Update | What Are We Doing Again?

October 3, 2022October 2, 2022 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.

– Mary Anne Radmacher

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If you’ve hung around me anywhere, you probably know September was a nightmarish month for me. My mother-in-law passed away, and we learned my mother has liver cancer that’s incurable and inoperable. So I’ve mostly been trudging through black sludge.

My brain hasn’t been with me at all, and I don’t really know what I’ve been doing. Mostly, I’ve been operating on autopilot.

Summing up my words, I was shocked to see that I’ve written 34.815. I’ve felt so disconnected, and the story I’m working on will need so much editing to even make sense, but yay for words, right?

It leaves me with a total of 304.121 words, which is 121.65% of my goal of 250.000, so yay! My daily word count is 1105.

Now I just need to delete a heap of them and rewrite. Sigh.

In the last Update post, I wrote that there will be a story out in December, but it looks like it’ll be out in November instead 🥳

Giveaway | October

October 1, 2022September 29, 2022 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Book Giveaway

It’s giveaway time!!!

Last year, Holly released Call Me Charles in October, which is a story that celebrates National Motorcycle Ride Day. It’s a contemporary story about Charles who is having a really bad day.

The most similar story I have to Call Me Charles is probably Crazy Joe. There are no motorcycles in it, but it’s a contemporary story about Jonas who doesn’t have the best of days either.

Both stories have past (in Charles’ case it’s both past and current) bullying, but both Charles and Jonas find their happily ever after in the end.

If you want in on the draw, hop on over to Kingsumo and type in your email address. You’re not subscribing to anything, but make sure you use an address you check since it’s the one I’ll contact you on if you’re the winner.

Join the draw!

callmecharles

Charles Bowman was having a bad day even before his friends showed up to kidnap him for his birthday. He lost his nametag, missed the bus, and was late for his shift in the sandwich shop, but that isn’t the worst. The worst is that he’s accidentally been poisoning Hubert, the owner of the candy shop across from the sandwich shop, with gluten despite Hubert ordering gluten-free sandwiches.

When Charles finds himself soaking wet on a deserted road in the chilling October night, the worst gets an entirely new meaning. But right as he’s about to give up, Hubert comes driving on his motorcycle. Being responsible for gluten poisoning aside, Charles has never been as glad to see his knight in black leather, but is going home with Hubert a good idea or will the worst get even worse?

15,071 words

Read an excerpt

Crazy Joe

Abe Cooper is starting over. For fifteen years he’s lived the life that was expected of him, but not anymore. He’s packed up his things, bought himself a cabin in Northfield, and managed to secure a job at the local high school teaching gym and coaching the football team. But his new beginning didn’t include running into Crazy Joe on his first trip to the grocery store.

Jonas Raghnall has everything he needs—good friends and a job he loves. He’s worked hard to get over what happened sixteen years ago, but one run-in with his past and all the memories come flooding back. Seeing Abe Cooper, The Abe Cooper, sets everything out of balance.

Abe had pictured a fresh start with no ties to his past, but now that Jonas is there, he wants nothing more than to be close to the man who had butterflies filling his belly when he was in high school. Jonas doesn’t want to come face to face with his past, but if he sees Abe every day, it’s not really meeting up with your past, is it? It’s more like a date with your future.

17,001 words

Read an excerpt

Read Around the Rainbow | Favourite MM Romance Reads with Yellow/Orange/Red covers

September 30, 2022September 30, 2022 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 8 Comments

ReadAroundTheRainbow

It’s Read Around the Rainbow time!!! 🥳 Every month, we’re a group of authors who blog on the same topic. Since it’s September, and we’re all in the northern hemisphere (I feel we’ve failed a little there), it’s autumn. To celebrate this best of all seasons, yes, it is! Without a doubt, the best season 😁. We’ll recommend some books with yellow, orange, and red covers 🍂

Over at Pinterest, I have boards where I’ve pinned books with a specific colour on the cover. I’ve mostly stopped doing it now, but if you’re ever on the lookout for a book with a specific colour on the cover, have a look.

I thought I’d do one yellow, one orange, and one red cover. I might have to argue the colour, we’ll see LOL

A Case of Possession

A Case of Possession is the second book in the A Charm of the Magpies series by K.J. Charles, and it’s obviously a yellow cover – yes, it is! Right there in the middle, it’s clearly yellow 😆

I’m assuming most of you have read it, but if you haven’t, do! This is one of my favourite series but start with the first book, The Magpie Lord.

A Case of Possession Magic in the blood. Danger in the streets.

Lord Crane has never had a lover quite as elusive as Stephen Day. He knows Stephen’s job as justiciar requires secrecy, but the magician is doing his disappearing act more than seems reasonable—especially since Crane will soon return to his home in China. When a blackmailer threatens to expose their illicit relationship, there’s only one thing stopping Crane from leaving the country he loathes: Stephen.

Stephen has problems of his own. As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes on him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.

The rats are closing in, and something has to give…

https://books2read.com/ACaseOfPossession

Camp Hell

Camp Hell is the fifth book in the PsyCop series by Jordan Castillo Price, and again, I don’t think anyone has missed this series, but if you have, they’re now in KU. I think. I’m in Sweden, so KU isn’t available for me, and therefore I don’t pay attention, but I saw JCP post about it on social. So if you’ve been holding off because you read your books through KU, now’s your chance! And orange, clearly orange 😄

Victor Bayne honed his dubious psychic skills at one of the first psych training facilities in the country, Heliotrope Station, otherwise known as Camp Hell to the psychics who’ve been guests behind its razorwire fence.

Vic discovered that none of the people he remembers from Camp Hell can be found online, and there’s no mention of Heliotrope Station itself, either. Someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to bury the past. But who?

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The Duality Paradigm

The Duality Paradigm is the first book in the Blood and Bone Trilogy by Lia Cooper. I’ve been meaning to reread this. I read it when it was fairly new and loved it, and I meant to read the rest in the trilogy, but… Series is a hassle. And now I’m in a the-did-I-love-it-because-I-was-in-the-mood-for-that-kind-of-story state, or is it worth a reread? Last I checked it was free, and the cover is obviously red 😊

The Duality Paradigm Everyone knows magic users and werewolves are intrinsically diametrically opposed…

Seattle Police Detective Ethan Ellison, born into a long line of Quebecois magicians, leads a fairly unassuming life working Theft and consulting on magical misdemeanors. He’s spent eight years building a life for himself in Seattle, far from his father’s shadow. He works hard, lives under the radar, and fucks whoever catches his eye.
Detective Patrick Clanahan, beta-heir to Pack McClanahan, is a tightly wired bundle of rage and guilt, still trying to come to terms with the murder of his last partner.
When a human woman is murdered in werewolf territory under suspicious circumstances, Ethan is reassigned to worked the case with Clanahan in the hopes that he’ll be able to balance out the wolf’s rougher edges.
Too bad they mostly just rub each other the wrong way.

This is the first of three books in the Blood & Bone Trilogy.

https://books2read.com/Duality

So that’s my autumn palette for you. No huge surprises perhaps, but…