Category: Blog Post

Celebrating 10 Years of Publishing

Today is a big day for me. Exactly 10 years ago I took one of the biggest chances of my life and hit publish on one of my stories for the first time. There aren’t enough words to describe how terrified I was to put myself out into the world like that. I’d been writing for years, but I never shared my stories with anybody – until Taking Lance. I allowed my best friend to read it, and the rest (as they say) is history. I’ll forever credit her for every single book I ever publish. If she ever gets tired of me and dumps my butt as a friend, I’ll still credit her for everything. 😉

Goodreads says I’ve published 25 books total since then, but I didn’t manually count them before typing this. That doesn’t even count my pen name stories that I’ve published.

My original plan to celebrate my publishing anniversary was to write a quick update telling the readers what Rick and Lance are up to these days. Unfortunately, a serious health issue prevented that. I’ve recently spent close to a week in the hospital, with 3 of those in ICU. While I won’t say I’m 100% right now, I will say that I’m doing better. I could say it wasn’t anything serious, but it damn sure could’ve been. I had a bad internal infection that could’ve easily turned into sepsis had my husband and doctor not insisted I go to the emergency room when I did. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the gist of it.

I’m a very private person when it comes to my real world. I’ve discussed my ADHD and migraines in blog posts, but there are other issues I’ve never gone into. I’m happy to finally have a diagnosis, but I’m also frustrated because there’s no cure or real treatment for it. It’s not fatal, just frustrating to have to live with. Even so, I’m doing better now thanks to the hospital stay, antibiotics, and my husband and sons who have taken good care of me.

With that being said, no Taking Lance update. I had really hoped to do something special to celebrate my 10th year, but unfortunately that’s off the table for now. What I’ve done instead is make the Taking Lance complete series available free on Amazon today only.

I can’t tell you how much I adore Rick and Lance, Lance especially. Those were my first guys, and they’ll forever hold a special place in my heart. Just note that their stories were written before I started writing M/M almost exclusively, so don’t go into these books expecting more of the same. It’s not there. There’s a massive age gap, and lots of sex with others on-page. Rick is bisexual and hooks up with quite a few women and men before he and Lance are exclusive – often at the same time. Once they’re exclusive, no others are brought into their beds.

If that’s not your cup of tea, please don’t read it. Shoot me a message and I’ll gladly send you an e-copy of one of my other books, your choice. This does not apply to the Purrs series that has been put on hold.

Thank you to every reader who has picked up not just the Taking Lance series but any of my books. Without you I wouldn’t still be doing what I love a decade later.

Thank you BIG to my best friend who fell in love with Rick Preston long before I did. 😉 Lots of love, my friend. Also, a big thanks to my husband who may not understand it, but he supports it anyway.

You can find the link for the full series on Amazon here. Remember, it’s free today only.

Until next time,

Candi

Happy 2024!

As I get older, it seems that time goes by much faster. I feel that way every time we ring in a new year. This one is no different.

2023 wasn’t the worst year for me, but it wasn’t the best either. Health issues had me putting a lot of things on hold whether I wanted to or not. Even so, I’m determined to make the best of 2024.

I wrote quite a bit in early 2023, but I had to walk away due to the above-mentioned health issues. Now I’ve been going back into all those stories and finishing first drafts, and cleaning up the ones that are complete. There’s also Cupid, that I’ve been dragging my feet on for way too long. I honestly don’t know why I’ve held off on publishing it when it’s literally been complete and ready to go for a couple of years now. I think it’s because Eros was published in 2016, and this is a sequel of sorts.

It will definitely be published on February 1st. I’ll be making Eros free on Amazon for a day or two first so readers can get familiar with the characters and back stories. Unlike Eros that was one of my shorter stories, 73 Kindle pages, Cupid has approximately 44,000 words.

As much as I’d like to say that Cupid is a standalone, I highly suggest reading Eros first. Eros is in this one a lot, as is his mother, Aphrodite.

I’ll gladly send e-copies of Eros to anybody who asks before I do the free promo on Amazon.

I also have ARCs of Cupid for those who are interested.

I did some traveling during the year, something I’ve missed. My husband and I spent time in a lot of states we’d never been to before. It was seriously one of the best road trips we’ve ever taken.

Since that trip, I’ve read a lot. What I read varies. I love reading gay romance and erotica, but I’m also big on true crime and the occasional horror story.

Christmas was fun. My oldest son and his longtime girlfriend visited from the other side of the country. Unfortunately, my son had COVID without realizing it until he got here. He’s fine, and none of us got it, but I felt bad for him. It was his first time home in a long while, and he didn’t feel well. I was also able to spend time with my other two sons, another of which flew home from his out of state job.

Do you guys do New Year’s resolutions? My birthday is not long after January 1st – it was last week, actually – so I have goals that I hope to accomplish every year, but I’d never call them resolutions.

My writing goal for 2024 is to get off my butt and actually publish a lot of the books I’ve had hiding away for so long.

You can see what I’m working on for this year in my last blog post here.

The only thing I’d add to that is the Hooper Lake series, that I went back into a week or so ago. A few things have clicked that didn’t before, so I’m eager to finish it. It’s five books about five adopted brothers, two of them identical twins. It’s the twins’ stories that gave me fits. They went through a lot as children, things I have to be super sensitive about in how I write them.

Willy and Randy from the Willy the Kinky Elf series will celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2024, as will Rick and Lance from the Taking Lance series. Rick and Lance were my first guys in my first published story in April of 2014. It’s doubtful I’ll revisit Rick and Lance’s world to celebrate, but I will definitely be writing a quick short with Willy and Randy. I’ve really missed those guys, and I’ve been asked to give an update on my version of the North Pole since the series ended over three years ago.

I’m always writing something. If I was asked right now, I’d never be able to throw out a number of how many completed and unpublished stories I have on my computer, nor could I ever begin to count how many works-in-progress are on there.

I have ADHD, something I’ve blogged about in the past. While I do take meds for it, it’s still there. My mind tends to wander – and I seriously hate rereading what I’ve written sometimes – so I tend to bounce from one WIP to another. When I finish a story, I push it to the side and go back to others I’m working on, or I’ll start something new. In my head, I know I need to publish the completed ones before moving on to the others, but my brain’s just not that disciplined. I wish it was.

My #1 writing goal for 2024 is to try to focus on one story at a time. Don’t get me wrong, walking away for a little while is always good. It’s good because when I go back into a story, it’s with fresher eyes, and I see things I didn’t see before. Unfortunately, I bounce from one to another, as I said. And I’m SO critical of my own writing. I don’t have beta readers or anything like that. Usually only my best friend reads my stuff before it’s put out in the world. Sometimes she’s not able, so I’m the only one to see it before it’s published. That’s a lot of pressure.

After Cupid is published, I’ll be focusing on The Right Time (tentative title), and hoping to get it published soon. When I can mark that one off, I’ll hopefully move onto another completed one. I may even make a list and pick one at a time to work on. Wish me luck because I suck when it comes to focusing on ONE THING for too long, in this case being my completed and unpublished books.

Those who have ADHD understand. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. The worst part of my ADHD is usually hyperfocus, but it doesn’t always apply when it comes to my writing. That’s a good thing because then I’d literally never get anything else done.

What’s the weather like where you are? Ours is all over the place. One day we’ll have the A/C on, and the next, we may be running the heater. This week will bring temps in the teens, something my part of the country doesn’t have very often. Hopefully we’ll be back to the warm temps in the coming days.

One thing I can’t not mention is the retirement of Alabama Crimson Tide’s beloved coach, Nick Saban. We fans may have expected it, but that by no means made it easier. He took our program to heights we will likely never see again. Here’s hoping that Coach DeBoer, our new head coach, has a good run. I couldn’t imagine the pressure of stepping in after the (literal) greatest to ever coach the game. True fans will support him. We’ll also remember the players who felt that $$$ was more important than tradition. There’s looking out for yourself, and there’s what one former player in particular did. To those in the former, I honestly wish them well. To the last guy, I hope he sees that the grass isn’t always greener.

There are so many people celebrating our coach’s retirement more than they’re celebrating their own teams. I guess that says a lot about how great of a coach he is.

I hope you all had the best of holidays, and I’m hoping you all have the best 2024!

Until next time,

Candi

 

Happy Holidays!

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.

Until next time,

Candi

Upcoming Cupid Pre-Order, Updates, This & That

Hi, all.

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 Eros here, and the blurb for Cupid here. 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.

 

Happy Publishing Anniversary to Me! and Taking Lance Giveaway

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.

~~~~~

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.

The full series includes:

Taking Lance (#1)
Keeping Lance (#2)
Being Karen (#2.5)
Finding Travis (#3)
Trusting Lance (#3.5)
Marrying Lance (#3.75)
Finding Alex (#4)

~~~~~

Note that the individually published stories are not free, only the complete series, though they’re all in Kindle Unlimited.

Thank again for being a part of my publishing journey. Here’s to another 9 years!

Until next time,

Candi Kay

Change of Plans

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 Cupid here. 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.

 

Bye 2022!

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.

Now to some updates.

Purrs Series

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 Eros here and Cupid here.

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.”

That happened with Rick Preston (Taking Lance series), Alex and Dean (Finding Alex in Taking Lance series), Randy (Willy the Kinky Elf series), Eros and Sy (Eros and Cupid, Love Gods series), and Dylan and Cole (from Dylan the Bad Boy Reindeer & His Virtuous Mate). I may add a ‘character inspiration’ page on this site with a link at the top of the home page. A lot of readers like imagining their characters a certain way and that’s fine, but some readers are curious.

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.

~~~ 

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!

Happy Holidays!

Can you guys believe 2022 is almost over? I swear it feels like the older I get, the faster the years fly by. It seems like only yesterday that we were ringing in the New Year. And now it’s a little over a week until Christmas.

For the first time in the history of well, me, I got all my Christmas shopping done early. Wrapping and shipping the ones I need to wrap and ship are another story altogether. For my best friend’s gifts almost every holiday, I always see something else I want to get her, so that causes delays. That’s the case again this year, along with me having to break up a set of something because of customs restrictions in her country. Hopefully this package will arrive in its original condition, not destroyed in transit as the one was for Christmas 2021.

I’m still fighting USPS on that one.

For Christmas we’ll do the ‘go to my in-laws thing’ for lunch that will no doubt be delayed by my husband’s aunt who shows up late on purpose EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY. Who cares that I have to leave and cook for my family, right? I’ll be taking a separate vehicle this year. If she’s not there early enough, I’m out of there to prepare for our Christmas evening.

My late mother didn’t believe in change when it came to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Any variation in menu, guest list, or anything else would cause her to have a meltdown, and then she’d pout like a child throughout the entire holiday. God forbid one of my sons actually invited a friend or two over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. She even got pissy if my sons’ girlfriends came. I bought all the ingredients and did all the cooking 99.9% of the time. It was almost always hosted at my house, which was stressful in itself. I, my husband, and my sons invited whoever we wanted to invite.

My mother was not the nicest person in the world.

The first Christmas after Mom’s death, my family did Mexican food, something that I never would’ve heard the end of before. I stopped cooking for extended family members who may or may not even bother to show up. It’s now my husband, my sons, their significant others, and anybody else who wants to stop by. It’s much more laid back than at my mother-in-law’s place, and I’m able to relax for a little while. Relaxing wasn’t something I could do when my mother was still alive. We tend to switch up the menu on occasion, but we always have margaritas. 🙂 It’s nice. I’ve still not finalized the menu for this year – something that’s unheard of for most southern mamas this close to Christmas – but I’m getting there.

Do you guys have any special traditions? Have you created new ones as the years went by?

I miss the traditions I had with my late sisters. My middle sister had childlike excitement for Christmas up until she died. It didn’t matter how old she was, she was still as excited about Christmas morning as she had been as a little girl. But then again, this is the same person who grew up insisting on always eating her dessert first so she didn’t miss out on the good stuff because she was too full. 😉

~~~

How weird for me to not be publishing a Christmas story this year. For eight straight years I published at least one. There was the entire Willy series (7 books, plus some short freebies), Kane the Fake Elf & His Sexy Mall Santa that was published at the same time one of the Willy books was, and Christmas in Holly Pines that I published last Christmas.

It felt really strange when November 1st came around and it wasn’t a release day for me. I’m not going to lie. I missed the hell out of it. I may just have to start doing the occasional Willy freebie. I did actually start on another Christmas story a couple of years ago. It’s not in the Willy world, and it’s a friends to lovers story. I didn’t want to work too hard on it with Willy and the gang still on a lot of reading minds. Maybe I’ll dig it out and have it ready for next year.

Speaking of Willy… thank you to all the readers who keep the series going strong this time every single year. The books are used in a lot of reading challenges on Goodreads, which means more to me than you’ll ever know. I never would’ve dreamed that my kinky little elf series would still be going strong 8 years later. So, thank you all again.

It’s unlikely that I’ll pop back on here before Christmas, so I’ll just go ahead and tell you guys that I hope you have a fantastic holiday! And if you’re on the naughty list, don’t sweat it. We have more fun anyway. 🙂

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with my end of the year post, with updates on Cupid and the Purrs series.

Until next time,

Candi

‘Willy’ Series in Kindle Unlimited, Purrs & Cupid Updates

First, thanks to all who have read Silas (Purrs, #1). It’s hard starting a new series. Hell, it’s hard for me to get anything published. There are times I publish books that have not been read by ANYBODY but me. That’s the Purrs series. My best friend is very busy so she’s not always able to read my stuff until close to or after the publishing date.

I’ve been doing this long enough to know I need to get beta readers. I’m just weird, I guess. If you knew me in the real world, you’d definitely agree with the weird thing. 😉

The rest of the Purrs series will be spread out over a period of weeks. Because the books are all connected, certain details that need to be elaborated on in one book might not be cleared up until the next one or later.

I’ll use Keiran, main character in Indigo (Purrs, #2), as an example. It’s not explained in the first book why he mostly keeps his relationship with Indi a secret from his brother, Stuart. It is explained in his own book.

It’s in the blurbs, but I’m stressing it again. The Purrs series cannot be read as standalones. Each story pretty much continues until the last one ends.

You can check out the blurbs for all the books in the series here. Just scroll down to the Purrs series and click each individual book to get the info.

Books Now in or Coming to Kindle Unlimited

My last two releases, Christmas in Holly Pines and Silas, were both automatically put in KU when they were published. I think Eros and the Taking Lance series are the only others exclusive to Amazon.

I’ve been asked by readers to put the Willy the Kinky Elf & His Bad-Ass Reindeer series in Kindle Unlimited over the past few years. I wanted to wait until the series was complete. It’s been a couple of years, so I pulled all the books from the other sites and they’re now exclusive on Amazon in KU. Nothing changed other than formatting and a few minor things (mostly punctuation) here and there.

I also plan to pull Kane the Fake Elf & His Sexy Mall Santa from the other sites and put it in KU as well. As for all my others, they’re up in the air for now.

Cupid (Love Gods, #2)

Cupid is the 2nd book in the Love Gods series, with Eros being the first one. While Cupid has his own love interest, the book is a continuation of sorts of Eros. All the major players from Eros (Eros, Sy/Psyche, Aphrodite) are in Cupid. There are also a few new characters introduced (Venus, Mercury, and most imporantly – Peitho). Venus is evil. Mercury is a sweetheart. Peitho is a hot and sexy Greek. 😉

If you’ve not read Eros and want to, send me a message. I’ll send you a free e-copy. Or you can get it from Amazon. It’s in Kindle Unlimited. It’s highly suggested that you read Eros before you read Cupid or you might be confused.

Cupid will be available for pre-order in the coming days, to be published on January 1st, 2023.

You can check out the blurb here.

I think that’s it for now. I’ll update with more info on Indigo and Cupid when I have it.

Until next time,

Candi

 

New Series! Silas (Purrs, #1) Up For Pre-Order

My late sister loved cats. If she saw one, she had to love on it. She didn’t just love on them. She took them in, got them spayed or neutered, and made sure they had everything they needed. We always jokingly called her our resident cat lady. Trust me, that wasn’t an insult to her. She was perfectly happy with the title.

Back in February around her birthday, a story idea popped in my head about shifters. When we think shifters it’s normally the bigger animals like Santa’s reindeer in my Willy the Kinky Elf series, or maybe bears or lions. We definitely don’t think common house cats, though the shifters in the Purrs series would definitely take offense to being called common anything. 😉

Once the idea took hold, I ran with it. In under 3 weeks I’d written an entire 5-book series. Well, 5 and a half because of a quickie short that’s thrown in at the end of the last book. These aren’t 80,000+ word novels. The stories in the Purrs series range from 20,000 to 32,000 words. In other words, quick novellas, so things happen fairly quickly for all the couples.

The series centers around Finian Kitt and his five adult children – Lyn, Cosmo, Silas, Indigo, and Larkin – and their successful cat-themed bar, Purrs. In this world of shifters, there are fated mates, though not many find theirs in their lifetimes. The world’s a big place. Finian met his once, but they aren’t together for reasons neither man talks about.

The first book in the series is Silas (Purrs, #1) about Silas Kitt and Stuart Parker. Silas has been living under Stu’s roof for a year – as Stu’s pet cat. It’s not like Si can just blurt out that he’s actually a cat shifter and that Stuart is his fated mate. So, what to do? Silas has already waited a year. He knows he can’t keep it going the way it has been.

It’s taken out of his hands one night when Silas’ very human side just happens to bump into Stuart at Purrs.

There’s a little bit of humor – Silas is a total cat diva – some insta-love that comes with fated mates, and family.

Which brings me to trigger warnings for the entire series. Below is in the very front of each book –

When Keiran Parker (main character in Indigo, secondary in Silas) was just shy of fifteen, something happened involving a teacher. Some readers may be triggered by this. While no graphic details are on-page, the topic is still discussed in Silas (Purrs, #1) and Indigo (Purrs, #2).

There is some discussion about child and animal neglect in Cosmo (Purrs, #3), Larkin (Purrs, #4), and Finian (Purrs, #5). Although nothing is described in detail, readers should be aware of it.

As for Lyn’s story (#5.5), there’s nothing triggering, nor does the story have to be read at all as far as the series is concerned. It’s little more than a F/F sex scene when Lyn finds her mate.

Silas (#1) is up for pre-order on Amazon, with a publishing date of October 1st. With each story being ready, they’ll be staggered over a period of weeks as far as their publishing dates.

The Purrs books can not be read as standalones. While each couple gets their HEA at the end of their individual books, the story as a whole plays out until the very end.

I hope you all enjoy my little cat-themed series that was written solely to honor my sweet, late sister. Something tells me she’d be tickled to death, especially with me using PURRS as the title and name of club.

You can pre-order Silas from Amazon. It will also be available in Kindle Unlimited.

You can add it on Goodreads here.

Also, I’ll be doing an e-book giveaway of Silas and an ARC of Indigo, the 2nd book in the series, at On Top Down Under Book Reviews in October to celebrate 10 years of On Top Down Under. I’ll also be throwing in a $25.00 Amazon gift card as part of the giveaway. I’ll update on that when I have more info.

I hope you guys enjoy my little cat-themed series. It was a blast to write.

Blurb –

Stuart Parker is looking for love. He goes on the occasional date, but none of the guys want to stick around. If they bother to show up at all. On the rare times a date has come to his house, Stuart’s diva cat didn’t exactly give him a warm welcome. He swears the cat is purposefully sabotaging his love life by hissing, growling, and even hiding his condoms and new underwear.

Si isn’t your typical house cat. He’s been trying to work up the courage to tell Stu the truth for a year, but how do you tell your human mate that you’re not the feline that you appear to be?

After being stood up yet again, Stuart’s brother Keiran takes him to Purrs nightclub, where Kei is the assistant manager. When Stu meets one of the club’s owners, Silas, he’s struck still. Besides being the most beautiful man Stuart has ever seen, the collar he’s wearing looks an awful lot like the one Stu designed for his cat.

You know, his cat named Si.

Life suddenly takes a drastic turn for both human and feline. Has that elusive happily-ever-after Stuart’s been searching for been right under his nose the whole time? Will he run in the opposite direction when he discovers who his pet really is?

Each book in the Purrs series takes place during the same time period. Details from one story may be expanded upon in another. Some events in a previous book might not have taken place yet in a subsequent book.

The books in the Purrs series cannot be read as standalones. While each one focuses on a new couple, their stories are all linked to the series as a whole. Some secondary characters may seem insignificant in one book and be quite significant in another.

Note that past sexual abuse is discussed briefly in Silas (Purrs, #1). While nothing is on-page, this may trigger some readers. Keep this in mind before downloading the book.