So, if you haven’t heard, NUTS is a novella (26K / 118 pages) that’s part of the Ace’s Wild Series of books – it’s a multi-authored series, and the books (novellas) will all release one week apart for the next several months.  The best part?  For the first 90 days, all proceeds (sales & KU page reads – and, in my case, paperback sales) will go to a LGBTQ charity of the author’s choice.

NUTS

Jagger’s the son of a bookmaker and fixer. Now, he’s the owner of an exclusive, underground club…and he’s also been put in charge of the family business.

Preston’s the son of a wealthy, powerful, blue-blood Boston family…or he was, until he was disowned for choosing his friendship with Jagger over his family. Ten years later, he’s a Special Forces Operator—and he’s still best friends with Jagger.

But things are about to change, for both men. Because after a long year of no contact, Preston’s coming home to Jagger for the first time since they shared a surprising kiss.

One night, one poker game, and one hand finds Jagger lucky—and skilled enough—to win a chance to fix things with Preston. But what’s at stake is far more than their friendship—it’s everything…and both men are all in to fight for what’s theirs.

 

For the first 90 days, all sales and page reads for this book will be donated to The Loft: LGBT Center.

Ace’s Wild is a multi-author series of books that take place in the same fictional town. Each story can be read in any order. The connecting element in the Ace’s Wild series is an adult store owned by Ace and Wilder. The main characters from each book will make at least one visit to Ace’s Wild, where they’ll buy a toy to use in their story! The only characters who cross over to each book are Ace and Wilder. And with various heat and kink levels, there’s sure to be something for everyone!

You can join the Ace’s Wild Facebook group to get more information about the current and upcoming books in this series!

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Also, I’ve put the Mirror Series into KU for the first time!  Rule of Thirds is an MM romantic suspense / serial killer thriller, and Mirror Me and Walk in my Shadow are both MF Rom Suspenses (under my Stephanie Tyler name!).  They’re all standalones, which means, if you only read MM, you’d be fine just to read Rule of Thirds.  These books released in 2016, but I realized a lot of my SE Jakes people missed RO3.

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Last but not least, my website is getting a little bit of a freshening up — you can already see the new logo (that I LOVE!!!!) and they’ll be some more changes happening in the coming weeks.  I’ll also be updating my Stephanie Tyler site as well.  Thanks to the wonderful Frauke at CrocoDesgins!!!

KEEPING CADE went live on Amazon early!  It’s the first book in the new Crave Club series and it’s available on Kindle Unlimited!

Protection has its price, but so do fantasies…

Fantasy Week happens twice a year at Crave, and it’s always a big hit—a way to live out your wildest fantasy in a safe, sane, and consensual manner.

But when Cade comes in with his Fantasy Week invitation, he’s not happy about it. He’s stoic as hell and his preferences don’t seem to match his fantasy at all…and yet, despite that, he enjoys himself with Tegan and Vic. At least at first.

When it becomes glaringly apparent that the fantasy isn’t something Cade’s comfortable with, it’s confusing for the men he’s been paired with, and Tegan and Vic put a stop to the scene immediately.

What Cade doesn’t know is that Tegan and Vic are not only co-owners of Crave, but they’re also owners of a mercenary group, Gray Ops, that’s run out of Crave. They’ve also been circling each other for years… but nothing sparks until their session with Cade.

What happened in Room 4 is something none of the men can forget…but it’s got nothing to do with a fantasy and everything to do with blackmail. Can Tegan and Vic help Cade keep his secrets, while keeping all of them safe at the same time? Because the secrets threatening to spill out aren’t only Cade’s…

You can read an excerpt from KEEPING CADE here 🙂

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So, the Crave series is set in the MEN OF HONOR world, in the bar called Crave from Bound By Honor!  And, in honor of that, I’ve put the entire Men of Honor series on Kindle Unlimited!

It’s RUNNING ON EMPTY’S release day!  It’s book 3 in the Havoc MC series, and t’s available on Amazon (ebook and print), and Riptide, as well as B&N, Smashwords, iBooks and Kobo.

I write each Havoc MC book as though it’s a standalone, but the characters will all show up in the other books in the series.

Here’s the blurb for Linc and Mercy’s book*:

After years of running wild, Linc might’ve finally run out of road.

After a brutal capture at the hands of the Heathens Motorcycle Club, Linc is just trying to heal, mentally and physically. But he’s got men in his life who are complicating everything. There’s Mercy—a Havoc MC biker and the man he is falling fast for—plus an undercover ATF agent and a rogue Havoc member.

But Mercy’s keeping him at arm’s length, and Linc is spinning. In an attempt to regain his equilibrium, he heads to the bar where he first met Mercy. Night after night, he escapes Havoc bonds and continues down his merry path of mayhem . . . mainly in the hopes that Mercy will give chase.

Since Linc’s capture by his old MC, Mercy’s been dealing with the fallout of his guilt. He’s trying to give Linc space and still watch over him—all without Linc’s knowledge. But with Linc’s old job calling and a threat to Havoc MC heating up, can they make their way back together? *

You can read an excerpt here!

*FYI, I’d mentioned this on Facebook, but for this book and all past Havoc books, Gypsy’s name has been changed to Mercy.  It’s the same character, just a different name.  Riptide is updating all the e-files and you’ll be able to reload previously purchased books with the name change without having to re-buy.

So, I’ve got a brand new release out today: SINNERS is a standalone mmm that is NOT part of a series and has an HEA at the end.  It’s also available on Amazon (& Kindle Unlimited.)

Sometimes a broken man ends up stronger than he ever was—and far more dangerous…

Travis Smith is a grifter who’s wanted by both the Russian Mob and the FBI. He’s got the means and motive to stay hidden—until he’s picked up by Lochlan “Loch” Black, a CIA operative who threatens to unravel all Travis’s secrets.

Loch has enough secrets of his own, and they all lead back to the man he and the CIA have been hunting for years. And when Loch realizes Travis might be the key to that op, he and longtime friend and fellow agent, Tarquin “Tar” Simons, have no choice but to keep Travis under their protection.

But no one’s able to protect them all from the man who’s been hunting them back for years. Jabez Snow is a former CIA operative who didn’t stop his experiments when he disappeared.

And when Travis, Loch and Tar get involved, it triggers a chain of events none of them could foresee, and it threatens all their futures, unless they can hunt down Snow…before he finds them.

In the past several days, I’ve had a lot of authors email me privately about the state of the industry (self-pub and otherwise. Most were pretty new writers and I found myself trying to say all of this to them, so I figured, maybe there are other writers out there who need to hear it too.

So this is not so much about the current scandal but more about the industry in general, particularly for newer writers who are like “wtf is wrong with this industry?” (and honestly, how much time do you have because we can sit down over tea)…and it’s my take as someone who’s been in this industry since fucking forever.

Or 18 years.

Dude, I used to send out SASE envelopes in order to get my rejections, okay? I come from the days where, if you didn’t get an agent, you didn’t get a publishing deal and therefore, your name never got a shot at recognition at all because you couldn’t just put your own book up and become a bestseller.  Things today are both better and worse, which is kind of publishing in a nutshell.

So here goes.  My version of Marge Piercy’s “For The Young Who Want To.”  Let’s call this, “For those of any age who want to be a published author while trying to feed themselves and stay sane and that might not happen.”

A long time ago, an agent told me that trying to earn a living writing was about as safe and sane as gambling in Vegas for a living. I always keep that in mind, because I’m in this business because I love writing. That’s why I struggle with the business end of things but I’m willing to take it on because I’m grateful that I can be my own boss.  I remember sitting down with a lawyer years ago to create a trust for my daughter–he looked at one of my very first publishing contracts and said, “Why would anyone ever sign anything like this?  It’s horrible for the writer.”  And I was like, “Yep, and I signed it because that’s the only way to get going in the direction I need to go in.”  No literary lawyer would’ve blinked an eye at those contracts at the time.  You do what you need to do in order to make your thing happen.

I’ve seen so many things come and go in this industry. I remember when self-published authors kicked the doors down and I was pretty grateful because again, I go to be my own boss and work in traditional publishing at the same time. And for me, like it is for many of you, writing is also healing. It’s my escape.  My pure pleasure.  I can’t not write.

Making a living writing and getting name recognition and growing a readership was always a crapshoot (I still think that it’s like less than 5% of authors ever sell more than 5K copies of their books over a lifetime) and it’s always going to be a crapshoot. And there are always going to be people who do anything in their power to get there, with scruples or without.

So keep in mind that just because someone’s got a formula to game the system, it doesn’t mean they’re always going to be able to do so, because the industry changes. Like, changes so fast you could get whiplash.  Like,remind yourself that this too shall pass, and it might make things better or it might make you go, ‘remember the good old days when all we had to worry about were the Amazon algorithms?’

And it’s also about reminding yourself that people will buy a book a month from an author times a hundred, which means there are a shitload of readers out there! I mean, the amount of books I buy a month myself is staggering. So there’s a marketplace need.

It’s about knowing where you fit into the marketplace.  Or where you can fit in.  I always tell people (editors especially) to think of my work in movie terms, like The Expendables. I’m not going to win a shitload of awards and my writing is not gorgeous, but readers will get alpha males, sex, angst, sarcasm and lots of explosions in my books.  That’s my wheelhouse and it can work within a wide-variety of stories that I can tell in my voice, and my voice makes my work different from anyone else’s.

So know your strengths and write to those. And try things that you don’t think are your strengths, but might be.

Fuck writing what you know–write what you want to read.

Remember that this entire business is built on risk, and you’re going to have to take a lot of them. Some will pan out and some will leave you sobbing in the corner.  Even with a publisher behind you with a great marketing plan, your book can tank.  No one knows what makes a book take off, thus, the gamble. Accept it and move on.  We all start in the same place–with a first draft, wondering if it’s really any good.  And honestly?  It’s kind of cool when you think about it.

Don’t get so caught up in the drama that you lose your way.  Like if you don’t get your writing done for the day or the week but you can tell people in great detail about the #CopyPasteCris scandal and you’re not one of the authors who was plagiarized who has to know all of the details (because holy fuck, I feel terrible for said authors), then you need to re-evaluate.  You will survive without knowing all the shit that happens in great, exhaustive detail.

Don’t turn your head to look into the other lanes while you’re swimming ( or writing)  because that will slow your finish down. You should be swimming as fast as you can, anyway, trying to break your own records, not other people’s.

Take a few minutes every once in a while to appreciate the good things that have happened in your career.  Remember your first reader letter / email.  Print that out and keep it where you can see it.   Because anyone who’s had any level of success will tell you that the fear / worry / panic of this business grows right along with your career.  It’s not like, “once XYZ happens, I’ll be set.”  Trust me.

New opportunities open up constantly.  New publishers will open.  New ways to gain recognition will happen.  The majority of authors in my genre are an amazing force when they rally together to get something done.  And publishing will always be the wild west, as it were. Was? Were. (Where’s my editor?).  You’ve got to survive and evolve.  It’s always about taking a gamble, remember?

It’s not an easy business, it’s never going to be and it shouldn’t be. Not everyone’s going to succeed in the end, which makes it no different than anything else in life. If you still want to try, start by finding your people, the ones who will keep your secrets and let you bitch and moan to them for a short while before telling you to ‘forget it and go write.’ Remember, scandals come and go in this part of our world. So does the ability to make money. There’s always going to be something to shake your faith and rock your world and make you question why the fuck you do this.

Make sure the answer is, “because I love writing” … because that’s the only thing that makes all of this worth it in the end.  As Marge reminds us, “Work is its own cure./  You have to like it better than being loved.“

If you pre-ordered from Riptide, it’s available now!

Also, Amazon has a pre-order link up as of today as well (altho the paperback is live) and the ebook won’t go live until sometime tomorrow).  I’ll add Barnes & Noble and Kobo as those links populate over the next few days.

 

IF I EVER: Hell or HighWater 4

Coming January 21, 2019

Some ghosts refuse to stay buried . . .

Prophet and Tom have been through the ringer more times than they can count, both as partners in the field and in life. Yet despite it all, they’ve built something great together. But now they need to protect it again: Prophet’s old nemesis, John Morse, is back and threatening everything he loves.

Prophet is driven enough to take John down alone, and with a chance to do exactly that on the table, he runs with it, risking himself in the process. But trusting Tom to help him is so much more than mission critical.

It’s the final stand, and with Tom and his team behind him, Prophet’s in for the fight of his life. Then a figure from his past goes missing, and the consequence of an old mission rears its head. As complications and destruction mount all around them, getting out alive becomes the most important mission of their lives.

IF I EVER:  Hell or HighWater 4 – releases January 21, 2019

Some ghosts refuse to stay buried . . .

Prophet and Tom have been through the ringer more times than they can count, both as partners in the field and in life. Yet despite it all, they’ve built something great together. But now they need to protect it again: Prophet’s old nemesis, John Morse, is back and threatening everything he loves.

Prophet is driven enough to take John down alone, and with a chance to do exactly that on the table, he runs with it, risking himself in the process. But trusting Tom to help him is so much more than mission critical.

It’s the final stand, and with Tom and his team behind him, Prophet’s in for the fight of his life. Then a figure from his past goes missing, and the consequence of an old mission rears its head. As complications and destruction mount all around them, getting out alive becomes the most important mission of their lives.

Pre-order from Riptide!

Cover reveal coming 12/24/18 in my Facebook Group.

Proper reading order is a request I get a lot, so I figured it would be easier to link to it rather than retyping it every time I get asked. And since so many of you ask, I realized that the more books I have, the more complicated this gets. So I’m going to give you two different scenarios below, depending on where you’ve already started.

Option 1:

In the past, I’ve suggested that people read my books in the order I wrote them. This makes the most sense, because as I went along, I mention other characters in different books and then you can see the start of different characters. As an avid reader myself, I love it when I can spot a character from an author’s world in another one of their worlds. So if you like this option, you’ll want to start with:

The Men of Honor Series (books 1 – 6 are listed in order below & in Book 5, you’ll see Prophet’s name)

Men of Honor, Book 1

Men of Honor, Book 2

Men of Honor, Book 3

Men of Honor, Book 4

Men of Honor, Book 5

Men of Honor, Book 6

No Boundaries (It’s a spin-off of Men of Honor & it has a new couple PLUS the trio from Bound By Law)

Free Falling (It’s an EE book with Blue & Mick and you get a chance to meet Prophet)

Free Falling, Book 1

Phoenix Inc, Book 1

Catch A Ghost (Hell or Highwater Book 1)

Long Time Gone (Hell or Highwater Book 2)

Dirty Deeds (Dirty Deeds Book 1) (I know it’s technically its own series but trust me, this works)

Daylight Again ((Hell or Highwater Book 3) This runs along the same exact timeline as Dirty Deeds)

Not Fade Away (Hell or Highwater novella aka Book 3.5)

If I Ever (pub date coming soon!) (Hell or Highwater Book 4)

Hell or High Water, Book 1

Hell or High Water, Book 2

Dirty Deeds, Book 1

Hell or High Water, Book 3

Hell or High Water, Book 3.5

Hell or High Water, Book 4

(from this point, you’d need to read Dirty Lies & Dirty Love if they’re written when you’re reading this. As of October 2018, they are being written)

From here, there are standalone series / books that really can be read at any time:

The Havoc MC series (Running Wild, Running Blind & the forthcoming Running on Empty) You’ll see some of the same characters but each book is truly stand alone

Havoc MC, Book 1

Havoc MC, Book 2

Havoc MC, Book 3

The Inked series (Hold the Line & Thirds) – total standalone books

Inked, Book 1

Inked, Book 2

Rule of Thirds – total standalone and also part of the Mirror Series (I wrote this as Stephanie Tyler, & the other 2 books in the series are m/f books in case you’re interested in those too!)

Mirror Series, Book 2

No Easy Way is a novella that’s part of a Riptide Anthology & Part of the BlueWater Bay series.

Temperance is book 4 in a series called Defiance. The first 3 books are m/f. I wouldn’t exactly call this book standalone but wanted to include it because it is m/m. I’ve described the series as Sons of Anarchy meets the apocalypse – and it’s a New Adult series. You can order the full series here 🙂

Defiance, Book 4

* * * *

Option 2:

Now, I told you I’d give you an alternate way to read. I have readers who adore the Men of Honor series and I have readers who adore the Hell or Highwater series (and I have readers who adore both)…but most readers have a more favorite series.

Men of Honor has its own definite feel. They’re angsty and they’re very hot. There’s probably a touch of suspense in each of them but the main focus is the relationship between the men.

Hell or Highwater (and EE & DD as well) have a very action-adventure, milrom suspense feel. Although they’re hot in their own right, they’re much more action-packed.

It’s very hard to explain the differences between the two–my writing voice is the same but each series has its own feel. Also, the Men of Honor series came first, so I improve with every book I write. But Hell or Highwater is definitely more…complicated.

And again, those standalones listed above can be read anytime, in any order.

I hope this helps!!!

aka, the 5 stages of grief, lock-pick style…

Yesterday:

8 Year Old Boy Child (aka Mr. Innocent in the picture) Mom, the bathroom’s locked but the key’s not working! 

Me:  Let me try.  *tries but key doesn’t go in.  Tries to shove key in*  Did you stick anything in here besides the key?

8YO: No. (aka Denial)

Me: We’ll have to wait for dad.  *goes back over to work & notices the missing paperclip that was holding papers together* Are you sure you didn’t put anything in the lock?  Like a paperclip?

8YO: Nope.

Me:  Where’s the paperclip? *repeat this line of questioning for 1/2 hour, until my threats of searching the garbage to find paperclip with broken piece leads to next claim that paperclip supposedly broke *not* inside the lock, then eventually leads to…*

8YO: You’re going to be mad.

*insert yelling here* (aka Anger)

8YO:  Okay, I was watching this YouTube video on hacking and they were showing how to open a lock with a paperclip. *pauses and asks with straight, cute face* Does this mean I can’t get that toy you have hidden in the box upstairs? (aka Bargaining Stage)

Me:  In the box you weren’t supposed to look in? So no.  Definitely not.

8YO: I’m so mad at myself!   (aka Depression)

Me: *calls locksmith*

Locksmith:  You should never have a doorknob on a bathroom door that requires a key.

Me:  *in surprisingly controlled voice*  You installed it.

Today:

Locksmith:  I found the piece of paperclip inside the lock.  Your son actually did a good job – he just didn’t have the right tool.  *shows the right tool*

Me to Zoo:  I guess we should buy him one and give him a doorknob to practice on. (aka Acceptance)

It’s Bram & Sweet’s book release day!!!  RUNNING BLIND is available everywhere you buy your ebooks and print books (and I’ll be populating the order links on the book page as the book goes live everywhere).  You can read Chapter One here 🙂

An ATF agent who lives for danger finds what he craves from an outlaw biker.

It’s impossible for a one-percenter motorcycle club member to simply walk away—and no one knows that better than undercover agent Bram, who’s almost killed for trying. His cover isn’t blown—yet—but it’s only a matter of time. The Heathens won’t be satisfied until he’s dead, so he decides to lay low and heal.

But when his younger brother’s disappearance throws a wrench into his plan, Bram ends up in Shades Run, a town ruled by the notorious Havoc MC. In less than twenty-four hours, Bram finds himself at the mercy of Sweet, Havoc’s president, as he throws himself into the undercover role of a lifetime: himself. A man who’s never belonged anywhere, and who will do anything to protect his younger brother.

When finding Linc seems impossible, Bram is torn between Sweet, Linc, and revealing his true identities . . . and there appears to be no way out. Once again, he risks it all trying to save it all. Only this time he’s got no backup to save him if he falls.

 

In other news, if you didn’t hear, I handed in IF I EVER (Prophet’s 4th and final book!) to my Riptide editor this past Friday 🙂 I’m assured by Riptide that you won’t have to wait too long for publication and I’ll let you know when / as I’m editing.

And one more re-release – I’ve finally gotten NO BOUNDARIES back up for sale (I got the rights reverted to me from Samhain and I had to reformat and all that good stuff)…again, I’ve just hit publish so the links will take up to 72 hours to repopulate.  This book series is a spin-off of Men of Honor and it includes Law / Paolo / Styx from Bound By Law. 

Again, thanks for the patience and trust in me.  I know it hasn’t been easy and trust me, it hasn’t been easy for me.  I’ve gotten some amazingly supportive emails and messages (and I love you guys for that), and some not so supportive (aka people emailing to let me know they just threw my books into the garbage) and all I can say is, having a chronic illness sucks.  Having two and not knowing it?  Sucks even harder, and yeah, it does mean that I barely had the energy to be a mom, and yes, it really was too hard to answer emails / post blogs / write books.  Honestly and literally. More on that later, but for now, I’m back up and running and writing.  I’ve done more writing (and finishing) in the past month than I have in four years and thanks to finding the right doctor, I can finally say that I’m going to be continuing.

XOXOXO,

SE