Last Call, by Sarah Ballance

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Marie Sexton

LAST CALL by Sarah Ballance – Romantic suspense for just 99 cents!

LastCall 500x750In a perilous game of trust, a shocking betrayal deals a dangerous hand.

An accidental witness to a murder-for-hire, ex-cop Rhys Clark becomes the target of ruthless killer—one determined to silence her at any cost. Playing dead seems to be the most likely way to stay alive, but when her protection comes in the form of mega-sexy former adversary Nick Massey, Rhys can think of  a few fates worse than death.

Nick Massey may have walked away from his troubles, but he never got past wanting Rhys. Once paired undercover, they’d been nothing but fireworks until a botched assignment ended her career, sending his into a tailspin. Now a mysterious client threatens Nick’s life if he doesn’t keep Rhys safe, but it isn’t until fate takes a critical turn that he realizes the devastating truth: he’s been her greatest threat all along.

Title: LAST CALL

Author: Sarah Ballance

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: For the Muse Publishing, 2013

ISBN 13: 978-0-9889995-0-3

LAST CALL is available from: For the Muse Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (formats: .mobi, .epub, HTML, PDF, RTF, LRF, PalmDoc, and Plain Text). Click here to add to Goodreads or here for reviews.

Cover art by For the Muse Design

Read an excerpt!  Continue reading →

Posted in Guest Bloggers | 4 Comments

The Winner!

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Marie Sexton

We used Random.org to select a winner (because we loved all the entries and couldn’t decide), and the winner is: Waldo!

Waldo Cover

Thanks so much to everybody who participated!

 

Posted in Flowers for Him | 1 Comment

Graffiti Our Cover Entries

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Marie Sexton

We had so much fun with the Graffiti Our Cover entries! We loved seeing what you all came up with. Here are the five entries we received. Click on them to see the full details. They’re really fantastic. Now all we have to do is choose a winner…

We’ll do that soon. For everybody else, please keep in mind that you can buy Promoted by the Billionaire (which includes Flowers for Him) from Total E-Bound. If you buy it now, you’ll get a 10% discount, AND you’ll be able to download the anthology immediately. (It will be available from other book vendors on April 29th.)

Thanks to everybody who participated in the contest! We’ll announce our winner soon. :-)

Posted in Flowers for Him | 4 Comments

Still Time to Enter!

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Marie Sexton

First of all, Promoted by the Billionaire is available now from Total E-Bound! They call it “pre-order,” but if you buy it now, you get a 10% discount, PLUS you’ll be able to download it immediately. (It will be available on other retail sites on April 29th.) Go here to buy it.

Also, there’s still time to enter the Graffiti Our Cover contest! For the record, you do NOT have to display fantastic graphical talent to enter. Feel free to use crayons, markers, finger paints… Whatever! We’re easy! You can see details here.

promotdbythebillionaire_800 flowersforhim_800

Posted in Flowers for Him | Leave a comment

Contest: Graffiti Our Cover!

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Marie Sexton

Promoted by the Billionaire, which includes my story Flowers for Him (co-written with Rowan Speedwell) will be out in just a couple of days! Rowan and I can’t wait for you to meet our uptight billionaire, Chandler, and our graffiti-artist turned hippie muralist, Neil.

We each received our author copies of the anthology today, and we were trying to come up with a fun contest in order to give one away. But what could we do? A random giveaway on Goodreads or Twitter, sure. But what else? And as we talked about it, we kept coming back to our cover.

flowersforhim_800

Now, it’s sort of a stereotype that all m/m stories feature two buff, super-hot men, but the truth is, both of our heroes are fairly average. One is in his thirties, and the other in his forties. They’re cute, sure. But not big or muscular. Not necessarily drop-dead gorgeous. Who then, you might ask, is that sexy studmuffin on your cover?

It’s a fair question, and the truth is, we don’t know either. And although we sure don’t mind looking at him, we can’t help but notice that there’s nothing to indicate that our story is about an artist. Not just any artist, either, but a graffiti artist who loves nature and messiness and color.

And then it came to us.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to Graffiti Our Cover!!

The rules are simple. Take that cover and graffiti it up, any old way you’d like. (If you click on the image, it’ll take you to a larger file, which you can download.) Be fun and creative. (Don’t just draw a penis over his face!) Send your entry back to me at msexton.author@gmail.com. We’ll make a gallery of the entries, and then we’ll choose a winner. (Probably by random selection, but depending on how many entries we get, we may institute some kind of voting system.)

Contest closes at 5:00 pm MST on Tuesday, April 2nd. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Posted in Flowers for Him | 4 Comments

Please Vote for Blind Space (if you feel so inclined)

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Marie Sexton

Blind Space has been nominated by The Romance Reviews for Best GLBT SciFi novel. If you’d like to vote for it, you can go here. (You’ll need to log in in order to vote.) If not, no worries. :-)

Posted in Blind Space | 2 Comments

Family Man Available Now!

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Marie Sexton

Read the Reviews:

“The partnership of Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan brought all the best things about their work together into one delightful book. I can’t recommend Family Man highly enough.”  — Joyfully Reviewed

“It really was so beautifully done and I truly loved it.  Warm and romantic and touching and sexy… Excellent story and one that I highly recommend.   — Joyfully Jay

“It grabbed my attention and didn’t let it go until I had finished the last word before I went to bed. You could say that I devoured it!”   — Under The Covers

(You can also find a fun bit of video of Heidi and I at GayRomLit at the Under The Covers link!)

*****

Sometimes family chooses you...

How does a man get to be forty without knowing whether he’s gay? That’s a question Vince Fierro is almost afraid to answer. If he is gay, it’ll be a problem for his big, fat Italian family. Still, after three failed marriages, he can’t help but wonder if he’s been playing for the wrong team.

There’s only one way to settle it, once and for all—head for Chicago’s Boystown bars, far from anyone who knows him. Naturally, he runs smack into someone from the neighborhood.

Between working two jobs, going to school, taking care of his grandmother, and dealing with his mother’s ongoing substance abuse, Trey Giles has little time for fun, let alone dating someone who swears he’s straight. Yet after one night of dancing cheek-to-cheek to the sultry strains of Coltrane, Trey finds himself wanting to help Vinnie figure things out—no promises, and no sex.

It seems like a simple plan, until their “no-sex” night turns into the best date of their lives and forges a connection that complicates everything.

BUY IT HERE:

Posted in Family Man | Leave a comment

Baths: Fantasy vs. Reality

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Marie Sexton

As readers and writers of romance, we’re all aware of how reality often doesn’t live up to fantasy. I have found this is never more true than when we’re talking about baths. Heidi’s husband Dan talked about this once, and I tossed in my two cents. But this morning, as I lay scrunched up in my tub wishing somebody would bring me breakfast, I found myself thinking about it more.

All too often, TV shows and movies show us this image of a woman luxuriating in a tub. She’s surrounded by candles, holding a glass of wine, possibly reading. Her hair is dry and lovely, her makeup unsmudged, and all of her lady-bits are tactfully covered by bubbles.

You know. This image:

It’s about as far from reality as we can get, and all I could think was, “It’s time to debunk this bullshit!”

Let’s start with all those damn candles. Either somebody had to light them for her, or she lit them AFTER she was in the tub. Otherwise, it means she climbed nude over open flames, and let’s face it, that’s a damn stupid thing to do. In reality, by the time you finish lighting all those candles, your water is cold, your bubbles are gone, your toes are pruny, your wine glass is empty, and you have to pee.

Of course, all that assumes you’re one of those lucky people with a giant bathtub. I don’t have one of those. My baths look more like this:

I can either submerge my body (minus the buoyant bits) and have my legs sticking up the wall, or I can have my legs in the water and the rest of me shivering against the side of the tub. Instead of candlelight and wine, I have cat hair and (if I’m lucky) a can of Sprite. At least in this house, I have my own tub. Before we moved, my baths looked like this:

What does this have to do with my books? Not a god damn thing. But man, the next time I see some goddess reclining in a luxurious sea of bubbles and rose petals, I just might have to shank a bitch.

Posted in random blathering | 17 Comments

Promoted by the Billionaire: Flowers for Him

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Marie Sexton

Coming Soon

Flowers for Him

by Marie Sexton and Rowan Speedwell

Part of the Promoted by the Billionaire anthology

This anthology also includes JP Bowie, Sara York, Em Woods, Noelle Keaton and SL Majors. The anthology will be available for pre-order on March 19th. You’ll be able to purchase it directly from Total E-Bound starting April 1st, and from other vendors (i.e., Amazon, ARe) on April 29th. The stories will also be available individually, but not until later (I don’t know when, exactly).

Buy link coming soon.

Posted in Flowers for Him | Leave a comment

Book Boyfriends!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Marie Sexton

We all have our favorite book boyfriends and now you have the chance to create one just for yourself and your fantasies! How do you play? Fill out the quiz bellow, post a picture of sexy man and tag five other book addicts to do the same. Don’t forget to pop over to their blogs and let them know they have been tagged! Once tagged… you have to do the same, answer the questions and keep it rolling! But don’t forget the picture of the sexy man!

I was tagged by Amberly Smith, so go check out her Book Boyfriend too!

Here are the questions.

Hair color and style: I like dark hair. I used to be partial to long hair, but these days, I’m leaning more toward short and a bit spiky. Mostly, I like them to be a bit rough around the edges. I don’t like my guys too clean-cut.

Eye color and facial features: Eye color doesn’t matter so much as the gaze. And I really like stubble.

Height and body type: Not too tall, not too short. I do like cut men. Tattoos are a plus, but aren’t required.

Visible age: 35+ (No youngsters for me, thanks.)

Bangability? Kinky? Bi? Etc?: None of those things are bad, but they’re not required.

Interests: I like men who are intelligent and who don’t have to put others down to make themselves feel good. Whether they’re blue- or white-collar, I like a man who’s confident and proud of what he does. And he has to like football (but no Raiders fans allowed).

Human or Alien or Shifter?: Human. For sure.

Paranormal skills: No.

Natural habitat: Outdoors.

Special skills: Ummm…. the ability to induce Earth-shattering orgasms?

Oh look! Here he is now….

Now, I’m supposed to tag five other people. I choose Rowan Speedwell, Ethan Stone, Daisy Harris, Clare London, and Shae Connor. Give them a day or two to get their posts up, then go check out their Book Boyfriends, too! :-)

Posted in Guest Bloggers, random blathering | 2 Comments