Cameron D. James's Blog, page 37

Book Review: A Dance with Dragons

A Dance with Dragons

George R. R. Martin

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: BOOK FIVE

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, Daenerys Targaryen rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way east—with new allies who may not be the ragtag band they seem. And in the frozen north, Jon Snow confronts creatures from beyond the Wall of ice and stone, and powerful foes from within the Night’s Watch. In a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics lead a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, to the greatest dance of all.

* I finished this book a couple months ago and am getting to the review now… so my memory is a little hazy… *

I’m not a fantasy-lover at all, yet I’m thoroughly engaged with Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.  He writes such that this fantasy-hater stays up late reading his books, page after page into the wee hours of the morning.

Like with any series, readers will enjoy certain entries more than others.  It’s difficult to always maintain an upward momentum.  So, with that in mind, I have to say that I found A Dance With Dragons the most difficult book to engage with of the series so far.  I think part of the difficulty is that there are so many story lines that have developed and been introduced that the book is immediately bloated due to the fact that it has so much story to address.  I’m willing to give that a pass, though, because that’s part of the draw of this series for me — that there is just so much happening that it keeps me entertained.  I’m hoping that as the series progresses toward its end that the story lines will be wrapped up one-by-one as characters die off and crises are resolved.

My main difficulty in getting through this volume, though, is due to Martin’s desire to document nearly everything that characters do… which in this book, largely consists of waiting around for things to happen.  That being said, though, even in the waiting there is political intrigue, drama, and tension.  A “boring” waiting chapter is still engaging.  But this could have been tightened up a bit.

So, I think in my personal tastes, A Dance With Dragons is a little dip in the road, but the road is still climbing high.  This was a great book and I eagerly await the release of the next book (whenever that is).

NEW RELEASE: Go Deeper

 

Go Deeper is now available for download!

After Go Deep spent weeks on the Amazon top 100 free erotica ebooks list (peaking at about #22), I figured it was time to revisit the world of Simon and Brad, and explore more scorching encounters in the hot room!

Go Deeper is currently available on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble, and will be on Kobo soon!

Here’s the blurb:

Three weeks ago, Brad was seduced by Simon, a sexy young yogi twink. Every hot yoga class since then, he’s hoped the boy would return for another steamy encounter, but it seems their rendezvous was just a one-night stand.

When Simon does finally show up, though, it’s with a friend, a young man who’s just as hot, and they can’t keep their hands off each other. Brad is pissed and intends to humiliate the young men and put them in their place, but Simon and his friend have something else in mind.

In this sequel to Go Deep, a fling that started with an after-hours practice session now takes a new twist as shorts come off and sweat splatters the yoga mat. Brad goes deeper into his wildest fantasies, at the whim of not just one horny young man, but two – both with different ideas of how they want to make him their daddy.

Click here to read an excerpt on my website.

Download it now for a quick hot read!  And watch for Going All The Way, the third instalment of the Men In The Hot Room series, coming later this summer!

Book Review: The Young and The Hung

The Young and The Hung

Edited by David Laurents

* I read this a couple months ago and am catching up with reviews — thus my memory of this book is a little fuzzy and this review is super short. *

The cover of this book is pretty.  So very pretty.  Yummy.  Though I don’t know what a shirtless twink is doing in the middle of a field of wheat… especially as it has nothing to do with any of the stories that I can recall.

The cover was so misleading.  I was expecting something sexy and twink-filled.  The Young and The Hung suffered from a lot of passive writing.  For many stories, I was either growing bored or confused about what, exactly, was happening in the scene.  The one and only bright spot in this book was the story written by David Laurents, the editor.  That was well-written, engaging, and sexy.  The rest was largely uninteresting.

I would imagine that the success of an anthology is largely dependent upon the quality of stories submitted.  Laurents’s story proves that he knows what makes a good erotica story — he knows how to write, he knows what’s sexy, and he knows how to keep the reader engaged.  But if he is not given great material to work with, there is only so far that he can take the anthology.  I applaud him for the work he did — as it was still a readable book and enjoyable at times — but I would have loved to have seen this with Laurents getting submissions of the strength and quality that matches his own.

Book Review: Star Trek: Voyager: The Eternal Tide

Star Trek: Voyager: The Eternal Tide

Kirsten Beyer

As the Voyager fleet continues its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, investigating the current status of sectors formerly controlled by the Borg becomes a key priority. Two of the fleet’s special mission vessels, the U.S.S. Galen and U.S.S. Demeter, are left at New Talax to aid Neelix’s people, while the Voyager,Quirinal, Esquiline, Hawking, and Curie do a systematic search for any remnants of the Borg or Caeliar, even as the Achilles moves to a location central enough to offer aid to the exploring vessels as needed. As this critical mission begins, Fleet Commander Afsarah Eden, who has shared what little she knows of her mysterious past with Captain Chakotay, begins to experience several more “awakenings” as she encounters artifacts and places that make her feel connected to her long-lost home. She is reluctant to allow these visions to overshadow the mission, and this becomes increasingly difficult as time passes. But in the midst of this growing crisis, no one in the fleet could anticipate the unexpected return of one of Starfleet’s most revered leaders—a return that could hold the very fate of the galaxy in the balance.

* I read this book a couple months ago and am catching up on book reviews now.  My memory may be a little fuzzy. *

** There be spoilers here. **

The Eternal Tide, as the cover likely gives away, sees the return of Captain Janeway, back from the dead.  This isn’t a huge surprise… I find death has no meaning in Star Trek anymore.  Spock died and returned, Kirk did the same (both Shatner-Kirk and Pine-Kirk), as did Ensign Harry Kim, Data, and so many more.  I don’t find it terribly unique that Janeway has returned.

I’ve had mixed feelings about the Voyager re-launch — I thought it was going in a good direction and that it was finally given the serious treatment it deserved.  I found the re-launch to be a little overwhelming with the sheer number of ships and characters to keep track of.  That problem was resolved a bit in this book… there are a significant number of deaths.

The writing in this book, I felt, was a little weak.  It was a good story and a captivating read, but I felt the characters didn’t quite ring true and I had a little trouble following in some parts.  (However, I’m writing this after having read the sequel to Eternal Tide — and Kirsten Beyer has done a fantastic job with the follow-up — Protectors takes the Voyager storyline in a solid direction with strong writing.  So this is just a bit of a hiccup.  This story needed to be told if Janeway is going to come back, so that makes it a still strong and necessary entry in the Voyager series.)

Yikes, short review and not very helpful… I apologize… :)  Will do better next time!

Book Review: White Fire

White Fire

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Special Agent Pendergast arrives at an exclusive Colorado ski resort to rescue his protégée, Corrie Swanson, from serious trouble with the law. His sudden appearance coincides with the first attack of a murderous arsonist who–with brutal precision–begins burning down multimillion-dollar mansions with the families locked inside. After springing Corrie from jail, Pendergast learns she made a discovery while examining the bones of several miners who were killed 150 years earlier by a rogue grizzly bear. Her finding is so astonishing that it, even more than the arsonist, threatens the resort’s very existence.

Drawn deeper into the investigation, Pendergast uncovers a mysterious connection between the dead miners and a fabled, long-lost Sherlock Holmes story–one that might just offer the key to the modern day killings as well.

Now, with the ski resort snowed in and under savage attack–and Corrie’s life suddenly in grave danger–Pendergast must solve the enigma of the past before the town of the present goes up in flames.

* I’m catching up on my backlog of book reviews to write up — I originally finished this a few months ago, so my memory is admittedly a little foggy.  Thus, this review will be a bit short. *

I found White Fire to be one of Preston and Child’s better novels of late.  I have been a long-time fan of the duo, having read almost all of their books.  (I didn’t read one of their early ones and have skipped the Gideon series, but have read all of their other joint novels.)  A lot of their earlier novels were very good, then they hit a bit of a rough patch, and it seems that they have recently hit their stride again.

Preston and Child novels always feature something that seems supernatural, but has a logical explanation in the end.  White Fire certainly followed the pattern, but it didn’t feel like a cop-out in the end, as some of them have recently.  White Fire follows Corrie Swanson and Agent Pendergast as they investigate both a series of arsons and a very old cold-case, both taking place in a quaint, and very rich, ski town.

The mystery of the arsons was a very good read, and the cold case side-story was equally so.  I think something that’s held me back from truly enjoying a lot of the recent Pendergast novels has been the ongoing personal stories of the cast of characters.  I think, unfortunately, that there are a number of minor characters that I just don’t care enough about to want to read their ongoing life stories.  However, Corrie is a favourite of mine, so it was a pleasure to follow her in this book.  As well, I think another difficulty with the personal stories is that they continue over the course of several books, and these books come out only once a year and not all characters appear in them… so it can be hard to remember who’s who and what’s what.

All that being said, White Fire was a fantastic read and a great return to the strong storytelling I remember from the earlier days of this writing duo’s bibliography.  The mystery, both present and past, were engaging and captivating.  The characters, both returning and new, were a pleasure to follow.  And the resolution of the book tied up rather nicely with a very satisfying resolution to the mystery.

Hmm… all that was kind of vague, but I did read it several months ago.

:)

Mini Blog Break

Hey gang,

You might’ve noticed a distinct lack of posts lately — sorry about that!  What with preparing for my summer wedding, buying my first house (and moving soon), and finishing up my masters degree, things have been a little busy.

But don’t despair!  I’ll be back soon with book reviews, musings on writing, and Sexy Saturday interviews with other authors!

And in the midst of all of this, I’m still working on writing.  Silent Hearts, my second novel, came out last month.  I’m currently plotting out my third novel, presently untitled, as well as finishing up an erotica short story — Go Deeper, the sequel to Go Deep.  Go Deeper should be out in a month or so!  I’m also working on a short story that I hope to submit to an erotica anthology, but if I don’t get it done in time, I’ll probably self-pub it as an erotica short story… I’ll keep you up to date on that one.

See you soon!

Writing Marathon Training — Saturday, March 22

Greetings fellow writers and readers!

Today, I’ve invited my fellow Champagne Books author, Graeme Brown, to stop by an talk about his Writing Marathon.  Graeme has spent years training for marathons and ran one a few years ago, and now he’s translating the marathon training routine to a writing productivity routine.

So, Graeme, can you tell us a bit more about the genesis of the Writing Marathon and it’s associated events throughout this year?

First off, thanks for spreading the word. This started when I decided to get A Thousand Roads finished and submitted for the end of 2013. To generate energy, I hosted a 26-hour-long writing marathon and was joined by several writers. I rang in the New Year with writing – in every time zone! By the end I was exhausted, but slept well knowing, after more than a year and a half, my book was finally finished and submitted to my publisher.

Many of the writers who joined me asked if I could host more events. I definitely wanted to do another writing marathon at the end of 2014, but also wanted to do other events throughout.

And what’s this #10kWritingLaunch all about this Saturday?  How do I participate?  Can anyone join in?

The 10k Writing Launch this coming Saturday is the first of four live writing events I’ve planned this year. It will be 6 hours long – from 11am-5pm (Central time), and anyone can participate. All you have to do is set up somewhere comfortable and set a writing goal, then write for 6 hours. Tweet under #10kwritinglaunch as you go – share, encourage, chat, whatever you’d like (just make sure you write more than you tweet).

So… I use the metric system… does “10k” refer to 10 kilometres or 10 thousand words?  What should I be shooting for with the #10kWritingLaunch?

I wanted to stick to a running theme for my live writing events, to I chose 10k to refer to a 10k run (aka 6 miles). In June, I will be hosting a half-marathon – a 13-hour event – so I wanted to have half that in between the half-marathon and the marathon at year’s end.

I encourage everyone to set their own goals, though, so the 10k could definitely refer to 10,000 words, if you’re comfortable writing in stream of consciousness.

After the #10kWritingLaunch, what’s the next event?

The next event will be the Writing Half Marathon – #writinghalfmarathon. Whereas next weekend’s event is meant to give you a boost on your projects, the half-marathon is meant for you to push your work to its edge, an excuse to put aside all other Saturday commitments and live for writing for a whole day.

Any final words or advice you want to share with us before we start our Writing Marathon training?

Expect this to be lots of fun. I was pleasantly surprised by how much energy the first event generated and look forward to the same enthusiasm. Set goals, stay focused, and know there will be other writers doing the same thing.

Cool!  Thanks for stopping by!  I’m definitely going to participate — I’ve been needing a kick in the ass to get my productivity back on track… this might be the thing that does it!

Don’t forget to join Graeme and I and everyone else on Saturday March 22 on Twitter by using the hashtag #10kWritingLaunch!

Sexy Saturday: Meredith Daniels

This week on Sexy Saturday — Meredith Daniels!

Author Bio:

Life in the flat lands of Northwest Ohio inspire a lot of things…usually boredom. But for Meredith Daniels, they provide plenty of time to dream up wicked scenarios and even hotter man lovin’ hook ups. Meredith recently celebrated her debut release, Homecoming, an angsty short novella with Samhain Publishing. Keep an eye out for more battered military men, steamy angst-riddled sex, and maybe a laugh or two.

You can get in touch with Meredith here, stop by she loves to hear from readers:

www.twitter.com/meredith_d1
www.meredithdanielsauthor.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/meredithdanielsauthor
www.goodreads.com/author/show/7438764.Meredith_Daniels

And now for the five Quickie Questions:

1) What was your first experience with erotica / erotic romance?

I was a closet erotic romance reader for a while. I dipped my toes in the naughty pool, excusing it as just experimenting…then I found M/M and never looked back. My first experience with erotic romance was an accident. My husband had gotten me an eReader for our anniversary and I was browsing titles, selecting a few….little did I know. Or…more importantly, little did he know.

2) Describe your journey from reading to writing to publication.

Classic introvert by nature, I’ve always been a reader. I’ll more than likely devour any book you put in front of me.

One day I realized I’d spent a good three hours looking for something to read. Anything that was different from what I’d been reading and I just couldn’t find it. So after a few moments hesitation and a shrug I decided to write the story I wanted to read myself. Let’s all agree that if that first manuscript should ever come to light I will forever be mortified. When I finished Homecoming, I did the inevitable: drank half a bottle of wine and sent it out to publishers. After a few rejections (and a few more bottles of wine) an email from my lovely editor at Samhain popped up in my inbox saying they’d love to publish my story.

3) What scene or book was the biggest challenge to write?

Jack and Dillon, the stars of Homecoming, have a lot of emotionally packed scenes. The scene I rewrote…then wrote again, was their love scene. I wanted to get the emotions…and the logistics…just right. I have about five different versions of the scene, including one in Jack’s POV. You see, Jack is very alpha. He’s a protector and the one who normally takes charge. During one of my early rewrites I had a note from a beta reader begging me to keep Dillon in control of their sex scene and I knew it was the right way to take it. It was a delicate balance between what Jack needed and Dillon’s desire to stake his claim.

4) Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring writers of erotica / erotic romance?

Keep writing! Don’t let anything stop you if being an author is really what you want to do. Don’t let rejections, bad reviews, or naysayers stop you.

5) Tell us a bit about your latest release.

In Homecoming, Delta Force operative Jack Dresden has returned home to the small town of Devotion, Georgia after suffering at the hands of terrorists in Kuwait. Battered both physically and mentally, Jack just wants to get through his few weeks at his parent’s home and get back out in the field, his PTSD be damned. There are some things he just doesn’t want to face, like his father’s bigotry and his unrequited feelings for his high school best friend. Things didn’t ends so smoothly between Jack and Dillon Bluff ten years earlier and he never expected the other man to speak to him let alone apologize for his actions. When Jack is forced to spend time with the one person who used to make him feel like maybe his world wasn’t so bleak, he realizes he can’t keep his feelings a secret and the idea that Dillon’s felt the same way all those years is a dream Jack doesn’t believe he deserves but he can’t deny himself at least one night with the man who owns what’s left of his heart.

Thanks for being my guest, Meredith!

Sexy Saturday: Christopher Koehler

Welcome to another edition of Sexy Saturday!  Today’s sexy guest is Christopher Koehler!

Author Bio:

Christopher Koehler learned to read late (or so his teachers thought) but never looked back. It was not, however, until he was nearly done with grad school in the history of science that he realized that he needed to spend his life writing and not on the publish-or-perish treadmill. At risk of being thought frivolous, he found that academic writing sucked all the fun out of putting pen to paper.

Christopher is also something of a hothouse flower. Inside of almost unreal conditions he thrives to set the results of his imagination free, and for most of his life he has been lucky enough to be surrounded by people who encouraged both that tendency and the writing. Chief among them is his long-suffering husband of twenty-two years and counting.

When it comes to writing, Christopher follows Anne Lamott’s advice: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” So while he writes fiction, at times he ruthlessly mines his past for character traits and situations. Reality is far stranger than fiction.

Christopher loves many genres of fiction and nonfiction, but he’s especially fond of romances, because it is in them that human emotions and relations, at least most of the ones fit to be discussed publicly, are laid bare.

Writing is his passion and his life, but when Christopher is not doing that, he’s an at-home dad and oarsman with a slightly disturbing interest in manners and other ways people behave badly.

His most recent title is Settling the Score, book four of the CalPac Crew series, available at Dreamspinner, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other booksellers.

And now for the Quickie Questions:

1) What was your first experience with erotica / erotic romance?

I can’t remember what combination of searches and purchases led Amazon to suggest Urban and LaRoux’s Caught Running and Langley’s The Tin Star, but those were the first two I read. I’d never really read romances novels before, let alone erotic romances, and the fact that they were m/m? So much goodness. The fact that this genre featured stories about men hooked me from the beginning.

2) Describe your journey from reading to writing to publication.

I’ve always been a writer of some kind or other, so to me it seemed quite natural to set aside the fantasy I’d been working on to take up m/m romance. After reading enough of m/m romances, I knew I could write them. I also recognized in romances something that had been missing on my writing.

As for publication, I’ve always viewed writing as a business and publication as the end goal. Sure, I write because I have to and because it nourishes something deep within me, but I also write with an eye toward seeing my writing in print. I stopped posting essays and various other ephemera on certain blogs, for example, because I decided to put my effort into paying work. Why would I want to give my writing away when I’m trying to make a living off of it?

3) What scene or book was the biggest challenge to write?

I had thought that sex scenes would be the most difficult for me to write, but while they can be difficult to make realistic and believable, writing them turned out not to be much of an issue. No, what presented the biggest problem was the first CalPac book, Rocking the Boat, and my WIP, Poz. I found RTB difficult because I had never written a romance novel before and it required me to depict emotions, the lack of which had been the biggest criticism of my writing until that point. Poz frightens me because it’s a departure from what has worked up until now. It’s written in the first person and that’s just not something I’ve done until now.

4) Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring writers of erotica / erotic romance?

Never ever refer to an ass as taut globes of flesh or a cock as a purple-helmed warrior of love. I’ve seen both and if you can’t call a cock a cock, you need to get out of this genre now.

Readers in this genre are incredibly loyal. Make friends with them. It’s worth it.

The rest is general to writing, but they drive me crazy when I run across them, so I’m going to climb up on my soapbox and start preaching.

Make sure your dialogue sounds like people talking. Speech is incredibly casual in all but the most formal of situations, so that means contractions, slang, all of it. If your characters’ speech lacks those features, it will sound false. I’ve read too much that doesn’t sound natural, if that makes sense. Read it aloud. Most computers have a text to speech function, so have your computer read it to you. My publisher’s editor in chief begs her writers to do this before submitting.

Make sure a word or phrase means what you think it means. Malapropisms make you look absurd, and you can’t count on editors to catch them, especially with the boom in self-publishing. For example, there is no such thing as a rod iron fence. It’s wrought iron. If you’re not sure, look it up. The Internet is a wonderful tool.

Show your work to others before you submit it, and your best friend or immediate family doesn’t count. Ideally, these people will give you honest, but not destructive, feedback. Constructive criticism makes your writing better. You’ll also need a thick skin. If you cannot handle criticism of your work, writing is not the business for you. It hurts, I know, but it’s necessary.

Make sure the people you show it to actually know something about English grammar and usage, too. The last thing you need is some lackwit validating your mistakes. That said, we all make mistakes. I used to work as editor and I still make colossal blunders because I habituate to my errors. We all do. According to my husband I specialize in dropped words. The point is, we stop seeing our mistakes, but make sure whoever edits your work knows what s/he’s doing.

Some of us are plotters and some of us fly by the seats of our pants when writing. Find out which you are early. Neither one is better than the other, but writing’s easier when you’re not fighting against yourself.

Some say it was Hemmingway, some say it was Harlan Ellison, but some writer said to throw out your first million words. When I first heard that it horrified me. Whoever it was, he was right.

Find your voice. Don’t try to imitate someone else’s. This is called pastiche, and if I wanted to read Hemmingway (which I don’t) I’d read Hemmingway. I want to see what you have to offer.

You don’t need a background in English or an MFA in creative writing. My background is in history, and we all know how deadly dull academic history can be…. You only need to be able to tell a story.

Can you tell I have strong opinions on this subject?

5) Tell us a bit about your latest release.

I thought you’d never ask. Poz is my first foray into young adult. At least, that’s how I wrote it, and it’s intended to be a bridge to a rebooted CalPac Crew series with all new characters and situations. One of the characters in this new CalPac series told me quite loudly that he’s poz. Since CalPac tells the stories of collegiate rowers, this suggests that he contracted HIV in high school. Given that the messages of safer sex and negotiated risk that my generation (Gen X) developed are falling on deaf ears with the millennials, it’s not such a stretch to imagine, unfortunately.

Poz tells the story of Remy Babcock, a closeted high school rower who makes some choices the summer before his senior year of high school that alter the course of his life, learning about his needs and desires along the way, along with those of his eventual boyfriend, Mikey. I learned along the way that I want to see a lot more of Remy and Mikey, so while I had planned to write one more book about Remy, there may be several more. We shall see.

I just received feedback from my beta readers a week or so ago, and hope to submit it to Dreamspinner by the end of the month.

Woohoo!  Sounds like a great release — I love the CalPac series!

And that has got to be some of the most interesting (and helpful) writing advice I’ve come across — thanks for that!

If you’d like to learn more about Christopher, be sure to check out his Twitter and his website.

Thanks for stopping by, Christopher!

Sexy Saturday: K-lee Klein

Welcome to another Sexy Saturday!  This week’s guest is K-lee Klein!

Author Bio:

K-lee Klein has lived in one part of Western Canada or another for her entire life. She’s a doting mother of three now-grown kids, and has had characters and plots running around her head for as long as she can remember. Her days are filled with an abundance of fabulous gay men, large and small, bouncing off the walls of her skull, competing for their turns to tell their stories. K-lee has 4 novel-length books and more than 10 short stories and novellas with her three publishers MLR Press, Amber Allure and Less Than Three Press—plus many more in progress.

   

And now for the five Quickie Questions:

1) What was your first experience with erotica / erotic romance?

In truth I started out with gay films then suddenly realized there were also books I could swoon over. T.A. Chase and J.L. Langley broke my cherry so to speak, and from there I discovered slash/fanfiction in the Alexander the Great (film) and 30 Seconds to Mars fandoms.

2) Describe your journey from reading to writing to publication.

I devoured m/m books the second I discovered them. My first foray into actually putting words to page was writing Alexander and Hephaistion slash. I also dappled in bandslash, then found a group on GoodReads that not only fed my addiction, but also offered a chance to put original fiction from non-authors out there for people to read. I wrote Outfoxed from a letter/picture prompt to post in the group, and a writer I very much admired, SJ Frost, told me I should write something for her publisher. I was horrified at the prospect, but ended up submitting Finally Home to MLR and it was accepted in December 2011. It was surreal and unbelievably awesome and stressful all at the same time.

3) What scene or book was the biggest challenge to write?

My toughest book by far was Unbreak My Heart. I lean to the emotional side of writing and like nothing better than to get inside my characters heads and mess around. But my MC, Brett Taylor, managed to break me as much as I did him. I tell people that book nearly destroyed me and most especially Brett’s emotions and pain. He was in my head day and night, and there were a lot of scenes I wrote through my own tears. It was a highly emotional experience, and being an over-the-top emotional person anyway, it was very intense. That being said Brett is probably my favorite character of all those I’ve written and once I was able to work things out with him and for him, it was immensely satisfying and validating.

4) Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring writers of erotica / erotic romance?

I’m not sure I’m someone to ask for tips. I think I just slog along with whatever is in my head at the time or whatever my very bossy muse decides is on our plate. But I guess my biggest realization, and something I still struggle with, is teaching my heart to accept it’s okay that not everyone will like what I write. Reviews can be awesome and make you want to charge forward at top speed, but on the flipside they can be devastating if you aren’t prepared. You’ll never please everyone all the time, and in the long run you have to write for yourself not anyone else—at least that’s what I’m trying to remember.

5) Tell us a bit about your latest release.

Brett and JT from Unbreak My Heart are back in a short sequel called Unbroken Hearts. It comes out on Sunday, March 2, and will hopefully tie up some loose ends in Brett and JT’s relationship, as well as being sweet and sappy as hell. This one comes from JT’s head and heart so I hope everyone who liked the first book will enjoy this one too. Here’s the blurb and thank you so much for having me here.

JT Campbell knows Brett Taylor’s proclamation of love a few months earlier was true and honest, and Brett’s nothing if not sweet and attentive. But when the most romantic day of the year rolls around and Brett seems to be ignoring it, JT finds himself drowning in disappointment. Growing up, JT was never allowed to celebrate Valentine’s Day and was taught to reject the sappy, fake sentiments of the holiday. But would it be too much to expect Brett to at least acknowledge the day?

 

On top of that, JT can’t help but feel uneasy about the one huge reminder still standing on the ranch of Brett’s old lover.  JT tries hard to pretend it doesn’t bother him, but he worries that as long as it’s there, Brett will never fully be able to let Walt go and move forward with JT. Can an unexpected show of love and commitment soothe his fears?

Sounds like a great book, K-lee!

You can buy your copy of Unbroken Hearts by clicking here.

And if you’d like to learn more about K-lee and her super-hot books, check out:

K-lee’s website
K-lee’s blog

Thanks for being my guest this week, K-lee!  And thanks to y’all for stopping by to check it out!