Wonderful review for FINDING A DREAM at Jessewave

My newest release, FINDING A DREAM, was reviewed at Jessewave, receiving 4.5 stars out of 5.  The review is thoughtful and well written, and I'm so absolutely thrilled!  For anyone who would like to read it, please CLICK HERE to go to Jessewave's site. My sincere appreciation to the reviewer, Cole, for taking the time to read it and help spotlight how my editor's and my royalties for this story are getting donated to The Trevor Project. And thank you to all the people who have commented on the review with their kind words and insights about the story and the Conquest series. I'm all smiles thanks to all of you :-D

Enter to win FINDING A DREAM

I wanted to pass on to everyone, if you haven't gotten to pick up my last release, FINDING A DREAM, here's your chance to win a copy over on Jessewave!  All you have to do it comment on the post for it.  Here's the link to enter: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/?p=39671  Good luck to all who enter, and thank you to Jessewave for running the giveaway!

Blurb:
Bullied and harassed at school for his sexuality, Dillon Davis can’t see his life getting any better, but he can see it getting worse. Depressed, wounded in spirit and body, he’s nearing a point of hopelessness, until he sees a picture of his favorite stage actor, Brandon Alexander, with his partner, Shunichi Miyamoto.At learning Shunichi runs a karate dojo, a spark of hope comes to Dillon of learning to defend himself, and most of all, meeting Brandon.

Brandon Alexander is filled with compassion for Dillon the moment he meets him.He knows all too well what it’s like to be scorned for being gay.He and Shunichi want nothing more than to help him, but when Dillon never returns to the dojo, they fear what’s happened to him.

New Release...FINDING A DREAM

I'm absolutely ecstatic to announce, my newest work, a novella titled FINDING A DREAM, has just gone live on MLR Press's website!  All my works are very special to me, and this one is no different, though it does carry a little uniqueness to it.  This is the story where my editor, Kris Jacen, and I are donating all our royalties from it to The Trevor Project, a non-profit organization that works to provide life-saving and life-affirming resources to LGBTQ youth.  It's YOU, those who purchase this story, who are providing the funds for the donation to happen, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

At the moment, it's only available at MLR Press, but in a couple weeks, it'll be branching out to all major ebook vendors.  It's already available in several formats at MLR to fit just about any eReader.  To purchase it at MLR Press, please CLICK HERE.

And for those who'd like to see them, here's the cover and blurb.

Blurb:

Bullied and harassed at school for his sexuality, Dillon Davis can’t see his life getting any better, but he can see it getting worse.  Depressed, wounded in spirit and body, he’s nearing a point of hopelessness, until he sees a picture of his favorite stage actor, Brandon Alexander, with his partner, Shunichi Miyamoto.  At learning Shunichi runs a karate dojo, a spark of hope comes to Dillon of learning to defend himself, and most of all, meeting Brandon.

Brandon Alexander is filled with compassion for Dillon the moment he meets him.  He knows all too well what it’s like to be scorned for being gay.  He and Shunichi want nothing more than to help him, but when Dillon never returns to the dojo, they fear what’s happened to him.

Special Announcement

Some of y'all might remember awhile back I did a post titled, "What Has S.J. Been Up To?", where I talked about my current writing projects.  I mentioned in that post I was working on a novella with Brandon and Shunichi from the Conquest Series, and something special might be getting done with my royalties from it, but I didn't want to say what until everything was finalized.  Well, now everything is, and I can let you all in on it.

The story is titled, FINDING A DREAM, and it's going to be published by MLR Press in ebook form.  It's roughly around 80 pages, and while we don't have a solid release date for it yet, we're hoping to get it out before the end of the year or just into the beginning of the New Year.  Timeline wise, the story takes place directly after KEYS TO LOVE, though I think it can be read without having read KEYS prior.

But what's going to make this story a little extra special is I'll be donating all of my royalties from it to The Trevor Project.  And to top it off, my editor, Kris Jacen, is putting her royalties in with mine.  How awesome of an editor do I have to do this with me?  And how incredible of a publisher do I have in MLR Press to help me make this happen?  Both absolutely amaze me.  I'm so thrilled and touched with how everyone came together to support me in doing this. 

The Trevor Project is a non-profit organization that works for suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth.  As they say on their website:

"The Trevor Project is determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources including our nationwide, 24/7 crisis intervention lifeline, digital community and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone."

Too many precious lives have been lost because of bullying and intolerance.  With the royalties from this story going to The Trevor Project, we hope to help those in need and to raise awareness for acceptance of all individuals who share this world. 

What has S.J. been up to?

It hit me last night that for all the posts I've put up since launching this blog, I haven't really given an update about what I'm working on.  I get bad author points for that!  Sorry!  So, let me try and catch everyone up with what's been going on in my little writing world :-)

For the past couple weeks I've been working on a novella, tentatively titled FINDING A DREAM, and just last night, my awesome editor sent the first round of edits on it back to me.  I'm really excited about this story because if things go the way I'm hoping, something special might be getting done with my royalties for it, along with my editor's.  I'm going to hold off on saying what until things are finalized, but I will say the story involves a couple characters from the Conquest series, Brandon Alexander and Shunichi Miyamoto. 

And my upcoming m/m vampire erotic romance novel, NATURAL INSTINCTS, is also finished and will be going into edits in the next few weeks.  We're thinking maybe a January-ish release for its release, but please don't hold me to that.  The holidays could slow me down with working on edits when I get them, but I'll definitely try my best to get them done as fast as I can!

Let's see, what else...  Oh yeah, more rockers.  Those who have read NO FEAR and KEYS TO LOVE might remember the band Black Heart Down.  I have a rough draft finished for their story, centered around two band members in particular.  It's another novel length work, and its tentative title is BLACK HEART DOWN, because you know, I'm creative like that ;-)  But BHD it slated for after the vampires, so probably looking at the first quarter of 2011 for those boys to take the stage.

Well, I think that's about it for all the immediate projects I've got in the works.  Here's hoping they all sound good and readable to everyone!