JMS Books

Release Day - Love Is Free

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Today is the Release Day for Love Is Free! JMS Books brought together fifty-two authors, countless editors, and all those critical people behind the scenes that make publishing work, to create this anthology. Everyone donated their time, their skill, and their art so that 100% of the proceeds go to help the ACLU’s in their fight to protect freedom.

My contribution to Love Is Free is A Portrait in Blue. A short story about a house, a portrait, and an oddities shop. If you can grab the eBook or a paperback, I hope you like it. It was a joy to write.

Blurb

Love Is Free celebrates queer love in all its forms, proving love can survive despite adversity. Whether a quiet night in or a loud night out, in this world or another, in the past, present, or future, this collection embraces how enduring same sex love can be, in any and every shade under the LGBTQIA umbrella.

Featuring never before published work from 52 authors, Love Is Free is a collaborative effort whose entire proceeds will go to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to help with their work protecting the freedoms of all people in the US. All the work in the collection, including the editing, has been donated. This stunning anthology will be a charitable keepsake whose message of love regardless of gender will endure beyond the current political strife threatening to tear us apart.

Authors included in this anthology are:

Adam Carpenter, Alexandra Caluen, Amy Spector, Anne Russo, Becky Black, Carol Holland March, Charles Payseur, D.J. Fronimos and Elke Lakey, David Connor and E.F. Mulder, Dianne Hartsock, Drew Hunt, E.M. Schenker, Ellie Thomas, Emery C. Walters, Eule Grey, Feral Sephrian, Gareth Vaughn, Gordon Phillips, Hannah Morse, Holly Day, J.D. Walker, J.M. Snyder, J.T. Marie, Jordan Demaine, Justin James, K.L. Noone, K.S. Murphy, Katey Hawthorne, Kim Davis, Kris T. Bethke, La Toya Hankins, Mere Rain, Michael P. Thomas, Mychael Black, Nell Iris, Ofelia Gränd, Pat Henshaw, Patrick Bryce Wright, Pelaam, Rafe Jadison, Ray Hatch, Red Haircrow, Sarah Hadley Brook, Scarlet Blackwell, Sean Cunningham, Shawn Bailey, Shawn Lane, T.J. Blackley, T.K. Dane, Teal H.S. Fields, Vivien Dean, and Warren Rochelle.

You can pick up your copy using the JMS Books and Amazon buy links below, and through the Universal link as the book starts to appear at other online retailers.

Love is Free

190,790 Words

 Buy Links: JMS Books • Amazon • Universal

Grab it for 20% Off at JMS Books

Aren't in a position to pick up the book, but would still like to help? Post about the anthology on social media. Tell your friends. Add it to your to-read shelf on Goodreads. And thank you! ♥♥♥

Stay safe, be kind, and keep reading!

New Release • The Twelve Coffins of Dr. Coffin

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The Twelve Coffins of Dr. Coffin in now available from JMS Books!

The Twelve Coffins of Dr. Coffin

Blurb

When Leo Wayland accepts a job as head of the new horror unit at Maiden Studios, he knows what is expected. Make cheap movies that earn their money back fast. It doesn't matter that he dislikes horror. He just needs to escape his assistant director's position at a rival studio.

But he didn't expect to be assigned a terrible title and a leading man, all before he even had a script, or that his leading man would be Everett Reid, the actor who rejected a very young Leo’s advances, only to disappear from movies altogether a few years later in a cloud of scandal.

Everett Reid will do anything for a chance to get back the career he lost and away from teaching at a theater camp for children. And if it means working with Leo Wayland again, he can do that too. Especially now that Leo is all grown up and not so untouchable.

With only three weeks, a flamboyant stage actor, twelve scantily clad women, and a sound stage full of coffins may not seem like the makings of something great. But really, that all depends on what you are hoping for.

M/M 1950s Hollywood/ 13143 words

 Buy Links: JMS Book • Amazon • Universal Buy Link

Excerpt

Everett let himself into the house and tossed the mail on the entry table already cluttered with bills. They’d been piling up the last few weeks since the money had finally run out.

Besides his ‘55 Corvette, the small bungalow nestled at the base of the hills was all that was left of nearly twenty years of work. It was enough to crush him if he let it.

He stared at the decanter left on the table from the night before when he and Taylor had toasted his contract with Maiden. But his brother had always been more of a drinker than he had. He didn’t want a drink. He wanted to fall into bed for a night of dreamless sleep.

He flipped the switch to the back patio light and pressed his head against the glass, watching the first drops of rain disturb the mirror-like surface of the pool.

It didn’t rain much in LA, but whenever it did, it reminded him of the years growing up down south with his mother and Taylor.

He unlatched the door, slid it open, and kicked out of his loafers as he pulled his shirt over his head. By the time he stood at the edge of the pool, he’d stripped completely, and dove in without hesitation.

It had yet to cool down much from the exceedingly hot day, but as Everett swam laps, the rain pelted him, hard and cold.

He swam back and forth, gliding almost soundlessly through the water, letting go of the day and clearing his mind. He ignored the tug at his thoughts of Leo Wayland and the memories they tried to conjure up. Ignored the chirp of crickets, and the distant hint of laughter from the houses on either side of his. He ignored everything until streaks of lightning across the sky forced him to drag himself out of the water again and go searching for a towel.

He left a trail of wet footprints back into the house, like the ghost of a murdered fisherman, through the living room and finally into his bedroom and the attached bath, where he grabbed one the of the white fluffy towels Steven had picked out when they had first moved in together. Before Steven had broken up with him the first time, the second time, and the third. Before Steven had come back that last time, needing a friend and someone to care for him as he worked through whatever he had to work through.

Everett had never understood what that was. Not at the time, and no better now, all these years later. It was enough to know that Steven had been unhappy, that Everett couldn’t make him happy, no matter how hard he had tried, continued to try, even when all he wanted was to move on and find his own happiness.

Once he was dry, he pulled on a pair of briefs and studied his reflection in the mirror. There’d be no more wrangling children at theater camp, or being flirted with by their mothers. Not this summer anyway. This summer he’d be back in front of the camera, doing what he loved.

Everett Reid had done his penance and now he was going to grab some happiness for himself.