Monday, December 29, 2014

Check out this new release from our friend and fellow Dreamspinner author Tempeste O'Riley.
We just bought it and are reading it tonight but since it's from Tempeste, it has to be awesome. 

Kaden Thorn, a dental surgeon who lives a quiet life, has no hope of finding the love he craves. A vicious gay bashing cost him the use of his legs and confined him to a wheelchair. He has given up hope of finding a Dom or even a nonkink partner to love him. When his best friend practically forces him to attend a dinner party, the last thing he expects is a strong Dom who can see beyond his wheels.

Deacon James is an architect and a demanding Dom, but he has spent the past couple of years without a sub or partner. When an employee invites him to a dinner party to meet his girlfriend, Deacon smells a setup but agrees anyway. He prides himself on being an excellent judge of character, and when he meets the younger dentist, he sees past the chair and finds a sweet submissive man who more than piques his interest.

Kade's fears and demons continue to haunt him, challenging Deacon to use everything he's learned as a Dom to earn Kade’s trust and submission. Deacon's determined, though, willing to battle all of it to have Kade by his side and at his feet.


Click here to buy it from Amazon

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Sweet Fire is available for Pre-Order on the Dreamspinner Press website. Woot!  Click here to see our book page there. 

Our release date is January 2 and we'll be visiting several other websites for interviews and guest blogs in the week following the release.  Come visit us.  See schedule in another post here.



Between Homeland Security's Gifted Agenda and the bigotry of a fearful populace, having paranormal Gifts is a dangerous thing. Pyrokinetic Aaron Flores knows firsthand how difficult it can be to control his power. Still, he runs his bakery and never gives up on finding his Happily Ever After. When Aaron's cousin asks him to check on her former EMT partner, Aaron’s chance has finally arrived. He's determined not to let anything stop him from catching (and keeping) his man.

Ramón Del Rio spent three days at the tender mercies of HOMSEC agents when his former partner was taken. He wants nothing to do with a Gifted guy, but Aaron is nothing if not persistent. He's a pastry chef after all, and the way to a man's heart really is through his stomach. The physical passion they share is the icing on the cake. Just when Ramón decides that having Gifts might not be a deal breaker, someone close to Aaron decides his fire needs to be put out—permanently. Ramón will have to face his fears to save them both.
 
Excerpt:
 
 
Ramón set a pair of tall green glasses on the table and slid onto the stool at right angles to his own chair, facing the dance floor.
“So you come here now and then, do you?”
Ramón’s cheek twitched. “Maybe a little more often than that.” He scanned the room and nodded at yet another person waving at him. “Most of the gay contingent of the county’s cops, firefighters, and EMTs come here. The band has a regular gig here too. They’re pretty good.”
“I bet they are, but the next time you say you’ve been somewhere a few times, I’ll have to assume you’re full of shit.”
Ramón grinned at him and raised his glass in a toast just as the sound system roared to life. The bass player plucked out an opening riff that had Ramón jerking his head around to stare at him, then dropping his face into his hand. Concerned, Aaron put a hand to his shoulder. What the hell? He didn’t understand what was going on until the bass player stopped and the lead singer stepped up to the mike.
“Looks like we have some old friends in the crowd tonight!” The man’s voice was deep and smoke-raspy, and he was looking right at their table. Ramón looked up and shook his head, clearly telling the man no way.
Del Rio!” The massive drummer had a massive voice, and the chant was quickly picked up, first by the band and Ramón’s loud friends at the bar, then by the rest of the patrons.
Rio! Rio! Rio!” Ramón pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a minute while Aaron stared incredulously. It was obvious as soon as they walked in that Ramón was well known here, but he certainly never expected anything like this.
It quickly became clear that the noise wasn’t going to stop until the man did whatever the hell it was they wanted. Ramón slid off his chair and touched Aaron’s cheek with an apologetic smile, then turned and walked quickly to the stage, while the chant turned into a roar of whistles and cheers. Merciful gods! Aaron watched in stunned amazement as Ramón, solid, serious Ramón set one hand on the edge of the stage and vaulted onto it. He stood with his back to the room for a long moment, plucking in what Aaron assumed was a nervous tic at the buttons at the cuffs and the front of his shirt.
Shocked as he was to see his quiet lover leap onto the stage, he was still unprepared for what came next. The oldies bass riff came again, and Ramón turned quickly around, ripping off his shirt at the same time. The dark cotton shirt drifted to the stage floor, leaving Ramón in a thin wifebeater tank that gleamed whitely against his beautiful copper-brown skin. Aaron tried to swallow with his suddenly dry throat and gulped at his sticky drink.
Somehow the smooth baritone voice was the least shocking part of this whole incredible experience. As a soulful rendition of “Stand By Me” rolled over him, Ramón held his eyes, and the rest of the room faded completely away.
The first verse and the chorus came to him from the stage, and then, miraculously, unbelievably, it got even better. On the second verse, as the rest of the band started a smooth vocal backup, Ramón took the small headset that the lead handed him and started down the stage stairs. His eyes never left Aaron’s as he prowled down the steps and skirted the dance floor toward their small table.
The second chorus came, intense and soulful, and Ramón’s hand slid down Aaron’s throat and chest, taking all the air out of his lungs in the process. He struggled to breathe as the instrumental break gave Ramón an opportunity to lean in and run his mouth butterfly light along Aaron’s jaw and over the sensitive spot under his ear. The tiny headset mike his lover wore picked up a faint echo of two pounding heartbeats that blended seamlessly with the heavy bass line. By the time he pulled away, it was all Aaron could do to let him go, watching with his heart in his throat, tears in his eyes, and all the blood in his body in his jeans. The final chorus brought Ramón back up to the stage, moving back up the stairs with that panther-like grace that kept the eye of every man in the room riveted to his magnificent body.
The song ended, and the crowd went wild. Aaron hardly heard any of it as he sat frozen in his chair, gripping his hideous green glass with one hand and pressing the other to his chest, trying to get his rioting pulse under control. An erratic flame danced wildly in the glass candleholder. Suddenly Ramón was there, sweeping him out of his seat and into his arms to a fresh surge of whistles and cheers from the crowd. The band started a new song, without Ramón this time, and the two of them moved effortlessly together on the dance floor. As the space filled up with grinding, gyrating men, Ramón’s mouth came down over his, and Aaron knew, without a doubt, that the happily-ever-after he’d been waiting for all his life was right here in his arms.
 
 

 


Thursday, December 4, 2014

New Release by our friend Ryan Jo Summers

                                       

Please welcome our fellow Soul Mate author Ryan Jo Summers. Check out her November 24th release When Clouds Gather!

 
Click here to buy it on Amazon! What a pretty cover, right?4

Darby Adams has a full, happy life with a successful Bed and Breakfast Inn called 
'The Brass Lamplighter', her teenaged son, Matt, and a menagerie of stray pets she 
oversees. Then a guest is found dead in one of her rooms, murdered, stabbed to 
death. Suddenly she becomes Driftwood Shores' number one suspect. With her 
world spiraling out of control, she desperately needs a friend.

The surviving family wants answers so they hire private investigator Sam Golden 
to prove her guilt. Busy with his own rebellious, disobedient teen daughter, 
Madison, Sam takes the case. He begins in a dial role; in the guise of a much 
needed friend for Darby yet still planning to investigate and send her to prison. 

Then strange things start happening at the B & B--scary things. Darby leans on 
Sam's friendship and he has to seriously question her guilt or innocence, Until 
feelings start to develop between them in the heat of the mysteries. Until the day 
arrives Sam has to tell her the truth. Until someone kidnaps the children.

Reeling from Sam's confession, Darby knows she has to trust him to get their kids 
back. But can she ever trust him with her heart?







Excerpt:

Finding an empty cashier line, grateful for it, Darby piled groceries on the belt, tossing on a few tabloids for Matt and his friend and then stood, impatiently drumming her fingers, waiting for the total.
“Eighty four dollars and seventy-three cents,” the cashier announced, taking a step backward. Her look spoke volumes to Darby. The woman was scared witless.
She threw down four twenty-dollar bills and a five. “Keep the change,” she snapped, reaching out to pile the supplies into bags by herself. She’d never shopped without adequate assistance before. “And yes I am that woman. And no I haven't killed anyone, yet.” Slamming the bags back into the cart, she shoved it toward the exit, leaving both her change and a speechless cashier behind.
Stalking out to her car, she noticed the same group of people standing nearby. Her blood ran cold when she recognized the one who had followed her inside and grabbed her cart. He whispered something to his pals, glancing up and grinning as she walked by.
This is a peaceful town. His words echoed in her mind, still seeing his face, smelling his breath, as he leered close to her, holding her cart hostage.We don't want no murders going on round here. As if she did! The group collectively turned to face her, snickering and poking each other in the ribs.
Her parking spot seemed so far away. Behind her she could still hear their snickers and giggles. She could not get away fast enough. It had to be on the other side of that big red van.
Rounding the van, her eyes fell on her car, relief quickly washing away as her heart plummeted in her chest. Stuck to the windshield was a poster bearing tall red letters spelling out the words 'Murderer Go Home'. Still wet, the paint ran down the poster, giving the illusion of fresh blood. Her hand going to her belly, Darby stared at the gruesome sight, her stomach rolling and pitching as nausea rose from within her.
“Oh, God.”
Suddenly, she noticed something else. Panic welled up inside as she stepped closer, jaw dropping in shock.
“Oh no. God, no.”
Tears of frustration stung her eyes as she stared at the damage, not able to believe what she was seeing. Both right side tires were hopelessly flat.
A white-hot bolt of rage tore through her. She whipped the poster off the windshield, wadding it up and tossing it to the ground, grinding it into the pavement with her shoe. Giving in to the mounting emotions, hot tears slid down her cheeks as she stared at her crippled car.
Now what?



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

It's a mat. It's a rug. No, it's a corgi!

This is me after getting ready for two book release blog tours in two months. Done. Just done.  We have all kinds of fun guest blog appearances coming up and we're ready! Here's the schedule for a bunch of fun coming up. Please come and see us for bits and pieces on partner writing, our publishing journey, and lots of new book stuff.



Remaining stops on our Healer release blog tour:

November 21, 2014 Guest spot with Joanne Guidoccio http://joanneguidoccio.com/blog/ 

November 25, 2014 - Guest spot with our fellow RWA chapter member Bonnie Paulson www.bonniepaulson.com

December 5. 2014 Guest spot with CD Hersh https://cdhersh.wordpress.com/

We're having company:

December 5, 2014 We're hosting fellow Soul Mate author Ryan Jo Summers for her November release When Clouds Gather.  Welcome Ryan Jo.

Sweet Fire release blog tour:

January 2 Happy New Year!  Happy Release Day!  Interview with J. Scott Coatsworth at www.queerscifi.com

January 3 - All day blog takeover of the Dreamspinner Press blog site. Entries every few hours with lots of excerpts and fun info.  http://dreamspinnerpress.com/blog/

 January 4 Visit with Tracy St. John, Queen of Kalqorians at Wicked Words, www.tracystjohn.blogspot.com (Sexiest aliens ever! I own every book.)

January 5 Guest blog with Tara Lain, creator of the Harker Pack series,  a new twist on shifters, among other awesome books http://taralain.com.
 
January 6 Guest blog with Dreamspinner author Anne Barwell at Drops of Ink http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com.
 

January 7(?) This date's not for sure yet.  Guest spot with Tempeste O’Riley, (wait a minute while I go all fangirl over her Designs of Desire series. OK, we can go on now.) http://tempesteoriley.com/blog/
 

 January 12 Guest spot with Elizabeth Noble on Emotion in Motion http://www.elizabeth-noble.com

 


 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

You write WHAT with your mother? EEEEWWWWW!



Between writer’s conferences and blog tours, we get that kind of question a lot. “How could you write sex scenes that your daughter’s going to read?” or “My mother would wash my mouth out with soap if I wrote that for her. How can you do that?”  People simply can’t imagine how a mother/daughter team can write steamy romance together.  The answer is, “Pretty damn easily.” We trust each other, and that’s all it really takes to make this work. Who better to trust that much, since I’ve known her literally all her life.

Successful co-writing is all about trust. You have to trust your partner’s skill, her work ethic, her judgment,  and her morals.  You have to trust that she’ll do what she says she’ll do, share the load and the spotlight and that she’ll judge your words on the merits of the work, not on some weird pre-conceived notion of what “normal people” (read “anyone except us") would do.

I’m not sure I even know what “Normal” is.  My own mother is a little woman with snow-white hair who looks like everyone’s grandmother, makes lovely quilts and crocheted hats in her spare time, and has a rap-sheet for civil disobedience and political activism a mile long. (Give ‘em Hell, Grandma!) My daughter, while barely old enough to drink in our state, is a purple-haired bi-sexual who writes hot gay and straight romance when she’s not taking on the establishment as an award winning journalist.  I may look like a mild-mannered accountant/soccer mom on the surface but only to people who don’t really know me.  Screw Normal. It’s over-rated.

When Shannen and I first decided to write a book together, we did have a few awkward moments.  Neither one of us had ever written romance, and the first sex scenes that each of us wrote were a little traumatic.  Those pages underwent a lot of revisions before the final product that you see in Healer. The point is that we trusted each other to think of the work first and foremost, and to judge the words only on how they contributed to the book. Any weirdness passed quickly and now we can trade our pages back and forth without any squikiness at all.  I can let her know, without blushes, when she needs to slow down and give us more details, because we’re writing a love story, not a journalistic exposé.  And she doesn’t hesitate to lay it out for me when my mild-mannered alter ego gets the upper hand for a moment (“No, Mom, a guy living in an apartment over his mom’s garage is NOT sexy. Ever!)

We felt a little bit notorious at the Emerald City conference last month as other writers marveled that we could do this sort of thing together. People we’d never met introduced themselves and couldn’t wait to hear how we do it, comparing it to their own family relationships and just shaking their heads.  All I could tell them is that it does work.  My co-author is smart, talented and driven and we’ve been working together on one project or another all her life. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and there’s no one I trust more.  That’s everything.  That’s how it works.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Healer - now available on Amazon!

Healer in now available on Amazon! You can purchase our debut novel here.  
We would love for each and every one of you to give Healer a read, and if you like it, leave us an Amazon review! It helps people find our book and lets potential readers know that it's good stuff. ;) 
Ta-ta for now - happy reading! 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Healer available for pre-sale!!!

HEALER IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-SALE ON AMAZON!!!! Yaaaaay! You can purchase it here.  It will be released October 8. This book has truly been a labor of love, and we're so thankful to those who have helped us along the way. 

So BUY BUY BUY! (Just kidding. But not really.) It can be read on e-readers, or on the computer using the free Amazon Kindle app. Paper books will follow in a few months. We're thrilled and we hope you are, too! Curl up for a good read, then tell us what you think in the comments!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

It's Bi time we talked about this...

Today is Bisexual Visibility Day. And I feel a bit like a hypocrite, because I am bisexual, and up to this point I have been anything but visible.  

I am bisexual. While a very close circle of people know this, most don’t, because I have been afraid to live “Out and Proud.” Coming from a small Eastern Washington town, it’s easy to internalize the beliefs of those around you – while not inherently homophobic, those beliefs told me to keep to myself, because people would not accept me.

But I’m a writer, and I write about people, gay, straight and undecided, who live their truth. And it’s gotten to the point in my life where I don’t think I can continue to write about my characters living honestly without doing so myself.

Up to this point there was no coming out. There was only inviting a few select people to share my closet.

No more.

I am bisexual. I am also a writer, a booty-dancer, an animal lover. I have purple hair and hate beets. My bisexuality is simply one part of me, not the sum of my parts. I have known this about myself since I was 12 years old. I am bisexual, but more importantly, I am happy with who I am. 

Bisexual people tend to get a bad rap from people on both ends of the sexuality spectrum. Straight people say it’s a phase or – for women – a way to impress heterosexual men. Gay people say it’s a cop-out or an excuse to blend in. And people of many different orientations accuse bisexuals of being “greedy” or using the term “bi” as a pit stop on the way to full-on Queersville.

To those who don’t or can’t or won’t understand – I’m not sorry. I refuse to be apologetic for something that is an integral part of my being. I won’t be ashamed of my right to exist.

Here’s the thing: I want to fall madly, truly, deeply in love. I want to hold hands with my significant other 25 years from now. I want to find love notes on my dresser, my favorite food in the fridge, tickets to that thing we love on the kitchen table. I want to dance with my lover in our living room on a Saturday afternoon. I want witty banter, sultry looks and constant laugher. I want to make out in the damn nursing home. And if I find this person, to love and be loved by in return…then their gender really doesn’t matter a bit.

I am bisexual, and I have an amazing support system. My immediate family and incomparable significant other have been there for me throughout this process, and I never would have made it through the confusion-tornado of coming out without them. From here on out, I’ll be tackling queer issues and specifically bisexual issues head on, so let me know in the comments if there’s any you’d like me to talk about specifically.

Ultimately, I leave you with a quote from Oscar Wilde – a writer, a bisexual, a flawed personality. At the end of the day, all you can do is be yourself. Everyone else is taken. 

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Updates, change, and lots of excitement

In the constantly changing literary world, your book isn't set in stone until it's being bought by the masses - and sometimes, not even then. We experienced a bit of this recently when one of our books underwent a (completely necessary) title change. The novel formerly known as "Fire and Water," contracted with Dreamspinner Press, will now be known as "Sweet Fire." It's sexier and won't compete with other works by the same name. In conclusion? Change is good, and that's the book you should search for when it comes out, probably sometime in January of 2015.

We also just received news that Healer may be available for pre-sale as soon as Monday. SQUEE! This is where shit gets real, right? This is where we as authors have to implore you to BUY OUR BOOK! Plug, plug, plug. I'll post the link as soon as we have a pre-sale page. Be on the lookout for that, and keep an eye out on this site as well - we'll be posting all our updates right here!

Judge not, lest ye be judged.

I try my best to always look for the best in the people that I know. Most of the time it
works. I enjoy what I like about the people passing through my strange, chaotic life and
ignore things that I don’t like about them. If you look for perfection, you doom yourself to
disappointment and life’s too short for that. I do have a couple of hot buttons though, things
that make that small pessimistic harpy slumbering inside me wake up and start ravaging the
countryside. Sometimes she really needs to be gagged and wing-clipped.

A prime example: Last weekend my local RWA chapter offered up a critique session.
We each submitted a 3,000 word piece of our current WIP and filled out a critique form on
everyone else’s work. We are a very diverse group in terms of what we write but I am the only
one writing m/m romance. (I say the only one; even though Shannen is my co-author and is
technically a member of the chapter, she lives in another city and isn’t around for most chapter
activities.) I’ve seen a few raised eyebrows in the group and I suspect there are a few who are
uncomfortable with the very idea of two men together in a romance novel.

That nasty, judgmental little harpy was already stirring when I walked in there. I fully
expected to have a couple of people decline to review my work because it’s m/m or to criticize
it harshly for that reason. I especially expected censure because my young gay hero is a child
care worker in a preschool. I walked in there with my defenses up and my arguments marshaled
and my harpy muscles pre-flexed. Sure enough, the one major fault the group found in my piece
was the profession of my hero. One very nice woman spoke up and told me that she had a real
problem with my guy working as a babysitter.

Oh no she didn’t! Harpy-woman sat up and took notice. I gritted my teeth, sucked down my
righteous indignation only a little and told her in no uncertain terms that being attracted to one’s
own sex had nothing to do with being sexually attracted to children of either sex and that there
was no reason on earth why a gay man shouldn’t care for children.

Crickets....

My fellow author blinked at me for a minute and responded with commendable calm. “Of
course. I only wonder why he isn’t a kindergarten teacher or someone who would make better
money. How can he afford his own apartment in Spokane on what his job would bring in?”

Oh man. While I sat there trying to extract my foot from my mouth, it went around the table
and several others expressed the same concern. The fact that he was gay didn’t even deserve a
mention.

Let that teach me to be so wary of being judged by others that I beat them to the punch and
judge them first. There is enough real bigotry in the world without me going out and looking
for it where it doesn’t exist. My thanks to my critique group for pointing out something I hadn’t
considered. My sweet boy will remain a preschool teacher. I’ll just have to address why he’d
want to work in what is clearly an undervalued profession and to remember that he’s broke. He
can let his studly love interest pay for dinner.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Dat cover

We have a cover for Healer!!  We're more than a little in love with it. Somehow it all feels real now.  The promotional beast breathing down our necks is intimidating as all get out but that’s the next mountain to climb. We hope to have some swag for the Emerald City Writer’s Conference in October.

Where we're at and what we've learned

HEALER has a contract!!! Woot! Most exciting moment ever.  There’s a lot still to do but we ended up going with a great small press and we’ll update this site at the process moves forward.  Weeeee!
We’ve also received an offer on FIRE AND WATER. We’re still working out the details but we’re going to be working with one of my favorite publishers on three books.  Double Woot! Shannen is working on the 2nd book in that series and I’m working on the third, though the titles may change before we’re done.  I’ll have more time to work on it now that the web site is up and running.  We’ll try to keep this web site up-to-date on our progress and anyone interested should watch our Works in Progress page for changes.
When we started this journey, I would never have guessed that the writing would be the easy part. Turns out there’s a lot more to becoming a published author than writing a good book, (although that’s hard enough.)
I’ve learned so much in the year and a half since we started this. I’d like to thank my friends at the Inland Empire Chapter of Romance Writers’ of America for much of my education. Their patience, generosity, technical skill and pure talent are nothing short of amazing, and we would not be nearly as far along on our journey without them. Also, thank you to my critique partner, DP Denman, who has written some awesome books, and thanks to all the anonymous contest judges who patiently gave their feedback, both positive and negative. Between the input from all these talented people and the RWA classes I’ve taken, it’s a wonder my puny little brain doesn’t explode. Here’s just a few of the new bits and pieces now bouncing around in my head.
Literary lessons I have learned:
1)      Artists may be sensitive but writers better be tough.  When I started getting edits from Shannen, they used to piss me off. Of course, she’s my daughter and sometimes she’s even as funny as she thinks she is, so they are occasionally “editorialized” when they come to me. When I got the results of the first contest I entered, I wandered around in a fog of despair for three days before I could put on my big girl panties and start re-writing. I’ve gotten a lot better about appreciating the valuable information I’m getting, though I can still be shocked by the amount of red or blue edits on a page. And don’t even get me started on rejections.

2)      There are more than half a million words in the English language and a great many of them are strictly unnecessary. I’ve learned that I have an unhealthy relationship with adverbs and that I must remain ever vigilant against the encroachment of small, excess words in my writing. Short, sweet and to the point is always better.


3)      Non-writers think romance writers are weird.  When you add to that the fact that we write both m/f and m/m stories, that “people think you’re weird” factor is multiplied exponentially. I just keep reminding myself how much fun we’re having and try not to care. Someday soon (notice my optimism) we’ll start making money at this, and I’ll take weird all the way to the bank. In the meantime, there are a lot more stories to tell.  Long live weird.

4)      Commas are our friends. For some reason, they flee from me in terror on my first drafts and have to be added by the hundreds to the final work. Why? Only my psychiatrist knows for sure.