This past Saturday I attended RWA-NYC's Romance Festival at the Morris-Jumel mansion in New York, and I wanted to share some pictures from the event with you. The festival was outside and it was a beautiful day for it and a beautiful setting. The author's tables were set up in a grassy area of the garden and the panels and readings took place on the mansion's front porch.
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I, of course, was wearing a big hat (and lots of sunscreen) to try to hide from the sun! The program consisted of speeches and panels about romance and readings from a few authors, including me. I'm happy to report that I got through my first public reading just fine, though my biggest accomplishment of the day might have been parallel parking in New York City.

I caught bits of the panels when I could get away from my table, and the discussions were all really interesting. The house was beautiful, and has a really interesting history as well.

​The festival was a fun event, made even more fun because my mom, a romance reader herself, came and hung out with me at my table. I caught up with some friends and met some great new people too.

Dreamspinner Press is having a sale right now, and everything is 25% off, which includes my books, of course. They will also donate one book to a library for every ten books purchased, which is very cool. It's a great time to stock up on summer reading! The sale runs through June 29th.

I'm a little late posting, but it's weekend and time for Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your tbr. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character will identify as LGBTQ+.

My snippet comes from The Scholar's Heart again this weekend. I couldn't decide what I wanted to post, but I ended up choosing this snippet of conversation between Tristan and his younger brother Maxen. Maxen is a character who was only supposed to have a small role, but I ended up really liking him, so I'll be writing him more. Turns out he has a story of his own to tell. In this scene, Tristan and Maxen are having a middle of the night conversation in which Maxen tells Tristan some things he really needs to hear.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet!

This Saturday, June 25th, from 2 to 5:30 pm is the NYC RWA's Romance Festival at the historic Morris-Jumel mansion in New York City. The event is free to attend (house tours are $5, I believe), and includes panel discussions, readings, and book signings by many local romance authors. I'll be attending the festival and selling and signing books there. I'm also going to be doing a reading late in the afternoon. Probably something from The Scholar's Heart, though I will admit that I've procrastinated and haven't quite chosen my reading yet. It's also the first time I'll be doing a reading, so fingers crossed for me! I've never been to the festival before, but it sounds like it's going to be a great event.

​You can find out more about the festival at its Facebook page. I hope to see you there on Saturday!

It's weekend and time for Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your tbr. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character will identify as LGBTQ+.

My snippet comes from The Scholar's Heart again this weekend. In this snippet (which is a little long--I'm sorry! I'll follow the six sentence rule next time!), Etan is going to pay his respects to Tristan after his wife dies, making for an awkward moment better the estranged friends.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Today Xenia Melzer is visiting with her book Casto. Welcome, Xenia!

All is fair in love and war. Renaldo has lived happily by that proverb his entire life. But he has finally met his match, and he’s about to discover how unfair love and war can be.

When demigod and warlord Lord Renaldo takes a beautiful stranger captive during an ambush, he is delighted to have found a distraction that will keep him entertained during the upcoming siege. Little does he know, Casto is keeping more than just one secret from him. Slowly, Renaldo gets sucked into a turbulent roller-coaster relationship with his mysterious prisoner, one that begins with hatred and soon spirals into a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. And when it seems that things can get no worse, an old enemy stirs right in the heart of his home.

Determined to keep Casto by his side, Renaldo has to find a balance between the capricious young man and his own destiny as a ruler and god to his people.

​Release Date: June 21, 2016

Preorder Casto at DSP Publications

1. Captive 

​“Renaldo, you won’t believe what we just found!”

The desert brothers, Kalad and Aegid, approached their god with broad smiles on their faces. He looked at them expectantly. 

“If I won’t believe it, then you better hurry up and tell me before I run out of patience.” 

“A caravan! And right now it’s taking a break at the oasis we discovered yesterday. You know, it’s not even an hour from here. We could go there, get the quarry, and be back before anybody misses us.” 

Lost in thought, Renaldo observed their camp that was set up in a dip beneath the hill where he had waited for Kalad and Aegid. Renaldo’s brother, the powerful Wolf of War, had sent them on patrol to make sure the area was entirely safe. So far, they had not come across any danger, which meant that it was all right for them to have some fun. His brothers-in-arms looked at him eagerly. 

“Well, there’s no harm in having a look, is there?” 

Kalad’s lively brown eyes overflowed in happy anticipation. “No, definitely not. We’ll show you the way.”

The other members of the patrol led by Noran—like Aegid and Kalad, he was an Emeris, a chosen counselor of Renaldo and Canubis—were ten of the best and most experienced mercenaries in the service of the warrior gods, and they lined up behind the desert brothers. The group rode sharply toward the oasis that had quenched their thirst only a day ago. 

Between the trees there was indeed a caravan with thirty camels, every beast burdened high with merchandise. It was not only the traders who delighted in the fresh water from the spring; the warriors also spied some heavily armored men patrolling the goods. Renaldo shot Kalad a slightly poisonous look. Kalad had obviously forgotten to mention this small detail, but the desert warrior just shrugged. There weren’t enough enemies to get them into any serious trouble.

At that moment the people at the waterhole stirred.

A man wearing a floor-length cloak led a pitch-black stallion to the spring. Although the stranger was clothed in white, as was sensible in the heat, he radiated an intimidating arrogance that surrounded him and the steed like a shield. The traders, as well as the mercenaries, hastened to make room for the exceptional pair. Renaldo’s eyes lit up. Never before in his long life had he seen a horse like that: its mane and tail sparkled in the sunlight like polished blackwood; the noble head with the big, intelligent eyes sat on a muscular, proudly held neck; the long, clean legs with hooves as hard as flint carried the powerful body with elegant, elastic movements despite its mass. The long silky tail trailed like a banner behind the proud beast. Then the stallion bent down to drink, and the man leading him followed his example. 

Renaldo watched this scene in fascination, purposely ignoring his fighters’ imploring looks. He had to have that horse, no matter the cost.

The horse’s small ears were nervously flicking back and forth, and then suddenly the noble head reared up and snorted a warning. 

The hooded man jumped into the saddle, drawing his sword in one strong, fluid movement while his eyes scanned the oasis, searching for intruders. “Danger!”

His voice echoed through the loosely scattered date trees like a melody, causing panic among the traders and priming the mercenaries to fight. Renaldo couldn’t suppress a satisfied nod. Those men were highly professional and definitely worthy opponents.

He turned to his men. “Let’s go!”

They left cover in a semicircle, each attacking their chosen mercenary. Renaldo had planned to go after the hooded man and his steed, but two of the enemy bore down on him from the sides. On his periphery he could see one of his men going against the stranger and being swept out of the saddle for his trouble. Then Renaldo lost sight of the man and the horse he so wanted.

Xenia Melzer was born and raised in a small village in the South of Bavaria. As one of nature's true chocoholics, she's always in search of the perfect chocolate experience. So far, she's had about a dozen truly remarkable ones. Despite having been in close proximity to the mountains all her life, she has never understood why so many people think snow sports are fun. There are neither chocolate nor horses involved and it's cold by definition, so where's the sense? She does not like beer either and has never been to the Oktoberfest – no quality chocolate there.

Even though her mind is preoccupied with various stories most of the time, Xenia has managed to get through school and university with surprisingly good grades. Right after school she met her one true love who showed her that reality is capable of producing some truly amazing love stories itself.

While she was having her two children, she started writing down the most persistent stories in her head as a way of relieving mommy-related stress symptoms. As it turned out, the stress-relief has now become a source of the same, albeit a positive one. When she's not writing, she teaches English at school, enjoys riding and running, spending time with her kids, and dancing with her husband. If you want to contact her, please visit either her website, www.xeniamelzer.com or write her an email: info@xeniamelzer.com . 

I don't have as many books to share with you this time. A combination of reading some books that didn't work as well for me and rereading some favorites, including Love Lessons by Heidi Cullinan. I listened to Jordan L Hawk's Widdershins in audio book. It's another favorite but I'd never listened to the audio before. I've never been a big fan of audio books, but I'm starting to really like them for car trips and time when I'm cleaning or cooking. They make the time go a lot faster.

Here are some books I read and enjoyed in May:

​No Quarter by Christine D'Abo - With space pirates and a bounty hunter, how could this not be a fun read? I'm looking forward to the second book in the series.

Hexbreaker by Jordan L Hawk - I loved this book and its character (Cicero!). It's historical paranormal and the first novel of a new series that began with the short story The 13th Hex. I'm excited for more in this world.

Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn - I read Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series years ago and was excited when I heard she was writing more in the world. I wasn't disappointed.

Broken by Nicola Haken - This was not a light book nor was it an easy book to read, as it deals with mental illness in a very realistic way. But it was a good book, and it had a happy, hopeful ending too. If you're interested, a couple of other romances that deal with mental illness well are Glitterland by Alexis Hall and Carry the Ocean by Heidi Cullinan.

Short Stay by Heidi Cullinan - This is the latest in the NA Love Lessons series and revisits the main characters of Lonely Hearts (and many other characters from the Love Lessons and the Special Delivery series, which was so much fun), so it's probably best to at least read Lonely Hearts first. The Love Lessons series is one of my favorites, and I thought this was a wonderful addition.

What have you been reading lately?

It's weekend and time for Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your tbr. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character will identify as LGBTQ+.

My snippets comes from the newly released The Scholar's Heart again this weekend. In last week's snippet, Tristan held his baby daughter for the first time. This week's snippet comes almost right after when his best friend Amory rushes over to make sure Tristan is all right, and they talk. Tristan speaks first, and Dariela is Tristan's wife who died in childbirth. (I went a little over six sentences this week...sorry!)

Thanks for stopping by, everyone! Have a lovely weekend!

The Scholar's Heart is out in the world, and the blog tour has ended. I have to say a big thank you to everyone who hosted me on the tour: Thianna Durston, MM Good Book Reviews, Anne Barwell, Aisling Mancy, Anna Butler, Oh My Shelves, The Novel Approach, Divine Magazine, the Purple Rose Teahouse, Love Bytes, Prism Book Alliance, House Millar, and Brynn Stein. I so appreciate your letting me visit to talk about The Scholar's Heart. Thank you to all of you who followed the tour too! I hope you had fun learning more about The Scholar's Heart and the Chronicles of Tournai series along the way. And a huge thank you to all of you who are buying and reading and reviewing The Scholar's Heart! I know that many of you were waiting for it, and I hope you're enjoying Etan and Tristan's story.

I also have a winner to announce. The winner of the blog tour giveaway is Wax Applelover! Congratulations!

And now for some exciting news and some updates for you. First, the news: I've just signed a contract with Dreamspinner for book 4 in the Chronicles of Tournai series, The Sorcerer's Guardian. Editing is set to begin next month for a release date sometime in November or December. So you should have another Tournai book by the end of the year. I'll keep you updated as the process gets started.

As for writing updates, I'm hard at work writing book 5 in the series too, and my brain is spinning with ideas for what comes after that. (I keep having to tell characters to wait their turns! They're not patient.) I'm also working on my other project as well, something contemporary that takes place in Savannah, Georgia. Though I've been concentrating a bit more on the Tournai book lately, I'm excited about this project too and looking forward to seeing where those characters take me.

Finally, I'll be selling and signing books at RWA-NYC's Romance Festival at the Morris-Jumel House in New York City on June 25th. The event is free and will include book discussions and lots of authors to meet. It's my first time attending as an author or a reader, and I'm excited. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there.

Today Grace R. Duncan is visiting to share the cover of her upcoming book with us. Welcome back, Grace!
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Acceptance
(Forbes Mates Book 3)
By Grace R. Duncan
​Genre: MM Paranormal
Release date - July 8, 2016

Dr. Miles Grant acknowledges that his destined mate could be either gender even though his bisexuality cost him his family and his pack. Luckily he found the Forbes Pack, who happily accept him just as he is. What he never counted on was finding his mate in Pittsburgh or for his mate to be another species entirely—a cat!

Quincy Archer isn’t just any jaguar shifter. He is the heir to the leadership of his pride. Destined mates are nothing but legend to the nearly extinct and generally solitary jaguars, and Quincy certainly never expected to find one for himself, much less a male… or a wolf.

However, finding each other and coming to terms with their species is the least of their worries. Quincy is expected to select a proper female mate, father a cub, and take his place as heir to the pride. Except Quincy refuses, having no interest in women or leadership and knowing he isn’t right for it. But his father will stop at nothing—not even attempting to kill Miles—to get his way. Quincy and Miles must overcome many obstacles to stay together as the destined mates they’re meant to be.


Preorder:
Dreamspinner Press - eBook & Paperback

Miles flopped down on the end of the couch in the tiny break room and rested his head on the back. His eyes closed on their own before he could tell them to. He didn’t have long—maybe twenty, if he was lucky.

​He was seriously regretting taking on so many shifts. But he’d been missing Quincy and needed something to occupy his mind, to distract him. It was ridiculous, he knew that; they’d met twice. But they were mates, destined, and their bond had already started forming. His wolf had been driving him crazy, pushing him to try to find Quincy and mate.

The problem was, whether he liked it or not, he didn’t doubt for a moment Quincy spoke the truth about why they couldn’t be together yet. He’d talked to Chad and Jamie a little and got the gist of the problems Quincy was having, though Chad wasn’t in good enough shape to do much talking yet. He was still recovering from the change, still learning how to filter sounds and light, still learning how to be a wolf.

But Miles’s wolf didn’t understand, didn’t give a shit about any of that. In fact, he was pushing Miles to protect Quincy, which was more than a little laughable. He’d been truthful—he wasn’t afraid of a cat—but he had no knowledge whatsoever of the jaguar world. It still killed him that Diana had given him a cat. He’d been ready for his mate to be either male or female; he would have been content with either, even if his family and former pack had other ideas about that. But no, he had to get a different species altogether.

And a species he didn’t know a damned thing about. He didn’t know how far someone like Quincy’s father would go to get his way. And Miles was a healer, not a fighter. He could fight—all shifters learned how—but that didn’t mean he relished it, so he wasn’t as good as most others.

He needed to see Quincy again, even for a little while. He could appease his wolf a little, make himself feel a little better, and maybe find some patience to wait more.

Quincy had sent a few messages since he’d seen his mate last—in the emergency room waiting area two months ago—mostly texts and a couple of e-mails to let Miles know he was still alive and still in hiding. They’d exchanged little bits about each other, but Quincy hadn’t wanted to say a lot lest it was intercepted. It wasn’t much, but at least knowing Quincy was okay helped keep Miles from going completely insane. He’d like to think he’d know if Quincy was killed, but he wasn’t sure how far their thin bond went, for something like that. When he’d asked Chad how Quincy had gotten his contact information since he’d never had a chance to give it, Chad had told Miles not to wonder about it. But Miles knew at least part of what Quincy did and wasn’t worried. He didn’t think for a moment Quincy would use it against him.

The last two months had been pure hell. He had no idea how Tanner had managed to keep Finley at arm’s length for two years. Granted, they’d been able to date, hang out together, that sort of thing, and he hadn’t so much as glimpsed Quincy in two months.

So he’d spent most of it working. A few times he’d been told point-blank to go home, that he’d been working too much. Whether he’d liked it or not, they’d been right. He’d been so tired he’d barely been standing. But after getting a few hours’ sleep—filled with some very vivid dreams of Quincy—he’d needed to do something.

Since he couldn’t go back to work, he decided to do the other thing he was good at: learn. He’d gone down to the Carnegie Library in Oakland and begun reading up on all things Ancient Egypt, starting with Bastet. He had no idea how much of it was accurate to the jaguars and how much was pure myth, but he figured having a basis to start from wouldn’t hurt.

Miles sighed and sat up again, eyeing the coffee machine in the corner. It was clear he wasn’t going to get any sleep, so he might as well get going the only other way he could. But as he stood and turned to the counter, he got hit with a huge tangle of emotion that wasn’t his. Anger seemed the primary emotion, though there was fear mixed in. And pain. Too much pain.

Quincy?

Miles raced out of the room, not thinking about how it would look—not thinking much at all. If Quincy was close, something was very, very wrong.

Just as he rounded the corner near the ambulance entrance, one of the nurses ran up to meet him. “Dr. Grant! Your pa—”

“Partner,” Miles interrupted, then stopped himself when the nurse simply blinked at him. He’d never told them about a partner—because he hadn’t actually had one, as far as he knew—but he’d deal with that later. “A friend called me,” he said, thinking quickly.

“Oh. Okay. They’re bringing him in now.”

“Thanks. How bad is it?”

Just then the doors opened and the paramedics pushed Quincy in on a stretcher. He was naked except for a sheet, his normally pale skin way too light. He had long gashes on his chest and stomach, but the rest was covered by the sheet. It looked like the scratches—probably caused by shifter claws, if he was any judge—had already started healing, though plenty more still looked wrong with him.

Miles had to take a quick breath, then a second as Quincy’s scent hit him hard—the hint of graphite and paper that overlaid a sweetness incongruent to Quincy’s outer personality. Miles had to shove hard on his wolf. He wanted out and wanted to go after whatever or whoever hurt their mate. Not now. We’ll help our mate, but not now.

With another breath through his mouth, he went into professional mode, falling back on his training and knowledge so he could make sure Quincy healed properly and didn’t raise too many eyebrows in the process.

* * *

If you haven’t read it yet, now would be a great time to check out the Forbes Mates series.  Find out more about Devotion (Tanner and Finley’s story) and Patience (Chad and Jamie’s story) here: http://www.grace-duncan.com/books/out-now-2/forbes-mates-2

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.

Find Grace here: Website  ◊ Facebook ◊ Twitter ◊ Youtube ◊ Goodreads