Tag Archives: gay erotica

Today, the “Every Inch of the Way” Tour: “Every Inch an Exhibitionist” Part 1! @HeidiBelleau @RiptideBooks @twinmom

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Today is the first day of the Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) Blog Tour. You know what that means? It means you get to read the first of six parts of Every Inch an Exhibitionist, an exclusive, free, bonus short featuring Satish, James, and Carson from The Professor’s Rule.

Heidi and I are making two stops today, each with chances to win an ebook copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) in your format of choice. Just be sure to leave a comment including some means of contacting you. You can leave your email, if you wish, or some other form of social media ID: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or Goodreads.

In the first (VERY EXCITING) stop, we’re at That’s What I’m Talking About, with part one of Every Inch an Exhibitionist. This short, set at some indeterminate time after The Professor’s Rule series ends, weaves the past and the present together just as Heidi and I did throughout The Professor’s Rule, as James reveals more of his past with Carson to Satish. (Tune in also for me getting in a few cheap shots at the hyper-glamorized urban myth of kink culture versus the reality as I’ve experienced it.)

In our second stop, Mrs. Condit and Friends Read Books are offering you another chance to get your name in the drawing for TPR #2, so be sure to comment there as well!

EveryInchOfTheWay_400x600Satish Malhotra is in over his head. What appeared to be the hookup of his dreams turned out to be another man’s kinky sex game, and thus ended his relationship with sweet, submissive James Sheridan before it’d hardly begun.

Or so he thought. Being used in someone else’s domination/submission play should have been a deal breaker, yet James—bruises, boyfriend, and all—is too compelling to let walk away. But James has needs Satish isn’t sure he can fulfill, and it seems his mysterious Professor isn’t willing to share.

Can Satish keep James happy in bed and in life, or will James be forced to choose between his dominant and his burgeoning vanilla romance with Satish?

Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) and To the Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #5) are now available at Riptide, and just about every other major ebook retailer. Or, exclusively at Riptide, you can get The Professor’s Rule: The Complete Collection for 40% off! And if you want to “try before you buy”, you can grab Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1) for absolutely free.

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Up on NetGalley, excerpts, reviews and more!

Lots of news this week as we get closer to the release of Strain and TPR #4-5!

First of all, an excerpt of Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) is available at Riptide. For all you Satish lovers, we get his POV in this one! Because they’re being released simultaneously, I’m not sure if we’ll get a preview excerpt for #5 (it would spoil the end of #4) but if we do, it should be available soon so keep checking back!

Also, remember that because I am Riptide’s Featured Author of the Month for February, there are lots of discounts on The Professor’s Rule right now:

Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1) is FREE all month!
An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) is $2.25-25% OFF!
Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) and To The Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #5) are $0.99 each-67% OFF!
And if you want to catch up on TPR all in one go, The Professor’s Rule: The Complete Collection is available for $8.97-40% OFF!

Most of these discounts will expire at the end of February, so be sure to grab them while you can! If you pre-order at Riptide, TPR #4-5 will be available on-site starting at midnight on March 1.

In other news, Saugatuck Summer is now available at NetGalley! I know some readers have really been looking forward to this one and, well, I’ve made it pretty clear a number of times how I feel about this book, so I’m really excited to get this into the hands of readers and reviewers! Saugatuck Summer is also available for pre-order at Riptide for 22% off-only $6.99!

Finally, with less than two weeks to go, more reviews are starting to come in for Strain, so if you’re still wondering if it’s for you, check out this list of review links, as well as the link to GoodReads, here on my Strain page!

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Check out our final Inch by Inch blog tour stops! #mmromance #erotica #giveaway @RiptideBooks

I took the weekend off from updating the blog, so I missed announcing a few blog stops! But there is still time to play catch-up, as the drawing for the giveaway of copies of Giving an Inch and An Inch at a Time won’t be held until New Year’s Day. So be sure to check them out!

On Sunday, we stopped by Queer Town Abbey to answer a few questions, and today Shirley over at LeAnn’s Book reviews has shared a review of Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3).

Tomorrow in our final stop on the Inch by Inch blog tour, we’ll be over at Attention is Arbitrary, where Lisa will be interviewing Heidi and I, so don’t miss that, either!

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Relationship geometry and facts about Carson today on the Inch by Inch blog tour! #mmromance #erotica @RiptideBooks

Today on the Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) blog tour, Heidi and I are over at Sid Love discussing relationship geometry as it pertains to Satish, James, and Carson.

We’re also swinging by Up All Night, Read All Day to share a few facts about Carson you might not be aware of just yet! Be sure to stop by and comment to be entered in our drawing for copies of Giving an Inch (TPR #1) and An Inch at a Time (TPR #2). Each comment means another entry for the New Year’s Day drawing, so make sure to visit as many of our blog tour stops as you can!

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Check out @cupoporn today for a sneak peak at TPR #4! #mmromance #erotica @riptidebooks @heidibelleau

Today in the Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) blog tour, Heidi and I have swung by Cup-O’-Porn to share another excerpt from Every Inch of the Way (TPR #4). Leave a comment to be registered in our giveaway for copies of Giving an Inch (TPR #1) and An Inch at a Time (TPR #2.) If you haven’t caught up on this series of smutty novelettes, now is a good time to do so! Be sure to check out our other stops on the tour and leave comments there as well! Each comment gets you another entry!

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Heidi and I are at Pants-Off Reviews and MM Good Book Reviews today! #mmromance #blogtour

Today in our next set of stops on the Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) blog tour, Heidi and I are sharing a look ahead at Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) over at MM Good Book Reviews, so if you’re looking forward to the next installment, be sure to check it out!

We’re also giving you a few facts you might not know about Satish at Pants-Off Reviews. I know there are a lot of Satish lovers out there clamoring for more, so here’s a little taste!

Remember that every time you comment on one of our tour stops, you are registered for another chance to win a copy of either Giving an Inch (TPR#1) or An Inch at a Time (TPR#2) so if you’re not caught up on the series yet, this is a great chance to get there!

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Want more Satish? Check out our blog tour stops today @LifeBuyTheBook and @AllIWantnMore ! #mmromance #erotica @RiptideBooks

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Today the Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) Blog Tour is taking Heidi and me to Life Your Life Buy the Book to talk a little about Satish and what it’s like to pick up his story thread again after our step back into the past in An Inch at a Time (TPR #2). Keep following the blog tour for more info about Satish, including a couple sneak peeks at what you can expect from TPR #4.

Cecile at All I Want and More Books has also been kind enough to spotlight us today as well, so be sure to stop by there for another chance to enter the drawing for a copy of one of the first two The Professor’s Rule books!

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Check out some facts about James and an excerpt from Inch by Inch today!

InchByInch_TourBannerToday in the first two stops on our blog tour for Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3), Heidi Belleau and I are visiting 3 Chicks After Dark with a few facts you may or may not know about James Sheridan, one of our TPR protags. We’ve also brought an excerpt from Inch by Inch over to The Novel Approach.

If you take the time to comment and chat with us, you’ll be entered to win an ebook copy of either Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1) or An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) so if you’re not caught up on this series, now’s a great chance to see what you’ve missed!

Be sure to hit all the stops on our blog tour this week for more chances to win!

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Humiliation #kink-getting the appeal #bdsm #amwriting #mmromance

So, apparently this is my week for rants. No, Mercury is not retrograde. Nor am I PMSing. I have no idea WTF is going on, but be warned.

I’m gonna come right out of the gate saying this: I don’t practice humiliation kink. I’m not a dominant at all, and I have a particular history and set of neuroses that would make anyone pulling humiliation kink with me as a sub pretty bad.

However, there’s this lovely little phrase that I’ve seen used in fandom circles-actually, it started in the BDSM community in the 90s-and I think it needs to be more widely adopted out here in the LGBT romance genre: YKIOK (Your Kink is OK-a shortened form of Your Kink is Not My Kink But Your Kink is OK-as opposed to its self-righteous evil twin, YKINOK, or Your Kink is Not OK.)

I think a lot of us in this genre have been forgetting that. I’ve seen a lot of kink-shaming and a lot of people savaging perfectly good books just for having kinks they don’t enjoy. And it pisses me right the hell off.

But, you ask, if you don’t practice humiliation kink, why do you write it?

Short answer: My characters are not me. They choose their own kinks. Sometimes those kink are things I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot bamboo cane.

Longer answer: My characters are not me. They have their own history, personalities, and neuroses that might make humiliation kink appealing, or even cathartic and healing. But what’s the appeal, you ask? It’s no different than masochism, really. It’s just masochism of a different sort. Instead of getting off on physical pain, one is getting off on shame or emotional pain.

Or, for those submissives who aren’t masochists (physical or emotional) it’s something else entirely.

It can be a removal from self. It can be a test of submission. This is how pain play works for me, in fact. I’m not a masochist. I don’t find pain to be pleasure. But if my dominant can do something to me that I find patently unpleasant, then I’ve truly surrendered, see? I’ve yielded myself, preferences, my will, to someone else and let them have complete control. If it pleases them to hurt me, then I’m pleased to be hurt, not because I enjoy being hurt but because it means I’m not calling the shots and my preferences are not driving the encounter (within negotiated boundaries, of course.)

It’s no different for humiliation kink (except that, for me, it falls outside the negotiated boundaries.) Instead of being removed from control of one’s physical self and preferences, one is removed from one’s ego. If a submissive has given the dominant the power to say or do or force the submissive to do anything the dominant commands, no matter how shameful or humiliating, there is surrender in that. And that surrender can be a beautiful thing.

My first experience writing humiliation kink came from the character upon whom I based Derrick from my Impulse books. It wasn’t in a story at that time, it was in a role-play. He and his partner were talking and trying to get an idea of his turn-ons, and the partner asked if proto-Derrick (who was named Garrick, in the role-play) would want to be nude or perform sexually in public. Garrick’s immediate reaction was “No” but even as Garrick was giving that response, I-being deep in Garrick’s head at the time-knew that if a partner made Garrick do it, he’d do it, even if it was something he would flinch away from or reject otherwise.

So, having made that discovery about Garrick, I had to ask myself why. Why would Garrick do that? And the answer was that his pride, his ego, his sense of self, was his final hold-out, the thing that would always keep him from surrendering entirely. And if he wanted surrender, then the dominant would need to break down that wall.

This is why you see Gavin, in the Impulse books, call Derrick names like “bitch” and “whore” and “slut.” Does he mean it? No, of course not. But it chips away at Derrick’s resistance, puts him in a position where he has to choose between surrendering his pride, or safewording. And once he surrenders his pride, that’s when he becomes truly open and vulnerable to Gavin and gives Gavin complete control, rather than just playing a part.

And in the complete paradox that only makes sense to those who truly understand BDSM, that total surrender becomes a source of even greater pride. On the other side, the sub emerges to say, “Look what I endured for my dom. That took a lot of strength.” It leaves the sub feeling even more confident and sure of themselves (assuming it’s done correctly.)

This is actually a bit of a recurring theme in my books, at least those dealing with kink. I have a lot of prideful characters, so finding various ways to slip past that pride to get to the vulnerability underneath becomes something the dominant must do.

There are lots of ways to accomplish this. Forced exposure and exhibitionism is only one way. Infantilism might be another. Or treating the sub as an animal (where do you think the collar and leash thing comes from?) Toilet play might be part of it, or even just taking away privacy where such bodily functions are concerned.

For example, I have a manuscript I’m working on (Risk Aware) where the dominant character, Robin, denies his submissive partner, Geoff, the right to close the bathroom (or any) door. On one level, it’s just a flat-out control thing. “You aren’t allowed to shut me out of wherever you are.” But on the other level, what he’s doing is depriving Geoff of the dignity of privacy, even when Geoff is using the toilet. Geoff is not allowed to hold back even his most embarrassing moments of biological functioning (arguments of whether basic biological functions should be considered embarrassing aside.) If he farts, Robin might hear it. If he makes a stink, Robin might smell it. If he pees, Robin might watch. Is it because Robin has some sort of toilet fetish and finds these things sexy? No. It’s just about denying Geoff the ability to hold back any part of himself from Robin (again, of course, always within negotiated boundaries, so keep that in mind if you’re going to try this at home, kids.)

We see some of this in The Professor’s Rule, as well. In the first book, Giving an Inch, we see James expose himself to Professor Carson in a way that he finds deeply embarrassing. But that is part of James’s submission, part of what he needs to do to get to the place of surrender he desires. He’s a masochist, so pain play isn’t going to break him down, at least not entirely. He has other hold-outs.

Leta Blake does something very similar in Training Season. The dynamics of Matty and Rob’s relationship and why this sort of play might be appealing and even beneficial for the two of them, I will leave you to discover for yourselves. But there is a moment in the book where, unless you get into the deeper intricacies of what submission and surrender mean in various circumstances, they could seem gross. I know a lot of people go off on “BDSM is not therapy” rants and that is, to a degree, very true. BUT. Just because it isn’t therapy doesn’t mean it can’t be cathartic or healing. Yes, a lot of people practice BDSM just because it’s fun and because it feels good for whatever reason. But we each of us come into it with our own unique set of life experiences and issues, and we each of us might find something within it that helps us in ways perhaps therapy can’t, because it fulfills a need or helps us face a fear, or for any of a multitude of reasons.

And here’s the thing: romance fiction isn’t real life. In romance fiction, people’s issues often infiltrate parts of their lives that in reality, might not be such a big deal. I mean, if I wrote a story about a character with A, B, and C neuroses, and I set it up so that those neuroses don’t come into play when he’s doing BDSM scenes just because he finds BDSM fun and pleasant, most readers would cry foul. Because we’re in his head. We want to know what affect this is all having on him emotionally and psychologically.

Sex isn’t just about tab A into slot B and BDSM play isn’t just about swinging a whip and “oh, ow, that hurts.” Those scenes would be exceptionally boring if we didn’t get into the characters’ heads and go deeper with it on the emotional level (as my esteemed editor Sarah Frantz likes to say, “but what is he feeeeeeeling?”) And going deeper with it includes figuring out how it plays off of and into the neuroses that are part of the character’s journey through the book.

So. Your Kink is not My Kink but Your Kink is OK. Does name calling or toilet play put you off? Yeah, me too. But I’m not my character, and neither are you, and you might find your reading experience enhanced if you look beyond “would I enjoy doing that?” into what the play in question is accomplishing for the character. Because the odds are that if an author has gone there, they’ve done so for a reason. Look for it.

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In other news, Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) is already available for download at Riptide Publishing, and will be available at most other ebook retailers later tonight or tomorrow. And Heidi Belleau and I will be on a blog tour this week discussing James, Satish, and the Professor, and what we can expect from them going into the last two Professor’s Rule books. This will include a couple sneak peeks at Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) and a chance to win ebook copies of TPR books you might not have read yet, so be sure to check it out!

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Lovely early #reviews for Strain @Goodreads #mm #erotic #romance #postapocalypse

As I mentioned before, Strain went up on NetGalley last week, and a couple early reviews have been posted to Goodreads, and they’ve been quite gratifying on a couple levels.

Ashley Williams of http://booknerdash.blogspot.com/ had this to say:

And though the theme of the book revolved around sex as a treatment for the disease (yes I did say sex was the cure!!!), it wasn’t, for me, the forefront of the book. It kept me flipping the pages the whole time.

I loved the post-apocalypse-zombie-ish setting that Gormley creates. You can visualize where you are, without getting bored by all the details. Speaking of details, she does an excellent job explaining the medical necessities behind the unorthodox treatment. They were actually believable!

That one does my heart a lot of good. When dealing with a book based on a fuck-or-die trope, there’s a significant danger that the fuck-or-die situation will come off as nothing more than an excuse to propel the characters into sex they normally wouldn’t have. This isn’t an unfair estimation, to be honest. In a lot of places-especially in fanfic circles dealing with slash and non-canon OTPs-the fuck-or-die trope is used for precisely that reason. I wanted to come at it from a different angle, though. I wanted to make the story not just about situationally-coerced sex, but about the desperate lengths people will go to in order to survive, and about the conflict a character might face when the thing that is saving his body from death is killing his spirit and soul. I wanted to examine the uneven power dynamics inherent in a situation where one character is reliant on another for their very survival, and explore just what is considered “unpardonable” when someone does horrible things in order to save someone else’s life.

Which made it doubly gratifying to read this review from Sue/DavinciKittie at http://gravetells.com:

Even though this story features a lot of sex, it’s not ABOUT sex or even about a D/s lifestyle. It’s about fighting for survival and the life-affirming connections you make with the people you trust to have your back. It’s about brotherhood and love and making the best out of a hard life, and it is haunting… absolutely beautiful. The emotional depth is so tangible, Strain is both heartwarming and endearingly painful, from vivid adrenaline-packed start to aching, bittersweet ending. Definitely a must read for fans of male/male romance!

Yes. Thank you, God. People are getting what I was trying to do and not assuming the “plot” is just a sex vehicle, which would be very easy to do at first blush.

So, yeah, I’m really thrilled with these two reviews, and I hope other readers and reviewers continue to get what I was trying to accomplish with this book. I am sure it won’t work for some people, that they will dismiss it as just being an excuse to get the characters into bed, but it’s nice to see that some people are looking past that at the deeper themes.

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UPDATE: Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) is now available for pre-sale @RiptideBooks #mm #erotica #romance #bdsm #gay

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Inch by Inch is now up for pre-sale at Riptide!

Now… I’m going to bed. Really. I mean it this time.

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The Professor’s Rule 3-5: cover reveal, info, and announcements. @HeidiBelleau @RiptideBooks #mm #erotica #romance

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First off, two announcements regarding Inch By Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3)

1) WE HAVE A COVER! And a blurb! Look at this gorgeous representation of Satish Malhotra! Yes, Satish is back. TPR3 brings us back into the present day after TPR2 gave us a look at James and the Professor’s history, and now we are dealing with the fallout of James and Carson reuniting and James continuing to pursue a possible relationship with Satish.

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After two long, kink-free years apart, James Sheridan has reunited with his Professor: the sexy, dominant Evander Carson. But this time, things will be different. James is older, more sure of himself, and confident that he can draw the line between Carson’s demands and his own principles.

One of those lines is gorgeous menswear salesman Satish Malhotra. After their steamy dressing room encounter, James feels an unexpected connection to Satish, and he wants to explore it further. But Carson’s involvement—in James’s life, and in James and Satish’s budding relationship—complicates things.

Carson’s penchant for using other men in their sex games has always troubled James, and he’s adamant that Satish not be just another notch in their whipping post. But when Satish learns what prompted James to pursue him in the first place, will James’s new ability to draw the line even matter?

2) We have a release date (well, we’ve had one for a while I just couldn’t remember what it was.) The release date is December 16. And it’s available now for pre-sale at Riptide!

Secondly, As of tonight, Heidi Belleau and I finished TPR #5 (we finished #4 a few days ago.) They are (tentatively) titled Every Inch of the Way and To The Very Last Inch, respectively. Unless something drastically changes, that is going to bring us to the end of James, Carson, and Satish’s story. I am really, REALLY pleased with #4 and #5. I can’t wait to get to share them with people. They ended up being a lot more substantial and moving than either Heidi and I had ever intended when we first planned what was meant to be a series of simple erotic shorts. I shouldn’t be surprised. I have a long and notable habit of conceiving a story that is meant to be a straightforward, unapologetic smut biscuit and adding all sorts of layers of emotion and character exploration and complicated themes to it. As my friend Darkrose from Dragon Age fandom once said when I complained about it, “Sooner or later you just have to say, fuck it, it’s my idiom.”

Unless something has changed since we discussed it a couple weeks ago, #4 and #5 will be released at the same time, on February 10, 2014. Which means that I have three books being released in the space of a week, and I will have a total of four books already released by the end of May. Seriously, you do not even want to know what my editing schedule is going to look like for the next month or so. I have copy edits and probably proofing on Strain, developmental and line (and maybe copy?) edits on Saugatuck Summer, and then the ~25K that is TPR4-5. And that doesn’t even include blog tour posts and whatnot.

*curls up into a ball and weeps*

So, yeah, exciting stuff happening here! Stay tuned!

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30% #rebate @AllRomance ebooks today! #mm #romance

FIND ME HERE AT ARe!

If you wanted to get my Impulse books, or any of my Riptide releases, today is a good day to jump on that. ARe is having a 30% rebate today only, plus there’s that “Buy 10, Get 1 Free” thing at ARe, so now would be a good time to chip away at your requisite 10.

 

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Taking care of business before #GRL2013

So, Tuesday I will be heading to Atlanta for my first-ever GayRomLit retreat. I will admit I’m a little nervous because this is the first time since he was born that I will be away from my six-year-old for that long. Until last month at GRNW in Seattle, I’d never been away from him longer than over a single night, and even then he was just a mile away at his grandmother’s house. Now I’m going to be across the country from him for five nights. Eep!

Also, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from GRL. I know I will be on a panel at the writer’s workshop on Wednesday afternoon, the BDSM panel that Sarah Frantz will be moderating. So I’ll have at least one opportunity to make an idiot of myself publicly. I think at least part of my fear is that I didn’t know until very late in the game about the YahooGroup that most of the GRL stuff was being discussed on, so I think I missed some pretty significant announcements and information. Thus, I’m clueless.

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But before I go, some business to take care of. In case you have missed my tweets on the subject (and Heidi Belleau’s and Riptide’s) we have a sort of kink meme going on for some audience participation in the third Professor’s Rule book. This book will take us back to the “present day” in James and Carson’s lives, after the short trip into exploring their past in TPR #2. (Yes, I like non-linear storytelling. I feel like it often gives a narrative a sort of mobility that otherwise it wouldn’t have.) It’s time for James to re-unite with his Professor, and also for him to keep his date with menswear salesman Satish. Last week we were taking nominations for the sort of kinks you’d like to see in the next book, and this week we’ve narrowed the list to five and you get to vote on them. Those five are:

1. Voyeurism
2. Fire Play
3. Needle Play
4. Breath Play
5. Sensory Deprivation

You can go here to take the survey. Thanks to The Jeep Diva for hosting this contest.

As for GRL, I will have some items available for free and for purchase there. I will have coupon codes to give away for Inertia, as well coupon codes you can purchase for downloads of Acceleration and Velocity, and for the All-in-One ebook volume of the Impulse trilogy. I will also have paperbacks of all three books available, 30 of Inertia and 10 each (I think? Maybe 15?) of Acceleration and Velocity. Riptide will also have a free version of Giving an Inch (TPR #1) to hand out, which will include excerpts from An Inch at a Time (TPR #2), Heidi Belleau’s Apple Polisher, and my upcoming release, Strain. So be sure to grab that! For autographs and whatnot, I’ll be in the supporting authors session, not the featured authors. So look for me there!

Annnd I think that is all my business to attend to before I leave, so I’d better get back to researching how to pack a week’s worth of stuff into a carry-on sized suitcase. Fun!

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An audience participation opportunity

Help decide James’s next lesson!

So, back when Heidi Belleau first approached me about co-writing The Professor’s Rule with her, she had a very unique idea: she wanted to get prompts from the readers for subsequent stories, something like a kink meme. We weren’t able to get the necessary logistics worked out in time for An Inch at a Time, but the third TPR story, Inch by Inch, is going to have one scene written for the readers, the kink content of which will be decided by the readers.

Over at The Jeep Diva’s website, you can add a comment-anonymously or not-requesting which kink you might want to see featured in the next TPR story. Inch by Inch will take us back into James and the Professor’s “present” day, after James’s shopping trip and his meeting Satish and reconnecting with Carson. For those who don’t comment anonymously, they will be entered in a giveaway for a $10 Riptide gift certificate. So head over to The Jeep Diva and let us know where you’d like to see James and the Professor go!

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Great discounts on ebook bundles this week @RiptideBooks!

To celebrate the launch of their redesigned website (it’s really cool, guise!) Riptide has bundled some titles and are offering them for 60% off. My novella, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover is in the Hot Historicals bundle, and Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #2) with Heidi Belleau is in the BDS-Mmmmm bundle. So if you’ve been wanting to check either one out, now is a great time!

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“An Inch at a Time” (The Professor’s Rule 2) w/@HeidiBelleau #mm #erotica available for pre-sale @RiptideBooks

An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) is now up for pre-sale at the Riptide website (complete with excerpt!) The website will be going down for maintenance for a few days here shortly, but I’ll re-tweet this once it’s back up and running.

In An Inch at a Time, we take a step back, four years before the events of Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1) to examine how Professor Carson and his student, James Sheridan, began their power-exchange relationship.

Enjoy!

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Get “Giving an Inch” early!

For those of you who aren’t aware, if you pre-order a Riptide title on their direct website, you can get it at midnight two days before the official release date. So, since Giving an Inch is due to release on the 15th, it will be available at midnight tonight at Riptide’s site. So grab it here:

http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/giving-inch

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Cover art reveal! Whee!

Yay! We have our cover art (and a banner, too!) for Giving an Inch, due out April 15.GivingAnInch_468banner

School is Back in Session

History grad James Sheridan thinks his biggest problem in life is trying to find a suitable outfit for his upcoming Ph.D. candidacy exam. That is, until he accidentally texts a changing-room selfie meant for his fashionable sister to his ex, the domineering Professor Carson.

James and Carson haven’t seen each since James fled their power games two years ago. Back in his undergrad days, Carson was his Professor, and not just in the academic sense: a man of unusual tastes and extreme sexual demands, James had been happy to sate Carson’s savage appetites. Too happy, in fact. He never could trust himself not to let Carson push too far.

Now James is older and wiser, and sharing some seriously flirtatious vibes with a cute menswear rep. When Carson replies to James’s errant text, ready to pick up where they left off, James can’t help being drawn back into Carson’s control. It’s only when Carson suggests involving the salesman that James has to ask himself how far is too far, and whether he’s willing to go there with Carson again.

GivingAnInch_500x750

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More on “Giving an Inch” — the project I never saw coming.

As I mentioned in my last post, yesterday morning I signed two contracts with Riptide Publishing. The one for the Highland story, I had been expecting for a couple weeks, but the second one (which was actually the first one signed and delivered) took me completely by surprise.

First of all, allow me to refer you to Heidi Belleau’s post on the subject.

The story went something like this. My current WIP was paused while I did some fact-checking, my latest round of edits on the The Laird’s Forbidden Lover had been turned in, I was waiting for edits on the two other novels I have in progress, and while I have two more novels in the conceptualizing stage, neither of them were ready for me to begin writing. So, I found myself one evening without anything to do and since I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not working anymore, I whinged about it on Twitter (because I’m reasonably certain Twitter was invented to give me an outlet for my whinging while restricting the number of characters in which I have to do it.)

Next thing I know, Heidi’s telling me she has a short she could use a co-writer on. And while I’m certainly familiar with her, I didn’t expect she had ever heard of me, much less would invite me to co-write something with her. I mean, I’m pretty small potatoes so far. (And now I’m really, really nervous that she — being something of an authority — will find my Highland story terribly, terribly wrong.)

But, in very short order we had a manuscript ready to turn in and a concept for a kick-ass series.

The series will be called The Professor’s Rule and it will explore both the past and present dynamic between a professor and his student. The current story, due out April 15, is called Giving an Inch:

History grad James Sheridan thinks his biggest problem in life is trying to find a suitable outfit for his upcoming Ph.D. candidacy exam. That is, until he accidentally texts a changing room selfie meant for his fashionable sister to his ex, the domineering Professor Carson.

James and Carson haven’t seen each other since James fled their power games two years ago. Back in his undergrad days, Carson was his Professor, and not just in the academic sense: a man of unusual tastes and extreme sexual demands, James had been happy to sate Carson’s savage appetites. Too happy, in fact. He never could trust himself not to let Carson push too far.

Now James is older and wiser, and sharing some seriously flirtatious vibes with a cute menswear rep. When Carson replies to James’s errant text, ready to pick up where they left off, James can’t help being drawn back into Carson’s control. It’s only when Carson suggests involving the salesman that James has to ask himself how far is too far, and whether he’s willing to go there with Carson again.

I find the dynamic between the characters fascinating, particularly with the addition of the third party, the menswear salesman, Satish. I’m pretty much halfway to in love with him already. It’s going to be fun, so stay tuned for future installments from this series.

Within the next day or two, the book should be available for pre-order on the Riptide website.

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Filed under Musings

Thousand-Word Thursday ficlet

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July 24, 2012 · 1:59 pm

Book covers and the objectification of gay men

The other day, my friend Leta Blake and I were discussing a few things we don’t like about the current state of the m/m romance/erotica publishing industry. One of which was the covers with all the manly-man ripped torso beefcake.

Then today my husband comes in the room and we’re talking about the book and he’s teasing me that my cover is OMGSOPORNY! And I was like, “Nonononono, wait, wait. You need to see what OTHER covers in this genre look like.” So I went over to Rainbow Book Reviews and showed him some of those ripped-torso covers, and as I did so, I realized something.

The men on those covers aren’t just ripped. They’re almost universally beheaded.

Not every cover is this way, of course, but enough are that it shows a deeply, deeply disturbing mindset in the genre.

One of the biggest complaints feminists very rightfully have toward advertising is the frequent portrayal of dismembered women. Armless or headless, only the torso, the part showing the sexy bits, is used. It’s believed to be another form of violence against women, or at least a means of portraying women that objectifies and dehumanizes them so that violence against them becomes more acceptable.

The majority of consumers in the m/m romance/erotica genre are women. What does it say about us, that we’re doing the same thing to gay men? Though we, women, are the consumers in this genre, are we looking at the physical representation of the characters with the internalized male gaze?

Suddenly, I’m very glad my book has the cover it does, and that I self-published rather that going through a publishing house for m/m romance and erotica, where I might not have had control over the cover art.

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Filed under Musings

Inertia available now!

INERTIA (Impulse, Book One) on SmashWords

INERTIA (Impulse, Book One) on Amazon

An Object At Rest

By the age of 23, down-to-earth Detroit handyman Derrick Chance had lost everyone he’d ever loved. Too worn-out and wounded to play the dating game, he wrote off the possibility of romance or even just sex. Living alone in the old house his grandparents had left him, with only his dog and a few close friends for companionship, he refused to consider himself lonely, or let himself wonder what he might be missing. He knew who he was and where he was headed. His life was comfortable, organized, predictable, and best of all, risk-free. He was content.

Until the day he installed some shelves for accountant Gavin Hayes. A contradictory combination of confidence and uncertainty, Gavin’s shameless flirtations drew him in with an intensity Derrick had never known he longed for.

As undeniable as the force of gravity, he abandoned ten years of self-imposed solitude and found himself falling rapidly for Gavin in defiance of all his usual slow and methodical ways.

But Gavin carried wounds of his own. Fresh from an emotionally abusive relationship that ended with a potentially dangerous betrayal, his future was far from certain. Derrick would have to decide if his rediscovered passion was worth taking the chance of another loss.

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July 19, 2012 · 4:59 am