the fall guide

Throwback Thursday: Contemporary fiction

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It’s Throwback Thursday! I have two contemporary titles out right now: From the Inside Out, in which a shy, closeted young barista meets his match most unexpected in the conflicted bisexual boy he’s met online; and The Fall Guide, where Eric’s failure to launch his business is complicated by a cheating boyfriend and a distractingly sexy business-savvy producer he meets in Vegas.

Right now is a great time to check out either one of these titles, because like all my titles, if you add either one (or both) to your cart through July 31st, you can save 20% off my titles. Just add ANDOR to the coupon field during checkout.

Have you read either of these novels? Let other prospective readers know if you liked them in the comments! And let’s get celebrating, it’s still my birthday month and there’s a full weekend to have fun.

It’s a sweet sale!

Happy almost-Valentine’s day!

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It’s a great excuse to buy books, so head on over and save 20% off EVERYTHING!

And if you haven’t yet nabbed a copy of The Fall Guide, GREAT news! It’s now available in PAPERBACK! That’s huge savings for you. Grab any of my books for 20% off through tomorrow.

Why read The Fall Guide? Let Read the Rainbow’s new review. Basically it’s a good Valentine’s Day read because it’ll leave you feeling satisfied. ^_-

More news and posts to come–my list of things to blog about keeps stacking up, but sadly I’ve been too exhausted and brain-dead this week. Next week I’m on holiday so expect to hear a lot from me!

Have a great day tomorrow, everyone.

Reviews for The Fall Guide

First off: with the spiffy new talya-andor.com domain name we’ve done a bit of tidying and refurbishing of the site layout. Step on over to take a look! The site now includes a Works page, Free Fiction to be expanded as the whim calls for it, and separate contacts and affiliates. If you’d like to be featured in an Author Spotlight here, or would like to exchange affiliate links, drop me a line! More info: https://talya-andor.com/contactpromotion/

Reviews for The Fall Guide are coming in. Currently it’s listed at The Masquerade Crew Review and Night Owl Reviews. Check them out:

Night Owl Reviews

Latest review in is from All About Romance:

Starting a business is difficult enough for an experienced person, but for a gay man with a unique idea but no startup experience, going from idea to entrepreneur is a long, hard process. Andor chronicles the journey beautifully in this book.

The androgynous-looking, make-up-wearing Eric, who writes a popular blog about beauty, has come up with a line of products specifically aimed at men, to help them retain skin tone and elasticity. Eric’s about to preview his products at a beauty expo in Las Vegas when his boyfriend dumps him.

Undaunted, Eric sets up his booth only to be disappointed the first day when he gets little traffic or interest. Glumly walking around the casino of the hotel that night he meets music producer Devon, who gives him a few tips on marketing his products and making his booth more appealing. Finding an all-night copy place, Eric revamps his approach with new brochures and redone posters, happy to find that Devon’s suggestions work beautifully and buyers flock to his booth. So begins a love affair between equals and the birth of a new enterprise.

Read the full four-star review here! The Fall Guide is in the process of being nominated for this year’s Rainbow Awards.

You can pick up your copy of The Fall Guide here or pretty much any e-tailer that sells books. Hope everyone is having a great week! I’ll kick off the first WIP Wednesday of the year tomorrow with a peek at one of my current projects.

New author interview!

First things first!

Zeph is the winner from The Fall Guide pool and Kathleen is the winner for the Proud to Be a Vampire Vol 1 pool. Congratulations! Both winners have been contacted and their shipping details are confirmed. Thank you everyone for your participation!

Some lovely new developments in the authorial department. All About Romance picked up a review copy of The Fall Guide and said some very good things. Have you picked up your copy yet? Let me know what you think!

There’s a brand-new interview with me up on Rainbow Book Reviews. Go and check it out! You may learn something that will surprise you. 😉

In upcoming months I’ll be featured on Joyfully Jay as one of the Rainbow Con authors, and there will be other fun things to look forward to as well.

Also there’s news! I’ve signed contracts for Like Stolen Pearls and My Sexual Superhero, two stories that will release in collections/anthologies later this year. Body Option has an absolutely awesome cover I’ll reveal a little later on.

What’s on tap right now? I’ve finished Dragonspire, first draft is a whopping 150k, so I’m faced with editing. Lots and lots of edits. Time to look at due dates on some submission calls, as well.

Have a great week!

Thankfulness Giveaway: The Fall Guide, Convergence, and Rocking Hard

I have a cover teaser to show for an upcoming release, but not just yet … I think I’ll wait on it a bit longer. Today is all about thankfulness!

As my thankfulness for all of you, I’m running a giveaway for my latest three releases from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. If you win, you’ll be eligible to choose an ebook copy from those three.

COMMENT ON THIS ENTRY to be eligible for the giveaway. That’s all you have to do! Make sure to include an email address or means of contact. Winners will be chosen Tuesday morning Pacific time.

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    Eric is a popular beauty blogger, and hopes to use the momentum of that to start his own business selling makeup for men—but his first attempt to launch makes it painfully clear he has a lot to learn and a long way to go.

    Unexpected help comes in the form of Devon: Gorgeous, successful, and far too smooth. He is everything Eric would like to be, all the things Eric is starting to fear he’ll never achieve, and the success that Eric is striving for in both his professional and personal life is jeopardized by Devon’s inability to understand that business and pleasure shouldn’t mix, because they can have disastrous results for both.

You can read more about The Fall Guide, and an excerpt, here.

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    Chris and Ling travel the world in search of rare, exquisite curiosities, but treasure hunting is rife with danger and comes with a price. In order to retrieve a lost treasure deep within a perilous mountain, Chris hires on a vampire. But traveling with a predator comes with its own risks, and their venture may collapse into absolute loss unless they can each find the opportunity in one another.

You can read more about Convergence, and an excerpt from the story, here.

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    Bailey Kravitz, lead singer of Courage Wolf, is a high-strung, perfectionist diva of a front man. Gunner Lansing, bassist of Courage Wolf, is a laid-back, hang loose ladies’ man who is only serious about guitars and sex. They say opposites attract, but Bailey’s terminal crush on oblivious Gunner is tearing the band apart. Meanwhile, his longtime friend, quiet but intense guitarist Tor Macleod, helps him pick up the pieces yet again. Between annihilating everything they’ve built and reeling from total rejection, there may be a third option Bailey has been overlooking all this time. Problem is, Bailey’s always been more than a little difficult when he’s out to get his way, and that may ruin his prospects after all.

Read more about the Rocking Hard anthology here.

I would also love for you to promote my giveaway in any way, shape, or form possible, so that others can have a chance to win!

So if you: Make a comment, Tweet, Facebook entry, tumblr post, or any kind of entry promoting this giveaway on your own social venue (any and all – WordPress, LJ, DW, blogspot, just link me so I can verify) I will count each promo as an additional chance to win.

Questions? Ask away! Thank you for your support, and I wish you a happy Turkey Day and hope you’ve got as much to be thankful for as I do. ♥ You all are awesome.

Preorder: The Fall Guide

In two weeks, The Fall Guide is available to buy, which means … pre-order is up NOW!

The Fall Guide is my latest novel, and it’s available at a pre-order discount now through Less Than Three Press. Save 15% off from now until the evening of Dec 3rd if you order through the press.

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    Eric is a popular beauty blogger, and hopes to use the momentum of that to start his own business selling makeup for men—but his first attempt to launch makes it painfully clear he has a lot to learn and a long way to go.

    Unexpected help comes in the form of Devon: Gorgeous, successful, and far too smooth. He is everything Eric would like to be, all the things Eric is starting to fear he’ll never achieve, and the success that Eric is striving for in both his professional and personal life is jeopardized by Devon’s inability to understand that business and pleasure shouldn’t mix, because they can have disastrous results for both.

There are a lot of reasons I can’t wait to share The Fall Guide with you. And if you give me a few days, I’ll be better able to articulate them, but for starters: representation is important to me, and neither Eric nor Devon are your typical gay cis white males. Eric defies gender norms; Devon is biracial. They have a lot of obstacles in their way, including Eric’s boyfriend Martine, Eric’s own pride, and Devon’s intimidating advantages.

More to follow, but I wanted to put the word out that you can pre-order your copy now!

WIP Wednesday: The Fall Guide

For today’s WIP Wednesday, I have an excerpt from The Fall Guide for you. I started this story last year, had to set it aside for other projects, and happily finished it this year. The wonderful Ashley was my pre-reader for this, and she and I are both totally in love with how it turned out. Now I’m incorporating edits, and some of my editor’s comments are so funny and spot-on that I wish I didn’t have to delete them as I go through.

The Fall Guide will be available late this autumn, December 3rd. More to follow!

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    “Eric Caville is an established beauty blogger seeking to parlay his expertise and online renown to put out his own line of products. When he experiences failure to launch, a chance meeting with smooth producer Devon Talbot results in help from a most unexpected source. Devon is sexy, insightful, and treats Eric better than his own boyfriend. Eric has difficult choices ahead of him in terms of going back to the drawing board with his business, his love life, and whether either will see him through to next season. Along the way, he has to tackle his pride and overcome past associations before they hold him back from reaching out for what he wants the most.”

Excerpt:

Eric napped through the flight and woke with Vegas on his left, the Strip gleaming like a string of tacky jewels. He used a small hand mirror from his handbag to check his appearance, reapplying gloss. He was in Vegas for business, after all, and his business was cosmetics and beauty supplies—or he hoped it would be. He had to appear immaculate everywhere, because that day’s casual encounter could be tomorrow’s customer.

The airport was every bit as packed as LAX had been, but at least Eric was able to secure a luggage trolley without resorting to murder or felony. He stacked his roller cases on it and found a cab. The price of the convention’s hotel, the M resort, would cut deeply enough into his wallet that he’d considered taking the shuttle, but he’d discovered there was a baggage limit for that option.

People tended to think of Vegas as glitz and glam, a perfect storm of drinks, gambling, and excess, but the place did good business as well. On any given weekend, Vegas, like L.A., could be found hosting conventions. The atmosphere encouraged deals over swank dinners with plenty of liquor, and while Eric wasn’t holding out much hope for that, he knew he could end up with some good exposure.

Beauty Expo 2012 was one of the events where brand-names and independent products gathered together with plenty of blogger and press coverage, and Eric had managed to dredge up the money to purchase his own table. He’d been running his own successful blog, the man-icure.com, for years and it was his dream to parlay an online reputation into a real-life line of beauty products.

Where most men his age were donning suits and muscling their way up to the board room, Eric had always been more interested in doing a snappy deconstruction of Oscar de la Renta’s latest men’s wear line and keeping his hair, face, and nails on the cutting edge of trends. He’d done his share of starting a few over the course of the lifetime of a blog that had started out on Blogger during his college years, and graduated to his own domain name with the help of a web-savvy friend.

Now he posted daily updates from his tablet and smart phone, sometimes after uploading sneak peeks from his phone cam. A lot had changed, but Eric’s passion for all things fashion had only deepened through the years.

André had advised him many times to try for a journalist position at a major fashion magazine, but Eric knew what was involved to get in the door. It was basically years of indentured servitude.

He wanted to be his own boss, and it was icing on the label cake if he could look good doing so.

Eric leaned toward the window and snapped a few photos with his phone as the cab drove along the Strip. Even in the daylight, before the lights cast their gaudy signals against the velvety black backdrop after dark, the sight of it was striking.

He sent a quick post to his blog, a teaser of things to come as well as an injunction to enjoy happy hour in a cheeky nod to André.

That night would be check-in, a networking event, and he’d definitely be getting together with other bloggers over some drinks. In a way it was a good thing Martine hadn’t come with him, because Eric had to stay focused, get to bed at a decent hour, and make sure he was awake early enough in order to get his table in order before the ballroom opened.

He’d invited Martine, as he supposed all good boyfriends ought to when spending a weekend out of town, especially when headed to a place like Vegas. When Martine had declined, citing work as well as a lack of vacation time, Eric hadn’t been overly surprised, but he had realized most people in a good relationship probably wouldn’t feel relieved.

André was probably right, but Eric had been nurturing the relationship along for eight months. He owed it one more chance.

Eric gave a firm nod, praising his own fortitude as the cab pulled to a stop in a wide circular front drive. He counted out a cash tip and held onto it until after all his cases were safely delivered along with him near the front desk of the hotel.

Check-in was not the breezy process that brochures or movies promised, but an interminable line that had Eric shifting from one foot to the other and constantly checking his phone in an attempt to keep himself distracted. The smoke filtering from the casino floor was beginning to give him a headache, and he was long past ready to have a drink in hand.

A bellhop piled all his cases onto a trolley, at least, and that much was taken care of after he obtained his room key and signed the deposit for an amount that made him wince. It was an inner room without a view, even.

It would all be worth it, Eric consoled himself, once he had a martini in his hand and the money was rolling in from his product launch.

After tipping the bellhop and stripping his shoes off, Eric wandered barefoot around his tiny, windowless hotel room putting things to rights. First and most importantly, he went through an inventory check to make certain nothing had gotten damaged in transit. Next, he laid out his outfit for the networking meeting. When going to a meeting of bloggers, it was essential to be on point and looking his best.

At last, when he’d gone over the essentials and made sure he knew where to check in for the expo, he gazed at his phone and considered calling Martine to let him know he’d arrived safely.

Eric chickened out and sent a text before going to freshen up.

By the time he was done with his grooming routine and returned to his phone in preparation to leave the room and orient himself to the hotel, he had eight texts. Most of them were from his blogger friends, confirming the time and date of their meet-up or letting Eric know they’d arrived at the hotel.

One of them was from Martine, and Eric checked it with a vague sense of dread. That emotion reminded him of the moments when a single message could give him belly flutters. There had been a time he’d looked forward to each and every text from Martine.

That he dreaded them instead didn’t mean the relationship was bad, only … comfortable. Perhaps they’d become too comfortable, and because Eric had noticed it, it was up to him to correct it.

He turned his attention to Martine’s text and his half-formed smile died on his lips.

Nice2knw have fun in Vegas drink hard fuck safe

For a moment, Eric wanted to snap off a return text demanding if Martine had gotten the wrong number and thought he was one of his bros, or if there had been some way he’d interpreted “I’m going to Vegas for a working weekend” as “I’m going to watch male strippers, snort coke off their six packs, and fuck my way from one end of the strip to the other.” He took a deep breath, reminded himself that tone didn’t come across properly in text, and rifled through his makeup kit to touch up his eyes and gloss before leaving the room.

That had earned Eric a night of flirting, at least, and he was going to enjoy it to the hilt.

Surfeit: A Review; and Current Projects

Out of nowhere, a blog entry!

I’ve been resting and recuperating after my week-long Appetite Tour de Foodie (and giving all of you a break), but I’m back and ready to talk about what I’m working on as well as my upcoming projects, and confess the fact that I may have gotten my head under water.

First and proudly foremost!

Surfeit for the Senses has netted its first blog review over at Joyfully Jay.

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Crissy at Joyfully Jay has high praise, and says “As a reader, I love to be shown the author’s vision and Andor certainly showed me everything she saw from the food, to the characters, to the restaurants, to the city. I simply loved it.” Check out the rest of her review to see what she has to say; it makes me really happy, of course, because not only is it a great review but seeing her talk about all those things is what I was really trying to bring forward and convey, so it’s always fantastic to feel like you got it right.

She concludes the review wishing she could see more of Alex and Nik, and I have to say, I’m hoping it’s not the last we’ve seen of them, either. I’d like to write two more novellas of their continuing adventures in cuisine, and already have the storylines handy for both. So if you thought I wrapped it up neatly, think again; there are more than enough recipes (and potential issues) to delve into the realm of Appetite again. Crossing my fingers hopefully that I can get to them next year!

Next on tap!

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I have the galley proof for Rocking Hard in my inbox, and it’s top of my priority list for this weekend to get that looked over and returned to the press. It features a slew of the rocking good serials that premiered at Less Than Three Press, bound together in one musically-driven anthology.

My story, Courage Wolf Never Sings the Gorram Blues, is part of the anthology, and I’ve been told I am now “on the list” of authors who’ve made themselves troublesome with long titles. Oops?

Courage Wolf Never Sings the Gorram Blues is the story of Bailey Kravitz (no relation to Lenny), the flashy and high-strung frontman for Courage Wolf Sings the Gorram Blues, a saucy internet sensation whose music-making duo enjoys riffing on memes and other social-networking jokes. Bailey goes on the prowl for bandmate Gunner Lansing, but when his interest is harshly rebuffed, his recoil threatens to tear the band apart.

It’s no longer available through the serial site, but you can pick it up with the anthology on Oct. 1st. I’ll unpack what went into the band’s name a bit closer to the release date. But if you already understand it, then you forever have my heart.

Also on my list for this weekend, Convergence is back from edits and I have some work to dig into. I’ve also secured the services of someone to Britpick it for me, because the main character, Chris Bryant, is a Brit and I completely failed to Briticise the spelling. (See what I did there? It’s a start.) First stop, figuring out how to re-configure my Word spellcheck to make it think we’re in the U.K.

In terms of what I’m writing, Klaxon at the Core is wrapped at a hair under 90k, I’m really happy with my pre-reader’s reception to the story, and it’s off for its first edit pre-submission. Body Option first draft is done, and I’m finishing up my own re-read and self-edit before I send it to its pre-reader and first edit. Next up is re-reading The More Plausible Evil to work it over for expansion, and I have some fan projects going on as well, with one of those due at the end of the month.

After I’m done with The More Plausible Evil, I want to write My Sexual Superhero for Less Than Three’s Satisfaction Guaranteed call, and I thought my dance card would be open for NaNoWriMo, but it’s filling up fast.

Piper Vaughn put out a call for Project Fierce, and I’m signed up, pending inspiration. (I did put dibs on a fairy tale I might like to re-imagine. Oops, now I have a title. The rest will come in time.)

Also, Less Than Three put up Geek Out – a trans* call, and I got a brain tickle for that one, don’t have a title yet but the ideas are slowly forming. I also have a story that would work very well for their Damsels in Distress call, but have to either pull it from SSBB, or re-draft it substantially enough to be considered brand-new.

Consider as well the fact that The Fall Guide will be out during the tail end of Fall, December 3rd. So I have those edits yet ahead of me.

Busy author? Yes, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, but loving it. I also have three things on my wish list project: a sequel for Fireborn, the final installment of a fan project I started years ago, and my pre-reader for Klaxon at the Core sparked ideas for a potential third novel in the Signal to Noise universe. Not to mention those after-Appetite novellas. (Should I call them Aperitifs?) And did I mention I want to write a sexy, short one-shot over the weekend?

A writer’s work never ends. Bless.

The Fall Guide preview

Here’s the cover for The Fall Guide, coming in late autumn of this year. It’s something fun and sexy, writing it was a blast.

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Eric Caville is an established beauty blogger seeking to parlay his expertise and online renown to put out his own line of products. When he experiences failure to launch, a chance meeting with smooth producer Devon Talbot results in help from a most unexpected source. Devon is sexy, insightful, and treats Eric better than his own boyfriend. Eric has difficult choices ahead of him in terms of going back to the drawing board with his business, his love life, and whether either will see him through to next season. Along the way, he has to tackle his pride and overcome past associations before they hold him back from reaching out for what he wants the most.

Caution: Writing works in progress

A few small updates…

I haven’t been writing so much this month; I finished three stories last month, finished a chapter of something else this month, and I suppose I’ve been taking a bit of a break.

Top priority: finishing edits on The Competitive Edge and getting them back to the editor for final review. And I need to get that done, soonest, because: *drumroll*

Substantial edits have come back for The More Plausible Evil. The in-document edits aren’t so bad, I think I could blaze through them in a day or two. But the overall story has two major issues, one that I could probably resolve, the other that I can’t because my beta thinks the story is too short for everything that’s happening. She thinks it would work better around my usual length, which is ~80-100k.

Tough one. So, I’ll incorporate the edits to bring it to a good second draft, submit it, and present it to the press to get their take.

The Fall Guide has a publication date of December 4th, 2013, and I have to think what to put on the cover. This is one of those where I’m contemplating saying “…dealer’s choice?” All I can think of is palm trees. That…yeah, probably better not.

What else? Oh yes, this month I need to finish plotting the sequel for Signal to Noise, because I’m going to start writing it this month and it’s next month’s focus point.

Final word: don’t forget to sign up for my giveaway! Tomorrow is the last day to win a free book. :3