Kaje Harper's Blog - Posts Tagged "2022"

.
Alec - Single Dads of Gaynor Beach is now available on all vendors.
universal link: https://books2read.com/u/3JE9QA

Alec is coping with deep loss. Joe is looking for a welcoming place to raise his preteen son, Kevin. Lost dog Zelda is looking for a safe home. Kevin is looking for octopuses. Finding each other is a coming together of love, hurt-comfort, and family-building to a HEA.

Excerpt from ALEC:

Alec couldn’t resist getting to his feet and moving to Joe’s shoulder, following his gaze. The deep tide-pool was mossy and green in places, pebbled and brown in others. He recognized a couple of anemones and a sea star, but couldn’t see any octopus either.

“He can camouflage,” Kevin said with glee. “That’s why you don’t see him. Look where that little pile of shells is, then off to the right a couple of feet.”

“I’m not sure…” Joe muttered.

“Yes!” Alec realized. “Right there. He has one tentacle flipped over beside that bunch of mussels. See the row of suckers?”

“Ah!” Joe pointed. “Yeah, your eyes are sharper than mine. Very cool, Kev.”

“I’m doing a report on him for my biology segment. I want to take a good picture, but he’s always so hard to see in photos, and the water makes reflections.” Kevin pulled out his cell phone, holding it at arm’s length over the pool in a way that made Alec flinch. “You can only get to this pond at really low tide, which is why we had to come quick.” He blindly tapped the screen a dozen times at different angles. “Maybe I got him now.” He grinned as he pocketed the phone. “I call him Oscar the octopus.”

Alec couldn’t help smiling back. “That’s a great name.”

“There’s all kinds of good things in this pool, like anemones and warty cucumbers. I want to see a Spanish shawl sometime, but I haven’t. They’re a kind of nudibranch.” Kevin leaned farther over the water.

Alec laced his hands together to keep from grabbing at the kid. He’s fine. If he falls in, it’s maybe three feet deep. His dad’s right there. Looking at Joe helped. His big sturdy frame and strong hands were surely some kind of protection. Although no one can always keep their kid safe. Alec frantically shoved that thought back into the box it’d escaped from.

I’m having a good day. I saw an octopus. I’m talking to a kid and his dad like we’re all regular normal people. Kevin had said something to him.

“Sorry, missed that?”

“I said, do you like crabs? I think they’re cool, but Mom doesn’t like anything with more than four legs. That’s what she says.”

“I don’t discriminate based on legs.” Simple chance had Alec staring at Joe’s hairy calf below his board shorts as he said that. Coincidence meant Joe caught him looking. When he yanked his gaze up to Joe’s face, a dimple appeared in one stubbled cheek and that wide mouth twitched.

Chance. Coincidence. Right. Heat suffused Alec’s face but the flush felt almost welcome. He’d been cold for so long, even here in sunny California…

................

Read Alec and Joe's story (with lots of help from Kevin) in Alec

Available wherever ebooks are sold: https://books2read.com/u/3JE9QA

Hey folks, I'm thrilled to have people meet Cam and Erik in Hidden Blade - The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022

This book is part of a shared world rockstar (or in my guys' cases, not-yet-star) romances. I'm looking forward to the whole series.

* social anxiety
* first time
* coming out
* bad limericks (Erik's lucky Cam still loves him.)

Amazon and KU: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Blade-R...

** for those who only read wide, I'm sorry about the wait. Once the series is done in KU, I will take this one wide. Thank you for a commitment to wide publishing.

I want to tell you about the Rainbow Advent Calendar event I'm in.

I'm delighted to be part of this, which gives readers two new short-story treats every day till Christmas. I'm happy to provide your Advent treat for the afternoon of December 4th : Through All the Years, a short Life Lessons coda.

I asked some folks who had not read the Life Lessons series to check it out, and they said this short Holiday piece reads okay for folks who don't yet know Mac and Tony, as well as for fans of the series.

(Although if you don't like established couples (or even if you do), you can also get a copy of my 2019 short Shooting Star, a meet-cute-if-violently Christmas story, from Prolific Works here: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...)

I hope you're enjoying all the posts in this event. If you came here to mine directly, you can find all the links for the stories, day by day here:
Advent Masterpost - http://alexjane.info/rainbow-advent-calendar-2022/
Advent Public Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1673039336093815/

And you can find my story… Through All the Years here: https://www.kajeharper.com/?page_id=3532