And now for Fortune’s Pawn...
After a long delay, I am pleased to announce that both e-book and paperback versions of Fortune’s Pawn, the first book of the Stouten Duet, are now available. The Stouten Duet is a set of bookends for the Sam’s Cafe Romances... Two stories covering each of the enigmatic chess master Brian’s brothers. This first release takes place a few years before the events of The King’s Mate and tells the story of Brian’s younger brother Brandon. The second book, due out this year, will cover Brice, his older brother, and will take place a year or two after the Sam’s Cafe Romances conclusion.
The Rodeo Knight is out now
The Rodeo Knight is now out. This means all three of the Sam's Cafe stories have been released, and all the titles that went out of publication when I got my rights back from Dreamspinner are now available again. While I would love to have gotten some new books out last year, I am glad to have at least gotten those last three books rereleased... and managed individual print versions of each of them too!
A Wounded Promise out now!
A Wounded Promise is now available in ebook! We also did a print release for this book to match the the release of The King’s Mate. These books are both gorgeous and I hope you’ll head over to Amazon and check out the release.
The King’s Mate now available
So excited to have The King’s Mate released back into the wilds. It’s now available from Amazon as both print and ebook. That’s right, we did an individual print release for the book, and it’s gorgeous! I hope you’ll check it out at Amazon:
Gerry’s Lion is here!
It's so exciting to have Gerry's Lion released. I wrote the Christmas portion of this story while on vacation on a cruise—taking every little break I had to find a little lounge and write. It was inspired and the words just seemed to flow so perfectly. I love a lot of my stories, but this one will always have a special place.
That said, the angst in this story is definitely turned up. But I really love it for the surprises that I didn't see coming. As an author, when your characters surprise you, that's a precious thing, because that's the life of the character, right there, built into whatever drive they had to put words on a page you weren't expecting to write, and I got surprised a couple times. Haunted a few too.
I hope those of you who haven't will take a chance on Gerry and Leo. It's a great story and a wonderful romance and it's worth every moment.
That said, the angst in this story is definitely turned up. But I really love it for the surprises that I didn't see coming. As an author, when your characters surprise you, that's a precious thing, because that's the life of the character, right there, built into whatever drive they had to put words on a page you weren't expecting to write, and I got surprised a couple times. Haunted a few too.
I hope those of you who haven't will take a chance on Gerry and Leo. It's a great story and a wonderful romance and it's worth every moment.
Forgiving James - July 26, 2023!
I've been rushing to get books rereleased, but I also promised long ago that even if the proposed books 6 and 7 of the College Rose Romances never made it out, that I would release book 5, Forgiving James, which has languished, completed, edited, and only in need of a final review of the copy and ebook format to put out. I have even had a cover for the book for the last five years—though I've elected to make some minor changes.
Forgiving James is a difficult story, focusing on a character we've only glimpsed a few times, and not in a positive light. Jim is the bully. And that's hard to understand and redeem. But I'm a sucker for characters who do the unexpected. And Jim has wormed his way into every single release of the series. In book 2 it's another appearance of the bully. In book 4 more routine mention as the instigator of violence. But book 3... book 3 was written after most of book 4 was written (Rory got impatient!) and contained a truly enlightening scene with Jim and Drew near the end. It was that scene, ultimately, that pushed me to write Forgiving James. It kept nagging at me. And yet it's such a hard story for me to write. How do you forgive the bully? And if I can't, how can my character forgive himself?
It was a wild ride finding the path, getting it read by people I trusted. Getting it polished up. Doing all that while getting all my books rereleased... twice. Not to mention a global pandemic. But it's done. It's ready. July 26, 2023.
This book still makes me cry when I read it. I hope it will do that for you too.
Forgiving James is a difficult story, focusing on a character we've only glimpsed a few times, and not in a positive light. Jim is the bully. And that's hard to understand and redeem. But I'm a sucker for characters who do the unexpected. And Jim has wormed his way into every single release of the series. In book 2 it's another appearance of the bully. In book 4 more routine mention as the instigator of violence. But book 3... book 3 was written after most of book 4 was written (Rory got impatient!) and contained a truly enlightening scene with Jim and Drew near the end. It was that scene, ultimately, that pushed me to write Forgiving James. It kept nagging at me. And yet it's such a hard story for me to write. How do you forgive the bully? And if I can't, how can my character forgive himself?
It was a wild ride finding the path, getting it read by people I trusted. Getting it polished up. Doing all that while getting all my books rereleased... twice. Not to mention a global pandemic. But it's done. It's ready. July 26, 2023.
This book still makes me cry when I read it. I hope it will do that for you too.
The College Rose Romances
I was lucky enough to have Loving Aidan accepted for publication by the then venerable Torquere Press, before it changed hands and went into a decline that finally closed it. This was the first fiction title I ever had accepted by a publisher, though it was published second—after The King's Mate from Dreamspinner Press. When one of the characters ran away with the word count, it made it easy to know who to write about next. That the audience wanted to know what happened to the character only made that more clear. Then Rory poked his head in and insisted on being next, even though Andrew was in line, so his story got written half before Andrew's and half after. And Andrew's story left a big question mark on Jim Puffton. How could I possibly tell a story about him!
It's funny. Sequels don't sell well, not really. But I had a line of them waiting. Jim Puffton's story. Eric's (I've gotten requests for that one.) Cian's. I even designed covers. But I got stuck on Jim's. And everyone hated Rory (okay maybe not, but it didn't sell, so it feels that way), which made me doubt the whole series.
Still, the College Rose Romances are something special to me, and I need to get them out. So I will. At least one a week until it's done. Once all four have been republished, I'll look at getting Forgiving James out, too. Whether Eric is still interested in telling his story, or Cian theirs, I don't know.
We'll start with Loving Aidan. I'm old fashioned, which means approving a print proof, but the e-book version should be up shortly.
It's funny. Sequels don't sell well, not really. But I had a line of them waiting. Jim Puffton's story. Eric's (I've gotten requests for that one.) Cian's. I even designed covers. But I got stuck on Jim's. And everyone hated Rory (okay maybe not, but it didn't sell, so it feels that way), which made me doubt the whole series.
Still, the College Rose Romances are something special to me, and I need to get them out. So I will. At least one a week until it's done. Once all four have been republished, I'll look at getting Forgiving James out, too. Whether Eric is still interested in telling his story, or Cian theirs, I don't know.
We'll start with Loving Aidan. I'm old fashioned, which means approving a print proof, but the e-book version should be up shortly.
Time to rebuild
Ok, I'm terrified.
But I have pushed out The Tendire Gate and American Pride to Amazon under the imprint of Ashavan Doyon Books.
Why these books? They were short, easy, and written only for the Purple Horn Press, so there's less to clean up. They represent both the hurt/comfort/angst romance I was known for and the weird sci-fi/fantasy romance vibe I liked to tread every once in a while... and since a lot of what I've written more recently, what little there is, has been more in that area, I wanted it represented early.
I am going to try to get one more out this weekend (probably The Byte of Betrayal - it was the final release from Purple Horn, so its files are pretty clean).
I'm sure that seems like a lot. It does to me! But I'm still terrified. These three represent my three shortest works!
For novellas that still leaves the three Sam's cafe books, A Christmas Vision, The Colors of Romance, and I Almost Let You.
And there's still Gerry's Lion (print and e-book!) and the four College Rose Romance books (not including the unpublished fifth, which is done, but can't come out until those four are out in print and e-book.
So, yeah. Even releasing three this weekend still leaves six novellas and five novels (six if you count Forgiving James) to get out into the world.
Definitely whelmed.
But I have pushed out The Tendire Gate and American Pride to Amazon under the imprint of Ashavan Doyon Books.
Why these books? They were short, easy, and written only for the Purple Horn Press, so there's less to clean up. They represent both the hurt/comfort/angst romance I was known for and the weird sci-fi/fantasy romance vibe I liked to tread every once in a while... and since a lot of what I've written more recently, what little there is, has been more in that area, I wanted it represented early.
I am going to try to get one more out this weekend (probably The Byte of Betrayal - it was the final release from Purple Horn, so its files are pretty clean).
I'm sure that seems like a lot. It does to me! But I'm still terrified. These three represent my three shortest works!
For novellas that still leaves the three Sam's cafe books, A Christmas Vision, The Colors of Romance, and I Almost Let You.
And there's still Gerry's Lion (print and e-book!) and the four College Rose Romance books (not including the unpublished fifth, which is done, but can't come out until those four are out in print and e-book.
So, yeah. Even releasing three this weekend still leaves six novellas and five novels (six if you count Forgiving James) to get out into the world.
Definitely whelmed.
And everything is gone
I just don't have words. All the books are down and the press is closed. It's devastating and while I'm still confident the decision was the right one, it means a lot of work, and as someone with chronic conditions, I just don't have spoons to get anything back out right now.
So, a reimagined rerelease schedule, if I can pull myself together will start with The Tendire Gate, because it's easiest, and possibly The Byte of Betrayal. Both are ebook only releases, and so the changes to the files would be minimal. The Tendire Gate worries me, because on its original release it got tossed for no apparent reason into the adult dungeon. It's probably my least explicit story. So I need to figure that out.
I know. These books are my babies, why am I not willing to spend that time? It comes down to health, and that fall that I've talked about last March. It wasn't just any injury, it was a broken back. The recovery is glacially slow. I did complete Nano, as is my tradition, in November, so there is improvement, but I will say, it was hard—as hard as when I lost Piggy, or the year I tried to write when dumpster fire came into office. But I feel desperately in need of getting some of these back into the world, so we'll see if I can manage it.
So, a reimagined rerelease schedule, if I can pull myself together will start with The Tendire Gate, because it's easiest, and possibly The Byte of Betrayal. Both are ebook only releases, and so the changes to the files would be minimal. The Tendire Gate worries me, because on its original release it got tossed for no apparent reason into the adult dungeon. It's probably my least explicit story. So I need to figure that out.
I know. These books are my babies, why am I not willing to spend that time? It comes down to health, and that fall that I've talked about last March. It wasn't just any injury, it was a broken back. The recovery is glacially slow. I did complete Nano, as is my tradition, in November, so there is improvement, but I will say, it was hard—as hard as when I lost Piggy, or the year I tried to write when dumpster fire came into office. But I feel desperately in need of getting some of these back into the world, so we'll see if I can manage it.