Happy June! Happy Pride Month! And a huge thank you to everyone who is reading. June is going to be a busy month for me, I will be celebrating my 1-year publiversary on the 13th, and Elliot and Thaddeus will be heading out into the world on the same day. It’s a time of reflection and introspection for me, lots of admin, and of course words, words, words. If you’d like to be part of the massive party I have planned in my author group, feel free to join today! Holly’s Fated Fantasies

THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF THE FATED FANTASIES IS COMING SOON

Elliot and Thaddeus

Fated Fantasies #3

Holly Oliver

Releases June 13th  

https://mybook.to/ElliotandThaddeus

#paranormalromance #fatedmates #shifters #bloodcurse #magic #hollyoliver #mmromance #mmromanceauthor #loveislove #comingsoon

Teaser

Elliot zoned in and out, he didn’t know how long he’d been lying in his van before he became vaguely aware of his body jostling—someone was trying to move him. The sound of murmuring voices surrounded him, and his fight or flight instinct warred with his need for sleep. He vaguely recalled trying to lash out, but his limbs were heavy and fell uselessly back across his body. Another voice, this one closer than before, whispered in his ear, penetrating through the darkness and the confusion, “You’re safe now, help has arrived. Just hold on Elliot, just hold on!”

Helena? How did she get here?

The Array are here, well some of them. Rest now. You’re in good hands. 

That was all Elliot needed to hear and he let himself relax as much as was physically possible with the incessant pain eating away at him from the inside. But if his friends had come, he would be okay–eventually.

COMING SOON, MM CLASS OF 22/23, DOWNLOAD ALL OF THESE BOOKS FOR FREE

 THE LINK WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM THE 5TH-18TH OF JUNE, SO WATCH THIS SPACE!

A.E MADSEN, BECCA JACKSON, BL JONES, CHLOE ARCHER, EVIE MCGLYNN, FELICITY SNOW, GIGI RIVERS, KIT BARRIE, KOTA QUINN, MADALYN GEORGE, MORGAN LYSAND, RORY MAXWELL, RS MACKENZIE, AND ME!

Author Bio

Jackie North has been writing stories forever. When she discovered m/m romance, she decided that men falling in love with other men was exactly what she wanted to write about.

She creates characters who are a bit flawed and broken, who might be on the edge of society, and who might feel a little bit lost — all of whom deserve a happily ever after, and she makes sure they get it!

She likes long walks on the beach, the smell of lavender and rainstorms, and enjoys sleeping in on snowy mornings. In her heart, there is peace to be found everywhere, but since in the real world this isn’t always true, Jackie writes for love, one m/m romance at a time.

Jackie’s Quirky Questions

Holly: If you could live anywhere real or imaginary where would it be and why?

Jackie North: I would live in Cornwall, England. It’s where my ancestors are from. When I went to Cornwall a few years back, I actually stayed in the old homestead that has been in the family for generations. It’s a B&B now and they’ve kept it as low key as possible, retaining the history and the squeaky floorboards.

The first night, we arrived kind of late – there was a storm and very few lights on the outside. It was creepy! After staying there a week, we felt right at home, even with all the lights out.

When I’m in Cornwall, I feel as though I’ve come home.

Holly: What fictional character would you like to spend an evening with, and why?

Jackie North: I would like to spend the evening with Oliver and Jack from my Fagin’s Boy series. I think they would be immensely polite to start with, and falling over each other to see who could be more polite, though Jack would be doing it just to mess with Oliver.

After we’d had a few brandies, they would loosen up, and I would loosen up, and they’d tell me the story of their adventures and how they fell in love.

 Since it would be too snowy and treacherous to start for home, I would stay in their spare room to be awakened in the morning by the scent amazing coffee prepared by Jack and the most delicious breakfast, made by Oliver.

Holly: Which of your own characters would you Kill? Fuck? Marry? And why?

Jackie North: Oh, that’s a good one. I will be honest and say that I wouldn’t kill any of them. Who would I fuck? Any of them! As for who I would marry…let’s pretend for a moment that Maxton Barnett from Ride the Whirlwind wasn’t already madly in love with Trent Harrington – I would marry Maxton. He’s so open and easy-going, so comfortable in his own skin, that marrying him would be a pleasure. Plus, he’s got all that lovely blond hair.

Holly: How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Jackie North: In Book #2 in my Farthingdale Ranch series, The Blacksmith and the Ex-Con, is a story about an ex-con who comes to Farthingdale Guest Ranch to work off his parole.

Is it sexy being a parolee? No, I don’t think so. But there was a compelling dynamic that developed between Jasper, the “man in the field” (MC#1 in Blacksmith) and Ellis (MC#2 in Blacksmith), the guy who’s expected to start his life all over again with nothing but his gate money and a heart full of grief.

Readers ate it up, and I had such a good time writing that story that I wondered if I could write a whole series with that exact same setup. And thus the idea for Farthingdale Valley was born.

My notes from October 2021 read something like this:

• Series in a controlled space
• Series w/ ex-cons in rehab
• Series connected with Farthingdale Ranch
• Leland wants to expand the ranch to include retreat/adult day camp on land south of ranch
• They (the ex-cons) could built that retreat

That’s how it all started — and when I was writing the end of The Wrangler and the Orphan, knee-deep in the rescue scene, I already knew that Brody was riding Diablo across the hills and among the pine trees where the retreat would one day be built.

From the beginning, I fell in love with the idea of writing a series about a place where ex-cons might come to serve out their parole while doing useful work.

The focus would be on how the work, clean living, clean air, good food, and comfortable accommodations might convert a man used to making his way through the world by committing crimes.

Plus, who doesn’t love a good redemption story? Not me, that’s who.

In the first story in the Farthingdale Valley series, Blaze is innocent of the crimes he’s accused of and arrested for. This makes him a little bitter, but with Gabe’s love, he’s able to heal.

During the planning stages for this series, it also occurred to me to wonder how a summer in the valley might be experienced by someone who is a criminal, a guy who committed the crime, but doesn’t think what he did was all that bad – this is how idea for The Cowboy and the Hoodlum came about.

Enter Jonah (MC#1), who can’t understand why stealing cars and stripping them for parts is such a bad thing. Enter Royce (MC#2), the pomade-using cowboy bazillionaire who takes one look at Jonah and can’t help but be smitten.

Holly: Do you ever base your characters on real people? Do you tell them?

 Jackie North: I do, all the time! I never tell them, though, because they might get hurt feelings or be embarrassed. And really, by the time I’m done basing a character on a real person, after all that, the character I’ve come up with only dimly resembles the person they were based on.

Holly: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Jackie North: I do read all of my reviews during release week. It’s a blast to read the responses, especially from my enthusiastic early readers. Plus, it helps me know if what I was trying to do in the story comes across, and also if I wrote something that didn’t work.

After the first week, I stop reading them because I need to get started with the next book!

Bad boy, bad boy, whatcha gonna do when I fall for you?

A job in the valley provides the break Royce so desperately needs from his regular life. Fresh air, plenty of sunshine, and hard work? That’s the ticket. Evenings around a campfire? Sign him up.

But when a new group of ex-cons arrives, ex-cons he’s responsible for, Royce realizes he is woefully unprepared. Not for the task of being team lead, he’s fully capable of that. No, it’s the bad in one particular bad boy that he is drawn to. The challenging mind beneath that messy dark hair, the insouciant slouch, and the long legs in grease-stained blue jeans and disreputable black motorcycle boots.

It’s more than Royce is prepared to resist.

The bad boy in question, Jonah, has a telling I-don’t-care shrug that reveals a heart-stopping vulnerability—and now all is lost as Royce falls hopelessly in love.

A gay m/m cowboy romance with opposites attract, fish out of water, first time, falling for the bad boy, slow burn, endless flirting, birdwatching, and s’mores around the campfire. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA.

Teaser

Hoodlum

By Jackie North

Jonah laughed at Gordy’s expression of panic, at least on the inside, and turned his attention to the two men in aprons, the cooks, he imagined, as they placed a plastic cutting board in the middle of the table, and stepped away, wiping their hands on clean white cloths. The board held an array of meats and cheeses, crackers, and dried fruit, what looked like a dish of honey, and another of figs. And there, at the very end, sitting almost forlornly by itself, was a little plate of orange slices.

Jonah’s mouth watered. Inside of Wyoming Correctional, there was no such thing as fresh fruit. All fruit was dried or came in little tubs of sugared water to preserve it and tasted of sugar and mostly nothing else. Never had he seen a fresh orange behind prison walls, not once.

There were strawberries on the board as well, but his eye was on the oranges. He could almost taste that burst of light in his mouth. Hopefully he’d get to those slices before anyone else did, and he tightened his fist in preparation for slamming the first person who tried.

Except nobody reached for what was on the cutting board, and Jonah supposed it was because they were all so newly released. Only yesterday, they were eating off plastic trays and working their way around the underdone green beans swimming in their own bath of lukewarm salt water, and hoping the little bell would get rung so they could go up for seconds of the dinner rolls, which were usually pretty good. Now, in the face of such lushness, not one of them felt comfortable to start without permission, it seemed.

“Is he coming?” asked one of the cooks.

“He’s late,” said the other cook. His head was turned sideways as if his words were only meant for the other cook, but Jonah heard the words quite clearly. “He’s probably doing his hair for the tenth time and retying that scarf he always wears.”

“It’s not the same scarf, you know,” said the first cook. “He’s got dozens of them.”

“Don’t worry,” said the second cook. “All we have to do is feed him three times a day. And frankly, he might seem fussy, but at least he appreciates the proper way to cook a steak.”

A shadow appeared at the opening of the tent and Jonah’s attention was drawn away from the whispered conversation of the cooks, and even from the delectable orange slices on the plastic cutting board to a man wore an outfit that would have, inside of two seconds in the prison yard, gotten him torn to pieces and then locked up in solitary for his own protection.

As the man stepped between shadows from the pines and slices of light, his hair caught a sunbeam and reflected it, making Jonah blink. He’d never seen anyone look like that, dress like that, stepping into a room like a breath of fresh air. He was the prettiest man Jonah had ever seen.

It was easy to see that this was the fussy man the cooks had been referring to for although he wore an outfit that looked vaguely western, with a scarf around his neck, a silver belt buckle, and a pair of shiny cowboy boots, he looked like he was about to step on stage to film a western movie, rather than doing any actual work on a ranch.

This Jonah knew even without knowing it because even from this distance, those clothes looked too finely made to withstand the usual wear and tear. Certainly they wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in Jonah’s garage back home.

“Hello, everyone,” he said with a wide gesture of both hands. “I’m Royce Thackery, your new team lead, and I’m here to welcome you to Farthingdale Valley—”

Royce paused and came closer to the table where Jonah and his fellow ex-cons were seated.

“Why aren’t you eating? I had this charcuterie board prepared especially for you to enjoy on your first day in the valley.”

Nobody moved, so he came even closer, placing his hands, fingers spread, on the table. Jonah could smell his cologne but couldn’t place it.

“Really, it’s all right. Help yourselves to whatever catches your fancy. I love a good snack in the afternoon myself.”

To Jonah’s private horror, Royce reached down and plucked one of the orange slices from the white plate and popped it in his mouth. He then proceeded to chew with much relish, as if to show them all how to really enjoy the food.

Jonah had to curl and uncurl his fist several times, and made himself wait while Gordy bravely reached for some crackers and cheese and began nibbling them as the Duane and Tyson grabbed some of the slices of meat and stuffed their gobs with the meat and some of the almonds, which looked sugared. Then, because Jonah hadn’t taken anything yet, Royce eyed him, tipping his head to one side like a curious dog that only wanted to be friends.

“What about you there, in black?” Royce gestured to the board again. “Please help yourself,” he said. “Or all this food and the cooks’ efforts will just go to waste.”

All eyes in the tent were on Jonah, making him feel hot, like they’d pulled him closer to an invisible flame. Like they wanted him to join in the fun and might get irate if he did not. Royce took a cracker, slowly, and placed a slice of some kind of sausage on it, and chomped through both, his eyes on Jonah the whole time.

“It’s all very good,” he said.

Jonah knew he had to give in or his reluctance might show as defiance, and he very much needed not to be in any spotlight while he waited for his chance at that phone and for Beck to come and rescue him, which suddenly seemed like a very good idea.

“Sure,” he said and, with a shrug, as if it didn’t matter to him what he ate, he reached across the board for the orange.

He took two slices and told himself his hand wasn’t shaking as he stuffed both in his mouth.

The traces of sunlight on his tongue were pure and sweet and, for a moment, he was a very long way from where he was, getting looked at like he was an object lesson about to happen.

“Do you like oranges?” asked Royce, which meant that still all the attention was focused on Jonah.

“I don’t know. Yeah.” Beneath his black t-shirt, Jonah’s skin was prickling like it itched, but he didn’t dare move a muscle because every eye was on him. Then he shrugged and did his best to trace the sweetness of the orange with his tongue, but the flavor was fading fast.

“Well, I’ll make sure the cooks include more than just the one next time, okay?”

Royce’s smile was bright, but Jonah couldn’t trust the overwhelming friendliness there, because that was never wise. Someone who smiled like that was either an undercover cop or a tourist who’d started on the 17^th Street Mall and somehow ended up crossing over into Five Points and simply didn’t know any better.

“Now, eat up,” said Royce. He sat across the table from Jonah and Gordy, next to Duane and Tyson, who looked as shocked as Jonah felt at the casual makes-no-never-mind-to-me-that-you’re-criminals air that Royce gave off. “I’ve got your files here, but I’ve not read them,” he said, placing a stack of manilla folders on the table. “I don’t know who you are, but I want to learn that from you rather than a piece of paper, so would you each tell me your name and the crime you committed?”

The silence around the table landed like a large boulder in the center of the half-devoured charcuterie board, and it was obvious that Royce didn’t know that kind of information, at least outside of the warden’s office, was on a volunteer basis only.

A prisoner could ask a fellow prisoner what they were in for, but the information was never forced, unlike in the warden’s office, where they already knew.

Who was this guy, anyway? So cavalier with his request, with his gift of food, wearing that fancy shirt so crisp around the edges, it had to have recently seen an iron.

“I’ll go first,” said Gordy with a slight shudder, as if he didn’t want to step on any toes but couldn’t stand the silence lingering all around them, that, and the hopeful look in Royce’s blue eyes. “I’m Gordy, short for Gordon. I’m a B&E man. That’s it. B&E and maybe picking pockets. Light finger stuff. Nothing violent.”

“Very good, Gordy, thank you.”

Royce waited, then with a little tsk tsk beneath his breath, he managed to wrangle names and crimes from the two other ex-cons, Tyson and Duane, who admitted that they’d worked in the drug trade, making deliveries, and had, upon occasion, dealt directly with customers, and not in a nice way.

“Thank you, gentlemen. Which leaves us only—”

The expression Royce landed on Jonah was full of hope and expectation, a small smile around his mouth as if he meant to encourage Jonah by getting Jonah to think that anything he had to say would be kindly received. As well, Jonah was the last one to participate in this odd roll call, and if he didn’t comply, then, once again, he would stand out, even more than he already was.

“I’m Jonah,” he said, tightening his shoulders as if it was of no nevermind to him whether anyone cared. “I steal cars, strip the parts, sell those to the highest bidder. And I can fix any engine. Any engine.”

“That’ll come in handy,” said Royce. “Thank you, Jonah. Now, everybody, help yourselves to whatever’s on the board, then I’ll take you for a short tour. I’ll show you your tents, inside of which you will find clothing and necessary articles for your comfort. If something doesn’t fit, let me know and we can change it out, and if there’s something that you need and don’t have, let me know and we can get it for you. In the meantime, I’m waiting on the delivery of little maps I’ve had drawn for you to help you find your way around the place which is going to be your home for the next five months. Any questions?”

Again, there was an enormous pause, and Jonah felt the effect of it, a weight settling on him all glinting like the inside of a silver bell.

He didn’t feel sorry for Royce in that silence, because any guy dumb enough not to study up on the ex-cons who would soon be surrounding him kind of deserved what he got. Silence. A lack of response. A balking stubbornness as if not one of them believed he was for real. Which he couldn’t be. Not with that shining gold hair and ridiculous outfit. Or the kindness that shone out of his blue eyes, which had to be the most fake thing of all.

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Author Bio

Morgan Brice is the romance pen name of bestselling author Gail Z. Martin. Morgan writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance, with plenty of action, adventure and supernatural thrills to go with the happily ever after. Gail writes epic and urban fantasy, with less romance, more explosions.

All of the modern-day Morgan Brice and Gail Z. Martin series crossover, so characters from one series appear in cameos and on page in important secondary roles in books from other series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but the more you read the more the expanded universe of friendships and connections becomes clear.

Morgan and Gail believe that paranormal elements make any story even better, and her worlds are full of ghosts, psychics, shifters, creatures, vampires, monster hunters, and magic.

She’s also a huge fan of the TV show Supernatural. (Chibi art by Kamidiox)

Morgan’s Quirky Questions

Holly: When did you first call yourself a writer? 

Morgan Brice: I’ve always been a writer. I just didn’t get published until 2007.

Holly: Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favorite?

Morgan Brice: It depends on what I’m working on. We listen to a pretty broad variety of music, from classical to jazz to New Age and swing, to classic rock and pop. I like all of it, but sometimes I’m more in the mood for one type than another.

Holly: Tell me something from your bucket list.

Morgan Brice: I want to spend more time exploring England and Italy. We’ve visited, but there was so much left to do!

Holly: What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about them.

Morgan Brice: In Sins of the Fathers (Kings of the Mountain #2) we meet Bart and RJ. Bart is a necromancer and an agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and RJ is a psychic thief with a heart of gold. They’re going to get their own origin story novel in Roustabout, my book in the Carnival of Mysteries multi-author series!

Holly: What was the weirdest thing you had to Google for your story?

Morgan Brice: Every day brings a new reason my Google searches are probably on a watch list somewhere!

Holly: What do you do if you get a brilliant idea at a bad time?

Morgan Brice: I write down as much as I can to save it for when I can come back to it. That happens a lot, and I don’t want to forget anything.

 Holly: How long have you been writing?

Morgan Brice: Even as a kid I made up stories and wrote them down in ‘books’ that I made from notebook paper and stapled together. So this is a lifelong process.

Holly: Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?

Morgan Brice: Full-time. In some ways it makes it easier because I don’t have to work around a day job (which I did for many years). But it also means that this is the main focus for both my husband and I, since we both work on the books full-time. There’s no getting away from it!

Holly: Are you a plotter or a pantster?

 Morgan Brice: Definitely a plotter. It keeps me from going off on tangents and wasting time, and helps me get a better manuscript right from the start.

Holly: How many books are you usually working on at the same time? How many unfinished WIPs do you have?

Morgan Brice: It depends, but there’s usually something in edits, something in outline, and then the work I’m actually writing. It’s a lot to keep straight—my head is a crowded place!

Sexy psychic Simon Kincaide and skeptical homicide detective Vic D’Amato are getting married–if the ghost of a murderous magician doesn’t get them first!

Simon and Vic’s wedding is just a few weeks away, and they’re hoping for a little peace and quiet to wrap up work before their honeymoon, but nothing ever goes that smoothly.

Strange circumstances around the death of a retired stage magician suggest supernatural involvement, bringing Simon in on the case. The dark secrets of a long-ago resort hotel lead to a trail of unsolved cold cases that have a chilling similarity. Old scandals, malicious magic, and vengeful spirits expose a web of lies, deceit, and death that is headed for a reckoning.

Can Simon and Vic solve the murders, stop the ghosts, keep Simon’s mother from crashing the party, dodge last-minute wedding disasters and still make it to the altar on time? Or will the shadows of Myrtle Beach’s haunted past ruin everything?

Point Blank is a fast-paced thrill ride MM stand-alone paranormal romance packed with supernatural suspense,  sinister sleight-of-hand, mysterious monsters, psychic visions, hot sex, hurt/comfort, loyal friends, wedding planning, found family, ghosts galore, dark magic, and an evolving, established romantic relationship with all the feels.

Morgan’s Social Links

NEW IN MM ROMANCE THIS WEEK!

Employing Patience
BY Saxon James

Art

When it comes to regrets, I have none. My life is perfect. I own a bar, work hard, party harder, and smother my niblings in all the love they deserve. I don’t need to settle down, as much as my sister might want me to.

But then Joey Manning walks into my office and leaves me all but begging to give him a job … and wanting to give him so much more.

The self-professed straight man is in my head and while I know that I need to move on from him, my body isn’t getting that message. It doesn’t help that Joey is a grade A flirt who can banter with the best of them.

I’ve never had regrets. Not until Joey Manning.

Joey

The bills keep piling up and the pressure to get my sisters through college before we’re evicted is always on the back of my mind. Whoever said life was for living, clearly forgot that living’s expensive.

My default mode is stressed AF and working myself to the bone, and there’s only one person who gives me a break from all that.

Art de Almeida.

My boss.

The one man I shouldn’t flirt with, but I can’t seem to stop. I want to get under his skin. To leave him panting for me. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing except that he thinks I’m straight, and I’ve never bothered to correct him.

I need this job.

But some days I worry that I need Art more.

Okay team, I think I’ve managed to cram as much in as I can. I loved reading through Jackie and Morgan’s interviews and I hope you did, too. 

Be sure to grab some freebies while you can, and check out a small snippet of what’s new in MM romance this week. 

Grab your copy of Elliot and Thaddeus – on Preorder now – and next week I’ll have the MM debut author Class of 22/23 link which will give you access to 13 free books.

I hope to see you all here again next week and until then…

Find a Spark of Magic Every day