C.B. Conwy's Blog, page 5

Well, off my books and off all of my fellow Torquere authors' books as well! If you want to get Happily Ever After or one of Torquere's other books, then go to Torquere books and its Halloween spooky good sale!

Just put 'spook2012' in the coupon code box any time you check out at Torquere Books (www.torquerebooks.com) before Wednesday at midnight to get 20% off your
order.

Sale good now through Halloween -- that's October 31 at Midnight (est).

Celebrate Halloween with a spooky good sale from Torquere Press!

... at Torquere's blog today. Join me and my fellow kinky authors and tell me why you read kink!

I'm doing a little happy dance right now! Happily Ever After is actually the best selling book in the gay category on Fictionwise right now, and that is so incredibly cool that I'm losing my breath. I can't believe that so many people want to share my story - thank you so much, guys!

And it's all because of you, in fact. People kept writing me and asking for more of Tom and Mischa. Some even thought that the ending of A Russian Bear was a little abrupt. What, just because I ended it in the middle of the story? Tsk:). I really couldn't see anything wrong with that.

But, well, you made me see reason, and it just goes to show that pestering your local author DOES work! No, seriously: Thank you so much for the mails and the comments and the reviews - it means a lot to me.

Phew. These last couple of weeks have been pretty awful. Ambitious in the way that I apparently tried to catch as many diseases as possible, but awful. I almost died (this, of course, means that I had the flu, which seemlessly segued into a food poisoning, which has now turned into a cold. Yep, almost dying).

But apart from the obvious good news that it seems like I'll survive, I have a new story for you! Or, to be precise, it's an old story - it's the charity sip from last year which now have been turned into a free story. Of Russian Myth and Lore is available here on my website, and it will be available on All Romance, Goodreads, and (hopefully) Amazon as well.

Here's something about my favorite grumpy Dom:

Family. In Mischa's opinion, you can't live with them. Period. That's why he's so reluctant to let Tom meet them, but Mischa's family decides that they'd like to meet Tom. And an order is an order.

This is a once in a lifetime chance for Tom to see a Russian bear in its natural environment. Mischa's family seems friendly enough, at least until Mischa's uncle sends Tom out into the woods by himself. In the middle of the night. However, there's more to Mischa's Russian background than Tom knew. In the quiet summer night, Tom learns a thing or two about Russian myth and lore - and about family.

When I'm writing, I tend to go into my own world - and sometimes it can be pretty hard to say goodbye to that world. That was the case with my new book, Happily Ever After, which continues the story of Tom and Mischa from A Russian Bear - and once again mentions Toby's bartender, Ben.

That guy is accident-prone like you wouldn't believe. As a matter of fact, Ben's driving Toby crazy. Not just because Ben gets himself hurt all the time, but because he's there. And Toby can't keep himself from having scenes with him, and he can't keep himself from holding the boy afterwards, either, and thinking about how nice it feels. Even though Ben's his employee and they shouldn't be doing this in the first place.

His Something is a quick look at the event which might change Toby's mind when it comes to Ben - whether Toby wants to admit it or not.

I'm guest blogging over at Torquere's blog Romance for the Rest of Us today. Come hear more about sequels and freebies!

As you probably know by now, this year's charity is the NOH8 campaign. All of the proceeds from Leather and Newfound Land and the other charity sips goes directly to NOH8 - and Torquere Press matches the authors' donation.

Perhaps you've already seen the photos by Adam Bouska (that's the guy in this photo). The NOH8 Campaign is a photographic silent protest created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska (http://www.bouska.net) and partner Jeff Parshley in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8. Photos feature subjects with duct tape over their mouths, symbolizing their voices being silenced by Prop 8 and similar legislation around the world, with "NOH8" painted on one cheek in protest.

Three years since its inception, the NOH8 Campaign has grown to over 20,000 faces and continues to grow at an exponential rate. The campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians from all walks of life and soon rose to include politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists, celebrities, and many more.
However, it's not only photos; there are some amazing stories on NOH8's website - the stories of the people behind the duct tape. I've chosen a couple:

"There were a lot of times where I actually wanted to end my life. I resorted to burning myself, and other self mutilation. I tried "reversing" myself from gay to straight, even looking up summer camps and excorsisms to help me not be this person anymore. At the end of the day, I hated who looked back at me in the mirror.

This lasted until my freshman year of high school. I mustered up the courage to tell one of my best friends at the time that I was gay. She told everyone at school. But instead of getting the reaction that I did back in Junior High, I got the opposite. People supported me. Campaigns like NOH8 supported me, most importantly. It still wasn't perfect, I got bullied here and there of course, but it was still a relief. I flaunted who I was, and took pride."

Read the rest of Spencer's story here.
Other stories are very short, like Mary's:

"I work in a high school in a very conservative small town. Occassionally I see kids struggling with their identities. I want them to know that there is at least one person at school to whom it is safe to come out, or just talk to, if need be."

If you want to read more stories, go to the NOH8 website. And if you want to support the NOH8 by reading some amazing stories, go to Torquere Press' charity sips where you'll find Leather and Newfound Land and 24 other hot, sweet stories.

Do you need to brush up on A Russian Bear before you read Happily Ever After? Or how about having a look at my sigh-fi (I mean alternate reality with a bit of Plato and one hot alien) books, Himiko Bonding and Himiko Warrior? Or maybe read Alphabet Soup before the next free story comes up on my website Sunday?

Now's your chance! Torquere's got a special offer: 20% off on most of my books! Go to Torquere Press Specials to see more and purchase the books.

Want to talk about kink and turn offs? Maybe suggest me a story with your own personal kink?

Then come visit me at Josephine Myles' blog today!

My books, I mean! Happily Ever After is out today - and so is Leather and Newfound Land!

If you've been following my blog, you might have heard me mentioning this book once or twice. Uh, maybe even thrice. I have been a little obsessed with it. So instead of talking more about it, let me give you an excerpt of one of my favorite bits. Mischa and Toby are discussing whether they're losing their touch:

"Really? The mighty Mischa? First you're punishing Tom for ruining your kitchen by fucking him, and now you tell me that there's a sub you couldn't decode. Are you losing your touch?"

Mischa narrowed his eyes at Toby. "That's coming from a man who just punished his sub for smashing an entire crate of scotch by buying the kid contacts."

"He's not my sub, he's my bartender!"

"And your sub. Again. Because you just can't keep your hands off the kid, even though he's all over the place."

Toby groaned. "I know. I fucking know, all right? But it just got too expensive to have him break things, and they were starting to look suspiciously at me when I took him to the ER. And I couldn't make him wear those fucking glasses."

Ben and his lack of motor skills (and glasses) were a bit of an institution at Slake.

"Oh, yeah, you bought him glasses as well."

"Shut the fuck up." Toby took another sip of his beer.

"In the good old days, you would have spanked him until he couldn't sit for days."

Toby looked deflated. "Yeah, I would. Are we getting old?"

Mischa nodded to the room in general before looking back at Tony. "Have you seen some of the kids around here? We're fucking dinosaurs, Toby."

"Yeah. Analog guys in a digital world." Toby sounded glum.

"And it's BDSM 2.0 now."

"Shit, yes." Toby drank another mouthful of his beer. "Do you know what the new guy did to Andy to get him over the abuse?"

"No?"

"He tied him up and made him talk."

Mischa stared at him. "That was what he did to make the man look so… so smushy?" He had a sinking feeling that the world was moving much too fast around him. Talking was not Mischa's forte. If that was what it took, he didn't stand a chance.

Toby nodded. "Yep. If we get any more outdated, we might as well eat white bread."

Mischa was quiet for a little while. "I eat white bread."

"Yeah," Toby sighed. "Me, too."


Stay tuned; I'll have the story about what actually happened to Toby's bartender up this Sunday as a freebie here on my website.

Go to Torquere Press to buy Happily Ever After.

And now to my other book: Leather and Newfound Land! A naughty little sip about cute dogs and messy boyfriends.

For the 2012-2013 Torquere anniversary, the theme is "Leather Bound" - since the ninth anniversary is traditionally the leather anniversary. Do you think I liked that theme? Oh yes, I loved that theme:)!

I also love the fact that it's all for charity. The charity which will benefit from this year’s Charity Blitz is NOH8, whose mission is to promote marriage, gender and human equality through education, advocacy, social media, and visual protest. More than twenty five authors have written short fiction pieces and have agreed to donate all proceeds of the sales of these stories to this year's charitable organization. Torquere Press Inc. will match the authors' donations completely.

So go to Torquere Press or Rainbow Ebooks to get your copy of Leather and Newfound Land. It features a Newfoundland puppy, kinky secrets, and a guy who likes a lobster. Okay, the last thing is a minor thing. On the other hand, it's a true fact, so I just couldn't help myself.

This story has been written from Kristi P.'s wonderful prompt, but let me make it very clear: The lobster wasn't her fault. I repeat: Not her fault.

Go to Torquere Press to buy Leather and Newfound Land.