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All or None by Aurora Lee Thornton: Exclusive Author Interview and Excerpt

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In a world where everyone has a soulmate, uniquely powerful mage Royiora and reluctant assassin Kalo collide in the worst of ways.

Royiora Daralkaen, the only mage alive able to use all five kinds of magic, has a near idyllic childhood in the country of Porescalia – before war breaks out with their antagonistic neighbors, Kloria.

Kalo Porla, a naturally magic-proof individual known as a Null, is trained to be as an assassin by the authoritarian empire known as the Domain.

When Kalo and his partner assassin are sent to kill a mage and his apprentice, it starts a journey neither man was prepared to begin.

Author Name: Aurora Lee Thornton

Publisher: Self

Release Date: Friday, May 15 2020

Word Count: 87000

Cover Artist: Aurora Lee Thornton

Genres: Fantasy

Pairings: Primary: m|m, secondary: mf, ff, ffm, mm

LGBTQ+ Identities: ace, demi, bi/pan, gay, lesbian, non-binary, poly, trans woman

Keywords/Categories: enemies-to-lovers, soulmates, coming-of-age, slice-of-life, mages, assassins, queer, LGBTQ, fantasy

Goodreads

Amazon

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m a plantser, ha ha. I started off as more of a panster but I would keep running into the issue where I would forget where I meant to go with a story? So I started writing outlines – nothing too detailed, usually just a very basic ‘here is each major plot point’ or ‘this is what each chapter is about.’

My stories do tend to be character-driven over plot, so I leave plenty of wiggle room for change. And some stories I don’t have outlines for because I don’t know where they’re going yet – and that’s fine with me, too.

What are your favorite parts of publishing?

Getting my stories out there so other people can read them! I’ve only self-published, so it’s all very exciting to get everything together and get ready to go.

I love hearing what other people enjoyed about my story – little details, favorite characters, etc. I also love talking about my stories, though it can be hard to avoid spoilers in that case, ha ha.

What are your least favorite parts of publishing?

Again, I self-publish, so basically everything that isn’t the actual writing part – sending out review requests, planning advertising campaigns, all the other marketing aspects. Social media, copywriting, etc. It’s all just so much planning and work (and usually at least some money).

I also dislike querying, not that I know any authors that enjoy it. My latest story has an unconventional narrative structure, which made it hard to write a compelling synopsis/query letter when almost all the advice for how to do so is based on the three act structure or hero’s journey. I like meandering plots and slice of life, which don’t translate well, unfortunately.

Let’s talk to your characters for a minute – what’s it like to work for such a demanding writer?

Roy: “Demanding? Ha. Xe wasn’t even supposed to give us a story.”

Kalo: “Yeah… we were apparently ‘too interesting’.”

Roy: “Now xe has a whole series to contend with instead of one standalone. It’s kind of funny.”

Kalo: “It’s really not.”

Roy: “You’re only saying that because you’re a writer too.”

Kalo: “… true.”

Were you a voracious reader as a child?

Oh absolutely – I even got grounded from reading because I would read instead of doing my homework! (Though that was probably more the undiagnosed ADHD…

I feel lucky that I ran into some great fantasy written by women as a kid – I didn’t even realize how male-dominated the genre was until adulthood. Tamora Pierce is still a big favorite of mine.

Even though I know I’m not a woman now, it was still great to read fiction with complex heroines – I only wish I had known Kel was ace when I was a kid, then I might have found out I was sooner!

Star Trek or Star Wars? Why?

Trek, all the way. I don’t have a problem with Star Wars – I like it in its own way. But I prefer the cerebral, utopian future exploring socio-political issues – even though they don’t always get it right.

DS9 is my favorite series because it dealt with different issues than the other STs – mainly, how a utopian society interacts with a non-utopian universe. I found that kind of interplay very interesting, and it helped add a lot more nuance to the Federation and its place in the universe.

Is this our destination? Roy considered, but chose to wait to find out.

His assumption turned out to be correct, as Kalo sighed in relief when he saw it, leading the way right to the door and knocking.

A woman of Kalo’s race answered it, even with the same red skin and gray hair. She laughed and pulled his soulmate into a hug when she saw him, before pulling back and flicking his ear with something even Roy recognized as an admonishment.

The assassin replied something tiredly, walking past the woman with the slight limp he’d had for the past week or so.

Then she turned to the mage, and in perfect Porescalian said, “And you must be my brother’s soulmate. Hello, I’m Rela.”

Roy flinched in surprise, then cleared his throat and shook the proffered hand, “Yes, uh… I’m Royiora.”

“Do you shorten it?” Rela asked, ushering him inside, “I read most Porescalian men do.”

“Um, yes,” the Porescalian man replied, “I usually go by Roy.”

The horned woman nodded, half pushing him past high vaulted halls into another room, “You must be freezing – come on, let’s get you something warm to drink. I’m sure you have plenty of questions Kalo couldn’t answer.”

Roy didn’t get a word in until after Rela had taken the borrowed coat and replaced it with a surprisingly warm blanket, sitting him at a table in what appeared to be a study or classroom with the promised hot drink.

“There are warmth runes inside the stuffing,” someone said, and then a strange looking man with six arms and blue skin hung down from the ceiling. Unlike Rela and Kalo, he had purple glowing eyes, and held out one of his arms, “Hello, I’m Xia – Rela’s one of my soulmates, and this is our home.”

“Uh, hello,” the mage said, shaking as he looked up at the rest of the man’s insectoid body clinging to the ceiling, “I’m… Roy.”

“Nice to meet you, Roy,” Xia said, skittering over a bit to lower himself to the ground, “Rela and I took the trouble of learning your language some time ago, as our other two soulmates appear to be Porescalian as well.”

“And Kalo asked me to translate his soul writing when we were kids,” Rela said, sitting across from Roy, “He was so very excited to meet you, you know. Though, judging by the state of the two of you, I’m guessing it wasn’t under happy circumstances.”

“Not… exactly, no,” Roy said, feeling comfortably warm for the first time in a while. He took a sip of the drink – it was oddly nutty, but enjoyable nonetheless, “Uh… what… is Kalo?”

Rela snorted, “A bit of a pain in the ass, honestly.”

Xia laughed, and went over to the chalkboard in the room. He cleared it with a bit of arcane magic, and started drawing, “Kalo is what we call a ‘null’ – magic doesn’t affect him, and he can absorb it to fuel pseudo-magic abilities of a limited range.”

The strange insect man pulled back to reveal the celestial star, with words written underneath each point.

“Divine magic gives him self-regenerative abilities and invisibility,” Xia said, pointing to Radzmia’s crystal throne, then moved on to Pelzz’s obelisk, “Arcane provides mental acuity and teleportation,” onto Ruelop’s spring, “Physical resistance and enhanced senses,” Guulruf’s nine-pointed star, “Physical strength and shadow walking,” and finally, Forea’s whirlpool, “And physical speed and water breathing.”

“They identified him and our cousin when they were five,” Rela said, smiling, “We were all so excited – the government provided us stipends for their education and care. Us, a little provincial family of no repute.”

“So it’s an…” Roy struggled to keep up as the warmth and stillness worked on relaxing him to the point of drowsiness.

“That’s what they told us,” the woman snorted, taking a drink, ears flicking, “But when they were twelve, they went to the Institute.”

“Where they train them to be tools of the Trinity,” Xia sighed, coming back to the table.

“The… Trinity?” Roy asked.

“Our leaders, Frezians like Xia,” Rela supplied, then shook her head. She looked up at the mage, “Let me tell you about what happened to my brother.”

Aurora is a nonbinary, asexual writer with a new goal in life: to write the queerest books possible. (And yes, xe means gay, but also weird is good too.)

Xe loves dragons and fantasy, and someday hopes to complete a (soft) science fiction novel as well. Currently, xe lives with xyr two cats.

Author Website: https://www.auroraleethornton.com

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/AuroraLeeThorntonBooks

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aurora_T_Books

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auroraleethornton/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16358225.Aurora_Lee_Thornton

Author Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Eq3rOO

Wild Sky by Zaya Feli: Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt, New Release Review and Giveaway

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Tauran Darrica has been retired from the Valreus Sky Guard for four years following the Battle of the Broken Wings that resulted in the death of his dragon. Now, all Tauran wants to do is spend his days forgetting the past and gambling his way to an unsteady income.

So when his old general from the Sky Guard hunts Tauran down to request his help with staving off the increasingly aggressive wild dragon population, Tauran refuses. But a fire ruins his rented room and leaves him without a place to stay, and Tauran finds himself on the road to Valreus, after all.

Tauran is determined to stay as far away from dragons as he can get, but a starry-eyed young man from Sharoani, land of the wild dragons, might just ruin his plans.

Kalai Ro-Ani has spent his life watching the stars, knowing he could never reach them.

With his wild dragon Arrow, he sets out for the city of Valreus in the hope of building himself a better future than he could have stuck at the foot of the Kel Visal dragon temples.

But nobody told Kalai that only the Sky Guard is allowed to own dragons, so when Arrow kills a guard in Kalai’s defense, it looks like his adventure might be over before it can begin. But a chance encounter at the old Valreus archive offers Kalai the future he’d been hoping for. In the span of a single day, he has a home, a job, and a purpose.

In Valreus, something much bigger falls into his lap – along with a tall and striking Valrean man with a rather strange disposition.

A new, LGBT+ fantasy story from Zaya Feli, featuring dragons, aerial battles and epic journeys through dangerous wilderness.

WILD SKY by Zaya Feli

Publisher: Self-published

Release Date: Ebook: August 24th | Print: TBD

Length: Ebook: 189,000 words

Subgenre: Fantasy/Romance

Warnings: mentions of symptoms of depression and PTSD. Medicine addiction and withdrawal.

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

From the author, Zaya Feli:

The overarching theme is about how healing is possible despite severe damage. That some things may not be fixable, and that simply learning to persevere and find support and happiness where it exists can be enough.

It took Tauran two days to work up the courage to enter the guard grounds.

He knew he was being a coward. That this new place, these new recruits, and the Ground Guard had nothing to do with what had happened at the Solar Tower.

But Tauran’s nerves weren’t so easily convinced.

When he approached the steel gates, he was happy he’d skipped breakfast. He grabbed the string and rang the bell a little too hard.

The hatch in the door opened, and a thankfully unfamiliar face appeared.

“Tauran Darrica,” Tauran said, “here at General Falka’s request.”

The doors swung open with a groan.

And then he was inside.

The atmosphere was such a stark contrast to the gloom brewing in Tauran that he had to pause and take a moment to adjust. It was as if Tauran’s memory of the guard had frozen in the time after the Battle of the Broken Wings, that stunned period full of fear and sorrow and rage.

But in the four years since Tauran had last been surrounded by the guard, it had recovered.

Young recruits ran past him shoulder to shoulder on their way to the first lesson of the day. A pair of older men, captains, judging by their uniforms, sat bent over a table, spending their break playing a game of Isutagi. At a table behind them, a woman with her sleeves rolled up past her elbows focused all her attention on the pistol she was cleaning. Black and copper uniforms dominated the outdoor space. The Ground Guard had always outnumbered the Sky Guard, but the difference seemed even more stark, now.

A brief glimpse of silver caught Tauran’s eye here and there. Messengers, or perhaps weather specialists, on their way to delivering flight reports and air pressure charts.

Tauran took a deep breath of the air inside the grounds and found it didn’t sting as much as he’d feared.

This book (all 764 amazing pages) kept me reading until a ridiculous time in the early hours of the morning to finish. It’s been a while since I  was so engrossed in a story. It kept me glued.

Fantasy at its best, and a new to me author I’m thrilled to discover has a backlist.

Two men. One a washed up permanently damaged ex Dragon rider who’s own Dragon died in a terrible war, and one a young innocent-ish geek who happens to have his own wild dragon currently hidden because in their world, dragons are so rare only properly trained riders are allowed to keep them.

The world building is amazing, the relationship between them and their dragons are wonderful, but this isn’t just a sweet romance.

There is evil, betrayal, enemies where you least expect, a wild dragon egg about to hatch, and problems that seem insurmountable. And not everything is black and white. Expect surprises and plot twists.

This will appeal to fans of Mercedes Lackey, Megann Derr, and C.S. Pacat

Five “Dragon’s teeth” (Sounds better than stars)

Zaya Feli grew up in various small towns in eastern Denmark where she spent most of her childhood and youth daydreaming about strange and incredible fantasy worlds. In 2018, she moved to northern Denmark with her pet snake, Helix, to work as a web developer, and is now dedicating all her free time turning the fantasy worlds inside her head into words and illustrations on the page.

An avid sci fi and fantasy fan since childhood, she also has a deep love for history, archery, nature, language and art.

Zaya Feli released her debut novel, Stag’s Run, in November 2016, and has since released four more full length novels and a short story. Her favourite genres are fantasy and sci-fi with a sprinkle of romance.

Connect with Zaya: Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Website

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Natural Twenty by Charlie Novak: Exclusive Excerpt, Release Day Review and Giveaway

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Plants are easier than people—that’s Leo’s rule of thumb. After all, nobody really wants a man who looks like he belongs in a biker gang but would rather spend his time buried in books and flowers. It’s just easier to be single. Until he meets the owner of the new book shop.

Jacob Morris knows two things: he’s really attracted to the man who runs the local flower shop, and he doesn’t date. Not when he’s still healing from a bad breakup, has a new business to run, game nights to organise, workshops to host, and a website to build.

When friendship blooms into something more, Leo and Jay must decide whether to roll the dice and take a chance on love or keep forging ahead on their quests alone. Will their roll yield a one or a perfect, natural twenty?

Natural Twenty is an 80,000-word contemporary MM romance featuring Dungeons & Dragons, secret flower language bouquets, a spoilt Staffy (or two), and a best friend who is basically a gothic prince. It is book one in the Roll for Love series and can be read as a standalone.

Title: Natural Twenty
Author: Charlie Novak
Length: 80k
Series: Roll for Love, Book 1
Genre: Contemporary
Tropes: Nerds, secret flower language bouquets, small-town vibe, shop owners, tattoos

Goodreads

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

Jay

I was still half looking at Leo though, and the table slipped from my fingers and dropped onto my foot. “Mother fishcakes!”

I cringed, squeezing my eyes tightly as my toes throbbed. The table wasn’t the heaviest thing in the world, but it had landed awkwardly on my foot, and I was only wearing Vans. I’d always been clumsy as fuck, and my knees were covered in scars from falling over on the playground or out of trees as a kid. It hadn’t gotten any better as I’d gotten older, except these days it was more dropping heavy things onto myself or tripping downstairs. And there’d been one memorable trip to Accident and Emergency when I’d gotten glass in my foot.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked.

“’M fine.” I shoved the table off my toes. “Totally fine.”

“Sit down for a minute.” Leo’s voice was gentle but firm. I opened my eyes to see him standing right in front of me, looking down with eyes full of worry. It was moments like this, when we stood close, that I realised how much taller he was than me. I barely made five foot six on a good day because I was a complete short arse, and Leo must have been well over six feet. My face was eye level with his chest, and I was trying not to focus on the way his body sat under the thick, knitted jumper he was wearing, or how beautifully broad his shoulders were, or how I just wanted him to wrap his arms around me.

Leo put his hand on my arm, gently steering me into a chair before kneeling in front of me. “Is it okay if I take your shoe off?”

“You don’t have to. It’s really not that bad. It just stings a little.” I looked away, trying not to squirm in my seat while my face and neck grew impossibly hot. “I just banged it.”

“True, but I’d rather check they’re not bleeding or obviously broken.”

“Okay.”

Leo gave me a little smile and eased off my shoe. I probably should have been embarrassed I was wearing pink socks with little avocados all over them, but I thought they were cute. Apparently, so did Leo.

“Are those avocados dancing?” He sounded amused as he gently tugged at my sock, and I felt the warm, rough touch of his fingers against my skin. This should not be making me feel the way it did—embarrassed, awkward, and almost turned on. Apparently, my body had decided that any touch from Leo was a good one, even if it came from him trying to check for broken toes.

“Y-yeah. I’ve got another pair with doughnuts on.”

“They’re cute. Like you.” Leo stilled, and my heart stopped. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what it should be. My brain seemed to have frozen, and all I was getting were fucking error messages.

So cute!

So, okay, I have a thing for big beefy tattooed guys who you think can squish you into little bits if you were to find them in a dark alley somewhere, but are actually romantic softies that wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, we get that in Leo.
He’s big and intimidating and can be awkward when it comes to socializing and being around people, but he has a big ol soft heart and it’s impossible not to completely fall in love with him from the beginning. Owning a flower shop, he tends to stay behind the scenes when he can, but when a new bookshop opens up down the block, his employee Emily encourages him to take some flowers to the new owners to welcome them to the hood and congratulate them on their grand opening. That’s where he meets Edward and Jay.

Now, Edward, I will say, I was smitten with. I hope he gets his own story next, but Jay completely took Leos breath away and they bonded instantly over books and cosplay and dungeons and dragons. I will admit that I had to skim over all those bits, I haven’t a clue what any of that is, but it was cute to see how excited they all were over it.

The two of them, as well as Edward and Emily and her husband, they all become friends, having bi-weekly I think it was, game nights and stuff… I adored these secondary characters as well, so the fit so well in the stories, I could see where each guy needed them around. With their budding friendship though, it was impossible to not feel the connection between the two, though neither of them were ready for a relationship or to jump into anything. I was glad to see them take it slow, but I definitely wanted to shake them both a couple of times, Jay especially when he tried to push Leo away. He more than sweetly made up for it, but I was rooting for them from the very start.

Because Leo felt awkard and Jay was still healing from a toxic relationship where his ex cheated with his best friend and never even apologized for it, I could understand his hesitation. Being betrayed like that sometimes never heals, but Leo was patient and understanding and sighhh, he was just perfect.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away, I’ve been told recently that I do that and people straight come for me, so I’ll just say…. if you like a slow burn, with friends to lovers, good friends and cute puppy… you will adore this story. I know I did!
I really wanted that ex to get a peek at Jay and Leo and know what he lost and how happy he is without him, but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next!

4 pieces of candy for me!

Charlie lives in England with her husband and a dachshund named Biscuit. She spends most of her days wrangling other people’s words in her day job and then trying to force her own onto the page in the evening.

She loves cute stories with a healthy dollop of fluff, plenty of delicious sex, and happily ever afters — because the world needs more of them. Charlie also believes that loves comes in all shapes and sizes.

Charlie has very little spare time, but what she does have she fills with cooking, pole-dancing, reading and ice-hockey. She also thinks that everyone should have at least one favourite dinosaur…

Connect with Charlie:

Website: https://charlienovak.com/
Newsletter https://charlienovak.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/charlienovakauthor/
Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/charlie-novak
Twitter https://twitter.com/charlienwrites
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/charlienwrites/
Facebook Group, Charlie’s Angels https://www.facebook.com/groups/charlienovaksangels/

To celebrate Charlie’s new series release, we are giving 2 lucky winners the chance to win an e-copy of Natural Twenty or a $20/£20 Amazon Gift Card & a e-copy of Natural Twenty!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!

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Sand-Man’s Family: An M/M Coming of Age Romance by CJane Elliott: RDB, Exclusive Author Guest Post, Excerpt and Giveaway

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It isn’t easy to leave a family that hurts. But what if it’s the start of finding a love that heals?

High-school senior Sandy’s Catholic parents are furious to discover he’s had sex before marriage. But when he blurts out he’s bisexual, they go ballistic. To avoid conversion therapy, Sandy runs away from Rockford, Illinois to move in with his gay uncle in Portland and start a new life.

He leaves behind Jade, the fabulous out gay kid in their Catholic high school. They hooked up—once—to confirm Sandy’s bisexuality. Jade had never expected to get that far with star athlete and altar boy Sandy. But he was crushed when Sandy disappeared without even telling him.

A year later Jade and Sandy run into each other on the train going home to Rockford for Thanksgiving and form an alliance to help Sandy confront his parents. Will they keep building where they left off or will their spark turn to dust?

If you like coming of age stories, queer kids finding the courage to be themselves, and the comfort of found families, you’ll love Sand-Man’s Family.

Title:  Sand-Man’s Family: An M/M Coming of Age Romance

Series: Wild and Precious Book 3

Author: CJane Elliott

Publisher: CJane Elliott

Release Date: 8/24/20

Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 36,800 words

Genre: Romance, New Adult, Young Adult, Coming of Age, coming out, family drama, bisexual, college, hurt-comfort

Goodreads

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

 

Book 1, Wild and Precious, is on sale for just $0.99 for a limited time.

Find the entire series HERE.

 

Hello there! I’m CJane Elliott and happy to be on the Two Chicks Obsessed blog today to share Sand-Man’s Family, the third book in my Wild and Precious series.

Sand-Man’s Family differs from the first two stories in the Wild and Precious series in the age of the main characters. In the first two novellas, those ages ranged from mid-twenties to late thirties. In Sand-Man’s Family, Sandy and Jade (and Dare, who Sandy dated before Jade) are seniors in high school (for the flashback scenes) and most of the action takes place the following year, when they are at the most nineteen years old.

I enjoy writing New Adult characters who are teetering on the edge of adulthood. They’re often still sorting out who they are in relation to themselves, their gender/sexual identity, and their relationships. Family still plays a big role, positive or negative. This is the age when people start living away from home and begin to create their families of choice. Some of them are lucky in their families of origin but many are not.

I’ve brought you a short scene that happens after Sandy’s parents bring the parish priest and a conversion therapy expert to the home when Sandy returns for Thanksgiving to continue to pressure him to give up his “sinful” bisexuality. Needless to say, they don’t succeed. Sandy is rescued by the arrival of Uncle Phineas, his partner Cody, and Jade. After confronting Sandy’s parents, they all go the Phineas and Cody’s hotel, along with Sandy’s younger brother Connor. I love that Sandy has found a loving, accepting family with his uncle, his brother, and his budding love interest, Jade.

Sandy lay on the big hotel bed, his head on Uncle Phinney’s shoulder while Connor rested on Phinney’s other shoulder. Jade snuggled in against Sandy’s back. Cody had declined the puppy pile in favor of providing soft soothing music on his guitar.

“I love you both so much.” Uncle Phinney patted them tenderly. “I’m so proud of my nephews.”

“Thanks, Uncle Phinney.” Connor’s voice sounded muffled, like he’d stuck his face into Phinney’s armpit or something.

Sandy soothed the emotions swirling inside by concentrating on the safety of Uncle Phinney’s sturdy shoulder and the soft touch of Jade’s arm around him. He didn’t want to think about his parents or his former home or his brother and sisters stuck there. He wanted to be here, warm and loved, with Cody playing softly in the background.

Cody paused. “We can cut our trip short, you know. We can come home with you if you want, Sand-Man.”

“No. I’m cool.”

“You sure?” Uncle Phinney’s frown was full of concern. “It’s really okay. Cody and I already talked about it.”

“I’ll be fine, Uncle Phinney. I’ll be where I want to be, in Portland. Blaine and Gemma are around if I need anyone.”

“And I’m only a few hours up the road,” Jade said softly into Sandy’s ear.

Sandy grabbed his hand and squeezed. “I know.” Then he peered over at Connor.

“Connor’s the one we need to worry about.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m sticking around till I graduate, then I’m out of there. I don’t want to leave the girls until I have to.”

“Call us. Anytime, day or night.” Uncle Phinney made an anxious sound. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I’m worried for you.”

Jade stirred and raised up on one elbow. “Papa’s aware of the situation. I sent him the video.”

When everyone looked at him funny, he added, “He’s got a lot of cop friends. He’ll keep an eye out. Connor, he said for you to call him if things get hinky.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

They all flopped back down, and Sandy relaxed completely. He found himself stroking Jade’s hand and wishing they had a room to themselves. As if reading his thoughts, Jade leaned up and nibbled his earlobe. Now Sandy really needed for them to get a room.

“Come to my house tonight?” Jade whispered.

“Um, Uncle Phinney?”

“Hmm?”

“Is it cool for me to go over to Jade’s? He’s gotta go to the airport tomorrow too, so I can get a ride to the shuttle with them. You guys could drop Connor off and be on your way.”

He saw Uncle Phinney smile and glance over at Cody, who smiled back. “Sure. As long as Connor is okay with his brother ditching him his last night here.”

“Whatever, man.” Connor yawned. “I’ll be here, cockblocking Cody and Uncle Phinney.”

After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, award-winning author CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane writes sexy, passionate LGBTQ romances that explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.

CJane is bisexual and an ardent supporter of LGBTQ equality. In her spare time, CJane can be found dancing, listening to music, or watching old movies. Her family supports her writing habit by staying out of the way when they see her hunched over, staring intensely at her laptop.

CJane is the author of the award-winning Serpentine Series, New Adult contemporary novels set at the University of Virginia. Serpentine Walls was a 2014 Rainbow Awards finalist, Aidan’s Journey was a 2015 EPIC Awards finalist, and Sex, Love, and Videogames won first place in the New Adult category in the 2016 Swirl Awards and first place in Contemporary Fiction in the 2017 EPIC eBook Awards. Her contemporary novel All The Way To Shore was runner up for best bisexual fiction in the 2017 Rainbow Awards.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | eMail | Instagram | Bookbub

http://cjaneelliott.com/

https://facebook.com/cjane.elliott

https://twitter.com/CJaneElliott

cjaneelliott@gmail.com

http://instagram.com/cjaneelliott

http://bookbub.com/authors/cjane-elliott

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Acsquidentally In Love by K.L. Hiers: Blog Tour, Exclusive Author Interview and Giveaway

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Nothing brings two men—or one man and an ancient god—together like revenge.

Private investigator Sloane sacrificed his career in law enforcement in pursuit of his parents’ murderer. Like them, he is a follower of long-forgotten gods, practicing their magic and offering them his prayers… not that he’s ever gotten a response.

Until now.

Azaethoth the Lesser might be the patron of thieves and tricksters, but he takes care of his followers. He’s come to earth to avenge the killing of one of his favorites, and maybe charm the pants off the cute detective Fate has placed in his path. If he has his way, they’ll do much more than bring a killer to justice. In fact, he’s sure he’s found the man he’ll spend his immortal life with.

Sloane’s resolve is crumbling under Azaethoth’s surprising sweetness, and the tentacles he sometimes glimpses escaping the god’s mortal form set his imagination alight. But their investigation gets stranger and deadlier with every turn. To survive, they’ll need a little faith… and a lot of mystical firepower.

Book Title: Acsquidentally In Love

Author: K.L. Hiers

Cover Artist: Tiferet Design

Genre/s: Paranormal M/M Romance, Mystery, Tentacles

Trope/s: Solving Your Own Murder, Boy Meets God, Hidden Villain, Consentacles

Themes: Restoring Faith, Seeking Justice, Self-Sacrifice

Heat Rating:  4 flames

Length: 60 000 words/ 188 pages

It is the first book in the series.

Goodreads

Amazon US

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How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing for over twenty years! The very first book I wrote was a very silly story about a little girl who could travel to a magical world with unicorns and goblins. It just kept going and going until I ran out of pages in the notebook I was using, but I was totally hooked on storytelling after that.

Before you started, had you written any fan fiction? If so, what fandom?

Indeed! Back in the AOL days, I was very much into Xena, Hercules, Anne Rice’s Vampires, and X-Men. These fandoms were my first real experiences with same sex couples, canon or otherwise, and it had a tremendous impact on my life. For someone that was young, very scared, and very much struggling with their sexuality and gender identity, fandom was my sanctuary. It was the first place I’d found where I was told that it was okay to be different, and it was okay to feel this way.

As I got older, I kept writing original works, but I also drifted in and out of other fandoms like FF7, Dragonball Z, Dragon Age, Flash, Hannibal, Gotham, and so on. I don’t actively participate in any now, but I still lurk occasionally. I don’t have the time to stay involved like I used to, and fandom has changed so much since I was a kid. If nothing else, I’ll always be grateful for all of the love and support those early fanboys and fangirls showed me.

Are you in agreement that writing fan fiction is a great way to hone ones’ craft – why or why not?

I absolutely am. Fan fiction is a totally valid form of writing. It still takes skill and time and a lot of love to put together. It’s a great way to get critiques and develop your writing style. It can be difficult to get feedback on original content, but there’s a familiarity and a comfort in fan fiction that readers are drawn to because they already know the characters. When I did try sharing original works, I never got a fraction of the comments, replies, or whatever as I did when I posted a new fan fic.

Recently, a writer sabotaged her career by answering a bad review on a blog. How would you have handled this and do you think authors should answer their reviews?

It’s easy – don’t do it. Don’t answer, don’t reply, and if you don’t think you can handle the critiques emotionally, just don’t read them. Have someone else screen them for you if it’s that much of an issue. Bad reviews can really hurt like hell, but it’s just that one person’s opinion. Not everyone is going to like what you write, and that’s okay. It’s just something you have to accept as a writer. It’s not all bad, though. Negative reviews do have some potential to be constructive. I know that I need to lay off my excessive adverb usage, for example, and it’s something that I’ve tried working on in my current projects.

What is your opinion on the “chicks with dicks” analogy? In your opinion, is it wrong for your males to be emotional or romantic?

I think it’s a transphobic slur and has no place in any discussion of literature. I’ve only ever known this phrase as an insult against transgender women, and I honestly had no idea that it had taken on this other meaning – which, let’s face it, is also an insult. My understanding now is that it’s being used to specifically target straight female writers and accusing them of not being able to write authentic male characters because somehow their womanly feelings are going to get all over them like cooties.

I don’t think the analogy is appropriate at all. It’s actually pretty disgusting in my opinion. It’s not okay to use such a mean phrase while blindly ignoring its cruel history, and I really don’t appreciate the sexist insinuation that emotions are somehow exclusive to females – much less the dig that it’s only straight female writers who are writing men like this. The identity of who is writing these stories is irrelevant because it’s glossing over the bigger issue here, which is that people have a problem with romantic and emotional males.

There is nothing wrong with writing emotional male characters. As an author who’s been accused of flipping M/F to M/M because I wrote a very emotional man, this irritates me. Men are allowed to cry and be afraid or upset and having feelings doesn’t invalidate their gender. It’s damaging to say otherwise. It perpetuates toxic masculine stereotypes to insist that males be strong and macho all the time or else they’re not real men. Plus, for me personally, it’s boring to write. I enjoy stirring up drama and angst in my little worlds, and I love a good emotional fallout.

Now, readers have the freedom to choose what they want to read, just as writers choose what they want to write. There are lots of people who enjoy manly men from both sides of the pages, just as others like men who are more in touch with their emotions. That’s just ducky. We’re not all going to like the same things. However, expressing one’s distaste on the flawed logic that men aren’t supposed to have feelings is sexist and using that kind of transphobic language is painfully ignorant.

What are you currently working on?

I’m in the process of editing the sequel for Acsquidentally, and I’m so excited for readers to see another part of that world. For my BDSM fans, I’m almost finished with a sexy tale of an embalmer and a florist. I usually don’t discuss my profession as an embalmer in great detail, and this particular book was the perfect vehicle to shake out some old demons and have some fun with it.

 When creating your characters, do you have models in mind or are they totally fictional?

I usually have very specific people in mind or weird combinations of them. A character may have Zachary Quinto’s face, but they’ll have Donal Logue’s unapologetic swagger. Perhaps they have Wentworth Miller’s eyes, but Alan Rickman’s velvety voice. Different aspects of real people inspire me in a lot of different ways. There are some characters that I’ve written that are partially inspired from people I know in real life. It’s usually all pretty fluid – except Maury the Mouth from Cold Hard Cash. He’s Bob Hoskins. Totally.

If you write gay romance or erotica, just how descriptive are you in their sex scenes?

Very. The love scenes are honestly some of my favorite parts to write because it’s so very cathartic for me. I want it to feel real, and I think that’s why I am so descriptive.

What is your opinion as to why publishers only want to group all man-love stories under erotica? Do you feel this is a hindrance to our genre?

I would say it all goes back to good ol’ fashioned ignorance. There are unfortunately people who believe that homosexual relationships are immoral or deviant, and that ignorant stance has hurt gay literature since its inception. We’re decades ahead of the times when newspapers and journals were blatantly blacklisting gay authors and their books, not to mention the outright censorship and refusal by publishers to even take on gay stories, but I think a lot of those bad habits are still around – including how gay books are classified. If you spend any time researching the history of gay literature, you’ll always stumble across the era of highly sexualized queer pulp fiction. This was after all the censorship bans on obscene content had been lifted, and there was a veritable tidal wave of these crazy little books.

Most of them had miserable endings, were pumped full of thoughtless smut, but they were one of the only commercially available literary representation that the queer community had for a long time. Years before we ever had gay romance, there was a freakin’ ton of gay erotica. The stereotypes of gay men being super promiscuous are rooted in the behavior described in these books, and its echoes were still felt by gay writers years later. David Bergman discussed how difficult it was for gay men to write about sex in his book, The Violet Hour: The Violet Quill and the Making of Gay Culture – if they talked about their sex lives, they were just reinforcing those stereotypes. But if they didn’t, then they were implying that it was dirty and shameful. So, they just went for it, unfortunately adding more fuel to the idea that all gay literature was all about sex.

As a result, publishers were classifying everything gay as erotica because it was like they really had no idea what else to do with it. The very word “gay” had implied explicit sexual deviance for so long, fueled by hundreds of queer pulp books and gay authors’ own stories, that it became the standard to categorize all of gay literature. It wasn’t until gay bookstores took off that there was finally this big network free of mainstream publishing restrictions for gay authors to get their stories out there without being choked by that ol’ erotica collar. There were also fantastic activists like Barbara Gittings – who is probably best known for lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to change the definition of homosexuality as being a mental disorder – but she also worked with the American Library Association to provide libraries with access to quality gay literature and not just those books claiming that being gay was a sexual perversion.

Even with all this awesome work going on to change perceptions of gay literature, there’s still a lot of work to do. Amazon didn’t even change its own classifications of gay literature to add a romance category until 2014 after authors had complained and Tracy Timmons-Gray sent off her infamous “Dear Mr. Bezos” letter. Before that happened, my understanding is that everything was crammed under Gay and Lesbian, but there still was an “erotica” category because of course there was.

I absolutely do feel it is a hindrance to the genre because not all gay literature is going to be sexual in nature. The assumption that it is going to be simply because it’s gay is ridiculous, and it feeds into the stereotypes of LGBTQ+ people being more promiscuous than heterosexuals. There’s nothing wrong with writing gay erotica, but it’s simply unfair and wrong to group every book with a gay person ever in this category. Queer people’s stories are more than our sex lives, more than the trashy pulp books of old and more than the gay authors who only wrote it because they felt pressured, and I hope that we continue to see more positive changes. Even though all gay erotica is gay literature, not all gay literature is going to be erotica, and that needs to be made clear.

Do you believe it’s important for you to know the gender of the author?

No. If they can tell a good story, make me laugh, whatever, I really don’t care.

Do you feel that celebs who are gay or bi should come out the closet?

That’s not a decision I can make for another person, famous or not. Coming out is a huge decision and for people that are in the public eye, it can be very difficult to make that step. Coming out for me was very difficult, and there are still members of my own family who don’t know my truth because I already know how they’d react. Obviously, it’s amazing when celebs come out because queer fans have someone new that they can look up to – but it’s also none of my business. They’ll come out when they’re ready or they won’t.

Thank you.

K.L. “Kat” Hiers is an embalmer, restorative artist, and queer writer. Licensed in both funeral directing and funeral service, she’s been working in the death industry for nearly a decade. Her first love was always telling stories, and she has been writing for over twenty years, penning her very first book at just eight years old. Publishers generally do not accept manuscripts in Hello Kitty notebooks, however, but she never gave up.

Following the success of her first novel, Cold Hard Cash, she now enjoys writing professionally, focusing on spinning tales of sultry passion, exotic worlds, and emotional journeys. She loves attending horror movie conventions and indulging in cosplay of her favorite characters. She lives in Zebulon, NC, with her husband and their six children, three of whom have paws and one who sometimes thinks he does.

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A Guy Walks Into My Bar by Lauren Blakely: Exclusive Excerpt, Teaser and Giveaway

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Today, to celebrate the release of A Guy Walks Into My Bar by Lauren Blakely, we have an EXCLUSIVE excerpt reveal AND a giveaway for a SIGNED paperback of A Guy Walks Into My Bar, for you. I cannot wait to dig into this one! It looks super hot, fun, and sexy. Check it out below and make sure to enter the giveaway!

A sexy, passionate, utterly addictive standalone MM romance from #1 NYT Bestseller Lauren Blakely!

Every bartender should follow one simple rule—don’t go home with the customers.

That’s been easy for me to stick to, until the night a cocky, confident, and sinfully charming hockey star walks into my bar. This sexy athlete is too hard to resist, especially when he makes it clear how much he wants the “sarcastic, witty, hot AF” guy behind the bar—also known as me.

Still, I’m not keen on breaking my own rules since I know where that can lead—no place good. But when that man makes his case with one bone-searing kiss on the streets of London, I throw resistance out the window.

What could go wrong with a hot, no-strings-attached fling before he leaves town in five days? Trouble is, soon our nights together lead to days, to long conversations, to getting to know each other, and to something I never expected—falling ridiculously hard for a man who’s getting on a plane to America when I live a world away.

My life is here. His is there. And no amount of falling or feeling will change that one big problem.

Warning: contains hot hotel nights, loads of dirty talk, PDA all over London, and two sexy, witty, charming heroes…

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Fitz scrubs a hand across the back of his neck, his voice hoarse. “You’re killing me. You are the sexiest man I’ve ever met. You know that, right?”

People say things in the heat of the moment, but he looks like he means it.

“I suspect it’ll be hard for you to walk right now. Why don’t I go ahead and I’ll meet you in the lobby, and you can think about tea cakes or the queen or something on the way over?”

He shakes his head. “Nope. Don’t care. And I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

He pays the bill and rises, an impressive impression in his trousers.

Well, I’m not complaining about that.

To enter for or a SIGNED paperback of A GUY WALKS INTO MY BAR.

•ADD to GR: https://blkly.pub/GoodreadsGuyWalksIn  and comment on this post!