Hide and Seek

Here’s a situation to make even the nicest author fume. JJ's books haven’t been doing well on Amazon lately, so I did a simple check to see how accessible they are. I went on Amazon blind (did not sign in), typed “J. J. Collins” under the Kindle section, hit Enter, and—

Well. What popped up were books by J. L. Collins, a couple books by Joel C. Rosenberg whose character’s name is Collins, several Sponsored selections, and books that had nothing at all in their titles or bylines that had anything to do with Collins or the initials J. J. This situation persisted for page after page. After page. After page. It wasn’t until around page 23 that I finally found one of JJ's books. That’s twenty-three pages of other people’s books, most of which were written by authors whose names are nothing at all like J. J. Collins.

Excuse me? I was under the impression when you type something into Search, that’s what it searches for and that’s what it gives you. If you type “Joan Smith,” shouldn’t that be the first thing, not the twenty-first thing, that comes up?

At least that explains why JJ's getting more sales from Barnes and Noble all of a sudden. When I type in “J. J. Collins” over there, the books come up on pages two and three, after the works of “John J. Collins”—a JJ with more sales, so that’s understandable. But JJ's not going to get more sales if Amazon keeps burying her books under a pile of bylines that look nothing at all like hers.

So, to help out, here are the pages for JJ's books on Amazon. Just plug these in and you’ll be fine:

 https://www.amazon.com/Horsepower-J-J-Collins-ebook/dp/B01KYQ4P00/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+Horsepower&qid=1580155454&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-J-J-Collins-ebook/dp/B0160IPL9A/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+Lost+and+Found&qid=1580155503&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/Priceless-J-J-Collins-ebook/dp/B01AIFPZU6/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+Priceless&qid=1580155552&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Dating-Romance-Go-Book-ebook/dp/B07657N533/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+Speed+Dating&qid=1580155587&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/His-Super-Neighbor-J-J-Collins-ebook/dp/B07KYRZG7T/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+His+Super+Neighbor&qid=1580155633&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Cock-Bull-Story-J-J-Collins-ebook/dp/B07RL5ZQBY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=J.+J.+Collins+Cock+and+Bull+Story&qid=1580155669&sr=8-1

Or type “J. J. Collins” and the title of the book you’re looking for. It’ll come right up. Maybe.

Better still, shop on the Evernight Publishing site, where you can find all sorts of great romance novels for all tastes and budgets without having to wade through page after page of things you’re not  interested in. Plus if you buy directly from the publisher, writers get a bigger percentage of the royalties. That way we can afford to keep writing the books you want to read. Happy hunting!

 

Cock and Bull Story, a M/M shapeshifter romance by J. J. Collins, will be available from Evernight Publishing on Wednesday, May 8. Here's a blurb, and a sneak peek:

Tauro is a bull shifter. Forced to leave the pro wrestling ring, he works off his aggressions as a street fighter. Gallano is a cockerel shifter from a family of famous luchadores. When the irresistible cock meets the immovable bull, sparks are bound to fly … but only if they can fight their way past their own mutual stubbornness.

Contains M/M sex

www.evernightpublishing.com

EXCERPT

He had nearly dozed off when he realized the raking claws had at some point turned into fingers. He peered one-eyed over his shoulder. Gallano’s human face grinned back at him. “Ah, there you are. Care to join me? There’s a lot less of you to pamper in your human form.” He danced his fingers down Tauro’s spine. “Though not by much.”

Tauro hesitated. In bull form, he had a definite size and weight advantage over a human Gallano. He could drive the man off his farm and settle the matter for good. But those hands were hard to argue with. Against his better judgment, he nevertheless morphed himself back into his human self.

Immediately Gallano moved his hands upward, to knead his neck and shoulders. The smaller man cooed at him, pleased. “Yes. So very much better.”

Of course they both were naked now. Tauro stole a glance at him, and was surprised to discover the cockerel bore a mighty fine spear—bigger than he’d expected, with a cap like an arrowhead and mouth-tempting thickness. Perhaps he wouldn’t need to look for a stallion after all.

No. He dare not encourage the pushy little bird. What was he thinking?

He was thinking it had been a long time since a man had stirred his desires. His own great bullish beast began to inflate beneath him, as if it sensed the opportunity.

Unexpectedly, Gallano moved and rolled Tauro onto his back. Taken by surprise, he had no chance to resist. Gallano crowed in excitement. “Ah! There’s the beauty I spoke of last night. So huge! Are all bulls hung so magnificently? I’ve been missing out.” He reached for Tauro’s dick.

Tauro slapped his hand away. “Behave yourself. Are all you chickens so grabby?”

“He who hesitates loses the worm. Or something like that.” He folded his arms on Tauro’s belly, rested his chin on them and stared wistfully at Tauro’s rigid member. “That’s no worm. That’s an anaconda. I know bears who would weep and gnash their teeth to own a dick like that.” He sighed. “And you won’t let me touch it. Such a loss. I suppose I must kill myself now.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye with a finger.

“Don’t be so melodramatic. It’s only a bit of flesh.”

“That’s far more than a bit.”

“Still only flesh.” Tauro fought to keep a devil’s grin off his face. “Nine thick inches of sweet, randy meat that would split you like a chicken breast. You couldn’t even swallow the head without choking. Perhaps you’d rather try one of the goats. They’re closer to you in size.” And get chased from the field by Billzebub. That would be something to see.

Gallano made a disgusted face at him. “Hump animals? Are you mad? What do you take me for? It won’t split my hand if I touch it.”

“You couldn’t wrap your fingers around it.”

“That sounds like an invitation.” He reached again for Tauro’s cock, this time with his eyes on Tauro’s, waiting for a no or go ahead.

Tauro found the urge to stop him waning. He had to admit he was curious—what the man’s hand would feel like, whether he actually could get his fingers around it. What Gallano’s tongue and lips could do to his eager beef stick. How it would feel to have Gallano’s surprisingly hefty cock spearing his mouth, or his ass. Would he taste like chicken?

Almost Forgot

You'd think I wouldn't have missed this, especially with Avengers: Endgame breaking box-office records left and right, and Free Comic Book Day happening on May 4, which was also Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you!). But His Super Neighbor, J. J. Collins's tribute to comic books and the people who create them, has been picking up excellent reviews over on Goodreads. It's an M/M romance about finding true love right in your backyard. Or front yard, especially if the hot guy across the street is outside mowing his lawn. No actual superfolk, but there's a man who creates magic with a pencil and paper, and true heroics abound. You can find it here at

  https://www.evernightpublishing.com/his-super-neighbor-by-j-j-collins/

Coming Wednesday, May 8: the release of Cock and Bull Story! I'll post an excerpt tomorrow.

Coming Soon

Check it out - artwork for J. J. Collins's latest release, Cock and Bull Story. No release date yet, but when I get one you'll hear about it.

One thing that struck me funny: The bull shifter in the story has a red coat, so his silhouette on the cover probably should have been red and the rooster's black. Except a picture of a "red bull" might violate a certain energy drink's trademarked logo. We romance writers had enough problems a while ago just for having the word "cock" in our titles. I don't need to start another fight.

As for the storage facility in my local area that's openly using the stylized Superman "S" logo in its company name... Somebody really should warn them before the wrath of Time-Warner rains down upon them like chunks of kryptonite.

Up, Up, and Away

It's here! His Super Neighbor is now available at Evernight Publishing, Amazon, Bookstrand, and probably Barnes and Noble. I didn't look over there yet. Hope  Lon doesn't sue over his portrayal in the scene set at the comic book store. Sorry, dude. By the by, Curt really does have a Batman costume, and he looks damn good in it, too. Take that, all you would-be Caped Crusaders.

Cullen Braithwaite has two obsessions—a massive crush on Grant Guthrie, his handsome neighbor across the street, and drawing comic books. Grant has one obsession—protecting his ten-year-old nephew from his sister’s abusive ex. The two meet and romance blossoms. Then Cullen draws Grant into a comic book story, publicly exposing him to a dangerous stalker. With real-life evil closing in, one of them will have to learn to unleash his inner hero.

Be Warned: m/m sex

you can get it here


Excerpt:

The moment they stepped into the bedroom, Grant got hit with the double whammy of racing heart and racing brain. He wanted a clear head for this. He didn’t want Cullen thinking he considered him a casual fuck. The time had come to kick this single life shit to the curb and settle down with the right man. After that fanfuckingtastic blowjob, he’d been ready to propose right then and there, but what little remained of his rational brain urged caution. He didn’t want to move too fast or too recklessly, and maybe send Cullen screaming back across the street.

Then he looked down into Cullen’s eyes and all his fears disappeared. Their blue had darkened to a navy ring around his enormous pupils. And that voice he’d used in the living room, deep and dark and hoarse with passion—no, his man wasn’t going anywhere.

He had his shirt off and draped over a chair in the corner before he noticed Cullen still hovered in the doorway. Dammit. Grant didn’t want to lose the momentum they’d started in the other room. He’d better make a move before his dream date’s feet got any colder.

He returned to the doorway and slid his arms around Cullen’s waist. His lips blazed a nibbling trail down Cullen’s throat to his shirt collar. Seeing—and feeling—the effect his bare chest was having on the smaller man, Grant deliberately rubbed up against him. His fly was still open. To his surprise his cock was already showing signs of randy life again, in spite of its recent exertions. Perhaps it sensed Cullen’s, twitching behind the thin barrier of his slacks. Great heads thinking alike.

“I thought we were doing this,” he murmured against Cullen’s throat.

Cullen peered beyond his shoulder. “Your room. It’s … clean.”

“Yeah, I’m the neatnik in the family. Marti takes a more I’ll-get-to-it-when-I-get-to-it approach. Helps when you have a kid.”

“I’m not complaining,” Cullen said quickly. “I was expecting, I don’t know, a den of iniquity or something.”

“Seriously? My ten-year-old nephew stays here. Iniquity got kicked to the curb a while ago. On the other hand…” That spot just behind Cullen’s ear looked incredibly tempting. He leaned in to lick at it, and heard Cullen’s breath catch. “Rudy isn’t staying here tonight. I’d say some iniquity’s in order.”

By now Cullen was rubbing back—against his cheek, against his naked chest, especially against his crotch. The man was practically purring. Or was that a growl? Grant’s blood quickened with excitement, and his cock gave a definite leap. Here was his horny little slut-man from the living room, all wound up and ready to go. Those still waters of his ran deeper than the Marianas Trench, and Grant couldn’t wait to dive in.

“What are you still doing in your clothes?” he said roughly.

Cullen’s eyes were practically all pupil by now, and his voice had dropped into a Darth Vader register. “Waiting for you to take them off.”

Foreplay over. Let the games begin.

Hey, Kids! Comics!

My writing buddy J. J. Collins just got the cover art files for her latest M/M release, His Super Neighbor, due out either this week or next from Evernight Publishing. I'll be back to plug it once I have a release date.

As a fan of comic books growing up (and still a reader today), I have to say I loved this book. As a fan of Those Two Guys on That Show (we all know who I mean, don't we? ;D) I got a kick out of Jen's sly references, knowing she's also a fan of both them and comics. Personally, assuming the show ever goes off the air, I'd love to see it continue as a comic book, a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Comics have the advantage of no budgetary restrictions, and characters who don't age.

JJ asked me to mention this book was not written as a tribute to Stan Lee. The book had been completed, subbed, accepted, and was in the editing stages when the news of Stan's passing was made public. This book is a love letter to comics in general, and Stan loved comics as much if not more so than any of us, so feel free to consider it a huge thank you to Stan the Man if you choose. Excelsior!

New from J. J. Collins

Sometimes love comes at you fast. Answering an old friend’s call for help, hunter Dillon Royce comes to Arizona to stop a shapeshifter who’s targeting gay men. He finds himself falling for the prime suspect, cheetah shifter Kaz Genovese. Kaz insists they’re fated mates. Or is he just trying to get close to his latest victim? Dillon needs to solve this one fast, before he totally loses his heart … or his life.

EXCERPT

“Sorry, speedy. I can’t take any chances. You’re going into a holding cell until we get this resolved. If you want to call a lawyer—”

“That won’t be necessary.” Kaz shifted. The bonds meant to restrain a human fell loose on the cheetah’s form. He slid his paws free and bit through what he couldn’t slip out of.

Then he leaped at Dillon.

They fell backward, onto the narrow bed. Kaz shifted back. His teeth grazed Dillon’s throat, just a tease, before he crashed his mouth against Dillon’s in another of those soul-blasting kisses.

Dillon had his knife. One thrust and it would be over.

Instead, he accepted the kiss. How had he gone his entire life without being kissed like this? Like Kaz intended to swallow his soul. As if he already had.

His hands moved as if with minds of their own, exploring, groping Kaz. Not an inch of him was still. Every speck of Kaz’s naked body seemed in constant frantic motion. Holding him was like holding on to a primal life force. His body was the desert, spare and barren at first glance but harboring unexpected bursts of color and flavor and life. An entire ecosystem of fiery desire, all of it focused on Dillon.

So long. Too long since he’d had any relief, or so desperately wanted it.

Only when he realized Kaz was tearing at his fly did Dillon come back to his senses. This was all happening too fast.

Somehow, he got his eyes to focus. “Don’t I even get dinner first?”

“What? Oh.” Kaz slumped, all over. Even then his body still vibrated with speed. “You humans and your stupid rituals. What a waste of time. You’re my mate. We were born for each other. Isn’t that enough for you?”

“Sorry, no. I don’t have the luxury of instinct. Right now, I’ve got a set of murders to solve. That’s my first priority. You and your mating urges—” Our mating urges, he couldn’t help thinking. “—Are going to have to wait.”

“Go slow?” Kaz tested the concept and, from the lift of his lip, clearly found it distasteful. “I don’t know if I can do that. Though it would be an interesting test.”

“You’re going to have to. And you’re going to have to sit in a cell for a while. You’re the prime suspect. Can’t be helped.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Kaz said firmly. “Tell you what. I’ll go do some investigating on my own. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow night and we’ll have that dinner. And then I’m claiming you. That’s as slow as I can go.” He palmed Dillon’s cheek. “We’re going to be spending our lives together. I suppose I should ask you your name.”

“It’s Dillon. Dillon Royce.”

“Dillon.” His name sighed off Kaz’s tongue. “Until tomorrow night, my love.” He captured Dillon’s mouth again and sent his senses spinning. When Dillon opened his eyes, those delightful lips were gone, the hand at the back of his neck was gone, the scent of cat was a fading memory, and the door to his room stood open.

He went to the open doorway, although he knew it was pointless. Of course, Kaz was nowhere in sight. The ache in his groin was now joined by a more poignant ache in his soul, its one true mate discovered and abruptly torn away. Maybe there was something to the mate bond after all, even where humans were concerned.

Or maybe that was guilt he felt, that in spite of everything he was falling hard for his number-one suspect. That he’d let a possible killer go free.

Available from Evernight

Gotcha Covered

It's here! The cover for Horsepower, the new release from J. J. Collins! I don't have a release date yet, but it should be some time before the end of the month. I think. It's been removed from the Coming Soon page on the Evernight site. I'm hoping that's just an oversight. I'm sure if there was some kind of problem they would have contacted me.

This is the book I was talking about last week, the one where the publisher and I were wrestling over my use of strange spelling and slang words. Things worked out. I made the changes in the narrative they wanted, and they let me keep my dialogue, and by extension my characterizations, which is what I was ready to fight for. I consider it a win-win.

Some people may want to use this as an example of why self-publishing is the way to go. If that's your thing, fine. For the time being I'm willing to let publishers deal with things like editing, promotion and providing a cover. I would have had to pay $300 or better to get a cover that nice. As far as promotion goes, I tend to not do much. That may or may not be why my sales aren't spectacular. I'm seriously thinking about signing up for Facebook. Start a page for myself and one for J. J. Why not? They do it on Catfish. I wouldn't mind having Nev and Max show up at my door. Although I've established J. J. is blissfully married. That should keep stalkers away.

Anyway, my single foray into self-publishing sank without a trace. Quickly. I don't know if promotion would have helped. From what I'm hearing, the people who are successful in self-publishing are either writing to a specific niche, or already had a loyal (and large) following before they uploaded their opus. Or there was a specific demand from those follows, like with the guy who wrote The Martian (which started as a serial on his blog), or the people who wanted a print copy of what became Fifty Shades of Grey. I don't foresee that happening with any of my books any time soon. For right now, I'll stick with publishers.

And now, back to the hard part, writing the next one. This time I'll write characters who speak correct English. It's August, and too hot to fight.

J. J. Collins Strikes Again!

Friend and fellow M/M writer J. J. Collins has a new release out from Evernight Publishing today. Priceless is a science fiction tale of an art dealer who finds himself in possession of a sexy alien male. There's a long excerpt on the Evernight site. Here's part of it.

Most of the items he’d seen before. Jovin averted his eyes from the more pornographic and focused on seeking the new. The skin of an ebony cat, still with its black-diamond sheen. A golden statue of a naked, impossibly handsome man, seated on a crate. A picture of—Jovin hastily looked away. Zhee artwork, normally so sublime, sometimes veered off into darker directions. Even worse, he knew someone who’d pay hugely for this particular piece. That churned his stomach all the more.

He caught himself rubbing his nose. Something stank in here. Spicy-sweet, like cinnamon. Like…

Wanting.

The statue raised its head.

Jovin went absolutely still. His eyes and his nostrils widened. Holy Ghod, that wasn’t a statue. That was a living being.

But… Jovin cleared his throat and swallowed hard. He couldn’t be alive. Nothing so beautiful existed in nature. He had to have been sculpted, inch by loving inch, by the hands of a master artist. Standing, he’d top six feet, perfectly proportioned and every muscle exquisitely defined. Bronze hair, cropped short, capped a face designed to lure the unwary toward lips designed to seduce. His skin was the color of molten gold. In the gloom of the dingy room, it almost seemed to glow.

Eyes like emeralds met Jovin’s, naked and direct. Jovin reeled from an almost physical jolt. Those eyes promised sex that could burn a man to the ground and pulverize the ashes. Jovin automatically grabbed at his raincoat and tugged a fold over his crotch.

The golden man’s perfect mouth formed a slight smile. The tip of his tongue appeared and wet his lower lip.

Sweat started on Jovin’s forehead. He couldn’t even move his hand enough to wipe it off. Insistent demands hammered at his awareness from underneath his raincoat. Damn, it had suddenly gotten stuffy as hell in here.

Wait a minute. That wasn’t some trick of the gloom. The golden man really was glowing.

Cray’s nauseating chuckle at his back made him jump. “Finally noticed him, did you? I had a bet with myself. Took you less than five minutes. You win.”

Jovin gratefully seized the excuse and wrenched his stare off the golden man, whirling on Cray instead. “That’s—” His voice came out gravelly, ragged with want. He tried again. “That’s a—”

“A Telzhan.” Cray’s smile spread across his ugly pumpkin face. “A male, thank Azira. All the better for us. Nothing human can keep up with the women. And,” he finished triumphantly, “he’s right on the verge of rut.”

www.evernightpublishing.com/priceless-by-j-j-collins/

Starting the New Year Right

This just in -- J. J. Collins has a new release coming out January 12. PRICELESS is a futuristic M/M featuring a lonely antiquities dealer and a hot-to-trot alien. I'll be posting an excerpt on release day. Happy holidays to Jen and Chuck!