The Secret is Being Yourself

A great big hello and thanks for listening… erm. READING. Yeah, that’s it.

So, in case you’ve been hiding under a log and haven’t seen the news yet, Becoming Rory released yesterday. What? You didn’t notice? You say Hillary Clinton won the democratic nomination and that’s all that’s been in the news?

Well shit. Politics is stealing my news cycle! *grumble grumble*

I’m here to talk about romance and love and angst and that oh-so-wonderful feeling of watching love grow from a smoldering ember into a roaring fire and you’re being distracted by politics? I don’t care if it’s historic, that shit will eat your soul and spit it out. That’s right… politics spits. It doesn’t even have the courtesy to swallow as it chews up anything remotely decent and good in life. Bastards. For those distracted by US politics:

BECOMING RORY RELEASED YESTERDAY. I might just be a little excited about that. Can you tell?

I know. It’s my fourth book in this series and I should be used to it by now. I never get used to it. I still get giddy. Don’t you? When you pick up a new book and it’s all possibilities and hopes and you know you can turn the pages (tap, swipe, as works for you) and become for that bit of time the most intimate listener, discovering love with a new friend you met when you opened the cover and stepped into a world of emotion and highs and lows and you know the payoff has gotta be good.

I’m biased. It’s my story. But I’ve got a little secret… I wrote it and it still makes me cry at the end. The payoff is really that good. Why? Because Rory is so sweet, trying to find himself. Trying to make himself sexy and be worthy and not even realizing that he already was without it all. Because it’s Rory being himself that’s sexy. And all that struggle trying to find what that is? It’s that bit, that struggle, that makes him such a catch.

And Danny? Readers who have followed the series (you don’t need to in order to understand the story, though it helps) may remember Smits, tough little skater Smits that tells off Steven in book 2. This time we get to see a lot more about Danny’s story. A whole lot more. And it’s heart breaking in its own way. But Danny Smits sees something in Rory. I think maybe you’ll see it too. I think you’ll definitely find it worth it.

So the cool stuff. Anyone want an excerpt? It’s a short one:

This was someone making him feel good. Calling him hot. It wasn’t dirty like that. It was beautiful.

Might have been if you’d gotten his name first, Rory.

He sighed. “Yeah, there’s that.”

If he washed the jeans now he might manage to get them clean before Barry came looking for them. Maybe. He made a perfunctory check of the pockets, stumbling back into his desk chair as he pulled out a business card. Hands on my chest. Oh my God! Hands in my back pocket.

“He gave me his name,” Rory said wiping frantically at his eyes. “He gave me his name!” Rory laughed hysterically. Rory dropped the jeans to the floor and rocked in his chair, staring at the card. Daniel Smits, President. Young Entrepreneurs. Rory kissed the card and set it on the desk. He let out a breath.

“What if it was just a hook-up?” He looked up at the ceiling. “Did I just give that away in a hook-up? What I felt?” Rory could feel the panic come on again and he looked at the card again.

“Fuck it!” He grabbed his phone and began punching in numbers.

Hope you enjoyed that little glimpse of Rory.

Becoming Rory
Rory Graeble returns to college determined to reinvent himself. Too many years have been wasted with masks, but becoming a student leader is a step Rory isn’t sure he’s ready for. A new identity takes more than just a new nickname, and Rory knows he has to take the chances that his old self would never risk. When that chance is a party that ends with an anonymous hot skater’s tongue down his throat and a phone number in his pocket, Rory knows what he has to do.

Danny Smits never expected to see stuffy lit geek Rory Graeble trying to be out, trying to be proud, trying to be… Rory. It’s damned sexy, and too much for the entrepreneurial skater to resist. When Rory calls him back the day after the party, Danny knows Rory has changed. But will Danny’s haunted past deter Rory? Or will Rory embrace the chance to experience everything the closet had stolen away? Danny believes in keeping things real, in a brutal honesty he knows means Rory will run screaming.

But this time Rory isn’t running.

Becoming Rory is available from Torquere Press
Or at Amazon

Note that with Torquere’s pride sale (code pride2016 for 35% off) you can pick up Becoming Rory for only about $3.90!

I’ll give away 1 copy of Becoming Rory in pdf format to a reader who gives the best comment on what they find most attractive in a partner (and why) OR what they love about angst in romance stories. Winner chosen Friday!