Wednesday, July 31, 2013

New in Audiobook! BASHED, My Hate Crime Love/Ghost Story

Three haters. Two lovers. And a collision course with tragedy.

When Donald and Mark left the Brig that October night, they had no idea their lives and love were about to be shattered by fag bashers, intent on pain, and armed with ridicule, fists, and an aluminum baseball bat. 

The cowardly hate crime leaves one half of a couple alone and haunted--literally and figuratively--by the memories and denied promise of new love. Bashed charts the course of a journey from grief to hope, from death to life, and from hate to redemption. Come along on a trip that encompasses suspense, horror, and--ultimately--love.

Listen to a sample and buy from Amazon or Audible (also available on iTunes).

Monday, July 29, 2013

Sweet! Just got the cover art for my September release, HUNGRY FOR LOVE, by the amazing cover artist, Anne Cain. What do you think? Here's the blurb:

Nate Tippie and Brandon Wilde are gay, single, and both hoping to meet that special man, even though fate has not yet delivered him to their doorstep. Nate's sister, Hannah, and her kooky best friend, Marilyn, are about to help fate with that task by creating a profile on the gay dating site, OpenHeartOpenMind. The two women are only exploring, but when they need a face and body for the persona they create, they use Nate as the model.

When Brandon comes across the false profile, he falls for the guy he sees online. Keeping up the charade, Hannah begins corresponding with him, posing as Nate. Real complications begin when Brandon wants to meet Nate, but Nate doesn’t even know he’s being used in the online dating ruse. Hannah and Marilyn concoct another story and send Nate out to let the guy down gently. But when Nate and Brandon meet, the two men feel an instant and powerful pull toward each other. Cupid seems to have shot his bow, but how do Nate and Brandon climb out from under a mountain of deceit without letting go of their chance at love?


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Friday, July 26, 2013

Lambda Literary Gives RAINING MEN a Rave!

I woke up to a very positive review of my latest, Raining Men, today at the Lambda Literary Review and have to say I'm thrilled. Not only was the review a rave, it was also extremely well-done in its thoughtful analysis of the book's themes. Dick Smart is one smart reviewer! This is the kind of review that lets a writer know his work is being carefully evaluated.

In part, the review, which called the book a "superb sequel" says:

"While this is a romance novel and deals with the personal cri de coeur of one man, the power of Reed’s writing is his ability to provoke deeper discussions about the meaning of gay sexuality in a popular genre like romance. Coming out just before the Supreme Court decision striking down DOMA, Reed’s novel almost serves as a fictional commentary upon that decision and the meaning of gay marriage for our community."

Read the whole review here.  

Get Raining Men here.

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Free Copies of My Audiobooks!

I just got an e-mail from ACX, the Amazon company I work with to produce audiobooks, with free download codes for all of the five titles I have for sale.

I'd love to offer a few copies to readers of this blog, in exchange for an honest review on Amazon/Audible. Of course, social media mentions would be great as well, but that's entirely up to you.

Below is what I have on offer. I have five freebie codes for each and I will give up to two of each to blog readers. Just let me know at jimmyfels@gmail.com. First come, first served. I'm not giving them ALL to you guys because I want to save some back for various promos/reviews.

Choose from:

IM 
The Internet Is the New Meat Market for Gay Men Now a Killer Is Turning the Meat Market into a Meat Wagon.

One by one, he's killing them. Lurking in the digital underworld of Men4HookUpNow.com, he lures, seduces, charms, reaching out through instant messages to the unwary. He's just another guy.

They invite him over. He's just another trick. Harmless. They're dead wrong.

When the first bloody body surfaces, openly gay Chicago Police Department detective Ed Comparetto is called in to investigate. Sickened by the butchered mess of one of his brothers left on display in a bathtub, he seeks relief outside where the young man who discovered the body waits to tell him the story of how he found his friend. But who is this witness...and did he play a bigger part in the murder than he's letting on?

For Comparetto, this encounter with a witness is the beginning of a nightmare. Because this witness did more than just show up at the scene of the crime; he set the scene. And maybe, he's more than just a killer...maybe he's dead himself.

Comparetto is on a journey to discover the truth, a truth that he needs to discover before he loses his career, his boyfriend, his sanity...his life. Because in this killer's world, IM doesn't stand for instant message...it stands for instant murder.

Orientation (EPIC eBook Award Winner! Best GLBT, 2009)
Christmas, 1983: A young man, Robert, tends to his soul mate, Keith, who is dying from AIDS. Robert tries valiantly to make this a special Christmas for his lover, but loses the fight late Christmas night.

Christmas, 2007: Robert ventures out late Christmas night and finds a young girl about to fling herself into the unforgiving waters of Lake Michigan. He rescues her, and the two form a bond forged from an odd feeling they share of familiarity, and even love. Neither understands it, since Jess is a lesbian and Robert has never been attracted to women. But there's more...Jess begins having strange dreams, reliving key moments she couldn't know about in Keith and Robert's life and courtship. Robert and Jess begin to wonder if their inexplicable feelings might be rooted in something much more mystical than a savior/victim relationship.

As the two move toward and pull away from each other, Ethan, Robert's younger lover, plots the unthinkable. His crystal meth-addled mind becomes convinced there's only one way to save himself, and that is through Robert's destruction. Christmas 2007 spirals downward to a shattering climax in which both love and lives hang in the balance.

Dead End Street 
The old house at the end of a dead-end street is more of a dead end than anyone realizes......

They are five misfit kids who have banded together in their small Ohio River town. Over the years, they had organized various clubs, and now they've formed the Halloween Horror Club. The premise is simple: each week, each teen spins a horrifying tale, and at the end of five weeks, the scariest story wins a prize. The twist: the stories have to be told in the infamous and abandoned Tuttle house, where, fifteen years earlier, nearly an entire family had been murdered in their beds.

The idea of the club seems like a good one, until the kids begin to realize they may not be alone in the Tuttle house, which backs up against the woods. There seems to be someone--or something--watching them. Is it Paul Tuttle, the son who, while still in his teens, disappeared the night his parents and sister were killed? Or is it someone even more sinister?

With each story (each a completed short, original horror tale that stands on its own), the tension mounts...and so does the anger of the house's mysterious inhabitant. He is enraged at having his space violated, and his rage could mean a real dead end for those who dare to invade his home...

Obsessed 
I kill, therefore I am…

Voices slam through the corridor of his wounded mind. The words of his dead sister cry out. His parents' taunts fill the silent room where he sits and waits--waits for the murderous rage, filling him with strength, driving him to kill, to touch the cold flesh, taste the warm blood--to feel alive again…

A witness has seen him, but his killing only turns her on and now she wants to protect him. His wife suspects him, but the private detective she hired cannot stop him. Joe MacAree fears nothing--except that he may no longer be human. The thirst that drives him is relentless, moving deeper and deeper into his own shattering, private realm, where each murder is a delicious new gift of life, where revulsion is beauty, and the obsession will never let him go.

The Blue Moon Cafe (EPIC eBook Award Winner! Best Erotic Horror, 2011) 
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.'

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Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Equal Rights Blog Hop: What Being Part of the GLBT Community Means to Me

I am a proud participant of the Equal Rights blog hop, taking place here and on dozens of other blogs July 4-7, sponsored by Queertownabbey.com.

I had to give the central question for this blog some thought because I've been a member of this community for more years than I care to publicly mention. It's hard to say because it's such an integral part of my life that I seldom really give it much consideration. It's kind of like someone asking me what having green eyes or brown hair means to me. It's simply a fact, neither good nor bad, dependent upon what I choose to do with it.

Once upon a time, when I was coming out in my early 30s, though, it meant very much to me.

  • It meant freedom to at last lay down the shield and the sword, so I could stop fighting who I simply was. 
  • It meant heartbreak, because in my confusion and despair over being gay, I created a family that was destined to break apart, and that hurt me a lot. 
  • It meant possibility, because now I would have to forge new paths and take new directions. I would certainly have to face challenges--both personal and on a larger, more political scale. 
  • In the end, it meant love.


Would I ever find it?

In the end, I did find lasting love (married--legally--on December 9) and I am now a happy member of this community, a person who has struggled to be at peace with himself and to embrace what makes me unique and different. These weren't easy things to come by. But good things never are.

In honor of the hop, I will give away my most heartfelt "coming out" story, OUT ON THE NET. Just leave a comment below to be entered to win. I'll announce a winner over the weekend (and please leave me an e-mail so I can contact you if you do win).

BLURB
Ray Tolliver has bad timing. Cold feet? It doesn’t get much worse than accepting you’re gay twenty minutes before your wedding to a woman, yet that’s just what happens.

Join Ray as he recounts in his blog the hilarious and touching events that lead him on a journey toward true love. Although he originally starts looking for love in all the wrong places, will he eventually find another man who wants more than just quick sex? A man who appreciates romance, hearts, and flowers? Or will he find that self-acceptance and bliss do not always go hand-in-hand?

And what of Alice, Ray’s lovely, jilted fiancĂ©e? Will she find it in her heart to forgive the man who left her at the altar?

These questions and more are answered in this unique love story, told in the form of blog entries. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but you’ll come away with a renewed appreciation for the power and difficulties of loving not only others, but yourself...

To win even more prizes, check out all the other blogs dedicated to the theme. You can find out what the grand prizes are and who else is participating, on the Equal Rights Blog Hop page.

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