Release Blitz! Kingdom Vol. 1 by RJ Scott #Giveaway
Release Blitz! Romancing the Ugly Duckling by Clare London #Excerpt #Giveaway
Guest Post! Taking a Chance by Emjay Haze #Excerpt #Giveaway
Teaser Excerpt – Cultivating Love
The rewritten, expanded, and reedited 2nd edition of Cultivating Love will be out in ebook formats on June 24 and in paperback on June 30.
I’m pretty excited about this rerelease and thought I’d share a short excerpt from Joe’s POV:
It figured baling day would be a scorcher. They had a cooler full of Gatorade bottles handy, but it was grueling nonetheless. They got to the end of a row, and Joe stopped the tractor. “Break time, Ed.”
Ed wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt and didn’t complain. Joe tossed him a bottle and grabbed another for himself. The shade under the trees drew them, and they sat, leaning against the rough bark.
Joe figured he might as well break it to Ed now. “Looks like we’re gonna need three days this time. It’s too hot to keep up a fast pace, and I plan on quittin’ before the hottest part of the day.”
Ed stared at him for a few moments. “Fine.” He chewed his lip and looked at his feet. Joe had caught him staring off into space a number of times since he’d gotten back to Mayfield.
“Spit it out, Ed. I know something’s bothering you.”
Surprise reflected in Ed’s eyes. He opened, then closed his mouth before finally speaking. “Uh, there’s something I should tell you.”
Joe’s heart sank. That sounded suspiciously close to “we need to talk,” and nothing good had ever followed those words. Had he been reading too much into their relationship? Maybe he wasn’t working hard enough. Joe squared his shoulders. “What?”
Both ebook and print formats are available for preorder now!
eBook
JMS Books, LLC | Smashwords | Amazon Kindle Universal Link | iBookstore | Kobo
Additional links are pending. For more information and a longer excerpt, visit my page for Cultivating Love, here: https://authoraddisonalbright.com/my-publications/stand-alone-stories/cultivating-love-2nd-edition/
In the Spotlight! Sex in C Major by Matthew J. Metzger #Excerpt #Giveaway
Treadmill Week 29 & What I #amreading
Treadmill Goals:
- Get on the treadmill (or equivalent exercise) daily
- Pace is fine at 30 min/mile, although I may up it on occasion
- Time range between 30 minutes and 1 hour per day
- Distance 1-2 miles per day
- Read the chosen book, which I won’t allow myself to read outside of my treadmill time, hopefully motivating me to reach or exceed the above goals (the only exception to this is Saturday nights, if I want to finish off a book so I can start a fresh one for the new week)
Note: Although I will try to avoid them, my daily #amreading updates may or may not contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.
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What I #amreading: The Monet Murders (Art of Murder #2) by Josh Lanyon
My favorite lines this week:
- SUNDAY: The pier deck was filled, as were the lower lots barricaded by black and whites, their blue and red LED lights flashing in the night like sinister amusement-park rides.
- MONDAY: Don’t patronize me, Jason thought bitterly. He could feel Kennedy willing him to look up and meet his gaze. Jason continued to study the photos. One thing you learned in the Bureau was how to hide your feelings.
- TUESDAY: Well, you’ve got my interest,” Durrand said meaningfully, and if Jason still had any doubts as to Durrand’s sexuality, that mischievous pucker of a smile put them to rest. “Why don’t you come back to my office?”
- WEDNESDAY: Suddenly it wasn’t funny anymore. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
- THURSDAY: Or maybe Jason was getting paranoid in his old age. Spending too much time with a guy like Sam Kennedy would make anyone start to see the dark side of every human interaction.
- FRIDAY: Full moons, thunder and lightning, dark and stormy nights were the staples of both thriller and horror films, but in Jason’s opinion there was nothing more mysterious or eerie than fog winding its silent, sinuous way through the woods, smothering sight and sound in a soft white shroud.
- SATURDAY: The smell of rain and damp earth drifted into the too-hot room. They couldn’t quite mask the other thing he smelled.
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Week 29: June 4, 2017 – June 10, 2017
| DAY | PACE | TIME | DISTANCE |
| Sunday | 30 min/mile | 30:42 min:sec | 1 mile |
| Monday | 30 min/mile | 30:30 min:sec | 1 mile |
| Tuesday | 30 min/mile | 30:12 min:sec | 1 mile |
| Wednesday | 30 min/mile | 31:45 min:sec | 1 mile |
| Thursday | 30 min/mile | 36:33 min:sec | 1.2 miles |
| Friday | 30 min/mile | 31:03 min:sec | 1 mile |
| Saturday | 30 min/mile | 30:13 min:sec | 1 mile |
Release Blitz! Spring Break (Accidental Roots 3) by Elle Keaton #Giveaway
#RainbowSnippets June 10, 2017 – Cultivating Love
I’ve joined the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook. From their description: “Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).” Pretty cool, eh? Don’t forget to “Like” my Facebook page and/or my Facebook profile while you’re over there checking out this fantastic group!
On June 24th I’ll be releasing a rewritten and expanded 2nd edition of Cultivating Love at JMS Books, LLC. Today’s snippet is unrelated to the thread I’ve been following the past few weeks. For context, this scene takes place shortly after Joe leaves to take care of the farm Ed has inherited while Ed stays behind to take care of closing their existing lease and getting them moved. The guys aren’t sure, yet, how long they’ll be separated. This is told from Ed’s 3rd-person POV:
To hell with it. There were no witnesses, so he gave in and let go. Wet trails streamed down his face. How or when had it come to this? He bit his lip, salty with tears, and snuffled. What were they getting themselves into?
Blurb
A man of few words, Joe is a hard-working farmhand who likes his simple, uncomplicated life. Ed is satisfied with his existence as an auto mechanic, but thrilled when an unexpected development in his life allows him to help Joe realize a dream.
It forces them, however, to reevaluate the casual, undefined nature of their relationship. They’re too macho to speak of love, and neither would acknowledge he doesn’t really mind when it’s his turn to bottom. When life throws them a curve ball, and the rules of their game get old, Ed tries to take every aspect of their relationship up a notch. Can Joe adapt to the open sentimentality Ed’s injecting into their relationship, let alone the new spice in their bedroom activities?
This is a previously published story that has been rewritten, expanded, and re-edited.
#RainbowSnippets
If you’re interested, you can sign up for the Release Blitz and/or Review Tour through Signal Boost Promotions, here: https://goo.gl/forms/S7ypq26RzHyOlWcW2
As with all my books at JMS Books, LLC, Cultivating Love will be available for #FREE download with your #KindleUnlimited subscription (as well as available in other formats at all the usual distributors).
Some of the preorder links are up:
eBooks: JMS Books | Amazon Kindle Universal Link |iBookstore | Kobo
Print: JMS Books
Release Blitz! Summer Heat by Jay Northcote
#FlashFictionFriday Reintroducing Adventures with Ben and Jerry #FlashFic
This week I’ve been mired in edits for Cultivating Love and trying to write a short story, on top of things getting busy in my real life, so I figured this would be a good time to kind of cheat for my Flash Fiction Friday post by reintroducing a couple of recurring characters I used in flash fiction years and years ago. It’s only “kind of” cheating, because I worked the word left on last week’s Flash Fiction Friday post (grumpy) into the existing story scene.
This scene was written back in 2008 or 2009 and posted on the Torquere Livejournal Social Group. Way back when, authors at Torquere would sign up to host the group for a day when they wanted to promote a new release (or whatever). One of the things authors often did while hosting was ask for prompt words, then a mere couple hours later, post a ficlet featuring those words. I was terrified the first time I tried, and the scene I’m reposting today was the result.
I made a few minor tweaks to the original post (and like I said, added the word “grumpy” into the mix), but it remains mostly unchanged. Full disclosure: commenters were able to leave as many words as they wanted, and I only promised to use at least one from each. I kept that promise, and in the end I used eighteen words (or phrases) left by nine commenters, and left twelve on the table. Here are the original eighteen:
sunshine — breakfast — coffee — alarm clock — school bus — Large Haldron Collider — sweltering — studio — purple dildo — leather — shovel — hornet — dominate — hot chocolate — rhinestone — leash — flake — If you do that one more time…
(In case you’re interested, the ones I didn’t use were: bed, neanderthal, satin, pretzel, boutique, quill, sunflowers, “That’s Amore,” minimalist, half-life, dweeb, and loser.)
Ben turned on the coffeemaker and pulled a box of corn flakes out of the cabinet. The alarm clock had gone off way too early this morning and he wanted lots of caffeine with his breakfast.
“Good morning, sunshine.” Jerry’s voice was as sunny as the day. “Coffee smells great, but I’m in the mood for hot chocolate today.”
“Hot chocolate? Really? It’s gonna be sweltering.”
Mr. I-love-mornings winked at him. “You’re drinking coffee.”
Ben couldn’t refute that logic so he poured his cereal, sat down, and willed the coffee pot to drip faster. “You going in to the studio today or the office?”
A school bus rumbled by, and he missed Jerry’s reply. It involved an eye roll, though.
“What?”
“I said, what’s the point? The earth’s going to be swallowed by a black hole today anyway. Might as well stay home for it.”
Ben shook his head at Jerry and his Large Haldron Collider worries. “You’re pretty chipper this morning considering the world’s coming to an end.”
Jerry smiled. “Well, I don’t really believe that. But don’t you think it would be a fun excuse to stay home? You know. Say ‘to hell with it all, we’re playing hooky today.’”
Ben grinned. Jerry was a free spirit and sometimes his attitude was contagious. There wasn’t anything he needed to do at the office today that couldn’t be put off a day, was there? “What excuse should I use?”
“You could just tell old Prather a hornet stung you. You’re allergic to freaking everything so that’d work. He’s such a flake anyway you could tell him anything.”
“What about you? Jenkins is always grumpy. I can hear him now: ‘if you do that one more time…’”
Jerry laughed. “He always says that. I’ll just tell him I’ve got the stomach flu and I’ll work from home. I’m pretty much done with that project anyway.”
Ben wasn’t going to tell his boss he’d been stung by a hornet, but he could see a case of the stomach flu buying him a day at home. “What do you want to do with our day off? We can’t go out and risk being seen after calling in.”
Jerry had a playful glint in his eye. “We’re being bad. I think we should be really bad. Remember those gifts Randy gave us when we moved in together? The ones you put in the back of the closet?”
Ben’s jaw dropped. “The leather collar?”
“And the rhinestone studded leash.”
“Oh yeah.” Jerry had such a hopeful look in his eyes. “Ah, okay. Who’s going to wear it?”
Jerry gave him an eyebrow wiggle. “Wanna dominate me? Or would you rather be dominated?”
Ben wouldn’t know where to start. The idea of Jerry getting all Dom on him was kind of intriguing, though. Hot even. “Uh, you can be in charge.”
Jerry’s eyes turned serious. “I’ve got a purple dildo with your name on it.”
Ben choked. A what? Was it too late to back out? He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Jerry walked calmly over to the coffee pot and turned it off. He poured a cup and set it in front of Ben. “Drink up and shovel in some cereal. You’re going to need the energy.”
What had he gotten himself into?
Since I’m still trying to put all my free time into the short story I mentioned above, I’ll probably post the other two existing installments in the Ben and Jerry ficlets for the next two Flash Fiction Friday posts. Even so, you are welcome to leave a prompt word in the comments, below. If I can reasonably work it into the next scene (like I did with “grumpy” this week, then I’ll do that. Otherwise, I’ll hold it for the next fresh scene I write.
