I don't like Halloween

 

There I’ve written it – I don’t like Halloween. When I was young we carved out swedes, put candles in them and made holes for string then carried them around. Yes, it was pretty lame. There were no pumpkins, or dressing up, or extra chances to let off fireworks, and there was certainly no trick or treating, and I’m so glad.

I would have hated dressing up – the pressure of finding a costume for a child who was larger than average and having to get my mother to make something. I hated fancy dress days at school as well. Now I know adults who dress up and decorate their houses, often a couple of weeks in advance – and they say Christmas is getting earlier each year - but I don’t get it.

On the night, I want to turn off all the lights and hide from the knocks at the door, but instead I reluctantly hand out sweets to the children who knock the door, glad that I don’t get many, and that most of them are with their parents. I don’t like the idea of sending children out to ask for sweets, or that there is a veiled threat of a trick if you don’t join in. I know people don’t see it that way, and I’m sure they have fun. I guess I’ll just be seen as a Halloween version of Scrooge.

So pardon me if I don’t enthuse, or hang spooky pumpkins, or spiders, or anything else on my blog or on Facebook. I’ll admire some costumes – although why they have to be sexy this or that for women I don’t know, including last year a sexy Ebola nurse – I kid you not.

Happy Halloween to those who enjoy it and for everyone else, including those who hide in the dark, at least it’s only one night a year.

Thirteen Reasons to Hate Halloween

 

 

 

Stay - Update

STAY

Stay is now available from Pride Publishing for early download and on pre order from Amazon - links below.

Blurb

Ben Harwood loves his grandmother. When he visits her in the hospital, another old lady, Ivy, expresses a longing for an orange, so Ben, who works in a supermarket, takes her oranges the next day. Later, after attending his grandmother’s funeral, he discovers that Ivy has died too, and decides to pay his respects. There, he meets Ivy’s grandson, Martin Riley, and the attraction is instant. To his amazement, Ben finds he has become a bit of a hero to the Riley family, who have travelled over from America. For Martin, Ben breaks his three-date rule more than once. Is this simply a holiday romance with great sex, or can he and Martin build something more permanent?

Stay is also going on a mini blog tour and I've done author interviews for Goodreads and the new Pride Publishing blog. Thanks to the blogs for hosting me.

Buying Links

 Pride Publishing

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

Amazon Australia

All Romance

 

Congratulations America - Love Wins

I'm British not American, and I'm not married, but I wanted to say how wonderful it was reading through all the tweets and my Facebook feed on Friday when the Supreme Court announced that same-sex couples could get married all over America.

I read so many happy stories and watched some lovely videos. I was especially touched to see two men in their 80s, who'd been together over 50 years, get married in Dallas, Texas.

The haters are going to hate, but this time love won. There are other fights to be fought, but one major victory happened on Friday. I just hope the US has enough wedding planners!

Update and what to write next?

What to write next? That is the question.

 

I am in the fortunate position of not having to write to keep my head above water. I write because I want to write. I can choose my hours, and how long I spend tapping away. Others, I know, do not have this luxury.

Some authors seem to be able to produce lots of words in a week and lots of titles in a year. I’m relatively new to being an author. I have one novel published, Sporting Chance which took me years to write, a novella, Rainbow Connection, which sadly hasn’t been as popular, but has received some nice reviews, and a short story, Stay which is due for general release next month. The follow up to Sporting Chance, called Comfort Zone, has been contracted and will be out next year. Comfort Zone has Aron’s story. The title came from a friend, as did the idea for the issue Aron has to deal with when he goes out of his comfort zone for love.

I’ve just written another short story. It’s had lots of names, but I settled on Not Every Time. This story was written in five days, and came from an idea about what happens if you save a life. Raz saves Jack from certain death, but Raz has a secret. I’m hoping my publisher will like it.

A friend recently asked me where my ideas come from. I have three or four stories with starts written, and I need to decide what to do next. I’ve also three stories completed, two of which need editing. Ideas come from all over the place, stories in newspapers, things from my past, conversations overheard or read online, television shows, photographs—all sorts of places. So far, I’ve written contemporary romance stories, but I have an idea for a time-travelling story set partly in sixteenth century Scotland at the time of the murder of Lord Darnley. The idea came from a photograph of a bare-chested man in a kilt combined with teaching Mary, Queen of Scots using this image.

 An idea grew from there. Maybe one day I’ll have the courage to step out of my comfort zone and write it.

So, do I choose to write the fourth in my Home series set in Scotland with the closeted church minister, Sam Carmichael and the grieving widower, Tosh Mackintosh, or a standalone story set in Norfolk about cat loving librarian, Will Owen and carpenter and am dram fan, Jonah Jackson. I seem to have written about a few cats recently, and this one is likely to have more smiles than the first. While I decide, I’ve Home Goal in front of me to edit with Zac and Seth’s story. There’s a cat in that one too – a ginger Tom called Ron, who weasels his way into Seth’s affections. I'm sure you can see what I did there.

How do you choose what to read and/or write next?

You can sign up below to get my blog posts in future and hear about my new stories.

And to celebrate Stay being available for early download, and it being my birthday next week, I'm going to have a giveaway so you can win an EPub or PDF version of STAY when I get my copies. Please comment below if you’d like to win a copy, and I’ll use random.org to pick a winner a week from today.

Stay can be bought here

Stay available for pre-order

Stay

My short story Stay is available for pre-order today. Set in a small Lancashire town, this is the story of how an act of kindness can change your life.

Early Download - 30th June
General Release - 28th July

Blurb
An act of kindness is never wasted.

Ben Harwood loves his grandmother. When he visits her in the hospital, another old lady, Ivy, expresses a longing for an orange, so Ben, who works in a supermarket, takes her oranges the next day.
Later, after attending his grandmother’s funeral, he discovers that Ivy has died too, and decides to pay his respects. There, he meets Ivy’s grandson, Martin Riley, and the attraction is instant. To his amazement, Ben finds he has become a bit of a hero to the Riley family, who have traveled over from America. For Martin, Ben breaks his three-date rule more than once. Is this simply a holiday romance with great sex, or can he and Martin build something more permanent?

Hop for Hope

Hop against Homophobia, Bi- and Transphobia

 

17th May is the International Day against homophobia, bi- and transphobia. You can find more information here.
http://dayagainsthomophobia.org/

Hope

There is still a great deal of prejudice in the world, but I wanted my post today to be about hope. it may be a rather obvious thing to state, but I’m a great believer in democracy. I don’t always agree with the results, but as a history teacher for over thirty years, I know what people have done to allow me, a woman, to put a cross in a box. Over those thirty years, I’ve also seen great changes in attitudes. When I started teaching there were no out teachers or students. I’m pleased to say that by the time I finished that situation had changed. Some students no longer hid their sexuality, and it was a great privilege to have young people feel able to talk to me about themselves. Maybe it was the pictures of John Barrowman and Captain Jack Harkness, or my well known hatred of students using the word gay as an insult that made them feel safe talking to me. I don’t know. I’m just glad that they did.

Last week, one of those brave young people was elected to a local council. He had the courage to put himself up for this role and his victory made me smile. Democracy had allowed a young gay man to openly work for the betterment of society. On a bigger scale, the UK became the country with the most openly LGBTQI representatives in the world. The UK has its problems, but this fact makes me proud to be British. The sexuality of a candidate should not matter anymore than the gender of the candidate, or the colour of their hair or eyes. All that matters is that they want to do the job.

Hopefully, sometime soon, this blog hop will no longer be necessary. To more and more young people prejudice on the grounds of sexuality is something they do not even think about. At least some of the results from last week’s election give me hope that some things have already, and will, get better.

 

You can find more information about this blog hop here
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.co.uk/

Anyone who makes a comment on this post before 24th May will be entered to win a signed copy of my book Sporting Chance or an amazon gift voucher for £10 depending on their location. Please leave your e-mail address for me to contact you.

Thank you for supporting this important cause. This link will take you to other participating blogs

http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=644125FF-AACF-4A13-A08A-696A562D8FB3

 

New Release - Rainbow Connection

 

Rainbow Connection

 

I thought hard about whether to go with the title, Rainbow Connection, but in the end it was the one that stuck. This is the story of two men, Mick Flanagan and Ceri Llewellyn, two men with seemingly nothing in common until they discover a mutual love, and Ceri makes Mick an offer he can’t refuse.

I wrote this story in fits and starts, losing several chapters when my laptop crashed and destroyed my hard drive, at the same time as I wrote Sporting Chance. It was written for a submission call for a story about a man who finds love again after losing his first love. It was turned down for the submission, but the publisher gave me some advice and later, after some revisions, accepted the story as a standalone. I had my second contract.

The inspiration for this story came from a few places. I read a story in the paper about a grandmother, mother and daughter and their strange life. The relevance of that will become clear when you read the novella. Also, one early morning, I sat in my car watching the man who filled the vending machines at work and thought I bet no one has ever written a romance for someone with that job. So I chose to write about a romance between a shy security guard with a past and the guy who fills the water bottles while trying to pursue his dreams, only to find he isn’t good enough to achieve them. These two needed to share a passion to bring them together, so it seemed only natural for them to share mine – let’s say it involves a certain time traveller.

Mick is a man who copes with life through routines until Ceri comes along and turns his life upside down. Ceri has been floating through life but discovers he needs an anchor. Rainbow Connection is the story of how these two men find something in each other, but have to work hard for their happy ever after. I love Mick and Ceri and I hope you will too.

 You can find Rainbow Connection here. Other links will be added as they become available.

MLR Press
Amazon UK
Amazon US 
All Romance
Kobo