Guest Post and Giveaway: Forged by Becky Banks

Today we have a fascinating guest post from author Becky Banks.  Pay close attention . . . you never know when you might need to get creative with duct tape!  STICK around afterward for an excerpt from the book and a chance to enter the giveaway, which includes some cool rolls of printed duct tape.  Let’s meet Becky Banks . . .

We all have at one point or another bore witness to the creative uses of duct tape. Starting with MacGyver in the ’80s showing us how to fix a C40 airplane wing with just a paperclip and duct tape. Later in life we began to find it useful when we needed to repair that lamp in college that broke when it fell on the ground the last time you had a party at your place. It fixed pipes, couch cushions, wrapped gifts, pulled pranks, all that good stuff. Enter the field now a days and duct tape is doing much more than repairs, it’s a:

Babysitter (of sorts),

Babysitter. Yes, this baby is taped to the wall.

Beer holder!

Hair clip! [via]

Purse! Yes, it’s all duct tape.

A wallet. [via]

A dress!? Yes, this entire dress is made of duct tape.

And you guessed it! PROM GEAR!! YAY!  [via Duck Brand Duct Tape]

You might be wondering what all this has to do with an author who’s on tour with her latest book, and I’ll tell you. There’s a scene in Forged where Eva, the main character, is getting ready to head out to a high-end night club. The dress she’s wearing is rather revealing and like most designer dresses it’s made without the predilection that the wearer should be concerned about a bra. Not to worry, our heroine knows her way around a roll of duct tape and with creative application is able to wear her dress. Here’s an excerpt:

It was after ten by the time I was ready to take on Wellington and his officious attitude. It was just for a couple of hours, and I debated between the oversized turtleneck and reading glasses with floppy hair and no makeup and the black dress I bought my last day in Manhattan. The latter was black second-skin with a zipper down the entire front separating two inches of gray snakeskin on either side of it. It came up into a mandarin collar and was sleeveless. I’d bought matching snakeskin platforms—the outfit was a showstopper. I’d worn it just once and that was in my room in front of the mirror. It required work to wear, as the zipper stopped low, making the only way to wear it without losing the girls was an old trick I learned from a drag queen that involved duct tape and creative application. The result was magnificent, with breasts that curved and popped like the cover model on Maxim.

When applied, the duct tape application would look something like what the woman is wearing below. Of course, sans the export stamps and the stray strap of it on the arm there. I’d be remiss to not mention, however, that once duct tape goes on, it must come off. It’s best if you have someone to help you with removal. Let’s say, a hot ex-boy who has a score to settle, for example . . .

Plunging neckline in your designer dress? No problem! Use duct tape!

It goes without saying that duct tape has become even MORE versatile over the years. The next time your clothes or bras are all in the wash, don’t worry! Just grab your trusty roll of duct tape.

Thank you Sarah for hosting me! Y’all have been great, and I hope you had a fun and inspired time! :0)

~Becky

PS – don’t forget! There are three rolls of designer duct tape in the giveaway prize bag!!

About Forged:

First loves, dark pasts, and fast cars collide in this high-octane adventure.

Eva Lynn Rodgers, the daughter of a mechanic, grew up with a need for speed. So did her best friend,
and later boyfriend, Nathaniel Vellanova. But when Eva left the drizzling rain of Portland, Oregon, for a
high-powered career in New York, she left both Nathaniel and her past behind.

Now Eva’s back, and her BMW—like her life in general—could use a little love. Her new mechanic is the
right man for the job, but he’s got some scores to settle with the girl who peeled out for the East Coast
when he needed her most.

It’s time for Eva and Nathaniel to confront their demons. Passionate and dangerous sparks ignite as
Nathaniel’s brutal youth rises up and pulls Eva Lynn back to him—forging a bond that, this time, won’t be
denied.

Excerpt CHAPTER 1

The memories flicker by like the frames of an old film. Unfocused and dark at the edges. A punch to his
gut, to his face. The wall behind him in the yellowing kitchen seems to punch him as well. It slams against
his back and smacks his head to the tabletop as the fist from his father throws it there. He’s seven.

By ten he learns to dodge the fists, to know when tension in the apartment would erupt. Eleven, he has
one foot out the door, has found a second life, a best friend. Twelve, he has already left home to live with
his aunt. Twelve slides into fifteen and fifteen into freedom.

Freedom? It was never free.

The memories of that final day came unbidden, as they always did—and slippery. That day he was
twenty-seven and holding the phone to his ear, listening to a foreign sound. His father’s sobs echoed over
the line; they begged him home. To please come, it was his mother… These sobs, from the man who met
every sobering morning with a toast of his golden can of Olympia and every sunset with his fist in his
wife’s face.

Could the son have known then? He’d always ask himself that. Was there any way to know what his
father had in store for him when he returned home, for his mother, for the man who was his father? The
scars on his skin and the wounds within that had yet even to scar told him not to go, but he had
unfinished business with the old man. He’d go, and maybe this time it would be a different.

Nate opened the door to the dark apartment he’d once called home. It was after work, the sun had gone
down, his boots were slick with the rain he had just come in from. They slipped on the linoleum floor. A
smell rose up and enshrouded his body like a cloak. It clung to his nose and at the back of his throat,
tangy rusty tincture of blood. Warm, as if it were being pulsed from the veins of a being. Automatically he
reached for the light behind him, his stomach clenching, his mind telling him no.No. NO!

That was when the memory got slick. Even now his mind recoiled, and the details of that night faded back
into the black mist.

Eva, he thought to distract himself. Where are you now, Eva? Her name rolled around in his mouth softly,
whispered to no one. An entirely different set of emotions consumed him as his parents faded away once
more. She was seven when he was ten, and she was there for him every time he showed up with a black
eye or a new burn. She’d shown him his first fast car, and later he taught her how to fix them, to make
them go faster. At sixteen she rocked his world in a way he would never recover from.
The years had passed like lightning after that day, each one spent with Eva more mind blowing than the

next. But as everything in his life tended to do, that too would come to an end.

The pain, now cathartic, motivated, consumed him. His dark past closed up shop and faded away, leaving
him with his future. His future, where he was in control.

About the Author:

Becky Banks grew up, like the generations of Bankses before her, in the Hawaiian Islands. With the
Islands as her roots, Becky was raised within the time-honored tradition of “talking story” amid a backdrop
of grassy fields, blue waters, and cloud-clad mountains. She moved to the mainland after high school to
attend Oregon State University, where she studied forestry, natural resources, and science education.

Becky’s first novel, The Legend of Lady MacLaoch, received Night Owl Reviews’ Top Pick Award and
achieved #8 on the Amazon Bestsellers list for Historical Romance

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeckyBanks

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/beckybanks

Goodreads: : http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15845411-forged

Google +: https://plus.google.com/100850922676975702322?prsrc=3

Website: http://www.beckybanksonline.com

And now on to the giveaway information:

Tour giveaway* includes: one smokin’ FORGED tote, a fabulous assortment of printed duct
tapes (you’ll need them to re-enact a certain scene in the book…), a super awesome personalized
and autographed copy of FORGED!

*Fine print: this giveaway (bag, designer duct tape, and paperback copy of Forged) is for US and

Canadian participants only (due to shipping costs). Click below to enter the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, everyone! Thanks for stopping by.