Monday, December 24, 2012

Love Is Always Write; Anthologies Now Available!

Hey, everyone! I have some fun news to share! Some of you may remember early this summer, I was talking about the Love Is Always Write event being held by the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, and how I was taking part. I wrote a story for the event titled, "Of Honor and Love", my first gay historical romance.

I've talked about this story a few times, and you can read exactly how it came to happen by clicking HERE. This story is actually one of my favorites out of all I've written. I loved writing it, I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I just loved everything about it. Well now, the story is available in an anthology with more of the fantastic stories written for the Love Is Always Write event.

The event had a huge turn out. Several authors from across the gay romance genre came together to write stories inspired by pictures people posted, and they did this for free, as a gift to readers. And how many stories came out of the event? Enough to create an 11 volume anthology! 11 volumes! That's huge! The stories range in length from shorts to novellas, and they range in theme from contemporary to historical, paranormal to fantasy, and everything and anything in between. So to say among all these stories there's surely something for everyone is a very safe bet, I think.


"Of Honor and Love", is in Volume 7. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed taking part in this event, and how happy I am to be included in this anthology with so many incredibly talented authors. It was all made possible by the wonderful folks at the M/M Romance Group. I know they put in countless hours of hard work to make the event happen. They dedicated their time, their resources, their skills, and they did it all for free. My thanks and my gratitude goes out to them for all they've done for readers, authors, and the genre. Your work and time is very much appreciated!

The 11 Volumes are available for download in all ebook formats now at Goodreads. Last I checked this morning, Volumes 1-4 were available at AllRomance Ebooks, so the others will be there soon. All the anthologies, on Goodreads and AllRomance eBooks, are offered for FREE download. That's a whole lot of reading and a whole lot of talent for free! I know everyone will find many stories in these anthologies that they'll enjoy, and if you haven't already read "Of Honor and Love", I hope it'll be one of them!


Saturday, December 22, 2012

The Next Big Thing


Hello, guys and girls! Some of you may have seen on a few other blogs authors talking about the Next Big Thing. Well, the lovely and talented, Sloan Parker, tagged me to take part and answer a few questions about a WIP (work in progress) or my next book release, so here I am, talking about what will hopefully be my next big thing! My thanks to Sloan for inviting me to take part!

1.) What is the working title of your book?
      Adapting Instincts. This will be the fourth book in my Instincts series, so it needed to have "Instincts" in the title ;-) With each of the Instincts books, I try to have the first word as being relevant to the what the characters are experiencing or the theme of the story. "Adapting", fits these main characters rather well because they're both adapting and coming to accept changes in their lives and their emotions toward one another.

2.) Where did the idea come from for the book?
       This idea came about quite a long time ago, even all the way back to when I was writing Natural Instincts, Book 1 in the series. There's a character who returns throughout the series in a small role, Carl Anderson. I knew I wanted to write a story for him, and I was also fascinated with another character from that first book who had a small role, Egill Dalgaard. When I sat down to write the third book in the series, Loving Instincts, I felt there was chemistry between the two of them and somehow, someway, I needed to get them together.

3.) What is the genre of the book?
     Gay Paranormal Erotic Romance. Vampires, baby! Yeah!

4.) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
      Oh man, this is always the hardest question! I think most every author ponders with each book who you'd like to see play your characters in a movie, but for all my guys in my books, I still haven't found that right actor for any of them.

Gackt
Adapting Instincts would be tricky to cast, especially for the role of Egill, because  finding a six foot seven, burly guy with bright red hair and a Norwegian accent might be difficult ;-) I can't even think of any actors who would fit, even with dying their hair red and cutting out the accent. Carl would probably be a little easier to cast. I'd need someone with boy-next-door hotness, but not too young, since Carl is in his early thirties. See what I mean about how I can never find that perfect actor for my guys?!

It would be just as hard trying to cast the other guys, Titus, Andreas, and Daniel. Age Alex Pettyfer about 10 years, and he's got potential for Titus. For Ryunosuke, I'd be all over Gackt! Um...for the role, I mean. Okay, next question!

5.) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
     When Carl Anderson's actions endanger the life of his vampire lover, Egill Dalgaard, he must decide whether to walk deeper into vampire society, or turn his back on the only man who's ever made him feel secure. Or something like that. It's so hard to fit a 67k word novel into one sentence!

6.) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency/publisher?
      It'll be represented by a publisher, MLR Press, where the others in the series are published.

7.) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
      It took me about three months to finish this one, which is actually very fast for me, but I was working under a hard deadline for it. Then after the first draft, I did about a month of revisions before turning it in. The average for me from first written word to submission is closer to six months. I had to really push hard to finish this one faster, which is what led to me needing to take a break from writing for a while. I was just a tiny bit wiped out.

8.) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
      Besides the other books in the series, I really don't have a clue. There are a lot of great vampire stories in the gay romance genre, but I can't think of any with vampires or a "world" quite like what I've created. Really, I don't like to compare books, whether to books I've written or that I'm reading. It may seem that comparing stories about vampires would be like comparing apples to apples, but to me, it's really not, because every author creates a unique vision in the story they've written. Rather than try to hold one book up against another, I prefer to enjoy each book I read on it's own strengths and individuality.

9.) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
      Even though early in the series, I felt I wanted to do more with Carl and Egill, it was really my readers who inspired me to give a story for them serious consideration. Emails, messages on Facebook and Twitter, asking about them and if they'd get a story were great encouragement. My thanks to everyone for that!

10.) What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
        Well, I really think this is a book that if you've read the others in the series, you'll enjoy it. Some familiar faces will pop up, a lingering question or two from the last book gets answered, and of course, it's got plenty of hot action in it. But more than that, it's a love story, and is focused on the building of a new relationship and overcoming doubts to find the courage to pursue your heart. If that's the kind of story you enjoy, hopefully you'll like Adapting Instincts!

My thanks again to Sloan for tagging me to answer these questions. And if you'd like to see some other big things coming from a couple fantastically talented authors, Jambrea Jo Jones will soon be talking about her Next Big Thing, and later next week, so will Melanie Tushmore. Be sure to swing by their places and see what they've got going on! Thanks to everyone who read about my next big thing, and I hope if you decide to give Adapting Instincts a read when it releases in March 2013, that you'll enjoy it!


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

My Reading Buddy, Keegan

Hey, everyone! I shared these pics on my Facebook and Twitter, and thought, why not share them here, too? Here's one of the reasons it takes me so long to finish reading a book. This is Keegan, my reading buddy and also one of my feline co-authors. Fortunately, he and I have similar tastes in books ;-)




Saturday, December 15, 2012

M/M Romance Group Best of 2012 Awards

Hey, ladies and gentlemen! I've got some fun news to share! Over on Goodreads, there's a large and very cool group called the M/M Romance Group with over 8,600 lovely readers and authors as their members. I'm sure many of you are familiar with them, probably even members, but for those who aren't, they're a community focused on reading and celebrating Male/Male Romance. I've talked about them a few times here, most recently when I wrote my historical novella, Of Honor and Love, for their Love is Always Write event. But now, the group is holding their Best Of 2012 Awards, and I was very surprised and flattered to find my books in several categories!

The voting for the awards began on the 10th, I believe, and I'm not entirely sure when it ends. I'm very sorry for only just finding out about that and posting this now! With being on my little writing break, I've fallen a bit out of touch with important news like this. I happened to be on Facebook this morning and saw a link posted to the survey for voting. As I was scrolling through the nominations, I saw my name, my books, and my characters in a few categories. I was absolutely thrilled and very touched that some kind people had thought of me and my work when the nominations were being accepted. I had heard during the nominations that Titus was nominated for Best Vampire, but I hadn't known of the other nominations until I was looking through the lists. Here are the categories I found my work nominated in:


Category 2 - Favorite All Time M/M Romance Book – Conquest

Catergory 3 - Favorite All Time M/M Series  - Conquest series

Category 4 - Favorite All Time M/M author – S.J. Frost

Category 5 - Favorite All Time M/M Characters – Jesse and Evan, Conquest series

Category 7 – Best Cover – Loving Instincts

Category 14 – Hottest Vampire – Titus

Category 19 – Best Story That Should/Must Have a Sequel – Loving Instincts

Category 37 – Best Musicians/Rock Stars – Heartstrings AND Feeling the Rhythm

Category 39 – Best Paranormal – Loving Instincts

I'm pretty sure these are all of them, but I'll admit, I was getting a little dizzy and star-stuck looking at all the amazing titles and authors in these awards! It's really incredible to be included with so many talented authors and great works, and I'm very grateful to those who nominated me. Thank you! And my thanks goes out to the M/M Romance Group, as well, for all their hard work and dedication to our genre, readers, and authors.

If you'd like to see all the amazing books and authors that are nominated, and possibly throw in your vote - for ANY book, character, or author - here's a link to the voting survey: http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=1af2af8b-773e-4236-ab9e-c4affac951c5

My thanks again and again for these wonderful nominations! I'm so very honored and flattered by them :-)


Friday, December 14, 2012

Giveaway at International Heat

Hello, everyone! I just wanted to drop a quick note to y'all and let you know that I was invited today, December 12th, to be a guest over at the very fun blog, International Heat. They're celebrating the end of the world ;-) I was asked to list a few items off my Bucket List, but I'm also offering a giveaway over there. Just leave a comment on the post with me and the lovely JR Patrick, and you'll be entered for a chance to win one of my books, winner's choice of title, in ebook.

Here's the link for those who'd like to visit: http://internationalheat.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/its-the-end-of-the-world-threesome-time/

My thanks to the ladies at International Heat for having me over today! Hope everyone who stops by there enjoys the post, and good luck to those who enter the giveaway!