Marguerite Labbe's Blog, page 2

A Whole Latte Sass Blog Tour!

Hello everyone. I'm announcing my blog tour for A Whole Latte Sass. There may be some additions or date changes and if that happens I'll update, but for now, here's where all the fun begins!


January 1 - Two Chicks Obsessed January 1 - Long and Short Reviews January 2 - Boy Meets Boy January 3 - Love Bytes January 4 - My Fiction Nook January 7 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words January 8 - Dreamspinner Press Blog 

Nano - Day 1 - The Monster Within

ConstantinSince I'm wrapping up A Beautiful Disaster I decided to dive into National Novel Writer's Month this year with a brand new project. This year I'm also trying to plot things out more and I'm attempting the snowflake method. It's going much better this time than the first time I tried it. I think the trick for me is not to start cold. I need to let an idea percolate for a while and I've been percolating on The Monster Within for many years. It used to be called Mists on the Seine, but that title never worked for me.

It's my Lovecraft meets Hugo meets Verne story. The last Chevalier de Rouen and a vagabond must discover the secrets to the mists before the swarm hatches and devours Paris.

Michel-LeonIt's going to be a wild ride. Today I fleshed out our two antagonists and expanded my synopsis. I'm discovering more about this world every day. As much as I wanted to do it sooner, plot elements wouldn't gel, and I couldn't figure out how the mists led to the missing people. Sitting in ICU with my husband this summer gave me a lot of time to think about it and I worked out a lot of what was blocking me. But I had the geeks to finish.

Now it's time to dive into a darker world. Today I'd like you to meet my two heroes. Michel-Leon Parisee, the Baron de Dagonville and the last Chevalier de Rouen. And Constantin Severin, a wandering man of mystery who holds many dangerous secrets.

A Beautiful Disaster - Book 3 Geek Life

I'm wrapping up edits on Brenden and Dakota's story. I love these two. I say that every book I know, but I love these two.


Brenden Wade has made a name for himself promoting events and has turned his micromanaging, organizational skills toward his second love comic book conventions. He has worked toward making Chessie Con the biggest name in the Chesapeake Bay area all with the help of his best friend Dakota Nye. Only now, the weight of the secrets he’s been carrying since they were teenagers threatens their friendship.Dakota wants to enjoy life by the moment, run his podcast, and annoy his plus one as they run their conventions. He has never believed himself capable of settling down. But Brenden makes Dakota dream of possibilities. He sees no problem testing the heat between them. After all what happens between friends is no one’s business. He never expected to discover that Brenden is in love with him.One night of passion changes both men’s preconceptions. Brenden is faced with everything he’s ever wanted but he risks having another family turn their back on him when they discover his broken promise. The last thing Dakota wants to do is hurt Brenden, but he doesn’t trust himself to stay even if Brenden has him longing for a future. Both of them are scarred by their past, but they know that no matter what they always figure out where to go together, especially when their hearts are on the line.

A Whole Latte Sass - Coming January 1, 2019

Preorder at Dreamspinner PressCheck out this beautiful cover by Kanaxa. She is doing an amazing job with these. I can't wait to work with her for the third book. Let me tell you, that smile is pure Felipe. I'm delighted by it and the warm, happy colors suit him.

I love the characters in this book. Sass touches on many themes that are personal to my life. I'll be announcing a blog tour probably sometime in December and I'm sure I'll be talking about those themes.

But I really hope you enjoy Trask and Felipe's story. They are just so sweet. All of the couples for the Geek Life series have been such a joy to write. I'm excited!



Trask Briscoe’s life revolves around staying clean and sober, running the Magick Den, and attending local cons. His rules haven’t left much room for romance. But he can’t deny Felipe has caught his complete attention. He’s just not sure what he can offer a man so full of joy and sass.

When Trask finally accepts Felipe’s offer for a cup of coffee, he soon finds himself on a second date and a third. Between cosplay projects and roleplaying games, they discover a deeper connection than either of them expected. And Trask realizes that sometimes rules are made to be broken.

Now Felipe just has to convince his family—and Trask—that Trask has more love to offer than he ever dreamed.

A Little Side of Geek Blog Tour

Come check out these upcoming blogs for snippets and sneak backroom peeks into the series.

May 15 – MM Good Book Reviews http://mmgoodbookreviews.com/May 21 – My Fiction Nook http://www.myfictionnook.com/ May 22 – Love Bytes http://lovebytesreviews.com/May 22 – Happily Ever Chapter http://happilyeverchapter.blogspot.com/May 23 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/May 24 – The Novel Approach http://www.thenovelapproachreviews.com/May 25 – Long and Short Reviews http://www.longandshortreviews.com/May 29 – Kimi-chan Experience http://kimichanexperience.com/
May 30 – Dreamspinner Press Blog http://blog.dreamspinnerpress.com/

January 11th Daily Deal

Dreamspinner Press has Make Me Whole for their Daily Deal. In celebration, I posted one of my favorite excerpts. One of the first scenes that started the whole story.

$1.11 Deal LinkShadows blanketed the hallway, but he had grown accustomed to making his way through the museum with just the security lights for illumination. The museum wasn’t that big, and it didn’t take him long to get to the new exhibit. Galen paused in the doorway, stunned by the sight before him. The security lights hadn’t been set up here yet, but the row of skylights stretching across the roof faced the rising full moon, and the room was awash with a pale-blue glow. In the shadows and light, the statue facing him looked almost alive, ready to move at any moment and finish the action he’d started.

Galen walked over to him, his heart thudding, and laid his hand on the man’s forearm. How surreal. For a moment it almost seemed like heated flesh beneath his fingers and not cooler bronze. “Who are you, Dexios? And why do you seem so familiar to me?”

Silence answered him, and Galen had the insane urge to slip under those embracing arms to press himself up against the man. He stepped back with a short, uneasy laugh and stuck his hand into his pocket. With his luck he’d get stuck. He didn’t want to hear Suzane’s laughter the next morning when she found him entangled with a statue. He’d never live it down.

This obsession, this inability to get these statues out of his mind, was unhealthy. He needed to go home and relax, as Suzane had suggested. Go home and find some way to get Nick out of his thoughts.

“Shouldn’t you prefer flesh and bone to metal? You never were one to put your faith in the mystical.”

Galen stiffened and spun around to face the man in the wide arched doorway. Adrenaline raced through him and his breath quickened. At first all he could see were shadows, and then the man stepped into the moonlight. He wore no undershirt beneath his breastplate and the studded leather fringe that hung from his waist did nothing to hide his muscular thighs. A teasing smile played on his lips and his eyes held mysteries in the shadows and light. Galen couldn’t tell what color they were or what the man intended. “Would you kiss these lips now that I stand before you?”

Galen’s breath caught on a wave of recognition. “Nick?” Wait, no. Not quite, but similar. This man’s hair came to his shoulders in thick waves, unlike Nick’s short, rumpled style groomed to look careless. Old scars ridged his arms and legs. And though Nick worked out, this man had hard muscles all over as if he drove himself all the time. In fact, now that he looked at him closer, Galen was uncomfortably reminded of his sexy statue. They even had scars in the same places.

The back of his neck prickled with uneasy awareness. If he turned around, would he still see it standing in its place behind him? He wavered between looking over his shoulder and keeping his eyes on the strange man before him. It was a ridiculous thought—statues didn’t wake up and move around. He really needed to get away from this place and take a break if he was having thoughts like that.

“Nick? That is an interesting pet name, not one you have used before. What does it mean?”

Galen stumbled back, almost falling as the man moved closer. His hands caught a hold of metal and he clung to the reassurance that he hadn’t lost his entire grip on reality. This man wasn’t the statue come to life. “Who the hell are you?”

The coaxing smile died and his eyes widened. “You don’t remember? A part of you always does. Could it have been so long this time?” He tapped Galen’s chest just over his heart. The physical contact was another small comfort. The strange man wasn’t a figment of his imagination, though Galen supposed an intruder wasn’t a better option. “How can you not remember me, remember us?”

Galen looked over his shoulder at the control panel on the wall. He needed a better nighttime security system, maybe even a guard. “I don’t know how you got in here or what possessed you to dress like that, but I suggest you leave before my security comes.” The man did not react the way Galen expected him to with that desperate gamble. Instead, a puzzled look crossed his face as strong hands settled on Galen’s hips.

“I do not understand the words you say. You look different, yet I know it is you born again to bring me to life.” Those hands on his hips tugged, and Galen gasped as groin met groin with a hot tingle of awareness. Oh yes, hard all over. Damn, it had been so long since he had another man against him. And the resemblance to Nick made it even more disorienting. “Kiss me, Lykon. Make me whole again.”

Happy 2018

Well, it's the start of another year and once again I'm getting over an illness. Last year it was the stomach flu, this year some kind of sinus thing but that's what you get when you have 19 people under one roof for an extended holiday with 7 of them kiddies of various ages. The germs were strong with them this year. But I think we're kicking the bug in time to drive back home tomorrow.

As much as I may worry about a year ahead. (2017 was a banner for anxieties.) It's impossible to start out the year on a sour note. Fifteen years ago, in the middle of a Southern Maryland ice storm my son was born three weeks early, after scaring us into thinking he was going to come a couple months early. This kid clearly had a mind of his own and we headed to the hospital right after the ball dropped. Since then we've had the tradition of singing Happy Birthday to him as it comes down.

So happy birthday my sweet Moose the Meme Lord. I love you and I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish in 2018 or see you in your flight suit for Space Camp. If it still actually fits you when the time arrives. Last year brought you your Confirmation, graduation from middle school and the start of high school, your first girlfriend and your first heartbreak. 2018 will be just as action-packed and awesome. Just you wait and see.

Last Two Comic Book Conventions of the Year

Star Wars Days Table for Kids I’ve had to slow down on the number of comic book conventions I attended in this last year. I work a regular day job Monday through Friday with a long commute. And as much fun as comic book conventions are, they are work too and they often involve travel time. I need my weekends to catch up on house cleaning and errand running and sometimes hiding in a corner with a cat on my lap, a cup of coffee at my elbow, and a book in my hands. So sometimes I’ll tell my husband to go on without me and have lots of fun. Usually, our son will go with him when given a choice. I can blame him for picking to get up early and work a table over whatever chores he knows I’ll lay on him if he stays. 
My son with his newly purchased headbandI did go to the last two of the year though. The first one, Star Wars Days, is organized and run by a local Boy Scout Troop. This particular Boy Scout Troop petitioned to be the 501 Troop and then contacted the 501st Legion in their area to be involved with their event. The 501st Legion is a worldwide cosplaying group dedicated to Star Wars. And the convention that the Boy Scout Troop puts on is amazing. They have standees of many characters for photo ops. There are droids zipping around. The 501st Legion is there in full get up. And they have a Jedi training center in the gym. The young men are running around the whole weekend taking food orders from the vendors, providing directions, and helping out with every little task that they can. It's so much fun.We go as part of the Artway Alliance team. At the con, we provide classes throughout the weekend that kids can attend. My husband did a class on drawing aliens. Since this wasn’t a regular table gig and space was limited, I found an out of the way place and worked on edits and writing in between a little Christmas shopping with the vendors and catching up with some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. My husband has been with Artway Alliance for about four years now. They provide afterschool artistic activities and classes to local schools as well as attending cons like this all over the place. Holiday CosplayersThe second con was the Richmond Comicon at the Raceway. Our very first comic book convention as vendors was this con. Over the years the people there have become family. My son is one of their volunteers. We almost always have our podcast Role With Us as one of the panels where we run a live game. My husband either has a table where he sells his artwork or run’s a kid’s section where kids can come and sit and color or draw for a bit. Sometimes he’ll have classes, sometimes he’ll do commissions or both. They had a scavenger hunt for the kiddies and we handed out prizes. In addition to the podcast panel, Gary Cohn asked me to be on a panel with him Robert Sodaro, James Noll, Ray Felix, and Chris Otto on Self-Publishing. Despite the snow and the fears that so many in this area seem to have when it comes to that stuff we had pretty good attendance. And the afterparty was so much fun. It was neat to see holiday themed costumes. So until 2018. I’m conned out. LOL.
Coming soon. Wow, cover art. The most amazing cover art for A Little Side of Geek. 

A Geeks Life Trilogy

So for the last year I’ve been hard at work on a trilogy that follows comic books conventions and the people that work them. All the books are set in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. The first book A Little Side of Geek. Has been submitted and hope to hear within the next few weeks whether or not I’ll get a contract offer.
Proud geek and comic book artist, Morris Proctor wants nothing more out of life than to live it in semi-seclusion with his devil cat and gamer friends. Despite what his well-meaning family thinks, he’s perfectly content with his status-quo. The last thing he wants is to date another non-geek hell bent on changing him.Then he meets his adorkable new neighbor, Theo Boarman, who doesn’t know Star Trek from Star Wars, but everything about heating up a kitchen, and who tempts him like no other.Theo has spent the last year recovering from the loss of his parents and trying to play both roles for his teenage brother, while working to keep the family restaurant afloat. Dating is the last thing on the menu, especially with a man who views the height of dining is shoving a packaged meal into the microwave.But if Morris gives him one more shy smile, or flaunts that kilt he wears so well, Theo will be forced to convince him that a hot summer fling is just the recipe to let off a little steam.Neither of them count on their fling becoming this serious, this fast. When two worlds tangle, it’s anyone’s game, and it’s up to the lovers to decide to take a chance on their perfect match.I’m working on a first round of edits for the second book A Whole Latte Sass, which follows Morris’s best friend, cosplayer Felipe Suero and his silver fox Trask Briscoe who owns a comic/gaming store in Richmond called Old Dominion Magick Den. Once the edits are done, I hope to get it off to beta readers and I’m about 10k into the third book A Heap of Trouble, which follows convention promoter Brenden Wade and his step-brother Dakota Nye, trouble maker and podcaster and the man Brenden has been in love with for half his life.

Stay tuned!

Pandora Blog Tour

More InformationApril 18 - MM Good BookReviews Get a glimpse of the man who our heroes rescue and learn a bit about how Noyes came to be.
April 19 – DSP Publications Death and Love in Pandora
April 24 - Kimi-chanExperience  Pandora and the families we create
April 25 - Genre Talk at The Novel Approach 
April 26 - Love Bytes From Near Future Dystopia to SciFi
April 27- Interview at Tammy's Two Cents 
April 28 - ScatteredThoughts and Rogue Words This Scaredy Cat Ludite wrote a SciFi Horror
May 1 - My Fiction Nook Riff and Zed: Flawed, Damaged Characters Who Help Each Other Heal

May 2 - Kimmers' EroticBook Banter Excerpt, take a peek at a stolen moment between Riff and Zed
*Please note that the dates or subjects may change.
Enjoy!