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Hey, amazing humans!

I hope you're all well out there! I've had a quiet week, which is exactly how I prefer life to be.

I was really excited to get the Jaywalking pre-order up in ebookstores, and send out ARCs out last week! I've even heard back from a couple of reviewers. So far, so good, and I hope that the rest of the early readers also love the second edition!

Even if you don't like the inside of the book, how can you not like the outside with this fabulous new cover?!

The cover designer asked for a reference photo for the dog, who's named Godot in the story. After a brief hesitation, I sent a photograph of the real-life inspiration for the character, the dog of my heart whom I lost in 2018 after twelve great years together.

I adopted him from a high-kill animal shelter on his very last day--they had him in a spare collapsible crate in the back room because I'd called ahead about him the day before, but they were so far over capacity that I was literally his very last chance. Obviously, when I learned that, I knew that I was taking the dog home with me, whether he liked me or not. And he didn't seem to like me at all, as it turned out. We had a brief visit in the parking lot, and he was polite but kind of pretended not to notice I was there at the same time. He was on the skinny side, and he hiked his leg and peed on the door right by the reception desk. I filled out the paperwork and took him home.

After a few days, he began to emerge from his aloof outer shell to reveal the quirky, incredibly sweet, sensitive personality he'd been hiding on the inside. Within a week we were devoted to each other, and that didn't change through my remaining three years in college, a stint in Europe, graduate school in a new town, my first job, my marriage, and the birth of both my kids. Through all those wild and sometimes overwhelming changes, I had my dog. He was one of those people (yes, people, I didn't mistype) whose eyes seemed to contain all the wisdom in the universe. When I looked at him, I immediately felt calmer and better. I miss him every day.

The designer's rendering makes me smile every time I see it, and I even paid a little extra so that I could have the cover's separate layers in case I want to do something extra with the canine one in the future. <3

What I'm reading

I'm on a little reading hiatus because I have some big writing goals to meet in order to keep Burning Season on track for its September release. I made a deal with myself that I can read only after I hit my daily writing word count goal, and then if I do, I have to read books I already own!

I have so many beautiful paperbacks and a couple secondhand hardcovers lying around. Most of them aren't primarily romance, but I've been looking forward to some of them for years. Do you have this problem? Sometimes I think my TBR (to-be-read) pile is actually the pile where books go to be forgotten. I am more likely to read something I just discovered than go back to books I've already bought or taken note of.

What I'm writing

Burning Season!

Unchained Desires

Six authors compiled six kinky, short m/m romances into this anthology, which is a great deal at just $2.99! My contribution is The Pool Boy, which you may have read (or if you haven't, it's free to you here). But if you want to discover a new author, I highly recommend all my co-contributors and their stories would be excellent introductions to the rest of their work. Find the buy links for Unchained Desires here (Kindle readers, use the PayHip link for the mobi format and easy compatibility with your app or other device.)

Giveaways!

Red Hot Summer M/M Romance Freebies

I hope you all have a great week, and if it's not-so-great, that you find some solace in a great book.

xo,

Rachel

Books by Rachel Ember

Long Winter | Signs of Spring | Burning Season

Jaywalking