Huge Sale at All Romance Ebooks Today Only!

Hello all! Just popping in to say ARe is holding a 50% rebate sale today only, site-wide. That means every one of my titles comes with a 50% rebate, and so does every one of Riptide's titles. Riptide titles are almost never discounted, so if you've been eyeballing one (or two, or ten ;-p) for a while now, today's your chance to pick it up at a rare discount.

Spread the Love, Save 25% at Riptide, & Win a Nook!

Happy Valentines Day to you all! I've lots of love to spread today, and every time I look at where I am and what I'm doing and how much fun I'm having all because you amazing, wonderful, generous, enthusiastic readers out there, I just want to spread some more <3


So, three fun things going on today:


1) Today's the last day to enter my drawing for a classic Nook pre-loaded with all my titles. Rules are here :-)

2) If you leave a comment on this blog post sharing why you love to read romance, I will send you something fun. Might be swag, might be a free ebook, might be a shiny new paperback romance in need of a loving home.

3) Riptide Publishing is holding its first-ever sale today! For today only, until 11:59 PM EST, every title on the Riptide website is 25% off. No coupon codes needed, no limits, no restrictions. Even the pre-sale titles are on sale. And guess which title was just this evening made available for pre-sales? You guessed it!

Click to embiggen that bit of lovely, which is hitting the streets on April 9. Unless you pre-order, of course, in which case you'll get to download it on April 7. Nervous Author will be nervous until then ~_~

That's all for now, folks. I'm off to work on the second Power Play novel, but I promise to re-emerge from the writing cave to draw a winner for the Nook contest later this week.

Happy Valentine's Day, my lovelies!

Drop-dead Gorgeous New Cover Art!

Hello my lovelies! I have been sadly neglecting this little corner of the internets lately, and for that I apologize. But I assure you, it's because Fun Things Are Afoot. In other words, I've been writing. And writing, and writing, and writing. And also editing a lot, because, wow, the Little Publishing House That Could has taken off like a, well, runaway train, and it's full of happy readers and happy authors and just generally keeping all of us kind of insanely busy.

But the other thing that's been eating my time (and my brain) these days is--no, it's not zombies, Kari, shut up--a massive pair of contemporary BDSM novels I've been co-writing with the lovely Cat Grant, she of Once a Marine fame. The first book, Power Play: Resistance, clocks in at 90,000 words of crazy-hot vaguely dubconny nonstop kinkgasm, and is currently in edits for an anticipated Spring 2012 release (Aprilish, hopefully). The second book, Power Play: Awakening, is currently at 32,000 words and rising, just as kinktastic as Resistance, and also happens to feature a chapter-long cameo by Devon and Nicky of Master Class and SUBlime fame. We're aiming for a summer release for this one--the idea being not to keep you waiting more than a couple months between Book 1 and Book 2--so apologies in advance if things remain a little quiet on the blogging front.

Although, I will be back here in two days as part of a Friday the 13th Blog Hop where we'll be giving away a Kindle to one lucky commenter :D

Anyway, you're here for the Power Play: Resistance cover art. And boy is it a doozie. I think it may be my favorite yet. Of kind of anything ever, actually. It's beneath the jump. Don't forget to click to embiggen.

Back from Vacay with a New Book!

Greetings all! I'm home from a much-needed (but sadly working) vacation, and I even brought back with me a special souvenir head-cold. Knew I shouldn't have licked those poker chips . . .

On the plus side, the food was great, the weather was warm, the seas were . . . well, stormy, quite frankly, pretty much nonstop, but I do so love a very rocking boat when it isn't making me nauseous (which is about half the time), and the company was wonderful (I was traveling with my brand-spanking-new stepmother, who is as awesome as they come). And even though I had a big pile of edits to do for Riptide while I was away, doing them on a deck chair overlooking a tropical island is way better than my kitchen table.

So, I came home and I realized that I have a new book coming out in eight days--Break and Enter, co-written with Aleksandr Voinov and releasing from Samhain Publishing--and I haven't even begun to think about doing anything fun with it yet. I've been so busy with Riptide that I actually forgot. So, that underwear model on the cover? He's Major Victor "Cyke" Kellermann, and I have no idea what happened to his pants. I think Aleks and I will do a Find Cyke's Pants scavenger hunt and maybe give out a classic Nook I've had hanging around the house since the summer. Sound like fun?

Oh, and just a quick housekeeping note, as well: since Riptide Publishing has acquired Guiltless Pleasure Publishing, Counterpoint is now available for sale on the Riptide site, yay! Which means you can earn bonus bucks if you purchase it there (they'll be working soon, I promise :-p), and while none of the story's content has changed, it does have a shiny gorgeous new Riptide layout. Right now it's only available in PDF, but in about a week, it'll be available in Epub, Mobi, and HTML too, and all the copies on third-party sites like Amazon will switch over from the GPP layout to the RP layout.

And now, apropos of nothing, some eye candy of the kind you've all come to expect from me, beneath the jump. It involves cats and actor crushes and I think it's my new favorite thing ever.

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.

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 ;-)

OMGOMGOMG!

So, yeah, tomorrow, Riptide Publishing's brand new web store opens and pre-sales for all fifteen of our 2011 titles begins. I am so excited I could puke. And nervous, too. And excited. And kind of a little nauseous. And excited. Did I mention excited?

Jessewave did a little post on us today, and we're wrapping up the pre-party at Amara's today too. (Go check it out--there's still time to comment and get entered in ten separate prize drawings tomorrow!) Which, as it happens, is where we're also kicking off the official Grand Opening Party tomorrow. I hope you'll join us all along the way--there'll be author and editor interviews, guest blogs, excerpts, reviews, and of course prizes prizes prizes! (Did I mention an iPad? Cos, yeah, we're giving one away and I haven't even fondled it first ;-p)

Oh, and you know what else comes out tomorrow? Open submission calls! Four of them, in fact, so be sure to visit our website tomorrow to check those out. No invitation needed :-)

Well, I'm twirling off now to take care of business, and I hope to see you all tomorrow at the ribbon-cutting at Amara's Place!

It Begins! (With Free Books!)

The Riptide pre-party at Amara's Place, I mean :-) The kickoff post is up, and it features yours truly discussing Andrea Speed's Pretty Monsters. Both Andrea and I will be popping in throughout the day, so come on over, say hi, and win a free backlist book from Andrea!

Be sure to stop in at the Place tomorrow, too, for a discussion of the brilliant up-and-comer Peter Hansen, and his book, First Watch. Then on Sunday, Aleksandr Voinov will be at the Place to discuss Master Class. There's a new prize every day, and two big prize packs at the end of the week, so don't miss out on all the fun and free stuff!

Tour Craziness Countdown!

In two days' time, I get to kick off the Riptide Publishing Grand Opening Celebration (well, technically this is a pre-celebration) at Amara's Place, where Aleks Voinov and I will be spending just over a week dishing out the skinny on our First Wave authors and why we bought their books. I hope you'll join us! There will of course be prizes--a Riptide author author sampler (read: heap of free ebooks) and a big box o' swag--and every post you comment on will earn you an entry into the end-of-year grand prize drawings for one of three awesome prizes: a Nook, a Kindle, and an iPad.

On October 1, the tour kicks off in earnest; our twelve First Wave authors will be making over 70 stops in October alone (and then just as many in November and December), and every single stop will feature unique content! Each stop will also feature a prize giveaway, and the same opportunity to enter into the grand prize drawings.

To that end, I updated my own personal schedule tonight. You can click that link to see everywhere I'll be, both for the Riptide blog tour (where I'll be talking about Riptide in general, my new BDSM novella Master Class, and writing at large) and the Crescendo blog tour. Lots of fun and prizes to be had, so I hope to see you all there!

Edited to add: Michael Fassbender kinda crying, after the jump, since people yelled at me for daring to make a post without him :-p

Monday Picspam & a Deal on Counterpoint

Yep, still crazy deadlines, which means more picspam for you :-) I'm doing a final sanity check on Aleks Voinov's absolutely FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC Belonging-verse novel Counterpunch tonight, and I'd forgotten between the spring and now just how much I loved it when he was writing it. Now that he's given it a good hard polish, it's even more amazing. (See for yourself--you can read an excerpt [and win a Kindle!] at the publisher's website.)

So, in celebration of that, I'm posting some hot hot boxers today a few non-copyrighted gifs and screencaps (other pictures likely belonged to someone and had no business being here in the first place, and have thus been deleted) beneath the jump.

Two quick notes before the picspam begins.

First, with the Crescendo release date looming close, my publishers have gotten together to offer both Counterpoint (the first book in the Song of the Fallen series) and Crescendo at 20% off when purchased directly through the publishers' websites. This is the cheapest it's ever been, so if you've been waiting to get it, now's a good time.

Second, OMG, the Riptide Publishing Grand Opening Celebration is just around the corner! See that shiny banner in my left sidebar? Click it! There's lots of exciting new stuff on the Riptide website and more to come, and our first stop on the party tour begins September 23 at Amara's Place with lots of fun and prizes and behind-the-scenes peeks at our first eight titles.

Okay, now picspam. And yep, I still managed to work in Fassavoy, and a bonus Til Schweiger! As always, click to embiggen.

Monday Picspam - Rope (NSFW)

Happy Monday, folks! (I know, I know, I shouldn't be this chipper on a Monday.) Everything's going along swimmingly; edits for Crescendo are on pace, and all the Riptide releases are making progress. Did you see all the new blurbs and cover art we've posted lately? There's some really lovely stuff there. Our web designer rolled out a test version of the web store this weekend too, which was mad exciting. Can't wait to share it with you all!

In the meanwhile, this busy bee has little time to blog, so I shall shower you with hoteness instead, nice and NSFW, beneath the jump. Today's theme is rope. (And somehow I've managed not to post a picture of Michael Fassbender; apologies in advance to fellow obsessives.) (Have removed some photos that probably belonged to folks. So you're left with, well, screencaps of Michael Fassbender. Surprise surprise ;-p) As always, click to embiggen.

Win a Kindle & More at the NOR Web Hunt

Hi guys! I'm participating this month in the Night Owl Reviews Full Moon Web Hunt, which runs until Halloween and is chock full of one of the biggest prize lists I've ever seen.

If you've never done a web hunt, basically what you do is go from sponsor site to sponsor site looking for a hunt graphic. You record the URL where you found the graphic, and when you've found enough of them, you submit your list of URLs to NOR, who enters you in the drawings for the many, many awesome prizes (including pretty much my whole backlist to five separate winners!).

It's a great way to find new authors and revisit old favorites, and five lucky winners will be taking home a heap of prizes so big it'll take them a year to get through it all. So check it out, have fun, and good luck!

And, just a quick plug for Riptide Publishing here :-) We'll be doing some scavenger hunts of our own in October, November, and December, and winners will pick up free Riptide books for a year, among other cool prizes. Be sure to check those out when our Grand Opening Celebration launches on October 1!

Film Festival Fun

This one's a quickie, folks. I'm still neck deep in Crescendo edits and the Riptide Publishing launch, but I found out today that thanks to the lovely Cat Grant, I'll actually be getting a teeny little mini-vacation in a little over a month: the two of us are taking a day trip into Manhattan to see Shame at the NY Film Festival!

I am dying of excitement about this, not so much for going to Manhattan (it's sort of right around the corner from me, and I lived there for a while so the sheen's worn off), but for getting to see the new Steve McQueen movie starring every last full-frontal inch of my favorite obsession. Despite the Oscar buzz already coming out of the Venice Film Festival for Shame, the contents of the movie (and the director's admirable unwillingness to sacrifice artistic vision for commercialism) make it unlikely it'll ever see US distribution outside the festival circuit.

Fortunately, we have tickets, so I get to spend one glorious day off from editing and writing and launching a business (which, admittedly, I am loving just about every second of) to stare at 90 minutes of this, a large portion of which I'm told involve no pants. (Click to embiggen. Trust me.)

Aw heck, one more because he's just so absurdly adorable. (And is it just me or does that totally look like a ligature mark on his wrist? Okay, yeah, it's probably just me, but a girl can dream, right?) The photo call at Venice, beneath the jump:

New Cover Art, and AAD Bound

Morning folks! I promised you on Monday that I'd tell you a little about Master Class, my new BDSM novella releasing with my new business venture, Riptide Publishing, this fall. I'm still waiting on the official blurb, but here's a rough rundown:

Nicky Avery is starring in the Broadway revival of Godspell, but he lacks the confidence and self-respect to look beyond a string of heartless one-night stands to fill his needs. A quick flogging, a rough fuck, he blows off steam and seeks a new whip-hand to manipulate next. He finds challenge but no satisfaction in such pseudo-domination and pain. Nobody's managed to master him, and he thinks that's just fine. But he simply doesn't know what he's missing.  

Devon Turner is a self-possessed film star and expert Dom who knows what he wants the moment he sees it, and what he wants is Nicky Avery. Nicky's clearly a broken boy, but Devon knows exactly how to put his new sub back together again. 

Yes, those are the boys from Sublime: Collected Shorts, finally getting their full-length story. Well, novella length :-)

Also, my gorgeous cover art by L.C. Chase, let me show you it. (Click to embiggen.)

The book is complete, so expect a blurb and some excerpts soon!

In the meanwhile, I'm heading off to Authors After Dark tomorrow morning, and I'll be there through Sunday. If you're hunting for an invitation to submit to Riptide, I'm amenable to being pitched. I'll be hosting a hospitality suite at 9am on Friday with the lovely Cat Grant, so that's a good time to find me.

Friday will be hot men picspam, and I'll be back on Monday with tales (and blackmail photos) from the con.

The Seekrit Project Unveiled!

Good morning, all! You've been putting up with me talking about my Seekrit Project for some time now, and today I'm very, very excited to share it with you. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the love-child of myself, Aleksandr Voinov, and Chris Hawkins:

Our stage-one website launched late Saturday night at RiptidePublishing.com. We're a gay fiction press with a focus on romance, but we also publish erotica and literary gay and trans fiction. 

There's quite the lineup already, including some M/M favorites and some amazing new talent: Andrea Speed, Brita Addams, Bryl Tyne, Cat Grant, Damon Suede, Kari Gregg, L.A. Witt, Peter Hansen, Rhianon Etzweiler, Storm Grant, and of course works from myself and Aleksandr Voinov, too. 

We're opening this fall, but in the meantime, we hope you'll visit our website to learn all about us, check us out on Facebook and Twitter for all kinds of behind-the-scenes tidbits, and join our already very active Goodreads Group to chat with our authors and learn more about their upcoming works.

On Wednesday, I'll tell you all a little about the new book I'm releasing with Riptide. If you're a fan of Devon and Nicky from Sublime, you'll want to see it :-)