The Merchant's Love has been out in the world for one year today! It's part of the Chronicles of Tournai series but stands alone just fine, and is the story of a demisexual, bookish royal and the bisexual merchant who is awkwardly, endearing enchanted with him as they fall in love over books and baked goods.

I love this book, gang. It's my first published book with a demisexual characters, which makes it special to me, and it's the book I absolutely needed while I was writing it with the way the world has been the last few years. It's basically a warm hug in book form. I hope you love it as much as I do.

To celebrate Faelen and Maxen's anniversary, I'm giving away a copy of The Merchant's Love. Since Faelen has quite a sweet tooth, comment below with your favorite dessert, and I'll pick a random commenter to win on June 25th. 

Use coupon code PRIDE to get 40% off The Merchant's Love (and the rest of your order!) at NineStar through June 30th.

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+.

Last week, my snippet was of Bastien and Corentin's first kiss in The Dragon's Devotion, and first kisses are so much fun that I decided to snippet first kisses from some of my other books. Today's is Faelen and Maxen in The Merchant's Love. (I went a little over six sentences—sorry! I thought it was necessary for this one.)

Faelen just looked at him for a couple of moments and then took a breath. “I want to kiss you.”

Maxen froze. He wasn’t even sure he breathed for a moment. Had he heard what he thought he had? Had Faelen said...? He stared at Faelen, who looked as surprised as Maxen felt and just a bit dismayed. That was enough to help Maxen shake off his paralysis. “Faelen?”

“I probably shouldn’t have said that.”

“But you meant it?”

“Yes.” It was a breath of sound, which became stronger. “Yes.”

Maxen watched him for another moment. “Then you should do it.”

Faelen drew in a sharp breath. “Maxen?”

“If you want to, you should kiss me.”

Faelen was utterly still as they stood in silence. Then he moved, slowly coming closer to Maxen. He reached out almost carefully and rested his hands on Maxen’s shoulders lightly and then more firmly. His hesitance did something to Maxen, a swirl of emotions he couldn’t quite put name to, except for the sudden need to protect, but he stayed still, letting Faelen do as he would. Finally, Faelen stretched up and brushed his lips lightly over Maxen’s. 

​

If you'd like to know more about The Merchant's Love (which I always call my warm-hug-in-book-form book), you can find it here. Thanks for 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+.

​This weekend, I felt like snippeting from The Merchant's Love. It's my warm-hug-in-book-form book, in which a bookish royal and the endearingly awkward merchant who is besotted with him fall for each other over books and baked goods. Which always seemed like a lovely way to fall in love to me. :-) In this snippet, Faelen, our bookish royal, has arrived unexpectedly at Maxen's house one evening. Maxen is more than happy to see him, even if Faelen wonders if he shouldn't have just appeared on his doorstep. (Faelen speaks first.)

You can find more about The Merchant's Love here, and you can get The Merchant's Love (and my other NineStar titles) 50% off at NineStar with coupon code Narrative0420 for a few more days. Thanks for 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+.

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!

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!

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!

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+.

Somehow, it's December—I swear I still think it's October sometimes—so I thought I'd share something sort of seasonal. I haven't written a Christmas story yet, but The Merchant's Love is set in fall/winter and over Tournai's winter holidays. And it's overall a warm and fuzzy kind of book (demisexual bookish royal and bisexual merchant who is awkwardly besotted with him fall in love over books and baked goods), which is what I always want in a story this time of year. So, here's a snippet from The Merchant's Love. (We're in Faelen's point of view.)

​He bought a bag of roasted chestnuts from a cart on a corner and kept walking. The bag warmed his hand even through his glove, and the chestnuts were as delicious as he remembered. They didn’t grow in Teilo, but he used to eat them practically by the pound during the winter when he was a child. The treat warmed him inside and out, at least partly from the glow of pleasure and nostalgia. 

When he approached the theater, Maxen was coming toward him from the other direction, and Faelen smiled. He kept walking until he and Maxen met, until only inches separated them, and looked up into Maxen’s twinkling eyes.

“Hello.”

“Hello.” A ripple of something—pleasure, amusement, happiness—ran through Maxen’s voice before he dipped down and stole a kiss. 

​

If you've like to know more about The Merchant's Love, you can find it here. You can also get The Merchant's Love (and my other NineStar books too!) 40% off through December 2nd at NineStar with code HOLIDAY2018. Thanks for reading today!

​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 decided to give you the lines directly following last week's snippet from The Merchant's Love this weekend, so you can see how Maxen responds (Hint: denial! To Tristan, and himself). I really enjoyed writing the relationship between brothers Tristan and Maxen in this story, and sort of turning the tables. In The Scholar's Heart, Tristan was one all turned around by his relationship with Etan and Maxen the sensible one. It was fun to see how Maxen would react to his growing feelings for Faelen, and how Tristan would act as his brother.

​Etan probably didn’t know about all the notes Maxen exchanged with Faelen, or he would have told Tristan about that too. “Nothing, or nothing that you’re implying. We’re friends.”

​“Mhmm.”

At Maxen’s look, Tristan shrugged and did a poor job of looking innocent.

Maxen shook his head and muttered, “Someone save me from annoying older brothers.”

“I heard that.”

“You were meant to.” And even with Tristan’s teasing, Maxen couldn’t help taking one more peek at Faelen. 

​

If you'd like to know more about The Merchant's Love, you can find it here. The Merchant's Love and The Dragon's Devotion are still 50% off at Smashwords, but only through the end of the month. Don't miss out!

​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 little more from The Merchant's Love for you today. I've skipped ahead a little. In this scene, Maxen is with his brother, Tristan, and, as they're walking together, sees Faelen at a gathering of courtiers. (Etan is Tristan's husband and Faelen's cousin.) (I went over the sentence limit again—I'm sorry! I thought it was necessary here.)

You can find out more about The Merchant's Love here. Don't forget that The Merchant's Love (along with The Dragon's Devotion) is 50% off at Smashwords through the end of July. Thanks for 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'm following off of last week's snippet from The Merchant's Love. Faelen and Maxen were about to have a picnic. This snippet comes toward the of their lunch. (It's a little longer than it should be, but I thought it was necessary.)

​"Don’t you have to go back to your office?”

​“But we haven’t finished lunch. We still have the best part left. Unless you have to get back to the palace.”

Faelen tilted his head. “What’s left of lunch?”

“Dessert, of course.” With a grin, Maxen retrieved the pastries from the bottom of the basket and unwrapped them to reveal spirals of dough sticky with honey, nuts, and spices. “We should have something sweet, shouldn’t we?”

Faelen’s eyes were wide, and he bit his lip. “I suppose we should.”

Maxen handed over one of the pastries, and Faelen bit into it immediately. The noise he made—a quiet little sound that was almost a moan—hit Maxen like a punch in the stomach. Faelen’s eyes closed as he savored the sugary bite. Would his face look that way if he were lost in pleasure of another kind? The thought flashed like lightning through Maxen. 

​

If you'd like to know more about The Merchant's Love, you can find it here. Both The Merchant's Love and The Dragon's Devotion are 50% off this month over at Smashwords if you'd like to give them a try. Thanks for reading today!