I’m KC Burn and I’m so looking forward to being at Coastal Magic in February! I wasn’t able to go this year, as I ended up moving from Florida to California, but the previous year, in St. Augustine, was such a fantastic time. I discovered that, despite being horribly uncomfortable speaking in public, panels were a lot of fun. I ended up on several panels with some fantastic authors, and talking about world building and writing with other authors, and getting input from the audience was so incredible and inspiring. Being in such a small, intimate environment with readers and other authors… I don’t think there’s anything better.
So, here’s a little blurb and excerpt from… well, I can’t exactly call it an upcoming release, but with any luck, it will be available for Coastal Magic. Here’s a sneak peek at North on Drummond.
Blurb: Sandy Bottom Bay, Florida – Come for the Haunts, Stay for the Beaches!
Drew Drummond might call himself a psychic tarot reader, but he doesn’t believe in the supernatural. The business was left to him by his grandmother, and seemed the best way to rise above the chronic criminal behavior of the Drummond family. Despite his efforts, few of the townspeople consider him a good romantic match. Being gay only makes finding love more difficult.
When Cliff Garcia, Drew’s teenaged crush, moves back to town and joins the police force, Drew doesn’t think he has a chance. After all, the skeptical cop considers Drew’s profession on par with professional con man, and Cliff had spent his entire school career feuding with Drew’s volatile brothers. Despite the obstacles, Drew and Cliff begin a fiery relationship.
Just when Drew starts to believe they might have a chance, he suffers a head injury and begins having visions of the future. If Drew tells Cliff the truth, he’ll lose the man he’s falling for, but keeping his new ability a secret is no longer an option. If he can’t convince Cliff he’s for real, a murderer will walk free.
Excerpt: Sunlight flashed off the ocean on Cliff Garcia’s right as he drove along the two lane road toward Sandy Bottom Bay. Opening the car window, salty air rushed into the car and he drew in a deep breath, the scent making his homecoming seem more real than it had until now. He’d lived in Los Angeles for the past eight years, and despite frequent trips to the beach with friends, for some reason the Pacific just wasn’t the same as the Gulf coast of Florida where he’d grown up. Maybe it was the fact that even at the beach he couldn’t shake the stink of smog out of his nostrils. Maybe it was the aridity of California. Most people didn’t enjoy the thick, muggy humidity of a soggy Florida summer afternoon. Cliff didn’t much either, not when he was enduring it, but strangely, he found he missed even that while he’d been in California.
Florida had a different vibe, a different scent, a different way of life. One that wasn’t always congruent with being gay, at least not in his tiny hometown. But then, he hadn’t been out on the LAPD either. The cynicism and non-stop threat of violence had worn him down in four short years on the job, and turned him into a jaded, world weary man at the tender age of twenty-eight. It hadn’t taken long before he’d begun to wonder if he’d made a mistake living in LA. Then again, Cliff wasn’t entirely sure small town life suited him either, but here he was, back again, for the foreseeable future. Maybe there was nowhere he truly belonged. Nowhere he could be himself. Nowhere he could be happy.
A billboard framed by palm trees caught his eye. White sandy beach, glistening blue water, and the words “Visit Sandy Bottom Bay! Voted Best Beach in Florida*”
Cliff slowed his car, since there was no one on the road with him, to read the asterisked disclaimer, written in small enough font that most people wouldn’t be able to read it as they tore down the road at sixty-five miles an hour, or more, depending on whether they were defying the posted speed limit.
The asterisked disclaimer made him cringe. The disclaimer represented everything he despised about his hometown, and it wasn’t their probable lack of acceptance of his sexuality. This was the reason his parents had broken up. This was what his mother loved more than his father, more than him, more than anything in the world, as far as Cliff could tell. His mother’s delusions were not only accepted in Sandy Bottom Bay, they were actively encouraged.
Visit Sandy Bottom Bay! Voted Best Beach in Florida.*
*By readers of Paranormal Broadcast Weekly