E.J. Russell's Blog
May 9, 2022
Mythmatched in audio!
All eight currently retail-available Mythmatched romances are now in audio!
The Quest Investigations mystery series (set in the Mythmatched world but not technically romances) will be coming to audio later this year. The two books that are presently free (Possession in Session and Cursed is the Worst) aren’t slated for audio quite yet, nor is The Skinny on Djinni (releasing in ebook/print on May 18, 2022), but who knows what the future will bring?
All are available at Audible and iBooks, as well as Whispersynced at Amazon.
The books are listed below in chronological story world order, but if you want a little more information about series timing, check out my Mythmatched timeline.
Did you miss the two free ebooks? Possession in Session is exclusive to my newsletter subscribers. You can sign up here. Cursed is the Worst is free (along with over 100 other M/M stories) throughout 2022 as part of Your Book Boyfriend’s Boyfriend. Check out the goodies here.
Fae Out of Water trilogyNarrated by Joel Leslie
⚔️ One cursed fae warrior turned psychologist. One determined office temp. Hello, immoveable object? Meet irresistible force.
🏡 The cranky exiled fae and the unawakened druid are out to save the world!
…right after they sort the recycling.
Supernatural Selection trilogyNarrated by Greg Boudreaux
🎸 Old secrets, new lies, and fae behaving badly.
What could possibly go wrong?
🐻 Does a bear shift in the woods?
🦇 A match between a vampire and shifter could be deadly—but this broken beaver doesn’t give a dam.
Other Mythmatched romancesNarrated by Greg Boudreaux🦘 After decades of unrequited love, this kangaroo will jump at the chance for a date. Any date.
🐺 Sometimes it’s harder to teach a young dog new tricks.
🦜 It’ll take more than coffee to brew the perfect love.
July 5, 2021
Guesting on the Big Gay Fiction Podcast
I’m on the Big Gay Fiction Podcast!
I had the privilege of sitting down (virtually) with Jeff Adams on the Big Gay Fiction Podcast. It was such a pleasure to chat with Jeff, who’s such a charming host that I felt totally comfortable despite my 100% introversion!
March 17, 2021
Mythmatched in Kindle Unlimited!
All Mythmatched books in Kindle Unlimited for a, er, limited time!
All eight of my retail-available Mythmatched books are now enrolled in KU until June 13, 2021! (The ninth book–Possession in Session–remains free to my newsletter subscribers.)
Fae Out of Water trilogy Cutie and the Beast
One cursed fae warrior turned psychologist. One determined office temp. Hello, immoveable object? Meet irresistible force.
The Druid Next Door
The cranky exiled fae and the unawakened druid are out to save the world! …right after they sort the recycling.
Supernatural Selection trilogyBad Boy’s Bard
Old secrets, new lies, and fae behaving badly. What could go wrong?
Single White Incubus
Does a bear shift in the woods?
Vampire With Benefits
A match between a vampire and shifter could be deadly—but this broken beaver doesn’t give a dam.
Other Mythmatched adventuresDemon on the Down-Low
After decades of unrequited love, this kangaroo will jump at the chance for a date. Any date.
Howling on Hold
Sometimes it’s harder to teach a young dog new tricks.
Witch Under Wraps
It’ll take more than coffee to brew the perfect love.
February 5, 2021
Flashback Friday: Not so fictional food
My supernatural suspense novella, The Artist’s Touch, is on sale for 99¢ through February 28, 2021, so I thought I’d revisit one of the posts from its release blog tour back in February of 2018.
(The blog with the original post is no longer online, so I’m unable to link back to it.)
Fictional (and not so fictional) food
Back in 2001, my Curmudgeonly Husband and I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring in the movie theater when it was first released. While we both liked the movie, CH was disgruntled, comparing it to his memory of the book.
“There was a lot more food in the book. There was hardly any in the movie.”
This prompted me to re-read the whole series, and you know what? There’s not a lot more food in it. But CH views the world through a very food-oriented lens. His first reaction to being told he has to attend any given even is, “Will there be refreshments?”
I think I must have his attitude embedded in my subconscious as I write, because there’s almost always a scene involving food or a meal in each of my books, and frequently one involving cooking. The Artist’s Touch is a case in point.
Luke prepares a meal for Stefan as a way of apologizing and reconnecting. The food he cooks? Some of my favorites in CH’s repertoire. In case you’ve never read my bio, I do not cook. CH, however, loves it. It’s his method of unwinding after work—and then he gets to eat the results. A win-win for him.
Now me, I don’t care so much about eating-—a bowl of cereal works just fine at any time of day—and cooking (especially after a day of work) sounds far more like refined modern torture than relaxation, especially if the end product does not involve cake.
This recipe, also a favorite of all three of my kids, is part of Luke’s menu in The Artist’s Touch. I won’t be insulted if you don’t make it yourself—you can sit at the table in the corner along with me, and wait for the cake to arrive.
Sautéed Green Beans with Garlic
CH uses this basic preparation with most green vegetables: parboil, cool, sauté at the last minute with garlic, salt, and either oil or butter.
• 1 pound green beans
• Salt
• Boiling water
• Olive oil or butter
• Salt
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
2021 Update: Incidentally, CH’s “tastes like the ocean…” description continues to perplex all three of our children.
January 8, 2021
Flashback Friday: Enchanted Denizens
Flashback Friday
Since Best Beast, the prequel to my Enchanted Occasions series, is presently offered in the Winter Wonderland giveaway (until January 10th) and available for pre-order at Amazon (releasing January 15th on Kindle Unlimited), I though it was the right moment to revisit a post from the release of Nudging Fate, the first book in the series.
This post is especially apropos because it mentions the central event in Best Beast: the Olesson-Pakulski wedding!
(This post originally appeared at Open Skye Book Reviews here.)
Flashback Friday: Enchanted Denizens
In the Enchanted Occasions universe, mythical beings from almost any pantheon can co-exist because…well…all mythical realms exist. They may not exist side by side, but the Interstices (the gaps between realms that were left over from any and all creation events) act as an interface—an adapter, kind of like the dongle that lets me connect my laptop to the big HDMI monitor on my desk. In the Interstices, all magic from whatever realm can function, even Earthside technology.
Also in the Interstices, the denizens of any folklore cycle can interact. My long-suffering editors had to put up with several “unconventional” mythical folks in Nudging Fate. Here are five of them.
Norn
In my earliest notes for the book, I knew one of the heroes was going to be the Faerie prince, but I didn’t know what kind of paranormal being his co-hero would be or what he would do. When I decided on the event planner occupation, I had this note: “He’s an anomaly—a male version of some kind of supernatural creature that’s always female, except for him.”
My subsequent research turned up norns, “female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men,” according to Wikipedia.
There are three named norns (or Norns-with-a-capital-N) who tend the world tree Yggdrasil in Asgard, and I made one of them—Skuld—Andy’s mother. Hence his last name: Skuldsson.
There are other norns-with-a-lower-case-n elsewhere in Norse mythology, including a number of spots where the hero or heroine of a particular saga blamed a norn for their actions or misfortune. In other words, norn-blaming was a great way to shirk responsibility for your poor choices!
Bwci
A bwci is a Welsh household sprite, equivalent more or less to a brownie in that it will perform household chores in exchange for food. I’d come across bwci tales years ago when I was working on another book based on Welsh folklore, so when I needed a kitchen minion for Chef, I knew exactly what they’d be!
Ifrit
I knew that one of the candidates for the prince’s hand would be a fire-based entity, so I went searching and found the ifrit—a class of djinn that could have flames “leaping from its mouth.” Of course I always take liberties with the mythological creatures I cast in my stories, and although the ifrit is described in source material as being evil, I prefer to think he’s merely misunderstood. 
January 1, 2021
Flashback Friday: USOPTC For the Win!
Flashback Friday
Since The Thomas Flair is on sale for 99¢ throughout January, I decided to dedicate the first Flashback Friday of the new year to a post I wrote about my tour of the US Olympic/Paralympic Training Center while I was gearing up to write the book.
(This post originally appeared at Love Bytes Reviews here.)
USOPTC For the Win!
When I was researching The Thomas Flair, I may have watched many hours of men’s gymnastics competitions. (Okay, I did, but hey—I’m a fan!) One of the things I learned was that the US men’s national team trains at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so I wrote that into the book. Then I paid an unexpected visit to Colorado Springs in early December on family business, and while I was there, I took the opportunity to take a tour of the USOPTC. Because how could I resist?
Our tour guide was a charming Paralympic swimmer who was engaged to an Olympic shooter. As she took us around the campus, she shared a lot of information which I frenziedly wrote down in my phone. For instance, the Center used to be an air force base, and the original barracks (located behind the cafeteria) still remain, but they’re used by “campers”—non-Olympians/Paralympians who come to the Center for brief training camps.
Olympians/Paralympians live in the dorms located on either side of the cafeteria, in two-person suites with private bedroom/bathrooms and a shared living room, but no kitchen.
The Sports Science Center has a commercial-grade kitchen that’s used for demonstrations. When we were there, I wanted to linger because a video featuring figure skater Jason Brown cooking was playing on a monitor.
The first floor of the Sports Science Center is where the gymnastics training facilities are located. The outer gym features a basketball court and the warmup area. But I zeroed right in on that door across the court—because the US men’s team was in there practicing!
In fact, as our guide was letting us look around, Donothan Bailey, the gymnast whose looks were my inspiration for Tony Thomas, walked out of the training room and across the basketball court. I snuck a picture of him, but I can’t share it, because permissions. But here he is on pommel horse at the 2019 US championships.
I peeked in the door, but I couldn’t really gawk at the guys practicing as much as I would have liked (because I didn’t want to be a creepy old stalker lady).
I did catch a glimpse of six-time US champion Sam Mikulak though. Squee! I’d hoped to see my personal favorite from the team—Yul Moldauer, who was my inspiration for Sol, but no luck. You can check out Yul’s floor ex routine from the 2019 championships here:
One of the things our guide emphasized was that any athlete living at the USOPTC is there to train— period—and they can be kicked out at any time, so they don’t screw around. Maybe somebody should have mentioned that to Sol and Tony before they tried out the Thomas-Ashvili for the first time.
December 18, 2020
Flashback Friday: What’s on your whiteboard?
Flashback Friday
I’ve written over a hundred blog posts related to my books since I released the first one (Northern Light, later revised and expanded as The Artist’s Touch) back in 2013. I’ve decided to resurrect those posts here on my own blog as a regular Friday feature. A number of the bloggers who featured the original posts are are no longer active, but whenever possible, I’ll link to those sites.
In honor of Cutie and the Beast releasing in audio last month (narrated by the fabulous Joel Leslie), I’m launching Flashback Friday with a post that was never actually published from Cutie‘s original release back in July of 2017. So get ready to board the Wayback Machine, because things have definitely changed since then!
What’s on your whiteboard?
In these days of ubiquitous smartphones, I’m guessing a lot of people keep their shopping lists in an app. At our house, we’re a little more old-school (or maybe just old…). We’ve got a whiteboard on our refrigerator where we jot down things we need the next time one of us goes to the grocery store. (Usually, my Curmudgeonly Husband is the grocery shopper—if he leaves it to me, I just buy potato chips and Honey Nut Cheerios.)
This is what our whiteboard looks like at the moment.
The juxtaposition of “tahini” and “butter” tells so much about our household, with its fusion of Midwestern and Middle Eastern.
Even more telling, however, is that little item in red on the left. I’m not sure what prompted CH to include that on the list—it was a long time ago. Lovely Daughter may have been in high school, but I’m pretty sure Darling Sons A and B hadn’t hit that milestone yet. The fact that moral fiber has remained on the list (and apparently not procured) for over a decade…well, I guess we all need something to aspire to.
If nothing else, it gives our guests a good chuckle—it even inspired DS B’s boyfriend to give us this gift at Christmas.
As I was staring at our whiteboard the other day while microwaving a frozen something-or-other for lunch (I cook even less than I shop), I started to wonder what other people might have on their lists.
For instance, what would David’s whiteboard look like?
I’ll spare you another picture (especially since my handwriting is dreadful), but I’d imagine his list might look something like this:
New bow tie (Red. Maybe with blue stripes, or I don’t know, paisley?)
Bird seed
Honey
Salt (I could swear I just bought this last week. Where did it all go?)
Oregon berries! Swing by the strawberry stand on Farmington!!!
Stop at Comic World (Dr. Who Lost Dimension #1!!!)
Aunt Cassie to Dr. Pritchard, Wednesday, 10:30
(David is big on exclamation marks.)
Then I wondered what Alun would have on his whiteboard and got…nothin’. I can only imagine Alun scowling at the pristine whiteboard as if daring it to tell him what to do.
What about you? What’s on your whiteboard?
2020 Update: CH and I actually keep our grocery list in a shared app now. However, the white board (with its perpetual plea for moral fiber) is still on the refrigerator. Just in case.
July 7, 2020
Duking It Out Release Week
Duking It Out Release Week
My friend, author Chris Cox, contacted me a couple of months ago to invite me to join him and several other authors in a new shared world series. “There’s royalty,” he said, “with superpowers.”
Well. Talk about an offer I couldn’t refuse! And I’m so, so happy to announce the launch of our new Royal Powers series with my book, Duking It Out!
Royal dukes from rival countries, shipwrecked on a deserted island. The grudge match of the century—or a love story of super-heroic proportions?
Sander Fiala, Duke of Roses, is fourth in line to the South Abarran throne, even though his rogue power earned him the nickname “The Monster of Roses” and got him banished from the Castle. But right before he’s about to set off on his annual birthday sailing trip, the Queen asks him to meet with the notoriously volatile North Abarran Duke of Arles.
Tarik Jaso, Duke of Arles, expects the worst from people because—let’s face it—people are the worst. His superpower bombards him with any and all electronic transmissions, which…yeah, people suck. So when he’s attacked and wakes up in the cabin of a stranded boat, he knows he’s royally screwed. Because the man looming over him—the man he’d gone toe-to-toe with right before the attack—is the infamous Monster of Roses.
Tarik is positive the Monster is behind his kidnapping. Sander is sure the whole thing is Tarik’s fault. As they work toward rescue, Tarik realizes that the disturbingly hot Sander is no monster, and Sander discovers that Tarik’s temper masks a caring soul wrapped in a cantankerous (though undeniably sexy) body.
For their burgeoning connection to endure, they’ll have to duke it out with political factions, dark conspiracies, and centuries of traditions that keep them on opposite sides of the border.
But first? They have to get off this damn island.
Duking It Out is a 46,000-word M/M enemies to lovers, opposites attract, superhero rom-com, featuring Only One Bed, a grumpy duke who should know better than to jump to conclusions, a self-doubting duke who’s good with his hands (heh), gossipy seagulls, competent assistants, a guaranteed HEA, and (unfortunately) capes.
(I’m so pleased with my cover. Fern Lee designed the covers for the whole series. They’re all super cute, and she really nailed the concept of my book.)
Look for the other books in the Royal Powers series, releasing about every two weeks from now until September, from authors Renae Kaye, Lynn Lorentz, Sara York, Chris Cox, Jackie North, and Kenzie Blades.
March 25, 2020
Distant Banana-Pecan Muffins
Baking in the Time of Social Distancing
Those who know me also know that “shelter-in-place” is pretty much my default setting. But choosing social distance by preference is a heck of a lot different than maintaining it for the safety of oneself and others. We all need to take whatever comfort we can in these crazy days–and although I’ve been trying to limit my intake of tasty, tasty carbs, these times call for baking, and lots of it.
CH and I have a sort of “Jack Sprat” relationship with bananas. He’ll eat them when they’re still green (ewww!), but I like them when they’re just starting to speckle with brown. Sometimes, we both miss our window of opportunity and end up with overripe bananas (which neither one of us likes).
Banana muffins to the rescue!
I’ve had this recipe for…jeez, forty years. I wanted a banana bread recipe but hated nuts, and nearly every recipe included walnuts. I found the original of this one–banana tea bread, no nuts!–in a cookbook I was returning to the publisher back in the days when I worked at B. Dalton Bookseller. I’ve adapted it over time and recently added finely chopped toasted pecans. (Yeah, yeah. I know. Nuts. But what can I say? We can all change, right?)
The slightly overripe fruit intensifies the banana flavor, and depending on how many are languishing in the fruit bowl, I can double this recipe with no trouble.
Oven: 350°
Makes 6 large muffins or 12 regularIngredients
Instructions
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2-3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
Beat shortening until creamy.
Add sugar gradually and beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 – 3)
1/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans (optional)
Add flour mixture alternately with bananas, stirring only enough to moisten dry ingredients.
Fold in pecans.
Turn into greased muffin tin (or use muffin cups).
Bake for ~25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
March 6, 2020
Amended Life
“Silent Sin is a gorgeous story set in the golden age of silent film.”–Joyfully Jay
My first historical novel, Silent Sin, released this week and I’m thrilled with the reception it’s getting. Yay! ~*~*~*confetti*~*~*~ The book is set in the early 1920s, as the film industry was first establishing its hold in Hollywood–much to the dismay of Hollywood’s previous residents, many of whom objected strongly to the “movies” (as they referred to the people working in motion pictures) encroaching on their once sleepy little town.
But the burgeoning popularity of films and film stars wasn’t the only thing affecting American society at the time. There were a couple of huge changes that made writing the book…interesting, shall we say? Although not as interesting as it was for the people living through the upheavals in the status quo!
The 1920s in the United States were very different from the previous decade. Two major reasons? The 18th and 19th amendments to the US Constitution.
Here’s the operative text of the 18th amendment:
“After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.”
Prohibition in the house, baby. Yep, America decided that keeping people (IOW, men) out of saloons would solve poverty, reduce crime, and make families happy again.
Except, whoops—all those dudes who voted for it didn’t anticipate the Volstead Act, the law implementing the amendment, which defined “intoxicating liquors” to include beer and wine as well as distilled spirits. Wait. What?
Too late now.
And Prohibition didn’t outlaw drinking “intoxicating liquors”—it simply made them extremely difficult to obtain legally. Since the public’s determination to consume alcohol didn’t disappear at the same time it was outlawed, the production and sale of booze went underground (or sometimes just down the hall).
So during the twenties, ingenious Americans had to work around the letter of the law. They got their buzz from bootlegged gin, or smuggled whiskey, or cocktails at the nearest speakeasy. But they still got buzzed.
And the 19th amendment? Here’s its very succinct text:
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
So when I said “the dudes who voted for it” up there? That’s a literal statement. Prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920. Women weren’t constitutionally granted the right to vote until August 26th of that same year, even though some states had already enacted suffrage legislation, and in fact, the first woman had been elected to Congress in 1916 (Jeannette Pickering Rankin, R-Montana).
In the twenties, then, Americans were theoretically teetotalers, and women theoretically had the same voice in government as men. Of course, practice doesn’t always align with theory. Then, as now, women still struggled for equality.
And then, as now, people still got plastered.
Be sure to check out the Silent Sin page for more about Martin and Robbie, the co-heroes of the story!
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