Announcement: Email Error

Those of you subscribed to the blog via email may have noticed recently that you are receiving emails for old posts on top of new posts. As I said back in January, I want to improve my post tags. So I have been going back and updating the tags for quite a few posts. Unfortunately, this has resulted in posts being re-sent through email to subscribers along with new posts. I am aware of the issue, and have contacted Blogger about it.

That being said, it’s not a huge issue, and it shouldn’t lead to an increase in your email. Since I’m updating the tags on older posts while posting new posts, you should still be receiving at the most one email a day. That being said, I will be taking a break from updating the tags until the issue is resolved, though there are a number that I’ve already changed over this past week, so you may still see older posts in your email for a few days. Again, I'm sorry about this and I will let you know once I figure out what's going on.

Anyways, have a wonderful night, and see you tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day!

The Guy With the Suitcase Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Pierce is homeless. 

Young and strong-willed Pierce has been living in the streets of New York City for six months, since his parents kicked him out of their perfect, Christian, suburban house. Pierce is gay. And he is suffering the consequences for being true to himself.

Rafe is homeless. 

He is also sick. Impressionable, but far from innocent, Rafe ran away from home almost a year ago. His sickness is slowly killing him. But Rafe is not a hopeless case. He has learned to get by. Nights of paid passion turn to sheltering warmth from the imminent New York winter.

And then there's a suitcase. Pierce's suitcase, which holds secrets from everyone including its owner.

When their worlds collide, their lives intertwine and when the world seems bent on bringing the two souls to their knees, fate has other plans for them.

Caution: Contains adult language, New York City streets, tough life choices, sexual tension, stubborn brutes and swoon-worthy romance.

Buy Links

Amazon US     |     Amazon UK     |     Amazon AU     |     Amazon DE

10 Steps to Writing Your First Gay Romance

Step 1: Make friends with readers of Gay Romance

If you’ve never written a gay romance before, there’s no one better to teach you what’s in and out, what’s hot and what’s not so hot and what makes a great romance than…readers of gay romance.

Step 2: Befriend Gay Romance Authors

Well, you’ve managed to find out what the people want, but you don’t know how to go about doing just about everything else (minus the writing). What better time to friend authors of gay romance and learn from the pros, their successes, and even their mishaps. Once you’ve completed Step 2, you’ve also joined the community, so…welcome! Sure, it’s got some drama (what can you expect from queen-loving geeks?), but you will get tons of support and love. And hugs. Lots of hugs, virtual and otherwise.

Step 3: Come up with an awesome idea for a novel

The next step is coming up with what you want to write. You’ve learnt what the crowd wants, you’ve learnt what publishing comes with, time to put it to use and create an awesome pairing with an amazing love story to match.

Step 4: Create mouth-dripping cover

Now, if you’re like me, having a cover, gives you the motivation and inspiration to write your book even faster. So that would be a great time to create it. Having the cover will also help you complete the next step.

Step 5: Pitch It

It’s time to get the words out there about your book. It might not be written yet, but that’s no reason to not share your journey building it up. It’s time to pitch it, be it to publishers, agents or simply your friends and community on Facebook. Getting the hype up for your book before it’s even outlined (see next step) will do miles for your book’s success.

Step 6: Create Outline

Time to create your outline. I know you may not be a plotter, but, well, if you are, this would be a great time to write it.

Step 7: Get your alphas to review

No, I’m not talking about alpha males, although, those would be nice too at this stage. I’m talking about people who will read your outline and tell you if there are things that don’t make sense, if it sounds good, or if it sounds like a terrible idea. Hopefully it will never be the latter.

Step 8: Write your novel

Time to punch down those words. The book ain’t gonna write itself.

Step 9: Edit your novel

Once you finish it’s time for the hard work to…continue. Haha, sucker! Did you really think it was all over once you typed 'The End'? Well, there’s a big NO coming your way. NOoOoO! Time to edit, chop, trim, and edit again what was your first attempt at writing a gay romance. Also this would be a great point to employ your betas to tell you if your book makes any sense now that it’s more than a bulleted list. 

Step 10: Publish your novel

Congratulations! You’ve just published your first gay romance. Do not be fooled, newbie! This is NOT the end of the journey. Just because you hit publish doesn’t mean your work is done and you can dust your hands. You thought writing your first gay romance was an easy job? Well, it ain’t. And now you get to do it all over again. If you’ve got the guts.

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About the Author:

Chris Ethan is a book whore. He enjoys selling his feelings for money and other pleasures and is blatantly unashamed to do so for as long as he breathes. Chris Ethan is also a persona for Rhys Christopher Ethan, author of fantasy and sci-fi. He uses Chris Ethan to share stories of adult queer romance with those who need it. Before you delve into his books however, be warned. He likes putting his characters through shitstorms and hates anything conventional. But then there's that darned happy-ever-after. Also, he likes swearing. Deal with it!

Social links:

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Beware the Ides of March

Photo courtesy of veraukoion

That’s right, today is the Ides of March (also known as the fated day Julius Caesar was warned about). As I said yesterday, this is one of my favorite days because I love the name the Ides of March. Originally just a fancy sounding name for the middle of March, every month technically had an Ides. The Ides of [insert month here] was determined by the full moon, which usually occurred on the 13th or 15th day of the month.

However, after Caesar's death, the Ides of March became a turning point in Roman history, and helped mark the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. And this event is also why the Ides of March in particular are so well known and the name still used today, even if the Ides of other months aren’t.

Lesson learned: if a famous soothsayer tells you to beware the Ides of March, it might be a good idea to listen. 

Photo courtesy of someecards

Hopefully today is much tamer for you than it ended up being for Caesar. Have a wonderful Ides of March!

On a side note: Today is also Hungary’s National Day, in memory of their 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence. Google makes Google Doodles every year to celebrate this in Hungary, which you can see here.

Happy Pi Day

Photo courtesy of Holiday Pictures

Hey guys, happy Pi Day! I hope y’all have a fun math and pie filled day. I found some funny cartoons and some yummy recipes to try for today, so have a happy pi day!

But before that, I just wanted to say that as you may have noticed in the past, today and tomorrow are two of my favorite days because I absolutely love the nicknames they have been given. Today Pi Day, tomorrow...well, you’ll just have to visit to find out why I love March 15 (in case you haven’t gone and looked back to last year yet).  

Photo courtesy of Spiked Math

Recipes:

• Pecan pie - My family modifies the recipe by adding chocolate chips and creating a sublime chocolate pecan pie 

• Every single pie here. Thank you Mental Floss for this brilliance.

• And last but not least, here's a delicious recipe from an author that I had the opportunity to learn quite a lot about last spring down in the Florida Keys...Ernest Hemingway's Campfire Apple Pie from The Hemingway Cookbook (the recipe's on pg. 11).

Desolation Angel Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Dare gets lost in music only he can hear.

Since childhood, it’s rolled through his mind, drowning out the rest of the world. When he comes back to himself he has the notes and lyrics for the songs his band plays. But he wonders if such talent is worth it, when the rest of his life is such a mess.

All Sionn ever wanted was Dare’s attention.

But that won’t happen as long as Dare has his ‘musical dreams’, so he keeps his attraction a secret. Too bad it’s impossible to keep anything secret when you live with your three best friends. When Sionn’s temper reaches breaking point, he sets Dare on a quest to ‘fix’ himself, in the hopes of gaining the love of the man he adores.

But Fate has a funny way of twisting things.

And ‘normal’ is just a state of mind, isn’t it? While Dare struggles to change, secrets are revealed, loyalties are tested, and the band is offered the chance of a lifetime. Can they pull themselves together fast enough to take advantage of it, or will Dare’s desire to be ‘normal’ unravel all their lives?

Buy Links

Don’t miss the March Sale! All Wayward Ink Titles titles are 35% off on the WIP website and 30% off on AllRomance.

WIP     |     Amazon US     |     Amazon UK

Amazon AU     |     Amazon DE     |     ARe

On things to come

Thank you so much for having me on your blog this today, it’s always a strange mixture of fear and fun releasing a new book and beginning to look ahead to the future. Desolation Angel will always be special to me because it was actually the first M/M romance novel I wrote and the springboard for writing Guitars and Cages. When I look back and think about writing that initial scene with Dare on the stope spacing out I have to admit I never imagined that two years later his story would be published. In that moment, all I was hoping to capture was something that I’d struggled with all of my life, though not to the same degree. The spacing out, the losing a sense of space and place and time and living in the words that were floating in my head, and sometimes music, but for me it was always more the words.

There were times when writing Dare’s story when I’d find myself in tears over the way he looked at himself the certainty he had that he was broken because he wasn’t normal. I’ve known so many people like that over the years and had many moments of feeling those same emotions and wondering if it was better to work harder at being like everyone else or continue to be myself. Well, I lost two years of my life trying to be someone else’s idea me rather than being the person I’d always been and that was more than enough for me. I’m a little sarcastic, a little messy, a little spacy and more than a little bit impulsive at times. I like living in my head, I like the voices I hear, I love their stories and the characters I meet there and I live with people who get that and love me anyway, so in that the Goddess has surely blessed me.

I feel like my shell is finally melting away, and I’m excited to announce that I will be at two conventions this coming year, the BSDM writers gathering in Everett Washington a bit later this month and the Readers and Writers Unite gathering in late summer in Huston. I am also trying to work out plans to attend a third one but that’s up in the air at the moment. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would have attempted to step out in public and meet new people this way I would have told you no with a bunch of expletives in front of it,  so score one for personal growth, and the opportunity to learn some much needed tips to help me polish off Burning Luck, my upcoming Biker/BSDM poly-romance.

I’ve got a snake shifter novel set to go to the publisher later in the year, along with another rocker romance, and a merfolk one. The merfolk one has been done now for almost two years, but it’s needed some polishing which it will finally get in upcoming months. I also have plans to do NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row this year, so at least I know I will start 2017 with a work in progress as that one will certainly need refining and polish. All in all, I’m trilled with all that’s grown out of that one opening scene, and as for the Angels, they’ll be on tour in a new book coming in 2017 as well.

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About the Author:

LAYLA DORINE lives among the sprawling prairies of Midwestern America, in a house with more cats than people. She loves hiking, fishing, swimming, martial arts, camping out, photography, cooking, and dabbling with several artistic mediums. In addition, she loves to travel and visit museums, historic, and haunted places.

Layla got hooked on writing as a child, starting with poetry and then branching out, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. Hard times, troubled times, the lives of her characters are never easy, but then what life is? The story is in the struggle, the journey, the triumphs and the falls. She writes about artists, musicians, loners, drifters, dreamers, hippies, bikers, truckers, hunters and all the other folks that she’s met and fallen in love with over the years. Sometimes she writes urban romance and sometimes its aliens crash landing near a roadside bar. When she isn’t writing, or wandering somewhere outdoors, she can often be found curled up with a good book and a kitty on her lap.

Layla Dorine can be found at:

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Beastly Businessmen and Guitar Gods Cover Reveal

Synopsis:

Fairytales and Myths for the Modern Gay

The modern age is devoid of magic.

Or is it?

How else could a stolen guitar or a lost shoe lead to love?

What but magic could spark romance at a workplace assessment?

Or turn a mean-spirited monster into a man?

Six fairytales and myths are given a contemporary MM twist in this collection of stories, proving that sometimes the mundane can be magical too.

DRAGGED INTO LOVE (Þrymskviða)
When Theo’s landlord steals a prized guitar in lieu of rent owed, he informs Theo he will return the instrument on one condition: he wants a date with Theo’s twin sister.

LOVE’S CODE (Ariadne and Theseus)
Andre must pass the examination if he wants to keep his job. However, he is distracted by his unspoken love for fellow programmer, Eren.

GUESSING GAMES (Rumplestiltskin)

Sasha told a little white lie in his job interview and it won him the role.

Only now he is faced with a pile of work he doesn’t know how to complete.

ASSIGNATIONS AND ULTIMATUMS (The Strange Elopement of Tinirau)

Hunter and Ross are in love, but Ross’ father keeps trying to set him up with undesirable, yet powerful, older men, the latest of whom happens to be Ross’ boss.

LOST AND FOUND (Cinderella)
Cillian is dreading the work masquerade ball, but once there he finds himself romanced by a dashing stranger, only to flee when he discovers the man's identity.

A DEBT IS A DEBT (Beauty and the Beast)

Dunstan Griffin is not a man to let a debt slide, so when debtor Alfred Siskin offers the EA services of his son, Wynn, in lieu of payment, Dunstan accepts.


Sounds like an awesome book, right? And now, for the simple yet beautiful cover...

Excerpt:

ONCE UPON A time the world was a place of magic and fantasy. People believed in fairy realms, healing potions, and true love’s kiss, and witchcraft, spells, and curses were accepted as fact, a part of life. Once upon a time….

But those days are long gone. The world has changed, magic replaced by technology, wonder by disillusionment, and fairytales and myths reduced to the purview of children, bound within the pages of a book or on the screen, no longer real but pure make believe.

Or are they?

Let us, dear reader, travel together to a place where all is not as it seems. Come with me to London’s financial district. Hand in hand, we will enter the imposing yet innocuous office building of DunGriffinCorp. It doesn’t look like much at first glance, I grant you. No different from any other firm here in the City. But take the time to peel back the layers and you may be surprised at what you find. For within these walls magic and romance still abound. The employees of DunGriffinCorp don’t know it yet, but several of them are about to have their lives changed forever.

Book Trailer

Pre-order Links

Don’t miss the March Sale! All Wayward Ink Titles titles are 35% off on the WIP website and 30% off on AllRomance. The 30% discount also applies to all Amazon websites for Beastly Businessmen and Guitar Gods pre-orders and the first few days after release.

WIP     |     Amazon     |     Amazon UK
Amazon AU     |     Amazon DE     |     ARe

About the Author:

NICKI J. MARKUS was born in England in 1982, but now lives in Adelaide, South Australia with her husband. She has loved both reading and writing from a young age and is also a keen linguist, having studied several foreign languages.

Nicki launched her writing career in 2011. She published works through Wicked Nights Publishing and Silver Publishing before both companies closed their doors. She is now self-publishing some of her works, including the novella Time Keepers and the fantasy novel The Ragnarök Chronicles.

Nicki also writes M/M fiction under the alternate pen name of ASTA IDONEA and has had several short stories published by Wayward Ink Publishing. She is currently working on her first M/M novella.

Nicki works as a freelance editor and proofreader, and in her spare time she enjoys: music, theatre, cinema, photography, sketching, and cross stitch. She also loves history, folklore and mythology, pen-palling, and travel.

Social links:

Website     |     Facebook     |     Twitter

Nature of the Beast Release Day

Synopsis:

After sorceress Alexandra tries to kill her insane father, her fae uncle expels her from the Otherworld in an attempt to keep her safe. Living among humans, she keeps her connection with the supernatural by working for vampires and werewolves.

When she stumbles upon a hurt werewolf pup her efforts to heal him inadvertently break the bonds tying the young lycan to the pack, making her his new alpha.

This is the least of Alexandra’s worries though, for back in the Otherworld her father has not forgotten her. He dispatches an assassin to kill her. But just who is this mysterious foe, and what will their arrival mean not only to Alexandra but to the delicate balance of the world?

Nature of the Beast is the first book in the Tangled Bonds series.

Buy Links

Don’t miss the March Sale! All Wayward Ink Titles titles are 35% off on the WIP website and 30% off on AllRomance. The 30% discount also applies to all Amazon websites for Nature of the Beast on the first few days after release.

WIP     |     Amazon US     |     Amazon UK

Amazon AU     |     Amazon DE     |     ARe

Excerpt:

I had several orders to fill, but I couldn’t concentrate. The potion business didn’t pay much, but as it was only a ruse, I didn’t care.

Cleaning up other peoples’, or in my case other immortals’, screw-ups paid a whole lot more. It also took a lot out of me, but, hey, a girl’s gotta live, and since selling my body held no appeal, that was my only option. So I made bodies and any traces of magic reckless immortals left behind disappear, and tried to stay out of the line of fire. Of course, working closely with vampires and werewolves didn’t make the job easy. On the other hand, I was lucky to be working mostly with their kind. I shuddered to think how much more difficult it would be with demons or fae as customers. Good thing they were used to cleaning their own messes.

Eventually, I gave up pretending to work and went outside. The hot air of the afternoon hit me hard and I breathed it in in long, deep gulps. It tasted foul and oppressing on my tongue, reminding me again how much I hated the heat. Not even the clean mountain air could make it palatable. And no matter how far I was from civilization, I could still feel it around me, smelling like sickness and decay. It was such a far cry from the crisp air of the Otherworld. There everything was sharper, fresher. The forests were always green, and the grass smelled like spring. I shook my head, bringing myself back to reality. What was of the point dreaming of what you couldn’t have?

I filled my lungs and the foul smell hit me again. My nose curled in distaste, my stomach convulsing. I dry swallowed, trying to get rid of the awful taste, and cursed myself for dwelling in old memories. That had to be the reason everything seemed worse today.

Sun washed over me as I stepped into the backyard. Closing my eyes, I basked in its glow. As much as I hated summer, I loved the sun. Yet another contrast of my personality. But then again, what would you expect when I was made out of contrasts from the beginning? Fae’s blood mixed with human, demon and angel, animal and water; those conflicting elements meant to give me access to all these worlds tended to battle inside me. It didn’t work out for my maker as well as he’d hoped, but, as the saying went, you can’t have it all.

About the Author:

Born in Romania, land of the Iele and Vlad the Impaler, AIMEE BRISSAY has spent all her life surrounded by books. She has ridden side by side with d’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers to retrieve the Queen’s diamonds, set sail on the Erasmus in search of the Japans, fell in love with Rhett Butler and roamed the Wild West along Old Shatterhand. She has walked on the footsteps of the Olympian Gods and searched for Zalmoxis’ sanctuary in the Carpathians. In her mind, she’s never been the damsel in distress but rather the knight in shiny armor fighting for a cause.

With a background like this, turning to writing was no surprise.

Aimee discovered erotica early on in life and has never looked back. Now she can write anywhere, even in a crowded room or a busy subway station, but she loves solitude.

When she’s not at her evil day job, she can be found writing or playing with her cat. She welcomes messages from readers and promises to answer all of them as soon as possible.

Aimee Brissay can be found at:

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