July Reader Appreciation Day: The Prize List!

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here it is! This is the incredible prize list for Reader Appreciation Day! RAD will be held this Saturday, July 20th, at The Sweet Spot! This amazing collection of prizes has been generously donated by all these talented authors as their way of saying "thank you" to the readers out there. There are links with each prize listed, so just clink on those to learn more!

1. Tyler Robbins - ebook copy of winner's choice: BEYOND HONOR, IMMORTAL THIRST or A BEAUTIFUL LIE
2. Z.A. Maxfield - ebook copy of GRIME AND PUNISHMENT
3. Tara Lain - ebook copy of winner's choice of SPELL CAT or BRUSH WITH CATASTROPHE
4. HL Holston - ebook copy of THE MOON'S DIRTY LIGHT by H.L. Holston & Eleanor Bruce
5. Kendall McKenna - ebook copy of THE FINAL LINE and winner's choice of a set of character dog tags
6. Willa Okati - ebook copy of THE QUIET GAME (coming from Total-e-Bound in early August)
7. Willa Okati - ebook copy of MIGHTY CASEY
8. Angel Martinez - ebook copy of SUB ZERO
9. Erica Pike - ebook copy of winner's choice: A COLLEGE FUN AND GAYS ebook
10. J.P. Bowie - ebook copy of winner's choice from backlist
11. Pender Mackie - ebook copy of WISHFUL THINKING
12. Diana DeRicci - ebook copy of winner's choice from backlist
13. L.C. Chase - ebook copy of PICKUP MEN
14. Marie Sexton - PDF copy of FLOWERS FOR HIM by Marie Sexton and Rowan Speedwell
15. Z. Allora - ebook copy of SUBTLE INNUENDO
16. L M Brown - ebook copy of winner's choice of BETWEEN GOOD & EVIL (Heavenly Sins 2) or BETWEEN HEAVEN & HELL (Heavenly Sins 1)
17. K. Z. Snow - ebook copy of MERMAN
18. Vicktor Alexander - ebook copy of IMPOSSIBLE
19. Michael Mandrake - ebook copy of winner's choice from backlist and $5 gift card to Amazon
20. Jambrea Jo Jones - ebook copy of UNCONVENTIONAL ATLANTA
21. Sloan Parker - winner's choice of $15 Amazon.com or All Romance eBooks Gift Card
22. S.J. Frost - ebook copy of winner's choice from backlist

Sloan, Jambrea, and I give our deepest thanks to all of these wonderful authors for their generosity and for joining with us in showing appreciation to readers.

Any author who would still like to donate a prize is welcomed to. All you have to do is send out an email to: thesweetspotmm@gmail.com  Please include what you'd like to donate for the July giveaway, a link to your work, and a cover art pic. Reader Appreciation Day is also an Open Excerpt Day, so all M/M authors are invited to stop by the Yahoo group, share excerpts, and your latest news! And readers, make sure you swing by too and see what some of your favorite authors are up to.

As usual, the prize list will be posted throughout the day at The Sweet Spot Yahoo group, starting at 8:00 am EST. Reader Appreciation Day wraps up about 8:00 pm EST, with the winners announced shortly thereafter. Authors who have donated a prize will be contacted at about the same time with their winner so they can send their prize personally. To enter in the giveaway, just reply to any of the giveaway threads on the group.

Hope to see everyone tomorrow at The Sweet Spot!

Reader Appreciation Day: July 20th

Hello, everyone! It's almost time for another Reader Appreciation Day and Open Excerpt Day over at The Sweet Spot! Here's the official announcement for July's RAD!

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This Saturday, July 20th, is Reader Appreciation Day at The Sweet Spot, the Yahoo Group run by Sloan Parker, Jambrea Jo Jones, and me! This fun event is held on the third Saturday of every month. The list of prizes donated by generous authors will be posted this Friday.

Sloan, Jambrea, and I are thrilled to announce M/M Reader Appreciation Day at The Sweet Spot. This is one day every month for authors of M/M romance to say "thanks" to all you readers out there who support our writing efforts.

This month's Reader Appreciation Day will be held on Saturday, July 20th. On that day, we'll post a giveaway thread throughout the day featuring a full list of all prizes available in the group. Just respond to one of the giveaway threads on the Yahoo Group between 8am and 8pm EST to be included in the drawing.

Readers, stop by the Yahoo Group  to chat with authors and enter for a chance to win free books and other prizes from a variety of M/M authors.

Authors, if you're interested in participating in the giveaway, send an email to: thesweetspotmm@gmail.com
Please include what you'd like to donate for the July giveaway, a link, and a cover art pic. For prizes, you can donate books, gift certificates, swag, and other items. All types of prizes are welcomed! In the future, we'll include you in our monthly announcement for a chance to donate. You can participate as little or as often as you'd like in the RAD giveaway.

Reader Appreciation Day is also an Open Excerpt Day, and all authors are welcomed to post to blurbs and excerpts of their work, and of course, share any other fun news you've got going on!

Hope to see you all at The Sweet Spot!

Blurb, Release Date, & Cover Art: A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY

Hello, ladies and gentlemen! It's with great pleasure that I share with you the cover art and blurb for my next release, A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY.

This cover was designed by the talented Jared Rackler, and I give him my deepest thanks for using his skills to make it. As you'll notice, this cover states "A Novel" on it, and that's to separate it from the novella version, which was written about two years ago and never formally published. This story takes the novella and expands it into the full, complete novel of rock star, Ash Ivers, and country music star, Jackson Abrams. The novella was roughly about 28k words. This book is 60k. Where the novella ended, this story flows on to finish Ash and Jackson's tale.

The story will release at MLR Press on August 16th!

And now, I present to you the cover and blurb for A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY!

Blurb: 

Ash Ivers says and does what he wants, and with being the lead singer of the world famous rock band, From Ashes, he gets away with both. Three years ago, his mouth got the better of him, and he started a media feud with county music star, Jackson Abrams. When they’re both booked to play a charity concert, he sees his chance to finally confront Jackson in person. Though, he’s uncertain if his anger will hold against his attraction to the singing cowboy.

Jackson Abrams is the darling of country music. He’s polite, charming, handsome…and he has a secret that he fears could jeopardize his career. When it comes to the cocky rock star, Ash Ivers, he’s infuriated and intrigued by him. He wants their feuding to stop, but he also doesn’t want to lose the attention it gives him from Ash.

As Ash and Jackson meet, the heat of anger turns to passion. But when Jackson’s world starts crumbling around him, will their differences make them stronger, or drive them apart?

Equal Rights Blog Hop Winner!

Hello ladies and gentlemen! I have the winner from my giveaway for the Equal Rights Hop, thanks to Random.org for shuffling all the entries around. And the winner is....

Susan! I'll be getting in touch with you very soon :D

My thanks goes out to everyone who stopped by here for the hop and for showing their support for Equal Rights!

Equal Rights Blog Hop and Giveaway

Hey there, everyone! I've got a fun event going on here for the next few days. I'm taking part in the Equal Rights Blog Hop hosted by Queer Town Abbey. Several very talented authors are also taking part, so do be sure to visit Queer Town Abbey's site, see all the participating authors, and pay them a visit on their blogs.

For the theme of this hop, each participating author is to write what it means to be a part of the GLBT community, and also include a question at the end for everyone to answer. You can then take that answer to Queer Town Abbey's site and enter to win one of the Grand Prizes. The answer to my question will be in this post, so be on the lookout ;-) 

In addition, I'm also giving away a copy of one of my books, in ebook, winner's choice of title. Just leave a comment on this post (be sure to include your email address) to be entered in my giveaway.

So, what does it mean for me to be included in the GLBT community? Well, for me, I'm a heterosexual woman. I've never made any secret of that since becoming an author of gay romance. I hope it's not a surprise to anyone now! So while I may not be homosexual, bisexual, or transgender, I am a straight ally, and I do feel welcomed by the GLBT community because of that and my writing. Having that acceptance and support means more than I can ever adequately express.

I wrote my first gay erotic romance book, CONQUEST, back in 2005, and finally started submitting it to publishers in 2008. After all this time, it's still my favorite book out of all the stories I've written :-) I remember back when I wrote it, I didn't know about the M/M genre, which was much smaller then, so I submitted it to general romance publishers, because...well, the book was romance. It just happened to have two men falling in love rather than a man and a woman. 

I didn't think much of that difference, because in my eyes, love is love. I received quite the wake-up call that some of those romance publishers, at that time, didn't view it the same way. But those rejections only fueled my determination to get the story published. I felt it was even more important to put out a book featuring a strong, loving relationship between two men. That determination led me to find my current publisher, MLR Press, and my goal continues to be putting out positive stories featuring gay men.

I'm proud to support equal rights and write the stories that I do. It's about supporting all individuals, of all identities and sexualities, and working together to make the world a more positive and beautiful place.

Now for your question that you can take the answer of over to QTA's site and use for entering in the Grand Prize giveaway! What is my favorite book that I've written?

My thanks to everyone who's stopped by today, and to Queer Town Abbey for organizing the hop! Good luck to all in the giveaways!

News and Reviews

Hello, everyone! It's time for a long overdue update! I do apologize for not posting more regularly. The good news of that is I've been spending all my free time throwing myself into writing. This year is turning out to be my biggest release year yet, as far as quantity goes. I started out the year with Adapting Instincts, then came To The Other Side, next up will be A Little Bit Country, and after that will be Refined Instincts, Book 5 in the Instincts series.

Yep. That's right. I've finished revising Refined Instincts and it's now ready to be sent off to my amazing editor at MLR Press! Woo hoo! Though, I probably shouldn't celebrate too much, because I still have to write the blurb and synopsis, but hey, the story is finished so that's a good enough reason to celebrate in my book ;-)

With the vampires ready to go again, now it's time for me to think about what project I'll start writing next, and I'm feeling the guys from the Terra series coming in strong, so I'll most likely be starting Book 2 with them.

And speaking of the Terra series, To The Other Side has gotten some really great reviews since it released! For those who are interested, here's some you can check out with links to the reviews.

4.75 stars out of 5 at Joyfully Jay. Thank you, Jay!

The cover for To The Other Side was also selected as one of the Favorite Covers for June at Joyfully Jay! Yay! And more thanks to Jay for that honor, and congratulations to the cover artist, Jared Rackler!

4.5 Nymphs out of 5 at Literary Nymphs. Thank you, Chocolate Minx!

4.5 hearts out of 5 at MM Good Book Reviews. Thank you, Pixie!

The Armchair Reader also gave it a "Really Liked It". Thank you, Cole!

4 stars out of 5 at Bea's Hive Romance Book Reviews. Thank you, Bea!

I couldn't be more thrilled with these reviews, and I give my thanks to each reviewer for taking the time to read the story and express their thoughts in these insightful reviews. All your work is very much appreciated!

Since I'll be going back to the other side for my next writing project, I'm hoping the writing will go fast and smooth, and maybe, just maybe, have Book 2 ready to release at the end of this year. But I'm not going to force the story and let it unfold at it's own pace like I always do. I'm also hoping to start a novella soon with Brandon and Shunichi from the Conquest series.

As for a tentative release schedule of my upcoming works, my editor and I are continuing to work toward an August release for A Little Bit Country. We're still in edits with it, so it's possible it might get pushed back to a September release, but we're doing all we can to have it out as soon as possible. I should have some cover art and the blurb for it to share soon!

After A Little Bit Country, it'll be the vampires coming back in Refined Instincts. In our chats, my editor and I are thinking a possible October release for it.

And there it all is! What I've been up to and what's been going on in my little writing world. Hope all sounds good to everyone!