Monday's Minion is...still in recovery mode, kind of...

I feel like I'm a bit lost, still, Trying to figure out what to do and where to go and how to prioritize my list. None of it quite seems to gel.

Loss does that to you. My family lost an important part of our makeup a little over a week and a half ago when my mom's father died. He was the rock that a LOT of us leaned on -- he had four children, 13 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren... and we've reached the scattered stage when we're more likely to all be in the same place for a funeral than for any other event.

But anyway. Everyday stuff like "What should I blog about on x date?" seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside. So, let's see...

I know there's a blog tour coming up sooner-than-soon-ish; shall have to make sure I have full details so we can get up a "Find Us HERE" type post.

Revised editions of all the Rescue Twinks books are going up apace; The Counterfeit Claus is available in an expanded version for $0.99 at AllRomanceeBooks and Smashwords. Book Two is Worth a Thousand Words, also available at AllRomance and Smashwords. Book Three is By Any Other Name (AllRomance|Smashwords), and up next should be Glitter and Shamrocks!

In the meantime, I'm going to start getting better at keeping myself on schedule, remembering to keep up with my bullet journaling (surprising no one, this is far more helpful when one doesn't lose the journal under the sofa for a month...), crocheting (and keeping Obnoxious Small Dog from sleeping *in* the various bags that hold various parts of several in-process projects), and trying to decide what cake I want to make for my upcoming birthday. Apparently, DinoBoy thinks that I should let him & Girl-child make a cake for me; in theory I'm fine with this but in all honesty I'm not sure I can ever be actually prepared...

Fabulous Friday: The Party Continues!!

If you're keeping track, this is an all day party. We had Louise Lyons kicking things off in the early morning hours... she's still here *points up* so go take a look, babies. 

Alllllllllllllrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhty. 

*I may be a tad excited about this next bit o'fabulosity*

Worth A Thousand Words 2nd edition released this morning. You can pick it up at Allromanceebooks. 

There's a sweet deal going on for the next week. 15% off the normal price. Heh. Get them while the gettins good, babies. 

The next rescue twink novel is releasing a week from today, so I've got to get in the cave and writing. Talk with you soon.

Oh, and btw? I'm putting 100% of my sales this month towards getting the kidlet to her Galapagos Conservation course with Sustainable Summer. Just thought you might like to know. :)

Fabulous Friday: Double Release Day Party!!

Today at the Cave, we have a double release day party going on. First up we have Louise Lyons, and I couldn't be more pleased. Welcome, Louise. Glad we could have you here.

One Snowy Night – Individual Release from Wayward Ink Publishing

               

               

                                Originally released within Wayward Ink Publishing’s anthology Stranded, in October 2014, my short story One Snowy Night is now available as an individual short story.

One snowy night, Keith Brambles learns that appearances can be deceptive.

After yet another disastrous date, Keith drives home much to fast for the snowy conditions. When his car skids and crashes, he thinks he’s going to spend the night freezing in his car, until a man in a white van stops to help him. But Keith fears his rescuer may not appreciate his rather obvious preference.

Excerpt

Another half hour went by, and at last Keith heard the sound of an engine. As he looked out of the window, headlights blinded him, and he blinked and squinted. He unfolded his arms and legs, and groaned as he tried to put his feet down on the floor. His limbs had stiffened and everything hurt. He fumbled for the door handle with numb fingers. As he struggled, suddenly the driver’s door jerked open, and a face appeared.

Keith stared at the hulking figure, stooped over to look into the car. He could make out a moustache and goatee, and bright eyes, but the rest was obscured by a beanie and the collar of a heavy winter coat.

“You alright, mate?” a gruff voice asked.

“Y-y-y-yes,” Keith stammered. He was shivering so badly, he doubted he could utter another word.

“No injuries?”

He shook his head in response.

“Can you get out?”

“I…d-d-d-d…” Keith meant to say I don’t know. He shoved the other door open, and extended one leg, until his foot reached the snowy ground outside. He groaned as he tried to move the other leg. His knee was locked and he couldn’t feel his foot at all.

“Fuck. Wait there.” The driver’s door slammed and seconds later, the man appeared at the other side of the car. Large arms reached out and scooped Keith up. He clutched at the thick neck of his rescuer, as he was plucked from the Audi and carried to a waiting white Transit van. White Van Man. Keith cringed, and hoped the man wouldn’t recognize him. His type probably wasn’t very tolerant. Then again, it wouldn’t really matter whether he knew who Keith was or not. Keith was wearing a purple silk shirt, heeled boots, earrings and eye makeup. He thought his preference must be fairly obvious.

“There you go.” White Van Man managed to pull open the passenger side door of the van and hoist Keith up onto the seat without much effort. He slammed the door closed, went around the other side, and climbed behind the wheel.

The heating in the van was blowing at full blast, and Keith leaned forward and placed his frozen hands over one of the vents. The interior of the vehicle was like a furnace, and he knew he would thaw out quickly, but painfully.

“What happened?” White Van Man asked.

“Um…I…um…I came up to the bend too fast and braked. Stupid.”

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“Bruised, maybe, from the seatbelt. The airbag went off. I’m okay, just frozen.”

“How long have you been there?”

“An hour and a half, or thereabouts. Thanks for stopping.” Keith glanced at the man, as he unzipped his coat and pulled the beanie from his head. He had thick, dark hair and dark eyes. Keith could see something on his skin above the neckline of his T-shirt, which could have been a tattoo. Oh, God, White Van Man is probably a biker or a head banger as well.

“Here.”

Keith looked down, and took the plastic cup from the man’s hand. It held strong black coffee. Keith hadn’t noticed him pick up the flask and pour it.

“Thanks.”

“You’re Kent Brambles,” his rescuer said; a statement rather than a question.

Shit. “Uh…yes. Keith, actually. Kent’s just my…um…my…”

“Stage name?” The man grinned, but then grimaced a little.

“Yeah. I’m guessing my…uh…my music isn’t your cup of tea,” Keith said nervously.

“I’m into my rock and roll.” He smiled again and extended a large hand. “Mike Talbot.”

Buy Links

Amazon US

Amazon UK

WIP

Barnes & Noble

ARe

                                               

Yay!

Looks like we're getting back on track here; we have actual NEWS!

If you were paying attention, Friday marked the re-release of a newly edited and expanded edition of the first Rescue Twinks book, The Counterfeit Claus! It's currently available at Smashwords and ARe in a multitude of formats for $0.99. Go forth! Enjoy!

Here's the cover &  blurb for you:

On an average day at the local mall's Christmas Village there's an elf shortage, no manager in sight, and an unknown person hiding behind a big white beard. Still, everything is under control. Mostly. Sort of...sure. Right until the klutziest elf of all slips onto the scene in slick bottomed, pointy-toed shoes...and slides right into the waiting arms of the Counterfeit Claus. But when the big white beard and elf-a-go-go shorts are swapped for broken in jeans and clean shaves, can the men beneath the disguises find some sweetly common ground? 

We're working on getting all the books in this series shined up and updated, and if you follow Cherie on FB, you might have noticed that it's all going to culminate in April with a gorgeous paperback omnibus collection of all the stories! So keep your eyes peeled!

Next up in this series is Worth a Thousand Words. More details and updated covers & blurbs as they become available.

(Now this Minion needs to go back to bed; it's been a series of late nights and early mornings between Minioning and kids and spending Saturday doing Mother-Daughter day w/ the Girl-child, starting at the mall and ending at the ballet -- we saw Cinderella, as performed by the Columbia (SC) City Ballet -- and hockey. My beloved Penguins are on a western road trip, which means 4 straight games that start at 10 pm Eastern time, which means if I want to watch I have to stay up till 1 am. I did that Friday and Saturday, and was up well before 9 both Saturday and Sunday; I was happy to see two wins, but I think I'm gonna skip tonight's meetup with San Jose because kids & school. So, business as usual around here.)

Fabulous Friday: Prepare to be Saved

It has begun.

The Rescue Twinks are back...  

It all starts with the glittering re-issue of The Counterfeit Claus. 

Over six thousand new words added...

Glitter's about to get real up in here...

Seriously.

So go on.
Get you some.

Available at Allromance

Tuesday Teaser: Christmas in...March?

Oh yeah, bay-bee. Christmas is all about the heart, and our Rescue Twinks re-boot, re-vise, re-edit, and add a passel o' words is like one big, glittery, shining mess of unexpected presents. And what better time to have a little of that magical Christmas cheer than now when it seems winter will never end?

No time like the present, I say.
Heh.
You see what I did there, right.

*giggles helplessly*

Right, okay, back to the serious business of re-telling Christmas stories in March. Adrien and Devon are back, as delicious as ever...but this time there's a whole lot more sweetness to revel in. Over over six thousand new words, or roughly twelve more scenes for you to delight in.

Hoist yer gurtles, boyz and gurlz. Get yer glitter on. The Rescue Twinks are coming...

Blurb: On an average day at the local mall's Christmas Village there's an elf shortage, no manager in sight, and an unknown person hiding behind a big white beard. Still, everything is under control. Mostly. Sort of...sure. Right until the klutziest elf of all slips onto the scene in slick bottomed, pointy-toed shoes...and slides right into the waiting arms of the Counterfeit Claus. But when the big white beard and elf-a-go-go shorts are swapped for broken in jeans and clean shaves, can the men beneath the disguises find some sweetly common ground? 

Monday's Mayhem and Foolishness: It's a Rescue Twinks Thang...

Tales from the Writing Cave: Sunday 1 March 2015

Well, my beautiful babies, I dunno if March is going to creep out like a soft and woolly little lamb, but I can tell you this...it's surely doing its monthly best to rush in a' roaring like a lion. With old man Winter still holding sway over most of the land, snow up to my...er... arm-pits, and the temperatures doing a death defying yo-yo dance between freeze your nose off cold and wow, I don't have to wear twelve scarves to make it down the block without my lips freezing to my teeth...not precisely the tropics, but when you braved temps in the negative range just the day before, twenty degrees seems positively balmy. But I digress. We're just here for the go-go boys, right? 

Heh. 

Thats the story. 

Stick to it, m'kay?

In that case, let me get right to giving you the down low on what's really going on. March's blustery days and bone chilling snow storms seemed like the perfect time to do a Rescue Twinks re-boot... I may or may not have gone a little crazy with the writing schedule. Don't be skeered though, because it means there's a minimum of four Cherie Noel releases coming to give you something sexy to snuggle up with this month. 

Hoo-eee!

It's shaping up to be one heck of a ride for all the little elves over in the Writing Cave, (that would be me, me, my editor, me, the wondrous promo of Pride Promotions, me, and me...) as I'll be issuing re-releases of the first three Rescue Twinks novels *pets the pretty banner at the top of the page* with spanking fresh edits and saucy expanded versions.

Plus *drum-roll, please* at last we'll get Markus and Liam's story!!

 *throws fistfuls of shimmering confetti in the air*

I'll be a writing, editing, and revising fool for the next thirty-one days.

Somebody *I'm looking at you, minion in training* needs to keep the java rolling and for the love of little go-go boys everywhere, send me some virtual four-leaf clovers to share with Liam and the rest of the crew...'cos I'm pretty sure they all lost their pants in this last round of revisions!*

I'll be doing a little dance, making a little love, and getting down all over the web as the Rescue Twinks make their sparkling presence felt far and wide. Hope you'll take time to see what new trouble Adrien, Devon, Andy, Michael, Markus, and Liam are falling in...hoist yer gurtles boyz and gurlz. The it's a full scale Glitter Alert, and you'd best stay tuned for fun, prizes, and general mayhem and foolishness.

Oh, and if you think that all is lost? If you're just blue and can't get yourself out of a weeks old funk? Hold on to this. The Rescue Twinks are coming...

Tentative Release Schedule for the Rescue Twinks in March:

The Counterfeit Claus: 3/6/15

Worth a Thousand Words 3/13/15

By Any Other Name 3/20/15

Glitter and Shamrocks 3/27/15