#RainbowSnippets and cover reveal

Weekends means Rainbow Snippets-time here on the blog, since I’ve joined the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook. According to their description, “it’s a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction—a WIP or a finished work of even 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).”

I continue snippeting from my upcoming book Cinnamon Eyes this week. I’ve got a release date now: August 12. I’ve also got a cover, and I thought you guys might want to be the first to see it?

Ready?

Isn’t it pretty? I love it!!

This snippet follows directly after the one I posted last week, when old friends Cory and Asher meet for the first time in sixteen years.

First the blurb as a reminder:

A long-awaited reunion.

Cory’s had a rough year struggling with severe depression. He’s desperate to rebuild his shattered life and to break away from his demanding family. When his therapist encourages him to do something for himself, he knows exactly what he needs. I want to see Asher again. The best friend he ever had who, at fifteen, held Cory’s heart in his hands without knowing it.

Asher’s had a troubled relationship with his father since he came out. Now that Pops is sick, he’s fighting for his right to help or even find out about his father’s health. Then there’s the complication of an ex-boyfriend unwilling to let go.

When they meet after sixteen years, Cory’s feelings are as strong as ever. But does Asher feel the same?

Cinnamon Eyes is an emotional story of what happens when two people who never wanted to be separated, finally reunite.

That was all it took for him to explode in movement. With two quick steps he was close enough to grab my hand. His strong fingers enveloped mine, and for a second I reveled in the feeling of calloused fingertips against my palm. Then he pulled, careful not to make me topple over, but forceful enough for me to understand he wanted me to follow.

I jumped off my stool, and he nodded before he turned around and strode towards the bar. I scrambled after him, having a hard time keeping up with his long legs.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads. Feel free to stop by and say Hi! I love new friends!

I’ve also gotten a Facebook profile for my pen name, so if you feel like it, I would love to be your friend 🙂

Save the date: Cinnamon Eyes

I’ve got a release date for my upcoming book. Mark your calendars for August 12, people! I can’t wait for you to get to know Cory and Asher and I hope you will love them as much as I do.

A long-awaited reunion.

Cory’s had a rough year struggling with severe depression. He’s desperate to rebuild his shattered life and to break away from his demanding family. When his therapist encourages him to do something for himself, he knows exactly what he needs. I want to see Asher again. The best friend he ever had who, at fifteen, held Cory’s heart in his hands without knowing it.

Asher’s had a troubled relationship with his father since he came out. Now that Pops is sick, he’s fighting for his right to help or even find out about his father’s health. Then there’s the complication of an ex-boyfriend unwilling to let go.

When they meet after sixteen years, Cory’s feelings are as strong as ever. But does Asher feel the same?

Cinnamon Eyes is an emotional story of what happens when two people who never wanted to be separated, finally reunite.

I want to write his happy ending

Those of you who are regular visitors to my blog probably know by now that I can’t live without music. And the other day when I listened to a song I’ve heard a million times before, it was like I heard it for the first time. I took in the words and every nuance of the singer’s voice and it hit me right in the heart. I could feel his pain and I teared up.

And I thought: I want to write his happy ending. But I want to write it with a man, instead of the woman he’s singing it about. I don’t know how or when, and it will take some serious thought. But I can’t stand living in a world where someone is in that much pain, even if it is a fictional character in a song. I need to fix it.

Music—the most amazing inspiration ever. Don’t you agree?

The song I’m talking about is Cheers Darlin’ by Damien Rice.

Cheers darlin’
Here’s to you and your lover boy
Cheers darlin’
I got years to wait around for you
Cheers darlin’
I’ve got your wedding bells in my ear
Cheers darlin’
You give me three cigarettes to smoke my tears away

And I die when you mention his name
And I lied, I should have kissed you
When we were running in the rain

What am I darlin’?
A whisper in your ear?
A piece of your cake?
What am I, darlin?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?

Cheers darlin’
Here’s to you and your lover man
Cheers darlin’
I just hang around and eat from a can
Cheers darlin’
I got a ribbon of green on my guitar
Cheers darlin’
I got a beauty queen
To sit not very far from me

I die when he comes around
To take you home
I’m too shy
I should have kissed you when we were alone

What am I darlin’?
A whisper in your ear?
A piece of your cake?
What am I, darlin?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?

Oh what am I? What am I darlin’?
I got years to wait…

#RainbowSnippets

Weekends means Rainbow Snippets-time here on the blog, since I’ve joined the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook. According to their description, “it’s a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction—a WIP or a finished work of even 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).”

I haven’t posted a Rainbow Snippet for ages, but I thought it was time to amend that. This week I’m snippeting from my upcoming book Cinnamon Eyes, that will be released some time in August. Stay tuned for details.

A long-awaited reunion.

Cory’s had a rough year struggling with severe depression. He’s desperate to rebuild his shattered life and to break away from his demanding family. When his therapist encourages him to do something for himself, he knows exactly what he needs. I want to see Asher again. The best friend he ever had who, at fifteen, held Cory’s heart in his hands without knowing it.

Asher’s had a troubled relationship with his father since he came out. Now that Pops is sick, he’s fighting for his right to help or even find out about his father’s health. Then there’s the complication of an ex-boyfriend unwilling to let go.

When they meet after sixteen years, Cory’s feelings are as strong as ever. But does Asher feel the same?

Cinnamon Eyes is an emotional story of what happens when two people who never wanted to be separated, finally reunite.

At first, he didn’t seem to recognize me. He searched my face for clues, but it only took a few moments for the spark of realization to light up his eyes.

“Cory?” His voice was gravellier than ever. “Cory, is that you?”

Strands of hair were plastered to his face, and his forehead shone with sweat. His countenance was serious and he was completely still as if he didn’t dare to breathe before he heard my answer.

“Yes,” I whispered.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads. Feel free to stop by and say Hi! I love new friends!

I’ve also gotten a Facebook profile for my pen name, so if you feel like it, I would love to be your friend 🙂

Five confessions

I’m terribly behind in this month’s Camp NaNoWriMo because I’ve spent most of July being sick with a sore throat, fever, and the most stubborn cough you can imagine.

I may or may not have eaten an entire pint of Ben&Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream the other day when I read and critiqued my friend’s WIP. But everyone knows ice cream is the best medicine for a sore throat, right?

I hate promoting myself. I am NOT a sales person: if I needed to take a job in sales I would starve to death and be thrown out on the street because I couldn’t sell water to a dehydrated person in the Sahara Desert if my life depended on it. Putting myself out there, saying Buy my books, they’re great! is really, really hard for me. I mean, there’s a reason I want to be a writer: I can stay indoors all day and work in my underwear and not have to meet anyone except for my husband. Introverts make sucky salespeople. And because I don’t know how to sell stuff—especially myself—I don’t have any great promo ideas. What can I do to promote my books? Got any great ideas? Except for becoming filthy rich so I can hire someone to do the promo for me?

I’m in a blogging funk and have no idea what to write about. Not just here, but in my private blog that I’ve loved and maintained for 11 years. It got to the point where my mom gave me the stink eye because I wasn’t updating it: Your poor mother has NO IDEA what’s going on in your life anymore since you don’t UPDATE YOUR BLOG. Ouch. For this blog, I’m trying to figure out some kind of schedule so I have a plan to stick to. Themes for the different days. Like on Mondays I post X, Wednesdays Y, and Fridays Z. Now I just gotta figure out what XYZ are. What do you like to read about on author blogs?

I’m in a funk in general and feel like I suck as a writer. And I’m not writing this to get pats on the back or assurances that I don’t suck, but just to be honest and since I’m apparently in the business of confessing this Sunday. Why should I write, when there are so many writers out there so much better than me? Do my stories matter to anyone but me? Would anyone even care if I didn’t write anymore? Why should I finish my current WIP, it’s not like I’m gonna know how to promote it properly anyway?

See? A terrible funk. I don’t know how to pull myself out of it. I need to figure out how to stop comparing myself to others, have some faith in myself, and remember that I write because I love it. Sounds easy enough, don’t you think? (<- irony)

Wasn’t this a happy and uplifting blog post? I’ll stop whining now, make myself a cup of coffee and do a 15-minute writing sprint on my NaNo project. I got words to write and bootstraps to pull myself up by.

Have a great Sunday.

Coming soon: Cinnamon Eyes

 

A long-awaited reunion.

Cory’s had a rough year struggling with severe depression. He’s desperate to rebuild his shattered life and to break away from his demanding family. When his therapist encourages him to do something for himself, he knows exactly what he needs. I want to see Asher again. The best friend he ever had who, at fifteen, held Cory’s heart in his hands without knowing it.

Asher’s had a troubled relationship with his father since he came out. Now that Pops is sick, he’s fighting for his right to help or even find out about his father’s health. Then there’s the complication of an ex-boyfriend unwilling to let go.

When they meet after sixteen years, Cory’s feelings are as strong as ever. But does Asher feel the same?

Cinnamon Eyes is an emotional story of what happens when two people who never wanted to be separated, finally reunite.

Camp NaNoWriMo July

So…this happened. I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in July. I enjoyed it so much in April so I thought it would be fun to do it again. And I want to finish the project I worked on back then, that’s been on the back burner for a while because I had to complete another project and meet a deadline.

June has been really busy and it seems July will be, too. No rest for the wicked, right? 🙂

Wish me luck.