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WORK TITLE: Worth Searching For
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://wendyqualls.com/
CITY:
STATE: AL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: two daughters.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Librarian and author.
AVOCATIONS:Sherlock.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Prior to starting her writing career, Wendy Qualls served as a librarian. She now specializes in romance fiction, and has published several books. Qualls and her family reside in the state of Alabama.
Worth Waiting For
Worth Waiting For is Qualls’s debut book. It stars two protagonists: Brandon Mercer and Paul Dunham. Paul spends his days working at a university in the heart of Georgia, where he leads classes in psychology. His ultimate goal is to receive tenure. However, he faces numerous obstacles in his quest to fulfill this goal: namely, his sexuality (which he keeps under wraps), and the contemptuous relationship he holds with the leader of his department. Yet Paul’s luck seems to show even little chance of improving when he encounters Brandon. The two of them attended the same college and, during this period of their lives, Paul developed a crush on the other man. Paul’s sexuality has always been a source of conflict for him, even before he began working as a professor. Having grown up in a conservative Christian family, Paul was taught to believe that his feelings toward other men were wrong, and these beliefs were further strengthened by the less than accepting attitude of his family.
Now Brandon is working at the same college Paul works for, as a member of its IT department, and it looks as if he and Paul will be partnered together. This situation threatens to bring Paul’s old feelings bursting back to life, and he must figure out how to deal with them—especially as it becomes increasingly clear that Brandon reciprocates his affections. The two try their best to kindle their relationship as subtly as they can, but one wrong move threatens to destroy everything they’ve built together, as well as for themselves. Xpress Reviews contributor Melanie C. Duncan remarked the book was “recommended for libraries with a comprehensive LGBTQ romance collection, or where books set in Georgia are popular.” A writer on the Llama Reads Books blog commented: “Overall, despite needing a box of tissues, I enjoyed this book immensely!”
Worth Searching For
Worth Searching For is the second book in the series Worth Waiting For kicked off. The book stars Dave Schmidt and Carlos Apaza, also known by the nickname “Lito.” Lito had originally settled comfortably in the big city of Atlanta but, for the sake of his job, relocates to Black Lake, a small town nestled in the state of Alabama. However, he doesn’t anticipate the sheer amount of culture shock he finds there. In Atlanta, Lito could be himself: a flamboyant, openly gay man who is proud of his identity. However, Black Lake is much more conservative, and Lito simply being himself earns him nothing but criticism and confusion.
Things begin to change for Lito, however, when he comes across Dave, a community volunteer who previously served in the Army. What starts off as regular congeniality quickly turns into something more passionate, as the two begin exploring a sexual relationship with one another. Yet sexual chemistry isn’t the only thing Lito and Dave share with each other; the two soon begin to catch on to burgeoning romantic feelings that become increasingly harder to deny. The real problem comes with pushing past their fears and doubts so that they can make their relationship official. A writer for Publishers Weekly stated: “Qualls does a decent job of making Dave and Lito’s friendly hookups sexy.” A Llama Reads Books blogger said: “Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next in the series!” She added: “If you’re interested in a sweet dog-filled romance, this book is for you!”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Xpress Reviews, August 25, 2017, Melanie C. Duncan, review of Worth Waiting For.
ONLINE
Llama Reads Books, http://www.llamareadsbooks.com/ (February 26, 2018), review of Worth Waiting For; (February 27, 2018), review of Worth Searching For.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (March 1, 2018), review of Worth Searching For.
Reader’s Entertainment Magazine, http://www.readersentertainment.com/ (August 15, 2017), Wendy Qualls, “Author Wendy Qualls Shares 5 Funny Things About Her Latest Release.”
Wendy Qualls website, http://wendyqualls.com (June 19, 2018), author profile.
ABOUT
WendyQuallsauthorphoto-square
Wendy Qualls was a small town librarian until she finished reading everything her library had to offer. At that point she put her expensive and totally unrelated college degree to use by writing smutty romance novels and wasting time on the internet. She lives in Northern Alabama with her husband, two girls, two dogs, and a seasonally fluctuating swarm of unwanted ladybugs. Wendy can be found on Twitter as @wendyqualls. She is represented by Moe Ferrara of BookEnds Literary Agency.
AUTHOR WENDY QUALLS SHARES 5 FUNNY THINGS ABOUT HER LATEST RELEASEBlog FeaturedGuest BloggersRomanceSneak Peek — 15 August 2017
Worth Waiting ForFive Funny Things About The Making Of Worth Waiting For
By Wendy Qualls
I’m a huge BBC Sherlock fan. I can’t help it – the show is amazing. Sharp-eyed readers may notice a few (okay, many) little nods to the Sherlock TV show here and there in this series. St. Benedict’s, the college Paul teaches at, got its name from Benedict Cumberbatch (the actor who plays Sherlock Holmes) and St. Bart’s, which is the hospital where Sherlock Holmes and John Watson first meet in the show.I grew up in Wisconsin, but I’ve lived in Alabama since 2004. One of the reasons I decided to set the HEART OF THE SOUTH series here is because the Bible Belt is a hugely different world from where I grew up.
Compare:
New Neighbor: “I just moved to town, actually.”
Wisconsinite: “Oh, yah? Good weather for moving. Wait until we get to November, and [insert long, terrifying description of sub-zero temperatures here].”
vs.
New Neighbor: “I just moved to town, actually.”
Alabaman: “Oh, wonderful! Where from? If you’re ready to start looking for a church family, you’re welcome to come with me on Sunday…”
The HEART OF THE SOUTH series isn’t specifically about religion, but in WORTH WAITING FOR I try to showcase the South’s strengths while not ignoring the difficult position LGBT people here often find themselves in. The book follows two heroes who take very different routes in life–Brandon and Paul met as freshmen at St. Benedict’s, a conservative religious college. One unplanned romantic evening together sends them on different paths: Paul stays in the closet and ends up as a professor at his alma mater; Brandon transfers to a more LGBT-friendly school and becomes a cyber-security consultant.
WORTH WAITING FOR is a story about what happens when Paul and Brandon reunite, ten years after their single, life-changing encounter together, and have to truly examine why they made the choices they did. The Bible Belt’s odd mixture of “bless your heart” and “let us never talk about this again” is a fascinating environment for a M/M romance, and I hope I do it justice.
At one point in the book, Paul and Brandon order chess pie. My beta reader (in Oregon), my agent (in Pennsylvania), and my editor (in New York) all had no idea what chess pie is. In my opinion, if y’all have gone this far without ever tasting chess pie you’re probably living a cursed half-life à la Voldemort.
For the uninitiated: chess pie is made from eggs, sugar, butter, and cornmeal. It tastes like if you made a pecan pie, took out all the pecans, and doubled the sugar content. It’s the super-saturated sweet tea of pies. It makes for an excellent dessert because nobody over the age of ten can eat more than a tiny slice at one sitting. It’s not hard to make, and if you’ve never tried it you really should.
Every writer hits the inevitable question: What on earth do I name this character? Some go through baby name books or websites, some just name them whatever comes to mind, and some get a bit more scientific. I’m a huge fan of gov/babynames: it’s a lovely tool that lets you look up the most popular names in a given year and the popularity of a specific name over time.
My process goes something like this:
Figure out how old the character should beLook up age-appropriate baby namesStare off into space for an hour or so to come up with a last name consistent with the character’s ethnicity, geography, and the socio-economic environment their parents were living in when the character was bornGoogle first + last name and discover it’s the name of a rapper, or a famous football player from the 60sScrap that. Go back to step 1.…Eventually pick a name at random
I finally sat down and made a “name bible” for myself – a spreadsheet of all the names I’ve used in every piece of fiction I’ve written. Hopefully this will help me avoid pairing up twelve heroes all named Paul further down the line.
I mentioned I live in Alabama, right? Here, as a wrap-up, is a particular writing-related moment that left me literally speechless:
Way back when, I announced to everyone I knew that I was going to write a romance novel. (I did. It was terrible. I wrote another, and another, and finally finished one worth reading.) My mom, being 100% supportive even though she wasn’t really sure how I got this whole romance thing in my head in the first place, gave me a sweatshirt for my birthday that said “ASK ME ABOUT MY BOOK.”
Unlike Wisconsin, it gets cold enough for a sweatshirt about two days out of the year down here. One of those two days, I was in the checkout line at the grocery store when the cashier noticed what I was wearing.
Cashier: “Oh, I love your shirt!” *bright, enthusiastic smile* “Is that about the Bible?”
Me: “…” *pause* “…” *another pause* “…”
Turns out, when a hopeful stranger asks if your shirt is a Bible reference, there’s no good way to respond with “No, I actually write about gay men falling in love and having quite a bit of sex in the process.” Instead, I ended up going with “Oh, um, I hadn’t thought of it like that! Haha. It works, doesn’t it?” and then rushing off so fast I forgot my receipt.
So yes, now you know five things about HEART OF THE SOUTH series you never knew you wanted to learn. I invite you to meet Paul and Brandon in WORTH WAITING FOR on August 15th, followed by Lito and Dave in WORTH SEARCHING FOR February 2018 and Jericho and Sterling in WORTH FIGHTING FOR later next year!
Qualls, Wendy. Worth Waiting For
Melanie C. Duncan
Xpress Reviews. (Aug. 25, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Qualls, Wendy. Worth Waiting For. Lyrical Shine: Kensington. (Heart of the South, Bk. 1). Aug. 2017. 182p. ebk. ISBN 9781516102044. $3.99. LGBTQ, CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Psychology professor Paul Dunham is only a year or two from achieving tenure at his Georgia college, if he can stay on the good side of a department head who hates him, and if he can keep pretending he's happy as a closeted gay man at a college with a rather strict code of conduct stemming from its years as a religious institution. And if former college crush Brandon Mercer didn't return to campus as an IT consultant assigned to work closely with Paul. Brandon is comfortably out, but he doesn't advertise it since he won't be at the school for long. However, his budding relationship with Paul is worth being discreet for Paul's sake, until explicit photos are emailed to Paul with the threat of sabotaging their relationship and his career.
Verdict Qualls (coauthor, Save the Date) provides a sweet romance with some spice while tackling issues such as coming out as an adult, family relationships, and religious acceptance or denial of LGBTQ lifestyles. Recommended for libraries with a comprehensive LGBTQ romance collection, or where books set in Georgia are popular.--Melanie C. Duncan, Washington Memorial Lib., Macon, GA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Duncan, Melanie C. "Qualls, Wendy. Worth Waiting For." Xpress Reviews, 25 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505303910/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2cb62134. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505303910
Review: Worth Waiting For – Wendy Qualls
ReadingLlama / February 26, 2018
Review: Worth Waiting For – Wendy QuallsWorth Waiting For
by Wendy Qualls
Series: Heart of the South #1
Publisher: Lyrical Shine
Publication Date: August 15, 2017
Genres: Romance
Pages: 304
Reading Challenges: 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge, January - March 2018 Quarterly Challenge, Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January - March 2018
Source: Purchased
My rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
A small-town in the Deep South isn’t where most gay men would choose to go looking for love. But open hearts will find a way…
Growing up in the Bible Belt, Paul Dunham learned from a young age to hide his sexuality. Now he’s teaching psychology at a conservative college in Georgia—and still hiding who he really is. If Paul hopes to get tenure, he needs to keep his desires on the down-low. But when an old college crush shows up on campus—looking more gorgeous than ever—Paul’s long-suppressed urges are just too big for one little closet to hold . . .
Brandon Mercer has come a long way since his freshman year fumbling's with Paul. Now he’s confident, accomplished, proudly out—and the sexiest IT consultant Paul’s ever seen. When Brandon asks Paul to grab some coffee and catch up, it leads to a steamy reunion that puts their first night of passion to shame. But when Paul’s longtime crush turns into a full-time romance, he receives an anonymous email threatening to expose their secret to the world. If Paul stays with Brandon, his teaching career is over. Yet if he caves under pressure, he risks losing the one true love he’s been
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4 stars icon contemporary icon categories_m_m romance icon
Content warning: homophobia (religiously motivated)
Wow, this was an angsty, all-the-feels read! I cried angry tears, sad tears, and happy tears, all in the course of 300 pages!
“How did you …” Brandon seemed to be picking his words carefully. “How was it for you? Staying?”
“It wasn’t anything, really.” Confusing and frustrating, but that was nothing new. “I just went back to not doing that. Nobody thought anything of it. Plenty of students here don’t really date.”
Paul is securely in the closet. While he doesn’t go out of the way to appear straight, he’s on the tenure track at St. Bernard’s, the same conservative Christian college he attended, and while they don’t require a statement of faith for the faculty, they also wouldn’t look kindly on an openly gay professor. Brandon, on the other hand, is out of the closet and has spent a lot of time on the gay scene, but his romantic life has been a series of anonymous one night stands. So Paul has that on him, at least, as he had a relationship with a guy for over a year, even though he was controlling and kept trying to push him out of his confront zone sexually. Ten years ago, when they were both freshmen, they had a one night stand in the dorms before break, and shortly after Brandon transferred to another school, while Paul stayed. When they meet again as part of a college IT project, it’s immediately obvious the attraction is still there. While Brandon understands why Paul is still in the closet – he was terrified of coming out to his supportive family, so he can imagine how Paul feels – he’s still interested in a no-strings casual fling while he’s working with the college.
“My parents are pretty conservative—not as strict as some, I wasn’t homeschooled or anything, but they always did see the world in black and white. Still do. Even if I never told them why I wanted to transfer, I would have still had to wrestle with the idea that I was giving in to this compulsion for sin inside me. As long as I stayed at St. Benedict’s, as long as I kept all my lustful thoughts to myself and tried very hard to pray myself straight, I wasn’t a failure yet.”
It’s the south – where one of the first questions people ask when they meet you is where you go to church – and one of the things that haunts Paul is reconciling being a “good Christian” with being gay. His family is quite conservative, and his POV is loaded with comments about bible studies, praying, and going to church on Sundays. His twin sister, the person he’s probably closest to in the world, had a bad reaction to him coming out to her, and his parents would not react well at all to it. While this may be off-putting for a secular reader, it’s just the normal cultural Southern Christian trappings, no Bible verses or “Jesus saves!” type content included. On a weekend trip to Atlanta, Brandon takes him to his gay-friendly church, and this is when I think I finally really fell in love with the two as a couple. I think it’s hard for people who aren’t coming from the Southern Christian perspective to realize how much it permeates everyday life, and to realize what a horrifyingly soul-crushing burden it’s been to Paul, to the point where he’s basically tried to “pray himself straight” multiple times.
“I don’t mind if tonight becomes your dirty little secret. I kind of expected that when I asked. I’m not going to go bragging about what you taste like or how you are in bed, and I wouldn’t know anyone here to tell even if I wanted to. But I’m not going to be the focus of some Jesus-hates-me meltdown where you can paint me as some rainbow Typhoid Mary spreading gay cooties in my wake. If you want this, you’ve got to own it. I’d rather sit alone in my hotel room than be some big ongoing source of guilt for you to rail against. You want me? Then say it.”
The tension was lovely and the sex was hot! Despite his relationship, Paul is pretty inexperienced and, in some ways, prejudiced, and watching him break out of his shell was lovely. It did feel a bit like a gay sex bucket list, but it fit in the overall relationship, so I wasn’t too bothered by it.
“We’re just going to have to solve this the old-fashioned way.”
“What’s that?”
Brandon grinned. “Copious amounts of data-tracking, electronic manipulation, cyber-spying, and you and me sleeping together whenever the opportunity presents itself.”
While I enjoyed the development of their relationship, I found the plot behind why Brandon was at the college predictable, and, honestly, not very interesting. It also seemed a bit much that Paul, who’s been pretending to be straight for his entire life, would feel comfortable walking around Atlanta with Brandon while openly holding his hand and indulging in other light PDA.
Overall, despite needing a box of tissues, I enjoyed this book immensely!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge
January - March 2018 Quarterly Challenge
Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January - March 2018
Tagged 4 stars, contemporary, m/m, romance
Worth Searching For
Wendy Qualls. Lyrical, $3.99 e-book (188p) ISBN 978-1-5161-0186-3
Qualls’s second Heart of the South contemporary (after Worth Waiting For) is a city boy–country boy tale that is a bit facile in its approach to gay hookups and prejudice, but offers decent chemistry and a bonus bit of charm for dog lovers. Designer Carlos “Lito” Apaza leaves his friends in Atlanta for tiny Black Lake, Ala., where he works for a small hotel chain. He finds a social outlet in training his dog, Spot, to participate in a K-9 search and rescue team, which moderates his frustration with being “the only man... the only non-white person, the only non-straight one, and the only one who’s ever lived within reasonable shopping distance of an IKEA” in his workplace. He also finds a more personal interest in the search team leader, military veteran Dave Schmidt. The bigotry Lito experiences in rural Alabama is based mostly in cluelessness and almost always conflates homophobia and racism, which comes across as simplistic. Qualls does a decent job of making Dave and Lito’s friendly hookups sexy despite their relative mundanity and basis in a limited choice of local partners, but fails to convince readers of Lito’s willingness to shun urban work opportunities and return to Black Rock for Dave and the team. There’s little to elevate this contemporary over others in the genre. Agent: Moe Ferrara, BookEnds. (Mar.)
Review: Worth Searching For – Wendy Qualls
ReadingLlama / February 27, 2018
Review: Worth Searching For – Wendy QuallsWorth Searching For
by Wendy Qualls
Series: Heart of the South #2
Publisher: Lyrical Shine
Publication Date: February 27, 2018
Genres: Romance
Pages: 190
Reading Challenges: 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge, January - March 2018 Quarterly Challenge, Title Hunt Quarterly Challenge: January - March 2018
Source: NetGalley
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Most gay men wouldn’t expect to see their dreams come true in a small town in the Deep South. But the road to true love can lead to the unlikeliest places . . .
Disowned by his conservative Peruvian parents, Lito Apaza headed for gay-friendly Atlanta. Resilient, charismatic, and successful, he’s built a life on his terms—with a new family of friends and the unconditional love of his dog, Spot. Then his job forces him to relocate to tiny Black Lake, Alabama. Here, being fabulous isn’t exactly the town motto. However, Lito can’t help who he is any more than he can curb his feelings for a certain sexy ex-soldier.
A former dog handler in Afghanistan, Dave Schmidt now runs a volunteer K9 search-and-rescue team. Until he met Lito, his nights were free. As their hook-ups grow hotter, Dave and Lito have to admit this could be something nearer to romance. It’s not what Lito expected. And Dave isn’t used to the scrutiny of being visibly gay. Yet everything they’ve been secretly searching for could be right here in Black Lake. If Dave and Lito want a future together, one of them will have to make the first move . . .
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4 stars icon contemporary icon categories_m_m romance icon
Trigger warnings: casual homophobia, casual racism
After Worth Waiting For, I was prepared to read this book, the second in the series, with a box of tissues. Thankfully, it was a lot less emotionally wrenching than the first, though it was still delightfully angsty.
“’It’s different here.’ Painfully so. The not-rightness was hard to explain, but Lito tried anyway. ‘I’m the only man at work. Also the only non-white person, the only non-straight one, and the only one who’s ever lived within reasonable shopping distance of an IKEA. Everyone’s been nothing but nice, but it keeps feeling like the old ‘bless his heart’ kind of Southern nice, you know? Like they’re not sure what to make of the strange gay decorator so they’re just faking it.'”
Lito is out of the closet but struggling to find his place in rural Black Lake, Alabama after a promotion that required him to move from Atlanta. He’s worked his way from night clerk to head of design at a family chain of hotels, and as part of his promotion, he’s refreshing the chain’s Alabama location with local flavor. Dave is, well, just plain adorable. He’s the kind of person who signs his texts as if they were from him and his dogs. He’s lived in Black Lake all his life – except for his military tours, and works for the town doing maintenance, as well as helping run the local volunteer search and rescue team. When they meet for the first time, they’re both initially attracted to each other, so Dave invites Lito a practice for the SAR team he’s a part of. It takes time for them to realize the other is interested, and decide to pursue a relationship.
“Figured for my first time seeing your house it’d probably be a bit much for me to just show up at the door and be like ‘Wow, like your place, I brought a bottle of wine and another of lube, what’s for dinner?’”
At first, their relationship seemed more of the “only other single gay guy in the entire town”-type, but as they spend more time with each other, the chemistry built up. Unlike the previous book, both Lito and Dave are out, though they’ve both had vastly different experiences as gay men in the south. Lito’s family kicked him out as a teen when they found out he was gay, and part of the impetus behind his initial move from Miami to Atlanta was to get away from those memories. Dave’s family is much more supportive, the sort of big boisterous happy closeness that Lito remembers with regret and wishes he could have from his family. Lito’s also got some of that stereotypical gay fabulousness – the first time he meets Dave at a pet store, he’s wearing a tight pink shirt and rainbow earring. Dave, on the other hand, as a built, white ex-Army guy, easily passes as straight, to the point where some of his acquaintances forget he’s gay. If you can’t guess, it’s these differences, and their inability to reconcile them, that cause a rift in their relationship.
I especially enjoyed the volunteer search and rescue part. I have a soft spot for romance books with dogs, so this was right up my alley. I loved reading about the various training aspects – for both the people and dogs! – and also got a kick out of the school talk that Dave and Lito gave at Dave’s nephew’s school.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next in the series! If you’re interested in a sweet dog-filled romance, this book is for you!