Giveaway

Rainbow Snippets: A bit judgy

Happy Saturday! I’m really sorry I’ve been so bad about reading other snippets. I try not to participate on weeks I know I can’t make the rounds. I’ll try to do better this week.

Also, if you’re interested, there’s still time to enter the giveaway below to win a copy of something from my backlist. Maybe a good way to celebrate Bi Visibility Day, right?

I’m snipping again from Drumbeat, my nearly-new novel about a drummer, and Irish dancer, and their multi-faceted relationships.

The real story was that Cian had cornered Jamie at Brandon and Gemma’s engagement party and tried to rope him into conversation about his past work. Given the fact that there was a limited audience for it, there was only one way Cian could have known anything about it. He’d had an awful lot to say about Jamie’s character, something about why they hadn’t hired an actual deaf actor for the part. Jamie wouldn’t have minded discussing it somewhere other than in front of his friends, but Cian had sounded so arrogant, leaving no room for Jamie to explain anything. Cian didn’t get to jerk off while watching Jamie and then judge him for his part in it later, as though somehow Jamie had put the notion in his head to watch the web series or as if casting direction was even his call in the first place.

The trouble was, Jamie had kind of liked that about him.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

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600 Likes and a Giveaway!

Cool Stuff, Odds 'n' Ends, Writing

This week, I promised that if I made it to 600 page likes on Facebook, I’d do a giveaway and a new torso book cover. Thank you all so much for helping me get there! I’m so excited to announce this giveaway. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

Two lucky winners will each get to choose something from my backlist. You can see what’s available here on my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00OIC158W

As for the torsos, my excellent kids suggested this time I do a Stephen King novel. So go vote in the poll on my page to see whether it’ll be Pennywise or a creature from The Mist who gets the official torso treatment. I’m still trying to decide how I feel about clown abs, to be honest.

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Rainbow Snippets: Drumbeat, Torsos, and Giveaways, oh my!

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! I spent my morning watching my son and his team run their second cross-country meet. I’m not a runner myself, but I love watching these events. Everyone cheers for everyone, regardless of what school they’re from, and it’s exciting to watch the kids finish, especially if they achieve a personal best time.

Meanwhile, I’m nearly up to 600 likes on my Facebook author page. When I hit 600, I’m doing a giveaway. Two people will win a copy of any book from my backlist. Also, I will celebrate by making an Official Torso-ified Cover of a Stephen King novel. Be sure to like my page and vote in the poll if you’d like to see this happen. (For those not in the know, a fellow author, C.H. Clepitt, and I decided everything can be improved with a naked torso. We made covers and new blurbs for lots of classic literature.)

I’m snipping again from Drumbeat, my recent release. We met Jamie last week, and now it’s time to meet Cian through Jamie’s eyes.

The dance and the costumes had an ethereal quality which evoked images of woods and the fair folk. The dancers all had on some kind of green makeup which caught the light and shimmered. Cian’s midnight-black hair was slicked back, and he had a green mask covering the top half of his face. That was just about all he had covered, aside from a small, tight pair of green shorts. He wasn’t tall and reedy like some dancers. He was shorter, muscular and broad rather than slim—almost stocky. He made faeries seem powerful and majestic rather than prim and delicate.

DRUMBEAT: release day & interview on the WROTE podcast!

Books

Happy book birthday to my 8th novel, Drumbeat (Notes from Boston #3)!

As part of release week, I had the privilege of being interviewed for the WROTE podcast, which you can listen to here or follow this link. What a great conversation about writing bisexual characters, non-binary representation, and invisible disability.

You can also read Jayne’s review on the website, and be sure to enter the giveaway below.

Title: Drumbeat

Series: Notes from Boston (#3)

Date: September 1, 2018

Length: 231 pages

eBook ISBN: 978-1-944591-78-6

print ISBN: 978-1-944591-51-9

Category: LGBTQ Literature, Gay Romance

Goodreads

Purchase Links

Amazon | Amazon UK | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Synopsis

Jamie Cosgrove is doing his best to recover from a break-up after years with an abusive boyfriend. All his usual coping strategies have failed, and he’s fallen back on things that make him feel safe: drumming, food, and his friend Trevor. The trouble is, two of those are still secrets, even from those closest to him.

Cian Toomey has it all. He has loving relationships with his partners and a fulfilling, creative career. The one thing he’s missing is someone to go home to at night. When sudden changes occur at one of his jobs, he’s faced with a choice to find something new or move in with his partners in a different city.

Well-meaning but pushy friends seem to think Cian and Jamie are the answers to each other’s prayers. They couldn’t disagree more. A series of random events thrusts them into each other’s lives, and they find they have more in common than they thought. But when all of Jamie’s carefully constructed walls crumble at once, both of them will have to depend on the support of their friends and family to strengthen their fragile bond.

Excerpt

After the class left, Jamie waited for Cian to tidy the stage. He’d been to the Dyer Theater before, to watch Nate. Not that Jamie was a huge fan of opera, but Nate and his co-director, Del, were outstanding at what they did. Whether Jamie liked the music or not, queer opera was unique and fun.

Jamie stood at the edge of the stage, looking out into the empty auditorium. He couldn’t picture himself in such a venue, doing what Cian or Nate did. Sure, he’d been on stage plenty of times, both in school and at the various bars where the Creepy Crullers played. He’d also been a model/actor, but that was a much different set, and they had multiple chances to get their performance right. This was different.

There was a clacking against the floorboards behind Jamie, and he turned around. Cian still had on his jig shoes, and when Jamie looked at him, he showed off a few lively steps with a twinkle in his eye. Jamie had seen tap dancers before, like Izzy when he was performing as TaTa. The sound of the jig shoes was different from the bright clicks of the metal taps. The fiberglass was richer, more full. Somehow, though, it was lighter the way Cian did it, every step paired with a little jump.

His posture was different too, Jamie noted. Narrower, with his shoulders, hips, and feet lined up vertically rather than horizontally. He kept his arms still at his sides and his back straight. After a moment or two, Jamie could tell the difference when Cian switched from tapping only on the balls of his feet to using the whole shoe to stomp.

Want to try? Cian signed after he came in for a landing in front of Jamie. He still had his hearing aids out.

No! Jamie tried to shift away, to make it clear he wasn’t up for such a thing. He couldn’t possibly hope to learn that skill.

Cian grinned. Please? It’s easy. I’ll show you after I change shoes.

Jamie looked at his own feet, thinking it didn’t look particularly easy. Should I change?

You don’t have to. I have extra if you want. Cian ducked into the wings and grabbed his bag. What size?

Do I have to wear the ones with all the ties? Jamie couldn’t picture himself trying to get them done up without getting tangled in the long laces.

G-h-i-l-l-i-e-s? Cian finger-spelled it, and Jamie wondered how it was pronounced. No. Only girls, unless you’re in Scotland. Here. Cian reached into the bag and tossed over a pair of soft black shoes. Try those.

Jamie toed off his sneakers and slipped on the black shoes. They were a little loose, but they fit well enough and conformed to his feet. The thin material felt strange after wearing street shoes. He faced Cian and waited for instructions, his heart beating rapidly and his palms sweaty.

Cian explained the steps and what he called them, then demonstrated for Jamie. He made it look easy. Cian was muscular but not lanky; he wasn’t built the way Jamie envisioned most dancers. Yet he was light on his feet, almost springy. He always looked to Jamie as though he was flying when he danced at Grand Slam. Here on this stage, he toned it down a bit for Jamie’s benefit, the same way he did with his students.

Jamie tried to imitate the pattern of steps. The first one he got all right, but by the second set he’d somehow ended up on the wrong foot. Cian didn’t make fun or chastise him. He showed Jamie again then motioned for him to try. In a short time, Jamie had picked up one of the basic forward steps.

They played around for a bit longer, at which point Jamie’d had enough. He truly wasn’t any kind of dancer, no matter what Cian had tried to tell him. He asked to stop, and Cian praised his effort before accepting the shoes back and tucking them away. He slid his hearing aids back in and sat down to put his street shoes on.

“Not bad, for a first time,” he told Jamie as he laced his sneakers.

Win an ebook set of the first 3 Notes from Boston books!

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Happy Easter! Ready to hunt for some eggs?

Books

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! What are your weekend plans? As a church musician, this is one of my busiest times of year. I’ll be singing with a choir and playing violin. Fortunately, next week is vacation.

Do you like to read? Do you like FREE books? Come join the Sparkly Badgers Easter Egg Hunt on Facebook. All you have to do is stop over on the event page, we give you the first website, and off you go. Look for an egg on each website that links to the next one in line. Collect the letters and unscramble the anagram. Then tell us the answer to be entered in for a chance to win 15 eBooks from some eggtastic indie authors.

Be sure to follow all the authors on Twitter so you can keep up with all their latest news and adventures in writing:

My own egg is hidden on my website somewhere. It’s not too hard to find, but some of the eggs are really tricky. Good luck!

Kicking off Bi Week with a giveaway!

Blogs, Books, Cool Stuff, Fiction, LGBTQ+, Sexuality and Gender, Social Justice, Writing

Happy Sunday! It’s the start of Bisexual Awareness Week. Don’t know what that is? Here’s a primer from BiNet USA and GLAAD: https://www.glaad.org/biweek2017. All week, I’ll be celebrating, so be sure to come back and see what new things I have.

First of all, I had the privilege of co-interviewing Miles the Bisexual with Elizabeth for the BiCast. What a great time! Check out out chat here.

Second, I’m running a giveway all week. Winners can choose any book in my backlist, excluding multi-author publishers’ anthologies. (My own single-author anthologies are all available, however.) You can enter below.

Third, I’ll be posting book reviews and recommendations. If you missed it last year, I posted a list of all my bisexual characters. I’ve updated it to reflect my 2017 releases. I also have a list of my favorite bisexual characters. This list has been updated as well to include great reads from 2017.

Fourth, my WIPpet Wednesday and Rainbow Snippets Saturday posts will reflect bi content, of course. Cian, one of the two main characters in my WIP, is bi+ and in a polyamorous family relationship. LR (Cat’s sister in the Faithfully Yours series) is married to a bisexual man, and I’ve been snipping from their story on Saturdays.

Finally, every day will feature a bit of flash fiction (very short stories, in this case under 750 words). These are all on various aspects of coming out and understanding ourselves. Part of my own story is going to be part of the #WeAreBisexuality campaign on Miles the Bisexual’s blog, and I’ll share more about it later on in the week.

Happy Bisexual Awareness Week!

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Rainbow Snippets: A bit judgy

600 Likes and a Giveaway!

Rainbow Snippets: Drumbeat, Torsos, and Giveaways, oh my!