Archive for GayRomLit

First book of the year done….

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Yay! I finished and submitted my first story of the year. It’s my short for the GRL anthology. New Vocations. Not a bad way to start 2016. 🙂 So now I’ll be working on Edward’s story. That is next on my list to be written. Also have kind of a secret project. I don’t want to say anything because I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ll be working on that one as well.

Edward’s story is part of a new series I’m starting about an alternative rock band and the guys they fall in love with. The interesting thing is it’s a spin-off of the Home series because the other MCs are all secondary characters from the Home series, plus there will be visits from the Home guys. 🙂 As soon as it’s done, I’ll let you know about release dates and stuff.

I hope you all have a great Monday. Stay warm and safe (for those of you hit by snow and bad weather)

Wednesday Work in Progress

It’s been a long time since I did one of these and I think I’d like to start it up again. Have to figure out what to do on Mondays and Fridays now. lol I’m determined to try and post something Monday thru Friday for you. It might not always work, but I’m going to give it my all. lol

Today’s Wednesday Work in Progress is New Vocations. It’s a contemporary story set in Kansas City during the American Royal, an eight-week long event that features a rodeo, bbq competitions, horse shows and exhibitions. Since GRL is in Kansas City, we’ve decided to use this event as the background for our anthology. You’ll be getting cowboys this year. 🙂

Here’s the working blurb: (it might change for publication)

Two men who believe in second chances meet and their lives are never the same again.

Layne Daly comes to participate in The American Royal. He’s there to show off the abilities of the retired thoroughbreds he adopts straight off the track. He wants people to know these animals can do so much more than race. He has three horses there to do exhibitions in reining, barrel racing and cutting. When his usual groom gets sick, he has to hire someone fast.

Carl Stewartson used to love coming to Kansas City for the rodeo. He’d ride broncs and hang out with his friends. But since his career-ending injury early in the year, Carl has been spinning his wheels, trying to find something to do with his life now that he couldn’t rodeo anymore. He runs into Layne and offers to help him with his horses.

Together, they have to deal with not only the stress of the event, but starting a new relationship. Second chances are what Layne does best and he’s more than willing to give Carl the opportunity.

And here’s a little excerpt from it. I can’t give you too long of one since it’s going to be a short story. lol

New Vocations c.2106 T.A. Chase

Layne took his time pulling into the Hale Arena parking lot. Driving a four-horse trailer through downtown Kansas City was nerve-wracking enough, but having to back his trailer up to the doors and off loading his horses challenged even his expertise.

A whistle caught his attention. Looking into the side mirror, he saw a man motioning and he realized he was helping guide him. Layne waved then eased down on the pedal to keep moving. Another whistle let him know he was close enough.

Once he turned the truck off, he tugged the keys out of the ignition then jumped from the cab. He jogged to the back of the trailer, getting there just as a hoof hit the inside wall. The stranger jumped and Layne chuckled.

“Thanks for the help,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Layne Daly.”

“Carl Stewartson. Glad to help. I’ve driven vehicles like this before, so I know how difficult they are to back up.” Carl shook his hand.

Layne wondered if he imagined Carl holding his hand a little longer than necessary. He gave himself a mental shake. Didn’t matter if the man had or not. Layne didn’t have time for a hook up. Not right then anyway. He needed to get the horses settled in their stalls. He checked his watch and grimaced.

“Got somewhere you need to be?” Carl tilted his head toward Layne’s wrist.

“No. Just wondering where my groom is. He was supposed to be driving over from the ranch earlier and have everything set up, so I could get the horses in right away. But Quinn hasn’t showed up yet.” He pulled out his phone. Both of them jumped when another kick landed on the wall closest to him.

Carl snorted. “Sounds like they’re getting impatient.”

Layne nodded. “Tigger hates being trailered anywhere. Thank God, Boom and Snack are so laid back, or I’d have a riot on my hands.” He brought up Quinn’s number then hit the send button. “I’m going to chew his ass out about not being here.”

“Well, if you need any help, just let me know. I’ll be around.” Carl started to walk off, but Layne reached out to grab his arm.

“Could you wait and help me get them unloaded? Even if he’s on his way, he won’t get here soon enough. If I don’t get them out of there soon, Tigger will end up hurting himself or the others.”

Carl grinned. “Be glad to. Why don’t I go see where your stalls are while you talk to your guy?”

He wanted to say that Quinn wasn’t his guy, just a friend and an employee, but he was pretty sure Carl didn’t mean it the way he’d taken it. “Thanks.”

“Boss?”

“Quinn, what the hell’s wrong? You sound like shit.” Layne winced at the harshness of Quinn’s voice. “I’m sick. Came down with it just after you left this morning. Meant to call you, but fell asleep,” Quinn croaked out.

“Shit.” Layne swept off his hat then slapped it against his thigh. “Now I’m going to have to find someone to help me out here. I can’t take care of the boys all by myself while doing exhibitions and talks.”

Quinn coughed before saying, “I’m sorry, Layne. I know this is important to you.”

Layne shot a quick glance around at the busy crowd of people coming and going from the arena. Some were walking horses. Others were helping to herd the bulls in for the rodeo. He propped his hip against the wheel well of the trailer and sighed.

“I know you are. I’m not mad or anything, Quinn. It’s not like you planned on getting sick. I’m just cranky from driving all day and having to figure shit out. Get some sleep and if you need to, have Whit drive you to the doctor’s.” Layne couldn’t help but smile at the unhappy little whine Quinn gave at the thought of going to the doctor. “I’ll call Whit in a couple hours after I get the boys settled for the night.”

“I’ll let her know.” Quinn hung up.

Layne did the same then shoved his phone in his back pocket. Better suck it up, buttercup. There’s no one here to help you and you have three horses to get bedded down before you can leave. As exhausting as dealing with horses was, Layne wouldn’t have it any other way. His herd was his life. Hell, had been his life since he was old enough to walk and discovered how much freedom there was on the back of a horse.

An anxious whinny drew his attention to the open windows of the trailer. He saw Tigger stick his nose out, sniffing the air and curling his upper lip in a weird little smirk.

Hope this has got you interested. I’m planning on having a blurb up for you tomorrow on the blog story I want to start. Hope you all have a great Wednesday.

New Blog Story

I’m still working out which story I’ll pick for the next blog story. Maybe a sci-fi/fantasy one. For some reason that’s talking to me at the moment.

I’ve started writing my story for the 2016 GRL anthology which will take place in Kansas City. I have two chapters done and am enjoying it right now. We’ll see if it keeps going. lol.

I hope you all have a great Tuesday and I’ll try to get you a blurb or something for the blog story on Thursday.

New Book and Cover…

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A Bittersweet Haunting, co-written with Jackie Nacht, came out on the 17th while I was at GRL. It’s available at MLR Press, Amazon and ARe. In case you missed it…lol

 

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The last book in the Rags to Riches series, Barefoot Dancing, is available for pre-order at Totally Bound (here) and at Amazon (here)

And I got the cover for the Amber Allure book that will be coming out November 16th. From the Rubble is about a Search and Rescue guy and the Army sergeant he meets while down in Bogata, Colombia.

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I just signed the contract for another book at Amber Allure. Deserves to be Adored will be out sometime at the beginning of next year. It wasn’t due until Dec. 1st, so I’m ahead of the game on that one…lol. As soon as I get a cover or any other information, I’ll let you know.

I had a great time in Chicago at GRL and have finally caught up on everything last week. lol Hopefully that means I should be able to get the blog installments done on time now. 🙂

Have an awesome Monday and stay safe.

Happy Monday

Hey everyone, I’m in Chicago now, waiting for GRL to start.

I did manage to get Tuesday’s installment of Shuffle done and scheduled. So there’s at least one installment this week. I’m going to try and get the second installment up for you.

In case someone is wondering, I didn’t add anything to the new version of Borderline, so if you have the older one, then you don’t need to grab this one. Unless you like the new cover. 🙂

I hope you have a great Monday.

New Book and New Cover…

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An Ace in the Tiebreak, Book 8 in the International Men of Sports series, is available now at all 3rd party sellers. (ARe and Amazon) You can check it out here.

Also, I got the cover for Borderline, which is a re-release at Totally Bound. I love this cover, plus there will be two more books in the Delarosa Secrets series coming next year. 🙂 Borderline will be out in February.

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I finished Deserves to be Adored, which is a story for a Amber Allure PAX. It should be out early next year. I’m working on a St. Patrick’s Day story for MLR Press. 🙂 After that, I’ll be working on Trailing Air, Rover’s story. Yes, finally….lol

Next week I’m going to be in Chicago for GRL. I’m going to try and get the two blog installments up and scheduled before I go. If I don’t, I’m sorry. 🙂

I hope you all have a great weekend.

New Covers….

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This is the cover for my August 17th release at Amber Allure. It’s part of the Winter Games Pax. Losing Sight of the Target is about a biathlete and the mysterious man he meets right before he heads off to the Olympics. 🙂

We got the cover for the next GRL anthology, An Unconventional Chicago. It fits perfectly with the other two anthologies. Also, it’s up for pre-order at Totally Bound. Check it out here. All the stories in this anthology is set in a contemporary alternate universe version of Chicago. 🙂

 

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Then there’s the amazing cover I got for the single release of No Bravery, my story in the anthology. All the single covers are awesome and fit our stories perfectly. Here’s mine.

 

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And one more cover…lol. This is for Walking in the Rain, Book Five of my Rags to Riches series. I adore this cover. The guy on the cover really portrays Dayton VanHooren, one of the main characters, perfectly. 🙂

 

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Okay…so here are all the new covers I’ve received lately. 🙂 I hope you love them as much as I do.

Have an awesome 4th of July. Be safe and have fun.

It’s Friday….

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Sorry I haven’t been posting as much lately. Get so busy doing other things that I completely forget to post until it’s evening…lol. I’d promise to do better, but it won’t be happening next week for sure. I’m leaving on Sunday for New Orleans for the Romantic Times convention. I’m meeting up with Devon Rhodes a couple of days early so we can hang out and have some fun before the work starts. 🙂

But I’m going to do my best to at least get the next two installments of Bodyguards done and scheduled so you won’t have to wait on those. 🙂 And if I can, I’ll see about posting something at some point during the other days. Not sure if it’ll happen, but I’ll try.

I just signed my contract for No Bravery, which is my contribution to this year’s Totally Bound GRL anthology. This year’s antho was a lot of fun to work on and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that readers like it. 🙂 Can’t wait to see my cover for my story and the one for the antho.

Also, got the cover for another Totally Bound story, but I can’t share it yet. I know…that’s being kind of mean. I love the cover and hope you all love the book when it comes out. I have to wait until I get the okay to tell you anything else about it. 😉 And to be able to share the cover.

Well, I hope you all have a great Friday and an awesome weekend. I have to pack all my stuff and hope I don’t go over the weight limit. lol

New cover…

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First off, I’d like to share the cover for Close the Distance, book 2 in the Rags to Riches series. Yes, it’s the same guy from Remove the Empty Spaces. Which makes me very happy because Close picks up pretty much right where Remove left off. So you get two stories about Adrien and Ion. The 3rd book, Footsteps of My Father (title subject to change…lol) is next up on my list to be written. That one will be about Patrick, Ion’s best friend and Adrien’s personal assistant. He gets to meet Winston, the head of the London branch of Adrien’s company. It’s up on the coming soon page at Totally Bound. Click here to check it out.

Secondly, I was asked about book conventions and how to find them. I guess the best bet would be to google book conventions in your area or simply ask other authors which ones they’ve gone to and which ones they’d recommend for what you’re writing.

Like for romance, there’s the Romantic Times convention-which is geared towards readers but they do have industry panels where authors can learn new things from other authors. Plus you get to interact with a lot of readers. 🙂  The RWA (Romance Writers of America) convention tends to run towards authors/industry more than readers, though they do have a huge book signing.

Then there’s conventions for mystery/suspense and fantasy/sci-fi writers/readers. It’s simply a matter of doing the research to find which ones are in your area or are something you might be interested in going to.

I’ll be going to three cons this year-Spring Fling (which is put on by the a Chicago RWA chapter) in April in Chicago. The RT convention in May in New Orleans and GRL  in Chicago in October.

RT and GRL are the two cons I always attend each year. But they might not be the right ones for other authors to attend. It’s really important to do your research and make sure you’re going to get the best return for your money when you go to cons. Of course, sometimes it’s nice to go just to have fun. 🙂

I hope everyone is staying warm and have a great weekend.

 

Snowy Monday….

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So I’ll admit I posted this pic-not because of the guy-but because of the fact that there is a cow in the picture. lol What the heck is up with that? 🙂

Anyway, this weekend was great. I finished No Bravery and turned it in. It’s for the 2014 GRL anthology. So I won’t have to worry about that. We’re doing a slightly different thing for next year. So I hope you all will like it.

I’m back to working Canada (Book 5 of International Sports) and Los Angeles (Book 6 of Fallen), plus there will be other stories stuck in there as I go along. I have edits to do on Remove the Empty Spaces. Have to get them back to my editor by tomorrow. Yay!

Also, I think I’ll be wrapping Finding Peace up this week as well. Chad is back home at the diner and in Zane’s arms where he belongs. 🙂 So it’s time to let them go. Then next week we can decide what I should write next for the blog.

Well, I have to go run some errands, then I’ll be finishing up my edits. 🙂 Have a great Monday and stay safe.