Tag: gay teen fiction

The Meaning of Life… or at least names

The Meaning of Life… or at least names

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Okay, this post doesn’t discuss the meaning of life, unless you mean the Monty Python movie, which I will discuss now to say that I thought it was alright. I saw it in like fourth grade after I watched and loved Holy Grail and I didn’t think MOL was as good but I would likely appreciate it more now.

Actually, I do have a guess about the meaning of life: dogs. That’s it. Just dogs. Dogs are totally the meaning of life.

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Anyway, I wanted to discuss name meanings. My book What Love Means came out in April, and April is also the name of a character, the little sister of one of the protagonists. Apparently I like month names because the last name of another character is March.

I wondered what April meant; did it have a cool name meaning? If you’re named April, does your name just mean the fourth month of the year? No, it’s a little better than that. April is latin (isn’t everything?) and means open.

Then I wondered what my other characters names meant? Brendan is the other little sibling in the book and his name means brave.

Calvin goes by Cal. He got the short end of the stick. His name means bald, but I promise he has hair.

Max means greatest. I think Max would be very pleased with his name meaning and Cal’s while Cal would not be amused.

What Love Means is available on Amazon. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

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Max                                                                                                           

Bodies filled the decrepit, rusting building while the chilly night air had many openings to invade the space inside the run-down walls of the old warehouse. Maybe that was why several empty barrels held fires or maybe that was for ambiance. It didn’t seem like this forgotten place would have any electricity, yet someone somehow got music playing.

People cheered and danced while the booze flowed liberally. Then glow sticks appeared. This was going to turn into a rave. I fucking hated raves. I missed the days when it was just me and the guys breaking into some ramshackle place that no one even used or cared about but went through the trouble of locking anyway.

And now snobs infiltrated the party, their stares boring into me – the scowling guy who filled out his leather jacket – with disdain and grudging interest. Rich kids were all the same, with critical eyes and upturned noses, both envious and judging of those below them. Good to fool around with sometimes but that was all they were good for.

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GAY YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE GIVEAWAY

GAY YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE GIVEAWAY

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

519qmzqjmml-_sy346_L-O-V-E is a YA romance novel about two kids who used to compete in spelling bees and have grown up to become very different teenagers. A FREE excerpt is available on Amazon, and it’s around 85 pages. It provides a good introduction to the characters and their world. The full book will be released in April.

Book launches aren’t complete without a little fanfare. To that end, I’ve started a contest. I chose 10 of the best books in the LGBT young adult fiction category to give away. There’s plenty of time to enter and invite others for your chance to win these e-books.

I went fairly simple as it’s my first time trying this, but there’s still lots of goodies. I picked contemporary YA novels with gay romances. We’ve got some bad boys, opposites attracting and boys from different worlds, which are all present in my upcoming book, L-O-V-E. There also many popular picks in the genre. These books should appeal to everyone who likes M/M stories featuring young/new adults.

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One winner gets all ten e-books. I’m tempted to give away smaller prizes, like maybe a choice of five books to someone and one or two books to multiple people. I think that will depend on how many people join, so please enter and promote the contest. Also, I’m trying out different covers for L-O-V-E, so tell me what you think of this one.

Freebies

Freebies

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The weather is grey and gloomy today, perfect for curling up with a good book. However, I’m still on the clock right now. I didn’t let the dreary atmosphere stop me though, I’ve been busy. I put two books up on Instafreebie, which means, as the site’s title implies, the books are free. So if it’s cold and dark where you live too, here are two reading options while you keep warm inside.

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One is L-O-V-E, a teen romance featuring a bad boy and his preppy opposite who hate each other but can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. There’s feuding, spelling bees and sexual tension, unresolved and otherwise. The sample on Instafreebie is four chapters from the beginning.

Young fitness model is posing in studio

The other story, Entirely Too Gay, is a fun, silly book about a guy joining the wrestling team to get closer to his crush. The whole book is free as a thank you to people who sign up for my mailing list. The first half of the story is also available without signing up so that you can sample it first and see if you like it.

At the moment, you don’t even have to enter your email to get L-O-V-E, but of course you can if you like it so that you’ll know when the full version is released and you can get a copy for free. I might change it soon so that an email is required, for science, just to see if there’s a difference. This self-publishing thing means that I get to experiment. I heard a fellow author say that’s one of the perks of being an indie author, and he’s probably right.  I’d thought the perks were getting to work in your pajamas and taking breaks to play with your dog, but the freedom to try different things is a pretty good perk too.

One of the things I’m going to be fiddling with is covers for L-O-V-E, and this is the first version. So if you like it, hate it or have any feelings about it at all, let me know.