New Contract - Savage Estate

Remember how I was complaining about wanting more longer work out there? Well, I have a new contract from Amber Allure for a novel that hit 97k on submission, so I guess I have my wish. Edits on it are going to be tough. I know that already. How that will affect the length, I have no idea but my guess is it might even get to 100k.

Anyway, it's a paranormal m/m about magic and shapeshifters called Savage Estate. Here's the blurb:

For his twenty-fifth birthday, Alec Savage gets the gift of a lifetime—the chance to meet his father for the very first time. What he finds upon his arrival in Washington, DC, however, is not. A smashed window. An empty house. A scrawled note with his name and a phone number on it. Panicked, he dials the number and talks to an uncle he never knew he had, one who insists Alec is in danger if he stays in the house. That’s when everything starts to get weird.

Within minutes, he’s teleported all the way to nowhere Montana, in the company of the most gorgeous guy he’s ever seen, hearing about how he’s the latest mage in the Savage line. Alec doesn’t want to believe this Rowan Bouchard, but it’s hard to argue with the reality of his new snowbound location or the confirmation from the uncle who greets him. He even thinks staying on the estate while they hunt for his dad won’t be so bad if he’s got Rowan as eye candy.

Except Rowan is more than that. He’s a shifter, the most beautiful black panther Alec could imagine. And according to his Uncle Martin, he’s now Alec’s familiar, too…

More details to come as I get them!

New Contract - Wild Fragile Vines

The epistolary short story I wrote for the upcoming second chances pax at Amber Allure is now officially contracted! I posted a snippet from Wild Fragile Vines once already, but here's the official blurb:

When his boss’s twenty-year-old son announced he wanted to be more than friends, Tim Kammerling told him no. He wasn’t ready to have a relationship with someone more than ten years younger than him. Devin knew he couldn’t stick around Napa and honor the status quo, however. He left town, and the two became long distance friends instead.

A lot can happen in eighteen years. Letters are sent. Calls get made.

Lives are changed.

New Contract - Unison

I just signed the contract for my upcoming time travel story, "Unison." It's part of the time travel pax at Amber Allure, though I'm not sure when it's coming out yet. Here's the blurb:

Freddie Valek is a dreamer. He dreams about the fantastic as a means to escape, about finding the perfect man, about anything his imagination can conjure. When he falls asleep after work one day and finds himself in pre-Civil War Louisiana, he can’t say that he’s surprised. The only part of the dream that shocks him is that it’s taken him ten years to have a dream about the history of his most prized possession—a water-logged portrait of a man named Ezekiel.

All he knows about Ezekiel is what the woman who gave it to him said. That Ezekiel was the son of a plantation owner and a slave. That nobody ever found out what happened to him. Freddie’s dream thrusts him into the parents’ lives and their demands that he’s been brought to them to bring back their runaway son, a mission he is more than happy to accept.

But the closer he gets to finding Ezekiel, the more convinced he is that none of it is actually a dream…

New Contract - Against a Wounded Landscape

I just signed a new contract for a fantasy novella at Amber Allure! It's called Against a Wounded Landscape, and it's part of the knights pax that will come out in January. Here's the blurb:

Sir Tanash, the greatest knight Tasora has ever known, has one quest—to rescue his king’s only son. Fifteen years ago, Princy Liseny was kidnapped, and in the time since, Tasora has crumbled. By bringing the prince home, Tanash hopes to return the kingdom to its former glory.

As captive in a rival land, Liseny has spent most of his life locked away from the world, brought out as the ultimate prize while his real home is slowly destroyed. Escape is a godsend. So is Tanash, but neither is as simple as Liseny hopes. He has to learn to adjust in more ways than one. Though Tanash refuses to act on their mutual attraction, he does agree to help Liseny seek out an alliance to take back to Tasora.

What he doesn’t expect is to fall for the young prince along the way…

New contract - A Soul Remembered

I have a new contract, woo hoo! Recently, I finished the first story in a new sci-fi/futuristic series. The story is called A Soul Remembered and will come out in December as part of the General Hospital pax at Amber Allure. Here's the blurb:

The Reborn project began out of the desperate need to keep a dying man alive. It turned into a century-long hunt for his soul.

Until everything changed a single fateful night in a Bayside alley.

Bleeding out from an unexpected attack, prostitute Adam Silver is convinced he’s going to die again without finding the man he’s been looking for since his very first death over a hundred years ago. He gets lucky. Rescue comes in the form of Dr. David Bogart and his friends who happen to be in the area, but it’s in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that Adam sees the birthmark he created to designate the reincarnation of his long lost love. For the first time in years, he feels hope. 

But it turns out, finding Bogart was the easy part. Staying alive as he fights to help the man the media has dubbed “Dr. Death” is a hell of a lot harder…

New contract - Silences of Fallen Stars

Woo hoo! I sent off the contract yesterday for my stories in the Amber Allure 60s pax that's coming up this winter. It's called Silences of Fallen Stars. Here's the blurb:

When they graduated from high school in 1962, best friends and secret lovers Jim McCutcheon and Ronnie Mayer had high expectations for the rest of their lives. Six years later, both are back in the small Nebraska town they called home, and worse, no longer together.

Once the golden boy, Jim now works on his grandfather’s farm, ignoring the disappointed looks he gets from everyone who expected him to end up at NASA. Ronnie lives in his parents’ basement, recovering from the blast that sent him home from Vietnam. Neither one is where they want to be, but it takes a special request from Ronnie’s mom for Jim to swallow his pride and visit.

Though it doesn’t go well, it opens the door for the two young men to start communicating. One question haunts them, though. Have they changed too much to find their way back to each other again?

New contract - A Flight in Ice

Another of the stories I finished since RT now is officially contracted. This one is for the upcoming Winter Games pax at Amber Allure, called A Flight in Ice.

Here's the blurb:

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…

It's a quiet character piece about how to move on when all you want is to run away. I'm rather proud of it. More details as I get them!

New contract - Flesh and Kisses

I've been uber productive since getting back to RT. One of the stories that was finished and submitted is my long novella for the upcoming Silver Foxes pax at Amber Allure. It's called Flesh and Kisses:

After spending all of high school in the closet, the last thing Jett Walker wants is to go to his thirty-year class reunion. Then the one person he was never able to resist decides to attend – punk rocker Trev Chambers. Trev was the epitome of everything Jett wanted to be, and now he’s reuniting the band he made famous for a final blowout concert. Though nobody back home knows he’s gay, Jett decides to go. He needs closure. One weekend of pretending he’s straight is more than worth it. 

When he discovers Trev lives less than two hours away, Jett seeks him out on a whim. The punk rocker has grown up, but as far as Jett’s concerned, Trev is more appealing than ever. He’s also available. One brief conversation turns into a date, which raises the question…are they just living in nostalgia, or can they find a way to build a real future together?

I've never written a high school reunion story before, so this one was a ton of fun. I'll share more details as I get them.

Have a great weekend!

What the Heart Thinks

On Tuesday, I got my novella in for the Viva La Difference pax coming out at Amber Allure in the spring. It's a rom com piece of fluff that makes me laugh every time I read it. The blurb is a little rough, but it'll give you an idea what it's about:

On a scale of one to ten, DJ Joe Salinas considers himself a four, five on a good day. Actor/part-time stripper Fess Kedley is definitely a nine, however, though Joe’s pretty sure that slides into a ten as soon as the clothes come off. So when the outgoing Fess recognizes a shy Joe at a bachelorette party from his midnight radio show and proceeds to ask him out, Joe turns him down, convinced he’s either crazy or stupid.

The only problem is, Fess takes rejection as reason to keep on trying.

The two become unexpected friends, so when the thought of trying a date comes up again, Joe decides to take a chance. Though he doesn’t understand what someone like Fess would see in someone like him, it’s hard to say no when everything else feels so right.

New contract

Now that I've sent the contract back, I can squee about my latest sale. My m/m/f paranormal erotic romance, "Enthralled in Silver," has been contracted by Ellora's Cave!

I don't have a decent blurb for it yet, and the synopsis is too long to post (and would give away too much), but I can say it's about Claire, a grieving young woman, who meets Seth and Simon when she goes to their employer's estate for a meeting. Unbeknownst to her, the men are lovers and locked into a turbulent relationship with their vampire boss, one they're desperate to escape. They can only do so, however, with Claire's help, so the men set out to try and seduce her into aiding them.

It's been too long since I've published with Ellora's Cave, but hopefully that's going to change in the future. I miss writing het and menage, and the heat of this particular trio makes me hungry to do a lot more.

Writing status update

Since I've been mostly incommunicado for the past couple weeks, I figure I'm due for a status update on what's going on in my writing world.

First of all, I got my contract for The Hearts of Yesteryear, my m/m story about a 77 y/o actor who has to return to the hometown he hasn't visited in over fifty years. I don't have a due date for that yet, but it'll be out in either August or September. I'm in the throes of those edits right now.

I finished the revisions on an m/m/f paranormal erotic romance and have started the submission process. I had originally submitted it as a possibility for an anthology last fall, but that never panned out (I strayed too far from the theme, haha how not a surprise, lol), so I finally got around to adding the two chapters I'd wanted but couldn't because of the word restrictions. It's now a 21k novella instead of a short story, entitled Enthralled in Silver. I have high hopes for it. It's hot as hell and the first of a short series.

Once my edits are done, I'm going to finally finish a het WIP that's currently at 68k. I'd changed the title the last time I was working on it, but you know, I didn't write it down, and it's been a couple months and now I can't remember it. Hopefully I can find note of it somewhere.

Then, by July 1, I'll be starting my next m/m. It's working title is Sticking to the Seams, and it's set in an America far in the future that's been destroyed and is in the process of rebuilding. The main hero is a young train engineer who is on the search for his father. I'm rather excited about it, so July better get here fast.

Iron Eyes

I have writing progress news! My story for the upcoming steampunk pax at Amber Allure is now in and accounted for, so I can spread the news on what it's about.

My story is called Iron Eyes, and is a 35k m/m erotic romance set in 1922. My return to writing is hallmarked by a lot of nostalgic contemporary fiction, lol. I have one in the 20s, one in the 30s, and one in the 50s, all coming out in a two-month period.

Here's the blurb:

For three years, Cap Kaufman has been trying to make amends to his war buddy’s orphaned daughter. Building her a safe home. Finding her the best nanny. Now, he’s kidnapped the man her doctor says is her best bet for fixing her blindness.

When Hector Lanza wakes up on a boat in the middle of nowhere, he’s confronted by a man determined to get his own way. He has no choice but to play along and wait for his chance to escape. What he doesn’t count on is learning to respect the man who uprooted him from everything he knew, all for the love of a child.

For Hector, it’s a challenge. For Cap, it’s penance. For both of them…a chance for love. All it takes is opening their eyes to see what’s right in front of them.

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!

New contract

So while I was away at GRL, I got some fab news. Remember that historical m/m I submitted a couple weeks ago? Well, it got accepted! Liquid Silver Books is going to publish "A Simple Charm," probably some time in early 2013.

Here's the blurb, for those who might be interested...

In 1934, life in Brookburn, Indiana is quiet, simple, and peaceful, but young dreamer Levi Beckerman yearns for more. When the carnival shows up for the Fourth of July, he’s entranced by its many temptations. None is more seductive than the charismatic barker, Sebastian Gustineau.

Seb’s been a part of the carnival for almost a decade. Once, it provided him the escape he needed from a life he thought he didn’t want, but now, he craves things it can never offer. Flitting from dusty town to dusty town, he loses himself in pretty dalliances. Levi seems like the perfect distraction, until a single conversation convinces him that preserving Levi’s innocence and way of life is more important than his momentary satisfaction.

However, his plan to discourage Levi goes horribly wrong. When Levi’s family is threatened, Levi fights to protect them, doing what he can to hide the secrets he’s sheltered his entire life. The only person he trusts is Seb. He’s just not sure if the growing bond between them is enough to save them all.

I love this story to pieces. What's better, it's going to have a sequel, a project I've slated for next year.

But yay! I'm so glad it's going to see the light of day now. :)