Family Time is Out

Buy Links

Cascade Failure - stand alone - Torquere | Amazon

Family Time - Anthology - Torquere | Amazon

Main Book 'Blurb

These twelve stories range from first-time parents, to a couple still trying to conceive, to a ready-made family hoping to make it official, to parents just trying to get from one day to the next.

But it can't all be about the kids. Especially when the kid to parent ratio favors the kids. You might have sneak out of your own house. Or remind your spouse what grown-ups can do when the kids are away.


From veteran and new authors, these families contain several M/M couples, an F/F couple, and an asexual mom who has some explaining to do to her genderfluid teen.

Story 'Blurb

The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins -- trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?

Excerpt

There was absolutely no reason whatsoever, under any circumstances imaginable, that anyone in this modern day, should be out of contact with their families for more than a few hours.

Eric glared at his phone. Surely, surely, Temple would have called if everything wasn't all right. The last he'd heard from his husband was that A.J. had a mild concussion; a brief text. And then nothing. Temple hadn't logged into Skype for their evening conversation. A dozen e-mails had gone unread. Temple hadn't responded to probably thirty phone calls and the last time Eric attempted to call, the voice mail had reported as full.

Eric waved away the offer of another beer from the bartender. He pulled his phone out again. No messages. No texts. No e-mails. He opened the map program and tapped the screen. It was just closing on midnight. It was an eight-hour drive from Cumberland, Maryland, to Hartford, where Eric had built the house for Temple so many years ago, not knowing that they would, in the end, build a life there. Eric could grab four hours sleep and be on the road by dawn, and home by midafternoon at the latest. Even if there was still maddening construction around Yonkers. He could miss Friday, stay home for the weekend, and get back to the site by Monday afternoon. He'd be dead tired, but... Eric chewed his lip. "Fuck it," he decided.

God, Dennis was going to kill him. Eric punched in the number for the general contractor, explained the situation. Then called Dominick, his lead. The two of them had worked together for almost twenty years now. If anyone would tell him that he should go, it would be Dom.

"Look, can ya hold the crew together for me for the weekend?" Eric asked. "A.J. ended up in the ER, and I cain't get in touch with Temp."

"J'check his Grindr?" Dom asked. Under normal circumstances, Eric would have laughed. He and Temple hadn't exactly met through the dating app, but the story had made the rounds a few times.

Eric sighed. "Yes or no, Dom?"

"Yer really worried," Dom postulated.

"Ya think?"

"My rugrats is all growed up these days," Dom pointed out. "Not like to call their old man if they take a tumble down the stairs. But I'm sure that the professor's taking good care of 'em."

"Maybe it's nothin'," Eric hedged.

"But you'll feel better if you're there. I get it. I do. I'll cover it."

"I owe ya one."

"Yah, yah, you owe me like forty, at this point, Skipper. Get goin'. I'll see you on Tuesday?"

"I'll let you know."

"Hope everything is okay."

Yeah, Eric thought as he disconnected the call, me, too.

More Titles, winging your way

I should have posted this earlier, but I've been up to my eyeballs in editing...

And I'm still getting over my cat passing away. I know that sounds weird, but I'm having to force myself to do stuff, and only the stuff that has deadlines attached is getting done. Not all the time; the other times I'm trying not to think so I'm cleaning like a madwoman.

My house is very. very. clean. right now.

Anyway, sorry, that was a downer...

Here's another new book that I've had come out recently...

This one contains an edited version of Blood Cries Up, so if you bought that one when it was a Lights Out Sip by Torquere, this one has had the explicit content removed...

What if you met the love of your life... and they were already dead?

'blurb

Since the death of his sister, Dariel's been haunting her grave. Then he meets Zach. It's love at first sight -- unfortunately Zach is a ghost. An accidental possession results in Zach moving into Dariel's body, but before they can fully figure that out, they learn that there's more to Zach's death that the suicide it had seemed -- much more. With the help of the cemetery cat, Dariel and Zach will have to confront the diabolic Isaac Caine and return Zach's soul to its proper resting place.

I gotta say, working with Jessica Augustsson on this was wonderful and easy. I'm delighted to have started work with her, and there are several other new-to-me authors in this antho. I'm pleased to get the opportunity to read more people's work...

So, here's the buy link Encounters and this book is available in both print and an ebook edition.

Heat Wave: Burlington

What did I say... this summer is going to be hot hot hot!

I knew I wanted to write about Champy, the Lake Champlain monster (loosely related to Nessie, from Scotland...) and I worked on getting Scott, my photographer, all mapped out, and how I was going to do the meet cute...

(small spoiler alert, but only small because this happens in literally the first paragraph of the story)

I knew I wanted Scott to fall off his bike, so I was writing that scene out... and he rolls into the ditch... down here in Virginia where it rains a FUCKING LOT of the time, the roads and ditches are designed -- especially here in the Tidewater area -- to carry that water away from people's houses and the roads and whatnot. I advise NOT falling off your bike around here. Or, for that matter, running your car off the road. Those ditches are a good way to break an axle...

But I was thinking -- because that's what I do -- I wonder if the roads are the same in Vermont... I mean, I've spent a lot of time up in that area growing up, but I wasn't driving at the time, so things like road structure and drainage hadn't come up as being important...

Welcome to the world of Google maps... I used the map program to pull up a likely biking spot, zoomed in, and then used street view to look around... ah, look! Ditch! I pulled back the camera to see what the area looked like around the road... what shops or houses my intrepid biker might pass by...

And there was a self-storage, right there... self... storage. I'd been watching some tv around that time that had advertising for Storage Wars, and, being me and being curious, I'd done some investigation on Storage Unit auctions... which led to an interesting idea.

And thus, my other hero, Brandon, was born...

Coming July 26th. (Which is, coincidentally or otherwise, right around the time that the story takes place...)

Beginning the Book Barrage

So, for the rest of the summer, you're going to get bombarded with my book releases...

Starting with this...

I first encountered Rose Caraway with the Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica (which was recently #1 in erotica e-books last week, and brought yours truly up to rank #8 in erotica writers...)

She was pretty excited to take my story, Full Frontal Neighbor, for that collection. It's still personally one of my favorite short stories that I've written.

For this anthology, which was originally supposed to be an audio only book (but there was some fuckedy crap with Amazon / Audible about it, and there had to be a print / ebook release, which meant that once Rose thought she was done with the book, she wasn't done with the book.... ) I wrote a story in a fever heat; three days from start to finish, which is pretty damn well miraculous for me, and I came up with In The Closet...

Which is not about what you probably think it's about.

It actually started with some conversation that went on in my Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming guild's chat... one of my guildies was talking about how her brother got a birthday blowjob in the closet during his party... which reminded me of my own encounter in a closet during a New Year's party... (as a note, I'm still working on a short story about that guy... it just hasn't quite jelled yet.) But I started thinking about sex in public places. I've written a few shorts that cover that topic... On the Fly, for instance, is about sex in the scenery rig at the theater. 

Of sex acts, exhibitionism always feels very risky. Not necessarily physical harm, but getting caught having sex in public is... never very good for your career / life. Which, of course, ups the amp factor while doing it. (Confession: I used to work for a trucking company, and I always wanted to sneak into one of the guy's trucks and do it in the back of the cab... never did... but wanted to.)

In the Closet combines sex in a public setting with a bit of extra naughty, because it's at a family gathering... 

“It's not,” Jordan said, “that I hate my step-mother. I don't.” He flipped the end of his silk tie around the cross, botched it again.

“Here, let me,” his wife, Lauren, said. She shifted up on her bare toes and secured the half Windsor. Lauren kissed his cheek, soft and warm. Her spicy perfume tickled his nose. “Sheila's a nice woman, she's wonderful, she loves your dad... I know. She also constantly forgets that this is your birthday, as well as her and Mike's anniversary. We'll celebrate your birthday later.”

“It's not her fault,” Jordan said. “They ran off together and got married in Vegas. It was a last minute decision. I don't think it occurred to either of them that it was my birthday.” That Mike's ten-year old son had been horrified to learn his father had gotten married on Jordan's birthday. 

“Who's side are you on?” Lauren asked. She fastened a tear-drop amethyst around her neck and set the matching earrings to dancing in her earlobes.

“I don't think there's a side here, really,” Jordan said. “I just -”

“Want your birthday to be special, for a change,” Lauren finished.

"Exactly.” Jordan laughed, self-conscious. “Heard this refrain before, have you?”

Lauren stepped into her black high heels, straightened Jordan's collar for him. “Your birthday is special, husband of mine,” she said. “It's the day that the universe set aside to make you perfect for me.”

“The universe has a very high opinion of you,” Jordan joked.

“I deserve it.”

“Yes, yes you do.” Jordan kissed his wife, a little more seriously than a peck on the cheek.

So, you can buy The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 (which I believe actually contains 32 stories) from Amazon as an ebook or from Audible, for your auditory pleasure...

BUY LINKS Ebook

Family Time

Honestly, I don't know about y'all, but sometimes, I'm getting book fatigue. Seems like I barely get one project finished before I'm on to the next... My next upcoming publication is Family Time, with Torquere...

You do not need to have read the rest of the stories with these characters, but if you have, Eric and Temple are back!

They were first introduced in the Whetting the Appetite collection, which contains a short story about how the two characters met, Home Inspection. Home Inspection kinda played off a little of what I knew about the Grindr hookup app. One of my friends was telling me about the app, and also his complete disgust for the amount of fat-phobia and racism that went along with the app. 

So, of course, given his complaints, I had to make Temple and Eric an interracial couple. (I also have a short story with a lesbian interracial couple, although that story was accepted for publication, it's also one of the victims of the Cleis-can't-get-its-shit-together issue. The editor for that collection is attempting to publish with a different company, but I don't know the status. We'll see... pretty sure I can find a new home for it if this falls through, but it may be a while before anyone gets to see it.)

I sort of fell in love with Eric and Temple along the way... So last year, I wrote about them again, in Building Us, which was part of the They Do anthology, released by Torquere. When the Family Time call for submissions came out, I knew I had to revisit old friends.

Cascade Failure deals with the issues of "it's never just one thing" which I've found to be really true in life in general, as well as when dealing with children. You just have those days/weeks where nothing goes right... 

Two-Line blurb:

Parenting never even looks easy. When a high-travel job conflicts with raising a family, will Eric and Temple be able to be there, for their kids, or even for each other?

Marketing Blurb: 

The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins—trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?

Publication Date: June 17th

Call for Submission: Strange Shifters... a Shape-Shifter collection to benefit Bat World

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!

Paranormal writer, Lynn Townsend, is looking for your best were-creature stories: were-foxes, shape-shifting llamas, or even were-men, beasts who come out of the forests to assume human shapes and walk among unsuspecting mortals.

The final book will contain the best of erotic shape-shifter tales (tails?), a wide range of characters, pairings, ideas, and situations, exploring what it means to be human... and what it means to be beast.

Standard Rules apply:

No underage, no non-consensual, no scat, incest, or necrophilia. The nature of the anthology allows for some bestiality, but keep them all sentient beasts. Any pairings or groupings accepted and encouraged. Heat level, medium-warm to nuke my brain! Happily-Ever-After or Happy-For-Now not required. I'm looking for satisfying stories and incredible sex first and foremost.

Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2015.

Send double-spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman or Georgia) in .doc or .rtf format, 2,000 – 4,500 word stories to lynntownsend.writer@gmail.com, with “ATTN: Coming Together, your pen-name, your story title” in the subject line. Indent the first line of each paragraph, do not add extra lines between paragraphs. US English grammar please. Double quotes around dialog. (If your story requires non-comprehensible speech, other punctuation may be acceptable, brackets, etc. Consistency is key.)

Only submit your final, best version of the story; do not send multiple versions of the same story. Up to two stories will be considered from each author. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable and be clear which one is which), mailing address, and up to 250 word bio. You will be notified as to the status of your story by no later than September 1, 2015.

This is a charity anthology. Contributors will receive ebook copies of the publication. Additional compensation in karma and tax-write offs. Bat World Sanctuary will benefit from all proceeds. Bats are clean, gentle and intelligent, they are vital to the ecosystem, and they enhance our lives in many ways. Insect-eating bats are literal vacuum cleaners of the night skies, eating millions upon millions of harmful bugs. Bat World Sanctuary cares for and rehabilitates bats who have been retired from zoos, harmed by industry, or who need to be relocated from human spaces. Find out more at batworld.org

ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Lynn Townsend is a geek, a dreamer and an inveterate punster. When not reading, writing, or editing, she can usually be found drinking coffee or killing video game villains. Lynn's interests include filk music, romance novels, octopuses, and movies with more FX than plot. She grew up half in central Virginia, half in way-upstate New York and went to college at William & Mary, where she met and later married a guy who grew up half in Kentucky and half in Utica. They have one child, one murder-death-cat, a turtle, and two chinchillas.

So Much Work

I've been doing so much work recently, it feels like I haven't gotten anything done.

I mean, it's almost the end of April. I'd meant to do Camp NaNoWriMo this year because I am behind on a bunch of projects, but no, I ended up with other projects and more projects, and while I've gotten a lot of writing and stuff done, I'm still behind. Sort of.

In some senses of where I wanted to be with done-ness.

I'm about somewhere between a third and halfway done with Sins of Angels, but it's the same place I was last month, because other projects and editing and outlining have gotten in the way. On the plus side, I don't actually need to have it turned in to my publisher until December, so I still have plenty of time, but I hate feeling like I might be rushed LATER, so I'm making up for it by being rushed NOW.

I just got the edits back in for Classic. And an acceptance for Cascade Failure. And marketing documents for two pieces in house. And I'm expecting a beta-read back for A Wanted Woman soon, which is due to my publisher June 1st. Which will mean I need to do those edits VERY Soon Now.

And I'm writing a novella for a series that sounds really fun. I'm most of the way done with writing that, and I expect to be done with it in the next week or so... if I can just get past the sex scene, really. (I write so much sex that sometimes it's hard--oh, so hard!--to avoid writing the same damn scene over and over again.) I mean, I love sex, I really do. And I like crazy sex. But real people have the same sex over and over again. You just do. Especially when you've been with the same person for years....

Cascade Failure, which is a continuation of the Home Improvement series (started in Home Inspection, found in Whetting the Appetite and continued in last year's Building Us in the They Do anthology), seems a bit like my life recently. When one thing goes wrong and then another, and none of the things in and of themselves are very difficult or awful, but they just sort of pile on you until you're at the bottom of a stack of shit going "can I just stop now?"

My husband broke a tooth all the way to his jaw, there were complications with that which prevented him getting into the dentist for almost three weeks... and the joy that is my husband in pain AND on pain meds. Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse. And I chipped a tooth in the same week, because why not? And while my daughter is doing very well in school, we've had a ton of parent-school activities that just keep stacking together... and my cousin's husband died in a terrible car accident... and my mother came to visit for the first time in... honestly, I can't actually remember the last time we saw her at our house? Maybe when the childthing was three? (she's almost 12 now)

I've had a few issues with one of my publishers that resulted in a story I wrote potentially being off the market, after they even had Amazon pre-order dates and everything. I have a couple of other stories out in limbo and editors have not responded to emails for clarification.

I'll be opening submissions for my new anthology Soon... but not entirely sure when, altho we're aiming for a Halloween publication because that's the perfect time to release a shape shifter anthology. (keep an eye on this space for details!)

So, I've been really busy...

Breathe.... breathe...

Cascade Failure 

Teaser: Parenting never even looks easy. When a high-travel job conflicts with raising a family, will Eric and Temple be able to be there, for their kids, or even for each other?

'Blurb: The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins—trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?