Racheline Maltese's Blog, page 13

A sale and some release date news

Midsummer and Twelfth Night are currently 25% off at the Dreampinner site from now through April 24: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/stor....

Lush, funny, magical, and a little bit morbid, the Love’s Labours series chronicles a romance between two actors who meet during a summerstock production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Sure, 42-year-old John Lyonel has never been attracted to men before, but falling for 25-year-old Michael Hilliard is actually the least screwed up thing that’s happened to him in years.

Even if sometimes he thinks Michael’s a changeling.

(Shakespeare and wayward skulls, y’all, what’s not to love?)

Meanwhile, The Art of Three, our PG-13, low-angst, multinational, poly triad romance novel with a 48-year-old heroine, now has a release date! Look for it March 29, 2017 from Torquere Press.

Deleted Scene: Starling Prologue

The prologue for Starling that never made it into the final book.
Originally published in our October 2015 newsletter. 

When J. Alex Cook graduates from high school in Paragon, Indiana he has almost $5,000 in savings, a shitty Dodge Neon, middling grades, and a varsity letter in wrestling. He also has a friend named Gemma Hyong who lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania and that he has never met, and together, they are moving to Los Angeles, her to become a star, and him not to be the movie magic, but to make it.

His mother, watching him as he walks across the stage erected on the school’s worn football field, covered in dying grass from a combination of drought and the lack of any meaningful maintenance budget, has no idea. She also doesn’t know he’s gay. Or about one of the two times his sister, Delilah, has tried to stab him in their kitchen. One day, he imagines, this might be a little bit funny.

Alex doesn’t tell his mother he’s leaving until the morning three weeks later when he packs his things into the Neon. That she looks happy about it, at first, breaks his heart. Because a stupid plan — and in his gut he knows running away to Los Angeles with a girl he’s never met is a very stupid plan indeed — is the best hope she has for him ever getting out of their shitty town. Only two people in his graduating class are going to a college not prefaced by the word “community” and most of them not even that. He’s not even sure he and his sister have the same father, and mostly, that relieves him.

He hugs his mother goodbye before he comes out to her. It seems a safer order of business, even if the only disappointment she expresses as he goes is the degree to which he has never been anything but secrets to her.

Read more.

Free Read: Love in Los Angeles Bonus Scene – The Writers’ Strike

Victor doesn’t understand Paul’s choices
Originally published in our September 2015 newsletter

“How many days have you been on my couch now?” Victor asks, without looking up from the script he’s in the process of destroying — actually destroying — with a pencil. He’s not making notes, he’s punching the point through as many pages as he can at a time and ripping.

“Three?”

“You should probably spend your unexpected time off somewhere other than my couch.”

“You’re still paying me,” Paul says, shifting himself upright. If he’s going to use professionalism as an excuse for hanging around Victor’s house, he should probably look like has his shit at least slightly together.

“Mmmmmm. That’s an ethical choice. Not one that obligates you to be here while our hands are tied by the strike.” The pencil rips through more paper. “Why aren’t you on the picket line?”

Paul shrugs. He’s not even in the damn union yet. “Somebody’s got to write.”

It’s three weeks into the writers’ strike, with no sign of it ending anytime soon. When Paul moved out to L.A. a year ago and somehow got a gig as the legendary Victor Salcido Santillan’s writing assistant, he did not foresee this as a career trajectory. But as far as Paul is concerned, crashing on Victor’s couch while they both work on pilots for new shows that no one is paying them for is a far better use of his time than sitting home and being pathetic. Here, he’s at least being pathetic and productive. While Victor may be vicious in his anger at the television producers’ association in general and the studio execs who fired his writing and production assistants in particular, he’s not yelling at Paul. Just in his general vicinity. It’s not that bad, really.

Paul jumps when his phone rings, fumbling to answer.

Read more

Thank you for a great RBF2016!

Thank you to everyone who came out in NYC’s soggy weather to visit us at the Rainbow Book Fair on Saturday. It was our most successful fair yet, and it was a delight to meet readers and be able to put our books in your hands.

If you signed up for our mailing list we have added you and you’ll receive your first message from us on May 1.

If you couldn’t make it to this event, please be sure to check our events page as we’ll be at other book fairs in the New York and DC metro areas throughout the spring and summer!

Special thanks go out to the entire RBF staff, Erica Kudisch for joining us at our booth, @pridecasters for our Periscope debut, and Patty and Ben for dealing with logistics, exhaustion, and lost voices.

April 9, 2016 – Rainbow Book Fair 2016

Tomorrow, April 9, 2016!

Erin and I will be vending (and reading) at the Rainbow Book Fair in NYC. We will have paperbacks of all our titles that exist in paperback on hand. This includes solo works. If you already own our books and just want to come say hi or get things signed, please do that! We would love to see you!

In addition to our titles, we’ll also be hosting Erica Kudisch for a signing of her new fantastic and fantastical gay lit novel, The Backup, from 2-3pm. The book will be available to purchase at our table all day, and she might be around more, but if you want to talk to her about music, rock gods, and more, that’s the hour you absolutely, positively want to show up (the book is a race car of fabulous unsettling weirdness and you should all read it; p.s., it’s not a romance).

Where:

Rainbow Book Fair 2016

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

524 W. 59th Street (just west of 10th Avenue)

Saturday, April 09, 2016

12:00pm – 6:00pm

Suggested donation is $3 at the door, but no one will be turned away.

The even describes itself as follows:

Once a year, approximately 1500 people get together in New York City to mingle, get to know each other, enrich, broaden, and even extend their lives through the amazing medium of LGBT books.  The New York Rainbow Book Fair is America’s longest-running LGBT book fair, and the largest LGBT book event in the country.  It has grown every year since its beginning in 2009.  It brings together thoughtful, interesting people of all ages, from early teens to those in their 70s and 80s; from a spectrum of countries, ethnicities, gender identities, and viewpoints.  It attracts readers and writers of course, but also publishers, editors, agents, and media attention – people who have never experienced queer culture, and others who have made it the focus of their lives.  Rainbow Book Fair is open to the public, with book discounts and giveaways.

Free Read: Twelfth Night Bonus Scene

Michael is late, and objects to the lack of beard.
Originally published in our August 2015 newsletter

Michael’s late. John suspects that has less to do with train issues and more with Michael having not quite adjusted back to city life and schedules after a summer in the woods with a summerstock company. Or maybe he’s just not a punctual person when it comes to anything except work. Either way, John is amused and endeared, and watches the entrance to the restaurant as best he can from the table he’s gotten in the corner.

It takes John a moment to recognize Michael when he finally does arrive. Back at camp, with the brief exception of a date at a shitty gay bar in Richmond, Michael had worn shorts, baggy t-shirts, and had been barefoot more often than not. But the young man who’s just breezed in is strikingly city and stylish, in tight jeans, knee-high boots, and a fabulous shirt. He’s even got a gauzy scarf draped around his neck.

It takes Michael a moment to spot him, until John raises a hand and waves from the table, and then his face lights up and he strides across the room to him.

“Hi,” Michael says, not quite shyly, but not with his usually fluidity either. It all feels a little awkward, and as much as John wants to take Michael on a real date and knows that meeting for the first time in the city on neutral territory is the wiser option, he wishes he had just asked Michael to come over to his apartment.

“Hi. Did you find the place alright?”

“Uh-huh. Sorry I’m late.” Michael puts a hand on his shoulder and bends down to kiss John briefly before sliding into his seat.

John means to ask Michael how he is, but he’s distracted by the way Michael’s looking at him — head tilted and brow slightly furrowed, like he’s trying to work something out.

“…What?” John asks carefully.

“What happened to your beard?”

Read more

Free ebooks April 6 – 7, 2016!

Promotions for two different titles have collided and you get lots of stuff to read free!

If you go to All Romance, you can get Staring free for the next 48 hours. Please do that. If you read it and enjoyed it, please encourage your friends to do that. https://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=series&qString=Love+in+Los+Angeles – you can read more aboutStarling here: http://bisexual-books.tumblr.com/post/109226194337/review-starling-by-racheline-maltese-and-erin

Meanwhile, His Animal Instincts, that shifter anthology (9 novellas, y’all!) for charity, is also free for a couple of days in order to garner reviews and help it get seen more in order to raise more money for OutRight. http://www.amazon.com/His-Animal-Instinct-Tales-Pleasure-ebook/dp/B01DPYIDTM

RWA issues apology for infamous “one man, one woman” romance definition poll

Today Romance Writers of America issued a long overdue and welcome apology for a poll in 2005 in which it considered defining romance as

“a story in which a predominant part of the story line focuses on the romantic relationship that develops between one man and one woman on more than a physical level. Although other elements and subplots may be components of the story line, by the book’s conclusion the romantic relationship has been resolved in an emotionally satisfying manner”

versus

“a story in which a predominant part of the story line focuses on the romantic relationship that develops between two people on more than a physical level. Although other elements and subplots may also be components of the story line, by the book’s conclusion the romantic relationship has been resolved in an emotionally satisfying manner.”

The RWA apology rightly says

“The survey … sparked a discussion that compelled our LGBT+ members to justify their existence to others and to participate in debates about their humanity and their capacity to love. This incident was a low point from which RWA’s reputation has never recovered. The organization later reaffirmed RWA’s commitment to making sure that ‘any definition of romance should be broad and inclusive.’ This statement, however, did not make it clear that, in issuing the survey, RWA failed its members, its genre and its mission. We want to make that clear now.”

It is also important to note that today’s RWA definition of a romance is a story that “has a central love story and an emotionally satisfying ending.” Numbers and gender of people are not specified.

Curious about the discussion at the time, I did some Googling. If you also do some Googling you will see a lot of homophobia; a lot of people discussing their conservative interpretation of Christianity; a belief that the romance genre is (exclusively) for married, monogamous and “moral” women; a lot of the expected “slippery slope” nonsense of pedophilia and bestiality, and a lot of moralizing against polyamory in novels and in life.

If you’re enjoying today’s victory (I was!), don’t do that Google. If you write polyamorous romance and were wondering why there’s hostility about it (not the totally aok “not my cuppa tea” but the “that’s not romance! get out of the genre!”), that’s one place to look. It’s not just about story preferences, the cheating taboo in romance, or misunderstandings of what polyamory is. It’s all about the language in the survey that was mostly apologized for today.

That language from 2005 doesn’t appear to have been accidental. If you do that Google (again, don’t do the Google if you’re in the happy place), you’ll see plenty of arguments on multiple sides of the issue that specifically reference the numerical part of the language.

I’m thrilled to be a member of an organization that is willing to apologize for events over a decade old and support the most inclusive and sensitive definitions of our genre. I’m also mindful that romance is personal for readers and writers, because while we seek fantasies in stories, we also, at least sometimes, seek people like ourselves getting their HEA. When people say “that’s not romance” it attacks not just authors and their books, but real lives.

I’m grateful to an evolving RWA for recognizing that.

New Release: His Animal Instinct

Nine sizzling tales of gay paranormal romance! Ten best-selling authors bring you their hottest stories of shifters and the desires that cannot be denied.

From wolves to leopards, alphas to omegas, these men can change their shape… but they can’t change who they love.

“A Game of Cat and Wolf” by Tavia Lark. Aloof cat shifter Cameron Liu is happily independent, until a chance nightclub encounter turns his world upside down. Overwhelmed by his instinctive attraction to hot alpha wolf Wesley, will Cameron run from the unfamiliar desires? Or will he let someone in for the first time ever?

“The Omega’s Reluctant Alpha” by Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae. When young omega and newly minted lawyer Andrew takes a job at a local Savannah law firm, he struggles to hide his uncontrolled shifting. Luckily for him, the firm’s owner, William, offers to help, ensuring they both get a lot more than they bargained for!

“The Leopard Prince’s Captive Wolf” by Cherry Dare. Leopard shifter Prince Celyn’s country has been at war with the werewolves for generations. But when the golden-eyed wolf shifter Einar is wounded and taken prisoner, both are shocked by the explosive chemistry between them. Can the passion they can’t deny forge a connection across the battle lines?

“Mark of the Pack” by Arden Chase. Gabriel, a rogue omega, can’t stop running from his past—until he finds the one alpha he can’t outrun.

“Operation Wolf: His Shifter Spy” by Mona Midnight. Secret agent and wolf shifter Taylor is on the track of stolen Afghani artifacts, but he gets more than he planned for when he runs into hot antiquities dealer Naresh. Will Naresh uncover Taylor’s secrets…and more?

“Omega On a Mission” by N.J. Lysk. Omegas are carers, not fighters, and Gabi is happy looking after his alpha. But when he comes across an animal in danger, his protective instincts flare up and nobody wants to get in the way of an omega on a mission.

“His Alpha’s Collar” by Alanna Lynd. Werewolf Alard has devoted his life to hunting down and imprisoning other werewolves. When infuriating alpha Louvel keeps escaping him and sparing his life, Alard needs to reconsider all he has ever believed in – but can he surrender and wear his alpha’s collar instead?

“His Hidden Omega” by Honey Dover. Connor Sullivan has two secrets: first, he’s not the beta wolf he’s been pretending to be and second, he’s in love with his best friend Troy Carter. Troy is willing to accept the truth about Connor’s omega nature, but how will he handle his friend’s hidden desires?

“Star Crossed” by Isabelle Arden. The relationship between werewolves and humans is an uneasy one in the tiny town of Claiborne. So what’s alpha wolf Riley Sampson supposed to do when he finds himself falling for Theo Sturtevant, the son of the town’s were-phobic mayor?

All profits from this collection will be donated to OutRight (outrightinternational.org), which works to protect the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people around the world.

Buy at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/His-Animal-Instinct-Tales-Pleasure-ebook/dp/B01DPYIDTM

A Love in Los Angeles Free Read: Re the SCOTUS Marriage Decision

The SCOTUS marriage equality decision

Paul needs not to do stupid things.
Originally published in our July 2015 newsletter

Paul groans when his phone rings, conscious but not really awake.  He rolls right to grope for it, but hits Alex’s face before rolling back the other way towards his night stand.  Instead of finishing unpacking at any point over the last four days, they’d rearranged the bedroom, twice.  Paul isn’t entirely sure why, although he suspects it’s his fault.

He slaps his phone off, and breathes heavily, staring at the ceiling and debating consciousness.  It’s a beautiful California morning and he has nowhere to be. Which means he should be writing if he’s not still sleeping.  Alex makes an annoyed sound next to him, and as if on cue Paul’s phone starts ringing again.

He curses under his breath.  It’s Carly.

He rolls himself out of bed and into the hallway so he won’t bother Alex with whatever this is. “God, what?” he says when he’s halfway downstairs.

“We won,” she says.

“What did we win?”  Paul has no idea what she’s talking about, but he’s pretty sure that’s his fault and not hers.

Read more