Lonely Hearts
A Novella Bundle
Posy Roberts
M/M Romance
Release Date: 10.25.18
BLURB
Stoic men, who believe they’re happy alone, find the world turned upside down when their perfect someone stumbles across their path. In four novellas, eight men encounter unique struggles on their way to their well-deserved happily ever after.
Marc joins the Lonely Hearts chat room where men support men on their way to finding true love. He wants to believe that kind of love is possible for him, but his once-burned heart stops him from going all-in with anyone.
The chat group’s philosophy is, “Figure out how you keep screwing up your happily ever after. Once you know, you’re more likely to find the true thing.”
Skeptical as he is, Marc logs in and meets men in various degrees of getting there. At least he’s not alone. Luther truly loves his single life on the Bakken oil fields. William’s not sure he’ll ever measure up, let alone find someone he can be himself around. And Andrew still pines for a guy he hooked up with on a reenactment battlefield before he got blown up on a real one.
One by one they start dropping like flies. Flies drunk on love. And sooner than he expects, Marc’s luck starts changing thanks to these new friends.
Walk alongside these men as they find the men of their dreams and discover their happily ever afters.
101,000 Words | 396 pages | 8-9 hours to read
blue-collar | reluctant lovers | rural | bisexual | gay | meet-cute | fated lovers | love triangle | Halloween | white-collar | opposites attract | multicultural | coming out | second chance | first time | disability romance | meant to be | military | artist | world traveler | coming of age | long distance | pen pals | gay romance | contemporary | MM romance | lone wolf | alpha male
Stories included: Bent Arrow, Stroke of Luck, Momo, My Everything, and Love on a Battlefield.
EXCERPT
Marc logged into the chat room, unsure what he was getting into, but he’d been reassured by a friend (who was friends with the moderator) that this was a good group of guys. If nothing else, he’d get to know other queer men. If he was lucky, maybe they’d help him find a way to open up his heart to fall in love again. At least that’s how the group was described to him.
5 Members in Chat Room
Marc: Hey, I’m Marc. I’m new here, and the rules said I had to introduce myself. I’m bisexual but haven’t dated much since my ex-girlfriend cheated on me. Work has been my focus, but after three years, I’m lonely. It’s as plain as that. I’m just not sure how to trust someone again.
Hugo: Hi, Marc. I’m Hugo, the moderator. If I disappear all of a sudden, it’s because I’m waiting to chauffeur kids between gymnastics and yoga.
Marc: You have kids?
Hugo: They’re Kevin’s, my boyfriend’s kids. But who knows what the future holds. Anyway, I was in the same place as you not so long ago, with a cheating cheater who cheats. I had a string of shitty boyfriends, but cheating messed me up. Bad. I swore off men for a solid year, and it eventually paid off.
Marc: How did the time off help?
Hugo: I fixed my shit. Figured out what I kept doing wrong. Worked out my patterns.
Luther: Oh no, here he goes! Haha. Love you, H! Marc, H is all about fixing shit so you’re ready for love when it stumbles in your path.
Marc: Makes sense.
Luther: If you have a path filled with potential partners, I supposed it does. H is all about
twuuuu wuv cuz he has it. All I can find out here on the oil fields is a hookup. Nothing else. Can’t be out.
Marc: That sucks.
Luther: It’s not all bad. I have a lot of sex and very few awkward conversations. Few conversations at all, to be honest.
William: So, Luth, do you save all the awkward conversations for when you come in here to chat? Stop scaring Marc off.
Luther: Ha. Ha. Okay, Mr. Serious, what have you done lately to make yourself available to the hot dudes who run around on the beaches half naked?
William: I bought a guy a drink at the club last weekend. Spent most of the night with him.
Luther: Before you went home alone?
William: Well, yes, but I had to work the next day.
Luther: LOL.
Andrew: Hi, Marc. Welcome. I’m pretty new here too. New to being fully out despite knowing I liked men for years. I’m still trying to figure out how all this works. Gay clubs are about all I’m capable of yet. If I go to a club, there’s no chance I’ll hit on a straight guy, at least. I’m a vet, and my PTSD and injuries make taking that risk of hitting on the wrong guy anxiety inducing. I distrust everyone, including my own brain and injured body.
Luther: And I’m the sole closet case here.
William: Not entirely. I’m not out at work. No one there has earned the right to know that about me yet. But my family knows.
Hugo: I’ve been out for ages, but I’m still not entirely open about my drag persona. That’s still need to know.
Marc: You do drag? What’s your drag name.
Hugo: Yep. Miss Cherri Pop! ;)
Marc: Where does everyone live? Or should I not ask that?
Luther: On the dusty oil fields of North Dakota, but there are tons of men to hook-up with here. No questions asked. No demands to kiss. Just how I like it!
William: Sunny California, though right now, I’d prefer rain.
Andrew: I’m in Texas, happy to be home after four years in the army.
Hugo: Minneapolis.
Marc: Me too! Minneapolis, that is. I gotta say, it’s nice chatting with some queer men. Everyone around me assumes I’m straight. And since I haven’t dated a man in ages, it’s like all my friends forgot I’m bi. But I’d really like to date a man again. I think if I date a woman, I’m bound to . . . What’s the word? Put all my shit on her?
Hugo: Project?
Marc: Yeah. I’m gonna project my hurt on her cuz of my ex. So I’d really like to try something serious with a guy.
William: So, what are your greatest fears when thinking about falling in love?
Luther: Coming out. I know, I know. It won’t be as bad as I think it will be. But what if it is? I’ll lose everyone around me.
William: But you prefer being alone. Or so you’ve claimed, Luth.
Luther: Right. I push people away. Easier that way.
Marc: I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to trust again. And if I do, what if the guy I end up with assumes I’m cheating on him only because I’m bi?
Hugo: My Kevin is bisexual, and I never made those assumptions. We’re not all neanderthals who can’t appreciate subtlety.
Marc: True. There’s that lack of trust thing again.
William: I’m worried I’ll never measure up.
Luther: Says the man who probably has a dick the size of an eggplant.
William: . . .
William: I might. ;)
Luther: LOL. I knew it!
Hugo: If W & L weren’t thousands of miles away, I’d suggest you guys get a room and fuck to work out your sexual tension.
William: Not going to happen.
Luther: He’d probably want to marry me. ;) I’m not settling down. I just want to fall in love. Big difference.
Andrew: I already know who I want to be in a relationship with. But I’m too boring for him.
William: You’re far from boring, Andrew.
Hugo: The only way you’ll know is if you take a chance. But get into a good headspace before that. Yes, I know, Luther, you’re sick of me saying that, but if I hadn’t fixed my shit before running into Kevin again seventeen years after our last kiss, I would’ve fucked it up that first night.
Marc: Thanks for this, guys. I’m glad I found you.
Who
are your writing influences and why?
Thanks for hosting me. I’m so glad
to be here to talk about my writing influences and my new novella bundle, which
is all tied together.
The very first author I binge read
was Judy Blume. I was in elementary school, discovered Freckle Juice, and I was sucked into every moment of that book. I
went to my school librarian and asked for more. Then more. The next thing I
knew, I’d read every Judy Blume book in the library.
Then my friend brought another Judy
Blume book to school, but this was way
different. She’d pulled it off her grandma’s bookshelf. At recess, we sat under
a wooden climber nicked named The Spider and read scenes to each other and to
ourselves. The Spider had two rooms,
for lack of a better word, that were truly the support posts and lintels that
supported eight log legs people balanced on.
Under those wooden logs that smelled
of pitch, a whole new world opened up. I allude to this in my author bio, but
that day, I discovered the genre of romance. And it was written by Judy Blume,
a children’s author! #scandal And it was also released in 1978 as the free-love
movement was still in swing. ;) It was also an adult novel with sex scenes and
all. Hence the need for hiding.
The book was
Wifey, and it goes against
convention, in ways. Sandy is in a boring, nearly sexless marriage, and when a
naked man on a motorcycle shows up on her front lawn and masturbates while she
looks on, that incites her sexual awakening. Sandy can’t stop thinking about
her high school boyfriend, the one she should’ve married instead of Norman, or
so she believes.
All that subversion in suburbia might
explain why I loved it so much. I enjoy breaking the rules. Shattering them, at
times. Haha. So my first romance was eye opening but also fit me very well.
After reading that, I marched up
to my school librarian and asked for more romance. The
Wildfire
Romance series, which was marketed to teens, kept my interest for
the rest of grade school, but soon academic reading invaded my life. For years,
I stopped reading for enjoyment.
When I started again, Judy Blume’s
Summer Sisters was one of my first
books before I dove into fantasy, historical fiction, and paranormal. And it
was the paranormal that brought me back to romance. Romance and vampires and deep cravings! LOL. I soon discovered the
sex scenes that were deemed racy in Wifey
had become standard fare, and when I wandered into the world of fan fiction, I found
even hotter sex scenes, kinks I was previously naïve to, and eventually MM
Romance.
I’ve never looked back.
I give a little nod to Judy Blume’s
Wifey in Lonely Hearts. In the final story in the bundle, Love on a Battlefield, I named the love
interest after Sandy’s high school boyfriend, the one that got away. Shep.
To this day, second-chance romance
is one of my favorite tropes, which is touched on in Love on a Battlefield along with several other tropes in the other
stories. So it came around full circle.
The novellas in this bundle are
linked together by a series of chat-room chapters where several gay and
bisexual men support each other in finding true love. Read the blurb, scan the
themes and tropes, and buy it so you
can be taken in by these stoic men who are unexpectedly swept off their feet.
Each story will take about two
hours to read, depending on your speed, so they’re great for waiting rooms,
standing in line to vote, or sitting in the parking lot while waiting for kids.
It’s also available in a
paperback that comes in at around 400
pages, just to give you an idea of the length.
Oh, and for those readers of my
North Star Trilogy and
Naked Organics series, I’ve sprinkled
some Easter eggs from those stories into these. See how many you can spot and
give me a shout out on social media. I’m @PosyRoberts everywhere. There’s
plenty of crossover between novellas as well.
Posy Roberts started reading romance when she was young, sneaking peeks at adult books long before she should’ve. Textbooks eventually replaced the novels, and for years she existed without reading for fun. When she finally picked up a romance two decades later, it was like slipping on a soft hoodie . . . that didn’t quite fit like it used to. She wanted something more.
She wanted to read about men falling in love with each other. She wanted to explore beyond the happily ever after and see characters navigate the unpredictability of life. So Posy sat down at her keyboard to write the books she wanted to read.
Her stories have been USA Today’s “Happily Ever After” Must-Reads and Rainbow Award finalists. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her family and friends and doing anything possible to get out of grocery shopping and cooking.
Social Media ~ @PosyRoberts
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