Guest: Antonio

Today my guest is first-time published author Antonio! I'm very excited to read Dueling Divas(An Avondale Story), and am happy to have Antonio as a guest today. 

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I’d been writing on and off for years, but never really thought about getting anything published.  The idea of sitting at a desk and actually typing a story didn’t appeal to me until the stories started coming to me demanding to be written.  It’s at the point where you write— not because you want to or just feel like it, but because something inside you has to do it.

The funny thing is, when I sat down to write, it wasn’t the chore I thought it would be, but rather more of an organic process.  Just the very act of typing and writing fueled my creativity and the words just seemed to flow.

What’s it like getting my first novel Dueling Divas(An Avondale Story) published:

I felt very lucky having the first novel I’d ever submitted to Dreamspinner Press accepted.  Getting the e-mail from them saying they wanted my novel touched me more profoundly and deeply than I ever would’ve thought it would.  There was such a sense of having achieved something, that was recognized as being worthwhile, that was unlike anything else I’d ever felt in my life.

The nitty-gritty of getting ready to be published:

The editing process can be excruciating for a newbie.  My editors were all very nice, but the first time someone suggested a change in a story or word, I learned just how attached I was to my work.  You learn a lot about yourself when dealing with criticism and you also learn how much of yourself is actually in the story.  It’s definitely a growing process and you’re not just a better writer, but a better person by the end of it.

It can also be a fun experience.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with cover artist Reese Dante.

Surprises:

The biggest surprise to me happened during the editing process.  My story went through a couple of editors before I submitted it, and after I submitted it, which meant I was constantly rereading it.  As the writer I thought for sure there would be a point where I’d start getting tired of reading the story over and over.  Funnily enough, I never got to that point.  There were times it felt like I was reading a story written by someone else and I’d be completely drawn into it.  One moment I’d be laughing at something a character said and at times I would feel a tear or two roll down from my eyes.  That’s when I remembered something we’d discussed in my college literature class years ago.  A good story can be read many times and each time you read it you can find something new and interesting.

Things I learned during the writing process:

I learned that a writer collects characters that have surrounded him or her their entire life.  Bits and pieces of people we know well or those we meet and know for a brief moment in time combine to add the flavors of real life into our stories.  As a writer, the things I’ve seen and felt passionate about make their way into my stories and because they were meaningful to me; others have found them meaningful as well.  And, I was surprised by the people who came to me, interested in what I had to say as a writer.  It’s never who you think it will be.

There was another surprising thing I learned during the writing process.  I learned just how fun and satisfying it can be to play God.  You other writers, know what I mean.  It’s when you realize that a character’s fate lies solely in your hands, and their happiness or sadness all depends on you.  An editor reading one of the stories I’m currently working on was shocked by the fate of one of my characters.  The joy I felt in surprising the person, whose opinion I valued, was immense.

Having stated the above, I also have to take a step back and say that sometimes the characters in a story lead you where they want to go.  In one story I decided on a name for a female character but every time I typed it I would accidentally use a different name.  It was clear she wanted the second name and eventually I gave in to her.  Sounds crazy, I know, but it happens.  In another story I had planned for one couple to be together at the end, but was actually surprised when one of the men ended up with someone else.  Sometimes your characters surprise you, even though you’re the writer.

My advice for would-be-writers:

Follow your dreams and don’t be afraid to go for it.  Before I submitted my novel I submitted two short stories (thinking that route would be easier)   and both were rejected for different reasons.  But I didn’t quit, instead I realized that my ideas worked better as full-length novels and I decided to just go for the big one and submit a novel.

Dueling Divas (an Avondale Story):

I think it’s a great story and I believe that a writer needs to like their work and feel good about it before anyone else can.  First and foremost, I want my stories to be about the characters above all else.  There have to be characters for people to root for, who they want to see succeed and be happy.  And like real life there also have to be the villains or the odd sort that you just don’t like.

Also like real, life Dueling Divas reflects the joys, sorrows and strange relationships that exist in our day to day lives.  But, it also thrusts people out of their comfort zones into new worlds to discover new things.  Dueling Divas is at times fun and campy, then at other points tragic and maybe even a little scary and of course sometimes in the middle of all that —true love rears its head demanding to be heard and acknowledged.

An excerpt, exclusive to this blog,  from Dueling Divas (an Avondale story)

In this scene one of the main characters named Bobby is helping take care of his nephews and niece while his sister Stacey shops for groceries.  Then out of nowhere something happens:

Excerpt from Dueling Divas chapter five:

They finished breakfast and loaded everyone into the van.  Stacey thought about how nice it was having Bobby to keep the children occupied with his clownish antics.  “I swear, Bobby, sometimes I think you’re just an overgrown kid, but I appreciate you,” Stacey said.

“Just because we get older doesn’t mean we have to act older,” Bobby said.  “Just call me Peter Pan.”

Outside of Publix, Bobby put Meggy and the other kids in one of the large shopping carts made to look like cars.

“Not too wild now,” Stacey said.

“Oh, come on, sis,” Bobby said before making car noises with his mouth and speeding off with the cart and kids into the grocery store.  They went down one aisle and then the other with Bobby swerving and turning fast with the cart much to the kid’s delight.

“Faster, Uncle Bobby!  Faster!”

“Vroom!  Vroom!” Bobby said as he picked up speed.

The kids were laughing as Bobby raced through the store.  As they turned a corner in front of the freezer section, something caught Bobby’s eye.  At the center of the aisle was “the perfect ass”, belonging to the man who was bent over putting up stock.  I’m in love, he thought.

“Wow!” Bobby said loud enough for Meggy to hear.

“Wow what, Uncle Bobby?  Wow what?”  Meggy said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bobby said as he looked back at that ass and then promptly crashed his cart into the stocker’s cart in front of him, knocking some of the supplies over.

“Oops, sorry,” Bobby said back toward the stocker as he bent over to pick up the boxes of frozen vegetables.

When Bobby looked up, a gorgeous Mediterranean-looking man standing over six feet tall and brushing a dark curl away from his eye was looking down at him.  It was all he could do to keep his tongue from hanging out.  Here was the man of his dreams made flesh.  And here he was running through every clichéd phrase he’d ever known from every cliché romance ever created.  The crazy thing was suddenly they all made sense to him and felt very real.  God, he was even getting weak in the knees.  Seeing the man smiling at him made him feel like a complete idiot.  Then came his nervous laugh which he hoped didn’t come across more like a giggle.  He tried to regain control of the situation.  The one thing he never liked was the idea of not being in control.  “Again, so sorry.  I’ve got to watch who… I mean what I’m doing.”  He laughed again embarrassed by his blunder.

“That’s alright, Sir.”

“Wow,” Meggy said.

Stacey had caught up with them by then. “I had a feeling that crashing sound I heard would have something to do with you, Bobby,” she said.

The stocker stared at Stacey for a minute before exclaiming, “You!”

“Excuse me,” Stacey said.

“It’s you,” Nash said.

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Link to novel Dueling Divas, (An Avondale Story) by Antonio on Dreamspinner site: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3649

Link to Dueling Divas e-book by Antonio on Dreamspinner Press site: 

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3648

Thank you and enjoy!

            Antonio

http://antoniosstories.blogspot.com/

Guest Post: Tinnean

Today my guest is Tinnean!

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I’ve talked before of the necessity for me to have a title before I can comfortably start to write. It can be as inane as Disclaimers in the Prologue or as telling as The One Who Got the Bullet Was Lucky.

This time, it was simple. I was writing about a couple of men who were getting married, so the title would be Here Comes the Groom.

But then I realized that the crux of the story was being faithful, so I changed the title to The Wedding Vow. No, wait a second, they’d both be exchanging vows, so: The Wedding Vows.

I usually find listening to music very conducive to writing. (and less distracting than watching TV) WAVV, the radio station down here in SW Florida, is great for the easy listening sound that’s my music of choice, but Sonic, the music service offered by DirecTV, nails it when I want to hear tunes of the ’50s.   

We were talking about titles, weren’t we? How did we get to music? Let me tell you about that. ;-)

One evening, while I was listening to Malt Shop Oldies on Sonic, Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” came on.

All right, the perfect title! Brown-Eyed Handsome Man!

Now, Kipp was always going to be a blue-eyed blond, but Hyde’s coloring was up in the air. Hearing this song gave me the perfect description for him.

But wait a second: brown-eyed, as used in song, usually denotes someone of color. (The Righteous Brothers’ “Brown-Eyed Woman” and Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”.) Id never written an interracial romance before. Could I do it?

Yes, I could! I’ve got a great title, two loveable characters, and I like the route this story is taking.

So I’m keying my little heart out, and all of a sudden, Kipp is having a conversation with his Granddad:

I shook my head. “That clause in the contract…. Why marry me?”

“Haven’t you looked into a mirror recently?”

“Of course. ‘Item, two lips, indifferent red—’”

Wait, what? Okay, I go for offbeat titles (see my first Dreamspinner novel, Bless Us With Content –emphasis on the second syllable), but this one... I liked it. I liked it a lot.

I finished the story, sent it off to Dreamspinner, and signed a contract for it.

And that, kiddies, is how Here Comes the Groom came to be Two Lips, Indifferent Red.

(Although the folder is still labeled Groom.) *falls down laughing*

Buy link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3616

Excerpt:

Charlestown, Pennsylvania

May 2017

Charlestown, Pennsylvania was beautiful in May. The trees that lined the streets of the small university town had leafed out earlier in the month. Flowers bloomed in a riot of color and scents in front of the stately homes that now served as dormitories for Charles T. Armand University.

Of course, I wasn’t able to enjoy that balmy spring day. The semester had come to an end, and while I’d taken most of my finals, there were two left, and I intended to do as well on them as I’d done on the others. Scholarships funded my education at Armand U, and I needed to maintain my GPA.

I took a break when my bladder informed me in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t pay a visit to the john now, things were going to get ugly.

And since I had already interrupted my studying, I decided to go down to the first floor, where there was a vending machine. I could use the sugar rush, and a bag of M&Ms would do the trick.

It would take a little while for the sugar to work its magic, so I went out onto the front porch and leaned against the railing.

The air was like warm silk against my face, and I closed my eyes, tipped back my head, and breathed in the lovely fragrance of the flowers I’d helped plant earlier in the spring.

Well, standing here doesn’t get the studying done. “Time to get back to the books, Llewellyn.”

I returned to my room, opened the door, and frowned.

“Hey, Kipp! I thought you’d fallen in!” My roommate, Andrew Scott, was sprawled casually on my bed. Of course he wasn’t on his own bed—that was piled high with the clothes he was packing to go home.

I could have lived without him, but I hadn’t been given much choice. I’d learned early on in life not to make waves, and so I generally wound up with the roommates no one else wanted: players, partiers, and general pains in the ass. The room would be mine alone during the summer semester, but hopefully, come the fall I’d have someone who didn’t get quite as much on my last nerve.

“Kippers! You with me, boy?”

I paused for a minute before turning and closing the door behind me. I hated when people called me Kippers, but I hated being called “boy” even more. Hearing that always made me look around for my father.

“Yes?” 

“Phone call for you!” He waggled my cell phone.

“And you felt the need to answer it?”

“Hey, we’re genetically programmed to do that. Besides, that ring tone….”

“Oh?” My heart felt like it was doing somersaults. “Was it ‘Brown-Eyed Handsome Man’?” 

He shrugged. “I didn’t recognize it, but it sounded like elevator music to me.”

That didn’t surprise me. If it wasn’t something like “I Wanna Sex You Up” or “Bust a Move,” he had no idea what it was.

I rarely got phone calls, so I assumed it was a prank he had set up. “Tell whoever it is that I’m not interested and hang up my phone.”

“You sure? She sounds sexy as all hell!”

Now I was certain it was a prank. Sexy-as-all-hell women didn’t call me. Not that I minded; I’d much rather have received a call from a guy, and one guy in particular.  He was older, and so sexy, although that wouldn’t have mattered—I’d have been content with someone who loved me, no matter what he looked like. 

I’d learned better than to let a handsome face draw me in.

I thought of Daniel, who’d not only made a fool of me in high school, but who’d broken my heart as well.

We’d gone to grade school together until second grade. At that time, I was sent to a boarding school in upstate New York, where no one knew me as Marcus Llewellyn’s son, and where I was happy.

That lasted until I was fourteen, when, as abruptly as I’d been sent away, I’d been ordered to return home and informed that I would start Benjamin Martin High in the fall.

I ran into Daniel when it turned out we had homeroom together. And embarrassingly, I popped wood. Every time I looked at him, I wound up with an erection, and so I got into the habit of wearing my shirt untucked.

By our senior year, not only was Daniel a jock, he headed the debate team, played clarinet in the school orchestra, sang in senior chorus, always got the lead role in drama club, and was president of the student body. Added to that, he was so handsome there wasn’t a girl in school who’d say no to him. Rumor had it that included some of the teachers as well.

Guest Post: JP Barnaby Shares Something Sexy

Today I have the wondrous J.P. Barnaby as my guest. She's sharing a yummy one-shot. Thank you, J.P.!
Enjoy!

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 Online

Part One: Virtually Loved

By J. P. Barnaby

The laptop shifted on the bed as his back arched against the draw of his impending orgasm. Seeing the lust in Tom’s digital eyes made Eli ache. Skype was such a beautiful thing—especially when you lived at the edge of the world. A tinny moan from the speakers warned him that his virtual lover might beat him to the promise land if he didn’t get on the ball, so to speak.
“Eli, God, I wish it were your hand on my cock,” the slightly blurred image of Tom called from thousands of miles away over the impersonal expanse of wires connecting their computers. The act was so intimate, so personal, but the medium in which they spoke turned out to be anything but. Eli thought that being able to see Tom, to hear him, would make the experience better. It only intensified Eli’s longing to touch the other man. He decided just to play along.

“I wish it were my mouth on your cock,” Eli said, his Spanish heavier and more pronounced in the heady arousal. Part of him wanted to keep his eyes open, to watch even the distorted image of Tom as he jacked off for Eli, but the tingle of his own hand was impossible to resist. He rested back against the pillows, allowing Tom a view of his naked skin from the tiny camera pointed up the length of his torso. When he closed his eyes, a faceless lover pulled Eli’s legs over muscled forearms and thrust powerful hips forward. Careful of the laptop, Eli rolled to the side and pulled a small bottle of lube from the drawer next to his bed. Using it sparingly, he drizzled the thick liquid over the toy and ran a slow finger around his tight hole. Supplementing the lube with spit, he slid one finger gingerly inside, getting himself ready. He loved the sweet stretch and burn as another finger joined the first, teasing him open.

A deep groan from the computer caught his attention and he opened his eyes. Tom was only half stroking himself, but watching Eli with great interest. Self-conscious, Eli let his fingers slip from his body, but his voyeur spoke up in an instant.

“You looked so beautiful. Please don’t stop,” he whispered and even the distance separating them couldn’t hide the desperate need from Tom’s voice. Eli turned the computer so that he couldn’t see Tom’s face, but picked up the dildo from where it had fallen on his chest. The lube stuck lightly to the soft hair on his chest and his hands shook as he pulled one knee up to his chest, the knee farthest from the camera as his favorite porn stars would do. His heart raced with the sheer decadence of fucking himself on camera even before the tip breeched his opening.

The harsh moan came from his own lips as his body opened to accommodate the thick toy. He imagined the way the transparent phallus would look if he could see it splitting him open. The lube caused the flared tip of the dildo to slide in his fingers as he drove it deeper and felt every inch filling him. A bead of sweat trickled from his temple as Eli started a slow, deliberate rhythm, fucking himself with hard, even strokes. A small sigh escaped each time it slid home and rubbed against that sweet spot inside him.

Undulating between the fake cock in his ass and the tight grip of his fist, Eli lost himself as he spread his legs wider and drove his hips off the bed. A tingle of excitement shot through his spine and he remembered the camera. Someone watched him as he lay spread, wanton across his bed, fucking himself with abandon. Opening his eyes, he looked right into the camera, incidentally seeing the motion of Tom’s hand. He bit his lip as the feeling rose up in his groin. For what felt like hours, but could only have been a few minutes, Eli teetered on the edge of one of the best orgasms of his life. He loved that he could excite and entice a man in another part of the world by getting off for him.

The power rush made him dizzy and he fell back against the bed as he came in long hot bursts over his tanned stomach with a succession of short quiet cries. Dimly in the background, he heard Tom groan and knew that the other man reached his peak as well. Breathing heavily, he closed the laptop and disconnected the Skype session.

He’d apologize later, but in that moment, Eli felt incredibly alone.

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Award winning romance novelist, J. P. Barnaby has penned over a dozen books including the Forbidden Room series, the Little Boy Lost series, and Aaron. As a bisexual woman, J.P. is a proud member of the GLBT community both online and in her small town on the outskirts of Chicago. A member of Mensa, she is described as brilliant but troubled, sweet but introverted, and talented but deviant. She spends her days writing software and her nights writing erotica, which is, of course, far more interesting. The spare time that she carves out between her career and her novels is spent reading about the concept of love, which, like some of her characters, she has never quite figured out for herself.

Web site: http://www.JPBarnaby.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JPBarnaby

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JPBarnaby

Guest Post: KC Wells

Today I have the wonderful KC Wells!

Born and raised in the north-west of England, K.C.Wells always loved writing. Words were important. Full stop. However, when childhood gave way to adulthood, the writing ceased, as life got in the way.

K.C. discovered erotic fiction in 2009, where the purchase of a ménage storyline led to the startling discovery that reading about men in love was damn hot. In 2012, arriving at a really low point in life led to the desperate need to do something creative. An even bigger discovery waited in the wings – writing about men in love was even hotter...

The laptop still has no idea of what hit it... it only knows that it wants a rest, please.

K.C. can be reached via email (k.c.wells@btinternet.com), on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/KCWellsWorld), on Twitter (www.twitter.com/kcwellsworld) or through comments at the K.C.Wells website (www.kcwellsworld.com ) K.C. loves to hear from readers.

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A second pair of eyes:
I’d not been writing long when I notice this phrase being bandied about. Beta reader. What the hell was a beta reader? I didn’t have a clue. So I asked around. Like you do.

I asked another writer that I’d gotten to know really well. “Do I need a beta reader?” She replied, “How many books have you had accepted so far?” The answer was two, by that point. I’d started writing in February 2012 and we were now in September. I’d just submitted book three in the Learning to Love series.
“Well, if they’ve accepted two books, and no-one’s seen them, maybe you don’t need one.”

Oh boy. Looking back now, I wish someone had seen them. Because then maybe what followed wouldn’t have been so painful. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad I went through it, because it started a process which taught me so much. By this point, I’d finally let another author read book three. What had concerned me was that my more... intimate scenes would come across as believable. I’d seen so many posts, blogs, emails, etc, all talking about the same thing: should women write M/M books? I’d begun to worry, so I’d pleaded with a gay friend to please read book three and let me know if I was on the right track. Up until this point, the only thing I’d let anyone read was a short story. Let’s just say his reaction gave my confidence a real boost – and made me blush like fury. Yeah – I wasn’t worried any more. <snicker>

Book one, Learning to Love: Michael & Sean came through edits relatively painlessly. ‘Yeah, this is easy,’ I thought. Yes, I was that naive. It was due for release in late November and I was ecstatic, even more so when I held a copy for the first time. The day after it released, I submitted the first book of a new series. It was a new departure for me, as it was to be set in a BDSM club in Manchester. By now, other authors had been reading my books. I’ve been so lucky. I’ve met some wonderful people on Facebook; authors, readers, aspiring authors, reviewers... Two people in particular had fallen in love with my characters, Dom Leo Hart and submissive Alex Daniels, from the BDSM book, An Unlocked Heart. When I compared this book to Michael & Sean, I could see the difference. It was better. There was a lot more Show and a whole lot less Tell – but that’s another story – and I felt that the writing had matured. Friends agreed with me. ‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘I’ve really grown up as an author.’ Little did I know the real growing process was just about to begin...

A really good friend, who is also an author, had asked to read the Learning to Love series. Book two, Evan & Daniel, is due out on March 20th. She read this one, and then proceeded to read the third book in the series, Josh & Chris, which is due for release sometime in May / June. And then the Facebook message arrived...
“I need to talk to you.”
“Fine, what’s up?”
“You can’t put out Josh & Chris as it is now.”
I was surprised. I’d already been sent the contract, so my publishing company obviously liked it. Surely if there was a problem, someone would have said something. When I pressed her as to why, she replied that there was one scene in the book that wouldn’t go down well with the readers. We’d talked a lot about reviews, as I’d already had a couple of readers tell me they’d objected to not being warned that there was a threesome scene in it, a situation which has since been rectified. More than that, they felt that the whole scene was wrong, as it amounted to cheating. This was my first introduction to the concept that sex between consenting adults, when two are in an established relationship, is seen as cheating by a lot of readers. Even if the participants are happy about it.

My friend was in a real quandary. She didn’t want to say anything for fear of hurting my feelings, but she’d fallen in love with my BDSM novel and she felt that if this came out after book three, no-one would want to read it, which she felt would be a crying shame. So she took her courage in both hands and told me what I needed to hear. “You need to rewrite the book. Get the axe out, honey.”

Whoa. I didn’t know what to say. My first reaction was as if someone wanted to take a knife to my firstborn. This was my baby. And then I started thinking. Was she right? It didn’t take long for me to answer that one. Oh yes, she was....That whole weekend, all I did was think about what I’d have to do. Because I had to put it right. It also made me ask why my lovely gay friend hadn’t said anything. Had he not thought the same? Turns out, yes, he had – but he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Hoo boy....

What followed was the long process of rewriting the book. It wasn’t due to go through edits until February/March, I estimated, so there was time to do something about it. So I got out the axe. What emerged was a very different book. I will be forever grateful to Lara Brukz, and I dedicated books two and three to her, amongst others, to say thank you in a small way for what she did.

And thus began the second part of my growing process – editing. My blog title also refers to the work of one of my editors. I only know her first name, Linda. A few months ago, I read a fantastic BDSM novel, Power Exchange, by AJ Rose. AJ and I became friends via Facebook. AJ asked to read something of mine and I shared a few things. He took book three and edited the first ten pages. Wow. What a difference. The writing was tighter, it had more impact, it was definitely better. It was at this point that I became painfully aware there was a list of words that I used far too much, innocuous words really, but overuse weakened the writing. AJ recommended that when my book started the next editing process, I ask for a particular editor, someone he felt would really help the book along. Evan and Daniel had started to go through this process at Christmas, and as it turned out, the executive editor for the publishing company felt it needed to go through a third round of edits – and gave it to Linda. Because of the length of the book, Evan & Daniel had taken four weeks to go through two rounds, so to be told it needed a further round... Surely there wasn’t that much that needed doing – was there?

AJ told me that I would either hate Linda or love her – that was the reaction of most authors. Her edits took longer than the first two rounds put together. I’d also rewritten sections to reflect the changes that had taken place in book three. But at the end of it, I had to admit, Evan and Daniel was all the better for it. And yeah, I loved Linda.

I’m currently involved in two projects. An Unlocked Heart got a contract and is due for release in June/July, and I started planning for the second book in the series. Remember I mentioned two people fell in love with Leo and Alex? The second was someone who was to become one of my closest friends, Will Parkinson. He’s submitted his first ever book, a YA book entitled Pitch, and at the time of writing this post, we are all eagerly awaiting news. Well, all his friends are eager – Will is having kittens. Will and I had several long chats - Skype is a truly marvelous invention, especially when you’re in two different time zones – and he helped me map out the whole of Trusting Thomas, the second book. His alter ego, Parker Williams, has since submitted a couple of stories. When I suggested, jokingly, that if he ever wanted to collaborate on a book, I’d be happy to oblige, I never dreamed for one minute that he’d say yes. But he did – we started writing last week, and so far, I am loving it. I am constantly amazed at how well our writing styles mesh. Will even said at one point that it was hard to tell who’d written which bit. Wow.

I’ve come through the last few months with a very healthy respect for editors and the editing process. When writing, I am so aware of my trigger words. The thesaurus and I are fast becoming best friends. And I have lots of friends who love what I write – thank you, guys – and some very special friends whose opinion I value immensely. I think it’s safe to say... I’m a very lucky girl.

Learning to Love: Evan & Daniel is due for release on March 20th:

Evan Wainwright’s good relationship karma is paying off. After helping his friends, Sean and Michael, discover their sexuality—and each other—Evan meets the love of his life. Their new housemate, Daniel Collier, is everything Evan could want in a boyfriend. Now if Evan can just work out why Daniel panics whenever Evan tries to get close.

Daniel has finally met his soul mate. Evan is perfect for him—at least, he would be, if Daniel could find the courage to overcome his demons and leave the past behind. But his mental scars prove difficult to heal, and Daniel struggles with his heart, even though it tells him Evan is the one.

Life in the student house goes on despite the usual interruptions: a wedding, a trial for a hate crime, a gay couple with exhibitionist tendencies. Through it all, Evan and Daniel remind themselves they are meant to be together. But until Daniel trusts Evan with the secret that’s tearing his family apart, “meant to be” is on hold.


Learning to Love: Josh & Chris is due for release May/June:

When Chris Andrews gave evidence against the men who manipulated him into taking part in a homophobic assault, Josh Saunders was his rock, and his support gave Chris the courage to come out. Now that Chris finds himself sharing a house with Josh, he wonders where that strong, sexy guy has disappeared to, because Chris wants him back—but he can’t wait forever.

Josh has been attracted to Chris from the get-go, and the more time they spend together, the stronger the pull grows. But he needs to make sure Chris feels the same attraction, and not just gratitude. Josh bides his time, waiting for the right moment… and misses his chance when Chris starts seeing someone else.

Somehow Josh has to convince Chris they are perfect together. But first, he needs to figure out who has been sending Chris malicious letters, threatening him over the phone, and writing hateful slogans across their front door—and persuade his own ex, who seems determined to win Josh back, to get lost. In fact, Josh’s life may depend on it.