Friday, December 28, 2018

2018 Roundup - but not really

I mean, I say this is a roundup of 2018, but let's be real, I can't remember what happened last week let alone earlier this year. 

I will say that 2018 was the year I planned to get a lot more writing done--and then didn't. But I also ended the year on a high note by signing a contract with Dreamspinner for Anhaga, an m/m fantasy romance about a guy who gets railroaded into kidnapping a rich man's recalcitrant grandson and delivering him back to his awful family. There is magic, kings and noblemen, an awesome sidekick who might just steal every scene he's in, and a surprising number of mentions of eels. 

Here's the opening scene of Anhaga, which may or may not survive the editing process: 

The dawn limped in like some boot-scraping bastard, slow and lame, and dragging the sunlight behind it like a crippled limb. Min groaned, and rolled over to put his back to the window. 
“You’re lying on my hair,” someone told him. 
Min peeled his eyes open. “Ah,” he said. 
He had a vague recollection of this woman. Vague enough that he remembered sharing a smile and more than one drink with her last night. And sadly vague enough that he doubted he had acquitted himself well. The woman’s arched eyebrows told him as much. 
He shifted back slightly, and let the woman tug her tresses of red hair back to herself.
“Aiode,” she told him, holding out a pale, freckled hand. She kept her other arm clasped across her chest, keeping the blanket from slipping down and revealing what Min was sure was a lovely bosom. “Aiode Nettle. Since I’m sure you don’t remember.” 
The surname surprised him a little. Min wasn’t in the habit of bedding the Gifted, even though with the name Aiode had chosen she was probably ranked no higher than a hedgewitch. Clearly he’d made an exception because Aiode, even with her tangled bed hair and lines on her face from the pillow, was beautiful. 
“Aramin Decourcey,” he said, shaking her hand. 
“That’s quite a mouthful,” she said. 
“I’m more than a mouthful, sweeting.” 
“So you promised last night,” Aiode told him. She raised her eyebrows again. “Sadly, you did not measure up.” 
Min was too hungover to be truly offended. He rolled back over and squinted at the shaft of light stabbing through the sagging shutters and then, figuring that the day was already ruined, sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His soles met the gritty floor. 
The garret room was cheap; its only recommendation. That, and the view over the back alley behind the Footbridge Tavern. Min did most of his work out of the tavern. His work wasn’t exactly reputable, and Min liked to know if it tried to follow him home like a tick-ridden stray. The view of the alley afforded him at least a little forewarning. 
Min blinked around the room. 
Pants. Pants pants pants. 
He wasn’t much of a gentleman, not in any sense of the word, but pants were probably in order. He spotted his breeches in a rumpled heap over by the damned window, and levered himself off the bed to go and fetch them. He picked them up, shook them out, and stepped into them. When he turned back to face Aiode, she had the look on her face of a woman who had very much enjoyed the view but wasn’t going to puff up his pride by mentioning it.  
Please. Min knew his ass was a thing of beauty. 
He smirked at Aiode, and then bent down to pick up his shirt. He tugged it over his head. “Well, I’d invite you to stay and break your fast with me, but…” He gestured around the room. “As you can see, I have neither a kitchen, nor food.” 
“Even if you had both, I’m sure I would decline,” Aiode said, casting a critical gaze at the grimy floor, the spider’s web hanging in a corner of the water-stained ceiling, and the collection of empty bottles that littered the floor. “I’m expected back at the shrine in any case.” 
The closest shrine Min knew of was the Shrine of the Sacred Spring. Aiode was definitely a hedgewitch then. Of all the Gifted, hedgewitches were the least objectionable. Their powers were generally benign, and grounded in nature. They helped to ensure good harvests, and rains, and although most were based in the city they regularly travelled the countryside to offer their service to the kingdom’s farmers. Hedgewitches were generally looked down upon by the rest of the Gifted, which Min felt was a point in their favour. The singlepoint in their favour. 
“Well then,” Min said. 
“Well,” Aiode echoed, narrowing her eyes slightly. 
Min feigned interest in a book Harry had left lying around. Harry and his damn books. The boy was too curious for his own good. Besides, books were expensive. Although Harry had undoubtedly stolen the one Min picked up and leafed through. Min had taught him well. 
Behind him, Min heard the rustle of fabric. He was tempted to turn around and at least give himself a good look at what he’d missed out on last night, but Aiode gave the impression of a woman well versed in testicle kicking, and Min didn’t want to provoke her. Also, she was Gifted. True, a hedgewitch probably couldn’t do much but try to curse him with a few warts here and there, but there was no point in risking it. Not the warts, of course, but exposure. 
Min had a gift of his own as it happened, and he preferred to keep it secret. 
“I shall see myself out,” Aiode announced. 
Min set Harry’s book on the rickety table and turned around again. Aiode was wearing a plain green kirtle over a white smock. How disappointingly modest. 
“I’ll walk with you to the street,” Min offered. “Some of my neighbours, alas, are not at all gentlemanly.” 
Aiode raised her eyebrows. “Do you think me incapable of protecting myself?” 
Min flashed her a smile. “Not at all. In fact, I was relying on you to protect me.” 
Aiode laughed, the sound genuine and boisterous, and, for the first time since he’d fumbled into wakefulness, Min realized why he’d invited her back to his bed the night before. He’d always fallen hardest for women who didn’t put up with any bullshit. And Aiode’s bullshit detector, Min guessed, was as finely tuned as his own. 
Clearly he needed to never see her again. 


Anhaga will be out from Dreamspinner in the third quarter of 2019! 

And as we close out 2018, I hope that 2019 brings you and your families everything you've been hoping for. 

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Coming Soon - Lights and Sirens

Lights and Sirens, the second in my Emergency Services series that began with Two Man Station, is out on September 13. 





Paramedic Hayden Kinsella is single and the life of the party. He likes driving fast and saving lives, and he doesn’t do relationships—he does hookups. Except he wouldn’t hook up with copper Matt Deakin if he were the last guy on the planet. Hayden thinks the feeling is mutual . . . until clearing the air leads to a drunken one-night stand, which leads to something neither of them was expecting: a genuine connection.

Police officer Matt Deakin moved to Townsville to take care of his elderly grandfather. In between keeping an eye on Grandad, renovating his house, and the demands of his job, he somehow finds himself in a tentative relationship with Hayden and very slowly gets to know the damaged guy beneath the happy-go-lucky persona.

But the stressors of shift work, fatigue, and constant exposure to trauma threaten to tear Hayden and Matt apart before they’ve even found their footing together. In the high-pressure lives of emergency services workers, it turns out it’s not the getting together part that’s hard, it’s the staying together.

You can pre-order Lights and Sirens by following the universal book link and selecting your store of choice: books2read.com/lightsandsirens

And you can follow the blog tour here (for the chance to win an Amazon gift card and a box of goodies!) at the following stops: 

9/13
Joyfully Jay
9/13
Gay Book Reviews
9/14
Love Bytes Reviews
9/15
Boy Meets Boy Reviews
9/16
MM Good Book Reviews
9/17
Bayou Book Junkie
9/17
The Novel Approach

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Tribute is now back out!

It's been a hectic few months, culminating in the closure of Loose Id, but I hope now that I can concentrate on the books I still have to write, rather than on republishing! I've learned a lot in the process--mostly about how computer illiterate I am, but if I'm honest, I already knew that... 

But the good news is, Tribute (my earliest, and arguably smuttiest book!) is now back out in ebook format at all major resellers, and the paperback version should go live on Amazon any day now! 

And a huge thanks to J.A. Rock, who designed the new cover for me! I love it! (And her, naturally!) 


When the fearsome warlord Brasius chooses Kynon as his tribute, Kynon tells himself it’s the price of peace, and that he can endure anything. If his slavery will save his father’s kingdom, then he will be a slave and submit to every indignity the warlord and the senate of Segasa require of him. He can live with the shame; it’s the mind-blowing pleasure that frightens him.

But the warlord wants more than a tribute who will respond eagerly to whips and bondage. The warlord might just want the man underneath: the prince, the soldier and the tribute, if Kynon can figure out who that is. On an enforced journey of self-discovery, Kynon learns that being the warlord’s tribute isn’t just about submission. And, to be the tribute that Brasius wants him to be, Kynon will have to defy all the traditions of Segasa and risk the wrath of the senate that really holds his chains.


Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: strong BDSM theme and elements, dubious consent, violence. Readers with a history of rape or sexual abuse may find elements of this story disturbing.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Back out now: The Boy Series, and the Dark Space Series

It's been a hectic kind of few months, but I'm happy to announce at last that the following books are all back up for sale at your preferred vendors: 

The Good Boy






The Boy Who Belonged



Please note that the short story tie-in The Naughty Boy, will be available as part of The Boy Who Belonged! 

And a huge shoutout here to L.C. Chase, who gave us such amazing new covers for this series! 

Dark Space






Darker Space


And for anyone who was waiting on a paperback edition of Darker Space, as soon as the proof arrives and I can check I didn't screw it up, a paperback will be available through Amazon! 

And all my gratitude to Bree Archer, who took the old covers and edited them so I was able to re-use them. I'm delighted I didn't have to ditch cover Brady as part of the process of republishing! 





Monday, April 30, 2018

The California Dashwoods - Out May 1

The California Dashwoods is out on May 1, and if you want to join the blog tour, you can be in the running to win a $20 Amazon voucher and a vintage copy of Sense and Sensibility. To enter the competition, just keep an eye out at the following blogs for my tour posts, and leave a comment to win: 



May 1 - Love Bytes

May 2  - Joyfully Jay 
May 2 - The Blogger Girls
May 3 - The Novel Approach
May 3 - Divine Magazine 
May 4 - Boy Meets Boy Reviews
May 5 - Bayou Book Junkie
May 5 - Rainbow Gold Reviews







Make a new future. Choose your true family. Know your own heart.

When Elliott Dashwood’s father dies, leaving his family virtually penniless, it’s up to Elliott to do what he’s always done: be the responsible one. Now isn’t the right time for any added complications. So what the hell is he doing hooking up with Ned Ferrars? It’s just a fling, right?

Elliott tries to put it behind him when the family makes a fresh start in California, and if he secretly hopes to hear from Ned again, nobody else needs to know. While his mom is slowly coming to terms with her grief, teenage Greta is more vulnerable than she’s letting on, and Marianne—romantic, reckless Marianne—seems determined to throw herself headfirst into a risky love affair. And when Elliott discovers the secret Ned’s been keeping, he realizes that Marianne isn’t the only one pinning her hopes on a fantasy.

All the Dashwoods can tell you that feelings are messy and heartbreak hurts. But Elliott has to figure out if he can stop being the sensible one for once, and if he’s willing to risk his heart on his own romance. 


A modern retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

You can preorder The California Dashwoods at Amazon

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Stealing Innocents is out

Stealing Innocents is back out! 





Those who dare to scratch the surface of ordinary, everyday life may be horrified to find a sick underbelly beneath—a nightmare world populated by villains and victims, predators and prey, where the rules of society no longer apply.

Where you’ll find people like Danny, the boy who sells himself to pay for his father’s gambling debts and ends up in a situation more twisted than he ever imagined. Or Troy, the cop whose obsession with saving a brutalized human trafficking victim turns deadly. Or Drew, the mental patient who begins to suspect his nightly delusions of abuse by his doctor are actually real. Or David, the cuckolded husband who decides the best way to get revenge is to seduce his wife’s barely legal son.

Stealing Innocents is an exploration of our darkest human impulses, where sex is power, love is horror, and there’s no such thing as a happy ending.


Warnings: rape, torture, murder, suicide. Not romances! 

Check your buy links here: books2read.com/innocents

He is Worthy is out

He is Worthy, my novella set in Ancient Rome, is back out! 



Rome, 68 A.D. Novius Senna is one of the most feared men in Rome. He’s part of the emperor’s inner circle at a time when being Nero’s friend is almost as dangerous as being his enemy. Senna knows that better men than he have been sacrificed to Nero’s madness—he’s the one who tells them to fall on their swords. He hates what he’s become to keep his family safe. He hates Nero more.

Aenor is a newly-enslaved Bructeri trader, brutalized and humiliated for Nero’s entertainment. He’s homesick and frightened, but not entirely cowed. He’s also exactly what Senna has been looking for: a slave strong enough to help him assassinate Nero.

It’s suicide, but it’s worth it. Senna yearns to rid Rome of a tyrant, and nothing short of death will bring him peace for his crimes. Aenor hungers for revenge, and dying is his only escape from Rome’s tyranny. They have nothing left to lose, except the one thing they never expected to find—each other.


Get the buy links here: books2read.com/worthy

Friday, March 23, 2018

Adulting 101 is out

Adulting 101 is back out, and available now at Amazon or Smashwords, with other retailers to follow. 

And a paperback copy will be out as soon as Amazon stops giving me the run around! 


The struggle is real.

Nick Stahlnecker is eighteen and not ready to grow up yet. He has a summer job, a case of existential panic, and a hopeless crush on the unattainable Jai Hazenbrook. Except how do you know that your coworker’s unattainable unless you ask to blow him in the porta-potty?

That’s probably not what Dad meant when he said Nick should act more like an adult.

Twenty-five-year-old Jai is back in his hometown of Franklin, Ohio, just long enough to earn the money to get the hell out again. His long-term goal of seeing more of the world is worth the short-term pain of living in his mother’s basement, but only barely.

Meeting Nick doesn’t fit in with Jai’s plans at all, but, as Jai soon learns, you don’t have to travel halfway around the world to have the adventure of a lifetime.

This is not a summer romance. This is a summer friendship-with-benefits. It’s got pizza with disgusting toppings, Netflix and chill, and accidental exhibitionism. That’s all. There are no feelings here. None. Shut up.

Two Man Station is out

Two Man Station is also out again, at Smashwords and Amazon, with a paperback edition to follow in a day or so. 



Gio Valeri is a big-city police officer who’s been transferred to the small outback town of Richmond with his professional reputation in tatters. His transfer is a punishment, and Gio just wants to keep his head down and survive the next two years. No more mistakes. No more complications.

Except Gio isn’t counting on Jason Quinn.

Jason Quinn, officer in charge of Richmond Station, is a single dad struggling with balancing the demands of shift work with the challenges of raising his son. The last thing he needs is a new senior constable with a history of destroying other people’s careers. But, like it or not, Jason has to work with Gio.

In a remote two-man station hours away from the next town, Gio and Jason have to learn to trust and rely on each another. Close quarters and a growing attraction mean that the lines between professional and personal are blurring. And even in Richmond, being a copper can be dangerous enough without risking their hearts as well.

Sweetwater is out

Hi everyone!

I'll be updating my blog as my former Riptide catalogue is republished to vendors.

First off the line appears to be Sweetwater, which is now available at Amazon and Smashwords for $4.99.

The paperback should be up in a day or so.



Wyoming Territory, 1870.

Elijah Carter is afflicted. Most of the townsfolk of South Pass City treat him as a simpleton because he’s deaf, but that’s not his only problem. Something in Elijah runs contrary to nature and to God. Something that Elijah desperately tries to keep hidden.

Harlan Crane, owner of the Empire saloon, knows Elijah for what he is—and for all the ungodly things he wants. But Crane isn’t the only one. Grady Mullins desires Elijah too, but unlike Crane, he refuses to push the kid.

When violence shatters Elijah’s world, he is caught between two very different men and two devastating urges: revenge, and despair. In a boomtown teetering on the edge of a bust, Elijah must face what it means to be a man in control of his own destiny, and choose a course that might end his life . . . or truly begin it for the very first time.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

On my upcoming releases with Riptide

A note to all my readers: I have contacted Riptide and asked to be released from my contractual obligations with them. 

This means that I will be taking back all my rights for my Riptide titles, including those written with JA Rock, and we will hopefully have them out as self-published titles as soon as possible. 

The same goes for my upcoming releases. 

I don't know what the timeframe on getting these out will be, but as soon as I know, I'll be sharing that with you. 


Thursday, February 22, 2018

An excerpt from The California Dashwoods - coming in May

Back in 2016 (?) I got an email from the awesome team at Riptide, asking me if I wanted to be a part of their Classics Queered series, and, if so, which Austin novel did I want to rewrite? And my answer, no question, was Sense and Sensibility. I know that a lot of other people prefer Pride and Prejudice, but for some reason Sense and Sensibility has always resonated more for me. My sister and I argue about this all the time--yes, we're literature nerds. So I was so, so happy to be given the chance to tackle Sense and Sensibility, and put a new twist on a favourite classic. 



The Dashwoods in the 1995 movie - mine are a little different!

The California Dashwoods, my take on a modern Sense and Sensibility, is due out on May 28 -- and I'll be sharing preorder links and cover art as soon as I get them! For now though, since I've finished line edits, I thought this would be a perfect time to share an excerpt! 

In this scene, Abby (Mrs. Dashwood) and Elliott (Elinor in the original) are figuring out where they can go once Abby's terrible in-laws through them out of Norland Park: 



“Do you remember John?” Abby asked. “Not John John. My cousin John.”
Elliott sucked jam off his finger. “John in California?”
“He lives in a little town called Barton Lake. He has a store there. It’s where I met your father, actually. He and the Family were there for the summer, and they wanted an au pair for John. John John, not cousin John. I thought, well, I can make more money looking after some spoiled little snot-nosed rich-kid brat than I can doing chalk drawings on the pavement, and—” She cut herself off with a laugh. “And the rest is history.”
Elliott saw the moment her expression shifted from gentle grief into something sharper. He reached out and caught her hand. “Cousin John?” he prompted.
Abby shook herself. “He emailed me last night. He’s got an apartment above his store that he’s happy to let us have. And, if we work a few shifts in the store, he’ll let us have it rent-free. Utilities only. It’s two bedrooms, so it’s going to be a squeeze, but we’ll find a way to make it work, won’t we?”
Four of them in a two-bedroom apartment sounded like a disaster, actually. Abby and Marianne, despite being two peas in a pod—or perhaps because of it—locked horns a lot, and Greta was at the age where she needed her own space to storm off to. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a hell of a lot better than the prospect of living in the car. And it was a starting point, right? A roof over their heads while they figured out their next move.
“What’s the catch?” Elliott asked.
Abby smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “There’s no catch, baby. This is what families do.” She raised her eyebrows. “Well, families that aren’t the Dashwoods.”
Elliott quirked his mouth in a wry smile.
That was certainly true. The Dashwood Family was less like a family and more like a corporation. He wondered what Alexander Dashwood, flying his kites and dreaming his dreams, would have thought about the true legacy he’d left. A legacy of lawyers at every family gathering, of board meetings instead of birthdays, and of looping signatures on contracts instead of Christmas cards. A legacy of scheming sycophants who relied on the family trust for income and spent their lives cozying up to the trustees—Cynthia and Great Uncle Montgomery among them—to keep the money coming.
The Dashwoods really were so awful that it was as easy to reject them on an emotional level as it was to be rejected by them. Practically though . . . Well, enough money to get the girls through school and college would be nice. Elliott just needed to convince John to make that happen somehow. John was under no legal obligation—the Family lawyers had made sure that Abby and her children were in line for absolutely nothing—but John wasn’t as bad as the rest of them. John was their brother. Except there was also no guarantee that John would have any influence with the rest of the Family.
Elliott thought of the space above the fireplace where the Naked Blue Lady had hung.
“California might be nice,” he said at last, when what he really meant was that California might be necessary.
Abby smiled and squeezed his hand again.


Saturday, January 13, 2018

Coming Soon: The Preacher's Son

J.A. Rock and I have a new book coming out this month: The Preacher's Son. It starts off with a quite dark premise--betrayal--and then focuses on the journey back from that towards a relationship built on healing and on hope. It's definitely one of our more emotionally weighty books, and we hope that you like it. 




Jason Bannon is a wreck. His leg’s been blown to hell in Afghanistan, his boyfriend just left him and took the dog, and now he’s back in his hometown of Pinehurst, Washington, a place that holds nothing but wretched memories…and Nathan Tull. Nathan Tull, whose life Jason ruined. Nathan Tull, who will never believe Jason did what he did for a greater good. Nathan Tull, whose reverend father runs a gay conversion therapy camp that Jason once sought to bring down—at any cost.


Nathan Tull is trying to live a quiet life. Four years ago, when Nate was a prospective student visiting UW Tacoma, his world collapsed when senior Jason Bannon slept with him, filmed it, and put the footage online. A painful public outing and a crisis of faith later, Nate has finally begun to heal. Cured of the “phantoms” that plagued him for years, he now has a girlfriend, a counselor job at his dad’s camp, and the constant, loving support of his father.

But when he learns Jason is back in town, his carefully constructed identity begins to crumble. As desperate to reconcile his love for God with his attraction to men as Jason is to make sense of the damage he’s done, Nate finds himself walking a dangerous line. On one side lies the righteous life he committed himself to in the wake of his public humiliation. On the other is the sin he committed with Jason Bannon, and the phantoms that won’t let him be. But is there a path that can bridge those two worlds—where his faith and his identity as a gay man aren’t mutually exclusive?

And can he walk that path with the man who betrayed him?


You can preorder The Preacher's Son here at Amazon.

It will be available on January 16. 

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Mark Cooper and Brandon Mills are back!

For anyone wondering where Mark Cooper and Brandon Mills have got to, J.A. Rock and I were in the process of re-releasing them. And now they're back, and reminding us really, really loudly that it's about time we got to work on the third book in the series, right? 

Shut up, you guys, and go back to studying. That means you especially, Mark. We're sure you're failing every damn class. 

(Brandon, sweetie, you're doing just fine!) 


Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad’s dubious advice and rush Prescott College’s biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant Mark as Pennsylvania’s snowstorms and bear sightings. So, when the fraternity extends Mark a bid, Mark vows to get himself kicked out by the end of pledge period. But then he’s drawn into Alpha Delt’s feud with a neighboring fraternity.

Studious Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark’s pledging Alpha Delt, his fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa’s sworn enemy. Mark is too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon’s not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies.

Mark and Deacon’s affair heats up as the war between their fraternities escalates. They explore kinks they didn’t know they had while keeping their liaison a secret from their brothers. But what Romeo and Juliet didn’t teach these star-crossed lovers is how to move beyond sex and into a place where they share more than a bed. That’s something they’ll have to figure out on their own—if the friction between their houses, and between Mark and America, doesn’t tear them apart.

You can buy Mark Cooper versus America here at Amazon, or here at B&N. Links will be updated on my website as we get them! 




Smart, shy Prescott sophomore Brandon Mills is working hard to overcome his troubled past and be normal. Life at Prescott, and in his fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa, is good. With the help of his friends Mark and Deacon, Brandon is slowly coming out of his shell. When he accidentally drenches a freshman in orange soda, though, he faces something he’s not ready for: a boy crushing on him.

Alex Kekoa pledges Phi Sig because it has everything he wants--a house full of nerds who won’t tease him for being smart, a dog, and Brandon Mills. Brandon is just the type of guy Alex needs to help fulfill his college ambition: losing his virginity. Except Alex doesn’t know that Brandon can’t stand to touch or be touched.

When Alex and Brandon are drafted onto the Phi Sig Academic Challenge team, they start spending time together. If there’s anyone who can help Brandon discover it feels good to touch and kiss, maybe it’s klutzy Alex with his cute glasses and his dinosaur obsession. But as the competition--and their relationship--heats up, Alex’s determination not to die a virgin clashes with Brandon’s vow of lifelong celibacy, forcing them to examine what’s truly important to each of them about love.


You can buy Brandon Mills versus the V-Card here at Amazon, or here at B&N