A Butch-Femme Wedding Meet Cute!

CONTENTS

These are weird times. I recently posted on various social media how hard it is to feel that marketing matters right now. And I say that even though I know that stories have always given our community hope. More than ever, we need stories that remind us our hopes and dreams can come true. That the world ought to be better than it is – we deserve that.

One learned lesson is that the world we inhabit has many levels. When the big, bad world sucks, it’s the close world of our families and friends, the kindness of a stranger, the ridiculously happy sound of a kid laughing, and yes a delicious scoop of gelato! – those are the things that lift us up, keep us safe, and remind us that support and love are normal. Not exceptions.

Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile

Today I’m releasing a short story featuring the close-to-us world where we celebrate life’s magic with friends, meet new people, and go about daily life best we can. Where an instant attraction can lead to self-discovery – and a great deal more.

Amy adores the bride, her BFF, as much as she loathes the bridesmaid dress. Once the newlyweds have departed, why linger? Maybe because one of the groom’s attendants is Maxim, and Maxim really knows how to rock that black velvet jacket she’s wearing.

For the next 90 days, Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile is available exclusively at the big, bad retailer that no author releasing independent work can survive without. (Frankly, I don’t think any author can survive without it.) I don’t have the power to change the situation, not when Amazon represents anywhere from 70% to 90% of the marketplace. Readers around the world rely on it for their books.

Folks who get their reading from Kindle Unlimited will find it available for download. If you want it permanently in your Kindle library, it’s 99¢ or whatever that converts to in your Amazon marketplace.

Link to Amazon USA

More Amazon links: UK AUS CAN DEU NL ITL ESP FR JPN MX BRZ IND

Direct from the Author

Sample from Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile

My dress is too tight. I can’t breathe.

The day I met Maxim Sedaria my dress was also too tight. I couldn’t catch my breath then, and I haven’t been able to ever since.

The mother of the groom had made a brief introduction. “Amy, this is Maxim. The only one of Greg’s attendants who couldn’t manage to get to rehearsal.” She tacked on the kind of tight smile that underscored her disapproval.

Until that moment it was yet another wedding, with me wearing yet another bilious, ill-fitting dress I’d shove into the back of my closet. This one was aqua with mango-hued sequins that highlighted female attributes, part of the Viva Las Vegas Jill+Greg Hunk of Burning Love theme. I refused to tally up just how many times I’d stood up for friends. So far, they’d all managed to stay married while I, the lesbian in their midst, was the only divorcée. Since the split there’d been a string of not “happy ever afters,” none of which could even be counted as “happy for now” beyond a few late-night hours.

As with introductions at weddings, our gazes slid over each other with perfunctory politeness along with murmured niceties.

And then came back to lock like of opposite poles in the same dynamic magnet. I was frozen in place and robbed of air. I hadn’t understood that the lone “she” among Greg’s attendants, the Maxim the groom referred to with distinct fondness, was the type of woman who wore a suit and tie like a second skin.

The black velvet jacket, with its flipped-up collar, looked both dangerous and dashing. The Elvis piled-high and slicked-back pompadour the groom’s party were all sporting cast Maxim’s already smoky eyes into the dramatic shadow of a dark, thick curl of black hair that gel was straining to keep in place. Her smile was slow, and as I struggled to appear politely nonchalant, it became knowing.

As if she could read my mind.

That kind of “I know what you want” smirk left me cold to most would-be flirts. Right now, however, I was flushed, almost trembling.

I can read the clothes. I can take in her sense of confidence and that bit of brashness. She’s not hiding it from anyone. Can I understand her the way she thinks she understands me? No, which is unfairly frustrating and mysterious. But maybe that was exactly why I was flustered.

I knew then why Jill had been positively smug when promising, “You’re going to hate the dress, but you’ll loving dancing with Maxim.”

Copyrighted material, 2025

After 90 Days – Everywhere!

Sometime in May, Black Velvet will be available in all the regular places, including right here. It will also slowly make its way to library lending like Hoopla and Libby. (They take forever to approve new listings, and I have no control over that either.) That means those of you who get your reading from Bella Books, or Kobo Plus, or Barnes & Noble Nook, or Smashwords et al, will be able to do so.

A brief moment of self brag – I’ve won both Lammy and Goldie awards for my short stories. Short stories give me a chance to do intense character studies, which is one of my happy places when writing. I hope everyone enjoys reading Black Velvet as much as I enjoyed writing it. It began as a much shorter sketch in 2018, and now it’s more than twice the length and a lot more va-va-va-voom.

Still Crazy After All These Years

I had the energy and time window to get this short story up because Frosting on the Cake 3: Still Crazy After All These Years is finally in the typesetting phase in the Bella Books production cycle. I can’t tell you how happy I am that all the barriers that stopped me dead in my tracks during 2023 and 2024 finally eased out of my way. It will be released in June, and available for signing at GCLS Albany this July. You can pre-order a copy right now.

And now I turn my attention to finishing Covered Hearts, the fifth Coin of Love romance novella.

As always, thank you to everyone who reads, who reviews, and especially thank you to all who told me that these scary times are exactly the right time to put out a feel-good affirming story.

Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile

Copyrighted material, 2025

After 90 Days – Everywhere!

Still Crazy After All These Years

Copyrighted Material

Related

Black Velvet and a Little Boi Smile

After 90 Days – Everywhere!

Still Crazy After All These Years

Copyrighted Material

Share the Book Love:

Related