Nora Phoenix's Blog, page 2

Have You Spotted These Easter Eggs in my Books?

We all know the physical Easter eggs, but do you know what literary Easter eggs are? In books, they refer to surprises the writer has left for the reader to discover. It can be an inside joke, a reference to pop culture, a link to previous works of the same author that are not in the same world or series, or even stories from another author, you name it. Easter eggs can be a character/name, a place, an object, or a line in dialogue, and they can range from super subtle to obvious.

It’s super fun to spot Easter eggs in books, and MM romance has its fair share of Easter egg-loving authors too…including me. So the question is: have you spotted any Easter eggs in my books?

Let me give you a few examples:

In Loathed: Lagan, the legal clinic where Killian and Lagan volunteer is described as having a framed picture of President Shafer on the wall. This is an inside reference to my White House Men series, where President Shafer is one of the main characters.In Clean Start at Forty-Seven, Kinsey has a subscription to a porn site called the Ballsy Boys. This is a reference to the Ballsy Boys series I cowrote with K.M. Neuhold.The White House Men series has a lot of Easter eggs that refer to The West Wing, which is one of my all-time favorite TV series. For example, Levar has a goldfish named CJ, after CJ Cregg, one of the main characters from The West Wing. Henley’s editor is called Toby, after another main character, and a side character (a CNN reporter) is named Donna, after Donna Moss from The West Wing. Yup, I had some fun with those!

But there are many, many more Easter eggs in my books, including one reference to something I love dearly that you’ll find in almost every book of mine. Who knows what I’m talking about? And have you spotted any other Easter eggs in my books or those in other MM romances? I’d love to hear some more examples!

Travel Tour Continues

Day 3 of my WWII Tour

We started the day in the radar museum, located at the location of the main German radar station in Normandy. They sent intelligence to Berlin and to Hitler in Berchtesgaden. And by the way, they did pick up on the invasion but because the square mileage of the invasion fleet was so gigantic, their warning was dismissed on the early morning on June 6th, thinking it was a false alarm. Thankfully.

We had the unbelievable luck that it was re-enactment weekend here, meaning a load of French volunteers were playing German soldiers, showing what daily life was like for them at the radar station. They were the nicest men (NOT Nazis, just to be clear but history buffs who also play Frenchmen or British, American, or Canadian soldiers, depending on what kind of re-enactment it is) They knew a lot about all kinds of details and even though most of them spoke little English and no German, we managed in French. Like I said yesterday, I understand far more than I speak, especially if they speak slowly, which they did. I learned a lot and it resulted in some amazing pics, as all of these bunkers are usually empty… They also had some amazing antique vehicles, like an old BMW motorcycle, a Horch radar-vehicle (Horch was the same guy who later developed Audi), and two beauties of old Peugeots.

Our second stop was Arromanche, a beach town, where we visited the Museum of Debarkation. Arromanche was the location of one of the two famous “Mulberry harbors”, which were harbors built on the spot from pre-fab materials brought from England. They were necessary so ships could unload men and materials, which they did in unprecedented numbers after June 6 1944. This innovative engineering brilliance had never been tried before, and even though the Germans caught some of the plans, they didn’t understand what the ultimate goal was and never managed to prevent them.

The museum explains how these harbors were built, how they functioned, and much more. It’s a brand new, professional museum and very informative, thought it lacked some of the charm of the older, more amateurish museums.
If you look out over the sea at the shoreline of Arromanche, you can still see the leftovers from one of those Mulberry harbors, the only remnants left. This was British ingenuity at its finest, and in hindsight, these harbors have been crucial for the war effort, especially for the British and Canadian sectors. The Americans were able to offload through the port of Cherbourg, once conquered.
We walked around the town for a bit, stopped a little further along the coast for a view of the anti-tankwall (a stone wall the Germans built to prevent tanks from landing on the beach and rolling straight onto the shore) and called it a day. The weather was humid and hot, and they’re expecting severe thunderstorms tomorrow. We’ll see. Plenty of museums still left on our list if the weather sucks…

Day 4 of my WWII Tour

The weather forecast was crappy and in hindsight, accurately so, and so we decided to hit a lot of museums today and spend most of the time indoors. A smart decision, as we got quite some rain throughout the day.

Our first museum was “Dead Man’s Corner” near Carentan, named such because the body of a fallen US tank commander sat in the turret of his tank for days before being removed after D-Day. That same spot was the headquarters for the German paratroopers and later on, became HQ for the 502ndParatroopers regiment of the 101st Airborne. The museum mainly shows the life of the German paratroopers there, and it’s small but well done.

Literally around the corner is the D-Day Experience museum, which is also small but offers a lot of personal stories, pictures, and effects from US soldiers and paratroopers who fought in that area. Fans of the series Band of Brothers (which includes me) spotted some familiar names…

Next up was the Utah Beach Landing Museum, which is located at the same spot where the first men to land on Utah beach encountered fierce resistance from a German defense post called Widerstandsnest 5. Due to strong currents, they had landed more than a mile away from their target and within range of the very defense post they’d tried to avoid. This museum is big, but I really liked it, as it gives you an excellent idea of what the situation was like on Utah Beach on D-day. It has a lot of personal effects, a B-26 Marauder, some tanks and flak (German anti-aircraft guns), and more. Around the museum are several monuments dedicated to various branches, regiments, and specialist groups within the armed forces.

After that, we headed to the Normandy Victory Museum, which was surprisingly interesting, mainly because of the vivid way they had rebuilt scenes from the war in Normandy. Focusing on more than just D-Day, they showed stories from the French resistance, the impact of the war on civilians, and more. They used “dolls” combined with accurate clothing, a lot of details in terms of equipment and stuff, and very specific backgrounds that really made the scenes come to life.
We still weren’t done and hit the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux. This was the weakest one out of all of them, partially because it was older and contained information that is now known to be incorrect, but also because it offered mostly generic stuff and few personal stories.

And last up was something that had nothing to do with WWII but reached much farther back the Bayeux tapestry, which is over 1000 years old and tells the story of the Battle of Hastings (1066 – William the Conqueror). The thing is massive, and I was deeply impressed by the level of detail. I had to use a Google search picture here since you can’t take photos inside.

All in all it was a long and busy day with loads of information and impressions, but I loved it. Tomorrow, the weather should be better again, and we’ll be visiting some outside places again, including the American cemetery at Coleville.

A Three Week Tale

I’m in the middle of a three week treck to visit historical sites, museums and more of WWII. One of my best friends and I have been planning this trip forever!

I wanted to share some of the adventures with you, and if you’d like to see more photos you can join my reader group on Facebook.

Day 1 of my WWII Tour

We drove from The Netherlands to Bayeux in Normandy, a gorgeous, old city with a spectacular cathedral in the center. This will be our home this week from which we’ll explore all the WWII history of Normandy. It also has a famous tapestry, which we’ll check out later this week.

After checking in into our Bed and Breakfast, we walked around in the city center for a bit and saw the cathedral. As always when visiting a church, I lit a candle in remembrance of my dear friend Susi Hawke, who is so deeply missed. Yesterday marked a year since she passed away, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her. By lighting a candle for her wherever I visit, it feels like she’s traveling with me, and that’s a lovely thought…

The local cat here is super fluffy and loves to be pet!

Our Bed and Breakfast is lovely, and I impressed myself by how much of the French of our hostess I understood. Speaking is difficult, as my head is already full with Dutch, English, and German, but I understand it just fine if they don’t go too fast.

Day 2 of my WWII Tour

We had a fantastic first full day here in Normandy. The theme of the Day was the “Atlantic Wall”, the defenses the Germans had built along the entire coastline from France all the way to Norway. These consisted of massive fortifications like pillboxes, bunkers connected by trenches, clematis, and much more. Luckily for the Allies, not everything was fully finished in June 1944…

Museum of the Atlantic Wall in the “Flachturm” (flat tower) in Ouistreham

We started in Ouistreham, where we visited a German “Flachturm”, a defense tower with anti-aircraft guns on the roof. Several stories high, it had a formidable line of sight on the beach and any incoming ships.

Next up was the beach of that same town, where some of the old defenses are preserved, namely “dragon’s teeth”. They’re much smaller now and small in number, but these were built all along the coast to prevent landing crafts from landing.

Then we headed to the famous Pegasus Bridge, which was a crucial bridge over the Caen Canal that British paratroopers secured early on D-Day in a brilliant operation. The original bridge has been removed and preserved in a museum, and there’s a new, similar bridge over the canal now. That museum also showed one of those gliders the British used to land on D-Day, and holy crap, you need balls of steel to get into those. Mad respect.

The Hillman battery consist of the remains of a German stronghold of several bunkers, connected by trenches, a few kilometers inland from the coast, but with view over the sea. Their guns had enough range to hit the beaches.

Hillman battery

And our last stop was a similar complex, though much bigger and better preserved and restored, called the Merville Battery. The original plan to capture this counted on 600 British men, plus a lot of weapons and support. Because the British paratroopers landed all over the place, they ended up with only 150…but still got the job done. Half of them perished, but the battery was silenced in the crucial hours of D-Day, where it could have hit the men storming the beaches.

The weather was perfect and we had a fantastic day and a great start to our trip.

New Series and Cover Reveal

[UPDATED] Now that The Foster Brothers series is done, it’s time to announce the new series I’ll be writing this year. I’m almost giddy with excitement, not kidding. I’ve been plotting this for a while, and now I can finally share. Please welcome…

Forestville Silver Foxes

Forestville is a small town in Washington, about an hour out of Seattle, and it’s as idyllic as a small town can be. With endless trees, snowcapped mountains, and the Skykomish river, it’s picture perfect.

To honor the retirement of Coach Keeler, Forestville High School is holding its first ever school-wide reunion. It’s bringing back alumni who left town a long time ago, like the famous twins Tomás and Tiago Banner, the world’s first super male models. They’re reunited with their old friends, Auden (now the sheriff of Forestville) and Marnin, and the rest of the class of 1993. Forty-eight years old, these men are hot silver foxes…looking for love (even if they don’t realize it yet!).

Forestville Silver Foxes will be a contemporary small-town MM romance series with the classic Nora-mix of heat, swoon, unique characters, and all the feels.

We’re going to kick things off with Tiago. His return to Forestville stirs unexpected feelings in him, and those are only reinforced when he meets Cas, a contractor.

Check out the gorgeous cover of their book, Renovating the Model! That’s Tiago on the cover, and my, my, isn’t he hot? * fans herself *

Photographer: Wander Aguiar
Cover Design: Golden Czermak from FuriousFotog

Here’s the blurb for Renovating the Model (subject to change), which will release April 20.

Preorder Now

Everyone knows my face. No one knows the real me.

All people see when they look at me is a beautiful man, a supermodel, half of the world’s most famous twins. No one sees the man underneath.

When I return to Forestville, the small town I grew up in, for my high school reunion, I impulsively decide to stay.

I’m now the proud owner of a house, an absolute fixer-upper. Never mind that I have two left hands.

Thank god for Cas, the local contractor, who agrees to help me out. We come from completely different worlds and are almost twenty years apart, yet we somehow connect.

Cas sees me, the real me.

We hook up…

Then become friends…

With benefits (courtesy of a snow storm)

And a fake relationship (long story)

But when fake becomes real and pretending turns into feelings I can’t deny, I’m left wondering if what we have stands a chance.

Renovating the Model is the first book in the new Forestville Silver Foxes series, a contemporary small-town MM romance series featuring hot silver foxes and the men who fall in love with them. Each book can be read as a standalone.

I hope you guys are as excited about this new series as I am! And no worries, I also have the next book in the No Regrets series planned for this year and hopefully more dragons as well.

MM Romance Reader Survey 2022 Results

If you were one of the 5715 readers who filled in the MM Romance Reader Survey 2022: thank you SO much. As MM authors, we’re so freaking happy with this number of responses, and it’s given us a lot of food for thought. In this post, I’ll share some of the main takeaways with you. Please note that readers could skip any question they didn’t want to fill in, so not all questions have been answered by all respondents.

We had 5715 responses, which was absolutely phenomenal (we had 2000 responses in 2020). A lot of MM authors shared the survey with their readers through social media and newsletters.

That being said, this is still a small number of the total number of MM romance readers, though definitely a sample large enough to draw conclusions. The results will be skewed toward our more active readers, as we only reached readers already connected to us on social media or through newsletters.

We had a few questions that gave trouble. The question on ranking social media didn’t give the option to say readers didn’t use a platform, so that’s definitely something to change for next time. The question where readers had to indicate which percentage of authors were automatic buys (Which percentage of each type of author do you read?) confused some readers, as to them “favorite authors” and “one-click buy/read” were the same. We’ll also word that differently a next time. And we had some small issues, like the tropes and subgenres not being exhaustive (though that’s near impossible considering how many tropes there are…).

Demographics

The demographics of MM readers haven’t changed much since 2020, which is when we did the previous survey.

Age Spread Demographics

And this was the result in genders for those that chose to answer the question.

Gender Demographic

And for sexual orientation (respondents could pick more than one choice here since these are not mutually exclusive in all cases).

Sexual Orientation Demographics

Reading Habits

We already knew that MM readers are prolific readers, and this survey confirmed that again. 38% reads 3-4 books a week, and 23% 5-6. Add to that the 19% that reads more than 7 books a week, and the picture is complete. Around 53% read mostly MM romances and 27% read only MM. Again, these numbers are not fundamentally different from 2020. 75% of respondents have a KU subscription and 64% have an Audible subscription.

A new question we asked was how long people have been reading MM, and this one was fascinating to me because it shows the growth of the genre. 28% has only been reading MM for 1-3 years and 27% for 3-5 years. That demonstrates how much the genre has grown in the last five years.

Another new question was which subgenres they read in MM, and this also offered some fascinating insights.

Subgenres In MM

Readers were crystal clear that they don’t have specific requirements for point of view and tense. 45% also didn’t care what the heat level was as long as the book was good, but 38% preferred high heat. I think that confirms what we as authors have noticed as well. As for angst, 19% preferred high angst, including relationship angst, 16% were fine with high angst but only external, 47% preferred medium angst, and 18% wanted low angst.

Tropes

We asked for favorite tropes as well as tropes readers were getting a little tired of. Both lists are too long to show, but here’s the top 5 of preferred tropes:

Friends to loversGrumpy and sunshineyEnemies to loversBisexual awakeningFated mates

And the top 5 of tired tropes:

MafiaDaddy kinkBillionaireProfessor – studentInstalove

Random Stuff

Lastly, some random interesting tidbits we learned:
• The blurb and a recommendation from another author were the two most important factors in a reader deciding to try a new author (75% and 57% respectively)
• Announcements about new releases and teasers from upcoming releases were the two most popular things in author newsletters (91% and 67%)
• Facebook remains the most used social medium, followed by Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. A lot of readers also use YouTube and Snapchat.
• 33% of readers never leave a review, 22% do it most of the time, and 19% only if they loved the book.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think of the results? Do you recognize yourself in these?

First Teaser from Loathed – Lagan

It’s funny how real characters can become to you, isn’t it? Whenever I write a series, I feel like these men become family to me. And I gotta tell you: I’m so happy to be spending time with the Foster brothers again…

It’s time for Lagan’s story, and it’s a beauty. Lagan is a paralegal, but he’s also a part-time law student. In itself already a challenging combination, but even more so because one of his professors, Killian Evans, absolutely despises him. Well, that feeling is mutual.

But as we all know, the line between fierce hate and fierce attraction is a blurry one, and Lagan and Killian are about to discover this as well…

Expect lots of banter in this one, an age gap, my usual dose of hurt/comfort, and two men who find out that they have much more in common than they thought. Loathed – Lagan will release October 16, so preorder now.

Below, you can read a first little excerpt.

Killian waited until everyone else had left, then crossed his arms and sat down on the edge of his desk. “Did you get your paper done?”

Lagan raised his chin. “Yes. I submitted it twenty seconds ago.”

“I’m sure I don’t need to warn you that the chances of you getting a passable grade based on the work you did during class are abysmally low.”

Lagan’s jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing. “And here I thought you’d be judging the papers on their quality, not on how long each student spent on them or how long before the deadline they were uploaded.”

Killian’s cheeks heated, which annoyed him to no end. How did this man have the power to make him blush when nothing and no one else could? “Of course I will. I merely advising you that the chances of success are small.”

Lagan shrugged. “I haven’t failed a class yet.”

“That depends on your definition of failure.”

“All my grades have been passing. I haven’t had to redo one single exam or paper.”

Now it was Killian’s time to shrug. “If that’s what you call succeeding. Personally, I would set the bar a little higher.”

“Passing is passing. I wish I had the time and the energy to go for an A+ and everything, but alas. I have a full-time job and a life.”

“As does everyone else in this class, and yet they somehow seem to manage. No reputable law firm will want to hire you if you graduated from law school with such a low average.”

Lagan quirked an eyebrow, putting his hands on his hips. “You mean like Roberts, Smith & Reed? The highly rated law firm I work for right now?”

After Lagan, we have one story left: Nordin’s. OMG, I cannot wait to write that one. It will be SO much fun! Nicked – Nordin is up on preorder already as well and will release in January.

You can meet and get to know the Foster brothers in Jilted – Jaren and Hired – Hadley. Both are in KU and available on audio.

Mini Reviews: Four Recent Five-Star Reads

I promised I’d do a new edition of mini reviews weeks ago, if not months, and here we finally are. I’ve read a ton of amazing books lately, so picking four to highlight wasn’t easy, but here we are. These are in random order.

1. Lacuna – N.R. Walker

I love starting a book and not knowing exactly what to expect. I downloaded Lacuna a long time ago, and I couldn’t remember what it was about, so I pretty much started reading with no expectations. It was amazing. It’s fantasy, and it drew me into this world where four kings have been summoned for a mysterious happening, only to find out nothing is as it seems. With action, great fighting scenes, and a sweet and sexy romance between two of the kings with an element that had me intrigued, Lacuna was a book I couldn’t put down.

2. The Night of – Tal Bauer

Tal Bauer is SO good at mixing romance and suspense, and this one is a prime example. When the president supposedly commits suicide, two men don’t believe he did: the vice president and a Secret Service agent. Lots of pining, a sizzling attraction, great action scenes, and a setting in the White House/Camp David/vice-presidential residence all had me hooked. Fans of my White House Men series will love The Night Of.

3. End of the Line – Nicky James

A sign of a great book to me is always that it’s memorable, and End of the Line certainly qualifies. It’s set in the mysterious culture of rail riders or freight-hoppers, men who jump on freight trains to travel through the country (Canada, in this case). The romance is sweet and heartfelt, there’s plenty of angst of course (it’s this author’s trademark), but it was the setting above all that had me hooked. I loved learning about this culture, and the way she weaved it into the story was seamless and fascinating.

4. The Geek who Saved Christmas – Annabeth Albert

Aw, The Geek who Saved Christmas was such a cute, sweet, sexy Christmas read! A grumpy and a sunshiney neighbor discover they have more in common than they think as Christmas approaches. Small town feel, plenty of humor, lots of sweet and Christmassy scenes, and a dash of heat. A perfect combination.

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Title and Cover Reveal White House Men 7

I’m super early with this one, but there’s a reason for that. Since I’ll be taking off almost the entire month of August to travel with my son, I won’t be writing. I’ve worked hard this year, releasing a new book almost every month and also managing and publishing a crap ton of translations. I really need a break…and I’m super excited to spend four weeks on the road with my kid.

That means the last book in the White House Men series won’t be written until I get back and won’t be released until October 29. To make sure you all know I will finish this series as soon as I can, I wanted to put up the preorder already. That way, everyone knows the book will be coming… I wish I could release it sooner, but all the books in this series are over 95k words, so they take a while to write!

Whose Book Will This Be?

If you’ve read the series so far, I think you’ll have a pretty good idea of whose book this last book will be… The title will be Heal, and this is Del’s book. No worries, we’ll make a time jump to allow him to grieve, but after that, I think he deserved his happily ever after, don’t you? Here’s the blurb:

Del feels broken. Can Issa be the person to help him heal?

President Delano “Del” Shafer is grieving the loss of his wife, Sarah. Now that the culprits behind the Pride Bombing and all the killings are caught, everyone has been able to move on…except Del.

His friends have all found love. Even his son is happier than Del could have ever imagined. Yet he is stuck, unable to move past the grief, the loss, and the loneliness. He has the most coveted job in the world, but he’s tired of it all. If not for Issa, his twenty-year-younger body man, he wouldn’t even make it out of bed most days.

Issa, with his unfailingly sunny disposition, his infuriatingly stubborn optimism, his endless care for Del. Issa, who becomes the sole reason Del is still standing, is still smiling, is still clinging to the hope that things will get better. Issa, who is making Del feel again, laugh again, live again.

But can he also make him love again?

Heal is the last book in the White House Men series, a continuing MM romantic suspense series that needs to be read in order. It contains a sunshiney assistant, a slightly grumpy president, sweet hurt/comfort, an age gap, and the happiest of happy endings.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to write Del’s story… If anyone deserves to find love after everything, it’s him!

Cover Reveal

And I found the perfect cover picture for his story, too. I’ve held on to this pic for a loooooong time, haha. Isn’t he gorgeous? The cover was made by Vicki Brostenianc, and the model is Tom Ernsting, photographed by Christoper John from CJC Photography.

I know it’s a bit of a wait, but who’s excited for this book?

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Cover and Title Reveal White House Men 6

I’m always excited for the moment I can reveal the title and cover of my upcoming book, and this time is no different. We’ve made it to book 6 in the White House Men series with only one more book to go after this. If you’ve followed this series, you’ll know we still need answers to a lot of questions… Well, in this book, you’ll get them.

Book 6 is called Puzzle, and it’s the story of Branson and Ryder. Branson, aka SpookyBigDick on a hook up app, is a CIA analyst with a rather sizable tool. Single his whole life and happy to play the field, he’s ready for more. He’d hoped to find that with Seth, but alas, they were not meant to be.

Ryder is new to the CIA as a forensic analyst. After a bad break up that ended an equally bad relationship, he’s done with boyfriends. He wants some fun in the sheets, that’s it. No complications, no strings, no emotional involvement.

After a rocky start in which Ryder confronts Branson with some harsh truths, a friendship grows. Kind of. But then coworkers slash friends become friends with benefits and then coworkers slash roommates slash friends with benefits, and the lines become very blurry.

Meanwhile, both work on the investigation, trying to solve the puzzle and put all the pieces in the right place. But can they figure out if and how they fit together as well?

When I first introduced Branson in the second book, Friends, I had pegged him as a player, someone who wanted all the fun but no commitments. And I had had someone in mind for him who was much more innocent, maybe even a virgin. Well, that didn’t happen. Branson made it crystal clear that he was done playing…and Ryder wasn’t a virgin at all. Nope, underneath that slightly geeky exterior hides a man who becomes kind of a beast in the bedroom. I love it when characters surprise me like that…

Cover

It’s time to show off the gorgeous cover! That’s Ryder on the cover and isn’t he the cutest? The cover was made by Vicki Brostenianc. The model is Steven Love and the Photographer is Eric McKinney.

Release Date

I don’t have a release date yet, but I’m hoping the end of this month. I’m finishing up the book this week, so let’s see what we can do. Who’s excited?

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New Weekly Poll

One of the things I used to do on my site was a weekly poll. I loved asking all kinds of questions and seeing readers’ answers. Unfortunately, the program I used for that stopped being free, and the paid plans were outrageously expensive. But I’m happy to report I found an alternative that’s affordable and that also allows me to build fun polls. Look, it’s even pink!

So without further ado, here’s the first new weekly poll (well, I still have to see if I can make it weekly, but optimistic than I am, let’s assume so, haha)

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