JL Merrow

…and the blog tour will be kicking off at Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews later today.

You can run from the past…but the past runs faster

Shamwell Tales, Book 1

Behind Robert’s cheerfully eccentric exterior lies a young heart battered and bruised by his past. He’s taken a job teaching in a village primary school to make a fresh start, and love isn’t part of his plans. But he’s knocked for six—literally—by a chance encounter with the uncle of two of his pupils.

Sean works in pest control, rides a motorbike, and lives on a council estate. On the face of it, he shouldn’t have anything in common with Robert’s bow-tie, classic-car style and posh family background. Yet Robert is helpless to resist Sean’s roguish grin, and a rocky, excruciatingly embarrassing start doesn’t keep the sparks between them from flaring.

Despite Robert’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to keep his past where it belongs, his past hasn’t read the memo. And soon his secrets could be the very things that drive Sean away for good…

Warning: contains the alarming misadventures of a pest control technician, a stepsister with a truly unfortunate name, and a young man who may have more bow ties than sense.

I enjoyed [Robert and Sean’s] interactions and the way they celebrated their differences as well as the things they had in common (of which there were surprisingly many). They have a good sexual chemistry…  I’m definitely looking forward to more Shamwell Tales.B+ and a Recommended Read, Kaetrin at Dear Author

Robert, I love him… as always with this author, the story is full of humor and fun, but also enough meat to keep me hooked. I can’t wait for the next book in the Shamwell tales series – 4 1/4 hearts, Mandy, Hearts on Fire Reviews

 Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Samhain

Robert, I love him…as always with this author, the story is full of humor and fun, but also enough meat to keep me hooked. I can’t wait for the next book in the Shamwell tales series – 4 1/4 hearts, Mandy, Hearts on Fire Reviews 

Caught! is due out from Samhain Publishing 19th August 2014 and now available to pre-order:

  Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Samhain

You can run from the past…but the past runs faster

Hurrah! Less than 2 weeks to go now until Caught!, the first of my novels in The Shamwell Tales, is released, and if you’d like to catch yourself a free copy (see what I did there?) then hie thee hence to Stumbling Over Chaos, where the lovely Chris is running a draw. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to comment on the giveaway post. Good luck!

And to whet your appetite, here be the blurb:

You can run from the past…but the past runs faster

Behind Robert’s cheerfully eccentric exterior lies a young heart battered and bruised by his past. He’s taken a job teaching in a village primary school to make a fresh start, and love isn’t part of his plans. But he’s knocked for six—literally—by a chance encounter with the uncle of two of his pupils.

Sean works in pest control, rides a motorbike, and lives on a council estate. On the face of it, he shouldn’t have anything in common with Robert’s bow-tie, classic-car style and posh family background. Yet Robert is helpless to resist Sean’s roguish grin, and a rocky, excruciatingly embarrassing start doesn’t keep the sparks between them from flaring.

Despite Robert’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to keep his past where it belongs, his past hasn’t read the memo. And soon his secrets could be the very things that drive Sean away for good…

Warning: contains the alarming misadventures of a pest control technician, a stepsister with a truly unfortunate name, and a young man who may have more bow ties than sense.

Due out from Samhain Publishing 19th August 2014

Available to pre-order:  Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Samhain

Yep, I’m back from my sojourn in the extremely lovely mountains of Slovenia. The good news: I neither put on a pound from all the rich Slovenian food, nor got any blisters from hiking over the Alpine scenery.

The bad news: this is because I was sick as a dog. >(

However, I did manage to get out and about a bit, so here are some pics of the local flora and fauna.

          Slovenia: thar be dragons.

And sunflowers. Lots of sunflowers.

Oh, and go on, have a strapping young lad rowing a pletna (sort of big gondola thingy) on Lake Bled. You know you want one.

A few of my older stories are coming out of contract soon, which means they’ll no longer be on sale until such time as I get around to either flogging ‘em somewhere else or self-publishing them (don’t hold your breath for that one! )

So it’s last call for the following:

Available until 30th June from Torquere: Epiphany

When Vinnie spots a young British man, Gray, looking lost on a New York street, he thinks he’s never seen anyone so beautiful. He can hardly believe his luck when it seems that Gray feels the same way.

One steamy afternoon later, Vinnie is on top of the world. But are there things that Gray just hasn’t been telling him?

This one is, in many ways, a precursor to Muscling Through – it’s got a similar relationship dynamic – but set in the US, so you can have a good giggle at my take on a blue-collar New York accent.

Available until 31st July from Dreamspinner Press: Batteries Not Included and Dulce et Decorum Est:

How would you react if you woke up one morning to find you were in bed with your favorite pop star? More to the point: how would the pop star react?

Sam’s celebrity crush, Cain Shepney, isn’t so pleased to wake up with a stranger, but that’s far from the worst shock the day has in store for them both! Sam’s used to his mother messing with his love life, but this time, Lilith may really have gone too far…

an amusing, dream-come-true story, with an unusual twist… A very good read – Brief Encounters

This was in a Dreamspinner Advent Calendar, so that’s another generic cover there – don’t take it as a clue to the contents!  And yes, that name is a deliberate nod to a certain gay pop star everyone was gushing over at the time I wrote the story, but the character Cain isn’t actually based on the man in question (because I know nothing about him!) A daft little tale with a touch of the paranormal that’ll hopefully leave you with a smile on your face.

The First World War cast a long shadow, and in the winter of 1920 it’s still at its darkest.  When solicitor’s clerk George Johnson moves into new digs, he’s instantly attracted to friendly fellow lodger Matthew Connaught, who lost an arm in the Great War. 

As the two become inseparable, George begins to wonder whether it’s just friendship that Matthew feels for him, or something more. And if it’s something more… can George risk a revelation of his shameful past?

Merrow writes the stiff upper lip and youthful breeziness of English young men very well…Highly recommended. – Speak its Name

Ah, how little I knew of titles and covers in those days.   Bung a cat on it, I said. People like cats… (There is, actually, a cat in a prominent role in the story, but I’m fairly confident most people reading this genre are in it for the men, not the cats. Correct me if I’m wrong).

Yep, UK Meet 2014 was definitely one to remember! There have been some fabulous round-up posts already, so I’ll just say how grateful I am to all our sponsors, our delegates, our volunteers and my fellow organisers for making the event such a success. UK Meet has always been a friendly, inclusive conference, and I like to think we’ve kept that feel even as we’ve grown over the years. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many hugs in my life!

And didn’t we have some fabulous entertainment? Highlights for me included the lovely Songbirds Choir from Cardiff singing a haunting version of California Dreaming, and Fanny Fontaine’s oh-so-subtle announcement of Josephine Myles’ good news!

Others have taken WAY better pics than I managed of the delegates, panellists, and especially the entertainers! – so I’ll just leave you with a scene I happened upon when I took a short walk down to the Bristol waterfront on Sunday night.

And no, I have no idea why these guys decided to strip half-naked and start wrestling in the fountain. But they seemed to be enjoying themselves!

Way, way back in the mists of time (okay, almost exactly five years ago) I was a fresh-faced (okay, that’s a lie), virginal (puh-leeze!) unpublished author, and I very nervously sent off a couple of m/m stories to the Dreamspinner Sindustry anthology call. What do you know? They bought ‘em both, one for each of the two volumes the anthology eventually ran to!  

So you can hold Dreamspinner at least partially to blame for all the stories and novels that, encouraged, I went on to write…

Now Dreamspinner Press is turning seven years old, and they’re celebrating by having a sale:

You can get a whopping 35% off a whole load of books this week, including mine!

Sadly, the Sindustry anthology  is no longer in print. Happily, you’ll be able to get hold one of those stories of mine, now completely revised and almost twice as long (finally! Space to breathe!) in October, when it comes out from Samhain under the title of Raising the Rent! 🙂

Bluebells. Lovely or what?

Now, if I could only get those pesky squirrels to stand still and pose properly instead of scampering off up the trees all the time – honestly, you’d think they didn’t want to be in my pics!

The random number generator has spoken, and the winner of a free signed paperback copy of 2013 Rainbow Award winning romantic comedy Slam! plus a $10 Amazon gift certificate is…

*Drumroll*…

ZUNNI, who commented on RJ Scott’s blog.

Congratulations, Zunni!  

I’ll need you to get in touch with me on jl(dot)merrow(at)gmail(dot)com so I can arrange to send you your prize.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the tour and helped to make it a fun event!