Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

An Inner Darkness

An Inner Darkness, book five in my Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, is now available in print. Yay! Read on for the blurb plus links to clean and not-at-all-clean excerpts :D

All hell’s about to break loose. Literally.

After more than a year as a couple—and plenty of bumps along the road—Sam Raintree and Dr. Bo Broussard are finally settling into life together. Bo has come to terms with his sexuality, their business is thriving, and Sam has begun to accept his role as a step-parent of sorts to Bo’s sons, Sean and Adrian. The only real dark spot is Bo’s ex-wife, Janine.

When eleven-year-old Adrian begins exhibiting signs of psychokinesis—the same ability which allows Sam to manipulate interdimensional portals—the friction between Sam, Bo and Janine escalates. Sam and Bo have reason to believe Adrian’s raw, uncontrolled talent poses a danger to him and those around him. Janine, however, believes Sam and Bo are encouraging dangerous delusions on Adrian’s part. Common ground is nonexistent, anger and hard words ever-present.

Caught in the middle of the conflict and burdened with an ability he can’t yet control, Adrian is soon pushed beyond his limits. With Adrian’s mind—and the lives of everyone around him—hanging in the balance, Sam and Bo race against time to save both boys and keep an otherworldly horror from breaking free.

(Warning: This book contains graphic language, explicit male/male sex, family drama and scary monsters.)

You can read a spooky PG-13 excerpt on the Samhain website..

Or, you can hop on over to my website and read an XXX-cerpt of mansex and angst,, oh yeah.

Or, hey, why not read both? Spookiness, sexiness and angst all in one morning, what a great idea!

And after you’ve read the awesome excerpts, go to the Samhain website to buy the book :)

NPR Joins the Shameful Crowd

Last week, I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) Morning Edition on the way to work, as I generally do. Lots of world news, lots of interesting things you don’t normally hear from most other news sources. I like it. Usually. On that day, however, they had a bit on the tail end of the business news that darn near ruined my day.

It was a bit about Harlequin’s 60th birthday. When I heard that, I got all excited. “Cool!” I thought. “Romance is on NPR!” I thought that was pretty sweet. Until they started talking, and what I got was what everybody else on the planet seems to give the romance genre: scornful snickering. The dreaded term “bodice ripper.” What a disapointment, NPR.

It wasn’t what was said so much as how they said it. Derision and “wow I can’t believe people READ this stuff” amusement dripping from their voices. It made me ANGRY, I tell you. Check out the NPR website to read the transcript of the story and listen for yourself. It’s very short, so it won’t take but a minute.

I shouldn’t be surprised at this point that so many people still believe romance to be beneath them, but I constantly am. And for Morning Edition — a morning-drive friend to me for years — to throw this at me, feels personal. Why, Linda and Steve? Why’d you do it? Our relationship will never be the same.

Check out my HO, y'all!

That’s right, The Happy Onion is now available in print! Isn’t he gorgeous? I think so :D

Liberal vegan meets corporate carnivore. What could possibly go wrong?

Thomas Stone has one sacred rule: Don’t Date The Boss. Ever. So when he finds out his new employer is the man he took to bed his first night in town, he’s less than happy. He doesn’t need any more complications in his life, and the way Phil makes him feel definitely qualifies as a complication. Especially since he can’t seem to keep his hands off the man.

Philip Sorrells is thrilled to discover that the new bartender his manager hired for his restaurant, The Happy Onion, is the aggressive little blond he slept with once and can’t forget. Thom is Phil’s wet dream come true, from his angelic face to his fiery temper. For the first time, Phil hears the siren song of monogamy, and he’s tempted to follow it.

When Thom leaves The Happy Onion for a job managing an upscale nightclub, it looks like a chance for him and Phil to be together without the whole boss/employee thing hanging over them. Instead, Thom’s new position brings out previously unsuspected differences in their world views. Differences with the power to destroy their fragile bond.

So how will this nature-loving tree-hugger and corporate-ladder climber navigate this political minefield in the name of love? Very carefully.

(Warning, this book contains bad language, good music, vegan personal care products and lots of hot, dirty mansex.)

Read a PG-13 excerpt on the Samhain website.

Read a spicier excerpt on my website.

Buy the book here!

Review discussions: should authors get involved?

You know, I wanted to think up a really snappy title, but my brain just wouldn’t do it. Oh well. I guess it doesn’t matter so much :)

A few weeks ago, one of my books received a so-so review on a popular review site. Not a terrible review, just sort of meh. There were some questions asked, a couple of facts that were a bit off, and I sort of wanted to get involved in the discussion in order to clear up things people wondered about or wanted to know, and set the facts straight (small though they were). I ended up staying out of it, though. One big reason was that I was up to my eyeballs in Work & Other Necessities that day and didn’t really have time, but I also felt like my virtual presence might not have been entirely welcome. Not in the sense that anyone would have said, “Oh no, not HER.” Rather, I wondered if having the author of the book show up might stifle discussion somewhat, especially since the review wasn’t a glowing one. Either that, or affect discussion in some other negative way. I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable or have a negative effect on the discussion, so I decided I shouldn’t get involved.

What do you think? Readers, reviewers? Are you comfortable discussing a book — especially when the discussion is not all positive — if the author is part of the discussion, or are you more comfortable if the author isn’t part of it? It’s something I’ve wondered about for a while and I’m finally getting around to asking :)

Closer, coming soon in print!

Dreams don’t always come true. But sometimes nightmares do.

Book Four in the Bay City Paranormal Investigation series.

After nine months of tumult, Sam Raintree is ready for some peace and quiet. A beach vacation with his boss and lover, Dr. Bo Broussard, promises to provide the serenity and reconnection they both need. Bo’s business and his children command a good deal of his time, and Sam is looking forward to two weeks of his lover’s undivided attention.

Then a new case for the Bay City Paranormal Investigations team puts a crimp in Sam’s plans. Fort Medina, a seventeenth-century citadel guarding the mouth of Mobile Bay, is less than five miles from their vacation beach house. Bo invites the group to stay with them while investigating the place, promising Sam he won’t get involved. But Sam knows better. Sure enough, Bo can’t resist joining the investigation, and talks Sam into doing the same.

Events take an alarming turn as Bo’s behavior becomes more erratic each day. Puzzled and frightened, Sam scrambles for an explanation while the man he loves turns into a volatile and unpredictable stranger.

When the truth comes out, it may already be too late to save Bo from a force neither of them can control.

(Warning: This book contains explicit male/male sex (including spanking and rimming), graphic language, violence, ghosts and monsters.)

Read a PG-13 excerpt.

Read an X-cerpt in my website!

Keep watching the Samhain main page for the release of the print book and purchase information :D

Adder

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a HUGE music fan. I’ve always wanted to write a book set in the music world. And now, I’ve finally done it. Yay! Adder is now available, and here’s an excerpt for your enjoyment :)

Blurb:

Music. Sex. Fame. What’s missing? Surely not the “L” word…

Adder has a plan for his life: play his music for millions of adoring fans, who will reward him with money, fame and as much sex as he can handle. It’s a goal he’s been working toward since his teens and is on the cusp of achieving. The idea of a relationship never entered his mind—until a new drummer joins his band. One taste of Kalil, and all he wants is more.

For Kalil, playing drums for Adder is a dream come true, the creative connection he’s always wanted. What he never reckoned on is the deeper connection he finds with Adder. Kalil would rather avoid sexual involvement with a bandmate, but Adder seems just as determined to break through his resistance.

Attraction aside, music and sex are about the only things the hedonistic Adder and the increasingly jealous Kalil can agree on. Still, before they know it they’re on the brink of something deeper, something lasting.

And it scares the hell out of both of them.

(Warning: This book contains adult language, hot gay sex, weird bands, colorful prophylactics and unforgivable fashion crimes)

PG-13 Excerpt:

The Physics of Romance

Lately I’ve been kind of obsessed with something called non-linear dynamics. I discovered this particular brain-buster while researching for my current work-in-progress, which involves a college student majoring in physics. It fascinated me to learn that apparently this corner of physics has applications to finance. Finance, of all the things! It seemed to me so strange for something so esoteric as non-linear dynamics to apply to something as mundane as finance. But evidently it does. In fact, if I’m understanding it correctly, it applies to all physical systems. So I started wondering, what about romance?

Where The Heart Is, now available!

For all of you who have been following my Bay City Paranormal Investigations series and waiting for Dean’s story, your wait is over! Where The Heart Is finally gives Dean his well-deserved happy ending :)

Blurb:

Falling in love is easy. Holding on to it can tear your life apart.

When Dean Delapore takes a break from Bay City Paranormal Investigations, he doesn’t expect his work to follow him to the eclectic town of Carrboro, North Carolina. The chance to investigate a haunting at the Blue Skye Inn and Winery is more than he can resist, mainly because of the inn’s owner. Deceptively shy and gorgeous, Sommer Skye is not only fantastic company, he’s the best lay Dean’s had in ages.

As Dean probes the misty secrets of the haunted inn, he unexpectedly peels away the layers hiding Sommer’s private pain. Pain Sommer’s not sure he can withstand. By the time Dean realizes just how deep his feelings for the innkeeper run, it’s far too late to turn back.

Now if only he can convince Sommer that falling in love changes everything, maybe for the better. If the bones of the past can be laid to rest…

(Warning: This book contains a melancholy ghost, unusual jewelry, misuse of vegetable shortening and lots of hot, sweet manlove.)

Read the first chapter on the Samhain website, here.

Read a rather spicier excerpt on my website, here.

Click here to buy the book!

Untamed Heart, now in ready-to-fondle paperback!

I’ve certainly fondled my author’s copies a few times. Heh. Can you blame me? I mean, look at these guys! Gorgeous. Thank you Anne Cain! You are the Cover Goddess of the century!

Blurb:

Revenge can’t heal a wounded soul.

When Leon Fisher finds his lover butchered in their bed, he does what any good assassin would do—he gets revenge. But killing the murderer doesn’t make the pain go away. Instead, it sends him on a vicious downward spiral into alcoholism and depression.

In a bid to force Leon to sober up and regain his edge, his mysterious employers—known only as “the organization”—send him to a private property in the wilds of Alaska. In the lush and remote Tongass National Forest, Leon encounters Grim, a strange but alluring young man who saves Leon’s life after a bear attack, then brings him to a cabin in the depths of the woods to recover.

Leon doesn’t expect to fall in love with this odd, subservient person, yet he can’t deny what he comes to feel for Grim. But Grim has a past he doesn’t talk about. A past just as dark and ugly as Leon’s. And both pasts are about to catch up with them.

(Warning, this title contains the following: explicit male/male sex, graphic language, intense violence, drug and alcohol use, and references to past abusive situations.)

Read a PG excerpt here.

Read an XXX-cerpt here.

Keep your eyes on the Samhain main page for info on buying the print book!

Merry Christmas Noms

Merry Christmas Eve, everybody! I am off in a few for dinner, presents and general merriment with the family. In the meantime, I’d like to share a bit of my family’s Christmas tradition.

Every year at Christmas, we spend an afternoon making the same delicious cake that my mom, my sister and I used to make every Christmas since I was a kid. I think the original recipe came from a cookbook called “Favorite Recpies of Conecuh County” (Conecuh County, Alabama, that is!). It’s a labor intensive effort, but SO worth it.

If you have a favorite Christmas recipe, why not share it here? Enjoy, and have a wonderful holiday!