#GRL2016 Featured Author Blog Post

Hi, everyone! I’d like to thank everyone here at Two Chicks Obsessed with Books and Eye Candy for allowing me to be here today.

My name is Laura Baumbach. I write m/m erotic romance. I’ve been writing for fifteen years or so. I’m an RN, a wife, mother, and grandmother. I’m CEO of MLR Press, LLC. I’ve been away from writing for several years helping other m/m authors bring their work to readers. But, I’m happily back in the game.

Currently, I’m writing a romantic suspense novel, Reese Holt: The Dark Side, the start of new series for me. Reese Holt – Ex-Special Forces, ex-CIA, current Security Specialist, a mind of steel, heart of stone…and putty in the hands of a handsome math geek.

It centers around Reese Holt, an ex-Special Forces, ex-CIA agent turned private security specialist. He owns a firm that handles sensitive and impossible international and domestic security challenges. He has been a loner all his life, knowing living life on the edge every hour of every day not very conducive to a lasting relationship. He is smart, highly skilled, educated, gay, connected and deadly. He is surrounded by a loyal team of ex-soldiers he’s gathered from all branches of the service, some from around the world. He is a tough guy with a tough job that he excels at. He’s resigned to doing it alone.

Not many people would choose to spend their lives with a man who can disappear for weeks without a goodbye, sleeps with a weapon, and who’s idea of a compliment is a curt nod. Luckily for Reese Holt, just that kind of guy falls into his path. Alex Throne is the kidnapped son of a business mogul, who drops from the sky into Reese’s current mission. Reese is forced to rescued the man, and in doing so embroils himself and his team in the scheme that threw Alex in his protective path.

THE DARK SIDE will release October 2016, premiering during the week of Gay Rom Lit retreat in Kansas City. I’ll be there giving away signed print copies of the book. It will be available for pre-order at the end of July from select distributors. It is the start of a new series, and the second one is already in the planning stages, but I will be waiting to start it until after I finish the long-awaited sequel to MEXICAN HEAT titled TEQUILA SUNRISE.

I’ve been working and reworking the cover art and plan on having a cover reveal in several weeks. It was a balancing act trying to have suspenseful stock art that told the story and still attracted a reader’s eye for the cover, the ads and banners and promotional items. I’ll be giving away a special something at GRL for every print copy purchased there during the event. I hope everyone enjoys the effort that went into this book, from the characters, the writing, to the editing to the creation of the artwork.

Since I had been away from writing daily for almost seven years, I refreshed my writing skills by taking the James Patterson Master Class in writing. I found it helpful in regaining my confidence to tell a compelling story. Even those of us with a wall of writing awards can feel a little hesitancy at times, and I needed the reassurance I wasn’t wasting everyone’s time. The class and two positive and enthusiastic beta readers’ opinions got me through the process! I hope everyone who takes the opportunity to read THE DARK SIDE when it releases enjoys it and looks forward to more adventures with Reese and Alex.