Drive-by shameless self-promo.
Published July 31, 2008 | 
~Romance Junkies does WILD HORSES:
“WILD HORSES is the follow up to SEVEN YEAR ACHE. I loved this story because while you still get to visit the beloved characters from SEVEN YEAR ACHE there are new memorable characters introduced with heartbreaking backgrounds which bring tears to your eyes. Kris struck me as a fun loving singer down on his luck. He doesn’t follow the rules and takes risks that most people would have shied away from. Blake’s grief and loneliness is evident throughout the story. He takes his friend’s death personally and his friends don’t seem to know how to handle him or what he needs. Selah March satisfies our need to know more about what happened with Jamie, Rafe and Lilah and still capture the intensity of the growing love between Kris and Blake. Add in several frat boys who don’t know how to behave themselves and things are bound to get real interesting very quickly.
While WILD HORSES can be read as a stand-alone story, I’d recommend reading SEVEN YEAR ACHE as well so that you’ll have a better understanding of what happened with Jamie, Rafe and Lilah.” ~Chrissy Dionne for Romance Junkies
* * *
~Rainbow Reviews does it, too.
“[WILD HORSES is a] …welcome sequel/spin off to Selah March’s SEVEN YEAR ACHE. We get to catch up with the turbulent lives of JT and Rafe, but the main focus is on Kris and Blake, an unlikely pairing if ever there was one.
At first things don’t go well for the two and I wanted to reach into the screen and bang their heads together. Even when they start talking and, uh, other things, they’re still not out of the woods, and the desire to bang their heads returns.
The characters don’t live neat cookie-cutter lives. They have real issues and don’t always resolve them comfortably. The gritty reality of the story is one of its greatest strengths. Along with the romance of course.” ~British Bulldog for Rainbow Reviews
Meh.
Published July 21, 2008 | I’m still hip-deep in an overdue novella (apologies to my lovely, patient, kind, and insightful editor if she happens to be reading this) but here’s a short list of interesting things I’ve found while surfing when I should’ve been writing:
PBW’s “Left Behind and Loving It” workshop schedule for next week’s non-RWA attendees.
The start of a good romantic suspense novel…except it’s real, and holy shit, those poor women.
For Jeebus’ sake, DON’T hold a child in your lap while on a riding lawnmower. I mention this because as I was driving back from the post office today, I saw not one…not two…but THREE instances of adults cutting grass with toddlers on their laps. TODDLERS. Squirmy, unpredictable, prone-to-impulsivity little bundles of “Oh, look, shiny!” whom you’re holding onto with ONE HAND while operating the motorized vehicle with the SHARP ENOUGH TO DICE AND SLICE BLADES with the other. Read the statistics in the above link, and when you tell yourself it could never happen to you because you’re so damned careful, know that thousands of well-intentioned folks told themselves the same thing when they gave in to Junior’s whining and told him to hop aboard. Now Junior won’t be hopping anywhere, because he’s missing both his feet FROM THE KNEE DOWN.
Whew. Got a little worked up there. All better now.
Finally, I’ve got a guest-blog over at Slash and Burn on GAY COWBOYS IN THE POST-BROKEBACK AGE.
Here’s where I usually put that quippy final line, but I’m fresh out of “quippy” today. Running pretty low on “clever” and “cute,” too. Mere sarcasm? Got LOADS of that, but I’ve been told (repeatedly) that it’s totally five minutes ago, and I just don’t have the energy to defend my vintage sensibilities at the moment.
But y’all have yourselves a good week anyway, bless your hearts. 
Random is as random does.
Published July 14, 2008 | My BFF Eva had a bad day today, though she managed to describe it in terms that made me cry tears of mirth. Go laugh till snot runs down your face over her caffeine-related tragedy.
Barb Caridad Ferrer posted on RtB a few days ago, and I somehow missed it. She makes some good points about the dearth of good, single title contemporary romance on today’s shelves. I hardly have time to read, and my TBR pile is health-hazard unto itself, so I hadn’t noticed the lack, myself. Will take her word for it, though, because she’s brilliant and EVER-stylish.
This nice person had some interesting insights into WILD HORSES. I like it when people talk about my characters like they’re real people. Gives me warm fuzzies.
I’ve got two blogs up elsewhere — one at Red Sage Revealed about THERE CAME A KILLING FROST, and one at Amber Quill Authors’ Blog about the art and science of writing a sequel.
Got an email from a nice woman yesterday who wants to know if I’m only writing Westerns now. That would be a “no,” if anyone else is wondering. It’s just coincidence that my last three books have featured cowboys. My next Amber Allure release is a Halloween tale that takes place in upstate New York — about as far from a Western as you can get and stay in the continental US.
Finally, Jenny Crusie has this to say about flame-throwers, both in the literal and metaphorical sense:
George Carlin said, “The very existence of flame-throwers, proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, I’m just not close enough to get the job done.’” I think it was more, “I want to set those people over there on fire, and I don’t want to get close enough that they can retaliate.” Or maybe that’s just the flamethrowers on the internet. And speaking of them, why is it always the flamers who say to the people who protest their abuse, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”? It’s like they’re saying, “I have a right to scorch you but you don’t have the right to complain about it.” And if you leave, then they jeer because you can’t take it. “Coward.” I don’t like them but I don’t have to live with them, so they’re not a big deal. But just bleah on flamers, that’s what I say.
I have no idea who or what Jenny’s referencing here, but I’m going to pretend I do, because it gives me a happy. And while I’m at it, I’ll go her one better and ask a and mostly rhetorical question for anyone who’d care to ponder it:
If you hosted a party in your home, and one group of guests turned on another guest — or group of guests — and started calling her/him/them names, wouldn’t you consider it your job to intervene? Even if you agreed with the names being called and the insults being launched, wouldn’t you feel SOME responsibility — whether legally dictated or not — to step in and put an end to the badness?
Because the First Amendment (even if it applied in this case, which it doesn’t, because it applies to the government curtailing free speech, not a blog-owner) is not the law in my house. In my house? Everybody minds their manners, whether they’re multi-national bestselling authors slumming with masses, barely-literate “readers” who couldn’t grasp the finer points of a philosophical debate if they had velcro sewn to their fingertips, or something in between.
Like I said, rhetorical question. But I have to wonder what the host gets out of it when her guests go cannibal and eat their own. I guess it saves on the hors d’oeuvres, huh? Or the need to come up with really interesting original content.
Anyway.
Release day: WILD HORSES (new excerpt!)
Published July 13, 2008 | 
TITLE: WILD HORSES, sequel to the bestselling 2007 Amber Allure release, SEVEN YEAR ACHE
AUTHOR: Selah March
PUBLISHER: AmberAllure/Amber Quill Press
GENRE: Contemporary Western/Homoerotic (M/M)
Available NOW!
Two weeks on a dude ranch can only be good for what ails you, right? Unless what ails you is grief and guilt severe enough to make you attempt suicide. Still, Blake Talbot agrees to accompany his Ivy League frat brothers on a trip out west to honor the memory of their beloved friend, Charlie. Blake hopes he can find a little peace of mind under the bright Montana skies. Instead, he finds Kris Killborn, who’s the exact opposite of peaceful in every possible way.
Kris has big plans, but at the moment he’s stuck in Montana’s Flathead Valley, spending the summer working as a hired hand on the Lazy C guest ranch while he dreams of making it big in Nashville. He sure as hell has no interest in getting all tangled up with some damaged college boy from back east.
On the surface, Blake and Kris have nothing in common…unless you count a sexual chemistry that’s downright combustible. Yet underneath all that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Will they be able to put aside their little differences long enough to get a good look at the big picture?
Reacquaint yourself with the folks at the Lazy C. Find out how volatile best-friends-turned-lovers Rafe and Jamie are faring, check in with Aunt Cindy, and see how Lilah Montclaire finally gets her happy ending…all within the pages of WILD HORSES, the latest installment of my “Big Sky Boys” series.
***
NEW EXCERPT:
“What about you?”
“Huh?”
Blake finished folding his shirt and dropped it on the chair next to the bed where all his other clothes were piled. When he spoke, Kris could hear that Mississippi drawl coming on strong. “I said, what about you? You’re still dressed.”
Kris shrugged. “You trust me?”
Blake blinked at him. Then he smirked. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
The sudden, thick tension between them felt like the drop in air pressure that came before a storm. Like maybe the bunkhouse was about to be at the center of a very localized bit of wild weather.
Kris crossed to Blake in three quick steps, leaving no more than a couple feet between them. “I think it’s time for you to shut that smart mouth, Biloxi.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Yep. Most definitely.” Kris didn’t give him a chance to come up with another helping of sass, but backed him up till Blake’s thighs hit the edge of the mattress of the double bed across from the bunks. “I’m gonna ask you one question, and you’re gonna answer it, yes or no.”
Blake looked him straight in the eye and nodded.
“You ever been with man like you’re about to be with me?” He leaned in, already pretty sure he knew which way the wind blew, but needing to hear it all the same. “You ever been fucked?”
He waited, patient and careful, as Blake’s throat worked around whatever he was about to say. It was a loaded subject for any man. Girls were allowed to be proud of their virginity. Men…not so much.
“No.” Blake squeezed shut his eyes, then opened them and gave Kris another straight look. “No, I haven’t.”
Kris nodded. “Good enough. We’ll go slow, and you’ll let me know if–”
“I already said I trusted you.”
“So you did. I’m just tryin’ to be…” Kris sighed and shook his head, at a loss to explain his all-of-a-sudden need to take special care without letting on how much he knew of Blake’s recent history.
“A gentleman?” Blake’s mouth twisted up in a smile.
“Don’t sound so surprised, boy.” He backed off a few feet and grabbed the hem of his shirt. “Now get your ass on that bed.”
***
Coming tomorrow: WILD HORSES
Published July 12, 2008 | 
Contemporary Western homoerotic romance (M/M)
Sequel to the bestselling 2007 Amber Allure release, SEVEN YEAR ACHE, now available at Fictionwise.
Two weeks on a dude ranch can only be good for what ails you, right? Unless what ails you is grief and guilt severe enough to make you attempt suicide. Still, Blake Talbot agrees to accompany his Ivy League frat brothers on a trip out west to honor the memory of their beloved friend, Charlie. Blake hopes he can find a little peace of mind under the bright Montana skies. Instead, he finds Kris Killborn, who’s the exact opposite of peaceful in every possible way.
Kris has big plans, but at the moment he’s stuck in Montana’s Flathead Valley, spending the summer working as a hired hand on the Lazy C guest ranch while he dreams of making it big in Nashville. He sure as hell has no interest in getting all tangled up with some damaged college boy from back east.
On the surface, Blake and Kris have nothing in common…unless you count a sexual chemistry that’s downright combustible. Yet underneath all that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Will they be able to put aside their little differences long enough to get a good look at the big picture?
Reacquaint yourself with the folks at the Lazy C. Find out how volatile best-friends-turned-lovers Rafe and Jamie are faring, check in with Aunt Cindy, and see how Lilah Montclaire finally gets her happy ending…all within the pages of WILD HORSES, the latest installment of my “Big Sky Boys” series.
***
EXCERPT:
“I thought maybe I’d let you kiss me.”
Kris tilted his head, plainly considering the offer. “Think that’d make us even?”
“Guess it depends on the kiss.”
Kris laughed a third time — a full on chuckle that felt like chips of dry ice rushing over Blake’s skin. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
“What’s that supposed to–”
“Shut up, college boy.”
Kris kissed like he was trying to suck Blake’s soul out from behind his tonsils. Like the sun that had gone down just over two hours ago was never coming up again. Like it was the final night of the world, and the two of them were the last men standing. With his whole body, and every bit of his mouth — lips, teeth and tongue engaged in a full, tactical advance.
What little sense remained in Blake’s brain sloshed around, firing off random thoughts like “Somebody’s going to see us” and “Damn, if he kisses like this, I bet he fucks like a demon.” But maybe that was what he needed — a hard, merciless, take-no-prisoners fuck to erase the memory of what never happened between him and Charlie because Blake had been too much of a coward, and then it was too late.
Kris gripped the shoulder of his shirt and hauled him closer. “How long are you here for?”
“Two weeks.”
“That’s plenty.”
Blake pulled back and tried to catch Kris’s eye. “For what?”
“Depends. What d’you want?”
“I…don’t know.” He swallowed, suddenly ashamed at how bad he was at this — how plainly green and inexperienced. “What do you want?”
Kris grinned against the side of his neck and sent a whisper down the collar of his shirt that made Blake’s toes curl inside his boots. “I wanna fuck you so long and hard you can’t let out a breath that don’t taste like my name.”
***
Blah blah blah. BLAH!
Published July 10, 2008 | Yesterday’s Romancing the Blog tackled the subject of m/m romance, the market for genre fiction, and how one editor who doesn’t even buy romance can start a shit-storm without hardly trying. My comment is the loooooong one near the bottom. Like the original poster, I’m beginning to be less interested in whether people think m/m romance has legs for the long haul (time and royalty checks will tell, and I’m liking both at the moment) and more interested in how many other people “self-insert.” *snerk*
In other news, the nice people at Red Sage Revealed posted the tale of how “There Came A Killing Frost” was acquired. It gave me a happy to read it.
Still buried under The Halloween Novella That Would Not Die. No end in sight, though I’m planning to take my laptop out of the house tomorrow and find a quiet spot where nobody interrupts to ask for clean towels, a sandwich, or to run them to Borders for the newest Death Note release.
Speaking of new releases, got one coming up Sunday. Check out my Coming Soon page for details, and I’ll return tomorrow with a nice, smutty excerpt from WILD HORSES, otherwise known as “Brokeback on Crack, Part II.”
3 things I have learned in the past 13 days.
Published July 8, 2008 | 1. There are worse things than paying $4.30 for a gallon of gas. Namely, that queasy feeling in your gut when you realize you tried to stretch those last few gallons too far, and now it’s after ten at night on a one-lane back road in the middle of a torrential downpour, the little “distance to empty” light on your dashboard is blinking “3 miles” when you know for an absolute FACT that the nearest gas station is at least 5 miles away, and…AND…you’ve got somebody else’s kids in your car. And your phone is dead like a dead thing.
1. a. That little “distance to empty” light? Is a lying liar that lies. Or maybe it just likes to watch me break out into a cold sweat, cuss a blue streak (under my breath, because of the whole “somebody else’s kids on board” thing) and have what amounts to a small nervous breakdown when the van makes it all the way to the gas station’s entrance and dies as we coast toward the pumps. Because it would not surprise me to discover that my shiny new mini-van is both sentient and harbors a desire to fuck with my head.
2. Folks who live in upscale planned communities in western Pennsylvania take their Independence Day celebrations VERY seriously, to the tune of ten of thousands of dollars worth of professional-grade – and totally illegal – fireworks. And should you express concern about the whole “what if the cops show up?” aspect of the festivities? They will accuse of you of being a leftist-pinko-commie Democrat – affectionately, of course, while they swig micro-brewed beer and light their cigars off a sparkler snagged from a passing child. (Ah, America. Land of the free, home of the “my wealth and prosperity, LET ME SHOW YOU IT!”)
3. Deadlines are a necessary evil, but EVILLLLLLLLLLL nonetheless. And blown deadlines that make you sick with guilt and panic and “oh my GOD, I’m NEVER going to finish this thing?” Are the most evil of all.
And so I go to ground again, back into the shadows like a gopher with vampirism. Or something.