This time around I decided to try out a blog tour company, and so I hired GoddessFish to set up a simple blog tour for me. So far the experience has been great. I just sent them my cover art, blurb, buy link, and excerpts, and they did everything else. As I result I have a two-week tour -- something I'd never have the patience to put together on my own.
The tour starts on Monday and I have a stop every week day until Sept. 27. At the end of the tour, one lucky commenter will win a $25 gift certificate, so if you're interested, please do join in!
September 16: Decadent Delights
September 17: Andi's Young Adult Books
September 18: Welcome to My World of Dreams
September 19: Reading In Twilight
September 20: Straight from the Library
September 23: Books in the Hall
September 24: Out of the Lockbox
September 25: Two Fantasy Floozies
September 26: It's Raining Books
September 27: Sharing Links and Wisdom
September 27: Long and Short Reviews
All the Colors of Love, my first and most recent* gay romance, is finally available to readers everywhere thanks to persistance, lots of support, and Harmony Ink Press!
Blurb:
It sucks being the son of a super villain. At home, Harry spends half of his time getting medical treatments and the other half tied up in his father's underwater lair. It was different when his mother was alive, but she disappeared when Harry was six. He can't seem to stay out of trouble at school, and his new roommate, Antonin, thinks he’s a spaz, but somehow Harry has to find a way to stop his father's evil plans.
Antonin Karganilla wants to become a comic book artist, but other than that, being gay is the most normal thing about him. His uncle is an aquatic plant man, his aunt is a molecular biologist back from the dead, and his mom is an overprotective pain in the butt. Antonin's in boarding school and it's starting to look like he and this Harry kid might have a lot in common... and that means a whole new set of problems.
And here's an excerpt:
THE most fucked-up thing of all was that Harry almost felt relieved to find himself once again beneath his father’s thumb. Like returning to familiar surroundings after a whirlwind tour of a bizarre and fabulous land. He knew what was expected of him now.
He and Antonin boarded a Sears jetliner out of Brussels. Before this, Harry had always been carted around on one of the Old Man’s microjets. He’d never been on a commercial jetliner before. How could something so big—three levels, each with at least a hundred rows in four sections—feel so small? The air had a flat, recycled smell, and people jostled him in the narrow aisle as everyone tried to heave their luggage into the overhead compartments and find their places. Antonin had taken advantage of a last-minute cancellation and gotten them seats in one of the side sections.
“You take the window seat,” Antonin told Harry as he tried to maneuver his suitcase over his head to reach the luggage compartment. “You’ll want to say good-bye to the sun.”
Harry took Antonin’s suitcase from him, put it in the compartment, and shoved his duffel bag in after it. He didn’t protest Antonin’s offer, eyeing the tiny seats dubiously. At least this way, if he was smashed up against someone, it would be Antonin. Maybe Antonin would fall asleep, and his head would just kind of accidentally wind up on Harry’s shoulder… and maybe Harry would pretend to fall asleep too, and he could rest his head on top of Antonin’s and let his hand just sort of droop down, onto Antonin’s thigh…. “How long is this flight?” he asked.
“About three hours.”
“Is that all?”
I'm ridiculously proud of this book. It changed the whole direction of my career. At the start of this post I called it my first and most recent book.* Why?
Well, way back when, in the early naughts, I wrote the first draft of this story and it was the first time I'd written a gay romance. The experience was unlike any other writing I'd ever done at that point. I had more fun with it than with my previous books. I felt free. At the time I was as surprised as anyone else to discover that my true calling was to write about guys in love with other guys, but I knew there was no going back.
Sadly, when I pitched the book to my big seven editor, the first thing he asked me was, "Do they have to be gay?" Things didn't get better from there. My agent didn't think there was much market for gay romance, since most romance readers are women (I got that a lot in those days, and sometimes still do). After it recieved one rejection he declined to shop it further.
If it had just been this one book, I probably would have let it go and gone back to writing strong female protagonists. But it was so much more than that. While all of this was going on I had also discovered slash fanfiction, and realized that I was not the only woman who loved gay romance. I can be quite stubborn when my heart is involved and I knew that I was not going to be working with this editor and this agent for long, because the vast majority of books I'd be writing from that point on would also be gay romance.
I fired the agent and started exploring markets for gay romance. At the time, there wasn't much. Erotic romance epublishing was still relatively new and also had not yet twigged to the fact that there was a big market for gay romance among female romance readers. And when those markets did open up, well, since they were erotic romance, I could hardly send them my YA story. But I did start writing gay erotic romance and publishing regularly.
I set All the Colors of Love aside for several years, thinking that the book that had changed my life might never find it's own market. And then the tides shifted, and people woke up to the fact that young gay people need books that reflect who they are. And Harmony Ink and other LGBTQ YA imprints started springing up. And one day I looked around and realized, hey, there's a market for this book now.
And here we are. :)
I want to thank everyone who's been by my side through this journey. You know who you are, and I hope you know that your support and belief, in me and in Colors, made today possible.
All the Colors of Love, my first gay YA science fiction romance with Harmony Ink is coming out this Thursday (Sept. 12) and I'm offering several free copies in exchange for fair reviews on Amazon. Reviews on Goodreads and elsewhere are also appreciated but not required. A turnaround time of one month or less for reviews is preferred.
If you're interested, leave a comment, or email me at jessicafreely at gmail dot com.
Formats available: epub, mobi, pdf, html
Word count: 78,000 words
Blurb: It sucks being the son of a super villain. At home, Harry spends half of his time getting medical treatments and the other half tied up in his father's underwater lair. It was different when his mother was alive, but she disappeared when Harry was six. He can't seem to stay out of trouble at school, and his new roommate, Antonin, thinks he’s a spaz, but somehow Harry has to find a way to stop his father's evil plans.
Antonin Karganilla wants to become a comic book artist, but other than that, being gay is the most normal thing about him. His uncle is an aquatic plant man, his aunt is a molecular biologist back from the dead, and his mom is an overprotective pain in the butt. Antonin's in boarding school and it's starting to look like he and this Harry kid might have a lot in common... and that means a whole new set of problems.
Content warnings: sex, violence, profanity, child abuse
Excerpt: - HARRY awoke from a dream of smothering darkness, his heart pounding from the effort of escape.
Where was he?
He sat up. He was in a bunk bed. Captain Invincible grinned down at him from the springs of the upper bunk.
The new school. He was still at the new school.
His heartbeat slowed. His sweat-slick skin grew clammy. He shivered. He lay back again and pulled the blanket up under his chin. He retrieved Captain Invincible and held him against his chest.
He wasn’t in the dark. Moonlight filtered in through the blinds on the window, casting pale blue shadows on the walls. And he wasn’t alone. Antonin slept in the bunk above him, his breath slow, soft, and even, like waves on a beach. Harry sighed and snuggled deeper into his pillow, soaking in the comfort of these facts.
Antonin grunted gently in sleep and flung one hand over the edge of his bunk. Harry stared at that hand: fingers delicately curled and limned in moonlight. mild<spoiler> In the dim quiet of the night, he allowed himself to experience a rush of wonder at the memory of Antonin, his skinny back straight and rigid as he placed himself between Harry and Marcus. He’d never seen anyone at once so fragile and so brave.
It was too much to try to think about why Antonin had helped him. Enough to know that he had done it, and more than enough to let the soft glow of that knowledge warm him through and through. </spoiler>
When he had good feelings like this, Harry tried to pay attention so he could remember them later. He breathed deep, noting carefully the silver moonlight, the steady sound of Antonin’s breathing, the softness of the blanket under his chin, and the faint smell of damp laundry from the open door of the bathroom.
It was like sleeping on the beach back home. Harry’s eyes closed, and his mind drifted to a memory so old it was really a whole bunch of memories laid one over the other.
His green memory. Full to brimming with sunshine and the smell of clipped grass. Her blue eyes shining and her arms warm and encompassing and her smile all for him. How she used to pick him up around the middle and run around the yard with him and he’d stretch out his arms like he was flying. Then they’d swoop down to the grass and she’d tickle him and hug him and kiss him.
Baby stuff, sure, but no one had to know how much he missed it.
Harry sighed and tucked this new silver memory next to the green one, curled himself around them both, and went to sleep.
I just found out that All the Colors of Love will be featured in the School Library Journal Teen issue releasing on Sept. 4. Harmony Ink is offering 30 free copies chosen randomly from interested libraries!
Woot!
Look at that, my new LGBT YA romance, All the Colors of Love is up on ARe and available for preorder! Wow!
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