A Husband for Hartwell - Out Today!

Yay! A Husband for Hartwell, the first book in JA Rock and mine's Regency series, is out today! 

He must marry, or risk his fortune.

The whole of London Society has long assumed Lord William Hartwell will marry his childhood best friend, Lady Rebecca Warrington. After two Seasons, Hartwell remains quite content with bachelorhood--his parents do not. When Hartwell learns they intend to cut his purse strings unless he makes a match this Season, he resigns himself to a marriage of convenience with Becca, and yet he can't help but be drawn to her younger brother, Warry.

He must marry, or risk his sister's ruin.

The Viscount "Warry" Warrington is used to being viewed as the tagalong little brother. Now a grown man about to enter his second Season, Warry is desperate to be seen. When Lord Balfour, a handsome older peer, takes Warry under his wing, Warry thinks his dream is finally coming true. Until Balfour reveals his true intent--to make public a letter that will destroy Becca's reputation, unless Warry agrees to marry him.

Time is running out for both of them.

When an injury forces Warry to recover at Hartwell House, the two succumb to a secret flirtation. But Warry's sudden announcement of his engagement to Balfour drives Hartwell near mad with jealousy--and right into Becca's arms. With the clock ticking for Warry to save his sister, will Hartwell discover the truth of Warry's feelings before it's too late?

A Husband for Hartwell is the first book in the Lords of Bucknall Club series, where the Regency meets m/m romance.

You can buy A Husband for Hartwell on Amazon. 

March Round Up!

Wow, it has been way too long since I wrote a blog post, hasn't it? So let's get caught up! 

I have a Facebook Group now that I keep forgetting to tell people about. You can find it at Lisa Henry's Hangout. We've got a good group over there, and we do fairly regular competitions and giveaways. Also, if you join the group, you can check out a bunch of exclusive free reads! 

And now for some book stuff! 

The Family Kitchen Box Set is now available in KU, so if you've been waiting to read Family Recipe and Recipe for Two, you can get them both together now! 

You can find it here on Amazon: Family Kitchen Box Set. 

Meanwhile, since I forgot to announce it here when it happened, the third and final book in the Adventures in Aguillon series is out: 

You can find Socially Orcward here on Amazon. 

And the first two books in the series, Red Heir and Elf Defence, are both out in audio, read by the amazing Nick J. Russo! They're available on all audio platforms, but I've included the Audible links here. 

Red Heir on Audible. 

Elf Defence on Audible. 

And Socially Orcward will be coming to audio very soon! 

Meanwhile, if you'd like to be updated much more frequently than I remember to write blog posts, you may want consider signing up for my joint newsletter with JA Rock. You can sign up for that here. 

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. 

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. 

Turn that frown upside-down!

Turn that frown upside down!

Don’t worry, this isn’t an exhortation to cheer up. I hate those. When people tell me to cheer up, it just makes me want to stab them harder.             But I learned something really interesting at GRL, and since then I’ve been sharing with everyone. Ask J.A. Rock. I shared it with everyone she introduced me to on our recent road trip.

First of all, my apologies to whoever brought this up at the panel at GRL. I missed your name, but I’ll take your wisdom to my grave!

So here it is: did you know that “frown” means two very different things, depending on whether or not you use UK English, or American English? Really.

Ask an American what part of the body you frown with, and they’ll tell you it’s the mouth.

The mouth! How crazy is that? (Clearly I am on the UK English side of the argument.) In the UK—and the rest of the commonwealth, I guess—we frown with our foreheads. What we call a frown is probably what Americans would think of as a scowl. And what they call a frown, we would think of as a downturned or grimacing mouth.

On our road trip, J.A. and I listened to the audio books of our Playing the Fool series, narrated by the awesome Nick J Russo. And every time Mac frowned—and Henry is as annoying as fuck, so this happened a lot times—we had to try and remember who wrote that section, and what Mac was actually doing with his face. It’s weird to think we’ve been writing together for so long, and never suspected we were envisaging two entirely different things.

“He’s scowling!” I insisted when we got to one line with a cranky Mac. “Why would he be doing that weird thing with his mouth?”

“What? Frowning?” J.A. asked me.

I hate her sometimes.

She has a point when it comes to the emoji. It’s called a frowny face, and it’s clearly all to do with the mouth. Otherwise instead of :( it would be ):( Which actually looks like an emoji for a corset. But, like the rest of the UK-English speaking world, I guess I thought the forehead scowl was implied. Or that instead of seeing that as the eyes and the mouth, why not tilt your head and see it as the eyes and the forehead. With no mouth at all.

The point is, emojis aside, I’m going with dictionary.com which defines a frown as “to contract the brow, as in displeasure or deep thought; scowl.”

This woman here, who I found on an ad for wrinkle treatment, is frowning. She's probably annoyed because she's only in her twenties and some asshole thinks she needs botox already. 

This guy here though? I don't know what's going on with his face, but that's not a frown. 

I’m not frowning at all as I write this though. I’m laughing, because just when I think I’ve finally got the hang of this language in all its weird local variations, it throws something like that at me. And when I say laughing, hopefully that means the same thing to everyone reading this. But who even knows anymore?

Back from EuroPrideCon!

I always tell myself that when I get back from a con, I'll write all about it. And then I don't, because I get home and all I want to do is sleep for several weeks. So by the time I get around to it, I've generally forgotten everything I was going to mention. But here's what I have to say about EuroPrideCon: 

It was so much fun! 

The panels were interesting and informative, and the hotel was nice, but the best thing, as always, was meeting people. I'm basically an introvert, but it's amazing how fast all those social insecurities fall away when you're actually in a room full of people who are into the same things that you are! And it's just wonderful to meet people who you have only otherwise met online. It's like you know you're friends, you just have no idea what the other person looks like! 

I think the most fun panel was the one about co-writing, which JA Rock and I shared with LA Witt and Aleksandr Voinov. It started off politely enough, and then denigrated into a discussion about wine being the cure for writer's block, and I think that Lori threatened to steal JA away from me. Fine. You know what? Aleks and I will be perfectly happy without you both! 

Then, after the convention, JA and I repaired our relationship by heading to Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. And also Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which I totally recommend to anyone brave enough to try and spell it. So, so beautiful! 

So now, to make you jealous (if only of my brilliant photography skills) here are some pics of some random dirty things we saw in Europe: 

Wank Mountain. The happiest place in the world. 

Creepy puppet hands - you're welcome! 

Even Coke is more permissive in Europe. 

If you can't make it to Wank Mountain... 

An awesomely intricate cock ring! 

So, thanks Europe! And, day job and budget permitting, I hope to see you again next year! 

TEMPEST - Out March 9

Woot! 

TEMPEST, the third PLAYING THE FOOL book is out March 9! And, like always, JA Rock and I have a fun blog tour with an awesome giveaway. 

Not only can you win a $20 gift voucher and an ebook of something from either of our back catalogues, you will also win these: 

 Donut socks. 

A donut cushion that looks good enough to eat. (Warning: Do not eat.)  

Join the tour and leave a comment for your chance to win! 

March 9, 2015 - The Blogger Girls

March 9, 2015 - Boys In Our Books

March 9, 2015 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

March 10, 2015 - Sinfully Sexy Books

March 10, 2015 - Love Bytes Reviews

March 10, 2015 - The Jeep Diva

March 11, 2015 - Book Reviews and More by Kathy

March 11, 2015 - MM Good Book Reviews

March 12, 2015 - La Crimson Femme

March 13, 2015 - Cup O' Porn

March 13, 2015 - LeAnn's Book Reviews

Something wicked this way comes.

FBI Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness and con man Henry Page are on the run again. This time they’re headed back to where it all began: Altona, Indiana. Population: some goats. Henry’s not happy about lying low at the McGuinness family farm, but they’ve got nowhere else to go.

While Mac fights to clear his name and Henry struggles with whose side he’s really on, a ghost from the past threatens to destroy everything. And those aren’t the only storms on the radar. Cut off from both sides of the law, Mac and Henry must rely on their tenuous partnership to survive.

If Henry can convince himself to let Mac see the man behind the disguises, they’ll stand a chance of beating the forces that conspire against them. The course of true love never did run smooth, but for the two of them, it might be their only hope.

You can check out TEMPEST at Riptide.

The Merchant of Death - Out February 2

Woohoo! It's almost here! The Merchant of Death, the second in the Playing the Fool series, comes out on February 2. Mac and Henry are back, with just the sort of intrigue, silliness, action, and cross-dressing you'd expect from something written by Shakespeare. With less genius, obviously. But more full-frontal nudity. 

To celebrate the release, JA Rock and I will be doing a blog tour. You can win awesome stuff if you follow it here: 

February 2, 2015  -  Boys In Our Books
February 2, 2015  -  Sinfully Sexy Books
February 2, 2015  -  Cup O' Porn
February 3, 2015  -  MM Good Book Reviews
February 3, 2015  -  Love Byte
February 3, 2015  -  My Fiction Nook
February 4, 2015  -  Crystal's Many Reviewers
February 4, 2015  -  Nautical Star Books - Spotlight
February 4, 2015  -  Smoocher's Voice
February 4, 2015  -  It's About The Book
February 5, 2015  -  Creative Deeds
February 5, 2015  -  La Crimson Femme
February 5, 2015  -  Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
February 5, 2015  -  Prism Book Alliance 
February 6, 2015  -  The Novel Approach
February 6, 2015  -  TTC Books and More
February 6, 2015  -  Joyfully Jay
February 6, 2015  -  The Jeep Diva
February 6, 2015  -  On Top Down Under Book Reviews

All’s fair in love and war.

There’s something rotten in the state of Indiana. When con man Henry Page takes it upon himself to investigate the death of an elderly patient at a care facility, he does so in true Shakespearean tradition: dressed as a girl.

FBI Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness has more to worry about than Henry’s latest crazy idea. Someone is trying to send him a message—via a corpse with a couple of bullets in it. He needs to figure out who’s trying to set him up before he gets arrested, and he really doesn’t have time for Henry’s shenanigans. Then again, he’d probably be able to focus better if Henry didn’t look so damn distracting in a babydoll dress and a wig.

But when Mac discovers that Henry has been keeping a secret that connects the cases, he has to find a way to live on the right side of the law when he just might be in love with the wrong sort of man.

Check out more of The Merchant of Death, or the other instalments of Playing the Fool at Riptide Publishing! 

Writing, Rambling, and Plans for 2015

You know, after writing since forever—I blame it on the fact we didn’t have a TV when I was a kid living in New Guinea—and being published for a few years now, I still haven’t figured out where the ideas come from. And it’s something that people sometimes ask.

“Where do you get your ideas?”

I seriously don’t know. I suspect that the part of my brain that other people use to tell them to put petrol in the car or pay the phone bill or wear matching socks to work today has, in my case, been seconded to urgent daydreaming duties. I mean, I went to a staff meeting the other day and while I don’t actually remember anything that was discussed, I did kind of plan a fantasy story with magic and the ocean and princes and burning people at the stake. So there’s that.

The other day at work, someone said to me, “I wish I’d never stopped writing. I wrote lots when I was in high school, and I really loved it.”

You know the thing about writing? It is like the cheapest hobby on the planet. All you need is a pencil and a piece of paper. And, like any hobby, the more you do it, the better you get. If you enjoy writing, don’t stop doing it. Storytelling is one of the most fun things you can do, and the best way to learn is to just pick up a pencil and give it a go.

source

2014 was a great year for me. Wrote some books, went to GRL—the highlight of the year. And not just because I saw squirrels—and realised that yes, this writing thing is what I want to do. I mean, I can’t quit the day job quite yet, but it’s less of a pipe dream and more of a long term plan now. I mean, it would be, if I could plan anything in the long term. Or at all.

2015 will hopefully be the year I go to two conventions—Euro Pride in Munich in July, and GRL in San Diego in October (if I can get a spot). It’s also the year I want to branch out in YA, probably not under this name, and have a go at a few other writing projects as well.

Coming up soon, of course, is THE MERCHANT OF DEATH, Book 2 in J.A. Rock’s and my Playing the Fool trilogy. It’s out on February 2 from Riptide.

Heidi Belleau and I are also working on a story set in the same universe as BLISS, so that’s shaping up nicely!

And guess which lucky person got to write a novel with the awesome M. Caspian? It’s called FALLOUT, and it’s dark, dark, dark!

And J.A. and I have about a gazillion things to work on: the third Boy book, the third Prescott book, this entirely weird project we may have pitched to our publisher at GRL, and about a gazillion other ideas.

2015 is going to be a busy one!