Happy New Year!

Looking back at everything that happened this year, 2013 has been pretty darn good to me.

Three more books in the Cost of Repairs series released this year: COLOR OF GRACE, WEIGHT OF SILENCE, and ACTS OF FAITH. And yes, there is a fifth book coming!

I also had two releases with Dreamspinner Press: UNEARTHING COLE and WHAT YOU OWN.

I've gained lots of new, amazing readers, and I'm thankful for each and every one of you. I would be nothing without my readers, so thank you for reading my books and recommending them to your friends.

I know I've grown as a writer. With each book, and with each new set of characters, I feel as though I've allowed myself to open up and be more honest. To shine a light on the dark things that happen to us, and to let that light take some of the darkness away. You haven't met Ezra and Romy yet, but you will, briefly, in February's NO SUCH THING, before they get their own books. These boys broke my heart this past year, and I'm honored to have written their stories.

Besides new releases, I signed three new contracts for 2014!

Of course I keep talking about my new series with Carina Press, which begins with NO SUCH THING on February 17. Book two (Title TBD) releases in late July, and book three, FOLLOW YOU HOME, sometime later (probably 2015). I'm so freaking in love with these books and these guys, and I hope you love them, too.

For the folks who asked, I contracted the sequel to UNEARTHING COLE to Dreamspinner. UNDERSTANDING JEREMY has a July/August release date.

I also contracted FOUNDATION OF TRUST, the fifth Cost of Repairs book. This is David Weller's story. More to come on that, but David. Oh David. Some characters you just do not expect....

In terms of what I'm writing, I have two different works in progress, both of them spin-offs from other series. I hope to get whacked upside the head with an idea for a standalone or two, like WHAT YOU OWN, but I do seem to get caught up with multi-book series. Probably because that's what I prefer to read. I love revisiting locations and groups of characters. But sometimes you want something that stands on its own two feet, you know?

So from my boys to you: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!   ::confetti::

Cover Reveal: No Such Thing

I have the cover and blurb for my upcoming release with Carina Press. I very happy about this new book and new series, and about the cast of characters. The second book in this series (title forthcoming, book releasing in July 2014) is what I've called on Twitter "The Big Book Of Angst" more than once. But I love these boys, and I'm excited to share them with you in less than two months!

Twenty-two-year-old Alessandro Silva knows that returning to tiny Perch Creek to help his foster mother was the right thing to do. With no degree and a delinquent’s reputation, he’s lucky to have landed a job waiting tables. But not everyone is happy he’s back, and the only thing keeping his move home from being a total bust is his boss’s hot brother.

Jaime Winters spent most of his life watching the world go by, first from a series of hospitals and then from behind big stacks of textbooks. Studying is easier than facing the fact that years of heart failure means he’s still a virgin at twenty-three. Until the new waiter in his sister’s diner awakens desires he’d long ago given up on.

The last thing Alessandro wants is to fall for someone as fragile as Jaime. And Jaime may have a new heart, but he’s scared of what giving it to another person would mean. Their no-strings-attached, instructional approach to sex keeps emotion safely at bay, until a secret from Alessandro’s past forces them to confront their feelings in the present…

That's right. Virgin hero. And because food almost always manages to become a set piece in my books, this one features a bakery. And coconut cake.

NO SUCH THING releases February 17, 2014!

Release Day: Acts of Faith

It's finally here! Book four in my "Cost of Repairs" series that began with Sam Briggs and Rey King returns to their lives and continuing romance in ACTS OF FAITH. Check it out, and don't forget to leave reviews on Goodreads and Amazon!

Love can be built on a broken past…but not on broken trust.

  

Cost of Repairs, Book 4

  

Rey King has settled into his new life with Samuel Briggs, and his catering business has taken off to the point he’s brought a business partner on board. Yet something is missing. He’s still haunted by the pain of losing his daughter, Faith, in a custody battle six years ago.

  

Then, one month before Christmas, Faith’s grandmother passes away, and Rey gets a shocking offer he never saw coming.

 Samuel knew loving Rey wouldn't be easy, but then again he’s no walk in the park either. Still, for eighteen months they’ve thrived as a couple…until a shy, seven-year-old girl shakes his belief that he and Rey can overcome anything.

 Settling Faith into their chaotic lives would be a welcome challenge, if things weren’t complicated by Rey’s too-cute, overly attentive new business partner. As misunderstandings, miscommunications, and unresolved tensions escalate, Rey begins to wonder if the best Christmas gift of his life could cost him the man he loves.

And in case you're wondering, there will be a fifth book. Deets to come!

Monday Was Very Good to Me

Folks love to grouse about Monday. It's the first day of the work week (unless you work retail or a restaurant, in which case your work week is haphazard and weekends mean very little in terms of what days they fall on). Monday gets a bad rap sometimes, because yesterday was very good to me.

So much fun news!

First I came home and found a box in the mail from Dreamspinner Press, with pretty, pretty paperback copies of WHAT YOU OWN inside! I was expecting some things from Amazon, but this was even better. This is my third book in print (so far), so it was lovely to flip the pages and browse through Ryan/Adam's story.

Out of curiosity, I went to check the nominations for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group's 2013 Readers Choice Awards. Mostly to see which of my favorite books were nominated in various categories, and there were a lot. So I was pleasantly stunned to see COLOR OF GRACE nominated for Best Tear Jerker.

I'm not sure if you have to be a member of the group to see the nominations, but you have to be a member to vote in the final polls. It's so humbling and gratifying to see my work recognized by readers.

And if that didn't make my day, this final thing did.

Dreamspinner has contracted UNDERSTANDING JEREMY, the sequel to UNEARTHING COLE, and will publish it next summer! Folks have been asking for more of Cole and Jeremy since UC released this past spring, and for a novella, this book was hard to write. Getting into Jeremy's head was a challenge, and it took me more than seven months to write this, working off and on while managing other books. But I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and I hope UC fans love it too.

Below is the blurb I used in my submission query (not the official blurb, which will come later), to give y'all a glimpse of what's to come.

Six weeks after the auction of his parents' hoarded property, Cole Alston is free of their possessions, but not the house and land.  The winning bid fell through, leaving him unable to follow his original plan to take the money and go elsewhere to start over—a plan that is slowly dissolving under the pleasant influence of his unexpected relationship with Jeremy Collins. Jeremy is quite content to have Cole still living with him, and despite Cole's frequent nightmares of the abuse he endured thanks to his ex-boyfriend Martin, they've created a comfortable coexistence.
 

A coexistence that could shatter at any moment, because their relationship is a carefully guarded secret in their very small town. Cole is terrified that coming out will ruin the business and friendships that Jeremy has built, and he'd rather leave than hurt Jeremy so badly. Jeremy has fallen hard for Cole, despite knowing Cole's presence was never a promise, and he's willing to risk blowing up his life in order to keep him. Jeremy has already survived a lifetime of painful losses, but as secrets and misunderstandings continue to pile up, he may face his greatest loss of all: the first man he's ever really loved.

Much love!