Happy Friday everyone! This week, I have a short gay erotic historical for you - A Roll of the Dice by Ellie Thomas. Joshua's trying to support himself during his art studies working two jobs. Some things don't change much... Come have a listen. :D

A Roll of the Dice
Ellie Thomas

​Books2Read

Joshua Jones is in London to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. As a young black man from a modest background, he works hard to pay for his painting classes, both as a fencing master’s assistant, then as a waiter in an exclusive gaming club, which his uncle manages.

During the London Season when the club as at its busiest, the last thing Joshua expects is to find romance. But when mesmerising older man, Frank Bartlett, is determined to seduce him, how can he resist? Joshua now finds he has another problem. How can he stop himself falling for the object of his desire?

About Ellie:

Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.

Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.
 
https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/
 
https://www.facebook.com/elliethomasauthor/

*deep breath* Things are still moving slowly, but they're moving. We have:

1. A signed contract for Ryld's Shadows: AURA 4. More info on actual production dates and cover and so on will come later. I was anxious, but the publisher snapped it up quickly.

2. Some actual progress on Variants 2 - From the Noblest Motives. An actual chapter one is nearly complete. Some of you may recall I had to trash the entire beginning after rewriting Rarely Pure and Never Simple. It just didn't work any longer. Some of you may also know that I tend to write slooowly at the beginning of a new project. 300 words is a good day.

3. If you're going to be at GRL in St Louis this year (all gods of travel willing), I'll be participating in the charm bracelet scavenger hunt. (Participants pick up a charm bracelet and a list of authors to find - each author gives them a charm representing their work.)

The charm I picked is a hedgehog to represent both Leopold from the Brimstone series and Mrs. Pickle from Geoffrey the Very Strange. The gold one is the official charm. The one with a bit of pink is one I'll have a few of in case you'd like an extra Leopold charm. I just thought they were pretty.

Happy Friday, everyone! This week, we have the first chapter of Addison Albright's Change of Plans! Gay fantasy romance with some fun tropes along the way - come have a listen. :)

Change of Plans
by Addison Albright

​JMS Books
Universal Link

Once upon a time, two handsome young princes fell in love, faced down adversity, and lived happily-ever-after ... until one romantic evening, they unwittingly ate a confection laced with a mind-wiping toxin.
 
Crown Prince Efren of Zioneven blindsided Prince Marcelo of Sheburat when he used The Contingency Plan embedded in a peace treaty to marry the naïve young prince. Now, Marcelo is shocked again when he awakens in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar land, in the arms of a stranger who’s taking such liberties!
 
Will that ignominious new beginning to their relationship doom their chances at rekindling their love? Or will Efren’s giddiness and the less formal surroundings of Zioneven propel them toward a more teasingly fun rapport?
 
Marcelo and Efren have forgotten more than their love. On their journey home to Zioneven, their Best-Laid Plans went awry when Marcelo was abducted. Now, neither remembers the unexpected strength of character and ingenuity Marcelo manifested to survive his harrowing ordeal, or Efren’s frantic search for his new husband.
 
Were Marcelo and Efren specifically targeted for the Forget-Me-Not poisoning, or were they the victims of a random assault? Is this new attack related to Marcelo’s abduction and his sister’s death? Will Marcelo revert to his old mild-mannered, unassuming self, or will he step up to prove he’s the same brave man his new family claims he is amid the fresh danger swirling around them?
​

About Addison:

Addison Albright is a writer living in the middle of the USA. Her stories are gay romance in contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction genres. She generally adds a subtle touch of humor, a dash of drama/angst, and a sprinkle of slice-of-life to her stories. Her education includes a BS in Education with a major in mathematics and a minor in chemistry. Addison loves spending time with her family, reading, popcorn, boating, French fries, “open window weather,” cats, math, and anything chocolate. She loves to read pretty much anything and everything, anytime and anywhere.
 
Website
Facebook Page
Facebook Profile
Twitter (@AddisonAlbright)
BookBub
Amazon

Hooray! Ryld's Shadows, AURA #4 went off to the publisher this morning and the editor in chief has already let me know who the editor will be.

We should have more info on release dates soon. There are plans for a full second set of three books. We just have to write the other two. ;)

A working blurb to give you an idea of the new story:

AURA's offices have been quiet since the mage tower incident—as quiet as they can be for an agency dedicated to policing holes in reality—and the department heads have been free to turn their attention back to mundane matters. The return to quiet bureaucracy gives AURA's Director of Research, Kai Hiltas, the time to turn his energy to a new issue: a young drow with unusual and dangerous powers named Ryld.

Though his shadows always lurk at the edges of his vision, Ryld does his best to live quietly and not let them hurt anyone. He has his work, his apartment, and a succession of minders assigned by AURA who are, ostensibly, there to keep him safe in his new world and to prevent him from causing any scenes with his shadows. Most of the time, the arrangement works. But one disastrous incident causes Ryld's minder to leave him unattended and lost—the precise thing he was hired to prevent.

To replace the faithless minder, Kai proposes Hank, a half-goblin accountant recently in the middle of a string of terrible luck, while Kai works out how best to get Ryld the magical training he so desperately needs. For his part, Hank truly likes Ryld and insists he would be happier working as Ryld's companion rather than as a controlling minder.

As Hank and Ryld slowly come to terms with sharing space—and eventually more—Kai's search for a teacher for Ryld takes them out west on the invitation of the Elvenhome's aelfe queen and right into the lap of inter-elven feuds, ancient prejudice, conspiracies and trafficking rings. What should have been a pleasant visit soon turns into more than even forever-scheming Kai can handle.

Happy Friday, everyone! This week's reading excerpt is from a contemporary gay fiction short story by Ofelia Gränd. Heart-tugging, to say the least. Come have a listen. <3

About Ofelia:

Ofelia Gränd is Swedish, which often shines through in her stories. She likes to write about everyday people ending up in not-so-everyday situations, and hopefully also getting out of them. She writes romance, contemporary, paranormal, Sci-Fi and whatever else catches her fancy.

Her books are written for readers who want to take a break from their everyday life for an hour or two.

When Ofelia manages to tear herself from the screen and sneak away from her husband and children, she likes to take walks in the woods…if she’s lucky she finds her way back home again.
 
Find Ofelia on social media
Blog :: Newsletter :: Instagram :: Facebook Page :: Facebook Profile :: Goodreads :: Bookbub :: Pinterest

Psst. Hey. Do you want a sneak preview of the next AURA book? Come on, shh, this way...

Ryld's Shadows: AURA 4, coming to a book vendor near you. Soon.

Happy Friday, everyone! I have something more literary this week - an excerpt from Alma Alexander's Midnight at Spanish Gardens! Alternate timelines at the end of the world. :)

Midnight at the Spanish Gardens
by Alma Alexander

​Amazon

​On the eve of the end of the world, 20 December 2012, five friends meet in Spanish Gardens, the cafe where they had celebrated their college graduation twenty years before. Over Irish coffees, they reminisce—and reveal long-held and disturbing secrets.

Each friend in turn is given a curious set of instructions by an enigmatic bartender named Ariel:
"Your life is filled with crossroads and you are free to choose one road or another at any time. Stepping through this door takes away all choices except two—the choice to live a different life, or return to this one...."

Each in turn passes through the portal and are faced with new lives and challenges. Their decisions show a new life—or something far worse. At the end of the world, it's a chance for redemption, or a chance to learn something about themselves.

International bestselling author, Alma Alexander, mixes a world of possibilities and paths. What if you could change the past—go right instead of left, fall in love with a different person, change careers or families, or even change your sex. Midnight at Spanish Gardens brings those choices to life.

About Alma:

Alma Alexander's life so far has prepared her very well for her chosen career. She was born in a country which no longer exists on the maps, has lived and worked in seven countries on four continents (and in cyberspace!), has climbed mountains, dived in coral reefs, flown small planes, swum with dolphins, touched two-thousand-year-old tiles in a gate out of Babylon. She is a novelist, anthologist and short story writer who currently shares her life between the Pacific Northwest of the USA (where she lives with the obligatory two writers’ cats) and the wonderful fantasy worlds of her own imagination. You can find out more about Alma and her books on her website (www.AlmaAlexander.org), at her Amazon author page (https://amzn.to/2N6xE9u), on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AlmaAlexander), at herFacebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlmaAlexander/),  or at her Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/AlmaAlexander)

Things are going slowly here in the cave, but that's sometimes a good thing. Making sure the stories work is more important than speed.

Rarely Pure and Never Simple is with the line editor now. Final word count to come, but it will be at least 10K longer than the original version.

There are new scenes, scenes that have been moved about, adjustments to character arcs and romance arcs, and an eye kept out for problematic language.

It's still the same story? But I hope it's a better story, too.

Ryld's Shadows: AURA 4, with Bellora Quinn, should be back from all the betas soon. We're getting blurbage and things ready for submission in the meanwhile and hope to have news for you next month. Fingers crossed for us.

For Rarely Pure and Never Simple, that is. Quite possibly the most extensive rewrites I've ever done for any piece.

It is, in essence, still the same story. Some things have been moved about, some things added, some small things taken away, some inconsistencies addressed in character and worldbuilding as well as a better foundation laid for the rest of the story.

I think it's time to stop messing with it and move on to the rest of editing. :) Yes, this has set the writing calendar back a bit, but it was necessary. On we go...

All right, so it's been a bad week for writing work. Some weeks are like that.

The new AURA novel I'm working on with Bellora is with the betas - there's even a title. Yay! Ryld's Shadows  will be offered to Pride first when it's ready. We'll see if they want it. :D

​Blurb will be coming soon. If you want to catch up before the release, meet some of the characters, you can pick up the first 3 volumes individually or as a box set.