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August 21, 2025

Year of the Lads, Month 1, Post and Giveaway #2!

Welcome back to the Year of the Lads, in which we focus on one Glasgow Lads book each month through next July. August’s book is Book 0.5, Play On (Duncan + Brodie novella).

I’m no Henry Higgins–level linguist, but I’ve always been fascinated by dialects, and just like the (eastern two-thirds of) the US, the UK has approximately a million. In addition to Glaswegian/Lowland Scots, the Glasgow Lads series features distinct regional dialects such as Orcadian (Evan)—and, in Brodie’s case, Doric, t...

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Published on August 21, 2025 12:11

Year of the Lads Post and Giveaway #2!

Welcome back to the Year of the Lads, in which we focus on one Glasgow Lads book each month through next July. August’s book is Book 0.5, Play On (Duncan + Brodie novella).

I’m no Henry Higgins–level linguist, but I’ve always been fascinated by dialects, and just like the (eastern two-thirds of) the US, the UK has approximately a million. In addition to Glaswegian/Lowland Scots, the Glasgow Lads series features distinct regional dialects such as Orcadian (Evan)—and, in Brodie’s case, Doric, t...

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Published on August 21, 2025 12:11

August 14, 2025

Year of the Lads kickoff and giveaway!

The first Year of the Lads book, for the month of August, is the prequel novella Play On, starring Duncan Harris and Brodie Campbell.

Text: “Year of the Lads” Image: Book cover: Play On: A Glasgow Lads Novella by Avery Cockburn. A young white man is shown facing forward from neck to hips. He's holding a soccer ball under his left arm and wearing a cropped short-sleeved shirt with a pale-green tartan design. His toned midriff is visible. In the distant background is a large Victorian-era building. Background image: array of Glasgow Lads covers

The city of Glasgow is a main character of not just this book, but the entire series. To help orient readers, I’ve created an interactive Lads’ Guide to Glasgow (and beyond!) using Google My Maps.

Click on each location in the list* for more information, and in most cases, photos. For most locations, you can then click “View in Google Maps” for a sate...

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Published on August 14, 2025 08:10

August 9, 2025

Year of the Lads is here!

First, the bad news: Next year’s Playing by Ear (Book 5, Jamie + Perry novel) will wrap up the Glasgow Lads series. Since 2014, creating and sharing the lads’ stories with you wonderful readers has brought me immeasurable joy. Twelve years is the longest I’ve done anything other than be married and parent a pet! 😆

Now, the good news: To say farewell to our lovely Scotsmen (and to make the coming year slightly less shite), I’m inviting you to join me in celebrating the Year of the Lads! Beginni...

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Published on August 09, 2025 07:23

May 15, 2025

Men in Shorts is available now!

Men in Shorts: A Glasgow Lads Collection has hit the virtual shelves. It’s available in Kindle Unlimited or to buy for the first-month price of $5.99, which is ONE-THIRD the price of buying each story individually. So it’s like a box set, but with bonus content! Plus, all the stories are in chronological order for your reading convenience.

Book cover: Men in Shorts: A Glasgow Lads Collection by Avery Cockburn. A young white man is shown facing forward from neck to hips. He's holding a soccer ball under his left arm and wearing a cropped short-sleeved shirt with a pale-green tartan design. His toned midriff is visible. In the distant background is a large Victorian-era building. Nine wee tales of pride. One big book of love.

Take a short-fiction tour through the Glasgow Lads series of contemporary MM romances. Meet the Wo...

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Published on May 15, 2025 02:38

December 10, 2024

New book, The Christmas Curse, out today!

Surprised? Join the club! I hadn’t planned on writing a Christmas book this year. But in September I decided that this idea—of someone who had bad luck every Christmas—MUST be written NOW. It ended up being twice as long but exactly as wacky as I’d expected.

It also ended up being a sanity saver during this year’s election season. Christmas provides an immovable deadline, so I needed to focus on the book. No chasing every twist and turn of these cataclysmic months! In the process, I developed...

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Published on December 10, 2024 10:23

August 12, 2024

Cicadas Soundtrack annotations part 2

In my last post, I introduced the soundtrack to my new stand-alone contemporary romance Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story, a soundtrack you can find in all these places:

Tidal (I use this service because it pays artists more and has the best sound quality) Spotify (embedded below) YouTube (also embedded below) Amazon Apple Music

Scroll down to find out why I included each song. 🚨Warning: Cicadas spoilers ahead!

Cicadas official soundtrack on SpotifyCicadas...
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Published on August 12, 2024 06:11

July 3, 2024

Hear the Cicadas official soundtrack (plus Part 1 annotation)

Several readers have emailed me asking for a playlist for Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story, a book that has music at the core of its throbbing heart. It was the world’s easiest request, because of course I’ve been thinking about the soundtrack since I started writing the book in 2021.

This is the “official” version, the one most faithful to the timeline, which means the songs fit one strict criteria: They were released in roughly the year before the story takes place. For example, ...

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Published on July 03, 2024 14:03

June 26, 2024

Cicadas is out NOW!

There’s so much I want to tell you about Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story, but when I finally sat down to write my release-day newsletter and blog post, I was paralyzed. Should I discuss the theme of memory and how music and photography both feed and distort it? Should I talk about cicadas as symbols of ecstasy and resurrection? Or explain why I took the comma out of the original subtitle (A Totally Ordinary, Epic Love Story)?

None of those book-club topics would mean anything if y...

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Published on June 26, 2024 14:49

June 13, 2024

Preorder CICADAS and watch teaser trailer

You can now preorder the Kindle version of Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story! The paperback will be available to order on release day, Thursday, June 20.

While you’re waiting for next Thursday, check out Cicadas‘ teeny tiny teaser trailer:

Teaser trailer for Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story

What if you had a second chance at a second chance?

One day in 1987

Budding scientist Joel and cowboy-quarterback Danny meet amid the arrival of seventeen-year cicada...

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Published on June 13, 2024 08:02

Avery Cockburn's Blog

Avery Cockburn
Updates about new books, including the Glasgow Lads series, posted in a (hopefully) timely fashion.
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