The Notorious Murder of Ellar Day - Based on a True Story - Literary Western Fiction #LiteraryWesternFiction #BasedonaTrueStory

Marcy S. Wood is here to tell us about The Notorious Murder of Ellar Day, a literary Western based on a true story.

Read on for details...

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Literary Western Fiction

Date Published: 06-13-2026

Publisher: Steinmetz Press

Seventeen-year-old Ellar Day is drowning in societal judgment. Following a shotgun wedding and an equally swift divorce from an unfaithful husband, she is under intense pressure from her demanding father to find a respectable provider and secure her infant son’s future. Instead, she falls for Joe Dixon, a former Buffalo Soldier. Because of the era's deep racial prejudices, their passionate affair is strictly forbidden, forcing them to steal quiet moments in back alleys and mule barns.

Meanwhile, her father champions Mark Atkins, a local editor who offers Ellar financial security and a white-picket homestead. But beneath Mark’s polished facade lies a dark, volatile past. When a stormy night with Joe leaves Ellar facing a potential pregnancy, the stakes turn deadly. Knowing a mixed-race child means social ruin for her and a hangman’s noose for Joe, she sacrifices her happiness and accepts Mark’s marriage proposal to save the man she loves.

Yet, safety is an illusion. Facing financial ruin and discovering Ellar's betrayal, Mark unleashes a brutal act of vengeance. When Ellar is fatally shot down a long hotel corridor, Joe is immediately accused of the crime. Orchestrating a ruthless brand of Wild West justice, Joe is burned alive in his jail cell by a lawless vigilante mob.

Reviews for The Notorious Murder of Ellar Day

"The Notorious Murder of Ellar Day is an untold story that is as compelling as it is timely and impactful.

~Penny Haw, author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman and Her Stars.

"There is no easy or clear path for Ellar. Doing the right thing feels wrong and doing what feels right is forbidden." 

~Kimberly Burns, author of The Mrs. Tabor and The Redemption of Mattie Silks

"The political and social backdrop of a bustling Colorado mining town gives authentic historical flavor to this captivating debut novel." 

~Sherry Skye Stuart, author of Forgotten Female Felons Book One.

"Five stars for Marcy S. Wood's stunning debut! This beautiful reimagining of history portrays the delicate intersection of romantic tragedy and racial injustice with the reverence it deserves."

 ~Jennifer Wyrick, former owner of the Beaumont Hotel.

 

Excerpt

I sped down the stairs and out the door. The hag’s vicious laugh haunted my ears. Across the street stood Joe, speaking with the men with whom he played cards. They joked and smoked cigarettes. Surely they knew and were laughing at me. They fell silent as I dashed past. I tossed my mask.

“Missus Woodcock?” he said.

I ran on, too confused to orient myself.

“Excuse me,” I heard him say. To me? To his friends? I continued, hell-bent on escaping my dreadful embarrassment. I saw Mr. Begole’s store was closed up tight with the kerosene streetlights reflected in its windows, and the black night everywhere else. Kicking mud behind me, I rushed toward the company housing.

When I got to my tent, I hurled Chas’s clothes from the top drawer. I stomped them into the muck and mire of my life. It dawned on me that my wicked husband spent my money on whores and sodomites. I spat rancid bile from my mouth, and it landed just shy of Joseph W. Dixon’s feet.

“You all right?” He held my mask, now tarnished with mud.

I stared at him, wishing to scream. Instead, I kept my voice low and even. I gnashed my teeth.

“What does the W stand for?” I asked.

“What?”

“The W stands for What?”

“What are you asking me?”

“Your middle name?” He looked confused. “The W in your middle name. You’re Joseph W. Dixon, right? Oh, never mind. Were you aware of my husband—of his, all of this—when you met me today?” I was angry and addled, but my run through the chilly night had cleared my senses.

“I don’t find it my place to judge a man’s proclivities.”

 

About the Author

 

Marcy S. Wood, MA in Creative Professional Writing, lives in the mountains of Ouray, CO. She writes at the end of her family’s dining table with a pup at her feet and a cat on her lap.

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Crater Girl - Dark Fantasy - LGBTQ+ - and a Giveaway #Fantasy #DarkFantasy #LGBTQ+ #Giveaway

Polly Schattel is here to tell us about Crater Girl, an LGBTQ+ dark fantasy.

There's also a great giveaway.

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Crater Girl

Polly Schattel

Publication date: June 28th 2026

Genres: Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Greta Tyler has issues. She’s broke, divorced, trans, recently defrocked from her Episcopal priesthood, and her underpaid assistant hates her. But hey, things could always be worse, right?

As a social worker in a small, northern Alabama city, Greta’s just trying to do a little good in the world, and also come to terms with a complicated new life, a demanding new career, and the crushing finality that her marriage to her childhood sweetheart is over for good. But when her friend Suhey fails to show for a party, Greta suspects the worst: Suhey’s either been deported or kidnapped. Thus begins an increasingly surreal odyssey through the inscrutable byways and backroads of contemporary rural America.

Tormented by self-doubt, and with a tendency to harm whatever she touches, Greta careens through a sinister underworld she never knew existed—billionaires and busboys, asteroids and assassins, human traffickers and misfit geniuses … and also an infernal plan to radically change the world.

But first, how to come up with the rent?

Crater Girl is Polly Schattel’s genre-jumping tale of gender politics, self-loathing, clandestine organizations, interstellar geology, thuggee death cults, and the search for personal redemption in the rusted over-sprawl of the meta-modern South.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

“The first time I ever heard of the concept of the dead eye was in reference to a man I knew was troubled before I’d even reached my teens. Rick M. Scharpley, who his seventh grade homeroom class called Mr. Scharpley to his face but Prick Him Sharply behind his back, was a substitute who’d been brought in to take over after our regular history teacher had broken her back in a car accident. He’d taught us through the rest of that year, a mousy, chubby man with sensible hair, sensible glasses, and a perfectly sensible face. No one knew whether he had a wife or kids, or a family back home, and he seemed normal enough to his students, even funny sometimes, until you’d spent an afternoon or so with him. Then you’d start to notice how his eyes had grown soft and buggy and darkly fascinated with you, and how the little ironic twist of his smile rarely faltered. He knew his history, and he could sometimes make stuff like antebellum Alabama halfway interesting, but the various disparate parts of him commingled oddly, which pushed him almost into full-on creepazoid territory, and you found yourself wanting “to spend as little time in his presence as possible but unable to say exactly why. In class it wasn’t too bad; his cigarette prestidigitation and his day-drinker legerdemain made a decent distraction for the after-school detention crew. But we thought even then, even as kids, that beneath his southern gentleman’s surface, there flowed an underground reservoir rich with self-loathing, a vast subterranean sea of near-bottomless black pain.

We knew this, the whole town knew this, because one sunny Sunday in that summer of 2006, Mr. Scharpley left a note magneted to the front of his refrigerator, a very personal kind of mini-manifesto within which he detailed all manners of abuses, self- and otherwise. Then he carried half a dozen syringes loaded with a potent pesticide called chlordecone into the local farmer’s market, and began injecting random crates of peaches with them. Eight people, most of them kids and old folks, had fallen into foamy-mouthed convulsions before he’d pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the frontage road.

Author Bio:

POLLY SCHATTEL lives in the mountains near Asheville, NC with her wife and three vicious and savage but very adorable animals.

Website

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Crater Girl Blitz

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False Connections - Thriller - Action - and a Giveaway #Thriller #Action #Giveaway

Steve Sheppard is here to tell us about False Connections, thriller, action.

There's also a great giveaway.

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She's ex-MI5.

MI5 wants her dead.

Who can she trust?

False Connections

by Steve Sheppard

Genre: Thriller, Action

"Thriller addicts won't be disappointed"
"Steve Sheppard has created another great character in Mel Milano."

Three years ago, Mel Milano was an MI5 intelligence officer with a promising career. Then, during a routine protection and surveillance operation in Wales, things went drastically wrong and three people died, including Mel’s partner and fiancé, Liam Webster.

Drummed out of the service on trumped-up charges by MI5 Deputy Director, Sarah Brook, Mel lost her career, her self-respect, her confidence and her fiancé. Nothing made sense.

Three years on, she is rebuilding her life, working for a private security outfit.
But she’s never forgiven the way she was dumped by MI5. One day she’ll discover the truth about Brook and what was really going on.

Now, though, it’s clear that Mel’s not the only one still holding a grudge. Suddenly everybody seems to want her dead. But why?

On the run from MI5, is there anyone Mel can trust to help her uncover the past?

 

Amazon * Goodreads

The door opens noisily, bringing with it a gust of chilly air. I turn on my stool, expecting to see Adam. I’m formulating some sort of suitably sarcastic barb. It’s not Adam, however. Instead, two men have entered. Strangers. Adam once said he found it odd that so many people he didn’t know came to The Crown but the place is his choice and I don’t come here so often that I’m going to know all the regulars. I look away from the new arrivals but immediately feel a tap on my shoulder. I’m never happy when strange men think they have the right to touch me and I tense, my hand gripping the whiskey glass slightly more tightly.

Still, it isn’t the time and place to make a scene so I relax again and look at the man who’s tapped me on the shoulder. He’s about forty, similar height to me, dark suit and tie, blond hair trimmed to within an inch of its life, and he’s holding a warrant card. I may not know all the regulars of The Crown but I thought I knew all the local coppers. There aren’t many and I’ve had dealings with most of them during the past year, one way or another. This guy is not an East Hampshire plod though. Behind him and to one side, his colleague, younger, bigger, also fair-haired, is staring at me with tight little eyes. A bully’s eyes. He looks like he’s itching for a fight. In other circumstances, I might have been happy to oblige but Kaylee had clearly been round the bar with a cloth and cleanser before opening and I wouldn’t want to bloody her handiwork. Nor would the subsequent paperwork have appealed.

Detective Sergeant Aaron Walcott, I read on the warrant card. Metropolitan Police. He’s off his patch. He says nothing so I say nothing right back at him. It’s definitely up to Walcott to start the conversational ball rolling so I pick up my glass and drain it. I don’t want to waste any bourbon if this plays out as I’m beginning to think it might.

Eventually he speaks. Maybe he was rehearsing his lines. ‘Miss Melanie Marie Milano?’ he says.

 

Steve Sheppard was born and grew up in Surrey before moving to Buckinghamshire and then to Oxfordshire, where he spent a quarter of a century living in an idiosyncratic village that was the affectionate inspiration for his fourth book, Lazytown. He now lives in Hampshire. He spent forty years starting to write books but not finishing them, until belatedly realising that the key is not to give up. The other thing he has since learned is that he should have become a celebrity before writing a book, as this would have made selling it much easier. 

 False Connections is Steve’s fifth book, but the first one written as a straight thriller and not primarily as a comedy, although it does contain humour. He hopes it will be the first of a series featuring feisty, funny but flawed ex-MI5 agent, Mel Milano. He also has three spy thrillers with laughs to his name, all published by Claret Press: A Very Important Teapot (2019), set in Australia, Bored to Death in the Baltics (2021), not set in Australia, and Poor Table Manners (2024), which takes place in Cape Town.  These feature an initially fairly hapless hero, Dawson, and a considerably less hapless heroine, Lucy, together with varied supporting casts, most of whom are not who they claim to be. Steve’s fourth book is an out-and-out comedy-murder-mystery, Lazytown (2025).

  

Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Enter the Fatal Connections Giveaway Here

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Reaper's Quest - Curse of the Royal Reaper #1 - Fantasy Romance - and a Giveaway #Romance #Fantasy #FantasyRomance #Giveaway

Debra A Kristi is here to tell us about Reaper's Quest , Curse of the Royal Reaper #1, a fantasy romance.

There's also a great giveaway.

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Reaper’s Quest

Debra A Kristi

(Curse of the Royal Reaper, #1)

Publication date: July 13th 2026

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Two rival reapers. A century of overdue souls. Revelations sure to crumble foundations.

Raven Gunn blamed herself and the cheat she used on her last job for her team’s assignment to the cursed reaping. Her father even packed the tool responsible for the cheat in her travel bag, silently suggesting the need, while reminding her not to trust her designated coreaper, Chace Badden. A hundred years of accumulated reapings, a prohibited reaper-tool, her born rival tasked as her partner… What could go wrong? She definitely wouldn’t allow Chace’s good looks to compromise her focus. Not. One. Bit.

Chace Badden suspected family connections were to blame for his team’s assignment, and he trusted nothing about the current reaping task. Especially not the Fae bastard showering Raven with unnecessary attention. That pr*ck needed to go. Raven was his coreaper and the pretty boy held no claim. Of course, the same could be said for Chace given Raven was his coreaper and his rival, professionalism and distance needed to remain steady between them.

But as more complications arise and old ones intensify, will Chace and Raven’s rivalry cloud emotions, hinder task success, and pave the road for, not only failure but, something far more concerning than mortal danger? Because the overwhelming number of unreaped souls is turning out to be the least of their worries.

Reaper’s Quest is the first book in an adult romantasy series that grows spicier with each book, while containing dark themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers. This series is ideal for fans of:

•Slow Burn & Tension (with plenty of action)

•Angsty, Trapped, Morally Gray Hero

•Forced Proximity

•“Who did this to you?”

•Multiple POV

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

Halfway across the rotunda, near the God of Death’s center statue, Chace Badden fell into step at my side, a confident swagger in his walk.

“Reaper Gunn,” he said, his delivery a smooth tease I ignored.

Even as my shoulders stiffened at the sight of him―black shirt, two unfastened buttons exposing a hint of skin, and pants snug against his body.

I dipped my gaze below his belt, and a tight breath dragged through my lungs.

Eyes up, Raven. Eyes up.

He snagged my elbow―his touch gentle, casual, as if zero tension existed between us. “Spot something of interest?”

I fought the desire to roll my eyes. Of course he’d shown up today with a megabat-sized chip on his shoulder. An ego, no doubt, inflated by his parents’ never-ending bolstering.

Author Bio:

Award winning and USA Today Bestselling Author Debra Kristi writes addicting young adult fantasy, urban fantasy, and paranormal adventures. Born and raised a Southern California girl, she still resides in the sunny state with her husband, two kids, and several rescue cats.

Unlike many of the characters in the stories she writes, Debra is not immortal, and her only superpower is letting the dishes and laundry pile up. When not busy drumming away at the keyboard spinning new tales, Debra is hanging out creating priceless memories with her family, geeking out to science fiction and fantasy television, and tossing around movie quotes.

Debra Kristi's books are published by Ghost Girl Publishing LLC.

Visit www.DebraKristi.com for FREE books, new releases, and/or to become a member of the Insider's Club.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Newsletter

GIVEAWAY!

eBook copy of Reaper’s Quest + an e-ARC of book 2 Blitz

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The Purebeck Mysteries - Paranormal Mysteries - and a Giveaway #Mysteries #ParanormalMysteries #Giveaway

Gill Calvin Thomas is here to tell us about The Purebeck Mysteries, paranormal mysteries.

There's also a great giveaway.

____________________

The Dorset coast holds its secrets tight—

and the dead won’t stay quiet.

Vex Not Her Ghost

The Purebeck Mysteries Book 1

by Gill Calvin Thomas

Genre: Paranormal Mystery

A quirky detective tackles a haunting family mystery.

 

Caitlin was four years old when her mother died in mysterious circumstances. Thirty years later she comes into possession of her family home in Dorset. As she slowly recovers memories of her past, she becomes convinced that her mother’s ghost is warning her of impending disaster.

Aided by Charlie Bond, a private investigator, an enthralling story of deceit and deception unfolds as Caitlin and her friends expose the ultimate truth.

 

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Sister Olive Wouldn't Hurt a Fly 

The Purebeck Mysteries Book 2

Fleeing to Dorset traps a mother and son between a cult and a killer waiting in the shadows…

 

If this whole saga was a fight between good and evil, then who had won? As far as Miriam could work out, neither good nor evil had triumphed yet. Now she was having to confront the grim consequences of Will’s behaviour, and she was mortally afraid. Maybe he and his darkness would win after all.

The tragic suicide of a young student starts a shocking chain of events for William Marshall, his wife Miriam and their son, Ollie. As Will descends into madness, a ghostly presence appears in their old house to protect Ollie. However, when two strangers threaten Miriam and an attempt is made to snatch Ollie, mother and son are forced to flee.

Amidst ever-present danger, they shake off pursuers to seek sanctuary in Rock House in Dorset, where they meet Caitlin and her friends. Twenty years have passed since Charlie Bond helped Caitlin solve the mystery of her mother’s death. Now, it is the turn of Charlie’s sidekick, Sam Haskell, to investigate a mysterious cult and unmask a killer.

 

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Gill Calvin Thomas is a retired academic who lives with her husband in Swanage , UK.  She finds inspiration in the landscape around her – the Isle of Purbeck has a spectacular coastline and beautiful beaches, and it is whilst walking here, that Gill develops characters and plots the twists and turns you will find in her books.

 Gill’s life experiences have informed her writing.  For example, her mother’s death when she was a small child, influenced her first book, Vex Not Her Ghost, where the heroine has to delve into the past to uncover the real circumstances of her mother’s death, the cover up and the ongoing corruption.  Her experiences as a social work academic governs the plot of her second book, Sister Olive Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly.  In this book the fatal combination of a researcher's mental collapse and a sociopathic opportunist give rise to a cliffhanging finale.

 Reviewers have said that Gill writes the sort of books in which you find yourself racing to the end, whilst not wanting to finish.  Her characters are compelling, well-drawn and sensitively portrayed.  In her books bad people get what they deserve, but it is never quite what it seems.

 She is currently writing her third book. 

 

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour  HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Enter The Purebeck Mysteries Tour Here

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Hearth or Heart - The Bowman Girls #1 - Historical Romance - and a Giveaway #Romance #HistoricalRomance #Giveaway

Emily Lane is here to tell us about Hearth or Heart, The Bowman Girls #1, an historical romance.

There's also a great giveaway.

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Hearth or Heart

Emily Lane

(The Bowman Girls, #1)

Publication date: July 13th 2026

Genres: Adult, Historical, Historical Romance, Romance

After her father dies, Effie Bowman and her eight sisters are left penniless, homeless, and alone. Salvation comes in the form of the new custodian of the estate, Mr Thornaby. But the more she learns of Mr Thornaby, the more she realises he needs her discretion as much as she needs his security.

In her efforts to moderate the wild Mr Thornaby, she recruits the unlikely aid of ton society’s most determined widower, Sir John Callander.

As the season progresses and Effie pulls Sir John deeper into her desperate schemes to moderate Mr Thornaby, both are forced to wonder if Effie is attempting to tame the wrong gentleman.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

Of all the consequences to befall a clutch of daughters belonging to an entailed estate, this one was quite outside the common.

‘£20 a month in pin money?!’ cried Effie.

‘Each.’

Mrs Thornaby, ensconced in a cream morning gown of twilled French silk that seemed to defy her age, smiled most becomingly upon her niece.

‘That is just for your frills and affects and whatever other small accoutrements you young girls require these days,’ said Mrs Thornaby. ‘Your dresses, gowns, and hats, of course, can be drawn against my son’s account.’

‘Ma’am, I could never.’

‘Oh, yes, you could,’ said Mrs Thornaby. ‘That boy has too much money.’

Effie’s eyes flashed, and she yanked her gaze down.

Grimacing, Mrs Thornaby said, ‘So, your mother has told you a little of it, I collect.’

‘She has, ma’am,’ Effie admitted.

Mrs Thornaby looked her up and down.

‘Your mother tells me you are an exceptionally good manager.’

Now the talk of money had faded, Effie’s calm, dark eyes levelled upon Mrs Thornaby once more.

‘Yes, ma’am, it’s true.’

‘I suppose with eight sisters, borne of a mother of my sister’s temperament, you, as the eldest, should rather be forced into such a role, even if it was not of your disposition.’

A smirk crossed Effie’s features as she declared, ‘That much is true, to be sure.’

‘But men and boys are a different matter indeed.’

Effie’s hands, trying to thread a needle, paused. She set her embroidery box down and took up her cup of tea.

‘I have no brothers.’

‘Clearly,’ said Mrs Thornaby. ‘And husbands? What thoughts have you on them?’

‘Not so many, ma’am. I can scarcely imagine having one, never mind plural!’

Mrs Thornaby did not laugh. Instead she set down her teacup with a clatter.

‘As you may have heard, my son returned last night from Brighton.’ She paused. ‘My son is… a particular kind of fellow.’

Effie’s brow arched. Having heard—during the small hours of the morning—this particular kind of fellow stumble through the upstairs hallway singing about the roast beef of Great Britain, she was inclined to agree with a great many insinuations that issued from that vague sobriquet.

‘Indeed?’

‘He is now, of course, the custodian of your late father’s estate—by some contortion of family lines.’

Society in the northeast of England was sparse. Somehow, Mrs Thornaby’s son had ended up taking title to the entail of her sister’s late husband’s estate.

‘Yes.’

‘It is all that is natural, then,’ Mrs Thornaby went on. ‘That my son should marry you, to maintain my sister’s place at Barraton.’

What little of the sisterly rivalry that had been passed on to Effie permitted her to regard this piece of charity with deep suspicion. Her eyes cinched a touch.

‘With respect, ma’am, I fail to see why Mr Thornaby should want to marry me.’

‘I do not.’

Blushing, Effie picked up her embroidery box again. ‘I mean, ma’am, that Mr Thornaby must have a great many… um, admirers. I cannot see that he will mark me with any distinction.’

‘He will not, but I shall tell him he is to marry you. Likely, the novelty of it will tickle him, and he will entertain it for a while. Thereafter, it is your duty to… charm him.’

Effie touched her nose. She looked around the cavernous room.

It was an early, grey morning, but the shiny mahogany and silk furniture, glossy wallpapered walls, and great sash windows shone under the blaze of three gilded hearths.

‘Oh. I see.’

Mrs Thornaby’s eyes followed Effie’s, and she grimaced.

‘We are family, Miss Bowman. Now more than we ever were. My son represents Barraton. He is Barraton.’

Effie’s jaw quirked.

‘To put things plainly, my dear, it has lately come to my attention that my son is very much in need of the companionship, temperance, and governance that a wife must, to some unions, bring.’

Mrs Thornaby paused.

‘Now, am I saying that my son is bereft of the faculties required in choosing or acquiring a wife? I am not. But one cannot but put more faith in one’s own family, especially a family so interconnected.’

Effie bowed her head. ‘It would be in my best interests, indeed, to… govern Mr Thornaby—as a wife or no.’

‘But as a wife especially,’ Mrs Thornaby reiterated.

Author Bio:

Emily Lane writes sweet, clean Regency Romance perfect for fans of Georgette Heyer, Sophia Holloway, and Sophie Irwin. Hearth or Heart, her debut, launches July 13th. By day, Emily is a Management Consultant in the Lifesciences industry - she hopes her novels have just as much chemistry as her job! She lives in Thailand, which would be inconvenient but for the hot weather.

The Bowman Girls is Emily's first Regency romance series, with 3 books currently planned:

Hearth or Heart (out now)

Past or Promise (Late 2026)

Duty or Devotion (Late 2026)

Website / Instagram / Facebook / Newsletter

GIVEAWAY!

Hearth or Heart Blitz

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Amused and Amazed - LGBTQ+ Romance #Romance #LGBTQ+Romance

Willa Okati is here to tell us about Amused and Amazed, a LGBTQ+ romance.

Read on for details...

__________________________

 

LGBTQ+ Romance

Date Published: July 10, 2026

Publisher: Changeling Press

Laughter and love go together like peanut butter and chocolate for men in search of a tasty treat!

The Drag Queen of Faerie: The course of true love just won’t run smooth for hunk-next-door Will Taylor, who’s in search of that special someone. All that focused energy attracts the attention of Queen Mab’s less-well-known cousin Mabbey, the Drag Queen of the Faeries.

Valentine’s Vow: Friends and casual bed buddies Thom and Ryan don’t buy into the whole “true love” spiel. They have a good time together. Why would they want more? Luckily for this clueless pair, St. Valentine shows them how to appreciate a good thing when they’ve got it.

Independence Day: The boys are back -- and they’re at it again. Ryan and Thom have returned for some hot Fourth of July action, but their newfound romance may just hit the skids when it comes to coming out as a couple.

Straight Man and Coffee Guy: Straight Man is anything but. He just doesn’t have a sense of humor. And in a city with so many superheroes there’s no one left to rescue, his power is attracting the freaks -- like Coffee Guy from the diner across the road, who has the power of the never-ending cup. Misfits in a mad, mad, mad world, they’re pretty much perfect for each other.

 

Excerpt from Straight Man and Coffee Guy

Copyright ©2026 Will Okati

"So what would you say if I told you I was here to make every dream you've ever had come true?"

SM didn't even glance up from the magazine he was flipping through. Not that he'd been paying attention to the glossy pages. The skin magazine was designed for seriously lecherous and perverted types. Lots of pink, pouty things that kind of made his flesh want to shrivel up and his brain run away to hide. Still, better low-class reading material than none at all. Nothing else to do on the graveyard shift, was there?

"I'd ask if you were either AWOL from the City Genie conglomerate, wonder what you were selling, and pray you were the guy with the coffee I ordered --" he checked his watch -- "an hour ago."

"One out of three ain't bad." A cardboard tray smacked down on the hotel check-in counter. SM gladly abandoned his perusal of the so-called literature to reach up and grab a paper cup.

On his way, he spared a glance for the delivery boy. Not bad. Not bad at all. The kind of boy-next-door good looks that got his motor revving... or would if it weren't right around 3 a.m. Nothing short of an earthquake could get him excited enough to do much of anything this time of day.

He raised the lid and took a sip -- then choked. "This is cold!"

The delivery guy shrugged. "Well, you did it order a while back. Is it my fault it took this long to get away from the late-night crowd to bring the stuff over? And why did you order four cups, anyway? Have you got someone stashed under there?" He leaned over the counter, as if to check.

SM hastily knocked his magazine off into a trashcan. "No!"

"Come on, a hunk like you? There's someone under there." The coffee guy tilted up and over, resting his belly on the ledge, peeking. "Is that what I think -- no, just your shoe. Interesting. You dress like a wage slave drone, but those are some snappy sneakers."

"Sometimes I have to run to put out fires," SM replied dryly. Which was true enough. On more than one occasion, he had, especially when Combustion Man got too worked up. Oh, he didn't usually set more than the beds ablaze, but someone had to be quick on the draw with an extinguisher.

The truth was he wore the sneakers because they were comfortable, and it was one way of giving management the finger. Not that he'd admit it, of course, to a diner jockey.

He paused. "A hunk like me?"

"Well, yeah." Once he'd gotten up there, the coffee guy sat on the ledge, swinging his own sneakered feet back and forth. "You're a definite hottie. At least an eight on a scale of one to ten. Why do you think I waited to bring your coffee over myself?"

"To be annoying?"

"There is that," Coffee Guy agreed cheerfully. SM didn't see any harm in calling him that. It was neatly printed on his diner nametag, pinned crookedly on his tight-fitting T-shirt. "It's one of my better attributes."

"I'd hate to see the worse ones." SM took another sip of the brew. He blinked. "It's hotter."

"Thanks." Coffee Guy flexed his muscles. "I kind of thought so, myself."

"No, you dolt. I meant the coffee. It's not as cold anymore." SM took a careful sip and almost burned his tongue. He looked up accusingly. "Okay, give. How'd you do that?"

Coffee Guy shrugged. "It's a city full of real comic book heroes, right? Just about everyone and their brother has some kind of freaky power. I have dominion over the almighty bean, blessed be the name of Java. Behold." He pointed at SM's cup, which refilled the slight distance back up to the lid. "Talk about your never-ending pot."

"You're kidding me." SM drank again. "How'd you get a sweet talent like that?"

"As if it's special." Coffee Guy snorted. He started to flick through the check-in register. "All it gets me is the graveyard shift at a hotel diner. Or is this a motel? I can never keep it straight."

"Hotel. They have hallways and doors that open from the inside. Motels open onto the street."

"You learn something new every day."

"Keeps the brain active." SM peered at the cardboard tray with his other three, now steaming, cups of coffee. "Do you have the ability to summon cream and sugar as well?"

"Somehow I knew you'd be the kind of guy who had a sweet tooth." CG grinned at SM and reached into his pockets. "Wasn't room on the tray, but I came through in the clinch."

"Oh, God. You're an angel." SM groaned in pleasure as he cracked open two still-cool plastic cup-ettes of condensed milk and poured them in his cup. The sugar came next: three packets. "Swizzle stick?"

"They're not called swizzle sticks, moron."

SM cut CG a sharp look. "Oh, yeah? What's the right name, then?"

"Hell if I know." CG swung his legs a few more times while SM fixed his coffee to his pleasure. He even whistled a few bars of a tune, pretty badly off-key. In the middle of a bar, just as SM was recognizing the melody, he broke off to say, casually, "I kind of figured you to be the kind of guy who likes cream."

About the Author

Willa Okati (AKA Will) is made of many things: imagination, coffee, stray cat hairs, daydreams, more coffee, kitchen experimentation, a passion for winter weather, a little more coffee, a whole lot of flowering plants and a lifelong love of storytelling. Will's definitely one of the quiet ones you have to watch out for, though he -- not she anymore -- is a lot less quiet these days.

 

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Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress

 

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