A warm welcome to author Lane Swift joining us today for the release of her new book “After the Snow”, part 2 in the Michigan Season series. Lane talks about her bucketlist , shares an excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome Lane 🙂

Title: After the Snow
Author: Lane Swift
Series: Michigan Seasons #2
Release Date: April 4th 2017
Genre: MM Contemporary Romance

BLURB

To be that perfect someone doesn’t mean you have to be perfect…

Christmas is over, but Dale Hepburn is determined to show his new British love, Nick Harris, how much fun a Michigan winter can be, starting with outdoor ice skating lessons. His life would be perfect—if he wasn’t secretly trying to dig himself out of an avalanche of debt that he doesn’t want Nick to know about. After all, Nick believes Dale is reliable, sensible, and solvent.

But while Dale works extra hours, and saves every spare cent, and hopes Nick never finds out about his past financial mistakes, unforeseen expenses keep piling on like Michigan’s unrelenting snow. And to make matters worse, there’s that little white lie Dale told Nick about having another teaching job lined up after the end of his current contract…

An emotionally tense romance with a satisfying HFN

~54,000 words

Find After the Snow on Goodreads

Buy Link:

Amazon

Hey Dani!

Lane Swift here.

You asked about the top five things on my bucket list, and here they are in no particular order:

1. Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway. Next year I have a rather significant birthday and I’m hoping this will be the celebration I share with my husband.
2. Run a big city marathon. Some years ago, I ran the Detroit marathon, and afterwards swore I would never run one again. I’d ticked it off my bucket list, and that was that. Somehow, it’s crept back on the list. (Like childbirth, I think the memory of the pain has faded.) Injury has prevented me from running the Brighton marathon for the last couple of years, but I haven’t yet given up hope I can do one again. When I do, I plan to raise money for a youth LGBTQ charity. Actually, I’d also like to run the Las Vegas marathon. Then get smashed on margaritas in a flashy hotel.
3. Finish my garden. It’s been a labour of love for four years, and I suspect it will never be finished, but I dream and hope and keep weeding.
4. Learn to play poker. I sometimes have fantasies about being a mean, wily card player, but in truth I don’t put much store in my poker face. Now I think about it, ideally I should learn to do play poker before running a marathon in Vegas, then I can play some cards while I’m there.
5. Get back to Michigan to see my old friends and neighbours. I moved back to the UK in 2012, and except for one family, I haven’t seen any of the people I knew since. I’m happy to be back in the UK, but there are folks there I dearly miss.

 

As you can see, most of my list revolves around travel. I enjoy the journeying to the destination—trains are my favourite, or road-tripping in America—as well as meeting new people and trying the local cuisine.

I don’t have any aspirations to jump out of a plane, or hurtle down a wild mountain river in a dinghy. I climbed a mountain when I was in my twenties; I’ve abseiled down a cliff face, flown in a tiny plane through stormy wind, and last year got violently seasick during a two-mile boat crossing in the Solent. These days I prefer more low-risk pursuits, the company of good people, good food, and a large snifter of gin. Or two.

 

I put the latch across the door and sat on the bed to undo my laces, eager to get my feet out of those stiff, patent rental shoes. Hours of socialising melted away in the ordered quiet of our room, and when I toed off my shoes it was a special kind of bliss to be able to wriggle my liberated toes.

Nick stood by the window, and I could see his reflection in the glass. With his hands stuffed in his trouser pockets, he seemed tense, like maybe he was already playing back the entire night in his head and analysing every word he’d said.

He had a way about him, my beautiful Nick. Sometimes he seemed so confident and in control, other times kind of innocent and bewildered, like he wasn’t quite sure how he’d got to wherever he was. Either way, he kept me enthralled.

I said, ‘A company like Lamplin isn’t going to risk its profits on someone who doesn’t cut it. If you get some small advantage in terms of being noticed because you’re a person of colour or because you’re gay, so what? What about all the advantages us cis white guys get every single day?’

‘I suppose. Anyway, there’s no point in worrying, is there? It’s not like I can change who I am.’

‘And hallelujah to that,’ I said, pulling off my socks.

Nick took off his jacket and hung it over the back of one of the chairs by the window, then draped his bow tie over his jacket. ‘The view is amazing.’

It sure was from where I was sitting. The bedside lamp illuminated his profile, and drew me to him like a moth to a flame.

We were on a high floor, with partial glimpses of the Detroit River and Windsor, Ontario on the opposite shore. Nick rested his forehead and hands against the glass, and I stepped in behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. It was a clear, starry night and the city lights stretched on for miles, but the soft skin behind Nick’s ear interested me more. America had plenty of iconic cities, and if I was brutally honest, most of Detroit was rundown or derelict. A few shiny lights and the distant view were deceiving.

Nudging the shell of his ear with my nose, I kissed Nick, and his shiver rippled through me. ‘You should see the New York skyline.’

‘I’d like to.’ His breathing grew heavier as I pressed my chest to his back and ran my hands over his chest and stomach. ‘We could go together. What do you think?’

I’d only been to New York City once before, in my early twenties. Mostly, that weekend had consisted of drinking too much alcohol in a dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Fun at the time, but not what I would choose to do now.

‘Sounds like a good idea, after the snow.’

Over Christmas I’d decided that come the warmer weather I’d sell my pickup and get a small SUV. Maybe an Escape. If I released some cash, I could pay off one credit card, and maybe swing for a real vacation instead of packing and hauling boxes for Vinny.

Nick covered one of my hands with his, and pushed it down, down over smooth fabric and the hard bulge in the front of his trousers. His voice had the huskier pitch of arousal. ‘After the snow? When will that be?’

‘April?’

I squeezed his dick through the fabric, and he groaned.

‘I was thinking more along the lines of February. Sometime around Valentine’s Day.’

A month. Two measly pay cheques and no extra work. I’d never be able to scrape the funds together. My hand drifted, searching for an excuse, which in my present state of arousal was like trying to catch a football kicked into the stratosphere. The best I could come up with was: ‘It’ll be too cold in February.’

Nick retrieved my hand and put it back over his dick, where it belonged, at the same time as he ground his ass against my own aching erection. It was a dirty, offensive move, beautifully executed, topped off with a satisfied grunt and a gentle plea. ‘But I was hoping we’d be able to go ice skating together on one of the outdoor ice rinks. I should be able to make it around without causing any major damage by then.’

How could I refuse when he’d brought my fingertips to his soft, sweet mouth? The answer was simple. Because thirty thousand dollars of credit card debt—not to mention the money I owed Maggie and the bank—had me bound and chained.

Michigan Seasons Book One

Title: More Than Christmas
Release Date: December 10th 2016
Genre: MM Contemporary Holiday Romance

BLURB

Keeping life simple can be a complicated business.

High-flying young British executive, Nick Harris, knows exactly what he wants out of his two-year American assignment—a bigger salary, a promotion and some no-strings fun. How convenient then, that his gorgeous hunk of a next door neighbour, Dale Hepburn, is friendly, single and bisexual?

But Dale has had his fill of casual and he’s holding out for love that will last. Knowing that Nick’s stay in America is temporary, he welcomes him into his life as a friend; they train together in his garage gym, hang out and watch television, and dress up for the neighbourhood kids at Halloween.

Then the first snow falls, and with Christmas approaching and temperatures plummeting, Nick finds he increasingly yearns for the warmth of Dale’s arms—only he’s worried that pushing Dale for more heat in their relationship will land him outside in the cold.

Nick’s long-term future in America may not be certain, but if he wants a future with Dale, he must find a way to persuade him they can be more than Christmas.

A heartwarming romance with a satisfying HFN

~32,000 words

Find More Than Christmas on Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK

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Lane’s earliest attempts at fiction writing were sporadic, haphazard and utterly cringeworthy: a bit of maudlin poetry here, the odd short story there—and somewhere in between, half a dozen pages of a memoir that didn’t get beyond reminiscing over the untidy draw in her childhood kitchen.

Years and years later, after several career-changes, two children, and two international house moves, Lane arrived at a time and place in her life where she wanted to return to writing. Since then, it has become her passion; the one thing she wants to do for the rest of her life.

As far as reading goes, she enjoys many genres: science fiction, mystery, crimes, thrillers and horror. But there’s nothing she likes more than when those stories are driven by the power of true love. So, it was really no surprise that when she finally put her middle-aged fingers to the keyboard, she started writing romance.

Lane’s love stories feature diverse queer characters in the starring roles. She sometimes combines contemporary romance with mystery, suspense or paranormal, and always gives her heroes and heroines their hard-earned happy ending. She has books published with Less Than Three Press and Dreamspinner Press, as well as self-published titles.

Home is currently in Hampshire, on the south coast of England, and there are no plans to move for the foreseeable future. Eighteen house moves in the last twenty-five years is surely enough for anyone! And when she’s not writing or spending time with her family, Lane can often be found running on the local roads, trails and beaches.

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