UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

A friend introduced me to gay romances, and I was hooked.  As time progressed, I immersed myself in the stories out there.  I gobbled up audiobooks like there was no tomorrow.  I also read eBooks, haunted Facebook, and got to know members of the LGBTQ writing community.

Next, I turned my hand to writing a story.  A story I believed in.  A story I felt needed to be told. Then, one random day, I managed to sell that book.  A gay romance. I have to tell you, that felt pretty monumental.  By the time that novella was published, I’d written the next story.  And soon I had the one after that.  Now I’m up to more than a dozen stories published.

But I still, at times, feel like I’m on the outside looking in.

All groups have the cool kids.  The ones other kids envy or look up to or admire or just want to be like. Some of the authors I avidly follow, and whose books I gobble up, are who I consider the cool kids.  Some are prolific and well-known, while others are just steady and have been around forever.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever not feel like an outsider until I was approached to do this charity anthology last year.  At the time, this was my fourth charity anthology — but I’d sought out the others.  On this occasion, someone contacted me.  Invited me.  That felt…special.  Most especially because I’m a huge supporter of LGBTQ rights.  This anthology, for me, is a way to give back.

Last year’s story was fun to write and I enjoyed being part of the group of authors releasing their stories into the world.  To be invited back for a second year was pretty fricking awesome.  Again, I was happy to contribute a novella set in my fictional world of Mission City, British Columbia.

Our organizers have picked amazing charities for this year’s proceeds.  My fellow writers and I have put together 10 pretty great stories.  I’m hoping everyone will run out and grab a copy of this anthology!

Thank you, Delilah, for hosting me today.  I’d like to give away a $5 Amazon GC to one random lucky commenter.  Tell me: what makes you choose to buy an anthology?  Drop a comment and you might win a prize! ~GG

Love Is All, Volume 6

The sixth edition of LOVE IS ALL features ten brand new stories from bestselling and award-winning authors, including BL Maxwell, Chantal Mer & Susan Scott Shelley, Connor Peterson, Gabbi Grey, Nic Starr, Sean Michael, Lee Blair, Xio Axelrod, RJ Scott & V.L. Locey, and Piper Malone. They celebrate the universal human right that is to love and be loved.

All proceeds will go to three organizations that support and defend LGBTQIA+ rights: the Unity Coalition, Out Memphis, and Lucie’s Place.

The anthology will only be available for a limited time.

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/LIAV6
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6B81B65
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-is-all-xio-axelrod/1143550964
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/love-is-all-volume-6
Apple: https://books.apple.com/…/love-is-all…/id6449547111
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162407970-love-is-all

The Charities

https://www.unitycoalition.org/ is a Latinx and indigenous organization in Florida that organizes and supports several LGBTQ+ arts, leadership, and awareness programs across Florida, including the Miami Gay Chorus and the “Saber es Poder” campaign for HIV education and testing.

https://www.outmemphis.org/ offers direct aid and support programs to queer and trans people in Tennessee. Regular events at the center’s main facility include free HIV testing, trans ID workshops and financial aid for name changes, community meals, and peer support and social groups for both teens and adults. The organization also runs The Metamorphosis Project, a program providing emergency support and transitional housing to unhoused LGBTQ+ youth.

And http://www.luciesplace.org/ named for Lucie Marie Hamilton, a young trans woman who died in 2009 — is a nonprofit in Arkansas that provides services to unhoused LGBTQ+ young adults, including transitioning resources and grocery and rental assistance. The group also runs a drop-in center with shower facilities and a community closet for all members who have completed an intake form.

About the Authors

Xio Axelrod

Xio Axelrod is a USA Today bestselling author of different flavours of contemporary romance. She also writes what she likes to call strange, twisted tales. Xio grew up in the music industry and began recording at a young age. When she isn’t writing stories, she can be found in the studio, writing songs, or performing on international stages (under a different, no-so-secret name). She lives in Philadelphia with one full-time husband and several part-time cats.

RJ Scott

RJ Scott is a USA TODAY bestselling author of over 140 romance and suspense novels. From bodyguards to hockey stars, princes to millionaires, cowboys to military, she believes that love is love and every man deserves their own happy ending.

VL Locey

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, Dr. Who, Torchwood, belly laughs, yoga, reading and writing lusty tales, walking, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.)

She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, and a flock of assorted domestic fowl.

When not writing lusty tales, she can be found enjoying her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, fresh cup of java in hand.

Chantal Mer

Chantal Mer is an author and optimist. Her stories explore relationships and what it means to be family. When she’s not writing about strong women, strong men, and strong love, she can be found walking her adorable dog, volunteering at her kids’ school (in the library, of course), teaching at the local university, and reading.

Chantal lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, kids, Toffee the Wonder Dog, and vicious cat, Gracie.

Susan Scott Shelley

USA Today bestselling author Susan Scott Shelley writes stories with heat and heart, where love always wins. Her romances give readers lighthearted and emotionally satisfying escapes into happily ever after. In addition to crafting stories, she is also a professional voiceover artist and enjoys lending her voice to a wide range of projects.

She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and is an avid fan of her hometown sports teams. Her favorite things include running (honestly, it’s more like jogging), sports (especially hockey), hard rock (but will listen to anything from heavy metal to show tunes), and writing about people from all walks of life finding their special someone.

Lee Blair

Lee Blair is a queer author from Oregon who writes low angst, funny, M/M contemporary romance. She’s constantly amused by the antics of her two ginger cats, considers daydreaming about future trips to Scotland a part-time job, and is obsessed with Schitt’s Creek to an alarming degree.

Sean Michael

Often referred to as “Space Cowboy” and “Gangsta of Love” while still striving for the moniker of “Maurice,” Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to “Chicago.”

A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.

Barring any of that? He’ll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.

Connor Peterson

Connor Peterson is a USA Today bestselling author of LGBTQ+ urban fantasy and dark, paranormal romance, local to the Philadelphia, PA area. The madman behind Deathspell and Temptation in Neon, Connor has also contributed to the story cycle Red Phone Box – published by Ghostwoods Books – and the anthology Nocturnal Embers – published by Crimson Melodies Publishing. He is also an active participant in the Philadelphia writing community, and volunteers as a municipal liaison for National Novel Writing Month.

Nic Starr

Nic Starr lives in Australia where she tries to squeeze as much into her busy life as possible. Balancing the demands of a corporate career with raising a family and writing can be challenging but she wouldn’t give it up for the world.

Always a reader, the lure of m/m romance was strong and she devoured hundreds of wonderful m/m romance books before eventually realising she had some stories of her own that needed to be told!

When not writing or reading, she loves to spend time with her family–an understanding husband and two beautiful daughters–and is often found indulging in her love of cooking and planning her dream home in the country.

Piper Malone

Piper Malone is an award-winning author of sweet and sexy romance.

Dog lover. Reader. Foodie. Coffee, please.

BL Maxwell

BL Maxwell grew up in a small town listening to her grandfather spin tales about his childhood. Later she became an avid reader and after a certain vampire series she became obsessed with fanfiction. She soon discovered Slash fanfiction and later discovered the MM genre and was hooked.

Many years later, she decided to take the plunge and write down some of the stories that seem to run through her head late at night when she’s trying to sleep.

BL Maxwell writes MM Paranormal, Contemporary, Thriller, and Paranormal Fantasy.

Gabbi Grey

USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.

About Gabbi Grey’s novella inside Love is All: Big Sky Boyfriend…

Wyatt

I’m living comfortably on my family farm in Mission City, British Columbia, when the man who broke my heart fifteen years ago waltzes back into my life.  I’ve told myself I’m over Tate, but one look at the grown man has me rethinking my anger with him.  Except Tate’s hiding something, something that shadows his eyes and makes him back away from my attempts to get closer.  If he won’t come clean with me, do we even stand a chance?

Tate

I blew town at eighteen, wanting to be as far away from our small town as possible. I started in Canada’s largest city and soon moved to London. I lived a high life in finance until it all came crashing down.  When I came back to Canada, with my tail tucked between my legs, I promptly dove into a horrible relationship. Now I’m back to living in my parents’ basement and pining over the man whose heart I broke all those years ago. Pathetic, right?  If Wyatt won’t forgive me, what’s the point of trying to move forward?

Big Sky Boyfriend is a 24k word gay romance second-chance novella with a small-town farm boy, a big-city fancy boy, and a puppy named Winnie.