Writing M/M Fantasy - A Guest Post by Megan Derr

Growing up, I read voraciously, something I still do and which probably every person reading this does, or would like to do if things like jobs and all that did not get in the way. ;3 Though I read a little bit of everything, I mostly split my time between romance and fantasy, and there is still nothing I like more than combining the two.

One of the things I have really come to appreciate through reading and writing is that a good story requires a good foundation. There are hundreds of things that an author must know to write a story, and of those hundred, the reader may see ten. But those other ninety still matter because they're what the visible ten are built upon. This is especially true when a world is being built from scratch. In a contemporary story, for example, no explanation is needed after explaining that gays are hated. Readers know all the reasons that people use, all the cultural, secular, and sacred motivations. Those don't need to be explained to the reader.

In fantasy, it's not always that simple. If the story is short enough or simple enough, then it's possible simply to express that homosexuality is hated, but the more involved the work, the more it matters why. It's not enough to say 'oh, this country hates roses'. Why does it hate roses? There's always a reason for everything, even if that reason evolves over time (like something once done out of necessity now done out of tradition).

Whether or not the country being built accepts or hates homosexuality (or how they regard sexuality period, depending on what is involved in the story) matters because it will determine what becomes the key element of the story, its main problem.

A country where being gay is not an issue opens up questions about marriage, adoption, etc—the author must address why it's okay, or how the country adapted around its being okay, even if the reasons are not explicitly listed out.

In a country where being gay is a serious issue, then the author must decide why (even if, again, not everything is explicitly listed out). Is it a religious matter? Is it a law handed down by a king? Why did he create/change the law? Is it something punishable by death? Is it an outdated and slowly changing belief/custom?

If the matter is, say, a religious one and punishable by death, that's quite different than a law handed down by a king and which may or may not be ignored by the general populace depending on the state of the country and the vehemence of the king. If it's a new law just being instated, or an old one largely ignored, that too changes how the story might play out and what challenges the characters face.

In the circumstance where it's a religious matter and punishable by death, that creates a very dangerous society for those breaking the law. Whatever else may be going on in the story, they are all secondary to that main conflict. Even if the heroes save the world, they're not legally allowed to be together.

So, accepted, not accepted, sort of accepted: whichever you choose changes both the story and where the focus lies. If the writer does not want the majority of the story's focus to be on 'gay is bad' then a society that is less rigid is probably preferable.

And all of this, of course, must be considered right alongside the usual suspects in a fantasy story: races, religion, government, magic/no magic, environment, and, of course, the characters themselves—what they do, their positions in society.

Who and what the characters are is a very crucial element when building a society since what a prince can do is obviously very different from what a peasant can do—but a peasant, merchant, sailor, etc. might be able to get away with things that a prince or noble cannot, too.

Building a world, any world, even a contemporary one, is a matter of detail. The more of that world you have to build from scratch, the more difficult it is going to be—but there is also nothing more fun in my book than creating something entirely new. The additional challenges that come from writing fantasy specifically for the m/m genre only make it all the more interesting and fun. I feel it forces me to think of and account for things that may not have occurred to me in other genres, gives me a chance to play with ideas and concepts that would not have come otherwise. M/M fantasy will always be my favorite stomping ground: for the challenge, for the fun, and because the knights should always wind up with the dragon, not the damsel :3

~*~

Megan grew up a military brat and traveled extensively with her family for most of her youth. She lives now in Cincinnati, with two roommates and six cats. She has always been book obsessed, and writing obsessed since she first gave it a whirl in college. Romance and fantasy are her primary obsessions, but she's game to write just about anything and enjoys a challenge. She is a sucker for stories of enemies becoming lovers. When not writing, Megan is drinking too much coffee, cooking, reading , harassing family and friends, or otherwise doing whatever possible to avoid editing.

Visit Megan at:

http://maderr.com

http://www.lessthanthreepress.com

The Luckiest is coming soon!

Hey, all! We have a bit of good news to share. Some of you may have heard already, but for those who haven't we wanted to announce that The Luckiest, sequel to Moonlight Becomes You, has officially been accepted by Loose Id! It's tentatively scheduled for release in late March or early April. You'll know the actual release date when we do! For now, I can share the unofficial blurb! 


Rock star Nick Ventura has finally hit rock bottom. Jealous of his brother’s new love, he starts overindulging in his usual vices and winds up crashing his car into a department store in a drunken haze. Publicly humiliated and on the verge of jail time, he enters into a court-ordered rehabilitation program. 

Nutritionist Luka Novak is flamboyant, effeminate, the type of gay man that bisexual Nick would normally sneer at. His sunny nature hides a deep hurt from a previous relationship. Luka knows he should be wary of Nick’s reputation, but he’s drawn to Nick despite himself. Their tentative friendship turns into romance, but Luka soon comes to realize that Nick's fear of losing his bad boy reputation means he'll probably never go public with their relationship. 

Nick never thought he needed anyone, until Luka Novak came into his life. Now he has to reconcile his carefree past with the future he suddenly wants more than anything. And the first lesson he has to learn is how to become the man that both he and Luka need him to be, rather than stay the boy he always was. Alone.


Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Last day to vote!

Hey, all! If you haven't voted in the M/M Romance Group's 2011 Members' Choice awards, today is the last day to vote!


You can find the poll HERE. 


Both MJ and I are nominated in several categories. If any of our stories/characters were your favorites, please consider voting for us. 


Thanks to the people who nominated us, and to anyone who's voted for us so far! :D

A Guest Post and a Giveaway - "The Forester" by Blaine D. Arden

How did The Forester come to life?

The idea for The Forester took hold when I stumbled across several requests for Christmas stories, well, any sort of winter celebration, actually, and one word immediately stuck in my mind.

Solstice.

Of course, that's not enough to build a story on, so I let my mind wander a bit and came up with shunned, a word so unrelated, I need a bit of time to think what the heck I was thinking about. But then it dawned on me. What would it be like to love someone you weren't allowed to talk to? Someone you saw practically every day, working within the community, but not part of it?

While I thought about how a relationship like that could work, I got an image of the narrator of the story finding a body. It wouldn't be the first time that happened. That's what you get when you like both fantasy and mystery. I seem to need a good murder or kidnapping.

My narrator turned out to be a Truth Seeker, a detective.

After I wrote my first scene, I decided to delve a bit more into who my narrator was, and found an ex-boyfriend who he still loved, despite feeling betrayed by him. That led to the next scene I wrote: the narrator's ex visiting him to defend the shunned.

Once I got that, I knew exactly how the story would go … *coughs*  No, not really.  There were still plenty of details to suss out, to invent and discover, but, at least I had a firm grasp of who, why and where. The rest filled itself in while I wrote their story. And while I edited.

The Blurb:

Kelnaht, a cloud elf, is a truth seeker caught between love and faith. Worse, a murder committed ten days before Solstice reveals an illicit affair between two tree elves he desires more than he can admit: Kelnaht's former lover Ianys, who once betrayed him, and the shunned forester named Taruif, who is not allowed to talk to anyone but The Guide, their spiritual pathfinder. When Taruif turns out to be the only witness for the crime, Kelnaht has to keep Ianys from sacrificing himself and losing his daughter, while at the same time realizing he'd gladly sacrifice himself to end Taruif's loneliness. 

The Excerpt:

Tired as I was after spending all day scouring the clearing for evidence and examining Cyine's body, I wasn't granted any rest yet. Someone knocked on my door just as I finished washing up and changing my clothes. I regretted opening the door as soon as I saw Ianys standing on the other side, but I resisted slamming it closed.

"What do you want?" I asked, not caring how hostile I sounded.

After all this time, Ianys couldn't even look at me as he stood there, fidgeting with his tunic, eyes lowered to the ground.

Ianys was as gorgeous as he ever was. Brown, short cropped, messy hair, as if he had just risen from sleep, his muscles visible through the tight tunic. He was a tree elf, broad and more muscular than when we had been together, but as a smith that was to be expected; working the bellows was a pretty hefty workout in itself. I pushed down the memory of watching him work when we were together.

In all the turns since he'd left me, betrayed me, he had barely spoken two words to me. Instead, I had to watch from afar how he vowed himself to another, only to lose her to illness after their daughter, Atèn, was born. I'd watched how hard he worked at being a good father, how he, finally, became a full-fledged smith. He'd never once approached me, but the hope lingering inside me could never be buried deep enough. How could I still want him? After eight turns, I should know better.

"I don't have time for this, Ianys. I am tired and I—"

"I need to talk to you."

"Can't it wait till morning?"

I had to bite my lip to keep from reacting when he finally looked up. His green eyes, filled with turmoil, drew me in the way they had always done. I loved him once. I shook my head. Who was I kidding? I never stopped.

Holding the door open, I stepped aside to let him in, staying in the small hallway until I managed to compose myself.

"He didn't do it, Kel."

Whatever whoever had or hadn't done was the furthest thing from my mind when Ianys called me by that name. I clenched my fists and turned my back to him, hoping he couldn't see how it affected me. "You have no right to call me that."

A long silence followed. I tried to school my features, but I was too drained. Instead, I kept my back to him and waited for him to break the silence. I heard him sigh.

"I heard they accuse him of killing Cyine, but he didn't do it," Ianys finally said.

"Who?" What could Ianys know about the murder?

"Taruif."

I froze. My first instinct was to tell Ianys he shouldn't be saying the name, shouldn't even think it, but there was something in Ianys' voice that made me stop. Something of a memory from long ago, when I didn't know how Ianys betrayed me, and we lay together in the dark, and he would whisper my name in that same way.

It could not be true. But when I finally turned around and looked at him, it was all too clear in Ianys' face. The one I loved—had loved—and the one I desired, joined in illicit relations.

I should arrest Ianys, should send him to face the elders and have him punished, shunned, shut out for his digression. But then I pictured Atèn looking at me with those same green eyes, and I knew I could not rob her of a father as well.

"He didn't do it, Kelnaht. He couldn't have done it, for I—"

I shook my head and held my hand up to stop him. "Don't tell me, Ianys. I beg of you, do not confess to this... this abomination."

It hurt me to say it, having the same feelings myself, but if he told me, I could not help him. Being caught talking to the Forester was bad enough, though I had the right to pardon him for that, a first offence. But confessing to laying with a shunned, that would have to be reported to the elders; it was my duty. I would not be able to save him then.

"He saw someone outside, Kelnaht. He didn't see Cyine, but he noticed someone out in the dark in that clearing." His eyes begged me to understand, begged me to help him, but I was rooted to the floor.

I knew the Forester—I could not allow myself to think of him by name—knew he hadn't killed Cyine, even if the evidence was still inconclusive. I had no doubt in my mind, no matter how loud Olden proclaimed him guilty. And here Ianys was, confirming my belief in his innocence and giving me the best and worst witness I could ever have. No matter whether I believed Ianys or not, I could never use this information. The Forester was out of bounds.

"Kel, please, help us. Help him. I could have been out walking when I stumbled across the clearing. You know I don't always sleep well."

I bit my lip and clenched my fists. I didn't want him to bring our history up. I didn't want him to tell me about the Forester. I wanted him gone, wanted him to go back to his daughter and go back to not being part of my life. But I found myself unable to turn him out.

"You would perjure yourself, would risk losing your daughter?"

"No! No one but you knows the truth."

I laughed at that, flinching at the harsh sound. "I am the Truth Seeker, Ianys. I seek the truth; I do not bury lies."

"But I was in the forest."

"But you didn't see what he saw. One mistake and you will be shunned, just like him."

Ianys flinched then. He shook his head. "There has to be a way."

"Get him to talk to the Guide."

"Anything the Guide hears during those conversations is confidential. He can't reveal anything Taruif tells him."

"Please." The word left my mouth before I could stop it. I couldn't handle him speaking that name with such devotion. Not when I ached to be able to myself. "Remember who you are talking to, Ianys. Do not incriminate yourself any further." I leaned back against the wall, trying to keep upright and closed my eyes. "Go home, Ianys. I need to... I need to think."

I swatted away the hand touching my cheek and waited until I heard the door close before letting myself slide to the floor.

Find Blaine here:

http://blainedarden.com

http://twitter.com/BlaineDArden

http://www.facebook.com/BlaineDArden

http://www.goodreads.com/BlaineDArden

email: blaine@blainedarden.com

Giveaway details:


Leave a comment on this entry with your name and email address. That counts as one entry. If you want to toss your name into the pot more than once, you can do one, or all, of the following:


-Be a follower of Babes in Boyland +1 (If you're already a follower, that counts too! Just mention it. :))
-Pimp this contest on your Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads status, etc., and provide us with a link to said promotion(s). +1 per link-Follow us on Twitter! (See the sidebar for our names and links to our accounts). If your Twitter name is different than the one you use here, please let us know. +1 for each of us


And that’s it!


Contest ends: 1/2/2012, Mon, at 9PM CST


Note: This contest is open worldwide. We will contact the winner via email. The winner will have 48 hours (until 9 PM CST, 1/4/2012) to contact us, or we will draw again. Winner will be chosen by random drawing.And I know it shouldn’t have to be said, but if you win, please respect the intellectual property of the author and don’t share the book or give it away to anyone else.


~*This contest is open to adults age 18 and up. Your comment confirms that you are of legal age.*~


Thanks for playing!

Music Monday - Led Zeppelin

So, thanks to my dad, I've been a Led Zeppelin fan since childhood. :D These are my top 4 all-time favorite Zeppelin songs. 


Enjoy! 


~*~

WIP...well, I tried for Wednesday:)

I've never been the world's most on time person. I suppose this isn't going to be a life changing moment for me:) Piper shared some of her V-day story with you guys last week, so this week I'm going to share some of my WIP Cold Moon. It's nearing the very end stages as we speak, and my publisher is waiting impatiently so we can get it edited and out to you guys ASAP.

I figured since this is a longer book and you won't be familiar with either of the characters, I'd just start with Chapter One:) I'll put the blurb up to remind you what you're reading about and then get right into it. There isn't a link to the publisher's site yet, but at the end I'll link to GR so you can put it on your TBR if you like what you read!

Charlie Fitzgerald is sick of being the kid who nobody takes seriously. His older brother Colin is off in New York City fighting bad vampires and other trouble causers and Charlie wants in on the action. He thinks it’s impossible until he overhears something that seems to be his perfect opportunity. The Lycan council is looking for a human emissary--someone to take a message of peace to a volatile werewolf who lives in the dark forests of Romania. Charlie decides that emissary will be him.

Xan, or X’andrien as he’s known to his people, is furious. His best friend, who also happens to be one of the Fitzgeralds his family has vowed to protect, has gone missing.

When they find out where Charlie has gone, Xan has to chase after his friend and save his stubborn butt in the middle of the night in the freezing cold Romanian forest. He never realized how much his best friend and charge meant to him until he was nearly killed.

Together, they end up stuck in the middle of a mess that includes the lycans, one stubborn...werewolf, a master villain and some very nosy vampires. If the two of them manage to make it out alive, they may realize that stuck together or not, years of friendship for one stubborn hunter and an equally bullheaded dryad protector can turn into a love neither of them is willing to live without.

So, without further ado, here is chapter One of Cold Moon:

Chapter One

Normal Sucks

“You did what? Are you out of your Goddamn mind?”

I held my cell away from my ear and let my older brother, Colin, scream to his heart’s content. It was too late. There was nothing that Colin, his vampy friends, or any of the rest of my family, could do….

I was gone.

“Charlie?...Charlie?…Charlie Fitzgerald?” Huh? Oh, crap. I looked up from where I’d been staring blankly at the fake woodgrain on my desk, inscribed by years worth of kids who were probably as bored as I was in their final months of high school. My teacher was standing there with his hand stretched out, eyebrows raised. “Do you have last night’s assignment with you?”

“Yes, of course.” I grabbed my homework from where it was folded in the back of my book and handed it to Mr. Carlson, my history teacher. He took it and deposited it with the rest of the papers in his inbox before he strolled to the front of the room and powered up his LCD projector.

“Okay, guys, there were some pretty wretched scores on the Jamestown unit. Maybe you were just easing into the year, but it’s mid October now and quite a few of you need to pull your grades up on this unit or else your first report card will be pretty grim.”

I wanted to gag.

If there was anything in the entire world more boring than U.S. History, I couldn’t name it. The subject was lame when I had to learn it in fifth grade, just as lame in junior high school, and for the third time—now that I was a senior in high school and ready to get the hell out of the public schools, or any school for that matter—It was torture of the worst kind. I couldn’t think of how many times I’d had the same argument with my mother about graduating from school. It wasn’t like I needed to get into some prestigious college, or any college for that matter. I’d known what I wanted to do with my life since I was a little boy. The choice was easy.

I wanted to be a vampire hunter.

Yes, you heard right. I said vampire hunter. And here’s where you think ‘Sure kid, doesn’t everyone who ever watched a few episodes of Buffy have fantasies about staking blood suckers and round-housing demons?’. And you’d probably be right. But, you see, it’s different for me. Because I’ve known for years that vampires, and vampire hunters, really exist. Sounds crazy, right? I swear to effing God it’s not.

My family, the Fitzgeralds, are one of the oldest hunter families in the world. There are a few others, my cousin Noah’s family the Harpers are one of them, and we’re all aware of each other. We’ve been active for centuries, slaying supernatural dragons (and from what I heard actual dragons back in the day) and it was so my turn to get into the action.

If you want to get into technicalities, I wasn’t supposed to even know hunters existed, let alone that my family was among the chosen few. Well, at least not as early as I did manage to find out. My brother Colin hadn’t been told formally until he was eighteen; neither had any of the cousins...at least I don’t think that's the way it always worked. I suppose it was probably for our safety. I thought it sucked.

Of course I’d managed out when I was a little kid, nine or ten, by overhearing a conversation that was not meant for junior ears. I guess that’s one of the nice parts about being the ignored younger brother to superstar Colin the fantastic. I heard all sorts of things I wasn’t supposed to know about...like hunting vampires, killing werewolves and banshees, doing all sorts of things that were way better than anything in my boring lame ass life. And that’s how I’d decided years before that I was going into the family business as soon as I possibly could.

“Charlie.” I heard my name again, this time from behind, hissed quietly and followed by a pencil poking my neck. Jesus, wasn’t anyone going to leave me alone? It was Xan, my oldest and best friend. He poked me again. Probably with one of those natural colored recycled pencils. At the moment, he was kind of annoying me. Nothing could ruin a good sulk like Xan’s perpetual sunny mood.

“What’s up?” I whispered back, wishing Xan would leave me alone.

“Do you have the answer to number seven?”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Who cared about number seven? Who cared about high school? It was only October but I was so ready to be out of there. I’d turned eighteen over the summer (and gotten a card from my brother Colin that said happy seventeenth. Dumb ass). I felt like I was marking time until I could be done with the charade of normalcy and moved on to my real life. I was already mentally sharpening my stakes.

The fam hadn’t bothered having the big ‘You’re a Fitzgerald and we hunt vampires’ conversation with me on my birthday, like I’d hoped. It was common knowledge at home that the cat had been out of the bag for ages. Probably when I’d started running around with pretend stakes in fifth grade and pretending to slay the couch. My mom hadn’t liked that one too much. The couch had been expensive and leather after all. All those years ago, my mother had explained to him that it didn’t work like that in our world—that there were rules to be followed and you didn’t go around staking random vampires or shooting werewolves with silver bullets at first sight. I’d been a bit disappointed. I was even more disappointed when the long detailed eighteenth birthday talk had been skipped back in July. I was going to have to find everything out for myself. It didn’t matter. Forget my family. I was happy to do some investigating.

“Charlie? What’s the answer to seven?”

Oh, yeah. I’d forgot about Xan. “Ummm…” I scanned down his paper. “The First Continental Congress met at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia on September fifth, seventeen seventy four.”

“Thanks.”

I heard the scratching sound of Xan’s pencil and paper coming from the desk behind him.

The noise was suddenly completely annoying. The noise, school, my teacher’s endless assignments, even my life long friendship with Xan had become annoying, predictable, blah, blah, blah. I wanted something new.

“Hey, Charlie,” Xan whispered again. I had to keep from screeching. I was so irritated with my life and I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Yeah?”

“Am I coming over tonight?”

I shrugged. “Sure.” Why not? It was Friday, and I didn’t have anything better to do. Xan and I ended up together ninety percent of Fridays anyway plunking away on one of my gaming systems and eating pizza. Why change the status quo? I probably wouldn’t see much of Xan after I was out in the world hunting badass vampires anyway. A few more normal teenage weekends wouldn’t kill me.

“Wanna play Worlds of Warcraft.”

Yay. We could play video games for a change. “That’s fine. Whatever you want, dude.”

“Do you have the answer to number eight?”

I snorted. “Jesus, Xan you’ve got to do some of your own work.”

“I don’t want to be here any more than you do.” He whacked me in the back of my head with his pencil.

* * * *

“Hey, what’s your problem today?” Xan shoved me off the curb onto the street where I stumbled and nearly dropped the slushie I was drinking on the ground. It was a good thing the street was one of the many quiet tree lined streets in New Haven and there wasn’t a single moving vehicle in sight.

New Haven was safe, but it sure as hell wasn’t somewhere exciting, like say, New York where my brother had gone over a year ago to talk to my cousin Noah and basically never came back. The overnight trip had turned into this crazy awesome rescue mission to get my aunt Bianca back from some nutcase (something else I wasn’t supposed to know about but did) and ended up with Colin living in the city and hanging out with Noah and his friends while I was stuck in suburbiaville. It was bullshit. I hopped back up onto the sidewalk.

“You’re a jerk. Why’d you push me?” I pushed Xan back and he chuckled and punched me in the arm. Pretty typical for us.

“Because you weren’t answering me. What’s your problem?”

I shrugged. How the hell was I supposed to explain my problem to Xan? I’d never told him about my family. Every instinct I had told me that it wasn’t a good idea to share, even if there was a chance in hell he’d believe me. Which there wasn’t. His family was earthy and granola-ish, but they weren’t the mystic type. At least I didn’t think they were. I didn’t know his family all that well. I had the feeling Xan was a bit embarrassed by them. He spent most of his time at my place.

“I guess I’m just feeling restless. I want to get the hell out of New Haven.”

“Do you want to drive into Hartford and walk around?”

I chuckled. Hartford wasn’t going to cut it. Not even close. “No, not really. That’s just another version of boring.”

“I’m guessing video games aren’t going to make you feel better.” He nudged me with his shoulder. I’d have felt better if Xan wasn’t so damn understanding. As it was, I kind of felt like an asshole for being annoyed with him.

“No. Not really.”

“What about the city? We can take the bus into Manhattan. Maybe Colin would want to hang out.”

Hmmm. Not a bad idea. The thrill of noise and cars and city sights (Even if I’d seen them on a million field trips) all of a sudden appealed to me.

“You think your moms would be okay with it?”

Xan lived with his mother and her partner. They were lenient to a point, but they both seemed to have a violent distaste for the noise and lights of New York. I’d never seen where they lived. The few times I brought it up, Xan cringed and shook his head. From then on, I assumed it was some sort of weird ex flower child commune and Xan didn’t want my suburban sensibilities to be damaged. I was mildly curious, but happy to have him come to my house.

Xan shrugged. “They’ll be fine as long as I’m with you.”

“Am I the great protector?” I chuckled.

Xan gave me an odd smile. “Yeah, something like that. Are you going to call Colin?”

I pulled my cell out of my backpack and dialed. Colin picked up on the third ring.

“Charlie? What’s up? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

I shrugged, then realized he couldn’t see it. “Oh, same ol’ shit. You know.”

Colin chuckled. “Yeah, I know. How’s Mom and Dad?”

Wouldn’t he like to know? “They’re fine. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind seeing you once in a while. Dad went on a business trip last weekend with Uncle Jeffrey. I think it went fairly well.”

“Aren’t you even going to pretend you don’t know about the hunting?” I could hear his ironic smile.

“Um, not anymore. I turned eighteen last summer, douche wad, not seventeen. Thanks for the card, by the way.”

“Oh.” Colin’s silence was awkward.

I decided to give him a break. I was over it anyway. “Listen, Xan and I were dying to get out of New Haven for the weekend.” I am at least. “What would you say to us crashing at your place in the city. We’ll bring sleeping bags and try to stay out of your way as much as possible.”

“It’s fine with me. I’m going to hang out with Noah and some friends tonight. You guys are welcome.”

I’d always liked Noah. He was older than me but younger than Colin—quiet, sweet, and if I wasn’t mistaken, we had something in common in the liking guys department. I wasn’t that good at detection yet, but from what I remembered? Totally. Did I mention that I like guys and not chicks? Big deal. No one in the family seemed to care. Wasn’t going to stop me from being an ass kicking hunter either. As far as I was concerned it was a non-issue.

“Sounds great. What time do you want Xan and I to be there?” I elbowed Xan with a smile. It was hard not to grin. Suddenly the weekend didn’t seem quite so lame.

“How bout eightish? We usually don’t meet until nine or so.”

“We’ll be there!”

Colin gave me his address (since the punk hadn’t bothered to invite me down before) and I managed to hang up before I gave in to a very undignified fist pump.

“We are so out of here for the weekend. How long do you think it’ll take to grab your stuff and get to my house?”

Xan shrugged. “An hour maybe?”

“Cool. Then we have time for one or two games before you have to go home. I could drive you home if you want…” I hadn’t hinted about going to Xan’s place in years. He shook his head, as usual, though. I wondered, for the millionth time, how weird it could really be. His moms were pretty nice whenever I saw them out in public.

“Nah. I’ll be fine walking. Does your mom have any of those frosted cookies still? I’m hungry.”

I couldn’t help my smile. It was so much easier than it had been just a few minutes before. “You always want sweets.”

“Whatever. Your mom’s cookies are awesome and you know there’s nothing like that at my house. Let’s go so we can eat and stuff before we have to head out.” ....

And so the adventure begins:)

If you want to mark this book on Goodreads, here's your link! Cold Moon on GR

Valentine's Day Double Release

Hey, all! Now that we have our covers and official release date, I wanted to announce that both MJ and I have Valentine's Day stories coming out on February 8th from Less Than Three Press! We both wrote follow-up shorts to our Hot Summer Days stories, which were written for the M/M Romance Group over on Goodreads. Check out the deets below! 

The Key is a follow-up to MJ's HSD story, Bridges, which you can download for free from ARe.

The Blurb: 

Brooklyn and Dallas have been together ever since the night six months ago when they kissed under the stars on top of Dallas' old trampoline. They spent that summer planning their life together in college. But things haven't quite gone as planned, and their relationship ... well, it kind of isn't going at all.

Brooklyn is terrified that Valentine's Day will be his last chance to convince Dallas to stay.

Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Giving In is the follow-up to my story, Wanting, which you can download free here. 

The Blurb:

It's Jonah and Laurie's first Valentine's Day. What could be a better way to celebrate than with a little kinky superhero role-play? According to Laurie, pretty much anything. Bummed, but unwilling to pressure his boyfriend into something he doesn't want to do, Jonah resigns himself to celebrating a more traditional Valentine's Day. But Jonah isn't the only one who hates to see his boyfriend unhappy...

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