Rainbow Snippets: a painted wagon

As I mentioned earlier today, my sweet 1950s set m/m romance Run Wild, Run Free is on special offer from JMS Books all this weekend. So for my #RainbowSnippets offering this week, here’s a teaser from soon after Joey has met his new traveller friend. Of course, things don’t quite go to plan after this, but you’ll have to grab a copy of the book to find out why!

He knew the man was teasing him but he didn’t mind, not like he’d minded the taunts from the kids at school. The stranger’s smile was kind, and those wonderful eyes twinkled mischief at him, and he found his tongue at last. “Have you got a painted wagon? With steps that let down at the front?”

It had seemed like the most important question to him, but the gypsy stared at him for a second. Then he grinned. “Yeah. Want to come and see it sometime?”

“Oh, yes please.” He’d heard the tales, and seen the wagons in the distance in previous years, and couldn’t imagine anything more romantic. The thought of living in something as impermanent as that, of being free to go wherever you chose, whenever you chose, sounded like heaven compared to the family’s squashed little house. “That would be amazing.”

The gypsy’s grin faded, although his eyes still twinkled. He leant forwards and brushed one finger down Joe’s cheek. The tip was work-roughened and caught against his new beard-growth, sending a wild thrill through his nerves that he didn’t yet understand. “We could go now if you like.”

If you like that, pop along to JMS Books to get the book for only $1.64 (until Monday). And don’t forget to check the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook for more lovely rainbow-y excerpts!

Rainbow Snippets: A rural idyll

It’s that day of the week again when members of the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook post a 6 (or so) line excerpt from their book and link back to it on the group.

Today I’m featuring my new book Run Wild, Run Free because I’d already posted a little piece from it on Twitter, so it makes sense to link the two up. The poster (above) shows that particular snip, but I’ll add another couple of lines on here as well.

The excerpt is from near the start of the book, where main character Joey is in his favourite place on the hill at the back of his village, enjoying the nature and the countryside, and the lack of people…

Better off away from the lot of them, he thought. Up here, on his own, with the warm breeze in the grass and the sparrows chirping for company. Who needed family, anyway?Well, you do, his head told him. He didn’t have anyone else, and it wasn’t like he could really stay out all day and all night. They wouldn’t let him even if he could. A few more minutes was all he could get away with, before Mam sent one of the girls out looking for him. A few more precious minutes, until the church bell rang half past five and the shadow of the wall crept towards him across the grass.

Joey loves the natural world and would love nothing better than to stay out there permanently, watching the creatures and indulging his love of art. Will he achieve his dream? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Run Wild, Run Free is available as an e-book, for only $2.99, from JMS Books. Grab your copy here!

Rainbow Snippets: Run Wild, Run Free

I have a brand new book out today, and it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss to feature it on Rainbow Snippets. This is the FB group which encourages its members to post (around) six lines from their latest work on their blog, then post a link back on the group.

‘Run Wild, Run Free’ is a sweet, old-fashioned romance set in an English mining village in the middle of the 20th century, which features Joey, a neuro-diverse young man, and Billy, an itinerant worker. It involves themes such as first love, coming of age, being an “outcast” from society, and the love of nature, and the latter is a particular, ongoing feature throughout the book. The snippet I’ve chosen includes a bit of it, as well as the first proper meeting between the two men:

The afternoon sun was hot again and he scurried for the shade under a huge old beech tree in the corner of the field. Flies buzzed and a breeze stirred the grass stems, shaking the delicate seed-heads in a never-ending dance, and his head sank lower and lower as the warmth lulled him to sleep. Until something kicked his outstretched leg and jolted him awake. At first he could see nothing, his eyes still glazed with sleep, but slowly a man’s figure revealed itself, black trousers and white shirt half hidden against the black-on-white fretwork of branches against the mid-afternoon sky. Heavy boots, dusty turn-ups, an embroidered waistcoat and a scarlet neckerchief added to the picture and his heart lurched.

If you like the sound of that, you can find the rest of Joey and Billy’s story in ‘Run Wild, Run Free’ from JMS Books, which is available as an e-book on Kindle here. And if you fancy winning a copy of the book, why not drop into the Small But Mighty M/M Romance group on Facebook this evening (UK time) where I’ll be posting a few fun bits and bobs and having a giveaway. If you’re not already a member of the group you can find it here. In the meantime, happy reading and I hope you enjoy the snippet and the book!

Rainbow snippets – a Valentines story

I’ve been so busy lately I’ve been completely forgetting to join in with the weekly Rainbow Snippets thing, where members post (about) six lines from their latest work and then pop a link on the Facebook group page. Today I’m slightly less busy, so it seems like a good time to put that right with a little excerpt from the last story I had published.

Coffee For a Kiss is a sweet, slushy little number with a Valentines Day theme which appeared in RoM/Mantic Reads magazine last week. If you like your m/m fiction like a good cappucino – sweet and frothy – then you might just like this! Here’s the snippet:

He watched as the barista turned his back, measuring coffee, banging things, squirting hot milk. The guy had nice hands, too, with long deft fingers that made art of the ordinary tasks. Too soon the performance was over, and a steaming mug appeared on the counter.

            ‘Cheers.’ He fished in his pocket for small change, enjoying the pressure on his newly-awakened cock. ‘What do I owe you?’

            ‘Well, the coffee’s two pounds fifty.’ The barista winked. ‘But I wouldn’t mind if you gave me something else.’

Needless to say all is not quite what it seems, but you’ll have to read the rest of the short story to find out what happens and why. I hope you enjoy it every bit as much as you enjoy a good cup of coffee! And while you’re at it, why not check out some of the other great stories, articles and reviews at the zine – and don’t forget to check out the other excerpts at Rainbow Snippets.

RoM/Mantic Reads: Meet the Contributors

Today, over at RoM/Mantic Reads magazine, I’ve turned the spotlight on myself and answered a string of questions about myself and my writing. These include how many books I’ve written, which one is/was my favourite, how many bookcases I have, and what my favourite dinosaur is (clue: it might have something to do with the picture above). There’s also a snippet from my most recent book, Ghosts Galore, and an explanation of its title.

For all that and more, head over to RoM/Mantic Reads and read the “interview”. I hope it’s entertaining and gives a bit of insight into my writing process. And Dippy says hello.

Rainbow Snippets: Just Visiting

It’s that time of the week again – Rainbow Snippets calling for six lines from one of my books and a link back on the Facebook group. This week, having just had a super new review on the book (see yesterday’s post), I wanted to share Just Visiting, my m/m time travel romance set in a dystopian future where people are discriminated against from birth.

Here’s a brief excerpt from near the beginning, where Madoc first meets Josh, the mysterious traveller who will change his world.

The traveller, though, had other ideas. Maybe he wasn’t lost at all. Instead of stopping and looking around or even calling for help, he headed straight for the spot where Madoc stood. He had his mouth open—to ask for directions, perhaps, or more likely to yell at Madoc for not moving out of the way. Whatever it was, Madoc never knew, because at the last minute the man tripped over Madoc’s discarded broom, wavered on the dock edge, then swooped arse-over-elbow into the greasy waters below.

Like it? The book is a longish short story, available on Kindle for only 99p (or your local equivalent) and free on Kindle Unlimited. Get it here!

And why not visit the Rainbow Snippets FB group for more snippets from lgbt books aorund the world?

Rainbow Snippets: Trench Warfare

Here’s my latest offering for the Rainbow Snippets Facebook group, which encourages its members to post six lines from one of their books and then link back to it on the group.

This week I’ve chosen Trench Warfare, my low-heat, fun, paranormal-meets-archaeology m/m romance set on the excavation from hell. I think this is actually seven lines – but hey, who’s counting? – and it’s from where the main character, Steve, first notices something odd about the site…

And I like this time of day, too. The evening light just hanging on; the sound of Bill and Ben, my last remaining staff, talking as they measured out a grid for tomorrow’s work. The breeze rustling the leaves of nearby trees. The gentle tolling of the bell.          

What the hell? It must have been a car horn or a mobile phone. It couldn’t be a bell because there was no bell to toll. No bell because no bell tower. No bell tower because no priory.

There’s a lot more to the book than Steve tracking down whatever that bell was, including a missing priory, a dodgy businessman, an overly helpful assistant who causes his own problems, and something nasty lurking in the undercroft. If you’d like to read more, the book’s available for only £2.99 (or your local equivalent) on Kindle, or free on Kindle Unlimited. Find Trench Warfare here.

Happy reading, and watch out for the ghost…!

Rainbow snippets: December Roses

It’s that time of week again, when I post six lines from one of my books for the Rainbow Snippets Facebook group. This week, I’ve chosen my paranormal romance novel December Roses, because it’s set in a garden and gardening means summer (even though this particular snippet mentions autumn, my bad) and it’s summer right now. Allegedly. Well, two warm days and a thunderstorm, so I’m guessing that counts as summer, right? *grins*

Anyway, on with the excerpt. This is from fairly early on in the book, where main character Nat is settling into his army rehab unit and gets his very first glimpse of the garden that comes to mean so much to him…

The curtains had been drawn when he’d left the room, but someone (Elsie, perhaps) had been in and pulled them back. The autumn sun had crept round the corner of the building, but a narrow yellow stripe still decorated one wall and sunshine gilded the treetops outside. He’d been right about the garden, if you could call it that. The room looked out over a sea of green, mostly consisting of weeds and overgrown shrubs. A splash of colour here and there—autumn leaves, roses flowering late—suggested it had once been attractive place, but now it looked abandoned and forlorn. Shades of Middle Earth’s Old Forest, no less…

Want to find out more about Nat and his beloved garden, and the elusive musician he meets there? Then look no further than Kindle, where you can get December Roses for only £4.99 (or your local equivalent) – or find it free on Kindle Unlimited. I hope you enjoy this poignant tale of loss, hope and regrowth which has been described by readers as ‘gorgeous’, ‘magical’, and ‘moody’.

Rainbow snippets: Ghosts Galore

The Rainbow Snippets FB group encourages members to post a few lines from one of their books and then link back to it on the group. It seems like a great way to introduce folk to my writing, so I joined the group this week and this is my very first post!

My chosen snippet is from my latest book, Ghosts Galore, a fun m/m paranormal romance set in a haunted English manor house. I was scrolling through and thought this particular piece summed up perfectly what the book’s about:

Adam sighed. ‛That’s not what I meant.’ He glanced over at Gramps, who was part way out of the door—without having opened it first—and making ‘follow me’ gestures with half his head. ‛I mean, I think there’s something going on in the house.’

‛Well, duh.’ Carl rolled his eyes. ‛Of course there’s something going on. It’s called filming a TV programme.’

For those of you who don’t already know about the book, it involves a TV crew filming in a haunted house, a producer who doesn’t believe in ghosts, a powerful and very annoyed spirit, some missing paintings, and a low-heat and unexpected m/m romance. If you like the sound of it, you can find out more at my website. I hope you like what you see!

And in the meantime, why not visit Rainbow Snippets for lots more, you know, snippety bits of LGBTQ+ fiction? You might find something new to read!

Ghosts Galore excerpt

Just in case anyone’s wondering whether to buy my latest book but doesn’t know what to expect, I thought I’d post an excerpt to give you some idea of the style. This particular bit is from the middle of the book, when main character Adam is starting to have doubts about the TV crew who’ve come to film his haunted home, and even bigger doubts about the show’s producer Carl. I hope you enjoy it – if so, you can find the book here.

‛So, what now?’ said Carl, frowning and tapping two fingers, dit-dit, dit-dit, on the wall. ‛You’ve dragged me up here for some reason, I assume?’

            ‛Now we wait.’

            ‛And how long’s that going to take? In case you hadn’t noticed I’ve got a TV programme to run. And couldn’t you have found somewhere more comfortable? There isn’t even a chair up here and we’ve got nothing to eat or drink.’

            Adam was usually a patient man, but everyone has a limit and he’d just hit his. He was worried about the house, he was worried about his paintings and that dark thing in his studio; most of all he was worried about Gramps. ‛Believe me,’ he said in a taut voice, ‛if things get nasty then sitting down and eating will be the least of our worries. I’m scared. I don’t know what Stella thought she was doing, but she’s quite possibly disturbed something that was best left undisturbed.’

            ‛Okay,’ Carl flicked his pony-tail in a restless way, but some of the peevishness left his face. He reached for Adam’s arm. ‛Is there anything I can do to help?’

            ‛Not really.’ Adam tried to smile but wasn’t sure it succeeded very well. ‛There are people helping us, even if you can’t see them.’

            ‛Okaaaay,’ said Carl again, investing a whole plethora of emotions into a single word. ‛Er, are we talking about ghosts here? Only you know I don’t actually believe‒’

            ‛I don’t care what you don’t believe in, it’s happening.’ Adam forgot to be polite. ‛I’ll admit the thing with the books and the flour was mostly a trick, but this is real, and it could be dangerous. So just sit there and shut up for a minute while I try to get a handle on what’s going on.’

            Carl closed his mouth and opened his eyes very wide, and for a minute Adam thought he’d gone too far. But then a rueful look came into the producer’s eyes, and his mouth relaxed again into a small but mischievous smile. ‛Wow, you can get quite aggressive when you’re worked up, can’t you? I like that in a man.’

            ‛That’s nice,’ said Adam. ‛But you’re still not sitting down.’

            ‛Nowhere to sit. In case you hadn’t noticed. I’m an Important Television Producer. I don’t do floors.’

            ‛Oh, of course. Silly of me.’ Adam snapped his fingers, and a couple of large tapestry cushions took flight from the Great Hall below, up and over the balcony, to land with a faint thud at their feet. He had no idea which of the ghosts had tossed them up, but the result could hardly have been more spectacular. ‛Thank you,’ he called, and kicked one of the cushions across to Carl...

The photo is one I took a couple of years ago at Blackwell Arts & Crafts House near Windermere. Not quite tapestry, but it’s near enough!