De-blog

What modern social media looks like to me. I am SO TIRED of social media. That's possibly not a surprise to anyone who knows me, as in  actually  knows me as opposed to being my 'friend' so they can attempt to sell me stuff. I'm not good at peopling in the real world; it would be inconsistent at best if I were a virtual socialite. I'm kind of an early adopter when it comes to technology. I was at uni in the early days of Web 1.0, and the possibilities it presented were endless and exciting. So much knowledge at our fingertips...just as soon as we found a way to catalogue, share and search for it (the latter enabling me to hone my research skills, for which I will be forever grateful). Even the burgeoning of Web 2.0 - interactive content created by and for the people - I was fully in favour of, and I could just about stomach the early manifestations of social media. I may not have signed up to MySpace of my own volition, but it was fairly benign by modern standards. ...

  Three years after his partner’s death, Detective Chief Inspector Gray Fisher has finally made the break from the police. With a new place to live, a new job and his PhD underway, Gray welcomes the friendship of Will Richards, an investment banker with hidden depths and a farmhouse menagerie of rescue animals. Gray’s not looking for love, and he’s certainly not interested in becoming involved in police work again…until former colleague Rob Simpson-Stone tracks him down to ask for his help with a case. So begins Gray and Rob’s new business partnership. For Rob Simpson-Stone, the career change may have come too late to rescue his marriage, but his relationship with his son is back on track. Rob’s grown-up nieces might be a taller order, but he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to prove they no longer need to worry that one day he won’t come home. As events unfold, Gray’s past recklessness catches up with him and Rob both, putting those they hold close in danger and forcing them to ...

Penumbra is a clever novel and not what I was expecting based on the previous books by Dan Ackerman that I've read, which admittedly is not their full back catalogue, although I'm working on it. The world Ackerman narrates is so complex, so different yet familiar. For this reason, there is no need for blatant world-building up front, and I'm delighted Ackerman doesn't insult the reader by going down that route. We know how capitalism works, how inherited privilege persists unchallenged. So we're thrown into the thick of reality on Eden - a space station carrying potentially all that's left of humankind - ruled by Arden, a young, entitled, drug-dependent autarch, all of which are understandable given he inherited the responsibility and Eden is unsustainable. What I've said so far doesn't reveal much more than is given in the blurb. Of course, there's all the technology that goes with the setting of a self-sufficient space station, most of which is ...

The Silk Thief (The Roshaven Series Book 2) **COVER REVEAL & PRE-ORDER LIVE** A Humorous Urban Fantasy Novel coming 4th June 2021 The Blurb: Fourteen, heir to the Empire of Roshaven, must find a new name before Theo, Lord of neighbouring Fidelia, brings his schemes to fruition. Not only has he stolen Roshaven’s trade, but he plans to make Fourteen his own and take her empire in the bargain. Her protector, Ned Spinks, is plagued with supernatural nightmares whilst his assistant, Jenni the sprite, has lost her magick. Can they figure out how to thwart Theo’s dastardly plan before it’s too late for his city and her empire? PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY: mybook.to/SilkThief The Silk Thief is the second quirky magical mystery adventure set in the Roshaven series of humorous fantasy novels. If you like the wit and humour of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, then you’ll love The Silk Thief. More About the Roshaven Books: The Rose Thief, The Roshaven Series book 1 Someone is stea...

Title: Striking Balance – The Peculiar Making of Beatrice Benjamin Sophia Scott Schnell Gow Series: Appalachian Elementals (#3) Genre: Appalachian Paranormal Fantasy Author: Jeanne G'Fellers Publisher: Mountain Gap Books Release Date: 21st July 2020 You know when you've beta-read books one and two in a series, and read the novella that came after (or, in fact, between) them, and then the author contacts you and says, "Hey, d'you fancy beta-reading book three?" Yep, that! Because, honestly, when someone writes as brilliantly as Jeanne G'Fellers does, beta-reading is a free book, and I kind of feel like I cheated the author out of a sale. Well, the least I can do is tell you what makes this novel (and series) so awesome. So the first thing is the series itself: Appalachian Elementals is, as the title indicates, a series set in the Appalachians…featuring elemental beings, although not just elementals. The mixing and mingling of different kin...

Title:  Minuet Series:  Notes from Boston Author:  A.M. Leibowitz Publisher: Supposed Crimes Release Date: 1st September 2019 Full disclosure: I beta-read Minuet (along with books 2 and 3 - Nightsong and Drumbeat ), which doesn't make any difference to what I will say - I'd love this series just as much had I read it in the usual way. But it has given me an insight beyond each novel, as I've kept in mind how the various arcs fit together and developed strong feelings towards certain characters. Those feelings don't always run in line with 'heroes' and 'villains', although...the one uber villain, well, let's say he gets his comeuppance quite satisfactorily in  Minuet . Central to this instalment are the characters Mack, Amelia and Jomari, and I must admit that I still don't feel I know Jomari as well as the other two, purely because I've known him for a shorter period of time. In some ways, he's more closed off than Mack, altho...

Not My Christmas by Debbie McGowan Published: 25th December, 2019 Length: 18,000 words (approx.) 99c from Smashwords  • Amazon Blurb: Christmas at the Davenports has never been a relaxing affair, so when the opportunity for a little alone time with a beautiful, available woman comes Charlie Davenport’s way, she takes it, breaking several family traditions and risking the wrath of her siblings. But it’ll be worth it, right? And she can always make it up to them later…or next Christmas. A stand-alone story from the world of Hiding Behind The Couch. Keywords: LGBTQ+, ownvoices, romance, family, bisexual women, Christmas, humour

Woot! My 2018 novella The Great Village Bun Fight won an award this weekend. :) The Rainbow Awards  are an annual/bi-annual event, run by Elisa Rolle, celebrating LGBTQ+ books across all genres. Entrants make a donation to an LGBTQ+ charity of their choosing, and this year, the awards raised over $12,000. A huge thank you to Elisa for all her hard work and dedication to the awards and the contributions they make, not just to writers and readers but to the LGBTQ+ community. The Great Village Bun Fight (Winner of the Rainbow Award for  Best Bisexual Contemporary Humorous Fiction) Paperback • eBook • Audiobook For purchase links, visit: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/bunfight All’s fair in love and war. But not in baking. A humorous story about baking and village life. Also includes a rockin' reverend, cakes and bunting. Do what you do best. So said Henry’s grandad a year ago to the day as he handed Henry a small, red-foil-wrap...

OK, so I missed it by a few minutes in BST as it's technically now the 21st August, but let's assume it's still the 20th for me as it still is for many of you. Today I released Meredith's Dagger - my fiftieth novel - on my fiftieth birthday! Both of those facts are quite hard to believe. I made it to fifty! Woot! And fifty books? Well, I wrote most of them in the last ten years, not sure how... I'm going to keep this short and give a little background to  Meredith's Dagger , which I originally wrote in 2011 but then set it aside while I did further research into the relevant local history. Then I got caught up in all that research and it was a bit overwhelming, so I let it rest awhile to work on other books. I've come back to it several times over the years since and made it through the first few chapters before I reached the point where I wanted to slap Julian - you'll reach that point too, but he's not so bad really once you get...

Title: Keeping House Author: Jeanne G'Fellers Publisher: Mountain Gap Books Series: Appalachian Elementals (#2) Genre: Appalachian Paranormal Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Purchase Links: Mountain Gap  •  Amazon  •  Smashwords Kobo  •  Barnes and Noble Blurb: Centenary Rhodes is caught in a deal she didn’t make. Thanks to her eternal lover, Stowne’s, quick thinking, she’ll live forever, but there’s a hitch. Cent’s now fey, and three months out of the year she’ll live on the other side of Embreeville Mountain among the Hunter Fey, serving their king, Dane Gow. As Cent begins wading through the anachronisms that come with being a Hunter, she learns that nothing is what it initially seems. Cent shares several past lives with Dane, who wants her back, and Stowne’s lied to Cent so many times that she’s having doubts about their marriage. To make matters worse, the past Hunter Kings are influencing Dane’s behavior, and the youngest Hunter, Brinn, might...

Every now and then, I remember I'm supposed to let my readers old and new know what I've been up to, what's on the horizon and all that jazz. Well, this is going to be a short (but hopefully informative) post. :D (OK, not that  short. I don't really do short.) We're midway through 2019 - the first year in many (since 2013) when I haven't already written at least one novel, and I'm OK with that. I realised a couple of years back that I'd somehow ended up on the book factory line, which isn't a bad thing, as it comes from readers actively asking for more. For instance, I wrote Checking Him Out in 2014, and enough people wanted Noah and Matty's story, so I published  Taking Him On in 2015 (and Checking In because people wanted more of Sol and Adam too), and then there was Jesse and Leigh's story, The Making of Us , which I released in 2017. During those three years, I also co-wrote the Seeds of Tyrone series with Raine O'T...

Dear Tinnitus, My constant companion: I love how you mix it up once in a while and change frequency, never content to be just an E that’s about twelve octaves above middle C, and when you added in that sub-bass, well! For a while you had me wondering what kind of lunatic learner pilot clocks up flying hours at four in the morning, but no. It was only you. Remember the days of twenty bell lyres knocking out ‘Scotland the Brave’ in an enclosed space? Of course you don’t; that was your gestation, and you’ve been composing your own harmonies since. Sometimes you almost drown out the birds, and on a late-spring late morning, that’s no bad thing. For this year, the days are done when the blackbird lures me from sleep with his sweet love song, which, incidentally, I only recently realised is reminiscent of Cinderella’s theme in Into The Woods . Clever chap, that Sondheim, seeing as blackbirds are not native to the USA. Perhaps he visited this fair isle and was inspired to capture the...

BLURB: For a relationship to work, it is not just love which is demanded. Resolve is, too. Cole has his senior year of college and a photography business to worry about, so he could really do without the multiple sessions with physiotherapists his parents force him to go to. It leaves little room to consider romance as a choice for him. Pool instructor and avid swimmer Justin has always been his twin’s shadow. Where Aaron goes, he follows. He may not have much of a social life outside of his twin, but he loves his job and all the extra swim time he gets. He doesn’t think that he’s lacking anything. Then Justin’s booked for a photo shoot with Cole. Being together, as right as it feels, also means they’ll have to come face to face with their belief systems. They must find the resolve to be their own person, or they could lose it all –themselves included. Resolve is the 2nd book of the Demands series. Although they can be read as stand-alones, characters from previous books wi...

Part of Play On... A FREE Valentine’s Day collection of short stories, poetry and prose, inspired by the songs of ABBA. Nina, Pretty Ballerina © 2019 Debbie McGowan I didn’t like her. Not at first. She was too pretty. Too perfect. The box belonged to my sister, a pink, fluffy, glittery little thing—the description suited both—from a boy in her class. I remember her ripping off the paper, squealing in delight and then casting it aside, concerned only with the accumulation of Valentines, not sentiment. She wouldn’t let me see what was inside, but that had never stopped me before. Back then, though, all I knew was the box had two keys. One was for a tiny, pointless padlock that hung from the front like a little robot Scotsman’s sporran— Kick me in the goolies, I dare ye. Oh, dare accepted, my good wee McMan. The other key stuck out the back and would, inevitably, bring about the end of the world. I waited, biding my time for just one opportunity to get at that box....

Highlights The one where Notes from Boston’s Amelia Roberts takes a much-needed vacation to England and runs into Shaunna Hennessy from Hiding Behind The Couch—a fortuitous meeting for both. Co-written with A.M. Leibowitz Copyright © 2019 A.M. Leibowitz and Debbie McGowan Cross-posted at: http://amleibowitz.com/2019/01/27/highlights-a-short-story/ Prefer an ebook? ePub | Mobi | PDF | Smashwords * * * A quiet afternoon at Young at Heart hairdressing salon. Hayley—Shaunna’s boss/salon owner—chats away to her client while Shaunna perches with phone in hand on the high stool next to the counter. Her attention flits between the murmured conversation, a text interchange with BFF Adele and watching for her “two o’clock” to arrive—a new client— Amelia Roberts , according to the diary; she’s the only other appointment this afternoon. The door opens, and a dark-haired woman, curvy but tiny in stature, steps in. She’s not alone, but one of her companions says somethin...