Angie

Luck to anyone who gives it a shot.

Angie

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Torquere Press Celebrates 7th Anniversary!

Seven years?! No, we can hardly believe it either. Seven years of bringing readers the best, the sexiest, the most romantic GLBT fiction. And to celebrate, we’re giving away prizes — great themed gift baskets, gift certificates for free books every day, and a scavenger hunt that will give readers a chance to collect a deck of cards that will win big — a Nook from Barnes & Noble!

Readers will get the chance to “collect cards” by visiting each participating author’s website, blog, or Facebook page. By collecting all the cards and filling in the form, players have the chance to win free books daily, a gift basket once each week, (including BDSM, werewolf and ménage themed baskets), and be entered in the grand prize drawing for the Nook.

We’ll also be having random sales via our blog GLBT Romance, Facebook, and Twitter

With bestselling GLBT romance authors like Chris Owen, Tory Temple, Kiernan Kelly, P.D. Singer, Sean Michael, and B.A. Tortuga, you’ll have a blast playing along. Just log onto Torquere Press’s website, check out the contest page, and start hunting!

So, ya feel lucky, dude? Let’s play!

Drawing: I’m hanging out on Torquere’s LiveJournal community today, playing host, talking about whatever comes to mind, and holding a drawing. For each of my posts you comment on today, you get a ticket in the drawing, and tomorrow I’ll pull a name and send the winner a $5 Torquere gift certificate.

Sale: It just happens that Torquere’s having a sale today and tomorrow. Enter “prejuly” in the coupon code box when you check out, and you’ll get 15% off your purchase. Add that to the fact of the backlist books’ prices going up on 1 July, and that makes these two days a really wonderful time to grab some bargains. Or to just have your five dollars go that much farther if you win the drawing.

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From “Unfinished Business:”

After a morning of saving the world, apprentice mage Cal Toscani heads down and works a full day in his busy restaurant, because foiling the bad guy doesn’t pay the bills. After midnight, bruised and aching from the aforementioned foiling, and exhausted from a long day of work, Cal goes home hoping for a hot bath, a nice massage and some sex, not necessarily in that order. His lover and master, Aubrey Fletcher, unfortunately remembers that he’d given Cal a lesson that morning before everything got exciting, and he’s determined that Cal’s going to finish that lesson before anything else happens — yes, right now. Cal finds himself naked in bed, trying to figure out how to remove Aubrey’s spell, while a naked Aubrey does his best to be distracting. Cal’s pretty sure he’s going to explode long before he figures the damn thing out!

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Cal grinned, tossed his jacket onto a chair, then spread his arms and did a slow rotation in place. “No orc bites!” he reported, his expression a parody of relief.

Aubrey just raised an eyebrow, then pointed at him and drew a twitchy little sigil Cal couldn’t quite catch before it was gone. An ominously familiar warm weight on either side of his head made him groan. Those damn ass’s ears again!

“Now?” he griped. “Come on, I just finished work, I’m tired, I want a shower and was kind of hoping for a nice massage and sex. Can’t we finish this tomorrow?”

His master crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Do you think enemies–”

“–will wait until you’re rested and ready?” Cal chorused with him. “No, I know, but come on!”

Aubrey just stared at him.

“Fuck.”

One corner of Aubrey’s mouth twitched and his eyes twinkled up into Cal’s. “Maybe.” He uncrossed his arms and moved closer, leaning in until their bodies touched from chest to knees. “Maybe you need some incentive?”

Cal felt a hand slide between them and rub at his suddenly-interested cock. The hand moved away again immediately and he moaned in protest.

“You have six pairs of ears right now,” said Aubrey. His eyes were still twinkling and the old bastard sounded like he was having a grand time. “They’re quite colorful and rather cheery, but I’m assuming you want to get rid of them. For every pair you banish, I’ll escalate.” He lifted up on his toes for a moment and gave Cal a quick kiss, then backed away.

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Read the Rest

The first Pirate Post is here, with Mara on watch alone for a while ’cause she’s in England. I chime in here with a story from my misspent youth [cough] and an invitation for others to share, for a raffle entry.

We’ll be around all day today, and tomorrow through midnight Eastern or so. Come hang with us, have fun, and enter to win one of the free anthos!

Angie

I’ll be posting throughout the day, so check in whenever you’re around. [wave]

Angie

I have to say that I was expecting Rick to win. Oh, not at first. I mean, “Spirit of Vengeance” is one of my favorite of my own stories, and I figured I had a decent chance. I wanted to check out the competition, though — and besides, the finalists list was bound to have some pretty good books on it — so I started reading the other Cat 15 finalists. I thought I still had a decent shot all the way to the end, when I read the last book, Orientation.

Not that it’s last on the list, but it’s the last one I read. Why? Because the plot summary sounds… well, I have to say, kind of iffy. It’s a reincarnation plot, which can go either way, and the (gay male) protag’s lover dies and comes back as a woman, which just has “Train Wreck” written all over it. I mean, you know? Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, or maybe it’s just because I’ve done a lot of reading, but for whatever reason I’ve noticed that there are certain plots or devices which are incredibly difficult to do well, and most writers who tackle them seem to end up in the weeds. This is one of those plots that a less than stellar writer could smear all over the landscape — I had images of a “straight for you” sort of storyline, where the guy is gay but he loves the soul inside this woman so much that he turns straight just for her or something, which just…. No. You know? The gay community already gets enough crap from idiots who think they could just “decide” to be straight if they really wanted to, and said idiots don’t need any encouragement.

But these problematic plotline types are also the kind that a really excellent writer can turn into gold, and that’s what Rick did. He handles everything beautifully — the characters sound real, the reincarnation device isn’t too twee or completely woo-woo, and it isn’t really the central pivot around which all the characters’ development arcs turn. The secondary characters are appropriately well developed, even the protag’s current lover in the here-and-now section; he’s a selfish little druggie jerkwad who’s completely consumed by and focused on his addiction, but Rick shows us (without rambling on and on about it) how he got that way and who he was before, and lets us see the shreds of the person he was still buried inside him. I empathized with him, and wouldn’t mind seeing a book about him later on; I hope his recovery goes well.

There’s a bit of action, but this isn’t an action book and isn’t trying to pretend it is. There’s drama but it doesn’t go over into melodrama. There’s barely any sexual content, which is fine because what’s there is what the story needs and no more, just the way I like it. There’s just enough of everything, not too much, and it all fits just right and balances. And the last chapter is perfect — I was holding my breath all the way to the end on the possibility of a straight-for-you ending, but Rick didn’t go there, and where he went fits the characters and ties everything off just neatly enough.

Excellent book — highly recommended. I don’t at all mind losing to this one.

Angie

Angie

Congrats as well to my fellow Torquere author Tory Temple, who also made the finals for two of her books! Good luck, Tory!

Angie

Go here for the rules and a list of links to journals and web sites where participating Torquere authors have hidden a graphic. Find all the URLs where the graphics are hidden, fill in the blanks on the contest page, and enter to win!

If you want to start with me, my graphic is hidden on my LiveJournal, which is here. Luck!

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More Anniversary Freebies!

All through the month of September, there’ll be free short fiction themed to the stages of a relationship, along with recipes and coupons, and a clue to finding one of the scavenger hunt graphics. Check out Torquere’s Anniversary Page every day for something new!

Angie