JL Merrow

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of the official UK GLBTQ Meet anthology for 2012, head on over to Mrs Condit’s blog where you’ll be able to read about where the authors got their inspiration for the stories.

And there’s a fantastic review of the anthology here.  I particularly liked the summary of my own story, Et Tu, Fishies? : funny, touching and just plain bonkers – Pippa, on Mrs Condit & Friends. Yup, that’s what I was aiming for!

Just leave a comment at Mrs Condit’s blog to be entered into the draw. Good luck!

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Dead Shot, my short story due to be re-released in its spiffy new cover on August 26th, head on over to Stumbling Over Chaos where the lovely Chris is offering a free copy!  Just leave a comment to be entered into the draw.

Here’s a little excerpt to whet your appetite:

If you ask most people about Cupid, they’ll tell you he’s this chubby little angel with curly blond hair and a bow and arrow.

And they’re right about the chubby little face. And the bow and arrow, for that matter. But the hair’s ginger, not golden, and he goes by the name of Kevin these days, and an angel he most definitely is not. In fact, you can’t take your eye off him for a minute, which I found out the hard way when I took him to the park the other day.

Okay. Confession time. I’m actually talking about my nephew, who as far as I’m aware doesn’t have any Greek gods in his ancestry, although my sister Carol says his dad was working in a kebab shop when they started living together, so who knows? Anyway, Kevin’s what’s known as A Bit of a Handful. Ten years old, scarily bright but with the attention span of a toddler. So at weekends I try and take him off Carol’s hands for a while. Give her a bit of time with her new husband, Mark, who as far as I’m concerned is an absolute saint for taking on Kevin and treating him like his own. And the baby, of course. Now she is cute and golden-haired. And possibly angelic, although to be honest it’s really too soon to tell.

So this Saturday, we went to the park, Kevin and me. And I showed him how to make a bow and arrows from sticks we found lying around, and set up some targets of old Coke cans for him to aim at. Now I know what you’re thinking, but I wasn’t stupid. I made sure he heard the awful story of How Grandpa Lost His Eye and got him to promise never to aim anywhere near people. And then I sat down on a park bench and closed my eyes for five minutes because I’d had a late night on Friday and, although I love Kevin dearly, he’s more than a bit exhausting.
It was right after that I heard the scream.

Well, more of a shout, really. Then a dog started barking and a reedy little voice piped up, “I didn’t see you there, honest I didn’t!”

By now my eyes were well and truly open, of course. Even before the wail of “Uncle Peeeeter!” was ringing in my ears I’d jumped up from the bench. I legged it over to where I could see Kevin, a frisky-looking border collie and, last but not least, a tall, dark-haired bloke rubbing his right buttock.

You didn’t have to be a genius to work out what had happened. “Kevin! Did you shoot this man in the …” I stopped there. It was daft, really, I knew Kevin knew all the words, and he knew I knew, but I still didn’t like to use them in front of him.

“Arse?” the stranger suggested.

*****

For a chance to win a copy, go here. Good luck!

****

And in other news… our back garden is clearly an up-and-coming address for the local duck population. After years of being spurned by our feather-brained friends, we now have our second brood this summer – eleven, this time, all cutesy, fluffy accidents waiting to happen. Any tips on how to get them safely down to the river a couple of streets away will be gratefully received…

Jemima knew she’d seen a river around here somewhere….

I’m back from holidaying in Northumberland with renewed vigour and a zest for writing (for which, read a mountain of dirty washing and several thousand unread emails). Fortunately, those lovely people at Samhain have sent me a welcome home present:

Less fuzzy in real life, I hasten to add – actually the creepy clifftop house comes out rather well in big.

Print copies of Wight Mischief will be snuggling up next to Camwolf in the shops on September 4th, 2012 and are already available to pre-order from Amazon.com.

And I have a brand new cover to show you:

I’m rather pleased with this one, as it’s mostly my own work (I couldn’t get the words to look right, but JMS Books are much better at that sort of stuff!) This will be a re-release of my short story Dead Shot which was previously published in the Torquere Shot Through the Heart Taste Test, now out of print. Sadly the Taste Test format never seemed to sell well, at least for me, so I’m hoping the story will get a whole new audience. 

Here be the blurb:

Sometimes Cupid has his own agenda

Carpenter Peter takes his hyperactive ten-year-old nephew to play in the park with his home-made bow and arrows—but makes the mistake of closing his eyes for a minute. Alerted by a yell of pain, he’s mortified to find that Kevin has shot a tall, handsome stranger in the rear end. Especially when Kevin suggests Peter should kiss it better!
But cultured lawyer Edward doesn’t seem to mind. An embarrassing encounter leads to a hot date—but Peter’s guilty secret about Kevin’s father could undo all Cupid’s good work, and Edward’s flair for the dramatic isn’t exactly helping!

Available in standalone ebook for the first time from JMS Books on August 26th.

Was absolutely delighted to be told that Camwolf is listed in RT Magazine as one of their m/m must-haves alongside such stalwarts as Jordan Castillo Price’s Psycop series, Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English Mysteries and Alex Beecroft’s historicals!

My gob, she was soundly smacked and sent to bed without any supper…

It’s here! I’m delighted to say our new anthology Lashings of Sauce is now available in ebook (print coming 31st July). As a new release, it’s at a 20% discount from JMS Books for a limited time only, so get it while it’s hot!

From marriages to reunions, via practical jokes and football matches, to weresloths and possibly the oddest Tarts and Vicars party in the world, join us as we celebrate the 2012 UK Meet in the best way we know: telling the story.

As a follow-up to the critically acclaimed British Flash and Tea and Crumpet anthologies, our talented writers bring you sixteen stories about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and genderqueer characters enjoying what Britain and mainland Europe have to offer, with their wonderfully diverse range of cultures and landscapes and some incredibly colourful and quirky people.

Contributors include: Tam Ames, Becky Black, Anne Brooke, Charlie Cochrane, Rebecca Cohen, Lillian Francis, Elin Gregory, Clare London, Sandra Lindsey, JL Merrow, Emily Moreton, Josephine Myles, Zahra Owens, Jordan Castillo Price, Elyan Smith and Robbie Whyte. 

This anthology is a souvenir of the 2012 UK Meet, an occasion for GLBTQ supporters to get together in a relaxed setting to celebrate and chat about the fiction community they love. Funds from the sale of this anthology will go towards future UK Meets, to which all are welcome. Please visit the website for details, or contact UK MAT through the publisher.

You can read an excerpt from Jordan Castillo Price’s story here, and here’s a little snippet of mine:

Et Tu, Fishies?

“Right… keys are here, feel free to eat anything you find in the kitchen, but my clothes are off limits—and don’t think I won’t know if you borrow them.” The low, graveled voice ceased its heady rumble through my intoxicated ears, and Bill folded his arms, trying to look stern. I wasn’t falling for it. He’s six foot four of solid marshmallow masquerading (rather well, it must be said) as beefcake.

“Sweetie…” I gave it my best Mae West drawl. “The only reason I’d borrow any of your clothes is if I needed something to camp out in for the weekend. Or perhaps a sail for that yacht I’ll own one day.” I’m only two inches shorter, but around a hundred pounds lighter, for my sins. Which are neither so many nor so varied as I’d like them to be. And so very few of them involving Bill, more’s the pity.

“Fair point. Oh, and if the weirdo upstairs asks you in for a drink, for God’s sake don’t say yes.”

“Ooh, is he likely to murder me and bury me under the floorboards?” I pantomimed a shiver.

“Worse—first he’ll ramble on about the future like Nostradamus’s grandson, then he’ll either cackle insanely or burst into tears, and then he’ll pass out on the sofa. Been there, done that.”

There was a sudden nip in the air. I arched an eyebrow. “Literally?” I looked away, before my eyes could flash so green even Bill, bless his little cotton brain, would notice. Not that he’s dim, my Bill—there just tends to be something of a satellite delay between eyes and intelligence.

“Uh, no. I do have some standards, thanks.”

“Oh? That’s news to me, dearie.” I was not being unkind—that is simply the only possible response when you’re fed a line like that.

He took it in good humour. “True, true—I did you, didn’t I?”

Ouch. I’d have preferred the bad humour. “But only the once.” I pouted exaggeratedly. If you make a joke of these things, people never, ever, see the ravaged, bleeding remnants they’ve left of your poor, battered little heart.

Well, I was only planning to let you all know that She Shifters is officially released today, but it turns out I also have another new f/f release to tell you about, a little sooner than expected!

I’ve got two stories in this fantastic anthology of lesbian shapeshifters:

Nine Days and Seven Tears, about a selkie blown off course and a girl who needs to escape; and Belling the Kat, a light-hearted tale of how being a shifter isn’t always compatible with modern life.

If you’d like to hear the backgrounds behind the stories, please head on over to the She Shifters website, where all the authors have been blogging about their inspiration.

I offered a giveaway of one of my m/m shifter books, and I’ll be announcing the winner later today.

She Shifters is available in paperback.

And another anthology that’s now available in ebook:

Just the one story by me in Fairytales Slashed Volume 4, and the only f/f tale in the anthology: Capture the Moon, the tale of a young woman who disguises herself as a man and sets out to seek her fortune (and get away from all the men in her village who keep trying to court her!) Accompanied only by her faithful piglet Ferkel, she meets with adventure as she learns about life and love.

It’s probably not too spoilerish to tell you there’s a beautiful princess involved too…

If you’re more into m/m than f/f, you’ll be well catered for by this whopper of a collection, which clocks in at a staggering 143,000 words! The print version comes out soon, and I’m fully expecting complaints from my postman…

To celebrate the officially-upcoming-but-in-fact-seems-to-have-already-happened release of She Shifters, an anthology of lesbian shapeshifter stories in which I have two stories (because that’s the kind of girly swot I am) *pause for breath* I’m over at the She Shifters blog, talking about my two very different stories.

And as I’m feeling generous, I’m offering one lucky commenter at the She Shifters blog their choice of an m/m shifter ebook from my backlist (Camwolf or Tortoise Interruptus, but hey, if you’ve already got those I’m sure we can work something out!)

While you’re there, why not scroll down and take a look at the posts and giveaways from some of the other contributors?  There’s some great stuff in there!

Here’s the blurb for Stronger Where it Counts:

IT guy Michael figures he’s in for an awkward evening when a client takes him to a girlie bar. When he gets talking to big, blond Kyle, it seems like it’s his lucky night after all. But they have a shared past Michael’s managed to forget and Kyle is hoping he won’t remember.
Kyle’s deeply ashamed of his weakness back in high school, when he stood by and watched as Michael became the victim of a gay-bashing — by new boy Kyle’s group of friends. He’s going to have his work cut out to persuade Michael to take a chance at trusting him now.

***

This is actually a re-release of a short story previously published in the Torquere Cherry anthology (now out of print) under the title Different Strengths. It’s been re-edited (but not substantially changed, so don’t go buying it if you’ve already got the anthology) and allowed to stand on its own two feet at last.

I have a real soft spot for this story, as I got my first ever acceptance from a publisher for it! It seems like a long time ago now, back in the days before the m/m market went big, when I wasn’t sure if you had to set stories in America to get published. So I sent in this story for the anthology call as well as a British-set one, just in case, and was delighted when they accepted this one for the anthology, and published Good Company as a stand-alone.

You can read an excerpt from Stronger Where it Counts here.

Let them eat cake….

I’m over at Carry the Torch today, talking about Pontefract – why not pop on over and find out a little more about the place and its famous product?

Come and join me over at the delightful Elin Gregory’s today, guesting in her comfy chair while she probes me (oo-er!) about such weighty matters as werewolves, the 2012 UK Meet and which of my characters I’d like to snog!  

You can also read a sneak preview of my next novel, Pressure Head, which is due out in September!