Tag Archives: LGBT romance

Balancing Act is Out! #giveaway #MMRomance

 

balancingact

It’s here! It’s here! It’s really, really here!

I’m so excited for everyone to catch up with Kyrie and Greg, and to meet Andy–finally!

 

Blurb:

Greg Dwyer and Kyrie Li are living the glorious couple life in New York City. Or are they? When struggling actor Kyrie lands a modeling job, he’s ecstatic to have extra cash to spend on his best-friend-turned-boyfriend.

Of course, Greg is suspicious Anders Berglund, the gorgeous and androgynous Swedish cover model the designers love to pair with Kyrie, is after his man. And maybe Kyrie encourages a growing closeness with the guy?

Greg is probably to blame if Kyrie is drawn to the openly gay and seriously beautiful Andy. With Andy, Kyrie can be himself, as loud and proud as he’s always been. But Greg’s sexuality stays firmly locked in the closest except when he’s with Kyrie’s supportive family or alone with the man he loves.

To make matters worse, Greg’s out-of-touch mom meets with financial ruin and moves in with the couple, forcing him into the closet in his own home.

Can Greg find a way to stand up to Mommy Dearest and win back a love he fought so hard to reach? He discovers the road to pride begins at home and with accepting oneself first. Otherwise, it’s just a dead-end street.

Excerpt:

Two changing screens filled a large portion of the next room. A woman stood at the rack of clothes, organizing and examining them. She beckoned Kyrie over. He recognized some of his attire hanging before her.

“I’m not confident about the fit in the chest, Daphne.” A soft voice with a delightful Nordic lilt came from behind the screen to his right.

The tall brunette turned. “Let’s see. I can take it in if need be.” Daphne put her hands on her hips, and Anders Berglund stepped out. He wore a black ball gown with ebony feathers accenting the bodice. They created a starkly jagged edge against his bare skin. The material gapped before his pale chest, and Daphne was immediately behind him, tugging, marking the fabric with a piece of chalk.

“Hey.” Anders smiled and waved his fingers at Kyrie. “Pleasure to meet you. Ky-ree, right?”

“Close. Rhymes with dearie.”

“Kyrie,” Anders tried again. The subtle extra accent on the first syllable didn’t belong but pleased Kyrie immensely.

He grinned like a fool. “That’s me. I’m absolutely-positively-beyond-excited to be working with you.” He stepped forward, hand out, and Anders Berglund took the offering. His grip wasn’t overly firm, soft skin hiding delicate bones beneath.

“My agent sent me your test shots once he found out we were working together.” The words were slow and measured, especially striking on the heels of Kyrie’s run-on exclamation. Anders’ accent hinted of British influence on certain words. Must have learned the Queen’s version. “The camera really loves you.”

“I’m just hoping not to look like a troll next to the world’s current it model.” Kyrie knew he was attractive; he could claim pretty even, with the slight Asian slant to his unusual amber eyes. They popped against the light brown of his skin, accented further by thick, long lashes every woman he met was jealous of.

But Anders Berglund was flawless. His face was already made up: kohl-ringed turquoise eyes framed with what had to be fake lashes, his skin powdered to pale perfection, and berry-red lips with just the right amount of fullness and a perpetual sexy pout whether he was dressed as a man or a woman. His bone structure was impeccable, including high cheeks and the graceful neck to go with his six-foot-tall, ultra-thin frame. Straw-blond hair was piled on his head, escaped locks artfully framing his face. Women wished they looked like him. Men wanted to fuck him, at least until they realized the gorgeous supermodel was actually a man downstairs. And certainly, some men were still hot for him afterward.

Anders Berglund was far from Kyrie’s type, but he could appreciate iconic beauty when it stared back.

“Hah. I don’t think you could ever be a troll.” Anders scratched his shoulder with two fingers where the tip of a feather had to be driving him insane.

“I’m tempted to do stick-on boobs.” Daphne yanked tight again. “But Syd wants you completely feminine with your natural parts. She likes how skinny you are.”

“Whatever she wants.”

“Yeah, I’ll stitch this up a bit tighter.” She unzipped the back of the dress and slid it down. Anders stepped out and stood in black stockings held up by a garter with matching briefs. He waved at Kyrie, all bright white skin, jutting ribs, long limbs, and sharp hip bones. He looked breakable despite his height, like a piece of fine china.

“Get dressed,” Daphne snapped at Kyrie. “We don’t want to keep Syd waiting.”

“I would have come an hour early just to avoid hearing that a thousand times.”

Anders’ mouth twitched up. Daphne glared.

The off-white tux behind the other screen wasn’t part of the stash of clothes Kyrie had taken home. He’d been measured at the callback, and the powers that be had custom ordered additional pieces. He slipped into the slim-leg cream pants. If the benefactors of the Spectrum Spectacular truly had cut corners with some of the underthings, the suit was an exception. It draped precisely over his hips, and he twisted to check his ass in the full-length mirror in the center panel of the screen. The silk shirt pressed cool kisses to his chest with every movement he made.

In shape from almost daily running, Kyrie normally relied on skintight pants and formfitting shirts to best display his attributes, but this designer-cut clothing thing he could totally get used to. He scrutinized his butt again as he shrugged into the jacket with black-trimmed lapel.

If Greg could see me now…

Kyrie knotted the black bow tie and stepped out wearing a grin and a kick-tail tux. Daphne was fussing with Anders again, his ball gown back in place.

“What do you say, Andy? May I have this dance?” He swept into a low bow.

Anders gave a soft laugh. “Of course.”

“You’ll need your lifts first.” Daphne pointed toward a pair of black dress shoes. The soles were at least an inch thicker than normal.

“Huh.” Kyrie stepped into the shoes, grumbling and shooting death rays with his eyes. Daphne finished with Anders, and it was Kyrie’s turn to be plucked like a Thanksgiving turkey. By the time she sent him out to the first shoot staging, Kyrie had begun to wonder why anyone would want to be a model.

 


Find Balancing Act:

Liquid Silver Publishing

Amazon

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Google Play

iTunes

Kobo

Add Balancing Act to Goodreads!

 

 

***To celebrate the release of Balancing Act, I’m giving away a beautiful silver choker necklace with abalone pendant!***

Click away!

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Retirement Plan for the Cover Model Sluts

Okay, first of all, I’m not doing this to offend anybody–not authors, not publishers, not cover artists, and not even these models. Heck, I know how little say trad/small press published authors get when it comes to their covers. I know how slim the stock photo pickings are for the fabulous cover artists who make this magic happen. I know how tedious it is to scroll through page after page of photos of half-naked men. 😉 Still, I feel the need to do a roundup of the boys I want to see retire for 2015. They’ve had a great run. They’ve gotten buckets more snoo snoo than most gigolos ever will. They’ve posed and pouted, and on any given Amazon list, it would appear they’ve made a pact with the devil or have some sort of cover model monopoly going on.

But it’s time they stop sowing their wild cover model oats and settle the fuck down, already.

I’ll start out with this blond cutie pie on my own cover for Double Takes, just to prove I’m not trying to bash anyone:

Double Takes-600x800

I don’t know his real name, but I think of him as Lance, because that’s who he represents on my cover. And he makes a great Lance. He also makes a great many other dudes. He’s a total cover whore, unfortunately.

Ooo, they gave him brown eyes on that one!

I could go on and on proving just how much this guy gets around, but I’ll spare you the plentiful evidence and move on to the next tramp who seems to be the other blond “it” boy.

He’s everywhere, but I’m not looking for any more of him.

Oh, dear Lord, this guy:

I just can’t…

Sweet Enola Gay. I remember the first time I laid eyes on Mr. Tall Dark and Blue-Eyed. I thought, man, that guy is gorgeous! Great cover model! Apparently, so did every cover artist in the world.

Now, I look at him and think about all the cover STDs he must have picked up over the past few years. Ick. I’m surprised readers don’t get confused and assume they’ve already read every new book that has this guy on it.

Oh, and here’s his cousin or brother or something:

I think those two are having a brotherly competition to see who can bag the most cover boyfriends. Odds are awesome they’ve even had a cover dalliance together, possibly for a twincest book. Tut tut, cover sluts. And, yes, this guy is up there sharing his cover cooties with Lance on “Family Man” above.

Oh, and this guy:

Please, don’t even get me started on this guy with his long flowing locks and baby butt chest. Make it go away. Hand over his pension check. Make him an offer he can’t refuse. Whatever needs to happen, here. I know I’ve seen a lot more of this Samson around somewhere, but can’t seem to locate him now. He’s like the wind, and often seems to play a vampire on his covers. Maybe he really is a vampire, which would explain how long his cover model career has lasted. If any of you eagle-eyes out there know of more covers with this dude, point me at ’em so I can add them to my collection. You know, just because.

And, hey, if you have a cover slut you think is ready for retirement, please do share. Who are you sick of seeing?

———-

By the way, Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos does a great job of collating overworked models and mashing the covers together for mini title stories.

Anyway, fingers crossed I’ll have a cover reveal for people to analyse in a few. I tried to pick out guys who weren’t total tramps, even for my ex-porn star (okay, so I’ve seen him a few places, but, hey, he’s a porn star). 😉

-Kimber


The ABCs of Romance: I is for Isthmus

Hi, everyone! My Hard Act blog tour is winding down and I’ve decided to host myself today. Unconventional, perhaps, but I wrote up a number of posts for the ABCs of romance and I’m afraid my I was just a bit…well, unconventional, too. Rather than asking someone else to post my madness, I figured I’ve got just the blog for the job. So, without further ado, I give you I:

I is for isthmus. Not really. I just wanted to see if I could spell that. Better yet, I should try to harken back to my third grade social studies and see if I can define it.

A thin body of land, sorta like a peninsula, that connects two larger pieces of land.

Booyah! I just checked! I wasn’t 100% sure it wasn’t a thin body of water connecting water, but I was right! I guess the water would be a canal, eh? Woop! I’m going on Jeopardy!

And now I feel obligated to make isthmus work in romance.

I may need a drink for this.

<Refills the wine glass>

Okay, here goes. I probably need a diagram to make this work. Yeah…let’s try that.

20140806_191932

Click on the photo to enlarge for your reading pleasure.

There, you see? It makes perfect sense now. Any questions? I didn’t think so.

—————

Intrigued? Download the free sample of Hard Act to Follow on Amazon. What do you have to lose? Oh, yeah! Absolutely nothin’!

Already read Hard Act and you’d like just a bit more Kyrie? Well, the little stinker answered a few questions about me over on Romance Lives Forever , so you might want to check that out.

And don’t forget that my $25 gift card giveaway is still open for another week! Get up on it and grab it like you want it!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

**************ADDENDUM*****************WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT*********************

The winner of the Rafflecopter $25 Amazon gift card giveaway is Sarina Feuerbach! Woo hoo! Congrats, Sarina, and thanks so much to everyone who participated! May you get lucky the next time around! 🙂

-Kimber


Hard Act to Follow is Out!

Hey, all! It’s official–Hard Act to Follow is available just about everywhere. Woo hoo!

Not only thardacttofollowhat, but it’s already racked up some wonderful reviews. 🙂
 
Here’s a recap:HATFbanner2
 
 
“Hard Act to Follow has several things I like
 
1 x Sassy, flamboyant MC – yep
 
1 x Sexy, solid-as-a-rock MC who knows but doesn’t know his sexual orientation, so OFY – yep
 
Well drawn interracial gay couple (so darn hard to find) – yep
 
A little bit of drama (not much) to drive some parts – yep
 
Decent female secondary characters who are not screaming, scheming shrews – yep
 
Sexy manlove, with a bit of dirty talk – yep”
 
Read her 4 1/2 Star Review here.
 
——————-
 
 
 
 
“With a full complement of characters that I could easily imagine being my next door neighbors, this could be the story of any average family. Having good days and bad days, making mistakes and then suddenly getting everything 100% right, only to blow it all over again. With laughter and tears, tragedy and triumph, love and loss written on every page, Hard Act to Follow makes my list of top ten romances of 2014!”
 
 
 
 
Read her 5 Star Review here.
 
 
 
 
See more reviews over on Goodreads.
 
 
 
Buy links:
 
 
 
 

 

Oh, and don’t forget to enter my $25 gift card giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

-Kimber


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