ENGAGE is now available!

For the Kindle

For the Nook

For Kobo

Happy reading!!

INSANITY!

Want to see something absolutely bonkers?

Christmas came early!! Somebody pinch me, please!

In conclusion: I love you readers.

P.S. By the way, I just hit publish on ENGAGE. It should be ready in around 12 hours. Move along, nothing to see here... ;)

Quick Update

Hello, hello!

I just wanted to post a quick update. ENGAGE is written and is now with my editor, so hopefully *fingers crossed* it will be out by the end of the week. Sooner if I can possibly manage (or find a time machine).

With that said, sign up for my newsletter (the link is off there to the right) because I want to give you faithful readers a little something extra when the series is over as a thank you for sticking with me throughout this writing process.

And finally, I will sign off with this image to tease you:

COMING SOON!

BUG at bn.com

It's come to my attention that some people have had trouble downloading BESIEGE onto their Nooks. I'm sorry that's happening. I honestly don't know why it's working for some people and not for others.

So if you are one of those unlucky few, please email me at authorjunegray@yahoo.com and I will send you a replacement file that will (*fingers crossed*) work.

Sorry again! I wish I could reply to you directly on the bn reviews page.

The Henry Sessions is now available!

For the Kindle
For the Nook

Hope you guys enjoy reading about Henry!

Excerpt from The Henry Sessions

The weekend before Jason and I left for college, the Shermans threw a huge beach party to celebrate. We dug a huge circular trench in the sand, sculpting seating around the edges, then built a bonfire in the center.

The party was fun, but I was always painfully aware of Elsie, of where she was and what she was doing. When the sun was beginning to set, I noticed that she was missing, so I went looking for her.

I found her by the water’s edge, walking alone with a sweater wrapped around her shoulders.

“Hey,” I said, approaching her with my hands in my pocket. It was getting cold by then and I only had on a t-shirt.

She looked up at me and smiled. “Hey, I have something for you.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, wondering if I was going to get to kiss her for the first time. Spoiler alert: I don’t actually get to kiss her until years later, but at the time, I thought for sure what she was going to give me was a kiss.

“Hold out your hand,” she said and placed a damp pebble on it. Damn it.

“A wonky rock?” I asked, turning it over and over.

“It’s sort of shaped like a star,” she said, touching it with her finger. “I just found it.”

I wrapped my palm around it and stuck it in my pocket. “Uh, thanks.” I didn’t get it, but whatever floated her boat.

She laughed. “I know it’s silly, but I wanted to give it to you so you can remember me when you’re in college.”

“I don’t need a rock to remember you,” I said. “My head could be filled with rocks and I would still remember you. You could hit me with a huge rock and give me amnesia and I’d still remember you.”

She snorted. “Well, if nothing else, you are that rock. You can look at it and know that even though the elements can change your shape, you’re still you at the core.”

I fisted that rock tighter, a lump growing in my throat. “Okay.”

She stepped into my space and wrapped her arms around me. “I’ll miss you so much, Henry,” she said then, as if realizing what she’d done, pulled away. She was blushing.

My chest felt tight at the knowledge that this was the end of our times together.  I decided right then that I’d show her how much she meant to me. As if reading my mind, she closed her eyes and angled her face up as I leaned down towards her.

Jason chose that same moment to come ruin the moment. “Guys, we’re breaking out the smores,” he called.

“All right,” I said, jumping away from his little sister. “We’ll be there in a second.”

Jason just shook his head and left.

I looked at Elsie and imagined her life if I kissed her now then left for college. What I saw was a vision of her pining for me, refusing to date anyone because she was waiting for my return. It was romantic as hell but it gave me a bit of an ache in the pit of my stomach. There it was again, the salmonella poisoning of guilt.

So I decided to make our lives simpler and give her a chance to enjoy the rest of high school. “Elsie, I can’t give you what you want.”

She was taken aback by my words. “Huh?”

“You want me to kiss you then you’ll want me to be your boyfriend, but that’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because!” I said, throwing my hands up. I searched for a reason that would effectively close the door in her face. “Because you’re like a little sister to me.”

Her face fell, and my stomach hurt even more. “Oh.”

I looked out over the ocean, at the orange sun dipping below the horizon. It was such an appropriate symbol for us right then. “But I really care about you,” I whispered, kicking at the sand. I felt like such a jerk.

“Yeah, whatever,” she said through pursed lips. “I didn’t want anything from you, Henry. I just wanted to give you that rock.”

I watched her retreating figure, wishing I hadn’t had to be a dick. I wanted to run after her and kiss her silly, but then what would that accomplish? I was leaving. There was nothing for us right then.

I never realized until now how I had saved her from that fate once, but it happened years later anyway, when I made her love me then left for Afghanistan.

I love this day!

I started this fine Cyber Monday off by going to my favorite local coffeeshop and finishing The Henry Sessions edits. After I was happy with it, I sent it off to my editor. I was excited because readers were actually asking for it. They were actually WAITING for it. That, to me, is amazing.

But more amazing things were to happen to me today!

I checked my sales on amazon.com. Normal. Then Kobo; normal as well. Then I checked on bn.com and did a double take. Either there was a bug in the system or people were actually buying it! Out of curiosity, I checked the Top 100 Nook Books and, no surprise, none of the novelettes were on there.

The sales numbers kept going up though.

I checked the list again at 1 pm and found DISARM at #58. HELL NO. When did that happen? Holy crab!

For the next few hours, I clicked on the Top 100 list like an addict. DISARM moved up the ranks, then at 6 p.m. BESIEGE joined in the fun. I felt like I'd won some prize.

An hour later, RETREAT jumped on the bandwagon at #96. And several happy dances ensued.

In all seriousness, I'm so grateful to all of you who purchased the novelettes and have helped spread the word about Henry and Elsie. A big shout-out to the wonderful reviewers on Goodreads, who are so gracious and generous.

From the bottom of my heart (and the sea):

The Henry Sessions Cover Reveal

Here's the cover for The Henry Sessions, fourth in the DISARM Series.

I will announce a release date soon! Won't be long now.

RETREAT is out!

RETREAT, the third in the DISARM Series, is now available!

For the Kindle here.
For the Nook here.

Why the ongoing series?

I've recently read some concerns about the serials trend in the ebook world, and I wanted to say that I totally get it. I buy my fair share of ebooks and it's frustrating to not have the entire story at your fingertips.

But I just wanted to add that there are many things that go into writing and marketing a story. For some reason, it takes me several months to write a full-length novel. To me, it's an uphill battle all the way, slogging through chapter after chapter. It becomes a real chore and I lose some of my excitement for the story.

I wanted to try and write a series of short novelettes to see if that new format changes things. And sure enough the first novelette, DISARM, nearly wrote itself. I wrote 6K words that first day and I knew that this was a format I could really work with. I was so excited! I fell in love with my characters, fell in love with the story, fell in love with their history. Nothing about writing it felt like a chore. Even the dreaded editing phase was a joy.

I knew then that this was a game-changer for me. I could write these novelettes and release them as episodes, kind of like television shows. I gave myself deadlines and was actually getting done ahead of time. For someone who hadn't released anything since July, that's a marked improvement.

Series and serials are a trend for sure, one that I think won't be going away in the foreseeable future. Heck, even Amazon has jumped on the serial bandwagon. From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense to have more titles out there. More titles = more exposure. For little indie writers like me, exposure (along with a good story) is key.

(An aside: thank you to those of you who have taken the time to read and review my stories. I really, truly appreciate it!! You guys are the best kind of exposure!)

So I guess the point I was heading towards is that I didn't just cut up a novel in order to squeeze more money out of the buying public. Each installment has a beginning, a climax (so to speak) and an end. This is just the way my brain can write right now, so I'm going with it.

For those of you who want to read the entire thing at once, take heart: after the series is over, I'm planning on selling it all together as an omnibus. I'm guessing the series will end around December (although the holidays are ramping up so it might end up being later).

One final thing: I wish you guys in the USA a Happy Thanksgiving!

Cover Reveal

Here's the cover for RETREAT. Hope you like!

RETREAT is coming soon!

Quickie

I just want to say how excited I am that you readers are enjoying the series! I was really nervous before I hit that publish button for BESIEGE, but now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Whew, it doesn't suck.

I've received a few questions about my time frame for releasing the series, and my very vague and ambitious answer is: every two to three weeks. I'm writing the series at a blistering pace (I'm going to chain this Muse up until the whole thing is done!) but each installment needs some time before it's ready for publishing.

So next up is RETREAT, when Elsie surprises Henry by showing up in California unannounced. After that, we will get to rewind (literally) and listen to Henry's taped therapy sessions. I was originally planning on breaking it down to 3 separate novelettes, but I think you readers might throttle me if I leave you hanging for a resolution for that long! So one novelette about Henry it is. I'm hoping it will give much insight into Henry's mind, his past, his decisions, and of course, his love for Elsie. It will be the least erotic of the series, but I'm still having a good time writing it.

And can I just say how much I love your messages? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEM. They make me glow from the inside out!

I really, truly appreciate you guys!

~ JG

Fresh!

BESIEGE, second in the DISARM Series, is now available!

For the Kindle, go here.
For the Nook, go here.
For the Kobo, go here.

Update

I'm sorry everyone. It doesn't look like I'll be able to release BESIEGE today as my editor has been booked solid. I will try tomorrow! I'll keep you updated as soon as I know anything. Thanks for your patience. 

~JG

Excerpt from BESIEGE

An excerpt from BESIEGE...

Finally, the most special Wednesday of the entire year arrived. I jumped out of bed with extra spring and took an extra long shower, humming to myself about my boyfriend being back, hey la, hey la. I dressed carefully then drove to base a whole hour before they were scheduled to arrive. They checked my license at the visitor center, handed me a pink slip and let me drive through the gate with a knowing smile.

I stood at the designated waiting area with the others. Our excitement was a living, breathing thing, so palpable, you could almost reach out and touch it. We looked at each other—wives, girlfriends, family, and friends—with unconcealed excitement bursting all over our faces. Some people had created welcome signs, others held balloons and flowers in their hands. I only had the hopeful heart pinned prominently on my sleeve.

Everybody cheered when the bus appeared from around the corner. We cheered when it drove into the parking lot, and we cheered when it pulled up in front of us, but we were deathly silent when the bus hissed to a stop, as if shushing us.

We all held our collective breaths when the door opened, and I swear, it must have taken five minutes for the first person to step down off that bus, but when he did, a woman squealed from somewhere within the crowd. My eyes remained glued to the bus door as airman after airman stepped down. My heart lurched in my chest every time those tan boots came into view; I thought I’d pass out after about the tenth guy who wasn’t Henry.

Then he appeared and, for a few moments, I forgot how to breathe.

Henry stepped from the bus and cast his gaze around. From across the sea of people, our eyes met and his sullen face broke out into a smile that lit up his entire face. I honestly don’t know how I managed to walk towards him when all of my brain cells were all currently fried, but all at once I found myself standing in front of him. He was within touching distance but I suddenly couldn’t figure out what to do with myself.

“Oh, Els.” He bent down and buried his face in my neck, holding me tight for a long, wordless while.

I couldn’t stop the tears if I tried. Feeling him in my arms again felt like surfacing from a deep ocean and finally taking a breath. I pulled away and held his face in my hands, enjoying the sight of him. He was thinner, the skin under his eyes a little darker, but his blue eyes carried the same intensity as before.

“Will you just come here?” he said with a grin and pulled me to him, our lips mashing together in six months worth of pent-up frustration. When we finally pulled away to breathe, he pressed his forehead to mine and said in that husky, gravelly voice, “God, I’ve missed you.” His thumbs wiped away the tears on my cheeks and he kissed me again.

“I missed you too,” I said and hugged him to me.

We walked back to my car hand in hand. He walked around to throw his stuff in the trunk but when I went to open the driver door, he was suddenly behind me, boxing me in with his arms. He pressed his erection into my back and whispered against my ear, “I can’t wait to be inside you again.”

I was instantly wet, ready to jump on him then and there, but he was in uniform and we were surrounded by people.

“Get a room,” one airman called as he walked by.

“Shut up, Jackson.” Henry said with a tight smile

My face flushed as I dodged out from under his arms. “To be continued,” I told him and got into the driver seat before I did something I would later regret.

 ---

BESIEGE, second in the DISARM Series is coming soon!

 

BESIEGE Cover Reveal

So here it is, the cover for the second novelette in the series, BESIEGE.

I aim to have BESIEGE ready by November 10, so keep an eye out on this space or on my Facebook page for the announcement!

Plans for the Disarm Series

Hi all!

I've been so happy with the warm reception that DISARM has been receiving. To be quite honest, I wrote this novelette because I wanted to write something short and steamy, but the more I typed, the more the characters of Henry and Elsie came to life until they took over completely. In one instance, I kept trying to write the scene without Henry making his grand confession, but the stubborn guy kept trying to do it anyway. I finally relented and let him have his say, and now I can't imagine the scene any other way.

My initial plan was to write three novelettes in the series and end it at that, but I realized that Henry and Elsie's past is what makes them so interesting. So here is where I'm planning on taking the series:

1. DISARM - intro to Henry and Elsie
2. BESIEGE - life after the deployment
3. RETREAT - Henry and Elsie visit California
4. The Henry Tapes #1 - told in Henry's POV about his high school life
5. The Henry Tapes #2 - about Henry's college life
6. The Henry Tapes #3 - about life after college, when Elsie first comes to live with them in OK
7. ENGAGE - back in Oklahoma
8. CAPTURE - the conclusion to Henry & Elsie's story

RETREAT will end with a cliffhanger and then the story will delve into the past before the cliffhanger is addressed in ENGAGE. Do you, as a reader, find that intriguing or will you just throw your hands up in frustration?

Either way, I am so happy to be writing this series. Thank you for coming here and for taking a chance on an indie author like me!

~ JG

Craziness!

I apologize to anyone who purchased the ebook only to find that it doesn't work. I'm not sure what happened during the converting or uploading process to Amazon, but the file seems to be working for some people while crashing apps for others.

So I'm starting anew, with a fresh file that has been stripped of formatting, and hopefully that will fix the problem.

Please bear with me during this time. If you have purchased the book and cannot get it to load on your Kindle or Kindle app, then please email me at authorjunegray@yahoo.com and I will send you a fresh file.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

~ JG

DISARM Excerpt

ASSESSING THE SITUATION

 It wasn’t my fault—at least, not entirely. Henry Logan, my roommate and Captain in the Air Force, was technically to blame. The guy had been acting so unusually moody for the past five weeks that I was getting desperate to see a smile on his face; so, that Saturday night, I suggested we head to our favorite bar at Bricktown and just drink the night away, confident that Henry, even in his grumpy-bear state, could never turn down beer.

After parking his convertible Mustang, we walked down the street to Tapwerks in silence. I waited for him to open up, to tell me what had been bothering him, but no dice.

“What is with you lately?” I asked.

Henry stuck his hands in his jacket pocket and shrugged. “Nothing, why?”

I raised my eyebrow at him. He could successfully pull off the nonchalant attitude on anyone but me. I’d known him for thirteen years and had lived with him for two. I could decipher his every expression, sometimes to the point of reading his mind. “Come on. Are you on your period or something?” I asked with a teasing jab of the elbow. “Do you need to borrow a tampon?”

That finally got a small laugh out of him. “Elsie, you are such a brat,” he said. He reached over to ruffle my curly brown hair, but I anticipated that move and did a little ninja-ballerina maneuver to avoid him.

“Hey,” I said, “leave the hair alone.” I slipped my arm through his as we stood in line for the bar—Tapwerks was the place to be on weekends—trying to pilfer some of his warmth. He was 6’2” and built like a brick wall; he had plenty of everything to spare.

As I craned my head to look at the people in line, dressed up in their casual best, I suddenly caught a glimpse of Henry, his face partially lit by the soft glow from the bar’s windows. It struck me then that he was really no longer that awkward kid I grew up with but a man, and a gorgeous one at that. I’d always known he was good-looking—hell I’d had a crush on him since my brother started hanging out with him in their sophomore year of high school—but the way the shadows played on his face rendered planes I never knew existed. His short dark hair and the scruff on his strong jaw lent a nice contrast to his olive skin, and he had a proud nose with a little cleft at the end that matched the cleft on his chin. But it was his eyes that drew my gaze, those icy blues that seemed as if they could see into my every thought.

I stared at him for a long moment, feeling a strange tickle in my chest, when I came to the realization that he was staring back.

“You okay, Elsie?” he asked in that husky, gravelly voice of his. Had he always sounded so sexy?

I gave him my best sunny smile, shaking off the confusing feelings that had snuck up on me. “Just wondering why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

His lips quirked up a little and I felt a finger tickle me on the side, but he didn’t bother answering the question.

Inside, the two floors were at full capacity and there were no available tables or chairs, so we stood at the bar, trying our hardest to get the bartender’s attention. I was only 5’6”, so Henry theoretically had a better chance at visibility, but somehow, the male bartender’s eyes just kept flitting right over him as if he was invisible.

“Let me try.” I stepped up on the brass rail that ran along the bottom of the bar and squeezed my arms together, causing instant cleavage over the low neck of my loose top.

The bartender noticed. He finished up his orders and came right to me with an appreciative smile. “What’ll it be?”

“Woodchuck Cider, Sam Adams, and two tequila shots,” I said, and straightened up.

Henry was doing the big brother scowl when I joined him back down on the floor.

“What?” I asked, preparing for the lecture. “When you’ve got ‘em, use ‘em.”

He glowered down at me with a disapproving purse to his lips but said nothing. God, was nothing going to get him to talk?

After downing our shots, Henry and I stood around with cold bottles in our hands. Henry continued to scowl at me and I pretended not to notice by looking elsewhere. Thankfully, I saw a few of his Air Force buddies across the room and they waved us over to their table. Henry grabbed a hold of my hand as he led the way through the sea of bodies, his large frame parting the crowds so that I wouldn’t get swallowed up.

“Hey!” Sam, another captain, raised his beer bottle in greeting.

I clinked his bottle with my cider. Henry gave a cool little jerk of the head and said, “Hey, man.” The two men exchanged a silent look before Henry gave the slightest shake of the head.

Sam’s girlfriend, Beth, gave me a hug before I could figure out what the guys were communicating. “How are you?” she asked. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ve been good. Busy,” I said, keeping an eye on Henry. “You?”

Beth started to say something, but the band began to play and cut her off. For a while, we all stood there and bobbed our heads to the rhythm of the rock group, all except for the stiff corpse beside me. Sometimes Henry knew how to really kill a good time. But as his friend, it was my duty to pull him out of this funk he was in.

I stood on my tiptoe and pulled him down so I could yell in his ear. “You wanna dance?”

He looked at me then at the near-empty dance floor, then back at me again. “Hell no.”

I pretended not to hear. I grasped his hand with a cheeky smile and pulled him through the crowd and onto the dance floor.

“I said no,” he said and turned to leave.

But I still had a hold of his hand, so I jumped in front of him and danced to block his way. I pulled his arm around my waist and gave him my most seductive smile as I began to sway my hips to the music.

He rolled his eyes but I kept on dancing, sure that sooner or later he would relent. He knew how to have a good time; he just had to be pulled out of that scowly shell of his.

The crowd on the dance floor swelled and I was unexpectedly pinned to Henry, my hips grinding in to his before my brain could tell it to stop.

The effect was instantaneous and twofold. Henry’s expression changed at the same moment I felt something stir in his jeans. My face went up in flames, but when I tried to pull away, Henry’s arm tightened around me and pulled me closer.

“Where are you going?” he asked in my ear, his warm breath tickling my neck. “I thought you wanted to dance?”

My heart was pounding a million miles a minute through my chest, but I had teased the beast out of hiding and now I had to face him, come what may. I looked up at him, acting as if having an erection against my stomach was not a big deal, and tried to take advantage of our close proximity. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

“I don’t want to talk tonight,” he replied, his eyes focused solely on my mouth. The breath hitched in my throat when he ran his tongue along his lower lip. “I’d rather do other things.”

That was about the time I lost my cool. This was Henry, my closest friend, my roommate, my surrogate big brother. He was a great many things to me, but he was definitely not someone I made out with. I’d stopped hoping for that a long time ago, when he’d made it clear that he saw me as nothing more than a little sister.

And now here he was, bowing his head with a dark look on face, his arm tight around my back. The fifteen-year-old me was squealing with glee, but the twenty-six-year-old was, admittedly, a little flustered.

I twisted out of his embrace and took a step back. My face was overheating, my heart was trying its hardest to hammer its way through my chest, and my body was tingling with that special kind of sexual exhilaration.

Henry’s face broke out into an impudent smile. “Are we done playing this game?” he called out to me over the music.

I nodded. Yes, we were definitely done. For now.

~

DISARM is now available for your Kindle here.