Tag: ya lit

What Love Means Excerpt

What Love Means Excerpt

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This is an excerpt from What Love Means, an MM romance. You can get it on sale now for 99 cents!

Cal

Maybe Max and I could spend time together in some unused corner of the library. I enjoyed that particular fantasy of mine a great deal, perhaps I could make it a reality.

Except Max texted me that he had to go run an errand. Damn. The brusque tone and to the point message made me frown at my phone for a moment. We were dating now. Was that any way to treat his boyfriend? It upset me until I realized that was just Max. We could be engaged and head over heels and he would still probably send a text like that. He was Mr. Too-Cool-To-Express-Emotions-Correctly-Like-A-Normal-Person, which meant we’d have to take my name because his surname was even longer than mine… That line of thought got off track.

I saw a familiar dark head bent over a nearby computer. Okay, it wasn’t the dark locks I noticed. He’d taken off his jacket, but I still recognized those shoulders. I really liked his shoulders.

He said he had an errand to run but was actually in this secluded section of the library. There were just a few computers here as most of them were at the front. Was he doing something embarrassing like looking at porn? That seemed stupid when he had access to a real, willing guy.

I wanted to catch him. I managed to get closer without alerting him to my presence, but when I saw what was on the screen, I spoke without meaning to. “That’s a college application.”

He didn’t jump. Damn, that would have been fun to see. Instead, his shoulders tightened and he wore a defensive scowl on his face when he slowly turned to look at me.

Nope, I couldn’t process this. “You’re actually applying to college?” I wondered. He crossed his arms and didn’t look at me. “No way, you couldn’t.” His annoyed eyes met mine then. “I mean, you’re capable. Theoretically. It’s just…” I paused. Surely there was a diplomatic way to say this? Nope, I just couldn’t see it. “You filled out an application, listed your activities and grades, and will wait to hear back from them?

Max sighed. “Isn’t that how it works?”

“With most people,” I nodded. “I just can’t imagine you earnestly filling out why you want to attend a school with a response other than ‘screw you’ or ‘none of your business.’”

“You don’t think they’ll appreciate that?”

My brain didn’t have words to adequately process my horror, so a series of high-pitched shrieking filled my head.

Max finally relaxed and laughed. “It’s a freaking joke, oh my god. Your face.”

I smoothed my shirt reflexively and tried to send him a prim look. “I know, I knew that.” My face wrinkled. “But even the thought of it—” I stopped, shuddering, and his lips quirked up in a tiny smile.

Get it here!

To bi or not to bi? That is the question

To bi or not to bi? That is the question

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A snippet from my book One Little Lie that is available now. Enjoy!

Luke

I didn’t like guys. People thinking of me as gay still felt uncomfortable. It was a label that didn’t quite fit. I used the word in my head sometimes because it was better than saying homosexual or something, but I hated hearing it out loud in reference to me. Not that there was anything wrong with being gay! My boyfriend was gay. But me? I didn’t feel gay. I didn’t think I was gay.

Okay, I did have a boyfriend.

And I liked my boyfriend. I could never admit he was good looking to his face because he would become more insufferable than he already was, but I was attracted to him. I never thought long limbs, a flat chest, and decidedly masculine hands were a turn on before, but Ryan was different. And there was nothing girly about him even if he once wore heels and a cheerleading outfit.

I liked his body, every masculine inch of it. But other guys? Gross.

I guess my best friend Zach was pretty or whatever. I could admit that. It didn’t mean I was attracted to him, just that I had eyes. Anyone could see that. Whatever. I just wasn’t attracted to guys… though, okay, maybe I wasn’t terribly attracted to girls at the moment either.

All I could say was that guys didn’t sound appealing and girls didn’t sound appealing, but man, now that I’d mentioned Ryan in a girl’s cheerleading uniform? I was definitely into it. So, that was, what, like a tie?

Maybe my fondness for that visual didn’t say anything about me. Except that I was pretty into the person I was currently seeing and no one else measured up. I’d never felt that way about anyone before, so it was both thrilling and terrifying. Figuring out my sexuality on top of everything else was really difficult.

Did liking one guy make me gay? It felt like everyone in this town thought the answer was yes, but I still wasn’t sure. So yeah. When I told my parents, I didn’t want to be in this this unnamed, unknown place. I wanted to have answers for them.

Right now? I had none.

 

Treat Yo’ Self

Treat Yo’ Self

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

December is the time when most people start shopping for others as various holidays encourage gift giving and thinking of your fellow man and peace on earth and whatever. That’s great and all but don’t forget about yourself.

I’m just a concerned citizen with no conflict of interest or agenda of my own, telling you to think of you. How might you do this, you ask? I’m happy to tell you!

tys
This has nothing to do with anything really, I just love Parks and Rec.

In case you want to treat yo self (shout to Tom and Donna), here’s a couple suggestions that are on sale this week:

What Love Means – A prep school brat and a biker have a complicated past and an uncertain future. Plus, spelling bees!

Then There’s You – Kissing in costumes always makes things difficult.

Both these stories are on sale from Dec. 10- 17th. Get them for 99 cents while you can!

Not only do you get great books to read while it’s snowing and you’re stuck indoors, but they’re on sale so you can still get presents for others and yourself.

A (Not) Christmas (Not) Miracle

A (Not) Christmas (Not) Miracle

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi, how are you? Did you say cold? I’m going to assume you said cold. Me too! Yes, there are places that don’t get freezing and snowy this time of year, but I don’t want to think about that since I’m not in one of those places.

This is just a quick post to say that exciting things will be happening soon. Starting next week, there will be sales on F.N. Manning books lasting throughout the month. Every book will on sale at one point except for Entirely Too Gay.

Why isn’t ETG on sale? Because it’s already free and you can get it here.

One Little Lie

One Little Lie

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I am in the zone today. What should I write about to introduce this post? I said to myself. Was there anything interesting that happened today? Did I hear about anything worth sharing? I thought about it, or I tried, but there were no thoughts in my head.

All I did today is write. All that was in my head was related to writing. So good for me, being productive, but that doesn’t give me much to go off of.

Enough about me, what about you? Did you get a lot accomplished today? Then it’s time for a break. If you didn’t, then it’s time for a break anyway. I have found that it is always time for a break, which is why I’ve had problems being productive in the past. Anyway, go check out One Little Lie.

newollieMergedLuke Chambers isn’t gay.

His boyfriend might disagree. His girlfriend would definitely disagree. Wait, let’s back up.

Bisexual. He’s supposed to be bisexual. Except there’s a few problems with that:
He never liked a guy before Ryan.
He doesn’t like that drag race show every gay person he knows watches.
He has zero fashion sense.

Okay maybe that last one doesn’t matter. And he only knows, like, four gay people. Five if you count him. Do you count him? Luke has no idea.

Here’s what he does know:

He likes Ryan Miller.
His parents are suspicious of how much time he spends with Ryan.
He agreed to help Lydia and now he has a boyfriend and a fake girlfriend.

What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, probably.

Luke wants to figure things out. He wants to know what to tell his parents. And he wants to help his friend Lydia. Most of all, he wants to keep dating Ryan. He wants to do all these things at the same time but doesn’t know if he can.

There’s a shelf life to this closeted thing. He just doesn’t know if he can come out. Can he can be himself on his own terms and still have Ryan?

~~~

One Little Lie is a humorous coming of age tale that includes snark, shenanigans, and a developing relationship between a jock and a nerd. This YA novel featuring an MM romance is the second in a series but can be read on its own.

Quote

Quote

by fnmanning ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A quote from Just a Dumb Surfer Dude: about great (or not so great) literature.

“What books did you read this week?”

“Catcher in the Rye. Thinking about becoming a totally ungrateful punk who swears a lot, then run off to New York City with a completely inadequate sum of money…. I expect you to be waiting by the phone to rescue me when I somewhat come to my senses. But I’ll still be an ungrateful little brat after all that. Don’t expect much of a redemption arc in my story…. except maybe to give the spoiled little brat in everyone a reason to say ‘yeah, somebody understands me’.”

—

(Yes, I don’t like Catcher in the Rye.)