![]() Restoration (originally titled Aftermath) is probably the most serious story I ever wrote. It wasn't written from that happy place of world building and plot twists. It was written in anger. For the Restoration Blog Tour, I've written about several myths still perpetuated about male rape, about support and how a partner can help. I've written about why I wrote something so different from my normal work. This one's important to me - I don't write Contemporary unless it's for a reason. Thank you to all the wonderful bloggers who were kind enough to let me discuss a difficult subject on their blogs: Lee Brazil Piper Vaughn Ethan Stone Love Bytes Reviews (with a pre-release review of Restoration) Fallen Angel Reviews Sharita Lira V.s. Morgan Beany Sparks Rainbow Gold Reviews ![]() Restoration Mischief Corner Books All Romance Amazon Blurb: Victor and Cody have the American dream - a house, two cars, upwardly mobile income, and each other - but all is not well in paradise. Cody's trust in other people’s goodwill led to one recent assault. A few months later, a friend’s betrayal leads to another. Battered every waking moment by fear and shame, all his joyful creative energy transforms into brittle, aggressive lashing out. Victor, wracked by guilt and shackled to a grueling, time-devouring career, must find a way to help Cody back from the darkness and to keep him safe from his self-destructive behavior. With the help of a common-sense therapist, some loyal friends and Cody's own impetuous nature, their recovery and their relationship might even stand a chance. Please Note: This is a re-edited third addition with expanded content. (Formerly titled Aftermath) Excerpt: When did they drain all the colors out of everything? Cody stared out the window of his hospital room. Even with the drugs in his system, mood levelers one of the doctors had said, everything hurt. Strange things made him nauseous and irritable, like watching the clouds drift and change. Clouds shouldn’t have made him angry, the dull red of the blanket his mother had brought him shouldn’t have, but they did. The curve of a chair arm, the lift in a nurse’s voice, the squeak of shoes all made him angry in a terrible, gray way, anger through a miasmic fog. It’s my own fault. Not strong enough or man enough to defend myself. Not smart enough to stay clear of trouble. Stupid. Weak. Worthless. He wanted to claw his brain out of his skull. He wanted to scream but didn’t have the energy. He wanted the flickering images to stop replaying behind his eyes, awake, asleep, he couldn’t escape them. Worst of all, he wanted that horrible, cigarette-ruined voice to stop whispering in his ear.
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Today, we have multi-genre author Jamie Fessenden visiting us with his new M/M Mystery Romance - Murder on the Mountain. I'm very excited for this one - stay with us and don't forget to enter the contest! The floor is yours, Jamie: ![]() Day One of the Murder on the Mountain Blog Tour! I grew up in Gorham, NH, a small town of less than 3,000 people just 70 miles south of the Canadian border. It's a beautiful area where narrow roads wind through tall forests of birch and pine, hugging steep cliffs and making you pray your brakes don't give out on the hairpin turns. The Old Man of the Mountain was nearby, and though it crumbled off its perch on Cannon Mountain in 2003, its profile can still be found everywhere you look, in gift shops, hotels, restaurants.... But the mountain that dominates everything is Mount Washington, the highest mountain peak in the northeastern United States. Its peak is 6,288 feet above sea level, and it boasts the highest recorded wind velocity in the world, when a velocity of 231 mph was logged on April 12th, 1934. On January 16th, 2004, the weather observatory on the summit recorded a temperature of -43.6 degrees Fahrenheit and winds of 87.5 mph, which resulted in a wind chill value of -102.59 degrees. People die up there. A lot. Since 1849, there have been 135 recorded deaths on Mount Washington and the other peaks of the Presidential Range. So where better to begin a murder mystery than on the peak of Mount Washington? A friend ventured up onto the mountain in February to live with the rangers in the Sherman Adams building at the summit for a week. He didn't go just for my sake—he wanted to see what it was like up there for the rangers—but he took a bunch of questions I'd written down with him, which one of the rangers was kind enough to answer, and made videos for me. Murder on the Mountain is set in October, so the weather isn't nearly as severe as my friend experienced in the middle of winter. He sent me nerve-wracking video clips of rangers being buffeted around by hurricane force winds in a blizzard. The weather I describe in my novel is mild by comparison. Perhaps someday I'll set another mystery on the summit that takes place in February instead of the fall. For the next four weeks, Murder on the Mountain will be touring the blogs of several MM Romance authors, providing tidbits of background information about the novel. If you leave an email address in the comments or email me at [email protected], you'll be entered into a drawing for either a free copy of Murder on the Mountain or a $40 gift certificate to Dreamspinner Press! To check out the other stops on the blog tour, visit: http://jamiefessenden.com/2014/08/22/murder-on-the-mountain-blog-tour/ When Jesse Morales, a recent college grad who aspires to be a mystery writer, volunteers to work on the summit of Mt. Washington for a week, he expects to work hard. What he doesn’t expect is to find a corpse in the fog, lying among the rocks, his head crushed. The dead man turns out to be a young tourist named Stuart Warren, who strayed from his friends while visiting the mountain. Kyle Dubois, a widowed state police detective, is called to the scene in the middle of the night, along with his partner, Wesley Roberts. Kyle and Jesse are instantly drawn to one another, except Jesse’s fascination with murder mysteries makes it difficult for Kyle to take the young man seriously. But Jesse finds a way to make himself invaluable to the detective by checking into the hotel where the victim's friends and family are staying and infiltrating their circle. Soon, he is learning things that could very well solve the case—or get him killed. BUY LINK: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5335 Really, Angel? Why retitle a story for a re-release? What the heck are you playing at? Here's the thing. Aftermath was originally published in 2006, by a lovely little company called Forbidden Publications that, unfortunately, couldn't survive after the owner's health deteriorated. Eight years ago, (it's been HOW long?) the title was unique among M/M contemporaries. Now? Not so much. There are at least a dozen M/M titles that use "Aftermath" for the title, the series name, or as part of the title. It was time to start fresh - new title, new cover, fresh eyes to read the story. We found some major issues with the original - almost as if I'd started out to write one set of characters and later decided on another. Yeah...not good. But with all the revisions and additions since the original publication, it's still the same story, still written because of the same impetus. And it's still - even more unfortunately - relevant today. I wrote Aftermath as a reaction to something I overheard on the radio on some horrid talk show. "Men can't be raped," this dreadful waste of human space said. "If they're being so called raped, they're gay, and then it's not really rape, is it?" I wish I was making this up. I also wish that this attitude, and all the the other myths about rape and rape survivors, male or female, would go away. We should have learned some things by now. Some of us have. As a society? Not so much. New title or not, the reason for this story has not changed. This is one couple's journey back out of the dark: ![]() Restoration Coming 9/13/14 from Mischief Corner Books Victor and Cody have the American dream - a house, two cars, upwardly mobile income, and each other - but all is not well in paradise. Cody's trust in other people’s goodwill led to one recent assault. A few months later, a friend’s betrayal leads to another. Battered every waking moment by fear and shame, all his joyful creative energy transforms into brittle, aggressive lashing out. Victor, wracked by guilt and shackled to a grueling, time-devouring career, must find a way to help Cody back from the darkness and to keep him safe from his self-destructive behavior. With the help of a common-sense therapist, some loyal friends and Cody's own impetuous nature, their recovery and their relationship might even stand a chance. Today, the lovely Silvia Violet visits us with a yummy new story- don't forget the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post ;) ![]() Say Yes All Romance Smashwords Author Name: Silvia Violet Cover Artist: Freddy MacKay Publisher: Silvia Violet Books Blurb(s): Rex Aiken recently started his own business, Grass Fed Texas, supplying organic beef to restaurants and catering companies. When he hosts an event for potential clients at a prestigious hotel in Asheville, the event coordinator, J, impresses him with more than his professional expertise. They indulge in a delicious one night stand, but Rex’s taste of J leaves him wanting more. Rex intends to savor J, and he refuses to see the distance between them as an obstacle. He’ll do whatever is necessary to convince J to say yes. Excerpt: “So…um…you’re going to do some sightseeing tomorrow?” Jordan asked. “I am. I haven’t been to this area since I was a kid, and it’s so beautiful this time of year.” Jordan nodded. He’d picked up a pen and was rubbing the end of it over his full bottom lip. Rex wanted to replace it with his tongue. Jordan put the pen down and flipped through papers in a folder. When he licked the tip of his finger to help him unstick a few pages, Rex had to cover a groan by turning it into a cough. Jordan glanced at him quickly before closing the file and slipping it into a drawer. “If there’s anything in particular you’d like to do, I could help you find the best—” “I’d like to kiss you.” Rex hadn’t meant to be so bold, but he’d never been particularly good at restraining himself. His bluntness had served him well in business and almost as well in his attempts to pick up men. Jordan made a strangled noise and looked up. “Mr. Aiken, I’m not sure that would…um…” He looked terrified. Rex realized he was doing the same thing to Jordan that Lucy had done to him—putting him in a position where he could easily believe saying no would affect his job. “I’m sorry. That was out of line. You did me a favor, and you deserve more respect from me.” Jordan’s cheeks were now bright red. “I’m not offended, sir. I’m just surprised.” Author Bio: Silvia Violet writes erotic romance in a variety of genres including paranormal, contemporary, sci fi, and historical. She can be found haunting coffee shops looking for the darkest, strongest cup of coffee she can find. Once equipped with the needed fuel, she can happily sit for hours pounding away at her laptop. Silvia typically leaves home disguised as a suburban stay-at-home-mom, and other coffee shop patrons tend to ask her hilarious questions like "Do you write children's books?" She loves watching the looks on their faces when they learn what she's actually up to. When not writing, Silvia enjoys baking sinfully delicious treats, exploring new styles of cooking, and reading to her incorrigible offspring. Author Links: http://facebook.com/silvia.violet, http://silviaviolet.tumblr.com Twitter: @Silvia_Violet Tour Dates: 8/18/14 Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Angel Martinez, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Reviews and Ramblings, MM Good Book Reviews, Amanda C. Stone, Prism Book Alliance, Hearts on Fire, Redz World, Cate Ashwood, Love Bytes, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Kimi-Chan, Iyana Jenna, Smoocher’s Voice, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, Dawn’s Reading Nook, Fallen Angel Reviews, Inked Rainbow Reads, Romance the Night, Rainbow Gold Reviews, 3 Chicks After Dark, It’s Raining Men, Michael Mandrake Yes. I write Mainstream Science Fiction under my given name, Sandra Stixrude. I've had some really gnarly covers for these over the years as the series followed me from one bad publisher decision to another (though I will admit the Silver covers were nice - of course, we all know what happened there...) So when I took them back and placed the Anchorage series with Mischief Corner, I thought I'd take a shot in the dark and find an actual illustrator for the covers. Every SFF authors dream, right? To have actual characters, critters, and scenes from the book on the cover. Which led me to Catherine Dair, who was working on a project with Josh Lanyon at the time. I'd seen her work and I loved the little dragon she'd drawn for her FB icon. I thought she would be way out of my reach, monetarily, but it doesn't hurt to ask. So I asked. Turns out, Catherine is sweet and kind, funny and quirky, and oh, so patient with us neurotic authors. Today's release is my third Catherine cover - and I've loved every minute of working with her. No one else has given me both a leemacat and a harduk, after all ;) So - a bit about the new release and then I want to do a revisit of the artwork for the first three down below. ![]() Obligations of Blood: Anchorage 3 Amazon Omnilit Ancient voices reveal a terrible secret: human scientists created the kresnas, devourers of life and sanity. Not only created, but also used in terrible, torturous experiments, turning them against their creators. Romenel's dilemmas pile up until he's lost in them. How can he destroy all the hordes of kresnas at once and is it morally defensible to do so? What other solution is there if humans are to survive? What should he do about the beautiful warrior, Kyliki, since he has no place in her world and she has none in his? And, hang it all, if he can resolve these things, what in blazes is he going to do about the mess of a succession war raging back home? And now, our cover gallery :) The first book, Marya, about an agoraphobic priestess who's handed more responsibility than anyone should ever have to face, was where Catherine very kindly and patiently led me through describing a harduk for her. "Well, it's this capybara antelope riding animal..." and so on. This is the full piece of artwork (Marya on the left, our fierce and intrepid Roke on the right, Windflower the harduk in the back there): And here's the cover - see what Freddy did with the text here? All snowy :D The second cover, for Voyage Into Twilight, is one we're all especially proud of. Catherine's version of Romenel is just so yummy, we've plastered him everywhere. Here's the full artwork first, with Hush the lemmacat perched on the railing: And then the cover with the misty, fog-bound letters :D For our third cover, Catherine wanted to do something action-y, so she picked a scene in the kresnas tunnels with Romenel (of course, we had to have him again, lol) and Kyliki, with a threatening kresnas shadow that went on the back of the paperback cover. So, full artwork first: And the cover with the glowy, phosphorescent letters (so cool!): Catherine has the fourth book to read now - can't wait to see what she does next!
We have another lovely cover reveal today for one of my favorite people - Eden Winters. Don't forget to read all the way down for the giveaway! ![]() Book Name: A Matter of When Paperback Author Name: Eden Winters Publisher: Dreamspinner Press Cover Artist: Reese Dante Blurb(s): Wealth. Fame. Gold record. Hookers and Cocaine front man Henri Lafontaine has it all…including a control freak manager, band members who smile as they sharpen blades for his back, and last but damn well not least, a fan out to steal his heart. Literally. Trying to write hit songs and plan a comeback in the midst of the hi-fi white noise of LA feels more like watching his world implode, until he’s offered a month in the Colorado Rockies for vocal coaching. Sebastian Unger’s rich, classically trained tenor inspires wicked thoughts. More than a pretty choir boy, he cracks the whip without hesitation to drive tattooed bad-boy Henri to give his all to his music. Working, fighting, and finally establishing a fragile peace, they find inspiration and perhaps more in each other. But the clock is ticking. Time will pull Henri back to the grit and gold of LA’s mean streets and fame machine, while Sebastian must return to the opera circuit, where a mysterious man known as “the patron” holds far too much sway. Only the trust they've built on a handful of notes bridges their two worlds...and shields them from malice. Author Bio: Captivated young by story-telling, Eden Winters’ earliest memories include spinning tales for the family's pets. Her dreams of writing professionally took a sojourn into non-fiction, with a twelve-year stint in technical documentation. She began reading GLBT novels as a way to better understand the issues faced by a dear friend and fell in love with the M/M romance genre. During a discussion of a favorite book, a fellow aficionado said, "We could do this, you know." Good-bye gears, motors, and other authors’ characters; hello plots and sex scenes. So far that's produced such award winning novels as The Wish, Settling the Score, The Angel of Thirteenth Street, Duet, Naked Tails, and Diversion. Somewhat of a nomad, Eden has visited seven countries so far. She currently calls the southern US home, and many of her stories take place in the rural South. Having successfully raised two children, she now balances the day job with hiking, rafting, spoiling her grandchildren, and stalking the wily falafel or elusive tofu pad Thai at her favorite restaurants. Her musical tastes run from Ambient to Zydeco, and she's a firm believer that life is better with fur kids and Harley Davidsons. Author Contact: For more information about Eden, please visit her website at www.edenwinters.com. Be sure to look for Eden’s soon-to-be-published works: A Matter of When and Manipulation. Author Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdenWinters Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eden-Winters/300380906658065?ref=hl Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdenWinters1 Tour Dates: 8/15/14 Tour Stops: Full Moon Dreaming, Parker Williams, SA McAuley, Prism Book Alliance, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Boy Meets Boy Reviews, Hearts on Fire, Iyana Jenna, Angel Martinez, Nephylim, Carly’s Book Reviews, Velvet Panic, 3 Chicks After Dark, MM Good Book Reviews, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, The Hat Party, Andrew Q. Gordon, Book Reviews and More by Kathy Please welcome the lovely Lou Hoffmann and the cover reveal for her exciting new YA novel - Key of Behliseth! And don't forget the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of the post! :D ![]() Key of Behliseth release date 9.11.14, available for pre-order by Lou Hoffmann Cover Artist: Catt Ford Publisher: Harmony Ink Press (Dreamspinner Press imprint) Blurb(s): On his way to meet a fate he'd rather avoid, homeless gay teen Lucky steps through a wizard's door and is caught up in a whirlwind quest and an ancient war. He tries to convince himself that his involvement with sword fights, magic, and interworld travel is a fluke, and that ice-breathing dragons and fire-breathing eagles don't really exist. But with each passing hour, he remembers more about who he is and where he's from, and with help, he begins to claim his power. Lucky might someday rule a nation, but before he can do that, he must remember his true name, accept his destiny, and master his extraordinary abilities. Only then can he help to banish the evil that has invaded earth and find his way home—through a gateway to another world. For Harmony Ink Purchases: Code: SUNCHILD 20% off - preorders 15% off - first 2 weeks after release Author Bio: Lou Hoffmann, a mother and grandmother now, has carried on her love affair with books for more than half a century, and she hasn’t even made a dent in the list of books she’d love to read—partly because the list keeps growing as more and more fascinating tales are told in written form. She reads factual things—books about physics and stars and fractal chaos, but when she wants truth, she looks for it in quality fiction. Through all that time she’s written stories of her own, but she’s come to be a published author only as a johnnie-come-lately. Lou loves other kinds of beauty as well, including music and silence, laughter and tears, youth and age, sunshine and storms, forests and fields, rivers and seas. Proud to be a bisexual woman, she’s seen the world change and change back and change more in dozens of ways, and she has great hope for the freedom to love in the world the youth of today will create in the future. You can find Lou on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lou.hoffmann, or twitter @Lou_Hoffmann. Tour Dates: 8/12/14
Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Amanda C. Stone, Havan Fellows, MM Good Book Reviews, Prism Book Alliance, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Velvet Panic, Love Bytes, The Hat Party, Angel Martinez, Fallen Angel Reviews, Iyana Jenna, Will Parkinson, The Novel Approach, Hearts on Fire, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Smoocher’s Voice, Cate Ashwood If you haven't seen it yet, there are some changes to how books can be purchased at GRL this year - more in line with what happens at RT and so on. Since all books are being sold at the con on consignment, you're going to see a lot of publishers and authors offering pre-order options. Why? When books are sold on consignment (and they are this year due to odd Illinois regulations) the seller of record takes a percentage - which means most publishers and authors will have to charge more than they normally would to compensate. The good news is that there will be options to pre-order - pay for your books ahead of time so you're not purchasing them at the convention. Then you get to pick up your books at GRL without the hassle of cash and extra fees and stuff. This also means discounts, sales and savings for the reader, cause we'd all rather you pre-ordered. :) Mischief Corner Books has their pre-order form all set up with invoicing through Paypal. If you're planning on any MCB paperback purchases (Toni Griffin, Freddy MacKay, Angel Martinez, Silvia Violet, Mathilde Watson, Andi Anderson) please fill out the form below (or from the MCB site) and we'll deliver at GRL. We'll all be happy to meet you in person that way, too! I get a lot of questions about two acronyms I use in my Science Fiction: ESTO and GEM We'll talk about the GEM drive another day, but today I'd like to talk a little bit about ESTO - the Eridani Sector Treaty Organization. The Eridani systems, based loosely around one of our nearest Sun-like neighbors, Eridani Epsilon, is an intriguing place for Earth folks since it's one of the most likely places nearby (in relative space terms) that could support life. In The ESTO novels, these are a loosely aligned group of systems brought together by proximity and their mutual hatred of one thing: the Andalusian Corporation. For several centuries, the Earth-based interstellar corporation held all of human space in its cruel, titanium fist. But cracks began to show. Amidst oppressed systems, heroes began to emerge, a revolution slowly brewing. By the time we get to Prisoner 374215, the corporation is in its final years. Its prison gulags and ever more draconic policies only hasten its death. In Prisoner 374215, we see the horrors of the prisons, but also the hope engendered by ever-increasing small victories. ![]() Prisoner 374215: everyone needs hope to survive, but sometimes you have to be brave enough to face it The heroes of the revolution are consigned to the history books, all except one. Aren Dalsgaard, who is cryo-frozen and wakes over a hundred years later. But we'll get to him in a moment. ESTO is born - the Eridani Sector Treaty Organization, a group of united human planets located roughly around Eridani Prime, the center of the Organization circling Eridani Epsilon. There are other free human organizations - the spacefaring Hanseatic League, the Adanai Collective, and another rebel group to emerge from the wars, the Altairian Empire. Long years of war breed suspicion and soon ESTO and the Altairians are at each others throats, the ESTO government certain that the Empire has plans to invade, the Empire certain that ESTO is far too aggressive and dangerous a neighbor. The ESTO-Altairian War is protracted and bloody and leaves both sides resentful and angry with hair-trigger military leaders and well-funded standing armies. Some planets, though, are too far on the outskirts to be dragged into the aggressive posturing. New Makorov, settled largely by Earth emigrants of Russian descent, is one of those planets. Resource poor and out of sight of the authorities, it's the perfect place for criminal elements to go to ground. ![]() Even with the war over and non-aggression treaties signed, both ESTO and Altair are unable to drop their collective guards. Military and weapons experimentation still forges ahead, sometimes with spectacularly disastrous results. Altair has their Novasym fighter ships, the most responsive, maneuverable ships in the galaxy because the ships are partly bio-gen symbionts, responding directly to an implant in the pilot's brain. The implants aren't always successful, to the detriment of the pilots, nevertheless, ESTO wants desperately to outstrip this technology. ![]() Gravitational Attraction: A mysterious distress call draws the crew of courier ship Hermes to what appears to be an empty, drifting troop vessel--empty except for the blood and gore spattered corridors and a lone survivor locked in a holding cell. Drawn to the handsome, traumatized man, the crew’s comm officer, Isaac Ozawa, makes Turk his personal responsibility, offering him the kindness and warmth he needs after the horror he experienced. Isaac knows firsthand what it’s like to be different and an outcast, and this cements their bond. Once a promising pilot, Isaac was left with a damaged body when his brain didn't meld with the high-tech implant needed to fly fighter ships. Turk’s brain is no better. The result of a military experiment gone wrong, his natural abilities have been augmented to a dangerous degree. When an amoral, power-hungry admiral kidnaps Isaac and uses him to convince Turk to become the cataclysmic weapon he’s hungered for, it will take Turk’s strength, the ingenuity of the Hermes crew, the help of the enigmatic Drak’tar, and Isaac’s own stubborn will to save them. In the days directly after galaxy-wide contact with the Drak'tar, Aren Dalsgaard, considered a hero of the rebellion against the Corporation, is revived from his cryogenic stasis. His skills and his knowledge are necessary to the ESTO government since in the age of the Ozawa Compact, different methods of dealing with humans and altered humans have become necessary. ![]() Sub Zero: a cryo-revived investigator, mysterious boxes and a beautiful, evasive young man…always send the right man for the job, even if he's been dead for a hundred years. ESTO - the Eridani Sector Treaty Organization was born from a desperate rebellion against a despotic plutocracy. A far-flung confederation of planets, ESTO's original intent was to build a republic where humans could be free, autonomous individuals. Original intents are often difficult to maintain. Suspicions and ambitions lead to border wars and bureaucratic neglect.
In the post-war galaxy, paranoia and xenophobia color every action. A few brave individuals reach out, though - to other races, other worlds, to those unlike themselves. These stories follow the heroes who struggle to change minds and win hearts, to redefine how humans will fit in a universe where we are no longer alone. |
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About Angel
Angel writes (mostly) Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around queer heroes. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware and full time inside her head, she has one husband, one son, two cats, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate. |
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