Kaje Harper's Blog, page 31

Okay, Kaje, where are the stories?

Hi everyone. *sheepish smile* So some of you have noticed I haven't released a new book for six months. Well...

I have been writing, but between betas and editors and all the details of completing stories, things got a bit clogged in the pipeline. So what is coming up?

The Family We Make (Finding Family #2) is in editing. I dumped the whole 145,000 word story on some poor beta readers, but they are getting it back to me now. This one will be a self pub for money, my first attempt at that. I'll put it out on Smashwords, ARe and Amazon, as soon as everything is done. It still needs another edit, proofreading and formatting, so I'm shooting for the middle of August for this one.

Here's the blurb, though:

At seventeen, Rick Albright left his home, his parents and even his old name, rather than pretend to be straight. But being on his own was hard. When his big brother Sam found him, and insisted on giving him a place to stay, he didn't resist too long. Living with Sam is better than fighting just to survive, but it's not easy to find his balance in a simple, small-town life, after his time on the streets.

Travis Brinkerhoff finally managed to come out in college, his second year anyway. It was the one bright side to losing his baseball scholarship and jock status. But without money for tuition, second year came to an abrupt end. He's back in his small Minnesota hometown, and back in the closet. Travis feels like he's trying to fit back into a life he's outgrown. If he's going to survive, he has to figure out a way to be his own man, maybe even have his own man, without losing the family he loves.

When he left the Marines, Sam Albright wanted nothing more than to find his missing younger brother. Mission accomplished. Now he's got an independent, possibly traumatized, openly gay young man on his hands, a fiancée in a war zone overseas, and parents he has to lie to in order to keep the peace. Keeping it all together won't be easy, but Sam has never backed away from a challenge.

This has three POVs - Sam, who was in The Family We're Born With, his brother Rick (who used to be Clint) and Travis. I'm trying out more POVs for this series, 3 or 4 in a book like I did in the first novella. It's an interesting experiment and always fun to do something a bit new. There will be at least one more book in this series, probably a 4-guys-POVs with Rick, Travis and two new main characters.



Laser Visions is done, edited and proofread, and in the queue to release from the Goodreads M/M Group sometime in the next two months. The release schedule is a secret, but I'll post here as soon as it does come out. It ended up at 79,000 words, and will be downloadable for free.

Unjustified Claims - Hidden Wolves book 3 is in editing with MLR press. This introduces a new couple, but also takes Aaron and Zach a little further in their relationship. I'm hoping for a September release for this one.

Unfair in Love and War is a 24,000 word historical novella, that will be released as part of a charity anthology. I wrote a WWII home front romance, with just a touch of angst. There are some other great authors in this project, so I'm really looking forward to giving you more details in a month or so.

I have a novella that has the working title Raining, Cats, and Dogs completed for an MLR press project. It will get a project title later. Once MLR is set with the publicity for this one, I'll let you know as well.

In ten days, I have a blog post with a little 2400 word short story coming out, for the July Fever 2014 event on the Gemini Girls blog. I was told I could do anything I liked for the blog, as long as it had a July theme and you know me - a story immediately sprang to mind. This blog does M/M and M/F romance books, and will feature an author a day through the month, including several of us from M/M. There will be chances to win books too. Who knows, maybe we'll entice a couple of readers away from the straight and narrow.

The Rebuilding Year Book 2 is my current Work In Progress, at 65,000 words so far. I signed up for Camp NaNo, a cooperative writers' effort for the month of July, where we encourage each other to get words down on the page. My goal is 50,000 words, which should finish this book.

And of course, I've written at least one, sometimes two, really short stories for the picture prompts on my YA LGBT group each month.

So pretty soon, I hope to be able to hook you up with some new words. Thanks for sticking around and waiting.

Sole Support is out in paperback

Samhain Publishing has just released the paperback version of my book Sole Support, about a year after the ebook released, as is their standard practice. It should be available on all the usual vendors, including Directly from Samhain. If you're one of the readers for whom this book struck a chord and you want it in paper, it's now available. I'm also giving away two copies to commenters on either my Goodreads or Wordpress blog. I'll choose two names at random from the comments below, at midnight CST on June 5th.

Sole Support is a slowly-building story of love and family; of dealing with a parent's slow slide into dementia, and not always dealing with it well. It shows one man's realization that accepting help may be the hardest, best thing you ever do. If you can get there, past pride and fear and your own stubborn self-reliance.

Kellen's mother is slipping, her mental lapses showing right at the time Kellen meets Mike. Kellen finds that sometimes there's not enough of him to go around, not enough energy or kindness or time. Dealing with his mother and giving Mike more than a casual place in his life seems impossible. But simplifying things by avoiding a relationship turns out not to make his life easier.

Mike has finally met a man he's willing to come out of his shell for. But Kellen is distracted, casual, and distant. Is there really more between them than a physical relationship? And is Kellen a guy worth fighting for, or an insensitive loser that he's better off without? Mike could just walk away, but something about Kellen keeps him wanting to stay.

Comments below through midnight June 5th will be entered in a drawing for two free paperback copies of Sole Support. No restrictions on location for this contest.

Love's Landscapes - Don't Read in the Closet 2014

Today marks the start of the now-annual free M/M story event from the Goodreads M/M Romance Group. In their Love's Landscapes Stories folder every day through June, July, August and into September, there will be new stories posted in response to picture prompts. The length varies from 2000 to over 80,000 words, the content from humor to erotica to sweet romance to sci fi, mystery and more. Look at the story tags in the first box "Story Info" for content, genre and warnings. And enjoy!

Today our three first stories include
* Carte Blanche , a lovely contemporary about pushing one's limitations from Nash Summers
* Broken Phoenix , a funny, sweet and quirky fantasy by the amazing Edmond Manning of "King Perry" fame,
* Villains , a sci-fi/fantasy adventure from Andrea Speed , whose "Infected" shifter series is one of my favorites.

Most stories will be downloadable on the group's website within five days of release.

My own story, Laser Visions , just came back to me for first edits, so I expect it will release later in the summer. The release schedule is a closely guarded secret, so I can only promise that I will blog about it the moment it is posted. Until then, enjoy all the great writing. If every author completes their mission, there should be 212 stories for you to savor, all summer long.

Finding great YA reads - Vivaldi in the Dark

As the moderator of the Goodreads Young Adult LGBT Books group, I'm reading quite a few Young Adult books these days. I've always loved good YA stories, for the emotional rewards they can deliver. I lived for books as a teen. They gave me worlds to walk in, and mirrors to see myself as not strange and not alone. In the hands of a good author, a YA book can pull you in and make you feel deeply, without erotica, and usually without gunshot wounds. The best YA fiction delivers that heart-punch from the moments of ordinary life.

I often wonder why some books get read a lot and others not so much. In YA, perhaps even more than in adult fiction, where and how the books are released seems to matter a lot. It's harder for small presses and self-published authors to compete. One of the reasons this came to mind right now was the release of the third book in a favorite new series - Vivaldi in the Dark, # 1-3 by Matthew J. Metzger.

This series straddles the border between YA and adult. From the first book at age 15, to the last at age 23, the two protagonists go through a lot of growing up. They meet, fall in love, face obstacles large and small, dramatic and simple. The prose is clean, vivid and smoothly written. The characters are distinct and sympathetic. And yet it has a tenth of the ratings on Goodreads or Amazon of a comparable adult novel. Are young adult books not read? Not rated? Limited to the heavily promoted titles from big names and publishers? Some of those, like David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing from Random House, do much better. So how does a good YA LGBT book gain notice?

I'm not sure. One way is for those of us who enjoy them to make the effort to praise them. Which is what I'm doing today with this series.
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Book 1 is Vivaldi in the Dark.

This was one of my favorite Young Adult M/M stories in the last year. Vivaldi in the Dark has two teen POV voices that feel authentic, an enjoyable dash of humor, and an intensity that isn't just melodramatic angst. The British idioms and language are an added bonus, giving flavor to the story.

Jayden is gay, and although he's only actually out to his best friend, he gets teased and bullied enough that he's keeping his head down. He plans to transfer to a better school, go to uni, and then come out, and finally have a real boyfriend. But his plans are thrown in disarray when he meets Darren, a talented young violinist. Suddenly having a boyfriend tops his list, even if Jayden's not sure he's ready.

Darren meets Jayden at a dark moment, when he's finished another frustrating, repetitive violin rehearsal, and the walls of his life are closing in. Suddenly there's this brilliant, interesting and open guy who's clearly attracted to him. Jayden feels like the antidote for everything that's wrong with Darren's life. But it's never that simple.

This book is notable for one of the best depictions of teen depression I've seen. The underlying causes aren't blatant - like many real-life depressed teens, Darren isn't abused and traumatized. His situation isn't that awful, or that obvious. The author depicts his moments of nadir in beautifully chosen phrases, making the reader feel the heaviness, the dulling, muffling, lethargic nothingness that smothers light and life in his dark moments. And Jayden's responses are also true to life, as he tries to somehow make the difference for his boyfriend, against a foe neither of them can really understand.

This first book is my favorite book of the trilogy, and could be read as a stand-alone.
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In Book 2 , The Devil's Trill Sonata, the action moves on three years. The guys are now over 18, but the book could still be read by older teens. Jayden and Darren have made it through school, and now Jayden is off to university at Cambridge. Darren, who has no patience with sitting in classrooms, is starting a course in crime scene analysis, a hundred miles away.

Everyone says high-school romances don't last. The guys are determined to prove them wrong, while secretly being afraid that it may be true. How can love, even as strong as theirs, hold fast against distance and years of changes? The space between them is not only physical, but increasingly one of experiences and expectations. Darren rents an apartment, and is preparing for a career. Jayden dives into the intense pressures of university, of books and studying, and a small circle of friends who are handy and latched onto early, and who begin to define his world.

This book delves into darker themes, as two very young men make choices for reasons that are sometimes well thought out, but other times are based on really short-term pressures. Jayden's lack of confidence makes him vulnerable. Darren's depression saps his energy and heightens every failure. For three years they had each other to turn to, every day. Without that anchor they are drifting apart, and something has to give. As I read, I was pulled forward intensely through this story, watching things unfold, afraid for these two young men I'd come to care about in the first book.
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Book 3 is the newly released Rhapsody on a Theme. This is the final book in the trilogy, and possibly the most intense. It's also the most adult book, and although most of the sex is off-page it still pushed the boundaries of Young Adult pretty hard. Here we find Darren and Jayden beginning real adult lives together, with a house, a cat, real jobs, Rachel, their asexual roommate and friend, and the ever-looming threat of Darren's depression. Because although things are going well on the outside, depression is no respecter of actual circumstances. The dark cloud hovers, threatening all they have accomplished, and all they dream of.

This book begins a bit more slowly, as we watch Darren and Jayden trying to build a life on the shifting sands of Darren's illness, at first only from Jayden's viewpoint. But about a third of the way in, the intensity ramps up a notch, and we hear more from Darren. The swings of mood, of affect, of muted glass-walled perceptions, are evocatively described. In fact, I would put a strong trigger warning on this for those who are dealing with their own depression. The descriptions are so achingly familiar, and the hopeless feelings so intense, they pull the reader in and almost under. Darren's experiences with multiple medications, with therapists good and bad, and with loss of self, are very real. Jayden's pain at not being able to make things all right for the man he loves, and the echo of his day to day fears, are equally believable.

Fortunately there is also humor here, especially when things improve for Darren. The guys have a lovely warm playful relationship when Darren is up to it. His childhood friends, Paul and Evan, reappear with insults and caring. And as the book finishes, we leave our guys in a hopeful place that is healing, after the darkness that came before. I very much enjoyed this whole series, and the emotional rollercoaster ride it gave me.
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So there you have one series of my favorite YA, three of many books that I've read and loved, and wish a wider audience would find and appreciate. Good Young Adult books remind us that we are all connected, each unique but not incomprehensible. We share joys, and fears, difficulties and hopes. I love that we are seeing more books for Young Adults that reflect that reality. There have been some great YA books released that address both the broader spectrum of LGBTQ and the broader spectrum of teen life experiences. If you have favorites, I'd love to hear about them too. Or if you have places you go, to find new Young Adult books, I'd be interested. Sharing the joy and sweet pain of the best stories is one of my favorite things.

If you could read just 1500 of my words...

In October, I'm going to be attending the GayRomLit reader/author event in Chicago. I managed to get an author spot off the wait-list, and I look forward to it with mingled anticipation and anxiety. Going as an author involves a bit more prep and decision making than going as a reader (when my big decision was "how to I dress to meet Amy Lane?" - the answer to which turned out to be, any way I liked, because Amy's too kind to even care.) As an author, I have to bring swag (what kind?) and books (how many?) and this year there is a new feature...

Some wonderful people are organizing a GRL free book full of stories or excerpts from the attending authors. Like a sampler, not just of new authors this year, but of many of us. Because they'll have a hundred authors in it, we each get 1500 words to use for an excerpt, or a story. It's intended to introduce readers to authors they have not yet tried.

If you'd never read my books, what would you want to see? An excerpt? (And if there's a book or not-too-spoilery scene you think would be ideal, I'd love to know.) A complete little short story? I have some that short, although mostly among the thirty or so that I've done for the Young Adult Group.

As you know, 1500 words for me is a pittance, but since I've now written a score of 100-word drabbles for the M/M group, I think I'm getting the really short form down. I could write an adult 1500 word short. I think. So... Any advice?

Submitting "Laser Visions"

As the clock ticks over to one AM on May 3rd, the intrepid writer finally works up the nerve to hit the "send" button... winging her words across cyberspace, only two days overdue.

I've finally submitted my story for this summer's free story writing event, Love's Landscapes - Don't Read in the Closet 2014 from the Goodreads M/M Romance group. This is the event that in past years inspired my stories "Like the Taste of Summer", "Into Deep Waters", "Show Me Yours", and "Nor Iron Bars a Cage" . This year I was determined not to write the 103,000 word novel I did last year. I was determined to go back to a short story like Taste of Summer, I was... ah, hell, I was deluded. Right?

Well, it's not 103,000 words. But what I did just send in was about 79,000 words of Paranormal/Near-future SciFi/Thriller/Romance. Why stick to one genre when four will do?

The amazing Enny Kraft has created a cover that fits my story perfectly, since the prompt has a figure of a naked guy, walking away into the blue light... Add some DNA-typing, an old house with a circle stair, lasers... and you have:



Roman Janz was minding his own business, walking across campus at the end of term and planning his next plant-collecting trip to Brazil, when something stung him on the neck. And now... now he's wandering, floating, disembodied and confused. There has to be a good explanation, if he can just find someone, anyone he can actually talk to about it.

Xavier Faulkner is intelligent, creative, and made millions when he sold his tech-security company. But all his wealth and skills couldn't keep his sister Tam from being poisoned by food contamination. She lived, but her health was damaged, and her job as a cop is gone. In the antebellum house he moved them to, Xavier hopes to find both a distraction and maybe a purpose for their lives. But the old house seems to come with strange noises, and odd lights, and maybe - if Xavier isn't just going crazy - a naked guy, walking away into the blue...

So that's my story. The releases of all the 211 stories planned for this event will happen in June, July and August, usually 2-3 stories a day, depending on length. To keep up interest and suspense, the specific release dates are not announced in advance. But when my story does come out, and is available for either download or reading on the group, I'll be right here to let you know about it.

If you're an M/M Romance Group member, check out all the participating authors and the prompts for the stories (complete with sometimes Not Safe For Work pictures) in the Love's Landscapes folder. The list of "Prompt Links" is alphabetical by prompter, and has all the author names after the prompts. Mine was written for "Kyle" (author Kyle Adams, actually, who writes sexy and funny short stories, which this is sooo not.) Some stories, including mine, have little teasers posted. I wrote a prompt for someone else too. Part of the fun is seeing what people do with the original ideas. I can't wait for June.

Why write M/M?

I'm guest-blogging today on Vampires, Crime and Angels. This is the blog of author Elaine White, a recent convert to the M/M side of romance. Her readership has been mainly M/F and she invited me over to talk about M/M romance - why I love it, why I write it, and where to find my freebies for a risk-free taste. (Just try this first hit, free...)

Go on by if you want to know why I started writing about two men together back in 1974, and never stopped.

Progress and a title

I thought I'd post quickly, since it's been a couple of weeks, to let you know what I'm up to.

My free story for the M/M Group's Don't Read in the Closet event coming this summer is now drafted, at about 65,000 words. (Yeah, I said I was staying short. I clearly lied. However it is 40K shorter than last year :) The title will be Laser Visions and it's a near-future paranormal story. Submission deadline is May 1st, so I'll be editing hard the next couple of weeks.

Remember, all the Don't Read in the Closet stories from all of the years are free on ARe and from the group. Individual authors might sell their own story somewhere, but if you see the anthologies for sale for money, let me know. (Someone recently tried to do this on Amazon. The books have been taken back down now.)

I'm polishing up the third Hidden Wolves book, to get ready to submit it soon. I don't have a title for that yet, but I'm running through my list of "un-" words. It's about two new guys - Brandt, a werewolf, and Harlan, the human he meets - but there's some Aaron, Zach, and the rest of the pack in there too. It's about 125,000 words, but I'm hoping to tighten it up a little in the polishing.

The Family We Make , about Sam and his brother Rick, has had one great beta read, and after May 1, that will be next on the plate for edits. Since it will be self published, hopefully the wait will be shorter. Real life has been kicking my butt this spring, and once again I'm slower than I'd hoped.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has been picking up the freebie Hunting Under Covers and giving reviews for my novella Changes Coming Down and the other fun stories in it. I was worried about stretching to try M/M/M, but the reaction has been pretty positive. Nice encouragement to maybe do a sequel or prequel someday.

If you are celebrating a holiday this week, I wish you a lovely time with family and friends. And now back to those darned wolves...

Stand alone books and one more giveaway

This is my final week as the Author of the Month at My Fiction Nook.

This time they're featuring three of my stand-alone books. They also asked for a little piece of writing from me, and I totally missed the deadline to send it to them. Oops.

You see, they suggested "Maybe something funny," and I went into total block on it. There are writers who can tell a funny little anecdote at the drop of the hat. Read Amy Lane's blog. Read Thorny Sterling's. I have major envy for that talent. I like to think there is humor in my books, in a subtle way, but I don't have that gift of the absurd.

Humor is one of the four main things I look for when I read a romance though. A little snark, a funny moment, even a clever bit of word-play—humor lurks somewhere in most of the books I really love to read. So those four criteria?

First, I want characters I can like and cheer for. I don't mind if they have to reform somewhat to get there—Jake Riordan, I'm looking at you—but I want to like them by the end. My own stories first appear when I hear the voice of a guy who wants his story told. Caring about that man and his journey is what launches the book.

Second, I want realistic emotions. I enjoy anything from sweet to heartbreaking, but I do want to feel it. That feeling of connection is very individual, personal, and hard to quantify. It's always a surprise to me how other readers and I can agree on dozens of books, and yet there will be one that has me with my heart aching and just bores them. Or one they say had them sobbing that leaves me cold.

Pulling the reader into the story emotionally is a challenge for writers, and what works with one reader will not with another. I have side by side reviews of "couldn't put this down even to sleep" and "DNF I was soooo bored." (And perhaps this is a place to say again, all reviews are welcome, the good, the bad, and even the ugly. Readers who talk about the books they read are community, sustenance and keep this profession interesting. The difference in opinions is what makes discussing books fun, and leaves room for all of us different writers to find an audience.) The writers who consistently pull emotional connections from me are the ones you'll see me recommending at every opportunity. In romance, more than any other genre, we get to share the emotional life of the characters.

My third preference is that bit of humor. Not necessarily laughing-out-loud, but just the occasional quirk that tells me the characters and the author have some sense of proportion, some ability not to take themselves too deadly seriously. The very best authors can give me that little self-deprecating quip even in a scene that will break my heart. That's a gift.

And the fourth is hope. I don't need a Happy Ever After or even a Happy For Now ending on every book. But I need it to contain some kind of hope. Real life is hard enough. Things beyond your control will batter and hurt people you love, at some point—if you care about anyone, that's inevitable. Romance is about the hope of happiness, the hope of love, the idea that there are people out there who will put someone else's well-being ahead of their own. It is about overcoming adversity and finding, at the end of your trials, the reward of a person to share the good times and the bad. Hope.

And that's probably why I write. To transmute pain, loneliness, anxiety, fear, prejudice, and loss into the gold of hope, love and joy. And to share that journey, for characters who feel real, with readers. I wrote just for myself for decades, because putting hope and joy on paper made me feel it. There is sweetness now in having readers share that world.


The stand alone books featured on My Fiction Nook this time represent parts of that journey for me.

Lies and Consequences - the first book I ever published, a plot-crazy romp of a thriller that I simple put onto Smashwords for free, before I had published anything, so readers could share the fun.

The Rebuilding Year - two men who have been battered by life, finding each other and a new start together. A book about finding love wherever it appears, even if it's unexpected and unfamiliar. And valuing that love for the treasure it is. (And yes, the sequel will be coming, although it is still a work in progress.)

And Sole Support - a book I wrote in a big part for myself. After a long period dealing with my mum's Alzheimer's, I was pretty blocked in my writing. So I started the story of Kellen, a man in a similar situation, not a perfect guy and one made less perfect by the stress of his helplessness in the face of his mother's decline. (Much like myself—my poor husband got neglected at times, when all the rest was overwhelming.) Then I gave Kellen a guy like Mike, whose heart was big enough to deal with all of Kellen's crap, and help him redeem himself. And at the end, despite the pain of family in trouble, I gave them love. And hope. And found that I could write again.

There is one more giveaway of any backlist book, if you comment on My Fiction Nook - Kaje Harper Finale. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by there all month, and congrats to the three previous winners. (Learning Curve seems to be the popular choice so far :) See you there.

Featuring Wolves and another book drawing

For my third week as Author of the Month at My Fiction Nook, they are featuring my Hidden Wolves stories. There is an excerpt from the first book in the series, Unacceptable Risk, and a drawing for a free ebook.

My werewolves started long before I ever published anything, and before I ever went online to find M/M books. I'd only read what was on library shelves and in bookstores, and we all know how limited that is.

In my own little writing world, I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if there were not just gay vampires (which I'd read) but gay werewolves..." Yeah, I really was that much off in my personal writerly cloud. By the time MLR asked about another book they could publish, I'd found out just how many gay wolves are running around the M/M genre shelves. But I was having too much fun with my guys not to let them out to play.

The third werewolf novel is finished in rough draft, but not yet submitted. I do hope to have it out later this year. No title yet, but I'm considering a whole raft of words starting with "un"...

In the meantime, check out the post at My Fiction Nook. And maybe you can win a copy of your choice of my backlist books, to entertain you until that next one is released.