• Red Dirt Heart cover and excerpt and Starting Point cover reveal!

    RED DIRT HEART

     The absolutely gorgeous cover, made by extremely talented Sara York.  

    Reddirtheart300

    Blurb:

    Welcome to Sutton Station: One of the world’s largest working farms in the middle of Australia – where if the animals and heat don’t kill you first, your heart just might.

    Charlie Sutton runs Sutton Station the only way he knows how, the way his father did before him. Determined to keep his head down and his heart in check, Charlie swears the red dirt that surrounds him – isolates him – runs through his veins.

    American agronomy student Travis Craig arrives at Sutton Station to see how farmers make a living from one of the harshest environments on earth. But it’s not the barren, brutal and totally beautiful landscapes that capture him so completely.

    It’s the man with the red dirt heart.

    FBBannerReddirtheart1

    I’d like you to meet Charlie Sutton and Travis Craig, the two main characters in my newest book, Red Dirt Heart.

    Charlie Sutton
    Charlie Sutton
    Travis Craig
    Travis Craig

    Set in the Australian Outback, Sutton Station is the eighth largest cattle station in Australia. With landscapes of red earth, blue skies and blistering heat, Red Dirt Heart is the story of how one American Agronomy student turns up at Sutton Station for a one-month-long working holiday, and subsequently turns one Australian cowboy’s life upside down.

    Having surrounded himself with isolation, Charlie is quite content to spend his life ensuring Sutton Station remains one of the most respected properties in the Outback. Convinced he’ll spend his life alone, just as his father did before him, Charlie isn’t prepared for Travis Craig.

    Confident and a competent farmhand, Travis offers Charlie a ‘few weeks of fun’ while he’s there. What could possibly go wrong?

    Excerpt:

    CHAPTER ONE – Where the American guy walks in, all blue eyes and disarming smiles, and my life goes to shit.

    ~

    Just on sundown, I got off the motorbike, kicked the stand down so the bike stood upright without me and closed the gate. I’d been out all day in the South paddocks doing a final check of fences and water trough pumps before we bought the cattle down from the North. I’d seen the ute back at the homestead as I came in so I knew George was home.

    George was my leading hand. He was in his fifties, with greying hair and sun-hardened skin. He’d worked here for as long I could remember, but he was more than a loyal employee. He was my friend, and in a lot of ways, more of a dad to me than my own old man ever was.

    He’d been out all day.  Left before sun-up and headed into Alice Springs. We were a good three hours from the nearest town, and with a list as long as his arm from the Station cook, Ma – who also happened to be his wife – he needed a few hours in town before heading out to the airport to pick up the real reason for his trip.

    An American agronomy student by the name of Travis Craig.

    When my father ran this farm, every year we’d have people from another country come and spend a couple of weeks as part of some Diversification exchange program. My old man always said it was a good way to source out what other countries were teaching, but really I think he just liked the extra pair of hands at the finish of the dry season.  And when we’d had a phone call back in July to ask if we’d be interested in hosting another student, and given it’d been a few years, I thought it seemed like a good idea. Now I couldn’t help but wonder if this Travis Craig would be a help or a liability.

    I rode the bike into the yard and pulled up in the shed. I figured they’d know I’d arrived, having heard the bike, so I headed straight for the house. Like most homesteads built almost a hundred years ago, it was a weatherboard home, with an old iron roof and a veranda around four sides to try and keep it cool.

    I kicked the red dust from my boots on the veranda steps and tried to brush the same from my jeans, took off my hat before I opened the door and walked inside. There was a suitcase and a duffel bag near the front door, and voices at the back of the house.

    “In the kitchen,” George called out.

    I followed the sound of chatter and the smell of something good to find a meeting of sorts in the old country-style kitchen. The worn, solid wooden table that graced the middle of the room was covered with plates of scones and trays of cups and tea, and three people were in chairs around it. My right-hand man, George, his wife the cook, Ma, and a stranger with short light-brown hair and pale blue eyes.

    George was the first to his feet, and the man beside him soon followed. “Here’s the boss, Charles Sutton,” George said, introducing me formally. “Charlie, this is Travis Craig.”

    Travis, who looked about twenty-two years old, held out his hand and smiled. “Mr Sutton. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” His accent was strange to hear at first, but his smile was warm and wide.

    I wiped my hand on my shirt and held it out for him to shake. “Travis,” I said with a nod. “Please, call me Charlie.”

    ~

    Here’s some picspiration for Red Dirt Heart

    1

    3

    08_outback_sunset_wallpaper

    603092_10151659855165909_604897406_n

    968885_10151659854955909_1199910421_n

    2774744-3x2-940x627

    Red Dirt Heart will be self-published and will be available on Amazon, ARe and Smashwords in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!! I’m working on the sequel, which apparently has turned into a possible third book. 🙂  I figure no one will mind…

    And another new cover!

    Yes, I have a cover to show off…

    Starting Point, the third and final book in the Turning Point Series, which will be released in April.

    startingpoint_800

    startingpoint_postcard

  • Clarity of Lines cover!

    clarityoflines_800

    Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL??

    I only just got the final okay to share, and couldn’t wait for everyone to see what an amazing job the TEB team has done AGAIN!  

    Here’s the (unedited, not final) blurb:

    Sometimes it’s not the two people in a relationship who fight falling in love, sometimes it’s those who love us that fight against it the most.

    Finally together, forty-four year old Tom and twenty-two year old Cooper, are ready to show the world they’re together. They’ve established their relationship is worth it, and want to share it with their families.
    Both men thought accepting the age difference between them was their adversity to overcome, and theirs alone.
    Their loved ones, however, will prove them wrong. 
    For their families, lines are drawn and some lines start to blur. Through a series of events, life shakes Tom’s foundations, the the lines for him have never been clearer.

    Release dates are:

    Pre-order:  29 November 2013

    Pre-release: 13 December 2013

    General release: 10 January 2014

  • Breaking Point Cover Reveal

    So I was given this gift by the very talented cover artists at Total e-Bound for Breaking Point.

    breakingpoint_800

    I will post release dates and buy links a little closer to time, I just wanted to share… 🙂

  • Blindside – Mark’s Story: Blind Faith 3


    I’ve been a bit of a blog fail, sorry. Real life has kind of buried me of late. 

    I have a beautiful cover for Blindside!!!  Made by the oh-so talented Sara York. 

     



    I’m hoping it will be released in the next few days. It is still with my editor at the moment, but as soon as I have it back, I’ll be uploading it to Amazon.

    Mark is a great character. He was fun to write. His mother is hilarious and possibly one of my favourite supporting characters I’ve written. 

    Mark’s mother, Susan


    Mark’s relationship with Will is a little complicated. They’re best friends, and Mark learnt with Carter, that staying platonic with friends keeps the friendship in tact.  He never thought of Will as anything more than a friend because he valued his friendship too much. 

    Will Parkinson


    But things for Will are about to change.  He becomes unsettled and unhappy, and Mark remembers Carter being the same way before he moved to Boston. Scared of losing Will to the same fate, Mark takes it upon himself to find Will a reason to stay.

    A boyfriend.

    What Mark doesn’t realize, is that the wheels he sets in motion will change things forever.

    Mark gets knocked off his feet, blindsided, and everything he thought about love and life, is about to come crashing down.

    Mark’s song is Out on The Town by FUN.  The lyrics, posted below, sum him up perfectly.


     

    Lyrics to ‘Out on the town’ …
    I set all my regrets on fire
    Cause I know I’ll never take the time
    To unpack my missteps and call all of my friends,
    I figure they would take your side.
    I make the bed, just not that well.
    Your name comes up a lot when I talk to my mom,
    Oh I think she can tell…

    I was out on the town so I came to your window last night.
    I tried not to throw stones, but I wanted to come inside.
    Now I’m causing a scene thinking you need a reason to smile.
    Oh, no. What have I done?
    There’s no one to keep me warm.

    So maybe I should put out the fire,
    I’ll call them back and borrow a box knife
    So I could learn to live with all the stupid shit I’ve been doing since ’99
    And I know I could be more clever,
    And I know I could be more strong.
    But I’m waiting for the day to come back and say,
    Hey, maybe I should change my mind.
    I drink a lot, I’m not sure if that’s new.
    But these days when I wake up from a night I forgot,
    I just wish that it never came true

    I was out on the town so I came to your window last night.
    I tried not to throw stones, but I wanted to come inside.
    Now I’m causing a scene thinking you need a reason to smile.
    Oh, no. What have I done?
    There’s no one to keep me warm.
    I could be more clever,
    And I know I could be more strong,
    And I know I could be more clever,
    And I know I could be more clever

    I knew there’d come a day,
    When all was said and done,
    And everything I want is everything but gone
    All my big mistakes are bouncing off your wall.
    The bottles never break, the sun will never come
    So come on let me in.
    I will be the sun.
    I will wake you up.
    I’ll move slow.
    Just open up your heart, open up your heart, open up your heart.
    I was out on the town so I came to your window last night.
    I tried not to throw stones, but I wanted to come inside.
    Now I’m causing a scene thinking you need a reason to smile.
    Oh, no. What have I done?
    There’s no one to keep me warm.

     

    I’ll post some more news on the release of Blindside when I know more.  As for now, I’m starting to write Starting Point (Point of No Return 3) and I can’t wait to give these boys the proper HEA they deserve. 



%d bloggers like this: