To celebrate Cupid (Love Gods, #2) being published on February 1st, Eros (Love Gods, #1) will be free on Amazon on January 31st and February 1st. It’s also in Kindle Unlimited. Cupid will be in KU as well. You can find Cupid on Amazon here if you’re interested in pre-ordering.
Cupid takes place a year after Eros ends. With Eros and his man (Psyche/Sy) being important to Cupid’s story, they are in it quite a bit, as is Aphrodite. For that reason, I would consider Cupid’s book as more of a continuation of the first book. Other than Peit, a couple of other new characters are introduced in Cupid, Mercury and Venus. Venus is… well, let’s just say she doesn’t have a nice bone in her body. As for Mercury, he’s amazing and flamboyant, and I absolutely adore him. Maybe someday he’ll get his own story. I had way too much fun writing him to let him go. No doubt he’ll definitely be demanding more page time.
Cupid is loosely based on the Roman mythological god Cupid. I stress the word loosely, as this is a contemporary story with the main characters both being male instead of male and female. A lot of liberties were taken in my interpretations of Cupid and Peitho, the secondary characters – including Eros, Psyche, Aphrodite, Venus, and Mercury – and the story behind them. Nowhere in my research does it even hint that Peitho (a Greek goddess) and Cupid were an item. That’s simply a product of my imagination.
In my fictional world Cupid and Eros are two separate gods.
Any similarities to actual Roman or Greek mythology are minimal.
While I’ve always had a fascination with Roman and Greek mythology, I am by no means an expert.
I hope you enjoy Cupid and Peit’s story!
Check out the blurb below.
Cupid is the Roman god of love and desire. Unlike his Greek counterpart, Cupid only shoots his magical arrows for true love. Their differences don’t end there. In contrast to Eros, who hooked up with any guy he could before being reunited with his beloved Psyche, Cupid is waiting for his happily-ever-after, not a happy-for-right-now. Despite the challenges of remaining a virgin for more years than he’s willing to admit, he refuses to take that final step until he meets his one and only. Finding that forever love, however, is a challenge. Cupid could easily find a man for sex, but the one he secretly desires most is forbidden.
Peitho is the Greek god of seduction and persuasion. Bringing others together is a piece of cake. Helping himself get the man he loves is a different matter altogether. Not only is Cupid Roman, but swatting him like a flying insect during their first meeting didn’t exactly win Peit any favors. In Peit’s defense, he had no clue it was Cupid at the time, and Cupid is quite small in his true form. Nevertheless, the human version of the hot god made it clear he was not interested, not to mention that Cupid’s all about following rules. Hooking up with Peit would be breaking the biggest one of all.
Everything changes when Eros asks Cupid to take on one of his assignments, which he rightfully declines. Despite knowing it could cause major problems, Eros can’t be swayed. When Peit is enlisted to help change Cupid’s mind, Cupid’s well-ordered world is suddenly thrown into chaos. It’s one thing to be tempted by the gorgeous Greek god. To fall in love with him could be disastrous.
Cupidis book two of the Love Gods series. Although Cupidcould possibly be read as a standalone, it’s best to read Erosfirst to understand the backstories and secondary characters who are key to Cupid’s story.
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!
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!
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.
Cupid is loosely based on the Roman mythological god Cupid. I stress the word loosely, as this is a contemporary story with the main characters both being male instead of male and female. A lot of liberties were taken in my interpretations of Cupid and Peitho, the secondary characters – including Eros, Psyche, Aphrodite, Venus, and Mercury – and the story behind them. Nowhere in my research does it even hint that Peitho (a Greek goddess) and Cupid were an item. That’s simply a product of my imagination.
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.
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.
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 
First, thanks to all who have read Silas 
I’ve been asked by readers to put the