Pre-Order a Little Stocking Stuffer for yourself

So, last book of the year is out on the 25th of December,,,

Pick up your steaming hot copy of Coming Together: Keeping Warm

Coming Together: Keeping Warm is a collection of erotic fiction edited by Alessia Brio. Proceeds benefit Operation Warm.

FEATURING STORIES BY:

Sommer Marsden
Lisabet Sarai
Allison Wonderland
Leigh Ellwood
Xan West
Robert Buckley
Peach Robidoux
Lynn Townsend
Annabeth Leong
Delilah Night
Jim Reader



So, there you have it; heat up your kindle and support a good cause.

My story in this collection is Pistols & Guns, previously published by Hot Ink as a stand alone short.

The difference is knowing when to shoot...

Half Scot, half Irish, all hot-head, Turner Gillespie ain't about to tolerate no horse-thief taking what is his. Especially when the thief is a scrawny, under-fed kid with a big gun.

Eppie just wants to get away from Ellis Ballard, the man who murdered her mother and forced her into an intolerable marriage. She has money, Turner has a horse; why is this a problem?

When Eppie reaches for her gun and finds herself holding onto a tool of a different sort, sparks fly in the hot, western desert...

But will they learn to trust each other before Ballard comes looking for his wayward bride?

Coming Together: Thanksgiving -- Giving Back

I am giving away $10 in OmniBucks to AllRomance for one lucky commentor. Normally, I would give Amazon gift cards, but with Christmas / Holidays coming up, I want my winner to buy something for THEMSELVES, not use the gift card to buy something for a present... I am guilty of this behavior myself, so...

To be quite honest, giving back wasn't what I had in mind the very first time I worked with Coming Together.

The first time I ever even heard of Coming Together, my favorite smut writer, (now) friend, and all around awesome human being, Sommer Marsden was running an open call for submissions for Hungry For Love, a zombie anthology that benefited American Diabetes Association.

I really admire Sommer -- I have since I didn't know who she was or much of anything about her, except that her work was awesome and made me laugh -- and that hasn't changed since getting to know her and seeing glimpses of her personal life. She's had a rough time -- her husband died from cancer not long ago -- and we've talked a lot on line. Exchanged a couple of Christmas cards and postcards. It's a casual acquaintanceship, but it means a lot to me.

We've had a few chats about how weird and uncomfortable it is when someone praises you -- you've done so much, I don't know how you do it, oh, you're so strong -- and outside you're nodding with that slightly apologetic look on your face like you're sorry you're making the other person feel weak because you're barely managing to hold on to your life with both hands and inside you're screaming "What the fuck ELSE do you think I'm going to do? I manage my life because WHAT THE FUCK?? Really?"

Anyway... got off track a bit there. The point is, I wasn't really thinking about charity so much as I was thinking "I want this woman to notice my work."

So, that was the first time. This was back in the day when I still threw up regularly after hitting the send button on a submission. (Thank FSM that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, most of the time, I'm pretty chill about it. I feel comfortable with my work, most of the time.)

By the way, Dead in the Water, the story that I submitted for Hungry for Love, is available as an audio reading from Rose Caraway, who is also awesome...

After some time -- and because another friend of mine was going through a rough time and her illness is one of those weird, rare things that most people never heard about, and I desperately wanted to do something for her -- I thought I'd try my own hand at doing an anthology.

Talk about leaping before I looked! I had no fucking clue what I was doing, and I hope it doesn't show too much. I got a lot of advice from other CT editors (including the brilliant and amazing Nobilis Reed) and editors of other collections.

I put together a proposal for Coming Together: Among the Stars, to benefit International Still's Disease Foundation and to my surprise and pleasure, Alessia was onboard with me right away. We put together the call and I collected well over 60 stories...

Editing an anthology was a whole different kettle of fish -- but it was a learning experience, I got to meet a whole ton of really talented writers, and I enjoyed it so much that I ended up doing a second one this year.

(I've also had my share of weird problems as being an editor -- attempted plagiarism, people who really cannot read the submission guidelines, a whole lot of authors who turn in stories without their contact information -- seriously, people, don't do that! -- authors who are hard to work with, weird hostility, and male writers who seem to think that, as a female editor, I am obligated to look at pictures of their dicks as well as their stories. No, dudes. Just no.)

But Among the Stars was a good enough experience that this year, I did it again, and just recently, Strange Shifters made its way into the world...

And wow, am I happy to see it. This book was a lot more work because... well, 2015 has just been the year of Fuck You. I have had annoying real life problems of every kind imaginable. Nothing horrible -- mostly -- but just... one would be annoying, two would be difficult, and one pretty much every month of this year has been fucking exhausting. I'm amazing and impressed with myself that Strange Shifters got finished on time, and I gotta hand it to my writers, you guys were amazing! Good stories, easy to work with, understanding when I was behind...

Thanks!

Proceeds for Strange Shifters goes to Bat World Sanctuary, one of my own personal favorite charities. I love bats and the people at Bat World do a lot of cool stuff to preserve these little flying foxes. You should check them out, their facebook page is pretty awesome.

I'm working on ideas for an anthology next year... I have a million pet causes and I want to do a little something for all of them...

Comment on this blog for the little prize... there will be a bigger prize from Coming Together [insert that when available] and there are lots of other Coming Together authors and editors who are on the Hop... so stop by and see them [also, link]

New Publisher

On Wednesday, I had a long, involved conversation with my new publisher.

Yes, you heard that right -- I have found a home for my litter of orphaned kittens; which is to say, the Forging of Souls Duology and the Demoniac Codex novels have all been signed to Go Writing Publishing.

Great news

The Forging of Souls Duology will be re-released with new covers and will be available again on March 8th for A Marked Man and May 3rd for A Wanted Woman.

In addition to being available on Amazon, GWP offers other sales platforms, which means a wider release for those of you who do not have kindles... Paperback copes will also be available again.

All four novels of the Demoniac Codex will be released.

Blood Sight and Howling Bitch will have all new covers, and some slight edits will be done to both -- there were some errors that slipped by in the first printing, and the epilogue for Blood Sight will be adjusted slightly. If you've already bought the books and you just want to know the epilogue changes without buying a new copy, I'll post something on the web page to update you.

Blood Sight will be re-released on January 12th
Howling Bitch will be re-released on April 6th

Sins of Angels will come out July 1st. I know that's a long wait for those of you who were reading on the other schedule, but... you won't have to wait as long for Ghost Magic, which was originally contracted for March of 2017 and will now be released on November 9th, 2016....

All books will be released simultaneously as paperback and e-book, so those of you who spent months waiting for the paperbacks will not have to do that anymore, either.

Celibate Cold

So, last night I was sitting around the table with my two best girlfriends, mostly chatting and eating soup and cupcakes (It was Liz's birthday dinner and I made my famous Cream of Reuben Soup) when I got an email...

Celibate Cold, which is the first of the stories for the Torquere line this upcoming year, has been accepted for publication. Celibate Cold will be in the Snowed In anthology, available in January, 2016...

Chase sighed. He tried to concentrate on the falling snow, the faint whistle of wind, but his good mood was shattered again. He needed to leave town. If he could just afford to do so. Or find a reason to stay. But he was stuck, stuck in place, both indecisive and unwilling to take risks. Yeah, that sucked. Big time.

“Fuck it,” he said. His voice was swallowed by the snow and the darkness. “I’m going inside.”

He straightened, tugged his shirt down to clear the wrinkles from crossing his arms over his chest, and took one last glance out at the snowy night. And then he saw something moving out in his yard. Something large and white and staggering right toward him. Like a fucking yeti.

“What the hell?”

Chase squinted. Of course it wasn’t a yeti, he thought. But the creature who was stumbling in his direction was covered in snow from the thighs down and his coat was thick with ice-crystals. He had a hat crammed low down over his ears, but no gloves, and his sleeves were crusted with more snow. He’d probably fallen a few times, to judge by the smears of white down his front.

By the time Chase had identified the intruder as being nothing more than a man, his visitor was nearly to the porch. The man’s teeth were chattering so hard that he couldn’t seem to force intelligible words out. Chase caught a few mumbled syllables.

“Well, you look like three miles of bad road,” Chase said. He helped the man up the stairs and then impartially started brushing snow off his back, not really paying attention to where his hands were until the man startled when Chase’s hands came down on his ass, smacking snow away.

The stranger whirled, his brown eyes wide.

Chase held his hands out to his sides, harmless. “No point in trackin’ that all in m’house, man, and you look a bit chilled to do it yourself.”

The man nodded, stomped off his feet as best he could, which wasn’t very well. Chase sighed. The guy was wearing fucking Oxfords, for Christ’s sweet sake. He’d be lucky if he had any toes left at all. Fool.

“Sex,” the man said.

“What?” Chase had to have misheard that. He stuck a finger--snow covered, and cold--into his ear as if to clear it out. Or wind up his brain. “What did you say?”

“Six. Six miles of bad road.”

“Jesus, fella,” Chase said. “Come in and get warm. There’s a fire at the hearth. Leave your shoes out here.”

Update and Stuff

So... most of you know that there's been a "thing" over at Vamptasy / CHBB / Hot Ink and all my rights have been returned to me. (The Marked Man series, and the Demoniac Codex series are returned, as well as Pistols & Guns) I don't even have enough bandwidth to be upset about this... I'm not even sure I would be upset, if I had the bandwidth. I've enjoyed working with V/CHBB/HI/Alphabet soup for a while (altho I never did find a convenient way to refer to the publishing company)

For the time being, you can still get the paperback copies of both books on Amazon until the imprint is done, then there won't be anymore available, but the kindle copies are already down... if you really really need a copy -- and of course you do! -- just send me an email at lynntownsend.writer at gmail dot com and we can work out some sort of donation for the time being to get the e-reader copy...

I've sent the novels out to look into reprints with one publisher, and hopefully I will hear something back... if not, I have some other places to try... worst comes to worst, for those of you who are reading the Demoniac Codex and are sad not to finish it, I will make those available as an e-book format, self-pubbed or donation-payments or something, so that you can at least finish the series... Check back with me in March for an update, if you don't hear anything beforehand.

(On the plus side, both books for Forging of Souls are available in the public library system in New York... )

~~~~~~~

I've also been recently diagnosed with a chronic illness, because you know, stuff just has to suck. It's called Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria, which essentially means "your body is being stupid and you have hives and we don't know why, and we're not sure how to fix it." Despite sounding like doctors are dumb, they're really not and this condition affects a LOT of people.

Now, imagine all those red spots are on fire.
This is how I feel.

*** this is your only warning that I do not need or want suggestions, woo-medical advice, suggested diet changes, no, it's not my fucking laundry detergent, I have been sick for almost 7 weeks now, it if was easy or find-able, I would have found it by now, or anything like that. I am working with my doctors on relieving the symptoms and we're going to try a recently approved medical injection series that might help me a lot. Any medical advice unless given to me by a doctor will promptly be deleted. I thank you for your concern, but computer tech and medical advice seem to be two subjects where non-experts abound. I know you probably mean well, but it's annoying me, so please stop. (If you weren't going to say anything, this isn't directed at you. If you were going to make suggestions, please don't. I'm saying please, but I'm already annoyed from my real life. Please don't add to my burden by stressing me out over here, too.) ******

Because I have been ill since the 6th of October, I'm not going to be competing in NaNo this year. I was going to, and I really did try, but I had another relapse around the 4th of November and I'm on more medication than a hyperactive kangaroo, so I'm exhausted. In addition, I'm hungry, tired, thirsty, have dry skin, have been having random hives outbreaks, have blurred vision, have hot flashes, headaches, and random swelling of my hands, feet, and face. I am, in a word, miserable.

It makes writing kinda hard. I'm trying to finish off my Riverdance story, since I'm like 5k into that and I'd like to hand it in, but Hector's story, while I'm about 5.5k into it, is just going to have to take its sweet time getting written because I'm not going to try to force it while I'm dealing with this illness.

Spooky Stories for your Kindle

Coming Together: Strange Shifters is a collection of shifter erotica edited by Lynn Townsend. Sales proceeds benefit the Bat World Sanctuary.

Werewolves get all the glory and attention. What about the shy were-deer or the aggressive were-badger? Where are their stories? Calling all skin-changers. There's nothing sexier than a lover who isn't afraid to let their inner animal out!

You can pre-order Strange Shifters today and have it on your kindle Halloween!

Amazon Buy Link

or

Smashwords Buy Link

The paperback copies should be available for pre-order before next week. Remember that all proceeds go to Bat World Sanctuary and you can like them on Facebook.

Bats are highly sensationalized and misunderstood creatures, but for the most part are very sweet and very useful. If for no other reason, we should all help them out because they eat thousands of POUNDS of bugs every year... can you imagine what a summer evening would be like without bats?

I'd like to take a moment to thank all my wonderful authors and contributors; Jaap Boekestein, Lukas Scott, Lisabet Sarai,  Adrik Kemp, Delilah Night, Elizabeth L. Brooks, Emma Whitehall, Leigh Ellwood, Lynn Townsend, Daniel Burnell, Marie Piper, Nickie Jamison, Lily Malone, T.G. Haynes, T.B. Bond, and Margot McGuire. A special thanks also to Alessia Brio, who continues to take in my crazy anthology ideas, and also Jenn Nixon, who helped me get our cover art situated, and especially to every reader out there who takes a chance on my stories and anthologies. I hope you love this collection as much as I do.

Coming Together: Strange Shifters Cover

Coming Together: Strange Shifters -- Table of Contents

I've got all the contracts back, done all the editing, and am awaiting like 2 stories left for final versions...

Which meant that it was time for me to buckle down and set the order for the stories, which can be a really tricky task. You want to start with a bang and end with a boom, and keep the tension up for the entire book. It's tough, and it's a skill I'm still not sure I've mastered -- this is only my second anthology, after all...

But, here's what we got....




Introduction: The Animal Inside...                            

Bored in Heaven                                      Daniel Burnell
A Hand Outstretched                       Elizabeth L. Brooks
Gator Tail                                                 Leigh Ellwood
Mine                                                     Emma Whitehall
Small Change                                              Adrik Kemp
Moonlight Ride                                            Marie Piper
Water & Fire                                          Jaap Boekestein
Circus                                                      Nickie Jamison
The Storyteller                                            Tony Haynes
The Dive                                                       Lukas Scott
A Reindeer by Any Other Name               Delilah Night
Tar Pit Triage                                               Lily Malone
Valkyrie                                                  Nickie Jamison
Champ                                                  Margot McGuire
Woman without a Shadow                          Bruce Meyer
Rezoned                                                          T.B. Bond
Mouse Games                                       Lynn Townsend
Snowbound                                                Lisabet Sarai
                               
                                                                   Author Bios

Sooo busy

It's funny, in a way. I get so busy actually working that I don't write blog entries.

I've been working really hard to get ready for Coming Together: Strange Shifters. (I wish I did cover art, because we still don't have any and I need some, but I'm a terrible graphics editor)

I've gotten all my stories edited and most of them returned, so I'm doing the final check-through for 16 of them and getting them mapped out in the anthology file.

I've written two short stories in the last two weeks, which has to be some sort of record, for me, at least. One of them is about 7,000 words and I wrote it from scratch, starting on the 10th and I finished it Tuesday, so 12 days. The other was half-finished a while back, I started it in February of 2014, and for reasons that I can't recall, never finished it. Then, this morning, I saw a story call and thought "did I ever finish that... no, no I didn't." I dug up the file, pulled it out, read it, decided it was actually fairly good and would meet the requirements for the call nicely.

I figured it would take me a week or so to finish it off, but no, apparently something started turning in my head and I cranked out almost 3,000 words today, did some quick editing, and sent it off to the publisher.

According to my calendar, on Monday I'll start writing my Twisted Fairy Tale story, which I'm calling Small Problems, and is a Tom Thumb m/m story.

For some reason, I decided that I'll try to write a short story for every one of Torquere's anthology calls for 2016. They have rather a lot of topics that I think I can work with. (I'm pretty sure I won't, actually, get all of them, but I might get at least seven done, and that's more short stories than I've done in a while... I think. I don't know, I lose track a lot...)

October will see me finishing off the Strange Shifters anthology -- the current anticipated publication date is October 31st, but if we don't get a cover soon, I'm concerned. (Do you have mad cover design skills? Want to donate some time? Please contact Alessia Brio at erotic.cocktail at gmail dot com for more information!) and writing a short story about Irish dancing. I have't decided much about that short story yet, but I do have some friends who do Irish dancing who've agreed to help me with the technical details...

And then I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I'm not what you'd call the best NaNo person, but I do want to finish writing All that Jazz by hopefully the end of this year, for fall publication of next year.

After that, I'll get Sins of Angels back from my betas and finish edits on that...

Which takes me through the end of the year...

Short Story Call, Coming Together: On Wheels

Your Regular Author: Let me hand you over to Leigh Ellwood, who has a short story upcoming in my Strange Shifters anthology (look for it at your favorite ebook retailer end of October)


Recently Alessia Brio at Coming Together gave us a short update about current and coming projects. I already knew about Strange Shifters because I have an M/M short, "Gator Tail," included. If anybody wanted to do something for 2016, just holler.

I recalled the fun I had putting together Coming Together: Girl on Girl (ARe ~ AMZ ~ BN ~ ITUNES ~ SMASH). That book was a finalist for the AAD Bookie Award and the GCLS Goldie. Since its publication, I thought often about another project for CT, and with the recent news of refugees I realized an idea.

This book won't be out for a while, but the charity it will benefit will always need help. While you wait, of course, you can research organizations that help global refugees and donate. Right now, though, I'm happy to announce calls for Coming Together: On Wheels.

SUBMIT Submissions of short erotica and erotic romance are sought for the upcoming collection Coming Together: On Wheels, edited by Leigh Ellwood, to benefit UNHCR. UNHCR assists refugees around the world in seeking asylum and rebuilding their lives. For this anthology, we're looking for stories about sexy, badass heroes and heroines on wheels. We want tattooed and leather-clad bikers, daredevil stock car drivers, daring street racers... fast on the streets but hot between the sheets, or in the backseat. We welcome all sub-genres and pairings for this project. We'll take futuristic or historical, BDSM or romcom, M/F or anything in the LGBTQ spectrum. If they ride, we'll read. We are looking for believable characters and strong and sizzling prose guaranteed to melt any digital reader.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Direct all submissions to ffcomingtogether@gmail.com and CC submissions@the-erotic-cocktail.com. Include “Coming Together On Wheels Submission” in the header of your e-mail. In your e-mail message, include a short summary of your story, a two-line blurb, and a short biography, about 150 words. Stories between 3,000 and 7,500 are preferred. The editor will consider stories as long as 10,000 if she finds them truly exceptional.

Coming Together contracts non-exclusive rights to publish, so previously published work may be considered. Please note it in your query, but remember you must own the rights to the work you submit. Stories over 5,000 words may be released individually through Coming Together as well, with the sales proceeds benefiting UNHCR. Please use RTF, DOC, or DOCX format when submitting a manuscript. Include your real name and pen name and a working e-mail address. The editor will only consider manuscripts in the aforementioned formats attached to the query e-mail. DO NOT paste your story in the body of your message. Please use Times New Roman font, size 12, and one-inch margins. Double-space paragraphs and set indentations to .3 – DO NOT use tabs or spaces to indent.

Coming Together is a non-profit organization, and all CT authors and editor have generously donated their talents to various causes. Compensation for inclusion in this work is a PDF contributor copy of the finished product and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping an amazing organization that is helping people around the world find better living solutions.

Wedding March, the full story

I almost missed the end of the story; I wrote parts one through four for the blog tour like two weeks ago, and then I was all, oh, I'll finish this off in a few days, no problem...

And I got all wrapped up in working on Strange Shifters, and I had my annual garden club Social that I had to plan, and my daughter's going back to school next week, so there's been a lot of planning and running around for that...

My husband's friend at work went to the Philippines for vacation and brought back some foreign virus, that he then generously spread around the office and that my husband brought home for me. Yesterday my sinuses were so badly infected that it looked like someone had punched me in the eye. Half my face was swollen up and I had a fever and a headache. (I got anti-biotics and I'm feeling much better now, so that's good, but yesterday I was pretty much useless.)

All of the sudden it's Sunday; I'm planning to post the full story on Monday, and it's not written.

Fortunately for you -- and me -- Beau and Vin's world is so easy for me to slip into these days that the rest of the story just poured out of me Sunday morning....

So, here you are, I hope you enjoy it.

Wedding March -- I'm keeping it as a separate page so people can find it easier when this blog post is archived.

Thanks especially to everyone who hosted the story as I wrote it, Em, Vicki, and the two Delilah's. I love you all and you're wonderful...

If you would like this story in a .mobi or .pdf or .pub version for your electronic devices, just shoot me an email at lynntownsend.writer (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me what you want. Otherwise, wait a few weeks, come back here, and I'll have links posted for downloading. (Provided that I can figure out how to do that, thus the few weeks.)

Classic Blog Tour

Hello everyone...

You know, it's hilarious that I spend so much time writing short stories, novels, novellas, editing, and otherwise doing my job that I don't seem to have lots of leftover time to write about writing about...

And by funny, I mean slightly annoying...

THAT being said...

I'm doing a little blog hop for Classic, which comes out on Wednesday, so that's awesome, right...

You can pre-order Classic from Torquere, but the links for Amazon aren't up yet, which is both weird and disappointing....

I decided to do something a little different for this tour (Thanks to Nickie Jamison for the fantastic idea) and I wrote a little short story about Beau and Vin that takes place several years after Classic ends.

Classic is (probably. Maybe.) the last novel in the Rainbow Connection series that takes place from Beau and Vin's points of view. The next novel, All that Jazz, is about Hector, and the fifth novel, Punked Up, is about Ann-Marie. Readers will still see Vin and Beau as they go about their lives, but what's going on in their lives won't be central anymore; they'll be side characters. In terms of when, this novel takes place somewhere between All that Jazz and Punked Up, maybe about eight months before Punked Up. And it covers an event that would not, otherwise, be discussed, so this was the opportunity to tell that story.

I wrote the story in five parts, and each blogger on the tour is hosting a 2-3 page segment of the story, along with the various links and promo material for Classic...

I hope you enjoy it. I'll keep this page updated as the tour progresses, and then next Monday, I'll post the entirety (with part five, for those of you who do math) to this page for you to enjoy.


V.L. Locey is the first to host me on her blog, Thoughts from a Yodeling Goat Herder
Em Lynley is hosting me on Wednesday at EM Lynley.com
Delilah Devlin's got me on Thursday at Delilah Devlin.com
and then another lovely Delilah has me on Friday, at Delilah Night.com

So, drop by, give these ladies some love, and I'll see you on the flipside!

Guest Post : Heat Wave: Plattsburg by Thomas Grant Brusso

Your usual blogger: I'm really excited to have Thomas Grant Brusso here. When JM put out the call for submissions, I decided where I wanted to host my story before I decided the content of my story. Lake Champlain is a really lovely area, and I spent a lot of summers taking the ferry back and forth from Plattsburgh, NY to Burlington, Vermont. I chose the Vermont side of the water for my story. Imagine my delight when Mr. Brusso selected the Plattsburgh side of the same body of water. 


I started publishing my short fiction in August 2014 when JMS Books LLC accepted my first short story, “A Light in the Dark,” a gay contemporary romance. Then in April 2015, my second romance story, “Something Beautiful Remains,” was released. “Heat Wave: Plattsburgh” is my third and most recent story. I had fun writing it. Setting the story in my hometown in upstate New York gave me the opportunity to include the theater at SUNY Plattsburgh as a backdrop for the story. The theater is a magical place and I captured all the dramatic elements of it during those scenes.

“Heat Wave: Plattsburgh” centers around two young men, Jace and Germain, who meet by chance, slowly build an amiable, romantic relationship, and find ways to escape the heat wave that has assaulted the small community. It is a gay contemporary romance.

My story is one of 18 that are included in the Heat Wave anthology series distributed by JMS Books LLC through July and August. Check out the other stories written by the wonderfully talented authors at JMS Books. It is an honor to be part of the series.

“Heat Wave: Plattsburgh” is now available at JMS Books LLC. It will be released through other online distributors on August 16, 2015. Amazon Pre-Order

Very Small Cat; Very Large Give-away

 So... We finally got a new cat.

After we lost Grendel, back in May, I had kinda a downswing with my depression. 2015 has sort of been the year of death by 1,000 paper cuts (or in my more angry moments, I call it the year of "Fuck You!") My blog post on depression, Last Chance, seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people. In the week since I wrote it, it's become the third-most read entry on this blog of all time, behind my two different calls for submissions (if you haven't gotten your story to me, Saturday is your deadline!!)

Mostly everything's been mostly medium-sized fuckery and not anything completely life-wrecking or (like in the cases of the severe illness of a dear friend's father, who I love a lot, the death of my cousin's husband, and the death of my cat) nothing I can change, but they've been constant.

Broken glasses, broken teeth, unexpected bills (I forgot that buying a new car would mean that we'd actually have to pay a personal property tax that had some bite to it, rather than just the $30 or so a year we pay to have a 22 year old car), work problems, friend drama (break ups, new boyfriends, stuff like that, some of it's not bad news or anything, and it doesn't directly affect me, aside from you know, loving and caring about my friends, but it can still be tiring.) vet bills for our cat that died, the dentist double-billing us, flat tires...

If you've read my story in Family Time, Cascade Failure...

That's the kind of year we're having. Nothing's unendurable, nothing's catastrophic. Just little to medium sized problems, constantly. It's more than halfway through the year and I'm ready for it to be next year.... just, oh, my god.

So, yeah, new cat.

Kitten, actually. He's about 10 weeks old and we've named him Oreo. (My fault. The shelter named him Noodles, which none of us liked as a name, and I was throwing ideas out there randomly, and when I said Oreo, the husband said "so, if he gets fat, can I call him Double-Stuff?" which set me and the childthing laughing, so Oreo it is...)

And after a chest cold and getting his bits snipped, he's home...

Which leads me to the contest / sell-a-thon thingie...

Our old cat was, aside from being old, always very calm. Grendel didn't play, he didn't climb, he didn't... do much of anything, really. Every once in a blue moon, he'd attack the shadow of the ceiling fan in the kitchen. Other than that, he ate, he slept, he tolerated affection with a certain amount of "I can see the floor, can I get down now?" Which means our house is NOT very ... childproof? I guess might be the best word.

I've spent the last two days moving things and attempting to teach the kitten not to climb on kitchen counters, the dining room table, into the trash, etc, etc, and trying to move things from "if this gets knocked over it will break" to "when this gets knocked over, it'll make a mess."

Oreo has staked out a spot on my desk where he now likes to sleep when I'm working that's surprisingly not in my way, and to encourage this behavior, I cleared the spot out so that it's nice and comfortable for him.

Unfortunately, this is right where all my contributor copies were. (he shoved several of them out onto the floor until I cleared the space)

I moved them, but now they're cluttering up my regular bookshelf in stacks and I don't have really a good place for them. So...

I'm going to sell them.

If you want a book, they will cost $10 per paperback with $5 for shipping and handling, no matter how many books you order. This is between $2 and $6 less than their normal retail price... 

--Disclaimer: I am probably not making money on this. What people don't always know is that indie writers seldom get more than 1 or 2 copies of a book as part of their contracts and some companies don't give away contributor copies at all. Sometimes, depending on the company, we can get more books for a 40 - 60% discount for the purposes of selling them at trade shows or cons. I'm not saying this to complain, I want people to know why I'm not giving away 30 paperbacks.... (also, why I want to smack people who ask for free books...)
--For those who care, I did not buy the Coming Together books at discount; I paid full retail price for them, so all royalties that go to charity have already been paid to those charities.

Now, if you're interested in these books, I am having a contest for people who purchase now...

1 copy of Blood Sight

1 copy of Howling Bitch

9 copies of Blues

1 copy of Roll

5 copies of London Steam

1 copy of Coming Together: Among the Stars

1 copy of Coming Together: Pro Bono

1 copy of Coming Together: For the Holidays

1 copy of Encounters

2 copies of Family Time

1 copy of Marked Man

1 copy of Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica

1 copy of Cupid's Chokehold (out of print and unavailable anywhere)

4 copies of Whetting the Appetite

1 copy of Ladies of Steampunk Magazine, Vol 1

All books will be signed by me (and if you order Whetting the Appetite, I can probably get Elizabeth L. Brooks to sign it, too)

In addition, if you buy a book, you'll be entered to win a Grand Prize -- a Vin & Beau tote bag, a USB drive which includes e-copies of ALL my current books to date, (which will include a copy of Classic!) and a $10 gift card to Amazon / Barnes and Noble / JMS books or Torquere Press.

(~$100 value, give or take...)

You will get one entry per book purchased!

I will keep this contest open until I either sell all the books (titles on a first come, first served basis, and I will post when books have sold) or until September 2.

I accept payment through personal check, Paypal or Cash app. You can comment on this blog, email me at lynntownsend (dot) writer (at) gmail (dot) com or Facebook me or bother me on twitter, or use the donate button at the top left of my blog to send money and I'll email you from there. (What I'm saying is, I'm easy to get in touch with!)

Heat Wave: Burlington

Heat Wave: Burlington is out...

For this week, only, at the publisher for 30% off list price. It will be available through Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and other e-book sellers (Smashwords, All Romance, etc) starting next week.

Blurb

Brandon Russo can't stand the sight of blood and the current heat wave makes doing almost anything outdoors unpleasant. So when an SUV sideswipes a bicycle right at the gate of the storage facility in Burlington, Vermont, where Brandon works for his aunt, he considers just locking himself in the office and calling 911. But he's rewarded for letting his good nature overcome his squeamishness when the man he rescues from the ditch turns out to be absolutely gorgeous.

Scott Seay is a photographer on the trail of a legend. A strong lead has brought him to Vermont for the auction of a storage unit whose owner had been obsessed with Champy, the creature rumored to live in the depths of Lake Champlain. When Scott winds up in a ditch outside that very same storage facility, being rescued by a hot, chivalrous man who literally sweeps Scott into his arms ... well, Scott's always believed in fate.

EXCERPT:

Brandon woke up with the disconcerting feeling of having no idea where he was or why he was so aroused. His cock pressed urgently against too-tight jeans and his heart rate was so rapid, he could feel each beat in his eyeballs. A warm body -- too warm, really -- pressed against his, and an arm was draped over his hips, fingers dangling against his belly.

His mouth was sticky; he’d gone to bed without brushing his teeth. He ran his tongue around in his mouth for a bit, working up some spit, trying to remember the events of the day that led to having what was quite obviously a man in his bed. He squirmed just a bit, rubbing against the person spooned up against him. The person made a breathy sort of sigh, shifted a little, and Brandon could feel the hard length of his bed-guest’s cock against his butt cheek.

Why was it so dark? Usually the street light just outside Brandon’s window lit his bedroom with an annoying, amber-yellow glow. Right. He wasn’t in his bed. He was in Scott’s hotel room. The day’s events returned, a little muzzy, but he sorted them out painfully, his brain completely sleep-muddled. He wasn’t sure why he was sleeping with Scott’s arm around him, although he had to admit, uncomfortable erection or not, he didn’t mind having Scott’s arm around him. But it wasn’t like him to forget having sex, and he was pretty sure they hadn’t. So why was he ...

Crap. He must have fallen asleep while watching television. Which meant he was currently hogging Scott’s bed without being invited into it in the first place. Unease settled like a cold rock in his belly. Like Scott hadn’t had a bad enough day without trying to sleep around a bed hog.

Brandon squirmed, trying to move out from under Scott’s arm. Least he could do was sleep on the room’s tiny sofa if he couldn’t find his keys in the dark without waking Scott. Every movement was torture, waking himself further and feeling the lean length of Scott’s body against him. To be honest, he didn’t really want to go. He wanted to turn in that heated embrace and kiss Scott awake.

Scott’s arms tightened around Brandon’s hip. “Hey,” Scott said, his breath ruffling Brandon’s hair. “Where you goin’?”

“Sorry I woke you,” Brandon said. “I’ll head on home and let you get some sleep.”

Scott snuggled closer. “Look, I know I’m really bad with the flirting thing. I don’t get loads of practice. But I did invite you up to my room. I ... if you want ... I’d like you to stay.”

* ~* ~ *~ ~* ~

Aaaand, I got another book cover in my email box....

This collection will be available for a limited time only and I'm told it will be for sale "soon."

Antimatter Press is not, however, keeping its doors open. All remaining contracts have been returned, and this book will be the last publication. I'm not quite sure when it will be out, but I'll let you know as soon as it is.

My story in this collection is called "Living Proof" and is about ghosts who wonder what happens before death... an interesting twist on the ghost hunter concepts. I think you'll enjoy it.

It is not, however, my usual, nor is it a romance at all, but just a straight up spec-fic story.

Anyway, more as I know more...

More Book Covers

I think I mentioned earlier this year that this summer was going to be very busy for me and publishing, right?

So, I got these covers in my email box recently...

Mythologically Torqued (which I have been mistakenly calling Mythically Torqued, apparently) just got the cover out...

If you're still reading this, or reading it again, the cover's been redacted for a new cover... I don't know when we'll get the new cover, or what was wrong with the old cover, so I'm just weird and grumpy right now. I'll post the new cover when we get it, probably some time over the weekend.

SIGH.

I got a look at the author list, which puts me in good company with Adrik Kemp and BA Tortuga, among others... (Adrik was in my Coming Together: Among the Stars anthology last year with a brilliantly diverse piece called "Of Gods and Men" and if you haven't heard of BA before, you should take some time to check out an enormous backlist of fantastic work...)

This book will also be released in a paperback edition, weighing in at a hefty 100,000+ words (so I could smack someone with the book and it will hurt.)

You will also, if you prefer, be able to order my story, "How 'Bout Them Apples?" as a stand alone volume, like with all the current Torquere anthologies...

Mythologically Torqued, Vol 2 will be available August 19th.

And....

Yesterday I also got this

I gotta say, it's with some sadness that I bid adieu to Beau and Vin, who've been a huge part of my life for the last few years. Don't worry, they're not gone for good (Vin will be a side character in All That Jazz, and Beau will be a side character in Punked Up) but as main characters, I'm saying my temporary farewells. The two boys are well on their way to becoming adults, and while that has its own trials and tribulations, this particular chapter of their story is done.

(An idea has been lingering for a while of a sixth novel, set after Punked Up, called Bad Rap, which may come back to them when they are a little more established as being adults...)

Classic will be available September 2, also in paperback.

Last Chance

961 words written today. I am making slow, but steady progress along the theme of "getting my words per day count" back up to something resembling "might actually finish this fucking novel on time." -- posted to my Facebook account 

I started a few weeks back trying to get back into writing regularly, after taking some time off to be depressed and say "fuck my life, fuck my writing, I'm going to play Star Wars" and then trying desperately to pretend that I wasn't doing that. Because I always pretend that I'm not doing that, because I am crazy and stubborn and depressed, and all three of these things are a bad combination. In this particular circumstance, I am defining crazy as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

My thing that I keep doing is pretending to be fine when I am not fine. When I am nowhere close to fine. Where fine is an 18 hour flight and lost luggage away from where I am. And I pretend to be fine because admitting that I'm not fine always seems -- from the headspace of not being fine -- to be a "quitting" scenario. If I admit to not being fine, then I'm not fine, and I give up.

Except I'm not giving up, I'm never giving up. And every once in a while, I can take a few days off, relax, get my head back on straight and keep right on doing what I'm doing. Without, and here's the kicker, feeling guilty about having taken the time off for self care.

Which I know is not the case. I know this. I even, most of the time, KNOW that I know this even when I'm doing it.

I swear to you (and to me, and honestly, right now, it's me that's important and not you, because none of you out there are judging me, and even if you were, I honestly don't care that much about random person on the internet's disapproval.) that I plan like a master these days. I write into my schedule at least two or three weeks worth of FUCK THIS SHIT time into everything I do.

Well, at least into every novel. Short stories have a higher rate of "I am not going to finish this by the deadline, so fuck it." Also, I know for a fact now that MANY editors will give you a break to get a story in, if they know you're working on it. And even sometimes when they know you're not working on it, because if they give you to the 15th and you still don't get it done, they're not out anything, and they've made you more likely to write for them again, because you're not mad at them. (This applies to me. If you have a shapeshifter story and you need extra time, just ask. I'll probably say yes. Because if you don't turn it in, I'm not out anything, and if you do, I have another story... if you don't ask, however, I can't say yes. And I won't take late stuff if you don't ask because that's just rude.)

One of the benefits of working for myself is that I can take time off when I need to. One of the drawbacks of working for myself is that I can do this. Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of a few days worth of "god this sucks, I suck, will somebody just give me a cookie and $100,000??" that it feels like 1) it's going on forever and 2) I won't stop doing this.

Every time I get depressed, I wonder... is this going to be the time where I don't come out of it... is this my last chance?

When I was 25 and got dumped by my ex boyfriend, I was concerned that I was getting TOO OLD to find a new boyfriend, get married and have a family. I say this from the point of view of a 43 year old mother of an exceptionally cool kid who wonders what the actual fuck her 25 year old self was thinking...

I thought it was my last chance then. And sometimes I think it's my last chance now. And I look forward to 60 year old me saying "God, I was an idiot then, too..."

But I'm less of an idiot now than I was then. It takes LESS LONG to come back from the depression. To the ex's defense, he broke up with me while I was in one of the longest depressions of my life, and while this doesn't always say wonderful things about him, I was pretty damn hard to deal with for someone who's several years younger and not so well-versed in therapy as I was, even at that time. And it's quite possible that he didn't even know that I had a different, non-depressed personality.

I'm not sure I knew that I had a very different, non-depressed personality.

The other thing about being depressed is that it's sometimes hard for me to recognize that I am depressed.

Sometimes I feel like my default state is FUCKING EXHAUSTED and all the coffee in the world is no help at all. I feel like I don't get enough sleep, that I'm doing too much, and at the same time, I'll feel incredibly lonely. Like I haven't spend any time with people I care about. (Side note: Doesn't help to be the only freaking extrovert in a group of fucking fucking reclusives!) And honestly, I don't get as much time with people as I need. So there's the part of my personality and energy that gets wasted away and then I don't get it back because everybody's busy or peopled out.

(I am now taking applications for a new local best friend. I miss having someone to regularly hang out with. Social media is nice, but it's still like putting a cellophane wrapper around me and my energy.)

(side side additional note: when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I was also diagnosed with "situational anxiety" which sounds stupid. If there's a situation, of COURSE I'm going to be anxious about it! Isn't everyone? -- short answer, no, everyone isn't. That being said, my husband is stressed out recently about some work stuff that's stupid and long and complicated... which is fine, he's allowed to be anxious, too. But his response to being anxious is to pull back, to protect himself. This has the unfortunate side effect of making me feel even more isolated, since he's one of the few actual humans I interact with on a regular basis.)

Right... what was I talking about?

Depression. Yeah, it's easier to see looking back, than it is while I'm in it.

And sometimes I will think I'm coming out of it when I'm not, or when I'm just having a little bump on my stupid mood-o-meter.

Honestly, there are times when I wish I could take pills. I really, really do. And I've tried... a bit. (doesn't help that I pretty much distrust and hate therapists, which is also something I've tried... a bit... to work on...) But they get in the way of my being a creative person, and since most of my self-image comes from me being a creative person, pills just make me... less me.

Okay, so I'm less me who doesn't break down crying at the death of a flying ant in a movie (sorry, spoilers for Ant-Man. Suck it up, buttercup, you should have been there on opening night.) And less-me might have a cleaner house and less tasks on the "I ought to do this eventually" list....

But I am getting better. I think at this point it's part of me and my life to have these phases, and it's more a matter of how I deal with them, than it is a matter of being perfect, or putting a stop to it entirely.

So... I think I'm doing okay right now....

And I've written a little over 10k in usable material in the last 3 weeks... (not including the 3k I wrote of a story that I threw out for being awful...)

Forging of Souls, Duology; Book Two, A Wanted Woman

Buy Link Amazon Kindle

All the rules have changed.

Separated from her lover, Catreen An'dello is forced to forge new alliances with the underground world of thieves, whores, and renegade magi. Catreen must learn to negotiate in a society when the wrong move can mean death and discovers that the fate of kingdoms suddenly rest in the hands of a leaderless hodgepodge of talented assassins, ruthless murderers, and selfish courtesans. Can Catreen find the key to protecting these fringe citizens while thwarting Aleck Merril's world dominating ambitions?

In the hands of his enemies, Bastian Hooke is ensorcelled by ancient, dark magic. He witnesses the forging of a new soulstone and discovers the horrific reasons for their creation. Remorseless, soulless, he is set loose on the city with only one thought; Kill Catreen. Fractured by magic gone horribly wrong, will Bastian be able to mend his broken soul before he destroys everything that he loves and betrays everything that he is?

~~*~~

The dedication to this book changed while I was writing it.

It was dedicated to some friends from an old BBS roleplaying game I used to play -- Bastian was a character there in an earlier incarnation... 

But just before the book was complete and while I was in the middle of the last set of edits, I lost my beloved cat, Grendel. Named for the monster in Beowulf -- an old English epic poem, which is quite good and that I once translated in college -- he'd been a part of my life for the last 15 years. Losing him has been a shock, and I'm still not really settled into my routine post-cat. 

I've shared my living space with cats for most of my entire life -- no one really owns a cat, after all -- but I've almost always had two at a time. Little Bit and Ugly Face (that's not my fault, and he was remarkably ugly, after all... sweet, and I loved him, but ugly...), Puff and Bear, then later Sandi and Bear (same Bear, different companion) and then Sandi with Sterling, then Sterling and Grendel. Sterling left us a few years ago... and we decided that Grendel was just too old to put up with a new cat companion. 

So, ever since we moved into our house, there's only been the one cat.

Strange how empty a house seems when there's no cat.

At some point, I'll write another novel and dedicate it to those friends who missed out on this one... 

Guest Post, LaQuette...

Protected Heart: Queens of Kings: Book 3

by LaQuette

Publisher: Hot Ink Press

Release Date: June 25, 2015

Buy Link: http://smarturl.it/ProtectedHeart

Blurb:

When trust becomes a matter of life or death…

Heart Searlington, captain of the seventy-fourth precinct in Brooklyn, New York, has everything she could ever want. The sexy as sin husband, the perfect house, and the perfect addition to their family, four-month-old Amare.

But when a senseless act of violence threatens the lives of two people she loves, Heart does what comes natural to her…she protects what’s hers.

Kenneth Searlington, billionaire real estate tycoon, is living the ultimate dream—family, friends, and wealth. Life couldn’t be more perfect, until trusting the wrong friend puts his life on the line.

When he can’t trust friends or family, Kenneth takes matters into his own hands. Who should Kenneth trust? The wife who lied, or the friend and family who betrayed him? Maybe the only person he can trust is himself? When protecting the heart she loves forces Heart to omit certain truths about herself and those she loves, can Kenneth see past her betrayal long enough for her to keep him alive?



Excerpt: The subtle touch of fingers so familiar to his skin he could confuse it for his own grazed the slick skin of his shoulder until it slid down his back as smoothly as the droplets of water raining down on him. “You okay?” she asked softly into his ear. “I was afraid today was too much for you. You’ve only been back home a handful of days.” He nodded his head, eyes still closed to the streaming water saturating the thick strands of his hair. He felt her hand crawl back up the length of his back, the movement making the muscles that rested just beneath her digits twitch in anticipation. Heart was right, he had returned from the hospital several days before, but in that time the two of them had barely spent any alone time together. They’d both been physically present, and usually that was all it took to stoke the embers that always seemed to be on a low simmer just waiting for an excuse to fan the flames to full blaze. But since his release there had been something there, something that was keeping them from being them. Kenneth turned his head slightly toward the sound of her voice. He opened his eyes just enough to see the water-sprinkled vision of her standing to the side of him. He pulled her into his embrace and pinned her back against the wall between his outstretched arms. There was nothing like the sight of his wife naked and waiting for him. No matter how difficult things were between them they’d always had this. It baffled him that he’d allowed whatever this was between them to fester to the point where he hadn’t touched his wife in days. The knowledge that she’d kept something so important from him fucked with his head in a way he hadn’t anticipated. Truth was he really hadn’t even given serious thought as to why her omission of the facts about Bryan and Justice impacted him so much. But to deny himself this, this connection, this reassurance that his world was grounded, that they were whole, what the fuck was he thinking? He positioned her directly under the spray of water and watched the fullness of her hair flatten against her scalp and back. She would bitch at him later about having to go to the hairdresser, but the thought of that conversation alone was pulling up the corners of his mouth into a wicked smile. He allowed his fingers to rest at the base of her head, fingers caressing her nape in just the right way to make her fall into his touch. His heart tightened slightly. They’d been stressed and their connection strained, but underneath all the bullshit, it was still there and he was grateful for it. Their connection is what kept his soul intact, what kept him sane enough to deal with the rest of his life when dealing with the craziness that wealth brought. “We have a lot to discuss, Heart.” “Kenneth I—” He leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to stop whatever it was she was about to say. Words weren’t what they needed now. He giggled to himself. If their shrink could hear his thoughts she’d be jumping up and down screaming her opposition to his line of thinking. Kenneth wasn’t against therapy. It had definitely worked to get the two of them back on track, and he definitely wanted them to sign up for a session or two after this latest fiasco, but this wasn’t something that needed fixing. This was the one way that their communication was perfect and they were absolutely in sync. He plunged his tongue inside the warmth of her mouth and savored the sweet hint of apple juice that danced on his taste buds. He pulled back just a moment to give them each a chance to breathe. “I’m not avoiding the conversation we need to have, and as soon as we’re finished in here we’re going to throw on some clothes and go downstairs in the kitchen and hash this shit out over a cup of coffee. But right now, I just need to feel my wife.”


  Author Bio Amazon: http://smarturl.it/LaQuetteonAmazon Facebook: Http://www.Facebook.com/LaQuetteTheAuthor Twitter: @LaQuetteLikes Website: http://www.LaQuetteLikes.com 2015 Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award Finalist in Erotic Romance, LaQuette, a native of Brooklyn, New York, spends her time catering to her three distinct personalities: Wife, Mother, and Educator.

Writing--her escape from everyday madness--has always been a friend and comforter. She loves writing and devouring romance novels. Although she possesses a graduate degree in English Lit, she'd forego Shakespeare any day to read something hot, lusty, and romantic. She loves hearing from readers and discussing the crazy characters that are running around in her head causing so much trouble. Contact her on Facebook, Twitter, her website, Amazon, and her Facebook group, LaQuette's Lounge.

Other Titles by LaQuette

 Divided Heart: Queens of Kings: Book 2 Blurb: The last two years of Heart MacKenzie Searlington’s life have been a constant forward motion of change. She’s been promoted to NYPD captain of the seventy-fourth precinct in Brooklyn, a job she never wanted, but is slowly finding her way through with the help of a dedicated second in command and a house full of exemplary officers. Married to the sexy and powerful mogul, Kenneth Searlington, Heart is living all of the dreams she never knew to ask for before she fell in love with the man that stole her heart. Although Kenneth bathes her in his love and devotion, insecurities from the past still haunt her and cast a dark veil over their union. Kenneth Searlington knows only one thing, he worships his wife. He has a singular purpose: to love her as hard as he can for the rest of their lives and to neutralize any threat that dares to come up against them. But how does he protect them when that threat comes from the woman he loves? Thrown by a devastating loss, Heart allows pain and despair to drive a wedge so large between them they may never be able to recover. Pushed beyond his limits, excluded and taken for granted, Kenneth has to decide whether to allow darker urges to control him, or to use his rage to fight for the one thing he adores, Heart. Can they mend the rift, or will a divided heart end their legendary love? Available on Amazon

Heart of the Matter: Queens of Kings: Book 1 Blurb: Heart “Mac” MacKenzie is a tough police lieutenant in the NYPD servicing the rough streets of Brooklyn, New York. She’s a strong leader who doesn’t mind getting in the trenches with the men and women she leads at the seventy-fourth precinct. Her house, her people, and her family—both blue and blood—are the only things that matter. She would live and die for the blue wall that shields her from a traumatic past. When her captain assigns her a high-profile kidnapping case that she doesn’t want, and insists she allows the missing girl’s irritatingly sexy uncle to tag along during the investigation, her blood boils. Mac has no choice but to do what she always does when things get out of control, lay down the law—her law. Kenneth Searlington is a rich playboy from the Upper East Side of Manhattan. With stunning looks and an unlimited source of wealth, he’s used to being the center of everyone’s attention, especially the women that he comes in contact with in high society. His life is fun and carefree until his niece, Merridith is kidnapped, and he’s forced to seek out the help of his godfather an NYPD police captain, David Porter. Afraid and frustrated, Kenneth defers to his uncle’s expertise and his promise that he’s putting his best cop on the case, Lieutenant MacKenzie. When Kenneth discovers “Mac” is actually a sexy as sin lady cop with a fiery temper to match, he decides mixing a little business with pleasure might be just the thing he needs to distract him from long-standing family issues that are trying to crawl their way back into the forefront of his life. Each used to having their own way, can these two work together long enough to bring an innocent child home? Or will they settle their differences and unyielding attraction in a more carnal way and get right down to the heart of the matter? Available on Amazon    




 My Beginning Blurb: Genesis Lawrence left her home and family in Brooklyn, New York ten years ago and never looked back. When you've spent your entire life protecting yourself from the ones that are supposed to love you, running to the other side of the country seems like the best idea ever. Emotionally bankrupt, she begins rebuilding her life after failed familial connections and a broken marriage leave her too raw to ever believe happiness exists for her. Work as a Physical Therapist in her rehab clinic is all she knows and all she wants. Drew Marrack has spent the last year of his life trying to end the soul-searing pain of losing his mother by any means necessary, even if that means ending him—literally. After a tragic accident and a r resulting disability that devastates the tattered remnants of his world, only one name can give him a brand-new start: Genesis. Pain, heartache, secrets, and tragedy from the past bring them together, and then fight to tear them apart. Is new love strong enough to give them the fresh beginning they both need, or is this simply the beginning of their end? Available on Amazon