Sunday, April 28, 2013

Cover Reveal: It's RAINING MEN!

Second only to the moment I hold a finished, published book in my hands for the first time is the moment when I first see my cover. My May release, Raining Men, has just gotten its "face" and I couldn't be more thrilled with it. It's sexy. Simple. Elegant. And, I hope, intriguing.

Mega congrats to Dreamspinner Press cover artist Anne Cain for her outstanding work on this.

Please let me know what you think. And watch for the book's release in a few weeks! Here's the blurb:

The character you loved to hate in Chaser becomes the character you will simply love in Raining Men

It’s been raining men for most of Bobby Nelson’s adult life. Normally, he wouldn’t have it any other way, but lately something’s missing. Now, he wants the deluge to slow to a single special drop. But is it even possible for Bobby to find “the one” after endless years of hooking up?

When Bobby’s father passes away, Bobby finally examines his rocky relationship with the man and how it might have contributed to his inability to find the love he yearns for. Guided by a sexy therapist, a Sex Addicts Anonymous group, a well-endowed Chihuahua named Johnny Wadd, and Bobby’s own cache of memories, Bobby takes a spiritual, sexual, and emotional journey to discover that life’s most satisfactory love connections lie in quality, not quantity.

And when he’s ready to love not only himself but someone else, sex and love fit, at last, into one perfect package.


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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Windy City Inspiration



Note: This post was originally featured on the site, Reviews by Jessewave on March 21, 2013.
So I am in Chicago this week, away from what is now home (Seattle), but back in what, for many years, was home to me: the city of big shoulders, the Windy City. I lived here for more than sixteen years and this city, more than any other, is home to me—and more than that, it’s inspiration.
That’s what I’m thinking about this morning: how places inspire us, both in writing and in life. Chicago for me is an inspiration I simply cannot get away from. Its mean streets, its gorgeous
boulevards and skyline, its hard-working, but complicated people. For me, it’s always been easy to return to Chicago in my mind, which is maybe why I use it so often as a backdrop in my writing.
Chicago is a major character in so many of my works. It’s in my serial killer thriller, IM; it’s the place my troubled character in my haunted house story A Demon Inside flees, it’s where my beloved gay couple meet their fate when a hate crime changes their lives forever in Bashed; it’s where my young stripper dances in Tricks and my star-crossed escort lovers meet inRent; it’s where my chubby-chaser romance, Chaser, takes place. It’s even the backdrop for my upcoming sequel to ChaserRaining Men.
The city is in my blood. It’s easy to disappear within its grid-like streets, which end at its eastern side at the ever-changing moods and colors of Lake Michigan. I don’t even have to think about where things are happening when I write—because I simply return there in my imagination.
Being here now, sitting here this morning in my friend’s apartment in the far-north neighborhood of Rogers Park, with the lake a couple of blocks over, I am wondering if there’s a special place that inspires other writers, or if there’s a special place that connects with readers on a deeper level.
What’s that place for you? As a writer, is there a place you can go effortlessly in your imagination? As a reader, do you appreciate real places when you read a story, or do you prefer a more fantastic universe in which the stories you read are set? I hope you’ll give me some insight in the comments below.
For me, though, Chicago will always be a kind of home. I am in Seattle now and have a great love for that gorgeous city, with its mountains and water (and my beloved family), but I wonder if I will ever loose myself from the bonds of Chicago, if it’s a place where, even if I never live here again, I will continue to return to in my imagination.
Seattle is slowly creeping into my work.Raining Men is set in both Chicago and Seattle and I am getting almost as comfortable writing stories set there as here, but Chicago has an almost magical hold.
I haven’t been here for five years, yet this week, walking Chicago streets and visiting old haunts, it’s almost as if I’ve never left.
Tell me about your special place.
All photos (c) 2013 by Rick R. Reed


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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

New 5-Star Review for my modern-day fairy tale BEAU AND THE BEAST

Just stumbled across this review of my modern-day fairy tale BEAU AND THE BEAST on Reviews by Jessewave. It made my day! In part, the reviewer said:

 "Truly, I just sighed with delighted happiness as I read. I happen to believe that we all need a sweet ending at times–an uncomplicated love story–a meeting of souls if you will and Beau and the Beast delivers it all with a well written tale of love and compassion..." 

Read the whole review here.

Buy your copy.

Blurb
Inspired by the timeless tale, "Beauty and the Beast," by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, Rick R. Reed has crafted a new fairy tale for our times that manages to be ethereal, romantic and ripped-from-the-headlines realistic.

Beau is a down-on-his-luck street artist living on the streets of Seattle, drawing portraits of tourists to make enough money to live hand-to-mouth. He has a knack for capturing his subjects very souls on paper. One rainy night, he is accosted by a group of fag-bashing thugs, intent on robbing him of his art supplies and humiliating Beau for who he is. Beau is beaten into unconsciousness...

...And awakens in a beautiful bedroom, his head bandaged and with no memory of how he got there. Outside his window pine trees and mountain vistas beckon.

Beau's tale grows even more mysterious when a large, muscular man begins bringing the injured Beau his food. The man says nothing--and wears a wolf mask. When he finally does speak, it's only to tell Beau to call him "Beast."

What secrets does the wolf mask hide? What do these two outsiders have in common? And will their odd circumstances bring them to the brink of love--or tear them apart? The answers lie in Rick R. Reed's haunting love story that reveals that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Genres: Gay / Contemporary / Fantasy / Fairy Tale
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