Elin Gregory

Via the wonders of modern technology – bits of paper screwed up in a hat – I have picked the winner from the kind people who commented to my bit of the Equal Rights Blog Hop.

Sherry – the gift card should be with you right about now. Congratulations and I hope you really enjoy the books you buy with it.

In other news it is Wilfred’s first birthday today. He used to look like this:

Now I can’t pick him up at all and he takes up the whole sofa. But his fur is still soft, his mouth is still gentle and his ears still smell of biscuits. And I still love him to bits.

My guest today is Vicktor Alexander, an author perhaps best known for his best selling series of books about The Tate Pack – wolf-shifters located on a ranch in Texas – but with many other strings to his bow.

Welcome Vicktor and thank you for agreeing to answer my questions.

Welcome, readers, and keep your eyes open for a question you can answer in comments to go into a draw for a copy of Vicktor’s most recent release, Impossible.

~~~

Elin: Can you tell me a little about yourself? For instance, do you have to have a day job as well as being a writer?

Vicktor: Hhmm now that is a loaded question. LOL. During the school year I am a student but I also own half of a publishing company The Rooster & The Pig Publishing (Now accepting submissions!) I am also at the point where I am drafting up a business proposal/plan for another business: a nightclub called Triune. I am also drafting proposals for three non-profits: a group home for at-risk teens, a housing program for low income families, and a charity organization for third world countries. So when I’m not writing I have plenty to keep me occupied.

Continue Reading »

Image borrowed from Ehow.com

It’s so nice to finally have a working keyboard again. My typing is erratic enough but to try and communicate with no N, H or F made posting anything such a chore I really didn’t have the heart to bother.  Time, I think, for an update.

I’m taking part in the Equal Rights Blog Hop hosted by Queer Town Abbey, which will be running until Sunday 7th. You can find my post here and the main blog hop list here. Comment to my post and you might win a $10 GC. Don’t forget to add your email address because then it will be put in the draw for one of the super prizes from the hop organisers. Look at the list of authors! I feel privileged to be in such company. Also a big thank you to Tara Lain and Michael Joseph, both of who reminded me that I had signed up. Between the keyboard issues and my creative filing of my diary down the back of the sofa, it had completely slipped my mind.

I have a guest today – Dean Pace-Frech whose very first novel, a historical set just after the American Civil War is released today from Musa Publishing. The post is here and I’m hoping that he’ll be a Comfy Chair guest sometime next week.

The Comfy Chair will be in use before then – Vicktor Alexander, author of the Tate Pack series of novels and novellas, will be answering my questions and sharing not one but two excerpts here tomorrow AND he’s doing a giveaway so don’t forget to check back.

Tomorrow I’ll be doing my weekly Seductive Studs and Sirens post with a recommendation from someone’s back catalogue. I haven’t picked which book – I often don’t until I sit down to type the post up so that will be a surprise for me too.

And finally, today I’m a guest on Brandon Shire’s blog talking about 18th century street lighting, homelessness and a terrific British LGBT youth charity – the Albert Kennedy Trust.

Just a little plug for brand new LGBT historical novelist, Dean Pace-Frech, whose first novel came out today from Musa Publishing!!

A Place To Call Their Own

Blurb:
Is it possible for two Civil War veterans to find their place in the world on the Kansas Prairie?
When the War Between the States ended in 1865 many Americans emerged from the turmoil energized by their possibilities for the future. Frank Greerson and Gregory Young were no different. After battling southern rebels and preserving the Union, the two men set out to battle the Kansas Prairie and build a life together. Frank yearned for his own farm, away from his family—even at the risk of alienating them.

Gregory, an only child, returned home to claim his inheritance to help finance their adventure out west. Between the difficult work of establishing a farm on the unforgiving Kansas prairie, and the additional obstacles provided by the weather, Native Americans and wild animals, will their love and loyalty be enough to sustain them through the hardships?

Available here.

I’m looking forward to reading this very much and hope to seat Dean in my Comfy Chair one day next week to give him a bit of a grilling so watch this space!

Today is the 4th of July, the day when the sovereign state of the United States of America celebrates shrugging off the rule of an oppressive power and striking out boldly on its own.

As befitted a new young state, the men in charge wanted to lay everything out clearly so everyone could see where they stood and wrote it all down in a constitution. One of the most cherished tenets of the Constitution is that all men are equal and deserving of the same rights under law, the same consideration from the state and the right to lead their lives in happiness and fulfilment.

Unfortunately the good intentions expressed in this Constitution were blurred by definitions. What is a man? Could a man who is not white, or is not heterosexual, or for that matter is female, be allowed the same freedoms? Slowly, slowly the initial ‘noes’ have become yesses. There’s still a way to go but every decade, every year, we creep closer to the ideal of life, love and liberty for all.

I live in the UK, which is quietly tying itself in knots over the same-sex marriage question. For a country where church and state are widely divided we sure are getting in a pother about it. This is where a Constitution would be very useful. We don’t have one, you see. Instead we have Common Law, formed in courtrooms and in Parliaments dating back to the 12th century, where things are tested to destruction again and again until a workable compromise is reached. Then and only then it goes on the law books. Does anyone else find it odd that a country that prides itself on fair play is still looking at the fundamental rights of its citizens through a legal magnifying glass formed 500 years ago?

Equality means equality – no ifs, buts or maybes – and I sincerely hope that soon it will be possible for all human beings, both sides of the pond, to plight their troths to each other in the way that pleases them both best, or not if they would sooner not, and their rights as spouses be recognised equally with the rights of people like me and my husband, married for 35 years and counting. For two young people who love each other to marry does not affect my marriage one bit, but to deny them that right on my behalf diminishes me as a civilised human being.

Please comment to show your support for equality across the board and I’ll do a draw at the end of the hop and send the winner a $10 gift card. If you want to have a chance of winning some of the terrific prizes being offered by Queer Town Abbey, don’t forget to add your email addy to your comment.

 Eden Summers is my first guest from down-under. She has a passion for romance, with several erotic romance titles to her name, and is currently celebrating the release of her contemporary erotic romance, Blind Attraction that was published on the 28th of May.

###

Continue Reading »

Iiiiiiiiiiit’s Humpday Hooktime!

How are we all? Happy? We should be with the plethora of authors providing bits of stuff for us to read. You can find the big list here but I hope you’ll pause to read my offering first.

If you recall, Sir Anthony Stanton-Rivers had a drink too many and lost a jokey IOU promising the hand of his sister, Lady Cicely, in marriage to his pal Chum Armstrong, who also had a drink too many and also lost the IOU. Both Anthony and Cicely are startled to discover a notice of her engagement in the paper, placed by her new fiance, Sir Patrick Fitzgerald. Cicely wants to know what kind of man he is.

~~~

No idea who did this splendid painting of Regency Cumberbatch, but wow!

“It could be worse,” Aubrey retorted. “What with Chum Armstrong and Rory Munro, we’ve had precious little luck with the Scots.”

They glared at one another for a moment or two then Aubrey continued.

“They call him Mad Pat, with good reason. I steer well clear of him and his set – Jerry Hawthorne, Corinthian Tom, you know – that lot. There are orders that he is to be shot on sight if he ever tries to enter Almack’s again. I believe that he did rather well at Cambridge but came down early, joined the Dragoon’s as a trooper, attacked an officer and was court-martialled. His family were able to prevent him from hanging but it so infuriated his father that he threw him out. You know the routine; a ticket on an Eastward bound ship and instructions to pick up his allowance from a bank in Bombay. So he went east to Indian and China and beyond. Lord knows what he did out there but it has left its mark. He’s older than us.”

“Well, he should know better then. What does he look like?”

“Black Irish, very brown from the sun with queer light eyes like a cat’s. He’s always smiling but it’s not always a very nice smile, if you know what I mean.”

“I can imagine,” Cicely said with a shudder. “He sounds awful!”

~~~

Ah Cicely … little does she know ….