I'm giving away a signed paperback copy of The Sorcerer's Guardian over on Goodreads! US only this time, I'm afraid, but I'll do something for my international readers soon. The giveaway starts today and runs for two weeks. Don't miss out!

Thianna Durston is visiting today with a new book. Welcome, Thianna!

If he makes a misstep, he could lose everything. If that happens, running may be his only recourse.

I have an affinity for community romance series. Where each book is about a different couple, but secondary characters you’ll continue to see through the books and a few might become major characters at some point. Elan Isle follows that concept. The individuals of Elan Isle looked and found a place, a private island, where they could practice their kinky lifestyles without fear of reprisal. That it also houses a kinky renaissance faire is just a perk. *grins* Some of the books main characters are het, some are lgbtq+ oriented. 

Making His Stand is the 2nd novel in the Elan Isle series, and the first where the main couple is gay. People have asked me at times why I write both LGBT and het romance. I’ve given lots of reasons over time, but I think it all goes back to the fact I’m tri-gendered and genderfluid. So romance of all sorts is part of my framework. 

Enjoy these two wonderful men (and the scene-stealing Chihuahua Zippo) and our shy accountant’s intro into BDSM by moving to a kinky island.
​

James Kaden-Scott leaned heavily on the rail of the ferry as it chugged across the water. What had he been thinking taking a job on an island? He’d never done well on water. And now he would be working on land that was completely water locked. Well, at least once the god-forsaken ferry landed, hopefully he’d never have to get on it again. Or at least not for a long while.

He kept his head faced toward the oncoming wind as breathing it in kept the nausea at bay. His shoulder bag jiggled and he reached in and patted his dog. “Shh,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I’m supposed to have a dog here. Keep quiet.”

Zippo, who was used to staying quiet, stilled. James scratched his little head and went back to holding onto the rail.

His decision to accept the job of accountant for the Elan Township Cooperative had been more out of desperation than deliberation. He really should have thought it out. With a groan, his body gave emphasis to that fact, and he bent over the rail. He hated boats.

When he saw the docks ahead, he stood up again and reached into his bag to pull out a napkin. After hopefully getting all evidence of his recent sickness off his face, he dropped the napkin in a waste bin and sat down to wait. As soon as the ferry docked and the motor calmed down, he grabbed his two suitcases and dragged them behind him. 

Getting his feet on solid ground felt wonderful. The world stopped shifting and he took a deep breath. While the air was filled with salt water, it also had the combined scent of trees and flowers. Land.

As he was the only person getting off on Elan Isle, the ferry took off again and he was left to walk from the docks toward the large gates ahead. A sign above them read Ye Olde Kinke Faire. He’d read about it in the information Kendrick Finleigh sent him on the accounts he would oversee. A renaissance fair for kinky people. What would they think of next?

As a non-kinky person… well, technically he didn’t know if he was kinky or not. He didn’t have a lot of experience except for a few groping hands in back rooms during his bachelor’s degree program. He’d been too afraid that someone would find out he was gay and tell his family, so he’d kept those to the bare minimum. There’d been nothing except porn during the three years of his master’s program and the added four years of his doctorate.

So here he was, practically a virgin at the age of twenty-nine—he figured having used dildos and plugs kept him from actually being a virgin—and working on an island where there’d be kinky stuff everywhere. He seriously should have thought this through.

His phone buzzed and he stopped walking and put his suitcases down before pulling it out of his pocket. The caller ID made him smile. “I’m here.”

Stan, his roommate during undergrad, chuckled. “Good to hear. Are you green?”

“A little,” James admitted, looking down. The dark olive skin tone covered most of it, but on the inside of his arms, there was an unhealthy pallor and he was sure his face was showing the worst of it.

“What’s your place like?”

“I just arrived and am on land. Haven’t talked to Mr. Finleigh yet.”

“All right. Well call me when you’re all settled. How’d Zippo do on the trip?”

James smiled. Unlike his family who didn’t think animals should be pets, Stan had supported him when he found the wonderful little dog. “Great, as usual. He’s still curled up in my shoulder bag.”

“Give him a treat for me. I’ve got to head over to my aunt’s house. Supposedly she’s found the perfect girl for me.” The droll way he said the last four words made James snort. “You’d think the fact I’m dating the perfect girl for me would have stopped her. But no.”

“I don’t think,” James said with a snicker, “that a relationship with a blow-up doll can classify as dating.”

“Fuck you,” Stan said with a bark of a laugh. “I’ll have you know that Amber is more than just a blow-up doll. She’s animatronic.” James shook with laughter. Amber was Stan’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and looked like the life-sized rendition of a Barbie doll. Personally, James thought she was too fake for Stan, but he never said so. “I think that kink community is rubbing off on you already. Good for you. Go find some bear of a Dom and let him fuck your brains out. Time to officially no longer be a virgin.”

Heat flooded into James’s cheeks. “No comment.”

“All right. I won’t tease you anymore. But I wanted you to know I’ve got all your things in my shed. When you know if you’re staying, call me. I can ship everything out within a day or two.”

“Thanks, Stan.”

After they hung up, James put his phone away and picked everything up again. He didn’t like being secretive, but the fact was that he left in the dead of night. His father expected him to take a job with the family back in Saudi Arabia, and he’d been turning him down for years. In fact, the only reason he went for a masters and doctorate was to keep from having to go to the Middle East. Since he was a teenager, his father had been pushing him to convert to Islam and he’d found ways around it. There was no way he was telling his father he was gay. 

Kaliq Zaman was Muslim and James knew how Muslims viewed homosexuality. In many Middle Eastern countries, just by being him, he could be put to death. 

He took the job when Kendrick Finleigh offered it without thinking too much about it and had left three months before graduation. All of his work was done and he’d already defended his dissertation. His father didn’t think he’d be free until June. Stan picked up James’s boxes and James took a bus across the country to a place he’d never been before. He hoped it was better than the alternative.

A trail ran to the side of the gates. A small sign read Elan Township with an arrow to the left so he went in that direction. There was a ten foot tall fence between him and the Faire so he couldn’t see in, but he wondered what it looked like. Just what did a kinky renaissance faire do? He had no idea.

Zippo lurched as though trying to get comfortable. “I know,” James said. “As soon as we get into our cabin, I’ll let you out.” He hoped they got their own bedroom. Mr. Finleigh had explained that since James was working for the co-op, he would be housed in a cabin with other people who, like him, had a six month span of time to decide if they wished to buy into the co-op or leave. He wasn’t sure about the whole thing, but as he rounded a bend and took in the gorgeous trees ahead of him, he thought that it looked like a beautiful place to live. 

A couple voices to his right drew his attention and he turned to the strangest scene. Two men stood talking and a naked woman knelt at their feet. She looked calm and happy. And very nude. James averted his gaze, not sure what to do.
​

James Kaden-Scott’s method of coping with fear is escape and when his father tries to force him to do something that could kill him, he takes a job on Elan Isle as their accountant. While he knows the town is kinky, he has no idea what that means. Until the day he arrives.

Alec Rowland has been in the BDSM lifestyle for seventeen years and loves it. For the first time in his life, he craves having a sub of his own. From the moment he meets James, he feels a pull toward him. When James asks him to teach him about kink, he’s thrilled. 

Between having his eyes opened to the kink world and trying to find his footing on Elan Isle, James finds himself torn between the old him and the new. When his worst fears come calling, history says to run, but for the first time in his life, he has something… someone to fight for. But those fears are strong, and some of them are real. If he makes a misstep, he could lose everything. If that happens, running may be his only recourse.
​
Heat Rating: High
Age range: 18+ only
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Buy Making His Stand:
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Thianna Durston is a writer by day and supernova by night. Or at least that’s what the faeries tell her. And who is she to deny those pesky *cough* lovely little creatures?

She lives in the Pacific Northwest, though her heart belongs elsewhere. In the meantime, until she can return to the place she calls home, she happily lives in a city that still thinks it’s a small town. Thankfully, it has given her muse lots of amusing places to start a story.

Find Thianna Online: 
Website / Blog / Newsletter / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / Tumblr

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+.
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​I've been working on the first round of edits for The Dragon's Devotion, the next book in the Chronicles of Tournai series, over the last couple of weeks, so I thought I would share a snippet of it with you.

If you'd like to know more about The Dragon's Devotion, you can find the draft blurb here. It should be out this fall. Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Carolyn Hill is here today talking about science fiction romance and her book Beneath the Skin. Welcome, Carolyn!

Raise your hand if you love science fiction and romance.  Did you “ship” Star Trek before shipping was a thing?  Did you swoon over Mal’s tight pants in Firefly and wish that he and Inara would just profess their love already?  Do you root for Miles Vorkosigan and his space-faring mercenaries, for the Liadens and their beloved ships, for the Jagernauts of the Ruby Dynasty, for the women who live and love amongst the stars in novels by Elizabeth Moon, Tanya Huff, Susan Krinard, Linnea Sinclair, Wen Spencer, C.J. Cherryh, Ann Aguirre, S.L.Viehl, Karin Lowachee, and more?

If so, you love romantic science fiction as much as I do—in particular, the subgenre known as romantic space opera.  The classic rocket ship, standing tall and proud, might have seemed the sole property of men during the golden age of science fiction, and romance might have been considered too melodramatic a topic by authors interested solely in nuts and bolts.  But those days are long past.  Romance has taken hold of the rocket and launched love into space alongside logic.  (Ah, Spock, making logic so fascinating, so swoon-worthy.)

If rockets were once the province of men, then the genre was ripe for romance.  Consider the romances you’ve read that aren’t science fiction.  Who are the heroes?  Cowboys and ranchers, dukes and princes, bodyguards and sheriffs, doctors, bosses, and men in kilts. Certainly the astronaut in his shining silver ship belongs in that list of Alpha males (as well as in the list of equally attractive Beta techno-geeks).  Romance successfully colonized science fiction and space opera, chartering new territory: in the futures depicted in romantic science fiction today, the heroine might just as easily be the ship’s pilot, or the war-hardened mercenary, or the talented mechanic.

I fell in love with the blending of romance and science fiction many years ago, when I read Anne McCaffrey’s Restoree. In that intersection of science fiction and romance, I found hope:  hope that humanity will survive, expand, explore, learn, love—that we will evolve and will continue the great journey of life beyond the bounds of this Earth; hope that love will conquer pain, death, isolation, the small and great indignities of life—that it will elevate us beyond selfish solitude.

That same hope sparked my most recent novel, Beneath the Skin, a science fiction romance, which was published recently by Venus Ascending.
​

In a dystopian future, a healer and a shapechanger join forces against a ruthless alliance of powerful families.

Aleta Graham is a healer and empath, abilities that make her a useful pawn for the Dagarro family, who have addicted her to the drug known as Sand in order to keep her submissive. But Aleta is determined to overcome the influence of the drug, and make a desperate bid for freedom — even knowing that the penalty for disloyalty to the family is death.

Riven is a shapechanger, a computer genius, a spy sent by the government to destroy the power of the Dagarro. By taking on multiple identities he becomes at once Aleta's dearest friend and most feared enemy. But in growing closer to Aleta, Riven imperils her, himself, and his mission.

Buy Beneath the Skin at Amazon.

Chapter One

The drug was wearing off. Aleta Graham’s head ached and her hands shook as she leaned against a pair of diamond-studded urns embedded in the ballroom’s wall. She fought the drug’s deadening effect and focused on one clear fact: she must escape, now, while they were all preoccupied with Joanna’s wedding.

Aleta peered out from behind the enormous porcelain vase that shielded her from the wedding guests. Joanna was waltzing across the low-friction floor in the arms of her groom. Above the dance floor, the orchestra wheeled in the air, bows sawing across strings, drums booming, cymbals chiming. The music rattled Aleta’s nerves.

She craned her aching neck and stared up, past the orchestra, her burning gaze following the inwardly sloping walls of the ballroom. Each wall was formed of gold and platinum bricks, covered with precious containers of various sizes and shapes: fine art and irreplaceable antiquities, all useless now, set permanently in the metal, an extravagant display of the Dagarro Family’s wealth. Five stories above, beyond a clear ceiling, lay the airless moon’s surface and the void of space.

Withdrawal sank talons deep into Aleta’s chest. She gasped and bent double. Dear God, she wanted . . .

Escape, she must focus on that. She wanted to escape. While Joanna smiled in the arms of her beloved under the watchful eyes of Dagarro Family security, Aleta trembled and struggled not to scream. She straightened her spine, took one step, then another, and slipped out from behind the urn into the shadows between two marble sarcophagi.

The music changed, and guests poured onto the dance floor in a rainbow of glittersilk gowns and light-washed haute couture. Aleta slid deeper into the shadows, until she could no longer see the security guards. Her wrist itched—a maddening, distracting, incessant itch. She scratched furtively beneath her formal glove. The itch grew worse. She yanked the glove off. Her arm spasmed, and the glove slipped to the floor.

Something moved behind her in the darkest shadows: a man’s figure. Melting? Changing?

Aleta blinked, trying to shake off the hallucination.

Softly, gently, the glove was placed back in her hand.

The fingers of the man who had returned the glove clamped over her velvet sleeve, pushing the fabric up her arm. Looming above her, he studied the fading blue spiderweb of lines that streaked her pale wrist.

She trembled again, this time in fear.

Dark on dark he was, dressed all in light-swallowing black silk except for a glowstone earring whose incandescence stained half his jaw a bloody red. The angles of his face were as sharp as the glint in his obsidian eyes.

Darcavon.

He lifted his gaze and met her own. One sculpted black brow rose.

Aleta squared her chin.

Carefully, without touching her skin, he ran a forefinger above the drug’s lingering blue trace at her wrist. “A web not of your own making,” he stated. One heartbeat, two, then Darcavon dropped her arm.

“Trituros wants you,” he said, and stepped past her. As he strode toward the dance floor, light from the cascading candleplants glinted off his tightly bound black hair.

Aleta stood, stunned. Darcavon had seen that she was fighting the drug the family used to enslave her, yet he hadn’t called the guards.

It made no sense. The Darcavon she had always so carefully avoided was a perfect creature of the Family Dagarro, as ruthless as Trituros Dagarro himself, advancing in the household ranks with the cold inexorability of a glacier, intent—so rumor had it—on becoming seneschal.

Her hands shook. He must be setting her up for some later, unguessable purpose of his own.

Pulling the glove securely over her hand and wrist, Aleta peeked around the end of the sarcophagus. The closest guard was looking in her direction. Linked to the family’s security net, the guard knew that Trituros wanted her and that she should leave the ballroom and head toward the patriarch’s office.

She cursed silently to herself and stepped out from behind the sarcophagus. The mouths of the vases buried beneath the clear floor gaped up at her in silent warning. She must be careful—very very careful—or Trituros would know that the drug was wearing off.

#

The man who would be seneschal turned and watched Aleta walk toward the arched doorway. Had she seen him change shape? After long years of planning and preparation, had he ruined everything because he had needed a few brief moments to be himself?

He noticed the slight hesitation in the empath’s step as she neared the door guard, and he noted the squaring of her shoulders as she continued past.

The pad of his finger tingled where it had almost caressed her flesh. She had skin as white and cool as purest marble, and eyes as green as ancient jade, lit from within by a fire he’d not seen before in her glance. The family and its drug were banking that fire, enslaving her to their own ends.

But he had ends of his own.

And he would be seneschal, no matter the cost.
​

Born and raised in the heart of Silicon Valley, I developed an abiding sense of wonder and a fondness for heroic geeks. 

​By the age of eleven, I was reading all the science fiction I could lay my hands on at the local library, and, because they were shelved together, I was also reading all the fantasy books.  Genre-straddling works by Andre Norton gave me the impression that everything I was reading belonged on one wonderful spectrum of imagination and possibility. Andrew Lang’s fairy books (in all their colorful editions) left me with the equally strong impression that Beauty and the Beast is the yummiest folktale ever.

I entered university a chemistry major intending to become an astronaut who would rocket into a brave new future, and I left (or, rather, never left) with a doctoral degree in rhetoric,  a dissertation on James G. Frazer’s twelve-volume encyclopedia of magic, science, and religion, and a job teaching writing at the University of California, Berkeley. 

And now I write my own science fictional variants of Beauty and the Beast, exploring the romance of the alien, the metaphorical beast in every man, even in the handiest of techno-geeks.

When I’m not writing, teaching, or reading, I’m quilting, playing board games, or hurling heavy objects into the air above my head.  Or I’m sitting on the couch, eating almond M&Ms and daydreaming about life amongst the stars.

Where to find Carolyn: website / Facebook

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 weekend, I have a snippet from The Artist's Masquerade for you, in which Cathal is thinking about (really, trying not to think about!) Flavian.

​And Cathal was rather looking forward to the outing, not for any particular interest in glass art but for how Flavian would react. Cathal’s new favorite pastime seemed to be finding ways to get past Flavian’s outer shell, the mask that Flavian wore, and see him interested, excited, full of wonder.

Lost in passion.

​But he couldn’t think about Flavian like that at the moment— couldn’t remember what happened to Flavian’s face when Cathal touched him, how his cerulean eyes went dark with desire—not when he was surrounded by his father and cousins and his betrothed and her family. Because no one could suspect what they’d done, not just for his sake, but for Flavian’s. 

​

If you'd like to know more about The Artist's Masquerade, you can find it here. Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Some days the world kind of feels like it's burning down around us, but I'm trying to keep myself writing anyway. Mostly because I know escaping to my own little fantasy world and creating stories where everything ends happily ever after keeps me sane, and hopefully helps you a little when you read them too. And also because there are deadlines and this is a job. But really, the other stuff.

So, let's see. Since my last update, I've finished writing and revising the fantasy romance I've been telling you about the last couple of months, about my two princes Edmund and Arden who fall in love when they absolutely shouldn't and have to escape from a dungeon and go on the run and prevent a war. (And there's romance and happily ever after in there too.) It probably needs another read through to proof it and I have to do a synopsis (the dreaded synopsis) and come up with a title (I'm so bad at those!), but I'm happy anyway.

I'm also working on the first round of edits for The Dragon's Devotion, the next Tournai book. I'll be buried under those for a bit, but at least at the moment, I feel like it sounds pretty good, and I'm happy to be back in Tournai. Exciting too that we're getting farther into the process. The Dragon's Devotion should be out in September, and I'll keep you updated as I get more information. For now, I just need to get through these edits.

Next up to be written is the Tournai book that follows The Dragon's Devotion. I have the perfect notebook all picked out and ready.

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 a moment between Amory and Philip in The Prince's Consort.

You can find out more about The Prince's Consort here. And The Prince's Consort and the other Tournai books are 30% off at Dreamspinner this weekend. Thanks for visiting and reading!

Happy May, everyone! And May the 4th be with you! April was a busy writing/revising month for me, but I still got some reading done. Here are a few books I enjoyed in April:

Ash by Malindo Lo: Ash is a lesbian YA retelling of Cinderella. It's a little dark, but really lovely. It's a beautiful love story and an engrossing world. If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, give this one a try.

Strays by Garrett Leigh: I loved Misfits, the first book in this series, so I was really looking forward to Strays, and I wasn't disappointed at all. It stands alone, but both books are so good, so you should just read them both. Nero is grumpy and Lenny is kind but sassy, and they are perfect for each other. There's also lots of food and cooking in these books, which I love.

Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas: Devil in Winter is my favorite Lisa Kleypas book and one of my favorite historical romances of all time, so I was so excited when I heard she was writing a book about Evie and Sebastien's son. And I loved Devil in Spring too. Gabriel and Pandora are wonderful, and I had so much fun seeing cameos from favorite characters.

Shelter the Sea by Heidi Cullinan: Shelter the Sea is the sequel to Carry the Ocean, and I would read that one before you dive into this. The books tell the story of Emmet, an autistic young man, and Jeremy, a young man with sever anxiety and depression, as they fall in love and build a life together. There are HEAs, of course, but I cried along the way.

Wake Up Call by JL Merrow: I can always rely on this author for a very British book, and this one is no exception. I enjoyed Wake Up Call, the first book in the Porthkennack series, so much. The setting description was fantastic, and Dev and Kyle just seemed so real—imperfect but still good guys. I also don't think I've ever read a book with a character who had narcolepsy.

A Gathering Storm by Joanna Chambers: I love Joanna Chambers's Enlightenment trilogy, and I was looking forward to another historical from her. This book was so good as well. I loved romance between Nick and Ward and the setting in Cornwall was just wonderful. It's also part of the Porthkennack series, and I'm looking forward to more books in this world.

Darkest Hour Before Dawn by Charlie Cochet: This is the latest in the THIRDS series, and a long awaited book about Hudson and Seb. I really enjoyed seeing these two get their second chance. Definitely start at the beginning of this series so you can understand what's going on. It's a lot of fun.

What have you been reading lately?

The RT Convention is this week (sadly I'm not there, but if you are, have so much fun!), and Dreamspinner is having a sale! You can get 30% off the Tournai books and so many others through May 7th. Happy Reading!

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 of The Sorcerer's Guardian for you today. Savarin and Loriot were sent on a journey by the prince, during which they irritated each other and eventually fell into bed, with the agreement that their affair would last only until they returned home. They arrived back home at the end of their journey late at night, and spent what remained of the night at Savarin's house. This scene takes place early the next morning. (I went a little over six sentences this week—sorry!)

You can find out more about The Sorcerer's Guardian here. You can also get 35% off the Tournai books at DSP this weekend with coupon code IMAWESOME. Thanks for stopping by today!