Chloe Stowe's Blog: The Words and Madness of Chloe Stowe, page 22

Day Four... of the Twelve Days of Hard Wood, Soft Heart

Day Four is here and it’s reflective.

On the anniversary of a day when so many “mere” mortals became heroes and so many loves were lost until heaven, I think I’ll just give you my daily teaser and let you get back to spending your day with your cherished ones be they family, friends, lovers or four-legged guardian angels….


Chapter Four: Sugar-Coated Damnation

“Mercer looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Personally, I think you rock the well and truly fucked look…”” (page 64)


Today, on your way out, please enjoy some beer in honor of the first Sunday of the NFL season!

Until tomorrow, God bless you…

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Day Three... of the Twelve Days of Hard Wood, Soft Heart

Day Three has arrived on the coattails of a beautiful dawn.

On gorgeous days like this, my muse soars. I spend the hours trying to catch up with her, trying to capture the world she sees into words born on nervous fingers…

In other words, I’m a bit shaky today. It happens… It happens a lot when I have family coming.

One of the weirdest things about my brain and all its crossed wires is that excitement equals panic. The same buttons are pushed in my mind. It’s a lot like if every time on a bitterly cold winter’s day that you turn on the furnace or stoke the fire, all the fire alarms begin to blare and scream at you. All the sprinklers erupt, sending their cold, cold water onto your head, stunning you. No matter how many times it happens, no matter how many times you know it’s going to happen, there is just nothing to shield you from the icy water and the screeches of panic…

Ok, apparently my muse has decided to fly into a hornet’s nest today. Pardon me if I choose not to follow her this time around.

Instead, let me give you the Hard Wood, Soft Heart tease of the day. I hope you enjoy this little morsel and will come back again for another taste….


Chapter Two: Ghost Runners

“Born in St. Louis on a wickedly hot July day, from the very beginning Mercer’s life had been about avoiding the things a man can’t change. Like the blazing hot weather that seemed to follow him around every summer of his childhood, he came to mutely accept the fact that his father only came to visit on the weekends and that his mother rarely smiled at anyone but her little boy…” (page 29)


Today, I offer all my wonderful guests cotton candy and lemonade. Please grab a kite on your way out and soar with your own muse through the endless skies.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Day Two of the Twelve Days of Hard Wood, Soft Heart

Ahhh! Day Two breaks!

Before we all surrender to the moment and weep, let’s recap a bit, shall we?

Day One (yesterday) brought the beginning of the “Twelve Days of Hard Wood, Soft Heart Teasing Your Toes Off Event.” Following a brief overview of what fans, friends and family (I’d like to say hello to my poodle who’s reading over my shoulder) could expect out of each day’s tease, the much anticipated synopsis of my seventh novel for Ravenous Romance was revealed.

In case you missed it, I magnanimously grant you time travel and you can head back to Day One right now. It’s ok. We’ll wait and maybe have some doughnuts while you zip yourself through the Chloe Stowe Wormhole.
A cautionary statement on travel in the
CSW: Be careful how far you go back. My eighth grade poem which began with the lines, “There once was a boy / who had no joy / in going to school each day,” might damage brain cells. Just saying.

Now that everyone has rejoined us, shall we get down to business? Yes, I believe I see one hand raised out there in…I think… Kentucky, so Chapter One Tease is a go!...


Chapter One: Driven to Extinction

“Saul Tidewater stood on the rooftop overlooking Las Vegas clinging to his heterosexuality by the skin of his teeth...” (page 1)


Once everyone get’s their breaths back, I’d like to point out that while my copy editor is still working fingers to the bone editing this book there may in fact be some changes to the excerpts I’m sneaking to you. Take the page numbers with a grain of salt. They’re just there to give you some generalized marker as to where you are in the book. Wouldn’t want anyone getting lost.

In this case, however, I have it on good authority that this may very well be the opening line to the novel! I know, I can hardly restrain myself either.

While Day Three percolates and steeps in my brain for tomorrow, I’d like to thank all of you for stopping by. I hope I was able to give you a smile and just maybe a giggle. Please, enjoy some hot chocolate before you go and, heck, grab another doughnut or two. This is all about indulgence anyhow. Why not have a little powdered sugar and sprinkles with our escapism? I won’t tell if you won’t. *smiles*

Until tomorrow…

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Hard Wood, Soft Heart... Day One

Welcome one and all to the twelve day Hard Wood, Soft Heart Teasing Your Toes Off Event!

For the first time ever not only will you be given sneak peeks at the chapter titles of my newest m/m romance with Ravenous Romance coming out in the next few weeks, but you will also be given actual tiny, daily excerpts from each chapter!

Yes, it does blow your mind, doesn’t it? Gets your blood cells all tingly and ready to head south for some naughty fun? Leaves you wondering “What kind of drama is that crazy woman going to put me and my heart through this time?” (Gets the English teachers out there chiding “That should be ‘my heart and I,” Ms. Stowe.”)

Well, this is no place to be shy. Step right up and prepare all your really good spots to be tickled and all your soft and mushy “ahhh!” places to be warmed… Besides, let’s be honest here, how many of my faithful readers out there are wondering if I’ve managed to slip another volcano into the story? Hands please. Yep, just what I thought.

I like to think that each of my novels lean a little in one direction. Be it heavy on the romance (Taken), or the sex (Hard Water), or the kink (Forever Bound) or the action/mystery/intrigue (Barbarian and The Hellesgate Series), I try to make each of my stories unique and memorable in their own way.

So without further adieu and with the promise of hard refreshments at the end, I proudly give you the synopsis to a novel that is all about love and the sex that leads you there.

I give you Hard Wood, Soft Heart…


This is a story of Las Vegas… of a one-night stand turned life-long love… of one man running so hard from his past that he runs headfirst into a man running just as hard away from his future.

A brilliant cardiologist scarred by a bitter divorce, Saul Tidewater has left the memories of his past behind and started a new life in Las Vegas. Dark and dashing, he must fight his surprising lack of self confidence when his long-held and hidden desire to make love to a man will no longer be denied.

Mercer Braun is the man everyone wants. Devilishly handsome with a blinding love for life, the former baseball player could have any man or woman that he wants… but Mercer only wants Saul. A bleak future awaits Mercer, however, and he must fight for his right to meet it on his own terms.

This is the story of two men who have lost their way and stumbled upon forever.

This is the story of a city that gives them the courage to vanquish a past while blazing a future.

This is a story of true love.


Tune in tomorrow, same blog, same post, for the official Chapter One tease!

Until then, ladies and gents, please help yourself some much deserved tequila… I’ll be in the back room puking my “Oh my God, they’re going to hate it!” nerves out through my nose. Yes, life for Chloe Stowe is rarely pretty. *grins*

Thank you all for reading and always
(amazingly) wanting to read more.

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Blow Torch Chronicles III: Synopsis

For all of my faithful followers and for those who have just wandered by a little lost but a lot curious, here is the synopsis for Blow Torch (the sequel to Torched)...

Welcome back to Hellesgate.

Three years have passed since New York real estate mogul Matthew Archer met and fell in love with Iraqi war veteran Cane Summerfield. Having survived a deranged arsonist, a wispy, green-eyed stalker and a revenge-fueled brother, the men have settled down to small town life in Hellesgate, Kansas.

Life is good.

Every day, their love grows.

Every day, their wedding nears.

But when a love is borne of fire, the future is often shaped by hell.

When two strangers arrive in town, the horrors of Cane's war-torn past return wearing fresh faces and harboring mysterious hate. Greed, envy and lust combine to form an enemy unseen until the very end.

The battle is one for Cane's scarred peace of mind.

The battle is one Matthew will risk everything to win.

With the eccentric citizens of Hellesgate by their side, the men must fight a war that will leave one thing branded indelibly on all their hearts...

While war is hell, love is forever its phoenix.

Ok, there you have it. I hope it tickles you in all the good spots.

Now, I bring the much self-ballyhooed Blow Torch Chronicles to an end. A new book awaits and with it, I'm sure, a new adventure.

Thank you all for sharing some of your time with me and my words.

Sincerely,
Chloe Stowe

Blow Torch Chronicles II: The Dark and Twisting Road to Hellesgate

As Blow Torch’s release date nears and cover art is teasing your fancies, I thought it time to reveal the dark and twisting road that led me back to fictional Hellesgate, Kansas. So strike up a match, grab a flashlight or dig out those night vision goggles you’ve always wanted to play with and join me on the rocky trail to my first encounter with sequel smut.

The following facts are all true, no embellishment needed.
Hard hat may be required.


I have a habit of opening big. In my stories, I try to dump the reader right into the deep end with my heroes. My prologues are often filled with sex, violence, heartbreak, action or adventure. I’ve only got 50K words here to work with so there’s no time to ease the reader into the story. However, once the mayhem and angst has sufficiently whet everybody’s appetite, I try to wade us all back to calmer, shallower yet clearer waters. After all, a wading pool is an excellent place to get to know a handsome stranger.

Well, if life imitates art then somebody sure as hell stole my wading pool.

With a month left until my deadline for Blow Torch, the morning of April 27 broke to the ungodly wail of tornado sirens in North Alabama. (I was visiting my parents for my birthday in the house I grew up in. My timing has always sucked.) By the time the darkened clocks struck ten that same night, over 100 people were dead, hundreds were missing and thousands were now homeless.

I lost no family.

We lost no houses (Although an EF-4 tornado literally ripped to shreds a whole neighborhood only a quarter of a mile away from my sister’s house… my sister’s house where her new precious family was cowered in their bathroom. My parents and I spent the day in and out of the closet… how apropos can you get for a writer of gay romance/erotic, huh?)

We were all blessed to have survived that terrible day. But even blessings can come with a few nasty thorns.

We had no power, no phone, no cell phone for five days. Gas lines were miles long. It took stores days to re-open and when they did it was with minimal power and dwindling supplies. We were lucky and had water. We didn’t even have to boil it before using it.

For that first day, we had no way of knowing whether my sister, her husband and her baby had survived. The roads were blocked by trees and houses. And all we kept hearing on the radio were the reports of death and disaster in her little town.

In the end, nine people died just that sliver of a quarter mile away from her.

My sister, her family and her house all survived.

The second day, my parents’ kitchen caught on fire while we were trying to heat some water. I was the one that found the kitchen in flames. I was the one who screamed her head off for her daddy to come save the day.

He did.

We were so, so blessed.

It’s important that I keep saying that.
It’s important that you know that I know that.

See, survivor’s guilt is a real bitch and can screw with your mind like a real motherfucker. Two and half months later and I’m still rolling around in the dirt with it.

It sucks you dry from the inside out. A lot of me is still barren, I think…


Now, this would be the perfect time for that wading pool.

Guess it blew away with the water tower and our neighbor’s trampoline.

Power came back. My scribbles on notebook paper written under a flashlight were transferred to computer and life and Hellesgate went on.

One week later, as many roads were still impassable and scores of people were still missing, food poisoning struck my family.

My sister and my mother were horribly sick for days.

Again, I was spared.

Again, I was lucky and blessed.

Unfortunately, I also went crazy.

Literally.

It was bad.

I hadn’t had a panic attack that severe in almost ten years. It lasted one whole week, I’m talking a week of 24/7 here. It was terrifying in more ways than I could ever put to words. For days, I didn’t think I’d survive it. Catch the irony here? Dying of survivor’s guilt? How novel.

It took me weeks but I finally was able to crawl out of that whole. I was shaky and sweaty and whole lot worse for wear but I was whole.

I was blessed.

It’s important for me to keep saying that. It’s important for me to keep knowing that.

Blow Torch, however, was in shambles.
While a third of it was written and all of it was well plotted out, Hellesgate proved to once again be a slippery bitch.

My computer crashed.

We’re talking big crash.

I was blessed.

I didn’t lose any work. Like a good writer, I had backed everything up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to it for several days.

Time was ticking down.

I finally got to go back to my home. Florida never looked so beautiful before… the hailstorm I’m taking as a fluke. It was only quarter size hail, after all.

I was blessed.

Really, I was. Blow Torch got done one day shy of its deadline. Hellesgate, Kansas had been conquered once again.


So, I lost a little sanity along the way? I was working on half a tank before Blow Torch so what’s a few more gallons shy amongst friends?

And if you all are so good as to ask for me to return to Hellesgate for a third visit, I most certainly will. I’m scarred and battle-tested now, and know to bring a little extra Prozac, a fire extinguisher and a tornado shelter with me this next go-around.

Yes, Blow Torch was indeed a dark and twisting road, and I may have lost my wading pool along the way…

But, thank God, I was blessed.

The Blow Torch Chronicles: A Return to Hellesgate

Ah! Hellesgate, Kansas. What a twisted little town of derangement and love my chemically imbalanced brain has wrought.

Have you missed it? Have you had a hankering for a tall cold glass of Bingham’s hard lemonade? Or how about a nice warm mug of the Eastons’ apple cider? Has the sight of thistles blowing in the wind given you cause to check over your shoulder for wispy, green-eyed stalkers? Does just the thought of a single malt scotch have you diving for a fire extinguisher and an elephant gun?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions I kiss your feet and offer you my therapist’s card with the sequel.

Honestly though, I never thought I would be returning to Hellesgate. What a weird and totally incomprehensible honor it was to be asked back. Yes, there were tears. However, I stand by my emotions with my bottles of Prozac proudly by my side.

Writing a sequel is hard. There are so many expectations, in my case mostly internal. I wanted to be true to the characters but not have their stories turn stale. I wanted my readers to feel when they picked up Blow Torch like old friends were visiting them – old friends with heart-wrenching and soul-gladdening surprises being held secretly behind their backs.

Most of all, I didn’t want to disappoint.

I hope I haven’t.

Hellesgate is such a town rich with potential storylines that I really, really hope I picked the right ones to follow. I trust my readers to tell me if I have.

This time we delve into Cane Summerfield’s past. In Torched, we learned that the Iraqi war veteran had been horribly scarred emotionally from his experience in the Middle East. In Blow Torch, we learn the how’s, the why’s and, most importantly, the therefore’s.

“War is hell… and sometimes it follows a man home.”

To whet your appetite for the sequel which should be arriving to bookstands within the next two or three weeks, here is the chapter index for Blow Torch. Hope it teases and tickles you a little…

Prologue… Iraq
Chapter One… A Good Day
Chapter Two… Oranges
Chapter Three… Sahara
Chapter Four… A Tarnished Star
Chapter Five… May Day
Chapter Six… Guns and Floods
Chapter Seven… Blindsided
Chapter Eight… Born of Guilt
Chapter Nine… Done
Epilogue… A Better Day

Well, until my cover is ready for your perusal, I will leave you all with my heart-filled thanks for reading this rambling of mine. Once again, I invite you all to return with Matthew Archer and Cane Summerfield to Hellesgate, Kansas. It will be a trip full of passion, lust, greed, revenge and toe-curling romance. It will be a trip you will never forget.

Sincerely,
Chloe Stowe

It's a teaser! It's a teaser!

As the deadline for Hard Water looms (11 days and counting… yes, “Yikes!” does come to mind), I decided to pull back, take a deep breath and tease. While my best teasing talents usually require some fingers and tongue (sorry, couldn’t help it *sheepish grin*), I will restrain myself this time and restrict my dirty work today to words alone…

So, without further adieu, here is your Hard Water tease for the day…

Chapter Titles for the fifth Chloe Stowe original novel - Hard Water

Prologue… The Water is Hard and Deep
Chapter One… Fireworks over Warm Waters
Chapter Two… A Towel, a Spark and a Fist
Chapter Three… Windowpanes and Moonlight
Chapter Four… Jumping into the Deep End
Chapter Five… Jumping into the Right Deep End
Chapter Six… The Bittersweet Lapping of Candy
Chapter Seven… A Neanderthal and a Good Samaritan
Chapter Eight… A Slow Boat from South Africa
Chapter Nine… Drowning in the Shallows
Chapter Ten… Healing Waters
Chapter Eleven… Home Waters

Now, class, aren’t we all curious? Everyone feeling appropriately teased? Want some more? Check in tomorrow and I’ll give you a taste.

Love you all,
Chloe Stowe

As I turn down a new road...

The twists and turns of panic disorder are dizzying. I am never on one path long before I'm forced down a new, unmarked and unlit lane. I am lucky. This time the change in direction is only a slight narrowing of the proverbial road. It has taken me a few months to accept this change but I do now and hope you will understand it as well.

As my writing career is continuing to grow and I begin to tackle new arenas in the literary world, I have had to put everything I have into my daily writing. It is not a matter of time but one of energy that has brought me to this decision. Except for corresponding with my publishers, etc, I can no longer handle email. The reading and answering of messages literally picks apart my energy. I worry over it. Constantly. All the oomph my medication allows me is eaten up with this insane worry, leaving me exhausted and empty. I can't be empty and write.

Coward? Perhaps. Survivor? Definitely.

I am sorry that I'm having to shut down this part of online world. I hope it won't be forever. And I apologize to all who have written me in the last couple of months as I've struggled and hid from this decision.

I do not plan, however, to disappear from your lives. With this new website, with Facebook updates and tweets on Twitter, I hope to keep you all deeply entangled in my strange yet wonderful life. Perhaps I will be able to reach even more people as I open up my daily struggles with the beast Panic in this blog. I can not promise daily updates but I can promise important ones.

It is not an exaggeration. I need each and every one of you. Please, keep hold of my hand as I venture down this narrowed but just as wondrous road.

Sincerely,

Chloe Stowe

As I crawl out of my hidey-hole, I wave nervously to the world...

Yes, Chloe Stowe, the enigmatic and frankly quite crazy writer is back. Applause, rose petals and well-placed tomatoes to the back of my head are all welcome. *scuffs the ground nervously with her shoe*

To catch you up, let me paraphrase my last three months...

November: I wrote.

December: I hid.

January: I crawl out.

Having a screwed up mind really sucks. Not complaining, just stating.

After a November of writing my brains out (yes, literally; I'm still looking for fourth grade arithmatic on my bathroom floor), my mind decides to declare a "Time Out!" So, for six weeks I basically hid from the world wide world. An online hermit I became, only sticking her head out of the cave for edits and contracts and the occasional "yes, I'm alive; no need for that tombstone yet."

Now, I am back! Enough of the life of a frightened camel with her head in the sand! Enough of playing the Cowardly Lion to everyone else's Dorothy! Enough!... Just so you know, those few sentences drained a good 60% of my meds for the day. *Sighs* I'm doing the best I can here, folks.

So, please, I hope you don't mind if I slip once again into your worlds. I'm getting better at this, I think, I hope. *smiles*

Thank you all for reading. Thank you all for caring.

Love,
Chloe Stowe