Rainbow awards

The Rainbow Awards have recently been announced.

I'm overjoyed to discover that:

     Resistance garnered an Honourable Mention 

and 

New Lease of Life was a finalist in the contemporary category.   


Even better news was that the awards raised over $14000 for various LGBT charities this year,

Sod the charity adverts, send a dead bird

Another of those Victorian Christmas Cards.

And a tale from my past.

I went to primary school with a girl named Claire, she was born in London but her mum and dad were Welsh, born and bred. I would go around her house on a regular basis (it was the first place I was introduced to the joys of Dr Pepper). Come Christmastime her home, same as ours, would be awash with cards, hung from swags of wool. Except every other card would have a hole in it. Some big, some small. These holes had originally been the image of a robin; realistic, cartoon, it didn't matter. No robins were allowed in the house for fear of bad luck.

I wonder if Mrs Jones would have approved of this card from those cute and fluffy Victorians.

Image from ttglibrary

I found this card in an interesting article from the City of Tea tree Guly library's blog on a book called "Christmas curiosities: odd, dark, and forgotten Christmas by John Grossman. Both scources speculate that "a picture of a dead robin or wren (both bird species were beloved and considered sacred in British folklore) were “bound to elicit Victorian sympathy and may reference common stories of poor children freezing to death at Christmas”. Was this a genuine attempt to raise awareness of social injustice and change society?"

All I know, is that in Mrs Jones' house in the 1970s this card would have had a bloody great hole in it, social commentary or not. 

Are you out of your mind?

This is a two pronged title. I'm going to attempt to post every day again as I did last year. Not so in depth this year though and not always Christmas related.

First up and possibly a reoccuring theme, those wacky Victorians and their 'interesting' Christmas cards.

Image from ttglibrary 

For those of you unsure...

From the font of all knowledge "Wikipedia": "In Austro-Bavarian Alpine folklore, Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure described as "half-goat, half-demon",[1] who, during the Christmas season, punishes children who have misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards the well-behaved with gifts. Regions in Austria feature similar figures and, more widely, Krampus is one of a number of Companions of Saint Nicholas in regions of Europe."

A throwback to pagan times, maybe?

Alledgedly Krampus would kidnap naughty children and beat them with sticks. Certainly worst than being given a lump of coal.

All in all a pleasent card to remind children to behave.

What's In a Name?

To which I am referring to the title of a book. Although, the same could apply to character names, but that is a post for another day. And this book in particular: When Love Flue In.

I have a love hate relationship with titles, and I think most authors would agree. Some come to you as an extension of the story, while others need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world. Once in a while a manuscript remains obstinately nameless right up until the moment of submission. One of my beta readers had the honour of naming my last short story since my mind blanked every time I tried to come up with something. A cracking title it was too. Simple, perfect, and blatantly obvious with hindsight.

For one of my novels my publisher had turned down my initial title because they already published a book with a similar name and they didn’t want confusion amongst their readers, especially since my book was a low sex content gay romance and the other was explicit het erotica. I doubt anyone receiving the incorrect book would have been impressed. So, I carried out a poll of possible titles with my readers and then submitted my favourites in order of preference to my publisher. Of course, they chose my least favourite of the five.

That story brings up an interesting point, whilst you might think you’ve picked the perfect title for your book, your publisher will likely have other ideas. Here are just a couple of reasons I’ve been given as to why I need to come up with another title:

Too similar to other books they sell.

Certain words are overused. Keep them out of your title.

Needs to focus more on the romance aspect of the story.

Ultimately the publisher has the final say, so even if you feel that the title is perfect, don’t get too attached. Be prepared to lose it. Or self publish!

Is the title really that important? I’d say yes. I’ve overlooked books because the title didn’t appeal to me. Too frivolous. Too dry. Too flat. Once I’m reading I don’t give the title a second thought--I’ve never once finished a book and thought ‘Loved it, but that title had nothing to do with the story’. However the title’s importance in grabbing my attention in an ever increasing market can’t be overlooked. It only needs to hold my attention long enough for me to read the blurb at which point I can make a decision about whether I’m curious enough about the book to add it to my wishlist. In the e-book market the title is probably as important, if not more, than the cover. (In the ‘tree’ read market the visual nature of the cover makes this the more important of the two.)

‘When Love Flue In’ is one of those gems that an author relishes. The title appeared without conscious thought or cajoling the first moment Word asked me to save my document. It needed no polish. It didn’t suffer the indignity of being referred to as Christmas1 in my file for the first few months of its development. Nobody, from beta readers to editors, publishers to readers have ever cast doubt over the quality or validity of that title. It is a title that perfectly reflects the story, with just the right hint of what is to come and a nod to one of the main character’s profession.

I think it is a perfect marriage of title and story. I would say that. It’s like naming a child, when you get it right and the name fits you can’t imagine them being called anything else.

Sometimes it is a struggle. Sometimes I’ve heard it said that the title inspired the story. Sometimes, like this time, it is a flash of inspiration. 

How much thought do you give to the title when choosing a book to read?

When Love Flue In, is a Christmas novella.

A soot-haired chimney sweep, an exploding flue and an uncooked turkey. It’s an unholy trinity that may make all of Dominic’s Christmas wishes come true.

Dominic is celebrating his first Christmas since his divorce, and although he’s spending it on his own, he’s determined to have a traditional Christmas morning, including a roaring fire. Unfortunately, Dominic’s chimney is blocked, which is why Reagan, a soot-haired chimney sweep, is head and shoulders up Dominic’s flue. Dominic is just lucky the man had a cancellation on Christmas Eve.

Unable to take his eyes off Reagan’s low-slung jeans and enticing arse while Reagan sets about the hearth with rods and brushes, Dominic knows five years is a long time to be obsessed with the man who sweeps his chimney every Christmas. This year there’s nothing to stop Dominic from acting on his desires—except his own insecurities.

An exploding flue provides the opportunity for more than just polite conversation and could be the catalyst for a perfect Christmas. But Dominic will need to stop hiding who he really is before a special sweep can light a fire in his heart.

Publisher's Note: This book was previously released by another publisher. It has been revised and re-edited for release with Totally Bound Publishing.

Buy Links: Totally Bound // ARe // Kobo // Amazon US  &  UK



This blog post originally appeared at Female First in Dec 2014.

Series Review - Dead Man by Lou Harper

In the last few months I have devoured Lou Harper's various paranormal series.
Dead Man, Sanguine, and LA Paranormal.

All three series are very similar in style. The books are made up of short stories, where the main thread that seems to hold the stories together is the development of the relationship, but somehow the stories intertwine and vague hanging threads and unanswered questions are eventually addressed in a later story, or even book.

Today I'm focusing on the Dead Man series.

Dead Man and the Restless Spirits, is the first book of the series and reintroduces us to 'Dead Man' Denton Mills, who we first met in the Sanguine series. Denton isn't actually dead, but he does see dead people. His new neighbour is the stoic and gorgeous Bran. Turns out Bran is a witch and he helps develop Denton's powers. The mysteries were fun and the guys are adorable together. Despite the light tone of the books the third story managed to move me to tears because of the haunting they were investigating.

Dead Man and the Lustful Spirit is a short story set between the two full length collections. It's New Year's Eve and Denton and Bran are at a party, but even then they can't help but stumble across a spirit.

I told you they were all connected. Dead Man and the Army of Frogs ties up all the loose ends from both the first book and the short story. The miscommunication in this collection had me wanting to shake Denton (since we are in his POV), but overall these two guys are still adorable, and more perfect for each other than they realise, and they end the book in a really solid place. Oh, and we get more Gabe (from the Sanguine series) which is excellent news as far as I'm concerned.

I've finished all these series now, but I'm hoping where will be more to come in the future from any or all of these couples.

Fiction Friday - on a Tuesday

It's been a month since I did a round up of my reading.

This has been favourite author reading month.

I started off with the L.A. Paranormal series by Lou Harper. I'd not read any of these stories before despite having had the first book on my Kindle for ages. I plan to do a separate series review post but needless to say it's well worth picking up this series.

In my last post I talked about how much I loved All in With the Duke by Ava March. I followed up by reading the next two books in the series. These books overlap with the first one and there are some excellent crossover scenes within the series. I really loved all the couples in this series.

A Flirty Dozen by JL Merrow is a collection of her short stories. The collection is excellent but my favourites are Love Found on Lindisfarne and A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips, and Thou.

I followed that up with another anthology from JL Merrow and Jo Myles, Truly, Madly, Boys (Mad About the Brit Boys Book 5). This includes one of my favourite  short stories, Epiphany but all four stories are excellent.

Rather than spending the entire month reading JL Merrow  (not that I wouldn't enjoy that) I moved on to Clare London and discovered her excellent timey-whimey story Timeslip.

Historical seems to be my genre of choice at the moment and I moved on to The Copper by Bonnie Dee. I love the stories she writes with Summer Devon so it was hardly a risk to take a chance on this story. Grittier than a lot of the books in her writing partnership but exciting and fast paced with engaging heroes.

No idea why but I had some notion that The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks by Josh Lanyon was an historical. It's not and I'm a numpty for waiting this long to read it. Great mystery and a lovely slow burn relationship.

Comfort read time next. Heat (Salisbury Stories #1) by RJ Scott and Chris Quinton. And it gave me a craving for Jelly Babies.

Another Lou Harper book (and a book to finish off a series) Temper Sanguine (Sanguine #2). I loved this books about a vampire Hunter and his vampire boyfriend. Gutted this is the last in the series. Lou Harper I'd be up for reading more of these two if you have a mind to write them.

If reconnecting and lost love is more your thing I can recommend Dancing Days by Clare London. And lovely to see a mature couple getting the limelight.

The good thing about a short story done well is that you can devour it all in one sitting. The bad thing about a short story done well is that you can devour... Yeah, I  know, impossible to please. Night Watch by Josh Lanyon is one such example. 42 pages of excellence.

Another historical series I devoured was Victorian Holiday Hearts by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon. These novellas are based around a Victorian acting family and take place during various holidays.

And I finished off the month with a paranormal  (it is Halloween). Dead Man and the Restless Spirits (Dead Man #1) by Lou Harper. How can you resist a book where the first line is "Dying sucks hairy monkey balls, even when you're not the stiff.".  And the MCs in this one are adorable.

Next month will see a change of tack for the reading challenge. I'll be attempting to finish off some series that I'm partway through. And I'll also try to clear some of my free reads. So no more favourite authors? Wrong. First book lined up is Dead Man and the Lustful Spirit by, yep, Lou Harper!

Rainbow Snippet - 29/30th Oct

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook Group that invites authors to post 6 sentences of their work each weekend. It can be from anything you like, your current WIP, a recent release, the golden oldie that even you had forgotten you had written, or just a scrap of an idea (as long as it has 6 coherent sentences). Nothing of your own work worth mentioning? How about a 6 sentence review of your favourite LGBTQ+ story.


Another snippet from Village Love #2. For anyone that loved Resistance, this is Smudge's story. A snippet from Chapter 3.  (Unbetaed. Beware! Also I have no idea if this is 6 sentences. I kept losing count.)

 “He’s very good with the children, isn’t he?” A female voice had Smudge near jumping out of his skin. He tore his gaze from Raleigh to find the woman that had been sent to the drinks table standing beside him with a paper cup. “A much better librarian all round than the last one. Always accommodating, makes time for everyone, easy on the eye, if you like that geeky, supply teacher look, and great with kids.” She sighed. “He’d make a perfect husband. Shame he’s gay.”