Omega Blues: Chapter 15

My free serial novel, Omega Blues, is moving along steadily and is now up to chapter 15.

The story is at just over 30,000 words, with a chapter added every week.

The last few weeks I've been getting behind then catching back up, so we've seen chapters updated within a couple of days of each other instead of once a week. I've been juggling work and band practice with moving house. Unfortunately I've been dealing with work stress by slipping back into depressive sleep patterns, sleeping 12 to 15 hours a night, which leaves very little time for anything else.

But, despite setbacks, we're still up-to-date with Omega Blues and I'm proud of that. I have a completed chapter every week, and I'm confident I wouldn't have gotten this far in the editing of this novel if I'd just had it as a side project.

Since I'm back on track with a new chapter not due until Sunday, I have a couple of days to focus on editing my next novel, Skin and Edge; a story which is dear to my heart as it's a reworking of my first ever romance novel. Stay tuned, because I think you're going to love it!

Coin Tricks review copies

If you'd like a free copy of Coin Tricks in exchange for a review, there are still a couple slots in the Goodreads MM Romance Group's Don't Buy My Love program!

You have to be a member of the group, but it is a great group :)

Integrity giveaway!

To celebrate the release of my new mm romance novella, Integrity, I'm giving away 2 free copies!

Integrity is a rock star romance set on tour, so to win your free ebook copy all you have to do is post here (or on my Tumblr or Twitter) with your preferred ebook format and the answer to this question:

Which band would you love to see live?

It can be a current or defunct band, or even a band you've already seen!

I'll use a random number generator to pick 2 winners on Friday the 20th, then send you out your copies :)

Tyler Kostritch is famous for his honesty and straight-talking. It’s just a pity he’s lying to everyone. Ty gave up a promising MMA career to focus on his band. As the frontman of Proletarian Yell, he’s as aggressive and confrontational as he ever was as a fighter. He’s famous for the brutal honesty of his live performances—all the while hiding in the closet, never risking relationships so no one will ever find out. After years of hard work, the band finally have their big break: a tour with the hottest metal band around. It’s the best thing to ever happen to Ty. Until he meets Hale. 
Hale Tahmid, vocalist of the staggeringly-popular Funeral Kiss, is everything Ty’s not: Showy, flirty, openly gay. Hale’s the quintessential rock star from his staggering good looks to his attention-craving love of social media. The two bands couldn’t be more different, and their vocalists are opposites. They clash from the moment they meet, a constant verbal sparring and battle of personalities. Yet Ty can’t help noticing his extreme attraction to Hale. Worse still, Hale knows it and taunts Ty with his bad boy charm, every chance he gets. Ty’s hooked on the beautiful rock star and it’s inevitable that he’ll give into temptation. 
Hale’s not just a pretty face. He’s passionate and ruthlessly dedicated, and may just be the perfect partner for Ty. But Hale won’t accept half-measures. If Ty’s not fully in, he’ll walk away. Ty lives in a castle of lies that would come crashing down if he came out. He’d risk losing his band, his family, and everything he’s worked for. How can Ty choose between his love and the music he’s built his world around?

Amazon

Smashwords

All Romance 

New release: Integrity

My new rock star m/m romance novella is live! Integrity is a tense and steamy clash of will between two vocalists on tour.

Cover illustration by Kazi

Amazon

Smashwords

All Romance

Sparks fly whenever they're together. 
Tyler Kostritch is famous for his honesty and straight-talking. It’s just a pity he’s lying to everyone. Ty gave up a promising MMA career to focus on his band. As the frontman of Proletarian Yell, he’s as aggressive and confrontational as he ever was as a fighter. He’s famous for the brutal honesty of his live performances—all the while hiding in the closet, never risking relationships so no one will ever find out. After years of hard work, the band finally have their big break: a tour with the hottest metal band around. It’s the best thing to ever happen to Ty. Until he meets Hale. 
“We’re real. We’re part of a movement. You’re just a boy band playing dress-up.” 
Hale Tahmid, vocalist of the staggeringly-popular Funeral Kiss, is everything Ty’s not: Showy, flirty, openly gay. Hale’s the quintessential rock star from his staggering good looks to his attention-craving love of social media. The two bands couldn’t be more different, and their vocalists are opposites. They clash from the moment they meet, a constant verbal sparring and battle of personalities. Yet Ty can’t help noticing his extreme attraction to Hale. Worse still, Hale knows it and taunts Ty with his bad boy charm, every chance he gets. Ty’s hooked on the beautiful rock star and it’s inevitable that he’ll give into temptation. 
“I’m nobody’s dirty secret.” 
Hale’s not just a pretty face. He’s passionate and ruthlessly dedicated, and may just be the perfect partner for Ty. But Hale won’t accept half-measures. If Ty’s not fully in, he’ll walk away. Ty lives in a castle of lies that would come crashing down if he came out. He’d risk losing his band, his family, and everything he’s worked for. 
How can Ty choose between his love and the music he’s built his world around?

The original title was Prima Donna Boy, a reference to Ty's mocking nickname for Hale. But I didn't want all those words to clash with Kazi's gorgeous illustration! The new title, Integrity, is one of Ty's core defining values—one that he contradicts by being in the closet and in denial of his feelings for Hale.

Integrity is a rock star enemies-to-lovers story built around the massive tension of two huge and competing egos forced to travel and perform together day after day after day. Under that kind of strain, people snap and secrets bubble to the surface...

Here are the links, I hope you love it!!
Amazon
Smashwords
All Romance 

Kitchen Wolves, and what do we call chairs?

While editing Omega Blues this week, I got caught up on a tiny detail: What do I call the bar that joins chair legs? In the story, I have a wolf climbing onto a chair slowly. I described the wolf standing on the chair's 'rung' and then wondered... ladders have rungs, but what do chairs have?

Image from Visual Dictionary Online

In this picture, Visual Dictionary Online call the 'rung' part a spindle. Other places on the internet label it as a stretcher or spacer or, on circular chairs, a foot ring. My woodworking experience makes me lean towards 'spacer,' but what does it matter if no one's going to understand what I'm talking about?

With words like this, there's a balance to strike between what's technically accurate and what readers will understand. None of these words turn up in the Wikipedia article on chairs, and chairs aren't high on the search results when you google them, so I have to assume they're not in common usage and, even worse, they might confuse readers and drag them out of the flow of the story.

For the sake of making the story easy to read (in a tense moment with a wolf in the kitchen and climbing closer, every sentence is precious!) I defaulted to 'foot rest' which I think is a happy medium between accurate and easy to understand.

Of course, now that I've crawled this far down the rabbit hole of furniture names, I should talk to a carpenter about the (American) technical term and drop a reference to it earlier in the chapter: "I'd seen Will making these chairs, shaping the legs on a lathe and fitting the whojiwhatsit bar between them," to lead seamlessly to "The wolf put a paw on the whojiwhatsit of my chair." Sort of a Chekhov's spacer bar. Or perhaps I could run a quiz for my readers and see what the average Omega Blues fan calls that part of a chair—not necessarily technically accurate, but at least most people would know what I'm talking about.

But this is the sort of small detail that I get caught up in, and the reason it took me two and a half years to edit my last novel. The whole point of making Omega Blues a serial story was to hold myself accountable: I have to get a chapter edited every week, whether or not I know the correct or common word for a chair's rung.

With that out of the way, here's the link to the new chapter of my m/m werewolf romance, Omega Blues on free serial-fiction site Wattpad! This chapter is called Kitchen Wolves and has—whoa!—wolves turning up in the kitchen.

Omega Blues is a free serial story, with a new chapter uploaded every week. So you can read it as it's uploaded and enjoy the thrill of waiting (like with oldschool TV shows) or you can wait until it's finished and read the whole novel at once!

New werewolf m/m romance chapter!

The third chapter of my Jagged Rock spin-off novel, Omega Blues, is now up on Wattpad!

Omega Blues is a full-length novel that I update with a chapter every week. So you can read it weekly if you like the excitement of seeing new chapters every week, or you can wait until it's all finished and read it in one binge.

I wrote the draft for Jagged Rock a little over a year ago, but I'm editing the chapters weekly. This is my first time writing a serial story and one of the cool things I'm seeing is all the distinct memories with each edited chapter, instead of the vague mass of memories that jumble up after editing a whole novel over months.

Work was full-on this week and I traveled out of town for a punk festival, so I ended up editing the chapter while sitting on the door between bands. Now I have a double set of great memories: all the fantastic bands and people, and finishing a fresh chapter of Omega Blues.

I hope you enjoy the new chapter and are looking forward to fresh story and fresh memories in weeks to come!

Omega Blues: chapter 2

Chapter two of my Wattpad serial m/m romance is now live!

Omega Blues is the spin-off sequel to Jagged Rock. Both stories are completely free to read.

Being a werewolf has always felt like a curse to Bren, even after he's let into a friendly pack of mostly-humans led by his alpha nephew Will. The Jagged Rock Pack are friends and members of a rock band, standing together even after their vocalist came out as a werewolf. It's Will's plan to turn all the members of the band into werewolves, and that sounds like a great plan... except for Matt.Matt is funny and kind and endlessly helpful, the sort of guy anyone would want for a friend. Unfortunately, as a werewolf he's marked out to be an omega which comes with its load of weaknesses and agonies.It's Bren's job to look after Matt and help him with the transformation. He didn't plan on falling for him, especially because Bren's never felt anything like love or attraction before. It's another complication in his already difficult life.Matt's had a crush on Bren from the moment they met, and he loves teasing and flirting. He's delighted to think he might have a chance.Matt would do anything to become a werewolf, and Bren would do anything to stop him. How can the two have a chance at happiness or a life together?

First chapter of my free Wattpad story!

Nearly two years ago I wrote a free novel called Jagged Rock for the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads. It featured a college rock band with a werewolf for a vocalist, and enough characters that I've always wanted to write spin-off sequels about them finding their happy endings.

Introducing Omega Blues!

Omega Blues is the story of omega werewolf Bren and human bass-player Matt. I wanted to make it free and as I've always loved the thrill of serial stories, I decided to write one and give readers the experience that I've always loved.

Omega Blues is available free on Wattpad, a site for sharing free serial fiction. I'll upload a new chapter each week so you can follow the story weekly, or wait until it's finished to read the whole thing.

If you're worried about reading something that won't get finished: don't! I have a complete first draft and, while it needs extensive revision, I have at least the total framework for the novel.

I am thoroughly looking forward to the serial writing experience, and I hope you're looking forward to reading it!

New release: Coin Tricks

My new novel Coin Tricks is available now!

Cover illustration by Kazi.

Wire's too huge and intimidating to find love… but that doesn't stop him dreaming.

His size has defined his whole life, from his jobs as a bouncer and store security to his brief and unsatisfying relationships. But beneath his scary appearance, Wire's kind and loving. He cares for his family and his dog and imagines a future with a goat at his side.

Then he catches Sid stealing soap.

Sid's a cute librarian and aspiring magician, raising his sister alone and stealing when he can't make ends meet. Wire should report the theft to the cops, but instead he takes food parcels to Sid, and an unlikely friendship forms. Sid is shy and scared at first, but with time he reveals his inner strength and the burning ambition that makes him the opposite of Wire's laid-back aimlessness.

Wire falls hard but can't bring himself to do anything about it. He's never been anything more than disposable to goats, and he can't bear to have his heart broken by his only friend. And years of trying to be different can't hide the fact that Wire was raised to be rough, to think with his fists and ask questions later. He keeps making a bad impression on Sid without meaning to, running the risk of losing Sid before they even have the chance of finding something more together.

They have to struggle with work and their families and the weight of the past, trying to unite their very separate lives to create something new and beautiful. Wire knows his dreams of love are just that: Dreams. Sweet but impossible. But that doesn't stop him dreaming…

Coin Tricks is a standalone M/M romance novel with a HEA and no cliffhangers.

This is a very exciting day for me because I've been editing this novel since early 2014 and I am so glad that I get to share it with everyone!

The cover is illustrated by the incredibly talented Kazi.

Coin Tricks is available through these links:
Amazon
Smashwords
All Romance eBooks

MM romance book release and giveaway: Happy Valley!

My new short story, Happy Valley, is now available from Smashwords, Amazon and All Romance!

Smashwords link

Amazon link

All Romance link

Las is too pretty and glamorous for work on a ski field, where all the tempting man-candy is hidden under layers and layers of protective clothing. He wanted some steamy homo love stories to show for a season spent in the snow, but instead all he gets is cold.

Then Las steps off the chair lift and straight into the arms of the new lift attendant, Ben. Las has never met a person he couldn't learn to like, and Ben's easy to love. He's flirty, fun, and as bubbly as a pot left on the stove. To top it all off, he's into Las… At least until he realizes Las is a guy!

But that doesn't stop Las and Ben becoming good friends as they work, snowboard and flirt. Ben would be perfect, if he wasn't straight. His boundless energy is a great match for Las's casual charm, and he doesn't let the fact that Las is a guy keep him from bouncing around like a puppy whenever they meet.It's just a pity that no-one else sees Ben's puppy playfulness as adorable. Staff and bosses alike turn on him until he's so miserable that even snowboarding can't cheer him up.

It's up to Las to win back Ben's smile, with stolen food and road cones and a dangerous sled ride to a picnic. If he plays his cards just right, he can make Ben happy, stop the coworker drama… and make Ben fall for him! No boy who dances and flirts like Ben could truly be straight, right?

Happy Valley is a standalone M/M romance short story at just under 8000 words. It's fast-paced fluffy fun with a side order of snowboarding and quad biking.

If you want to save a dollar and read Happy Valley for free, I'm giving away two copies! All you have to do to enter the draw is comment here, and in 48 hours I'll randomly pick two winners :)

Hot Blood Punk and exciting changes

A few years ago I wrote an erotica novella called Exhibitionist Punk. A year or so later, I decided that the pairing had potential that I hadn't fully explored in the novella. Rather than writing a sequel, I took advantage of one of the coolest features of self-published ebooks - the chance to rewrite an existing story.

Like a Chanel suit, novellas love to be reworked

Exhibitionist Punk (16.5k words) became Hot Blood Punk (41.2k words).

It was a great experience and I enjoyed it a lot, and I know that fans of the original story are going to enjoy the rewrite. It has the same characters and core conflict but is much more fleshed-out. Radically more fleshed out, in fact - Hot Blood Punk is 250% the length of Exhibitionist Punk, and uses just under 35% of the original text. If you're super into numbers, those exact figures are 253.63% and 34.63%. Text from Exhibitionist Punk makes up 13.67% of Hot Blood Punk. That sounds like not much - and it isn't, this is a radical rewrite - but the main characters and key intent of the story is the same. What I'm saying is: It's the same story, only way better.

Another exciting change is the new cover to my novella Knockout Andrew. Same great story, awesome new graphic!

Finally, I'm again participating in the M/M Romance Goodreads Group's free story event. My free novella will be out some time between June and September, so stay tuned!

I love book reviews

I love reading book reviews. I don't believe in the concept of 'objective reading': there is no one 'true' way to read a book because a book isn't an objective reality of its own. A book is different to every reader - changed by their memories and associations and motivations, the mental and emotional state they're in when they read it. Think of a book you've read again and again. Every reading is a completely different experience. The text hasn't changed but, for you, the book has changed.

So I love reading book reviews. They're an insight into a book as it was read by the reviewer. I enjoy reviews for books I haven't read - adding and comparing the different readings to create a collage of what I may expect from reading the book myself. But most of all, I enjoy reading reviews for books I have read. I compare different reading experiences, marvel at the difference of reading, and gain insight into my own experience. I think this is a similar motivation to my love of 'headcanon' and the idea of fanfiction.

Very important to me is is the belief that everyone deserves a voice - I'm greatly in favor of blogging and self-publishing, as well as reviewing. I love that the internet lets us break down the bottleneck of traditional publishing and limited shelf space to allow more voices to be heard. Book reviewing no longer belongs only to select magazine and newspaper writers.

I also love writing book reviews. I love sharing my interpretation of a book. But I also love the act of writing a review, and how it changes my own perception of a book: even thinking about writing a review changes how I read a book while I'm reading it.

I love writing reviews but, like all writing to me, it's also difficult and exhausting and anxiety-ridden. Even blog posts are very difficult for me to write - this is why you see so few posts from me. Even if I manage to struggle an idea to completion, I worry that it's not 'good' enough to share. I'm working to overcome that fear. If you're reading this then - yay! - I've succeeded, and you're a valuable part of the process. I appreciate it!

Writing is fraught with difficulties, but it's always worth the effort and I'm always glad I did it. I'm trying to cultivate a habit of writing book reviews. I hope I'm not alone in enjoying reviews penned by authors, and I hope that others will enjoy my insights and perspective. I also like feeling that I'm 'giving something back' - adding to the conversation around books which is especially crucial to small genres.

My ultimate goal is to write a book review every week. I haven't reached that goal yet, but even my every-few-weeks attempt has taught me a lot and, I hope, has added something to the conversation. Since I decided to attempt more reviews, I've written four with a total of over 2.5k words.

In the future I'd like to write reviews for books which are less popular, to increase the value of my contribution to the community and also to broaden the scope of my reading within the genre.

Here are the four reviews I have written since I decided to attempt more reviews:

Hound Dog & Bean by B.G. Thomas

Hook, Line, & Sinker by Piper Vaughn

Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane

Blood Bonds by Kayla Bain-Vrba

Very Exciting Launch Day!

I have something new for you all to read! It's a novel! A novel with werewolves!! Romantic werewolves! It is a free novel with romantic werewolves!!!
Links, in the hopes that mobile users can avoid having to load all my excited gifs:
Jagged Rock on the MM Romance Group on Goodreads
Jagged Rock on Goodreads
MM Romance Group site (features all stories free for download, and you don't have to be a member)

Hey! I wrote a novel!! It's 97k and it's totally finished, and it's totally available for you to read!

Cover produced by Sue of the MM Romance group. Thanks so much, Sue!!

I am excited. I am going to dance around, and I am going to bring all the exclamation points with me.

All the excitement! All the exclamation points!! All the gifs!!!.

Found through The Hooded Figure in the Dog Park via giphy

Launch day!! Free novel! Free novel for everyone!!! Have phallic fruit emoticons!

Jagged Rock is the novel I wrote during March and April, for the MM Romance Group on Goodreads who have an annual free story event. My prompt was by Carey.
The prompt really caught my imagination and, better yet, it caught my follow-through too! It's been some time (read: years) since I've been able to finish anything more than a short story. And then Jagged Rock was started and finished in a couple of months!
This novel feels like a giant personal success for me. It was also a fantastic experience - stressful and exhausting and terrifying, but all in a good way! And, ultimately, it was rewarding.
I haven't had that much nerve-destroying fun since my first NaNoWriMo!

Here is a gif I found on the internet [on mashable.com, credited to paint-me-a-butt on tumblr but paint-me-a-butt on tumblr is a page about mortgages??]. This gif is appropriate because it represents both my excitement at having a new story for you, and also the process of writing that story.

So, there it is! My first fully finished story in years. Out of my head, and onto your screen. I really hope you enjoy it :)

Links again, just in case:
Jagged Rock on the MM Romance Group on Goodreads
Jagged Rock on Goodreads