Posted in Future Works, News and Appearances

Exciting News for 2020

Posted on by susanmacnicol

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching recently and I’ve decided I need to take my writing in another direction and give myself another string to my author bow.

I love writing MM Romance but I’m also very into my fantasy stuff, urban, olde world, LOTR, Harry Potter – I love it all. I started an otherworld epic adult adventure book when I was 16 and I got 30 000 words down and left it to languish. It’s time I finished this story now. So while my focus next year will be this book, I’ll still be writing MM books in 2020, but I may not be as prolific as before. At the moment, I’ve got one due in February and another planned for later in the year.

I adore each and every one of my MM readers and you need to think of it as me slowing down the press for a while. Dipping my toes in another pond  That said, a lot can happen LOL and one can never say never.

I’m well aware fantasy is another tough genre to break into but I don’t really care  I’m lucky enough to write for fun, and if I relied on royalties, I’d certainly be that starving author in the garret. I also know a lot of you love this fantasy genre too, so perhaps I can write something that isn’t primarily in the MM/gay arena but that you’ll enjoy anyway 😍 PS I’ll be writing a diverse range of characters, and who knows who will creep in?

If you’d like to connect with me under my nom de plume and take this new journey with me, the links are below. I will be using my Author Page more for this account. Please feel free to give it a like,

https://www.facebook.com/Elena-Jagger-104254974367623/
https://www.facebook.com/elena.jagger.94
https://twitter.com/elena_jagger

Posted in Future Works, News and Appearances

Two giveaways, and a sassy excerpt

Posted on by susanmacnicol

I didn’t want you all to miss out on a wonderful GIVEAWAY

Follow some amazing authors on Amazon and social media for a chance to win one paperback copy of All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover, one paperback copy of Dark Lover by J.R. Ward, one paperback copy of Handle with Care by Helena Hunting, a 3 piece set of aromatherapy reed diffusers, a five-piece Bath and Body Works Spa Gift Basket and a $25 Amazon Gift Card! You can also come back every day for special tasks that will earn you daily entry points! Click the image below to enter.

And I promised you TWO giveaways so here’s the next one…

Looking for some amazing reads to keep you company this fall? Enter for a chance to win the below! Open internationally through 11/30/19!

​✔️ $50 Amazon (US) gift card
✔️ 5 ebooks from the below authors

Click here to enter.

Participating Authors:

BL Maxwell

Julia McBryant

Lynn Michaels

Michelle Frost

Susan Mac Nicol

*Giveaway open through 11/30/19. One winner will be chosen and notified via Facebook or email the first week of December 2019.

MY NEW BOOK OUT in FEBRUARY 2020

I have a new book out for Valentine’s Day 2020. It’s called ‘Gin Me Over’ and it’s the story of one rather flighty and creative gin-maker named Birdy who meets his match in uptight bank manager Jaydon. Their chances of making it together are good…unless Jaydon loses patience before they’ve got a chance to start what’s certainly building between them.

Here’s a nice long excerpt to give you an idea of exactly what poor Jaydon will have to put up with 🙂

“I’m sorry, Mr Dobbs. I simply can’t do this anymore.” Elias Cranston, my ex-Business Manager all of ten seconds ago, shook his head vehemently and looked as if he was trying not to cry. “I’ve tried, God knows I’ve tried but it isn’t working.”

I stared at him in confusion, noticing the nervous tic in his left eyebrow, and the fingers clenched at his sides. He seems terribly stressed. Perhaps I should make him some tea. “I’m so sorry to hear that, Elias, and must I tell you once again not to call me Mr Dobbs? It’s Birdy, for Christ’s sake.”

Elias closed his eyes in what seemed like despair and carried on with the head shaking. I was rather worried he was going to lose it the way he was going. “It’s not right to call a man ‘Birdy’,” he garbled, “Especially when that man is your customer and the owner of everything around you.” He waved a hand at the estate surrounding us, green fields and trees as far as the eye could see. His hand came back from its floundering and motioned towards me.

I gazed at it in fascination. Elias must have a soupçon of Italian in him, I mused, given the extravagant nature of his gestures. That thought made me think of the luxurious bottles of Firecrest Ruby gin and other blends currently bound for Tuscany for display at a gin expo. Ori-Gin’s award-winning blend of botanicals, cherries and my own secret ingredients was a hit and we’d been hard-pressed to produce enough to satisfy the demand.

“And this is exactly why I can’t stay.” I was brought back to the present as Elias’s voice grew louder and more frustrated. I peered at him. Good God, was the man actually wringing his hands? I’d thought that was a literary term and no one ever really did it.

Elias glared at me. “You zone out when I’m talking to you, ignore my proposals and go off on a tangent, and I never quite know whether anything I’m saying is getting through to you. That’s why you’re in this financial mess.” His voice quavered. “And that awful tea you force upon me every time we get together makes me ill. I’m really not a fan of liquorice.”

I blinked owlishly behind my glasses as I raised a finger and pushed them up my nose. I made sure not to use my middle finger as I’d nearly had my lights punched out once by an irate stranger in a pub. “I’m sorry, were you saying something? Err, I promise to listen. Where were we?”

“We were nowhere,” Elias said tersely as he turned to walk back up towards the office attached to the side of the distillery. “I, however, am making plans to leave and you’ll need to find someone else to manage this sorely declining business. I’m sorry, Mr Dobbs, but if you carry on the way you’re going, you’re going to need to find a new job and something else for your employees.” He strode up the manicured lawn towards the office and I could only stare after him, perplexed. The business had won a heap of awards, some with monetary values; the gin was selling well, and my employees always got paid on time. I was at a loss to think why Elias would think that was all going to end.

Perhaps I should have paid more attention to all the boring paperwork and his endless discussions on cash flow, budgets and… Blah blah blah. I was bored already.

“Keep your gin up, Elias,” I called after him, wondering whether I should follow or not. “It’ll be all right, you’ll see.” His shoulders tensed and I remembered he wasn’t a fan of my gin puns. I had a load of them saved up for special occasions. The warble of a wagtail caught my attention and I turned to the sound. “Hello, my pretty,” I murmured and forgot all about Elias as I hurried over to the tree I thought the wagtail perched in. I reached into the pocket of my jeans for my phone. “Don’t fly away, will you? I’m coming to take your picture.”

I hope you enjoyed it! Keep in touch with me for future news, it’s lovely having you along on the journey.

 

Posted in Future Works, News and Appearances

Giant Giveaway, and a new release to make you lick your lips….

Posted on by susanmacnicol

October is a busy month for me!! As well as the Men of London box set release, the third book in my latest series will also be out on October 22nd. This book is called Cover Me In Chocolate and as the title suggests, it’s rather edible…

#establishedcouple #friendstolovers #detective #intrigue

 

 

A STICKY, MESSY AFFAIR

A missing young woman, an abusive boyfriend, and a trail with dead-end clues have Clay Mortimer and Tate Williams of M&W Investigations chasing their tails. Not a position they often find themselves in, if ever. When an employee of the erotic chocolate shop in Fetish Alley disappears, the usual suspects don’t pan out, and Tate and Clay need to find the clue that’ll help them solve the case. When chocolate moulds of the missing woman’s body parts start being delivered and are accompanied by odd notes, the urgency to find her ratchets up. And through it all, Tate and Clay find all sorts of delicious ways to spice up their love.

Add this book on your Goodreads TBR list 

And then this is happening…

 

It’s almost here!! On the 15th October, there will be a special Men of London boxset – e-book and print version – released.

Because of Amazon’s pricing policy, the sets are split into two, each containing FIVE books. Pricing has been set for $9.99 for each of the e-book volumes and $17.50 for each print volume. It’s a steal 🙂

I don’t have the buy links yet, but if you keep an eye here you’ll see them added soon.

Along with these releases on the 15th, I’ll be running a HUGE giveaway where you can win a load of quirky things related to the MOL series. So far this goody bag has no less than 15 items in it and promises to be a load of fun for the lucky winner.

#boxset #MenOfLondon #giveaway #October #MMRomance #bundle

Enter the huge MEN OF LONDON GIVEAWAY 

 

All the very best in the giveaway and good luck!

Posted in News and Appearances, Stories

Circus life and Living On Air

Posted on by susanmacnicol

Living On Air features in a BookBub deal today, for 0.99. This was my ‘love’, the book that took a few years to write. I stayed in a circus to research the circus life and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. There’s something about living in a tiny caravan for a few days and being able to go behind the scenes in the Big Top and talk to all the performers that truly was enriching. The photos I took will forever live in memory and is something to one day show my grandchildren.

You can read all about my experiences with my hubby, Gary, here in the blog post I wrote for my column here on the Divine Magazine website.

This post details quite a bit about the behind the scenes activity, the superstitions, the wonderful people who live there and the fact it’s like a mini Royal Court itself, with plenty of drama and policitics.

Author’s Note

This book delves into subjects some people may find disturbing. There are elements of the main characters’ pasts that include paedophilia, the dark side of religion, and the horrors of war. Aspects of the story include self-harm, depression, and suicide, and the book is set in a circus where clowns are featured. 

None of these elements are gratuitous, but instead are included because they are part of the human condition, and are essential to our main characters’ journeys.I hope you join Cary and Rhys as they navigate their way to love.

 

What’s it about?

For aerialist, Cary Stilwell, aside from performing forty feet in the air, life holds little comfort until he meets Rhys McIntyre, who punctures all of Cary’s defenses.

PIERCING THE NIGHT
Cary Stilwell has been existing since he was ten years old, and each year it gets harder to find meaning in his bleak life. The only exception – his work. As a top-billed aerialist in a popular travelling circus, he enjoys accolades and applause, but little else. When notable photographer, Rhys McIntyre, joins the circus to catalogue its inner workings, Cary fights the attraction that hits him from the moment they meet. But a kind soul wrapped in a beautiful body has a way of battering all the walls Cary has built around his cold, dark heart.

WITH LIGHT
Rhys McIntyre is on his third iteration of reinventing himself. Once a hotdog financier, he embraced his passion for photography and became an imminent war photo journalist. Until one too many bullets lodged in his body, and he gave up the front lines for the softer side of chronicling life. When he accepts the assignment to record life in a circus, the last thing he expects is to find the man crush of his dreams. Except Cary Stilwell is a cold, tortured man who seems incapable of any warm emotion, never mind love. But Rhys is known for his persistence, and this time the pay-off might be more than he could have ever imagined.

The book is available here

http://mybook.to/LivingOnAir

Add to Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38388655-living-on-air

 

Posted in News and Appearances, Stories

Now in Kindle Unlimited! And may I say I’m as pleased as Punch

Posted on by susanmacnicol

I’m thrilled to say I now have three books in Kindle Unlimited for KU subscribers to choose from. There are more planned, and I’ll let you know as that happens.

These books are – my very first MM debut novel, Stripped Bare; the angsty Saving Alexander, and a revamped version of Waiting for Rain, for which I have the rights back. This has been re-published as Doubting Hearts with a few small changes to the contents and a gorgeous new cover.

You can find these books on Amazon by clicking the universal links below –

Stripped Bare

Saving Alexander

Doubting Hearts

While I know this is purely an estimator, this amount below is more than I have earned with Dreamspinner and the old book, Waiting for Rain, in over two years. And this is ONE self published book, over 4 days only. I think I did the right thing, getting my rights back and re-publishing this as Doubting Hearts, new cover and all. It may not cover what I forked out for it yet, but I’m hoping it will soon.

 

Posted in News and Appearances

Book Blitz – Death by C*ck by Susan Mac Nicol

Posted on by susanmacnicol

 

This book follows on For Fox Sake and involves Tate Williams and Clay Mortimer once again getting caught up in all things Fetish Alley. In Tate’s words  “Have we become like the official investigators of all things weird and kinky? I never got the memo.” There’s hotness, a murder mystery, a lot of banter, and some surprise events which will only be revealed in reading the book…

 

 
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
Release Date: June 6th, 2019
Length: Kindle Edition, 195 pages
Series: Fetish Alley #2
Genre: M/M Mystery, M/M Romance
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46162839-death-by-c-ck
 
Blurb
Things are getting dicey in Fetish Alley, so much so, the police have asked Tate and Clay to work a murder for them since the denizens of the Alley don’t want outsiders to learn their secrets.
Somehow, after solving one particularly squirrelly case, Clay Mortimer and Tate Williams of M&W Investigations have been deemed experts in all things Fetish Alley. Tate’s taken an undercover assignment for the London police, and solves it with his usual flair. When a brutal and particularly sensitive murder send the shop owners and patrons of Fetish Alley up in arms, once again the police department call upon Tate and Clay to take the lead in solving the grisly crime. Meanwhile their lives are being redefined in ways neither of them expected, and even though change can be scary, these brave men make certain that love guides them on every road they travel.

 

Murder with unique and delightful characters! ✰✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ – Dixiecowgirl060
A delicious follow up to For Fox Sake ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ – Ann Alaskan
 
Boroughs Publishing Group | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

 

Excerpt
Death by C*ck
Susan Mac Nicol © 2019
All Rights Reserved
Tate wrinkled his nose as Rick swung open the front door to Stuffed for Choice and walked in. A stale smell wafted out of the shop, reminiscent of old weed, cigarettes, and the fustiness of small creatures. Tate noticed the crime scene paraphernalia was gone, and the shop appeared to have been restored to its former condition. 
Dead animals with a soupçon of dust.
He wandered past Clay, shoving his way into the shop after Rick. “Huh. You could make a great joke out of this one.” He chuckled. “A policeman, two investigators, and a psychic walk into a taxidermy shop…” 
Clay snorted as he entered the cool clime of the shop. “Sounds like a match made in heaven. Except the psychic hasn’t arrived yet.” He took off his sport coat and left it on top of the counter. Today hadn’t been a suit and tie day, even more so now he no longer had an office. Tate had finally managed to convince his man to dress down when he worked from home or didn’t have clients to see.
And what a sight he was. Clay was dressed in dark grey chinos, a crisp white long-sleeved shirt, and a camel sport coat. 
Tate grinned at the memory of this morning. He’d taken one look at Clay and shaken his head with affection. His words, “You’ll never quite get the hang of casual, will you, babe?” had made Clay grumble softly.
His man did look pretty edible though. Tate was in black jeans, torn at the knees, a tight-fitting blue t-shirt, and his usual black leather jacket, a lighter version of the one he usually wore, because, after all, it was spring. 

 

Meet the Author
The official stuff 
Susan writes steamy, sexy and fun contemporary romance stories, some suspenseful, some gritty and dark and hopefully always entertaining. She’s also Editor in Chief at Divine Magazine, an online LGBTQ e-zine and a member of The Society of Authors, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, and the Authors Guild in the US.
Susan is also an award-winning script writer, with scripts based on two of her own published works. Sight Unseen has garnered no less than five awards to date and her TV pilot, Reel Life, based on her debut novel, Cassandra by Starlight, was also a winner at the Oaxaca Film Fest.
The ‘unofficial’ stuff…
She loves going to the theatre, live music concerts (especially if it’s her man crush Adam Lambert or the divine Cumberbatch) walks in the countryside, a good G and T, lazing away afternoons reading a good book, and watching re-runs of Silent Witness.
 Her chequered past includes stories like being mistaken for a prostitute in the city of Johannesburg, being chased by a rhino on a dusty Kenyan road, getting kicked out of a youth club for being a ‘bad influence’ (she encourages free thinking) and having an aunt who was engaged to Cliff Richard 
https://www.authorsusanmacnicol.com/
https://www.facebook.com/susiemax77
https://www.facebook.com/authorsusanmacnicol/
https://twitter.com/SusanMacNicol7
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6472959.Susan_Mac_Nicol
Hosted by Love Books Promotions

Posted in Future Works, News and Appearances

#CoverReveal – Death by C*ck – Book 2 in the Fetish Alley series

Posted on by susanmacnicol

So this happened. I have a new release on June 6th and this is the cover. What do you think? Is it sexy or what??

 

This is the second book in the Fetish Alley series, the first one being For Fox Sake. It’s a tale of murder, passion and the vulnerabilites of people, set down in the alley, where the patrons rely on discretion and secrecy to operate.

Headline

Things are getting dicey in Fetish Alley, so much so, the police have asked Tate and Clay to work a murder for them since the denizens of the Alley don’t want outsiders to learn their secrets.

Full blurb coming soon.

It’s a fun, humorous and sexy romp of a story and there are some scenes in there which I hope will make your heart pitter patter with joy,  and others that will make you hate a certain protaganist…at least I hope you do.

I hope the title intrigues you, you’ll have to read the book to find out more about it 🙂

The book is available for pre-order here and you can also add it to your Goodreads TBR if you’re so inclined.

 

 

 

 

Posted in News and Appearances

Social Media, manners and conspiracy theory

Posted on by susanmacnicol

Social media can be a pleasure or a pain. It can bring out the bitch in a person, or invoke the angel. It can make or break people’s careers. It is a living, breathing beast and judging from what is currently happening on Twitter regarding the recent RITA/RWA book awards, it invokes emotions and conversations the likes of which some people can’t control.

Here are a few of my own observations…

I’ve been looking at a very popular author’s timeline and their author page, and I am shaking my head that this particular author has seldom acknowledged any of the posts to their timeline, from bloggers posting and tagging them in a great reviews, a general ‘Thought of you, you’ll like this’ post from fans, gushing attributes towards said author’s writing (mine included in the past) and how much people love the characters….the list goes on and on. The perception is they don’t care about the people sending good wishes and fangirling. As long as they still buy the author’s books. Then all is good with the world.

I’m humbled when someone has the time to tag and post on my timeline and I always try and acknowledge it, even if it’s a simple LIKE. I know it’s tough keeping on top of stuff but to not interact at all in some way is rather sad. Am I being too harsh thinking this? Am I the one being the bitch in this instance?

And the oversharing that goes on….there are some rather intimate things I simply don’t want to know about you or your family members or your past sexploits, or the fact you have a boil in a sensitive spot. I scroll past these, because everyone has the right to post what they want on their own walls, but after a while, I tend to hit ‘unfollow’ or ‘unfriend’. It’s a pity but there you go. I’m invoking my right not to read that sort of stuff, which is, after all, what Mark Zuckerberg says he’s trying to encourage.  It’s a pity he doesn’t encourage more diversity and stop being a homophobic organisation, but we can’t have everything.

And then the scariest part of all, which is when I go into a browser to do some research, like looking for information about Greek islands to holiday in, those EXACT islands I checked out then begin appearing in my Facebook feed as adverts and continue to harass me on my own newsfeed. What’s that all about? Who’s kidding who in saying there isn’t collusion between the internet giants like Google, and Facebook?

I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist but this shit is real, people. Someone is watching us…