Leta Blake's Blog, page 35

Christmas Tree Farms in Gatlinburg TN | Smoky Mountain Dreams #extras #bonusmaterial

So, the Christmas Tree farm that Jesse and Christopher went to is a real place. I’m going to post some pics I might’ve stolen from their Facebook page.

I’ve never been to it, but I’d love to go. It seems dreamy and magical.

Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON

B&N

SMASHWORDS

iTUNES

SCRIBD

OYSTER

And now at KOBO.

Guest Post and Giveaway: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake — Joyfully Jay

“We’ve all made ‘em. We’ve all broken ‘em. New Year’s  Resolutions.I thought it would be fun today to talk to the characters of the books I’ll be giving away, as well as the characters of my latest book, Smoky Mountain Dreams, which spent over a week at #1 on the Gay & Lesbian Romance charts at Amazon and three weeks in the top ten! Color me gobsmacked!”

Head on over to see what Matty & Rob, Zach & Leith, and Jesse and Christopher have made as New Year’s Resolutions! As well as my own! —>  Guest Post and Giveaway: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake — Joyfully Jay.

Writing Review 2014 – How’d I Do? What’s the Plan for 2015? #writing #goals

I suppose it is the time of year when I should take stock of my writing career and decide how I did in 2014 and what I want to do going forward.

What I accomplished in 2014:

I released The River Leith and Smoky Mountain Dreams in 2014. I took TRL up from a 40k draft to a nearly 80k final product, and I took SMD from a two-year old start of 25k up to a finished product of almost 140k. That’s around 155k of new words on those books. Not bad. In addition, there is all the work around a release–promotion, blog posts, blurbs, seeing to covers and formatting, review requests. So, that’s a good start to the year’s wrap up.

In addition, during 2014 I worked on the four book Pictures of You series that I will begin releasing this fall. (Come hell or high water!) Book One, titled Pictures of You, didn’t really have any new words added (though it will shortly in order to make a few editorial changes suggested by Ajax Bell), but I did work on some edits there. Book Two, titled You Are Not Me, saw an addition of about 30k new words. Book Three, titled, You Make It Real, was written nearly entirely during 2014 and that brought in an additional 94k words. Book Four hasn’t been started yet and I will finish it in 2015.

I started Training Complex, the sequel to 2013’s Training Season, and have 62k there. I will finish that in 2015 and hopefully release this spring. (I always say hopefully because the muse is a slippery thing.) I did 5k of a silly, mainly sexy “virginity loss” novella that I hope to finish one day. I wrote 2k of some Middle Grade things I wish I had time to toy with…we’ll see.

I suppose that’s all I worked on this year. Wow, that seems pretty shoddy. Let’s add it up.

Tally:

155+30+94+62+5+2 = 348k

Yeah, I need to do better next year. That’s just not enough words. *sigh*

Still, I won’t spend much space beating myself up. This is supposed to be a positive post and word count isn’t everything, right? So let’s talk about the fact that Smoky Mountain Dreams was #1 on the Gay Romance and/or Gay & Lesbian Romance charts at Amazon for over a week and remains even now (at the writing of this blog post on Christmas Eve, at least, if not the actual posting of it) in the Top Ten. Wow! So freaking unexpected and totally amazing! Thank you, readers, for making the end of my year extra-especially spectacular!

And let’s talk about the fact that The River Leith was an I Heart Indies! finalist, and that Training Season was nominated in the Goodreads M/M Romance Member’s Choice awards for Best Book of the Year! Let’s talk about the fun I’ve had getting to know readers and other authors alike, and the validating and fulfilling trip to Florida for Rainbow Con. It’s been a lovely and strong year even if I didn’t get close to my word count goal. (Which, to be even more fair to myself, I didn’t realize I had until I found myself disappointed with the total. I’d like to get 600k next year.)

What I hope to accomplish in 2015:

1) Get Training Complex out this Spring

2) Get Pictures of You out this Fall

3) Write Rock Star/Priest novel with Indra Vaughn

4) Complete Book Four of Pictures of You series

5) Finally decide what to do with my quirky/weird angel novella and the god’s plaything dark erotica novella, both of which I wrote a few years ago. I need to add what needs added and release them, come what may.

6) Finish Stalker Book 1

7) Start the Smoky Mountain Dreams sequel now that some key pieces fell into place and I know what I want to do with it

8) Start the third (and final) Matty & Rob Training Season book

And though I want to add even more that’s probably realistically too much as it is. Working a job and being a mom and yadda keeps me from cranking out the books, but I always like to overshoot because, hey, what if I actually managed to accomplish it all somehow? Wouldn’t that be cool?

So, here’s to 2014! You were a pretty good year to me, pal. Thanks for everything! And, welcome, 2015! I look forward to knowing you! :D

The River Leith Named as one of Jay’s Best of 2014 — Joyfully Jay #review #mmromance

So thrilled that The River Leith was named of one of Joyfully Jay’s favorite books of 2014! Wow! Such an honor!

“The River Leith by Leta BlakeI just adored this book about a guy with amnesia and the true love he forgot.  This story is so beautifully done as we follow Leith in the aftermath of an accident that takes away memories of his recent life, including his boyfriend Zach.  We can just feel Zach’s pain as he tries to be patient and give Leith space, at the same time his heart is breaking.  This book is so moving and poignant (and sexy), but never depressing or overwhelming.  Blake gets the tone just right here. I am a huge fan of Blake’s writing and would also mention if you haven’t read last year’s Training Season, get on that because a sequel is coming!”

see Jay’s other nine faves of the year at Jay’s Best of 2014 — Joyfully Jay.

Click through to buy at Amazon! Also available at B&N, iTunes, Scribd, Kobo, and Smashwords.

A Sneak Peek At The Coming Week – And A Quick Recap Of Our Best Books of 2014

Leta Blake:

Love that TNA is sticking to their guns and moving away from star ratings.

Originally posted on The Novel Approach :

Happy (almost) New Year, everyone! We’re bringing 2014 to an auspicious close, with some great reviews and guests dropping by to help us ring in a brand new year.

Before I get to the schedule, though, I want to do a quick recap of our Best Books of 2014 selections, and offer a congratulations—not to mention our gratitude—to all the authors whose hard work and dedication to their craft brought us so much joy (and sometimes sorrow) this year. And, P.S., there’s also time to enter some of the giveaways.

I also want to share a slight change we’ll be making to the review system here at TNA in 2015. For those of you who missed my blog post about the ratings system a month or so back, in short, I am not a particular fan of it. The purpose of taking the time to write a review—deconstructing a plot…

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5 Stars! As it should be! :D Boy Meets Boy Reviews: A Proper Lover (Ganymede Quartet #2) by @Darrah_Glass

“Ms. Glass and I need to come to an understanding. A quartet is no longer sufficient. I’d like something in the twenty book range so I can see these two as adults because Henry is going to be an outstanding adult. Outstanding, I say! So, name your price Glass. Let’s get this thing done.”

via Boy Meets Boy Reviews: Review: A Proper Lover (Ganymede Quartet #2) by Darrah Glass.

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON and other outlets.

Elizah Davis on Astrological Traits and Making Nice

Originally posted on shaeconnorwrites:

My guest today is Elizah J. Davis, whose novel Making Nice releases today from Dreamspinner Press. :)

The Eagle and the Archer

Thank you to Shae for hosting me!

One of the first things I do when I’m sitting down to write a new story is figure out what the characters’ sun signs are. Whether or not you believe in astrology, it is a fantastic way to fill out a character’s positive and negative personality traits, as well as the relationship dynamics of the couple.

With Making Nice, Blake and Ryan’s dynamic worked itself out pretty quickly once I figured out where they fell in the zodiac. Initially, Blake was a little harder to get a read on. I knew he was fiercely loyal to his loved ones, but guarded and prickly at first, and eventually pegged him as a Scorpio. Ryan, on the other hand, was always unquestionably…

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“I don’t know how Leta keeps doing it!” Roger Grace’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams #mmromance #gay

“I don’t know how Leta keeps doing it, each time I read one of her books, I have a new favorite by her. I just can’t stop getting pulled into the story and enjoying it so much. This book should be read and enjoyed. can’t say enough just know that the origami swan on the cover is there for a reason. there is a lot of pain and a lot of redemption in this moving story. And each of the stories are different from each other.”

read more via Amazon.com: Roger G Grace’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams.

Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON

B&N

SMASHWORDS

iTUNES

SCRIBD

OYSTER

And now at KOBO.

Jennifer Niceley’s Birdlight Reveals a Unique, Captivating Southern Voice

Originally posted on New York Music Daily:

Over the last few years, Tennessee songwriter Jennifer Niceley has distilled a distinctive blend of noir torch song, Americana, Nashville gothic, classic southern soul and blues. Her latest album, Birdlight, is streaming at Soundcloud. In recent years, the twang has dropped from Niceley’s voice, replaced by a smoky, artfully nuanced, jazzy delivery. The obvious comparison is Norah Jones, both vocally and songwise, although Niceley has more of an edge and a way with a lyrical turn of phrase. As with her previous releases, the new album features a first-class band: Jon Estes on guitars, keys and bass; Elizabeth Estes on violin; Evan Cobb on tenor sax; Steve Pardo on clarinet and Imer Santiago on trumpet, with Tommy Perkinsen and Dave Racine sharing the drum chair.

The album conjures a classy southern atmosphere: imagine yourself sipping a mint julep in the shade of a cottonwood, the sound of a muted…

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“My first Leta Blake book, and I’m so glad I read it.” Alan Katz’s Review of Smoky Mountain Dreams #gay #romance

“My first Leta Blake book, and I’m so glad I read it.

Ms. Blake is a talented author – in other hands, all the heartache might have turned into melodrama, which it did not. In fact, the book was very moving, the characters highly empathetic and it grabbed me from the very first page. I read it in a single sitting.”

via Amazon.com: Alan Arthur Katz’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams.

Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON

B&N

SMASHWORDS

iTUNES

SCRIBD

OYSTER

And now at KOBO.