From high fantasy to cyberpunk - romance for every taste!
COMING MAY 31!
Hoping to reveal all shades of romance, we have gathered together ten authors from around the world, including Canada, England, Lithuania, and the United States, for this sweet romance anthology, A Season for Romance.
In twenty stories, you will find romance in a variety of genres, from high fantasy to cyberpunk. Nine of these stories feature main characters who identify as LGBTQ+.
In this first anthology of A Season for Romance: Spring Blossoms, the characters in our stories are just starting to acknowledge their budding feelings for one another. There is beauty, tenderness, angst, and even humour in these carefully crafted stories meant to transport you to distant, fantastical worlds where love is just moments away.
We hope you enjoy them.
BIOS & LINKS & SNIPPETS
Erica Damon
Erica Damon is a writer, equestrian, and artist living in Western Massachusetts. She calls herself compulsively creative, and that has led to a collection of ‘what ifs?’ in her back pocket. A self-directed degree from UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College furthered her exploration outside of the ordinary. That same sense of wonder weaves its way into her fiction. If she’s not writing, she’s likely out riding horses while the ideas swirl in the background.
website: http://www.ericadamon.com/
Snippet from 16 Months and Lightyears Away:
It had been nearly a decade since he saw Henry, and even though they had both grown past the last remnants of teenage awkwardness, there was no doubt as to who was standing before him.
Henry had the panicked look of a trapped animal, his eyes darting for the nearest escape route, but there wasn’t one. “Del...”
Delphius’ ship had docked with Henry’s and there was no turning back.
For either of them.
Isla Ryder
Isla Ryder grew up around horses but never owned one of her own, instead settling for riding lessons and every horse book she could find. When those books stopped being enough, she began writing her own. Throughout school, she loved creative writing classes and earned a BDIC degree from UMass Amherst. She has published a series of sweet cowboy romance novellas and loves working with other authors as an alpha reader and developmental editor.
Snippet from Love in the Round Pen:
The other horses at the barn spent the spring prepping for a summer of competitions. Cassie had won piles of ribbons over the years, but never felt as driven to win as the other girls.
Marc had never gone to the shows with them. He would stay behind to care for the horses left at home. Perhaps that wasn’t such a bad idea all along.
Astro pranced around the pen. There was no way Cassie would step inside with him. She would have given up on the ragged-looking horse just like her father. The realization stung.
But there was Marc, standing in the pen and getting Astro to dance circles around him.
To the untrained eye, it might look like chaos, and while it might have begun that way, it was different now. It was beautiful. The gelding lowered his head and let out a snort, his feet coming to stillness.
Naito Diamond
The author of numerous Flash Romance stories from High Fantasy to Cyberpunk, Naito Diamond focuses on prospects for our future in the technological field (esp. Augmented Intelligence series), evolution of civilization, and the existence of alternative civilizations.
With a background in software development and an interest in AI, medical innovations, and neuropsychology, she adds authentic details to her stories. Her fondness for human nature enables her to create flawed but lovable characters.
She lives in a small European country, in a house surrounded by forest, with a German Shepherd, a ginger cat, and a rooster.
Website: https://naitodiamond.com
Snippet from Red String:
The door closed behind me. I was in the prince’s bed-chamber, standing there like a fool, with no idea of what to do next.
The prince sat on the love-seat at the foot of his bed and crossed his legs. Chin resting on one hand, he fixed his gaze upon me.
My eyes wandered to a stack of opened letters on his table. Neatly bound, they lay there -- each envelope of a different color. On top of the stack lay a royal blue envelope…
My heart skipped a beat as I recalled the color I picked each year to match the cravat he wore the day before I ended up not giving the love potion to him.
I gulped. Does he…suspect me?
Cassia Hall
Cassia Hall is the author of the Seasons Cycle, an LGBTQ-friendly series, a spin-off from her main Lake Traveler Saga. Her poetry collections include Poems of Myth & Magick and Songs of Love & Longing.
She composes songs for her characters, using music – the universal language of love – to convey their messages. She believes that, just as music goes beyond barriers of language, colour and creed, stories go straight to our hearts, allowing us to understand and accept ourselves and one another.
She lives in Toronto, Canada where the winters are long and the other seasons very precious.
Snippet from Buttons…
Pull yourself together! This may be your only chance.
He cleared his throat and recited a Karenyan folk poem that he then translated for her. It was about a bluebird that flew high enough to see that the world was larger than it expected, but not as terrifying as other bluebirds made it out to be.
“Is that true?” she asked, smiling a little.
“Well,” he said, trying to convey the message of his heart in a foreign tongue, “the world very large, and some places not so safe...” He looked down at her, determined to remember this moment, locking this memory into his heart. “But, birds who go in pairs...they safer than most.”
She gave a little laugh, which made Drito feel quite clever. For a magical moment, he almost forgot who she was and who he was not. Feeling as though he were in a dream, he asked, “Your mermaid, why she sing?”