Special sale at Amber Allure

Today only at Amber Allure, all nostalgic contemporaries are on sale for 50% off! That includes a number of Jamie Craig titles as well as one of mine.

Check out these and more!

Accomplished in 2013

After taking much of 2012 off, I started back in on writing in 2013 to try and get up to steam. It was a slow process, but I think I'm back in a groove somewhat, finding my rhythm as I concentrate on writing the stories and characters that are important to me. All but one of them came out with Amber Allure as well as all being m/m, but that's going to change up in the year to come. I ended up having seven solo titles and one collaboration with Rick R. Reed.

My lone non-AQP title came from Liquid Silver. A Simple Charm is a sweet historical romance about a carny who shows up in a small Indiana town and falls for a local boy who has real magic. It's one of the most gentle stories I wrote all year, with some of my best prose, I think. It makes me a little sad that this didn't get the bigger audience I think it deserves, but I always knew a sweet historical with paranormal overtones would be a hard sell for most m/m readers.

One of my first titles this year at Amber Allure was The Low Between, a 50s noir story about an ex-cop and the young actor who get caught up in murders that have nothing to do with them. I have a real soft spot for this time period, and there just isn't enough out there, especially in the m/m world. It was tough getting back into plotting, but I was happy with how this turned out.

After reading so much steampunk that focused too much on the tech and not enough on the characters, I decided to try my hand at my own version. The result was Iron Eyes. While one of my leads was a brilliant engineer from 20s Hollywood, I deliberately focused on the story they had to tell, the journey of finding a new solution to help a little blind girl see. I'm really proud of this one, plus Cap and Hector's chemistry went off the charts for me.

After noir and steampunk, I decided to dip my toes in sci-fi. Thus, Aria of the Eclipse was born. I've never created an alien species all on my own before (I've done it as part of the Jamie Craig team), so coming up with Dek was my real challenge in this. He needed to be otherworldly enough to warrant the genre, and yet relatable enough for the readers to connect with. I think, hands down, this is the most romantic story I published all year.


I collaborated with the talented Rick R. Reed on an epistolic short about two men separated by life choices, in a time when being gay wasn't nearly as accepted. Family Obligations still makes me cry when I re-read it, for everything they had to endure as well as for the lives they actually lead.

I stayed in the contemporary zone with my sweet romance, The Hearts of Yesteryear. While it's very comedic in tone, the subject matter is not. It's about a man in his seventies who ran away from his small town after his best friend and the boy he loved chose the military over him. John has to go back to that town and confront his past. To this day, I still want to see this as a sitcom. I think John and Frank would be terrifically funny as a gay senior citizen couple, with Corrine, John's personal assistant, there for back-up. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Things sobered up for me with my next contemporary. The Unbeaten Track is about an insomniac who is still haunted by the loss of his high school sweetheart, a victim of homophobic violence. I chose to do this one in first person, mostly because it's so much about being in Sean's head. The reader needed to be there with him as he made his choices, and hopefully come out the other side better for the knowing.

Last but not least, came Threshold. This took me back to my vampire roots, about a hurt vampire on the run who holes up in an out of the way motel. Falling for him was Max, an ex-soldier who is desperately looking for meaning in his life. The connection between these two sizzled from the start. Of all the titles I released this year, this one, for me, is by far the hottest.

2014 is going to see me branching out some. For instance, I have an m/m/f menage called Enthralled in Silver coming out with Ellora's Cave, and I'm hoping to have more. There are two stories in the final stages to come out at Amber Allure, Boundless and What the Heart Thinks, and more I'm scheduled to do there. All good things!

Putting it together

When I decided to write a noir story, I wanted to embrace everything I knew about the genre in its written form. Incorporating visual elements is easy enough - the moody settings, the chiaroscuro imagery - but it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Part of the problem is that classic noir is the opposite of everything romance should be. It's meant to be doomed. You're not supposed to have anyone to root for. The people in it are supposed to be greedy and corrupt, and ultimately, condemned to failure.

So I opted to pull back from some of the harder elements and more closely follow what's consider classic noir film. Those tend to lean more toward what's considered "hard-boiled" stories, with endings that aren't quite as bleak and redeemable characters. It was easy to harden characters, both secondary and primary. People are often motivated by superficial things, especially when crime is involved. For instance, I had Carlo, my struggling actor, willing to not think about the moral implications of getting involved in what's obviously a shady deal by having him focus on what he hopes to gain from it - his big break. But I could counter that with his involvement with Joe, a good man who's been hardened over the years by loss. I could even get my HFN for them.

I still had a problem, though. I still wanted to pay tribute to classic noir fiction. The best way I could see how was to mimic that writing style.

Gone was a lot of my longer, winding sentence structure. In its place were shorter, terser sentences. More of them are simple and declarative rather than complex. Vocabulary is tighter. Action tries to take center stage. I don't think it reads like much of my other work, but I also don't believe that's a bad thing. It's my love for the genre found form.

I'm proud of the story, but my reasons are so entwined that I can't pinpoint a specific reason. I do know that when I re-read my galley before it came out, I ended it as wrapped up in and in love with Joe and Carlo as I'd been while writing. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes, it takes some distance from a story to rekindle that first blush of love because the work that's gone into momentarily eclipses the emotion.

Not so in this case. Not so at all.

Don't forget! Comment for a chance to win the DVD set I'm giving away. :)

Back to real life

Today, my kids went back to school, and my husband went into the office. That means this is my first day since my surgery I'll be alone all day.

I've officially lost my waitstaff. Well, until three this afternoon, anyway.

Lucy (our Boston Terrier) better not be too needy today. She'll be out of luck because I'm not traipsing around the house for her every whim just yet.

Hopefully, this means good things for my word count. I've started my story for the music pax coming out at Amber Allure this spring, and it's flying by. Nothing historical this time, though. This time it's sci-fi.

AND...I've blogged over at the Amber Pax Collection blog today, talking about how my love affair with noir began. Head on over and comment. Everybody who comments on the blog this week gets a chance to win the entire collection. Plus, any comments made on my post will get their name thrown in on my DVD giveaway, too. How can you say no to that?

Another excerpt from The Low Between

The excerpt on the Amber Allure website comes early in the story, and I'm dying to share more of my guys with everyone. This comes later in the story, after Carlo and Joe have agreed to work together. Carlo has crashed at Joe's place while Joe took care of some business. Joe is on his way back...

*_*_*_*

The six-block walk to the store was swift. Though traffic was starting to pick up, the distant horns and growling engines disappeared once he was inside. He relaxed automatically. This was his haven, the one place he felt secure. It had been since his discharge from the Army, when he'd been struggling to find a new home in the city determined to haunt him. Everywhere he'd turned, he seen reminders of Emmett. Buying the business from old Mr. Morgan had been his last resort at starting fresh.

The sanctuary still worked. When he started up the silent staircase, he almost felt like he could handle anything Carlo might throw at him to add to his headaches.

More silence greeted him as he let himself into the darkened apartment. For a moment, he wondered if Carlo had decided to try and survive on his own, but as his eyes adjusted, he saw an outline stretched out on the couch. Rather than turn on the overhead light, he crept around the edge of the room to flick on the bedroom light instead. Enough spilled through the open door to reveal Carlo, fast asleep, the army blanket Joe used to hide the sofa's shabbiness pulled tightly around him.

He shouldn't stare. It wasn't his right. But Carlo Baresi truly was a gorgeous young man, and it had been too long since anybody but Joe had slept on that couch. Besides, he didn't have an audience. Nobody could see him appreciating the fine slope of Carlo's nose, or the way his hair fell boyishly across his forehead, or the soft full pout of his slightly parted lips. Only Joe would know, and he was too tired to care about the right or wrong of it.

With a sigh, he leaned against the doorjamb and drank his fill. If he'd been bolder, if they didn't have this business hanging over their heads, he would've liked to kiss Carlo when they traded places in the cab. Hell, he would've liked to do a lot more than that, but kissing would've sufficed. Carlo had the mouth for it, lush and ready to burst at the first nibble. With those dark eyes tilted up at him, Joe would've been a goner, incapable of refusing a single request, be it simple or sexual.

He hadn't kissed anyone since Emmett. For all his fantasies, he doubted he'd be kissing anybody any time soon. It was ridiculous to even consider. Carlo had the looks to be a real heartthrob if he ever got a decent break with his acting career. If by some miracle he wouldn't refuse a man's advances, someone as battered by life as Joe would never catch his attention.

Yet, in spite of what should've been common sense, he wondered. There had been moments when Carlo's gaze lingered a moment too long, or his nostrils had flared as he fought for some kind of control. Joe had caught Carlo watching him on the ride back to the store, too, not to mention the blush at Carlo's unfortunate assumption they'd be sharing the apartment.

The corner of his mouth quirked. Looked like Carlo had been right on that count.

When Carlo shifted in his sleep, Joe stepped back into the bedroom and shut the door to temptation. He could use a couple hours himself before opening the store. For all the anxiety Copper caused, there was something comforting about knowing Carlo was in the next room. He might even invade Joe's dreams if Joe could relax enough to slip that deep.

It wouldn't make tomorrow any easier, but it sure would save tonight from being a complete disaster.

*_*_*_*

Don't forget about my giveaway! Leave a comment, and your name will be throw in the hat for a chance to win this collection of classic noir films on DVD.

New release - The Low Between

I have a new release today! My noir m/m, The Low Between, is now out at Amber Allure:

It was supposed to be simple. 

All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick up a man in a taxi, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he claims to be...and they both know it.

Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the taxi driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful.

But the men have something in common other than their mutual attraction. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on.

And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side...

Head on over to Amber Allure and take a closer look!

In conjunction with my new release, I'm giving a DVD set of classic noir films. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this or any post until February 15. A winner will be selected at random on the 16th. For details about this and my other current giveaway, check out my giveaway post.

Giveaways

Okay, so my recovery this week took more out of me than I anticipated. Everything is going great, though. I had my follow-up with the doctor on Thursday, where he looked it over and redressed it. My stitches come out a week from tomorrow, but I'll be in this shoe for weeks yet to come.

But my plans clearly got derailed. I had hoped to be active in blogging this past week to talk about A Simple Charm, but that obviously didn't happen. So, I'm going to run two different giveaways at the same time, and keep them active until my next release comes out in February.

For my carnies story, I wanted to do something a little bit different. I'll be giving away two matted 8x10 prints:

I found them at this seller on Etsy. She's got some great stuff. The prints are done on aged dictionary pages, so they have this wonderful sepia tone to them. It's much stronger than in my pictures. And in case you can't read what it says on the tree print, it says, "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are."

The second giveaway is in conjunction with my release out today, The Low Between. This is my story in the Amber Allure Noir pax, five stories all centered on a noir theme. For this, I'll be giving away a collection of classic noir films on DVD - The Asphalt Jungle, Gun Crazy, Murder My Sweet, Out of the Past, and The Set-Up.

Unfortunately, because of shipping costs, the prizes are only available to those in the US. That doesn't mean you can't participate if you're from elsewhere, though. If the winner ends up being outside the US, I'll substitute a $40 Amazon gift voucher for them instead.

All you have to do is comment on any post between now and February 15. Your name will get thrown in every time you comment. I'll announce the winners on the 16th.

It's only Wednesday?

I've been a little AWOL the past few days because I'm in frantic mode, preparing to be unavailable to my family for a bit. Why? Because on Friday morning, I'm having surgery on my foot. That means Mom (my alter ego) won't be able to do any of the driving, wrangling, cooking, or cleaning, for the next week. I'm prepping the husband and kids for how to handle that, without forgetting that I'm going to need some TLC, too, as well as handling all my pre-op stuff.

It's been a tad busy.

I'm also getting ready for my upcoming releases. On Monday, my m/m historical short novel, A Simple Charm, comes out at Liquid Silver, and the following Sunday, my m/m noir long novella, The Low Between, comes out at Amber Allure. I'm going to have giveaways for both, so more details about those to come.

Today is more running around. While I can. I even volunteered to do all the dog walks this week. Because I just know the weekend and next week where I'm not really supposed to be out of bed are going to drive me insane.

Plus? I can't put a shoe on that foot until March. The boot I have to wear is NOT cute.

That's a good excuse to go shoe shopping when I'm all healed up, right?

New cover art for The Low Between

I spent most of the past two days recovering from my first appointment with a personal trainer (ohmigod, so sore, why haven't I ever used these muscles before?!?), so I'm keeping it a little brief today.

I have new cover art!

I'm just about done with my steampunk story, too, so you'll be hearing more about that early next week.

Though I have another appointment with the trainer on Monday. We'll see if I survive a second.

The Low Between

So that noir story I was working on? All submitted and on the tentative schedule for Amber Allure. It'll either be coming out in January or February as part of the Noir Pax.

My story is called The Low Between and is a 38,000 word gay suspense erotic romance. set in 1952 New York City. Here's the blurb:

It was supposed to be simple.

All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick a man up, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he says he is…and they both know it.

Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful.

But they have something in common other than their mutual attraction. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on.

And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side.

I love the guys in this story. I'll keep you guys updated on edits, cover art, and release dates as I get them!