Welcome to my stop on the April 29–30 Author & Blog Hop sponsored by Show Some Love for MM Books! Check out all the stops on the hop to get some great prizes from awesome MM- and gay-romance authors.
A bit about me
My name is Dale Cameron Lowry and I love writing romance and erotica, sci fi and fairy tales, slice-of-life contemporary fiction, and some things that just aren’t easy to categorize. Immigrants and emigrants show up a lot in my work, as do people with disabilities, multilingual folks, and others who, like me, spend their lives navigating multiple cultures.
My childhood was split between Europe and the United States, and I spoke three languages by the time I was seven (one of which I’ve almost completely forgotten by now).
I lived in the Netherlands for three years, having moved there just 35 years after the Nazi occupation ended. My teachers and neighbors all had memories of World War II. On school and family outings we visited houses with secret rooms where families had provided refuge to Jews as they sought to escape Occupied Europe. Every summer, we would drive through northern Germany to see my cousins, and my mom would announce the sites of former concentration camps we passed along the way.
These experiences made a lasting impression on me.
Help for Gay Chechens
Earlier this month, when the news started coming out of Chechnya about the organized police campaign of torture, imprisonment and murder being conducted against men perceived to be gay, I felt compelled to act. But what could I do from the other side of the world?
I decided to start by setting aside some of the proceeds from my recently released anthology Falling Hard: Stories of Men in Love for the Russian LGBT Network, the main organization working to help vulnerable Chechens get to safety. Then I started asking other writers if they could do the same.
Over the next week or so, the idea grew into an effort that now includes more than two dozen writers, publishers, and other book people. We call ourselves Readers & Writers for LGBT Chechens and, through royalties, other donations, and an online charity auction to be held May 5–12, we’re helping to make a difference.
Through May 12, I’m earmarking 75% of the proceeds from Falling Hard to the Russian LGBT Network. I hope you’ll check it out, as well as the other offerings by my fellow authors and book people. You can find a current list at Readers & Writers for LGBT Chechens.
Also, if you become my patron on Patreon, your first month’s pledge will go to the Russian LGBT Network or Rainbow Railroad—whether you pledge $1 or $50. And you get all the benefits of being a patron, including patron-only stories. Sign up now to be part of my May 2 contribution!
Rainbow Snippet
Rainbow Snippets is a fun project for sharing excerpts from your own or others’ stories about queer/LGBTQIA characters. I try to take part in it every Saturday. The goal is to share six sentences or lines—one for each stripe on the rainbow flag. Today, I am sharing from Love Unmasked, my lighthearted romance about Aaron, a gay man who’s been unlucky in love because he occasionally turns into a raccoon. Everyone in his world knows about shifters, and while they swoon over guys who transform into cheetahs and panthers, they’re unimpressed by trash-digging varmints. Including Aaron’s ex-boyfriend.
These six sentences open the story:
“LAST NIGHT the New York City Council approved funding for a state-of-the-art respite facility for werewolves and other predatory shifters. Featuring roomy indoor-outdoor enclosures where transformed shifters can exercise their need to roam and hunt without the threat of potentially dangerous encounters with normals, the design for the new facility has been hailed by the Alliance for Werewolf Rights and the Bearpeople Network as a humane alternative to the overcrowded night cages currently in use at the—”
“Spoiled brats,” Aaron Loreto muttered to himself as he closed his browser. He shouldn’t be watching the news, anyway. He’d come to the coffee shop to get work done, not to click on every link in the #shifter tags on Twitter and Tumblr, which was exactly what he’d been doing for the past—how long had he been here, exactly? He looked at the clock in the upper corner of his computer screen.
Find more Rainbow Snippets on the Rainbow Snippets Facebook page or by looking for #rainbowsnippets and #rainbowsnippet on twitter. It’s a great way to discover new authors. And feel to free to browse other story snippets I’ve posted on my blog.
More about the hop
Check out the full list of blog hop participants on Facebook. There are so many great giveaways in this hop!
To start at the beginning of the hop, go here: Show some love for M/M Books
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!
Ah, yes, time sinks. Mine is Pinterest. Love the “spoiled brats” line, though. LOL
Tumblr is my favorite one. I can easily lose 45 minutes in a blink. All those moving gifs and fanfics! Glad you enjoyed it.
Awww, poor Aaron!! But I’m sure it could have been worse. He could have been a…hm…shifter cockroach? 😀
Ooh! An invertebrate-vertebrate shifter. Is that scientifically possible? ?
But imagine the possibilities, especially if one remained sentient while a cockroach.
LOL! “Spoiled brats.” I can see how it would be frustrating to feel stuck on the sidelines.
But soon he won’t be on the sidelines — he’ll be in the center of someone’s heart ?
“Spoiled brats” huh? Makes me wonder what he’s bitter about.
A lot of things … 😉
“Spoiled brats”, I can just hear the snark. My favorite urban wildlife are what I call kamikaze deer, they lie in wait along side the road my sister takes to work just waiting to throw themselves at passing cars.???
We all get sucked into that kind of news anyway, yes? Great snippet, Dale. 🙂
GPOY. And thanks!
I love reading gay romance books.
The birds that love to fly in front of your car.
Ha! I’ve even had sparrows dart out in front of my bicycle once or twice. Panic time!
Sounds like a great book! Can’t wait to read it!
Thanks!
Heh, I love unusual shifters! 🙂
I’m all for shifter stories. I would love to see more with nocturnal creatures. Owls, possums, etc.
My favorite urban wildlife was the fox that took up residence on the MAX in Portland Oregon when they extended the line to the airport. It took them months to convince the little guy it wasn’t his new home.
Oh my goodness! That’s a great story. I see foxes around here every once in a while. They’re so fascinating.
That Rainbow Snippet story sounds like a hoot! Poor little raccoon. ?
It was fun to write. My working title for it was Underappreciated Werenimals of the Urbs, which made me smile whenever I looked at it.
Great snippet! I love unusual shifters. I feel bad for poor Aaron, though.
He’ll get his happily-ever-after soon enough 🙂
At least he’s not a spider ewwwww
I read a story about a tarantula shifter once. It was less creepy than I would have expected 🙂
I can’t wait to read about Aaron…I love to read about unusual shifters!
What a great opening! A racoon shifter, huh? What a great idea.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I have a soft spot for raccoons, even if they are a bit troublesome at times. 🙂
Very intriguing snippet! It made me really curious. I like stories with unusual shifters, because especially those who shift into little creatures often have to face totally different problems when in their animal form and the stories starring small non-predatory shifters I know had a tendency to be somewhat hilarious.
Raccoon shifter sounds really interesting, and what of Phillip? Intriguing…
Love the rainbow snippet!
I live in a rural area where urban wildlife gets crazy… In my small town (100.000 habitants) we often have visits of genets, wild boars, foxes, does, hares…. These animals actually invade the streets… Even wild horses! Sometimes driving through is an adventure!
thank you for the snippet, and the giveaway, Dale!
That sounds amazing, and a bit dangerous! I have a bit of a soft spot for genets even though they like to steal food — perhaps because they remind me of cats.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you!
And the winner is … AM Leibowitz! Let me know how to send it to you through my contact form, https://www.dalecameronlowry.com/about#contact (unless you didn’t mean to enter, and then I’ll pick the next runner up). Thank you!
Aaron, my dear, you could have been a slug-shifter… loved his, Dale!
I’ll never understand how you came up with a racoon…. can you tell shifters aren’t my bread and butter? Love how this starts.
I love the cover and the blurb…but reading the comments of the other subscribers really adds some icing to the cake!
I love them too. All the different animals that can be a nuisance depending on where someone lives. Genets in the streets! We don’t have any genets where I live, so of course I think that would be cool — just like I was fascinated by raccoons before we moved to the U.S. (Apparently northern Europe has raccoons now, but they weren’t common at all when I was a kid there.)