QSFer Wendy Rathbone has a new MM fantasy book out:
Two months before Christmas at the North Pole, Santa’s workshop bustles with activity. Santa is coming early with only half a day’s warning to inspect the elves’ progress!
Pepper, who designs and makes special one-of-a-kind dolls, is ordered by his boss Jingle to take time out of toy-making to wash three stories of windows and decorate every room in preparation for Santa. Jingle assigns Ice to assist. But for Pepper, it’s a bit of a problem. Ice is a surly elf, even disrespectful toward Santa, while Pepper reveres Santa to the point of hero-worship.
An unlikely pairing, they must work together in order to finish before Santa’s arrival.
But can two elves with conflicting value systems even get along?
And when Santa finally arrives, will the tension between Santa and Ice ruin everything for Pepper?
Amidst secrets, resentments, toasted cheese sandwiches, snowman building, being caught in a blizzard, and Santa’s nerve-wracking visit, Pepper and Ice discover a mutual attraction. But they must overcome wrongful assumptions and failed expectations for love to take its natural course and lead them to a Merry Christmas.
Giveaway
Wendy is giving away a copy of her Dreamspinner m/m sci fi romance “The Android and the Thief” in the format of the winner’s choosing, epub, mobi, pdf. Comment on the post below for a chance to win.
Excerpt
It had happened quickly, these feelings inside me, and yet they’d been gradually building since yesterday. This attraction for Ice. Now he held my hand, and it made everything real and immediate. My skin flared with warmth.
Though I wanted him with all my heart, right then and there, he did not make a move to kiss me. Perhaps he was waiting for me to do it. Or he still had questions about his feelings. Or maybe he was just shy. Though I could not quite match that description to his often-indignant personality.
He stood gracefully, like a pale golden deer under deep, gold moonlight, and held out his hand. “Come with me.”
I reached up. He pulled me from the couch to my feet, careful to see that I did not wrench my knee. I wrapped the biggest blanket about my shoulders and body, and followed him across the living room.
I had been warm for a long time. Even my bare feet were warm now, and my icy socks and shoes had been set aside by the fire to dry.
I wondered if Santa had gone back to his castle by now. He had more power than any regular elf, and could fly in all weather. Somehow, his mind was able to create electromagnetic fields and pathways that blocked outside stimulus so he could navigate fog, blizzards and rainstorms. Most elves were not born with such powers. That was why Santa was Santa Claus.
Ice led me to the kitchen were he had spiked cider already heated in a glorified coffee maker. He poured us each a full mug. He tipped his up to his parted lips. I blew on mine and sipped. It was sweet and burning at the same time.
“Ready for a tour of the rest of my place?” he asked.
I took another sip of the hot drink, swallowing hard. “I am.”
I didn’t care that his cabin was the exact same floor plan as mine. I wanted to see it. This was Ice’s home. And I had been invited in.
Author Bio
I love to write. I have this thing about words and how they are used to describe beauty, love, and all the things that open us up inside to our true self, our power. Words do that for me. They make me happy. The new moon smiling, the sadness of a fallen feather at dusk, predatory eyes gazing through smoke.
The reason I write romance these days is because the overwhelming power of falling in love (which has been proven to heal even cancer) is a game-changer. It makes sad people instantly happy. It makes bleak reality look sun-warmed and friendly again.
I have written in all genres: scifi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, contemporary, erotica, romance. My poetry has won awards, publishing contracts, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart. A fiction story of mine won Writers of the Future. My fantasy/horror fiction and poetry has received honorable mentions from esteemed editor Ellen Datlow in “Years Best Fantasy and Horror”. I am a hybrid writer, publishing both indie (under my press name Eye Scry Designs) and with publishers, most recently “The Android and the Thief” with Dreamspinner Press.
All my books are available on Kindle and CreateSpace.