Scribd!

So, I joined Scribd!

http://www.scribd.com/

One can sign up for a monthly fee to read as many books as you want.  They don't have all books, but they have a good selection, I think!  

These are the currently available Dreamspinner titles (over 800): http://www.scribd.com/dreamspinnerpress

Best of all, Elizabeth said authors still get full royalties for reads from this site.  I hope the models works for them.  I'd like to keep reading here!

Here are some of my recent reads that I've enjoyed a great deal:

    

It's lovely to read as quickly as I want and not "ration" stories!  :)  If they keep being this amazing, I'll probably stay a member for life.

Jack & Julian (I really need to get better at names!)

Jack & Julian 

Julian is a doctor, an American who's been living in England since before the War. Jack is English and served his country faithfully during WWII, but now he's a private tutor in a small English village, sent away from the SIS in disgrace for being homosexual. 

Julian, limping, closed-off, and blunt, is drawn to the giving and whimsical Jack. And Jack is drawn to the quiet steadiness of the man who might have secrets, but would never take him to bed simply because there's no barmaid handy. 

The two forge a relationship in the only way they can just after WWII: secretly. The warmth and caring blooming between them gives them both the safety to share their pasts with one another. 

But all is not serene, because someone wants Jack dead. 

And Julian can't lose another lover. Not like this. Not again. 

Length: approx. 16,500 words 

Excerpt: 

"Jack is fine," said the sandy-haired man, facing me. His blue eyes snapped friendly and naughty. He was taking me in, looked like he liked what he saw. I did, too. 

I gave him a small nod. "And you can call me Julian. Perhaps we'd best go to the kitchen, where there's more light." I turned away, and he followed. 

After a moment, he reached out and took my bag with his left hand. I gave him a startled blink, but let him take it. It felt surprisingly intimate walking with him quietly through that great house. He didn't say anything, and he gave the Gladstone back to me before we arrived in the kitchen. 

"How did you hurt yourself?" I asked, even though Lady Jane had already told me over the telephone, calling me up herself apologetically. The new tutor had fallen from a tree and caught his arm on some fencing, and could I come over and stitch him up? 

He shrugged. "Foolishness." He gave me that smile again. 

He didn't look like any tutor I had ever seen. He had the bluff, confident, laughing looks of a young pilot, or a wealthy landowner's second son. His hair was just that color that is nearly blond, light brown with streaks of paler hair burned in by the sun. He was the type I always fancied. I expected him to be noisy, chattering, but he was silent. I barely looked at him till I was bandaging his arm in the kitchen, sitting at the large, scarred wooden table together, our heads bent over his arm, the sunshine streaming in. 

The kitchen smelled of apples. Behind us, the large, comfortable-waisted cook, Mrs. Smith, was peeling them slowly and cutting them one at a time into a pie crust. She glanced over at us. Her competent hands were thick and hardened with work, skin that didn't cut even when she pressed the knife against it, cutting each slice of apple. 

The kitchen held a quiet, calm, sleepy warmth. A large bluebottle buzzed lazily around, stopping to bang itself against the window glass and then returning to the pie in progress. Mrs. Smith waved it away with her knife. 

Jack still hadn't spoken and neither had I. I washed and stitched his arm carefully in the warm stillness. His hand squeezed tight into a fist at the pain, but he only jerked once, closing his eyes, tightening his jaw, and enduring. 

"Finished," I said at last, sitting back, a crick in my back as I straightened. A neat row of stitches ran up his arm, replacing the rough gash from the fence he'd managed to cut himself on while falling. 

He looked up and met my gaze, his paler now, almost gray. His eyes held something, almost a plea or a longing, as though he wished to say something but knew he mustn't. He licked his lips and tried to smile. He gave a faint nod, but didn't speak. 

"Head between your knees," I said, reaching up and putting my hand on the back of his head, drawing him down. 

He breathed shallow, gasping breaths. 

"Brandy, Mrs. Smith?" I asked. 

She moved to fetch it quickly, making it clear she had been watching. I left my hand on the back of his neck for a moment, stroking his fine hairs gently.

$2.99

Buy links: 

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Julian-gay-romance-ebook/dp/B00FNT4AV8/

On Scribd: 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/173533337/Jack-Julian-gay-romance

(Selling on Scribd is a bit new for me -- let me know if it works for you if you try it!)  :)

Coming Soon: You Were Always the One

 cover by Cris Griffin

Max struggled through every day in high school, especially when his hormones seemed to crave boys rather than girls. His best friend Mason and Mason’s younger brother Jamie made a bright spot in his teen life, until he confessed to Mason he was gay. Mason responded by ripping away all his joy, ending their friendship, and warning Max against seeing Jamie. Max is a policeman now, comfortable in his sexuality but private and wary, taking solace in his job and the friendship of his golden retriever Alex. But the past he thought was behind him demands resolution when a  prickly, wounded, shockingly sexy Jamie gets arrested, and Max comes to the rescue.

To be published in November 2013 by Dreamspinner Press.

Loved You Once - includes free short story - Regency romance

Two sweet gay Regency romance stories:
Loved You Once (novella of ~16,000 words)

Boyhood friends are separated and grow up apart. When they meet again, Sander is shocked to discover his friend Paul still has feelings for males—and acts on his feelings. Sander is disturbed and unnerved; he's never allowed himself to think those sorts of things, much less act on them. The punishment would be death, after all. But he doesn't want to lose Paul again, no matter what. Perhaps his friendship can be enough; perhaps Sander won't be jealous of more….


Laurent St. Claire (short story of ~6,000 words)

When Laurent St. Claire discovers the handsome singer he's been seducing is a virgin, he breaks things off cruelly between them. He doesn't want a hesitant lover—and he doesn't want matters of the heart to enter into it. Or so he thought….


Total length for both stories:
~22,000 words

Heat level: low

Categories: sweet gay romance, Regency romance, historical / English romance

Newsletter Special - free book for joining

For the next few days (September 20-23), anybody on my newsletter, or who joins my newsletter, has the choice of one free ebook of mine.  Just tell me what book and what format you want.  I'll try to send the ebooks within 24 hours, but I don't know what kind of response I'm going to get, so please be patient if it takes me a little longer!  :)

No strings attached, except joining my mailing list (and if you find it irritates you, you can always un-join at any later date).  The only restriction I have is that for my Dreamspinner Press title, "Adrian's Librarian," only the first five people who request that will get it.  Other that that, have at it!  :)

Here are my titles: http://www.amazon.com/Hollis-Shiloh/e/B00BPXIMWO

This is a new thing for me, and I'm excited and a little scared.  (What if only three people participate?  What if three hundred people join and I get overwhelmed and fall behind on sending them ebooks??)  Depending on how this goes, I might try it again sometime, or end up telling myself, "Never again!!"

Anyway, if you want to help me with this experiment, please just email me, tell me what you'd like to read that I wrote, and what format works for you.

P.S. The only thing I use my mailing list for is telling you about new releases or special deals.  I promise not to bombard you with messages or share your email address with anyone who wants to buy it, or anything like that!

Cheers!

Oh, my email address is at the right, or written on this little green leaf:

Reading

So these are some stories that I'm into:

Scrap Metal, by Harper Fox

I read this book months ago now, but it's still stuck with me.  The atmosphere, the mystery, the strong narrative voice, the setting, the emotion.  I keep thinking I'll reread this but getting busy with other things.  But I remember it very clearly; it made a big impression on me.  I think about it often, and I wish I could write with as much emotion as Ms. Fox!

I really enjoyed "Seeing Red," by E. L. Esch.  A lot.  Like, a lot.  I feel like I like the sweet stuff most of the time, but this was a hot read that I also found sweet.  It stuck with me.  I wish this author had more books like this out.  I found the characters very appealing 

How many books hold my attention well enough to read them in one day, laughing almost every page, sometimes twice a page or more?  That was this book for me. It had it all, mystery, humor, "Englishness," and that indefinably wonderful characteristic of charm in the narrator.  I'm looking forward to reading the sequel when it's published.  I enjoyed this book so much I went out and bought almost everything else the author had written afterwards.  This one's still my fave, though.

There are lots of other stories I've enjoyed and will enjoy.  These are just three of my top reads off the...er...top of my head.  :)

It's official

My selkie romance will be published by Dreamspinner Press!  :D

The title is "A Wizard's Shelter" (yes, there's a wizard in it!), and the contract says it's slated for publication in March or April of 2014.

In other news, I've finished the first draft of a short romance set in post-War England, still unnamed.

And I'm hoping to really, seriously get to work on getting my novel, "Songs by Heart," edited and published.

Oh, and I have a short Regency I hope to have out soon.  But I've got to be sure it's up to snuff first.  What a weird phrase that is!