The Rise of Virginie
December 16, 2019
It's here!
The Rise of Virginie exists! It can be bought at all these fine retailers in eBook form, and barring disaster print editions should be available next week.
Head over to my FB group if you want to hear a reading and some dorky discussion of the book, or check out this (fairly dirty) excerpt that went up at Joyfully Jay with the cover reveal. ♥
Moar Freebies!
November 4, 2019
If you missed out on the Halloween hop, you can get CAPED CRUSADER, a Superpowered Love short about Andrew and Gabriel from LOSING BETTER, for free here now:
These online retailers
It'll be popping up at other distributors around the web in the next week or so, too, so if you don't see the one you like, check back. Not Amazon tho. Sorry y'all! They don't like my freebies :D
But wait, there's more! Have you signed up for my newsletter, Katey Hawthorne's Somethingorothers, yet? It's a monthly thing, and it always contains free reads, sneak peeks, and a new giveaway every time--plus a heads up about everything going on in my writing world. If you already subscribe, go and get your shiny new freebie, a novella called THE MISTELL, at BookFunnel.
The Mistell
Pete’s an Art History TA who loves MMORPGs, Pop Art, and getting screwed. Samir’s a shy MBA student in the same gaming guild. When a guild-mate makes an embarrassing sexual mistell—a message sent to everyone when it was meant for her lover alone—it cracks the two guys up… and gives them an excuse to get to know each other. Pete’s love life is complicated, and so’s Samir’s home life, but there’s definitely something between them they both want to explore. If they can communicate with a minimum of mistells, themselves.
I wrote the mistell for a collection called DESIGNATED BOTTOMS back in the day--and it was a glorious collection! Alas that this story has been languishing on my hard drive for five years since Torquere left us. So here it is now, perpetually free and available to newsletter readers. Yay!
Witchy Boys 3 and a New Superpowered Love Freebie!
October 21, 2019
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| Cover by Natasha Snow |
The third and final installment of WITCHY BOYS lives today!
I love to write short fiction, so this series has been so much fun for me. Both the stories in #3 are novelette length, so they've got some meat on them, but should still be considered short and sweet (and, hopefully, hot). Check it out at any of these fine retailers! For Witchy Boys 1 and 2, hit up the page. Book 1 is still available for free for the rest of October, so don't miss out!
Moonlight Motor InnAdam Ha’s family has owned the Moonlight Motor Inn outside St. Paul for decades, but there’s always been something not-quite-right about it. When the paranormal activity sends his parents packing, Adam determines to stick around and get help to save the family business. He calls in Courtland Wendt, a trans man and physical medium who can get to the bottom of his haunting—he hopes.
Cranky Court is taken with Adam’s easy charm as much as with his dedication to his family, and the two can’t resist the electric connection between them for long. But they’ll have to solve an angry, dead witch’s murder before Adam can have his happily ever after at the Moonlight.
The Full Moon HusbandWhen Jacob Madison’s mother finally decides to retire, he moves back to Wheeling to run the family hardware store for her. The city hasn’t changed much, but an old friend from middle school, Harry Montgomery, has returned since Jacob’s been gone. The two renew their old friendship and flirt with the idea of something more, something a little hotter.
But Harry’s been through tragedy, and he can’t shake it off until he sets his ghosts free. Literally. Luckily, Jacob’s witchy family includes Matt Antonin and his boyfriend Thackeray, who just might have a fix.
In other news, come get your freebies!
Since the next SUPERPOWERED LOVE installment (book 9) will feature Kieran from book 4, Losing Better, I've been meaning to write a little interlude with Andrew and Gabriel to bridge the gap between their book and his. Here it is! Get Caped Crusader, a ridiculous short about Andrew's Halloween party, and how superheroing interrupts it. Also, Gabriel fighting crime in a Dracula costume. As you do.
For the full effect, come by my Facebook group to talk to other authors as they hop around on weekends--and to get the goods on whatever the hell I'm up to now. :D
Witches and Shifters and Facebook oh my
September 28, 2019
I'm so looking forward to October--as usual. There's going to be a lot going on, but just in preparation, here are two considerably exciting things:
1. Kanaan & Tilney eBooks are back! Jenna and I were knocked for a loop after LT3 closed, but now everything is up and running smoothly--and we're working on the final chapters of the weird and wonderful book 3. So here are 1 and 2, everywhere you buy eBooks!
Print editions will be a thing again as well, but not until the end of the year. This is the last of the e-re-releases though, so hopefully sooner rather than later!
2. Last year I punked out on Witchy Boys, I know. Not so, this year! The third and final installment is on its way, slated for October 21, but you can pre-order a copy at Amazon or Smashwords if you're keen! And check the gorgeous cover Natasha Snow did for it:
Also, the first installment is now perma $0.99 everywhere! But if you wait a few days, it might be free at a BookFunnel giveaway again soon ;) (Okay, no "might" about it, it totally will be.)
3. In other news, if you're the type who loves to talk about books and/or music, and you're interested in my books and other queer media, you might like my new facebook group, Katey Hawthorne's Somethingorothers. Every week there's a new video of me talking nonsense--okay, usually I'm reading something or talking about some show/book I love and how queer it is--and we have chats during the week about what's going on in our creative worlds. BUT ALSO, this group will be the one that gets the ARCs for future releases, and there will be a lot of those in the coming months! Check it out and see if it's for you ♥
Update all the things!
July 30, 2019
All the Superpowered Love books + Blood and Clockwork are now returned to existence, yay! The links on all the pages should be sorted out, though I'm still waiting for a few vendors to go live with the last few in the SL series, and print editions won't happen until fall. What a relief, though! Thanks so much to LT3 for making that SO much easier than it could've been by giving us authors our covers and files to use. ♥
The Kanaan & Tilney books will come back to life shortly, too. Summer means when I'm home, Jenna's not, and when Jenna's home, I'm not, of course. But never fear that they'll be back, and book 3 is nearly extant in first draft form. Just a chapter or two to go and we're there!
While updating links all over the place, I decided to turn the faq, which was pretty outdated, into a kind of index for people. If you have any ideas for improvement or comments on what I could do better, please don't hesitate to send them along. I've never tried this before and it's quite tricky to index by identity as it turns out, especially when we're talking relative to sexuality sometimes. Possibly one of you will have a better idea for that.
Now that I'm really done with my old stuff, at long last, it's time to focus on what's up next. I've been dropping hints about a few projects as I've worked over the last year or two, but here's the deal on my two main projects at the moment:
1. The Rise of Virginie. This will be my first full-length contemporary novel! It focuses on my hometown of Wellsburg, WV. Wellsburg is a great, quiet place to grow up for some and frankly harrowing for others--a situation severely exacerbated by the current opioid epidemic. For years now, I've been reading and researching about the causes of the epidemic (spoiler alert: CORPORATE GREED and willful ignorance about addiction), because I've felt super helpless in the face of it. We've all lost people, at this point, and I never know if I'm more sad or angry.
What I can do is write a book, so that's where I am. Virginie is the name of their band, my small town would-be rockstars struggling with all sorts of everyday problems--and a couple that are far from everyday. It stars a poetic preacher's son who graduated from college early and a 19-year-old guitarist who's been couch surfing for a month rather than stay in a home ruined by addiction. It's not been an easy ride for me or for them, but I think it's gonna come out okay. ;)
Any profits from this book (in perpetuity) will go to help people in my home county who have been screwed over by this epidemic: people with addiction and their families. More on this soon, but I'm just about ready to churn out a second draft with the help of my editor, Raven, and so the ball is rolling! Y'all know I don't do angsty stuff often, so it tends to take me longer >.>
2. Superpowered Love 9: Under Siege. Here, at last, we get Kieran Hooper's story! Kieran is the sweet party boy from Losing Better, the sometime lover of Gabriel and Andrew. Three years after Gabriel and Andrew got together, Kieran finds himself staying with them temporarily (probably) thanks to an ugly breakup. And then Gabriel and Andrew bring home Rocco, who's in their protective custody, now, for reasons they can't fully explain.
Kieran, not being awakened (aka not having superpowers) is the only one in the dark in the house, but he's drawn to Rocco, a pretty, genderfluid guy fond of heavy metal and long skirts. As the reader can immediately guess, Rocco's secrets have a lot to do with Andrew and Gabriel's... and Kieran is not altogether happy about being out of the loop, even if he's not sure what the loop IS. Still, lots of good action, sweet confessions, and hot sex are bound to occur. That and, yes, an actual siege.
This one has a first draft that's 2/3 done, and I've been bouncing back and forth between it and Virginie. I might just need to finish this first draft now, then concentrate on Virginie's second draft once I manage that mischief.
Both of these projects are gonna go self-pub. With Virginie that's because of the plans I have for any profits, and with Under Siege, well, the rest of the series has been through two publishers already. That's quite enough! So hang on tight, this should be an adventure.
Thanks for reading my updates! ♥ Katey
Good News and Bad News
July 22, 2019
Good news first!!
STRONGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE exists again! YAY!
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| Cover by Kalen O'Donnell |
When he gets super-endurance powers out of nowhere, being a culinary student and kids’ soccer coach isn’t enough for Beau Warren--he has to be a superhero too. A sweet, hardworking trans man from a close knit family, it’s important to Beau to use his new abilities to stand up for people who can’t protect themselves. When he runs into a speedster at a fire rescue, he doesn’t expect it to be his high school crush, Vel Chandrasekhar. Turns out Vel got superspeed when Beau got his endurance, so they decide to make their single supe act into a duo.
With their immediate attraction and superpowered libidos, it’s not long before Beau and Vel are roommates-with-benefits. That’s the idea, anyhow, if only Beau can keep from falling back into his old crush hard, since Vel’s self-esteem issues have left him skittish about relationships. Just when things are at boiling point between them, though, their search for their own superhero origin story leads them and their families into mortal danger. The only way to survive the truth is to depend on each other--and admit they’re a lot more than friends.
I've missed this book so much, and Carlin and I are so happy to have it back out in the world. It's fast-paced and fun (I hope!), so if that's your thing--and you dig superheroes--give it a try! You can get it at these retailers currently, and there are more coming later in the week.
This is the very last of my originally-Loose-Id titles that needed to go back out into the world!
___
... which leads me to the bad news. Less Than Three Press is closing. I've had such wonderful experiences working with them over the years, and in particular in this last year as they worked so hard to bring the Superpowered Love and Kanaan & Tilney series back to life. I'll miss them!
Now I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while, which is wax personal for a second. Feel free to skip to the end to just get the details on how and when my LT3 books will return!
In late 2017, Loose Id closed. They'd been my publisher for about seven years at that point, and I'd done... a lot of books with them. Not sure about the total amount, but it was well into double digits. I had a one or two scattered around elsewhere, but I was only just getting the confidence as a writer to diversify--and to be honest, I loved working with my LI editor more than life itself. Over the years we developed the ideal writer/editor relationship, the one you dream about as a newbie, and I could never believe my luck she was the one I was handed to first (or who snapped me up first, depending on who you ask).
I was sad, but the LI team did everything in an orderly and fair fashion, as they did everything, and so I tried to prepare myself. I went to Less Than Three immediately--I'd worked with them before and knew my books would fit there better than anywhere else--and they agreed to reprint a lot of my stuff. I felt like I was ready.
Then my books disappeared. The entire Superpowered Love series, Kanaan & Tilney, all the one-shots I'd done... just gone. I still had a few here and there, like I say, but the bulk of everything I'd done over the better part of a decade poofed out of existence, to all intents and purposes. Though I already had plans to remake the books and a publisher behind it, something of an existential crisis ensued. It wasn't super helpful when another author with a name almost exactly like my own appeared in a similar niche. (Yes, it is now a most hilarious coincidence and I consider it proof that my name is the best name. At the time, though, I was already down, so it was hard to see clearly.) I didn't understand at the time why my anxiety--which had been pretty well managed for the last few years--suddenly shot through the roof. It's only thanks to a year and a half of rebuilding, re-printing, and hard work via therapy and yoga that I finally realize what caused me to spiral into Anxiety Town, Population: Me.
[For reference, I've experienced anxiety spirals at other times in my almost-39-years on the planet, some worse than others. This was far from the worst. The pattern seems to be that when the bottom drops out on something I worked really hard for, or seems to, anyhow, I flail a lot. Otherwise my anxiety is garden variety and relatively simply managed with medication and maintenance.]
It sounds grossly egotistical. Wow, Katey, your name/brand disappears from the internet and suddenly you have a crisis of existence? I get it, it's absurd, believe me, most anxiety is when viewed from afar. Here's the thing, though:
"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it." - Samuel Johnson
I've been a reader as long as I've been able to, so that quote means a lot to me. As a writer it means something slightly different but even more powerful: A story that doesn't connect people is incomplete. I've been telling stories since I was a kid, at first just to my family or my best friend, but then I finally pushed through a decade of incredibly hard work and got to the point where I sold books. Actual, entire books that people wanted to read!
The tangible evidence of this was gone, of a sudden. I didn't get how that would affect me til it did, though I'm sure better seasoned authors have been through it a million times and are like, "oh yeah, that gets easier."
It 100% does, but first it got worse. I pulled away from the parts I really liked about being an author: connecting with other authors and fellow readers, allowing myself to explore new stories. I had some incredible life experiences that I barely talked about (I went to France! I became an auntie again!), but that I LOVE when my fave authors share. I got bogged down in the administrative tasks of the endless reprints, feeling a duty to just GET THEM DONE instead of doing new work that was eating away at my brain.
This time is way easier, probably because I finally figured out what I did wrong last time. It doesn't hurt that LT3 has given us not only our covers but also the final formatted versions of our works to make self-publishing a breeze. Even before their announcement, I was getting back on track in terms of my authoring stuff: I finished new stuff (in the pipeline now!) and I started engaging with the world of readers and writers again. It's been making me so happy.
___
As my books disappear from the Less Than Three site and other retailers, I'll be over here, working to make sure they reappear again quickly and easily. The idea is that no one but me should even notice--and again, I can't thank LT3 enough for making that possible, seriously. I'm gonna go it alone on the reprints, this time. I'm sure I'll go with other publishers for future works, but I've also got more faith in myself than I did starting out, so I have a few projects lined up that are gonna be all me. More on those soon--very soon!
For now, I can say there will hopefully be very little interruption in service here. And as a treat, I've added "Aelfwear", a story originally printed in the LT3 Enchanted Soles anthology, to my free reads page. LT3 allowed me to do an ebook run for a giveaway at Dayton Pride, so I happened to have it ready to go when the announcement of closure was made. So hey! Freebies for everyone!
And for my next trick...
June 13, 2019
Happy Pride!!!
Here in Dayton we had our festival and parade on the first weekend of the month. JA Rock and Lisa Henry joined me, and we gave away a ton of queer romance novels to people, plus spread the word about great places to find queer books online. It was epic! Thanks to everyone who showed up to make it Dayton's biggest pride crowd ever ♥
Now that all the Superpowered Love Books I already wrote are back out in the wild (yay!), the new stuff is finally getting lots of attention. I've got two projects in the pipeline. One is a contemporary--my first novel-length one ever!--called THE RISE OF VIRGINIE. It's about would-be rock stars in a small town... my hometown, as a matter of fact. I wrote it on request from a friend and editor, Raven McKnight. It was meant to be a short story Christmas gift and... uh. I started reading Johnny Marr's autobiography (SET THE BOY FREE--so good) and this movie about Oasis came out and I was listening to the Clash a lot. What can I say? Stories happen :D
More on that soon, but it's in the early editorial stage. Keep an eye out for a cover reveal in the next few months! I cannot wait to share it.
Also, Superpowered Love 9: UNDER SIEGE is in the works. Draft 1 is halfway written, and I'm so excited to have it up and running. I've been dying to write it for years now, literally since LOSING BETTER came out--because it features the voice of Kieran Hooper, he of the occasional threesome, as he finds his own superpowered babe. As the series comes near to its close (11 books, so only a few more to go!), things are starting to come to a head for the Awakened and their secret world just beneath the surface of ours. Prepare for explosions.
That's the progress update for the moment, but keep an eye out for an upcoming newsletter complete with another giveaway (every time!), this time for something a little different. I'm running on a laptop I generally use just for writing (dead pc D:), so my resources are limited. Bear with me, please!
That said, I'm so excited for this year's Coastal Magic--my first! I've been dying to go, but my timing was always off. Finally, this February, I get to chill on the beach with other authors and readers and talk romance! Yay! Join us, if you can!
All the (Superpowered) Love!
May 23, 2019
The last SUPERPOWERED LOVE re-releases are here to stay! It's been a whirlwind of a year with Less Than Three kicking ass and releasing them one-a-month, but we've hit number eight, and you know what that means:
New ones coming!
I'm already working on number nine, which focuses on Kieran, a side character from number four, Losing Better. But in the meantime, check out the excerpts from the latest editions of The Playhouse and The Takedown!
Community theater, musicals, and... fire? Sure, why not! Welcome to the Brooksville Playhouse, where Lily runs the tech scene and new girl Genevieve burns up the stage. But Genny has some secrets, and they have to do with her love of pyrotechnics.
Warnings: This book contains sexual harassment--treated appropriately, of course, with consequences!
You've heard of witch hunters in past books--and if you haven't, prepare to. Jody's been kidnapped, his family murdered, and he's on the run for no crime other than being born with superpowers. Bren comes to the rescue... and then they start to get close.
Warnings: contains kidnapping, discussion of murder and kidnapping, PTSI, acute anxiety, etc.
A busy month!
March 29, 2019
March has been wild, y'all. I just got back from C2E2, where I nerded out big time. Plus, the last two weeks have seen two new books hit the LT3 book market! Yay! Now's the time to snag your copies of Superpowered Love 6: In Distress AND Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Man-Eater.
Superpowered Love 6: In Distress
Hopeless romantic Eddie Kim acts out his favorite 'rescued by the white knight' fantasies through weekly D&D campaigns, but has almost given up hope of ever getting a real one. Then Callum, a mysterious redhead with freezing superpowers and a memorable kiss, saves him from a house fire before promptly disappearing.
Then Eddie's friends look to Craiglist to relocate his hero. Unfortunately, the publicity brings down the kind of attention Callum has been trying to avoid. He's in town to clear his family name, and now the dangerous superpowered organization he needs to thwart knows he's back.
The heat between Callum and Eddie flares, and Eddie insists on helping repair the damage his romantic notions have done. But that means embroilment in a nefarious plot, exploring a superpowered world Eddie didn't even know existed a week ago, and crafty foes trying to trick and use him. All that, while convincing Callum to trust him to be the white knight for once, instead of the perpetual damsel in distress.
Now available at Less Than Three and these online retailers! Be sure to check out the print edition, too--it has Superpowered Extras like mixtapes and character stats!
♥
Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Man-Eater
Wolf-Beast and ex-cop Lowell recently brought his boyfriend, Elementalist and mystery author John, into the PI business with him. They've been solving cases for Boston's diverse praeternatural community ever since. When a young Terran feels that the brutal murder of his Beast boyfriend isn't being treated seriously enough by the police, he brings the case to Kanaan & Tilney for a second opinion.
Similarly defiled corpses pop up around Boston as they race to find the killer. All the victims are packless Beasts, like Lowell, and the vicious nature of the killings stir up old prejudices in the praeternatural community. Throw a personal vendetta and some ugly family history for Lowell in the mix, and the trails are as muddy as ever. It will take everything Kanaan and Tilney have, as a team and a couple, if they hope to stop a serial killer—and survive doing so.
Now available from Less Than Than Three Press and these fine retailers!
♥
For a sneak peek @ K&T 3, plus a giveaway and other news, be sure to join the very rare newsletter! You can see the last edition here if you missed it, but you can't enter the giveaway unless you're subscribed ♥
The Soundtrack of his Life
March 5, 2019
The soundtrack to Superpowered Love 5: Re-Entry Burn is far and away the most personal one I've ever done. It has four of my top five (currently extant) bands at the forefront, because Malory is the first character I ever wrote who had my own taste in music. Most of it, anyhow. (The rest, I gave to Bren in The Takedown, but more on that when we get to book 8 :D) It's kinda funny, considering his cousin Brady is the wannabe rock star--and honestly the Riot Boy soundtrack has some important stuff to me in its seminal punkness, too. But this one, damn dude.
So here it is, in all its nerdy rock-emo glory. Turn it up, y'all:
Re-Entry Burn, the mixtape:
“US Government” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Take Them On, On Your Own)
“Re-Wired” by Kasabian (Velociraptor!)
“Fire It Up” by Modest Mouse (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank)
“Outsiders” by Franz Ferdinand (You Could Have It So Much Better)
“Thick as Thieves” by Kasabian (West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum)
“Virginia State Epileptic Colony” by Manic Street Preachers (Journal for Plague Lovers)
“Bad Blood” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Beat the Devil’s Tattoo)
“Help!” by The Beatles (Help!)
“Man of Simple Pleasures” by Kasabian (Velociraptor!)
“How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths (Meat Is Murder)
“Motorcycle Emptiness” by Manic Street Preachers (Generation Terrorists)
“Weight of the World” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Howl)
“This Fire” by Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand)
“Babydoll” by The Fratellis (Here We Stand)
“Pretty Girls Make Graves” by The Smiths (The Smiths)
“Nobody Loved You” by Manic Street Preachers (This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours)
“L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)” by Kasabian (Kasabian)
“Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed)
“Parting of the Sensory” by Modest Mouse (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank)
“This Joke Sport Severed” by Manic Street Preachers (Journal for Plague Lovers)
“The End” by The Beatles (Abbey Road)
My favorite band in the world, like Malory, is the Manic Street Preachers. How the fuck a girl from West Virginia who grew up while grunge was in ended up obsessed with these dudes, I mean, I don't even fucking know. Mysteries of the universe, right? They never come to the US (their music will explain that...), but I did manage to see them once at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC and it a life highlight, lemme tell you. Guess I need a trip to Wales next.
I was walking down Army Navy drive when I lived in Arlington, Va, right behind the pentagon, and I had the Manics album Journal for Plague Lovers going in my headphones. Riot Boy had just come out, and my editor Raven had said, "Now you have to write Malory's story." And that's how Re-Entry Burn happened.
As a side note, the rest of my list is:
2. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
3. Interpol ("Sir Not Appearing in this Film")
4. Kasabian
5. Franz Ferdinand
Let's not think too much about what all that says about me. Let's instead think about what it says about Malory Claremont and his fucked up life. Bless his heart.
Malory Claremont was born and raised to be the villain in someone else's story, complete with fire-based superpowers. Then his cousin and former partner-in-crime, Brady, led him into a trap, and he's been in superpowered lockdown ever since.
When he gets out on parole, he meets Theo McCracken, a cold-superpowered ex-offender. Theo has a modern Hamlet-style past, dangerously pretty eyes, and a hunger for affection that even Mal can't deny for long.
They've paid their debts to society, but society doesn't care—from blackmailing coworkers to suspicious neighbors, it's hard to catch a fair chance. Pile that on top of their dark family pasts, and it feels like just a matter of time before they'll be shoved right back into prison.
Now available at Less Than Three and these vendors!
Prison and Re-Entry
February 20, 2019
Malory Claremont's story (or part of it, anyhow!) is up for grabs now--Re-Entry Burn lives!
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| Cover by Natasha Snow |
For excerpts, check out its page here at the blog. To dive right in, you can get it from LT3 or any of these fine vendors!
This book took me a relatively long time to write, y'all. Of the first four Superpowered Love books, only Losing Better required some research on my part. Luckily I had a buddy who helped me out with that FBI stuff. She also helped me with the prison stuff, for Malory, but to get inside his head and what he'd been through on the inside, I read. And read. And read.
And what I discovered was awful. Fyodor Dostoevsky famously wrote, "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." Let me tell you, friends, the United States has some serious work to do.
If you're interested in learning more, there have been some recent documentaries that shine a light on specific occurrences--much easier than reading a bunch of books by ex-offenders that will make you lose your faith in humanity forever. Try these two on Netflix:
-The Survivor's Guide to Prison: A documentary framed like practical advice to anyone about to enter the justice system. Some famous people with experience, like the ever-awesome Danny Trejo, hammer away with stories, tips and tricks. It ends up focusing on the story of two wrongly convicted men, but the fact that they were innocent and subjected to this system is just the icing on the cake. No one should be.
-Time: The Kalief Browder Story: Want to rage-cry for an hour or two? Watch this one. Kalief Browder was (wrongly) indicted for stealing a backpack, and spent 3 years in Riker's Island AWAITING TRIAL. Yeah, he wasn't even convicted of anything. And it didn't get better. Jay-Z won a Peabody for this six-episode miniseries.
Trigger warnings abound for all of these: violence, law enforcement, suicide, rape, just the ones I'm coming up with off the top of my head.
Obviously I don't claim to have represented this stuff well or thoroughly in Re-entry Burn. It's a romance novel about two ex-offenders, not an exploration of the prison system. But if the story piques your interest, there's a lot to discover and learn about the criminal justice system. Which, honestly, I do believe in--but it's far from perfect and we can do better.
Okay off my soapbox, I just wanted to say that.
Who doesn't love a freebie?
February 7, 2019
Looking to fill up your e-reader with delicious M/M romance this February? Look no further! Check out this lovely bundle, brought to you via BookFunnel:
You can snag a copy of my own BY THE RIVER there, not to mention a bunch of other good stuff. You have the option to sign up for newsletters, but "option" is the key word there. You do you--and enjoy the romance ♥
Also, I wanted to bring attention to an auction on Facebook this week:
There are loads of books, eBooks, author services, and other goodies up for grabs, and will be through the 11th. All proceeds go to help two authors in the LGBTQIA romance community who've been hit hard by the wild flooding in Queensland, Australia right now. Check it out!
And in closing, congrats to the winner of the newsletter giveaway! Look out for future giveaways and freebies in my newsletter, Katey Hawthorne's Somethingorothers: A Rare Newsletter. Sign up here!
Happy Birthday, Losing Better! Also, Paladins.
January 30, 2019
Yay, Superpowered Love 4: Losing Better exists again! Check out its page to read some excerpts, go and have a listen to its soundtrack at my youtube page, or just snag yourself a copy at LT3's book market or these lovely retailers.
I'm not the first to say it and I probably won't be the last, but Losing Better is a weird romance novel. Okay, okay, all my books fall into that category, it's true. But this one is even weirder than most, because its protagonist and narrator, Gabriel, is... well, he's a dick.
But in a lawful good* paladin way.
For those of you not familiar with the fantasy archetype of a paladin, let's start this out with memes, because this is, after all, the 21st century.
or, maybe a little more to the point in re Gabriel:
Paladins are the dicks-for-good of the fantasy world. I mean, I've run into some paladins I didn't immediately want to choke with their own swords, but that's largely just because my current D&D campaign has one who serves a perpetually drunken god, which mellows him out sufficiently. Most of the time. He's still lawful good, though, which is... difficult.
Think Captain America (pre-Civil War if we're talking Marvel Cinematic Universe). Think Superman. Think Leslie Knope but without the compassion that women in our society are expected to have. These characters are awesome, but oh my fucking GOD are they difficult to be around on a day-to-day basis. And so long as it's legal and will bring "good" things to pass aka order and law? They pretty much have to do it.
This is Gabriel's problem. He's rigid. Inflexible. And worst of all, self-righteous, which is a huge failing of the paladin type. The self-righteous are blind, the lawful are unyeilding--it's not a good combination.
But he learns. He changes. He grows... or I tried to show him growing, anyhow.
So that's why in spite of the difficulty of the main character--hell, maybe because of it--this book has a really special place in my heart. That, and I kind of based his major principles off a really good friend of mine (who is not difficult to be around, for the record, because she has a sense of humor about her paladin-ness). He's so fun to write though, oh my god.
Gabriel will be back as a side character in Book 9, which I'm writing right now. He's different, but... still Gabriel. We'll see if he's any more likable now >.>
Anyhow, Andrew, his love interest/quarry is a really likable guy, if somewhat juvenile in some aspects... but he grows up a lot too, and I'm sure he's for the better when he appears in book 9. And I hope people can enjoy his story. He definitely deserves his happy ending.
*For clarification on the D&D alignment system, please see this.
Giveaways and PIs
January 18, 2019
Y'all, Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Arms Dealers is now out! Details here, but you can get it from LT3 or various vendors. Print edition to come soon! And don't forget, The Case of the Man Eater is already up for pre-order, so check that one out too <3 a="" bout="" how="" href="https://aisha-o.com/">Aisha Akeju
Interested in a juicy, plotty excerpt? Check out our post from yesterday at Joyfully Jay! There's also an exclusive giveaway there which runs for the rest of the week, so drop a comment and hey, maybe that sweet Amazon gift card will be yours.
Book 3 is in the works! Book 1 dealt mainly with the Necromorphs and book 2 was an in-depth look at the world of Beasts. You guessed it, each book will focus on a different Praeternatural faction. This time around? Terrans! Everyone's favorite earth-centric, peace-loving buddies. Nothing terrible could possibly happen in their world, right?
Haha, wrong. Jenna and I are hard at writing on it, and we hope you'll come along for the ride!
Giveaway update:
Superpowered Love: Re-loaded Tour winners have been chosen! Congrats, winners!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Join me in celebrating Superpowered Love 4: Losing Better's release on January 30! Pre-orders are ready and discounted even now <3 p="">
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