12 Days of Yule: Day Twelve

Welcome to Day Twelve of the 12 Days of Yule--the final day! The last story I'm sharing is Finders Keepers, which is my only Futuristic Romance to date. And which ends on New Year's Day, so it seemed fitting. 

The book is set in Oakland and the Lake Tahoe area in the “near future” which keeps getting nearer all the time and…maybe not going quite the way I thought it might. 

So, this is definitely more of an alternative future, at this point. Which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t have been such a bad thing! “May you live in interesting times,” my ass!

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/2afw0mjyxv

I love playing with tropes and genres and mixing them up together, perhaps in ways they haven’t been before. So, this is a friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, maybe a second-chance romance story with an amnesia subplot since my soldier gets his mind-scrubbed after every mission and has no idea who he originally was. 

You’ve heard of found family (yet another favorite trope of mine)? Well, this book is more about lost family. All the characters have suffered serious losses over the years and need each other this Christmas way more than they know or are willing to admit. But thanks to a little Christmas magic (and Science, of course because Sci-Fi) AND getting snowed-in at an isolated cabin (yay! More tropes!) they just might find their happy ending. 

 

Who am I kidding? It's a romance. OF COURSE, they will!

 

Another thing I love to write about are morally gray characters, and the heroes in this book were not all that good to their partners in the past. One used his bi-sexuality as an excuse for cheating, the other refused to accept that bi-sexuality existed at all (in part because he was in denial about his own nature). 

But the point of this book is not just about how they acted “then” it’s about what they're going to do “now”. Because they’ve changed, they've grown, they've learned some hard lessons over the years. They're not the same people they were back then and--just maybe--this time around, they'll get it right; and then they'll get to keep what they've found.  

12 Days of Yule: Day Eleven

Welcome to Day Eleven of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's story is, Inked Memories, which is (hopefully!) eventually going to be the first book in my Inked in Oaktown series.  

Inked Memories is NOT set in Oakland, however. It was written as part of the Midnight Ink Anthology, which is a collection of stories that all take place at a tattoo shop in New Orleans during the same holiday season. My story ends New Year's Eve (technically early on New Year's Day) which is why I included it here. 

Originally, the book for day eleven was going to be Never Haveav I Ever, which has a prologue that takes place on New Year's Eve. But that seemed kind of a stretch since all the rest of the book takes place in March.  

Anyway, I believe you can still find most of the other Midnight Ink stories if you check out the other authors' pages. 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/coi7v3iu79

The anthology was so much fun to be a part of! And the cover was fire! 

And while the antho itself is no longer available, I think you can still (occasionally) find used copies.  

https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Ink-Jayne-Rylon/dp/1623220777/ref=sr_1_1

Theoretically, Inked Memories is about celebrity tattoo artist Declan Ross and the girl he left behind in New Orleans. Declan is the bad boy tattooist that viewers love to hate on the hit TV show, Inked in Oaktown. But fame and success has not made him happy. 

When he re-connects with his former friend-with-benefits Sophie (girl-doesn't-even-have-a-last-name? WTF!) AKA Sophie Jane, he begins to realize how much of life he's been missing.

But in reality? Sophie really steals the show. Even without a last name. And, I swear, she DID have a last name when I wrote the book, but apparently I never used it, and now I can't recall what it was supposed to be!

However, if and when I write the rest of the Inked in Oaktown books, and Declan and Sophie appear in cameos, I'll be sure and mention her last name. 

12 Days of Yule: Day Ten

Welcome to Day Ten of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's story is, Can't Fight the Moonlight. I mentioned this story the other day in connection with Light Up the Night. This is a spin-off of a spin-off, and the way it came about is a somewhat long and convoluted tale... 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/l8wtjk3kko

It happened like this: Several years ago, of friend of mine and I were invited to write paranormal romances to be published as part of the Kindle World program. The "world" we were asked to write in is strictly contemporary, but it was Halloween, so the idea was that it might be fun to have paranormal creatures roaming through this small midwestern town, without the regular townspeople being aware of it. Anything odd that they noticed was put down to people being dressed up in costumes

My friend writes primarily werewolves and fae. I was writing mostly vampires and fae. We decided that since our books were being set in the same time and place, that it would be fun to do a crossover; her characters appeared in my book, my characters appeared in hers. That's how I came up with Going Back to Find You. 

I took a minor character from my Children of Night series and sent him to Nebraska where he encountered her fae. We liked the results so much that we immediately started planning how to get them back together for Christmas. Before we could do that, however, Amazon stopped the Kindle Shared World program, and the project lost steam. 

I tried to revive it by writing my half of our story--which ended up being Light Up the Night. And I still have plans to go back and tell Jason and Liz's part of that story in Chasing Daylight. 

It was shortly after I'd begun plotting Chasing Daylight that I heard about a Shifter Anthology that was being put together and I thought, "Oh, there are werewolves in Chasing Daylight. That would be perfect for the anthology. So, I went ahead and signed up and then realized...it wasn't perfect AT ALL. 

I mean, yes, there are werewolves in Chasing Daylight, but it's very much a vampire story!

But, after all, I had a perfectly good werewolf world already built in my head, so why not find two other characters to write about. And, once I did that, why not write a whole series?

So far, Can't Fight the Moonlight is the only story I've written in that world. It serves as a sort of prequel to Chasing Daylight, and now...I guess I'm writing werewolves now!

12 Days of Yule: Day Nine

Welcome to Day Nine of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's story is, I'll Be Home for Christmas, which is  kind of a follow-up to yesterday's title, The Spirit of the Place. This short story explores the idea of what might have happened if Scout had never returned to Oberon. 

Yes, just like It's a Wonderful Life. In fact, I might change the title before I release it on its own. And since the story requires an angel, to make everything happen, I borrowed Edge from Edge of Heaven (part of my Angels in the Afterlife series) to play the part. And he's hilarious in his own right!

I wrote it for a short story collection and there was a strict  limit to how long it could be. Eventually, however, I'd like to expand it, and visit more of Oberon's residents.

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/twytqnnrfw

OR...if you'd like to read a whole bunch ofChristmas shorts, I'll Be Home for Christmas is also included in this collection, which you can also download for free: 

That link is: 

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bvxkzbdkc8

THIS JUST IN!

While Scout was having an out-of-body, Alternate Oberon lead up to Christmas, Nick was dealing with a few holiday crises of his own! Same couple, same Christmas, two VERY different stories! Spicy Nick just went up for pre-order (and by "just" I mean LATE LAST NIGHT!).  It's set to release on December 8, 2024 (which just happens to be my niece's birthday!) as part of The Naughty List series. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like NIX-mas! 

 

Nick Greco is getting worried. His wife has never been a big fan of the holiday season, but this year she seems more distant than ever before. In fact, the last time that he can remember seeing her this distracted was right before their wedding—when she tried to back out of marrying him. 

 

Can you get cold feet after the fact? Is Scout feeling overwhelmed by the holidays? Or underwhelmed by…gulp…him?

 

Whatever the cause, Nick has a plan. He’s going to spice up their marriage and put the heat back into the holidays. When he’s done, Scout won’t be saying, “Bah Humbug!” She’ll be saying, “ho, ho…OH!”

https://books2read.com/Spicy-Nick

https://www.amazon.com/Spicy-Nick-Forte/dp/B0CR66PYMB

12 Days of Yule Day Eight

 

Welcome to Day Eight of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's story is, The Spirit of the Place, which is the sixth book in my Oberon series, and which I  will be re-releasing next year in an annotated, twentieth anniversary edition. 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pudagjrqpb

The Spirit of the Place is the only Oberon book that was not written in California. It's also the book I was working on when the series was accepted for publication. So, it's an outlier in a lot of ways. 

The first five books in the series are all seasoned romances involving Scout, Lucy and Marsha who'd been friends for years; and two of Marsha's sisters. This book is a hybrid--there's a storyline involving Sam, Marsha and their wedding plans, and then there's the romance storyline involving Jasmine and Brandon who fall for each other while working together to STOP the wedding from taking place.

Books seven, eight and nine are firmly focused on the younger generation--on Jasmine's friends and Lucy's children and their friends. 

So, as you might imagine, there's a lot happening within these pages. There are even three ghostly visitors that work for a certain value of "past, present, and yet to come." Although, at first glance it might not seem like that's the case. 

On the surface, you might think that we're looking at three ghosts from Marsha's past. And yet!

Also no, I can't say more than that because spoilers!

It's no secret that I  like my characters flawed--at least in the beginning. And Jasmine and Brandon are grinchy as hell this holiday season!  They're both dealing with issues of loss and grief, but they start off as brats with seemingly opposite agendas. Jasmine wants to get her mother (Marsha) away from her fiancé, Sam. Brandon wants to save his boss (Sam) from Marsha's clutches. 

They both also want into each other's pants, and I think that's exactly what they deserve! 

But, somewhere along the way, they each end up helping the other to mature, to fall in love, to see the world through someone else's eyes. And, just like the original Grinch--their hearts grow three sizes by the end of the book.

Which--awww!--is kind of what you hope for in a Christmas-themed book, isn't it?

12 Days of Yule: Day Seven

In case you didn't see yesterday's correction post. It appears I screwed up two of the links. Here are the correct links to Christmasing With You and Christmas Angel. If you downloaded the 8 Chapter version of Angel, you need to download the correct, 12 Chapter version at the link below.

I'm keeping both those books available for an extra day to make up for the confusion. 

Here are the correct links again.

Christmasing With You:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/om82hypsxc

The correct version of Christmas Angel: 

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hq05b8xcgz

Welcome to Day Seven of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is Light Up the Night, the second book in my spin-off series, Beyond the CofN (as in: Beyond the Children of Night series). Silly, I know, but that's how I roll sometimes.

Anyway, I  screwed up a little because I made it free for another promo this week, as well. But...it is what it is, I guess. I mean, free is free...

Here's the link to get it directly from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMTPFRWM

It's also available (along with over 2000 other romance titles) as part of ZoeBub's "Stuff Your E-Reader" Event:

https://www.romancebookworms.com/

And if you just don't want anything to do with Amazon, you can also download it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/71sj91i1eq

I love this story. I'd been wanting to get Heather and Drew together for the longest time. There were always some readers who shipped her with Marc, and others who wanted her to get together with Hawk. But Heather has always gone her own way. There are reasons why she's drawn to Drew; just like there are reasons why he can't resist her. Although he tries. He tries really hard. 

Originally, this was written as a sequel to Going Back to Find You. And there was a second, linked story that was supposed to come out at the same time, but I'm afraid my friend who was writing the bulk of that story has lost interest. Which means I'll need to write a second story myself to explain what happened to Liz, Jason, Marc, Conrad, and whoever else joined them on their little adventure (that's alluded to here). 

And, just like that, I'm writing about Shifters.

What's most interesting about that, however  is that I find myself with a new spin-off series--Sierra Shifters--but Beyond the CofN is a spin-off series already. Which makes that series a spin-off of a spin-off. 

Oops!

 If you've been following my 12 Days of Yule Giveaway, I hope you're reading this post. Because I messed up with two of my links. 

I've corrected both errors, but that still means a lot of people have downloaded the wrong book today, or downloaded the wrong version of yesterday's book. Gulp.

Here are the correct links.

Today's book (Christmasing With You):

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/om82hypsxc

The correct version of yesterday's book (Christmas Angel) is: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hq05b8xcgz

Hopefully the rest of the giveaway will go off without a hitch...or did I just jinx myself?

And, since I'm here, if you're looking to get ahead of the crowd, tomorrow's Zoebub is LIVE!

https://www.romancebookworms.com/

12 Days of Yule: Day Six

 

Welcome to Day Six of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is Christmasing With You, which is a sequel (of sorts) to Let Me Count the Ways (the third book in my LA Love Lessons series). 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/om82hypsxc

Several years ago, I was part of a group of authors called the Nine Naughty Novelists. We blogged together and threw online parties together, and wrote parody stories together. And some of us still hang out together from time to time. And one year, at Christmas, we decided to write short stories featuring Ugly Christmas Sweaters. The stories all involved characters from one of our published books--in my case, the third book in my LA Love Lessons trilogy, Let Me Count the Ways.

I called my story Counting On Christmas, and it told the story of how Claire was hoping to take their relationship to a deeper level. But I always wanted to go back and expand that story. And that's what Christmasing With You became. 

Christmasing With You (in its current iteration) appeared in last year's Let's Get Naughty. It's not available currently--other than today--but I'll be re-releasing it next Winter, possibly in an even more expanded edition. 

12 Days of Yule: Day Five

https://books.bookfunnel.com/freeforchristmas/r3yrev9hdh

 

Welcome to Day Five of the 12 Days of Yule! And Merry Christmas!  Today's book is  my newest release, Christmas Angel!

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hq05b8xcgz

I love this story. The idea for it came to me in a dream. Morning dreams are the best for that! Sometimes a story that will seem to make sense when I first wake up, falls apart as soon as I start to plot it out. But I think Christmas Angel turned out pretty much like I wanted it to. If you like Hallmark Christmas movies, but wish there were more gay couples in them, then this is the book for you! 

I  love those movies myself, which made writing this book such a pleasure for me. I was hoping to have an audiobook version available for today's giveaway, but that's taking a little longer than I'd hoped. 

But, when it's done, it will be available on the Google Play store and on the website store that I'm also working on. 

You can find that link here:  https://books.pgforte.com/

ALSO, it appears that I've signed up for entirely too many holiday promos this season! Including THIS ONE that's running TODAY ONLY and which I'd totally forgotten that I'd entered Winterlude into. 

Winterlude (cool cover, right?) combines This Winter Night, Winter World of Love with TWO MORE teasers for the Winter Heart series, the siblings' backstory novella, Winter of Our Discontent. AND a sneak peek at the next book in the series, Lightning in a Bottle.  

So, if you enjoyed the stories from days three and four--or if, perhaps, you missed them--you might want to pick this one up for free, as well. Link below:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/freeforchristmas/r3yrev9hdh

And that makes TWO books from me today! It's almost like it's Christmas, or something!

12 Days of Yule: Day Four

 

Welcome to Day Four of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is a sequel to This Winter Heart. As I mentioned yesterday, This Winter Heart is traditionally published, so I can't make it free. But this book tells the story of how Ophelia and Dario fared in their first year back together. 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/kmf53xm2ef

So, okay. One of the criticisms I received about This Winter Heart was that there wasn't enough Christmas in it. Which is fair. Ophelia completely misses Christmas for reasons that are too spoilery to mention here. In retrospect, I felt bad about that. And so did Dario.

So when I decided to follow up with the Leonides' family to see how they were faring the following Christmas, I decided to go all-in on Christmas--the family even attends Mass!  And there are cookies!  And another airship! And more groveling on the part of my poor hero! Because we romance readers/writers are a sadistic bunch. We like to see/make our characters suffer. 

I also wanted to set things up for the rest of the series--four interconnecting books about Ophelia's siblings, along with some other, related content; at least one more Christmas book; and probably more cookies. You can read more about that here:

 https://www.pgforte.com/winter-hearts 

Also, as I mentioned yesterday, if you are inclined to purchase This Winter Heart, (which, by the way, is absolutely my favorite title for a book ever!) you might want to consider purchasing the anthology, A Clockwork Christmas. 

For the same low price, you get FOUR sweet steampunk stories (and no, I don't mean sweet as in "sweet romance" although the heat levels do vary from story to story). It's also available as an audiobook, which is nice--even though the narrator pronounces my last name wrong. Grrr).

https://books2read.com/u/md1pg5

We Wish You a Steampunk Christmas

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband's love. A man learns that love isn't always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas. 

Anthology includes: 

Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

Stories also available for purchase separately.

12 Days of Yule: Day Three

 

Welcome to Day Three of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is a short-short story I wrote as a prequel to This Winter Heart. 

Since This Winter Heart is traditionally published, I am unable to make it free. So instead, here's a look at Dario and Ophelia at a happier time in their relationship...

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/iymu382rl9

I still remember how excited I was when This Winter Heart was accepted for publication. I wrote it in about six weeks, in response to an open call that Carina put out for a holiday anthology it would be running the following winter. Then it was selected! But I missed getting "the call" because that was the day my dog was neutered and I  didn't have cell service. It was published by Carina Press, which is and was so surprising to me. It was edited by the fabulous Angela James! And my antho sisters were (and continue to be) amazing authors! 

But, like with most second chance romances--especially when they're fairly short novellas--I  wasn't fully able to explore the sweetness that marked the beginning stages of the couple's relationship. 

As a result, a few readers ended up not caring very much for Dario; and not understanding why Ophelia took him back. And then there were other readers who questioned how Ophelia was able to conceive a baby--to which I say: suspend your disbelief. It's Science Fiction, not Science Fact. lol!

But anyway...

This Winter Night was written as part of a "Twelve Days of Christmas" blog hop and was originally titled: Eleven Pipes for a Winter's Night. But I also wrote it, in part, to provide answers (albeit somewhat supernatural ones) to the above mentioned questions. Also there are cookies! I never pass up a chance to write a holiday cookie scene!

I would also like to say that if you are inclined to purchase This Winter Heart, you might want to consider purchasing the anthology it's included in: A Clockwork Christmas. 

For the same low price as the individual novella you get FOUR sweet steampunk stories (and no, I don't mean sweet as in "sweet romance" although the heat levels do vary from story to story). 

The anthology is also available as an audiobook, which is nice--even though the narrator pronounces my last name wrong. Grrr).

https://books2read.com/u/md1pg5

We Wish You a Steampunk Christmas

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband's love. A man learns that love isn't always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas. 

Anthology includes: 

Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

Stories also available for purchase separately.

12 Days of Yule: Day Two

 

Welcome to Day Two of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is IRON, the first Celtic Romance I ever wrote. 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/p1hvtgkqsg

IRON  had it's genesis in a question I was asked during an online chat many years ago. The question was what was the strangest H/H pairing I could imagine. The idea of one of the immortal Fae--someone who can't stand the touch of iron--falling for a human blacksmith sprung immediately to mind. The idea of setting it in Nineteenth Century Ireland came about because my Irish grandfather actually was a blacksmith in Tipperary. I never knew him, but I grew up with my grandmother and her voice was in my head the entire time I wrote this book. 

The first editor I showed it to wanted to turn it into a Sword and Sorcery type of tale, but that's not what this story is. It's angsty and quiet. It's really all about Gavin, my wounded hero. And, yes, I suppose it is a cautionary tale--about how one's life can be changed, usually not for the better, when dealing with the Fae. But it's also a story about the transformative power of love. 

It's a fairy tale, really.  Only sexier, and with a happier ending than most of those have. Which is to say, I think it has a happy ending, but YMMV!

12 Days of Yule: Day One

 

Welcome to Day One of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's book is OAK, because what else would I choose for the Solstice besides a book about the Solstice Kings?

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/kghctyl2oq

OAK is my weird, sexy take on the legend of the Oak King and the Holly King. It's primarily MMF, although there is one MMM scene, as well. It's extremely angsty, as most things Irish tend to be. But it also features some very sexy tree-shifters.

In the world that I’ve created, the Oak King and Holly King share the duties of ruling over the Greenworld—which basically means that while they're "on the throne" they’re in touch with all of the plant life on the entire planet. It’s an all-consuming, overwhelming task, which is why they switch off every six months. 

Their jobs are made somewhat easier when the two of them are able to function as a team. They're long-lived (being tree-spirits) but they're not immortal. And they’re individuals, so occasionally they don't get along as well as it might. This story is about one of those times.

 

Fionn is young and sweet (well, he’s young for a tree shifter, maybe not so much by human standards!). He’s a total Cinnamon Roll, but still somewhat new to his role of Oak King—and the last Oak King was legendary!  

Fionn has been feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Especially since his counterpart—Kieran, the Holly King—is the Grump to his Sunshine. 

Aine Murphy is the young widow who catches Fionn's eye. Aine has been devoted to the two kings all her life. But she was not allowed to practice her religious beliefs during the course of her marriage. And she certainly never thought she'd meet them!

When Fionn falls for Aine, and threatens to give up his throne for her, Kieran is spurred to take action.

Kieran had been deeply in love with the previous Oak King and his grief has made him cruel. But the Winter Solstice is a time of Magic, and there's no greater magic than love.