Kia Ora...

The house is getting that cluttered look as things get pulled off shelves, out of cupboards and pointed in the general direction of boxes. Somethings are even making it inside boxes...sometimes only to be yanked out again, like wine glasses when they were needed for a celebration.

And the celebration... my daughter got notified that she'd won a scholarship for her university, one that will pay a good chunk of her accommodation costs, and then she found out she'd gotten her first choice of halls of residence. One less thing for us to stress about at the beginning of next year.... the university year starts at the end of February here in New Zealand.

Updates

MJ Green

• Runway Riot (House of Bolton 4) is now with my proofreader. The covers are ready for both the print and epub versions, and the blurb just needs a little more tweaking. Final word count: 59825k... and yes, I was tempted to add in a few more words to make it up to 60k.
• Next on the list is Until Death (House of Bolton Prequel). This is Gio and Albie's story who are also known as the 'Ghosts'. It will be a novella, so maybe 30k at most.
• The first three books in the House of Bolton Series have been submitted for paperback versions.

Mandy Greenwood

• The Welcome to Greertown collection of deleted and bonus scenes ends in the newsletter today. I will tidy up the formatting and then organise an epub version.
• Switch Hitters will be the next newsletter serial. This will be a second chance romance set in the Welcome to Greertown universe and will possibly feature cameos from a few of the Crime Lord boys.
• Need to finalise the print covers for the Crime Lords series.

Naomi Aoki

• Working on finalising and then hitting submit on the print editions for the Nagoya Crimes series, Caught (Smoke and Shadows 1), and Winter Yakuza.

Book Funnel Promos

MM Romance Freebies

26 MM Romance Authors - 32 Free books on offer.

Apple 99c Sale

If you read through Apple Books here's a selection of books currently on special for the month of October. (Note: majority MF)

O Deadly Night - Charity Anthology

Look how pretty the paperback version of the anthology is!!

Don't forget to ore-order your epub version today! All proceeds going to support the Trevor Project.

Preorder

Today is the final scene from the Welcome to Greertown collection... But it won't the last time you step foot inside Greertown city with Switch Hitters, a new baseball series also taking place in the city. I will talk more about it at the end of the newsletter.

****

Misaki and Ji-Hun's fight pt.2

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Misaki stepped back from Ji-Hun and waited for his friend to make the first move. This wasn’t the kind of fight either of them were used to…one that had rules and limitations and didn’t end with someone dead on the floor. The only thing on the line was their pride, and Misaki intended to walk out of the ring with his intact.

“I want a fight, Misaki… not a damn dance!”

“There’s nothing stopping you from making the first move,” he snarked back, holding his arms out wide and daring Ji-Hun to attack.

But Ji-Hun as right. They couldn’t take their time sizing each other up when Su-Jin had only allowed them five minutes for this grudge match. And while Misaki was confident in the skills that he had, and those that he’d learned from Aidan, he wasn’t so sure how they stacked up against Ji-Hun’s. His friend was a master of torture…beating enemies to within an inch of their lives, they were always restrained and unable to fight back. Misaki wasn’t stupid enough to assume that’s all the skill the man had…you couldn’t survive in their world without it.

But skill in a fight where more than one blow could be traded was, nothing like the one they were participating in now. One strike could easily end the match if it was placed right, and blood was drawn.

Misaki ducked under the swinging arm thrown his way. Jumped back as a foot followed up behind it, narrowly avoiding it colliding with his stomach. He grinned at Ji-Hun before throwing a soft punch at him, one that sent the man jumping back, but there’d never been any chance of it landing.

“Four minutes.”

“We don’t need a fucking count down, Su-Jin,” Ji-Hun hissed at his brother. “Just let us fight.”

“Stop your yammering and fucking deck him! Aidan would’ve had his opponent on the ground by now…unconscious.”

“Who are you fucking cheering on?” Ji-Hun snarled, his attention shifting away from Misaki.

Grinning, Misaki darted forward and slid back into Ji-Hun’s field of vision, twisting his body out of the way of the defensive strike before lashing out with his foot and pegging Ji-Hun behind the back of the knee. The blow wasn’t particularly hard. Enough to have Ji-Hun cursing as he stumbled back, but not enough to send him careening to the mat as his leg buckled under him.

Ji-Hun snarled at him, dancing out of reach of Misaki’s fists while tentatively testing the reliability of the leg Misaki had attacked.

Misaki didn’t need to incapacitate Ji-Hun, just draw blood.

Mouth.

Eyebrow.

Cheekbone.

Anywhere on the face really were the best places for Misaki to land a strike.

Areas where the skin was prone to splitting easily under the force of a blow. He just needed to landed that hit without being struck first.

Easier said than done.

Ji-Hun came at him again. Rushing forward, hands held up loose but ready to strike hard. A feint to the left saw Misaki shifting to the right to dodge it and Ji-Hun nearly took him out with a quick right jab that was followed up by a sweep of his foot. Misaki had never been more glad of the hours of training Aidan had forced him to endure…training that had worked on only on his core strength but was designed to make Misaki’s lithe body more flexible. He twisted out of the way of the strikes, contorting his body backward and actually managing to land the back handspring he’d never quite mastered in his practices with Aidan. Nothing like a little bit of pressure to force the mastering of a skill.

He chuckled at the curses falling from Ji-Hun’s lips, a mixture of Russian, English, and Korean and Misaki knew none of them were in slightest bit complementary. “What’s wrong, Ji-Hun? Did you think I’d be an easy beat…even if I’m not restrained to a chair?”

“Three minutes.”

And yeah, poking the bear when it was already angry might not be the smartest thing to do. However, Misaki knew the more furious Ji-Hun became, the more erratic his movements would become. Less thought would be put into each strike as he lashed out, providing Misaki with the openings he needed to land the decisive blow.

There was a flaw in that plan… a small one, but not an insignificant one.

Ji-Hun only needed to get lucky once, and Misaki would be the one whose pride was shattered.

Of course, one lucky strike was all that he needed to land too.

“Two minutes.”

And shit. He was running out of time. They both were.

Ji-Hun danced closer, ducking, and weaving out of the way of Misaki’s fists and feet while not attempting to land a strike of his own. The anger that had fuelled his friend only seconds before had ebbed away leaving Misaki confused. He’d never seen Ji-Hun reign in his anger that fast, not when his ego demanded he win at all costs.

Misaki drew in a ragged breath, narrowed his eyes, and searched for the best opening to strike Ji-Hun. Caught a left hook with his forearm, deflecting it wide while lifting a leg and shoving it hard at Ji-Hun’s stomach, quickly changing directions and aiming it at Ji-Hun’s exposed chin as he bowed his body to avoid the potentially breath-stealing strike. He bit back a pained wince as his foot struck Ji-Hun’s chin, not with the flat of his foot as Misaki had intended to do but with his toes. Ji-Hun staggered back and glowered at him, a handing swiping across his jaw and coming away painted in blood.

Okay…maybe it wasn’t that much blood, but it was noticeable all the same.

He edged away from Ji-Hun and glanced at Su-Jin who’d not yet noticed…might not at all if Ji-Hun continued to keep his back to Su-Jin. Misaki couldn’t let the bastard steal his win.

“Aww shit, Ji-Hun… are you bleeding?”

“Nothing more than a scratch, Misaki… doesn’t fucking count.”

“I don’t recall Su-Jin specifying the amount of blood”—watching as the younger Vasilev slipped under the ropes and stepped into the ring— “that needed to be spilt for a win.”

“Don’t be a fucking coward, Misaki… and fucking fight me!” Ji-Hun snarled, attempting to lunge at him only for the attack to be cut off by his brother.

“Misaki drew first blood,” Su-Jin’s voice rose from the centre of the ring. “Misaki wins.”

“Su-Jin…”

“My ring, brother… my rules. Misaki won. Deal with it.”

****

Starting October 22

Running For Home (Switch Hitters 1)

Second Chance Romance

Sports Injury

A Husband who never gave hope

And one who needs to find his way back

Catcher x Pitcher