Long and Short Reviews welcomes Sue Brown who is celebrating the recent release of Slow Dating the Detective. Enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card.
I love this question because I’ve been thinking about publishing a lot recently. Publishing, not writing.
Writing I’ve got the hang of, publishing not so much.
So here are my five things I wished I known before I pressed send on my short story, “Sacrifice.”
1) Writing what I wanted led to some interesting and varied books, but they weren’t necessarily what was going to sell. I spent the first five years writing everything from contemporary to cowboys, historical to (kind of) new adult. I love them all, but smarter and more savvy authors focused on one thing and stuck with it.
2) I wish I’d known that I’d make the best friends that I’ve ever had in this genre, authors and readers. I’d travel across the world to meet them and people would want to meet me. The last nine years have been so exciting. Newbie me thought she was publishing a short story. Me now realises she was getting a new life.
3) Newbie me would have benefited from a marketing course or five. I didn’t understand the business of marketing myself as much as my books, of having a brand and being ‘Sue Brown – author’ rather than ‘the Brit from somewhere south of London writing those books set on a small island no one knows the name of.’ I needed the groups that are on Facebook now for the publishing business. I’m learning so much and taking note of what people are doing.
4) Get a more interesting pen name. Could you get more boring than Sue Brown? I’ve spent the last nine years bemoaning my name. I could have been Portia Pumpkin-Speaksalot, or something interesting like that.
5) The importance of a mailing list. Seriously, it’s the ONE thing I wish I’d started from the beginning.
A gentle bartender might have what it takes to mend a relationship-phobic detective’s broken heart… but first they have to admit they’re dating.
Keenan Day could kick himself for letting the hot, dark-haired stranger he met outside a strip club get away. Instead of a phone number, he gets a punch in the face—from the boyfriend of his prospective employer at the Cowboys and Angels bar. When two cops come to check up on him, one is the sexy stranger, Detective Nate Gordon.
The initial attraction hasn’t cooled, and though Nate is leery of commitment, one hookup turns into another until they’re seeing each other in everything but name. After a recent nasty breakup, Nate balks at being part of a couple, and Keenan agrees, even though that’s all he’s ever wanted.
Just as they reach a standstill, a crisis shows them what their friends have known all along—they’ve already moved way past hookups. Now they just have to decide how to move forward.
Enjoy an Excerpt
“Are you transferring the precinct to Mom’s house?” Keenan forced himself not to watch Nate’s every step. The man could have stepped off the pages of GQ. He pressed all of Keenan’s buttons.
“It was Mom’s idea,” Karen said. “She said he must be lonely here. I’ve asked him before, but this was the first time he said yes.”
This was the first time? Did Nate know Keenan was coming?
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Nate reached them. He wore dark gray trousers and a pale blue dress shirt, open at the throat, and he carried a bottle of red wine and a spray of pale yellow and white carnations with baby’s breath, wrapped in yellow tissue paper. Keenan wanted to eat him up. “Hi.” It might have been a general greeting, but his eyes rested on Keenan.
“Hey, Gordon,” Karen said.
Nate rolled his eyes. “You’ve invited me to lunch, Karen. Call me Nate.”
She nodded. “Nate. You’ve met Max. This is my little brother, Keenan.”
Keenan rolled his eyes. “Twin brother. Twin.”
“Younger is younger,” she insisted.
“They’ve already met,” Ramon said, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “Twice.”
Karen looked between them and narrowed her eyes at Keenan. “You have? You didn’t think to share that piece of news?”
“It’s been a busy time,” Keenan murmured.
“Are we going in or eating out here?” Max asked, to Keenan’s enormous relief. “Good to see you again, Nate.”
Nate shifted the flowers and drink to one hand and shook Max’s. Then he turned to Keenan. “You’re looking better.”
Keenan gave him a skeptical look. The bruising had come out, and his eyes were black and purple. “You’ve got a strange idea of ‘better.’”
“Maybe.” The look in Nate’s eyes seemed genuine enough.
They followed Karen, Max, and Ramon through the gate and up the steps to the front door. Keenan was very aware of Nate’s proprietary hand on Keenan’s lower back.
About the Author: Cranky middle-aged author with an addiction for coffee, and a passion for romancing two guys. She loves her dog, she loves kids, and she loves coffee; in which order very much depends on the time of day.
Buy the book at Dreamspinner Press or Amazon.
Sounds like a good book.
I am so excited to read this book!