Sometimes Life Just Needs a Little Plaid

Baby, it's cold outside! Beat the chill with WINTER WARMERS - a seasonal anthology

Mulled wine. Butterscotch kisses. Hideous sweaters. Candy at the beach, or a trip to a sex shop in Amsterdam. And the man of your dreams, wrapped around you...

Winter warmers come in many shapes and sizes, from the tongue-in-cheek to the hot-as-hell. Enjoy a quintet of heart-warming tales of men loving men from Clare London, Chrissy Munder, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles, and Lou Harper that are guaranteed to leave you with a smile on your face.

One thing's for sure—it's going to be a red-hot Christmas!

Now Available: Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Smashwords / All Romance Ebooks

Visit the Winter Warmers' Website for upcoming event listings, Live Chats, and your opportunity to win a free copy!

Including today's blog post at Well Read by Clare London. 

I fear I congratulated myself too soon. Totally behind once again - tsk, tsk. I never got around to posting some reviews of Season's Greetings:

Click on the links for the full review:

Here's the concise cut from Well Read: Overall: A funny, charming story. What more would you expect from expert short story writer, Chrissy Munder? Grade: Excellent

From Tam's Reads: I really enjoyed this story. Russ is totally pissed off that he can't get Ian out of his head, he's trying to write Easter stuff while Christmas music plays, he lives in Florida where they don't get snow, everyone is so freaking cheerful it's making him nuts. He is my ideal character. Snarky, pissy and frazzled. And it was pretty funny.

I'll stop and look around in a guilty manner here for all of about 1.02 seconds - LOL. According to a fair amount of web press lately readers don't particularily want to see review links on an author's blog.

*Excuse me while I cackle and am overcome with total and absolute lust for my personal blog domination*

You'll just have to indulge me.

The greatest suprise in my month of June (in addition to the 6 blooms on the poppy plant) has been the response to A Simple Life, one of stories in the To Have and To Hold Collection from Dreamspinner Press.

To say that I'm speechless at the emails I've received, and the reviews on this story is a total and absolute understatement. I can only say thank you to those that have taken the time to let me know this story touched you in some fashion.

Who'd a thunk?

Latest reviews for A Simple Life :

5 Stars from Kassa at Rainbow Reviews

A recommended read from Emily

An amazing and unexpected blog post from Jen at Well Read

***

Also a pleasure this month was a review for Drive Me Home over at Tracy's Place .

Welcome to the first of June! I was going to spend this morning being uber organized and updating my websites and blogs and preparing for the month ahead.

Lo and Behold - I forgot I have movers coming today at work. So *squints at watch* I will have large, burly men showing up for non-fun and festive purposes. Which means no updating to be had.

In the meantime, you could keep yourself busy by clicking over to Well Read where I am the interviewed author this month.

Have you ever wanted to know a bit more about me? Go and check it out.

I'm pleased to share the link to a very thoughtful and detailed review for Drive Me Home over at Well-Read.

If you want to read the story without any spoilers (?) you may not want to click the link.

Overall, I think what pleased me most about this review was her ending comment: "Even now, days later, I am still thinking about this book, reflecting on its themes of passivity and control; mulling over what it was about Eric that made me so cross; and thinking over the implications of the ending for the two men. For that reason alone I think this deserves a grade of 'Very Good'."

I don't feel I can ask for more than someone spending time thinking about a story once they are done reading it.

( Although, I will say - this tickled me as well )

Just like with our children we authors have characters and stories that are our "favorites". We aren't supposed to have them, we try to love them all the same but it still happens.

One of my "favorites" is the short story Brush with Desire. So, I am always pleased when someone new reads it and then tells me they enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

Here's a new review from Well Read :

Overall: This story fairly sparkles with humour and wit. Brian's sympathetic viewpoint and self-depreciating personality make this 'BDSM-lite' story very amusing as well as engrossing. There is a feast for the senses as the author describes in detail the smells, sounds, looks and tastes that Brian encounters during the liason with Dale, adding to the sexual tension, which starts small and is slowly increased as the story progresses. I'm not usually a fan of BDSM, but the way that the author describes the emotions that Brian encounters, made me understand why he would wish to take on the submissive role. I'm giving this a grade of 'Excellent' and would highly recommend it to anyone with a spare hour or so.

I'm pleased to share some new reviews for a couple of the anthologies I have short stories in. Be sure to click on the reviewer's link for the full review.

Sandra over at Night Owl Romance reviewed the Make Me a Match Volume Two Anthology and had this to say about the anthology overall:

Make Me a Match Vol 2 was overall a good and interesting anthology. I really enjoyed most of the stories.

and

Being that you get quite a few stories in this book it’s a great value. I plan on keeping this one and reading it again. I’ll also recommend it to others.

and Jenre or at Well Read reviewed the new Reflections of Love Anthology and had this to say about Milestones:

Chrissy Munder always writes a great story and I wasn't disappointed here.

and

What made this story work for me is how realistic it was in showing how easy it is to allow life to get in the way of love and also how all relationships have to be worked on if they are going to thrive.

New reviews are out and about on the web (click on the links for the full reviews)

Here's a couple of new ones for Brush With Desire .

It received 4-1/2 stars as reviewed by scribbler at Rainbow Reviews. - Geeks in love, or at least in lust, make me smile when they’re done right, and I’m always a sucker for a fun story. Chrissy Munder’s “Brush with Desire” manages to nail both, with a bit of BDSM thrown in for some spice.

and

What makes this story really work are the characters, Brian in particular. He’s tired, a little goofy, and, like most geeks, easily distracted by shiny things. The resulting internal monologue is both real and a riot. Dale’s a bit less well developed, but in all the right ways; the story’s told from Brian’s point of view, and that view’s dead-on scatterbrained. The two play off each other well, and the story just hangs together from end to end.
A quick read, but a good one.

Also check out the review by Cassie from Joyfullyreviewed.com. - Brush with Desire is a quick, hot little tale of finding romance in a most unexpected place.

Stormy Weather available in the Make Me a Match Anthology Vol. 2 received 3 stars from Nikki at Rainbow Reviews . - “Stormy Weather is a lighthearted, fun, and romantic story. Craig is adorable and Grant is a sweet guy too. They have great chemistry, and it feels like the real thing with them.”

And I was thrilled to read that Well Read chose Giving Gifts as one of their 10 most enjoyed in the Dreamspinner Press Advent Calendar Collection . - The real strength of this story was in the way that the reader really empathises with the character of Seth. We meet him when he is feeling at his best and experience all his hopes for the night ahead, then when that comes crashing down around him we feel his sense of crushing embarrassment, then when we feel his surprise and powerful emotion as he meets someone who values him for who he is. Marvellous.

And Enigmatically Emily had this to say about A Gift of Ash and Frost - This is the second story from Chrissy as part of the advent calendar ~ this is quite different from the first story and is just as enjoyable. This is an intense story of a man who has been dealt a difficult hand with his life, more so than you can possibly imagine from the start of the story. As the story progresses, we learn more about Mathias as he discovers things about himself. I love the style this story is written in ~ it pulls you right into the overall setting of the story."

and

"The story's fast pacing drives toward the exceptionally poignant ending. This is the type of story that I really do feel I need to read numerous times in order to fully digest and appreciate all of it's intricacies and nuances ~ something that I personally love in a story. I really enjoy when each reading can reveal a bit more about the charcters and the underlying design of the story. It is a beautifully written and moving story that I greatly enjoyed and can't wait to read again."

Dashing in quickly to say I've come across a few new items across the web.

There's a review up at Fallen Angels for The Journey Back - Full Review here .
This reader enjoyed watching the mists clear from Riley’s mind and his world return to focus. The Journey Back may be short, but it is an intense and agreeable read. Thanks, Whitney.

And my short story Third Times the Charm available in the Make Me a Match Anthology Volume One was chosen as the Books of the Year - M/M short Story 2008 by Well Read .

The more I think about that the more stunned I truly am.

There's also a review up at Joyfully Reviewed for Brush With Desire . The full review can be found here .

There's a new review up for Third Times the Charm as well as the other stories in the Make Me a Match Anthology over at the Well Read Blog .

You can either click the link above or ( read here )