You may have noticed a couple of new covers if you recently visited My Amazon page. Both Pride Must Be a Place & Summer on Fire are now sporting new clothing. (-;
Unfortunately, my publisher, MuseItUp, had to make a tough decision and close their doors. It was a great pleasure working with the folx at MuseItUp! We had a long relationship. They were the publisher of both my debut novel and my sixth novel. I’m grateful for the time we spent together!
I now offer the SAME stories wrapped in newer clothing.
Here are the new covers:
PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE – Ezra Caine is gay. He’s sort of out at school but not at home, where he fears the wrath of his father’s bigotry. When Ezra’s flamboyantly out friend Alex Mills takes one too many beatings from homophobic bully Will Carter, Ezra finally snaps. Fed up with the situation at school, he decides to do something about it. With the help of his BFF, Nettie, and some unlikely allies, Ezra rallies to create their small-town school’s first gay-straight alliance. The Rainbow Alliance Club is formed. But the changes don’t come without hiccups, one of which being a messy scandal involving Alex and a gay hook-up app. As Ezra and his friends attempt to sway their school into an alliance of tolerance and acceptance, Ezra experiences a few surprises of his own on the home-front. He also learns the hard way that friendships out of convenience aren’t always a good idea, just as some enemies might not be as bad as he originally imagined them to be.
SUMMER ON FIRE – Zach Carson is a loyal friend. But is loyalty enough to keep best friends together when one of them sets fire to the rural barn they use as the local hangout? Zach, Jeff Barsell and Arnie Wilson struggle to pick up the pieces when news spreads that a body was discovered in the burnt out shell of the neighboring home. When the word murder is used by the local police, the stakes grow even higher. When the police start searching for their most likely suspect—none other than Jeff’s older brother, and nemesis, Marty Barsell—the boys decide to join forces and come up with a way to prove his innocence. But just how innocent is Marty Barsell? When Marty admits to being at the scene of the crime, the three friends enlist the help of Zach’s annoying sister, Sherry, as well as the sympathetic town eccentric, Ms. Halverton. But can they keep it together long enough to save Marty, and themselves, from eminent catastrophe? Summer on Fire is the story of friendships, and the lines we are asked to cross in order to keep them.
To purchase copies of either of these novels, you can visit MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE RIGHT HERE. Maybe consider grabbing a copy of PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE for #PrideReads! Pride month is almost over.
Please note that if you already have copies of either of these books–THE CONTENT IS THE SAME. ONLY THE COVERS HAVE CHANGED.
SUMMER ON FIRE: This is the story of three friends who do something very idiotic. The thing they do–accidentally set fire to a barn–sets off a chain reaction that includes broken limbs, bodies, lies, the testing of friendships and the complicated relationships of siblings that don’t like each other but still feel the bonds and pulls of loyalty.
PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE – Ezra is extremely pissed that homophobia still exists in his school, especially since his best friend Alex always finds himself the target of it. The two, along with Ezra’s other BFF Netty, form a Gay Straight Alliance. But this story is also about the complicated relationships that occur when you become close with someone just because they’re the same as you. Ezra and Alex formed their friendship around their sexuality…not because they shared the same values.
Before the details of the giveaway, I wanted to point out that SEBASTIAN’S POET is definitely the most CANADIAN of all my books. It takes place in Toronto’s Beaches District in the 1970s. It focuses on Sebastian, a young boy who is mostly neglected by his father and abandoned by his mother. A folksinger comes into his life and changes it forever. The folksinger is based on LEONARD COHEN. There’s a cameo appearance by Gordon Lightfoot. It’s set in Canada and it is ALL Canada. It’s my homage to Cohen and to the Beaches.
KEVIN CRAIG 