Usually, when I dedicate a book to someone it’s because they’ve done something that somehow influenced the story. It might be that they just encouraged me when I needed a boost to finished. Or they could have said something that spawned an idea. The smallest influence could be the reason I dedicate a book to someone.

In this instance, the other author said something about authors needing to step out of their comfort zone sometimes. I don’t think it was one of those profound things you say where everyone goes “WOAH.” You know what I mean – the “I coulda had a V-8″ moment. I think it was just something he said in conversation (I forget if it was on a loop, in a chat or in email) and probably didn’t intend for me to take away as inspiring. But I did.

You see this story is about how two men (it is a gay rom story) step out of their comfort zones one Valentine’s Day and discover a bright future together. The backstory is that the two guys meet in college and are instantly attracted to one another. They both react really dorky and are embarrassed by their actions so they each hide their attraction. They go on to spend their college years as roommates and best friends. As adults, their friendship continues. Then, one of the men leaves the area for a year for work. While he’s gone, the one left behind realizes he still has deeper feelings for his friend. The one who’s away realizes he loves and misses his friend so much that one, he needs to move back home and two, he needs to tell the other guy he wants to be with him.

The hero who moved away enlists the help of his friend’s siblings, who of course know their brother loves this guy. They set s scene that forces both men out of their comfort zone and confessions ensue. Of course, a hot night together also ensues. Followed by a morning with doubts and fears exposed. But they work it out because I don’t write anything but happy endings. LOL

The catalyst, the thing that forces the men out of their comfort zones…a dress. One man dresses as Joan Collins playing Alexis Carrington in Dynasty in order to get the attention of the other man. The sight of his friend in a dress has the other hero leaping the barriers of his comfort zone to try to get with him. So it’s almost as if the Joan Collins outfit is a character all its own in this book.

At any rate, it’s a charming little fun story about a guy in drag trying to nail his best friend. It will have the standard Valentine’s Day cover for sales at MLR Press and I made it a fun cover for third party distribution sites.

I’ve got other projects I need to get to next but I’ll probably take the next day or two and figure out which one should be next. Meanwhile, let’s round up this post with a lovely Marcus on this Monday morning.

Oh yum. Marcus and a fast machine. What a great combo! Everyone have a great Monday!

First off, my 30 Days of Christmas giveaway event is in full swing. We’ve already given away ebooks and paperback books and today, I have a really special treat for readers. Today is the release day for NightShift, the newest book by Kate Douglas. Kate is a prolific and amazing author. She’s also a really great person and I’m thankful to have her as a friend. Kate’s giving away two signed copies of NightShift on my Lex Valentine blog today so go on over there and leave a comment so you’re entered to win.

Next up is the great holiday story event happening at MLR Press. Forty six books! That’s right, there are forty-six holiday stories that are out or coming out. My story Breath of Heaven is scheduled for December 15. You’ll find the video for this heart-warming holiday story right here on this blog. I’ve already read some of these and they are amazing stories. Mia Watts’s story is touching and funny and incredibly hot! Z.A. Maxfield’s story is heart-warming and sweet. DH Starr’s story is a serious tear-jerker with a belly laugh ending. And Derek Adams’s story will send you up in flames.

We all have the same cover art over at MLR Press but when it goes to the third party distributors some of us will have individual covers in order to distinguish between the stories. Cover art is the first thing a reader sees when they are browsing titles and if all the covers look the same, you might get passed over because the reader thinks they already have that book. So a handful of us did an alternate cover. I did covers for Ethan Day, Z.A. Maxfield and myself. We’re not alone though. I believe there’s other authors doing the same. Here’s the covers I created for the three of us. You can also see these over at Winterheart Design.

I’ve got one other Christmas story coming. This one is Cupid Christmas which is the last of the Christmas Cowboys stories I’ve done for the past few years at Pink Petal Books. I can’t think of another couple so it’s time to end the series of Christmas Eve hookups and HEAs at Forbes Ranch with this one last story.

This week I’m launching a new project called Lords of Aether on December 1. This is a serial story, a really special serial story. It’s by myself and authors KC Burn, Charlie Cochrane, Jason Edding, Stephani Hecht, ZA Maxfield and Jaime Samms. It’s a gay steampunk serial. None of us have any experience with steampunk so we’ve been slowly building our world and characters. I’m the only one with serial story experience and it’s been fun teaching them all about how the dynamics work. I’ve missed The Bar a lot so the Lords of Aether will help me not miss it as much. They aren’t the characters I loved so well at The Bar and they aren’t the same group of writers, but the camaraderie and sense of creating together is the same so it goes a long way to easing that little hole in my heart.  I kick off the story on December 1 with a post about my character Anthony Banning whose former lover, Imperial spy Jack Starr, has looked him up because he needs help finding his missing current lover. As you can imagine, Anthony’s a bit offended.  Here’s a trailer for Lords of Aether. I whipped this up last night so I hope you like it.

And now, since I can’t remember what else I’m supposed to be advertising (I was doing a 2 for 1 book trailer sale for this past weekend at Winterheart Design, but no one took me up on it!) I suppose it’s time to post a Marcus and head on out to work. Since I’ve been doing retro Marcus’s (ie photos I’ve posted before) I thought today I’d post my favorite Marcus photo ever.

Oh yum. I love that photo! If any of you know Nikki aka Motley aka my kid, stop on over at her Facebook page. She’s got a bit of a political protest going on on her wall.

And that’s it for my big ole advertisement post this Monday. Have yourselves a wonderful Monday and don’t forget to keep checking my Lex Valentine blog every day through Christmas Eve. Posting a comment enters you for a chance to win that day’s books. Happy Holiday Season Monday!

I guess forgetting last Monday isn’t nearly as bad as what I did in my latest manuscript. I got the galleys back yesterday and as I’m reading through them I discover a HUGE GLARING MISTAKE. Something I screwed up big time and my editor didn’t catch. I had my heroes getting out of bed on Christmas Eve. They have a discussion in the kitchen and go back to bed. Then in the next chapter one of them is lying in bed on Christmas morning thinking about the Christmas Eve festivities his family had.

HO. LY. CRAP.

I had to cut out the Christmas Eve stuff from the beginning of that chapter and move it in front of the Christmas Eve kitchen discussion. How the hell I got that all goobered up, I’ve no idea. But it sure gives you an idea of where my head has been lately. (Up my butt apparently.) I can’t believe I made such a big mistake and didn’t catch it until the last minute. Sheesh. I’m seriously glad I did catch it though. I would have been furious with myself if it had gone out the way it was.

The story is a sequel to my DADT novella Afterburner. Breath of Heaven is due out on December 15. Here’s the cover art:

All of us with Christmas stories at MLR Press get basically the same cover, but it’s 42 days of holiday stories which is pretty amazing. If you like gay rom, you’ll love this because there’s a line of awesome authors like you’ve never seen before.

It’s also reminded me that I’ll be doing my holiday giveaway again over at LexValentine.com. Every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas I’ll be giving away one book from my backlist (so that I end up giving away the entire backlist) plus some books from friends. I’ll be posting on my Facebook page and Twitter about it this week as I see what friends I can get to join in.

Now, how about a nice Marcus before battling the traffic? I could go for that! Here’s one of the first Marcus’s I ever put on this blog.

Oh, that’s nice!

Well, that’s it for me. Sorry about the forgotten Monday last week. I hope the announcement of the book giveaway for Christmas helps you not think too poorly of me and my spacey memory! LOL Have a great Monday!

Probably one good reason I got distracted so easily is this darn cold. It’s on the way out, but the lingering cough makes me feel like I’ve gone a few rounds with the heavyweight champion of the world and taken every blow to the ribs and gut. The problem is the way women’s muscles work when they cough. What tightens and spasms are the ones over the ribs and lower abdomen, the ones on the sides of the waist and the groin muscles. Apparently, or so my doc says, men use different muscles when they cough, muscles they use a lot anyway so they don’t get the same muscle aches as women when they have a bad cough. Anyway, every time I cough, it leaves me gasping for air and with muscles spasms sort of like the heaves. I lose track of what I’ve been doing and end up off on tangents. If the work I did this weekend wasn’t so darned pretty, I’d be growling “Eff you, Cold!” for more reasons that the obvious ones of discomfort.

So here’s what I ended up with at the end of the weekend. A total count of three banners, a Twitter background page, an avatar, and four covers. None of which were for me. The stuff that hasn’t been approved yet, I won’t post, but the stuff that’s already been finalized is below.

So pretty! So sexy! Which leads me to something – or rather someone – who is also pretty and oh, so sexy! It’s time for a Marcus!

I want to pillow fight with him! Of course, I don’t look that good in my underwear…Leastways, not any more! *Winces at the thought of my upcoming birthday* That does remind me of something though. This year my birthday is on a Monday so I think I’ll give away some books. Make sure you come back on Halloween for a chance to win.

Okay, that about wraps it up for me and my sore ribs. Have yourselves a great Monday!

Most artists work for one or two houses and some only do freelance stuff, preferring not to be tied to a house. And many of them work for a publisher and do a lot of covers for people who are self-publishing. I’ve a feeling that my cover for Debra Holland’s Sower of Dreams will be a fantasy entry for me in next year’s Ariana awards. It’s a lush cover that took more than half a dozen images to create and it doesn’t have a single person on it!

Aside from doing covers for authors who self-publish, I occasionally do covers for Pink Petal Books, Passion in Print and MLR Press. Last year’s win for me was a Pink Petal Books cover. This year the two finalists for Winterheart Design are Black Heart Down by SJ Frost, an MLR Press cover and Blown Away by DL Jackson, a Passion in Print cover. I love pretty much anything Shannon and Dawn write so I’m doubly pleased to be able to provide both authors with a little cross-promotion.

Now, the question is whether I can repeat and win an Ariana again this year. I have to admit I would be so very stoked to win again. I’m not being hopeful because as I said above, the competition is quite stiff, but I would really like to win a second year in a row. It gives me a little bit of cache to be able to say I have two Arianas. But we’ll see what happens in March. And if I lose, there’s always next year and Sower of Dreams. Besides, I’ve done a lot more covers in other genres this year. I’ve got several historical covers under my belt now and of course Debra’s fantasy trilogy. Having covers in more categories is a good thing.

Now, I need to show you a luscious Marcus for this Monday to be complete. I just cannot face a Monday without him any longer. This is what I get for having posted him for so many years of Mondays. I can’t handle Monday without him.

Working in his underwear. It doesn’t get any better than that for me! Well, unless he was nekkid. LOL

October is just around the corner now and I’ve got an October release the first week of the month and deadlines for two Christmas stories, both gay rom. I’m about 3K words from finishing the first one so I’m thinking I just might be right on time to my editor with it. The second one has hardly any words written but since it’s a short story of 8-10K words I hope to be able to write it fairly quickly. Then it’s back to a novella I’ve had a lot of trouble with. I’m determined to complete it before Christmas though so wish me luck!

Happy Monday!