It’s doubtful I’ll have time to pop back on here closer to Christmas, so I wanted to go ahead and wish everyone Happy Holidays!
I also wanted to thank all of you who have kept all my Christmas stories alive over the past few holiday seasons. There’s no greater compliment to an author than when readers tell you they reread your books as you guys have with my pervy Willy series. I know Willy is sometimes a pain in the butt – okay he’s always a pain in the butt – but y’all have kept him and my warped version of the North Pole successful since the first book was published back in 2014.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 9 years since I wrote that silly story for a now defunct publisher’s open submission for a kinky Christmas story. I waited 16 weeks before pulling Willy from consideration – they jerked me and other authors around for all that time – and I couldn’t be happier that I made the decision to self-publish it. Had it been published with that publisher, it likely would’ve been butchered to death by their editors, and what I wanted to convey with Willy would’ve been lost along the way. It also never would’ve turned into a series.
Expect a Willy short next year to celebrate his and Randy’s 10th anniversary.
I hope everybody has an amazing Christmas and a very happy New Year. I’ll be spending a few days with my husband, three sons, and their significant others. Two of my sons live and/or work out of state, so I’m excited they’ll both be home soon.
New Year’s Eve will be spent at home with my husband, with New Year’s Day being all about Alabama Football. I’m crossing my fingers for another championship.
Whatever you guys do, stay safe, and I’ll see you after the first of the year.
It’s been quite a few months since I’ve popped on here. Between traveling and my migraines coming back with a vengeance, I had to take a step back from all things writing. While the headaches are still making an appearance, I’m starting to have a few good days here and there. The headache is always there. Some days are just milder than others.
I’ll go ahead and give some writing updates.
Cupid (Love Gods, #2)
Have you read Eros? If not, would you like to? I’m asking because Cupid (#2) will be put up for pre-order soon, to be released on January 1st. Cupid could maybe be read as a standalone, but to understand the backstories and secondary characters (Eros, Sy/Psyche, Aphrodite), you really need to be familiar with the first book. Those three characters, along with a few new ones, play a big part in Cupid and Peit’s story.
Eros is in Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. If you don’t have KU, and would like to read Eros before Cupid’s release, shoot me a message and I’ll gladly send you an e-copy. I’ll also do some promos with the first book (maybe free on Amazon for a few days) before the release of the second one.
Cupid has been finished for quite some time. I just had other things pop up in my world that prevented me from hitting publish.
You can check out the blurb for Eroshere, and the blurb for Cupidhere. It’s approximately 44,000 words.
Cupid has been almost 8 years in the making. I hope you guys enjoy Cupid and Peit’s story, and I hope you enjoy revisiting Eros and Sy. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed spending time with Eros and Sy again. For some reason, Sy (aka Psyche) is one of my all-time favorite characters that I’ve written. Maybe it’s because I based his looks on the violinist, David Garrett, or maybe it’s simply because he’s such a decent guy. It’s always a blast revisiting old characters unless it’s Mary Claus from Willy’s world. I’m over that one. 😉
I’ll update on here when Cupid’s officially up for pre-order.
Purrs Series
The Purrs series is still on hold and will likely stay that way. Maybe someday I’ll revisit it, but not in the near future.
Other Stories in the Works
I may have stepped back from all things writing for the past few months, but I did get a lot written earlier in the year. I’m only now able to revisit those stories.
The Right Time (very tentative title) – Enemies-to-lovers, both bi characters. This tells the story of Ryan Bailey and Greyson Tanner, two men in their forties who have spent the past 29 years pretending they’re not both head over heels in love with each other. Something happened when they were both 18 that ruined any chances of them being friends, much less more. Ryan’s spent almost three decades wanting to make it right. Grey’s spent almost three decades trying to avoid Ryan at all costs, something made difficult by the fact that they both went into law in the same small town, and that their sons have been the best of friends for over a decade.
Now those sons are marrying each other, and are determined to fix things between their dads once and for all. Between the sons’ matchmaking, and Grey’s ex-wife who’s a real treat to be around (very heavy sarcasm), it takes a little while for the two men to put the old misunderstandings behind them so they can finally have the HEA they’ve always secretly yearned for.
The story has been complete for quite some time. I’m now in the serious self-editing stage. Unless something drastic happens between now and then it will definitely be published not long into the new year.
Grey and Ryan are from Lassiter, the same small town in Alabama that Owen and Reese are from (from Christmas in Holly Pines). Expect them and their men to make a quick appearance or two, along with their mom and dad, Jenni and Jonathan.
There’s no cheating in this book, now or in the past. The ex-wives and how the two sons came to be are explained, but nobody went outside of their respective relationships.
When all rewrites are done, it should be around 55,000 words.
Untitled Enemies-To-Lovers – This has an age gap, two men who can’t stand each other, and a couple of little boys who go from being enemies to best friends, forcing the two men to spend time together whether they want to or not.
I’m a couple of chapters away from finishing it, but then I’ll go into the self-editing part that will take me a little while. I’m hoping for a February release.
Untitled Cinderfella story – I started this book in 2015 and forgot about it. I went back into it earlier this year. I’m in the process of writing the last chapter now, so the first draft should be complete very soon, depending on life and how I’m feeling. It’s a modern day gay romance Cinderella story. I’m looking forward to finally putting it into the world.
It’ll likely be around 25,000 to 30,000 words, so more of a short story than a novel.
Untitled Coming Home story – Best friends-to-lovers. I’m also in the last chapter or so of this one, but it needs some serious rewrites. Maybe it’ll be published in mid-2024. That’s the plan anyway.
Hooper Lake series – All books, with the exception of the last one, are long complete but not edited. I’ll revisit them in 2024.
Willy the Kinky Elf short – I started writing this a few months ago but wasn’t able to finish it in time for Christmas 2023. Willy won’t shut up in my head (still), so I thought I’d write a little quickie with an update of what’s been happening in the North Pole since Mrs. Claus was finally banished. Hopefully I can publish it on November 1, 2024.
There’s another Christmas story that I’m hoping to publish for next year’s holiday season as well. It’s also best friends-to-lovers with a bit of funny kink thrown in. This is NOT in Willy’s world, but it does take place in a different version of the North Pole.
~*~
I think that about sums up what I’ve been working on as far as writing this year. I’ll save the rest of what’s been happening in my world for my end of the year post in December.
I hope you’re all doing well. Thanks to everybody who has continued to read my books even with me MIA for the past few months. I appreciate every single one of you.
I’ll pop back in soon when Cupid’s pre-order goes live.
Until next time,
Candi
P.S. I’m sending big virtual hugs to my best friend who’s not been feeling too well lately. Much love, my friend.
On April 5, 2014 I took a huge chance and published my naughty little bi-erotica story, Taking Lance. I’d never published anything of mine before. Hell, I’d never let anybody read anything I’d written before. And here I was putting myself out there.
It was by far one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done in my life. It published, ended up doing much better than I expected as far as sales, and I’ve published many more books since then.
The fear never really goes away, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing to put myself out there, albeit not as often as I used to as far as publishing.
In the past nine years, I’ve been thrilled with great reviews, knocked down a bit over harsh ones, and been told privately (more than once by some readers who REALLY hate Willy the kinky elf…) not to quit my day job. 😉
Even the lack of love doesn’t make me stop writing. It’s part of me, even if I’m a little slower these days in publishing anything.
To celebrate my 9th publishing anniversary, I’m making Taking Lance (The Complete Series) free on Amazon from April 5th through April 7th. It’s already in Kindle Unlimited for those who subscribe, but now non-subscribers can check it out as well.
If I could go back nine years, I’d do a lot of things differently. My writing style has chanced DRASTICALLY since that first little story was published. There’s still a scene in Keeping Lance that I’ve regretted leaving in since I hit PUBLISH on it. There are other things I’d change as far as the series as a whole, but I don’t regret publishing those books exactly as they were published. Rick and Lance will always hold a special place in my heart. Maybe I’ll revisit them someday.
To everybody who’s been on this ride with me, thank you! To those who are just now discovering my books, welcome!
Most of all, thank you to my best friend in the world who I will forever credit for every single book or short story I publish. She’s the one who encouraged me to take a chance with Taking Lance, and she’s continued to encourage me with everything in my life, not just my books, since the day we became friends. She’s also the one who found the perfect photo for Lance (above) and Lance, Rick, and Mandy (below).
I’ve never had a photo look so much like a character in my head before. That is totally my Lance. 😉
I appreciate you, my friend.
To get a free e-copy of Taking Lance (The Complete Series) – that covers the first book to the last, Finding Alex, including the short stories in between – pop on Amazon here.
Make sure to read the blurb below before downloading the book. There are a lot of things in the series that some readers hate, including the two main characters having sex with others on-page before they’re fully committed to each other. If this bothers you, please don’t download the book. Shoot me a message instead via email (candikayauthor@gmail.com), or on any of my social media pages, and I’ll gladly send you a free copy of any book in my catalog that you feel like you would enjoy. You can find a list of them here.
If you have already read the Taking Lance series, you’re also welcome to send me a message asking for a different book.
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Check out the blurb for the series below.
Instant lust between the much older Rick Preston and his stepson Lance quickly becomes complicated when feelings start getting involved. From greedy mothers, crazy exes, Rick’s insecurities, and some other major detours, the road to their happily-ever-after doesn’t run smooth. Throw in a rent boy with family issues, a former stripper, and even a closeted politician, and their journey takes some interesting turns. Follow along as Rick and Lance fight like hell for each other and for that of their friends.
The Taking Lance Series is bisexual erotica. Some characters have sex with others outside of their love interests as they work toward their individual happily-ever-afters. Rick, who’s openly bi, has sex with both males and females on-page before he and Lance commit fully to each other. If you’re put off by that, substantial age differences, or cheating, this series is not for you. Each story is linked to the next one so they’re best read in order.
I’d planned to publish Cupid (Love Gods, #2) on January 10th. That obviously did not happen. And now I’m once again being forced to push it back.
Simply put, due to health issues, I’m not in a position of getting it ready to be published by Valentine’s Day of 2023. The story is long done. I’ve self-edited it to death. The blurb and cover are done. Even so, there are still a few more things that need to be checked that I simply can’t do right now due to health reasons. I’ve not even sent the book to my best friend yet, when I send everything to her.
The health thing doesn’t appear to be anything serious, just a certain vitamin deficiency that’s made me sluggish and feel like I’m in a fog. I’m in the process of being treated for it, so I’m sure I’ll be as good as new soon – just not soon enough to publish my Valentine’s story.
Since it has been put off yet again, if you’re interested in reading an advanced reader’s copy (ARC) of Cupid between now and January 1st of 2024, shoot me a message and I’ll send it your way. Just note that it won’t make much sense if you’ve not read Eros. Eros is in Kindle Unlimited for those who subscribe to it.
You can read the blurb for Cupidhere. I’m sure I’ll be putting it up for pre-order on Amazon in the coming weeks.
I hope you’re all doing well. I’ll pop back in when I’m able.
Until next time,
Candi
P.S. To those who asked… the Purrs series is still temporarily on hold. Click the link and it’ll take you to a page of all my books. Scroll down and you’ll see the series. Just click the individual book links and they’ll take you to the blurbs.
I hope everybody had a nice Christmas. Ours was really nice. All three of my sons were able to make it, along with the girlfriends of two of them. Having all three of my boys in the same room these days is quite rare, so seeing them all at my mother-in-law’s house and again at mine later was pretty awesome.
We ate too much food, those of us not driving had too many margaritas, and we all stayed up way too late. It was one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time.
I’ll keep the tree and all decorations up until after the 1st of January, and then I’ll start putting my house back in order. My tree is full of special ornaments – a lot of them are homemade by me, others are from my sons, friends, and late family members – so I always give myself that extra week or so to enjoy it before taking it down. The pic on the right is an ornament that my youngest son and his girlfriend gave me. My boy knows his mama well. 😉
New Year’s Eve day will be spent watching Alabama football. We’ll probably ring in 2023 at home, and then I’ll cook a big meal for New Year’s Day.
2022
2022 wasn’t a bad year, per se, but I’m not going to lie… I’ll be happy for it to be behind me.
I wrote a lot this year but only published one book for reasons I go into below.
I spent about three months in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, with my husband who was working there. The area was nice enough, but I was really happy to be back home. The only issue with being home is one of my neighbors who sees my husband as her personal sink fixer/mechanic/animal (s) feeder, among pretty much everything else she can ask him to do. We’ve had issues with neighbors who used us in the past, so we’ve already begun putting a stop to this. Emergencies, sure, call us. Weedeating your entire yard because you don’t want to, or asking him – on his one day off – to take your lawnmower across town for repair? Uh, no, and he said so. She lived there for 5 years before I met her. We’d met her husband a lot of times, but not her. He moved off to work out of state and suddenly she’s constantly asking us – not just my husband – to do things for her.
This woman is not elderly or disabled. I think she’s younger than me, but I suck when it comes to guessing ages. If she was elderly or disabled and genuinely needed help, we’d do it in a heartbeat. She’s not.
We try really hard to be nice to our neighbors as long as they understand that we’re private people and have already gone through the ‘every neighbor on the street trying to use us for whatever reason’ years ago. We won’t be doing it again.
People seem to feel like if you work from home that you do nothing all day long. I’ve been asked to babysit total strangers’ kids simply because I’m home a lot and ‘don’t do anything’ <<<— their words, not mine. I had another neighbor fake a serious illness to have me do things for her not long after we moved here. Every time somebody had problems with their vehicles, they asked my husband – not to help but to fix the problem. The same applies to home repairs, etc.
We don’t have animals for a reason – we travel a lot – but we were asked to feed my neighbor’s – 2 cats and 3 large dogs – over the past 7 days while she visited her husband out of state. It was supposed to be 3 days but here we are on day 7 and she only just got home overnight. I’ve not spoken with her yet, but she and another vehicle arrived at her home in the middle of the night, being loud enough to probably wake up everybody on the street.
The temperatures in my area dropped so low we had single digit wind chills for 3 days straight last week. Her animals were able to get in and out of her house so there was no risk of them freezing, and we made sure they were fine by checking on them several times a day.
It’s pretty sad when you can’t be even remotely friendly to some people without them taking advantage of your kindness. My husband has a hard time not helping people, but I’m fairly certain he’s done helping this woman.
The plan for the Purrs series was to publish each of the 5 books close together. That has obviously changed, and I’m not going to commit to a date when the others will be published. Why? Because the first 2 were not well received, though Indigo hasn’t officially been published yet. In other words, I won’t be publishing anything that I feel won’t be enjoyed by the readers. I’ll likely go ahead and publish Indi and Kei’s story soon, but the others are on hold for now.
Cupid (Love Gods, #2)
Cupid has been long finished and ready to publish. The plan was to put it up for pre-order on November 1, 2022, to be published January 1, 2023. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. I’m aiming for January 10th or so as the publishing date.
If you’ve not read Eros, I’m not sure how much of Cupid will make sense. If you want a free copy of Eros from me before Cupid comes out, ask and I’ll send it to you. I’ll probably even make it free on Amazon for a few days leading up to Cupid being published.
Cupid’s story has been a long time coming, with Eros being published in 2016. It’s a contemporary story based on not-so-contemporary Roman mythology. Eros was based on the Greek mythology story of Eros and Psyche. Cupid’s love interest is Peitho, a Greek god who has never – EVER – been linked to Cupid in mythology. In the myth, Peitho is also a female where my Peit is male.
All of it is a product of my imagination and any similarities to actual Greek or Roman mythology is minimal.
Eros’ mother is Aphrodite. Cupid’s parents are Venus and Mercury. Venus is bad. Mercury is a flamboyant sweetheart. 😉
You can find more info about Eroshere and Cupidhere.
I’ll update when I have a definitive publishing date for Cupid, but I really am aiming for January 10th or so.
Looking Ahead to 2023
Hooper Lake Series
The Hooper Lake series is also on hold still. 3 are complete. The last 2 are not as I’m having problems figuring out how to do a couple of things. Those 2 books will be about twin brothers Eli and Ethan. Eli’s story, while difficult enough, is nowhere near as difficult as writing his twin’s book. There’s abuse in their pasts, and I’m doing everything in my power to write it all with sensitivity. While Eli was able to move forward, Ethan’s pretty much on hold with certain things. Because their pasts are basically the same, I’m considering combining the 2 books into 1. Undecided at this point. I hope to go back into it with fresh eyes soon.
Tentative Christmas 2023 Stories
A while back I started on a new Christmas story. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I didn’t really focus on it much because the Willy books were still too fresh in readers’ minds. I’ve gone back and forth with my best friend about it, which has me eager to go back into the story.
I can’t stress this enough… it will NOT be part of Willy’s world. While I appreciate the love for Willy and the gang, not every book I write can be like that. Willy was a one of a kind character and it’s highly doubtful I’d ever be able to write another one even remotely similar. I’ve received a lot of comments over the years about some of my other books with readers telling me how much they enjoyed the books but they aren’t like Willy. Honestly, they’re not supposed to be.
The new story will focus on two lifelong best friends who are elves working in Santa’s workshop. Santa’s a bit of a perv when it comes to elf porn, though – unlike in Willy – his wife is a sweetheart. There’s a lot more to it, but I won’t be oversharing at the moment.
There’s also another holiday story I’ve kind of been working on. This one is also friends to lovers but different. It’s strictly contemporary. It’s one of those ‘you can go home again’ type of stories. We’ll see how that one plays out. It’s a lot more serious than the elf story.
Pen Names
I’ve been writing under different pen names for a few years now, though I’ve not published anything not under Candi Kay in quite a few years. I may be pulling out some of those completed stories in the coming months. While I’ve never really kept the pen names secret, I also didn’t make any type of announcement or anything about them either. You can check out more info at my Purrs Publishing site here.
Just a warning, though… Bindi Blake’s stories make the silliness of Willy the elf seem nil. The way my best friend and I describe Bindi’s stories are (to be blunt) as weird shit. That’s putting it mildly.
Also, if you’re looking for ‘Candi Kay’ type books, the stories written under those names won’t be for you. Some of my humor is in some of them, and my writing style will always be similar, but the actual stories and characters are much different from what you’ve seen written under Candi Kay.
Character Inspiration
Have you ever wondered if some of your favorite characters are inspired by actual people? Only one time have I ever written a main character based on somebody I knew in the real world. That was Seth from Blake the Rogue Reindeer & His Cocky Human. That was a big fail. Not Seth himself, but the person he was based on is no longer in my life in any capacity. It took a little bit of time to see the character as an individual, not the guy he was based on. Another character, though secondary, Felicity Elfton from Barry the Lonely Reindeer & His Bashful Elf, was inspired greatly by my mother-in-law, though I did make Felicity good later. I actually had to tone down the earlier versions of Felicity because my best friend told me she was too mean. She was right, of course.
She usually is. 🙂
After Seth, I refuse to ever base characters on anybody I know in the real world. I get inspiration, sure, but I’ll never again take another person’s profession, looks, etc. from my life and make them a fictional character in one of my books. As for others, I’ll sometimes see somebody online and say, “Oh, that’s so whoever in whatever book.”
A majority of my fictional characters aren’t inspired by anybody in particular. I see the character in my head and write them accordingly.
The reason I mention this here now is because I’m reading the autobiography of David Garrett, the famous violinist, who I based Sy’s looks on in Eros. I’d never heard of David Garrett before when I saw his pic online and thought how similar he looked to Sy in my head.
Sy is not a violinist, nor is his life like the celebrity’s in any other way, but he has the same long blond hair and other features. He was basically who I saw as I wrote Sy’s description, and who I see every time I go back into his and Eros’ story and now Cupid’s.
Check out David Garrett in one of my favorite videos of his below. He’s brilliant whether he’s playing classical or his crossover stuff.
I don’t know if I ever would’ve discovered his music had I not stumbled upon his photo online while I was writing Eros and Sy’s book. One of my sons heard me saying I wanted to read his autobiography, and it was in my inbox Christmas morning from Amazon.
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What else?
I think that’s about it for now. Every year I say that I hope to be posting more but I end up not doing it. Life just gets in the way sometimes.
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. My birthday is shortly after the 1st of the year so I make goals for the upcoming year starting the next day. Sometimes I do everything I set out to do. Most of the times, not so much. Even so, I don’t beat myself up over what’s not accomplished. My real world is crazy enough. Life is too short to dwell on things.
And on that note, I’ll wish everybody a very happy New Year! If you’ll be celebrating, please stay safe.
Here’s hoping for an amazing 2023!
Candi
P.S. For those who asked, and because I forgot to announce it on here, author Kelsy Kasey won the 2 Purrs books and the $25.00 Amazon gift card from me during On Top Down Under Book Reviews’ 10th year anniversary celebration in October. Kelsy writes some pretty taboo stuff, so if you’re into that type of thing (come on… you know you are… I won’t tell, I promise!), pop on her site, say hi, and check out her books. Tell her I sent you.
Also, another huge congrats to On Top Down Under for 10 years of reviews!
I also wanted to thank all of you who have kept all my Christmas stories alive over the past few holiday seasons. There’s no greater compliment to an author than when readers tell you they reread your books as you guys have with my pervy Willy series. I know Willy is sometimes a pain in the butt – okay he’s always a pain in the butt – but y’all have kept him and my warped version of the North Pole successful since the first book was published back in 2014.
I hope everybody has an amazing Christmas and a very happy New Year. I’ll be spending a few days with my husband, three sons, and their significant others. Two of my sons live and/or work out of state, so I’m excited they’ll both be home soon.
Cupid has been finished for quite some time. I just had other things pop up in my world that prevented me from hitting publish.
The Right Time (very tentative title) – Enemies-to-lovers, both bi characters. This tells the story of Ryan Bailey and Greyson Tanner, two men in their forties who have spent the past 29 years pretending they’re not both head over heels in love with each other. Something happened when they were both 18 that ruined any chances of them being friends, much less more. Ryan’s spent almost three decades wanting to make it right. Grey’s spent almost three decades trying to avoid Ryan at all costs, something made difficult by the fact that they both went into law in the same small town, and that their sons have been the best of friends for over a decade.
The story has been complete for quite some time. I’m now in the serious self-editing stage. Unless something drastic happens between now and then it will definitely be published not long into the new year.
Untitled Cinderfella story – I started this book in 2015 and forgot about it. I went back into it earlier this year. I’m in the process of writing the last chapter now, so the first draft should be complete very soon, depending on life and how I’m feeling. It’s a modern day gay romance Cinderella story. I’m looking forward to finally putting it into the world.
Willy the Kinky Elf short – I started writing this a few months ago but wasn’t able to finish it in time for Christmas 2023. Willy won’t shut up in my head (still), so I thought I’d write a little quickie with an update of what’s been happening in the North Pole since Mrs. Claus was finally banished. Hopefully I can publish it on November 1, 2024.
It was by far one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done in my life. It published, ended up doing much better than I expected as far as sales, and I’ve published many more books since then.
Note that the individually published stories are not free, only the complete series, though they’re all in Kindle Unlimited.
We ate too much food, those of us not driving had too many margaritas, and we all stayed up way too late. It was one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time.
This woman is not elderly or disabled. I think she’s younger than me, but I suck when it comes to guessing ages. If she was elderly or disabled and genuinely needed help, we’d do it in a heartbeat. She’s not.
The new story will focus on two lifelong best friends who are elves working in Santa’s workshop. Santa’s a bit of a perv when it comes to elf porn, though – unlike in Willy – his wife is a sweetheart. There’s a lot more to it, but I won’t be oversharing at the moment.
That happened with Rick Preston 
The reason I mention this here now is because I’m reading the 