Curious About My Other Books? 30% Off Our Gay Fairy Tales Through End of January! #ARe #sale #ebook #gay #mmromance

This was a wonderful fairy tale, witty and whimsical, sexy and silly, surprisingly touching at times, laugh-out-loud funny at others, and when the plot really got rolling, a complete page-turner. — Amelia Gormley’s review

30% off at ARe through the end of January! Click through to buy!
Cursed as an infant with a lack of physical and emotional gravity, Prince Efrosin can’t keep his feet on the ground or his head out of the clouds. Laughing his way through life, he’s never been weighed down by love and lust.
Then one fateful day, his tenuous tie to the earth is severed and he blows away on the wind. He’s rescued by Dmitri, a handsome young woodsman who suffers from a mysterious curse of his own, and the two strangers are irresistibly drawn together. Experiencing sex and love for the first time, they dive into a delightfully sensual and passionate affair.
But the evil witch who cursed them is planning her ultimate revenge. Efrosin and Dmitri must fight to find their fairy tale ending and live happily ever after.

Beautifully told with heartwarming and likeable characters that really live and breathe off of the written page, Ascending Hearts is a story not to be missed! If you are a fan of fantasy/fairytale romances then this book is definitely one to be considered. — Gabbi’s review

Get 30% off at ARe through the end of January! Click through to buy!
Rumors of treasure have long sent fortune hunters clambering up a magic beanstalk to a mysterious castle in the clouds. Survivors told of an evil giant who guards the gold with savage strength. No sane man would dare risk the climb—but Jack has nothing left to lose. Shunned for his evil red hair and abandoned by his cruel lover, he’s desperate to escape his life.
Rion isn’t a giant, only a man bearing the burden of protecting his family’s legacy. It’s a lonely existence, but he’s duty bound. Then Jack appears, and Rion’s world changes. After a blazing confrontation, undeniable lust sparks. Isolated in the clouds, Jack and Rion give in to their desire and growing connection. Soon they must protect the treasure—and each other—from a new threat. And they have everything to lose.
A Romantica® erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

This is the best rendition of the 12 dancing princesses fairy tale I’ve read. It’s very suspenseful and the storytelling is beautiful. [I’ts a] great romance with interesting characters. This is a must read for fairy tale lovers and those that like a hero struggling to get his love returned. — Cynthia’s review

30% off at ARe through the end of January! Click through to buy!
There’s no greater mystery in the kingdom than how Prince Mateo’s sisters wear out their shoes each night while locked away in their chambers. Using old magic, Mateo discovers their secret and follows them through a portal to an enchanted world of fairies and lusty delights. Ópalo has waited years for his male human, and he knows Mateo is his destiny. Mateo soon succumbs to the pleasures of the flesh, but as their worlds collide, Ópalo has to risk everything to win his man forever.

We Need Worlds Free of Prejudice to Play In #trockadero #ballet #fairytales #mmromance #kindle

The beautiful swan.

In June, I was lucky enough to see the male ballet corps, Trockadero de Monte Carlo. To quote a YouTube user named MozartGirl1756: The Trocks are trying to tell the world that you don’t need to have giant sticks up your ass, noses up in the air and serious for it to be this to be wonderful art form. They’re all amazing and talented dancers who are doing what they love, doing it beautifully AND showing us that ballet isn’t a stuffy form of entertainment.

What I found most amazing about seeing them was how, yes, as you’ll hear in the videos below, there was always a bit of laughter and comedy, but there were also times when the audience would go so still and quiet, emotionally absorbed by the beautiful dancing and the story playing out before them.

Here is a beautiful video of Swan Lake as performed by Trockadero de Monte Carlo:

Another video:

Seeing them, I was reminded of the Chorus Line song, “At the Ballet”, because, yes, everyone is beautiful at the ballet, every prince must have his swan, and the fact that the dancers are male and covered in chest and armpit hair make them no less beautiful. It was a real treat and I’d like to thank my friend, Pun, for taking me to the show.

Today I’m OVER HERE talking more about Trockadero de Monte Carlo, ballets, and how fairy tales and certain other stories can provide us with a world free of difficult, realistic baggage so that we can explore emotional touchstones in a more open-minded, open-hearted way.

Wow, that sounds super wanky. Go read and let me know if it’s wanky as it sounds. LOL!

As a reminder, Love’s Nest is available on Amazon now. Barnes & Noble and Sony are coming soon! It’s also up on Goodreads where you can mark it as “wanna read” or rate it if you’ve read it already! Hooray!

New Cover! Love’s Nest!

Cover by Dar Albert.

I’m happy to present the cover for the upcoming fairy tale in Keira’s and my series! It’s a tale based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses and will clock in at over twice the length of the first two tales in the series. We’re hoping it will be out later this summer. We’re awfully excited and hope you love the cover as much as we do!

Celebrate NYE with a Selection of Free Books Giveaway at Sunlight Sucks

Heat up your New Year’s Eve with a big giveaway of hot books by hot authors at Sunlight Sucks!

Keira’s and my book, Earthly Desires, is up for grabs along with many others! Go comment and get your name in the drawing to win!

Happy New Year! May 2013 bring us all good things!

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop – Leta Blake, Dancing Shoes

Amelia C. Gormley, the author of the wonderful Impulse Trilogy, tagged me to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, which was incredibly kind of her! Thanks, Amelia!

What is the working title of your book?

The original working title was Spanish Dancing Shoes, but over time it’s been shortened to just Dancing Shoes.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Keira and I have been working on our fairy tales series for the last year. After completing Earthly Desires, and while Keira was hammering out the details of Ascending Hearts, our upcoming tale based on Jack & the Beanstalk, I started reading the story City of Blind Delights by Catherynne M. Valente. Something about it sparked a whole fairy tale world in my head–nothing like the world of her story, but a world all the same. That all came together while reading The Twelve Dancing Princesses to my daughter at bedtime, and inspired by both, the flow of the book came easily at first.

What genre does your book fall under?

Fairy tale romance/erotica.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

I don’t have any particular actors in mind, but I did create this Pinterest inspiration board to help guide my focus while writing the story.

This is Matteo.

And this is Ópalo. Well, except that his hair is actually pink feathers.

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?

In an effort to discover where his sisters disappear to at night, Matteo follows them to a new world and finds a new life he never expected.

Will your book be self published, published by a small press, or represented by an agency?

Assuming that all goes according to plan, the book will be published by Ellora’s Cave as part of Keira’s and my Tempting Tales series.

How long did it or how long do you anticipate that it will take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Too dang long! Haha! But there were several reasons for that. First, I stopped in the middle of the book to work on a long-running work in progress and that got us off track for a little while. Then we thought we’d really like to have a Christmas tale out this year, so we made a stab at that for a month or so, but in the end it was just not viable and we basically scrapped it. Third, the book was fighting us because it wanted to be longer than the novella length first two books in the series. Once we gave in to how long the book wanted to me, the characters really opened up and started sharing more with us. So, all in all, a first draft took about six months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

You know, I’m not sure I’ve read another book quite like this one. We are trying to keep each book in our series unique. I suppose that in terms of the kind of fairy tale world, the romance, and the sexual nature of the book, the closest really would be the other two in our series, Earthly Desires (inspired by The Light Princess) and Ascending Hearts.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I believe I covered that above to a large degree, but I wanted to give a quick nod to Jim Henson’s The Storyteller series for giving me the kick in the behind I needed to start writing and working on this series with Keira. I’ve had several ideas for fairy tale reworkings for years, but last winter I indulged in a rewatch of The Storyteller as a kind of Christmas-comfort-winter-warmth and it lit me up inside with all kinds of ideas. I’m sure Jim Henson never intended someone to get inspired by his show and write a lot of gay romance and erotica, but that’s what happened. We owe it all to Jim Henson. Haha!

What else about your book might interest the reader?

I think it is imaginative and surprising. If you’ve read other reworkings of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, I can guarantee you that this one is different in substance and style. It’s a sweet, spring book, and I’m hoping we can have it out in April or May, because it just seems like the kind of thing people should read when flowers are blooming.

This is where I was supposed to link to four more blogs. But I’m only posting a link to one (wonderful! awesome!) blog. Apparently, otherwise, the buck stops here, because everyone I asked except Nisha-Anne–and I asked a ton of people–have already done this and so, just like in P.E. class when I was a kid, I was the last chosen for the game. *sniff sniff* Haha! No worries. I suppose that it had to eventually peter out. I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t round up even more participants. Oh well! Thanks, Amelia, for this opportunity! It’s better to have been chosen last than never to be chosen at all?

Check out Nisha-Anne D’Souza on January 2nd! She’s the author of the book Calling Pomegranate and a brilliant woman. I’m sure that her work in progress is going to be worth waiting for!

Lizzie Bennet’s Diaries

The fact that this exists makes up for a lot of terrible things in the world. Sometimes human beings make me so happy with their creations and their brains and their love of life, literature, characters, and creativity.

Lizzie Bennet Diaries – Watch and love!

*

In other news, Earthly Desires is now available at Barnes and Nobel as a NOOK book, Amazon.com, AllRomanceEbooks, and Ellora’s Cave.

In addition, my co-author, Keira Andrews, is hosting a contest on her blog for a free copy of the book. Just answer her question and we’ll decide on a winner next week!

*

Lastly, the song that is keeping my mood from going under today. It’s been a total life saver. Thank you, Of Monsters And Men.

Release Day! Earthly Desires Now Available!

Let’s try this one again!

Reba, the goddess-patron-saint of Nashville (according to Jay Brannan) celebrates with me.

You can by the book here. Right here. At this handy link. This one. You can also read the blurb and an excerpt there to help you decide if you want to give this book a chance at a top spot on your e-reader.

Here is a link to the book on Goodreads, should you wish to add it to any of your shelves there, or maybe, possibly leave a review that says something nice about it. If you read it and hate it, you can also leave a review saying something not nice, I guess, and…well…fine. Be that way. 😛

I’ve mentioned before that I am often inspired by music. In the case of this tale, there were several songs that took root in my mind and which became the basis of inspiration for this book. Because I’m feeling self-indulgent, I thought I’d share three of them.

Never Let Me Go by Florence + the Machine

Astronauts by One Eskimo

All This and Heaven Too by Florence + the Machine

And, lastly, because this is my first book, I wanted to thank some people specifically and this seems like as good a place and time as any. Thank you to:

Keira — for co-writing this with me, and for being a steady support in all ways.
Jed — for being my best friend, for buying me the copy of The Light Princess years ago now, for supporting me always in everything, for being my sounding board, my beta reader, my one in a million.
Husband — for being a good man, a loving partner, and the best decision of my life, for being an amazing father, for making time for my writing, and for not caring one whit what I write about, so long as I feel fulfilled doing it.
Daughter — for giving up mommy time so that I can write, and for being an inspiration simply by existing, breathing, smiling.
JJ and Punny — for twelve years of support and friendship, for loving me unconditionally.
Alice, Beth, and Aimee — for beta readings, hand-holding, friendship, and lots of emotional support.
SIL — for helping with childcare, for being supportive beyond your call even when stressed to the gills yourself.
MIL — for loving my kid enough that I trust her to you, freeing me up to do what I need and want to do with regards to writing.
Any and all readers, past and present, of original works or fanfiction who offered me support, beta reading, friendship, kindness, criticism, and your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. So much love to all of you.

The Inspiration

In the past, I’ve almost always been most inspired by music and I tend to write while listening to a specific playlist. When suffering from the occasional writer’s block, music has most often been the source of breaking the inspiration free again, providing me with solutions to the problems, and setting me off on another rush of creativity.

Recently, though, I’ve found another source of input very inspiring. Photographs. As most artists have been doing of late, I’ve started making Pinterest boards that correspond with my writing. It has become a huge source of inspiration for me, though, unlike music, the boards don’t seem to help me problem-solve, but merely help me visualize how I want to describe things and people, and to help establish the atmosphere and vibe of the story.

As an example, working on a recent fairy tale for our series, Tempting Tales with Ellora’s Cave, I found the following image incredibly inspirational, even if this castle and these swans don’t appear at all in the story. It was the magical, fairyland, unreal atmosphere that I wanted to capture.

I’ve got pin boards for Fairy Tales in general, boards for specific stories like Spanish Dancing Shoes and The Frog Prince, and boards for random and currently unplaceable inspiration.

From the Spanish Dancing Shoes board.

A potential future protagonist from the Inspiration board.

If this isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is.

From the Frog Prince board.

Feel free to follow me at Pinterest and get a glimpse of the beautiful things I’m using to juice up my inspiration, or, heck, just for some pretty pictures.

Announcing a New Series and a New Book

I’m excited to be able to finally announce some very exciting (to me) news! Keira Andrews and I are co-writing a new series of books–Tempting Tales–for Ellora’s Cave. Last fall I did some editing work for Keira on her latest novel, The Chimera Affair, and we enjoyed working with each other so much that we decided to team up on a new line of erotic m/m novellas inspired by fairy and folk tales.

Our vision is that the original legends are a jumping-off point for stories that will take on a life of their own and not merely be the same tales with two male protagonists instead of princesses and damsels. Our tales will not be modernized, but in keeping with the fairy tale tone and style. Some will be whimsical and light, while others darker. All will feature smokin’ hot man sex and happily ever afters.

Just in case you were wondering, this is what I look like when I’m writing. It’s very glamorous.

We’re excited to let you know that the first book in this series will be released soon. The novella is titled “Earthly Desires“, and it is based on the Scottish tale of “The Light Princess”, made famous by George MacDonald. More information will be forthcoming and we’re looking forward to sharing more with you as soon as we have more information on when the book will be available. In the meantime, I’m excited to be able to share the cover (by the wonderful Kendra Egert) with you now!

Keira and I are very inspired by this concept and excited about the series. We can’t wait to bring you more books with fairy and folk tale themes in the future, and we hope you’ll come along to fairyland with us!

What’s your favourite fairy tale? Let us know!