Category: Guests

Guest Post | Heathcliff and the Sexy Whippet by A.M. Fox

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 3 Comments

Guest-Post

Today, A.M. Fox here to talk about the years he’s had and his first published book, Heathcliff and the Sexy Whippet. Take it away, Mr Fox.

A blog post about Heathcliff and the Sexy Whippet, by A.M. Fox

When I was lucky enough to get a blog spot on Ofelia Grand’s blog Island of love, I was rather worried.

What to say about books during a pandemic?

How to come across as neither dismissive of the state of the world, or crazed with anxiety?

You know how it is.

I started writing Whippet as a way of blocking off everything going on outside. Writing is my panacea; my support and comfort. The only thing that keeps me (almost) sane. This year, I’ve written around 200K. One and a half novels, a novella and some shorties, which constitutes a lot of manic brain cells and ear tugging.

I love Wuthering heights. Have you read it? What a twisted, fucked-up book it truly is, all the more so because of when it was written. First time I read it, I was a teenager, too young to comprehend the abyss of abuse and bitterness it depicts. Now, I know better. It’s hardly a romance but it is haunting. In some weird way, it has stayed with me through the years, knocking on my window.

Sexy Whippet is a far cry, being romantic, happy and contemporary. The main character, Sean, lands up with a job he’s not prepared for. That’s happened to me a few times… He’s still busy with the film but agreed to let me interview him for this blog. Of course, he’s doing my hair as we speak and Heath wanted to be here too.

Sean, can you tell us what you first noticed about Heath?

Your hair is a mess! I’m just going to untangle these knots so excuse if I tug. It might hurt but it won’t be agony. No pain, no gain! Heath? Ur, well. First time I saw him, he was dressed to kill in a cloak and riding boots. I think he was carrying a crop!

Is that what caught your eye?

No, no it wasn’t. To tell you the truth I’d forgotten my glasses so I couldn’t see too well anyway. I could make out his shape, but it was only when I wrestled him to the floor that I smelt him.

Wrestled him to the floor, you say?

Um. Yeah. Sounds harsh but it was necessary! He moaned but I was more worried about Daffodil, the huge doggy.

So what did you notice?

Heath smelt of olives and so I knew he was in trouble and needed my help.

Sean has bounded off and so I’m turning the interview over to Heath, who sits in the corner reading.

How about you, Heath? What did you first notice about Sean?

I’d like to say it was his smile, which, as you’ve no doubt noticed, is gorgeous? But it wasn’t. The very first thing I noticed was the suit he wore for the interview.

It was nice?

No. Absolutely horrible and made for someone three times the size of Sean. He looked as if he was hiding inside. I felt sorry for him, until he had me on the floor crawling on hands and knees. Then I—felt something else.

Heath has wandered across to Sean and we leave them, kissing.

When was it released? December 4th!
Where is to for sale? All the normal places.

books2read.com/HeathcliffAndTheSexyWhippet

Excerpt:

I fetched some products and instructed him about their use. ‘Smells very clinical. I think it’s best if I wash your hair and bathe you, from now on,’ I said, ‘you need to feel the experience of being the patient, rather than the doctor. I don’t mean a full body bath,’ I hastened to explain, hotly. ‘You could keep underwear. If you absolutely insist.’

‘I’m not going to argue,’ he said, ‘you’ve got magic hands. I don’t know what it is but you make me so calm. Help yourself. Actors don’t mind nakedness.’

He leaned back against the sink while I died a silent death, arranged his tresses and wished for the millionth time that he did not already have a boyfriend. I had heard about people clicking from the first meeting, but it had certainly never happened to me before. When he was around, I was able to chat and share in a way that was unfamiliar and alluring. ‘Just relax.’

I showered and lathered, massaged and played. Heath closed his eyes and I got perfect opportunity to examine his masculine jaw and neck. I’m not sure where I got the confidence but I began soaping around his neck and ears, too, and then down onto his chest. I caressed, pouring all my care into my fingers and hoping it went onto him. I spent a long time on his nipples and stomach. When he moaned, my trousers became tight.

‘Jeez,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t stop.’

Thank you, Ofelia, for inviting me here, and thank you for the Mince Pies!
A.M. Fox

Heathcliff and the sexy WhippetA Christmas feel-good tale of snowy, cobbled streets, unfulfilled desires and the sexiest whippet in Yorkshire!
When bubbly Sean Miles applies for a job with a film company, little does he realise what he’s getting into. As an experienced dog groomer, he’s great with fur and claws and loves a poochie cuddle, but has never offered human treatments. Until now.
Heath Mailer is playing the character of Heathcliff. Dark, brooding and intense, the lead actor can scowl aplenty but when he’s in trouble he doesn’t know how to ask for help. Who’s going to offer a hand to Mister Moody?
Forced to work together, Sean and Heath discover some unusual techniques that not only aid the production but also get to the heart of what ails the lead actor. Whoever said dog therapy can’t work on people?

Cover Reveal | The Hunted and the Hind by A.L. Lester

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Cover-Reveal

We’re gonna take a short break from the holiday stories – there’s a life after Christmas after all – because today, A.L. Lester is here to show off the cover of her coming release. I love it. So pretty!

Hello there everyone and thank you so much to Ofelia for inviting me to visit today! I am popping in to bring you the cover of The Hunted and the Hind and tell you a bit about it, and the Lost in Time universe.

Hunted is the third in my Lost in Time 1920s London trilogy, although as you may gather from the cover, at least some of it takes place elsewhere! The Lost in Time Universe is based around an old green book. It’s definitely not a book of magic. It’s simply a book of instructions. Instructions to use energy to make things happen. To get what you want.

Be careful how you use the book. Because everything you do comes with a price.

The universe gets it name because the first book I wrote begins with a magical accident that results in one of the main characters getting pulled back from 2016 to 1920. Everything else sort of went on from there! You can read more about the universe and the order of the books on my website.

Hunted jigsaw

At the end of book number two, Shadows on the Border, poor Sergeant Will Grant got sucked through the border after Fenn, who returned to their home in the Outlands with the murderous creature they’d finally captured with the help of Will’s police team. It took me ages to work out what I wanted to write in Hunted because I never actually set out to write a trilogy–this is one of the downsides of discovery writing, which I have now rather learned to my cost. There were so many loose ends I wanted to tie up to feel that I’d satisfactorily ended the series, for both readers and for myself. It took me three rewrites to get the story knocked into a shape that I feel happy with.

Without further ado…here’s the cover (and the blurb!) for…

TheHuntedendtheHide3

The Hunted and the Hind

Inadvertently tumbling through the border after Fenn and then thrown into the middle of the internecine political disputes of their people, Sergeant Will Grant of the Metropolitan Police has spent three months in prison in the Underhalls of the Frem. When Fenn comes to free him and return him home through the border, he has very little time to work out what’s going on before the sudden appearance of Fenn’s missing younger sibling Keren throws Fenn for a loop.

Instead of returning them to London as planned, the trio step through the border to the Egyptian desert. Once they work out where they are, it’s a two week trip back to England with the possibility of pursuit both onboard ship and when they reach home.

Will the journey give Fenn and Will time to resolve the feelings they have been dancing around since the day they met? How will they keep Keren from recapture by the faction who tried to persuade Fenn they were dead? And has Will’s friend Alec forgiven Fenn for lying about their motives when they first traveled to London four months ago?

Preorder from the publisher, JMS Books!

About A. L. Lester

Ally Lester is a writer of queer, mostly paranormal, historical, romantic suspense, usually set in the Lost in Time universe. They live in the South West of England with Mr AL, two children, a badly behaved dachshund, a terrifying cat and some hens. Likes gardening but doesn’t really have time or energy.  Not musical. Doesn’t much like telly. Non-binary. Chronically disabled. Has tedious fits.

Find all my links at my lnk.bio page

Guest Post | Heart of the Holidays by Pat Henshaw

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 1 Comment

Guest-Post

Today, we have Pat Henshaw here on the blog. She’s here to talk about her writing and why she writes the stories she does.

Why Do I Write about Contemporary Gay Men at the Holidays?

Heart of the Holidays is the fourth piece I’ve written expressly for the season and the fifth written surrounding the Christmas holidays.
Like my other work, I’ve written this story of two men in their 30s for everyone to read: from grandparents and great-grandparents to teens and young adults and everyone in between. I’m a firm believer that the love two men have for one another should not be hidden away as an aberration or shameful but rather should be seen as what it is: love.

One comment my books frequently get—and one which applies to this story also—is that there is little or no sex in my stories. That’s simply because I think love and sex are two different things, and I write exclusively about love.

I also believe a gay man is gay not because he has sex with men (which he does) but because he’s attracted primarily by men. My favorite novellas and novels in the m/m genre are those of how and why two men get to know each other and fall in love, not the number of times they have sex.

So writing a holiday piece for me is merely an extension of what I write the rest of the year. The difference is the scenery.

Blame It on the Fruitcake, the first gay romance holiday story I wrote years ago, revolves around a motorcycle mechanic and garage owner. He’s introduced to fruitcake by his new neighbor, a guy he’s attracted to. Since status plays so heavily on some men’s minds, the story’s message is that love trumps social status in the game of love.

The Orpheum Miracle, the second holiday story, is based on a short newspaper piece I read about a homeless man who was discovered living in an abandoned movie theater. I wondered how a man like that could find love, considering that he spent his life hiding. So in true author fashion, I made up a story to find him the perfect partner.

The title of the third holiday story, Making the Holidays Happy Again, was a riff on Trump’s idiotic statement about making American great again while he ruined our reputation at home and abroad. But the story I made up isn’t about politics or America at all. It’s about a blacksmith who’s trying to make his profession viable in today’s world. And, oh, yes, how he sees his journey to love going in the future.

Finally, this year’s story, Heart of the Holidays, is based on the number of gay writer friends who have created their own families when their blood relatives have let them down or let them go. The story reflects what I saw and heard of gay life before the pandemic hit. While there were many stories of abuse and rejection, most of the men I know were leading even-keeled lives with a few bumps and setbacks along the way. In other words, instead of being shunned, they were leading fairly normal, ordinary lives, which is exactly as it should be. This story reflects a status quo of sorts.

If I want readers to get anything else out of my stories, my tagline says it all:

Every day is a good day for romance.

Have a wonderful holiday season filled with health, happiness, and love. And please visit me at www.pathenshaw.com where you can find out more about me and my books. Cheers!

heartoftheholidays

Everyone hopes his road to happily ever after will be carefree and smooth, but too often hair-pin turns and detours seem to get in the way.

Having thought he was on the road to forever before, former Silicon Valley programmer Dan Lassiter is leery about pedaling down it again. His elderly companion Charlie urges him to get to know Rick Reardon whose bakery is across the street from Dan’s bicycle shop.

Under the watchful eye of Charlie, Dan and Rick take tentative steps toward each other, all the while trying to avoid potholes such as exes, homophobes, and family problems.

As summer turns to fall and then winter, they hope that the road will be smooth going from their first date and first kiss to having what Rick’s sister euphemistically calls their “sleepovers.” At each step, though, they are tripped up and wonder why there seem to be so many bumps in their road.

Maybe Dan and Rick should heed some of Charlie’s sage advice, or maybe they should listen to their hearts instead of the ghosts from their pasts.

Buy link:
https://www.jms-books.com/pat-henshaw-c-224_462/heart-of-the-holidays-p-3593.html

Author link:
Get more information about Pat and her books at www.pathenshaw.com