Category Archives: Kiss Me Straight

Read an Ebook!

Gold Guy carnivalValentine’s Day is over, St. Patrick’s day is still weeks away, and unless you’re in Rio or New Orleans (or the liquor store by my house, which was decorated very festively for the occasion), you probably don’t have a whole lot going on for Mardi Gras — let’s face it, there’s something of a celebratory slump this time of year.  Hell, my vacation ends on Wednesday, a month of flying all-nighters begins, and that’s certainly nothing to jump up and down about.

But take heart — don’t repurpose those party hats just yet: Read an Ebook Week on Smashwords starts today, ushering in an entire week of big savings at “the world’s largest distributor of indie ebooks.”   My novels, Kiss Me, Straight and Crazy Like Fox have RSVP’d to the party, and will be on sale for 75% OFF all week long (March 2-8).  And did you know: you don’t have to have a Kindle or a Nook to read Ebooks — you can get them in formats that you can read on your regular old computer or even on your phone!   (Smashwords will have to help you with that, though — I only use my phone these days for getting my ass kicked by an old high school crush at Words with Friends.)  (He’s 42 — not so old…)Kiss_Me_Straight_Cover

I have more Ebooks coming at you soon: a short erotic romance-slash-mash note from me to the Vancouver Airport called You Again? comes out in April, and I’m ecstatically pleased to announce the release of my novel-length Doofus and the Drag Queen romance Love Has Reasons in June.  Don’t fret, there will be loads more info about these two items, especially as cover art becomes available, but in the meantime, if you have some catch-up to do on my catalogue (or just want to load up your E-Reader with independent authors), save save save! at Smashwords this week.  Then pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, curl up in your fave reading nook with your E-Reader and your elaborate feathered headdress, and party on!

The Year in Review, Things to Do

Happy 2013!2012, we hardly knew ye.  Actually, 2012 was kind of a loudmouth year, and one that many people will be happy to leave behind, but before we send it packing, there are a couple of loose ends to tie up around here.

I don’t do New Years “Resolutions.”  Partly because I feel like the word “resolution” is used by our culture in this context as a synonym for “setting yourself up for failure,” after which point you will presumably be called upon to punish yourself for not getting skinny enough or not running enough marathons or for drinking too much coffee.  My skinny days are behind me, there’s no such thing as “too much coffee,” and one marathon — New York City,  1993 — was plenty, thank you.  I’m not a big fan of self-flagellation (odd for someone brought up in the Catholic tradition, I know), but I’m a firm believer both in setting intentions and in positive reinforcement, and when I meet goals, there’s always a minute of Yay, Me!, and often champagne.  (And maybe a big dinner out, which is why “Get Skinny” is no longer on my list of Things To Do.) Continue reading →

Christmas Comes to Kiss Me, Straight

XMAS KMSInto every life a little Christmas must fall, and Our Hero Todd is no exception to this rule.  What with being a hopeless romantic and a little bit of a drama queen, he finds himself with some feelings to sort through, and he drags himself home to his childhood home in Ogallala, Nebraska to sort through them.  OK, well, maybe to use the chaos of Christmas with his brothers and nieces and nephews as an excuse not to sort through them, but give the boy time; it’s a process, as Todd will go on to appreciate.

You won’t be needing excuses, though: just in time to brighten your own holidays (or those of the queer fiction fans on your Holiday Shopping list), JMS Books is having a sale!  ALL eBooks on the site are 30% off, which means Kiss Me, Straight can overflow from your digital stocking for only $5.59!  The print version is also on sale if you’re looking to get a few snapshots of the book under your own tree. You can snag a copy on Amazon, and it’s not too late to enter to WIN a copy on Goodreads (although it will be too late on January 1).

Christmas preparations here continue apace; Jared is baking loaf after loaf of yummy pumpkin bread, I’ve bought my Rudolph-themed wrapping paper at the Dollar Tree, as you see, and had my Xmas pedicure (oh yes, I am that fancy), and Chris Isaak and Stevie Nicks assure me that Santa Claus is coming to town.  Will he make it to Ogallala?  Scoot back off the edge of your seat and find out in the Kiss Me, Straight Christmas Excerpt: Continue reading →

Best. November. Ever.

tumbler2Last weekend, we cashed in the Groupon that I gave my boyfriend for his birthday (in April) and spent the morning in a surprisingly awesome glass blowing workshop at a local studio.  While the only actual “blowing” I did was in the form of Breathing Through My Fear that what I hoped would become my New Favorite Glass (seen here) would break before it ever had a chance to decant so much as a drop of wine, we did get to pick out our own colors, and “help” as a small cadre of experienced glass artists coaxed vessels and vases from glowing blobs of molten orange nothing with pointy tools, spinning poles, and ever-helpful gravity, a great friend to the glass blower.

Except for when he is her enemy.  Before we got to jump in and play with solid fire on a stick, the artist who opens her studio to us neighborhood rubes gave a brief and flashy demo to help establish expectations and give us an idea of what we were in for.  While she blew and spun and swirled and fancily attached and detached various appendages to the Demo Goblet, she talked about Glass.  About the science that makes it predictable enough to work with, and about the petulant personality of the medium and the thousand and one variables in the process that make the outcome of every piece unique and surprising.  Tapping the finished project off of the pipe on the end of which she’d been spinning and shaping it, she broke it, then tossed it I-don’t-remember-where with a casual Oh, well.  You win some, you lose some, she had illustrated, possibly on purpose, and she explained that part of the appeal of working with glass was that even if she sets out with a very specific plan, she never knows exactly where it will take her. Continue reading →

New Release: Kiss Me, Straight

Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney—these exciting cities are standard fare in the life of flight attendant Todd Eisenbraun, and he chases a romance with sexy-but-straight Josh through them all.

Back home in San Francisco, a new neighbor in his apartment building has a huge crush on Todd.  His friends—Katie, a flight attendant-turned-small appliance repairwoman, and Marzipan Q. Thespian, a man-dangling local philanthropist—think Todd should at least give Chris a shot.  Sure, he’s fat, but he’s also handsome, a hilarious playwright, and a great cook—what’s not to love?

Todd and Chris become quick friends, but Todd’s idea of the perfect man is skinny and straight, and Chris is decidedly neither.  Josh may have a fiancée and a teenaged son, but Todd just knows he’s “the One.”

But if Josh is straight, the road to love is not.  Todd is bombarded by his own internalized homophobia, body image issues, exotic locales, the glamorous world of sewing machine repair, and a community theater musical salute to the life of Judy Garland.  When will he realize he’s been looking way too hard for something he may have already found?

Find out in Kiss Me, Straight, my debut novel, new today!

Buy Kiss Me, Straight for your e-reader at JMS Books

Buy Kiss Me, Straight in paperback and for your Kindle at Amazon.com

Like Kiss Me, Straight on Facebook

Enter (between now and the end of December) to Win Kiss Me, Straight on Goodreads

Meet Todd and his friends in an excerpt… right here! Continue reading →