Back to the Book Talk

Tonight I will move to the more recent end of the list and cover two titles from 2013 and 2014. These are both gay romances since the last m/f one I wrote came out early in 2012.

Wrenching was a story I enjoyed writing. The first hero to appear to me is a young man with a handicap who has been living a tough life. I greatly admire people who never give up and continue to work to improve their lot and life and to overcome a lot of obstacles. Mal is definitely one of those! Then, his hero, rancher Dan, has troubles of his own even though he seems to have the world in his hands, owning a big, successful ranch. The title not only refers to Mal's trade of mechanic but also to some of the events and issues that the two men have to deal with. Betrayals and danger can be wrenching experiences!

Here is the blurb and cover:

Malachi Dunbar has not had an easy life. He’s struggled to overcome numerous roadblocks and hardships as he built himself a life as a mechanic, despite a serious handicap. He’s admired rancher Daniel Winslow from afar but never dreamed events would play out to land him in the amazing spot of being able to do a real service for his secret hero. Can Mal maintain his cool and a safe distance from Dan when they’re sharing a house and working to resolve a dangerous mystery?

Daniel Winslow says he does not have employees but friends who help him run the ranch he inherited from his father. Challenged by his younger stepbrother and facing perilous sabotage to his truck, he enlists the young mechanic to help solve the puzzle. He’d always wanted a real brother or a partner he could trust, but his stepbrother is not the right guy to fill that role. How about Mal, who brings some fine but rare qualities to the Flying W Ranch?

Last Train to Clarkdale was one of those heart stories, one very close and personal in some ways. Although my brother is not gay, otherwise he could almost be the inspiration for Clay, the first hero. Clay found solace in trains and railroad people as a kid and turned to that industry for a career. Noted photographers of wildlife and scenery were household names when I was growing up since my dad was in the second or third tier down of this career field for a time so it was easy to write about Jon and his lifestyle. There really is a town called Clarkdale and it was home to me for my teen years. And there now is a Verde Canyon Scenic Railroad that I have ridden and used as background for this story! 

Here is the blurb and the cover: 

For Clay, always a shy misfit who was bullied at school, contact with the railroad and railroaders in the small town where he grew up was a lifeline. He went on to a career in the industry, although not out on the track. Now, some odd compulsion draws him back to his long-departed home, despite the painful memories he has of the place.

A chance meeting with Jon, a famous world-traveling scenic and wildlife photographer, results from Clay’s impulse, and the men end up sharing an afternoon’s tourist rail trip. Clay develops an instant crush on the beefy man, but what can a geeky clerical-type rail-buff offer a hunk like Jon, a self-professed and footloose lone wolf? Can Clay be satisfied with a brief, hot vacation fling? Or can mutual interest in trains and photography provide enough common ground to form something more between them?

Give y'all a break

I am kind of tied up following a couple of sled dog races tonight so I am going to take a night off from posting books. My title Love is Snowblind woould fit the theme but it's not up yet. It is another Canine Cupids tale though. Meanwhile back to the Northern Lights 300 and the Two Rivers 100 and 200 (numbers are miles) races and some of my fave m ushers. And 'my' pet five pups I met at the Zirkle-Moore SP Kennel in August 2014 are running their first race!! Yep, I am bouncing off the walls. Hasta la manana!

On we go--still more books!

I have come now to one of my favorites! Doggone Love was my second gay romance and the first of a number of tales that became The Canine Cupids. This story is also my all time number one best seller and its popularity still carries on to the recent past. While some older stories rarely sell now, this one has sales every quarter, without fail. Most of the other Canine Cupids tales do too. I'll feature the first two tonight. Eight of them are collected in print in two anthologies, Canine Cupids and Canine Cupids 2.  All can be bought at my page http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/137-Deirdre-O-Dare.aspx  (titles are listed in alphabetical order)

A little side bar to Doggone Love. At the time I wrote it, I had one Australian Shepherd, a male named Rico. I'd  had to have my late husband's old dog put to sleep a few weeks earlier and Dr Vann in this story was inspired but the substitute vet who helped me send Sadie to the Rainbow Bridge. Then, I was looking for a female Aussie to keep Rico company. In this tale, I named the hero's beloved stock dog "Dixie Belle". When I got my girl a month or so later, she was already named--yep, Belle. I called her Belle Starr because she was a sly little bandit when it came to getting food and treats, even sometimes those she was not supposed to have! Coincidence or clairvoyance? Who knows.

Blurb and Cover for Doggone Love:  Solitary rancher Damon Carhart expects to spend the

rest of his life alone. Then an injury to a beloved stock dog sends him to the nearest veterinary clinic for help. His crusty old veterinarian friend is away and, in his place, is a young doctor in whom Damon initially has no faith. Once he entrusts his canine friend to Eric Vann’s care, however, everything begins to change...

And once desire gets a bite on him, what can he do but go along for the wild ride?

Eric Vann has loved animals all his life, following in an uncle’s footsteps to become a veterinarian. He knows if he ever finds a soul-mate it will be another male. When Damon comes in, fierce in defense of his favorite dog, Eric is immediately captivated.

Can he overcome the other man’s instinctive resistance to the powerful attraction that begins almost at once?

The second Canine Cupids tale resulted from a joking dare by a friend and fellow Amber Quill author. She knew I was not really into small dogs and challenged me to make one the canine hero of a tale. I did  have two other friends who had Maltese so I chose that breed for my unlikely canine hero in The Maltese Terror. I used a Colorado blizzard to cause teh two guys to meet, a storm much like one I lived through while I lived at Falcon, a town outside Colorado Springs, back in the 1970s

Blurb and Cover for The Maltese Terror:
Landscape architect Nick LeGrande has never 
experienced a more disastrous trip! When he ends up stranded in a Colorado blizzard, he’s glad to have the company of his little canine buddy, Cedric, which circumstances forced him to bring along. Then a sexy Samaritan rescues them and Nick is introduced to a world he hardly knew existed...and is quickly enthralled.

Caleb Storm is a loner, a rancher whose Native American blood sets him a bit apart from most of his fellows. When a spring blizzard dumps Nick LeGrande and his tiny dog into Caleb’s life, he and his old stock dog Cheyenne hardly know what to make of their visitors. Caleb finds Nick very attractive but doubts such a successful and urbane man could have any interest in him. Their dogs, however, hit it off from the start and seem to conspire to get their masters together. Can a pair of canine cupids work the necessary magic?

Back to the Books

No, I will not stop missing my friend for some time but life goes on for the living and I am a firm believer in that. My late husband and I had made a pact that the survivor would live, not merely exist and I've done my best to honor that for twelve and a half years. I hope all of my departed dear ones are looking down and feel at least some pride and pleasure in my small accomplishments.

Tonight I will cover two related Amber Heat tales (that is the m/f erotica line). The first is next as I go down the list so I will cover them both. Nellie's Rogue Stallion was my ninth release and a diversion from what I had written thus far since it was my first shape shifter tale. I am not too much into werewolves and some of the other popular shifter-critters so for my first effort, I chose a horse shifter! This story is told mostly in the heroine's POV although not in first person. She's a kind of True Grit type ranch girl, not much in awe of man, nature or animals. She's been raised by her father after her mother passed away. Her daddy is very protective, a situation she chafes at almost constantly. Will she ever have a beau, much less get married?  The cover is also one of my all time favorites so here it is along with the blurb.

Blurb: Nevada-raised Nellie Campbell despairs of ever finding love because her father, Jack, fiercely guards her chastity, keeping all virile men yards away from her. When she joins the hunt to capture a rogue stallion that has been stealing valuable mares from area ranchers, she learns Rogue Red is no ordinary horse. No way can she allow her father and the cowboys to kill or geld this magnificent creature. To help him escape, Nellie soon finds herself racing across the desert on the red stallion’s back, knowing there can be no return.

Yet all her father’s care to keep Nellie pure will now be for naught—because Rogue Red is also Steven Johns, descendant of a long line of shapeshifting were-horses. And as a man, he is even more gorgeous than he is as a horse!

Grief over the brutal slaying of his family has driven Steven to live in horse form for so long, his human side has almost been forgotten. Feisty yet charmingly naïve, Nellie reminds him there is more to life than leading his mares through the wilds while fighting off predators and angry ranchers.

But will Nellie's father ever abandon the chase with the ultimate goal of seeing Steven rendered harmless? It will take a tragedy and a heroic rescue to convince Jack Campbell that the right man for Nellie and the rogue stallion are both more than they seem...

 I really got caught up in the horse-shifter clan after I had written this story. I went back in time for the second tale to France in the 1700s to team another sheltered young woman with another dashing horse-shifter in Colette's Savage Stallion. Although I envision more tales of this magical race, they are yet in the idea and a few scenes stages. The next one, if I can get it done, will be back to the beginning where a prehistoric woman in Scythia (European steppe region) saves a mare and her foal from marauding wolves and is given the shifter gift by Epona, a Celtic horse goddess. It's about a third done so there is a good maybe it will appear in time if I can rehome these two tales or otherwise get an editor's interest! Here is the blurb for Colette's Savage Stallion, my 26th AQ release. The cover appears above.

Blurb:  Colette D'Estaing has adored Gaston, the horse master's eldest son, since they were both children. Now grown and of marriageable age, she must wed Charles de Fayette, an aristocratic and influential, yet foppish and dissolute friend of her father’s.

When her fiancé assaults her in the stable intent on raping her, however, a sleek and savage stallion comes to her rescue and kills the lecherous marquis. That’s when Colette learns that Gaston has inherited the ancient gift of shapeshifting into equine form.

Shocked and fearful, Colette urges Gaston to flee before he is accused of murder or witchcraft and put to death. But first she must convince him to take her virginity in one magical night of love...

One evening of silence

A friend passed away this morning and in her honor I will post a moment of silence here.  Her death was caused by ovarian cancer, a terrible disease that also took my mother. If you have lost a friend or relative to it, perhaps you might make a small donation to the American Cancer Society in memory of Daneal Cantor and your loved one as I shall be doing.
Go in peace and harmony, my friend. You are missed.

More Deirdre O'Dare Fiction

Treading Dangerous Ground was my first gay romance and my eighth release from Amber Quill. I mentioned it briefly in my discussion of Return to Atsileigh a few days ago. Now you get 'the rest of the story'. When I wrote this tale, I was still finding my way into writing heterosexual erotica. A group of AQ authors were talking in our yahoo group about the new trend in m/m romances and the possibility of doing some. I was initially of the opinion that I could not write one. Then a few days later, I began the day with an idea so urgent I wrote the first scene while I ate breakfast, using a small pocket sized tablet I used for my shopping lists!
From that first scene, which became  the real start of Treading Dangerous Ground, the story took shape. Using the same world but different characters although some with connections to the first two men, I later wrote Fire on Ice, and eventually Return to Atsileigh. I'm pretty sure there is yet one more story to tell which will wrap it all up! We'll see. And while I'm here, I will also feature Fire on Ice, my nineteenth AQ release and another Unifleet tale.

Here is the blurb and cover for Treading Dangerous Ground. You can find it at http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1321-Treading-Dangerous-Ground.aspx

Seasoned Unifleet officer Jayce Hightower takes care of his troops. That includes supporting green soldier Balt Donovan through his first exposure to combat. What Jayce has not expected, however, is that the striking young man will soon come to dominate his dreams, stirring unfamiliar and disturbing desires.

Once Jayce learns Balt is similarly attracted to him, the situation starts to careen out of control, putting both of their careers in jeopardy. Jayce almost welcomes the hazardous assignment that sends him alone to a distant, dangerous world.

But when Jayce's mission is betrayed, Balt comes to his rescue. Will Jayce finally be able to accept the unconditional love Balt offers him?

And here's the blurb and cover of Fire on Ice. It is at http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1320-Fire-On-Ice.aspx

Bard Welstaad is a model Uni-Fleet officer. He’s not sure what his unit is to accomplish, marching up an icy peninsula in the frozen hell of Gelada, but without his NCO, Gordon Farrell, he knows he can not keep the unit together fighting off Snow Wasps and the savage deadly cold. Not until tragedy strikes does Bard acknowledge the big sergeant means much more to him than simply being his right-hand man.

Gordon Farrell idolizes his captain as representing everything he reveres. His hero-worship of Bard has already turned into hidden passion, but until now, he has fought the impulse to act upon his feelings. The threat of imminent death as he fights to save Bard’s life, however, finally forces him to admit the strength of his desires.

With death stalking at their heels, the men can only hope to live long enough to share more than a single incredible night. Yet fate seems to conspire against them at every turn. Still, they cling to the frail hope that somehow their love will find a way to survive...

More Back List Books!

Yes, the back list titles seem to be unending, no?  Not quite but there are quite a few to go yet. Moving forward in my earlier releases, I have reached #7, To Protect and ...Seduce? Yes, it is a 'cop' story and in a subtle way pays tribute to the cop next door in my personal world who became my life partner for thirty-two great years and the little girl who still calls me her "wicked step mother" with a big grin, even though she has a couple of grown daughters now herself. This tale was an EPIC finalist in its category in the year it was released, 2006.

Here is the blurb sand cover for this tale, one of my personal favorites.

With her young son, Amy has fled an abusive relationship. The thought that her ex and his crime-focused family will find her, terrifies her. A remote mining town in Arizona provides temporary refuge. Then she learns her next door neighbor is a cop, and what a cop! He’s a gorgeous single father. But back home most of the police officers were in the Stavros family’s pockets. Will Arizona cops be different enough to trust?

Jack is struggling to raise his motherless daughter and uphold the law in Azurite, Arizona. His new neighbor stirs his libido but she seems to have some fearsome secrets as well as a son about his daughter’s age. When the children form a friendship, Jack and Amy's worlds begin to converge. Can he put an end to her nightmare and also be the man she needs?

Now, stepping backward on my more recent releases, here is another 2014 release. This story has a humorous beginning. A group of Amber Quill authors were working on some feline shapeshifter tales. I was reluctant to take part using the excuse that I am allergic to cats and really do not know a lot about them. Then like a persist itch, I began to picture a hero who worked in a zoo and although allergic to the feline clan was drawn to and worked with them... As often happens, my characters in this story really threw me some curves as they began to share their tale so I could transcribe it! And so, Catastrophe was born!

Here is the blurb and cover for this story. 

Although veterinary technician Carlton is violently allergic to cats, he loves them with an undying passion, enough to tolerate miserable symptoms to keep working with the felines in the San Maribal Zoo. The cheetahs especially fascinate him. Then he meets a mysterious stranger who is evasive about why he’s in the zoo after hours, and nude! This man tells Carl there’s a cat inside him wanting to get out. That sounds really crazy, and the suggested way to make the shift happen sounds even crazier—but exciting.

Zyl is a member of the ancient shifter tribe, or Were-Kind. His people are working to enforce humane treatment of animals and save endangered species. Hearing of a planned raid by an extreme animal rights group to free the denizens of zoos, they realize this will be a catastrophe. Joining forces with regular humans to avert the problem will mean “coming out” as the powerful beings they are. Again, a potential disaster. Attracted against his better judgment, Zyl teams up with the cat lover he met under awkward circumstances only to discover a valuable ally and a soul mate...