Joe’s a regular here at Love That’s Out Of This World, and if I must confess to having favourites, then yeah. Joe’s mine. He always has something interesting to say to begin with, and he’s led such an interesting life that I’m always delighted when he comes here to share some of it with us. And when he says “Mind if I come along and talk about when I used to be an actor, and how I use that to commit murder… so to speak?”, then I just hold out ‘gimme’ grabby hands. So here he is. Talking about murder, and acting, and the latest mystery starring Nicky and Noah. I mean, who can resist a film title like When the Wind Blows Up Your Kilt It’s Time for A Scotch. Not me.
Guest Post from Joe: Using My Acting Background for Murder
About Drama Castle, with buy links and excerpt
Praise for the Nicky and Noah mysteries
Using My Acting Background for Murder
Nicky and Noah mystery book seven: Drama Castle
by Joe Cosentino
I am definitely a drama queen.
Not only do I become emotional at the drop of a jack strap, but after majoring in drama (in more ways than one) at college, I acted opposite stars like Rosie O’Donnell (AT&T industrial), Nathan Lane (Roar of the Greasepaint musical onstage), Bruce Willis (A Midsummer Night’s Dream onstage), Charles Keating (NBC’s Another World), Jason Robards (Commercial Credit computer commercial), and Holland Taylor (ABC’s My Mother Was Never a Kid TV movie). When the Academy Award statue didn’t appear at my doorstep, I moved on to become a college theatre professor. I used all of those experiences in writing the Nicky and Noah mysteries, where the settings are warm and cozy, the clues and murders (and laughs) come fast and furious, and there are enough plot twists and turns and a surprise ending to keep the pages turning faster than a conservative politician taking away people’s health insurance (as Nicky would say). At the center is the touching relationship between Associate Professor of Directing Nicky Abbondanza and Assistant Professor of Acting Noah Oliver. We watch them go from courting to marrying to adopting a child, all the while head over heels in love with each other (as we fall in love with them).
In Drama Queen (Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite LGBT Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Novel of the Year) Nicky directs the school play at Treemeadow College—which is named after its gay founders, Tree and Meadow. Theatre professors drop like stage curtains, and Nicky and Noah have to use their theatre skills, including impersonating other people, to figure out whodunit. In Drama Muscle (Rainbow Award Honorable Mention) Nicky and Noah don their gay Holmes and Watson personas again to find out why bodybuilding students and professors in Nicky’s bodybuilding competition at Treemeadow are dropping faster than barbells. In Drama Cruise it is summer on a ten-day cruise from San Francisco to Alaska and back. Nicky and Noah must figure out why college theatre professors are dropping like life rafts as Nicky directs a murder mystery dinner theatre show onboard ship starring Noah and other college theatre professors from across the US. Complicating matters are their both sets of wacky parents who want to embark on all the activities on and off the boat with the handsome couple. In Drama Luau, Nicky is directing the luau show at the Maui Mist Resort and he and Noah need to figure out why muscular Hawaiian hula dancers are dropping like grass skirts. Their department head/best friend and his husband, Martin and Ruben, are along for the bumpy tropical ride. In Drama Detective, Nicky is directing and ultimately co-starring with his husband Noah as Holmes and Watson in a new musical Sherlock Holmes play at Treemeadow College prior to Broadway. Martin and Ruben, their sassy office assistant Shayla, Nicky’s brother Tony, and Nicky and Noah’s son Taavi are also in the cast. Of course, dead bodies begin falling over like hammy actors at a curtain call. Once again Nicky and Noah use their drama skills to figure out who is lowering the street lamps on the actors before the handsome couple get half-baked on Baker Street. In Drama Fraternity, Nicky is directing Tight End Scream Queen, a slasher movie filmed at Treemeadow College’s football fraternity house, co-starring Noah, Taavi, and Martin. Rounding out the cast are members of Treemeadow’s Christian football players’ fraternity along with two hunky screen stars. When the jammer, wide receiver, and more begin fading out with their scenes, Nicky and Noah once again need to use their drama skills to figure out who is sending young hunky actors to the cutting room floor before Nicky and Noah hit the final reel.
Now in Drama Castle, Nicky is directing a historical film co-starring Noah and Taavi at Conall Castle in Scotland: When the Wind Blows Up Your Kilt It’s Time for A Scotch. Rounding out the cast are members of the mysterious Conall family who own the castle. When hunky men in kilts topple off the drawbridge and into the moat, it’s up to Nicky and Noah to use their acting skills to figure out whodunit before Nicky and Noah land in the dungeon. Nicky and Noah are joined by their best friends and fan favorites Martin and Ruben, and by Noah’s eccentric parents. And book seven adds a number of captivating new characters like Brody Naughton, the hunky head of Housekeeping with a red beard and roving eye for the oldest Conall brother, Barclay, and for Donal Blair a waiter in the castle’s Great Hall dining room. Each of the three hunky Conall brothers (Barclay, Magnus, and Fergus) have a surprising secret, and Noah makes a shocking personal revelation.
It is my joy and pleasure to share this seventh novel in the series with you. So take your seats. The curtain is going up on steep cliffs, ancient turrets, stormy seas, misty moors, malfunctioning kilts, and murder!
About Drama Castle+ Buy Links and Excerpt
DRAMA CASTLE (the seventh Nicky and Noah mystery) – a comedy/mystery/romance novel by JOE COSENTINO
Theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza is directing a historical film at a castle in Scotland, co-starring his spouse, theatre professor Noah Oliver, and their son Taavi. When historical accuracy disappears along with hunky men in kilts, Nicky and Noah will once again need to use their drama skills to figure out who is pitching residents of Conall Castle off the drawbridge and into the moat, before Nicky and Noah land in the dungeon. You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining seventh novel in this delightful series. Take your seats. The curtain is going up on steep cliffs, ancient turrets, stormy seas, misty moors, malfunctioning kilts, and murder!
Buy links:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/910555
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1129964877?ean=2940155897439
Excerpt
Noah and I made our way up the gigantic poplar wood staircase. After standing all day and evening, the thick burgundy carpet on the steps was a welcome cushion to my tired feet. Noah admired the intricate molding of lions in various positions on the staircase, walls, and pewter chandelier above us. “Nicky, the castle must be much more crowded when open for business.”
“I prefer having it to ourselves.” I pinched his firm bottom and he giggled.
On the second floor, Noah and I headed down the long corridor and knocked on Mom and Dad’s door. Dad opened it, wearing a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts.
“Dad, we’re in Scotland, not the Caribbean,” Noah said.
“A vacation’s a vacation.” Dad welcomed us into his room. “This is some place, huh?” He gestured to the large canopy bed. “And look at that!” Poking my arm, he added, “You planning on giving it to Noah in the caboose tonight?”
Noah turned scarlet.
Dad laughed uproariously. “How are my two boys?”
“Tired.” I sat on an ornate bench.
“Stay and watch TV with me.” Dad opened a giant oak wardrobe revealing a flat screen television.
Did they have those in the eighteenth century?
He sat next to me and ran a hand over his bald head. “Braveheart is on tonight.”
Noah sat on a wide oak chair opposite us. “Dad, you’re in Scotland. Why not do some sightseeing?”
“No sights can beat the locations in Braveheart,” Dad said.
The door opened, and an iPhone covered my face. “What a cute picture of you two boys. Do you like my new iPhone?” Mom texted and then smiled proudly. “Judy from Wisconsin says her son and son-in-law, Tommy and Timmy, have never been to Scotland.”
Dad laughed. “Lucky for Jack. He’d have gotten stuck with the bill.”
“How are my boys?” Mom kissed every inch of our faces.
I wiped Mom’s tangerine lipstick off with a handkerchief. “How are Tommy and Timmy?”
“They’re worried about their little adopted daughter from Vietnam. Poor Dung gets under everyone’s feet, and Judy and her husband Jack keep stepping on Dung!” Mom sat on the canopy bed and adjusted the tie of her tangerine robe. “I think Tommy and Timmy are spreading Dung too thin with baby classes in sign language, swimming, and art.”
“All paid for by Grandpa Jack,” Dad added.
Mom patted her dyed blonde hair into place. “Dung is a sweet child, but no kid is as gifted and talented as our grandson.”
“Amen,” Dad said while readying the television remote control.
“Speaking of Taavi.” Noah looked around the room. “Where is he?”
Praise for the Nicky and Noah mysteries
“Joe Cosentino has a unique and fabulous gift. His writing is flawless, and his use of farce, along with his convoluted plot-lines, will have you guessing until the very last page, which makes his books a joy to read. His books are worth their weight in gold, and if you haven’t discovered them yet you are in for a rare treat.” Divine Magazine
“a combination of Laurel and Hardy mixed with Hitchcock and Murder She Wrote… Loaded with puns and one-liners…Right to the end, you are kept guessing, and the conclusion still has a surprise in store for you.” “the best modern Sherlock and Watson in books today…I highly recommend this book and the entire series, it’s a pure pleasure, full of fun and love, written with talent and brio…fabulous…brilliant” Optimumm Book Reviews
“adventure, mystery, and romance with every page….Funny, clever, and sweet….I can’t find anything not to love about this series….This read had me laughing and falling in love….Nicky and Noah are my favorite gay couple.” Urban Book Reviews
“For fans of Joe Cosentino’s hilarious mysteries, this is another vintage story with more cheeky asides and sub plots right left and centre….The story is fast paced, funny and sassy. The writing is very witty with lots of tongue-in-cheek humour….Highly recommended.” Boy Meets Boy Reviews
“This delightfully sudsy, colorful cast of characters would rival that of any daytime soap opera, and the character exchanges are rife with sass, wit and cagey sarcasm….As the pages turn quickly, the author keeps us hanging until the startling end.” Edge Media Network
“A laugh and a murder, done in the style we have all come to love….This had me from the first paragraph….Another wonderful story with characters you know and love!” Crystals Many Reviewers
“These two are so entertaining….Their tactics in finding clues and the crazy funny interactions between characters keeps the pages turning. For most of the book if I wasn’t laughing I was grinning.” Jo and Isa Love Books
“Superb fun from start to finish, for me this series gets stronger with every book and that’s saying something because the benchmark was set so very high with book 1.” Three Books Over the Rainbow
“The Nicky and Noah Mysteries series are perfect for fans of the Cozy Mystery sub-genre. They mix tongue-in-cheek humor, over-the-top characters, a wee bit of political commentary, and suspense into a sweet little mystery solved by Nicky and Noah, theatre professors for whom all the world’s a stage.” Prism Book Alliance
“This is one hilarious series with a heart and it just keeps getting better. I highly recommend them all, and please read them in the order they were written for full blown laugh out loud reading pleasure!” Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
About Joe
Bestselling author Joe Cosentino was voted Favorite LGBT Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Author of the Year by the readers of Divine Magazine for Drama Queen. He also wrote the other novels in the Nicky and Noah mystery series: Drama Muscle, Drama Cruise, Drama Luau, Drama Detective, Drama Fraternity, Drama Castle; the Dreamspinner Press novellas: In My Heart/An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, A Home for the Holidays, The Perfect Gift, The First Noel, The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland with Holiday Tales from Fairyland, the Cozzi Cove series: Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out, Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings, Cozzi Cove: Happy Endings (NineStar Press); and the Jana Lane mysteries: Paper Doll, Porcelain Doll, Satin Doll, China Doll, Rag Doll (The Wild Rose Press). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. Joe is currently Chair of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and he is happily married. Joe was voted 2nd Place Favorite LGBT Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards, and his books have received numerous Favorite Book of the Month Awards and Rainbow Award Honorable Mentions
Web site: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JoeCosentinoauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeCosen
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4071647.Joe_Cosentino
Amazon: Author.to/JoeCosentino
Anna Butler 