Kanelbullens Dag (Cinnamon Bun Day)

Fabulous cinnamon buns baked by my daughter

Today is Kanelbullens Dag (cinnamon bun day) in Sweden. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say everyone in Sweden loves cinnamon buns. At least I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love them; even my husband who’s not a huge fan of sweet things can’t get enough of cinnamon buns. In Sweden, we don’t eat them for breakfast (we don’t eat sweet pastry for breakfast) but it’s a staple when it comes to fika (and if you don’t know what fika is, you can read about it here.)

So why not do it like the Swedes do, today: have a cup of coffee this afternoon and a lovely cinnamon roll to go with it. Maybe meet up with a friend or family member, or your coworkers if you’re still at work. Or if you’re an introvert who doesn’t care about people, you can enjoy your cinnamon roll while reading a book featuring cinnamon rolls. Written by yours truly of course 😁

Theo in All I’ll Ever See is a baker who absolutely did not learn to bake everything cinnamon-flavored just because he knows Kieran loves cinnamon. No, nope, nooooo! 😁

Excerpt (featuring cinnamon rolls)

Kieran calls my name before my apartment door even closes behind him. He kept his word; I haven’t been home for an hour before he joined me, but I’ve had time to peel off the tux, take a shower and brew a cup of coffee.

“In the kitchen,” I call back as the sound of shoes hitting the floor and his keys landing in the bowl by the door reaches me. I pour coffee into our mugs and set them on the table, taking a last look at everything before he joins me. The freshly glazed cinnamon rolls look lush and delicious, the coffee spreads a wonderful aroma in the small-ish kitchen, the scented—inexpensive—candle flickers, and our chairs are pulled close together.

But when Kieran enters the kitchen, he doesn’t notice any of it. His gaze is focused only on me as he shrugs out of his jacket. He’s already lost the bowtie somewhere and flicked open a couple buttons on the shirt, and when the jacket is off, he tosses it in the direction of the chairs without looking. It misses its target and ends up in a pile on the floor, but Kieran doesn’t care. As soon as he’s within touching distance, he flings one arm around my waist and pulls me close. He winds his other arm around me, too, and hugs me tight. When I hug him back, he melts into me, his muscles loosening underneath my hands. His grip on me is strong, as if he’s making sure I won’t run away now that he finally is allowed to touch me.

When he starts shaking, I press myself against him and rub my nose against his cheek. “Hey,” I whisper as I tug on his shirt, pulling it out of the pants so I can slip my hands underneath and touch him. “You’re all right. We’re all right.” I brush a kiss against the corner of his mouth, and when my palms finally touch his skin, he moans.

Kieran’s grip on me tightens. “Promise me,” he says and the urgency in his voice pains me. “Promise you won’t leave me even though I’m a coward.”

The pain in my chest intensifies and I have to fight down the impulse to go back to the grand house and smack some sense into his family. He always falls apart after an event with them, almost breaks from the pressure of trying to be someone he’s not, and it’s my job to put him back together again. I’m proud that he trusts me so completely to show me his pain, but it makes me sad and angry that he has to go through this every fucking time.

But now’s not the time for me to dwell on things I desperately want to change. Instead, I turn my focus on the man in my arms. “I made coffee,” I say, keeping my voice low. “And I’ve got cinnamon rolls.”

“Yeah?” His voice perks up a little, but he doesn’t let go.

“Yup.”

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Blurb:

Previously released as All I See, now with 10K added words.

The night Kieran bangs on Theo’s door and kisses him changes both their lives forever. Theo has never been in the closet, but Kieran isn’t out and risks losing everything—his inheritance, his relationship with his family—should his parents find out.

But their feelings for each other can’t be denied, and Theo agrees to keeping their budding relationship a secret. But can their love grow and flourish when hidden away in the dark? Or will it wilt and die before they have a chance to live happily ever after?

M/M Contemporary / 14434 words

jms books

amazon

Are You a Newsletter Subscriber?

Are you a subscriber to my newsletter? If you’re not, I understand, because I tend to not subscribe to newsletters since I don’t want my mailbox clogged up with too many emails fighting for my attention. But I’m signed up for a few. For the author I really, really loved. For my writer friends because I like to support them. For my favorite artist so I can see when he’ll go on tour. And for that clothing store from which I buy most of my clothes.

But I have something that might change your mind.

My fabulous publisher JMS Books have created a promo code for the release of All I’ll Ever See, tomorrow. JMS Books always offer 20% off new releases, but this code will give you 20% additional discount (only on JMS Books website). It’s exclusive for my newsletter subscribers, you won’t be able to find it anywhere else. And I’m not one of those who posts a link to my newsletter everywhere on my social media channels so anyone can see it, so when I say it’ll only be for my newsletter subscribers, I mean it.

The reason for the promo code is that All I’ll Ever See is an expanded version of an already released story (All I See) and if you’ve already read that very short story you might wonder why you should pay to read something you’ve already partly read. Hence discount. Also, tomorrow is my birthday, so consider this a gift for you. Isn’t that how birthdays work? 🙂

So if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, make sure you sign up today so you won’t miss it.

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All I’ll Ever See is another wonderful addition to [Nell’s] body of work and I loved it.

http://www.xtreme-delusions.com

All I’ll Ever See: cover and pre-order link

I have a cover for All I’ll Ever See! And a release day! And a pre-order link! Wohooo, lots of goodies all at once.

And if you have forgotten, All I’ll Ever See is what happened when I decided to write a prequel to my short freebie All I See and the prequel turned into an expanded version that’s close to 15000 words (instead of the 4633 words of the original story.)

It will be released on September 11…which also happens to be my birthday, so happy birthday to me! 🙂

Are you ready for the stunning cover??

The night Kieran bangs on Theo’s door and kisses him changes both their lives forever. Theo has never been in the closet, but Kieran isn’t out and risks losing everything—his inheritance, his relationship with his family—should his parents find out.

But their feelings for each other can’t be denied, and Theo agrees to keeping their budding relationship a secret. But can their love grow and flourish when hidden away in the dark? Or will it wilt and die before they have a chance to live happily ever after?

pre-order all i’ll ever see @ jms books

Remember to subscribe to my newsletter if you haven’t already because my publisher has promised an extra special discount code only for my subscribers. But if you don’t like newsletters and don’t want to sign up, JMS always offers 20% off all pre-orders, so you still don’t have to pay full price. Good, eh?

Sign up for my newsletter here.

Last Chance to Download All I See

I promised you in my Goodbye July post that I’d tell you more about my WIP that I was working on in one of the pictures, and now the time has come.

A while back, I got an idea that I’d write a prequel to my short freebie All I See, to write about how Theo and Kieran got together, so I grabbed my favorite fountain pen and got to work. Over time, and with some very useful input from my publisher, the idea grew and changed, and turned into an expanded version of the original story.

Which means we’re going to take All I See down at the end of August, and then re-publish it in September under a new name; All I’ll Ever See.

The current version is 4633 words long, the extended version is 14500 words. The old version is in the story, only lightly edited to get rid of things that would’ve become repetitive should I have kept it, but the rest of the words are completely new.

And if you’ve already downloaded the free version and are now wondering why you should pay for a book where you’ve already read one third of the book, JMS Books has offered to create a discount code for my newsletter subscribers that will enable them to buy the new story at a reduced price. So if you’re not yet subscribed to my newsletter, now’s definitely the time to sign up.

And if you’re new to the blog and haven’t yet downloaded All I See, you still have time. It will be available for download all of August before it’s taken down. So I’m gonna post the links here so you can go grab them if you haven’t already.

jms books

amazon

books2read

And if you’re curious about All I’ll Ever See, here’s the blurb:

The night Kieran bangs on Theo’s door and kisses him changes both their lives forever. Theo has never been in the closet, but Kieran isn’t out and risks losing everything—his inheritance, his relationship with his family—should his parents find out.

But their feelings for each other can’t be denied, and Theo agrees to keeping their budding relationship a secret. But can their love grow and flourish when hidden away in the dark? Or will it wilt and die before they have a chance to live happily ever after?

Life update, blurb turnoffs, and a “bestseller”

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you are all staying safe and taking care of yourselves and your loved ones! Everything is fine in the Iris household: my husband is working from home and I LOVE having him home. I’m not one of these people who’s like gaaaaah my spouse needs to go back to work or I’ll kill them! On the contrary, I told my husband this morning when we met in the kitchen for coffee/tea break that I’ll be sad when he has to go back and work at the office 🙂

I know I’ve been pretty silent here lately and it’s only been a bunch of promo posts, but I’ve had loots of big crap going on in my life (aside for the whole pandemic thing) so I’ve been really stressed out. Most of it is worked out now, though, so hopefully my life will go back to normal soon. Or at least as normal as it can currently be, of course.

The weather has been lovely here for several weeks, so I’m spending a lot of time on my patio, enjoying the spring, the sunshine, and the warmth. Sometimes I’m writing (I won’t win Camp NaNoWriMo this year, that’s for sure!), but sometimes I’m just having a pot of tea and keeping in touch with friends and family. Out there, under the clear blue sky, with no social media or news sites open on any of my devices, life feels almost normal.

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But no more lingering on the current world situation. Instead I thought I’d tell you about five things in a book blurb that will make me go “NOPE!” and put the book back on its virtual bookshelf and immediately forget about it. In no particular order:

• “[Name] isn’t looking for love” – this means the character will blow hot and cold and I just want to have sex but no relationship, and there will be some drama around the 75% mark that will make me roll my eyes, and nope. Just nope. All I want is the romance and I want the guys to want the romance, so this is a big no-no for me.
• The word “misunderstandings” – you know how I feel about misunderstandings by now, right? Talk to each other, people!!
• “Super muscular alpha jock guy likes to work hard and play hard” – come OOOON! This is so done to death and I just want the shy guy or the chubby guy or the ordinary guy or the nerdy guy or the cute guy or the gamer guy or the femme guy or…you get it…to find love. Basically anything except a chest-pounding alpha male guy. (unless we’re talking shifters and he’s an ACTUAL alpha, then it’s fine! 🙂 )
• When the blurb is five hundred words long – reading the blurb isn’t supposed to take ten minutes. Keep it short and simple, please!
• Anything with time limits – and with that I mean vacation romances or the likes. I don’t like the “will their relationship be able to survive when they go back to their normal lives?”-aspect of this trope. I want the “ever after” in the HEA. It’s not called HUTVE (happily until the vacation ends) is it?? 😀

Tell me: what things in a blurb will make you go NOPE! 🙂

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I also want to share something awesome with you. Since my publisher and I made All I See free, it’s been climbing the (free) charts at Amazon. Look at this:

I mean…number 3 in Gay Romance and 432 in the entire free store?? That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?! These are all the free lists of course, but still!! YAAAY for Theo and Kieran.

Theo and Kieran have been together for five years. They’re very happy…behind closed doors. Theo accepted from the start that Kieran isn’t out to his conservative parents and has a lot to lose if they find out about his sexuality.

But a moment of sadness at a wedding changes things. Theo is faced with a decision: live the rest of his life in secret…or break it off.

Or is there a third alternative?

M/M Contemporary / 4633 words 

PERMANENTLY FREE!

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