I had intended to have read and reviewed Eden Winter's Diversion for this post but, with everything else, I haven't quite finished the book. I'll finish it this weekend, think about it for a couple of days and then write the review for next week, so look for that then.

I've been very busy with my day job so pretty much everything else is put aside until I clear the decks there a little. The centenary of the beginning of WWI is coming up and I've been organising an exhibition for it. It's a huge undertaking, liaising with everyone who's contributing and deciding what gets displayed and where, but I've been enjoying it.

I've also been working on my next novel in the snippets of time available to me this week. I had a problem where there were huge gaps in the plot during the first ten chapters and I thought I had to write completely new chapters to slot in between them. I found this week as I was going over the GMC for each major character and re-checking the scene map, that I have the plot elements all there where they're supposed to be. Right now, though, they're just scenes. I have to expand them all to chapters, adding the drama and backstory that's currently missing. So, there's still a lot of writing to do, but it's not as bad as I thought it was to start with. I'm helping a cousin move house today, but tomorrow is planned as a writing day at the library, so I'll get one of those scenes expanded to a chapter then. ... and just that sentence has taken the hard work of novel-writing straight up to *fun*.

Click here to buy the book: ebook, paperback

Author Bio:

Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough.  In exchange, they let her sleep once in a while. Home is Portland, Oregon, where the weather is like your favorite hard-case writing buddy who won’t let you get away with taking too many days off, and in some places you can be as weird as you are without fear.  As an out and proud bisexual and life-long weird-o, she thinks that last part is pretty cool.

Author Links:

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/CharleyDescoteauxAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharleyDescote

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/charleydescote/

Cover Artist: D.W. Skinner (photographer), Paul Richmond (designer)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Blurb(s):

All he ever wanted was to be a normal guy….

Phil Brask spends his days in the basement of his mentor's Victorian home, converting legal documents into electronic format. When the pipe feeding the water heater bursts, Lee Redding arrives in the plumber’s truck and draws Phil away from the narrow focus of his computer and camera lens. Lee gives Phil hope for a life beyond the walls he’s constructed using the nesting habits of migratory birds and dense legal files, a guided tour through a world filled with romance and music…maybe even family. But there’s a reason Phil retreated behind those walls, why he panics at a simple touch.

Lee has a good life—working with his uncle and on his mother’s farm, playing bass in a horrible metal band, and hooking up when he pleases—but he’s always suspected something was missing. When he meets the hot photographer with the icy-blue eyes, he knows exactly what that something is. Phil isn’t like other guys, but neither is Lee beneath his carefree exterior. Maybe Lee's the perfect guy to show Phil that everything doesn’t have to be done the hard way and "home" isn't a four-letter word.

Excerpt:

“Your pictures, they’re amazing.” Lee said, his voice calm and steady and filled with sincere awe. “What’s this in her beak?”

Lee carefully scrolled forward, and Phil realized Lee had thumbed through all the pictures from that morning and some from last evening as well. He’d been out of it longer than he thought.

“It’s a spiderweb. Hummingbirds use them to build their nests.”

Two sentences. Phil couldn’t remember when he’d last gotten two sentences out just the way he’d intended. He smiled and raised his eyes to Lee’s. They seemed to mirror what he was feeling. Relief; happiness; desire. The next thing he knew, Lee’s lips brushed his lightly. Phil trembled but didn’t pull away.  Pride in his perfect speech along with the giddy feeling inspired by Lee’s smile allowed Phil to give in to desire, just for a moment, to take a chance it would end well. Lee leaned toward him, but not so their shoulders touched, and kissed him just a few seconds longer. He kept his mouth almost completely closed, but Phil tasted a hint of hot chocolate. Or maybe the heat came from Lee.

“Whoa,” Lee sighed as much as said.

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Tour Stops: 

Parker Williams, Hearts on Fire, Emotion in Motion, Love Bytes, My Fiction Nook, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Jade Crystal, Smoocher’s Voice, Full Moon Dreaming, Lee Brazil, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Iyana Jenna, Amanda C. Stone, Tara Lain, Redz World, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, Fallen Angel Reviews, Romance the Night, Velvet Panic, Kimi-Chan, The Hat Party, MM Good Book Reviews, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Lee Brazil, Decadent Delights, Havan Fellows, Kimber Vale, EE Montgomery, Michael Mandrake, Cate Ashwood, Dawn’s Reading Nook