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Posts tagged ‘Scar Tissue’

Light and Shadow ~ Update

Award winning architect Cody Andrews was in a relationship moving out of control. Although his partner loved the fast life in LA, Cody wanted to slow it down and try to enjoy life with his partner. After two years of fighting, Cody found that all he could do was leave the relationship to save his sanity and self respect. Moving out of LA seemed to be his best bet, so he bought an abandoned lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest and left his high powered life behind. Fixing up the lighthouse keeps Cody’s mind occupied enough to forget everything he’d left behind, then he meets Nick Stanton.

Up-and-coming Chicago artist Nick Stanton and his partner Ray leave Chicago for a relaxed vacation on the Oregon coast. For Nick, it’s a time to reconnect with his partner and mend their ailing relationship; for Ray, it’s a tiresome getaway with little-to-no excitement. While Nick tries to enjoy the coastal surroundings, Ray begs to go someplace with a hopping club or a circuit party. And then they meet Cody.

When they meet, Nick and Ray are a reminder of Cody’s failed relationship. But Cody misses interacting with gay men. He likes Nick’s company and he finds Ray to be tolerable, yet the more time he spends with them, the more volatile Ray becomes. For Ray sees that Cody has everything Nick longs for, and everything Ray does not want. On a rain soaked and windswept highway a decision is made, and the lives of three men are tossed about like a tiny boat on an angry sea.

Light and Shadow, my newest novella from Seventh Window Publications, is due out this November! Final edits nearing completion, cover set. The countdown begins!

My first novella, Scar Tissue, the story about DEA agent Bob Elkins, and rookie CIA agent Mike Wells, is still available at Seventh Window, Amazon.com, and allromanceebooks.com. You can also find my free read, A Pharaoh’s Promise, at allromanceebooks.com, or at Goodreads.com.

For my readers who are awaiting news about Shieldmaiden, the druid/dragon fantasy, the manuscript is out looking for a home and I hope to have news for you soon. Thank you to all of you that follow my blog and look forward to more…

GL

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Light and Shadow and other things

For my readers who have checked out my m/m romance stories, both Scar Tissue ~

check out some cool stuff on Scar Tissue here:

and A Pharaoh’s Promise (find it here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15703643-a-pharaoh-s-promise), a new novella is due out at the end of the year.  Light and Shadow will be out by the end of December, again published by Seventh Window Publications, Thanks! Ken!  It is my second novella with Seventh Window, and I am so excited to see it come to fruition.  It started out as a story about an abandoned lighthouse, then blossomed into a romance about the Lighthouse being renovated and the owner, a self described recluse, finding love of another kind, in the form of an artist visiting the small coastal town.  The Oregon coast, where this story takes place, is a part of the U.S. that is steeped in Coast Guard lore, lighthouse ghosts, and romantic wind swept beaches.  This story takes place in a small coastal village with an abandoned and neglected lighthouse.  The lighthouse is purchased by a slightly jaded, and disillusioned, architect from Los Angeles, looking for a new start.  He finds what he is looking for in the lighthouse ~ and in a tourist, who is also looking for a fresh perspective.

Fresh perspectives are something I have been looking for myself for a while now. This year I have written, A Pharaoh’s Promise, Target Acquired,  Light and Shadow, as well as a f/f fantasy, Shieldmaiden.  Shieldmaiden is the story about a young Lady in Waiting that discovers her true calling when she makes a pilgrimage to her ancestral home located in the Orkney Islands.  Her destiny, joined to the dragons that rule the skies over Scotland, finds her leading a small band of clansman to fight the invading Norsemen.  Her love for her Princess, tempts her to give up her true self and follow the Princess into a quite life of Keeps and inner court trivial pursuits.  Her decision ~ to stay and claim her birthright, or go home with the Princess ~ will affect the future of Briton. Love or Country?

I continue to write the Haiku that drives a sensual mind, and I hope that all my readers continue to enjoy, or otherwise feel moved by my work.  It is not always a happy or uplifting thought I wish to evoke.  Sometimes, the pain or angst that a piece evokes in a reader is more powerful than a pocketful of posies.

Until we meet again, be of sound mind and clear thought…

GL

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Scar Tissue Rated an A- at BookingIt!

Scar Tissue was given an A- rating by Katie over at BookingIt.net!  Check it out here: http://www.bookingit.net/?p=3305

Scar Tissue by G.L. Roberts

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bob has been a DEA officer for three years who is attracted to a new CIA recruit, Mike. But, in 1976, if Bob is caught in a relationship with another man, his government career could be over. Is the quiet Mike even interested and is he worth it?

Although I found the premise a bit odd (1970s gay men? I kept picturing an overabundance of moustaches), the story between Bob and Mike got under my skin.

Once I got over my fear of moustaches, I found the setting intriguing since most psychologists had recently declared homosexuality not a mental illness and a new wave of people could express whom they were. Of course, many were very careful to not be too forthcoming with their sexual preferences.

This little discourse leads me to Bob. He is not necessarily openly gay, but he does not hide, either. Importantly, Bob is a character with depth that is a Vietnam vet and still recovering from the shocks of war and losing friends.

Then walks in Mike. He is a military sniper who also was in the war, but Mike has his own issues that pre-date his military service. I liked how Bob realized that Mike would not take to fast and hot, so Bob tries to take things slowly. Of course, the best laid plans…

The relationship between Bob and Mike is rather sweet, even if a bit awkward mainly because they do not want to openly court each since their careers could be in jeopardy. But, their tiptoeing only adds tension and excitement. Then, when the relationship looks like it is going to take off, there is a twist in the plot, which adds more dimensions to both characters.

Scar Tissue surprised me. The setting of the story is unusual, the characters different from the norm, and their relationship is actually quite sweet. I liked how Bob and Mike are both manly-type men who try out a relationship and how their story is very different from the romantic status quo. Give this one a try!

BookingIt Grade: A-

Publisher: Seventh Window
Pages: 71
Release Date: January 31, 2012

Buy from Seventh Window Publications. It is also available at the Amazon Kindle ebook store: Amazon
Book Description
It was 1976, the year of the .38 Special, the .45 Magnum, Cold War threats and Vietnam Vets returning state side looking for jobs. It was also a time when being gay could get you fired from your job, beat up or killed. This was especially true for Bob Elkins, third year DEA officer who finds himself deeply attracted to CIA newcomer Mike Wells. Although Mike returns Bob’s romantic gestures, he goes cold when it comes time to become intimate. Is Mike playing with Bob or is there something more going on? To find out, Bob must put his reputation and job on the line and risk everything.

Tags: gl roberts

This entry was posted by katie on Sunday, July 1st, 2012 at 10:51 am and is filed under Contemporary Romance, M/M. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Zen of a Perfect Saturday Afternoon

You’ve experienced it. You’ve coveted it. You’ve used it as an excuse not to attend the house painting party, or the dog birthday party you were invited to, even though you are allergic to everything dog. It is the perfect Saturday afternoon.

Granted, not everyone has experienced the perfect Saturday afternoon. Planets must be aligned just right; in-laws, or outlaws, must be out of town; the weather must be mild enough for you not to break a sweat. Rare components all, but when they fall into place…OM.

This morning I woke after a good nights sleep, something that is in itself a bit of a miracle but that is another post. I dutifully did my sit-ups, pushups, and twenty minute aerobic routine before stepping into the shower. When I got out of the shower, freshly warmed by the hot water, I strode around my apartment in my towel,looking to see what was on my agenda for the day. Vacuum? Nope, did that during the week because of a little crumb incident. Dust? Nope, that followed the vacuuming (please no bickering over which comes first, the vacuum or the duster). Laundry? Not enough to justify the water use. No yard work (apartment living at it’s finest), no auto repair, no babysitting nieces, nephews, neighbors pets, or moving-van contents. Then it slowly dawned on me. I could do whatever I wanted to do. There was no agenda. No plan. I could watch the Stanley Cup finals, or a movie. I could grill a steak, or create something equally decadent in the kitchen. I could nap, I could read…I   COULD   WRITE!!!

If you are not new to my blog, you know that I am a writer/author of M/M Romance, and that I occasionally dabble in poetry. I am also writing a F/F Romance tentatively titled “Shieldmaiden” and I would like to give you an excerpt today. If you are new to my blog, please feel free to look around and read some of my other posts. I write whenever and wherever the muse strikes. When, that is, the muse is around and not over at Starbucks eyeing the cute barista. My muse is hedonistic and will spend hours drooling over a good looking person; or an incredible sunset photograph, without so much as a by your leave, until I am forced to beg and bribe to lure her away. Today, this perfect Saturday afternoon, my muse is sitting zen like next to me on the couch, cooing with each new poem I post or paragraph I type in Shieldmaiden. My muse it seems, has been waiting for this cosmic alignment with equal fervor. We are a couple today. OM

Now, back to the Perfect Saturday Afternoon.  Time for a glass of wine, a little fresh air on the deck, and if I am lucky, a kiss from my muse.

Shieldmaiden takes place on the Island of Breton, sometime after the erection of Hadrian’s Wall, and before Geoffrey of Monmouth penned “Leir of Britain” or contributed to the Arthurian Legend. In the story, the Shieldmaiden Bryn, the daughter of a Druid Elder, falls in love with the Princess Thalynder, the only daughter of the King of the Realm. Unbeknownst to Bryn, the dragon that companions the Princess, is really her own dragon; bonded with her at infancy and given to the King for his daughter in payment for protection of the druid clann from the raiders across the eastern sea.

From Shieldmaiden:

“I have no time for men,” Bryn said, her voice thick with renewed passion. She ran her free hand over Thalynder’s neck.  She moved her hand to Thalynder’s jaw, and when Thalynder did not pull away, Bryn placed a kiss on Thalynder’s throat.  Another kiss on her chin, then another on her mouth.  She felt Thalynder’s hand touch her breast and she moaned against Thalynder’s soft lips.  Bryn kissed those lips with desire and urgency, and was rewarded by a gentle squeeze of Thalynder’s hand, causing her nipples to come erect.  She felt Thalynder relaxing under the kiss, and she moved to part Thalynder’s lips with her tongue.  She felt Thalynder stiffen, then relax against her.  She let her tongue lay softly against Thalynder’s tongue, and then felt Thalynder respond by pushing her own tongue further into Bryn’s mouth. Bryn moved her hand to the back of Thalynder’s neck and took the kiss deeper.

The lush dance of two tongues eager for the touch of the other; asking for more and pushing hard against each other to take all the other would give.  Bryn felt Thalynder release her other hand, and then felt both hands on her tunic over her breasts.  She moaned deeply in Thalynder’s mouth.  With one hand on Thalynder’s neck, the other moved to touch the brocade tunic at Thalynder’s breast.  Bryn moved her hand in a circular motion over the brocade, feeling the shiver of Thalynder’s body against hers.  She moved to pin Thalynder against the tree, and then positioned her leg so that she could raise her knee and rub against Thalynder’s mound.  Thalynder shuddered, then abruptly stopped the kiss and pushed Bryn back.

“No,” she said breathlessly.  “A little at a time, my Bryn.  I am only now getting used to kissing you.”

Bryn, as breathless as the Princess, released Thalynder from her position against the tree.  She ran a hand over Thalynder’s cheek, then lay her forehead on Thalynder’s shoulder and sighed.  “What am I going to do if you marry?” she asked.

Shieldmaiden is my first attempt at a female/female romance. I hope you like the draft excerpt that follows at the end of this post. I would love your comments about the excerpt.

For those of you readers of M/M Romance, my short story A Pharaoh’s Promise will be available free to Goodreads members under the Love is Always Write event, posting is set for June 14th.   A second ebook, Light and Shadow,  a Seventh Window Publication, is due out later this summer.

My ebook Scar Tissue is available here:

http://www.seventhwindow.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=&products_id=41

G.L. Roberts’s books on Goodreads

For all of the readers of Scar Tissue…Bob and Mike will be back!  The second in the series takes them to the jungles of Honduras and into the path of rebel guerillas.

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Scar Tissue at Top 2 Bottom Reviews

Scar Tissue by GL Roberts.

Another solid review for my first novella, Scar Tissue over at Top 2 Bottom Reviews!

What excites me most, is the connection the characters Bob and Mike have made with the readers.  They are two gay men living in 1976 when being gay was not an easy way to live.  Sure you could be out to your close friends, or your family if you were lucky, but never to your employer.  Especially, if your employer was Uncle Sam.  For Bob and Mike, the idea of working for the government was as natural as breathing; both proud Veterans, both fiercely patriotic. It was, however, the wrong place to be if you were openly gay.  They sacrificed and endured much to become agents for the DEA and CIA, but love was one sacrifice they were unwilling to make.  Joining forces to protect one another, they discover happy endings aren’t only reserved for fairy tales.

Please check out the review at Top 2 Bottom Reviews here:  Scar Tissue by GL Roberts.

Thanks!

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Scar Tissue ~ A Recommended Read on All Romance eBooks

Scar Tissue, my first m/m romance novella garnered these nice words from the reviewers at All Romance eBooks: “This very original novella gives you two appealing characters and a rock-solid sense of location and time, which are two ingredients inexplicably neglected in most romance fiction. The detailed location is Washington DC, which comes across with easy familiarity as if from an actual resident of the city. The unusual time period is 1976, the midpoint of a forgotten decade overshadowed by the chaotic 1960s and the materialistic 1980s.”  For the entire review and recommendation please visit them at:

http://www.arecafe.com/books/scar-tissue-by-gl-roberts/

G.L. Roberts’s books on Goodreads

Scar TissueScar Tissue

reviews: 9
ratings: 41 (avg rating 4.15)

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Scar Tissue – Review by Tom Webb ~ A Bear On Books

For me, seeing the characters of my stories in my head is like breathing.  It just comes naturally…after a slap to the bottom.  Once started the characters make their way into my everyday life until I commit them to paper (or in this case cyberpaper). When I first met Bob Elkins and Mike Wells, they were just two men with similar backgrounds.  Fiercely patriotic, strong, and confident.  They stuck with me until I wrote three novels with them, then a novella to introduce them, and describe how they met and fell in love.  They became very dear friends of mine, and putting them down for others to read was like raising children.  They had to be nurtured and cared for, tended and grown.  Their story had to be real to me. Something I could touch and see.  The era in which the story would take place, had to linger on my fingers as I typed.  My characters had to be steeped in the teabag water of the time.  Once the story was written, my first question to myself was “Will anyone understand my characters?”  I waited for the reviews.

Book reviews are often subject to the reviewer’s preference in many things; style, voice, length, character type, story line.  All will set the mood for a reviewer.  It is when the reviewer gets my characters that I want to read the review over and over again.  Sharing it with my friends and family; with the strange little man down the hall, or the neighbor upstairs.  I want to take out an ad that reads “He got my characters!”  and post the ad on every empty wall.  That is what I am doing here.  My novella, Scar Tissue, received a Highly Recommended from Tom Webb over at A Bear On Books.  The link to the review and Tom’s site is shown below.  Please pop over and read the review, and check out Tom’s other reviews while you are there.  His reviews are honest assessments of the stories he has read.  He reviews the story, and that is what every author should wish to happen to them.  Please check out Tom’s review of Scar Tissue here:

http://tom-webb.blogspot.com/2012/04/scar-tissue.html?spref=fb

To Buy Scar Tissue please go here:

http://www.seventhwindow.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=&products_id=41

G.L. Roberts’s books on Goodreads

Scar TissueScar Tissue

reviews: 9
ratings: 41 (avg rating 4.15)

 

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Contra Affair – Bob and Mike Together

Central America is poised for a bloodbath. Anastasio Somoza, third of the Somoza dynasty, is setting the country up for civil war with his greed and abject disdain for the people who populate his country of Nicaragua. The FSLN, Frente Sandinista de Liberacíon Nacional, is growing in strength and a coup is anticipated. Sent to keep an eye on the brewing storm, Bob Elkins is caught behind a veil of deceit and corruption, where guns, and drugs arrive daily at the borders, to be sold to the highest bidder and finance the takeover of Nicaragua. When the U.S. withdraws support of the Somoza regime and begins to back the efforts to depose the man, Bob’s cover is suspect, and he finds himself taking to the jungle of Honduras, with the rebel counterrevolutionaries known as the Contras. CIA agent, and Bob’s lover back in the U.S., Mike Wells, is sent to Honduras to blend in with the Contras. The two men, unaware that they are walking into a game of cat and mouse, join forces to get information out to the U.S. government, risking all in the process.

Much is at stake for the U.S. from the loss of Nicaragua to a communist regime, to the growing drug trade in Columbia, and the fragile countries of Costa Rica and Panama that lie in between the guns and the drugs. For Bob and Mike, it is a time of action, intrigue, and vigilance. They can share their love discreetly in the jungle, but living long enough to do so, is not going to be easy.

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Reviews by Booked Up

Scar Tissue grabs Four Stars from Booked Up.  Read the review here or check it out on Booked Up:

http://boookup.blogspot.com/2012/03/gl-roberts-scar-tissue.html

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Scar Tissue by GL Roberts

Summary:

It was 1976, the year of the .38 Special, the .45 Magnum, Cold War threats and Vietnam Vets returning state side looking for jobs. It was also a time when being gay could get you fired from your job, beat up or killed. This was especially true for Bob Elkins, third year DEA officer who finds himself deeply attracted to CIA newcomer Mike Wells. Although Mike returns Bob’s romantic gestures, he goes cold when it comes time to become intimate. Is Mike playing with Bob or is there something more going on? To find out, Bob must put his reputation and job on the line and risk everything.

The year was 1976, a time when being gay meant you must hide in the closet or risk losing everything.

Reviewer: Carolina Fruitfly
Scar Tissue is the story of DEA agent Bob Elkins. Bob is gay in the 70s, a time where being gay is NOT safe, especially in his line of work. Former military, Vietnam vet, the 70s are not a good time to be gay, and it is REALLY not a good time to be a gay cop.

Bob is very careful in his work life. He works hard to make sure no one has an inkling of his private life, and only a few people actually know. Then one day on the firing range, he meets Mike Wells, a new recruit for the CIA. He and Mike seem to form an instant connection, and start to spend more and more time together. Bob really likes Mike, and he wants him badly, but there is a problem – Mike is very hot and cold. One step forward, three steps back, that is how Bob is known to describe his relationship with Mike. Mike is ok with doing things sexually TO Bob, but he is very quick to back away any time Bob tries to return the favor. We have to wait patiently with Bob to find out what is wrong with Mike.

What I thought was going to be either a mystery or a tale of gaybashing or hiding, turned out to be a very sweet story of the growing love between Bob and Mike, and the patience Bob has to call on, while he gets to know Mike better, and learns the horrors in Mike’s past. The story wasn’t very long, and I did feel it could have done with a bit more time spent on the romance, rather than going with the “six months later” thing, and skimming over most of the buildup. I enjoyed both characters, and the author did an excellent job of putting us into the era, with the shag carpeting, rotary phones, and avocado green appliances. And aren’t we all glad that era is over?

All in all, this was an enjoyable read, and I’m giving it a solid 4 stars.

Publisher: Seventh Window Publications

Posted by Booked UP at 1:44 PM 
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