Release Day AND Launch Day!

Well, technically release day for my new BDSM novella, Master Class, is this Sunday, but it is available for download now directly at Riptide Publishing, along with seven other of our brand new titles, and I am so excited I could spit. (Or pass out; I haven't really slept much this week.)

I wanted to take this time to offer a quick thanks and congratulations to my partners at Riptide: Aleksandr Voinov, Chris Hawkins, and Tal Valante. This is it, guys--we did it :D

And I most especially want to offer my thanks to all of you readers and fans and blog tour partners out there who've made Riptide's launch such a success. I hope we can entertain you for many years to come.

Now if I may . . . our now-available shiny, let me show u it:

Free BDSM Drabble

Master Class releases this Friday for those who've pre-ordered (it's not too late!), and this Sunday for those who haven't. At the same time, of course, comes Riptide Publishing's official opening (OMG!), and I'm nervous and excited and terrified and thrilled all at once about both these things. Anyway, I thought, what better way to celebrate the upcoming release of my BDSM novella and seven other fantastic titles at my publishing house than to give away a little free fic?

So, beneath the jump for (very brief) mention of naughty bits, please find a little drabble featuring Devon and Nicky, the protagonists from both Master Class and SUBlime: Collected Shorts.

The Joys of Remodeling

Over at casa Haimowitz, we're getting a new floor laid in the kitchen and downstairs hallway. The contractors started yesterday, and I've learned a few things since then.

Shiny-- er, splintery sub-floor.

1. Remodeling sucks.

2. The cat and dog also think remodeling sucks. Their whole world looks and smells different, and there are all these strange men in the house making a racket.

3. Remodeling sucks.

4. Did I mention the racket? I'm nocturnal--I tend to work til 5 or 6 in the morning and then sleep til 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Contractors? Don't. Here at 8am sharp, revving their power tools and banging things and making the dog bark. Expect some punch-drunk (and potentially cranky :-p) tweets from me over the next week or so.

5. Remodeling sucks.

6. Gods, what a mess! I have sawdust in places I can't discuss in polite company.

Let's play Identify the Animal Tracks! :-)

7. When's the last time you cleaned out your pantry or your hall closet? For me, I'm pretty sure that was when I moved in here eleven years ago. Ended up with three bags full of shoes and coats and gloves and scarves and such for Goodwill--things I hadn't worn in years. Also magically discovered some dried Indian food about five years past its expiration date. Hmm . . .

Contents of hall closet & pantry.

8. So in conclusion, remodeling sucks. But hey, there'll be a fresh coat of paint and a lovely new tile floor at the end of it all, and considering I'd actually worn holes in the laminate that used to be there by sitting in the same place every day to work for eleven years, I suppose it's worth the trouble in the end.

How about you? Any remodeling stories-slash-bitching you'd like to share? :-)

Fantasy and a Free Book with KC Burn!

Er, it's still Wednesday, right? :-) I'm shaking off some serious con crud from GayRomLit (I blame Kris 'n' Good Books for licking me in my sleep), so I've slept through most of the last two days, but I'm up in time to bring you some fun and a giveaway with the lovely KC Burn. She's here to talk about her new M/M paranormal release, Trompe L'oeil. Let's begin, as always, with a cover and blurb.

When Maxwell, a Depression-era artist, spurns the attentions of his sponsor, he ends up cursed to live out eternity in a painting. The man who cursed him delighted in playing the exhibitionist for Maxwell, and by the time the old man dies, Maxwell longs for his life and body back but he’s pretty sure he never wants to watch anyone have sex ever again. Until he discovers who his new owner is. 

Tyler isn’t sure what to do with a life-sized painting of a nude man, but it was a gift from his sister to ease the pain of a disastrous break up and subsequent coming out. The gorgeous subject of the painting disappeared without a trace decades ago, rumored to have been killed by the painting’s previous owner in a jealous rage. 

Becoming more and more fascinated by the man in his painting, Tyler uses his resources as a history professor to solve the mystery of Maxwell’s disappearance. He finds himself spending more time in his bedroom, talking to the painting, researching, and aching to know the man in person. Meanwhile, Maxwell falls under Tyler’s sweet spell, even though the thickness of canvas might be an insurmountable barrier to cross.

Sound interesting? Leave a comment to enter into a drawing for a free copy!

And now I'll turn the floor over to KC, beneath the jump.

GayRomLit Recap

Damon, me, Brita, Bryl, & Cat.

Happy Monday, all! I've just spent the last eleven hours dead asleep, recovering from the nonstop wackiness that was GayRomLit 2011. I've brought home lots of fabulous memories, a handful of silly photos, and, unfortunately, con crud (a cold), but I'm already looking forward to next year (it will be in Albuquerque, NM, by the way), and I hope you all are too.

Me fangirling on Rowan Speedwell (OMG!).

I'm a bit too wiped to go into too many details, but suffice it to say, the single most amazing part of this whole experience for me was finally putting faces to so many names. People I've been chatting with at Goodreads or Twitter for over a year. People I'm working with and even partnered with at Riptide who I met in person for the first time. Authors whose work I love and respect. Fans who wanted to talk about my work. Bloggers and book reviewers who work hard to improve the signal to noise ratio in our genre every day. It was a bit strange and overwhelming--and flattering like whoa--to have so many people want your autograph or your picture or a minute of your time. It was immensely gratifying to meet my peers and be surrounded by 250 people whose love of the thing I also love brought us all together.

The blogging crew.

The city itself was pretty special, though sadly I got to see very little of it. Hopefully when I go back for AAD in August of 2012, I can stay a few more days and get to see a little more of what's happening outside the hotel. But kudos to the GRL organizers, who did an amazing job; the whole con ran like clockwork, and everything from the author readings to the tours to the hurricane party around the pool were such a joy to be a part of.

I've shared a few photos in this post, but there are many more over at Riptide's facebook page in the GRL album. Other folks will be adding photos there as time permits, so check back on occasion for 7am grumpiness and 2am drunken shenanigans. If you have some of your own to share--photos, stories, experiences, etc.--please point us to them in the comments!

Not-Posting, GayRomLit Style

Happy Friday, folks! I'm down in New Orleans at GayRomLit, so this'll be a short post. But I promise you stories and pictures when I get home on Monday. (Or maybe Wednesday; who knows how long I'll need to recover from rooming with Cat Grant and E.M. Lynley ;D)

Finally got to meet a ton of folks in person, including Riptide First Wavers Bryl Tyne and Brita Addams and the Riptide art director L.C. Chase. Also finally met Rowan Speedwell (eeeeeee!), Marie Sexton, J.P. Barnaby, Rick Reed, and many more, including some absolutely fabulous readers. Much fun--wish you were all here.

Now off with me to the riverboat cruise/book signing. See you Monday!

Guest Blog: The Adult Bedtime Read with Leslie Sanders

Today I'm welcoming author Leslie Sanders to Fantasy Unbound to dish on bedtime stories and share an excerpt from her new release, Benefits of Sharing.

As always, let's begin with a blurb and cover.

Cara is unenthusiastic about her upcoming thirtieth birthday. Maybe her husband's eighteen-year-old coworker Isaac could add some excitement.

Cara Matthews is about to turn thirty, and for her, it’s the death of her youth and the beginning of the dull years. Her husband, James, is aware of her sudden grief and surprises her with something that should take her mind off of aging: young Isaac.

Maybe Isaac can help Cara create her very own wild and crazy experience to share—in more ways than one—and help her transition smoothly from her twenties to her thirties.

Cara is all too eager to finally experience the excitement she's been desperately craving, but she's also a little skeptical. Exactly who is Isaac, and why is he so eager to please?

And now I'll turn the floor over to Leslie for her guest blog and excerpt of Benefits of Sharing, beneath the jump.

Movie Reviews for Pervs: Shame

So this Friday, I went to see the new Steve McQueen / Michael Fassbender Movie, Shame, at the 2011 New York Film Festival. I was in excellent company: Cat Grant bought the tickets and treated myself, Liz Silver, and Damon Suede to the showing. And not that they're not awesome people, because they totally are, but did I mention Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen were there? Because they were :D

I shall limit my fangirl squeeing, primarily because once Michael went through the photo call (which we were able to watch from about twenty feet away, but had to peek between the row of photographers), his handlers hustled him past the rope pretty quickly. He did try to sign autographs, but they told him he needed to introduce the movie. Ah well.

Speaking of introducing the movie, here's the blurb from IMDB:

In New York City, Brandon's carefully cultivated private life--which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction--is disrupted when his sister Cisssy arrives unannounced for an indefinite stay.

Basically, it's about an OCDish sex-addict who holds down a highly successful job in (I think?) an ad firm and suffers so deeply from his addiction that he jacks off in the bathroom at work, keeps porn on his work computer, brings prostitutes to his house, and randomly picks up women wherever he can find them. He's a miserable SOB, either in agony or numb pretty much all the time. The impression you get is that orgasm is the one moment in life when he is not in agony, and he chases it with the relentless desperation of someone who knows it's killing him but doesn't know how else to feel. His sister shows up and throws a serious wrench into his orderly life. Worse, she seems to make him think about all kinds of things he'd rather not think about every time he looks at her. She makes him face his present, too; when he starts having to hide around her, he seems to realize how fucked up he is, and starts trying to change.

So, on to the review. I want to (and will) treat this as a real review because the movie was pretty incredible in a lot of ways, but I'll be doing it within the framework of the Perv Score. For those new to Movie Reviews for Pervs, here's the four criteria by which films are judged:

1. Hotness of the star(s)
2. How often and how thoroughly the star(s) get nekkid
3. Severity of ass-kickings to which the star(s) are subjected
4. And, as something of an afterthought, whether or not the movie was actually any good

So, combined real and perv reviews, beneath the jump.

ISO: Gay Deadwood, Pls!

So, yeah, I just had this stunning realization of a sudden that I can actually seek out--and buy--exactly the kind of stories I want to read. I know this sort of seems like a given when you become Managing Editor of a publishing house, but Riptide only just posted open submission calls a few days ago, so it's still sort of sinking in.

I was sitting here cleaning out my inbox tonight (if I don't return, avenge my death!), and I came across an update from Goodreads that mentioned one of my GR friends was reading a nonfiction book on prostitutes of the old west. And then I got to thinking about Deadwood, and how much I loved loved loved that show, and then I got to thinking, Man, I'd really love to read a Gay Deadwood, and then I realized, OMG, I can totes just ask for one, and maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll find one worth signing!

I realize how strikingly obvious that seems in retrospect, but I gotta say, I'm excited.

So, if you or anyone you know has a well-researched, novel-length gay historical romance set in an American frontier town--no cowboys, please, unless they're not out on the range, as I really am looking for the complex interactions of an ensemble cast here--then please pitch me at rachel (at) riptidepublishing (dot) com! No invite required.

A Milestone Week!

Happy Monday, all! Two pretty awesome things happened to me since last we spoke:

1. I just wrapped up edits on Crescendo about ten minutes ago. (Click to embiggen the pretty.) It's all over now but for the copyedit pass. I feel, oh, about fifty pounds lighter than I did last night :D

2. OMGOMGOMGOMG RIPTIDE! :O :O :O Hang on, I'll try to stop squeeing long enough to de-cat-macro . . . *deep breath* Okay, yeah, so, on October 1, Riptide Publishing unveiled its new web store and opened for pre-orders. (Every book you pre-order gets you entered into a contest for free books for a year, yay!) We also began our official Grand Opening Celebration, also known as "the 300-stop, multi-author blog tour with thousands and thousands of dollars in prizes."

It's been quite the wild ride already. We're hearing lots of great feedback about our site, and particularly about our innovative warning and tagging system for every book. It'd take a while to explain, so let me just point you at my shiny Master Class book page and tell you to check out all those fancy tabs and toggles at the bottom, especially the "additional details" one. Go on, I'll wait.

Welcome back! (Did you buy stuff? ;-p) Seriously, how neat is that site feature? Isn't that awesome? I'd love to see that everywhere I shop.

So, couple quick tour links for you:

On Saturday, I was at Amara's Place with partners Aleks and Chris for the official ribbon cutting, and there's a loooooooooooooong interview there that I think will be interesting to anyone who's ever wondered what's involved in launching a business.

Also on Saturday, Brief Encounters did a lovely review of Master Class (4.5 stars, yay!), and on Sunday I did a guest blog about the psychological aspects of BDSM there. There are some interesting conversations going on in the comments; I hope you'll come join us!

In the not-all-about-me tour news, Storm Grant had an interview at Literary Nymphs on Saturday, where she was her usual hilarious self. And on Sunday, Peter Hansen was at Loves Books and More discussing the conceits of youth and how WWF chair-bashing fits into your standard writing workshop curriculum :D Today, Brita Addams kicks off an entire week at Amara's Place with a great interview; and Aleks Voinov is over at Erotica For All, dishing on his latest crush, among other things.

Tomorrow I'll be at Erotica For All, too, but I can't for the life of me remember what Lucy interviewed me about. Whatever it was? It was probably awesome. And hey, even if it wasn't, remember that every comment you leave on the tour enters you for a chance to win about a bazillion prizes, so even if I bore you to death, you should still stop on by and throw your hat in for that iPad ;-)