Entirely new-to-me series that I have decided I need to carry on with! A couple of special ops-type main characters, one of whom has married into the royal family for reasons that will be spoilers. There’s lots of repressed ‘we are only fucking, we don’t care about each other’ type denial, which I liked a lot although I wanted to shout at them. There’s lots of plot and physical action and travelling round the scenic British countryside whilst they work out what’s going on and what they are to each other. And there’s a lot of acorns planted that are clearly going to grow into future books. Recommend.
Nineteen-twenties angst is my catnip as you will know by now if you read these recs regularly. Everyone is still traumatised by the war and in this case, that includes some of them having tentacles as a side-plot. I love this book–the green man thread resonates really heavily with my slightly new-age gardening-self. I was thrown initially because Saul has a much lighter voice than I expected and sounds younger than I had envisaged. However once I’d got used to him, I really enjoyed the narration. The production is very good, seamless. This is a treat, whether you’re already a KJ Charles fan or new to her books.
Short, sweet, straight, fantasy romance between Lily, single-parent sorceress and Will the allegedly dissolute older brother of a young king who is dying from magic. Clever, funny, heart-warming, a really lovely read.
Gareth is the prince of a tiny, poor, mountain kingdom that needs magical help. Lorre is a powerful, three hundred year old, very emotionally fucked up magician. Gareth tracks Lorre down and asks him for help. Lorre says yes, largely because he’s bored I think. They fall in love. They sort out everyone’s problems and become grown up, mature human beings. They accidentally create magical sex diamonds. The king, Gareth’s brother, is a stress-baker. Gareth is the ultimate Cinnamon Roll. You should really read this book.
I usually loath tales based around holidays, but I’m trying to be a kinder, fluffier, all together more celebratory person for 2021, so I have put aside my cynicism and generalised rage and put together a few stories that feature Valentine’s Day for you! Thank you so much to the authors who joined in!
A Frost spirit who runs a coffee shop. A Cupid who works as a divorce lawyer. And magic in the air …
Raine’s never been a conventional Cupid. He likes his job as a lawyer, and he’s not planning to fall in love — and he wouldn’t trust it if someone fell in love with him. But the owner of his favorite coffee shop might challenge Raine’s resolutions about love.
Even though Don’s a Frost spirit, he finds comfort in giving people warmth, good coffee, and overall cheer. But one gorgeous sarcastic Cupid seems immune to Don’s cheerfulness — and he keeps coming back, day after day. Fortunately, Don’s always liked a challenge…
Four years ago, Dimitri Petrov had his leg blown off by a landmine while in military service. Suffering from PTSD, he doesn’t do crowds, people, dates, or dinners. But when Elian Hubert enters the dating agency where Dimitri works in a whirlwind of pink shirts, flapping hands, and outrageous flirting, looking for a Valentine date, Dimitri thinks maybe he can do him a favor.
After a friend sets her up on a blind date from hell, Amanda has enough of dating. A spur-of-the-moment decision to attend an Anti-Valentine’s Day party leads to an unexpected encounter. She wakes up to a hangover and a surprising complication… “The Morning After” started out as a Valentine’s Day short story. I later expanded it to a full novel titled “Departure from the Script” and made this short story available for free.
Ty isn’t looking for love, but what if it finds him anyway? Ever since his partner left him on St. Valentine’s Day, Ty O’Malley has done his best to avoid the love-themed holiday. When Ben Cronin enters Ty’s giftshop looking for presents to surprise a man he’s been admiring from afar, Ty can’t deny the attraction. But Ty has given up on love and Ben has obviously set his sights on somebody else. After February 14th, Ty will probably never see Ben again… Or will he?
Marc returns home from London to his isolated Welsh cottage for good, having found his ex boyfriend shagging someone else in their bed. Who’s the thin, freezing cold man with the bruised face he finds in his barn? Will the tenuous connection between them grow, or fade away?
A short story to mark the Welsh St Valentine’s Day, St Dwynwen’s day. With chickens.
There you go! Happy Valentine’s Day to you all, and may you all find the relationship of your dreams, within social-distancing parameters!
A warm welcome to Kristin Noone, who has subjected herself to my author interview questions this week!
A warm welcome to Kristin Noone, who has subjected herself to my interview questions this week!
Firstly, what prompted you to let me ask you nosy questions?!
A recent release and a re-release (or two)! My first F/F romance, The Ninepenny Element, just came out from JMS Books, and JMS is also re-releasing my former Less Than Three Press stories – the first M/M shapeshifter story, Port in a Storm, is out now, and the sequel, Fire and Ink, will be available again September 4… followed by the M/M/M polyamory superheroes of Sundown, Holiday, Beacon, also in September. Which I have to say contains some of my favorite characters of mine ever.
What started you writing?
I’ve been writing for ages – in
kindergarten I wrote a five-page short story about a girl who loses a tooth –
and the Tooth Fairy brings her a baby unicorn, instead of money! (I was a
strange and apparently very hopeful child.) More seriously, I started writing
in grad school – fanfiction first, as an escape and as a way to play with characters
and universes that I loved. And eventually that built into my own original
characters and world-building, and I sold a couple of short stories, and then I
thought, oh, maybe I can do this! (I do still write fanfic, though! But much
less than I used to.)
Where do you write?
If it’s just me home, mostly in the family
room with my laptop and music! Otherwise, sometimes upstairs where the actual
desk is. Or in a Starbucks, if I’ve got a break from teaching and want to leave
campus for a couple of hours!
What do you like to read?
Lots of things! Quite a lot of romance – a
lot of M/M, a lot of paranormal, a lot of historical, mostly Regency or
Victorian – but also a lot of fantasy and historical fiction, and quite a lot
of nonfiction, both for the professor day-job and for pleasure. That’s usually
somehow related to scholarly studies of fantasy, romance, monstrosity, comics,
gender, and medievalism, though I’ve most recently been reading Gretchen
McCulloch’s Because Internet for fascinating linguistic explorations of
internet grammar, just for fun!
What are the three books you’d take to a desert island? Why would you choose them?
Only three? Oh dear! Hmm…Patricia A.
McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe, KJ Charles’ The Magpie Lord (can
I have the whole trilogy count as one book?), and…some sort of three-way
toss-up between Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, Neil Gaiman’s collected
Sandman graphic novels, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in a
single edition.
The McKillip is beautiful – lush,
lapidary, fantastic prose, full of magic and redemption and also kitchen magic
and so many words for both food and love. KJ Charles writes such fabulous
romance, with a gorgeous and detailed and diverse magical England and also crackling
chemistry. Every time I read Pratchett I find him more profound – that rage,
that love, that humor, that fierce compassion – and Night Watch is my
favorite Discworld novel. Gaiman’s Sandman is sprawling and epic and weaves
together mythology and heroism and grief and loss and family, plus the art is
spectacular. And Tolkien because there’s so much to savor and linger over (and
occasionally critique!) and have long mental conversations with.
Writing is an intrinsically solo occupation. Do you belong to any groups or associations, either online or in the ‘real’ world? How does that work for you?
I belong to a few facebook groups for
authors – romance, M/M, LGBTQ – and also a few for professors and grad
students, plus my academic association memberships in popular culture and
romance fields! They can be helpful for motivation, advice, and also sometimes
just sympathy.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Reading, probably! And working on the next
scholarly book, which at the moment is about Star Trek tie-in fiction. But
other than that…
Awesome Husband and I are sci-fi geeks and
watch a lot of that genre of television and movies, but we’re also beer geeks
and can be found wandering local craft breweries. Or playing some good tabletop
games, along the lines of Pandemic or Ascension, or doing jigsaw puzzles.
Tell me a little bit about your most recent release. What gave you the idea for it? How long did it take to write? What did you enjoy about writing it? What did you hate?
For The Ninepenny Element, the idea was a
combination of about three things: wanting to write something for the “nine”
theme for the JMS Books ninth anniversary, and a sequel/spin-off for Elemental
starring the older sister of Sterling from that book, and wanting to have some
fun with medievalist folklore trivia about ninepence and magic! Unusually for
me, the title came pretty early on – this one just knew what it was about. And
it felt like it flowed easily; I already knew a lot about the world and
Verity’s family (and annoying but adorable clairvoyant younger brother), so
that part was easy. The trickiest part was figuring out the “villain” – he’s
not really evil, just awful, but I always have a hard time writing characters I
dislike! It did give me an idea for a third story, though…
And you can keep up with Kristin in lots of different places!
Port in a Storm and the new re-release Fire and Ink
Port in a Storm
Fire and Ink
Port in a Storm: A M/M paranormal series, with a runaway kitten shapeshifter and the kind neighborhood witch who rescues him in the rain.
Fire and Ink: Three months ago David Stanton rescued a runaway kitten in the rain. Now he’s got an infamous — and infamously powerful — feline shapeshifter living in his house, helping with his white-witch business, and making him smile. David’s falling in love fast, but there’s still the problem of Colin’s past … and the secrets he’s obviously keeping.
Elemental and The Ninepenny Element
Elemental is a M/M paranormal romance with a blocked writer, a novice witch and a surprise exorcism.
The sequel, the recently released The Ninepenny Element is a F/F paranormal, with a witch, a lawyer, a hexed earring, and a ghost puppy.
Three superheroes in love! Or one superhero, one former sidekick, and one redeemed supervillain, at least.
Ryan,
John, and Holiday have been partners — in every sense of the word —
for two years. They’ve saved the world, fallen in love, and remodeled
the secret base to include bookshelves and a bigger bed.
But Ryan and John have always been the public face of the team. The world still believes Holiday’s a villain. And he’s been using that reputation to stay undercover and share information. Tonight, though, Holiday comes home injured, and his partners aren’t sure the mission’s worth his life.
