Sunday, May 29, 2016

New cover up! Hot August Comes

May 29, 2016

So far it's been a rather productive weekend, and a great kickoff to my annual spring vacation. I've worked a half-dozen things off my home & garden to-do list, and a few more than that off my writing to-do list. Now, if the elves would just come and catch up the laundry...

One thing I didn't expect to mark off the list was the new cover for Hot August Comes. I was trolling the stock photo sites and spotted this guy. He just has that certain brooding something that meshes with the story. He looks like a guy at a major crossroads in his life, I expect to have the book available within a day or two. 


For some reason I seem to end up in surprise places. I didn't set out to turn the Marionville stories into a series. Same for the Southern Cross books. And I didn't set out to have a "calendar" series, but I have Hot August Comes, September Morning and December Promise. Go figure. 

I don't think I'll ask the universe why. I'll just go with the flow.

KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com


Thursday, May 26, 2016

Just in time for warm weather


May 26, 2016

As soon as the weather turns warm, and in my neck of the woods we go from chilly to HOT and skip warm, I long for a dip in the pool. You know, the one that's still in its storage bin. Who knew it would rain every day in May? But I digress...

Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, Netting Neptune, Taming Triton and Poseidon's Pleasure are uploaded and ready. Take a trip to the water's edge. 

Netting Neptune
www.amazon.com/Netting-Neptune-Southern-Cross-Book-ebook/dp/B01FEST0I0

Taming Triton
Amazon

Poseidon's Pleasure
Amazon

KC Kendricks

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

It's 4.5 stars for Bored, Stroked and Blueprinted


May 24, 2016

My thanks to Kris at JoyfullyJay for reviewing Bored, Stroked and Blueprinted! Why, yes I was surprised I got a review. That's why I'm posting about it!

The entire review can be found at:
http://joyfullyjay.com/2016/05/review-bored-stroked-and-blueprinted-by-k-c-kendricks/

Here's a few lines from the review that made me smile.

I shall begin my review with a confession: When I read to the word Camaro in the blurb, I took the book instantly.... I loved Mick. There’s no other way to say it...When he spotted Logan, talked to him, and their chemistry burst onto the page, I wanted nothing more for them to live happily ever after...Logan has his demons, and the shadows of the past still haunt him. The things that have happened to him have shaped him into being a wary man, and it was so well done... I really enjoyed this book... This one is definitely recommended...

Thanks, again, for the great review!

About Bored, Stroked and Blueprinted:


As a boy, Mick Ambrose fell in love with cars. Now he owns and operates an auto restoration shop specializing in all things American Muscle. When the black 1969 Camaro Z/28 he years ago dubbed Onyx pulls into his garage, Mick forgets his first love in favor of her driver, Logan Gregg. Mick’s interested and cruises Logan at a speed worthy of the car he drives.

Logan Gregg’s plan to avoid entanglements in his life drives away when he stops at American Muscle to ask a few questions about restoring the Z/28 he inherited from his uncle. The owner of the shop is smooth as a well-tuned V-8 engine and twice as hot. Logan is quick to shift gears and take a closer look at Mick Ambrose and the road ahead. When Mick wants to get too close, too fast, Logan backs off. His past holds painful memories he can’t escape and the tattoos on his arms aren’t just for decoration.

Working on the Z/28 brings the men closer, but Mick makes a mistake when he confesses his knowledge of the past Logan wants to keep buried. Mick knows a man has to settle his past to step into his future, but Logan’s unconvinced. To slay his personal demon, he’ll first have to look it in the eye. 
_*_*_*_

For more info, and to read an excerpt, please visit my website at:

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bored-stroked-and-blueprinted-by-kc.html


Purchase links are on that page.



Sunday, May 22, 2016

Cover magic



May 22, 2016

One of the better things to come out of going indie is that it forced me to improve my Photoshop skills. It's not that I couldn't buy my old covers, but I find I'm financially, and morally, opposed to paying for covers my sales already paid for. 

What do I mean when I say if I've already paid for a cover, why buy it a second time? To quote Achmed the Dead Terrorist, "...think about it...."

But I digress. 

I've been making covers this weekend, and I'm rather pleased with the results. Now I can do the formatting for Between the Moon & the Deep Blue Sea and Catching Fireflies. That will complete the Ocracoke Island segment of the Southern Cross series as it stands now. (I say formatting, but it's more like de-formatting from the publisher's galley to something usable for the indie processes.)

With any luck, I'll be able to get these stories back out into the world this week, before my vacations starts on Friday, May 27. Because once vacation starts, I don't think I'll get much done.

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

Saturday, May 21, 2016

The Back Stairs for MSS 142

May 21, 2016

The theme this week for My Sexy Saturday is, "My Sexy Spaceship." Well, I don't have a spaceship but I do have a friendly alien shapeshifter. I think that's close enough!

Here are seven sexy paragraphs from The Back Stairs. Enjoy!

_*_*_*_

It took me three attempts to clear my throat enough to speak. “Why should I allow you to ‘ease me’?
Will you tell me the truth if I do?”

“I have told you the truth.”

There was the truth we tell the world, and then there was the truth we hide from ourselves. That hidden truth seized me in a relentless, sharp-edged vise. I was as big a whore as he was; only my coin was information. But I wanted his mouth on me more than I wanted to find out what else he knew.

“So far, you may have told me the truth. There’s more, and I’ll do whatever it takes to learn it.”

Sundown blinked up at me. “Will you, Fallon? Veritas. Truth. Do you know your limits?”

I shook my head, my gaze transfixed on his hands. I watched as he unsnapped my pants and slowly eased down the zipper and lay open the edges of the fabric to reveal my white cotton briefs. My cock lifted as he drew his middle finger along the hard ridge, barely touching my underwear, from the tip to the base. Sweat broke out in my armpits and over my back. His fingers hooked over my waistband and tugged at my garments. I lifted my butt, and he shucked everything down around my ankles. I looked down at my cock, full to bursting, and rosy red against my paler abdomen. Panic slammed my system.

What the hell was I doing? What if he were Internal Affairs working an undercover sting? Juny and I were not department favorites. We were more concerned with catching the bad guys than playing office politics. Sundown’s spooky green eyes sparkled with desire—and amusement.



_*_*_*_

About The Back Stairs:


Fallon Roxbury has a nose for trouble, and the uncanny ability for landing in the middle of it the moment he finds it. While investigating the gruesome murder of a young male prostitute in the red-light district, Fallon gets a whiff of something very strange. Forensics has unidentified hairs. Very unidentified hairs, like nothing in any of the textbooks. Following a tip from a person of interest, Fallon meets Sundown, an apparent hustler who knows a lot more than he will admit.

Getting personally involved with Sundown breaks every rule in the police manual, and in Fallon’s own personal code. Sundown is like a drug, and Fallon can’t stop at just one hit. When Sundown is forced to reveal the truth, Fallon’s world is turned upside down, and he’s left with only two options: check himself in for psychiatric evaluation, or accept a new reality with a strange shift.

Shapeshifters, that is.

THE BACK STAIRS

Available now at All Romance eBooks, Amazon, and other online book sellers. 

KC Kendricks

http://www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks




Wednesday, May 18, 2016

SABRE is on the All Romance eBook best seller list

May 18, 2016
**updated 4/9/21- ARE is now closed**

It's the email every author loves to get. The owner of All Romance eBooks sent notice that SABRE was on the ARE bestseller list. Yep. I did the happy dance! 

Even better, SABRE is still climbing the list. Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy!

I'm a little gobsmacked (to steal a phrase from my girlfriend in Scotland). I think every writer hopes to do well and then is surprised when it happens. At least I am. 

For more about SABRE, please one of the links below.  

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

SABRE is available at the following online booksellers:





Barnes & Noble/NOOK

Universal link to additional booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/mlDPvm



 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

Social media links:
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 14, 2016

SABRE by KC Kendricks

May 14, 2016

SABRE is now available!


Gay romance/suspense/spy games

 Sam Breeden is a highly skilled operative known as SABRE. Genetically engineered, Sam is very good at what he does, but his propensity to act on the truth, and not his orders, continually lands him on the bad side of his handlers. When he’s instructed to find, and eliminate, a mythical assassin known only as Absinthe, Sam quickly becomes aware all is not as it seems. He suspects the evidence against Absinthe was planted and goes against his orders. 

The man called Absinthe holds the key to Sam’s past. He inserts himself into Sam’s orbit – and bed – with the intent to lead Sam to the truth. He’s not guilty of the crime, but he’s far from innocent. He knows Sam’s been played by his agency and the path to their survival means walking a crooked line.

Finding the truth isn’t easy, and believing it is even harder. Sam and Absinthe make a desperate play for freedom, because if they can’t get free, they can never be together.


EXCERPT


And that’s when it hit me.

“It was you in DC, in the Romp Club. You kept buying me shots and we ended up in my hotel room. You slipped me a roofie, you bastard.” I propped up on an elbow. “And me without my gun.”

He held his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “Sorry about the Rohypnol. I’m not armed, Sam. I mean you no harm.” He rolled to his knees and fell back against the plush pillows. I joined him.

“So why target me? You’re that interested in my ten-inch cock?”

He shook his head. “Ten inch? Now who’s having sexual fantasies? I’m interested in Frederick Milan.”

“I find it very curious you know that name. Pick up the phone and call room service. I want a big pitcher of iced tea.”

He leaned back. “And let them all know you’re a Yank? Make the call yourself, mate.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then get anything cold and refreshing. Sparkling water. How’s that?”

He picked up the hotel phone and placed my request - along with two steak dinners and two bottles of a pricey Cabernet. He set the receiver back in the cradle and turned to me.

“Are you finished watching me, Sam?”

“Nope, so get used to it. Frederick Milan. Talk, now.”

“Milan was collateral damage.” He looked worried. “Melvin McCune wants you out of the way.”

If he thought McCune wanting me to disappear was news to me, he was sadly mistaken. “Yeah? So? Who do you work for? What the hell is your name, anyway?”

“All in due time. Milan stumbled upon some records that were supposedly destroyed. And you can call me ‘Darling’.”

I snorted. “Well, ‘Darling’, I’m very interested in where you’re getting your information.”

“I just bet you are, SABRE.”

We stared at each other, and not with lustful longing or budding friendship. ­­But maybe there was a bit of grudging respect floating between us.

“Look, ‘Darling’. I know you can’t tip your hand too far. Neither can I. You’re correct.  I’ve got a problem with McCune. But I want to know why and how a middle-aged banker, a do-gooder, ends up dead in the middle of what might be a mob hit.”

That got his attention. “Mob hit? How do you figure?”

“You said look into Hawkes. I did. He’s got Chicago political connections and that could indicate organized crime. If you can believe anything on the Internet, that is.” I didn’t tell him I likely had more information waiting. Deborah had surely dumped whatever she’d found on my server by now.

He scratched his chin. “The only dot that connects here is Hawkes is the one who wants Milan’s death investigated. He called McCune and invited the NSCA to become involved, being Milan is an American citizen, and all.”

I stretched, arching my back and wiggling my toes. “Darling” was correct, but I sensed something more sinister at work. I beat my pillow to fluff it. “And Hawkes is Sinope, something the Internet doesn’t know. He’d have the clout to have Milan silenced and to make any evidence implicating himself vanish. So why would he call the NSCA if he’s implicated in anything? That’s a hanging dot for me. It doesn’t connect based on what little we know.”

“So we really need to know what Milan was doing.”

I stared at him again. “We? We? Who’s ‘we’?”

“Darling” looked out the window. “London’s nice, but I like Paris. City of Light and all that.”

I stood, stepped out of my jeans, and draped them over a chair. I either had to avail myself of the laundry service or have some new clothes delivered.

“Darling, I’m not fond of Paris. I killed man there.”

I was surprised by the compassion in his blue eyes. “I know it was self-defense.”

How much about me did he know? Did he know I still had nightmares about what had happened in Paris? I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter that he pulled a gun and got off a shot at me. There was a truth to learn and I failed. 
He couldn’t tell me after I put him down.”

“You won’t fail this time. You’ve got me on your side.”

Inexplicably, his words buoyed my spirit. I didn’t want him to see that in me so I rolled my eyes at him. “Why am I not reassured?”


_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

SABRE is available at the following online booksellers:





Barnes & Noble/NOOK

Universal link to additional booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/mlDPvm



 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

Social media links:
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

SABRE - cover reveal

May 11, 2016

Spy games. Genetic engineering. 

And a hot cover guy.

It's working for me. 

SABRE. That's short for Sam Breeden. 

An undercover operative with a license to kill, a conscience and a big problem.

Coming soon.

 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

Social media links:
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 7, 2016

A Hard Habit to Break for this MSS Saturday

May 7, 2016

It seems like forever since I've been here for My Sexy Saturday. First Amber Quill closed and I had to get books ready for re-release. That went pretty well, but I didn't have buy links until the first of April which, as many of you know, was the beginning of the A to Z Blogging Challenge! In the midst of all that my mother had surgery and had to go to rehab to heal AND we had a blizzard!! Talk about the perfect storm between the first of the year and now. I feel like I lived through it! 

Now before I digress farther, here are seven sexy paragraphs from A Hard Habit to Break, book one of the Men of Marionville series. Enjoy!

*_*_*_*_*

So far, I’d enjoyed being part of the crew. Everyone was friendly and shared a lot of my philosophy when it came to living green. If you did what you could to help the world be a better place, whenever able, it evened out the times you couldn’t. I left the fanaticism for others. I listened to the chatter around me as a new, sleek Camaro glided to a stop twenty feet behind the dumpster.

I had almost ordered one of those badass rides, but decided to wait and see what my bonus check was this year. The guy beside me, a handsome forty-ish fellow with a touch of gray at his temples, nudged my foot with his. He vibed gay, and interested in more than a bid for a large number of solar panels on the roof of his manufacturing plant. He leaned closer as my heart beat its way into my throat.

“That’s our volunteer architect, Travis Templeton. If all the girls start to cry, it’s because he’s gay.”

I knew who he was. Unable to breathe, I watched the long, lean frame of the man I’d never regard as anyone other than my best friend unfurl from the car. I’d not seen him in thirteen years, but I’d know him anywhere. His right hand shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. A ray of bright morning sun bounced sparks off his lustrous dark hair as he waved at someone on the other side of the lot. I couldn’t see those incredible orbs that haunted my sleep, but I knew every green and gold fleck in each amber iris. I sucked in a breath, fighting the pain that stabbed through my heart.

There was nowhere to run, no place to hide. Our reunion would be unavoidably public.

Travis popped the trunk lid of his fancy car and lifted out something large and flat. I assumed it was the park designs everyone buzzed about. Now was the time to prove I had courage to go along with what common sense I possessed. It might help blunt his surprise if we didn’t have an audience for our first meeting after all the lost years.

Without a word to my break companion, I stood and strode briskly down the old brick walk. Travis turned and his shocked gaze collided with mine. Memories floated in the air between us.

A HARD HABIT TO BREAK
Available now at AmazoniTunesBarnes and NobleKobo, and other online booksellers. 

Be sure to visit all of the My Sexy Saturday blogs for more great excerpts. Follow the participants on Twitter for up-to-date news, too! 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Scraps of Life- IWSG

May 4, 2016

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

I’ve been published since 2003 and if there is still one thing I struggle with, it’s sticking to my officially scheduled writing time. I have a pretty good idea of everything I need to cram into a single day. Work, family, friends, home & hearth, puppy Deuce, writing.

Did you notice how writing is at the tail end of that list? So it is in real life.

So many times I get to my office and I’m simply too brain-numb to make the words come out. Is it lack of discipline that I allow myself to give up for the evening before I’m even started? I think it’s safe to attribute a small degree of “blame” to that. It’s difficult to be disciplined when you fall asleep over the keyboard.

There was a day I didn’t have this problem. Now I feel that the day job gets the best of what I have to give and everything else in my life gets the scraps. Without a doubt, I’m tired. I console myself by looking at my countdown clock several times a day, but it doesn't really help. 

It’s time to do something differently. Perhaps I need to get up earlier and do some writing before the day job. Give the writing the best of me and let the day job have the scraps. Who knows for sure?

What I do know for sure is the way it’s going isn’t going to get it done. It’s up to me to make the change, make it stick, and make the writing happen. 

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Dreams to Sell made the All Romance eBook Best Seller list!

May 1, 2016

Dreams to Sell, the eighth book in the Men of Marionville collection, made the All Romance eBook Best Seller list! Into the top half, no less! I'm doing a happy dance!

Why is this a big deal to me? Dreams to Sell is out in the second edition, that's why. It was first published in 2014 at the now defunct Amber Quill Press. The only thing that changed on that book was the cover. I didn't even write a new cover blurb.  

Covers are a big deal. They introduce the book to the reader. Everyone is aware of this. Publishers even go so far as to write clauses into the publisher/author contract about cover art. Every contract I've ever signed, with ten different publishers, contains copious and detailed language about cover art. And they all put it in writing that the publisher has the last word and final say on the cover. The author's opinion is, at best, noted. 

Hmmm. 

I'm consumed by what's going on in the publishing world. Authors across the broad spectrum of genres, myself included, are going independent at an ever increasing rate. Based on my somewhat limited experience, I think I know one of the reasons - book covers. 

Dreams to Sell. The original cover just about reached the visible level. It was not eye-catching at all. Go to any online book seller and you'll find white backgrounds. Does a white cover stand out? I don't think so. The original cover was very white and there was nothing I could say about it without risking every subsequent cover from the publisher's cover artist also being very white. 

I made the current cover all by myself. Is it the cover to end all covers? Oh, hell no. It's adequate. It has the necessary elements - the lovers, the house, the sunbeams to represent riding off into the sunset together. And I tossed in a little series banner at the bottom just because I wanted to. But to me, the most important thing is, it's visible. It doesn't fade into the background of a white product page. 

If, as my cover making skills improve, I decide to redo a cover, I won't have to put in a request with a publisher. I'll simply do it. I like that. 


KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks


Dreams to Sell - book eight in the Men of Marionville series. 

Dreams to Sell is available at AmazoniTunesBarnes and NobleKobo and other online book sellers. 

2016 Survivor!

May 1, 2016

I survived the 2016 A to Z Blogging Challenge! And that's all I can say right now.

KC
www.kckendricks.com