This month has been crazy busy! J.A. Rock and I have been editing the hell out of our Playing the Fool series, coming soon from Riptide, and also Brandon Mills versus the V-Card, our sequel to Mark Cooper versus America, coming soon from Loose-Id. I’m also still working hard at the sequel to Dark Space.

And I’m really, really excited this week, because Bliss, written by Heidi Belleau and me, is out on august 18! But, if you pre-order at Riptide, you get it early! Bliss is a very dark story, set in a very bright place: the seemingly perfect city-state of Beulah where there is no crime, no jails, and everyone is always happy. Too good to be true, right? Absolutely! Here’s a look at the blurb:

They’re always happy.

Rory James has worked hard all his life to become a citizen of the idyllic city-state of Beulah. Like every other kid born in the neighboring country of Tophet, he’s heard the stories: No crime or pollution. A house and food for everyone. It’s perfect, and Rory is finally getting a piece of it.

So is Tate Patterson. He’s from Tophet, too, but he’s not a legal immigrant; he snuck in as a thief. A city without crime seems like an easy score, until he crashes into Rory during a getaway and is arrested for assaulting a citizen. Instead of jail, Tate is enrolled in Beulah’s Rehabilitation through Restitution program. By living with and serving his victim for seven years, Tate will learn the human face of his crimes.

If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. Tate is fitted with a behavior-modifying chip that leaves him unable to disobey orders—any orders, no matter how dehumanizing. Worse, the chip prevents him from telling Rory, the one man in all of Beulah who might care about him, the truth: in a country without prisons, Tate is locked inside his own mind.

Please be aware that Bliss contains dubious consent, non-consent, and heavy kink.

Also this month, J.A. Rock and I started a Facebook group that’s all about Flash Fiction. If you’re on Facebook, we’d love for you to join and check it out. This was this month’s picture prompt:

The entries so far are fantastic, and all quite different from one another! So please stop by and say hi, or stay a while and join in on the fun!