First Book, New Day!

I am tremendously excited to announce the first novella published under my Simon Strange pen name, A Lakeside Secret! This steamy PI erotic romance series follows Nick as he develops a special bond with his Step-Father, Stan. The series will grow beyond this as it unfolds, as Nick discovers not only what it means to be a good son, but also confronts his sexuality, his spirit, and ultimately the man that will steal his heart.

Check out this excerpt, and look for the book on Amazon.com for only $2.99, or borrow it for free from Kindle Unlimited

Check out an excerpt here:

"Eh, none of my guys friends are into that sort of thing." He said it not like he was joking, but like... it had been discussed? My dad was always a master of deadpan, though, so I rolled with it.

"Well there's Craigslist," I said.

"How the hell do you...?” He scowled at me, but it wasn't real anger. “You and Ken, I swear. You can't order up a blow job like a pizza."

"Uh," I said, "yeah, actually, you totally can."

"Huh. Well, I don't like to order in."

"You'd rather cook at home, then? Is that the metaphor we wanna..." I trailed off, and clamped my mouth shut, but too late. I knew that his head went to the same place mine did, because we had almost the same sense of humor.

We were quiet for a bit. The fire crackled, the crickets and frogs sang, the water lapped at the sand. I hoped that the sounds would somehow just drown out whatever thoughts were hanging unspoken in the air between us.

"Nick," dad said, breaking that silence with my name spoken almost too quiet for me to hear him, but, unfortunately, loud enough, "were you thinkin' about me, that day?"

I couldn't play coy to a question like that. It was direct, and I knew when my dad asked a question to which he already knew the answer. I bit my lip to keep from saying anything. Then my tongue. But my dad had this silent thing, he could kind of ask a question and then apply this magical, psychological pressure to it that built up and built up until you had to answer, and you had to tell the truth. I swear, he had real live super powers.

"Here," I said, and poured us both another shot of the rum. We both drank it, fast and with zero hesitation.

I tried to fight off the dad powers a little longer. It was a hopeless fight, though. He'd know if I was lying because that was another of his really irritating super power. "It's not what you think."

Dad nodded agreement, and the shrugged. "The brain... the imagination... our minds... they're... complicated, you know?" He said, waxing intellectual, thank god. "Not everything we think, or dream, or... fantasize about, means what it looks like. Everything in here," he tapped his temple, "it's smoke and mirrors, trying to hide from us what's deep down. What's really there. It kind of comes up as... ghosts, hauntings, that don't necessarily make sense, and aren't what they appear to be. I've had all kinds of dreams that didn't mean what they seemed to."

"Yeah," I agreed, even though I was actually... kind of lost as he wandered a little bit there.

"So, if you have some... fantasy, you know... about... your old man... that can be normal, too. Nobody knows what's normal. They say sex dreams aren't really about sex." He turned, and looked at me. He was drunk, yes, but I could see lucidity there that actually kinda worried me because it meant that he was likely to remember all of this really vividly the next day.

"I think I read that, yeah." I agreed, nodding.

He was quiet a long moment, kind of looking at me. I looked back, and then turned to look at the lake... and then turned to look back because he was still staring. "Dad...? What?" I encouraged.

"Mm." He scratched the scruff on his jaw. I could hear it from where I was, over the fire and the crickets and the waves. "What were you thinkin' about? I mean, what was... this... fantasy?"

"I really don't want to talk about that." I tried to make it sound as final as I could.

It didn't help. "Look. Son, I will never judge you, or hate you, or shame you, okay? But this conversation, this fantasy you had, it... it might tell us something really important. You didn't have your mom around; just me - and I think I did a good job, man, you're a... you're just..." he choked up a little, and took a moment. When he spoke again, the sincerity in his voice was weighty. "Nick you are so much more than I ever hoped for. You will never know what that means, but... you're perfect, to me, okay? No matter what."