THE END OF SUMMER - GIVEAWAY RESULTS

The Boys of Summer Blog Tour

Giveaway Results

Thanks to all the readers who participated in the blog tour giveaway! The following three people were randomly chosen as winners, and they will be contacted via email regarding claiming their prizes.

Jodi Ciorciari-Marinich
Calvin Fung
Kobi D. Hensley

I still have one individual who hasn't claimed their prize from the Cover Reveal Event. Just as a reminder, if this is your email, then you have a prize to claim:

starjw231@gmail.com

Hearty congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you all once again for participating! 

BOYS OF SUMMER RELEASE DAY!

Welcome to The Boys of Summer 

Release Day Celebration!

The day has finally arrived! Ten years after it started, the first book of the Dust & Ash Saga is now available for download and purchase at Amazon and Smashwords. I can't tell you how exciting the entire process has been for me. It's an incredible feeling to hold a book in your hand after pursuing its publication for so many years. I'm very grateful to everybody who helped make this dream a reality.

Amazon (eBook & Paperback)

Smashwords (eBook-alternative devices)

Cover Reveal Contest Winners

Congratulations to the three winners from my cover reveal event! You'll be getting emails over the weekend to select and claim your prizes. Thanks so much for being a part of my cover reveal!

starjw231@gmail.com

dci.fanatic.88@gmail.com

vidah0204@gmail.com

Release Event!!

If you didn't win a gift card in the cover reveal event, you have a whole month to register to win one in the release event! There are three ways to enter: like my author page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or leave a comment about your favorite music to hear at a wedding reception. Winners for this contest will be announced here on my blog on September 30th!

ENTER BOOK RELEASE CONTEST HERE

As always, thanks to my publishing team for all of their hard work:

Editor: Tricia Kristufek

Cover Design: Lex Valentine @Winterheart

Beta Reader: Sweet D

Marketing: Joe Bone

Formatter: Tricia Kristufek

And thanks to all of you, the readers, who have tagged along on this journey. I hope the published novel is everything you expected, and you'll be back for Book Two, I Know What Boys Like, coming Spring 2019!

BOYS OF SUMMER PREORDER!

PREORDER!!!

The Boys of Summer

Book One of the Dust & Ash Saga

AVAILABLE AUGUST 31, 2018

eBook

Paperback

Smashwords

WOO HOO! The preorder is live for ebook, paperback, and Smashwords. If you have any questions or if one of the above links doesn't work for you, drop me a comment and I'll email you the link you need. 

Thanks to my terrific publishing team!!

Editor:  Tricia Kristufek

Cover Art: Lex Valentine @ Winterheart Design

Marketing: Joe Bone

Beta & Proofreading: Sweet D

Formatting: Tricia Kristufek

BLOG RELAUNCH & COVER REVEAL EVENT

Welcome to the "Deliciously Wicked" blog relaunch and cover reveal event!

Intro

In 2008, I was shopping in Giant Eagle with my partner, R, and Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" started playing over the store PA. At the time I was posting stories pretty regularly on Literotica under the screen name "WickedWendyDru." As I listened to the song, I got the idea to create a story loosely based on the lyrics, a story that would be about summer love and the nostalgia associated with summers as a kid. That amorphous idea became the series "Dust & Ash," which turned out to be my most popular and most read series on Literotica. 

Over the next few years, I grew dissatisfied with Literotica (for many reasons, but mostly because they were having plagiarism problems). I transferred "Dust & Ash" over to a new site, Gay Authors, and began the arduous process of editing and rewriting it, even as the serial continued to grow and won awards. Several times I was sure the series was going to be traditionally published, but each time that goal got close enough to touch, it slipped through my fingers.

In 2014, "Dust & Ash" got put on hold while I dealt with a series of unfortunate events. Our family home was seized through eminent domain and we had to move. R was diagnosed with end-stage bone cancer. In 2015, my girlfriend K was diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer. I ended up writing a short story for a charity anthology that released in June 2016 ("Stardust, Always"), the proceeds of which went to cancer research. That turned out to be ironic, as I was then diagnosed with metastatic thyroid cancer. So in three short years, three of us at the House That Love Built ended up going through the soul-numbing process of surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation. K and I made it. R, sadly, did not.

His death pretty much devastated me. We'd been together for twelve years. We were handfasted. If you believe in the concept of soulmates (and I do), he was one of mine. I wrote nothing for a year.

But he'd made me promise him I'd publish, and that promise weighed pretty heavily on me. I didn't want to write, or edit, and I certainly didn't want to tackle the huge realm of self-publishing by myself. Enter Grace R. Duncan.

Grace and I worked together on the Free Fiction Friday project, and after the 2016 elections, she put together a charity anthology for The Trevor Project and GLAAD ("Resist & Triumph"). I ended up writing a story for it and editing it, and during the process of putting it together, Grace learned about my promise. She's spent most of the last year and a half gently but firmly guiding me towards...

TODAY!

The cover reveal for the first book of The Dust & Ash Saga, The Boys of Summer!

Isn't it glorious?? The cover was designed by Lex Valentine at Winterheart and features the character Dustin. 

The saga will be a set of six novels, including the never-before-published conclusion to the story of Dust & Ash. Each novel will feature a different character on the cover. Though the "original" story will continue to be available on Gay Authors (in the Premium area), the novels will feature new material as well as tighter, more cohesive storylines.

So here's how this is going to work. The Cover Reveal Event will last until Sunday night. On Monday, the novel will be available for pre-order on both Amazon and Smashwords. The official release date for The Boys of Summer is Friday, August 31, 2018.

Official Blurb for The Boys of Summer:

Ash Redvers, the lead singer of a family owned and operated wedding band, deals with the sudden need to replace his drummer after an unexpected accident. When Dustin Davis shows up ready, willing, and able to play - not to mention gorgeous - Ash thinks it's going to be the best season yet. But Ash has never had a boyfriend, and Dust isn't willing to be a quick hookup. As the summer heats up, they'll have to decide whether all they can make together is music, or if there's something more for them after the Boys of Summer are gone.

I'M SO EXCITED!!

Seriously, this has been ten years in the making. Not so long ago, I wasn't even sure that I'd be here now, much less be publishing D&A on my own. It's scary and exhilarating and absolutely wonderful... And I really love sharing it with all of you, especially those of you who've been around since the beginning.

To show that appreciation in a more tangible way, there are prizes to win during this event, and there will be more prizes to win over Labor Day weekend during the release event. Here are the details!

*The relaunch/cover event will run from noon on Friday, August 17, 2018 until midnight on Sunday, August 19, 2018. 

*To be eligible to win prizes, you must leave a comment on the post that includes 1.) Your favorite thing about summer, and 2.) your email address.

*Full list of winners will be posted on the blog, and winners will be contacted to claim their prizes by August 31, 2018.

Thanks so much to all of my readers and especially to the amazing team of people who helped make this possible: Grace R. Duncan, Joe Bone (aka Mr. Grace), Tricia Kristufek, Sweet D, and Lex Valentine. You guys are rock stars in your own right, and I'm so grateful to you all.

LEAVE A COMMENT to win, PRE-ORDER on Monday, and come on back AUGUST 31 for more prizes!!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!