To Heat Up January

January is not my favorite month. In fact it's about the opposite. Cold weather, long nights and gray skies...it can really bring a person down. So about the only antidote is to curl up and read a good story, preferably on with enough spice, heat and steam to warm you right up and chase those low down mean blues out the door. So I'll offer a couple of mine as a prescription to help you get through the next couple of days. One is an oldie and the other not so much.

Journal of a Timid Temptress was one of the tales that I started only to find it raking off in ways that I had totally not seen coming! I still assert that my characters come out of some black hole from a galaxy far, far away and start to tell me their stories. In a slightly backhanded way, this tale was started as a tribute to a prof on whom I had a huge crush when I was in school and some of the details come from real life. I am not going to confess which but will warn there is also a lot of imagination! There is a threesome scene, I do believe the first one I wrote. It is also in first person, which I rarely use, and in the form of a journal or diary.

Anyway here is the blurb and cover:

Midwestern college student Geri Wilcox is striving to gain education and experience in the amorous arts that were not available in her small farming community home town. Fate puts her in a class taught by Philippe Reynard, the sexiest and most exciting male she has ever seen.

Exercising all her admittedly limited wiles, Geri brings herself to the professor's attention until, as both his public and private pupil, the lessons she desires are made available and exceed her wildest expectations. Fearlessly breaking taboos left and right, Geri forges ahead with her plan to become much more than a timid temptress...

The other story, July 2013 release Dark and Stormy, is my foray into the Gothic genre, with a twist to become a gay romance instead of the usual take of an impoverished young gentlewoman driven to find a way to support herself honorably.  In this case the impoverished young person is a young man... I had a terrific time with this story. There is admittedly a bit of purple prose in the opening scenes but since it was a gentle spoof at the genre, perhaps that is okay. It has some adorable children, an evil villain and some spooky settings. So I hope readers enjoy it.

Here is the blurb and cover:

Gently reared Martin FitzHugh finds himself adrift without means when his uncle goes bankrupt from gambling debts. Martin seeks a livelihood by taking a post as tutor to the young children of an earl on a remote Welsh estate. Arriving on a dark and stormy night that sets the tone for his whole adventure, he falls into intrigue, mystery and powerful new loves—for the three traumatized children and their enigmatic guardian.

Dylan Davis was called back from military service in South Africa after his elder brother supposedly found his wife with another man, killing the pair, then himself. Now, Dylan has to assume the duties of earl as well as care for his nieces and nephew. He hires a young man, sight unseen, to become their tutor while he sets out to uncover the roots of the scandalous tragedy that tore apart his family. Both matters reveal surprising results, however...some tragic and some delightful...

As a special, here is a pencil sketch I made of the Prof I had who was the inspiration for Phillipe Reynard! He had silver hair but a young face and the darkest eyes I think I ever saw. He was mostly Native American with some French ancestors. He was also totally charismatic and a fantastic teacher. I'm sure most of the coeds had a big crush! So I had to write a story for him...