The 12 Days Approacheth!

I just received the final proof of The 12 Days of Hipster along with some cover samples.

Tyler's story has been so long coming, but I think you guys will really, really like it! It made me laugh while writing it, laugh while editing it, and laugh while proofing it.

Tyler Lang, hipster supreme.

<3

I'll let you know when I have a firm release date! And then we should maybe do a giveaway? I have some copies of the audio of Bowl Full of Cherries that might delight.

Thank you for sticking with me, guys!

With Kindness,
Raine

Merry Christmas! Ps. I Forgot to Tell You ALL THE THINGS! #Surpriserelease #Awards

December has been insanity. Pure and total insanity! Because of that, I hope you'll forgive me for my late announcements... *Pretty please?*

Here's the tl:dr for you~ I won the Rainbow Awards, Bowl Full of Cherries is out on Audiobook, I'm nominated for a slew of Member's Choice Awards from the M/M Romance Group, and SURPRISE! I've got a secret new release for you.

Whoa. Wait. WHAT?!

First up: I won! No, I'm not pulling your leg, I totally, completely, legitimately won TWO Rainbow Awards this month and had several Runner-Up Awards as well!

Best Gay Fantasy Romance

Most Beautiful Words by Raine O’Tierney

Best Gay Debut

Most Beautiful Words by Raine O’Tierney

Best Bisexual Fiction

I’ll Always Miss You by Raine O’Tierney

The William Neale Award for Best Gay Contemporary Romance

Bowl Full of Cherries by Raine O’Tierney

Best Bisexual Book

I’ll Always Miss You by Raine O’Tierney 

Best Gay Book

Most Beautiful Words by Raine O’Tierney

So, YES! Blush, blush, BLUSHSPLOSION! I'm still reeling even though the awards were at the beginning of the month.

THEN...a checked an item off my writing bucket list! I now have an audiobook! (FOR REALS!) The insanely talented Seth Clayton narrated Bowl Full of Cherries and took my "couple of chuckles" story and turned it into something laugh out loud! He's amazing.

So you should definitely check that out!

It's available HERE! If you're unsure, definitely check out the sample. Seth is amazing, I'm tellin' ya!

So what else, Raine?

Well... I got on the Goodreads Group and saw I'd been nominated for a slew of Member's Choice Awards! Which...wow!

Best Coming of Age

I'll Always Miss You by Raine O'Tierney 

That Eighteenth Summer by Raine O'Tierney 

Best Virgins

Sing Me Your Love Song by Raine O'Tierney 

Favorite All-Time M/M Romance

Most Beautiful Words by Raine O'Tierney 

Best Love is an Open Road Story

That Eighteenth Summer by Raine O'Tierney

Best Short Story

Sing Me Your Love Song by Raine O'Tierney

And FINALLY...

*THIS* happened! :) Yep, folks, that's Seeds of Tyrone bk #3 there!

Two couples, two unique stories of love at Christmastime...

Harrison and Paulo were once passionate lovers - until tragedy tore them apart. When the men miss an opportunity to reconnect at a Christmas party, Paulo is prepared to move heaven and earth to see Harrison again.

Michael's coming out didn't go down well in his conservative hometown of Omagh, and the bullies are out to get him. But he has a guardian angel on his side - his unrequited long-term crush, Tom.

Will the magic of Christmas in Ireland be enough to see these two couples through?

This book features characters from the Seeds of Tyrone series, but can be read and enjoyed independently.

AVAILABLE FROM:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | All Romance eBooks | Beaten Track Publishing | Smashwords

Thank you all for bearing with me--I know the sheer volume of announcements was... WAH! <3

Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Raine O'Tierney

Bowl Full of Cherries Receives a #rainbowawards Honorable Mention!

Pleased beyond pleased to announce that Bowl Full of Cherries has received an Honorable Mention from the Rainbow Awards.

http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4623892.html

For several years I've watched on the sidelines as authors entered this contest, waiting for my turn to publish something that would make me eligible. Entering was a joy... Receiving an Honorable Mention? <3 I'm floating!

So what did the judges say?

I really loved this book, this is a sweet, simple story about how love and true friendship can make miracles. The plot is well developed, with just that little angst that makes the situation interesting. I stayed up all night to finish it, could not put it down. Had to know there was the happy ending. I like how the characters are described, they feel real, and you share their feelings, their love, their fears with them. I really really enjoyed it.

This was just one of those stories that really sucked me in… I could have kept reading it forever.

I really liked this book.The story wasn't terribly angst-filled or high-octane suspenseful. It was more like spending time with friends. I enjoyed the characters' journey (and as a mother of twins who don't get along, I appreciated the relationship between the Lang brothers!)

And a note: Unlike most contests where Honorable Mention means you're not eligible to win any higher prizes, in the Rainbow Awards, Honorable Mentions are given to authors who received at least one 36/40 score from a judge!

I'm excited to see if Leaving Flowers, I'll Always Miss You, and Most Beautiful Words get a nod as well. <3

Bowl Full of Cherries is an ARe #Bestseller! #MMromance! #Blushexplosions!

So, while I was at the Author's Fair on Saturday meeting some amazing folks in the community and selling a couple of copies of Most Beautiful Words I received an email telling me that Bowl Full of Cherries had hit the All Romance eBooks Best Seller List. 

My mind blanked--I couldn't believe it! This came on the heels of hitting #35 in Gay Romance on Amazon.com?! Me? Really? There was no way. I showed Morgan who was working the table with me. She took a photo of the email and promptly put it on twitter.

When I got home and all was quiet, I opened up the email again and downloaded the icon...

This 100 x 100 pixel icon means THE WORLD to me. I know a million other authors have received it, but this is the first time for me. I've lost my "Bestseller" virginity on DSP, ARe, and Amazon.com. Happiness overload.

Bowl Full of Cherries Release Day! #MMRomance #Christmas #Giveaway

Today is an incredibly special day for me! My M/M Romance-Christmas-Body Positive story Bowl Full of Cherries has been released and it's on the Dreamspinner Press Bestseller list. This is a first time for me! (No, I promise not to walk around saying "Best selling author, Raine O'Tierney..." Haha.)

But you didn't come here to hear me brag about that, even if I do it with a wink. You came for...dare I guess...prizes??

TODAY ONLY... I am over at the Dreamspinner Press blog having a Christmas Extravaganza Blog Release Party which chances to win ebooks! So make sure you stop by there.

I'll also be on a blog tour for the next week. You can find all the stops listed below and each stop gives you another entry into the grand prize drawing of a $25.00 Amazon.com giftcard!

Tour Dates/Stops: 

5-Dec

BFD Book Blog | Louise Lyons | Molly Lolly | Velvet Panic | Carly’s Book Reviews

8-Dec

Hearts on Fire | Fallen Angel Reviews | Multitasking Mommas | Prism Book Alliance | Rainbow Gold Reviews

9-Dec

Up All Night, Read All Day | The Blogger Girls | Because Two Men Are Better Than One | Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves | Inked Rainbow Reads

10-Dec

Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings | Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews | Love Bytes | Iyana Jenna | Cathy Brockman Romances

11-Dec

Crystal’s Many Reviewers | MM Good Book Reviews | Queer Town Abbey | Full Moon Dreaming

12-Dec

Parker Williams | Amanda C. Stone | 3 Chicks After Dark | Cate Ashwood | Rebecca Cohen Writes | Michael Mandrake

More #MMRomance Than You Can Shake a Stick At! or New #Contracts! (Heh, she said "Stick"!)

I'm so stinkin' excited, y'all! Just this week I signed TWO more contracts--one with Dreamspinner Press and the other with Dreamspinner's YA imprint, Harmony Ink. (Yup, the revise and resubmit has been revised, resubmitted, and accepted <3)

Here's the new estimated release schedule as it stands:

The Most Beautiful Words in the World 

(OCT 2014)

Twelve-year-old Autumn's world is shattered when her beloved Great-Pop, Tommy Johnson, suffers a stroke that leaves him comatose. With everyone around her resigning themselves to the inevitable, Autumn is the only one not willing to give up. She and Great-Pop have more secret stories to share with each other, after all. More stories about Roy McMillan—the great love of Tommy's life whom he lost fifty years ago. 

Autumn struggles to keep Great-Pop on this side of death's door. But how can she compete with the beautiful and mysterious Valley—a place of surreal magic where the sun never sets? Especially when there's someone familiar in the Valley who will do everything he can to keep Great-Pop from returning to her.

Bowl Full of Cherries 

(EARLY DEC 2014)

Porker, Fatty, Tons-of-Fun, Roly-Poly: Crowley Fredericks has heard it all. He’s dropped a lot of the weight since his high school days, but he’s still a big guy, and the painful words follow him. Rejected—again—because of his weight, Crowley’s starting to think that maybe love just isn’t meant for huskier men. And then his roommate, Tyler, invites him home for Christmas in snowy Susset and everything changes.

Averell “Rell” Lang is one half of the Lang Twins. But where his brother Tyler is snobby, elitist and the consummate ‘hipster’, Rell is funny, laid back, and yes, maybe a bit of a slacker. The twins couldn’t be any more different. So when Tyler brings home his roommate for the holidays, Rell expects the worst—a Tyler clone. What he gets instead is Crowley. Beautiful, funny, fascinating Crowley. Rell’s never looked at a man this way before, and what he sees in Crowley Fredericks has nothing to do with his weight.

Can both men overcome their hang-ups to unwrap more than Christmas presents this holiday season?

Alchemy Ever After (with Siôn O'Tierney) 

(LATE JAN 2015)

The city of New Alexandria is filled with marvelous wonders: the largest library known to man, powerful magicians-in-training, mechanical follies, and much more! Yet it is not this thoroughly modern metropolis that lured Idrian from his hometown, but the promise of learning the new art of alchemy. Master Maketh is a scholar combining the spectacular new technology of the era with the ancient art of magic, and he’s taken Idrian in as an apprentice. Together, they are animating a living sculpture from ice. It is the culmination of years of research, and Idrian cannot wait to unveil it alongside all the other marvels being presented at the annual Spring Festival.

But after witnessing his master in a passionate embrace with one of the students from the New Alexandria Academy of Engineering & the Magical Arts, naive Idrian's mind is no longer strictly on things alchemical. When his warm touch accidentally awakens the consciousness within the living sculpture, Idrian learns lessons firsthand about passion and physicality.

I'll Always Miss You 

(MAR 2015)

Isa Zaman could forgive his parents for taking in a friend of the family's son if only he wasn't the most boring teenager in the universe. Macklin Cormack’s only interests are "reading and the outdoors"? Yeah, right. Isa's convinced that "Mackie" is either a pyro or a klepto. Plus, as a white kid, Mackie looks ridiculous in the Zaman’s Arab-American household. Forced to share a bedroom with the new intruder, Isa keeps butting heads with Mackie, until a hilariously absurd fight breaks the tension between them.

Isa’s just starting to figure things out: this new house guest, his cultural identity, school, and girls, when the whole family is suddenly uprooted from their home, for reasons Isa can't understand. They move from their tiny apartment in the city to a giant, old house in a small town, hours away from all he's ever known. Oh, and the new house? It's probably haunted, or so says the ten-year-old next door who can't make facial expressions. As if things weren't weird enough, Isa's friendship with Mackie just took a strange new turn, down a path he's not sure he wants to follow. Mackie Cormac? Not near as boring as Isa imagined.

~ ~ ~

My life's work, right there... I know it seems like I squeezed out all these novels at once, but actually, all my releases have been in various stages of completion for the last decade. 

Now what?

Writing, of course! I've got more stories to tell and hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things soon.

--Raine