Hello, everyone! Thank you, Ally, for letting me drop by today. I’m in the middle of moving all my books to JMS Books, so I’m re-publishing a bunch of them, and May is turning out to be the month of small-town romances.
I have three releases this month, actually, that’s a lie, I have five, but Dazzle Me, which was published on May 1st, isn’t a small-town romance, and The Empty Egg, which will be published on the 19th, is included in Aiden and Tristan that’ll be published on the 22nd, so it doesn’t really count LOL.
Let’s just say I have three releases, for the sake of simplicity, and they’re all stand-alone, but they take place in the same town.
When I was sixteen, I figured I’d had enough of living at home with my parents, so I moved. I seldom do things halfway, so I moved 1100 kilometres up north. The place I moved to was a tiny little village with about 3500 inhabitants. I lived there for four years and loved it despite the cold, the dark, and the snow.
One thing you need to know about Sweden is that fika is sacred. You might not know what fika is, and that’s okay. It’s not that easy to explain (this guy does a pretty good job of it), but it’s basically a coffee break together with someone where you’re eating something sweet. We do this every day.
Where I lived, there was a cafe called Simon’s. It wasn’t a very cosy cafe, nothing special at all, but it was the only place you could go to buy a coffee and a cinnamon bun, so it was where we went – where everyone went.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings, it was packed. Everyone went there to catch up on the week’s gossip. It was part of life.
When I wrote the Up North stories, I made the local cafe the social hub of the area. I think, in the UK you have your pubs, we don’t have that, not in the same way you do. We have fika.
A place without a coffee place has no soul.
Pet Delivery :: Aiden and Tristan :: Once in May
Scroll on down for excerpts!
Excerpt from Pet Delivery:
The first thing he noticed as he neared the door to the café was several people inside. He glanced at his watch: twenty past eight. What the hell was everyone doing here? He hadn’t expected the café to get many customers in a day, but as he opened the door, he was greeted by no less than seven pairs of eyes.
“Erm…good morning.” He pulled self-consciously at his sweater, hoping it didn’t draw too much attention to his wobbly middle.
“Good morning.” A red-haired woman smiled at him before grabbing a coffee pot and topping off the cups of two grey-haired women sitting at the corner table with knitting needles in their hands. Both of them smiled and nodded at him. A man completely dressed in green with a full beard and dark eyes was chatting to a man with honey-coloured hair and a model’s good looks. In the farthest corner, a fine-limbed, blond man did his best to avoid Gabriel’s gaze, and by the counter, a red-haired little boy was picking at a plate of scrambled eggs.
Gabriel breathed in deep and neared the counter.
The offerings were sparse. Gabriel couldn’t see any of the pastries he’d fantasised about.
“What can I get you, love?” The red-haired woman walked past him and stepped in behind the counter.
Gabriel looked around, wondering who she was calling love, but she only kept looking at him. “Oh…erm…I’d like a caramel latte and a cinnamon roll, please.”
The green-clad man stopped talking and glared at him. Gabriel’s cheeks heated, and he started stuttering, “O-or a s-salad and a glass of water, please.” He wanted to run out of there, preferably before he was served a salad.
Contemporary M/M Romance: 30,911 words
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Excerpt from Aiden and Tristan:
Tristan’s squinted at him but didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned back to the red-haired woman. “Could we have some breakfast, Jen?”
She gave Aiden a curious glance, and without thinking, he stood up a little straighter.
“Coming right up.” She gave him a quick smile.
Aiden glanced around for a menu. Didn’tplaces like this usually have laminated home-printed sheets on every table? He could almost see the coffee rings decorating misspelled words and Tippexed old prices, but he still would have liked to look at it before he ordered.
Tristan set off for the table from where he’d fetched the cardigan, indicating to Aiden to follow him over. The other customers began talking again as soon as Tristan sat down. Aiden reluctantly took the chair opposite. Weren’t theygoing to order?
Aiden’s stomach growled at the thought of food, but he wasn’t sure he could digest any greasy bacon or sausages or whatever else they served at a place like this.
“Why didn’t you make the call?” Tristan peered at him from under a creased brow.
“I’d rather wait until the ladies have left, to get a little privacy.”
Tristan did his annoying one-eyebrow thing, a smile almost forming on his lips, but then he turned his attention to the TV.
“Coffee?”
Aiden startled as—Jen?—put down a cup in front of him. He scrunched his nose. Ordinary coffee, probably low budget. “A large latte, please.” He pushed away the cup before she could pour any of the rat poison slushing around in the pot in her hand.
Contemporary M/M Romance: 46,142 words
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Excerpt from Once in May:
Zachary crossed the parking lot outside Jen’s café—no cars there yet—and headed for the door. The bell chimed as he stepped inside onto the black-and-white-chequered floor.
Jen looked up from behind the counter and blinked in surprise. “Zachary! It’ll take some getting used to seeing you coming in through the door.” She smiled. Any hostility he might have sensed before was gone, and rightness blossomed in his chest. This was home. Even if he didn’t have a place to stay yet, this was his home.
“Will there be time to get used to it?”
“I hope so, I think so. I’m tired of moving, Jen.”
“Mum?” A red-haired little boy came walking in from the kitchen.
“And who’s this?” Zachary knew who it was, of course, but he hadn’t actually met Luke. Another pang of guilt hit. Shit, he hadn’t even been home to see the kid.
“This is Luke.” Jen looked at Luke with a motherly warmth that Zachary could not recall his own mother ever possessing.
“Hi, little man. What are you doing?”
“Puzzles.” Luke held up the tablet he was carrying, showing off a puzzle of a kitten that was half done.
“Oh, you’re good at puzzles?”
Luke nodded and went to sit at one of the tables.
“He’s screen-obsessed.” Jen huffed. “I gave him several jigsaws for his birthday, he doesn’t touch them. But he can spend hours playing puzzles on the tablet.”
“Kids, eh?” Zachary grinned, remembering what Jen had looked like when she was a little girl. She was a few years younger than him, and he remembered her red pigtails bouncing when she skipped rope outside this very café. It didn’t seem too long ago, and yet it was.
“Were we ever that young?” Her eyes held a touch of sadness as she looked over at Luke.
“We were.”
With a smile, she turned back to him. “What can I get you? Breakfast?”
“Nah, just a coffee.”
Jen poured him a cup and handed it over.
“The blond kid who was in here yesterday…” Zachary raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jen.
“Kid?” She laughed.
“Looked pretty young to me.” He shrugged, hoping for some information, any information.
Contemporary M/M Romance: 47,776 words
About Ofelia:
Ofelia Gränd is Swedish, which often shines through in her stories. She likes to write about everyday people ending up in not-so-everyday situations, and hopefully also getting out of them. She writes romance, contemporary, paranormal, Sci-Fi and whatever else catches her fancy.
Her books are written for readers who want to take a break from their everyday life for an hour or two.
When Ofelia manages to tear herself from the screen and sneak away from her husband and children, she likes to take walks in the woods…if she’s lucky she finds her way back home again.
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