Mere Rain's Blog

I have a fantasy novella releasing this weekend!
Princes, entering an arranged marriage to end a war—or at least that was the plan before they were ambushed and left on their own in the forest. Can they work together, even though one of them may be the traitor?

Preorder Princes at War from the publisher at a temporary low prince of $3.37.

Also from the publisher only, I'll have a couple books free from Sept 28 to Oct 5.
My sapphic Gothic In the Dark Heart of Winter and contemporary mm romance Didn't Know We Needed. Just cuz I felt like it.

I also have a 17k story in a MM paranormal anthology called Love is Magic which is a fundraiser for SantaCan, a charity that buys holiday gifts for children in foster care. The stories are holiday-gift themed.
https://readerlinks.com/L/4995814

...And speaking of Christmas, I'll again have a free short book included in JMS Books annual Advent Calendar, which is a different freebie each day. This year mine is a best-friends-to-boyfriends with ace rep.

We're halfway through the year and I haven't finished or published much, but!!!
I have written every day of 2025 even if it was only 100 words. I estimate I've written ~70K.

The second half of the year will involve more releases -- I think a new story will be out each month, if I have my schedule right. The first will be on July 26, my contribution to JMS Books' 15th anniversary celebration.

In the meantime enjoy 1/2 price backlist books at the Smashwords sale! And let me know what else you find there.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

I haven't updated here in a while so I'll just mention the coming bookportunities and then do a quick round up.

My publisher, JMS Books, will be having a Black Friday Sale 60% at the end of November.

Then in December JMS has our yearly Advent Calendar where a different new release is free each day (only for one day, so check daily). I contributed a contemporary arranged marriage romance titled Honeymoon Hate.

I try (er, not very hard tho) to alternate between contemporary romance and paranormal. I have a new release, Secrets of Love and Time, that is a supernatural mystery set in Victorian London. The main character, detective Leander Maine, thinks his assistant has been keeping secrets from him. As he tries to uncover them, he also realizes he's been hiding from his own feelings for his friend.

My previous historical paranormal, Three Wishes and a Miracle set in a medieval monastery, will be included in next year's TOP 10 Gay Romance along with stories from Alexandra Caluen, Ellie Thomas, K.L. Noone and more. If you haven't read the stories these anthologies are a good way to get them cheaply and maybe find new authors.

I have a horror-romance story in the anthology Tasteful, which is a fundraiser for foodbanks. I'll drop a link when that's available.

Lastly, not romance but a short and hopeful science fiction story available free at Astral Magazine. This is set in the same world as my story in Fix the World but doesn't have the same characters (I wrote it because people wanted to know more about the aliens).

Hope you're all hanging in there, friends.

Out Now! Riley is snowed in with his dad's best friend, and there's only one bed. Also, assassins.


RILEY -- Shane has been my favorite person for my entire life. I’ve always loved him, and now I’m in love with him. I know he cares about me, too, but I’m sure he just thinks of me as his best friend’s kid. Now that he’s finished with active duty, he’ll probably start dating, and I’ll have to pretend to be happy for him. At least I’ll have this Christmas vacation with him and my family to look back on. I wasn’t planning to ever tell him how I felt, but now we’re snowed in together and I’m not sure I can hide my feelings. Especially when he holds me and tells me everything will be okay.

SHANE -- I devoted my life to the military. The closest thing I have to a family is my best friend and his wife and kids. I would never risk damaging that relationship by making a move on Riley, even though I realized last year that I’m in love with him. He should have someone better, anyway; someone smart and young and happy, like him. I don’t deserve him, especially now that my secrets have put his life in danger. I’ll do anything to keep Riley from being hurt, especially by me. But when he asks me for something I so badly want to give him, can I find the strength to say no?

Also, many books including mine are discounted on Smashwords through the end of the month. Some freebies, too.

First and most importantly! JMS Books is having a 45% off sale for Father's Day. And if you miss this one there should be another later in the month for Pride. You can also sign up for the publisher's newsletter to stay informed about sales.
link: SALES include new releases and pre-orders, of which I have one.


Three Wishes and a Miracle is a short story set in a medieval monastery. Aelred doesn't want to be a monk, but he doesn't consider leaving until he meets the djinn.

My last release, Office Hours, was also short, just a smutty little tidbit. My next release, Blizzards and Bullets, part of JMS' Christmas in July theme, will be a bit more substantial, but still pretty short at 16K. This is because I'm trying to write a full-length novel, a supernatural mystery with a grumpy witch and a missing werewolf, and plotting takes concentration. Sorry if you were hoping for historical tentacle porn, that will probably not happen this year! Most likely I'll get out one or two more short things.

Liam wants Professor Levin.
Professor Levin want Liam to do his homework.

(spoiler: they both get what they want.)

Out April 27th. You can pre-order Office Hours from the publisher's site.
JMS Books.

(Yes, I have a weakness for puns. Yes, I sing every time I see the title It's Not Unusual to Be Loved by an Alien. Badly.)

Didn't Know We Needed is available now, and is included in the Smashwords sale that runs through the 9th of March. As are several other of my books!


There are many other authors on sale! Some I've picked up so far: Ellie Thomas, K.L. Noone, Amy Spector, Addison Albright, Holly Day, Ofelia Gränd, R. Cooper, Kaje Harper, Fearne Hill, R. Phoenix. I haven't read Amy Aislin but she has a set of hockey romances for free.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm only into fictional romance, so my favorite thing about this holiday is...not, not chocolate, that's my second-favorite thing!
BOOK SALES!
Stock up on ebooks at 40% off!

I have a new contemporary romance available for pre-order (it will be out on the 24th) and there are new releases from a couple of my favorite authors, K.L. Noone and Ellie Thomas (both of whom are in 2023 Top Ten Gay Romance along with yours truly).

Didn't Know We needed is a high-heat, low-angst opposites-attract romance. Javier and Brandy have nothing in common except an economics class—a class preppy Brandy is failing. He says he doesn’t care and that he isn’t staying. Javi is working hard to support himself and doesn’t have time for romance. So why does Javier keep trying to change Brandy’s mind?

Here's an excerpt for your enjoyment:

Javi peeled off his leather jacket. He had chosen a skin-tight red sleeveless shirt that showed off his muscles and his tattoos. And his nipples.
“Oh my God.” Brandy was staring at his nipples, although he quickly shifted his gaze to the serpent with hummingbird wings tattooed around Javi’s upper arm.
“Too much? I can change.”
“No, it’s great.” Brandy managed to lift his eyes as high as Javi’s ear, where a small spider was tattooed in black and green. In the other ear he’d put back the three gold rings he never wore to school or work. “It’s…a lot. I like it.”
“Hey, you say piss people off and I am there for you. Now how about that drink?”
When they returned to the parlor Brandy’s family was fawning over an elderly couple who were having their coats taken by a maid.
“My mother’s parents,” Brandy whispered loudly. “My sister is hoping to be left all their money now that they pretend I don’t exist. The sodomy, you know.”
Mr. Brandywine turned their way and came to stand by Brandy, his expression mild. “Do not make a scene at your sister’s reception,” he said flatly.
“What kind of scene?” Brandy asked in the hopeful tone of someone wanting hints.
“I’m serious, Chas. Behave or you can spend a semester working for a living. And I doubt your friend here is in a position to put you through college, even if he cared to.”
Brandy flushed and looked away.
Javier squeezed his glass a little too hard and said, “I could always pimp him out. They pay more for the ones with good grammar.”
Mr. Brandywine’s jaw tightened. “I don’t consider that sort of jest to be in good taste.”
“Neither do I,” Javi assured him.
“Would you like some nuts?” Brandy asked quickly, tugging him toward the sideboard.
“I got plenty nuts,” Javi informed him, taking a handful without using the little silver server, and tossing them in his mouth. “I thought you wanted me to be rude?”
“Yes, but I didn’t expect them to start with the threats so soon. My sister must’ve read them the riot act.”
Javi ate more nuts, finished his drink, helped himself to cheese and olives. No one else seemed to be eating anything.
An unsmiling middle-aged couple arrived. They greeted everyone else, then frowned in Brandy’s direction.
Javi took an olive and put it in Brandy’s mouth.
“Thanks,” Brandy murmured. “That’s my father’s sister Marie and her husband. They never liked me. Said I was frivolous and effete.”
Javi wasn’t sure what either of those words meant. “They’re probably jealous,” he said. “They look like they’ve never smiled in their lives. Bet the sex is terrible.”
Brandy snort-laughed. “Ew, God, Javi, don’t make me imagine that!”
Mrs. Brandywine was approaching with the expression of a woman determined to perform her duty, no matter how unpleasant. In other words, talking to Javi.
“Your bags have been taken up,” she said. “Perhaps you’d like to change now for the party.”
“Which room does Javier have, Mother?”
“Since you didn’t inform us that you were bringing a guest, there isn’t a spare room. He’ll have to share yours.”
“Ah. Javi, let me get you another drink and I’ll show you my bed. I mean my room.” He fluttered his eyelashes at his mother.
Brandy’s room was easily twice the size of Javi’s studio apartment. It had its own bathroom, and front area with a sofa and entertainment center, half separated by a panel from the sleeping area with the walk-in closet where Brandy was deciding between two of a dozen dry-cleaner-wrapped suits.
“Don’t change,” he told Javi. “Your outfit is shockingly inappropriate. I love it. You’ll want your jacket, though, it’ll get cool later. Besides, if I drink too much I might try to grope you. Your nipples are driving me distracted.”
He glanced at Javi, probably hoping to have embarrassed him, but Javi only said, “I noticed that,” and it was Brandy who blushed and turned to the mirror. He spent the next thirty minutes doing something to his perfect hair.
“You look good already,” Javi told him.
“Thanks. But I can’t afford any chinks. Anyway, we’re waiting for my mother to tell me to come outside.”
“Chinks in what?” Javi turned to study Brandy looking at himself critically.
“You know. Flaws. Weaknesses. Anything people could pick at.”
“You expect back-biting?”
“Absolutely. I don’t have anything for anyone here to suck up to me for. And someone has to bleed.”
“How come?”
Brandy finally turned to look at Javi. “How come what?”
“How come someone has to bleed? It’s a party, right? Can’t you just have fun?”
“Fun?” Brandy looked bewildered. “Do you have fun at family gatherings?”
“Sure. Drink, eat too much, dance, kiss the babies.” Javi felt a wave of homesickness.
Brandy’s phone chimed. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Performance time.”

I hope everyone had lovely holidays! Or peaceful non-holiday time. Or at the very least a better holiday than my poor heroine Isabeau who is dumped, snowed in, threatened by demons, and on top of it all gets no dinner. No wonder she's stabbing people by the end.


If you haven't already gotten all the books your heart desires, check out the annual Smashwords Sale where all my books from JMS are 50% off.


If you've never read my books, consider purchasing 2023 Top Ten Gay Romance, which includes a holiday party fake-dating romance by yours truly and stories by K.L. Noone, Charles Payseur, Ellie Thomas, T.J. Blackley, Holly Day, Nell Iris, Shawn Lane, Eve Morton, and Glenn Quigley.

Now I have to go finish editing this 🔥🔥🔥🔥 m/m contemporary that will be releasing in February. Stay tuned for more about Javier and Brandy's opposites-attract romance after the New Year!

Best wishes to all!

NOW AVAILABLE! My supernatural winter Gothic, In the Dark Heart of Winter.

This novella is set in 1860, when respectable young ladies got married. To men, whether they fancied them or not. Heart-broken when her lover and best friend Margaret married and moved away, Isabeau accepted the proposal of a distant cousin, but she regrets this decision even before he insists on taking her to his cold and ruinous ancestral home. Horace does not seem to care about her, either, and soon she begins to wonder about his motives.

Her fears are compounded when strangers arrive seeking refuge from the snow, and her husband's behavior becomes strangely hostile. Vairya and Ranat seem friendly, but why are they in this isolated region at all? It can't be coincidence that they come from Persia, where her husband was until recently stationed as a diplomat.

Eventually one visitor confides in Isabeau, but her claims are so wild they cannot be true. Can they? Should she trust her heart, and perhaps her survival, to this stranger who seems to share her forbidden desires?



You can purchase this book from Amazon or from the publisher, JMS Books. ALSO! JMS is having their annual Advent giveaway of a different free book each day, so check out the site even if you're not sure about my book.

You can also of this story being read by Yule Planet author Angel Martinez

I hope you're all having a good December. Or at least better than these unfortunate characters!
Mere