Boys of Summer

I can't believe it's September already! I'm definitely not ready for summer to end. Here are some hot (and sweet) summer guys to enjoy before the fall comes.

Get Your Hot Gay Fairy Sex! :D

Check out an excerpt from my new release with Leta Blake -- the third in our erotic m/m fairy tale series, Tempting Tales.

One boat remained.

The man in this boat was as startling to look upon as the rest. He was smaller than the rest of the creatures, his hair short and quite pink, sticking up in all directions as though he’d just woken from sleep, or perhaps never used a comb. He wore a riot of colored feathers woven into a shirt and breeches made of the softest brown leather Mateo had ever seen. Mateo’s own fine woolen trousers and exquisite silk-trimmed tunic seemed almost shabby in comparison to the wild wonder before him.

The man’s lips were the same pink as his hair, and his eyes were blue, fierce—as though they contained a soul stronger than his form. Mateo’s blood coursed. He was as captured by the look of this man as he’d been captivated by the sensual lure of the water. Mateo swallowed hard, hesitating. Did he dare get in? He must to follow his sisters.

Mateo stepped forward and the creature smiled. Frozen in place, Mateo checked that he still wore the cloak. Lámina’s voice echoed in his mind. The one who sees you despite the cloak’s magic is a friend.
“Ópalo!” the man rowing Luz called as distance grew between his boat and the shore. “Next time, perhaps.”

Ópalo, for that must be his name, did not look away, keeping his eyes on Mateo’s own. “One moment more.” He quirked his lips into a small, amused smile and rested his oar against the side of the boat.

Mateo took a step forward and Ópalo’s eyes lit up. He lifted his chin slightly, almost imperceptibly, with a motion that indicated Mateo should come. Mateo lifted his hand in a small wave, and Ópalo nodded his head and smiled. It was a toothy, pretty thing that made Mateo catch his breath and take a step back.

Surely not.

“Come!” Luz’s man called again.

“Patience, Azulejo!” Ópalo answered.

“We must not be late to the dancing.”

“You must not. I can be as late as I wish.”

“Stay then, and yearn for your bride to come. It changes nothing,” Azulejo said before bending himself to the oars, speeding Luz away at an alarming rate.

Seeing Luz’s white nightgown and dark, shining head disappear across the lake broke Mateo from his shocked state, and he quickly clambered into the boat with Ópalo. He ignored the offered hand as he stepped aboard, causing the boat to rock dangerously, nearly toppling them both out. Mateo’s stomach lurched, and there was a spray of cold water against his face as Ópalo steadied the boat with his oar, digging it into the bottom of the lake. Mateo sat down quickly.

“Pardon me!”

Ópalo grinned, his blue eyes—blue as a summer sky—twinkling, and his lips spread again into that beautiful smile. “No need to be so formal.”

Mateo wasn’t sure what to make of the casual tone, but there was nothing customary about the situation. He’d traveled with his sisters into a magical realm while hidden beneath a cloak that rendered him invisible, and which had apparently determined in some unfathomable way that this man, of all men, was to be Mateo’s friend. He knew he should find more comfort in that, but he felt quite the opposite. It was hard to concentrate over the ceaseless thrumming in his veins.

Ópalo went on. “I’m so glad you came. I’ve waited for you. You have no idea how long.”

Up close, Mateo could see that Ópalo seemed made of the shifting light from the diamond forest, his skin a mottle of beautiful colors that glowed breathtakingly in the moonlight. His eyebrows and eyelashes were pink, like the hair on his head, except that none of it was hair. Instead he had feathers, longer and thicker on his head, but short and fine around his eyes. His eyelashes appeared to be the daintiest feathers that Mateo had ever seen. And Mateo, out of either the arrogance of royalty or the shock of the moment, reached out a hand to feel them, only pulling back from touching the beautiful oddness at the last moment.

“I apologize.”

Ópalo shook his head, and then reached out to grab Mateo’s hand with a strong grip. He leaned forward, offering his eyebrows and hair up to Mateo’s touch.

Mateo pulled back without making contact, a belated terror pumping through him. “Who? What?”

“Shh,” Ópalo said softly. “They can hear. Sound carries over the water. You’re hiding for a reason?”

Mateo swallowed, nodded his head, and realized he was shaking.

~
 
Buy Love's Nest today from:

Ellora's Cave   Amazon   All Romance Ebooks

Free Read -- Synchronicity by Keira Andrews

This year I took part in the Goodreads M/M Romance Group's Love Has No Boundaries event, featuring a summer of free stories written by authors in response to reader prompts and accompanying photos. This was my prompt and photo:

I could look at him all day. But sometimes, when he thinks I’m not looking, he seems so sad…

Pensive, pretty, and not wearing pants.

Some readers discussed that he looks like a swimmer or gymnast, and my imagination took off from there and I created Synchronicity. I'm a sucker for sports romances!

It's the opportunity of a lifetime for Tyler Bourne to compete in Olympic synchronized diving with veteran Aiden Oxford. The last thing he expects is to fall head over heels for his gorgeous partner. Friendly but distant, Aiden keeps him at arm's length, and Tyler knows his feelings are hopelessly one-sided. But as the Games begin, Tyler learns nothing is certain until the final dive.

The story is now available for everyone as a FREE download. It was a really fun story to write, and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks so much to Kate for the prompt!

Giveaway!

In case you missed it when it was free, the lovely Chris at Stumbling Over Chaos is hosting a giveaway of The Argentine Seduction!

Contest closes at 7 p.m. CDT on May 30. May the odds be ever in your favour. ;)

Summer Heat

The summer solstice is due next week in the northern hemisphere, although it's already made its presence known. Time to hit the pool and cool off! Or in model Dave Wilkinson's case, heat things up another degree or two...



I'm planning to beat the heat this summer with iced tea, indoor reading and writing, late evening strolls, and air conditioned activities like bowling and the art museum. What are your plans this summer?


Cheers,
Katrina Strauss
Romance, erotica & a little yaoi, too.
http://www.katrinastrauss.com/

Summer is almost here...!!!

Seriously, I'm jazzed! I know things are generally busy for creative types but, man, it has been *INSANE* this past year. I've had to pull back from my online time while working on stuff but after the first week of May, several of my bigger projects and stuff will be DONE. I have feelings of joy and accomplishment, and I am so looking forward to trolling the 'Net more in between my travels this summer. Maybe I'll actually--*gasp*--finish my website.

I'm also hoping to spend some quality time with the PS3 again. (Of course, now there's that whole fiasco with the PSNetwork hack-job that went down a couple of weeks ago. True privacy and safety on the internet is an impossible ideal--I guess the lesson is to be extremely careful with who gets your personal info and why.) But all that aside, I'm exciting to play some games! Top on the list are: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, with its sexy hero Ezio Auditore; Resident Evil 5, starring Chris Redfield's awesome guns (*WINK*); and Bioshock 2...which has no sexy hero, but is a beautiful (and scary) game which must be played. Obviously, none of these are the latest titles to hit the console, but I've been a tad out of the loop, 'kay? It's time for this gamer girl to get back in the saddle!

As soon as she, um, actually finishes everything she's supposed to first. (Oh, yeah, and maybe I should actually finish writing my books one of these days....)

Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Sorry for making you sing an old commercial jingle. But it's kind of true. Although for me, that would be tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day of my life as a full-time writer. Well, a mini-life. Even though I'm a teacher, I teach at a private school, so I've had to work summers because I'll be damned, the bank expects me to pay my mortgage in the summer too. But to my surprise, enough people have bought my books to make it possible to give this whole writing for a living wage thing a shot—at least for the next two months. Wish me luck that the whole setting my own schedule means more than playing computer games and clicking around the internet after shiny links dangling in my face.

The credit for this opportunity goes to a lot of people. I'd like to thank my critique—ooops. That's my Rita acceptance speech. (Hey. Hell might freeze over. You never know.) Actually, credit goes to the readers who've put down cash in hopes of a good story. So here's a bit of my WIP for fun. And if you see someone doing some crazy car dancing with a lot of fist pumps during your commute home tomorrow—it's me.

Not Knowing Jack
Chapter 1

Tony Gemetti had a rich fantasy life. No, not like that—except when it was like that—but give him an ordinary circumstance, and he could imagine some pretty weird shit behind it. Like now.

He and his boyfriend Jack had just walked into Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up something that Jack needed because Jack always needed something to make the house look even more like a picture right out of Architectural Digest. Tony couldn't remember what the thing they were getting was, but he knew after they found it, Jack would let Tony drag him through all the kitchen stuff. Jack the chef would explain what some of the freaky looking equipment was for, and Tony would suggest a much kinkier use for it. Then they'd go home and fuck like something on Animal Planet. Or sometimes they wouldn't make it home. Sometimes they only made it to the car which was fine with Tony, even if they couldn't get up to much since today they’d taken Tony's ancient Rabbit instead of Jack's BMW X-3.

But this trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond wasn't going like that. This was Tony standing alone in the seasonal display area near the front—a weird mix of fans for summer and stuff for kids to put in their dorm rooms and seashell string lights. Jack had said something like "I'm going to get the thing," or maybe he went to the can. Tony wasn't paying attention because there had been this tiny little box that looked like it was made out of twisty ties, and he had to touch it. But now Jack wasn't there. And he didn't come back.

Tony checked out all of the fans, poked at the lap desks—which didn't look to be nearly as interesting as a lap dance—and switched on every one of the snake-necked desk lamps, and Jack still didn't come back. The fantasy thing didn't start right away, because there were still the super fuzzy pillows to touch and candles to smell and a bowl of rocks—people paid money for rocks?—to make fun of. When he put the rocks back into the glass bowl, his elbow caught in a rack of shower caddies and by the time he'd picked them up he knew he'd been waiting at least twenty minutes.

Jack had disappeared.

An alien abduction was too easy. It would have to be something really weird. Tony banked on some kind of government conspiracy. Like he'd go up to the check out and say "Have you seen that guy I came in with?" and they would say "Sir, you came in alone" because Jack was really a deep undercover agent, and some guys in black would erase the surveillance tapes of the store.

Tony would go home, but Jack's house wouldn't be Jack's house, and the pictures of them on Tony's phone would be gone, and their friends Sean and Kyle would act like they'd never heard of Jack. So Tony would have to find him, rescue him from some evil military boss, because Tony was the only one who believed that there had ever been a Jack.

"Hey." Jack appeared at his side, and Tony knocked over the caddies again. He wasn't a klutz. Jack had scared the shit out of him, popping up like that when Tony was halfway to convinced he was the only person on the planet left with a memory of Jack.

"Did you get the covers for the mop?"

"The what?" Okay. Tony had heard Jack the first time. But it took a little time to get back from fantasyland, especially when the return destination was a Bed, Bath and Beyond in Canton, Ohio. So, Jack hadn't been erased. He'd still disappeared for a long-ass time.

"I thought you went to get them."

"I told you I wanted to look at a new duvet. I've been all over the store looking for you."

There might have been a few more acres of towels, shower curtains, and bedspreads than the entire state of Ohio required in this one store, but it didn't take twenty minutes to do a lap around it. Not even two laps.

Help Ally find a man!!!

Not like that. I am blissfully happy with my loverly hubby :D No, I am looking for pics of a particular guy, so's he can be my website monthly hottie. And possibly my desktop for a while. And, erm, maybe star in a Tome O' Ghey Buttsecks one day, who knows...
**daydreams**

Ahem. So, anyway. The guy I am looking for is an actor named Jesse Haddock. I saw him on the Masters of Horror DVD my hubby and I were watching last night. The episode was called "The Fair Haired Child". The story was, to be blunt, absolute dreck. Oh my God. Awful. Young Master Haddock, however? Decent actor. And pretty. Very, very, VERY pretty. Ally was smitten. Thank FSM he's 21...

This is the only picture I can find of him, and it does NOT do him justice by a long shot (which makes me think he should get a new agent maybe). I need another one! Preferably a really BIG one. Help a pervy old lady out, won't you?

Don't make me get on my knees and beg. My knees creak and it is NOT attractive O_O

Summer men

I don't know about other parts of the country, but it's already summer here in Florida. And I'm suffering through my first sunburn of the season. That's even AFTER I put at least two applications of sunscreen. Guess that's what I get for spending more time in the water-only because my boys forced me- and out in the open than under the umbrella.

The area we camped out at had both surfers and skimboarders. The surfers...eh. I don't think the waves were good enough so I grew board quickly. Better waves when there are storms.

However, the skimboarders....:P The batch that were near us were young (jail-bait for me *lol*), tanned, and fit. I found that I couldn't help but watch them and know I'd never be able to do what they do (been there, done that, and busted my butt).

For those who don't know. Skimboarding is: the sport of riding a skimboard (a very thin, small surfboard) over shallow water on a beach and into oncoming waves close to shore. The board is usually tossed ahead and jumped on after a running approach.

Most had the "surfer" look. Longer hair and tatts and very nicely tanned. A few had short hair cuts. I was able to gather information for future characters. :)

Anyway, it got me into the mood for some long hair hunks *sigh-dreamy eyes*

Enjoy some eye-candy