Hi Love Bytes-Readers,

I’m Monika De Giorgi and today I want to celebrate with you my recent release “Where I’ll Be Waiting“.

We will have a giveaway of an e-copy of “Where I’ll Be Waiting” and of an “Adult Coloring Kit” with adult coloring pages a friend of mine designed and pencils.

leave a comment to enter!

Each page contains the intro to a key moment of the book. I decided to show you my favorite, give you a reading sample according to it and tell you a bit about the scene that, even if it doesn’t have a chapter name in itself, is called “The Tent”.

Night was spreading its cloak once more over the labyrinth and Jesse, shaken up by the recent meeting with his parents, held on by a hair’s breath.

His mind wanted to tell him every step he took was futile, nothing else. Yeah, the backdrop was changing in little ways—an arch overgrown with ivy here, vine there. Trellis here with white roses, there with pink ones. So it changed, but at the same time it didn’t. After all, he was still caught in the maze and there was no indicator at all that he was even getting closer to the exit. Maybe he was walking in circles all the time, maybe he couldn’t trust the sky above him, maybe his fucking subconscious led him astray. Should he just give up?

But even if parts of him wanted to cry and curl up once again, he didn’t allow himself to do so. Because he was not the wimp his father, and… people… he met after he left home, saw him as. Cam had been proud, Cam believed in him and Liam did, too. They were the people that counted in his life.

He stopped in his tracks, giving himself a moment to take a deep breath of the rapidly cooling night air, closing his eyes and centered himself again. When he opened his lids again, his fingers were still trembling and eyes still stinging.

It had been a long battle that had come to an end today. Inthe maze, it may have been mere moments, but inside his heart it had been fought for many years.

It would take time to work through it, and until he really felt free from them, if he ever would. Right then, he couldn’t imagine it. He was still too raw.

So he counted his steps and concentrated on distinguishing the nightly shadows between optical illusions and eventual threats. All the while he trudged steadily onward. Anything, to keep himself from thinking, when suddenly the wind picked up, herding dark clouds in front of the pale moon, stealing his only light source, and creeping under his thin layer of clothes in a cold gust. “Shit!”

His shivers were even more pronounced thanks to the night winds icy fingers. He wrapped his arms around himself, but it was a useless attempt to save warmth, because a cold drizzle started up, wetting slowly but steadily his hair, skin and clothes. Rain again. Of fucking course! Should he look for shelter? He wanted to get out of the rain, and dreaded it at the same time.

But pondering that question was useless, wasn’t it? The maze had another bone to pick with him, and it would lead him to the scene of his next fight.

Fleeing would only prolong the inevitable and make everything harder for him. So he best follow its lead and make his entry into the arena count.

When he reached another fork in the path, some inner knowledge tugged him to the left, even if it was not the direction he would have chosen. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned left.

Soon, he found himself just outside another archway, heavily overgrown with roses and vines. It looked foreboding in the dark. From it, a wooden sign swung back and forth in the wind. He couldn’t make out what it was saying in the dark, and Jesse cursed once more. He had to go in anyway, but he would have welcomed a hint on what to expect next.

After he had shoved the tangle of wet roses and vines to the side, earning himself a few stinging scratches that had him hiss angrily, he spied a tent. It was some strange red and black striped mix of tipi and circus tent with a radius that seemed big enough to fit a small hotel room inside it. Its ropes and lines were vibrating in the icy wind, still it looked stable and welcoming, with a soft golden glow emanating from it. Jesse did not trust it, but was sure he needed to go To meet whatever or whomever was waiting behind securely closed tent flaps, sinister or not. So he took another deep breath, steeling himself and walked up to the tent entry.

When Cam woke, he found himself lying on a small mountain of pillows in all kinds of different designs and sizes. A fluffy blanket was draped over him, and rain was pitter-pattering on the roof of the… tent? A tent? Well, that was new.

He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around the soft, lantern lit room. It was one of those luxurious tents one saw in movies about knights in arms and fair maidens.

Thick carpets were laid on the red and black colored tent’s ground. There was even furniture. A spindly table with roman chairs, the sleeping place, where he had just woken up, with a side table from which the lantern lit the room, and a folding screen closing off a part of the tent.

He adjusted the lantern’s wick so it glowed brighter. On the table beside his very comfortable and warm nest of pillows, was also offered a carafe of wine, he assumed, with two chalices and a bowl of fruits. Only Jesse was once again missing. He pushed himself into a sitting position. As comfortable as the place was, he needed to find the other man.

So he shoved his cover back when the sound of someone unfastening the tents closings had him freeze in place. Then the flap was pushed aside, letting in a wave of cold, damp air and his gaze connected with Jesse’s. Immediately, he felt a smile spread on his lips and the tension leave his shoulders and spine. But Jesse’s face didn’t mirror the expression.

Instead, it showed a suspicious frown, his beautiful eyes guarded.

Cam couldn’t deny a sting of hurt, but considering how he met Jesse the last time, it was more than understandable.

So he raised his hands in an open and non-threatening gesture.

“Hey, Jesse. It’s me,” he greeted sheepishly, feeling stupid, but not able to find better words.

Jesse’s face didn’t show if he believed Cameron or not, but he stepped inside the tent and let the flap fall, his eyes staying on Cam the whole time.

“I don’t know how I can show you that I’m me.”

Cameron bit his lip, while Jesse was still studying him like some strange bug. It was a bit unnerving and he chuckled nervously, shifting on the pillows.

Then Jesse seemed to come to a decision, because he drew closer, reaching a hand out to Cameron.

“Come here,” he rasped, raising a faint memory in Cameron of a dream where Jesse had spoken the exact same

command.

It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book, because even if it is quiet, a lot happens in it. It marks a point, where both characters learn a lot about each other and also something about themselves, especially Jesse.

These scenes are often not the easiest to write, and I don’t know how often my beta reader and me worked over it until I got the tone right. I knew what I wanted to show and tell, but dialogue can be iffy. Especially, as I may read it in the right tone, but someone else may read it differently. And this is also one of the reasons that make a good beta reader priceless, and I’m grateful for her every day.

I want my readers to feel with the characters, to get in their head and heart, to be able to see through their eyes and I hope that I accomplished this in “Where I’ll Be Waiting”. When I started writing, I often felt that writing is a bit like acting – even if you maybe never felt the trauma of losing a loved one or the joy of meeting your one true love, you have to go through the emotions, live them in a way, in your head and soul, imagine how devastating or amazing it would feel to do so, to transport the feeling from black ink on white paper, to the reader’s heart with your words. To find this words, to create feelings and emotions – for me, this is what makes writing art.

The feeling, when you finally get it right, when someone tells you, you made them cry for your characters (yes, it’s evil, but it is a compliment ;)) or let them smile and feel the same happiness they felt, that’s just exhilarating!

“Where I’ll Be Waiting”, made me go through a whole range of character induced angst, but also some happy smiles and laughs. Especially Liam pulled me out of Jesse’s troubles more than once, just like he does for his friend in the book.

You won’t meet Liam in the excerpt, but he waits for you between the pages of “Where I’ll be Waiting”.

So, that’s it for me.

Don’t forget to take part in the Giveaway and for those of you who like “Adult Coloring” or want to try it I also brought you a free coloring page to download. I for my part love it, it’s a wonderful and creative way to relax after work. Get your pencils and try it 🙂

If you want to chat with me, leave a comment – I will stop by during the next day’s and reply 🙂

You can also visit me on facebook and drop me a line. I look forward to hear from you.

Best wishes

Moni

Where I’ll Be Waiting – Monika De Giorgi

Facing your fears, inner demons, friendship and a love to dream of.

Jesse meets a wonderful guy who is caring, attentive, lovable, and handsome to boot.

Unfortunately, the only time he sees Cameron is in his dreams—dreams that are never flimsy and fast forgotten in the morning, but feel very real. And the longer they go on, the more palpable they feel to Jesse.

But what happens when these dreams have a bigger and bigger impact on Jesse’s daily life? When they begin to take a toll on him and make it harder to wake up every day? And what if they turn into nightmares and Jesse can’t get out anymore, if he never wakes up?

One day Cameron finds a heartbreaking poem in a small notebook, hidden in a used book. From the first time he reads it, the handwritten words resonate somewhere deep within him and when he goes to sleep that night, he meets Jesse for the first time—a sad young man who makes Cam want to give him reasons to smile and a shoulder to cry on. From that night on, Jesse is a nightly visitor in Cameron’s dreams.

But what happens when Cameron finds out that his Jesse is very much real? And what if a sinister presence takes hold of their shared dreams and Cameron wakes up? Can he get back to Jesse? Or will Jesse stay back forever in this dreamscape turned nightmare?

Length: 200 pages

Publisher: eXtasy Books

Publication Date: June 1st 2016

Get your copy at: eXtasy Books, Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Smashwords

Monika De Giorgi is a nerd, bookworm and author of M/M-Romance. Her first book got published 2007, more followed since then. Her favorite genres are Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy (with a healthy dose of Romance). She lives with two dogs and her cat in the suburbs of Rosenheim (near Munich) and works as assistant for a film team. She’s never seen without something to read and traveling without her laptop and several notebads is just not imaginable.

Homepage: http://www.midnight-fairytales.de

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monikadegiorgi

Twitter: @MoniDG