Happy Tuesday, lovelies! Time really flies by when you're having fun and I can hardly believe we're close to the end of the month, but as always, I've got some fabulous authors and books you should know about. For instance, today's spotlight shines on mermen and author L.M. Brown's novel Forbidden Waters.
To save his clan from ever-increasing shark
attacks, merman Kyle seeks sanctuary for his people in the sunken city of
Atlantis, even though he knows that as a homosexual merman, he will be
sacrificing his own chance for love. Love finds him anyway in the form of
Prince Finn, the rebellious young heir to the Atlantean throne.
When their relationship is discovered, Kyle
is the one to pay the price. Banished from the oceans, he seeks shelter in
England and finds a new love with human, Jake Seabrook.
For Jake, Kyle is the chance to move on
from the crush he has on his straight best friend. The strange man he found
naked on the beach seems to fit into his life with ease. If only Kyle weren’t keeping secrets from
him, Jake could see them having a future together.
Things are not what they seem for either of
the men and when Kyle discovers the truth about Finn, he knows he must return
to Atlantis.
Three men, a tangled relationship, and one
chance for happiness—if they can trust enough to take it.
Available at Totally Bound
Different Incarnations
Sometimes a story just doesn't want to be
what I think it should be. Forbidden
Waters is one of those stories.
Believe it or not, this all male ménage
actually started off as a young adult story and was my very first attempt at
NaNoWriMo some years ago. I had the
entire story all plotted out and wrote over 50,000 words of it that hectic
November. Those words are now all gone.
For the next few years I kept coming back
to the story and finding it was just not saying what I wanted it to.
The romance element of the story was not in
the first draft of this one at all. It
was a young adult adventure story and there wasn't so much as a kiss between
any of the characters.
I went over the story again and again and
then realised one of the secondary characters was speaking to me more than the
two main characters. That's when I
realised this story needed a complete do-over.
One of the main characters, Alex, ended up
playing a much smaller role in the story and the chatty secondary character
took over the story, in a way I never intended him to.
At the point I started to re-write the
story as a romance I intended it to be a male/male story. Well, as you can see, that went up the
proverbial spout as well. Something that
tends to happen when a character falls for another who I didn't intend for him
to get involved with.
Kyle, the character in question, who was
initially only a very minor secondary character in that old young adult story, got
greedy and fell in love with both Prince Finn and Jake Seabrook.
And so I found myself with another all male
ménage in the works. This tends to
happen to me rather a lot. The Heavenly
Sins trilogy began as a short story about an angel and a demon fighting over
the same mortal man and now Forbidden Waters has gone in the same threesome
direction.
Not all of my Mermen & Magic stories
are MMM ones, books two three and four are plain old MM, though book five is
another MMM and the jury is definitely out on the sixth. I want to say it is a ménage, but I have a
feeling one of those boys isn't prone to sharing.
I have learned over the last few years that
my characters do what they please and I really should just let them.
~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~
Kyle passed
Calder his trident back and once he was alone, he started to test the weapons
for weight, length and sharpness. He had just picked up his fifth trident when
he heard a movement behind him. He spun round on reflex and nearly speared the
young prince through the chest.
“That’s some weapon you have there,” the prince said with a
grin, as he pushed the trident aside carelessly. Kyle hoped the prince realised
how lucky he was the prongs on this particular weapon were blunt. “You insulted me when you left the palace.”
Kyle cringed.
“I apologise, Your Highness. This is all
very new to me.”
“Finn.”
“What?”
“My name’s Finn.”
Kyle felt a
little ignorant at not knowing the name of the prince and heir of Atlantis
already. He wondered if he was in trouble for his not entirely unintentional
insult.
“You never answered my question, either,” Finn said.
“You didn’t ask me a question.”
Finn rolled
his eyes. “Fine, you never clarified just
how many of those mer-babies are yours—or whether my guess was right.”
Kyle thought
about lying and repeating King Nereus’ reason for not knowing the answer, but
he was by nature an honest merman and he decided the truth was probably the
best option. If he chose to stay in Atlantis, he would no doubt be caught in
the lie anyway. “You guessed correctly,”
he admitted.
Finn’s grin
widened. “And how many of those pretty
mermaids you’ve brought with you to Atlantis have you taken?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” Prince or not, Kyle
didn’t want to answer his impertinent question.
Finn moved
forward and ran a finger down the centre of Kyle’s chest. “Would you like me to guess how many?”
“Not really.”
Finn learned
close, as though he might whisper in his ear, even though they spoke
telepathically. “None.”
“Wrong,” Kyle replied with a grin of his own.
“One then,” Finn amended, “before you realised your preference for the males of our species.”
Kyle kept his
expression blank as Finn summed up his entire sexual experience with mermaids
in one eerily accurate sentence.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Finn stroked his hand over Kyle’s
smooth chest. Most mermen didn’t develop excessive body hair. Although there
were a few exceptions, Kyle was with the majority in being smooth skinned. “How many mermen have you taken as a lover?”
The prince
was certainly persistent in his questioning. Kyle pushed his hand away
irritably. “What do you care if I’ve had
relations with a hundred mermen?”
Finn didn’t
take a hint and put his hand back where it had been a moment before. “Have you known a hundred?”
Kyle could
tell he wasn’t going to get away with evasive answers, so he decided to stick
to the truth in the hope Finn would be satisfied and disappear back to his
palace before Calder or one of the trainees came in and saw them.
“I’ve taken just one merman as a lover.”
“Is he here in Atlantis?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I’m curious about my competition.” Finn smiled up at him
through his flyaway hair. “Is he here?”
“No. He chose to find a new clan where he could love
who he wants without censure.”
“Why didn’t you go with him?” Finn appeared genuinely
curious.
“I have a duty to my clan to see them safe. That comes
before my own selfish desires.”
Finn finally
removed his hand from Kyle’s chest and swam back a couple of feet. “There are options if you still desire the touch of a merman here in Atlantis,” Finn
said. “If you know where to look.”
Available at Totally Bound
About L.M. Brown
L.M.
Brown lives in England, in a quaint little village time doesn't seem to have
touched. No, wait a minute—that's the retirement biography. Right now, she is in
England in a medium sized town no one has ever heard of, so she won't bore you
with the details. Keeping her company are numerous sexy men. She just wishes
they weren't all inside her head.
L.M.
believes there is nothing hotter or sweeter than two men in love with each
other… unless it is three.
L.M.
Brown loves hearing from readers so don't be shy.
Links
Where to find L.M. Brown
Website & Blog – http://lmbrownauthor.wordpress.com/
Twitter - @LMBrownAuthor
