Rainbow Snippets 5/5

Happy snippets day! I’m head down and writing these days, focusing still on a contemporary novel called Mergers & Acquisitions. I make slow progress this time of year, so you’ll be seeing snips from this novel for a few more weeks at least.

Today we have Teague, an attorney who works for a high-powered New York Law firm, whose biggest deal blew up the day before and who is now a little hung over. Just a little.

Fucking hell, morning came early.

Teague groaned and rolled over, the sunlight blasting through his half-closed shades threatening to cleave his skull right in two.

Fucking hell, his head hurt.

He pulled his phone off the nightstand and looked at it. Nine-thirty? Jesus. He’d better get up, right? He was already late to his own firing.

~Mergers & Acquisitions by Jodi Payne

Have a great week!

Follow my Facebook Group HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

If you don’t know, Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction. It can be a work-in-progress, a finished work or even a six-sentence book recommendation. You’ll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.

Rainbow Snippets 4/27

Happy snippets day! Today’s snip is from a contemporary novel I’m writing called Mergers & Acquisitions. Jason (aka Dallas, Jason’s dancer persona) is an exotic dancer at a gay nightclub in Hell’s Kitchen. In this scene, Jason and his friend Diego are headed into the nightclub through the side entrance before their shift.

This is more than six sentences, but it’s dialogue so… I know, still cheating. Sorry!


“Come on in, ladies.” The security guard stepped out of their way.

Jason winked. “That’s ‘cowboy’, actually.”

“Oh yeah? Yeehaw, then.” The security guy didn’t even crack a smile.

“Oh, Jackson.” Diego gave the man a poke in the chest and then looked at Jason. “He’s a big softie, honey, don’t let him fool you.”

“Yippee ki-yay.” Jason smiled at Jackson and tipped his imaginary hat. Still not one hint of a smile. Wow.

Jackson blinked at him slowly and he bet the man was stoned. “Bruce Willis.”

“What?”

“That’s not cowboy, that’s Bruce Willis.”

“Oh. But I thought—” Shit, I’m too Brooklyn to be a cowboy. “Thanks.”

~Mergers and Acquisitions by Jodi Payne

Have a great week!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

If you don’t know, Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction. It can be a work-in-progress, a finished work or even a six-sentence book recommendation. You’ll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.

What am I Working On?

Yesterday, in my Facebook author group, Jodi’s Gents, I was asked what I am working on right now and could I post a snippet from it. No problem, I replied, and then had a look at what I am working on. Wow. I’m busy.

Here’s the active list:

Solo Work:

  • Finishing Soft Limits (still), the prequel to the Deviations Series.
  • Finishing a holiday story titled “A Whole Latke Love”, potentially for DSP’s 2019 Advent Calendar.
  • I’m working through the middle act of a novel called “Mergers & Acquisitions” about a young attorney and an exotic dancer.
  • I have plotted out (to the degree that this panster plots) a new novel I’ll be starting in June that is untitled at the moment but is a second chance/former lovers/enemies to lovers/coming back home romance.

Co-Writing with BA Tortuga:

I can’t even. We have at least three things going and one big thing in edits and really, they’re all still in places where I can’t tell you about them yet. But generally, we have another BDSM project for you (not the DSP one, that’s about to go into edits), a romantic suspense and possibly a cute new adult.

Coming Soon!

  • Lone Star in Jersey: a co-written trans YA romance set in New Jersey from Anne Key and my alter ego, Gina Harris, release date April 30.
  • Stable Hill, my solo m/m/m menage, release date May 21.

Now. I promised a snippet, but you’re really getting an excerpt. YAY!

Teague Whitaker is a young, ambitious attorney at a prestigious New York law firm. Jason (aka Dallas in this scene) is a pretty damn happy exotic dancer. In this passage, Teague has had a bitch of a day and goes to a club in Hell’s Kitchen to forget his troubles.

(Disclaimer: this is unedited and will have typos and grammar issues and all those things I count on my editors and proofreaders to help me with. Also, this is my original, unpublished work. Please don’t copy it, but feel free to link folks to this post. Thank you!)

Goddammit. Teague needed that drink. Now.

He’d been walking east into Hell’s Kitchen from his office in Times Square, toward those places he frequented when he was in a certain mood and wanted to drink alone. There were plenty of bars that were better suited for socializing when he wanted to. Places with a nice bar, a neighborhood feel, a friendly bartender. Places where he could hang out and meet people. Meet men. Have a good time.

Most of those places didn’t have a cover, and the drinks were reasonable for New York. But he didn’t give a shit about the money, and friendly wasn’t what he was looking for tonight. Tonight he wanted to look, to watch, to be entertained. Distracted. He wanted out of his head, to fantasize. He didn’t want to know anyone, and he wanted to be able to pay some hot dancer good money just to pour him into a cab and send him home alone once he got drunk enough he could barely walk.

He walked past one club and then another, settling on one he’d only been to a couple of times. The Wiggle Room had a reputation for walking the razor’s edge. The place also had a reputation for being hard to get into, so he straightened his jacket but loosened his tie and opened a button at his throat. He ran his fingers through his hair as he stood in the entrance line, working on that rakish but loaded vibe, wanting to look like he was ready to spend his money.

“You’re alone?” The bouncer looked him over, head to toe.

“Yes.”

“I.D.?”

“Rough day, looking to have a drink and blow off some steam.” Teague pressed a fifty into the guy’s palm along with his license, and the guy gave him his ID right back and stamped his hand.

“Came to the right place.”

“I’m sure of it.” Teague made his way inside. The music was loud, the dance floor busy, and the bar was lit up and crowded. He made his way over to see if he could find a spot to settle, and he was finally able to shoulder in right as a couple moved away. He slid onto a bar stool that was still warmed by the ass that just left it.

He pulled out his credit card and set it on the bar in front of him, and a bartender was over in an instant. One of four behind the bar tonight.

“Boilermaker.”

The bartender was a fine specimen of man. Easily six foot something with broad shoulders. His muscle top was tight and his shorts were tighter. “Tab?”

Teague nodded.

“Stockbroker, honey?”

“I beg your pardon?” Teague looked over at the young man in the cowboy hat who’d appeared at his side, noticing right off how stacked the guy was. A sleeveless shirt showed off major biceps and the guy’s thighs seemed ready to pop right out of his cutoffs.

“Wall Street?” The cowboy asked and leaned an elbow on the bar.

“God, no.”

“How about investment banker?”

“Nope.”

“Market analyst?”

He snorted. “How long are you going to keep this up?”

“Tell me.”

Teague raised an eyebrow. “Attorney.” Possibly an unemployed one.

“Well, I’ll be. I could of kept right on guessing. I’d’a got it eventually, but you don’t look like a man with a whole lot o’ patience right now.”

The cowboy had that right. “Tie gave me away, huh?”

“Nah, the perfect hair.” The guy reached for Teague’s already loose tie and slowly untied the knot entirely, rolled the silk fabric around one hand and then stuffed it into Teague’s jacket pocket. “There, now. Doesn’t that feel better?”

Teague knew the game here, this pretty dancer with the brilliant smile wanted him shell out twenty bucks for a private lap dance. Everybody had to make a living, right? “It does.”

Teague’s beer and whiskey arrived, and the cowboy reached for the shot glass. “What’s your name, Wall Street?”

“I’m an attorney. I actually work midtown, not in the financial district.” Why the hell did that even matter? He wasn’t interested in small talk.

The cowboy shrugged. “All the same to me, honey. I’m Dallas.”

Dallas. Sure. If the man was born below the Mason-Dixon line, it wasn’t any farther south than Baltimore. He was more like good old down-home Jersey City. “Teague.”

“What kind of name is Teague?”

“It’s Irish.” His name actually meant “handsome”, which he tried to use a few times as a pickup line, but it never once worked.

The cowboy smiled at him and dropped the shot glass into his mug of beer, then licked mischievous fingers. “Ooh. Leon’s givin’ you the good stuff right off.”

Of course he was. Teague was a man with cash to burn who probably looked like he knew a good whiskey. Leon wanted to make a buck, too. But Teague knew that a couple of drinks in Leon would switch to the cheap shit figuring he would be just drunk enough not to notice.

Well, the joke was on Leon. Teague didn’t actually know dick about whiskey, except that it burned just right going down and was going to help him forget his day. Leon could have given him the cheap shit right off the bat, and he’d have neither noticed nor cared. He picked up his laced beer and took a long gulp, then loosened another button on his shirt and put his glass down.

“That’s it, honey, relax. Let your long day go.”

Teague looked at Dallas and gave him a wink. “Not drunk enough yet Jersey Cowboy. Try me again in an hour.”

“That’s Dallas to you, partner. Dallas, and I’m living in Brooklyn nowadays.” Dallas winked at him. “Talk doesn’t cost a thing.”

“I don’t have much to say.”

“Well. Then you drink, and I’ll talk.” The guy braced a foot on his stool and hopped right up, planting his ass on the bar and bringing everything from his hips down into view.

He wanted to touch those muscled thighs but he knew better. You didn’t do that unless you were ready to get thrown out. He could look though, and he did, then lifted his glass in salute and took another sip.

“So. A hot guy in a nice suit comes in after ten o’clock on a weeknight wanting whiskey and a beer chaser. There’s no good story behind that.”

“Yeah, well.” He shrugged. That was the truth.

Dallas planted one snub-toed fancy boot on Teague’s bar stool, right between his legs. Jersey Cowboy had some sweet boots. He didn’t realize you could make that kind of cash in a place like this.

“I guess you’re fixin’ to forget your day.”

“Big time.”

He’d kind of like to forget his whole week. Maybe the whole damn month. What the hell was he going to do tomorrow? Should he show up at the office? And do what? Sit at his desk and stare at the walls until someone came in and gently – or not so gently – let him go? He couldn’t imagine any other scenario. It was possible, he supposed, that they’d throw some busy work at him just to be kind, maybe see if he’d try to bring in anyone else, but really that would waste their time, and his, too. He wouldn’t take that offer.

He could he find another job, but how quickly? Did he even want to put this one on his resume? What kind of reference would he get from his current firm? “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure, honey. How’s your—”

“Gentlemen!”

“Oh, boy.” Dallas winked at him and Teague raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, boy?”

“Straight outta Texas, everyone give it up for the beautiful boy from the Lone Star State, the Wiggle Room’s own yellow rose. It’s Dallas!”

“Kiss me.”

“What?” Had he heard that right?

A spotlight hit the bar as the music started, making Teague squint, and the next thing he knew Dallas had a hand behind his head and was kissing him. Teague was so startled he just kissed the cowboy right back. A shiver shot up his spine and as Dallas pulled away, Teague got a look into the cowboy’s moss green eyes.

Dallas laughed and winked, delighted, and stood right up on the bar as the first verse kicked in.

No longer in the spotlight, Teague ran his fingers over his lips slowly, feeling himself smile. What the hell was that? He shook it off and scooped up his beer again, swallowing most of it down in one gulp as the country song grew louder. It wasn’t anything he recognized, but it had a great beat, a steel guitar, and a woman was singing about leaving her man and his cheating ways.

Teague approved.

“Another?” Teague nodded at Leon, watching Dallas shake his hips like Shakira as he made his way to the far end of the bar. Teague approved of that, too.

Once Dallas hit the end of the bar, he was helped down by a burly bouncer. Teague suddenly caught on.

He’d been part of that cowboy’s show since hello.

–Mergers & Acquisitions, by Jodi Payne – original work, do not copy or distribute.

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Liberty States Fiction Writers & Readers Conference

This is where you will find me this weekend! Overall, I have found this conference to be fairly diverse and the attendees more flexible and open minded than at other New Jersey conferences. I especially like it because it isn’t only romance authors, so you get to have a wide range of discussions with people from all kinds of writing and reading backgrounds. I learned a lot last year, and I expect to do the same this year.

If you’re a reader, this is the info for you:

Readers Track

Full Registration – $95

Day Pass Options:
Saturday Day Pass – $65
Sunday Day Pass – $35

Full Registration includes access to all Readers Track panels and events, spotlight signings, the Saturday night game night, and three meals.

Saturday Day Pass includes access to all Readers Track panels/events and the book fair to be held on Saturday, March 30. The price also includes the Saturday game night, and two meals.

Sunday Day Pass includes access to all Readers Track panels/events and the spotlight signings held on Sunday, March 31. The price also includes one meal.

Visit the conference site, the registration link is at the bottom:
Liberty States Fiction Writers & Readers Conference Registration.

Hope to see you there!

Rainbow Snippets 3/24

Rainbow Snippets – Jodi Payne

It’s snippets day! Today’s snip is from a holiday story I’m writing called A Whole Latke Love. Matt is an attorney attending his office holiday party, and Ethan is a former one night stand that turns out to be catering the event. Oops. Or is there more to them than one night after all?


Ethan watched Matt leave, watched that dreamy ass walk out of the room, feeling like he’d finally drawn the winning lotto number… like he’d just won BINGO the hard way. If this were Atlantic City, there’d be nickels pouring out of his slot machine right now.

Fuck, yes.

That incredible lay from a month ago, the one he couldn’t get out of his mind, the one that he’d gone back to that bar six times to find again… That sweet, hot guy just showed up out of fucking nowhere.

Even better, Matt wanted to get together again. He was so getting laid tonight.



Have a great week!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

If you don’t know, Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction. It can be a work-in-progress, a finished work or even a six-sentence book recommendation. You’ll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.

Rainbow Snippets 3/17

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all! Today I’m going to give you a six-line preview of my new m/m/m ménage, Stable Hill, which is currently in pre-order at Dreamspinner Press. Oscar lost his husband three years ago and is raising their girls on his own now. Russ is the barn manager at Stable Hill Farm that became the farm manager when Oscar’s father became too ill to manage it himself any longer. The third soon-to-be lover, who is not in this particular snip, is Jeffrey, the realtor Oscar has hired to sell the farm.


This time when the silence fell between them, Oscar tried to let it be, but Russ seemed way more comfortable with it than he was. He watched the waves of grass blowing in the hayfield and examined the porch railing, which Russ must have painted recently because it looked great. He did pretty much anything but look at Russ; if he were honest, he was a little intimidated. The guy knew the farm inside and out, as Oscar had once when he’d lived with Dad, but didn’t anymore. Russ also knew damn well that Oscar hadn’t spent any real time out here in, well, years really, and the last year especially. Russ and Dad had become friends, and sometimes he worried that Russ was closer to Dad than he was.


You can pre-order Stable Hill RIGHT HERE!

Here’s the blurb:

Can three men from very different backgrounds find a home and a future together?

After losing his husband to cancer, Oscar Kennedy has his hands full with their four girls, the house, his job, and his mother-in-law. When he loses his father too, keeping Stable Hill, the old horse farm where he grew up, becomes impossible. Oscar hires Jeffrey Stokes, a slick-looking real estate broker with a roll-up-his-sleeves work ethic, to get it on the market.

Russell White manages the day-to-day at Stable Hill. Russ had loved Oscar’s dad like a father, and took on even more responsibility when the old man fell ill. He is shocked and saddened by Oscar’s decision to sell.

All three men have a stake in Stable Hill, and it’s not long before they start to invest in one another too. But their complicated relationship doesn’t make having to sell Stable Hill any easier. Will the fragile triad they’re building last when the farm that brought them together is gone?


Have a great weekend!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

For those of you that don’t know, Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction. It can be a work-in-progress, a finished work or even a six-sentence book recommendation. You’ll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.

Rainbow Snippets 3/10 #rainbowsnippets

For those of you that don’t know, Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction. It can be a work-in-progress, a finished work or even a six-sentence book recommendation. You’ll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.

This is the first six(ish) lines of a WIP I’m writing as a holiday short and the scene takes place at an office holiday party. Matt is an attorney who works there, and Ethan is with the caterer for the party.


Matt set his plate down at the far end of a counter so he’d be out of the way, then cut a big bite of latke, scooped up some apple sauce with it, and put it in his mouth.

“Oh, yum. Mm-mm-mm.” Crunchy, a little garlicky, fried just perfectly. He took another bite. “Oh man.”

“Everything okay, sir?”

Startled, he turned abruptly with his mouth still full and looked right into a pair of sweet blue eyes. Sweet, familiar blue eyes.

He quickly finished chewing. “Ethan?”

“Matt? Oh my God!”

Oh shit.


Have a great weekend!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

Rainbow Snippets – 3/3

Hello again all!

For those of you that don’t know, Rainbow Snippets says it “is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of original fiction. Every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.”

This is the first six (it’s seven, pretend it’s six) lines from a current WIP I’m working on with BA Tortuga, tentatively titled Wrecked. I’m not going to tell you too much about it, but Beckett Adler is an attorney living in Vermont and working in Middlebury.

~~~

The offices of Walker and Adler, LLP closed early on Fridays. That was one of the perks of practicing law in Vermont, weekends were sacred. There were other perks–it was perfectly acceptable to show up late because there was fresh powder on the mountain, you could bring your dog to the office, and you only had to wear a suit on court days.

Of course, the rules, such as they were, didn’t concern Beckett Adler too much since he was the boss.

Beckett locked up and stepped out into the brisk afternoon, but the chill in the air didn’t keep him from stopping by the hardware store for varnish and a couple of foam brushes. In a month or so he’d get his boat back to Lake Champlain. His weekend plans included refinishing the tiller and the cleats, and maybe starting on the companionway.

~~~

Have a great weekend!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

Rainbow Snippets – Feb 24

RAINBOW SNIPPETS 2/24

Hello again all!

For those of you that don’t know, Rainbow Snippets says it “is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of original fiction. Every story’s main character identifies as LGBTQ+.”

It’s been a while since I posted one of these, and I miss doing them!

This is a snip from my current WIP, tentatively titled Mergers and Acquisitions. Jason is a stripper that goes by Dallas at a club in Hell’s Kitchen (New York City) and Teague is an attorney who is this close to making partner at his high powered law firm. Teague’s had a bad day and ends up at Jason’s (Dallas’) club. It’s a tiny bit more than six lines, but some of the lines are one word, so… forgive me!

~~~

“Gentlemen!”

“Oh, boy.” Dallas winked at him and Teague raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, boy?”

“Straight outta Texas, everyone give it up for the beautiful boy from the Lone Star State, the Wiggle Room’s own yellow rose. It’s Dallas!”

“Kiss me.”

“What?” Had he heard that right?

A spotlight hit the bar as the music started, making Teague squint, and the next thing he knew Dallas had a hand behind his head and was kissing him. Teague was so startled he just kissed the cowboy right back. A shiver shot up his spine and as Dallas pulled away, Teague got a look into the cowboy’s moss green eyes.

Dallas laughed and winked, delighted, and stood right up on the bar as the first verse kicked in.

~~~~

Have a great weekend!

Follow me on FB HERE, or on Twitter, HERE.

To read a wide variety of samples of LGBTQ+ fiction, go to HERE.

COMING SOON!

Preorder Stable Hill at Dreamspinner Press