It's weekend, and time for more 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 identifies as LGBTQ+.

This week's snippet is from The Merchant's Love again and follows after last week's. A couple of people asked me what Maxen gave Faelen for Midwinter, so I thought I'd share that with you. (I went a bit over six sentences, but I wanted to give you the whole thing.)

Finally, the colorful paper fell away to reveal a velvet box. Jewelry? Slowly, he lifted the lid, and gasped. Inside, on a pad of more dark velvet, lay a set of combs. The intricate silver filigree was set with little pearls and sparkling peridots. Faelen didn’t know what to say for a moment. The way he wore his hair wasn’t the fashion in Tournai, but Maxen had given him something he knew Faelen would love. A token perhaps, as were all gifts exchanged at Midwinter, but one he’d use happily.

“Maxen...” Faelen finally looked up to find the worry back in Maxen’s eyes. “They’re beautiful. I love them.”

Maxen’s smile bloomed. “I hoped you would. I saw them and thought of you. You’re always putting your hair up, and I thought these would look splendid in it.”

“Why don’t we see?” Faelen set the box down on a table and reached up to twist his hair back in a loose knot. He picked up one of the combs, slid it into his hair, and did the same with the other, anchoring the mess of curls. He looked up at Maxen through his lashes. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re beautiful, but I thought that the first moment I saw you.” 

​

If you'd like to know more about The Merchant's Love, you can find it here. Also, The Merchant's Love and my other NineStar Press titles are 50% off in the Smashwords sale, so it's a great time to give them a try. Thanks for reading today!

Dreamspinner is having a sale through the 28th—35% off everything in the store! If you haven't read the first four Tournai books, it's a great time to pick them up.

And, my NineStar Press titles, including The Merchant's Love and A Dance of Water and Air, are 50% off in Smashwords end of year sale. Don't miss out!

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating! I hope you have a holiday filled with love and laughter.

I thought I'd share some favorite holiday romances with you, though I'm getting to it later than I meant. Every December almost everything I read is a holiday romance—I like to wallow in the warm, happy feelings that holiday romance especially provides. This year has been no different, though I've been busy and I haven't gotten as much reading in as I hoped. I'll keep reading holiday romances through New Year's, so I hope to get in a few more. This list includes a few that I read for the first time this year and some old favorites that I tend to reread over and over.

Mr. Winterbourne's Christmas by Joanna Chambers: I loved this sequel to Introducing Mr. Winterbourne. It really gave us a solid HEA for these two during a snowy Christmas.

The Magician's Angel by Jordan L Hawk: I've read a few of the books in the multi-author Christmas Angel series, and this is my favorite so far. Of course, there is a murder mystery running through the story (it's Jordan L Hawk!), but the romance was just lovely too.

Love Around the Corner by Sally Malcolm: This book managed to be both friends to lovers and enemies to lovers at the same time. Two men are falling for each other online without realizing that they don't get along at all in real life. A really enjoyable Christmas romance.

And some old favorites (that I'm sure I've talked about in previous book posts somewhere):

Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles by Eli Easton (librarian heroes!)
Holly & Oak by R. Cooper
The Winter Spirit by Indra Vaughn
The Holly Growth Green by Amy Rae Durresson (and her other Christmas stories)
The North Pole City Tales by Charlie Cochet (fun fantasy romances about elves at the North Pole)
Wrapped Together by Annabeth Albert
Icecapade by Josh Lanyon (probably my favorite of Lanyon's holiday stories, but Lone Star is great too)

Do you have any favorite holiday romances?

It's weekend, and time for more 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 identifies as LGBTQ+.

I have another snippet from The Merchant's Love for you today. In it, Maxen gives Faelen a Midwinter holiday gift.

​“Shall I give you your present before the holiday is over?”

​Faelen laughed softly. “I think it already is. It’s late, but I won’t turn down the gift.”

Now, Maxen laughed. “I didn’t think you would.”

He held on to Maxen when he would have moved away. “You didn’t have to buy me anything, you know.”

“I know. I wanted to.”

Maxen went to his coat and retrieved a small, brightly wrapped parcel. He handed it to Faelen, looking almost shy. A warm tide of something sweet moved through Faelen at the sight of it. He almost didn’t need to know what it was, just that Maxen had picked it and so obviously hoped he would like it. It was the first time they’d exchanged anything, except for the books, and that wasn’t the same—though Faelen would always treasure them. 

​

You can more about The Merchant's Love here. Thanks for reading today, and if you're celebrating Christmas this week, I hope you have a lovely holiday!

The Artist's Masquerade was released three years ago today. It feels like forever ago and yesterday at the same time. I hadn't intended to write a book for Cathal, the cousin who is overly proper and too concerned with duty in The Prince's Consort, but as I wrote that book, I learned more and more about Cathal and who he is and why he behaved as he did. So he had to have a book and a HEA of his own. And who better to pair with him than a sharp-tongued artist in disguise and on the run? I feel kind of bad having favorites of my own characters (sort of like a parent shouldn't have favorite children), but Flavian is one of my favorites. I adore these two together. So, happy anniversary, Cathal and Flavian!

As the first-born son of the Duke of Tournai and cousin to the prince, Cathal has always tried to fulfill his duty to family and country, including following through with an arranged marriage to Velia, cousin to the emperor of Ardunn. But it’s Velia’s companion, Flavia, who fascinates Cathal. Cathal doesn’t know that Flavia is really Flavian, a man masquerading as a woman to escape Ardunn, a restrictive place in which Flavian’s preference for men is forbidden.

Even when Cathal discovers Flavian’s true gender, he cannot fight his attraction to him. Flavian is intrigued by Cathal, but Cathal is still betrothed to Velia, and Flavian worries Cathal is more taken with his feminine illusion than the man beneath it. While both men battle their longings for each other, spies from Ardunn infiltrate the capital, attempting to uncover Tournai’s weaknesses. They are also searching for Flavian, who possesses a magical Talent that allows him to see the truth of a person just by painting their portrait—a skill invaluable to Ardunn’s emperor.




​
Add The Artist's Masquerade to your Goodreads shelf.

​Buy The Artist's Masquerade:
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Google Play
Apple

I promised I would have the next Tournai book submitted to NineStar by the time I wrote this month's update, and I do! (We'll ignore that this month's update is a little later than usual, okay? Okay.) Tournai 7, tentatively titled The Spymaster's Secret, is with my editor. I'll update you when I have more news on it, but I'm hoping it will be accepted and put on the schedule for sometime in 2019—fingers crossed. There were times that writing this book frustrated me, more because writing went so slowly this year than anything to do with the actual book. It's Alexander and Marcus's story, a mischievous young royal falls for an older, serious widower with secrets and also there are spies. More news on that when I have it.

A Harmony of Fire and Earth is on its way to the copy editor. At some point, I'll get those edits back and then it will be on to the proofreader. We're still looking at March for a release date as far as I know. Yay!

I haven't started writing anything new yet, which is always an odd feeling when it happens. I write or revise or edit (sometimes all three) ever day, so I never know what to do with myself when I'm not. This time, I'm filling my days with catching up on Christmas preparations, which I'm so behind on, and the usual cleaning, since I let a lot slide in the mad dash to work on edits and write/revise on the last month. Soon, I'll start working on the next project. I want to start a contemporary royalty romance, planned as book one of a trilogy, and I also have some ideas I want to work out for Tournai 8, which is Griffin's story. I'm not sure how far I'll get working on both at the same time—and I'm sure once I get another set of edits, I'll have to scale back a little, but I'll have more news for you on that next time.

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season!

It's weekend, and time for more 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 identifies as LGBTQ+.

I have a snippet for you from The Merchant's Love today. Maxen is taking his younger brothers to a festival celebrating Tournai's Midwinter holiday and getting a little lost in memories.

If you'd like to know more about The Merchant's Love, you can find it here. Thanks for reading!

NineStar Press put all trans and non binary books on sale through today! It's a great chance to give A Dance of Water and Air a try if you haven't yet.

It's weekend, and time for more 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 identifies as LGBTQ+.

I'm giving you a snippet from A Dance of Water and Air today because it (and other trans and nonbinary books) are on sale at NineStar for the next few days. And since we unexpectedly got a little snow today (more than flurries but nothing that stuck), here's a little scene with some snow.

If you'd like to know more about A Dance of Water and Air, you can find it here, and it's 35% off at NineStar through the 11th if you were waiting to give it a try. Thanks for reading!