RECENT RELEASE: And Then He Pressed Play by Robert J. Halliwell (Excerpt + Q&A with Author)

RECENT RELEASE

Book Title: And Then He Pressed Play: Track One

Author: Robert J. Halliwell

Publisher: Triple Scale Publishing

Cover Artist: Harrold-Vincent Villanueva

Release Date: February 28, 2026

Tense/POV: Past tense, third person limited, dual POV

Genres: YA coming of age, MM Contemporary

Tropes: Fish out of water, Shy-Sunshine, Idiots in love, exchange student

Themes: Found family, bisexual awakening, first love

Heat Rating: 1-1.5 flames

Length: 338 pages, 80 000 words

It is part 1 of a duology. It has a HFN ending with some heartbreak mixed in since the exchange program ends.

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Blurb

It’s 2006 and Sixteen-year-old A.J. Walker is openly gay, painfully Canadian, and very much out of his depth. He’s wanted to do his school’s exchange program for years, but now that he’s landed at an all-boys school in Glenbridge Ireland—an ocean away from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan—he’s starting to question his decisions. Armed with nothing more than his trusty Discman and an accent that makes him stand out, A.J. has one goal: get through the Irish school year.

Born and raised in Glenbridge, Bren O’Shea has never known how to sit still or keep quiet. He’s also never known a day without laughter. Even when things get bad, Bren always knows how to get a smile out of someone, whether they asked him or not. His mam always says he needs to think before he acts, but as long as his heart’s in the right place, what’s the harm in a bit of impulse?

Glenbridge is the sort of town where everyone knows everyone—and unfortunately for A.J. once someone thinks they know you, it’s hard to change their mind.

After a rocky start that ends in disaster, Bren and A.J. need to decide if it’s worth reaching out to someone who’s so different from you—especially when one of you has to leave in June.

Excerpt

Save me!

The chorus to “Bring Me to Life” rang in A.J.’s ears as he leaned against the damp, moss-covered wall at the far end of Glenbridge Secondary School. Even though the volume on his whirring Discman was cranked to the highest setting, it wasn’t enough to drown out the absolute bedlam that roiled around him. He’d thought his eleven years of attending school had shown him all the shades of feral guys came in, but standing to face the churning sea of testosterone before him, those years of experience all but melted away.

He couldn’t say for sure whether it was the fact Glenbridge had no girls to act as a buffer, or if his new classmates just didn’t come with volume knobs. Whatever the reason, he was doubting the wisdom of signing up for the exchange program with each passing second.

The main attraction stood at the end of the yard farthest from his wall. At least twenty guys, ranging throughout all the grades by the looks of them, were playing some sort of game A.J. had never seen before. Everyone carried strips of wood that looked like a cross between stubby hockey sticks and baseball bats. As far as he could tell, the goal was to balance, hit, or otherwise carry the baseball-sized ball from one end of the field to the other and get it past the goalie, all while being as loud as possible.

Separate from this unknown sport, groups of students stood in clusters throughout the yard. This wasn’t much different from what he was used to at first glance, but on closer inspection, each group was in a state of constant motion. Guys were speaking with their hands, elbowing their friends or slapping each other on the back with every other word. They seemed to communicate exclusively by shouting, with accents that A.J. had trouble understanding—even without the music thudding in his skull.

There didn’t seem to be another quiet person for him to approach. Not one other guy off on his own, reading a book, listening to music, or acting like they hadn’t downed about five cans of Monster.

A.J. rolled his shoulders, and the fabric of his uniform bit into his neck. He’d thought by making sure his clothes were in pristine condition before setting out that morning, he was applying a layer of camouflage. A uniform made things easier—or at least it should have.

To his dismay, it looked like everyone else had shredded the handout without looking at it. Shirts were rumpled, sleeves were rolled up, and despite the leaflet’s mention of neutral footwear, he spotted more than a few pairs of brightly coloured Nikes milling about.

In the brief lull between songs, his eyes fell on one of the worst offenders of this near-universal breach of dress code. Flame-bright hair stuck out at every angle across his head, like he’d rolled out of bed and walked straight out the door. His blue and silver striped tie was so loose the knot thudded against his sternum whenever he was in motion—which seemed to be his default setting.

He laughed as he peeled back the top of a yogurt lid and flung it with a casual flick towards one of his friends. It landed with a good stick on the boy’s breast pocket—right over the school crest.

A.J. was wondering how hard the first boy was going to get punched when the second one’s lip twitched. He grabbed hold of the lid and, with surprising dexterity considering the size of him, flung it back at the first boy. It landed between his eyes with a splat that A.J. thought he heard above his music. The rest of the group exploded with laughter as the redhead peeled the lid off, still wearing his crooked smile.

Without warning, the yogurt-covered boy turned from his group to toss the lid towards a nearby trash can. A.J.’s eyes darted away and came to rest on a patch of clover. Had the other boy seen him staring? Classes hadn’t even started yet, and he was already acting like a friendless loser.

He was a friendless loser.

His fingers found the dial of his Discman again, yearning to crank the volume up past its limits.

He’d all but decided to cut his losses and head inside early when he heard it. The sound of a muffled voice, far too close to be there by accident.

Shit.

A.J. let his eyes linger on the clover before dragging his gaze upward. Sure enough, there stood the boy from before.

A stray streak of pinkish yogurt clung to his fire-spun eyebrows where the lid had landed. Tiny beads of moisture glistened on his pale skin, shining among the freckles spread across the bridge of his sharp nose. It was impossible to tell whether it was sweat or not. If A.J. had learned one thing about Ireland in the two weeks he’d been there, it was that the humidity never dropped below chicken noodle soup.

A.J. fumbled with the dial while the other boy’s head tilted to the side, like he was trying to figure out the plot of a show he’d dropped into mid-season. With his music humming instead of roaring, A.J. shifted his gaze to meet the boy’s hazel eyes.

Q&A with Robert J. Halliwell

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing on and off for fun since elementary school. Before my debut, the longest bit of creative writing I managed was only about 20k words. It was back in grade nine or so. It was truly bad, but still quite fun to do back then!

What made you decide you wanted to put yourself out there to be published?

I was going through a rough time and decided to fill it with writing. The idea for my debut took root and I just sort of ran with it. It’s a weird thing in that, if I didn’t go through that rough patch, I’m not sure I’d be an author right now.

Are you in agreement that writing fan fiction is a great way to hone ones’ craft – why or why not?

I’m admittedly not involved with the fan fiction community, but I feel like it certainly could help you develop some skills. I might be showing my ignorance here, but I’m not sure how much it would help with finding your own individual voice as a writer or building your own worlds. Both things are super important.

What was your first published book?

My debut is The Ties That Bind. It’s a little hard to classify. It’s sort of lightly speculative YA coming of age story about grief, healing and the bonds we make with the people in our lives. It also has a loosely defined magic system and a portal fantasy angle, provided you don’t expect said portal to lead you to anywhere all that magical. That said, I know authors are supposed to dislike their reviews given time, but I still think it’s a pretty good book. Especially if we’re talking about the audiobook, my narrator, Tawny Platis, really knocked it out the park.

Do you have a favorite character from one of your books? Why?

I definitely love all my characters in one way or another unless we’re talking straight up antagonists. That said, Bren from And Then He Pressed Play and Nicole from The Ties That Bind are really fun to write. They’re so different from me. Or, I guess in Nicole’s case, so different from who I am now that I’m not 10.

Would you ever write a hetero romance? Why or why not?

There’s for sure going to be heterosexual pairings in my future books here and there, but I’m not sure I’d ever write one where it is the main plotline. Partly because it’s not my lived experience, partly that there’s just truly a staggering number of stories covering that experience.

Name your favorite authors and some of their stories you’ve enjoyed? What do you like about the writing?

I might be a little bit basic when it comes to trad authors. I really enjoy Stephen King (IT), Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire) and Scott Westerfield (Midnighters).

King does horror and tension right for me a lot of the time, and even when he doesn’t, it’s still an enjoyable time. Suzanne Collins does first person present tense very well and, in my experience, that in and of itself is hard to do. Scott Westerfield’s worlds are just plain fun while also having a fair amount of depth to them in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard to make a point.

What book are you reading at the moment? It’s okay to give a fellow author a plug!

I’m about to start Snow Boys by Simon Doyle. Since I haven’t cracked it open just yet, I can’t say much about it, but I know I’m going to enjoy it. Simon’s prose is just sort of effortlessly gorgeous in a way that never feels pretentious or clever for clever’s sake. He does have joyful moments of course, but his stories have an undercurrent of sadness and twinges of pain that just make the whole thing feel much more real. Not to paint with too broad of a brush, but his voice as an author is deeply Irish in that way.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on the sequel for And Then He Pressed Play. The first one followed A.J. and Bren meeting in their grade 11 (5th year) in Ireland, with A.J. as an exchange student. The sequel follows them as a couple in grade 12 (6th year) with Bren as the exchange student over in Canada.

When creating your characters, do you have models/actors/real people in mind or are they totally fictional?

Not in the physical sense, but my narrator got me in the habit of thinking who I’d cast as them if the book was ever made into a movie. Other than that, most, if not all, of my characters are an amalgam of people I’ve known in my life with pieces that are totally made up for some variance.

Do you think women making up a good portion of the m/m fiction writers detracts from the genre? Why or why not?

In its base form, I don’t know that it detracts much at all, but in practice, the story seems to be a bit different. It’s not a great feeling when things like Heated Rivalry take off and it’s labeled a women-only space despite it literally being about us. There’s also something unsavoury in knowing that some (not all) of the people who squee over Ilya and Shane also would vote against them getting married if they were real.

As an m/m romance or gay fiction writer, what stereotype of gay men bothers you the most?

I think in general that we have to be something specific at all. Catty best friend, empathetic softie, etc. The human experience is vast and people are seldom only one thing, even if that’s what TV execs seem to think people want to see.

What promotional method works best for you?

I’ll let you know when I find it. I hear BookBub 99c deals are great if you can get accepted.

Your favorite gay TV show or movie?

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power. I said what I said.

Your favorite gay celeb?

I don’t super keep up with celebrities at all, but George Salazar and Andrew Rannells always make me smile when they pop up on one of my playlists.

About the Author

Robert J. Halliwell was born in the magical land of Canada during the age of butterfly clips and jelly sandals. He spent his formative years watching spooky movies and being jealous of Belle’s library from Beauty and the Beast. Many people don’t know Robert is married to an American Cyborg or that he’s secretly in possession of the two cutest cats in the world. He can often be found playing Dungeons and Dragons, knitting, or struggling to keep his garden alive.

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