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I thought it would be fun to talk a little about the settings of my books. In a previous post, I shared how I came up with the setting for the Ignite series. Today, we’re looking at series.

In 2021, my son and I did our second cross-country trip and drove from New York all the way to Seattle. We made stops in Michigan to see my PA Vicki and her daughter, then moved on to Chicago, where we spent a few days. And it was blazing hot! Pfff, we were sweating our asses off.

I had been to Chicago before, but that had been in the winter, so it was fun to see everything in the summer now. We visited the Bean, walked down the Magnificent Mile and gawked at all the expensive shops, we took the L, did a boat tour, and much more. We had a lot of fun despite the heat!

That’s where I came up with the idea of letting the four guys from the series grow up in Chicago. I wanted them to be in a big city with inner city problems, and so Chicago was perfect. And I incorporated some of the things we saw into the books.

View From Space NeedleThe Space NeedlePike Place Market

After Chicago, we drove on to Minnesota (narrowly missing a tornado that struck Wisconsin!) where we visited the Mall of America—the biggest mall in the US. And it is massive indeed. I spent my birthday there, and it was epic.

We also saw Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota, drove through the wildfire-haze in Montana, and eventually ended up in Seattle, our destination. Seattle itself was an interesting experience. We loved the Pike Place Market, thought the chewing gum wall was gross, kept being amazed at all the coffee shops including Starbucks, and admired the view from the Space Needle. We also did a ride on the Ferris Wheel, which is always fun.

A lot of the setting details for were from that trip, as I took lots of pictures and made copious notes. The location where Reid lives, for example, was inspired by a walk my son and I did through that neighborhood, which is a gorgeous setting with lots of renovated turn-of-the-century buildings.

After Seattle, our trip wasn’t done. We spent time on the Olympic Peninsula (there’s a rainforest there, did you know?), did an orca-watching trip, then continued to Oregon and started our long drive back, stopping by several places of interest along the way. It was an epic trip, and it certainly gave me a lot of inspiration for various settings…including !

It’s been over three years since the No Shame Series took on their current look, and it’s time to give them a refresh! I have always been holding out hope that I would be able to find a cover model that represented what Indy looked like to me. But that hasn’t happened. I don’t think it ever will, but it’s time for a fresh look anyway.

These new covers will be going up for purchase February 12th. If you need to complete your set or want to purchase the No Shame Series with their current covers, you can purchase at Amazon or signed copies directly from my website.

I bought these covers as premades with intentions for a different series—always the intention to write something before another something comes along, haha! They are designed by Golden Czermak. I think the look of these gives a better feel for some of the k!nkier and suspense elements in this series.

I hope you love them!

When I started reading MM romance, one of the most popular tropes was called Gay for You, abbreviated as GFY. It featured one or more characters who had always thought they were straight but ended up falling for a man (or more than one, in poly MM romances). They weren’t attracted to other men and had never even considered it, but they hopelessly fell for this one guy.

In other words: they were basically straight and only gay for him.

Then pushback came against using this term, labeling it impossible. After all, if you’re a man and you fall for another man, you’re not straight. You’re probably bisexual (or pansexual, depending on which term you prefer). So to call a character straight but gay for that one guy was a misrepresentation. That’s when the term bisexual awakening took over.

I get it. At first glance, Gay for You does seem like a problematic term. I would agree that if you’re in love with someone of your own gender, you’re not straight. That doesn’t mean we get to immediately slap a label on, though.

But the bigger argument was that gay for you doesn’t exist in real life. People aren’t gay for just one guy. They’re either straight or bi/pan. Are they, though?

Let’s start with the first issue. Labeling someone else is always tricky. Within the queer community, we hold the value that we need to let people pick their own labels, ones that they are comfortable with and identify with. Funny as it may sound, to me that includes characters. Of course as the author, I create the characters and theoretically, I’m in control of them. The reality is that like real life people, characters can misbehave and insist on doing things their way.

That includes deluding themselves about not being attracted to men.
That includes labeling themselves as straight, even when they already experience attraction to another guy.
That includes attitudes that may come across as homophobic, like insisting making out with another guy is not gay but just biology.
And that includes the labels they use for themselves, both before and after they’re in love with another man.

Because that’s what happens in real life as well. Some people need time before they can fully embrace themselves as bi or pan. Others will never become comfortable with either term and refuse any label at all. They consider themselves in love and that’s enough of a label. It’s messy and it doesn’t fit a nice pattern, but it is real life.

In real life, labels aren’t always as clear. They’re not binary (either straight or bi/pan) and they change and evolve over time. So why can’t they in MM romances?
I understand the reason for the pushback. The underlying suggestion is that if a character insist on being Gay for You is that they’re uncomfortable calling themselves bi or pan and prefer to think of themselves as straight. That reeks of homophobia (or technically, biphobia) and that is uncomfortable. Like I said, I understand that, but shouldn’t we feel equally uncomfortable slapping a forced label on characters?

The second issue is just as interesting. It is possible for people to not be attracted to their own gender with one exception. I’ve seen it in real life. The problem is that it’s not that common, and so using it as frequently as MM romance authors did in their books is a bit of a misrepresentation.

Then again, we also have a statistically impossible amount of completely gay families/siblings/friends/coworkers/small towns, etc. And our characters have to share a bed way more often than happens in real life. Or get stranded in a snow storm. Or fall for their best friend’s brother/father/ex. You get what I mean.

In the end, I agree with using the term bisexual awakening over Gay for You. I do understand the reasons behind the pushback, mostly because statistically, the number of men who would truly consider themselves gay for you is very low, and using it as a trope name that often would suggest otherwise. Plus, I am uncomfortable with the underlying internalized homo/biphobia, so I do prefer to allow characters to label themselves as bi/pan. Until one day, there might be one that insists otherwise�

In the mood for some bisexual awakening? I have several to choose from:

� � when Jaren gets left at the altar, his ex-fiancée’s brother takes him in…and Jaren finds out he’s not as straight as he thought.

� � small-town sheriff unexpectedly falls for the new English teacher in town. Mature men, single dads, small town romance, and all the feels in this second book in the Forestville Silver Foxes series.

� � local recluse takes in a young man stranded in a snow storm and ends up falling hard for him. With mild D/s play with an older sub, an age gap, hurt/comfort, and the happiest of endings, this is a great standalone romance.

� � an FBI agent discovers he’s not straight when his friendship with a Secret Service agent develops into much more. This is the second book in a continuing romantic suspense series, so make sure to read !

� � Burke insists he’s straight and that he’s a Dom, but after meeting (and clashing) with Wander, he finds out he might be wrong on both accounts. Super emotional, angsty romantic suspense with D/s themes.

I thought it would be fun to talk a little about the setting of my different books, and we’ll start with the . In 2018, my son and I did a cross country trip, taking four weeks to drive from Albany, NY to LA and back. We hit some fantastic sights along the way, like Badlands NP, Yellowstone NP, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and more. It was an absolutely fantastic trip, and we made memories that will last a lifetime.

I’d already bought the cover for the first Ignite book. I’d seen this as a premade (that means it’s a cover a designer already made that you can buy, as opposed to asking a designer to design a cover specifically for you). I was just SO in love with it� So on this trip, I started brainstorming a little with my son (who was 10 at the time) about what a book with that cover could be about.

We brainstormed ideas about fires or volcanoes, considering the cover. He was the one who came up with the idea for an alien landing, so we talked about why aliens would want to come to Earth. In the book, the aliens come from a planet named Zagor, and he actually came up with that name.

South Dakota was awe-inspiring, and we both loved Badlands NP. We also drove through the Black Mountains and made a stop at the Walmart in Rapid City—the same one that played a role in the series.

On our way to Yellowstone, we drove through Wyoming, where we were both struck by the sight of oil pumps. I’d never expected them there, not knowing Wyoming had oil, and while I was driving, my son did some googling on his iPad and discovered that there’s a large oil field there but it’s one that’s hard to access. I mentally filed that away. The vastness and emptiness of Wyoming hit us both, miles and miles of nothing but prairieland and very few towns. The pics in this post are from Wyoming and are ones I took on that trip!

Then we reached Yellowstone, where my son informed me that Yellowstone is actually one big super volcano, which I didn’t know. Not the most reassuring thought, to be honest, because he cheerfully told me that if it ever blew, it would take most of North America with it. You can see one of the many geysers in the pic below.

And that’s when it all came together, the whole core concept of the . Every detail was inspired by something we’d seen, heard, or learned on that trip. Most locations in the book are places we went to—with the exception of where the book ends (I don’t want to give that away for the people who haven’t read it yet). That was a place I visited in 2019 without my son.

The Ignite Series was also inspired by the political situation at that time, with an increasing number of attacks on queer and transgender rights, as well as those of women…and things haven’t gotten better since. My fear was that if the extremists got their way, being queer would become illegal…and that’s what you see reflected in that series.

Anyway, if you haven’t read it, you really should . It’s a little oddball series, very different from most of what I write, but it’s still very much a Nora series with an MMM romance between amazing, real characters, a swoony romance, all the feels, a super happily ever after, and more. And I promise no harm comes to the good guys!

I thought it would be fun to talk a little about the setting of my different books, and we’ll start with the . In 2018, my son and I did a cross country trip, taking four weeks to drive from Albany, NY to LA and back. We hit some fantastic sights along the way, like Badlands NP, Yellowstone NP, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and more. It was an absolutely fantastic trip, and we made memories that will last a lifetime.

I’d already bought the cover for the first Ignite book. I’d seen this as a premade (that means it’s a cover a designer already made that you can buy, as opposed to asking a designer to design a cover specifically for you). I was just SO in love with it� So on this trip, I started brainstorming a little with my son (who was 10 at the time) about what a book with that cover could be about.

We brainstormed ideas about fires or volcanoes, considering the cover. He was the one who came up with the idea for an alien landing, so we talked about why aliens would want to come to Earth. In the book, the aliens come from a planet named Zagor, and he actually came up with that name.

South Dakota was awe-inspiring, and we both loved Badlands NP. We also drove through the Black Mountains and made a stop at the Walmart in Rapid City—the same one that played a role in the series.

On our way to Yellowstone, we drove through Wyoming, where we were both struck by the sight of oil pumps. I’d never expected them there, not knowing Wyoming had oil, and while I was driving, my son did some googling on his iPad and discovered that there’s a large oil field there but it’s one that’s hard to access. I mentally filed that away. The vastness and emptiness of Wyoming hit us both, miles and miles of nothing but prairieland and very few towns. The pics in this post are from Wyoming and are ones I took on that trip!

Then we reached Yellowstone, where my son informed me that Yellowstone is actually one big super volcano, which I didn’t know. Not the most reassuring thought, to be honest, because he cheerfully told me that if it ever blew, it would take most of North America with it. You can see one of the many geysers in the pic below.

And that’s when it all came together, the whole core concept of the . Every detail was inspired by something we’d seen, heard, or learned on that trip. Most locations in the book are places we went to—with the exception of where the book ends (I don’t want to give that away for the people who haven’t read it yet). That was a place I visited in 2019 without my son.

The Ignite Series was also inspired by the political situation at that time, with an increasing number of attacks on queer and transgender rights, as well as those of women…and things haven’t gotten better since. My fear was that if the extremists got their way, being queer would become illegal…and that’s what you see reflected in that series.

Anyway, if you haven’t read it, you really should . It’s a little oddball series, very different from most of what I write, but it’s still very much a Nora series with an MMM romance between amazing, real characters, a swoony romance, all the feels, a super happily ever after, and more. And I promise no harm comes to the good guys!

Every now and then, the discussion pops up again: gay romance isn’t realistic. MM romance authors don’t show what life for gay men is really like. They’re misrepresenting the reality of the struggles and challenges these men face. And sometimes, people who say this express a wish for more stories that show real life.

A lot of these critical remarks stem from a crucial misunderstanding about the very nature of gay romance and how it differs from gay fiction. Gay romance is, by its very definition, a romanticized story. A romance is a fictional story between two or more people that ends with a happily ever after. Please note that last part.

If a story doesn’t end with the main characters ending up together and being happy together, it’s not a romance (best example: Gone with the Wind).
If they die in the end, even after an epic love (looking at you, Romeo and Juliet), it’s not a romance.
If they both agree they’re better off as friends, it’s not a romance.
If one of them tragically dies (think of The Fault in Our Stars), it’s not a romance.

A romance HAS to end with a happily ever after, and that’s a hill I will die on. That is what makes a romance a romance. And tied into that are some lesser implicit promises to the reader, like that the dog will not die, there will be no cheating unless specifically mentioned (and yes, even if they’re on a break, it may be considered cheating�), we usually don’t show sex with other characters, and generally speaking, a romance has a positive feel to it—unless it’s dark, in which case it has to be labeled as such. But even a dark romance still has to end on a happily ever after.

Gay fiction, on the other hand, does not need that happily ever after. It can end (or begin, for that matter: no need for a meet cute in chapter 1 here) in any way the author wants. Gay fiction is a fictional story involving one or more gay/bi/non-straight characters. That’s it.

That means a romance doesn’t need to be realistic—not in all details and storylines anyway. Most of us read romance because we want an escape from reality. We want to be swept way to a world where everything will work out in the end, where love conquers all, and where there are still good and decent people.

Romances only need to be realistic to still be believable, and even then readers give authors a lot of leeway. Authors can get away with making all male siblings non-straight, for example, or by making the majority of the male inhabitants of a small town interested in men. That’s all part of the make believe.

What readers do care about is that the romance itself is realistic, that the emotions are real and that the responses and actions feel logical. That’s the part authors need to get right. Sure, it helps if authors do their research and not let characters drive across town on Manhattan in ten minutes—an absolute impossibility in real life—because at some point, those mistakes and inconsistencies will yank readers out of the story, out of what’s called the fictional dream. But there’s a lot of room for romanticizing, for leaving out the aspects of real life that don’t fit our stories.

Gay fiction does have room for all the gritty realism, and it can include darker themes, more depressing storylines for lack of a better word, and show the challenges of life for a gay/non-straight character. It still doesn’t have to be one hundred percent realistic because it’s still fiction, but there is room to incorporate everything real life throws at us.

To complain that gay romance isn’t realistic is to criticize the very nature of romance. It’s not meant to be realistic.

That doesn’t mean that anything goes, however. Especially when writing MM romance, we do have a moral obligation and responsibility to treat our characters and the topics we tackle with respect. We have to ensure we don’t propagate harmful stereotypes (eg about role patterns, body types, dynamic, etc.), reinforce casual misogynism, glance over sensitive topics that need more in-depth discussion, make light of real-life problems, or fetishize gay men.

That’s a responsibility I take very seriously—though that doesn’t mean I don’t fuck up from time to time. After all, authors are as human as everyone else�

Anyway, back to the difference between gay romance and gay fiction. I’m a die-hard romance reader and author. To each their own and I will never yuk someone else’s yum, but I very much prefer the romanticized life in MM romances over the more realistic portrayal in gay fiction. That’s a choice everyone can make for themselves. Just don’t project your preferences and expectations upon a genre that plays by different rules.

Let’s talk about sex, baby.
Let’s talk about you and me.

If you just sang that in Salt-N-Pepa style, we need to be friends. I’m old school, and that song was the biggest ear worm ever. Also, it was banned in my family so obviously, I knew it by heart, haha.

So yeah. Let’s talk about sex. Sex in MM romances, to be more specific. How realistic are those scenes and even more importantly, how realistic should they be?

Well, the answer to that question depends on who you ask. Here’s the thing. Romances are by definition fiction. They’re not meant to be realistic. If they were, they’d be gay fiction and not gay romance.

That doesn’t mean everything goes and nothing needs to be realistic, but it does mean we have some creative freedom in portraying reality. And I use some of that freedom when it comes to my sex scenes.

So let’s talk about what is unrealistic:

Lots of sex, all the timeGuys always coming at the same time or at least, close togetherEvery time always being epic and the best sex they ever hadThe size of the equipmentThe stamina of everyone involved and the lack of needed recovery timeEveryone usually loves swallowingLots of precumLots of prep

To name just a few. Now, I don’t always include all of these. I’ve written some characters with smaller equipment (No Filter comes to mind), not all my books have anal sex (Healing Hand, for example), and in the Forestville Silver Foes series, I am a tad more realistic about not being able to go three times in a row.

But I do also take some liberties (think Connor and his Beast and Coulson with his big dick), and the reason is twofold: it fits my genre—gay romance—and it’s what readers want. Even if what they want isn’t always true�

(did you know that most men who bottom regularly don’t need nearly as much prep as most MM romance authors describe, including me? But it’s what most readers expect, and if we skip it, readers will criticize us sometimes�)

Let’s be honest: realistic sex isn’t necessarily the most romantic sex, and it’s not always fun to read either. Sex can be messy and embarrassing, and while I do on occasion show some of that, for the most part I try to make it pretty and perfect. That’s part of the romance, but it’s also what most readers prefer.

If the sex in MM romances gets too gritty and realistic, we authors do get dinged for that in reviews. I don’t always care about that, but I do understand where readers are coming from. I, too, read romance because I prefer that rosy fiction over the less-than-rosy reality, so while I do appreciate some level of realness, I also want my swoony romance. And part of that is great sex.

But there are a few things that are important to me. Safe sex is one of them. I think that’s an aspect that needs to be discussed in some way. Even more important is consent. I think that’s about the most important thing to include. I will admit that it’s something I’ve become more aware of over the years, so my earlier books may not highlight it as much�

Anyway, that was today’s sex talk. Now I’d love to hear your thoughts, How realistic do you think sex scenes in MM romances should be?

Many of us MM romance authors love series, and I’m no exception. In fact, some of my series became much longer than I had planned, the Irresistible Omegas being the prime example. Originally, I’d planned three books…which turned into ten and now the spin off already has five books as well.

I have some series that went according to plan. The White House Men series, for example, was always planned to be seven books. The Foster Brothers was supposed to be four books, though I did add a prologue, and the 47 Duology was two books from the start. Though, again, I did add a bonus novella� And I did the same with the No Shame series, which was planned as four and got a bonus novella as well. Hmm, am I seeing a theme here? LOL

But there’s one series I wrote that was never meant to be a series. I got the idea for the first book and planned it as a standalone gay romance, not a series. But readers kept asking for the story of a side character, and so I wrote that. And then there was another side character who needed a story and suddenly, I had a series on my hands.

Any idea which series I’m talking about?

It’s the Perfect Hands series. Firm Hand was never meant to be the first in a Daddy kink series. I had the idea for this book while traveling through Australia, and it was planned as a standalone. But then everyone fell in love with Raf and Daddy Brendan and wanted to read how those two found each other, so I write Gentle Hand and Naughty Hand, a holiday-themed novella.

Master Ford appeared in all of those books, and now readers were asking about him, so I had to write his story. Well, the series now has six books and honestly, I may even write a seventh and/or eight. I really love Daddy kink, and I have sooooo many more ideas for books. Isn’t it funny how characters seem to have their own plans sometimes? All we can do as authors is just go with it�

I know, I know� It took me way too long to write , book two in the No Regrets series. After all, book one, , has been out since April 2021. Let’s just say that a lot happened since then and I got a little distracted� But now No Rules is here, and it’s one hell of a sexy, kinky story.

First, there’s Ryan. He’s a grumpy former detective turned PI, and he now works for Wander, who you may remember from No Surrender. He runs a private security company. Wander accepts a case where they have to find out who killed a racehorse, and he asks Ryan to take the lead. Ryan used to be a Dom, but he’s done with that part of himself. And done with love or any kind of commitment.

Enter Alex, the youngest member of Wander’s team and a new submissive. He’s a horny little slut and a happy one at that, and he has to assist Ryan in the investigation. Alex is all too happy to fulfill Ryan’s needs…which also happen to match well with his own. Alex tells himself he’s fine with just hooking up with Ryan. After all, one man could never be enough for him.

Until Alex needs a real Dom to train him.

Until Wander gives Ryan an ultimatum.

Until Ryan discovers that, somehow, Alex has gotten under his skin�

This is a super high heat kinky story that features lots of sex and some D/s scenes with impact play, sensory play, and more. There’s also a hella hawt bonus scene you’ll want to read. Trust me on this. So grab No Rules now from Amazon (also in KU) and start reading today!

We all know the physical Easter eggs, but do you know what literary Easter eggs are? In books, they refer to surprises the writer has left for the reader to discover. It can be an inside joke, a reference to pop culture, a link to previous works of the same author that are not in the same world or series, or even stories from another author, you name it. Easter eggs can be a character/name, a place, an object, or a line in dialogue, and they can range from super subtle to obvious.

It’s super fun to spot Easter eggs in books, and MM romance has its fair share of Easter egg-loving authors too…including me. So the question is: have you spotted any Easter eggs in my books?

Let me give you a few examples:

In Loathed: Lagan, the legal clinic where Killian and Lagan volunteer is described as having a framed picture of President Shafer on the wall. This is an inside reference to my White House Men series, where President Shafer is one of the main characters.In Clean Start at Forty-Seven, Kinsey has a subscription to a porn site called the Ballsy Boys. This is a reference to the Ballsy Boys series I cowrote with K.M. Neuhold.The White House Men series has a lot of Easter eggs that refer to The West Wing, which is one of my all-time favorite TV series. For example, Levar has a goldfish named CJ, after CJ Cregg, one of the main characters from The West Wing. Henley’s editor is called Toby, after another main character, and a side character (a CNN reporter) is named Donna, after Donna Moss from The West Wing. Yup, I had some fun with those!

But there are many, many more Easter eggs in my books, including one reference to something I love dearly that you’ll find in almost every book of mine. Who knows what I’m talking about? And have you spotted any other Easter eggs in my books or those in other MM romances? I’d love to hear some more examples!