Tag Archives: gay romance

Cover Reveal: Horn Gate by Damon Suede

by

HornGateLG

Horn Gate by Damon Suede:

Open at your own risk.

Librarian Isaac Stein spends his lumpy, lonely days restoring forgotten books, until the night he steals an invitation to a scandalous club steeped in sin. Descending into its bowels, he accidentally discovers Scratch, a wounded demon who feeds on lust.

Consorting with a mortal is a bad idea, but Scratch can’t resist the man who knows how to open the portal that will free him and his kind. After centuries of possessing mortals, he finds himself longing to surrender.

To be together, Isaac and Scratch must flirt with damnation and escape an inhuman trafficking ring—and they have to open their hearts or they will never unlock the Horn Gate.

Goodreads & Buy Links:
Goodreads

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

All Romance eBooks

Barnes & Noble

DS-Spring12 200About Damon Suede:
Damon Suede grew up out-n-proud deep in the anus of right-wing America, and escaped as soon as it was legal. Though new to romance fiction, Damon has been writing for print, stage, and screen for two decades. He’s won some awards, but counts his blessings more often: his amazing friends, his demented family, his beautiful husband, his loyal fans, and his silly, stern, seductive Muse who keeps whispering in his ear, year after year. Get in touch with him at DamonSuede.com.

Author Links:

DamonSuede.com

Goodreads

Google+

Amazon

Facebook

Manic Readers

GLBT Bookshelf

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enchantress of Books Blog Tours

Isn’t it romantic?

by

I have a secret confession: I love to watch wedding videos. Mine, my friends… Even people I don’t know. I love to go to the web sites of wedding videographers and watch their demo videos, because well made wedding videos capture the essence of the day, and the love shared between a couple so beautifully and perfectly. Being a witness to that bright, shiny, “nothing can shake it” kind of love makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I guess it’s no wonder I write romance. Even on my angriest, most cynical day, something like this can still reduce me to tears:

No clue who these guys are, but I absolutely adore them, and I adore the way their videographer captured the nuances of them together so beautifully. The guy fiddling with his ring and realizing the symbolism behind that day. It’s all so gorgeous. Love.

This video, by the way, was part of an awesomesauce Buzzfeed link making the rounds about the 50 most romantic moments of all time. You can check it out here. And I gotta tell you, if you get to the bottom of this thing without crying, your will is stronger than mine. :)

Attention Hot Hero Fans, and Local DC/NoVA/Maryland Folks, and do-gooders everywhere!

by

Hate violence? Want to help a stranger and feel good? Need some karma points? Like yoga? Washington DC yoga instructor Michael Joel Hall was attacked with his boyfriend a couple of weeks ago in a suspected hate crime, and wound up in the hospital needing facial reconstruction surgery without insurance. He also lost his home in a fire a couple of months ago. I know it’s not possible to help every single time this sort of thing happens, but as a yogi, DC-area resident, and human being, I do like to try and help when I can. If you’d like to do so as well, Michael’s friends have set up a collection fund through paypal, and you can find it here.  For more information about Michael’s story, check out this Huffington Post Article, or his friend and fellow yoga instructor’s web site. IF you are in the DC area there are a couple of charity fundraising yoga classes being held: one at Meridian Hill Park in Washington DC on Augst 5th at 5pm, and one at 3pm on August 12th at Happy Soul Yoga, 25 Catoctin Circle NE, Leesburg, VA.

Still jonesing for a NOH8 picture of your very own? This Sunday from 2-5pm, NOH8 will be having an open photo shoot at the HRC Headquarters, so if you’re in the area you should definitely come down. Find out more, here. Wear some comfy pants, so you can stay in the city for the Michael Joel Hall charity yoga class at Meridian Hill Park when you’re all done. :)

And on the literary/romance front, the OutWrite book fair is going on this weekend in Northwest DC. Friday night there will be some cool exhibitors and authors from Dreamspinner Press (through which I’ve published a romantic short story, Feeling Neighborly), and Rainbow ebooks, David Pratt will be there with his Bob the Book (a personal favorite of mine) and his new short story collection, and on Saturday there will be some really awesome readings. This will all be going on at 1318 U St NW, and you can find out more, here.

And finally, the All Romance eBooks Hottest Hero Contest! There’s a mix of big names and lesser known authors, here, some male/female romance, some male/male,  go and vote for your favorites! Tara Lain’s Hunter Fallon is up, and so is Mary Calmes’s Malic Sunden. The winning author gets some cool prizes, and you’ll be entered to win ARe bucks just for voting!

All right…I’m spent…Weekend’s coming, right? Hope you’ve all got awesome plans.

Review: Acrobat by Mary Calmes

by

AcrobatNote from Ellis: This week Mary brings her dark, gritty, sexiness to Boxer Falls, the free serial drama soap over at the M/M Romance group on Goodreads. Old wounds are opened, vengeance is inflicted, and a little smexing happens, too. Check it out, here.

Acrobat by Mary Calmes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a truly gorgeous love story, and I found everything about it to be a notch better than what Mary Calmes usually brings to the table, which is really saying something. The banter is easy and witty, the pacing kept me turning pages, and the slow-burn sensuality between the two heroes finally erupts into amazing, explosive sexual chemistry.

So you have Nate, a divorced, mid-40′s professor who is handsome and liked by many but has built sort of bubble around himself and his family. He hasn’t dated in awhile, but he does have this great neighbor kid who reminds him a little of his own son when his son was younger. The neighbor kid’s mom is dead and his guardian uncle works a lot so Nate helps to take care of him, even to the determent of the rare chance he gets at going on a date. All-around good guy, that Nate.

Enter Dreo, the neighbor kid’s guardian uncle who happens to work for the mob. He’s a big, sexy Italian man who uses lots of sexy Italian dialogue and has been quietly digging on Nate all this time that the hot professor has been helping his nephew with his homework after school. As Dreo works on getting himself out of “the family” and into a respectable profession, circumstances keep throwing the two men together and the the danger and tension climbs higher.

There’s an age differential here between the guys, but it really worked for me. Dreo is all alpha, and what he lacks in chronological years he more than makes up for with life experience. Nate, with his wisdom and education, matches Dreo equally and stands up to him when the situation calls for it in a way that a less educated man Dreo’s own age might not.

And oh God, did I mention how hot the sex was?

Loved it.

View all my reviews

Soap Up and Get Down!

by

This week’s episode of Boxer Falls, our free soap opera-style serial drama is up! The last episode of each month one of the head writers takes a turn at the wheel, either Damon Suede, Poppy Dennison, or myself. This week was my turn, and I decided to bring everyone’s favorite “it” couple back together. Here’s an excerpt:

…Quinn found his fingertips digging into the arm of his chair at the wistful tone in Oz’s voice when he talked about Yoshi, not to mention the reminder that the guy could have been killed not too long ago. Fuck it all to hell. He sank lower in his hair and rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Look, Oz, I—“ I’m sorry I was a dick that morning you wanted to hang out in bed. I’m glad you weren’t hurt worse in that wreck. I’m being a tool right now because the thing is I keep thinking an awful lot that maybe I was wrong when I said no second dates. Only, it’d be nice if I actually thought you’d be willing to be seen with me in public and stuff. Looking around this huge-assed office and your dad’s massive fucking mansion, I don’t see how I’ve got the first thing to offer that would possibly make you wanna do that. Sure as hell I ain’t gonna magically grow a set of bangin’ D-cups. “I think it’s real manly sounding when you talk about sports equipment like that.”

Oz laughed. A real, deep, rumbly laugh that Quinn liked the sound of more than he should have. He stood and it was like the office had gotten smaller and darker. His clothes rubbed and constricted uncomfortably. He wanted his T-shirt and his kilt and his boots back.

He jerked a thumb toward the door. “I’d better get back out there. Thanks for patching me up, Oz.” He held out a hand, an effort to be well-mannered and civil.

When Oz slid his palm against Quinn’s and blue eyes met green, the spark between them was back again. Undeniable.

“You don’t have to go yet do you?” Oz’s voice was almost a whisper. A dangerously low, guttural, sexy as all fucking hell whisper…

Read the rest and catch up on the other episodes at the M/M Romance Group, on Goodreads.

Loving Kindness…

by

Thanks for joining me on the Hop Against Homophobia! Leave a comment at the end of this post to be entered to win a copy of my contemporary short story “Feeling Neighborly” as well as a never before released vampire/werewolf short story called “Under the Full Moon.” Contest open to adult readers 18+ only.

I wrote and re-wrote this post several times. I wrote sad posts and angry posts, posts about religion and politics and personal opinions. I erased it all, because I truly believe that at the bottom line is that anger and fear are destructive and I didn’t want to write a destructive post.

I am many things. Mostly these days I’m an author and a mom. I don’t sleep very much, and I frequent the local Starbucks like they’re gonna put my name on a table. I get stressed. Through all of that my life revolves around love. Falling in love is what I write about. As an at-home parent, teaching, guiding, and loving my kids is what I DO. My job as a parent is to make it so that they can go out into the world someday and be good, kind, functional citizens who don’t need me any more.  My fondest wish is for them to grow up healthy and happy–and that they someday fall in love.

Period. If my boys are lucky enough to find someone who loves and respects them half as much as I, their extremely biased mother, thinks they deserve? I’ll be thrilled, regardless of who that person is, so long as they’re good to my kid.

When they look at me over their chocolate chip waffles in the morning and thank me for taking care of them, I can’t imagine wanting anything else.

I used to do a daily yoga and meditation practice. It’s a little more sporadic these days due to business, but I find when I make it back to the mat that the foundations are still with me. One of the things I learned, was a loving-kindness meditation: The gist is, you start out by offering loving-kindness to yourself, and then to someone you respect, someone you love, someone you feel neutral about…then someone you hate (for more info on this, you can go here). The idea, I think, is to help you keep an open heart. In the face of a thing like homophobia, I admit that can be difficult to do.

So that’s what I want to offer here today, on this International Day Against Homophobia. Loving kindness. To myself, to those of you who are friends, and those I don’t know. To those of you whose minds I hope with all my heart will soon be changed for the better. More than anything, to all the innocent babies, children, and young people out there who will someday need help and support in navigating your way through the confusion and questions you may have about your sexual orientation–I pray you will have the support that you need, and that you will always know you’re perfect just the way you are. That you deserve love and respect.

Love is love. It’s something everyone deserves.

(There are over 250 authors and bloggers participating today in the hop against homophobia, lots of really good thoughts on the subject and lots of prizes being given away. You can find the full list, here. Also, for a chance to win my latest vampire novella, Immortal Valentine, or another chance to win the free vampire/shifter short story, check out the HAH post over at Books Make Me Happy.)

The Perfect Wedding

by

I am SO excited about this, everybody!

“The Perfect Wedding” is a gay romantic comedy written and produced by Ed Gaffney (husband of romance author Suzanne Brockmann) along with Suz Brockmann herself, and their son Jason Gaffney–he also stars in it, that’s him in the blue shirt, there. They are in post-production now, and over the next few months they’re going to start submitting it to film festivals and hoping to get distribution. They need all the fan page “Likes” and support they can get. It will help potential festivals and distributors see that there’s interest in the movie. So please! Check it out on Facebook, “like” it, and share the good word!

I hear folks constantly lamenting there aren’t enough feel-good LGBT romantic movies out there-this one looks like it pings all the right happy places. Could NOT be more psyched! For more info the movie also has an IMDb listing where you can see a complete cast of characters and whatnot, here.

Happy New Year

by

Wishing everyone a safe, happy, healthy new year! This week I’m working hard on my edits for my hot boy-meets-vampire novella, Immortal Valentine, coming Feb 12th to Amber Allure press. I’ve also been pitching in on Boxer Falls, a gay serial soap opera with Poppy Dennison and Damon Suede, and we’re looking for some guest authors to help with that as well! The first episode of that will be up just after New Years on the Goodreads M/M Romance group!   Oh yeah, I’m also working on my resolutions to get organized and to stop holding grudges when people hurt my feelings–really, the only person those grudges hurt are me. What are your resolutions?

Okay folks. Until next year, I leave you with The Male Form at NextModelMen.

One Giant Leap for Gay Romance Kind…

by

For those who may not have heard, Damon Suede’s Hot Head has been nominated by Goodreads as one of only a handful of candidates for Best Romance of 2011. His is the only LGBT romance nomination, the only romance written by a male, and the only one of two not published by NYC powerhouse publishers. And he’s up against mainstream mavens such as Nora Roberts and J.R. Ward, who I LOVE and admire greatly–but wouldn’t be an amazing leap for our genre, if Hot Head were to win? Please consider supporting Hot Head in particular and/or gay romance in general, by voting here (voting ends 11/30/2011!): 
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/#56966-Best-Romance

Review: Tipping the Balance by Christopher Koehler

by

Tipping the Balance
Tipping the Balance by Christopher Koehler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nutshell: Out and proud gay guy falls for younger man so deep in the closet he can’t even see the door and they go into business together. Cuz yeah, that’s what you should do when you have an impossible crush on someone. ;-)

I loved this story so much I read it twice. Even more than Rocking the Boat, and I rather enjoyed that one as well. Of all the “out for you” / gay for you / late bloomer / whatever you wanna call it plots I’ve read, this was hands down the best written that I’ve come across. And I entered into it cautiously, because I always do, but it was clear that the author took his time with it. With the exception of a minor detail or two it really rang true for me and I thought that was particularly impressive because the author’s own coming out story is on his blog, and he clearly knew that he was gay from a young age so it isn’t as if this late discovery was something he had first-person knowledge of.

The roller-coaster ride of emotion and the sexual tension between the two characters was fantastic. Frustrating, at times, but I think it was supposed to be. And the buildup was so good, that when the hotties finally got down to having sex the connection and heat between them was great. And I really enjoy the way this author writes his sex scenes. They’re sensual and hot, and a little bit inventive, and work really well as an extension of emotion between the two characters. It’s not just two people getting it on because the page count demands that something hot and heavy finally has to happen. And again, working the nervous formerly straight guy around to being ready for sex with a guy was tricky, but done well, and I found it to be very believable. It was a darker story than Rocking the Boat, and it touched on harder more painful issues. There was more inner and outer conflict for both characters. It made for a better, stronger, more well-rounded story all in all. Really delicious. You. Go download now. S’okay, I’ll wait here. ;)

View all my reviews

Free Reads

by

Yes, Sir - A New Orleans vacation takes an interesting turn whenYes, Sir cover Grayson Harper lets a friend drag him along to see a voodoo priestess for a love spell. Suddenly he’s having very vivid dreams about a mystery man that seem all too real, and doing things in them he never thought possible. But what will become of the man of his dreams once he leaves the magic of the French quarter?

It Was Supposed to be a Fun Game – Part of Thousand Word Thursday over at Cryselle’s Bookshelf, this is a sweet contemporary flash fiction (1000 words) piece I wrote inspired by a picture that Cryselle posted on her site.

Today’s Quickie: Rock It, Baby!

by

Hey all! The M/M Romance Group on Goodreads  is having their monthly book of the month group reading poll, and someone was lovely enough to nominate my novella, Amor Prohibido. As I’m still a new author, it could use a little help in the polls, and I’d be SUPER appreciative if y’all could pop over there and help me rock the vote!


http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/55830-which-book-would-you-like-selected-as-our-november-book-of-the-month-gro

Also, I was giving away a free short story at GayRomLit and I ran out of copies. If you wanted one and didn’t get it, please email me at EllisCarrington@Gmail.com. Thanks, everyone!

Where’s My Happy Ever After, Beeyotch?

by

Recently a Twitter buddy wrote an amusing and insightful blog post entitled “Screw Your Ever After.” This is a sort of rebuttal to that post.

In recent memory, a stone’s throw from where I live, a woman threw her young granddaughter off of a bridge. No one knows why. The girl, 2 years old, died. Another woman accidentally ran over her two children with her own car. The youngest was killed. A man forgot his sleeping infant son in their vehicle carseat, and that child died from hyperthermia. Because the boy was adopted and because of the nature of the child’s death, this couple may never get to have another child. We just passed the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and I was not far from where the plane struck the Pentagon on the tenth anniversary of that ugly day, which was quite a stunning reminder of the hateful attacks that occurred. And as I write this, we are a day away from the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, a beautiful young man whose murder was so horrific and heartbreaking I can hardly stand to think about it.

What’s my point here? Life can be beautiful, but it can be terrible and ugly and tragic, and unpredictable. It can be depressing as hell. If I allow them to, things around me can begin to look very bleak–something I can’t afford, as my day job is raising two children who haven’t yet been touched by all that ugliness to go out into the world and be good citizens.

The thing is, when I read, I read to escape. To find that proverbial happy place. I read to be taken on a journey, to feel that “good ache,” and to experience the highs and lows along with my protagonists–I don’t want to read a story that’s nothing but 300 pages of my characters skipping through daisies. I do want that happy ending to be earned. I want them to have to battle bad guys or demons or maybe even each other. But at the end of the day I want them to kiss and make or up make love and I want to close the book (or turn off my Kindle, more likely) and know that things are probably going to work out okay. Is it realistic? Maybe not, but hell, that’s why we call it fiction.

In a couple of days I’ll be leaving for the GayRomLit retreat. Could. Not. Be. More. Psyched. And I owe a huge thank you to the M/M Romance group on Goodreads for holding a contest to give away the plane ticket that’s allowing me to attend this shindig. I’m a survivor of abuse and assault, and M/M romance is my escape from all the ugliness that I mentioned, not to mention the stuff that’s in my own head. The opportunity to meet with the writers who have created those stories and other readers who love M/M as much as I do, is such a thrill. THAT is how much the Happy Ever After means to me. I once wrote a 1300 word flash fiction story, and still made sure it ended happily. THAT is how much the ever after means to me.

I grok that not every writer wants to write romance or happy endings and not every reader wants to read it, and that’s totally fine. Diversity, it’s what makes the world go ’round. But in an uncertain world, some of us need to know once in awhile that things turn out okay. We need the romance.

So…where’s my ever after, bitch? ;-)

Get your foot in the door at Amber Allure

by

For any M/M romance writers out there who are looking to get their foot in the door at an established, invite-only press, Amber Allure currently has an open call for novella-length stories with a theme of “Legal Briefs.” Deadline is New Years 2012.

They are hard and fast about that I believe, but if you feel inspired, do check it out. I have super loved working with Amber Allure and would not hesitate to recommend working with them.

More info regarding the open call can be found here.