Posted in Books, News

Mothers’ Day sale

Dashing in to say that JMS Books are having a (US) Mothers’ Day sale all this weekend with a massive 45% off their books!

This includes my own m/m romance Run Wild, Run Free so if you’ve been wondering whether to try it, now’s your chance. Head to the JMS Books website where you can pick up a copy for only $1.64, for this weekend only.

There are also loads of other great books by a wide range of authors so while you’re there you might want to poke around – you’re sure to find something you like.

Posted in Books, News

New book alert

Great news – the book I’ve just finished writing has been accepted by JMS Books for publication later this year.

‘Feathered Friend’ is a tongue-in-cheek contemporary m/m retelling of the old swan maiden fairy tale and features (wait for it…) a shapeshifting pigeon! It sounds bonkers and in some ways it is, but it’s also sweet, angsty and romantic so I hope my m/m romance readers will love it.

I’ll post more news on a potential release date as soon as I have it, together with blurb and cover art. Until then, watch this space and don’t trip over the feathers…

Posted in Books, News

Help for army veterans

I came across this piece on the BBC website about a woodland support camp for armed forces veterans the other day and immediately thought, what a brilliant idea.

Many years ago I worked for an estate agents that specialised in licensed premises (pubs and hotels) and we quite often got ex-armed forces personnel checking out the properties. I still remember one of them telling us it was one of the few areas of employment many of them felt comfortable with, and/or that the army personnel departments were recommending. So I can absolutely understand that having this kind of practical and emotional support once they leave the armed forces could be a real life-changer.

And I couldn’t help thinking it would be the sort of place Nat from December Roses would have found invaluable when he was so desperate to make alternative arrangements for his future life and employment. Thankfully he found his vocation in the gardens of Frogmorton Towers, but if not I could have written a sequel where he came to Cumbria to work on one of these camps.

Pic credit: BBC

Posted in Books, News

Run Wild, Run Free on special offer

Great news – not only has my latest book just hit the virtual shelves but now it’s available at a discount, too!

If you scurry along to my publisher’s website you can get the book in their special ‘new release’ sale for 20% less than the regular price. Which means it’s only $2.39, or your local equivalent.

Do hurry, though, because the offer is only for the book’s first week and lasts until Friday 17th March.

He might know he was a disappointment to Dad—and the rest of the family—but there didn’t seem to be much he could do about it. He couldn’t help the way he was. The kids at school had laughed and pointed and called him simple, but he didn’t really think he was. He was just, well, different. School had been hell anyway; he’d hated it and bunked off as often as he could. Tramping the hillsides, running wild by the river, hunting for fox cubs or robins’ nests in the woods—it was all so much more interesting than sitting still for hours, cooped up in a classroom and listening to a load of boring facts and figures. The only subjects he’d ever shone at were art and biology, but Dad had refused to let him go to art college, and he’d given up after that. Now, just turned eighteen and almost illiterate, there didn’t seem to be much he could do, other than follow the rest of the family down the local mine. And that was the one thing he was utterly determined not to do.

Want to know what Joey does end up doing? Then don’t miss this special offer – grab the book now!

Posted in Books, News, romance

‘Run Wild, Run Free’ due out soon!

Great news everyone – I have a new book coming out from JMS Books this coming Saturday, 11th March!

‛Run Wild, Run Free’ is a sweet romance set in a mining village in 1950s England and features Joey, a neuro-diverse young man, and itinerant worker Billy, both ‟outcasts” from society in their own way.

Here’s the blurb. (Apologies in advance if anyone finds the term ‛gypsy’ offensive. It was used extensively in the 1950s and here in the UK it isn’t seen as an insult, and is in fact the title used by one of the main traveller communities to describe themselves.)

Growing up in a 1950s mining village in the English midlands is hard for someone like Joey, who’s known he was different since he was a kid. All he wants to do is run wild on the hills, watching nature and indulging his love of art. All his parents want is for him to settle down: marriage, a home of his own, a steady job down the mine, and not so much as a whiff of art college. But none of that appeals to him.

Everything changes the summer he turns eighteen, when the gypsies come to town. They’re here for the local farmer’s beet harvest, but the villagers resent them and Joe’s Mam won’t even let him speak to them. Dirty, lazy, good-for-nothing layabouts, she calls them. But when Joe meets Billy on the hill behind the village, the man isn’t dirty at all, just good-looking, good-humoured and surprisingly kind. Best of all, Billy shares his love of the natural world.

Unbeknown to his family the two become friends, and then more than friends. But when the farmer’s barn burns down and Joe’s brother Rob puts the blame on Billy, Joe must decide whether to stay loyal to his family, or grow up fast and risk everything he’s familiar with to help the man he’s come to love.

And here’s the gorgeous cover JMS Books have designed for me. We initially struggled to find a model who wasn’t too modern for the 1950s setting (mobile phones, plastic cups of coffee, gah) but this young fella works perfectly – in fact I think I’m just a little in love with him myself!

I’ll be having some fun over at the Small But Mighty M/M Romance group on Facebook on Saturday to celebrate the launch – and will be giving away one copy of the book. Why not pop in and join me so you don’t miss your chance of winning it! Of course I’ll be posting as soon as the book is available with some more details and where you can, um, you know, buy it. 😉 Until then, happy ogling. 😉

Posted in News

Queer Indie Awards 2023

I keep forgetting to mention that I’ve been nominated in two categories by Queer Indie – Queer Lit Speculative, and Queer Lit Romance – for their 2023 awards.

These awards celebrate the author rather than an individual book, so if you’ve enjoyed any of my books (eg paranormal romances December Roses, Ghosts Galore and Trench Warfare, or vampire romance Echoes of Blood) please visit their site and vote for me. Last year I came third overall in the speculative category which was a real boost; it would be nice to think I could go one better this year but really any votes at all will be hugely appreciated. So thank you! 😍😊

Posted in Books, News, scenery

Irish inspiration

There’s a lovely piece in today’s Guardian about the Connemara region of western Ireland, which brought back some happy memories for me.

We spent a week in nearby Co Galway, which is basically just around the corner and in some peoples’ opinion counts as Connemara too, even though it isn’t (quite) shown on the map of the region in this article. The weather was wild, the scenery was spectacular, and our base on an island off the coast reached only by causeway was utterly magical. We too had views of the Twelve Bens (or Pins as they were introduced to us by the locals) and as for the stark white coral sand on the beaches and the many ruined farms and churches, well, you could hardly have asked for more inspiration for a ghost story!

Basically I fell in love with the place, so much so that I used it as inspiration for my Irish ghost story novel Gleams of a Remoter World. The mystical atmosphere and almost weirdly rocky yet beautiful countryside made for a great setting for the ruined church and vicarage – and their ghosts. And one of the very places that my fictional village of Kilveenan was based on features in this article. Step forward Roundstone, a small idyllic-looking harbour town of brightly coloured houses strung along the coast like beads on a necklace.

Of course, Kilveenan isn’t an exact reproduction of Roundstone and also includes features from other villages and locations along that coast. But it was lovely to see the picture of it again, and to read about another author who was inspired enough by Connemara to set her novel there.

By sheer coincidence I’m currently working on exactly this book, trying to re-write it from a bi-m/m romance into a more straightforward m/m romance while retaining the plot and atmosphere, so look out for news as I battle the rewrite gods to knock it into shape. And if you ever get the chance to visit Connemara, or any of the rest of Ireland’s wonderful west coast, then I can thoroughly recommend it, even if you don’t go on to write a book about it.

(I nicked the photo straight from the Guardian article, as my own photos of the area pre-date digital cameras (yes, really!) and aren’t easy to translate into something I can use on blog posts.)

Posted in Books, News, Writing

Good news for the new year!

I mentioned in my last blog post that I was hoping to submit my latest book to a publisher one of my friends had recommended. Well, please take a bow Ellie Thomas, because I duly sent the book off to JMS Books and to my surprise and great delight they snapped it up!

There were a few mutual misgivings over the original title, Raggle-Taggle Gypsy, so it will now be published under the brand new title Run Wild, Run Free, which suits both the story and the main character Joey to perfection.

I’m currently going through some of the admin, and awaiting edits with slight terror, but I’m told the book should be available as early as March this year. Obviously I’ll post nearer the time with some more details and a cover reveal, but in the meantime big thanks to both Ellie and JMS for making the start of the new year a whole lot better than the end of the old one…

The image above (by Alex G Sansom on Pixabay.com) doesn’t have anything to do with the book, really, although Joey’s love interest Billy might well have lived in something similar. And they’re pretty, too!

Posted in News, Promotion

Now with added Mastodon

Much as I love Twitter I’ve been a bit alarmed by all the bad publicity and am half expecting it to vanish in a puff of smoke overnight. It’s taken me several years to build a good following on there and I obviously don’t want to lose all of that, so I’ve set myself up with a Mastodon account as well, just in case.

It’s not quite as intuitive as Twitter and so far I’m still stumbling around in the dark and bumping into the furniture, but it seems friendly and pleasant, and if anyone else is on there (or wants to join) and would like to follow me, you can find me here: @author_fiona_glass@mastodon.lol

Do come and say hello! See you there!

(pic credit: Wiktionary)

Posted in Books, LGBT, News, short stories

Heat Haze price reduction

Where does the time go? I suddenly realised the other day that it was almost exactly a year since I published my collection of short sultry summer/heat themed m/m stories, Heat Haze: Summer Sizzlers.

To celebrate the anniversary, I’ve decided to reduce the price of the book. I’d always wanted to charge less for it but sadly Amazon have increased the lowest price margin on all self-published books, so I ended up with a higher price than I’d intended. That lowest price is still the same, but I’ve taken the book down as low as I possibly can and it’s now only £1.77 (or your local equivalent). And of course, it’s still free on Kindle Unlimited.

Five stories, five summery settings ranging from Salzburg in a thunderstorm to an abandoned railway carriage in… a thunderstorm, and including a Maltese sea cave and a desert where everything may not be what it seems.

SAND, SAND AND more sand. It’s all I can see in every direction, stretching to the far horizon where the dancing heat melds land and sky in improbable creases. Vast plains, wind-whipped ripples, towering dunes, all shifting imperceptibly to the rhythm of the air. The closest dune is marked by a line of sagging footprints, leading my eye to the tall, slender figure of my companion. As if sensing my regard, he turns, djellaba and robe flapping like prayer flags in the wind. Even from here I can see his sardonic grin.

            ‛You are flagging, Edward. Do you wish to stop and set up camp?’

            Damn him. We’ve only been walking for an hour, which he well knows. Guide or no guide, I can’t let him get away with that. ‛Of course not,’ I reply and trudge on. It’s the truth, anyway. The molten sun hurts my eyes, but the native dress he made me wear protects me from the worst ravages of the heat. The edge of my turban still bothers me, dipping down to dangle in my eyes, but it’s better than the alternative, a slow roasting that would send me mad with sunstroke. But I do need a drink, and I am tired of sand. Sand everywhere—in my boots, weighing down my every step, in my mouth, in the very pores of my skin. ‛Fucking sand,’ I mutter, shaking one leaden foot, but quietly so he won’t hear. I already know he’s laughing at me.

The stories are all slightly steamier than most of my usual fare. Even though summer is now on its way out there’s still enough good weather around to treat yourself to the book and take it out onto a sun lounger on the patio with a tall glass of something cool.

Fancy a bit of a sizzle? You can get Heat Haze: Summer Sizzlers at the new, lower price of £1.77 here. Happy reading, and happy whatever’s left of the heatwave!