LHNB Story: Cover and Title

Over in the Goodreads M/M Romance Group, those of us participating in the 2013 Don't Read in the Closet event, "Love Has No Boundaries", have been given permission to reveal our titles, so I thought I'd go ahead and post the whole cover for the story:

So there it is, and many thanks to the cover artist, Chinchbug. He's now hard at work on the cover for the sequel, which is sitting at about 37K and I'm pretty close to being done with the first draft (it will be longer than 37K... my stories tend to get bigger with each editing pass...).

Outed...

So. Mother-in-Law. She visited last weekend and there we were, chatting away. I might have had a beer. And I might have said something about the LHNB story that would be out this summer. Well, Mother-in-Law knows I write, but she doesn’t know what I write. So she asked if she would be able to read it.

I shuffled my feet and prevaricated a bit. And it went something like this:

MIL: What’s it about?
Jaye: (realizing she should have kept her mouth firmly shut) Er... well. It’s a sort of a fantasy romance sort of thing.
MIL: Oh. I’ve read some fantasy before. I’d really like to read it.
Jaye: Er... well... um... it’s... um...
MIL: (frowns)
[camera pans to Husband Beast, who is standing behind MIL and listening with a highly amused expression on his face. He quirks one eyebrow as if to say, opened mouth and inserted boot again, didn’t you, dear?]
Jaye: (shuffles feet and ignores Husband Beast) Uh, well, look, Ma, the guys in my stories? They sort of have a lot of sex.
MIL: Well, that’s all right, dear. I’ve read Nora Roberts, and I really like her stories.
Jaye: (almost under her breath) With. Each. Other.
MIL: (deer-in-the-headlights look) ...
Jaye: (totally oblivious to the idea of quitting while she’s as ahead as she’s likely to get) And it’s um... kind of... explicit.
MIL: Really?
Jaye: Heh. Yeah.
MIL: Oh... so... you’d be right up there with that gay marriage thing, then.
Jaye: (Blinks.) Er. Yeah. Definitely on board with that. (Note that at this point, had I been Cunning and Clever, I could have taken advantage of this topic change and Distracted her. Alas. I am not Cunning. Or Clever, apparently.)
MIL: I’d still like to read it.
[camera pans back to Husband Beast, whose shoulders are shaking with laughter. His hand is clapped over his mouth to hold it in and his face is turning red.]
Jaye: (turning pale at the idea of having to explain the dubcon warning on the story) Um... well, actually... it isn’t coming out until this summer. I’ll... I’ll let you know, okay?
MIL: Great! I’ll be looking forward to it.
[camera catches the back end of Husband Beast as he bolts for the bathroom and locks himself in.]
MIL: (turning to look at the dust cloud Husband Beast has left in the wake of his hasty departure) Is he not feeling well?

Summer is a long way off, right? And she’ll probably forget between now and then.

And if she doesn’t, maybe I’ll have to write a very sweet fantasy romance just for her... (Except? I really don’t do sweet very well. More on that another time.)

WIP Excerpt: The LHNB Story

Here's a small excerpt from my story that will be available as part of the Goodreads M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" Event. Look for it this summer!

Excerpt:
Tor leaned on the worn wooden railing of the bridge and stared down into the dark, swirling water below. The wind carried the scent of burning leaves in from the fields beyond town, and the silver light of the nearly full moon danced like glitter cast upon the surface of the river.

He walked this way almost every night. On those nights that he felt the most alone, he would stop on the bridge to look down at the water and then gaze up at the stars and wonder why he hurt so much.

Deep inside, where no one could see and no one could touch, there was an emptiness that gnawed at his soul. An emptiness that had been there ever since he could remember.

As a child, he’d tried to fill the void with books and television and make-believe. As a teenager, he’d tried drugs, alcohol, and sex. All those things had passed the time and helped him forget for just a little while, but nothing he’d tried had ever come close to being able to fill that empty, aching darkness.

Every day it seemed to grow a little bit bigger and gnaw its way a little bit deeper into him. And every night as he stared up at the stars, he wondered when the void would grow big enough to consume him entirely, and what would be left when it had.

He’d searched all his life for something he had no name for. He was about ready to give up looking, because how did you fill a space that you couldn’t even see the shape of?