Amy Lane

Paint It Black (Beneath the Stain Book 2) by Amy Lane: Exclusive Guest Post and Release Day Review

August 13, 2019 by Denise Leave a Comment

A Beneath the Stain Novel

Everybody thinks Mackey Sanders’s Outbreak Monkey is the last coming of Rock ’n’ Roll Jesus, but Cheever Sanders can’t wait to make a name for himself where nobody expects him to fill his famous brothers’ shoes. He’s tired of living in their shadow.

Blake Manning has been one of Outbreak Monkey’s lead guitarists for ten years. He got this gig on luck and love, not talent. So hearing that Cheever is blowing through Outbreak Monkey’s hard-earned money in an epic stretch of partying pisses him off.

Blake shows up at Cheever’s nonstop orgy to enforce some rules, but instead of a jaded punk, he finds a lost boy as talented at painting as Mackey is at song-making, and terrified to let anybody see the real him. Childhood abuse and a suicide attempt left Cheever on the edge of survival—a place Blake knows all too well.

Both men have to make peace with being second banana in the public eye. Can they find the magic of coming absolute first with each other?

Title: Paint It Black
Series: Beneath the Stain: Book 2
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: August 13, 2019
Category: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Pages: 322

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

And the Children Shall Lead Us By Amy Lane

So I admit it—this story has nothing to do with the actual plot of the book I’m pimping but it might make you laugh, and that’s good too.

When I wrote Beneath the Stain, I chose all of the chapter titles from classic rock songs—I had a browser open to Rolling Stone’s top 500 rock and roll songs for about two months, and boy, did I fall down some rabbit holes. For Paint it Black, I figured since it was a smaller story than Beneath the Stain, I would only focus on one artist for the chapter titles, to maybe help me narrow my focus. The title was one of the Rolling Stone’s most iconic hits, so I went with the Stones.

So for a month and a half, all my family heard–in the car, at my desk, when I was doing the dishes—was the Rolling Stones. In particular, “Paint it Black.”

My son, ZoomBoy, was particularly enthralled. “What is this music, Mother? How might I get me some of that on my Spotify account?”

And suddenly it wasn’t just me, it was both of us. And for a little while, I thought that was fine. I had my family with me, right? I mean, he learned to whistle so he could whistle the riff! That was awesome!

And then, one night, after I’d finished the book and had moved on to the next Fish, his father and I were sitting, watching television, and I heard… well, I wasn’t sure.

“Mate—hit pause!”

We frowned at each other.

“What is that?” he asked.

“It’s ZoomBoy—does he need anything?” I said.

“Forget does he need anything—is he sacrificing small animals and singing an unholy hymn?”

I listened for another moment. “Mmmaybe…”

Both of us listened again. “What in the furry hell?”

“Do you think we’re safe in our sleep?” I asked.

Mate laughed uncomfortably. “Sure. I’ll be sure to wake you if he comes after us with a knife.”

Now, before anybody sends sage to burn, or an exorcist to my address, I want you all to look up the lyrics to “Paint it Black.” Dark stuff, right? Painting shit black? Serial killer fantasies? Now imagine that song being sung by a tone-deaf fifteen-year-old in the shower, echoing through three rooms in a small house.

Yup. Scared the shit out of us.

And then ZoomBoy came out of the bathroom, still humming, and Mate and I met eyes again—and started laughing our asses off.

“I blame you,” Mate said.

“Go ahead—I’m still having nightmares about satanic cults and live sacrifice!”

“That’s fine—you can always write another genre,” he told me, and then hit play, and we went back to our regularly scheduled programming.

But that song has stuck with us. Right now? As I was writing this? I turned on the song, for old time’s sake.

When the song ended, ZoomBoy was still whistling along.

It sticks with you—as I hope Blake and Cheever will stick with you too. I know those boys ripped my heart out in the good way, and not in the live sacrifice way. But they put it back in again, and that’s why it’s romance instead of horror.

We’ll save the horror for ZoomBoy.

Before we go any further, two things.

1. Read the first book Beneath the Stain. Rock stars and angst galore. And you have to read book 1 to really understand book 2

2. These books are a committment. Book 1 is over 650 pages. This book is 500 pages. Just giving you a heads up.

Moving on to the review, let’s assume you’ve read book 1, mmkay?

Approximately 10 years has passed between books. Our boys are old, wiser, still sober, husbands and fathers. Mackey and Grant have gotten married and he still manages the band. And now the focus is on Cheever, the youngest Sanders brother. too young to join the band at the time, he focused on art. He is about to graduate college, but a harsh review of his art makes him snap and he sets out to destroy himself.

Blake, always feeling like the outsider in the band and Cheever, the outsider with the brothers bond and bond quickly. Together they work to not only validate each other but also to validate their places in the band, in the house and in the family.

Ugh they poor boys are so damaged. And they held most of that damage inside for 10 years. While I am not surprised it took Cheever that long to snap, I am surprised that Blake held it in so long.

Throughout the book we see not only Cheever and Blake fall in love, but Cheever accept the love of his brothers again. He was so closed off he had no idea how much they wanted him in their lives. It was sweet but also really sad.

I do think that Cheever and Blake were a bit codependant with each other. Especially Cheever. Not for nothin, I don’t care how rich you are, they aren’t going to let someone who isn’t in treatment spend the night with you in rehab.

I really loved seeing the band, Grant and the wives so settled into their lives. They were grown ups! Ok, the wives did kind of really fulfill gender stereotypes that wasn’t totally necessary. Sorry, boys. Kick in and help in the kitchen a little more.

Yes, I am a picky bitch. Sue me.

I still really enjoyed this book. Not as much as the first, but so worth the read.

4 Pieces of Candy

Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been nominated for a RITA twice, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.

Beneath the Stain Free Extras: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/YeFYLUdH

Warm Heart by Amy Lane: Exclusive Guest Post and New Release Review

July 19, 2019 by Denise

Survive the adventure. Live to love.

Following a family emergency, snowboarder Tevyn Moore and financier Mallory Armstrong leave Donner Pass in a blizzard… and barely survive the helicopter crash that follows. Stranded with few supplies and no shelter, Tevyn and Mallory—and their injured pilot—are forced to rely on each other.

The mountain leaves no room for evasion, and Tevyn and Mal must confront the feelings that have been brewing between them for the past five years. Mallory has seen Tevyn through injury and victory. Can Tevyn see that Mallory’s love is real?

Mallory’s job is risk assessment. Tevyn’s job is full-on risk. But to stay alive, Mallory needs to take some gambles and Tevyn needs to have faith in someone besides himself. Can the bond they discover on the mountain see them to rescue and beyond?

Title: Warm Heart
Series: Search and Rescue: Book One
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: July 16, 2019
Category: Dreamspun Desires, Contemporary
Pages: 213

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

So, part of the premise of Warm Heart is our heroes spend an uncomfortable chunk of days stranded in a storm caring for their injured pilot (who gets his own book next January!) And this was both a delight and a challenge as a writer.

Being stuck somewhere with people you care about and no outside distraction can lead to deeper understanding, bonding, true conversation, and moments of real meaning.

It can also lead to batshit boredom.

And our heroes weren’t just stranded together. They couldn’t make the conversation all about themselves. They had to entertain Damien, who was in a lot of pain and trying hard not to be afraid.

They were all trying not to be afraid.

It turns out Mallory is the guy who saves the day in this instance. I mean, they all take turns saving each other, whether it’s from the fire going out, boredom, or being too tired to go on. But in this instance, Mallory, who’s always had a sort of quietly devastating sense of humor, sings showtunes and old camp songs over the fire, and gets his two compatriots to play a guessing game involving mundane things in his personal history. And these silly things turn out to be the morale builders that our little team needs to keep going—and when the conversation got too intense, they gave our two heroes a way out, when they were literally trapped in the same place together in the snow.

Like with so many things, I got the idea from Mate and I.

Over the last thirty years Mate and I have seen a lot of movies. If we’ve really loved a movie together, we’ve probably seen it multiple times. We know these movies backwards and forwards, we’ve looked up their cast, their director, even their producers. We know the lines from the movies, and we know what the actors who uttered those lines went on to do.

So we’ve invented this movie game that is so insanely complicated and so completely dependent on the people playing being us that we only play it when the kids are done talking to us and there’s nothing else to do.

I’ll start: “Come up to the coast, we’ll have a few laughs!”

His reply would be: “Why a spoon, brother?”

I think for a moment: “Oh honey—we all deserve to wear white.”

And he’ll respond with: “I’m not going back to Texas.”

For those of you who wonder what we’re doing, that’s Die Hard to Robin Hood via Alan Rickman, Robin Hood to Bull Durham via Keven Costner, and Bull Durham to Thelma and Louise via Susan Sarandon.

And so on. We can play this game literally for hours, getting as obscure as using a director or a producer as the link to the next film we’re quoting. And the source material spans thirty years—but it’s our thirty years, so that’s okay.

That game is ours. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone else, and every movie line is everything from the times we’ve seen the movie together to why we loved it in the first place.

So when I stranded Mallory and Tevyn and Damien on the mountaintop, I had to give them a game that’s uniquely theirs. I succeeded, I hope, and hopefully the guys’ banter will keep you all entertained. But I did it with that deep conviction that all successful couples have their little games, their conversational gambits, their bantering sallies, that keep them interested in talking to each other.

Because sometimes, that conversation is the thread that keeps us bound together for life.

What a fun, interesting and exciting book. I have to admit I was a little worried that it would get boring with 3 guys stranded in a blizzard- one of them totally incapacitated. But it wasn’t at all. It moved along nicely and didn’t lag.

Tevyn and Mallory have been dancing around their feelings for each other for years. But I think both were kind of waiting for Tevyn to grow up a bit. But then when their helicopter crashes and they become stranded, the begin to acknowledge what they have been feeling.

It was refreshing to read a book where the two MC had to face their feelings head on. They literally couldn’t hide behind sex because they not only had a third person there, but they were outside in the elements during a blizzard.

Instead they talked and learned more and more about each other. Comically, with Tevyn trying to figure out Mallory’s middle name.

The story got serious at times, with the helicopter pilot in desperate need of medical attention and Tevyn’s grandmother on her death bed back home. But the author tried to keep the story light in spite of all of that. So while you got the excitement and seriousness of what was happening, it didn’t drag you down at all.

There is a HEA, don’t you worry. And there is perhaps a hint to the next book? I hope?

3.5 pieces of eye candy

Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been finaled in the RITA’S (TM) twice, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.

String Boys by Amy Lane: Exclusive Guest Post and Excerpt, and Release Day Review

May 30, 2019 by Denise

Seth Arnold learned at an early age that two things in life could make his soul soar—his violin and Kelly Cruz. In Seth’s uncertain childhood, the kindness of the Cruz family, especially Kelly and his brother, Matty, gave Seth the stability to make his violin sing with the purest sound and opened a world of possibility beyond his home in Sacramento.

Kelly Cruz has loved Seth forever, but he knows Seth’s talents shouldn’t be hidden, not when the world is waiting. Encouraging Seth to follow his music might break Kelly’s heart, but he is determined to see the violin set Seth’s soul free. When their world is devastated by a violent sexual assault and Matty’s prejudices turn him from a brother to an enemy, Seth and Kelly’s future becomes uncertain.

Seth can’t come home and Kelly can’t leave, but they are held together by a love that they clutch with both hands.

Seth and Kelly are young and the world is wide—the only thing they know for certain is they’ll follow their heartstrings to each other’s arms whenever time and fate allow. And pray that one day they can follow that string to forever… before it slices their hearts in two.

Title: String Boys
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: May 28, 2019
Category: Contemporary, New Adult
Pages: 341

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

Perfectly Imperfect By Amy Lane

It’s no secret that much of my work revolves around family—and they say to write what you know.

One of the things I know—for absolutely positive—is that family is not perfect. Not even the best family can lay claim to perfection. Family is a mixed bag of dicks.

And I love capturing that moment, in which family is both the best and the worst thing to happen to us. Given that, I was particularly proud of this moment between a young Kelly on the verge of running away from home (although everyone knows where he’s going!) and his father, who’s only doing his best.

The next morning Kelly left a note—Going to see him. K. He wanted to say when he’d be back, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t help it. He just didn’t ever want to come back.

But the plan was to go spend the rest of his formative years on Seth’s floor, and it didn’t have a contingency plan for his father pulling up next to him in the family minivan, window rolled down.

“Get in.”

Kelly didn’t look up. “No habla English.” Of course the irony was, he didn’t habla Espanol either, because his father didn’t speak it in the house, and he’d taken French in school. All he knew was mijo.

His dad sputtered. “Look, you little dickhead, I’ll pay for your ticket there and back, just get in the damned car!”

Well, shit. On the one hand, it meant he had to come back. On the other, it meant he’d have more money for food if he went with the living-in-Seth’s-dorm option.

“Coffee on the way?” he bargained, and his dad laughed.

“Sure.”

He got in the car, and Dad threw him a hat—something his grandma had knit for… well, anyone in the family who would wear it. It was made with big chunky yarn and had flecks of something pink in it.

“Really?” Kelly asked, eyeing the hat.

“Did you bring one of your own?” Dad asked pointedly.

“No.”

“It’s cold outside. You forget your own hat, I provide. Also, are you insane?”

Kelly grunted. “Seth does it sometimes.”

“Yes. This is true. But Seth didn’t walk out the door one night and almost not come back!”

“He did too,” Kelly said. “He did too, and you know it. And this time, I needed to be somewhere with him where we can walk outside for a change. I….” He let out a little grunt. “It’s not fair.”

“I know.”

“I’ve been looking at JC’s, you know, near Northridge or San Francisco. So we can….” This sounded so grown-up. “So we can live together and go to school.”

“We’d miss you,” his dad said, sighing. “I’m not ready yet. Definitely not ready for Matty to be grown-up. Seriously not ready for you to grow up either. You’re only sixteen.”

“Well….” Kelly looked out the window into the foggy streets. “I’ll be seventeen when I graduate. If we were rich and shit, you’d be sending me away to a college, never to see me again.”

“Screw that,” his dad muttered. “There’s, like, no way!”

Kelly laughed then, with all his heart, because his dad sounded about sixteen himself.

So that was an epic love story. I wasn’t totally prepared for the length of the book and the length of time it covered, but it was worth it. Spanning close to 20 years, we follow Seth and Kelly from the third (Kelly) and fourth (Seth) grades when they were picked to learn violin in school. For Seth, that violin changed his life.

Kelly realizes way before Seth that he is gay and in love with Seth. So once they reach the teen years, Kelly kisses Seth- and they never look back. But Kelly’s older brother- Seth’s former best friend- turns on them with homophobic vitriol he learned at his new girlfriend’s church.

I love how the romantic relationship between Seth and Kelly started out bumbling and a bit awkward, because they were just kids, to knowing what they wanted from each other and asking for it

There is A LOT in this book. Seth’s dad, Kelly’s whole family of parents, several sisters and the brother who now hates him. But through it all is Kelly and Seth and Seth’s violin.

It seems as if everything in the universe is trying to keep them apart, but they muddle through. Basically having a long distance relationship for years and years, getting by with short, hidden visits, text, email and Skype.

There is quite a bit of tragedy in the book. Which just add to the forces keeping them apart. But what starts out as naivete of two teens determined to stay together turns into two men understanding their responsibilities but refusing to give up.

There were a few time line hiccups for me and a couple “but why?” moments, but I really enjoyed following this love story over such a long period of time.

If you are an Amy Lane fan or a fan of epic love stories, this one is for you.

4 pieces of eye candy

Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been nominated for a RITA, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.

Homebird by Amy Lane: Exclusive Guest Post, Tour and Release Day Review

December 19, 2018 by Denise

TCO is so glad to have Amy Lane with us today with an exclusive author guest post, all about traveling with friends. I completely agree with Amy here. Going somewhere once in a while by yourself is fun, but if you don’t have someone to be snarky with, is it really worth going? 🙂 Check out what she has to see about her MC’s from Homebird, her most recent release. Thanks for joining the blog today Amy!

Crispin Henry isn’t an adventurer. He learned early on that the world is a frightening place and that home is rare and precious. If his friends didn’t drag him to sports games and ill-advised trips to Vegas, he wouldn’t get out at all—and his trip to Munich for Oktoberfest is no exception. But it’s there that he meets Luka Gabriel, and he learns to take a chance.

Luka is a free-spirited world traveler, working at Oktoberfest to feed his enchantment with new places and new people. His only possessions fit in his backpack, and he depends on the kindness of strangers for a place to sleep. Crispin should know better—but he takes Luka’s hand anyway, and together they turn three nights in Munich into the relationship neither of them has been brave enough to risk—and neither can let go of.

When Luka turns up on Crispin’s doorstep before the holiday season, Crispin takes him in on hope alone. Yes, he knows the odds are good Luka will flutter out of his life again and leave him bereft, but isn’t it worth it to see if Luka is a homebird after all?

Title: Homebird
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: December 18, 2018
Category: Holiday
Pages: 188

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

A Little Hope from My Friends By Amy Lane

I’ll be honest here.

While I love a good romance, I’ve never really been big on the “lone tourist” scenario. I mean sure, I love to wander a place—but if someone’s not there to get my jokes about myself dorking about an unfamiliar location, I feel a little adrift.

It’s why I love traveling with my husband or my children. Even the salt flats of Utah are interesting if there’s someone there to go, “Oh my God, is that a SHARK that’s popping out of the salt flats?” And then watch avidly until the Loch Ness Monster appears.

Having a friend, a compadre, a buddy to explore with is, for me, really half the fun.

The inspiration of HomeBird came from my husband’s trip to Germany with his friends. They all sort of fell in love with their waiter—because he was beautiful and fun and single, and they were mostly married and settled and in their forties. So it was natural to put Crispin, our traveler into foreign lands, in the company of friends.

But more than that, the friends were his support system. They were the reason he felt comfortable traveling in the first place. I mean seriously, if this was about a homebody traveling to find an adventurer, there’s only a few ways to get him out of the house as it is. But beyond that, if that homebody is attracted to the adventurer, is he really going to act on that attraction if there’s even a possible nobody’s going to check on him when he disappears?

And besides the physical safety, there’s the emotional reinforcement. Even if your friends are uncertain—“Are you sure you want to spend a night with this virtual stranger?” if they really are your friends, you know they’ll be there in the morning to go, “Okay, do we hate him? Are we going to egg his house? Do we need a witch to curse him? I know someone!”

Or, even better, “I’m so glad you had a good time. Give me details. Not the gross ones. Just tell me why it was good.”

And of course, you need someone when you get home, to say, “Oh, hey, you’re still talking to that guy? That’s great!” and when you tell your friends and family at home that he’s visiting, they can say, “Don’t worry! He’s not a psycho killer, we met him!”

And of course, in a year, you need your friends to say, “Hey, do you want to go on another trip? I mean, you met the love of your life on the last one, right? Let’s see what else we can do!”

Although, you know, all of those scenarios are if you’re Crispin and get hauled away to Germany to meet the love of your life.

But even if you’re not Crispin and getting hauled to Germany to meet the love of your life, it’s still nice traveling with friends.

For one thing, the more people with you, the more likelihood someone’s phone will be working at the end of the day. The more options you have to find a suitcase to stow that last valuable that won’t fit in yours. The better chance you have of someone to talk you into buying that souvenir you really really want but aren’t sure you can afford.

The more people with you, the more conversation, the more appreciation, the more excitement.

So yes—I make a big deal out of Crispin’s friends when he goes traveling. Because his friends take care of him, and when he meets Luka he has a gold standard for which to judge a companion.

And isn’t he delighted when Luka exceeds that standard and brings some perks of his own!

This was a cute little story. Crispin (bravo on the unique name) and his friends go to Germany for a long weekend of Oktoberfest. Although Crispin works with these guys, hangs out with them and goes on vacation with them, he somehow thinks they don’t know he is gay. Mmmhmmm. So when they tell him that, ya, they know, go get laid, it’s kind of cute. You all want to have friends like that.

Crispin was adopted when he was 5 after his parents died. And then as a very young adult, his adopted parents died. Whoa. Besides needing the security of his house, he really isn’t that messed up. His adoptive parents had a daughter soon after he was adopted and they grew up as siblings. He calls her his sister, but never calls his parents his. They are always his sister’s parents. That was odd.

Anyway. Off the boys go on a long weekend to Germany. From California. I’m going to let that go. On their first night, Crispin catches the eye of a waiter in one of the beer tents. And after not having a relationship in forever, says he will go home with him for the night. And basically spends his vacation with Luka.

Luka is the opposite of Crispin though. His parents also died, but he needs to continually travel and not set down roots. He is originally from Fiji, but spent a lot of his childhood in New Zealand, but now travels with world with a backpack. But he does end up on Crispin’s doorstep a few months later.

Except for the sexy times- and they are dirty (not complaining)- this was very much like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. Sure the first half was Oktoberfest, but Luka shows up in California in time for Christmas.

Even with 3 sets of dead parents between them, there really isn’t much angst at all. Just a sweet book.

3 pieces of eye candy

Familiar Demon by Amy Lane: Exclusive Cover Reveal

November 29, 2018 by Denise

TCO is excited to have Amy Lane stopping by today with the cover reveal of her upcoming book, Familiar Demon, book 2 in the Familiar Love series. This amazing cover was done by the fabulous Reese Dante, and the book–like all of Amy’s books–looks great! Can’t wait!

For over a century, Edward Youngblood has been the logical one in a family of temperamental magical beings. But reason has not made him immune to passion, and Edward’s passion for Mullins, the family’s demon instructor, has only grown.

Mullins was lured into hell through desperation—and a fatal mistake. He’s done his best to hang onto his soul in the twisted realm of the underworld, and serving the Youngblood family when summoned has been his only joy. Edward concocts a plan to spring Mullins by collecting a series of items to perform an ancient ritual—an idea that terrifies Mullins. He can’t bear the thought of losing Edward and his brothers to a dangerous quest.

But every item in their collection is an adventure in brotherhood and magic, and as Mullins watches from the sidelines, he becomes more and more hopeful that they will succeed. When the time comes for Mullins to join the mission, can he find enough faith and hope to redeem himself and allow himself happiness in the arms of a man who would literally go to hell and back—and beyond—to have Mullins by his side?

Title: Familiar Demon
Series: Familiar Love: Book 2
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: February 12, 2019
Category: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 248
Cover Artist: Reese Dante http://www.reesedante.com

Dreamspinner Press eBook
Dreamspinner Press Paperback

Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been nominated for a RITA, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance—and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.
Website: www.greenshill.com
Blog: www.writerslane.blogspot.com
Email: amylane@greenshill.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/amy.lane.167
Twitter: @amymaclane

A Few Good Fish by Amy Lane: Exclusive Guest Post and Excerpt

August 29, 2018 by Denise

A tomcat, a psychopath, and a psychic walk into the desert to rescue the men they love…. Can everybody make it out with their skin intact?

PI Jackson Rivers and Defense Attorney Ellery Cramer have barely recovered from last November, when stopping a serial killer nearly destroyed Jackson in both body and spirit.

But their previous investigation poked a new danger with a stick, forcing Jackson and Ellery to leave town so they can meet the snake in its den.

Jackson Rivers grew up with the mean streets as a classroom and he learned a long time ago not to give a damn about his own life. But he gets a whole new education when the enemy takes Ellery. The man who pulled his shattered pieces from darkness and stitched them back together again is in trouble, and Jackson’s only chance to save him rests in the hands of fragile allies he barely knows.

It’s going to take a little bit of luck to get these Few Good Fish out alive!

Title: A Few Good Fish
Series: Fish Out of Water: Book Three
Author: Amy Lane
Release Date: August 28, 2018
Category: Mystery/Suspense
Pages: 281

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

“Sh….” Ellery slicked his hair back from his face and whispered to him as he collapsed limply, Ellery’s long limbs sheltering him from the cold outside their little bed.

“Sorry,” Jackson said, blinking hard, irritated at himself for losing sight of his plan. He was supposed to keep control, dammit. He was supposed to blow Ellery’s mind, not get swept away in the sexual tide himself!

“For what?” Ellery asked tenderly.

“Was trying to make it holy,” Jackson told him, lost enough to tell the truth.

Ellery struggled out from under him, pushing Jackson to his side while Ellery rolled over to face him. “Tell me this wasn’t!” he demanded.

Jackson grimaced. “Do you have to?” he asked. “I mean, if our sex is holy and shit, doesn’t that mean you don’t have to go?”

“Nobody is holding a gun to my head! Goddammit, Jackson, do you not get why I have to do this?”

“Aren’t you too late to go this week?” Jackson asked hopefully.

Ellery laughed, grim satisfaction in every syllable. “I set the alarm early so we could have breakfast.” He glanced over his shoulder. “And you know what? We still can.”

Jackson grimaced. Dammit. “But….”

Ellery’s expression softened, and he reached out to brush Jackson’s cheekbone with his fingertips. “Baby, why does this bother you so much?”

Jackson scowled. “Because if you’re thanking God for me, God’s going to show you what a mistake that is, and I like it here.”

With a groan and a heave, Ellery rolled off the bed. “There is no talking to you about this! Now get in the shower, and I’ll make pancakes. And no! You can’t wear jeans!”

“But you said I didn’t have to get out of the car!” Jackson hollered, finding a clean set of boxers in the dresser Ellery had set aside for him.

“I lied! You at least have to visit the outside, dammit!” Ellery grabbed his sleep pants and his sweatshirt from the folds of the covers and started dragging them on.

“But won’t I burst into fire?” Jackson asked, only partially kidding. His past… oh God. His past wasn’t checkered, it was chicken-pocked! “I mean, won’t you get kicked out and excommunicated if you show up with me next to you?”

“No, Jackson, they’ve got a big ol’ reformed-slut alarm that sounds as soon as you step foot on the ground, and then a force field shoots up, separating us and catapulting you to purgatory for the length of the service. After your first six visits, they give you the option of walking there on your own while a sorcerer whispers arcane words and tries to set me up with a doctor, because that’s just how Jews roll.”

Jackson stared at him, cheeks flushed with color, fine brown eyes sparkling with righteous anger, and like it usually did, the thing in his chest melted into a gooey little puddle.

“I can see your sarcasm is functioning well this morning. Isn’t that going to taint the pancakes?”

Ellery struggled to keep his mouth firm. “I can make my pancakes both strawberry and sarcastic. But if you want whipped cream, you’re going to have to shut up, get dressed, and let me have this. Understand?”

Jackson let out a sigh. “If I see anybody there in jeans, I’m not wearing slacks next time.”

“That, too, is understood.”

“And if anybody gives you shit about the gay—”

“We shall find a temple that has no shits to give. Also understood.”

“If you find someone there who’s better than me….” He scowled and stared at the picture of them Ellery had put up on the end table, Jackson looking uncomfortable in his best dinnerwear and Ellery smiling charmingly for his father, who was perhaps the dearest man Jackson had ever met. The picture had been taken outside Ellery’s parents’ house in Boston over Thanksgiving, and while Jackson could say for certain it had been a good time, every single memory he had seemed to be tempered with the stomach-churning anxiety he was dealing with now.

An Ellery Cramer and a Jackson Rivers did not make sense in any way, shape, or form. The longer they were together, the more Jackson looked for the chapped, palsied hand of fate to try to rip them apart. And every time Ellery said he was being ridiculous, Jackson had to walk away, because the fact was, he had almost died—twice—since the two of them had gotten together in the summer.

If that wasn’t God trying to tell Jackson the facts of life, Jackson didn’t know what was.

So Ellery going to temple out of some sort of weird deal he’d made with the big guy—on the one hand, it never hurt to suck up to the person in charge.

On the other hand, Jackson was a fan of the old Irish saying “May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”

In this case, he would just as soon nobody, God or devil, even knew he was on the planet. He’d had forces bigger than he was meddle in his life, and he had the layers of scar tissue to show he’d barely survived.

“If I find somebody who’s better than you,” Ellery snapped, bringing him to the present, “I’m not the one he’ll be hitting on.”

Jackson scowled at him. “You’re being stupid.”

Ellery’s thin lips curled up into a smile. “So are you.”

“Fine. Fine, I’ll go. I’ll even be a grown-up. But Ellery, those had better be some damned good pancakes.”

Ellery rolled his eyes and grabbed his robe, swanning out for his exit, singing “My pancakes bring all the boys to the yard…” as he went.

After he left the room, Jackson allowed himself a fond smile. God, he really was being ridiculous. Who over the age of twelve pitched this big a fit over church, or temple, or whatever?

But as he jumped in the shower and started to wash, he just couldn’t shake the unease that knotted in his stomach.

For much of his life, things like food, shelter, basic safety—things Ellery had taken for granted every day of his life—had been dreams to Jackson Rivers. Now, living with Ellery in his posh American River Drive house with cavernous rooms and real wood floors, Jackson had food and shelter and, God help him, emotional safety on a daily basis.

He was just waiting for God to stop helping him and rip it all away.

But Ellery seemed to think Jackson was worth keeping. Jackson wasn’t going to dissuade him, because frankly, that hadn’t worked at the beginning of their relationship, and after what had gone down before Thanksgiving, it certainly wasn’t going to happen now.

A few lines from Fish Out of Water explains it best…

Very slowly, he turned his head and saw that Ellery’s mother was pushing the red button on his morphine drip, and he smiled dopily at her.

“You’re not supposed to do that,” he said, knowing his eyes were at half-mast and not caring.

“Darling, what use is being shot if you’re not stoned to the fucking gills?”

There was something very wrong with this woman. Something amok. But Jackson was out of pain and—

“Ellery…,” he mumbled. “Don’t let him get shot.”

She stood over his bed and smoothed back his hair, much like her son had. “Sweet,” she said, as though he’d argued with her. “My family doesn’t much do sweetness. I think this is a good trait in someone marrying in.”

“You’re evil,” he said. “Pure Satan.” And then he giggled, because hey! Who didn’t need six or eight doses of morphine at the same time? “No bullets for Ellery.”

“Darling,” she purred, “why should you get all the fun?”

“Wha’s your name?” It seemed like he needed a better one than Satan.

“Taylor,” she told him, raising a sculpted eyebrow.

“Imma call you Moostifer. Boosimer. Lucy in the Satan tree with diamonds!”

She laughed then, and her image went all red with little horns and a pointed tail and a goatee.

Then it split into a thousand different pictures of Ellery’s mother, Lucy Satan, laughing her ass off.

And then he fell asleep.

When he woke up, evening was lowering. Lucy Satan was stretched out daintily, dozing on a cot, her ankles crossed above her unshod feet and three or four pillows under her head.

Alex was fixing Jackson’s medication.

“Whoo, boy,” Alex said, seeing him waking up. “Someone sure did want you out of it. I don’t even think you can reach the button.”

“It’s her,” Jackson said sourly. “Lucy Satan. She’s evil.”

“Mrs. Cramer? She’s an angel!”

In the first book of Fish Out of Water, we are introduced to Ellery Cramer’s mother.

She is… formidable.

Jackson—who is very comfortable with strong women—is not comfortable at all with mothers.

His own mother was a complete and total loss. His second mother—Jade and Kaden Cameron’s mother, who took him in and helped him survive adolescence and taught him about family—lived just long enough for him to venerate her, placing her on a pedestal and no other woman could compare.

Ellery Cramer’s mother—for all her money and her different circumstance—is very much like Toni Cameron.

She is practical, smart, mercilessly exacting when it comes to the behavior of the people she loves, and ruthless about protecting anybody coming into her family circle.

Jackson is terrified of her.

By the time book three rolls around, her identity as Lucy Satan is firmly established. She’s listed under Lucy Satan in Jackson’s phone, and when he particularly wants to get under Ellery’s skin he calls her that to Ellery’s face. (“My mother’s name is Taylor!”)

But the minute things go wrong, she’s the first person on the call list.

I gave her big shoes to fill—Toni Cameron is Jackson Rivers’s ideal, and to make matters harder, Toni has passed on. There’s no time to examine her for faults and defects (as we often do to our parents in our twenties and thirties) and come to the conclusion that everybody is human and even the ideal parent is going to have some glitches.

So it’s important that she lives up to Toni Cameron’s memory—and that, when we see her be human, and Jackson, bless his broken little heart, has to realize that he still loves this woman like the mother he deserved, even when she’s not perfect.

And Taylor, Goddess love her, is just fine being larger than life.

In fact she’s ready to embrace her role in Jackson’s life with all the power at her command.

“Do you have backup?” she asked sharply.

“Getting some now,” he said. “Guy who got taken with him has a friend in special ops. Going to contact him, make a plan—”

“Not alone,” she snapped. “You are not to go in alone—”

“Mrs. Cramer….” And to his horror, in front of Sonny, his voice broke. “I gotta get him back. You know that—”

“Not alone, Jackson. Is that understood?”

“We’ll get him back, ma’am,” he rasped. “I promise.”

“Jackson?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Unless my son is dead, you are to call me Lucy fucking Satan, do you understand? And even then, calling me Mrs. Cramer is right out.”

Mother, knitter, author, wife, fur-baby wrangler, dreamer–Award winning writer Amy Lane writes romance because the voices in her head are real and she wants them to be happy at the end.