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Animal Instinct

Duncan Andrews Thrillers

Sequel to Pale as a Ghost
A Duncan Andrews Thriller

Private detective Duncan Andrews has the home-team advantage when it comes to solving paranormal crimes: His best friend, Gina, is a centuries-old witch. His dog is a zombie. And his boyfriend, Robbie, is a ghost.

Duncan certainly has his work cut out for him with this case. Someone’s been using the skull of a powerful wizard to control animals, and whoever it is, they’re not out to set up a petting zoo. For Gina, the case hits close to home—she knows just how dangerous it is, since the wizard was her father.

Just when he thinks they&rssquo;re close to breaking the case, tragedy strikes, leaving Gina in a coma. Then, after years as a ghost, Robbie finally decides to move on, leaving Duncan to protect young Ashton Marsh, the victim of several strange animal attacks. Suddenly Duncan is working without his supernatural safety net. Without his friends, can Duncan defeat the power of Eleazar’s skull and keep Ashton alive? Or will the struggle for his life end in broken bodies as well as broken hearts?

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Red+Blue

Opposites Attract
2012 Award Winners

An Opposites Attract novel

Fresh from backwoods Minnesota, actuarial student Ben Dutoit is ecstatic to land a job with Sydney Sutherland Family Insurance, one of the few companies that offers life insurance to people in the high-risk category. The fact that he gets to work in Gay Central, aka San Francisco, is just the icing on the rainbow-colored cake. Ben sets himself just three goals: be out and proud enough to participate in the Pride parade; seek out the company of like-minded souls in the clubs; and maybe, if he’s lucky, fall in love.

But the men Ben meets are everything he’s not: suave, confident, sophisticated, and sexy. Unlike redneck Ben, they’re blue bloods from blue states, born with status, wealth, and the responsibility that comes with the package.

Ben’s still wondering if red and blue can mix when he discovers what risk really means. The global economy tanks. The job he looked forward to is in jeopardy, and every dream Ben ever had is threatened, especially love, the biggest dream of all.

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When a Category 4 hurricane hits the Texas Gulf Coast and critically damages a nuclear reactor, the NRC brings in robotics engineer Derek Marshall and professor Sambit Patel to avert a disaster. Unfortunately, putting the men in the same room could be nearly as dangerous as the reactor: Derek’s out and proud, gruff, and occasionally obnoxious; Sambit is closeted, quiet, and reserved. Faced with isolation, ungodly living conditions, and the very real possibility of acute radiation sickness, they race against time to stabilize the reactor. But the attraction growing between them may be beyond their control.

On the surface, Derek and Sambit have nothing in common. They live in separate cities, come from disparate cultures, and have trouble just getting along, never mind navigating a relationship. All they have to hold them together is a few isolated weeks of trying to save the world, or at least the environment. Sambit is convinced the end of the assignment will be the end for them as well—and despite their many differences, he’s beginning to wonder how he’ll survive the fallout once Derek leaves him behind.

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Sons

What Ever Happened to Jan Phillips?

Sequel to What Happened to Jan Phillips?

What do three sons—one murdered by Iraqi terrorists, one who lost his mother in a fire, and one involved with an underworld sex ring—have to do with Jan Phillips?

Two sons bring fear and death, forcing Jan to wield the awesome power of his office as the North American head of Mundus, a sub rosa organization with roots in the ancient order of the Knights Templar. The other son threatens Jan’s life and the world he shares with Michael Lin, his partner of twelve years.

As Jan struggles to survive another man’s quest for revenge, the love of fathers for their sons is the only constant among shattered lives, despoiled love, and an unknown yearning for family.

2nd Edition
First Edition published by Book Surge Publishing (2007)

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The Thunder in His Head

Everything We Shut Our Eyes To & The Thunder in His Head

A Harmony Ink Press Title

Sequel to Everything We Shut Our Eyes To

Kyle Manning is a tall, strong, openly gay sixteen-year-old who makes decent grades and plays on his school's basketball team. He’s a good kid who cares deeply about his family and friends. But his life has become a mess. His mom, Lela, has finally had enough of her husband Joe’s serial cheating. Kyle’s parents are headed for divorce, and the collapse of their marriage torments him.

Divorcing parents is bad enough, but Kyle also has to deal with new people in his parents’ lives. He likes Stephanie, his father's girlfriend, but he finds himself increasingly attracted to his mother's handsome boyfriend, Reece. As Kyle struggles with his fear and frustration, he grows angrier and more erratic.

Then he meets Dwight Varley, a buff, attractive athlete from another school who takes an instant liking to him. Having Dwight around doesn’t solve all Kyle’s problems, but it does make life more bearable. As their relationship develops, Dwight becomes a bright oasis in Kyle's harried life. But Dwight's life is more complicated than Kyle ever imagined, and just when things start to get better, Kyle discovers the truth about Dwight—and about his father.

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The Talker Collection

Talker Series

One day, Tate "Talker" Walker sits next to Brian Cooper on a track meet bus—and sees him like nobody else on the planet has ever seen him before.  One day, Brian Cooper looks at Talker's bright punk facade and listens past his constant chatter—and knows him like nobody else on the planet will ever know him again. One day, two boys meet, and even though they fall in love, it’s still a long and bumpy ride.

Tate needs to learn to listen, Brian needs to learn to speak up, and the event that teaches them both exactly what they need from each other almost destroys Tate and leaves Brian no recourse but violence. For their love to survive, Tate and Brian have to overcome the pain of violation and the repercussions of revenge. Even more difficult, they have to hold each other steady while one finds his peace and the other his voice, because a dream boy isn't really a dream boy if he doesn't know his own worth.

 

 

Purchase includes access to download the ebook editions of the novellas featured in this anthology.

Talker (September 2010), Talker's Redemption (January 2011), and Talker's Graduation (October 2011) were previously published individually in eBook format by Dreamspinner Press.

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Acrobat

2012 Award Winners

Forty-five-year-old English professor Nathan Qells is very good at making people feel important. What he’s not very good at is sticking around afterward. He’s a nice guy; he just doesn’t feel things the way other people do. So even after all the time he’s spent taking care of Michael, the kid across the hall, he doesn’t realize that Michael’s mob muscle uncle and guardian, Andreo Fiore, has slowly been falling in love with him.

Dreo has bigger problems than getting Nate to see him as a potential partner. He’s raising his nephew, trying to leave his unsavory job, and starting his own business, a process made infinitely more difficult when a series of hits takes out some key underworld players. Still, Dreo is determined to build a life he can be proud of—a life with Nate as a cornerstone. A life that is starting to look like exactly what Nate has been seeking. Unfortunately for Dreo—and for Nate—the last hits were just part of a major reorganization, and Dreo’s obvious love for Nate has made him a target too.

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Gambling Men

2012 Award Winners

Quent Jackson has followed Jason Spade's every move in business and in poker since their first day as college freshmen.  Eight years later, when Jace finally decides Quent is the one man he can't live without, he sees no reason for that to change.

But as much as Jace believes that poker is life, no one gave Quent the same playbook. After their first passionate night, the real game of love and trust begins, and Jace has been playing alone too long to make teaching the rules easy.  Jace only speaks two languages: one of them is sex, and the other one is poker. Between the two, he needs to find a way to convince himself to take a chance on love—and Quent to take a chance on him.  It's a lucky thing they’re good at reading the odds, because they’re playing for keeps, and this is one high-stakes relationship that's definitely worth the gamble.

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Good Bones

The Bones Series | Book One

Bones: Book One

Skinny, quiet hipster Dylan Warner was the kind of guy other men barely glanced at until an evening’s indiscretion with a handsome stranger turned him into a werewolf. Now, despite a slightly hairy handicap, he just wants to live an ordinary—if lonely—life as an architect. He tries to keep his wild impulses in check, but after one too many close calls, Dylan gives up his urban life and moves to the country, where he will be less likely to harm someone else. His new home is a dilapidated but promising house that comes with a former Christmas tree farm and a solitary neighbor: sexy, rustic Chris Nock.

Dylan hires Chris to help him renovate the farmhouse and quickly discovers his assumptions about his neighbor are inaccurate—and that he’d very much like Chris to become a permanent fixture in his life as well as his home. Between proving himself to his boss, coping with the seductive lure of his dangerous ex-lover, and his limited romantic experience, Dylan finds it hard enough to express himself—how can he bring up his monthly urge to howl at the moon?

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Bookstore owner Randy Stone is smitten. His new boyfriend, Kyle Temple, is sweet, hot, attentive, and great in bed. But introducing Kyle to his family takes courage, because Randy’s parents can be a little judgmental, and Kyle is ten years younger than Randy, a small-time pro wrestler, and dumber than the proverbial sack of hammers. Needless to say, Randy’s parents aren’t exactly thrilled, and even his best friend is skeptical.

Despite the challenges, Randy is determined to tough it out for Kyle. After all, enduring a few scornful comments from his mother is nothing compared to what Kyle’s going through trying to quit smoking for Randy. When a hypnotherapy session designed to help with Kyle's cravings leaves him quoting Jesus Christ—in Aramaic—Randy’s parents are suddenly the least of their problems. Once word gets out, their privacy is destroyed. News crews follow them everywhere, and everyone who knows Kyle seems determined to make a buck. It’s a mess that could make Kyle’s dreams of wrestling in the UWE come true—but what about his dream of being with Randy?

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A Harmony Ink Press Title

Being bisexual is cool now—unless you’re a boy. Or so it seems to invisible fifteen-year-old Hazard James. But when he falls in with bad apple Jesse Wesley, Hazard is suddenly shoved into the spotlight. Jesse and his friends introduce him to the underworld of teenage life: house parties, hangovers, the advantages of empty homes, and reputation by association. So what if his old friends don’t get it? So what if some people love to hate him? Screw gossip and high school’s secret rules. There’s just something about walking into a room and having all eyes on him when just last year nobody noticed him at all.

For a while Hazard basks in the attention, and before he realizes the depth of the waters he’s wading, he and Jesse strike up a “friends with benefits” routine. It could be something more, but what self-respecting teenage boy would admit it? Not Jesse—and so not Hazard, either. Not until it’s too late. Hazard and Jesse have collided, and Hazard’s life will never be the same.

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It’s 1886, and Chicago is booming, but for nineteen-year-old Torsten Pilkvist, American-born son of Swedish immigrants, it’s not big enough. After tragically losing a rare love, Tory immerses himself in the pages of a Wild West mail-order bride magazine, where he stumbles on the advertisement of frontiersman and Civil War veteran Franklin Ausmus. Torsten and Franklin begin an innocent correspondence—or as innocent as it can be, considering Torsten keeps his true gender hidden. But when his parents discover the letters, Tory is forced out on his own. With nowhere else to go, he boards a train for the Black Hills and Franklin’s homestead, Moonlight Gulch.

Franklin figures Tory for a drifter, but he’s lonely after ten years of living in the backcountry alone, and his “girl” in Chicago has mysteriously stopped writing, so he hires Tory on as his ranch hand. Franklin and Tory grow closer while defending the land from outlaws who want the untapped gold in Franklin’s creek, but then Franklin learns Tory’s true identity and banishes Tory from his sight. Will their lives be forever tattered, or will Torsten—overhearing a desperate last-ditch scheme to snatch Franklin’s gold—be able to save Moonlight Gulch and his final shot at love?

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Legal Tender

Art Series

An Art Series novel

Timothy left home when he was eighteen to get away from his reckless mother, but he never stopped visiting his grandfather, who taught him what love was all about.  Now that Grampy has passed away, Timothy finds that the old man's legacy is everything Timothy has dreamed of—and more.

Inside the house Timothy loves so much is a cache of coins with historical value… and a mystery, because one of them isn’t supposed to exist.  In memory of his grandfather, Timothy sets out to make sure that the mystery and the coins are given their due honor.  In his quest to keep the government from confiscating his grandfather’s legacy, he meets Joiner, whose interest in Timothy is as clear and open as Timothy is guarded.  There are things about Timothy's life and his past he doesn't want anyone to know, not even the kind man who is helping him with the complications of legal tender.

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Bailey McMillan’s life is a mess. The general public blames him for his former employer’s nuclear pollution, resulting in professional disgrace. Humiliated, he takes a job as an editor at a science magazine run by his best friend, John. That part isn’t so bad; Bailey is fond of John, who seems to find Bailey’s abrasive nature amusing.

Unfortunately, working for John also leads to writing an astrology column in exchange for getting free rein in some op-ed articles—and then being sued over one. The (totally coincidental) accuracy of the column offers opportunity for further professional disgrace if anyone discovers its author—and then Bailey digs himself a little deeper.

In an attempt to prove astrology is bogus, he agrees to an experiment to date someone from each star sign. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bailey’s got a stupid crush on John, who stubbornly insists on a detailed breakdown of every date—bad and otherwise. Bailey’s luck has to improve sometime… right?

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A Beneath the Palisade Book

Rising star attorney Harper Callahan hires Ian Burke to landscape his backyard, but it’s his heart that gets the real makeover. Cautious at first, Ian is soon won over by Harper’s good looks and charm, and before they know it they’re on the fast track to romance.

Then a brush with death makes Harper and Ian reassess their plans for the future… and offers them an opportunity for adventure. What starts out as a casual fantasy of owning and operating a B&B on Lake Superior soon explodes into reality as Harper and Ian realize that when they rely on each other, they can accomplish great things.

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Sounds of Love

Senses and Sensations

A Senses and Sensations Story

What does love sound like? If you hear it, will you heed its call?

Police officer Jordan Waters is recovering from a shooting by moving to a new apartment in a new town and taking a new job. In other words, he’s lonely. His first instinct is to relieve his anxiety through uncomplicated sex—until he meets a man so far out of his league and experience that he stumbles for the first time.

Police volunteer Sebastian Sumner may be deaf, but his spirit, openness, and sense of humor give him the strength to get through anything—even the emotional defenses of Jordan Waters. But it’s his own family history that poses the biggest challenge. Can he learn to trust Jordan with his heart, or will his upbringing blind him to the sounds of love?

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A Helping of Love

Taste of Love Stories

A Taste of Love Story

If Peter Christopoulos has learned one thing from his last three years in a wheelchair, it’s that people have a hard time seeing past the hardware. When he asks out Russ Baker after giving him a quote on equipment for a new Greek restaurant, he’s disappointed but not surprised to be turned down.

Russ has been covering for his abusive boyfriend for so long it’s almost automatic, but with a little help from his friends, he finds the courage to break it off. To his surprise, Peter is still interested, and soon they’re falling hard and fast. But then their world is thrown into turmoil: Peter finds an old letter indicating he has a half sister he's never met, and Russ's past interferes when his ex makes it clear he'll do anything to get him back.

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What Ever Happened to Jan Phillips?

What Ever Happened to Jan Phillips?

Eighteen-year-old Jan Phillips is down and out, hustling johns in Philadelphia’s Tenderloin District, when he catches the eye of Tim Morris, a powerful lawyer with ties to a secret organization. Against his better judgment, Jan is soon caught up in a web of intrigue that will change his life forever—or end it prematurely.

It’s 4:00 a.m., and the phone is ringing. Waking from an uneasy sleep, Jan answers and in so doing allows two strangers into his life. One is a victim of a heinous crime, a man to whom Jan feels an instant connection. The other is a deadly enemy. Their appearance will lead to murder—and the first plight Jan faces as Master of the Mundus Society.

Previously published as two novels: Bought and Paid For published by iUniverse and Scimitar published by Author House.

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