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Book Blast and Review – AUDIO Life Lessons by Kaje Harper

AUDIOBOOK and EBOOK TOUR

Book Title: Breaking Cover (Life Lessons Book 2)

Author and Publisher: Kaje Harper

Narrator: JF Harding

Release Date: June 29, 2022

Genre: Contemporary/Mystery M/M romance

Tropes: Modest age-gap, in the closet

Themes: Coming out, gay parenting

Heat Rating:  4 flames

Length: 9 hours and 46 minutes

It is best read after book 1.

The book does not end on a cliffhanger. It has a solid HFN ending, not yet a HEA. Audiobooks 3 and 4 scheduled for later this summer.

Goodreads

Issue Heavy but a Good Addition to the Series

I am a huge fan of Kaje Harper. Not only is she an amazing writer, but she is also a wonderful person. I’ve read several of her books, including the first book of this series. First, let me say, the audio version of this book is astounding. JF Harding has a wonderful voice and he adds so much emotion and dimension to the characters. Quite superb.

The best thing about the book: the kids. I love the ‘found child’ or ‘thrust upon child’ tropes (that’s what I call them.) and I thought the kids were great and the parental figures almost too perfect to be real. Quite a delight and Harding brought them to life just as well as the adults.

I loved Life Lessons, but this second book, Breaking Cover hits personal pet peeves/things I don’t enjoy. It was just too close to real life. There is a lot of gay bashing/troubled LGBT teens/bigotry in the work place/talk of therapy. This takes up quite a bit of the novel, so much so the detective plot got lost. And yes, this happens and is a real thing, but it stresses me out. Much of this book stressed me out and I like to read to relax. One reason I read fantasy more, it isn’t so much overly political.

Another thing I didn’t care for was Tony’s demand for Mac to be open about his sexuality when Mac obviously wasn’t ready. And how the book played it, he was right to keep himself safe however he felt he should. But Tony pushed and pushed and I think I would have enjoyed the story if Mac’s coming out was caused more by the plot and Tony was supportive of him from the get go, versus having Tony put pressure on him and then have the plot play its part. Tony’s focus on his own wants, going back on what he previously promised Mac, were my least favorite parts.

But, they are both out and living with it now. The novel had a good strong conclusion. The mystery/detective plot did fade for awhile, but by the end it was going full force and had a descent conclusion I didn’t quite see coming but was totally laid out! Fans of contemporary gay romance will love it. Great job!

Buy Links – Audible, KU and Paperback

Audible US  |  Audible UK

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

Sometimes one moment defines a man

Blurb

For homicide detective Mac, it’s been a good year. Having Tony to go home to makes him a better cop and a better person. For Tony, it’s been hard being in love with a man he can’t touch in public. Evasions and outright lying to friends and family take a little of the shine off his relationship with Mac, but Tony is determined to make it work.

As the Minneapolis Police Department moves into a hot, humid summer, Mac is faced with a different challenge. A killer has murdered two blond women, and the police have no real clues. Mac hates to think that another murder may be the only way they’ll make progress with the case. But when that murder happens, it hits close to home for Tony. And suddenly Mac faces an ultimatum: come out into the sunlight and stand beside Tony as his lover, or walk away and live without a piece of his heart.

About the Author  

I get asked about my name a lot. It’s not something exotic, though. “Kaje” is pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname, and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I’ve been writing far longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty-five years*), although mostly for my own entertainment. I write M/M romance, often with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi, paranormal… I also have Young Adult short stories (some released under the pen name Kira Harp.)  

After decades of writing just for fun, my husband convinced me I really should submit something, somewhere. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out in May 2011. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks and print, both free and professionally published, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow Award Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact. A complete list with links can be found on my website “Books” page at https://kajeharper.com/books/. 

Social Media Links

Audible Profile  |  Blog/Website  |  Newsletter Sign-up

Facebook | Facebook Group: Kaje’s Conversation Corner  

Goodreads Author page  | BookBub

Meet the Narrator

JF Harding Facebook Page  |  Facebook Group

Hosted by Gay Book Promotions

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New Release – Blooded by Nat Kennedy #giveaway

Gay Book Promotions

BLOG TOUR

Book Title:Blooded

Author: Nat Kennedy

Cover Artist: Silvana Sanchez – Selfpub Designs

Release Date: September 25, 2021

Genre: Fantasy/Vampires

Tropes: Hurt/comfort, antagonists to allies/lovers, past student/teacher, vampire blood feeding, vampire blood bond

Themes: Redemption, Personal Acceptance

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 113 500 words/290 pages

It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon US | Amazon UK

How far will two sorcerers go to save humanity? Will they give up their lives? Will they give up their hearts?

Blurb

A broken mage. A penitent vampire. Can they put aside the horrors of the past to save each other?

Plagued with erratic. volatile magic, Nicodemus Green focuses his entire life to stop an evil sorcerer who brainwashes or kills anyone in his path to domination. Ten years into this crusade, Nick stumbles upon his former Academy instructor in the Austrian…

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Cover Reveal – Blooded by Nat Kennedy #giveaway

Gay Book Promotions

COVER REVEAL

Book Title:Blooded

Author: Nat Kennedy

Cover Artist: Silvana Sanchez – Selfpub Designs

Release Date: September 25, 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Tropes: Hurt/comfort, antagonists to allies/lovers, past student/teacher, vampire blood feeding, vampire blood bond

Themes: Redemption, Personal Acceptance

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 113 500 words/290 pages

It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

How far will two sorcerers go to save humanity? Will they give up their lives? Will they give up their hearts?

Blurb

A broken mage. A penitent vampire. Can they put aside the horrors of the past to save each other?

Plagued with erratic. volatile magic, Nicodemus Green focuses his entire life to stop an evil sorcerer who brainwashes or kills anyone in his path to domination. Ten years into this crusade, Nick stumbles upon his former Academy instructor in the Austrian Alps. The strict and pious Byron Domitius…

View original post 376 more words

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It’s coming

It’s been a while, oh readers. I’ve been working hard on fiction and didn’t feel like I had much to say. But now, I’ve a bunch to say! A whole book worth!

I’ve completed Blooded! I’m in final editing and formatting. It’s close! This will be my first print and audio version of a book, so plenty of learning curbe.

Angsty vampire, broken mage. Old instructor, now adult student. Past animosity forced into an alliance. Can they see beyond their past to save the world?

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Isolation

As with many of you, the quarantine and lockdown many of us have found ourselves in is putting our emotional teeter out of wack. I’m still working my day job from home, so I’m stuck in one room now, while at the office I wandered around and could talk to people about roadblocks I came upon. I’m still emailing and talking to people, but I find I’m sitting far more. And so I’m sitting in the same place I normally write and I find it hard to want to sit there more hours in my day to write creatively.

I want to use this time. I have no social engagements, nothing to pull myself from writing other than my day job, but I’m far less productive. It’s sad really.

Perhaps it’s a mindset I need to flip a switch on, and I hope to do that now. On the weekends put more effort into my novels, which I so love writing.

I need to plant a tree in my heart, so a bird might come and perch and sing me a song. Or so the Chinese say.

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The Best Words to Write

 

… Well at least when you’re working on a draft, it is.  Now the book is off to beta readers.  It’s all an iteration.

This is how editing works for me.

  • Bang out a rough draft.  I mean BANG it.  It’s rough, it’s wild, it sometimes contradicts itself and is a bit of a wild child, but it’s still your child and you love it.  My rough drafts are usually mechanical, very action focused without much emotional depth or scenes.
  • Let it sit, think about it.  During this period, I jot down ideas to change, to fix, to deepen.
  • Time to edit!  I go through four to six versions of each novel.  Each pass I focus on more specific things, like adding emotion, expanding world building, then I go for passes for plot consistency and flow, pacing, any holes that are obvious.  And then a final pass for typos.  All these passes take me some time.
  • Then off to beta readers.  I have various ones who will help with plot, or writing voice, or typos.  A variety of skills in my editing peeps is always valuable.
  • Then back to more polish, fixing the things my betas brought up and I agree with.  Sometimes it’s big stuff, sometimes it’s not.  It’s important to know what to change and what you feel is done correctly.  Trust your gut… but as I say that, I also think that if three or more betas agree with a thing, then I should probably change it.

What is your editing process?  How many drafts or passes do you make?  Do you use any computer tools to help with the editing?  I use word spelling/grammar checker, then Grammarly, then I pay another set of eyes to review the entire thing.  I always miss typos, but I do catch many.

Happy writing!  And for fans of my stuff, look for a new book this year!

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2020 Comes in Like Lion (or is that March?)

The new year has always been a time of reflection and focus. I’ve had some good years, and some better years, and some years that shall not be named.

2019 was one of the better ones. I self-published Afflicted to the Core, which is the third Wielder World book. I also put groundwork on Wielder World 4, as well as a new stand alone mage/vampire contemporary fantasy.

Writing is a love, a somewhat expensive hobby, and an avenue I plan on walking far into retirement (which is still far away). Juggling a day job and writing has always been a challenge, but I hope to carve our more writing time for 2020.

With the more hours goal in mind, I hope to deliver you the two books mentioned above in 2020. And possibly another novella.

I also plan to hike more, and take more dazzling pictures, of which you can see in my natkennedybooks Instagram. Join me there and see what I’m up to.

Any goals for 2020? Writing or otherwise? Here is a cheering section for you!

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NaNoWriMo – Time to saddle up.

November. To some it may mean Thanksgiving, the fall, raking leaves, visiting vetran’s graves. Many things. To me, it’s a focused month of writing for National Novel Writer’s Month aka NaNoWriMo.

The goal: 50,000 words in 30 days.

This will be my 14th NaNo. I started in 2004. Took a few years off, but have succeeded in every goal I’ve made for NaNo. I have a trunk full of rough drafts.

This year, I will be writing Wielder World 4! Looking forward to getting back to Reggie, August and Kyle. I want to squish them, I love them so much.

If you go to the website, there are lots of prep posts and documents. Check out NaNo Prep 101. Some of them are rockin’ useful, so give them a look at. I’m an outliner, so personally the outlining post/handout was useful for me.

Here are some tips, from me to you:

Outlining keeps the flow going, but don’t forget that you can off outline if the muse strikes

For people who abhor outlines, ignore this, but just think, maybe a little outline might help you, if you ever get stuck on ‘what happens next?’

Do not edit as you go

This will only slow you done. Go forth, writer, and get that junk down. Sure, it’s a rough draft, it will probably be junk, but that is what the glory of editing is for.

Write every day

This is the most important. Get into the habit. Sit your butt in the chair and do the thing. Don’t whine about it. Don’t talk yourself out of it. Just sidle up to it, so it’s not really paying attention to you, sit down and DO IT. Nobody can make you write but you. And to be a published author, to get a book finished, to have that warm fluffy accomplishment feeling, you have to write the words first.

Good luck and may the words flow smoothly.

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A Personal Interview by Rita Chapman

I love doing interviews, asking and giving. It’s a way for me to talk about myself (which most people love to do) as well as talk to others, get them to share parts of themselves with their audience.

Rita Chapman, an author herself, asked me a few questions and I’d love to share them here with you! Go to her website (Rita Chapman’s Nat Kennedy Interview) to read the transcript there:

But I’ve snipped my favorite question here. Because it’s all about Pickle.

If you have owned pets, do you have a funny story you would like to share with us?

When I was young I used to raise sheep for 4-H. My first lamb was Pickle, and he was like a pet dog. He would follow me around, running after me as I rode my bike, baaing along, happy as could be. We would climb up this platform at the fairgrounds, and he would leap off. Leap! As in up into the air, not just jump down to the ground. He was known as Pickle the Flying Sheep by many of the locals.

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Upcoming: Afflicted to the Core

Coming June 14, the next installment to the Wielder World: Afflicted to the Core.

At the conclusions of the paired novellas, Edge of Desperation and Center of Deception, Reggie, August, and Kyle had all escaped the Mara Murda cult lodge on Steptoe Mountain, where Reggie had been skinned and August had been juiced up on a powerful Nerve enhancing drug. Kyle learned just how bad the cults were and just how far Reggie would go for him.

The upcoming novel follows Reggie, August, Kyle and Bethany, Reggie’s sister, as they uncover more and more layers to the conspiracy behind the drugs and cults. It also delves more into just how dedicated these three men can be to each other.

If you’re interested in an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC), please contact me! (natkennedybooks at gmail)

Reggie Wolfe religiously visits Kyle Landon—his student in Nerve detangling—at the Harpford Disentanglement Center, where the younger man has been incarcerated on trumped up charges. During one of Reggie’s visits, Kyle’s able to warn his teacher of an imminent unauthorized transfer by an unknown shadow agency. Reggie demands help from his sister at the Bureau of Wielder Services but is pressed to take the matter into his own hands when bureaucratic red-tape stymies her actions. Breaking into a secret medical installation, Reggie and August Whalen find Kyle and six other men hooked to IVs, unknown chemicals pumping into their systems.

The three are caught up in a quest to find an antidote for the drugs and discover who is behind the powerful anti-male Wielder organization. On this dangerous road, will they forever remain friends, or give in to their growing attraction?

Cover Reveal coming May 23. Watch this space!