Current Events

It's been a busy couple of months for me, and there's really no end in sight... my writing schedule puts me for - and this is just stuff I have planned, contracted, or verbally agreed to with publishers - booked up mostly solid until 2017.

Yikes!

But, in the meanwhile...

Building Us will be released by Torquere Press on June 18th.

Antho blurb: In “Building Us,” by Lynn Townsend, Eric and Temple discover that, for want of a nail, a ring is lost...

Two-Line blurb: Construction foreman, Eric, wants to build more than just a house with his steady boyfriend, Temple. But can Temple convince Eric that it's the relationship, and not the ring, that matters most?

Marketing Blurb: As a construction foreman, Eric knows how to build a house. What he's uncertain of is how to build a life, now that he's finally found the man he wants to spend his with. Temple, a university professor with a stack of erudite publications as long as his – arm – has always played the single's game, until he met Eric.

Will a roof-top proposal lead to “I do” or will the whole thing fall apart when Eric can't put a ring on it?

In case you don't know, and because I do this publishing bouncehouse thing I often can't advertise publications at one house in publications from another house, "Building Us" is the sequel story to "Home Inspection" which can be found in my collection Whetting the Appetite. The two stories have the same lead characters and Building Us picks up with Eric and Temple about a year after they first got together.

This story also contains some of the hottest m/m I've written thus far.

Thing(s) Two:

I've had some guest spots around the blogosphere, first stop was with All Romance cafe as part of their LGBT pride month, where I talk about being the silent B....

Then I dropped in to raise up interest in an older story, Synchronous Rotations, on Guys Like Romance, Too...

And I've got a full length interview coming up June 18th with SSLY Reading Room (Smile, Somebody Loves You!)

Thing Three:

I took a two-week vacation during the middle of May to seriously hate on my story. That happens, sometimes. Which sort of sucked, since I wanted to be done with Howling Bitch's first draft by June 1st. On the plus side, I did some plot work with Elizabeth Brooks (Honestly, if she and my husband didn't spark on each other wrong after about 12 hours, I'd just marry the girl and get on with my life, because I don't know how I'd live without her. And that would be easier if she was in the same house. Oh well.) and managed to get past the hurdle. Yesterday, between the morning where I got in about 3 hours of work, then in the evening, I tapped out another 2 hours, I finally finished the damn thing and wrote The End.

So, Howling Bitch is finished. Which is GOOD because it's contracted already with Vamptasy, and will be published March 17th? 18th? I'd have to check my contract, but it's mid-March of 2015. Which seems like a long time, but to me, it was just March '14 like 10 minutes ago!

I'm going to let it sit for a week or so, then go back and poke some of the plot issues that need to be massaged into place, add a bit in the middle, and then I'll send it out to my beta readers.

Thing Four:

Which means I'll be getting back to Chicago and the Rainbow Connection boys. Blues was written and finished back in Dec/Jan ish, and has been with my beta readers for a while now. I've gotten some good feedback. This novel has not been hit by the "god, I hate my own work" bug - the boys still talk to me regularly. Well, Vin actually yells at me a lot.

The plan is to edit Blues for the rest of this month and then send it in... eh, maybe mid-July?

At which point I'll be ready to start writing Book Three, Classic. (writerly aside, I've already written the opening chapter because I seriously cannot get people to shut. up. And the first chapter of Punked Up has ALSO been written. At the MOMENT, All That Jazz and Punked Up are still looking like 20 - 30,000 word novellas and I'll release them as one book.) And I may write a bonus short story, because right now, there's a scene in my head - and it's important! - that doesn't fit in the timeline of any of the novels.

And that's ... mostly it, that for the time being.

I've got a writer's retreat in September (not a fan/marketing event, but a networking/chat/drinking/writing event) that I'm looking forward to.

And then as fall starts, I have several short stories that will come out; Fair Game in Kristina Wright's For Love of a Soldier, Full Frontal Neighbor in the Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica, and Living Proof with Antimatter Press's Local Magic.

Somewhere in there, I also need to edit and do another word cut of Marked Man, my fantasy romance - I have tentative interest from one of my publishers with that, provided I can slice out another 20,000 words or so from that monstrosity... I may take another look at the rough and see if there's a "good place" to split it in half, because it's currently around 130,000 words, give or take, which would make 2 novels, and maybe we could release them 3 months apart, or something... I dunno, something to think about.

And then I'll want to write Sins of Angels, which is Book 3 of the Demoniac Codex series...

Yeah, busy writer is busy...

Accidental Cougar: Sommer Marden's Blog Tour

Like one of those favorite friends who drops in randomly to grab a cup of coffee and share a bit of gossip, Sommer Marsden hangs out at my blog... I've hosted her here several times and I talk about her a lot (in fact, I sold a copy of her book for her yesterday. I was talking to one of my girlfriends over lunch and said I'd just finished reading it. As she's forty-seven and just getting back into the dating scene after she lost her fiancee in a terrible accident last year, and the first person her sister tries to set her up with is twenty-six, she cracked up when I told her the novel's premise. I just sent her off the buy link Friday morning...)

So, I'm going to hand it over to Sommer while I get us some coffee (Burundi, single source. Good stuff.)

It’s amazing what can start with a single look. My lust for a rust bucket ’66 Mustang coupe began with a single look. My adoration of pale pink lipstick also began with a single glance. When I met the man a 19 year love affair began with a single look. Hell, my kids began with a particular gaze if you want to get technical. And when a young man did a double take at me a few months back, that single look started a book. Which actually turned into three.

It wasn’t hard to write the beginning of The Accidental Cougar because I knew exactly how Abby felt when Charlie did a double take and gave her a longer look. When that happened to me in real life a while ago, it happened during a particularly crappy week here at Casa Sommer and I looked, quite frankly, like a cast member of the Broadway show Rent. I had on multiple layers of multiple things, no makeup and my hair was wild. When that young man did a double take I assumed it was because I was shockingly unkempt.

Until he smiled. When he smiled I realized he’d did a double take for a whole different reason.

And I came home and started the book—like a speed demon. Abby was born and she was just as flabbergasted as I was about that lingering look. Only she went on to explore it. Me? I just used it as a kick in the ass to start a novel.

So, dark haired, handsome young man out there, wherever you are: Thanks for the books. And that long look. And the smile. It was exactly what I needed—on many different levels.

XOXO

Sommer

I saw him coming. I just wasn’t paying attention. My eyes found him, glanced off, and went to my bag again. Cell phone, wallet, lip gloss, book…my usual OCD check upon leaving a store. I glanced up at the young man pinpointed by a stark ray of sun, and looked right into the dark blue of his eyes.

I had no idea who he was. Only that he was tall, dark and handsome. And that wasn’t a cop out or a cliché. He was tall, dark and handsome. He was also wearing a nametag from the store I’d just exited.

Northern Drug wasn’t a big place, and I knew almost everyone who worked there. I’d raised two children and had probably spent at least a year’s salary over the years on band aids, ointments, prescriptions, acne creams and sanitary products.

Irving was the pharmacist. When he was out Mary or Darren filled in. There were three women and two men who usually manned the non-pharmacy part of the store. Mr. Tall-dark-and-handsome wasn’t one of them.

All of this swirled through my head as he shot me a coy smile—downright flirtatious—and raised a hand in a wave.

I found that my own hand, a mere ghost of itself since I couldn’t seem to feel it, raised of its own accord.

I could barely make out his name from my driver’s seat. Charles.

“Thank God I’m farsighted, Charles,” I muttered but then I realized he’d cocked his head in my direction, catching the fact that I was talking.

He raised his eyebrows and delivered another half-smile. What a half smile it was.

I was a divorced woman, I reminded myself. And old enough to be his mother, probably, I reminded myself further. I didn’t like that second part at all.

He raised a hand again, this time in a ‘were you talking to me?’ gesture and I realized I’d never been very good at charades. I shook my head and waved at him, laughing dramatically so he’d know I found the whole thing funny.

Clearly, I’d misunderstood.

Pat, one of the women who worked almost every weekday, stuck her head out and called out to him. He looked a little crestfallen, it was a pretty cute look on an already cute guy. I got another half wave and then he sauntered toward her, all perfectly fitted jeans, low top Vans and navy pullover.

“And dark, curly hair that’s a little too long, let’s not forget,” I said aloud. “You uber perv.”

I started the car and left, hell bent for leather that I’d put Charles-the-young out of my mind.

blurb:

What would be the harm in a little fling? What would be so bad about bedding a young man who could technically be my son? He wasn’t my son. He wasn’t my anything. But he could possibly, if I could unclench my ass long enough, be my lover.

My lover.

What was so bad?

Buy Accidental Cougar at Amazon

bio:

Professional dirty word writer, gluten free baker, sock addict, fat wiener dog walker, expert procrastinator. Called "one of the top storytellers in the erotic genre" by Violet Blue, Sommer Marsden writes for HarperCollins Mischief, Ellora's Cave, Excessica, Xcite Books and Resplendence Publishing. She's the author of numerous erotic novels including Lost in You, Restricted Release, Boys Next Door, Restless Spirit, and Learning to Drown. Visit http://sommermarsden.blogspot.com