Tag Archives: heidi belleau

Continue reading our FREE TPR bonus short on the “To the Very Last Inch” blog tour! @HeidiBelleau @RiptideBooks #mmromance

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Okay, so I’ve fallen behind on updates on the blog tour, but Heidi and I are still reading your comments and entering them in the contest for the giveaway for an ebook copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2). We are also still sharing our six-part FREE The Professor’s Rule bonus short, Every Inch an Exhibitionist, along the way!

Here are the stops for this week:

Monday, March 10

Tuesday, March 11

Wednesday, March 12

Thursday, March 13

Friday, March 14

Saturday, March 15

And in case you missed the first three parts of Every Inch an Exhibitionist, our FREE TPR bonus short, here is last week’s schedule:

Monday, March 3

Tuesday, March 4

Wednesday, March 5

Thursday, March 6

Friday, March 7

Saturday, March 8

Remember that each comment you leave at one of these stops offers you another chance to be entered in the drawing for An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2). So be sure to swing by and comment!

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Catch “Every Inch an Exhibitionist” Part TWO by me and @HeidiBelleau today @BrandilynRC #mm #erotica @RiptideBooks

I didn’t have a chance to update yesterday, so here’s a quick recap of where the Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) Blog Tour has stopped:

Monday, That’s What I’m Talking About hosted Part One of Every Inch an Exhibitionist, our FREE 6-part TPR bonus short, and Mrs. Condit had Heidi and me swing by for a quick spotlight stop.

Yesterday, Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words hosted a spotlight stop yesterday, as did Pants Off Reviews.

Today, the Prism Book Alliance is hosting the second part of Every Inch an Exhibitionist. Live Your Life Buy the Book is also having us over for a quick spotlight visit.

Remember that each of these stops you join us at and comment qualifies you for another entry to win an ebook copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2). Please be sure to leave some means of contacting you; a Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads or Tumblr ID (assuming your ask box is open) will do if you don’t want to provide your email. You can see the full blog tour schedule at Riptide so you won’t miss any stops!

Tomorrow, Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews will have Part Three of Every Inch an Exhibitionist, so be sure to tune in for that as well!

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Coming this week: A COMPLETE free bonus short from #TheProfessorsRule! @RiptideBooks @HeidiBelleau #mmromance #erotica #blogtour

Exciting stuff coming this week and next on the blog tour for Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) and To the Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #5)!

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This week, March 3-8, my co-author Heidi Belleau and I will be on tour for Every Inch of the Way with the first three parts of Every Inch an Exhibitionist, a nearly 6000-word free short featuring Satish, James, and the Professor. The short will be serialized over several stops along the blog tour, so be sure to follow each day, and comment for your chance to win a copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2).

Satish 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?

TPR5_TourBannerThen next week, March 10-15, we’ll be on tour for To the Very Last Inch with the last three parts of Every Inch an Exhibitionist. During both tours, we’ll also be featured in some really great spotlight stops, and each one gives you another chance to win!

Just days after their scorching reunion, Professor Evander Carson has kicked his one-time pupil James Sheridan to the curb—and tried to sabotage James’s new relationship with Satish Malhotra. Something isn’t right here, but James isn’t sure he should bother trying to figure out what. Carson isn’t good for him and will never change. He needs to accept that and move on.

Satish knows something is up, too, but he thinks the relationship between Carson and James is worth saving. To do the right thing, Satish will have to make James and Carson confront the secrets they’ve hidden for years and help them to overcome the pain and mistrust they’ve caused.

But if Satish succeeds, where will that leave him and his intensifying romance with James? Will the three of them be able to find the right balance, or will James be forced to choose between the pain and submission he craves with Carson, and the sweet, vanilla stability he’s found with Satish?

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Don’t forget also that the very first The Professor’s Rule book, Giving an Inch, is now free at Riptide as well as at Amazon, All Romance eBooks, and any number of other ebook retailers, if you want to see what it’s all about! The Professor’s Rule is also available as a complete collection at Riptide for 40% off!

There’s so much going on I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something. We’ll see you on tour!

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Guess who’s @RiptideBooks February featured author of the month?

Yep, that would be me!

This means, of course, that a whole bunch of my titles are on sale this month at Riptide. You can get The Laird’s Forbidden Lover for 50% off ($1.99), An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) for 25% off ($2.25) and-get this-pre-orders for Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4) and To the Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #5) are 67% off ($0.99!!!)

And, of course, there has to be a freebie! That would be Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1), free all month!

Also, pre-orders of Strain and Saugatuck Summer are both still 22% off, or $6.99 each. And the entire The Professor’s Rule collection is on sale at $8.97, 40% off.

So, uh, yeah, get it while the getting’s good, huh?

While you’re there, be sure to check out the interview I did for Riptide, where you can also get a little info on my upcoming projects!

Also, Kazza K. at On Top Down Under Book Reviews has named Strain her Book of the Month for February! If you haven’t read her incredibly generous review, be sure to do that! (caution: may contain spoilers)

So February is going to be a hopping month for me! Just over two weeks until Strain releases, and just over four weeks until TPR #4-5 release. Come along for the ride!

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The final chapters of The Professor’s Rule, now for pre-sale @RiptideBooks #mm #bdsm #romance

The final two chapters of Satish, James, and Carson’s tale are now available for pre-sale at Riptide.

Every Inch of the Way (The Professor’s Rule #4)

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Satish 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?

To the Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #5)

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Just days after their scorching reunion, Professor Evander Carson has kicked his one-time pupil James Sheridan to the curb—and tried to sabotage James’s new relationship with Satish Malhotra. Something isn’t right here, but James isn’t sure he should bother trying to figure out what. Carson isn’t good for him and will never change. He needs to accept that and move on.

Satish knows something is up, too, but he thinks the relationship between Carson and James is worth saving. To do the right thing, Satish will have to make James and Carson confront the secrets they’ve hidden for years and help them to overcome the pain and mistrust they’ve caused.

But if Satish succeeds, where will that leave him and his intensifying romance with James? Will the three of them be able to find the right balance, or will James be forced to choose between the pain and submission he craves with Carson, and the sweet, vanilla stability he’s found with Satish?

And for those of you who have been waiting for the series to be complete before going on the journey with James and his men:

The Professor’s Rule: The Complete Collection

School is back in session.

When undergrad student James Sheridan set out to seduce his way into a better grade, he had no idea what he was signing on for. Professor Evander Carson wasn’t about to trade a good grade for sexual favors, but he was definitely willing to tutor his wayward pupil in far more than history.

By the end of their tumultuous relationship, James not only excelled academically, his sexual horizons had expanded to include pleasures—and agonies—the likes of which he’d never dreamed. But enough was more than enough, and James fled from his Professor, unsure of where his limits lay or if he had the wherewithal to set boundaries.

Two years later, a chance misdial puts James back in contact with his former instructor and brings all his old cravings back in force, leaving him yearning to kneel once again at his Professor’s feet. But James has a new life now, with new sexual and romantic prospects—most notably the charming menswear salesman Satish Malhotra. Still, the pull to return to Professor Carson is a powerful thing. Can James give in to it without giving up his newfound confidence and budding romance?

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Delay on the The Professor’s Rule #1 & #2 drawing

I know during our blog tour, Heidi and I said we’d be drawing the winner January 1, but Heidi has actually been travelling since the tour began, and while I kept track of all the entries, I’m not exactly sure how she wanted to handle the drawing (and, to be totally honest, with all the holiday stuff, I forgot to ask her.)

But we will handle that this weekend. I apologize for the delay.

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Don’t miss your chance to win one of the first two The Professor’s Rule books! @RiptideBooks

Just a reminder, you have until the end of the year to swing by our blog tour stops for Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) and comment to be entered to win in a drawing for copies of the first two books that we’ll be holding New Year’s Day.

While you’re there, be sure to enjoy some of the tidbits we’ve shared. We discuss relationship dynamics, give sneak peeks at TPR #4, and answer some of great questions from interviewers!

Here is the schedule for all our stops:

December 16, 2013 - 3 Chicks After Dark
December 16, 2013 - The Novel Approach
December 17, 2013 - Live Your Life, Buy the Book
December 18, 2013 - Pants Off Reviews
December 18, 2013 - MM Good Book Reviews
December 19, 2013 - Cup O’ Porn
December 20, 2013 - Up All Night, Read All Day
December 20, 2013 - Sid Love
December 22, 2013 - Queer Town Abbey
December 24, 2013 - Attention is Arbitrary

Also, if you swing by Riptide, you can check out my upcoming release, Strain, including THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS! Enjoy!

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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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Still time to pre-order Inch by Inch @RiptideBooks and download early! #mm #erotica #romance

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Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3) releases on Monday, December 16. But if you pre-order through Riptide Publishing, you can download it at midnight (Eastern) tomorrow, a full two days early!

Also, starting Monday, December 16 Heidi Belleau and I will be on tour, so be sure to check out our blog tour schedule to see where we’ll be. You’ll get some questions answered about your favorite characters, a couple looks ahead and what you can expect from the future of The Professor’s Rule, and you’ll have multiple chances to win copies of the earlier TPR books in case you’re not caught up yet!

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Catch A Sneak Peek of Inch By Inch (The Professor’s Rule, #3) @thejeepdiva

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Catch A Sneak Peek of Inch By Inch (The Professor’s Rule, #3) @thejeepdiva

Last month, The Jeep Diva hosted an audience participation feature for Heidi Belleau and myself. We took recommendation for the sorts of activities people wanted to see James and the Professor engage in, selected some finalists, and then took a vote. Sensory deprivation won, and now The Jeep Diva is hosting a look at the scene in question, which will appear in Inch by Inch, TPR#3. Check it out, and thanks to The Jeep Diva for featuring us!

Remember also that Inch by Inch is now up for pre-sale at Riptide and pre-ordering qualifies you to enter a drawing for free books for a year.

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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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Finally! The #GRL2013 recap post

Okay, so I’ve been pretty much in my cave since getting back from GayRomLit. Not like I’m a terribly social person to begin with, and after five days of more social exposure than I normally get in any given year, I’ve been having some “me” time. Plus editing and writing. No kidding, this is my status message on GoogleTalk right now:

Editing and/or writing. Unless your name is God or Phil Coulson, you cannot possibly have anything to say worth disturbing me for.

So yeah, there’s that, too. Strain edits are progressing apace and it’s really exciting to think that there’s only three and a half months left until it releases. Even better, review copies and an excerpt should be going out within the next month, I imagine, so I can finally start to feel like this book, which has comprised a significant chunk of my creative energy since September last year, is finally getting into people’s hands and I can start getting the pay-off (by which I mean feedback and just knowing people are reading it, which is way more important than money for my creative soul.)

Edits are also in their final stages for Inch by Inch: The Professor’s Rule #3, and I believe we’ll have cover art and more information on that very soon. Heidi and I have begun on TPR #4 and if all goes according to plan, the series will wrap up with TPR #5.

I would love to say I have pictures to share of GRL, but honestly, I’m not a camera person. Like, if something is happening around me, my first thought is never “oh, grab the camera, take a picture!” so I actually don’t have that many pictures. We’ll have to settle for words.

My journey began on Tuesday, when I flew out of PDX with Devon Rhodes. Anne Tenino was on our same flight, but on Wednesday, so we didn’t get to travel with her. Devon booked a car from the airport rather than taking a taxi or MARTA, for which I ended up being extremely grateful because I decided to be very frugal with my packing space and managed to get everything I needed to take (minus the books and business cards that shipped from the printer right to the hotel) in a carry-on size suitcase and my backpack/laptop case, which meant that what I did have was VERY HEAVY. Especially that damn backpack. If I’d had to haul that thing on my back and take MARTA I probably would have cried.

Traveling in the car with us as well was Rick R. Reed, who had been waiting in the airport after his flight from Seattle. GRL peeps were already starting to congregate in the lobby bar of the Melia when we got there, including the lovely P.D. Singer, whom I’ve been blessed to see three frickin’ times this year. I also got to meet Eden Winters and EM Lynley, as well as a handful of others. The most interesting conversation I had that night, hands-down, has to go to Anel Viz, who sat with me and gave me some really lovely feeback, both flattering and constructive, on my Impulse books, which it turned out he’d read. He’s a fascinating guy and meeting him was an absolute pleasure.

Wednesday was the Writer’s Workshop, which was great except that the air conditioning in the hotel was set to “meat locker.” Well, not according to everyone else, but I was freezing. I kept ducking into the “powder room” area of the women’s restroom because it had all these big, warm vanity lights that kept it considerably warmer than the other rooms. The reason I mention this is because when I get cold, I go into hibernation mode and all I want to do is sleep. I swear I’m part reptile or something. Coupled with an already critical sleep deficit, I decided to pass on the third session of the day and catch a nap, but before I did that, I attended the luncheon where KA Mitchell was the guest speaker, and *sigh* I would sell my soul to be able to be that interesting and glib when speaking publicly.

The fourth session, I was a panelist on the BDSM panel, moderated by Sarah Frantz. There I got to finally meet LA Witt and Rachel Haimowitz, and KA Mitchell was on that panel as well. Being the final session of the day, only six people attended, but that was fine because it was intimate and we had a lot of fun and there are six people-including my esteemed co-author Heidi Belleau-who probably now know far more personal details about me than they ever wanted, since I was on the panel as a person who actually is into BDSM in real life.

Wednesday night, Riptide hosted a dinner for all the authors and employees who managed to attend, so there were a lot more people I got to meet, including Cat Grant, LC Chase, Aleks Voinov, Abi Roux, Marie Sexton, Alex Whitehall and Ally Blue, and Riptide’s new marketing guru, Keturah Jenkins. I ended up sitting across from Ally at the table and she was just a wonderful person to talk to over dinner.

Lots of people went out Wednesday night, but by the time I got back to the hotel I discovered my feet were swelling rather alarmingly. Like, I never was that swollen even when I was pregnant. So I decided to take it easy and stuck to my room.

Thursday morning launched GRL proper, and the first function-aside from the newbie informational session hosted by Jay of JoyfullyJay, was the Supporting Author’s Signing event. I had ordered a number of print copies of the Impulse books that I could offer for sale, and I also had coupon codes for ebook downloads. Riptide was giving away copies of Giving an Inch (TPR #1) as swag, complete with excerpts from An Inch at a Time, Apple Polisher and Strain in the back. There I got to meet Allison Hickman, who has been just lovely and supportive and kind here and on other social media. It’s always an ego boost to get to sign autographs, especially being someone so new to the genre whom a lot of people haven’t even heard of, but even more gratifying was the number of people who remarked on Kerry Chin’s artwork on the Impulse covers. I’m so proud of those, I really can’t get enough of hearing how beautiful they are. You’d think I was the frickin’ artist. Everyone kept remarking how sweltering the signing room was, and I was all, “No no! This is the first time I’ve been comfortable since I got here!” Me and my inner thermostat, I tell ya.

At the signing I got to sit next to Anna Martin, the author of Tattoos & Teacups, and listen to her absolutely adorable accent for two hours. That was a lot of fun.

By the time lunch rolled around, the swelling in my feet had escalated from alarming to “Um, do I need to see a doctor for this?” P.D. Singer, a pharmacist by profession, took a look at them and asked me very earnestly if I had a history of congestive heart failure. I’m not even kidding. Seriously, the things looked like balloons and all the tissue from my shins to just about where my toes began had the consistency of molding clay. So I ended up missing Anne Tenino’s reading and the rest of the Thursday afternoon events in favor of putting my feet up on a huge stack of pillows while P.D. Singer graciously brought me lunch so I wouldn’t have to order room service. By evening the swelling had gone down enough that I ventured out to the Juke Joint party, but I was still trying to stay off my feet as much as possible, and where I was staying off my feet was not where anyone I knew-or anyone to strike up a conversation with at all, really-was lingering, so I only stayed about an hour. Then I went back to my room to put my feet up again and fight with the hotel wifi some more.

God, the hotel wifi. I could write a whole post about that alone. It was horrible. Around Friday evening or so, I made a tweet entreating the hotel internet to get fucked with a rusty pitchfork, and I think just about everyone following the #GRL2013 tag favorited or retweeted it, so I was definitely not alone in my struggles. I would pass through an area where my phone managed to connect long enough for me to get a text from my husband and by the time I could stop and reply, I wouldn’t be able to connect anymore (no, I don’t have a data plan on my new iPhone; I almost never use it anywhere where there isn’t wifi, so there’s no sense paying for one.)

Luckily, keeping my feet elevated for the best part of a whole day did the trick and the swelling had gone down by Friday morning. I spent the morning in a bit of a panic because one of the Fun Faire events was a welcome for the supporting authors hosted by Marie Sexton and Lori Witt, for which I’d been invited to do a reading. I’ve only ever done one other reading, and that was in September up in Seattle, and I kind of bumbled it a bit. I REALLY didn’t want to make a fool of myself, so I spent the morning practicing. P.D. Singer promised me I was among friends who would understand if I stumbled or stammered, as did Lori and Marie, but still. However, the reading went very well, I think. I wish I had a video of it, but to the best of my knowledge, no one was taking video of that particular event (if someone was, PLEASE hook me up!) If I had a video, it would be your first look at Chapter Three of Strain, which is where things begin to get really interesting. As it is, you’ll have to wait for the excerpt from Riptide. Sorry. So I was really happy with that event, even if I didn’t win the bag of Tucker Springs print editions. The next event was hosted by Riptide, a competition where you had to guess a book’s title based on an excerpt of a sex scene where the significant give-away details had been altered to make it unrecognizable. I managed to score a paperback of Abi Roux’s Shock & Awe, which was very enjoyable and worth its weight in gold for bragging rights to my BFF, who is a C&R addict.

Friday night was the Dine With An Author dinner, and I ended up sitting with some absolutely lovely people there, including Anna Zabo. The woman sitting to my left-whose name I can’t remember now, I’m so sorry!-actually lives in the area of Michigan where I used to live, so when she asked me about my upcoming releases and I mentioned Saugatuck Summer, she was like, “You mean, as in Saugatuck, Michigan?” and that was really awesome because she knew exactly what I was talking about and why Saugatuck is such a perfect setting for a series of m/m coming-of-age and romance stories.

After dinner, there was the Dreamspinner cocktail party, where we got to see everyone dressed to the nines. I was looking for a place to sit down with my drink and dessert and a party of three other women asked if they could sit at the empty table I’d chosen because all the others were full, and what followed was the sort of socializing I almost never do, which is comfortable, engaging conversation with virtual strangers. Usually I hide in my shell like a turtle until I know someone well enough to venture out, but that evening it was effortless and I really loved sitting and talking with them. After they had moved on, Melanie Marshall, who reviewed the Impulse books over at JoyfullyJay as well as her own blog, made room for me at her table and I got to talk to them for a while until it was time to call it a night so I could go back to my room and call my son and husband before they went to bed.

I’d say of the entire retreat, that party was the most remarkable for me, precisely because of that socialization thing. I spent an ENTIRE EVENING socializing with people I didn’t know. That never happens to me. I am absolutely incapable of bringing myself to break the ice with strangers, but from dinner onward, I didn’t hang out with a single person with whom I had any sort of acquaintance, aside from an email or two I had exchanged with Melanie thanking her for her lovely reviews.

Saturday morning, I attended P.D. Singer’s reading and then hung out in the bookseller’s room with the Riptide peeps for a while. I went out to a late breakfast with P.D., Eden Winters and a couple others, and then I had an appointment with Nicole Forcine, who aside from being an author herself is a member of the Happily Ever After video book club on YouTube. I hadn’t heard of this club before, but I’m definitely a fan now. Being the only member of the four of them who would be attending GRL, Nicole got tapped to do some author interviews and vlogging, and I arranged to do an interview with her. It just so happened that Anne Tenino was also available at the same time, so the Ladies From Portland (minus the lovely Devon Rhodes) did a joint interview. You can find that here:

The interview was a lot of fun, and I’d never met Nicole before but OMG is she a hoot. I just adore her now. It also turned out that her book club had covered Giving an Inch just a few weeks before. You can find that video here:

The night was Totally Bound’s Heaven & Hell masquerade party, for which I got to dust off a very old outfit and add a mask. I don’t have any really good pictures of myself from the party that night, so here’s one from when I bought the gown about thirteen years ago:

gown2I don’t look as good in the gown these days, because I no longer fit into the corset I was wearing under it in this picture, and Spanx just don’t achieve that same effect (namely, pushing your boobs up so high you could wear them as earrings.)

I also had some absolutely amazing old-fashioned shoes laced up with ribbons, which I ended up taking off because Sarah Frantz-God only knows how; I suspect mind-control powers-managed to get me out onto the dance floor. So I spent a good chunk of the party dancing with Sarah, Heidi Belleau, Keturah Jenkins, Alex Whitehall, and Nicole Forcine, who is just a party animal.

I was going to go to the after-hours hangout in the pub, but then I decided it would be better for me to try to pack that night instead of rushing to do it Saturday morning. So I was pretty much almost completely packed by Saturday morning, which meant I got to linger over the farewell brunch with people I didn’t get to spend a lot of time talking to during the conference. And then I got to hang out with them some more in the hotel lobby while I had lunch and waited until it was time for the car service to take Devon, Anne and I back to the airport.

So. I met a lot of people, connected with several others I already knew, and even managed to socialize with some of them after I hit my stride. All in all it was a really great time, even if it was somewhat overwhelming at times. I probably would have gotten more out of the early days if my body hadn’t decided to get weird and turn my feet into inflatable rafts. I think next year in Chicago, if I can manage it, I will try to go as a featured author, and hopefully I will feel less like a clueless newbie and hit my stride a lot sooner.

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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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One morning, Two contracts

Today I had the distinct pleasure of signing not one, but TWO, contracts for upcoming releases with Riptide Publishing.

The first is a short collaboration with Heidi Belleau called Giving an Inch. This 11,000-word short story, which is intended for release on April 15, is a contemporary story featuring grad student James and his ex, Professor Carson, who once tutored James in far more than Scottish history. While the action in this story is pretty vanilla, there’s an overtone of psychological domination and allusions to a lot of kink in the past. Not necessarily a story for the BDSM-disinclined.

The second is for my much-anticipated 20,000-word m/m Highland novella (it started as a short but, um, it grew up. In a lot of ways.) The title might still potentially change, but at the moment it’s The Laird’s Forbidden Lover. This is a historic romance set in 17th-century Scotland between two young, distant cousins: impetuous Tavish MacIntyre, destined to be laird, and staid farmer’s son Iain Munro. They fall in love as teenagers and grow to manhood struggling with questions of sin, honor, and whether or not they can ever truly be together for more than a few stolen moments a year. The anticipated release date for this title is May 6.

I’m thrilled to be able to announce these contracts and upcoming releases and very much look forward to working with Riptide!

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In honor of Banned Books Week

I’ve been watching on Twitter as a colossal piece of irony unfolds. On this week, of all weeks, Amazon has removed from their listings the newly released psychosexual thriller Flesh Cartel by Rachel Haimowitz and Heidi Belleau of Riptide Publishing.

As the authors rightfully point out, this is the same Amazon which sells Lolita, Flowers in the Attic, any number of works by Stephen King, all of which have content that is far more objectionable. Not to mention the proliferation of self-pub tentacle rape porn.

At best, that makes this move of Amazon’s hypocritical. At worst, it smacks of homophobia, because the obvious difference here is that the sibling protagonists (neither of whom is a minor, btw, unlike any number of books carried on Amazon-again, let’s eyeball Flowers in the Attic) are male.

I haven’t read Flesh Cartel yet. I definitely intend to when I feel like getting my dark on but I’m on a deadlines for the next couple months and can’t afford to jerk myself out of the headspace of my current projects. But I find this move of Amazon’s infuriating and as an author, I have to wonder which of us is next?

Therefore, I would encourage anyone and everyone to contact Amazon and register a complaint about this. Whether you support the subject matter or not, I think we can all agree that banning books = BAD, no matter what week it is.

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