More on Midnight Cowboys!

Okay, we have a  PAX cover now and I can tell you the other four stories. They will all be out on April 19 so you do not have long to wait. The titles are Laurel Canyon by AJ Llewellen, Silences of Fallen Stars by Vivian Dean, The Stonewall Inn by DJ Manly, Woodstock gave Me You by JD Walker and Midnight Cowboys by yours truly. Here is the collection cover:

Another excerpt coming up in the next day or two and you need to check our PAX blog   http://amberpax.blogspot.com/ the next two weeks for more and to get special tidbits from each author about their contribution to the collection. A blast from the past indeed!!

A fave story of mine and a Special Sale!!!

This is not necessarily one of my best sellers but when I look at my back list, I always go to this one right away. It was special to  me when I wrote it and remains so. Grab a copy at 50% off now between April 8 and 14.  Click the link below!

50% Overall Discount Sale -- All Deirdre O'Dare E-Books

http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/137-Deirdre-O-Dare.aspx

Take it Easy by Deridre O'Dare ISBN:978-1-60272-315-3

http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/713-Take-It-Easy.aspx 

Genres: Contemporary / The Arts / Some Lesbian Content 
Heat Level: 3 
Length: Extended Amber Kiss (13k words)

Blurb: 

Stormy Alcott supports herself, her two children and her mother by working as an independent cross-country trucker. When low fuel forces her to get off I-40 in Winslow, Arizona, she sees and picks up a passenger who turns out to be a musician down on his luck. Together they make some amazing music. Is a career change in her future?

Tom Holden, newly back from military duty in the Middle East with the Tennessee National Guard, hopes to catch up with his old band in Las Vegas. His truck breaks down, leaving him stranded in Winslow. Before a violent summer storm hits, a lady trucker gives him a lift. Can the inspiration she provides help him make it to the big time?

Excerpt: (They've just come onto a bad wreck near the Arizona-California line here.)

"I guess I could try and turn around and go back to Kingman, but I don't see much use in it. Not much we can do but wait. "

He flashed a grin at her. "Yeah, no forty-acre field here, is there?"

She socked him on the shoulder. "Go on with you. I don't need no forty acres to turn my rig around. Twenty will do just fine."

At the instant her fist impacted his solid bicep, his hand closed around her wrist. All at once the cab filled with a humming tension. Energy arced between them, eyes to eyes and skin to skin where his callused fingers shaped a bracelet around her arm. She relaxed her hand and spread it across the heat of his taut muscle absorbing the masculine power he radiated.

After a moment, he tugged, shifting her balance until she fell toward him. He released her wrist, but only long enough to close his arms around her. She settled against the comfortable breadth of his chest, a slow sigh leaking out of her lungs. I'll move, pull away in just a minute, but this feels so damn good... Before she completed the thought, his mouth found hers, and coherency flew right out of her mind.

He tasted of coffee and mint gum, and he kissed like a master at the craft. She didn't even think before she opened to the teasing probe of his tongue. He edged a hand up between their bodies and palmed her breast. Her whole body shivered at the touch as her nipple pebbled inside her bra, straining at the silky lace fabric. It felt like heaven, but was still not enough. Nowhere near enough.

"Can't get a room, but the sleeper behind us has a real nice mattress." She cringed at the inane remark, but it was said and it made the point.

"Lead on, sugar. I'm right behind you."

Stormy felt exposed when she climbed down from the cab and opened the sleeper door, Tom right behind her.

I might as well be standing naked in front of the No-tell Motel. Oh, hell, for all anybody knows, we're married. It's nobody's business anyway. It's been too long since I got laid and I need this.

The sleeper had no wasted space. It held a double bed, which took about all the room there was. She crawled onto the mattress and toward the back corner, leaving room for Tom to get up beside her. He shut the door behind them and stretched out. She flipped on one small light, the one she sometimes read by, and turned to face him.

He toed off his boots and laid them down in the six-inch strip of floor that edged the bed.

"Don't want to get mud on your pretty quilt," he explained. "It looks like the kind my grandma use to make. She lived up in the hills outside of Nashville and pretty much clung to the old ways."

"My gran made this one," Stormy confessed. "She's been gone quite a while, but she left a bunch of pretty handwork behind. I use this to keep her memory alive and a little bit of her here with me."

"You can't beat a good ole southern hill lady unless it's a good young one."

She caught his insouciant grin out of the corner of her eye.

Oh, man, he's got a line and charm as thick as peanut butter. Stormy kicked off her athletic shoes and dropped them beside his boots. Before she was done, he laid her back with two sure hands and rolled up to prop on his elbow looking down at her.

"Is that your real name, Stormy? How'd a pretty lady get stuck with such a moniker?"

"Yeah, 'bout as real as it gets. My birth certificate reads Stormy Jane Alcott. I took back my own name after my louse of an ex took off. Wasn't about to call myself Stoker any longer. If I could, I'd change my kids' names, too. As to how or why, Mama used to tell me it was a real dark and stormy night when I made my appearance and she just thought it fit. Always did have a bit of a temper..."

Excerpt 1 from Midnight Cowboys--adult language

Midnight Cowboys by Deirdre O'Dare, to be released April 19, 2015 from Amber Quill Press !! ISBN and buy link coming soon!

This introduces and covers the initial meeting between Riki and Jerry as both arrive at college and discover they are roommates.

Crockett State College,

South West Texas

September 1967

Richard “Riki” Robards shoved the scuffed door open before he skidded to a stop. Grim and austere barely described the room he viewed. He’d seen sweeter jail cells. Oh shit, oh goddam fucking shit. And I’ve gotta share this grody overgrown closet with a roommate?

He stepped aside as Sanchez shuffled in with the fourth load of Riki’s stuff and dumped it in the middle of the dark, dreary room.

“Tha’s it.”  Sanchez, the senior Robards’ current man of all work, huffed out an aggravated breath. “I’m goin’ home now.”

That left nothing for Riki to say except, “Gracias. Hasta luego.” He knew Sanchez did not care for him, but that was okay. Neither did his family, really. Riki was on his own now, anyway. Taking a step through the door, he caught sight of his reflection in the streaked mirror hanging over a battered chest of drawers. He addressed the image aloud.

“You gotta make it work this time, my man. You’re down oh and two here. It’s either become a college student for real or head for boot camp. No other choices.”

For an instant he saw himself with a shaved head and baggy camouflage uniform. The picture was not pretty. No, his party was over. Family purse strings had been tightened with a severe hand. And a Robards, he had been informed, did not run off to Canada as an alternative to military service. If he even attempted it, he’d be disowned completely. This time he’d better buckle down to produce decent grades and acceptable behavior. Or else. After failing in one college and being expelled from another he was running out of options.

Exhaling a ragged sigh, he stepped aside at the sound of footsteps closing behind him. He turned to see a slender fair young man stumble to the door, holding a box balanced on his right shoulder while he dragged a clumsy, abused-looking suitcase with the other hand.

“Hi,” he said, in a low, somewhat hesitant tone.

“Wish I was.” At that, the other man’s eyes widened for an instant before he schooled his face to a neutral expression.

“Yeah, right.”

The new arrival glanced at the number on the door and then gave a nod. “You picked your side yet?”

Riki shrugged. “I’ll take this one, the right.”

“Okay.” The newcomer dumped the box onto the desk in his half and propped the suitcase against the foot of the second single bed. He took a couple of deep breaths. “Those stairs are a bummer. Just one more load, though.”

For a moment the two of them stood, taking each other’s measure. The newcomer wore a light yellow Oxford shirt, button down collar and all. With it he had on neatly pressed khaki slacks and… penny loafers?  Did anyone really still wear them these days? Riki suppressed a smirk. Holy shit, a real preppy type nerd, dork or something, like square squared. Still, despite the uncool attire, the guy wasn’t bad looking.

Part of Riki wanted to launch into a sneering attack but something held him back. Maybe a vague sense of self preservation. No use making an enemy of someone you had to live with, even a guy who might be induced to help with your homework or do papers for you. Fast as a riff on his Strat, Riki shifted mental gears.

“Hey, I’m Riki. With two “I’s”, like Jimi.

“Err, Hendrix you mean?”

“Yeah, the man, the hip one, the killer.”

“Okay, cool. I’m Jerry.”

After a beat, Riki surprised himself. “Need a hand with your shit?”

“Nah, just one more load. My typewriter and another box. I can deal with it.”

***

Jerry clattered back down the stairs. He moved his rusty VW away from the loading zone before he grabbed the last of his stuff. With his portable typewriter under one arm and a second box tucked against his right side, he headed back up to his new home. Wow, college was really going to be different. He looked around at other students arriving, lugging their assorted shit into the dorm.

Most were in wide-legged blue jeans and bright t-shirts or flashy cowboy attire. Well, this was Texas, after all. A few were dressed like he was but they were the minority. Across the parking lot, in front of another dorm, the incoming students appeared mostly female. Big hair, really short skirts or those grandma looking long dresses. Foxy, most of them, but even from here he could hear them, most cussing up a storm. Back home girls didn’t do that, at least right out in public. Every second word seemed to be “fuck.”

Holy shit, he’d never ever said that word in front of a woman or a girl! Good thing Mom and Grandma were not here. They’d be ready to drag him right back home to Piney Creek. All at once he recognized that his education was not all going to be academic. He’d fallen into a brand new world here, a world light years from the conservative little town where he’d spent all of his nineteen years. He thought about his new roommate and grinned.

Riki, huh. Some name. Riki was one of those in jeans, elephant legged and long, right down over whatever he had on his feet. On top a black t-shirt with glitter and those psychedelic flowers and stuff all over it. Good looking, too. Almost black hair down over his shoulders and a wicked grin.  Jerry was sure he’d seen a guitar case and a big amp in the heap of the other guy’s stuff. Maybe he even played in a band. Oh man, that would be outta sight!         

And that was how it all began…

Midnight Cowboys is coming!!

Yep, in less than three weeks Midnight Cowboys will be available! If you have curiosity or nostalgia about the nineteen sixties, you will want to read it and the other tales in the 1960's "happening" PAX! As in very PAX, the tales will all be different and unique because the authors who created them are a very diverse bunch. We are in different age groups, live in different parts of the country--or even the world--and each bring our own voice and personality into the tales we write. Most of us have different methods and approaches to writing fiction as well.

As I often do, I set my story in the west; these guys are not "real" cowboys by any means and to some degree it really is their first rodeo! Riki thinks he is very sophisticated and worldly compared to his naive small-town-boy roommate, Jerry. But Riki has a lot to learn too about life and love in the world he calls home. My setting is a fictitious small west Texas town that is home to a state college.

My alma mater was in a small town in central Arizona but there are many similarities except we could not make an easy run across the border into Mexico. I was attending as a woman, not a young man, but the challenges were not so very different. The freedom of being away from home and watchful family or neighbors created an illusion that liberty was license! Riki and Jerry were lucky to fare as well as they did treading the edge of danger. But this is fiction where we should challenge but not crucify our characters, especially the leads!

Here is the blurb from Midnight Cowboys. An excerpt will follow soon. Go back one post for the cover.

Midnight Cowboys blurb:

Two young men from very different backgrounds end up roommates at a state college in west Texas in the latter part of the turbulent sixties. In the course of their developing relationship, both of them get an education. They tread very near the edges of risk and disaster in a time when “anything goes” was a watchword, but the bond they form helps to bring them both back from the brink and then long steps down the path to maturity and knowledge of many kinds. Isn’t that what education is all about? 

Riki is the black sheep of a wealthy family, on his third and final chance to avoid the draft or disinheritance. His big dream is to be a hot guitarist with a rock band and he has a weakness for recreational drugs that make him feel better about himself. Jerry is a true son of Bible Belt America, happy to be able to go to college and perhaps rise above the lower middle class level of his family. He has to grow rapidly through his shock and meld into the turbulent times that had not yet found his small town roots. The two form an unlikely friendship that develops into a deeper bond as they experience drugs, sex and rock n’ roll in their heyday.

New Tale Coming Soon!

I am not sure what the PAX title is yet but a nostalgic look at the sixties in five exciting gay romance stories will be released on April 19! Among the stories featured will be Midnight Cowboys by Deirdre O'Dare. I'll get the PAX title and cover up here as soon as I can.

This is a kind of coming of age tale set on the campus of a state college in a fictitious west Texas town in 1967. As they said about Woodstock, which happened just a bit later, if you remember it you weren't there. That may not quite be true,  but if you'd like a peek back into the make-love-not-war and psychedelic dimensions of this life changing decade with some good ole sex, drugs and rock n roll, Midnight Cowboys should fill the bill.

A couple of young men who are about as different as they can be wind up as roommates and then partners in crime and then...  Well, you'll have to read it to find out! Here is the cover to watch for. Keep an eye on this space for more details in the next couple of weeks!

Special Sale on Canine Cupids tales!

These stories--eight of them--have been among my top sellers and even after some time continue to be found by new readers who love them too! For a three day period they are selling at 50% the normal price! Info below.

The group even includes Love is Snowblind which celebrates the wonderful sport of sled dog racing, very timely as the Iditarod is going on right now in Alaska! If you missed this one here is a great chance to get it.

Here's the link! 

Wednesday 03/11 - Friday 03/13

...the Amber Quill Press website plans to feature and promote a special sale of...

50% Overall Discount Sale -- All "Canine Cupid" E-Books

http://www.amberquill.com/store/c/259-Canine-Cupids.aspx

And here's the cover of Love is Snowblind!  Love that Siberian Husky on the cover ;-)

Adult Excerpt The Taming of Jaelle'n

The Traming of Jaelle'n by Deirdre O'Dare==buy ink: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/707-The-Taming-Of-Jaelle-n.aspx

Jaelle'n is suspicious and somewhat fearful of Aguilar, her new master, but he still fascinates her. He is just beginning her training here. And we are dipping a toe into some subtle BDSM!!

***
As if he suddenly recalled where he was, Aguilar looked at her again. "Aye, it is now time to learn how to enjoy complete loss of control. Have you ever been with a man, Jayla?"
"How--er--no, not in that way. It was not permitted. I was to go pure into marriage with my father's choice for his successor as war leader. I was to be the ruler, but a woman could not lead the armies of Cymrydda into war. That much of leadership I must share with he who would father the next high king."
"So you are virgin, as the auctioneer said." He chuckled. "I suspected, but was not sure."
Jaelle'n cursed the fair northern skin that would not hide her blushes. She felt the radiant heat in her face and throat and knew her skin flamed bright. She should no longer be embarrassed, but she was. "A slave has no need of modesty," he had said. "Not by my own choice," she snapped, "but by the necessity of custom. I know I am old for that state, but I was to be wed this high summer's day."
"And how old are you? I would say young in the span of my grandmother's folk, even in my own, since I have enough of that blood to lengthen my life."
"I am eighteen summers."
He nodded. "A good enough age with many fine seasons yet ahead of you. But we will not advertise your age to potential buyers since they have little understanding of these things. If you train well, they will see only your beauty and youthful appearance and be satisfied." He rose from the bed. "Stand."
As she came to her feet, she found herself almost touching him from shoulder to toes and took a hasty step backward.
Again he chuckled. "You have naught to fear, Jayla. Have you not yet learned that my touch does not burn you?"
He reached under the bed and brought out the other two filigreed bands with chains attached. Quickly, slickly, he clasped the bands around her ankles. Then, he reached again under the edge of the bed and came out with four chains--the opposite ends of those that were linked to her bonds.
"A good pleasure slave must know how to receive as well as how to give pleasure. As a virgin, I expect you have no knowledge of these things, so we must teach you all. It is best that you be restrained to get full benefit from the early lessons. If you do not resist, there will be no pain."
Carelessly holding the chains in one hand, he walked to the head of the bed. Jaelle'n followed, taking care not to let the chains pull tight. From her place at the foot of the bed, she had thought the head sat against the wall. She now realized that was not the case. He drew aside the curtains to reveal an alcove behind the bed. On the wall, she saw a series of rings mounted in the stone. Before she could wonder what they were for, she found out.
With a smooth and impersonal touch, he turned her and backed her up to the wall. He visually measured her height against the rings, selected two, near level with her shoulders, and slipped the chains of her wristlets through the rings, drawing them up until her arms were extended straight out from her body. Then he secured her feet, pulling the chains until she stood with her legs apart, the length of at least two of her feet between her ankles.
The wall at her back felt cool and smooth, almost damp. She leaned against it, weakness washing over her as apprehension built in her mind. What's going to happen? What is he going to do? Whatever it was, she could not resist or evade. Indeed, she could not move more than a few inches, and that only by arching her back or pressing herself tight against the wall.
As Aguilar turned away, he gave a sharp whistle. Within moments, three small golden-skinned women appeared. Two carried large plumes and the third a bundle of thin withes. He spoke to them in a language Jaelle'n could not understand. The three all giggled, clearly amused by his orders or explanation.
One went around the bed and returned with a padded bench. Aguilar sat on it, across the alcove from Jaelle'n. Then the three women approached her. One with a huge tawny feather raised the plume and brushed it across Jaelle'n's face. For a moment, she thought she would sneeze, but she controlled the urge.
All over her face the feather traced, tickling and yet tantalizing. Under her chin, down her throat, across her lips, then slowly down between her breasts and across her stomach. Her muscles drew tight, but she held herself still. By exercise of will, she would control her response.
"Too easy," Aguilar said.
He spoke again to one of the small women. She scurried out to return with a silken scarf. Aguilar took it from her. He stepped up to Jaelle'n and quickly wrapped the band around her head, covering her eyes.
What a difference that made. Blind, she could not guess where the next touch would be, the next tickle or stroke. Her skin quivered as she had seen a horse's hide move, trying to shake off a fly. Every bit of her skin tensed, awaiting the next touch. She shivered, gasped and fought to hold still.
Suddenly, sharp stings replaced the silky strokes, once across her upper thighs and again, just beneath her breasts. The strikes left burning tingles, not true pain, but a sharp contrast to the feather's touches. Then she recalled the withes, not just one, but a whole bundle of them. She could be switched to agony! She bit her lip to hold back a moan. This added a whole new dimension to her torment. Tickle or sting? She had no way to know what to expect, no way to prepare for the sensation.
Something that felt like a small animal's soft fur brushed across her stomach, followed by a stinging slash. A feather teased the soft inner skin inside her elbows, behind her knees. It was horrible, but also intensely exciting. Her breasts grew full and heavy, the nipples swelling and stiff. Hot, slick moisture pooled between her legs. She quivered, sagging until the chains pulled on her wrists. Then her whole body drew taut and tense, every muscle going tight, waiting, an aching awareness centering somewhere beneath the arch of her ribs, behind the dimple of her navel and above the moist heat of her nether slit.
She had no way to measure how long the delicious, distressing torture continued. Tickles and slashes, strokes and brushes and cuts. Finally a whimper broke free. "Please, please." She trembled so she could hardly stand, muscles aching with their tension, yet unable to relax. When she sagged slightly, it put painful pressure on her wrists, and her hands grew numb.
"Please what, Slave?"
Aguilar's voice was too close! She felt the whisper of his breath across her throat, her cheeks, now moist with the sheen of sweat. Then hands cupped her breasts, his, by the size and strength of them. He brushed his thumbs across her erect nipples. She felt the touch clear to her toes. He stroked his hands down her sides to her hips and back up to her breasts.
"Is your body awake now, Slave? Does it want, does it need something?"
His words taunted, yet caressed. Smooth, low, calm and husky. They seemed to create a rhythm that matched the slow movements of his hands over her body. The rhythm of her heartbeat, of the blood surging through her veins, of her breath, in and out. If her hands were free, she would have torn the scarf off her face. The need to see, to be able to anticipate, grew greater with each passing second, each unexpected touch, yet she could do naught to satisfy it. She could only wait and let them come as they would. Endure or enjoy--or perhaps both.
"The body of this slave has come awake to sensations." The words were torn from her, without her willing them to be said. "It desires the Master's touch, needs his hands as it craves food and drink."
His hands slipped over her flesh, smoothing, stroking, sliding and seducing. Her skin reached for his touch, her muscles quivered with it. She was so weak she could scarcely stand, and yet she strained toward him, her flesh seeking his. She could not breathe. Her mouth fell open to let more air reach her straining lungs. Then his mouth came against hers, his tongue slipping between her parted lips. Now she really could not breathe, yet she had no desire to withdraw from the pressure of his lips on hers, from the thrusts of his tongue as he tasted and explored her. Dizzy and melting, she felt her legs give way. The bonds on her wrists cut into her arms as she sank against the chains.
In an instant, his arms came around her, lifting and supporting. He spoke a single sharp word, after which she heard a scurrying sound, then a soft jingle. Her arms dropped as the chains released, spilling musically down the wall. He lifted her into his arms, one supporting her shoulders and the other beneath her knees. His body felt hard and hot as he gathered her close. She felt him shift and turn, heard the chains tinkle, dragging from her wrists and ankles as he carried her. The scarf still covered her eyes, but she sensed he left the alcove and went to the bed.
When his arms withdrew, she hung for a moment in space. Then her body sank into the silky covering of the bed. She lay as she fell, sprawling, too drained to move, and yet each cell in her body still cried for relief and release. Deep inside she felt a throbbing, an empty aching hunger. As a bit of strength returned to her limbs, she writhed on the bed. From somewhere above, she heard the low rumble of his chuckle.