K.D. Ellis's Blog

Brats and Bodyguards...

Shiloh Beckett has a trust fund, a stalker...and a secret. And his bodyguard? He doesn't like brats.

Hey guys, gals and enby pals! I am so excited to (belatedly) announce that Book 2 in the Out in Austin series, Shiloh's Secret, is up for preorder! It will be released on November 16th, and I honestly can't wait for y'all to read it! (If you want to read it earlier, you can find it here on booksprout!)

If we're telling secrets here, (Which let's be honest, it's right in the name of the book!) I have to be honest and say that I originally wrote Shiloh's Secret before Teddy's Truth. It was meant to be a standalone contemporary romance to, shall we say, cleanse the palate from my MM fantasy book (Which I am still writing but...very very slowly...). Then I fell in love with Shiloh, and realized that I loved his best friend Teddy too much to not give him a book. And as I started writing Teddy's Truth, I realized that it just had to happen first! So you got Teddy's Truth.

So in the spirit of the book, I'm going to tell you three (more) secrets about my upcoming release! But no spoilers...

Both Gage and Shiloh have a strained relationship with their father, and both Gage and Shiloh lost their mother at a fairly young age. Gage joined the army because he couldn't bear to follow in his father's footsteps as a police officer, but he still wanted to serve his country. Shiloh's favorite song is "When You Wish Upon a Star," from Disney's Pinocchio. (He pretends it has nothing to do with his father's childhood dream of being a toymaker. He doesn't like his father, remember?)

So, there's three secrets for you! Leave me a comment and tell me your favorite songs!

This is How I Plot...

So today I was playing around on Tiktok, making a fun video about plotting, because guess what? I'm plotting out book 3 of the Out in Austin series! It's going to be a dark book getting back to the cartel and I needed something a bit happier for distraction. (Don't worry, all the books will have a guaranteed Happily Ever After! Just...some make you work a bit harder for it). In the process of making the video, I got this super neat picture though!

Wanna see the video? Follow me on TikTok!! @authorkdellis

Here's a link...And if you love me, give me a follow?

Super Awesome Video I Definitely Didn't Do 18 Times... (Click me...)

A Bumpy Road...Otherwise titled, My Road to Writing and Publishing "Teddy's Truth."

I wrote my first book--if it could even be called that--at fourteen. It was unnecessarily long, ungodly complicated, and unfortunately horrendous. It was also, I am proud to say, an amazing experience hat convinced me that someday, I was going to publish a book. I wrote my second book a few months later.

It was not better.

I didn't know how to change scenes. How did I get my character from the stable to the schoolhouse without showing her walking the long, boring cobblestone streets? Easy...knock her out every other page. I think she passed out fifteen times in the first three chapters. (Went back and reread. Full disclosure: It was sixteen.)

Several drafts later, and I picked up the basics. I always anticipated the first book I published would be Fantasy. An epic quest to save the world, preferably with dragons. Think...Eragon meets Harry Potter in Middle Earth. (Another disclosure: I AM working on a fantasy novel, complete with an evil king, a lost princess and a buttload of magic. It's practically a fairytale but with tons more blood.)

I never expected to write a Romance.

Then, I read my first Lucy Lennox book. If you haven't read one (and if so, where have you been? I know a better rock for you to live under...) then you definitely should. 11/10, Would Recommend. I read the first book, then another, then the entire series, and then I found Sloane Kennedy (and OMG, Sloane Kennedy!) and then K.A. Merikan, and yep, after that, I was definitely a goner.

I read everything I could get my hands on. I spent almost six hundred dollars (that I definitely did not have) in under a month, which lead me to Kindle Unlimited, which lead me to...even more books. And then one day, I thought...why can't I write one?

So I did. And it wasn't terrible (If I say so myself). Of course, once I finished the first draft, I realized...Shit, this isn't the first book, it's the second, which meant...more writing.

And that's how I ended up writing Teddy's Truth, a book that is super close to my heart. (Click here to read why). Sometimes, I feel guilty for how much hell I put Teddy through to get his happy ending...but I hope you feel the same way I do. That a happy ending doesn't mean much if you don't *earn* it.

Teddy sure as hell earned his.

I'm so excited for everyone to read Teddy's Truth, and I can't wait to keep sharing my stories with you. I am beyond grateful for my beta readers and my ARC readers, to my publisher and editor, and to my writer's group for constantly reminding me that I used door eighteen times in that sentence and really, they get that it's a door by now...And I am so pleased every time I see a review pop up on Goodreads or Amazon.

I love to hear from readers, even if it's just a simple question or greeting, so feel free to reach out to me on facebook, twitter, email, or even on my forum.

Love Always,

KD Ellis

The Truth about Teddy and Me

Teddy'sTruth, my debut novel releasing January 12th, 2021, is a book that holds a special place in my heart. When I stumbled into the realm of M/M romances, I never anticipated just how it would change my life. I'd always been an avid reader of Fantasy before, with brief forays into YA. Romances rarely held my interest for long. I was tired of the #DistressedDamsel, and of the far too prevalent, far too damaging representation of the #IdealWoman. She was always young, always pretty in some non-stereotypical way that somehow still ended up cliched, and always either a virgin or sex-apologetic. (You know...the woman with a PAST who has to in some way atone for or redeem it...)

Then I found M/M.

It took me over a year to realize why I was so intrigued by his genre, and another year after that to realize how badly I wanted to contribute. To share even a small place among the many amazing authors who have come together to make it feel like home. The idea for my first novel came to me in pieces. I dreamt of a pink haired ballet dancer who fell in love with his bodyguard.

Teddy's Truth is not that story.

Teddy's Truth is MY story, buried in layers of fiction and prose. I, of course, did not make a deal with a Mexican Cartel. (Let's be honest, I couldn't even make a deal with the five year old gremlin who is currently pretending to clean her room while I pretend to believe her.) I also have no Ian in m life.

However, much of what makes Teddy who he is was built on a foundation of uncertainty and growing self-awareness within myself. Writing Teddy is what helped me to embrace my own truth.

Genderqueer, gender fluid, non-binary...Somewhere on this spectrum is my identity. Like Teddy, I am uncomfortable in the body I was born in, because my physical form has never fit the one I see in my mind. Like Teddy, I've always felt that liking feminine things--my makeup and dresses and heels--was a betrayal of that same vision.

It's taken time (and the help of several fictional characters) to help me realize that I don't have to find the box I fit in. In fact, I do not have to fit myself in a box at all. I can be an androgynous girl or a femme boy or something a bit both but not quite either, and liking makeup doesn't have to change that.

So Teddy's Truth is my story at its heart, and I hope that someday, somehow, another questioning girl, boy or enby, will look at Teddy and see something of themselves, the way I did.

Live Your Truth.

Love Your Truth.

Love Always,

KD