Escaping Those Sizzling Summer Nights

Calling my summer "sizzling" is pretty spot on for how it's going, and not in the fun, sexy way! See, I live in California, and we've had a pretty hot one so far. We're looking at 100+F over the weekend, and August has only just begun. As a girl born and bred in the midwest where a year really was composed of four seasons, it's taken me some getting used to. Sometimes, I think I'm still adjusting to it, and I've been here for a decade now.

So what do I do to escape the heat? It probably sounds counterproductive, but I always turn to winter stories. I may not want to hear about snowstorms and freezing temperatures in the dead of January, but when I turn into a sweat bomb as soon as I step outside my air conditioned house, those kinds of things sound heavenly.

That's why I jumped at the chance to write a story for a collection coming out August 17 at Amber Allure that's winter-themed. It's a story about healing and second chances, and I'm absolutely in love with the cover.

That's Connor, my main character. Just looking at that wintry landscape makes the heat we're currently enduring much more bearable.

Curious about what the story is exactly about?

Life hasn’t turned out like Connor McClure hoped. His relationship is over, he lost his friends in the break-up, and nothing makes him happy anymore. All he wants is to hide from the world, but the only place available to him is his parents’ home in the rural Michigan community he abandoned thirteen years ago. Since they’re in Florida for the winter, he’ll have the whole house to himself.

Except he doesn’t. In their absence, the McClures asked a young neighbor to look after the property. Jerry is young, energetic, and oh yeah, gay. From everything he’s learned about Connor, he might be harboring a little crush, but Connor is in no place for dating. Right now, he needs a friend, someone to help him remember that second chances are always possible…

So tell me. Has your summer been a scorcher? How are you escaping the heat?