Harper Bliss's Blog, page 25

From Top To Bottom is on sale!

From Top To Bottom: Lesbian Stories of Dominance & Submission is on sale ($0.99/£0.99 only) until 5 December 2016!

Here’s what you will get for that rock-bottom (not a pun) price:

– Fifteen sizzling hot lesbian BDSM stories

– Approximately 350 fictional strokes of a whip/flogger/paddle/hand

– The return of Ava Castaneda and Charlie Cross form my bestselling novel Release the Stars (spoiler: they’re still together and having really hot sex.) (And guess who’s in charge in the bedroom?)

– A wide variety of stories on the BDSM theme

– A couple of tales by first-time authors who WILL make a name for themselves in the future because they are so good

The promo will only run until 5 December so be sure to pick up your copy before then.

Here are the links:

– Amazon US

– Amazon UK

– Amazon DE

– Amazon CA

– Amazon AU

– Apple

– Kobo

– Barnes & Noble

And here’s what it’s all about:

Brace yourself, because there will be pain—but of the oh, so pleasurable kind. There will be begging and there will be bruises, but all leading to an obliterating climax. The fifteen lesbian stories of dominance and submission contained within the pages of From Top To Bottom will make you flinch like the characters do, will make you squirm and want to turn the pages faster and faster. You will find first-time players and long-term couples. A plethora of paddles and the occasional flogger—and a great number of sore backsides. Be warned.

With stories from experienced writers at the top of their game and thrilling new talents alike, all of them exploring power dynamics from top to bottom, this collection is kinky, daring and, at times, deliciously violent. Read at your own risk.

Enjoy!

In the Mood for Love (Boxed Set)

I’m about 2.000 words away from finishing Beneath the Surface (Pink Bean Book Two). Once I type The End, no matter where you are, you might be able to hear my sigh of extreme relief at being able to finish a manuscript because it has been a while. (Since the end of April, when I finished the first draft of In the Distance There is Light, to be precise.) (I know.)

Meanwhile, I have a treat for those of you who are new to my work and didn’t know me yet when I was exclusively writing novelettes. I have bundled 7 of them into a boxed set, which gives you 65% off the combined price. (The other 3 novelettes not included in the boxed set – Hired Help, Summer’s End & As Years Go By – you can get for free when you subscribe to my mailing list!)

Here’s how it breaks down:

COMBINED PRICE: $19.93

SPECIAL OFFER: $6.99

SAVING: 65%

And here are the individual novelette descriptions:

This collection contains seven of Harper Bliss’s signature novelettes. Set in locations from the US to Thailand, from Berlin to Tuscany, these stories are packed full of romance and lady love.

I STILL REMEMBER

Successful news anchor Elise returns to her hometown after running away from a love she couldn’t understand nor act upon twenty years ago. When she bumps into her old best friend Amy, the one she had to get away from, all that was left unspoken bubbles to the surface and they revisit the past in more ways than one.

A HIGHER EDUCATION

At an economics conference Gail Garvey ends up sharing a room with a teacher she had a crush on twenty years ago. They’re both professors now, and Gail’s crush has long faded, but finding herself in the same room as Professor Joanne Ferguson two nights in a row proves to be more challenging than Gail would like to believe.

A HARD DAY’S WORK

Jo fancies her straight, married boss Amanda. She’s convinced her crush is a hopeless one, until a performance review changes everything.

YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY

Rose’s husband died seven years ago, but when she welcomes an unexpected guest in her Tuscan holiday home, she’s forced to remember what instant desire feels like. Desire for a younger woman no less.

LEARNING CURVE

Ada’s company relocated her to Berlin, provided that she’d take an intensive course in German. It proves to be a steep learning curve, until her teacher Giselle implements some alternative educational methods.

THE HONEYMOON

A sizzling novelette featuring a couple of newlyweds honeymooning in Phuket. When they encounter a mysterious Asian woman in their beach side resort, they decide to give each other a very special wedding gift.

PIANO LESSONS

Ruby is finding it hard to get over the break up with her girlfriend, but her piano teacher Jill is not having any of it. After Ruby’s lack of focus makes for another dismal lesson, Jill invites her reluctant student into the home she shares with her partner Charlotte for an afternoon of extreme relaxation, and getting over her ex.

At over 75,000 words, this collection is sure to provide some blissful reading.

And you can this boxed set everywhere. Here are the links:

Direct from author

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

Apple

Kobo

Enjoy!

GUEST BLOG: Not-So-Straight Sue by Cheyenne Blue

While time passes too quickly (how is it November already?) and I’m writing Pink Bean Book Two, I’m very happy to welcome my good friend and editor Cheyenne Blue to my blog. She’s here to tell us about her brand new novel Not-So-Straight Sue, which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed!

Before Cheyenne and I became friends, I was a fan girl first. I adored her short stories and I’m so happy she’s writing novels now. I usually refuse to read lesbian fiction because it stresses me out too much (hey, I’m sensitive) and I like to unwind with different genres in my spare time, but I gladly made an exception for this book. Not only because we’re friends and I was super curious about the book, but also because once I started, I couldn’t put it down. Though Sue’s story isn’t all sunshine and roses, it’s such a heart-warming, feel-good book because of where it’s set: in outback Australia. (Warning: you will want to visit Australia after reading this book. My ticket is booked already!) Cheyenne’s language truly shines when she describes the landscapes and the people who inhabit them. On top of that, you get a lovely romance that gently unwinds. For once, you can take my word for it: this is a top-notch read!

* * *

Hello once again, good people of Harper’s interwebs. I’m happy to be here today (thanks to Harper—I only had to twist her arm a little bit this time) to talk about my new release.

In December 2015, my novella Never-Tied Nora came out through Ylva Publishing. The main character, Nora, has a best mate, Sue. Sue is an Aussie lawyer living and working in London. She’s down-to-earth, blunt as a bag of wet mice, loyal to her friends, with a wry sense of humour. Even as I was writing Nora, I knew that Sue was a character that I’d like to get to know better. Better, as in I wanted to write her story, help her to find who she really was and of course help her to find love.

And here it is that story. Not-So-Straight Sue is available now from Ylva Publishing. Why yes, the title is a clue. Sue’s story takes her from London back to Queensland, Australia. Not to Brisbane or one of the major cities, but to a tiny community in the outback, the settlement of Mungabilly Creek, where she is taking over the reins in a one-person law practice for a year. Returning to Oz meanings returning to face up to her demons and the circumstances that drove her away ten years ago. It’s a story about coming out, friendship, lawyers, doctors, the Australian outback, dogs, family, small towns, ex-girlfriends, finding your place in life, horses, rural life, wine-drinking, stripteases, campervans, star gazing, horse riding, Waltzing Matilda, and of course love and sex. Lots of love and sex.

While this is the second book in the “Girl Meets Girl” series you certainly don’t need to have read Never-Tied Nora first. If you do read Not-So-Straight Sue, look out for Felix the outback horse trainer. Her story forms the third book in the “Girl Meets Girl” series. Fenced-In Felix, will be out in November 2016 also from Ylva.

Blurb

“Sorry, I’m straight.” Those words, accompanied by a smile, were the ones Sue Brent used to turn down women. But the truth was buried so deep that even her best friend, Nora, didn’t know that Sue was queer. Sometimes, Sue even managed to convince herself. The only person in London who’d seen through her façade was Moni, an American tourist.

When a date with a friend’s brother goes disastrously wrong, Sue has to confront the truth about herself. Leaving London, she returns to Australia to take up the reins in an outback law practice. Back in the country of her birth, she is finally able to accept who she is, including facing Denise, the woman who burned her so badly years ago and set her on the path of pretence. But it’s not until Moni arrives in Queensland to work for the Flying Doctors that Sue is finally able to see a path to happiness. However, as things start to go her way, Denise arrives in Mungabilly Creek, begging a favour that might destroy Sue’s new relationship.

Extract

I parked the campervan in the driveway and left it running a moment. There was a slight knock in the engine and a layer of red dust on the dash. It needed a service, which meant a trip to the Isa. I turned it off, went around to the passenger side, grabbed my wheelie case of files, and dragged it, clatter, clatter, up the uneven path to the veranda steps with Ripper at my heels.

It was getting dark, but it was still hot. My shirt was sticking to my back, despite the camper’s air con. That probably needed a re-gas.

“About time you got home.” The voice, low, feminine, and decidedly American, drifted down from the veranda above me. “It’s hot as hell here, I can’t find the switch for your air con, and all your beer is gone. I was about to go to the hotel for a six pack.”

I knew that voice. I hadn’t heard it in over three years except over a Skype connection, but it was unmistakable. Moni. How like her to turn up unannounced. I dropped the case, which hit the path with a thunk, and I took the veranda steps two at a time. My heart thudded in my chest, and I didn’t want to stop and analyse the euphoric feeling that flooded me, that made my fingers tingle and my mouth stretch into the biggest shit-eating grin. She was here. That was what mattered, and I couldn’t wait to see her.

She met me at the top of the steps, and I flung my arms around her and gave her a big hug. She hugged me back, and I was so wound up that I was about to kiss her, really kiss her, when she extricated herself and took a step back. Right. The Moni I’d been imagining, the one that might possibly be my girlfriend, was in my head. I hadn’t actually mentioned it to her yet.

“So you’re glad to see me, huh? Things must be quiet around here.”

I took a good look at her. Same small curvy woman, with big, big hair, although now it was somewhat squashed by the Akubra hat she wore. Khaki shorts that didn’t quite go with her purple singlet and thongs on her feet. If it weren’t for the accent and the pale skin, I would have taken her for a local. She was smiling, and there was a sparkle in her eyes that said she too was pleased to see me.

“It is. Very quiet. I see you found your way here.”

She flapped a hand, and only then I noticed the old Holden parked on the patch of dust out the back that was supposed to be a lawn. “I have GPS in that car, and you’re the only lawyer for miles. I saw the shingle, even though it needs repainting and doesn’t have your name on it anyway. Found the steps up here, and as you don’t lock the house, I found the beer fridge.”

There were two empty tinnies on the veranda rail. She was right, there was no more. I needed to go to the Royal for beer.

“Who’s going to break in around here? Apart from you, that is.”

I went down and retrieved my case from the path, dragged it thump, thump up the steps, and put it inside the door. I’d unpack it later.

Moni gestured to a daypack left haphazardly against the door. “I hope you don’t mind me turning up without telling you. I figured you’d be here, and I thought it would be fun to surprise you.”

“It’s Friday. I have no plans at all for the weekend, other some experimental cooking and wine drinking. The wine drinking isn’t experimental though. Just the cooking. Stay as long as you want.”

Ripper, who’d been investigating the veggie patch in case it had changed since morning, came scampering up the stairs and made a beeline for Moni. She bent to pat him, scratching him behind the ears, his favourite place.

“I have to be back in the Isa on Tuesday. Can I stay until then?” Her face had a wistfulness about it when she straightened. “I’ve been missing the company of existing friends. Don’t get me wrong—I’m making friends, meeting lovely people, but it will be good to be with someone who already knows me.”

I pondered her words. I’d known Moni for one day back in London, and we’d had a sporadic connection since. But in that time, we’d shared our lives, gotten to know each other. Part of me was warm and mushy at the idea that I was the person she wanted to relax with. “Of course. You don’t need to ask.”

Not-So-Straight Sue is available now from Ylva Publishing and from 2 November 2016 on Amazon:

– Amazon US

– Amazon UK

Bio

Cheyenne Blue’s fiction has been included in over ninety erotic anthologies since 2000. Her collected lesbian short fiction is published as Blue Woman Stories, volumes 1-3 from Ladylit. The first two books in her romantic Girl Meets Girl series, Never-Tied Nora and Not-So-Straight Sue are out now from Ylva Publishing, with the final book Fenced-In Felix due in November 2016.

She is the editor of Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire, a 2015 finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and Golden Crown Literary Award, and of First: Sensual Lesbian Stories of New Beginnings both from Ladylit.

Cheyenne has lived in the U.K., Ireland, the United States, and Switzerland, but now writes, runs, makes bread and cheese, and drinks wine in rural Queensland, Australia. Check out her blog at cheyenneblue.com and follow her on Twitter at @IamCheyenneBlue and on Goodreads at goodreads.com/CheyenneBlue

Seasons of Love is on sale!

Seasons of Love is on sale ($0.99/£0.99 only) until 10 October 2016!

I guess you could say it’s the spiritual predecessor to In the Distance There Is Light (and if you enjoyed that one, there’s a very good chance you will enjoy Seasons of Love). Though less controversial and not nearly as grim, it also features a May/December romance (and we all know how much I love writing those!)

Seasons of Love is definitely one of those books I will always remember writing just because of the sheer joy I experienced while doing so. I even named one of the main characters Joy so… how’s that for subtle?

Mrs Bliss: Ladylit’s Olympics

Recently I was listening to Joanna Penn’s podcast The Creative Penn and she talked about measuring your life in Olympic periods, how she looks back at how her life has changed and what she achieved in cycles of four years. I thought this might be an interesting exercise to do for Ladylit as well.

2008 Beijing Olympics

We were living in Belgium, both in an office job with varying degrees of satisfaction. Harper (although the concept of Harper Bliss did not even exist back then) was writing a blog about things that happened in her life, but no fiction. I had tried my hand at running my own business but I had no passion for what I was selling and had given that up in favour of regular employment and a steady pay check. We did, however, have ants in our pants and were looking at ways to move away from Belgium and find a job abroad. Then in 2009 my boss asked me if I was interested in moving to Hong Kong, so we jumped at the chance and after long months of preparation, we finally arrived here in October 2010.

2012 London Olympics

We’d been in Hong Kong for for almost two years. I was still working my same job and Harper had started writing fiction. She had published her first novel in early 2012 (under another pen name; we shall not speak of it too much) and had started writing short form erotica under the name Harper Bliss. As this seemed to be a potentially successful endeavour (thank you Fifty Shades!) we set up a limited company through which to publish these stories. And thus Ladylit Publishing was born in June 2012.

At this point Harper did basically everything: writing, covers, promotion. I edited her stories, and did some basic admin stuff, but we were still so small that there wasn’t really that much to do. And we were making a two to three figure monthly income.

2016 Rio Olympics

We’ve been in Hong Kong for six years. I quit my previous job and have been working for Ladylit full time for about two years.

From having a couple of novellas out in 2012, we now have a catalogue of more than sixty titles. We now almost exclusively publish full length books, and at the moment are focusing on Harper Bliss novels. And I’m working on a book of my own and have another one planned as well.

We’ve grown our reader platform bit by bit over the past four years, so much so that we now expect any new title to go to the top of the lesbian romance and fiction charts when it’s released.

As for our income, at the end of last year we set ourselves a goal for 2016. We wanted to reach a six figure US dollar income from book sales. As the year progressed, we adjusted that goal to a five figure US dollar income per month. As of the end of August we reached that first goal. And we’re pretty confident we’ll reach the second one by November. So now we’ve adjusted the goal again, to a seven figure HK dollar income.

In 2016 we also made the decision that we no longer wanted to be in Hong Kong full time because there is so much of the world that we want to see. So in early 2017 we’ll be setting off to try to be digital nomads, staying in different places around the world a couple of months at a time and then coming back to Hong Kong in between.

2020 Tokyo Olympics

So where do we see ourselves in 2020? Hopefully still making a living from books, both Harper’s and mine. I also hope we’ll still be traveling around, but we might have found a couple of places that we want to focus on and divide our time between. Possibly even think of settling down there by the 2024 Olympics.

When I look back on the last eight years, I can’t help but be a little bit proud of what we’ve achieved so far. I come from a family of several entrepreneurs so having my own successful business has always been an ambition. One thing is for sure: I’m very excited about the future, working on growing our business further and, most importantly, having many new interesting adventures with my partner in business and life.

NEW RELEASE: In the Distance There Is Light

I’m very happy to announce that In the Distance There Is Light is already available (a couple of days before its official release day!) Ah, what to say about this book? I know I’ve been playing up the controversial part of it, but really, at its heart, it’s a love story (just like all my other books.)

To think I was disproportionally nervous about this one for weeks before it came out… and it has, so far, garnered the best response I’ve ever had to a book. It’s flying up the charts and the amazing reviews are pouring in. (Thank You!)

It’s so incredibly satisfying because when I first started writing this book, I had many (many!) doubts, but I knew, in my heart of hearts, that I really needed to tell this story. And I’m so glad I did. Even though I only decided to write Sophie and Dolores’ story a few months ago, I’ve been carrying it with me for a very long time.

I hope you take a chance on my ‘scandalous’ book. I wrote it with all the passion I have in me.

Here’s the synopsis:

Two women lose the man they love. All they have left is each other.

Sophie’s life is turned upside down when her partner, Ian, dies in a tragic accident. The only one who can understand her devastation is Ian’s stepmother, Dolores. Together, they try to make sense of their loss and rebuild their shattered lives. While their shared grief brings them closer, it also takes their relationship in an unexpected direction. Where does sorrow end and romance begin? Or has Ian’s death blurred the lines too much?

If you love deeply emotional lesbian romance with a twinge of controversy, don’t miss this intense but hopeful novel by chart-topper Harper Bliss.

Available as ebook from

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon AUS

Amazon DE

Available as paperback from

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Add it to your Goodreads shelf >>

Enjoy!

Summer Love is on sale!

Ladylit HQ has moved to Brisbane for a couple of weeks, where summer is fast approaching. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, however, you might be getting a bit low on summer vibes. We have the perfect cure for the Last-Days-Of-Summer Blues: Summer Love, the anthology I co-edited with my wife, is on sale (discounted from $6.99 to $0.99!)

Here’s the synopsis:

Sun-soaked beaches, glittering blue pool surfaces and oceans painted by an orange-hued sunset have one thing in common: they’re the perfect background for falling in love.

Who hasn’t felt that first wave of butterflies rise deep in their belly while pool side? Or that first quickening of the pulse when lounging on a lush patch of grass during a music festival? Summer is the perfect time to indulge in that sudden rush of first love or, equally so, the warm grip of long-fostered feelings for another woman.

This collection of fourteen stories runs the gamut of lesbian holiday romance stories. An Australian cookery course, a Belfast coffee shop, and even a romance writers’ conference are some of the backdrops for the summer love that unfolds in this lesbian romance anthology. Tamsin Flowers’s Drive Me Crazy takes place during Glastonbury, while Katya Harris’s sensual tale of passion between long-time lovers is entirely set by the side of the pool. Newcomer Brooke Winters brings us an irresistible tale of a woman running into a Mistress she’s played with in Spain, while Lucy Felthouse’s heroine gets much more heat than she bargained for when she goes volcano-watching on Lanzarote.

With stories by highly rated authors, including Annabeth Leong, Allison Wonderland, Erzabet Bishop and Harper Bliss, this collection is the perfect sensual companion to any holiday.

THE SALE ENDS ON 8 SEPTEMBER!

You can get Summer Love: Stories of Lesbian Holiday Romance here:

– Amazon US

– Amazon UK

– Amazon CA

– Amazon DE

– Amazon AUS

– Apple

– Kobo

– Barnes & Noble

Happy reading!

Preview ‘In the Distance There Is Light’

My new novel In the Distance There Is Light will be out in 2 weeks (and 1 day). Here’s a preview. Enjoy!

In the Distance There Is Light

© Harper Bliss
Chapter One

As they lower his casket into the ground, a part of me still believes this isn’t real. That he’ll push the lid off with those strong arms of his, pop out, and proclaim this was all just a really bad prank. I glance at the coffin as it settles into this grave dug especially for Ian, my Ian, and it suddenly seems to go so fast. Then, just like that, the casket is out of sight.

To my right, Jeremy can’t hold back a loud sniffle. To my left, Dolores, Ian’s mother, doesn’t make a sound. I stand there, waiting for the punchline to this awful, strung-out joke.

“That’s enough now, Ian,” I want to say. “You’ve made your point. We’re all more than ready for some relief.”

Then Dolores’ hand slips into mine, her fingers curl around mine in a desperate grip, and I stop believing in miracles. This is real. I’ll never see Ian again. Dolores will never see her son again. During my thirty years on this planet, I’ve only been to the funerals of people I vaguely cared about. Distant aunts and relatives I never got to know. I’d always thought the first big one, the first one to tear me apart at least a little bit, would be my granddad’s. But I’m burying my boyfriend instead. Well, my partner, I guess. Boyfriend sounds so juvenile, so inadequate for what he was to me. When I told him, in jest, on my twenty-eighth birthday, that I was now of a respectable marrying age, he took me aside and, in all earnestness, proclaimed that he’d given the subject of marriage a lot of thought but that he couldn’t do that to Dolores. She’d never had the chance to wed Angela, Ian’s other mother, while Angela was still alive—the change in legislation had come too late for them. Dolores, whose only child has just been lowered into a grave, and who is clutching at my hand with increasing desperation now—because who else is left for her to hold on to?—never struck me as the marrying kind. Perhaps that’s because I’ve always only known her as a widow. Angela had already died before I met Ian. I’ve never seen her with anyone else.

“It’s not so easy at her age,” Ian used to say when I questioned him about this. “Especially when you’ve been with someone for such a long time.”

Because I refuse to feel sorry for myself, I feel sorry for Dolores the most. First Angela, now Ian.

“She was ten years older than me and smoked like a chimney,” Dolores once said, while heavily under the influence of a bottle of Merlot. “Growing old together was never really in the cards for us.”

How different this is.

I give her hand a good hard squeeze back. Of all the people gathered here today, and there are many, I feel as though I can only compare grief with Dolores. Who else here—the artists Dolores knows, my extended family with whom I’m not close, my best friend Jeremy who lives every day like it’s his last—can possibly know the depths of despair Ian’s sudden death has caused? He was my soulmate. The sweetest boy I’d ever come across. The love of my life. And now he’s gone.

Oh, shit. He’s really gone. He’s not going to miraculously rise from the dead. The punchline is the cruelest one ever, because there is none. I will never witness his smile again, will never hear him fake a British accent because when he was ten, he’d spent a summer in Oxford once with his dad, and he’ll never again breeze into our apartment after work, always loud, always making sure I knew he was home, and joke, “What’s for dinner, wife?”

I lost him. Dolores lost him. Our friends lost him. Even his ex has turned up for the funeral. We’ve all lost him. The world is now without Ian Holloway. My world will never be the same again. And it’s as though only now the shock, the woolen cocoon my feelings have been wrapped in since I got that phone call, is beginning to wear off, and the pain that’s been lying in wait is starting to burrow a way through my flesh, quickly reaching my heart. In a panic, I look around. Ian. Where is he? The man who came into my life just at the right time. Who buffed up my self-esteem when it was at its lowest. The guy who, when I was about to spiral into one of my bouts of wallowing self-pity, would give me a sufficiently hard look and tell me to pull myself together—the only person who ever knew how to snap me out of that particular kind of funk. A person so seemingly uncomplicated, he managed to uncomplicate me along with him.

As I stand here, I curse myself for not pushing Ian harder to get married, because now I don’t even have a ring, or a piece of paper that binds me to him after his death. I’m just a woman, a girl with no claims to make. I might as well be no one.

I turn to Dolores and collapse into her arms. I don’t consider that she’s probably not strong enough to catch me, and that my own parents are here, probably eager to put me back together, but not even on a day like this can I shake off the indifference that has crept into my heart when it comes to them. Dolores and Ian had become my family. As of now, it’ll just be me and Dolores. She throws her arms around me, pats my hair with her hand, and breaks down with me.

Chapter Two

“Stop fussing,” I say, wondering what I look like to Jeremy, who invited me to stay with him after Ian’s accident. “I’ll be fine.” The funeral was four days ago and he has only left my side to sleep.

“Call me any time.” He stands fumbling with his keys, shuffling his weight around. “I won’t be home late.”

“Go do your fabulous thing, darling,” I say in the affected accent we sometimes use with each other, but it sounds wrong under the circumstances. Nothing has been carefree or frivolous since Ian died. Now there’s before, and after. Because I’m still alive. When he left the apartment that morning, I had no idea I would never see him again. Often, I used to watch him scoot off on his bicycle—his pride and joy—through the kitchen window. When I craned my neck at the right angle, I could watch him until he turned the corner of the street. But that day, I didn’t watch him. I was still in bed when he left. I barely kissed him goodbye, having pulled a late night the previous day trying to meet a deadline.

Jeremy sighs. “I don’t have to go, Soph. I can take more time off. If anything, Amy Blatch will be exhilarated by my absence.”

I’m not sure where I get the strength to get up and walk over to him, but I do. “You’ll have to go out at some point. You can’t always be here.” I’ll need to learn to be alone sooner rather than later. I put my hands on his shoulders the way he’s done with me many times. “I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t you call Alex and ask her to come over?” He cocks his head, tries to look me in the eyes but his gaze slides away.

“Because Alex has her own life to live, and so do you.”

A tear sprouts in the corner of Jeremy’s eye. “Oh shit.” He inhales deeply. “I’m so sorry. I can’t stand that this happened. It’s just so unfair.” Words often repeated by now. Ian’s death is unfair, unexpected, devastating. It’s so many things that don’t make him any less dead.

“Go.” I really need him to leave. I don’t want to fall apart in front of Jeremy again—it’s all I’ve been doing the past week. “Bring me back some juicy gossip.” My voice is breaking already. I all but push him out the door. “I’ll be fine,” I repeat, though, of course, I won’t be.

Once Jeremy is gone, I take a deep breath. I listen for the faint ding of the elevator, wait for the doors to slide shut, then the tears come, again.

“Fuck,” I scream. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Truth be told, I didn’t want Jeremy to go tonight, but I also couldn’t bear to ask him to stay with me another night. I could see how restless it was making him. Jeremy is the opposite of a homebody. We’d be watching television, both with a large glass of wine in our hands, and he’d be fidgeting, his foot shaking with impatience, his glance always darting away from whatever we were watching. I could have stayed with someone else, but Jeremy is my only single friend and I couldn’t face staying with a couple, couldn’t face the inevitable signs of intimacy, of a life shared and uninterrupted.

So here I stand, in Jeremy’s starkly decorated apartment, alone. My eyes fall on a picture of Ian and me, a silly polaroid we took at Jeremy’s fortieth birthday party a few years ago. Ian’s cheeks are filled with air, like little balloons of flesh, his eyes bulging, and it makes me think of how hard it was to find a suitable picture for his obituary. Whenever a camera came near him, he would start goofing around. In the end, we used one I snapped of him when he was unaware of it. Ian staring into the distance, ruminating on something, his expression peaceful nonetheless.

“Get a grip,” I whisper to myself. I hate this version of me, this beaten down, tearful, whiny woman I’ve become. Even though I know I’m allowed this devastation, this weakness—Alex called it vulnerability the other day—I can’t identify with it. Every time I believe I’ve run out of tears, new ones show up, as though I haven’t already been crying for a week. An endless supply of tears.

I head back to the couch and drink more of the wine Jeremy poured before he left—we’ve made a good dent in his stash. Then my cell phone beeps. Convinced it’s Jeremy, texting me from a taxi, I sigh, but smile a little as well. Jeremy is exactly the kind of friend you need when something like this happens—something I can’t wrap my head around, let alone accept. Because he’s a bubble of a man, always ready to burst, to come up with an out-of-the-box plan, even though, of course, Ian dying has taken away some of his spontaneity and quick wit. The other day, I begged him to make me laugh, to tell me one of his outrageous stories I’ve heard so many times, but when he did, he couldn’t put the right inflections in his voice to make it funny.

The message is not from Jeremy, but from my mother, asking how I’m holding up. Well-intentioned, I’m sure, but even now I can’t read any words from my mother without hearing a persistent passive-aggressive ring to them. She probably thinks I haven’t called her enough, haven’t relied on her enough during these dire times. What am I even supposed to reply to that?

Knowing my mother, she’s probably walking around the house, thinking of ways for this tragedy to bring us closer together. But some things are just beyond repair, like our relationship. I can’t deal with this right now, although no matter how much my mother annoys me, at least it makes for a change from this relentless blackness that has wrapped itself around every thought I’ve had since Ian died. I don’t reply.

I push my phone away and grab the remote control. Maybe Netflix will bring solace. As soon as I press the button, I know it won’t, because how can it? How can televised drama possibly take my mind of the horror of real life? How can a sitcom ever make me smile again? Oh, fuck. I really shouldn’t be alone. The loss weighs too heavy on me, the pain is too much for me to shoulder alone in Jeremy’s living room. I reach for my phone again and call the person who reminds me of Ian the most, who knows him the best, whose loss is comparable to mine.

I call Dolores.

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In the Distance There Is Light will be available on 14 September 2016

Mrs Bliss: BookBub

It should be apparent to anyone following this blog that a weekly post is probably too much to ask, so I shall try to make this a bi- or tri-weekly occurrence. Let’s see how that goes.

This week, I would like to write about BookBub and how it can be a very powerful advertising tool for authors and publishers.

For those of you who are wondering what BookBub is, here’s a little excerpt of their About page:

BookBub is a free service that helps millions of readers discover great deals on acclaimed ebooks while providing publishers and authors with a way to drive sales and find new fans. Members receive a personalized daily email alerting them to the best free and deeply discounted titles matching their interests as selected by our editorial team.

For readers, it’s a great way to discover books that are temporarily on sale or free. They can choose which categories of books they are interested in and will only receive deals featured in those categories. And they can also follow authors they like (if the authors have claimed their author profile on BookBub) and they will get an alert whenever these authors have a new book out.

For authors, BookBub, with its millions of subscribers, feels a bit like the holy grail of advertising. Every day hundreds of books are submitted to the BookBub editorial team, hoping to get included in a daily email, but only a few are selected. The criteria for acceptance are not clearly defined, but we know several things factor in: is it an interesting discount for the readers? Does the book have reviews and how good are the reviews? Does it look like a professional product? Will enough people potentially be interested in this book?

The cost of having your book featured in a daily email depends on the category in which you advertise and the price at which your deal is set, and for some categories it’s not cheap. But still, people submit because they know that a book featured in a BookBub email will earn back the price of the ad, and more, either through sales of the advertised book at the discount price and even after it gets back to normal price (the so-called halo effect), or, especially for free books, through sales of other books after people have read the advertised one.

We have submitted a book to BookBub four times in the past nine months and have been lucky enough to get selected every time. We think one of the reasons for our success in getting accepted is that the category we advertise in, LGBT, is less competitive than others, such as contemporary romance or crime fiction. But we also like to think that the books got picked because the editorial review team at BookBub saw that we were offering a qualitative and professional product that could bring in a substantive number of sales. BookBub is in it to make money as well of course, so they want to make sure they offer products that people will want to buy.

So far we have only advertised Harper Bliss novels or series, and they have all earned back the cost of the ad through sales of the discounted book. French Kissing: Season One was especially successful because we saw an impressive sell-through of Season Two and Three in the weeks after the ad.

We’ve seen other publishers advertise anthologies in BookBub daily emails so next month for the first time we will submit an anthology. We have no idea whether it will be accepted, and if it is, whether it will sell enough to recoup the cost and what, if any, the sell-through will be. But as we have several anthologies in our catalogue, we are curious to see what the BookBub effect can be for that kind of book.

BookBub has really become an important part of our marketing strategy, and we recommend it wholeheartedly. Even if you’ve tried and been rejected, keep submitting, because it’s really worth it.

Don’t forget to check out our weekly podcast Harper Bliss & Her Mrs on The Lesbian Talk Show!

NEW RELEASE: No Strings Attached

I’m thrilled to announce the release of No Strings Attached! This is the first book in a new series that I’m extremely excited about. All books in the series will be set in and around a coffee shop in Sydney called The Pink Bean. The first one, No Strings Attached, revolves around Micky, a 44-year-old divorced mother of two teenagers who is looking for some drastic change in her life.

This book is all about having the courage to find your true self (and having some hot sex along the way, of course), even though it’s not always easy (the finding yourself part, not the hot sex part.)