Rainbow Snippets

I am all but weeping in the face of everything I have to do (read last week of classes, a trip and another round of edits on the long novel and ditto the novella). I might be slow in reading everything but I WILL read it.

Also I had a blast at the Ohioana book festival last weekend. If you like gothic/gaslight paranormals and get the chance to talk Leanna Renee Hieber, do. She’s a blast (she’ll also be at the steampunk thing that’s coming up next weekend that I’m going to in Cincinnati).

I’m continuing with These Haunted Hills (camp nano has been a failure due to the endless edits) I jumped a wee bit ahead. They went back into the hotel briefly, it had gone quiet and now they’re leaving. It’s a wee bit over seven lines just to capture the complete thought.

Brendan had to admit to himself when Joshua pulled the truck away from Diana’s hotel, more of the heaviness disappeared. He twisted on the seat, watching the inn slowly swallowed by the woods. “I’m so glad I hired you as a guide. I would never have found this place on my own in spite of reading a bit online. Even if I had, I don’t know that I’d have been brave enough to go in.”

“I don’t know about that. You did well.”

“Yeah, I didn’t piss myself when things went sideways so I’m counting that as a win,” Brendan said dryly.

Joshua chuckled. “Fair point.”

“Came close, not going to lie.” Brendan smiled.

“You would not be the first. Not me, mind you but we did take this one big burly would-be ghost hunter and he crapped himself. It was not a good ride home so you’re way ahead of him.”

“Good to know. Might have to put that in the book, make the character something of an arrogant douchebag so no one will be too upset.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

New Release- Forgiveness by Grace Duncan

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Check out Grace Duncan’s latest. I saw the Steelers in the excerpt and smiled.

Blurb

Nine years ago Eric Joyce went wolf when his chosen mate broke the bond, and he hasn’t walked on two legs since. Convinced he lost his friends when he ran out on them, he cut himself off from the pack. But a surprising visitor prods him back down the mountain, and he finds himself welcomed warmly.

Ben Arellano grew up in Texas with a human Catholic mother who didn’t understand a thing about wolves—and didn’t try to learn. He spent his whole life being told his wolf was a demon that needed to be exorcised, surrounded by a wolf pack made up of good ole boys who had no tolerance for his Mexican ancestry or his bisexuality. When he’s given the opportunity to relocate to an accepting pack in Pittsburgh, he jumps at the chance.

When Eric and Ben meet for the first time, neither is ready for it. Where Ben expects rejection, Eric is convinced yet another mate will leave, break the bond, and put him through the same hell all over again. Can they get past their reservations and have a happily mated life?

Excerpt He wished he’d listened more to Alpha Noah. That summer he’d mentioned a couple of times that if Eric had anything he wanted to talk about—and even then Eric had known Alpha Noah was referring to Kim—he could talk. Eric hadn’t taken him up on it. Instead, he’d kept it to himself and continued to fight with Kim.

But when the beginning of September came and went and Eric refused to go to college, she had apparently realized she wasn’t going to get what she wanted. He’d hinted that they start trying for pups. She’d completely lost it on him, packed a suitcase, and walked out.

He’d told himself she just needed a break, needed time to understand he was happy. And he was—if not about them fighting, then about everything else.

So, he’d waited. September bled into October, which blew coldly into November. And still she hadn’t come back. Hadn’t so much as called him in all that time. He had no idea where she’d gone, just that she wasn’t in Pittsburgh anymore—Alpha Noah had told him he knew that for sure, but not where she’d gone.

He’d lost himself in his work and focused on spending time with his friends. But one Monday night, during football, his life changed forever.

The Steelers were close, on the ten-yard line, looking good for a touchdown. Halfway through the play, a pain hit that was so sharp, it stole Eric’s breath and forced him to lose control of his wolf, something he hadn’t done since he was a pup. He’d shifted on the spot, howling. It’d taken the alpha, using his alpha power, to get him to shift back.

His chest physically hurt. He’d known, in that second, what had happened. He couldn’t breathe, the pain was so sharp. He managed to get back to human form and stared at his best friend, trying to figure out how to handle this, but his wolf was too much in the forefront, too close to the surface because of the pain. He’d managed to tell Tanner he was sorry, then shifted again and bolted.

Eric had torn through the screen door of Alpha Noah’s house and run as fast as he could. Away from the pain, away from the heartache. Away from the understanding of what had just happened.

Kim had cheated on him. Cheated on him and allowed another wolf to claim her. She hadn’t just left him to figure things out.

She was gone.

With another howl, he’d run. Run as far and as fast as he could. And he hadn’t looked back for a very, very long time.

 

Eric whined, trying yet again to forget. There was no way he could go through that again, no way he could open himself up to the possibility. Diana, why?

He smelled his alpha only a few moments later. But Eric wasn’t ready to face being human again. Life as a wolf was so much easier. He didn’t have these things to deal with. He could focus on a few basic things—fighting, feeding, running. He didn’t need to think about emotion, didn’t need to worry about something he should have had but didn’t.

“Come on, Eric. You can’t do this again,” Tanner said.

Eric tried to ignore him. He’d recognized Tanner as his alpha, so if Tanner wanted to push the issue, he could. Eric really hoped he wouldn’t.

“Dude, really. Come on. I know it was hard on you. I saw it happen, remember? I didn’t feel it, but I know. You can’t do this again, though. You can’t do it to your mate.”

The whine got louder, and Eric shook his head. I don’t have a mate! I can’t!

“Eric, shift, man. Let’s talk about this at least.”

Eric sighed but shook his head again.

“Uh-uh. I’m not letting you do this a second time. Are you going to make me go alpha on you?”

He couldn’t answer, because he really didn’t want to piss his friend—or alpha—off.

“Godsdammit,” Tanner grumbled. “Eric, shift.”

The alpha power went through him, and a few seconds later, Eric squatted opposite Tanner, looking at him in full color. “Did you have to do that?”

“Were you going to shift?” Tanner countered.

Eric kept his mouth shut.

“That’s what I thought.” Tanner shook his head. “I’m not letting you do this again. Especially not now.”

“I can’t, Tanner. I can’t go through the pain again.”

To Eric’s surprise, Tanner nodded. “I get that.” He sat back, leaning on one hand and tilting his head. “Have a seat. I didn’t get a chance to tell you much about what happened with Finley and me, did I?”

Eric scowled. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Sit and I’ll tell you.”

“I’m not a dog,” Eric grumbled, earning himself a snort from Tanner. But he sat, getting more comfortable.

“I didn’t claim Finley for two years after we met. To a large degree, that was because of you.”

Eric blinked at him, mouth dropping open. “Me? Because of me?”

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Buy links

e-book: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/forgiveness-by-grace-r-duncan-9470-b

Paperback: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/forgiveness-by-grace-r-duncan-9471-b

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Forgiveness-Forbes-Mates-Book-4-ebook/dp/B07BB8VS7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1521221239&sr=1-1&dpID=51lo6Ff866L&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/forgiveness-grace-r-duncan/1128137537?ean=9781640802698

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/forgiveness-82

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/forgiveness/id1347765261?mt=11

 

HTML Bio:
noh8Author Bio:

Grace Duncan grew up with a wild imagination. She told stories from an early age – many of which got her into trouble. Eventually, she learned to channel that imagination into less troublesome areas, including fanfiction, which is what has led her to writing male/male erotica.

A gypsy in her own right, Grace has lived all over the United States. She has currently set up camp in East Texas with her husband and children – both the human and furry kind.

As one of those rare creatures who loves research, Grace can get lost for hours on the internet, reading up on any number of strange and different topics. She can also be found writing fanfiction, reading fantasy, crime, suspense, romance and other erotica or even dabbling in art.

Website FacebookTwitterYoutubeGoodreads

Website: http://www.grace-duncan.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GraceRDuncan2
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraceRDuncan
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/djserani/videos
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10546257-grace

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Sunday Small Talk

After sitting in on some author’s panels at the Ohioana Book Festival, can I say how happy I am that I get real input on my book covers? SO grateful. Many of them with big publishing houses (looking at you Kensington who seemed to be the worst offender) the authors fill in the cover spec sheets and then down the road get a cover that may have diddly to do with the book and are stuck with them.

I suddenly know how lucky I’ve been.

Also has anyone been having issues with track changes in Word? I’m having trouble with it not changing things (I.e. not even bringing up the accept/reject options), refusing to highlight something so I can change it, making me do the punctuation separate from the text but not always. I have no idea what is up but it’s doing it on four separate computers. I’m not sure if it’s Word or that these documents were partially written in Word and partially in Libre office. I guess if it’s still doing it on the newest story I’ll know it’s word as I’ve dumped Libre.

Speaking of the new story, it’s a Christmas story in Florida. Maybe I’ll get it done maybe not but it’s a contemporary story that isn’t boring me as I write it which is what contemporary stories usually do. I have hope for it.

I’m also neck deep in edits for the SF novella. I need to get it done because I’m running out of time. Crosses fingers.

Rainbow Snippets

Running late. I was at the Ohioana Book Festival which was a lot of fun (as was the casino I hit afterward).

More of These Haunted Hills which is my camp nano. I haven’t written much this week between an idea for a Christmas short story and having to write and write three MORE exams. When last scene Josh and Brendan have escaped the haunted hotel but….


Brendan steadied his nerves and followed Joshua back inside. “I would like to hear the recordings.”

“We can stop off at my place or yours.” Joshua frowned as he beelined for the room they had been in. “I wanted to see if there might be places to set up the cameras for the foxes but if you’re not okay with me being there, that’s fine. We can go to my place or even my office on campus if you want somewhere more public.”

“I’m following you into a building that just tried to trap and kill me. I’m fairly sure I can trust you in my cabin.” Looking into those blue eyes, Brendan wondered if he could trust himself. What was he thinking? Of course, he could. He wasn’t ready for anything like that. Still, Joshua represented one hell of a temptation. Maybe it was the innocence he seemed to wear tighter than his geeky T-shirt. It had been so long since he’d entertained even this vanilla level of attraction that it overwhelmed him.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Sunday Small Talk

I had something I wanted to say for this It’s been a while after all. It was thoughtful and maybe even funny and I didn’t have time to write it down when it was in my head. And it’s gone because that’s what depression does to you.

But there are good things going on, hell great things even. I won one of the highest honors at my university, I was voted Outstanding Professor of the year by the students and that about made me cry (I’m sure I will when I have to give that little speech).

And over at Joyfully Jay it’s Paranormal week! paranormal week I’m among the 100 author giving away a paranormal read. I’m giving away my 1930s demon hunter’s novel Soldiers of the Sun So check it all out!!

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I finished the edits for Blood Red Roulette. It took me longer than it should have (and thank you DSPP for being so patient with me). Hopefully I’m done with the huge edits and the next will be smoother sailing. Also I’ve seen the rough draft of the cover for this. It’s AMAZING. I can’t wait until I can share the final product. You’re going to love it.

I’ve also finished the edits for something I’ll be writing under my YA pen name. That’s really exciting.

And I’m waiting on the beta reader for my SF novella (she had a few RL issues). Can’t wait to get that off to Nine Star (crosses fingers).