18 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Great news this morning – Small Miracles is on All Romance Ebooks’ best-seller list! 
How appropriate that the icon is a cup of coffee or tea – because it’s great news to wake up to, but also because I need one badly right now… 
Click it and check out the list!
17 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
“A beautiful story about two men from different worlds who find each other.” — On Top Down Under Book Reviews
“The author’s ability to evoke emotions and deliver sentiments is great. The pair’s lovemaking was exquisite and quite romantic as well. It felt almost like poetry when those two came together.
In the end this is a book I wouldn’t hesitate recommend to people who love a good happily ever after and romance.” — MM Good Book Reviews
Go download it here on dreamspinnerpress.com! Only $3.99!
10 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in small miracles
Tags
Small Miracles comes out a week from today! In celebration, here’s one more sneak peek… of Cal, Matt, and an offer too good to be true.
04 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in small miracles, Uncategorized
Tags
Here’s an excerpt from Small Miracles, available from Dreamspinner Press on April 17. Pre-order now!
17 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted in small miracles
Small Miracles is now available for pre-order on Dreamspinner‘s website! Be sure to add it to your wish list, and add it to your to-read list on Goodreads!
Meanwhile, follow the read-more for your first glimpse at Small Miracles….
27 Wednesday Feb 2013
Tags
When runaway Cal Harrison steps into a bar to escape the freezing rain, he meets Matt Kirkland, who buys him a meal and eventually takes him home for the night. But Cal’s been on hard times, and he doesn’t believe something as good as Matt could possibly happen to him. Not without setting him up for disaster. So Cal leaves—only to discover Matt’s not just a rich kid but a well-known millionaire. Soon Cal begins to question whether he should have swallowed his pride and left his difficult life behind.
A novella by Ellen Holiday
Coming this spring from Dreamspinner Press
Posted by ellenholiday | Filed under small miracles, Uncategorized
22 Friday Feb 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
I’m backstage waiting for a show to start so my mind wanders….
Powdered makeup, like chalk dust, scatters over the countertop. The mike is a wiggling snake down his back, curled around his ear to poise at his mouth, ready to strike. Five to mike check? Thank you, five. Footsteps echo down the halls. The house will open in ten minutes.
Bobby comes up behind him, caked hands white with makeup staining his torso. “Can they hear us now?”
“No, they only turn the mike on when I’m on stage. Jesus, you’re leaving prints on me.” He scowls at the Bobby in the mirror, who grins and drags a palm across his stomach. “Bobby, I said stop it.”
A grin, a shake of shaggy hair. “Better than feeling you up while you’re in costume. Can I at least give you a kiss for good luck?”
“A kiss, yes. But not for good luck.” Bobby’s lips touch his, and he grins. “Someday I’ll learn the ins and outs of you theater people.”
“Stick around long enough and you bet you will. And Bobby, babe…. You’re wearing my lipstick now.”
28 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
“As much as fingers in mouth is a knk,” Kirk says as he settles down into the chair, “I’m not so sure I’m gonna enjoy this.”
There are titters in the room from the staff, lady hygienists all, and Kirk can tell in an instant who there gets it and who doesn’t. He sas it for the benefit of the latter group, mostly — exposure to shocking stuff is, he turly believes, one of the musts of life. You’ve gotta have an idea what’s out there to be done or not to be done, because they don’t teach you that in school, and besides, he’s got to cultivate his audiences. Today’s wilting-flower housewives are tomorrow’s customers, and he rather likes planting the seeds, at least metaphorically.
The real seeds he’d like to plant go rather emphatically in a different direction, but that’s another story.
Continue reading »
03 Saturday Nov 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
I’ve done something brilliant and actually added a WordPress app on my iPad! This means I’ll have time to write random blog posts when on the go, which is about the only time I have to think about blogging 
So I’m giving it a shot!
My novella “Small Miracles” is done and at the beta… hope to submit that soon. I’ve been doing a lot of fandom-related projects, but those are starting to ease off so I can pay more attention to my fiction. I resolved to start NaNoWriMo but my inspiration dried up right at the beginning, so I might just let that go.
As for “Thinking Outside the Box”… well, it’s still stalled. I’m trying to come up with an easy-to-write book that won’t give me hell, but it seems like my ideas only stay around if they’re challenging. No, Ellen, why should you get to write the gay equivalent of a bodice-ripper? Wealthy heir meets dashing rebel? You’ve gotta be cerebral about it, don’tcha?
But I have my first actual royalty check, and if that’s not an amazing inspiration, I don’t know what is
Onward!
08 Monday Oct 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Occasionally, I feel incredibly out of the loop.
I suppose that’s nothing unique. But it’s problematic, in this writing world, to try to find your way into a circle and then feel uncomfortable there. And that’s something that’s happened to me a bit more often than I like, and I’m unsure how to deal with it.
I have a Twitter account (@ellen_holiday, for you slackers who aren’t following me yet), and I am following a whole bunch of other M/M authors. And while it’s no surprise to anybody, there are an awful lot of links to porn sites, retweets by porn stars, talk about hanging out with strippers and general camaraderie with the adult entertainment industry there. I don’t have anything against that industry — in fact, I sort of wish I’d had more exposure to it earlier in life. But I don’t have any friends like that. And if you were to ask me if I wanted to watch some porn with you, or visit a sex club, or even watch some male strippers, I would probably blush and demur.
Which is funny, because I write porn. And not just Harlequin romance, either. I’ve written everything from D/s to watersports to bloodplay and back again, hate sex and casual sex and yes, even porn industry sex. I love writing it. I do it every day. My brain is a veritable wonderland of sexual deviance.
But I still don’t love seeing it. And I’m beginning to wonder if there’s any room in this industry for a writer who writes dirty, hot fantasies, but still considers sex and fantasy to be a private thing.
I’m not comfortable hearing the details of real people’s sex lives. It’s not something I like to share, and it’s not something I particularly want to know. Which isn’t to say I think it’s shameful, because duh, I don’t. But I have some lines of privacy and modesty that maybe don’t fit with others in this business.
Am I less credible as a writer because I don’t want to do a lot of porn-watching? Is it OK for me to write men going at it in all kinds of dirty ways, but still demur when a friend tries to tell me his kinky experience at college? Is this a sign of some deep issues I haven’t worked out?
(Well, clearly yes, and there’s more there that I won’t go into in this post. Because it’s private. Shocker.)
I’d like to think that there’s a place for me at this table without having to change where I draw my lines. Once upon a time it was all right to be a reclusive writer, but in this age of interaction it’s important to connect with your readers and your fellow writers. I hope I can make those connections and still be me. Because I’m really not interested in watching porn with you, or hearing about that threesome you had back in your twenties. But I’m totally interested in writing about it.
