).
Carey PW loves to hear from readers. You can find his contact information, website and author biography at www.extasybooks.com.
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Thanks for hosting 😀 Carey
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