Broke actors Joel Craig and Stephen Foster have just had the break of a lifetime, series regular roles on The Julianne Moore and Madonna Half Hour Comedy Show. But during the filming of the show Madonna is kidnapped by Mae Dunaway, the evil twin sister of Faye Dunaway, and whisked away into a science fiction alternate parallel universe. Joel and Stephen are in hot pursuit in efforts to rescue Madonna from the evil clutches of Mae and get help from some new friends along the way in the city of Gaytopia. Will Stephen and Joel rescue Madonna? Find out in this graphic novel that will put you on the edge of your seats and leave you wanting more.
JOEL CRAIG is a nurse by day but actor and writer by night and lives with his musician husband, Donovan Holden. They have been married twice with the second time finally being legal. In addition to Journey to Gaytopia, Joel has also written Welcome To Nursing HELLo, a Graphic Memoir. Joel is also an actor, having appeared in the films, Sideshow and Sordid Lives as well as the web series, What’s My Intention?
West is an archangel’s assassin delivering justice to supernatural creatures who break the law. Not a straightforward job because he also has to absorb the memories of those he kills. Even worse, West is breaking the law himself in an attempt to free his brother from hell. If he doesn’t succeed before his archangel boss finds out, West will be joining his sibling.
He wants to remember
A young guy wakes in a London park with his memories gone. He has no idea who he is, or where he comes from. A bracelet engraved with the single word Tao is the only clue to his identity. With no sign of his memory returning, he drifts into a life on the streets. Begging is his only way to survive.
Two worlds collide
When Tao returns West’s stolen wallet, West offers to buy him a coffee. Tao delights in the chance to sit down with a good-looking guy until his instincts tell him to run away. Fast. West is surprised when Tao flees, considering how much he’d been mentally urging him to stay. Is he losing his touch or is Tao more than a scruffy young man down on his luck?
Only one way to find out.
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Meet The Author
Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of England. She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed that to everyone without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her. Vulcanology scorched her feet. A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine biology. So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide. After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy, devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm) she finally has time to conduct an affair with an electrifying plugged-in male, her laptop.
Her books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, and she hopes they are much fun to read as they were to write.
The dark shadow cast by an ancient prophecy shatters an innocent family, but all that is broken is not lost.
Unaware of her supernatural legacy, half blood sorceress Talia has a unique childhood. Although protected by the love of her parents, Talia is instructed in the art of combat by her mother, Caitlin, a powerful sorceress of the Heichi clan.
When Talia’s family’s worst nightmare comes to pass, her protected life spins out of control. Everything she believes in and everyone she loves is cruelly snatched away and Talia is forced to flee the attentions of a mad king.
Choosing a path of retribution devoid of love and friendship, Talia comes to learn that love can be received even if it is not sought.
‘Broken’ chronicles, Talia’s rise from the ashes and how she finds herself again. She loses everything but never gives up on the Happily Ever After.
Set against a background of time travel and supernatural forces, read Talia’s epic saga of love, sacrifice, and discovering the hero within. Broken is thus the coming of age story of a girl who loses everything only to find herself and the courage to avenge her family. A tale of magic, mystery, and romance.
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Meet The Author
FIRST THINGS FIRST Simply put I am here because I am the author of ‘Broken – Book One of The Breach Chronicles’, an upcoming young adult romance & supernatural fantasy adventure. I am extremely passionate about stories especially those steeped in mythical folklore, ancient myths, and legends and suffused with the magic of unique realms and supernatural worlds. I believe there is an alternate universe where magic, mysticism and wonder still exist, a world where no reality is impossible. Discovering ourselves is an ongoing journey. When I write about these worlds, I become a part of them and learn more about myself each day.
A PEEK INTO MY SOUL I am a realist but at the same time also a dreamer. To me writing is the window to my imagination at the same time collaborating with my glimpses of the world around me. The beauty of writing lies in the mind’s eye – what we see, the way we interpret it and finally how we translate it to paper.
HOW I VIEW MY CHARACTERS To me every character is multi dimensional. There is no mere black or white perspective to a character. If a person is strong, then what contributed to make them that way? Similarly what are the fears, likes and loves of a character. That is what makes each one of them unique. It makes them what they are. No character should be just a filler in a story.
If a character is evil, why is he or she that way? If a male character is not the central focus of a story, if he is okay with the girl in his life taking centre stage I don’t see him as weak. I think he is a great guy and the kind that any girl would be lucky to have in their lives.
I write about girls and women with flaws because all real women are that way . Not the most beautiful, not the most brave, not the thinnest nor the richest. They find strength in their family, in their love. My girls do not compete against men; only circumstances and the challenges they throw up.
In ‘ The Breach’ my upcoming fantasy novel you will meet women who love and love dearly. To them their family is everything but not necessarily a crutch or a shoulder to lean on.
THE PREMISE A clash between two divergent worlds – one encumbered with the need to follow the straight and narrow and another where rules are turned upside down, forms the central background for the characters of the novel.
MY INSPIRATIONIs it possible to cherish and to love something all your life without really analysing it or understanding why? ‘Stories’ fired my imagination since I was a child….it started with my father, who would spend thirty minutes each night weaving supernatural tales of troubled ghosts in a bid to awe, shock and above all bond with his daughters.
He never realized and neither did I that he was also weaving those little quirks into my personality that later on in life would go ahead and set me apart. During class breaks in school I would share the same tales with a classroom of girls now adding on my own embellishments, peaks and lows so as to hold their attention and leave them shouting for more.
As my dad got busier and we got a little older the stories seemed to have trickled off but not before transferring that hook for the beginning, the narration, the mystery and the spectacular end. Books and Movies became my magical time machines capable of drawing, pulling, and holding me.
Friends and colleagues would decide to read books or watch movies after I brought to life with words what I read or saw on screen. Even love came to me through books when the first time I met my husband we fell in love over a discussion on ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’.
One day I realized what I should have known all along – Stories; they lived in my soul. I had worlds to create, people waiting to be brought to life. What was I waiting for? I picked up first, my pen and paper, later sat at the desktop and then finally on the mac and slowly, reverentially with revision after revision, going back to the drawing board a thousand times emerged my newest baby -‘Broken’.
When Craig walks into the first kink club he’s been in for months, the last thing he expects to see is his former Dom, Tim, wearing a collar. If learning his ex is a switch isn’t shocking enough, Craig quickly finds himself on the wrong side of his ex's Dom. When the reunion turns ugly, another Dom swoops in and saves the day, and Craig is too shaken to argue when the sweet Dom steps in and takes care of him.
Alan noticed the boy the minute he walked into his club. It was hard not to. He was beautiful, sad, and fully clothed. Once the boy is in Alan’s arms he knows he doesn’t want to let him go, maybe ever. He worries that even though his hardcore Dom days are behind him, his experience will scare Craig and he’ll lose the chance to have something real with him.
Their relationship quickly heats up, but Craig can’t stop wondering if an inexperienced sub will be enough for a seasoned Dom in the long run.
Excerpt
Chapter One Craig
He shouldn’t be nervous. He’d done it before. He’d walked into clubs before and never felt the sickening swirl of his stomach as its contents prepared for launch. Craig swallowed, then popped another antacid into his mouth and chewed it up.
He could do this. He needed to do this. He normally hated the club atmosphere, but it had pleased Tim to take him places and show him off, and if he hoped to move on he needed this. He had to get over Tim. He needed someone who would give him the things Tim gave him and there was only one kind of place where you were guaranteed to meet the kind of person Craig needed to meet. Tails had a reputation as a popular kink club. Tim had never taken him to this club, and Craig hoped that he’d be able to go in there. He’d tried to visit a different club a few weeks ago, but couldn’t make it past the bouncer.
It was a place he’d frequented with Tim and the bouncer recognized him on sight. He looked at him with those big, sympathetic brown eyes and Craig’s insides liquefied. He quickly lost his nerve and hurried back the way he came. Everyone understood what happened to him, well, everyone in that circle knew. It was why he hadn’t talked to any of his former kink friends since Tim left him. Maybe if he did, he could at least figure out what he did to drive Tim away. Perhaps he could find out why he came home from work one day to find all of Tim’s stuff gone.
Craig cursed himself and wiped away an errant tear. He needed someone to get him out of his head before he lost his mind completely. Tim had been perfect for him. Roommates at first, then friends, then lovers. One fateful night they stumbled into something more; something that took everything they had together and made it all that much better and more powerful and meaningful. Or so Craig thought.
They spent a year together exploring the lifestyle. Both newbies, they muddled through a little on their own before Tim insisted they join a club and do it right. Everything seemed perfect. Tim was a good Dom. Sure, he made a few newbie mistakes, but Craig made some mistakes as a first time sub. Despite the times they stumbled, discovering his need for submission had to be the best thing that ever happened to Craig. Even when Tim wanted things that Craig didn’t feel comfortable with, he still relished belonging to him. Craig figured that even though they were out of sync to begin with that over time they’d get better at the whole Dom/sub dynamic of their relationship.
Then Tim left.
Now, eighteen months later, Craig’s life was a wasteland, and he had tired of it. Tired of being tired. Tired of being angry and miserable and feeling like a total failure. He needed to get out of his head. He needed to break the sick cycle of thinking that had him awake most nights.
Craig stepped out of the cab a few blocks from the club and walked the rest of the way. He kept his head down and stuffed his hands in his pockets and returned to the club he’d visited a few days ago to set up a membership.
Most places used the same basic set up, go in one door, sign in while they reminded you of the basic rules, gave you a color-coded club standard BDSM wrist band indicating Dom or a sub, available or unavailable. Then you got to enter the world of kink unfettered.
Craig hated places like these, but they were better than meeting someone on a random app. He didn’t like the idea of meeting a complete stranger who liked to tie people up. At least the club provided a controlled environment with people employed to keep their patrons safe.
It was little comfort.
Craig ordered a juice from the bar and looked around. He’d already been here once, for a few minutes, but during the day when the place was empty. Now it crawled with leather covered studs of all varieties. Craig raked his eyes over the crowd and took a deep breath. In a minute he’d get up the courage to throw himself into the fray. He drank his juice first, sipped it slowly until he emptied the glass. When he’d returned the glass, he took a deep breath. In another minute he’d slip into his sub mindset and maybe then a hot Dom would approach him and make him soar and forget about Tim.
Tim, whose eyes met his.
Tim, who he hadn’t seen in eighteen months stood ten feet from him. He looked at Craig with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Someone next to Tim put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in. That’s when Craig noticed the thick, black collar around Tim’s neck.
Tim had a Dom.
Tim was a sub.
Before Craig could wrap his mind around Tim being a sub, or a switch, or there, ten feet from him, Tim moved closer. Craig stood stock still like a cornered rabbit, too afraid to move.
The juice in Craig’s stomach churned. He didn’t understand anything anymore. He’d avoided all the clubs Tim used to drag him to for this exact reason. It wasn’t fair. Tim left him and now, the one time he’d gathered the courage to enter a club, Tim not only turned up, but as a fucking sub. A collared sub with a mammoth-sized Dom.
Only a few feet from him, Tim stopped. His master’s hand lay on his shoulder and Craig’s fist tightened. The fact that Tim had a master enraged him as much as it confused him.
“Craig. It’s good to see you. How are you?” Tim smiled, but Craig knew him well enough to know that it was fake, as fake as the rest of him. Betrayal fuelled Craig’s anger. He wanted to be anywhere but here.
“Go fuck yourself.” Craig turned to leave, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“You’re a nasty little sub, aren’t you? That’s my boy you swore at and I expect you to apologize.”
Craig spun around and knocked the Dom’s hand off his shoulder. “Don’t touch me. I’ll talk to him however I want. I may be a sub, but I’m not your sub.”
Tim didn’t say anything. He stood there and let his master grab at Craig and bark at him to apologize and he stood there and watched with complete disinterest. As if Craig never mattered to him at all.
Craig glared at Tim as angry tears sprang to his eyes. He didn’t care if Tim saw him cry, it wouldn’t be the first time. “You’re a piece of cowardly shit.”
“I told you not to talk to my boy like that.”
Craig flinched at the Dom’s voice. Powerful and commanding, the tone was also edged with a bit of anger. Craig took a step back. “Screw you.” He knew he shouldn’t get so mouthy with a Dom, but his heart hammered as his vision blurred. At the same time, he couldn't catch his breath. Worse, his brain didn’t appear to be in control of his mouth anymore and he heard himself yell. “Screw you and screw him too.” Craig turned to leave, but the Dom caught his arm.
Before he could wonder what would happen next, another man came over and pulled the Dom’s hand off Craig’s arm. “What’s the trouble over here?” He had to be a Dom. Not as tall or as wide as Tim’s giant of a man, he oozed a certain presence and had to be important because the angry Dom suddenly curbed his attitude.
“This little sub here seems to have a problem with my boy. They exchanged words and I want him to apologize.”
“Fuck you, you shit.” Craig’s voice cracked. “And fuck him too.” Craig panted, and fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. The other Dom appeared to be trying to spin it to make him look like the bad guy, and he might be, but all he wanted to do was leave. The guy should’ve let him go.
A hand touched his shoulder. “Kneel down, boy.”
Review
Sweet, touching story. Found that the characters drew me in, wanting to know what happened next. What happens to them, to the others. How did they get where they were.
Found myself cheering for Craig and Alan. Disliking Tim and Mike Wanting to know more about Steve and Matt.
Had a hard time putting it down. The story answers your questions regarding the background of the characters. How they developed to who they were in the story How the main characters found what they were searching for. Ended up falling in love with Craig and Alan. Watching them find one another ,find what each needed. Beautiful story. Cannot wait for the next one.
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Meet The Author
E. M. Denning is a writer from British Columbia. She loves her family and animals, and anything cute and fuzzy. She writes romance for the 18+ plus crowd because she's both a hopeless romantic and a dirty old woman.
You can find her on her website, Facebook or on her blog.
These pages contain thrilling short stories for the dark fantasy
lover. Fight grotesque, body and soul consuming creatures, hacking off their
limbs with sharp pointy weapons, as Dark Angel, Ilese, defends humanity, in A Darker Fall. Find your true power as
the head witch in your ancient coven, while hiding a terrible secret costing
you everyone you love in White Matron.
Mind meld with killer, lover, and immortal, Joe Smith, in Lord of Blood.Travel to Sin City for a Post-apocalyptic Vampire of Vegas story stocked with
vampires and zombies, in Brevity.
Dark
Angel, Ilese, is part of an elite government team, Operation Quietus. Their
mission, to destroy monsters unleashed by The Fallen, grotesque abominations
created from the evil in the world when human lackeys in the drug, sex, and
arms trade turn into beasts. Ilese is the only one who can annihilate them
forever.
Though her heritage makes for a formidable
soldier, Ilese lacks certain aspects of humanity that allows her to care
profoundly for others. Yet, her second in command, Josh, may find a way to
prove otherwise.
An on-going war, a crucial mistake, and a
decision that could change everything; one where losing something real isn’t an
option.
White Matron
By Jessica Ozment
Fey Westfall is a White
Witch on the cusp of gaining her true power. Not only has she lost everything
she knows and loves, she’s also on the verge of unraveling a complicated past
that has an unbreakable bond with her destiny. For years, deceptive lies and
altered memories shrouded the answers as to why her beloved mother disappeared
when she was a child. Now, with her reign inevitable and her power surging; Fey
is uncovering the agonizing truth.
Though the Westfall family
has protected an entire village of magical beings cut off from the outside
world for hundreds of years, the tradition required a tremendous sacrifice to
hide the immeasurable arcane magic within Fey's ancient coven. Now, the
darkness they’ve created will fight to the ends of the Earth to escape, all
under the guise of wanting nothing more than to dictate where the next Matron's
loyalties lie.
Can Fey overpower an
unspeakable evil hiding within the depths of her soul? Or, will those closest
to her reek of betrayal? One thing’s certain; she mustn't find safety in the secrets
that have already cost her everything.
For the Love of Blood
By Robert Stock
Killer, lover, immortal; Joe Smith is a vampire that
saves as many lives as he takes. He’s a surgeon, and a literal Lord of Blood,
bending flesh and plasma to his will. In the ER, he performs miracles. In the
darkness, he performs atrocities. But don’t worry, he only kills the bad
ones...mostly.
The Trophy Room (Story one): The Lord of Blood heads to confession in “The
Trophy Room”. Methinks it may be a bit bloody!
For Bathed in Blood (Story two): The Lord of Blood comes face-to-face with the
Countess of Blood, Elizabeth Bathory. Will there be a bloodbath? Or will the
sparks fly and burn down the barn?
Brevity
By Alexia Purdy
Witnesses to the end of the world, two airmen race against a
plague infecting the city of Las Vegas which turns people into blood thirsty
creatures. Ground zero for outbreak, they’ll learn the ones responsible are
closer than they thought and the city, under siege, will never be the same.
JOEL CRAIG is a nurse by day but actor and writer by night and lives with his musician husband, Donovan Holden. They have been married twice with the second time finally being legal. In addition to Journey to Gaytopia, Joel has also written Welcome To Nursing HELLo, a Graphic Memoir. Joel is also an actor, having appeared in the films, Sideshow and Sordid Lives as well as the web series, What’s My Intention?
