What’s up for 2020?

Happy New Year! Being the first day of the New Year, it seems like a good time to catch people up on what’s going on with me and my books, and what you can expect from me in 2020.

NEW

Spare the Rod has finally been released. You can find that here. The audio will be released sometime later this month.

Roped In has been re-released. This book was originally published by Amber, then by Riptide. It’s now been self-published by L.A. Witt. It has not changed from the Riptide edition.

CANCELED

In previous posts, I talked about a new Tucker Springs story. It was actually supposed to be the book where Matt and Jared made a visit to Tucker Springs to visit Bryan, who you met in Meant to Be. Well… I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Multiple issues have led to that book being shit-canned. I’d kind of still like to write that story, but there are a lot of behind-the-scenes issues to deal with, so I’m not sure it will ever happen.

UPCOMING

I’m finishing up a scifi story that I co-wrote with Cari Z. It’ll be called The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion. It’s more of a scifi about two brothers than a romance, but it does have a romantic subplot. We plan to publish that in late March or April of this year. Stay tuned for more details.

In theory, Charlie’s book (No Good Deed, book 4 of the Heretic Doms Club series) will be released this year too. Not making any promises on that. If it happens, it’ll be late in the year.

Also, if my calculations are correct (which they only are about half the time), the contracts with Totally Bound for the Oestend series are up this year, in which case, I’ll be self-publishing those, with audio, possibly with new covers, and possibly with new stories to go with them. We’ll see.

KEEPING UP TO DATE

The absolute best way to stay up-to-date on my books is in my Facebook group. You can find that here. Even though it’s on FB, I promise it is 100% drama free.

That’s everything. As always, thank you for your ongoing support. I hope you have a wonderful year!

Spare the Rod available for preorder! (Finally!)

It feels like it took forever, but Spare the Rod is finally done! Well, it still has to go through edits. But from a writing perspective, it’s finished. I can’t tell you what a huge relief it is, knowing this book will finally see the light of day. And it’ll be out in time for the holidays, which is wonderfully appropriate.

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Gray Andino is a Denver cop with a pain kink and a history of falling in love with the wrong people. He’s jealous of his friends’ newfound happiness, but with a brain that won’t shut up and a need to argue everything, finding his own soul mate seems impossible, so he settles for meaningless sex and doling out pain with willing subs.

Subs like Avery Barron.

When Avery asks to stay with Gray for a few weeks, Gray reluctantly agrees. Avery may be the perfect sub, but as an accidental roommate, he sucks. The younger child of rich, indulgent parents, Avery is an entitled slob with a disdain for rules, a lack of ambition, and an obsession with social media. Gray tolerates his presence, but when Avery breaks one of Gray’s ground rules, he punishes him and takes away his phone.

Deprived of his usual echo chamber, Avery feels lost until he discovers a local tap house, a piano, and his buried love of music. The more Avery plays, the more the community around him blossoms. For the first time in his life, Avery has a purpose and goals for the future. But the thing he longs for most — Gray’s love and respect — may be forever out of reach.

Preorder it here!

Update: Heretic Doms Club

I know the original projected release date for Gray’s book (Spare the Rod, book 3 of the Heretic Doms Club) was June of 2019. I’m sorry to say, that isn’t going to happen. The first draft of Spare the Rod is finished, but the book needs massive revisions. And I do mean massive. Unfortunately, I have another deadline looming (for the new Tucker Springs book), so Spare the Rod has been placed on hold indefinitely. Once I’ve finished this current book, I’ll get back to it. Best case scenario, I’m able to release it around September of this year. Worst case scenario is about June of 2020. Most likely scenario is somewhere in between.

I know this isn’t what people want to hear. Believe me, nobody wishes this book was done more than I.

Thank you for your patience.

Reissue of Release and Return

I’ve decided to re-release the Davlova series (Release and Return) under my regular pen name, Marie Sexton.

Back when I first released these books, they were vastly different from everything else I’d written. These books are dark, treading a bit into taboo territory. Everything else I’d written was light and fluffy, like Coda. It made sense to use a slightly different pen name.

But these days, both my own work and the genre in general have broadened. Darker fiction and taboo topics are more accepted now than they were only a few years ago. It no longer makes much sense to keep these books separate from my other work. So, I’m reissuing both books under my regular name.

Also, for the next few days, Release will be FREE from Amazon. You can find them here:

RELEASE

RETURN

Promises 2nd edition now available for preorder!

The new and improved 2nd edition of Promises is now available for preorder!

Why a 2nd edition?

I’ve had a lot of readers ask what the point of second editions is. In many cases, the 2nd edition exists because the publisher of the first edition went out of business, or because the original contract is (for some reason) no longer valid. But the first edition is still the property of that specific publisher, whether they’re in business or not. So the author can choose to publish a 2nd edition, or to have the book out of print forever. Of course, most of us opt for the former. For almost every one of my books that has a 2nd (or even 3rd) edition, it’s one of those two reasons.

BUT, Promises is the exception. The 2nd edition of Promises exists because it’s now receiving mass market release. That’s exciting! The thing is, Promises was the first book I ever wrote, and boy, did it show. Plus, editing in the ebook world just wasn’t as good in 2009 as it is now. We (the publisher and I) wanted to fix it up before releasing it into the broader book world. Believe me, if I ever happen to see Promises on the shelf at Target, I want it to be the best version of the book it can be. And that meant new edits.

What about it is “new”?

The next question most of you will ask is, “Has anything changed?” The best answer I can give is, everything has changed, and nothing has changed at all. I deleted a billion exclamation points. I cut a lot of dialog tags and corrected filtering and passive voice as much as I could. I made tons of tiny changes. But the story you know (and hopefully love) is the same as it was.

All but one small scene.

See, back when I wrote Promises, I had no idea I’d be building a series around it. I certainly didn’t anticipate Jared and Cole’s friendship becoming the lynchpin of the whole Coda universe. But now that I know what I know, it seemed odd to me that Jared wouldn’t mention Matt to Cole until the next morning. So the scene with Cole has been expanded just a tiny bit, much to Cole’s delight. 😉

The 2nd edition of Promises also includes a brand new Coda novella, Meant to Be. This is basically a prequel to the Coda stories. I’m sure I’ll write a blog post at some point on why exactly I opted for a prequel. But not today.

Promises also has a brand new cover. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to share that publicly yet or not. But you can see it early by joining my Facebook group.

The audio version of the book will also be remade, this time with John Solo narrating!

Stop talking and give me the goods!

Oh yeah. There’s a new blurb too. 🙂 Here it is. Scroll to the bottom for the buy link.

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Can a man who loves his small hometown trust it to love him back?

Jared Thomas has lived in the mountain town of Coda, Colorado, his whole life. He can’t imagine living anywhere else. But Jared’s opportunities are limited—the only other gay man in town is twice his age, and although Jared originally planned to be a teacher, the backlash that might accompany the gig keeps him working at his family’s store instead.

Then Matt Richards moves to town.

Matt may not be into guys, but he doesn’t care that Jared is. A summer camping and mountain biking together cements their friendship, but when Matt realizes he’s attracted to Jared, he panics and withdraws, leaving Jared all too aware of what he’s missing.

Facing Matt’s affair with a local woman, his disapproving family, and harassment from Matt’s coworkers, Jared fears they’ll never find a way to be together. But for the first time, he has the courage to try… if he can only convince Matt.

Includes the Coda series prequel novella, Meant to Be

Jared has simple goals for his freshman year of college: make friends, lose his virginity, come out, and maybe fall in love. He doesn’t anticipate getting caught between his friend Bryan and Bryan’s flamboyant ex. Through the awkwardness, Jared learns love doesn’t always mean sex and the most meaningful connections might have nothing to do with romance.

Promises will be released on May 14 by Dreamspinner Press. ORDER IT HERE

State of the Author

As usual, I’ve been pretty lax about posting on my blog, so I figured it was time to do a sort of “state of the author” type of update.

Heretic Doms Club

Book three of the Heretic Doms Club, Spare the Rod, is almost done. This is going to be a long one — probably around 150k by the time I finish. It’s going to need a lot of revisions, and then (obviously) edits. Best case scenario, it’ll be published in early April. Worst case is more like June. As soon as I know for sure, I’ll let you know, believe me. I’ll be shouting it from the internet rooftops. John Solo and I hope to have the audio ready for release around the same time.

I have to say, Gray might be the end of my career. I know a lot of readers think they’re ready for his book, but I have a feeling a certain percentage of you will decide you don’t like Gray at all. All I can say is, Gray put the “heretic” in the Heretic Doms Club, and he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder at the moment.

Book four, No Good Deed, will have to wait. There’s one other project I need to sneak in before Charlie gets his turn (see below), so unfortunately book four probably won’t be ready until 2020. (But hopefully, early in 2020.)

Tucker Springs

Tucker Springs has been moved from Riptide Publishing to Dreamspinner Press. Book one (written by L.A. Witt) is available now. Second Hand (written by Heidi Cullinan and me) is available for preorder now. It comes out January 8th. There are no big changes. We did discover one small timeline discrepancy. Sorting that out required the addition of one small scene. But overall, the story remains as it was before.

Never a Hero will be released on or around July 5th. I haven’t done the edits on that one yet, so I’m not sure how extensive the changes will be, but I do anticipate some pretty big revisions. We’ll see.

That project I need to sneak in between Gray and Charlie’s books? It’s a new Tucker Springs book! All three Tucker Springs authors (me, Heidi Cullinan, and L.A. Witt) will be writing brand new novels in the Tucker Springs universe. Those will be released in 2020. (Mine is slated for January 7th, to be exact.) Not sure exactly what mine will look like, but I will say this: now that Coda and Tucker Springs share a publisher, it’s possible you’ll see some familiar Colorado residents show up for a visit on the Western Slope. 😉

Due to contractual obligations, the original Riptide versions of the audio books will still be sold. There won’t be any new versions of the audio books, although the three new novels will have audio through Dreamspinner Press. Clear as mud?

Coda

I’m smack in the middle of re-editing Promises for its mass market release. It’ll have a new blurb and a new cover. (I loved the old one, but the publisher feels it should be updated for the mass market version.) Not sure when exactly it will be released, but sometime in 2019. [Note: I’ve just been informed that we’re aiming for a May release.]

Promises was the first book I ever wrote, and it had a lot of sloppy writing in it that needed to be cleaned up. But don’t worry! I doubt most readers will notice the changes.

All but one, that is.

See, back when I wrote Promises, I had no idea I’d be building a series around it. I certainly didn’t anticipate Jared and Cole’s friendship becoming so pivotal to the entire setup. But now that I know what I know, Cole’s visit felt wrong. It didn’t make sense to me that Jared wouldn’t mention Matt to Cole until the next morning. So Cole’s scene has been expanded just a bit, and darling, he couldn’t be happier.

Speaking of Cole, the mass market version will contain a brand new short story called Meant to Be. It’s sort of a prequel, where we get to see how Cole and Jared met and became friends.

Everything Else

Honestly, I’m not sure there is much else. Between Tucker Springs and Charlie, I anticipate being plenty busy in 2019. The one other project I’ve been considering is an anthology of short stories set in the Oestend universe. But I can’t make any promises in that regard at the moment.

I’ll be at RARE in Rome in September, but at the moment, that’s the only convention I’m planning on.

If you haven’t joined my Facebook group yet, you can do that here. That’s really the only place on Facebook that I hang out. I find Facebook to be a pretty negative place overall, but you’ll find none of that negativity in my private group.

Feel free to drop me a line in the comments below, or email me at msexton.author@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments. Thank you to everybody who still reads/buys my books. I truly appreciate your support.

If You Liked _____, You Might Also Like _____.

I’ve had several people contact me lately to say, “I enjoyed [x] story. Have you written anything else like that?” So I thought I’d do a quick “If you liked X, you might like Y” post telling you what other books I think might match certain fan favorites. I’ve chosen these recommendations based on similar themes, and/or similar levels of kink (or lack thereof). 

Keep in mind, I’m only talking about my own books here, mostly because I don’t read romance, so I have no idea how to match my books up with other books out there in the broader literary world. 

Here’s what I cam up with. Enjoy. 🙂 

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If you liked Coda (Promises, Strawberries for Dessert, etc.), you might also enjoy: Tucker Springs, Tales of the Curious Cookbook, Wrench Wars (you can find all those here). Also, Between Sinners and Saints, Family Man, Chapter Five and the Axe-Wielding Maniac.

 

If you liked One More Soldier, you might also enjoy: To Feel the Sun, Trailer Trash

 

If you liked Between Sinners and Saints, you might also enjoy: Family Man, Trailer Trash, Winter Oranges

 

If you liked Blind Space, you should check out: Song of Oestend, Saviours of Oestend, Roped In, One Man’s Trash, Release

 

If you liked Tucker Springs, you might like: Coda, Roped In, Wrench Wars

 

If you liked Cinder, check out: Winter Oranges, Damned If You Do

 

If you liked One Man’s Trash, you might enjoy: Release (published and A.M. Sexton), Roped In, Song of Oestend

 

If you liked The Well, try: Shotgun, Trailer Trash

MM Back to School Short Story Giveaway

I’m participating in the MM Back to School Short Story Giveaway, with over thirty other authors! Now, because I was a late arrival to the group, and because I write slow and short stories just aren’t my forte, I will unfortunately not have a NEW story to give away. But, you’ll be able to download Chapter 5 and the Axe-Wielding Maniac, along with stories from this amazing group of authors. So much yumminess, all in one place! The stories go live on Tuesday, August 28th. You can find them HERE.