In my last mailing list, I mentioned that I had basically been too stressed to write at all. Well, I’ve decided that’s silly. I like writing. So after I’m done writing this email, I’m going to start writing some more of Depths of Desire. I’ve also decided that the subtitle “AKA Gay Mermen” has become inspiration for a series name! I have plenty more ideas for sexy gay merfolk that I’d love to turn into stories, so why not make them all in the same universe, right?

Of course, this means that I need to go back through and add those characters, or at least mentions of them, to Depths of Desire in its current format, but that should be pretty simple. The important parts are that I’m writing again and that Gay Mermfolk will be a series name instead of just a silly subtitle. I am a little behind schedule, though, so I think I will push the release date back to May of 2024, making it my official Mer May release. Let me know what you think!

This first promo has some of the awesome books I’ve already recommended here, like A Devilish Saturnalia and The Red Collar, so I’m totally stoked to be included too! It seems to have something for everyone, from hockey romance to supernatural & paranormal, so be sure to let me know which ones you read and if you liked them. I love getting book recs from you!

Your Next Favorite MM Romance sale

The second promo I’m in are all totally free, so you’re definitely going to want to browse these bad (and good) boys! It looks like, despite what the title says, not all of the books involve MM romances, but the majority of them do at least, and there are definitely some I’ve added to my TBR already. Let me know if you decide to read some and what you think of them!

Free LGBT Romances

Click here to read The Alien Emissary by Eryn Ivers!

Bryant Harrison doesn’t do burglaries. His strength, his size, and his obviously once broken nose all mean he’s the muscle – not the thief. But he desperately needs the money to save his young daughter before she’s sent to a penal colony far beyond his reach. Alarm bells ring in his head as he breaks into the personal ship of an influential alien diplomat, but this time he can’t afford to listen to them…

Captured by the ship’s top of the line security system, Bryant expects to be turned in if not turned inside out and torn limb from limb. He doesn’t expect an encounter that leaves him limp, trembling, and questioning everything.

Emissary Serihk has always been the most powerful man in a room. Backed by the richest species-state in the galaxy, Serihk decides the fates of nations and of planets. But suddenly, all he wants to decide is the fate of one human man and his young daughter.

The human is tough as nails, clever and shrewd, achingly handsome, and a survivor of things Serihk has only ever read reports on. Yet when Serihk touches him, the human yields to him, trusts him, and lights a protective fire in him that Serihk has never felt before.

Bryant wishes he could fall into the arms of this commanding, elegant, awe-inspiring alien whose very presence wipes away all his crushing fear and doubt. But he can’t afford to lose his edge. He knows from experience that good things don’t last and people always leave you.

But does that mean he has to leave the one place – and more importantly the one man – who ever made him feel safe?

The Alien Emissary is a steamy (very steamy) story featuring power dynamics, dom/sub undertones, tentacles, and trust issues.

It is the prologue novella to Interspecies Alliances – a series best read in order about a galaxy torn apart by conflict and the men fighting to keep it together. Each novel follows its own couple with their own HEA on this epic space adventure.

CW: criminal justice system/arrests/police, gangs, and mentions of war, imperialism, and refugees.

Click here to read The Alien Emissary by Eryn Ivers!

July just started, and that means that it’s time for a new book deal. This month there will be 2, but this first one is totally free! Be sure to check out all of these sexy, free MM romance books and short stories, and leave reviews for any you end up reading. The sale is only on until the end of July, so be sure to check them out now!

Free MM Romance Books & Short Stories

Click here to read Salvation by Stella Rainbows now!

I am like 2 chapters away from finishing this story and I am loving it! Both characters are totally adorable (even though Val tries to think of himself as tough) and I love the representation of PTSD and working through trauma! Here’s the synopsis:

Dell: Nothing was worse than getting turned into a monster by the one person who was never supposed to harm you. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t been a monster, and I’d given up hope of ever being anything else.

Then Valerio showed up, and he told me things could be different. That he knew what real monsters looked like, and I could help him hunt them down.

Valerio: I’d never met a monster who was less monster-like than Dell. So what if he needed to eat human flesh to survive? I could offer him a five-course meal and clean the world of some filth in one go. I was determined to show him how different he was from true monsters, if only so he’d stop starving himself. He was kind and innocent, the complete opposite of what monsters were.

Salvation is an MM monster x supernatural romance featuring a wendigo who hates what he is until his mate shows him otherwise, a vampire who revels in his bloodlust, and a romance that is slow to spark, but blazing once it’s lit.

Warning: While Salvation includes the usual dose of Stella Rainbow sweetness, it features a wendigo and a vampire with very particular eating habits, so be advised about the…mess that might entail. TW: Mention of physical & sexual abuse against background characters, past parental abuse.

Click here to read Salvation by Stella Rainbows now!

So I feel like I need to come clean about something. I haven’t been writing. I’ve wanted to, in theory, but things have been rough lately. I’m struggling physically, emotionally, and mentally, and I’m not sure how to break out of this funk. I’ve started therapy, but we’re still in the early ‘getting to know you’ stages, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

I’m also potentially losing my health insurance for a bit. I filled out the renewal paperwork wrong and, based off the wrong info I gave, they determined that I am no longer eligible. I appealed, but we are moving at the speed of overworked government employees, so it’s just a waiting game.

On top of that, I still don’t have my tooth fixed because my dentist quit and I’m trying to find a new one. Plus my girlfriend is moving and it needs to be dome super quick (like in a couple week’s time) so I’ll be helping with that too.

I’m not giving up on writing, not by any means. But if I don’t release another book before 2024, know that it’s not for lack of trying! I am still very excited about Depths of Desire (aka Gay Mermen Book 1) and I truly do think that it is shaping up to be my best so far. But if I want it to be the best that I can make it, I’m going to have to be gentle with myself during the writing process. Thank you all for joining me on this journey!

Check this out~! June is Pride month in America and I’m soooo happy to be included in this MM Pride Reads – Dark Version promo! 3 of my books are on there, but there are over 40 books to choose from, at least 30 of which are free or free on Kindle Unlimited! What are you waiting for? The sale is only on until the end of June, so be sure to check them out now!

MM Pride Reads ~Dark~ Books Sale

Click here to read A Place for Alistair by Caleb Marks

I know I’ve recced Caleb Marks before, but what can I say? I love his style! I haven’t touched this one yet, but I totally plan to! It sounds extra hot and steamy, just what we need for the summer, right?

Alistair Simmons and his college buddies are determined to hold on to their rented house until they graduate college. The exasperatingly alluring Finn Roberts is in charge of handling the repairs. Alistair must get creative to convince Finn to stop the house from going on the market.

My long-time friend, Grey, has me getting the properties of his recent late father in Saltwater Cove ready to sell. I couldn’t say no since Grey helped me out so much with my messy divorce.This one property, though—the one with the college kids—is going to be a headache.

Our first scheduled meeting turns south when one kid, er, the twenty-four-year-old, Alistair, shows up late. I have a soft spot for him, though. Going for his MFA, I know he won’t find a cheaper place to rent. Yet this house needs a total overhaul. And didn’t I mention he’s drop dead gorgeous?

From the moment I gazed into his sea-green eyes, I knew I was in trouble. But he’s too young for me, not to mention, he’s my boss’ tenant. I don’t even want to imagine the turmoil our relationship would bring to my son’s life. His grandparents, who have visitation rights, are just looking for an excuse to get full custody.

But I can’t deny my feelings for him anymore. With each passing week, it’s heating up…This property, and Alistair, just may be too hot to handle!

A Place for Alistair is a small town, age gap, off-limits, alpha, college M/M romance that happens over the summer months. You’ll find hot, steamy moments and intimate encounters with a HEA ending to love.

Click here to read A Place for Alistair by Caleb Marks

Ok, that’s it for my recs. But now I want some recs from you! You know what I write, so you know what I’m into, but I want to share in what you love too. So here are some questions – you can answer as many or as few as you like by simply leaving a  reply on this blog post, or you can send your answers to ryder@ryderocox.com

1. What are your all-time favorite queer romance books? What do you love about them?

2. What sub-genres and tropes do you read most?

3. What are your favorite types of characters in romance?

4. What are your favorite of all the ‘required’ beats in romance? Are they all necessary in every story for you? (In case you’re unsure what those beats are, they are typically: The Meet cute, No Way Can I Date Them!, Getting Together, The Breakup, The Dark Night of the Soul/Crisis, and then a Happily Ever After)

That’s all I can think of for questions, but if you have anything else to add, go for it! I’d rather think of you as a friend than just a subscriber or fan, so let’s talk about something we both enjoy!

No new questions this week in my NGL, but if you want to send me a question for a future update, feel free to hit reply to this email. Or, if you want to send anonymously, you can use my NGL link – https://ngl.link/authorryderocox

For now, I’ll just give a general update, I think. It’s officially summer, so I’m excited to go out more. I am going to try to go to my first Pride this year with my girlfriend (she’s doing great by the way! Thanks for all the sweet inquiries about her!). We also started working on our garden plot together with my boyfriend and we’ve almost got all the weeds removed. Fingers crossed we’ll get it done this week and we can start planting some veggies! Do you garden? What sorts of things do you grow?

My high school bestie is getting married at the start of June and I’m standing up in the wedding. Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of writing once that’s all over with. I’ll be sure to send pictures with the next update (June 14)!

Still fighting with publishers to get my prizes here for the 100 subscribers celebration, and now I’m almost to 400! That’s fine, I’ll just multiply the prize pool by 4 lol 

Until then, if you’ve got something you’d like to see me do here, or even if you want to share something you’ve made with my followers, let me know by replying to this email!  And if you’re looking for my latest and upcoming books, check out this page on my site!

Hey Ryders, and welcome again to all the new faces. This week has been garbage! (Taxes) but I’m happy to say that I am right on schedule for releasing The New Normal! My mailing list followers got this update as an email on Wednesday, so if you’re looking for the latest up-to-date announcements and celebrations from me, be sure to join here!

This week’s updates include a cover reveal, an opportunity to become a beta reader, a link to a bunch of free gay books, and some words of encouragement for you all, so be sure to read all the way to the end.

And as always, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or drop me an email if you have any questions, suggestions, or just wanna talk about my cat-children. They love you already, I promise! But first….

The sequel to Discovery and the second book in the Inheritance series is scheduled to come out May 3rd. It’s called The New Normal, and it takes place a couple weeks after the end of Discovery.

The New Normal is still accepting beta readers too, so if you want a free early access copy just hit reply! I will send you a google document just for you where you can read and leave your comments. I’d need your comments by April 30th to give me time to implement them into the story. And once the book is out, I can send you an e-book copy as well!

It’s about 15K words, so shouldn’t take too long to read through, so if you’re interested in giving it a read and leaving your feedback on what needs to be improved, I’d love to have you on the beta reader and/or ARC team! Simply drop me an email at ryder@ryderocox.com

Here’s the summary:

After finding Troy naked and locked in a secret room of their new home, Theo and Jun must work to acclimate to their new life together. They help Troy adjust to being a free man again, and Troy even finds himself enjoying the dominant role on occasion. Much to his surprise, Theo craves to submit to both he and Jun.

But a surprise visit from two men that Theo only barely remembers turns their whole world upside down. Jun knows what they’re here for, and it kindles a rage inside him that he hasn’t felt for a very long time. He is determined to keep his lovers safe, even if it means going against a promise he made to Theo.

Trigger/Content warnings – this story includes:
-explicit, kinky, gay male sex
-double penetration
-mentions/memories of kidnapping/imprisonment/human trafficking
-mentions/memories of abuse
-mentions/memories of brainwashing
-HFN/Happy for now ending

Ryders, check this out~! This month’s gay book promo is 100% Free! My ‘to be read’ list will never stop growing if I keep doing these group promos LMAO (not complaining btw, I love it!). Let me know which ones you get and how much you liked them. I love getting book recs from you!

Free LGBT Romances

I added an entire new page to my site with plenty of ways you can support me and independent authors like me without having to spend a dime! The graphic above shows the basics, but this page has a more in-depth description of how to do each one and why each one helps – https://ryderocox.com/best-free-ways-to-support-indie-authors/

No new questions this week in my NGL, but if you want to send me a question to answer in the future, feel free to send me an email or leave a comment. Or, if you want to send anonymously, you can use my NGL link – https://ngl.link/authorryderocox

I do want to share something with you this week though – don’t compare yourself to anyone else. This is the same picture of me side by side. The one on the left is the original, taken after my crown fell out. I have no front tooth right now haha. Part of my bad week, but I digress.

On the right picture, I used a free photo editing app on my phone. The app fixed my tooth, fixed the dark shadows under my eyes, gave me eye makeup and eyelashes, even made my hair look less faded. So yeah, don’t compare yourself to anyone else, because you are seeing their best and comparing it with your every day, or even your worst. Just be you. Be kind to you. And watch yourself grow.

Another bit of advice that I’ve been trying to internalize – growth is not linear. There will be setbacks, there will be bad days, there will be days when you make no or even negative progress. But if you keep working at it, you will get there!

That’s it for this week, but I’ve decided on how to celebrate having over 100 subscribers on my list. After The New Normal is out, I’ll be running a giveaway! Keep your eyes on your inbox! 

My Books

So last week has been more stressful than I could have anticipated. It started off with a power outage that lasted about 2 days. In literally freezing weather. It was GREAT.

Mr. Copernicus is 19 years old. For those of you without cast, that’s pretty old. He’s basically in his 90s in human years. So I was worried it might be too cold for him.

I waited a couple hours and when the power didn’t come back, I packed him up and took him to a friend’s place….Whose power went out about 3 hours after we arrived.

Luckily it came back on the next morning, so we were all safe and warm. But when we got home, Copernicus was a little lethargic. I noticed a mark on him and we took him to the emergency vet.

Long story short, they had to drain an abscess and now he has to wear the cone so he doesn’t lick it too much. We also have to give him medicine, which he HATES. He’s my little baby boy who I’ve had for the past 18 years and so I worry about him pretty much constantly. We’ve got a follow up visit on Friday, so fingers crossed that he gets a clean bill of health!

Ryders, check this out~! This month’s sale is 100% my jam, and if you’re reading this then there’s a good chance that it’s yours too. Seriously, my ‘to be read’ list is growing faster than I can read. Especially when I’m also trying to write books of my own! But there are at least like 10 books on this list that I’m adding to my TBR anyway LOL. Most of them are available on Kindle Unlimited, so check them out. I’d love to hear what you think!

Dark, Kinky, & Taboo Gay Romance

Click here to read A Hellhound Called Derek by Michelle Frost

I realized pretty immediately after last week’s blog post that I messed up the URL to the book! So if you were hoping to read A Hellhound Called Derek last week but couldn’t find the URL, here it is – for real this time! And in case you missed it, here’s the synopsis:

Touch his mate and you’ll wish for the fires of hell.

Alpha of the Hellhound enforcers, Derek doesn’t think he has time for a mate until the Paranormal Council of the city gives him one.

Hollis is smart, funny, vulnerable…human, and his police commissioner uncle has designs to use Hollis’s new mating for his own ends.

He’ll learn quickly not to mess with a hellhound’s mate.

A Hellhound Called Derek is the first in this fast-paced novella series where the paranormals are all deliciously protective of their humans…no matter what type of trouble they get into.

Click here to read A Hellhound Called Derek by Michelle Frost!

A in the last email update I sent to my mailing list, I sent out a survey asking how often everyone would like to receive those update emails. Thanks to everyone for the responses! Results are in, and it looks like everyone would prefer updates every-other week or when I have something to share, so that’s what I’ll switch to. That means unless something exciting happens this week (which it might!) I won’t be sending out an update on Feb 1st and the next email will go out on the 8th instead.

A few of you didn’t answer, so I’m not gonna take the survey down just in case you still want to. 

https://forms.gle/FDEuFBnBE9YEddc97

As for my blog here, I’ve decided that I’ll only be updating once per month from now on unless it’s something really big and exciting that I want to share, like a new book update, cover reveal, etc. So now there’s even more reason for you to join my mailing list if you want to hear updates about me and my writing journey!

HUGE thanks if you clicked the link above, but these are something different! The author of these books shared one of my books to their followers, so I’m sharing one of theirs with you – simple, right?

Just like the promo above, Bookfunnel tracks how many clicks I send to this url and gives me a ‘score’ that other promoters can see and decide whether or not they want to work with me based on that, so please click it and check it out for me <3

My Accidental First Date by Casey Morales

So besides clicking promo links, how else can you support indie authors like me? Besides reading our books (which is obvious and probably why you’re here? I hope?) there are tons of ways!

Like I mentioned above, I added an entire new page to my site with plenty of ways you can support me and independent authors like me without having to spend a dime! The graphic above shows the basics, but this page has a more in-depth description of how to do each one and why each one helps – https://ryderocox.com/best-free-ways-to-support-indie-authors/

I wasn’t sure what to put here, so I asked a friend and they suggested answering a couple questions from the app NGL each week. Why not, right? One my friend suggested was ‘most embarrassing moment’ and whooooo boy, do I have some of those LOL!

So I was in 3rd grade, I think, and there was an assembly where we all went to the gymnasium and saw a magician perform on stage. At the time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but it was probably a tie between ‘dig up dino bones’ and ‘be a magician,’ so you can imagine how stoked I was!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to leave the assembly for any reason. And I mean any reason. So when I asked to use the bathroom first, I was told to wait until after the assembly – it wouldn’t be that long.

And then, the best thing ever happened – I got chosen to be the magician’s assistant! I got up on stage, vibrating with excitement….and peed my pants in front of the whole school. I immediately ran off stage and to the bathroom, and I will never forget the embarrassment I felt in that moment.

I got another question the following week from a fan so I figured I’d answer it here too. If you want to send me a question to answer, feel free to hit reply to this email, or if you want to send an anonymous question, you can use my NGL link – https://ngl.link/authorryderocox

Now for the question – biggest red flags in a partner? Honestly, I feel like I have horrible radar when it comes to red flags, but my cats not liking them is a big sign. My nesting partner is a great judge of character, and if he doesn’t like someone then they probably won’t be a good fit. Not saying I go along with whatever he says, quite the contrary, but all the time I’ve ignored his advice, he’s been right lol.