Gabbi Grey: My New Dance Partner (Contest — and F*R*E*E story)
Hello, Delilah! Thank you for welcoming me here to share my new release! A Furever Home is the final book in my Friends of Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue series and my first cowritten book.
You might be asking why, after having written almost fifty books, did I decide to cowrite a book?
Well, it’s a story.
Kaje Harper and I have known each other for years. She’s been writing professionally and publishing stories for far longer than I have. In fact, my freelance editor suggested I read Kaje’s books and aspire to achieve that kind of brilliance in writing. (Now, my editor didn’t actually expect me to be Kaje level good — but she thought I could do better than I was. And she was right — my writing has improved greatly.)
At the suggestion, I nabbed all of Kaje’s audiobooks and listened. I enjoyed them all, but most especially Into Deep Waters. Still, to this day, I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a really good MM romance.
Later, I plucked up the courage to invite Kaje to a writer/reader chat. I was still a reader at this point. She politely declined. But she stayed in my DMs. I believe the next interaction might’ve been when she published an audiobook. I asked for a review code as I review for an LGBTQ blog. She generously provided me one. Now, I could go back over our chat log, but what fun would that be?
We started talking. About all kinds of stuff. Oh! I asked if I could dedicate my second published novella to her — Catch a Tiger by the Tail. She said yes! She even read it! My little baby writer heart was thrilled.
I started publishing audiobooks, and we kept chatting. And chatting. And chatting. I remember the day she asked me for advice. I nearly died of joy.
When I found an opportunity to join a shared world, I encouraged Kaje to join me. That was the Single Dads of Gaynor Beach. She wrote one book. I wrote three. I have a problem corralling all the ideas in my head once I get started.
Then she told me she was participating in Rocktoberfest 2023 — her second year. I found the courage to approach the organizer, and I was in! The twelfth author in a roster of 12.
One day, sort of out of the blue, the Gaynor Beach group chat blew up because someone asked about a rescue animal shelter. Within a couple of hours, the organizer of the Gaynor Beach world had the spin-off series set up — Friends of Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue.
Naturally, I asked if I could write the first book. The organizer said sure. I’m pretty certain I asked if Kaje could write the next book (she was offline that day). The organizer said sure. Then I asked if I could write the final book in the series. The organizer said sure.
I had a plan.
When I chatted with Kaje the next day to bring her up to speed, she was super excited.
Then I did one of the most audacious things I’ve ever done — I told her we were writing the final book together.
She said she didn’t cowrite books.
I said I knew that, but she was going to write this one with me.
She provided several very valid arguments why it wouldn’t work.
I said I knew that, but she was going to write this one with me.
After a moment, she said yeah, she guessed she was.
Thus was born a plan.
The single dads series was great, and many of the authors worked hard to include characters from other books, but there wasn’t a through line. Kaje and I decided we’d create a through line for the Friends of Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue series. Basically, Arthur, the guy who had a house full of rescues and was always asked to take more, would get the opportunity to open a shelter — his dream come true. And in the final book, he would get his happily ever after.
Kaje and I met virtually and hammered out what the series arc would look like. We put everything on paper, and shared it with the group. Everyone agreed we’d have cute titles. We were ready to go.
My first book, Love Furever released a year and a half ago. Kaje’s Impurrfections released next. Meredith Spies’ Iguana Me to Love You was out next. Then I had to jump in because I accidentally set up a couple in my first book. So Husky Love came next. Roan Rossier’s Ruff Start released with the cutest pooch on the cover.
Several books were scheduled to be released — but those never materialized.
I had another book inside me, so wrote and published Yorkie to My Heart on Christmas Day.
More time went by. More anticipated books didn’t happen. I was super excited when Abrianna Denae’s A Furry Thing Called Love came out.
By then, Kaje and I had cowritten our book.
Wow, what a process.
Kaje asked to write Arthur — which was fine with me. He’d always been her character. We created Brooklyn and tossed ideas back and forth for months. She helped me include him in the Yorkie book so readers would have been exposed to the new-in-town doggie daycare owner.
As agreed, Kaje wrote the first chapter. I made editing suggestions then wrote the next. She reviewed what I’d written, made corrections, wrote her chapter, made suggestions on what came next, and sent it back.
By unspoken agreement, we worked quickly. The actual writing process took just over two weeks.
We had 80k words. We had a book. We had (to my eyes, anyway) a really good book.
I wince at editing, so tried to contribute, but Kaje’s deft hand smoothed out the rough edges. We sent the manuscript to our freelance editor, and she returned it with relatively few suggestions.
We had a book.
I contacted our formatter, and I sent the manuscript off to Michael Ferraiuolo to do the audiobook.
Since then, we’ve waited.
Kaje has gone on to write two hockey books — Changes on Ice and Against the Odds.
I wrote Finding Noah for the Foggy Basin series, Voice to Raise for Road to Rocktoberfest 2025, and have started my next Daddy/puppy book.
We’ve waited.
Now the time has come to introduce Arthur and Brooklyn to readers. A Furever Home has plenty of cameos from earlier books in the series, but also a strong storyline for our men. Even a bit of suspense.
That’s the story.
Thank you for having me here today, Delilah.
Contest: As a thank you, I would love to give away a copy of Love Furever, the first book in the series. Either ebook or audio. If the winner has that, they can choose another book from my back catalogue. Just let me know – is there an element of a story or trope that will always bring you back? I write many small-town romances with rescue animals. Kaje writes a wide variety of books, but she has a shifter series I highly recommend. Leave a comment and Random will pick a winner! Good luck!
A Furever Home
Arthur
When I was squeezing seven rescue dogs and a horde of cats in my small house, all I wanted was to not turn away a pet in need. Opening the Safe Haven Pet Rescue was a dream come true. But when I get hurt, standing between a man with a gun and a stray dog, I realize I still can’t do it all.
My injured leg, a concussion, having to lean on my friends, and realizing how helpless I feel, throws me back to my childhood when nothing I did ever seemed to be enough. But there’s one silver lining. Brooklyn West. He’s the kind of guy who holds a stranger’s hand in a crisis. He’s great with my dogs, even cranky little Chili, and really seems to want to help the shelter. I like watching him be a protective big brother when his sister turns up on his doorstep, even though I think there’s pain underneath his sunny smiles. But as we move toward friendship, I keep looking for the strings, for the catch, and wondering how I’ll pay him back, because nothing in my life can be that sweet, or that simple.
Brooklyn
I went through a slice of medical hell, and came out the other side with enough money to move to the opposite side of the country and start the doggie daycare business of my dreams. The cherry on top of that good luck is meeting Arthur Bjornsson. Big, wild-bearded, soft-voiced Arthur is the kind of guy my family would’ve ridiculed. He’s warm-hearted and willing to throw himself into harm’s way right in front of my eyes to save one pathetic stray dog.
He’s the kind of guy who gives me back some faith in humanity. But when my underage sister Cheyenne shows up on my doorstep, on the run from the family I thought I’d escaped, my old life and new collide. I want to help Arthur, get to know him, and, as he heals, I want more than just friendship. But Cheyenne brings legal risks, a teen on the other side of my bedroom wall, and the threat of retribution from our family. The simple relationship I thought Arthur and I were building is suddenly messy as hell. I don’t know how we’ll get through this to reach the furever home I so desperately want.
A Furever Home is a fur-baby-filled, hurt-comfort, small town romance between two men whose only chance at a family is to build one themselves.
Links:
Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/AFureverHome
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FD8NX9DT
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-furever-home/id6751341547
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-furever-home-3
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=K7Z_EQAAQBAJ
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-furever-home-kaje-harper/1148093812
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1837744
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236558097-a-furever-home
USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.
Newsletter sign-up: https://sendfox.com/gabbigrey
Website: https://gabbigrey.com/
I get asked about my name a lot, but it’s not something exotic. “Kaje” is pronounced like “cage” — it’s an old nickname; my pronouns are she/her. My books are primarily M/M romance, often with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi, paranormal… I also have a few Young Adult stories.
After decades of writing just for fun, my husband convinced me I really should submit something, somewhere. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out in May 2011. I have a weakness for closeted cops with honest hearts and teachers who speak their minds, and I was delighted and encouraged by the reception Mac and Tony received. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks, print, and some audio, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow Awards Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact. A complete list with links can be found on my website “Books” page.
All my social media links can be found at https://linktr.ee/kajeharper
And if you like FREE SHORT STORIES, check out the weekly Sunday Stories on my FB Group – Kaje’s Conversation Corner – https://www.facebook.com/groups/208207893795147/
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