WIN A FREE COPY OF THE BLUE MOON CAFE

UPDATE: I'm happy to announce that Tom Belkowski is the winner of the autographed book. Congratulations, Tom!

Didn't win? You can still buy your copy here.

This release, at least for me, is something to really howl about (I can hear you groaning, but c'mon...it is a werewolf book, after all). But why am I excited?

First off, I have sort of been writing two genres for the past several years: horror and romance. Often there's an element of each in my work, but with The Blue Moon Cafe, I think I managed to successfully combine both genres in one book.  The Blue Moon Cafe is as much a romance as it is a chilling horror novel. I think (hope) that it will satisfy readers of both genres equally.

Second, it's the first full-length novel I've set in my new hometown, Seattle (and even in my current neighborhood, for the most part). It was very hard for me to break away from the inspiration of Chicago, where I lived for sixteen years, and I have done that with The Blue Moon Cafe. Seattle is the perfect setting for both a scary story and a love story.

Third, I think I grew to love these characters perhaps more than any others. For the first time, I have created people (and a feisty little chihuahua named Edith) that I think I will write about again.

So here's a little bit about the book, along with an excerpt.

Blurb:
Someone—or something—is killing Seattle’s gay men.

A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city’s gay gathering areas.

Someone—or something—is falling in love with Thad Matthews.

Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places—a new Italian restaurant called The Blue Moon Cafe. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into. And Sam can cook! But as the pair’s love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being, why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

Prepare yourself for a unique blend of dark suspense and erotic romance with The Blue Moon Cafe, written by the author Unzipped magazine called, “the Stephen King of gay horror.” You’re guaranteed an unforgettable reading experience, one that skillfully blends the hottest romance with the most chilling terror...

Excerpt:
Sam leaned back against the headboard and lit a cigarette. The room filled with the acrid stench of burning tobacco and paper and instead of being repelled as he normally would be, Thad moved close to Sam again, taking up his newly claimed spot on the man’s chest. He stared up at him, watching him smoke. Lazily, he traced circles in the hairy mat covering Sam’s chest. His fingers stopped when he caught sight of a design on Sam’s left pectoral, something he had hadn’t noticed in the dim light or perhaps because it was all but hidden by the forest of hair. Thad got up on one elbow.

“You have a tattoo?”

In the dark, Sam nodded. “I’ve had it for years, way before tattoos were all the rage like they are these days.”

“Especially here in Seattle.” Thad often wondered if there was some requirement that all citizens of Seattle must have at least one tattoo. “What’s it of?” Thad strained to make out the design’s contours in the dim light and couldn’t.

Sam leaned forward to switch on the bedside lamp. Thad squinted at the sudden light source, then directed his gaze down at the muscled chest before him. “What is it?” Thad traced the design with his fingers, lowering his head to peer more closely at it. He nipped at Sam’s nipple and Sam laughed.

“It’s Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, the twins who founded Rome in mythology. Cool, no?” Sam flexed his chest so the wolf seemed to move. Two cherubic twin boys below the figure suckled at her teats.

“It’s kind of weird. But it suits you.” Thad reached over Sam to turn off the light again.

“What brought you to America?”

Did Thad detect a slight stiffening when he asked the question?…

Win a FREE, signed copy of The Blue Moon Cafe just by leaving a comment below (with contact info so I can notify you if you win). Bonus points if you send out a link to this blog to your social networks or tweet about it! (Note: Due to the high cost of international postage, I can only make this offer available to those living in the US).

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