Spotlight & Giveaway: A Last Time for Everything by Evan S. Porter

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Evan S. Porter to HJ!

Hi Evan and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Last Time for Everything!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Wren and Arthur are a young couple whose life together has yet to truly launch. Wren is still hopping from job to job and unable to carve out a career, while Arthur keeps putting off his ambitions to go to grad school. When they find out that Wren is pregnant, extremely unexpectedly, they both panic at how unprepared they feel to become parents. After they discover an old bucket list they created together in the early days of their relationship, they decide to tick off as many items as they can before the baby arrives, desperately hoping it will somehow turn them into the responsible adults they need to be. It’s a fun, lighthearted, and occasionally ridiculous book about relationships, parenthood, and how hard it’s becoming to be the person you always dreamed you would.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“Charles Cheese, you magnificent bastard,” she said. He really was the best celebrity mouse. “Mickey Mouse can eat shit.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The book is set in my hometown of Baltimore, and I pulled a lot of little details from my life when I used to live there. My first apartment with my now-wife was a lot like Arthur and Wren’s crappy one bedroom. And, there’s a scene that takes place in a haunted house that is heavily, heavily inspired by the time I tripped and fell in one and, due to the blacklights, thought the dust on my hands was an obscene amount of blood.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Wren falls for Arthur because he’s genuine, kind, and self-deprecating. That’s a sharp departure from other guys she has met. Arthur is drawn to Wren’s magnetic charm and even years later can’t fully believe that she picked him.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Spoiler alert: Arthur and Wren’s baby is eventually born! Writing that scene definitely made me tear up. Trying to go back and access the flood of overwhelming emotion I experienced when each of my daughters first showed up in the world was really powerful.

I’m partial to the line: “When she first laid eyes on him, well, it was the closest she’d ever come to having a spiritual experience. It was almost like she could feel the cosmic scales tipping just a tad, the universe thrown off-balance for just a moment… There was a brand new person in the world.”

Readers should read this book….

Because it captures (or at least, tries to) a very specific period of life many of us can relate to. You’re young and scraping by, but it’s OK because you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. All of your dreams and biggest aspirations are still in reach. But what happens when the years start ticking by and your early 20s turn into your late 20s and early 30s, and you’re still not where you thought you’d be? For Wren and Arthur, the pressure cooker of having a baby on the way brings this panic to life in some pretty fun and outlandish ways, and I think a lot of people will see themselves in this book.

On the romance side, I like to call it a “lovers to lovers” rom-com. I’ve always been less interested in dating and courtship and HEA than the messiness of what it really takes to make a relationship work. You’ll get a lot of that in ‘A Last Time for Everything.’

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m trying my hand at screenwriting right now. My first novel ‘Dad Camp’ is in development as a feature film at Netflix, and while I’m not writing the script, it has always been a dream of mine to see my words up on the screen. I’m currently working on an adult comedy with some family elements very much in the vein of my books.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 paperback books of A LAST TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Evan S. Porter

To enter Giveaway, please share this post on your Socials and Leave a comment below to this Q: As a kid or teenager, what did you think your adult life would look like and in what ways is the reality different than your expectation? Do you “feel” like an adult?

🎉 Giveaway Rules 🎉
✨ Must be 18 years or older to enter.
✨ MUST leave a comment answering the giveaway question.
✨ Bonus Entry:Share this post on your social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) 
and drop a comment below letting me know you've shared it.
✨ Winner(s) will be selected at random.
✨ No purchase necessary—just enter and cross your fingers!
✨ If you win, I'll need your full name and mailing address to send your prize. 
This information will be shared with the author, publisher, or publicist solely for prize fulfillment purposes.
✨ Giveaway closes 3 days from the date this post is published.  
 

Book Info:

With a surprise baby on the way, a couple races against the clock to complete the Bucket List they wrote when they first met so they can squeeze in a lifetime’s worth of adventures before bellyflopping into parenthood.

The only thing Arthur and Wren are sure about is each other. But even after ten years together, they hardly feel like adults. They’re living in the same Craigslist-furnished one-bedroom Baltimore apartment that they moved into after graduation. A surprise pregnancy is the last thing either of them expect, and a baby is the last thing they feel ready for.

Wren is desperate for one final adventure before the baby comes. So when they find the Bucket List they made in their early days together, Wren convinces Arthur that they better tick off every item. It’s their last chance to do all the things they wanted to do as wistful teenagers, like spend an entire day in bed, get on the jumbotron at a pro football game, or . . . go skydiving? Is that allowed?

But as their due date gets closer, and the items on their list dwindle, Arthur and Wren find they’ve got more questions than answers. What do they want their life to look like as a family? Do they have what it takes to be parents? And the big one: Are they really meant to be together forever?
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Evan S. Porter is a novelist and writer, and he has contributed to Parents Magazine, The Onion News Network, AskMen, The Good Men Project, Upworthy, and more. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, two girls, two dogs, and not much in the way of elbow room. His debut, Dad Camp, published in 2024, and this is his second novel.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |