Midnight, Mischief, and Mistletoe ARCs Available, and More!

Hello folks! Woof, last week was a lot, in case you were wondering where my typical blog post went. I was copyediting and reading through the MS for the anthology Midnight, Mischief, and Mistletoe from Tender and Tempting Tales, where I work as Social Media and Marketing Manager, as well as doing various other whatever-needs-to-get-done tasks (alongside Jenna and the editors). There are some great pieces I very much enjoy, in addition to my own entry ("Crimson Bride"), which I think is one of the stronger pieces I've written, and I hope you all get to enjoy it when the anthology comes out.

First off, it was wonderful to see Marissa's story, "Packs and Negotiations," which I not only beta-read before submission, but which I helped name. Seeing Marissa in print (even just the proof copy) made me feel really proud. It features Val and Alec, who are the stars of a novel she was working on alongside me last Noveling November, and I was really enjoying all the bits she posted for our writing group.* I very much enjoyed Annie R McEwen's story, "Love Me, Love My Dog," a historical romance set at the end of the nineteenth century; it's tender and funny, featuring a touching enemies-to-lovers story with lots of bickering over love of dogs, and the ending has that lovely mixture of sweet and absurd that someone with my perverse temperament tends to adore. A real standout for me was, of course, Urna Semper's "Montara Sierpento Snows," which is set in the far-future world of Iphigenia, but like the rest of Urna's stuff, it reads like an alternate historical romance. It is also, I must mention, absolutely hilarious and really an excellent showing, and a great holiday story. Its FMC is such a snotty, well-meaning delight, and it's impossible to not want to put her in your pocket.

*Note! Marissa Marinello is putting the bow on her website and her reader magnet, which I also beta-read, called "Trials and Traditions." Go check her out and join her newsletter! It's a great way to support a new author. What I love about Marissa's world is that she does cozy werewolf romance without a lick of omegaverse stuff, and it never comes off weird.

As you know, Tender and Tempting Tales is a small, emerging press, now on our second anthology ever. We thrive on word of mouth and reviews. If you want an ARC copy of Midnight, Mischief, and Mistletoe and to leave us an honest review on your platform(s) of choice, such as Amazon, Goodreads, Kobo, Nook, or Apple, you would be helping us out tremendously. You can find the interest form here; thank you in advance from me and everyone in the anthology! I hope you enjoy it, and particularly that you check out my story and those I've highlighted above. Those were my favorites, but there are plenty of new favorites to discover.

We will be holding a Halloween Readers Contest at the end of the month, and the writers from both anthologies have already submitted a fabulous slate of wonderful prizes. Luci Beach has submitted audiobooks, Urna Semper has submitted Kingdom of Maids (!!!!whycan'tIwinaaaauugh!!!), Annie R McEwen has submitted The Chelsea Milliner, our new authors have submitted wonderful collections of flash fiction, and we have two paperbacks submitted from Ashley Loren and Suzy Langevin----the latter of which, The Cowboy Christmas Glow-Up, will be mailed to you signed if you win! Please follow @tendertemptingtales on Instagram and stay tuned for details, or join our Readers Group on Facebook, where you'll always stay up to date on our authors and anthologies.

A couple days after the release of the anthology, we will be holding our Facebook Takeover Event, as we did for Moonlight and Margaritas. That will be on November 5, happening all day, and of course you can go access the event at any time to see all the good stuff. Authors will be signing up in the coming weeks and preparing their slots, so we'll have a full itinerary laid out on the Readers Group. I will be in the last slot, since I'm also doing our signoff. Follow the event and be sure to like and comment on posts, so you can win lots of free goodies and learn about the authors. It's a really fun time, and I enjoyed the one we did for Moonlight and Margaritas immensely. The authors are always so creative with their slots and prizes----and of course, you know I'll be making a neat space-based Reel about "Crimson Bride."

Speaking of "Crimson Bride": The anthology will be releasing on November 3rd. The requirement for every story in the anthology is that it be a romance (any subgenre welcome), and that it must include mistletoe, midnight, and mischief somewhere in the text, with some preference for it being a holiday story. Well, I did that for "Crimson Bride," of course, but I then turned around and did it AGAIN. The beta readers voted for Geras Vantage, Zak's adorable cinnamon-roll gay boi chef of a big brother, to get his own story. I've written that as a novella called "Star Groomsman," which again features midnight, mischief, and mistletoe, and it is the companion piece to "Crimson Bride." It will be releasing right here on my website to all of you as a thank-you for being my subscribers and readers! Here is the cover I've made in Canva below:

I can't wait to release it and hear people's thoughts! I've really loved writing about Geras; he's a wonderful protagonist, and just a hilarious sweetheart. I hope you love him too!

More news! Last week, I heard from Raconteur Press that "Power Play," a Starship Valkyrie story I submitted to them, will be published at the end of the month in Mercs and Mayhem! This story is a sci-fi action/cyberpunk merc tale set during the Corporate Wars, about thirty years before the main story of the game world and the other Valkyrie stories I write. It's a time period I've wanted to explore, and which the players are interested in learning more about. I worked very hard on this story, as the vibe was supposed to be something more along the lines of Strange Company or Shadowrun, and I created an all-new cast of characters for it. I think it came out really well, and it definitely stretched by range and my writing muscles. I'm so excited to share "Power Play" with you and the Valkyrie community! More to come about that, especially on my social media, over the following month. I'll be posting some tidbits from "Power Play" during the release of Mercs and Mayhem----a little trick-or-treat during Halloween!

We've got some exciting goodies coming to the blog here as well! I'll be doing that Moggies of Mars review that I keep promising. (I'm so sorry that hasn't materialized! My son has been having massive sleep disruptions, and I found myself reading the MM&M manuscript in the dark from the rocking chair in his room, trying to protect him from imaginary monsters so he could sleep. That has made reading a paperback for pleasure and review difficult.) I really want to do that and to make reviewing collections a more regular part of my routine, to keep me reading a diverse group of stories and honing my own critical and writerly mind. I am also interviewing Jenna Harte for the blog, who's going to tell us about her various projects and about ghost writing. And of course, I'll be doing Noveling November, focusing my energies on Crimson Tide, and posting tidbits here as I go.

Exciting time! I really want to thank my beta readers for their help on "Power Play" and "Star Groomsman," as well as "Crimson Bride," and their ongoing thoughts and support on various projects. They really helped me hone "Power Play," and I am so grateful to them for that. I'd also like to thank Bea at Mama Needs to Read Romance on Youtube and Instagram, who reviewed M&M and included us in her roundup. She makes it a point to remind folks that the collection contains science-fiction romance, which is rare. I appreciate that so much. You can find her here talking about Moonlight and Margaritas. More soon!