June Updates

You will see that I updated the side bar with my latest covers of Amber Quill Re-Releases coming in July.

Besides those releases, I also wrote a new short story which was contracted as a free short story with Loose Id called More Than Summer. No release day but since it was part of their summer stories I am guessing it won't be in the too distant future. Because it is a free short story it will have some kind of generic cover.  

Latest Story Updates April 2017

The Sutter's Bay series will be coming soon as a boxed eBook set with JMS Books. So look for that, later this month, I think.

In other news, I am in the process of contracting several more orphaned AQ stories. These include The Squire, Sorcerer's Lover and Sorcerer's Lover 2, Waking the Prince, Admiring Jesse, Jake's Regret, The Other Side, Needing Seth, Manfred's Curse, and Unobtainable. 

There are still a few that haven't found a home and I'm not certain I will be pursuing re-publication for these at this point. I never say never though.

Pulling Away and Pulling Apart, have to be technically run through Loose Id as they are connected to Car Wash, which they currently have the rights to. Right now I don't have any intention of offering them to Loose Id, so they remain unavailable.

Other AQ stories that I have have no plans for are: Hitting It Big, Lost Between, The Impostor, The Best Gift, Still the One, A Knight for All, and It's Only Make Believe. I think that's about it for my former AQ catalog.

I still have zero news on the stories orphaned by the closure of Ellora's Cave, which are, of course, Perfect Man, Trust, Another Chance, Wanting Sam, and um, the Topaz book. I forget the name right now. Sorry.

There were a few free stories I had on All Romance eBooks that are no longer out there as well, including two Christmas stories, Last Christmas and The Naughty Ones. I might some day get those up on Amazon. We will see.

And finally, I am working on a new story but I am not pushing myself to work on it too fast so I have no clue when I will get it finished nor who it will go to. It involves a Hollywood actor and a nurse.

Jake and Damian Are Feeling the Love

Thanks everyone for stopping by this week for Damian's Feast. My former football players are feeling the love.

It's no secret that Jake has been somewhat perceived by some readers as being weak for his actions in Jake's Regret. I never thought of him that way and I know from speaking with some readers they didn't either. So those of you that choose to read Jake's Regret after reading the Thanksgiving story, I hope you like it. It's a little angsty.

Anyway, tomorrow is the conclusion of Damian's Feast.

Monday I will post part one of A Sweet Thanksgiving, which features Jason and Danny from Sweet Reunion.

Monday, November 16, I will post part one of Most Likely to Have a Successful Holiday, which features Clark and Thomas from Most Likely to Succeed.

And the final full week of November, Monday, November 23, I will post At Long Last Thanksgiving featuring Preston and Scotty from At Long Last.

Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these things, lol.

And by popular demand, Kevin from Car Wash along with his beau, Michael, and their friends, Noah and Charlie from Pulling Away, will appear in December for a Christmas themed story. Don't yet know the exact date.

Thanks for your support.

Why Some Books Resonate More Than Others

I’ve been thinking about this lately. So far, my latest release, Trust, has had a great response from readers. I’m thrilled, of course, when readers enjoy my stories. I’m not naïve enough to believe everyone will like it, but still I’ve had a fantastic response thus far. I loved my characters in Trust, in particular Brad (I do love Justin, too), and it seems many of my readers have fallen for Brad, too. I never would have guessed when I set out to write Trust last summer how well it would do. I just wanted to create a character who made a mistake (dare I say forgivable) and make him worthy of being loved again.

On the other hand, I’ve had a very mixed reaction to my March release of Jake’s Regret. I’ve received some lovely emails from readers who enjoyed the story, but I’ve also had readers who thought Jake was weak and unsympathetic. Just as I hadn’t expected such a great response to Trust I was equally surprised at the displeasure with Jake’s character. As his creator I never saw him to be unsympathetic. I just wanted to create a character who was the product of his upbringing by a hateful parent and so therefore found it difficult to accept himself for what he was.

So this brings the point. Some books resonate better than others with readers. I find even with the authors I read over and over some stories I like better than others. I don’t know why this is either.

As a writer I want all my books to be well-received by everyone but I know that isn’t possible. I treasure the times when a reader has been moved in some way by my books and hope to grow and improve when they are not.

Speaking of stories that got a mostly positive reaction (recently I've had some very lovely reviews pop up, too) time for a little bit of self-promotion. My story, Pulling Away, which as I’ve noted on the blog before was a spur of the moment story I wrote in less than a week when one of my publishers needed stories to fill in gaps, was pretty well received by most readers. So those readers might be interested to know that my June release, Car Wash, is Kevin’s story. Kevin was Noah’s friend in Pulling Away. While you do not need to have read Pulling Away to read Car Wash and vice versa, I would love it if readers read both, of course. Anyway, I don't recall now if I mentioned the connection prior to this.

I will be doing another giveaway, this time of Car Wash, when it gets closer to the release date.