Today I'm happy to be the host for the Strangers on a Train Blog Tour. Author Ruthie Knox is visiting my blog again today to help showcase this book. Ruthie is also offering up the chance to win a digital copy of her story Big Boy to one lucky person. Welcome Ruthie!!!
Romancing the Rails
There is romance in train travel—the rhythm of a
train moving over the tracks, that rocking movement, the muffled noises of the
world outside. There is the deep history of steel laid over prairie grass,
bridges built, towns made and destroyed. There are stories of other journeys
along the tracks, both dramatic and mundane.
The other passengers carry on their secret selves,
their life stories, as luggage. A woman on your commute smiles at her phone,
and you wonder if she’s texting her husband. If he said something cute. A man
in the seat next to you has a lap full of flowers, and you wonder who they’re
for. Maybe he has a date. A daughter who needs cheering up. Maybe he’s falling
in love.
Maybe that other man standing by the door, bracing
his hand on the luggage rack—the handsome one with the dark hair and the
shoulders that strain the back of his suit jacket—maybe he’ll speak to you.
You’ll drop your notebook on your way off the train, and he’ll retrieve it,
then strike up a conversation.
Maybe you’ll talk as you walk off the platform, into
the station. Maybe you’ll linger outside, go for coffee, make a date.
Maybe he’ll love you.
Maybe you’ll love him back.
Train rides are excursions of limitless possibility,
and this is what we celebrate in Strangers
on a Train, a collection of five romantic short stories. From the wine
excursion tour trains of California to a gritty Boston T stop, we imagine what
might happen when two lives collide on a train car and love sparks.
My own story, Big
Boy, piles on an additional layer of history (and weirdness) by taking as
its setting the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where a man
and a woman who met online get together one night a month after the museum goes
dark to pretend to be strangers. New strangers every month. “You can be anyone
you want,” he tells her. “Just stay in character.”
So our heroine curls her hair just so, finds the
right dress, the right shoes, and arrives every month for her date with the
past. She doesn’t know his real name, but she knows his face. She knows how he
moves, the curl of his hair at the nape of his neck. She knows the stroke of
his tongue into her mouth, the heat of their naked bodies gliding together in a
darkened berth.
She knows how she feels when they’re together, and
that she wants to feel that way more often.
But she doesn’t know—is it real, this thing they
have? Or is it just an illusion midwifed into being by train wheels, shadowed
corners, shared flasks and storytelling and the romance of the past? For this
is the constraint of the train romance: the journey takes you somewhere, but
then it ends, and then where are you? How do you find your way from there?
Giveaway
Do
you have a favorite train romance, or even a train ride that you found fascinating
or somehow transformative?
Answer in the comments for a shot at a copy of Big Boy in the digital format of your
choice. (Ebooks only.) Please include your email address in your comment to be
included in the drawing. The contest will be open from March 27, 2013 to April
2, 2013. I’ll forward the winner’s email to Ruthie and announce the winner here
as well.
About the Stories
Strangers on a Train, available April 2, 2013, from Samhain Publishing
Big Boy by Ruthie Knox
Mandy
doesn’t want romance, but monthly role-playing dates with her stranger on a
train—each to a different time period—become the erotic escape she desperately
needs. And a soul connection she never expected.
Tight Quarters by Samantha Hunter
Reid
isn’t happy about the mix-up that saddles him with a claustrophobic roommate on
his New York train tour. Then his weekend with Brenna progresses to a weekend
fling, and so much more.
Ticket Home by Serena Bell
Encountering
her workaholic ex on her commuter train is the surprise of Amy’s life.
Especially since Jeff seems hell-bent on winning her back.
Thank You for Riding by Meg Maguire
At
the end of Caitlin’s commute, her extended flirtation with a handsome stranger
finds them facing a frigid winter night locked in an unheated subway station.
Back on Track by Donna Cummings
A
wine tour isn’t enough to take Matt’s mind off his baseball slump—until sexy,
funny Allie plops into the adjacent seat and tells him three things about
herself. One of them, she says, is a lie. Then Allie lets slip one truth too
many…
About Ruthie
Ruthie
Knox graduated from Grinnell College as an English and history double major and
went on to earn a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably
little use. These days, she writes contemporary romance in which witty,
down-to-earth characters find each other irresistible in their pajamas, though
she freely admits this has yet to happen to her. Perhaps she needs more
exciting pajamas. Ruthie moonlights as a mother, Tweets incessantly, and bakes
a mean focaccia.
Other
Links
My most memorable train ride was an exhausting marathon from Sicily to England with my husband and two daughters (who were ages 3 and 1) on EurRail passes. It was a great trip, but I'll never forget the mania of off-loading the girls, the luggage, the portable crib, and the stash of macaroni-tomato-beef at stations where we were switching trains with less than 10 minutes to spare.
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DeleteI've never read a train romance before but I'd love to...thanks for the chance to win my first copy!
ReplyDeletetaccb(underscore)1981(at)yahoo(dot)com
What a fun idea.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite train ride was a 4 hour ride through the Smoky Mountains on a steam powered train. It was so pretty and fun.
Thanks for the chance to win.
suegaluska (at) yahoo (dot) com
Hmmm, can't say that I've ever read a train romance before! :) Would love to read Big Boy! :D
ReplyDeleteI have ridden a train before probably about err, 15 years ago or so. Just took a train up through the central valley of California to visit family. I remember being pretty excited b/c I was by myself and the scenery was rather pretty.
readsalot81(@)hotmail(dot)com
The most memorable train trip was when I was living in Venice, Italy and I took an overnight train in a sleeping compartment to Luzerne, Switzerland. Typical to train rides in Europe I was assigned a roomate -- a man. The trip was memorable as it was a new experience, but not R rated at all.
ReplyDeletebadassbookblog@gmail.com
Not entering the giveaway, but this series sounds great! Adding them all to my wishlist. (Ruthie Knox is one of the few contemporary romance authors I can read.)
ReplyDeleteSounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing! I haven't really read a "train" romance. Definitely sounds like a great read :)
ReplyDeleteI only was on a train ride for an hour, so it wasn't really that memorable. it does sound like an interesting backdrop for a book, though.
ReplyDeletepenfield716(AT)yahoo(DOT)com