Welcome to Summers in Seaside, a small town located along the Oregon Coast and home of the Seaside Festival. This series returns with brand new stories filled with sun, sand and summer adventures that will tug at your heart strings.
Join the Summers in Seaside Stalker group to stay up to date with all the new and exciting things happening in this series this summer.
A forest paradise surrounded by lands gutted from corporate greed. The Elk Creek Tribe holds the hope for mankind’s future. One young man becomes paramount in bringing spirituality back into a desolate and hostile world. But first he must find himself.
Follow the life of a young man in the year 2115 as he decides to take on the challenge of the Manhood Rites. Journey with Jamari as he discovers his world, his community and his culture.
A forest paradise surrounded by lands gutted from corporate greed. The Elk Creek Tribe holds the hope for mankind’s future. One young man becomes paramount in bringing spirituality back into a desolate and hostile world. But first he must find himself.
Jamari must take on the challenges of The Manhood Rites before he can become a full citizen of The Elk Creek Tribe. He doesn't expect the spiritual challenge that awaits him when he breaks into the spirit realm in his daily meditations. And he's not sure he's ready to accept what it means when he does. Can he accept his fate and transform into the respected spiritual leader he is destined to become? Is he ready to face the passage into his own spirit and soul? Travel with Jamari as he embarks on a journey down through tribal lands to the coast. Watch as he learns of other peoples outside the Elk Creek Tribe. Be a part of Jamari's long journey home when tragedy strikes.
A forest paradise surrounded by lands gutted from corporate greed. The Elk Creek Tribe holds the hope for mankind’s future. One young man becomes paramount in bringing spirituality back into a desolate and hostile world. But first he must find himself.
When Native American Mythology meets Celtic Druidism in a culture built around Gnostic Christianity, strange things come to life! Journey with Jamari as he discovers his world, his community and his culture.
Jamari works to understand a repeated spiritual vision as he also learns shamanism from the powerful Peter Shaman, 2nd Knight Shaman of the Elk Creek Tribe. He finds himself caught up in struggles, both physical and spiritual, as the world around him explodes in chaos and conquest.
In the world of 2115, nearly 100 years after the Pacific Rim erupted in a series of quakes, The Tribe remains the Pacific Northwest's best hope of survival. Promoting peace, harmony, and the sharing of resources, The Tribe yet maintains a ferocious ability to defend itself from outsiders and wildlings. The Elk Creek Tribe, located near the town of Yoncalla, in Southwest Oregon, is the strongest civilization remaining in the region that has been long-abandoned by the mega-corps who decided that the sparse lands weren't viable investments to rebuild roads and infrastructure to bring back into the fold.
The Tribe has defied all reason and logic, building a culture and a community that not just survives, but thrives, on the isolation, learning to live closer to the land, honoring the land and animals in return. Jamari has encountered spirit animals before, having earned two totems that have been recognized as his very own link to the Great Spirit. Over all, Eagle has visited him and marked him as His own.
He has to go on a frightening quest in order to satisfy a driving Vision. His friends, teachers and mentors guide him through this portion of his journey, building relationships that will span all time.
Jamari has been traveling Tribal Lands for two years in his quest to master the Manhood Rites and become a full citizen of the Elk Creek Tribe. It's now 2117 and he's getting his first views of the outer world. The outer world has been described as rapacious and vicious but, that information has not prepared him for what can happen when his world becomes the target of the Mega Corps who rule those other lands and governments. They've exhausted Oregon's resources and now they're setting eyes on the forest lands the Tribe has managed for over 100 years.
Along with threats and incursions from outside, Jamari is battling to understand why he disagrees with some major ethos of his own Tribe. His Shamanistic talents are growing and he's becoming a reluctant legend within the Tribe. Hints of a top spot in Tribal Management and control are battling with growing internal unrest as he realizes just how big the changes the Tribe must make really are.
Can he earn the position that seems so readily his? Can he use it to make changes to better the Tribe? Can he gather the courage to let God fully enter into his corporeal body? What will he become if he does?
Excerpt
From “Jamari Shaman” This is the first evidence that Jamari may have shamanic abilities.
The winter woods were a quieter place. With his breath restored from his climb, he turned and headed up again. In just over a half hour, he reached his tiny little ridge-top meadow.
He paused there, wondering how he was going to settle himself in for his meditations on the water-soaked ground. He turned around a couple times, looking for a suitable place. With the bare branches of the oaks and the occasional maple offering scant shelter to form a dry spot, he simply emptied his leather carry pouch of the lunch items and settled the pouch onto the ground in a tuft of brown grass stems. He sat his bow beside the seat and settled himself for meditation.
As he was bringing himself to focus, he watched a hawk circle into view from above the rise to his south. Seeming to catch the piercing gaze of that hovering hunter, he imagined what those keen eyes might be finding in the wintry day. A mouse maybe. Or a chipmunk. If it’s lucky, maybe a small rabbit. Jamari’s eyes lost their focus on the real world as he entered into this imagining.
He is floating in a careful circle when he sees a twitch of grass below. He immediately enters into a hover, with wings shifting to a fast flutter to hold him in place, using his tail feathers to balance himself on the cushion of air. Another twitch in the grass. It’s a squirrel! Drawn out into the meadow to dig up a cached nut.
Seeing an opening, he shifts his wings into dive mode, making his whole body into a sharp arrow, diving down unseen, unheard, until his shadow crosses over the prey. It’s too late, though. He’s opening his wings, turning up his body, and swinging his clawed feet down to snag the furry body in a spine-snapping jerk, then using the remaining momentum of his dive to pull the lifeless body aloft.
Hunger. Hunger that should be satiated. Driving him on, turning him toward the largest prey he’s ever taken on. But the hunger!
Jamari jolted out of the trance in sudden knowing and leapt to his feet, grabbing the bow and turning around as he pulled an arrow into draw. He wasn’t even fully drawn, or truly aimed, when he realized that the arrow must go now! He released and watched the arrow slip into the breast of the springing cougar.
Too late! The cat’s momentum was going to carry it into him anyway! Jamari flung up his left arm, still holding the bow for some level of shielding and reached for his knife with his right hand. The weight of the cougar carried him over backward as he saw the jaws clamp onto the wood of his bow, saw and felt the wood crush under the pressure, then felt claws penetrating his heavy leather sleeve and an intense pummeling at his abdomen as the hind legs dug in.
He got the knife in hand and plunged it into the side of the maddened animal just behind the shoulder.
When the cougar turned a snarling set of fangs to Jamari’s head and neck, he was very convinced that it was all over for him. He kept pushing away with his injured left arm. He twisted the wrist of his knife hand to force the blade up toward the spine from the inside in a final attempt.
Relief as the cat slumps and the sliding blade reached something vital. It’s snarl of rage turned to a gasp as it collapsed down onto Jamari, with only enough energy remaining for a feeble clawing attempt that didn’t even penetrate the leather.
Shocked, Jamari pushed the body aside, leaping to his feet to run. He saw the lifeless eyes, though, and held fast, shaking: all-over shaking, tremors so strong he lost his grip on the knife he hadn’t even noticed that he still held. When he reached down for the knife, he felt a stabbing pain as the leather of his left sleeve shifted over the open wound in his forearm. Gasping, he looked down to see blood dripping from the hole in his sleeve and felt a crawling sensation as a red rivulet dripped from his wrist.
Sitting back down onto the somehow-undisturbed leather pouch, he held his left arm in his right hand for a moment, before remembering that he should get to the wound and stop the bleeding. He found it awkward, trying to remove his shirt with only one arm as he favored the injured one. He suffered a couple of bumps that made him feel as though his skin was being freshly violated each time. He persevered, though; and once he got the jerkin off, he realized that two claws had penetrated to give him a double cut. Deep enough that it would certainly need stitches, but not life-threatening. He used his knife to cut the damaged part of the sleeve from his jerkin, which he then cut into strips, and used a wad of sanitary cloth from the pouch to form a bandage.
Once he had the arm bandaged, using his teeth to hold the leather strip on one end while he tied the knots, he knelt down beside the cougar, laying his good right hand on her head. “I thank you for giving yourself so that my tribe will not go hungry. You honor me with your gift.”
He offered the Hunter’s Thanks, hoping that it was appropriate in this circumstance. He hadn’t actually set out to hunt a cougar, after all, and, do you thank the one who was hunting you? He donned the mutilated jerkin for its warmth.
About the Author
Roderick Rowe studied writing in college for several years, working as assistant editor and then editor for his school’s literary magazine. He also spent a term as copy editor for the campus newspaper. He is a gay man and uses this “affliction” to build characters and situations in his fictional work. Rowe has published several short stories and an occasional poem. After ending a twenty-year career unexpectedly in 2015, Rowe decided to write his first novel. “Jamari and the Manhood Rites, Part I” was completed in two months, then he settled in to conduct editing – complete new landscape design with a new Koi pond, a new library built into the spare room in his home, the cleanest his house had ever been – but the editing eventually got completed.
Overcoming my insecurities is easier behind a mask. And so is indulging my favorite new hobby of pole dancing, especially when I have the chance to take my dancing public. The next thing I know, I’ve attracted the attention of a Hollywood filmmaker who also happens to be a client at my day job. Only he doesn’t recognize me now, and I need it to stay that way if I want to stay employed.
Except it’s getting more and more difficult to keep my distance from Trey Fraser. I can’t believe he wants me, Courtney Masterson, a woman who’s always hidden from the spotlight. Until now. But if the secret gets out about my alter ego, we’ll both be in hot water…
She hoped her ten minutes of fame was over, but just in case, Miranda Cortland is leaving Los Angeles and her past far behind. With new dreams to pursue on the northern California coast and a naughty novel in the works to give her libido a kickstart, Miranda is ready to move on. But when car breaks down and her rescuer looks like her novel’s hero come to life, she begins to wonder if life really can imitate art. And if so, she can’t wait to write the end of her book starring sexy and brooding Damien Fraser.
When her past comes calling for her, however, Miranda’s chance to start over looks like it’s going up in flames –and her new romance along with it!
Four-time RITA nominee Joanne Rock has never met a romance sub-genre she didn't like. The author of over eighty books enjoys writing a wide range of stories, most recently focusing on sexy contemporaries and small town family sagas. An optimist by nature and perpetual seeker of silver linings, Joanne finds romance fits her life outlook perfectly--love is worth fighting for. A frequent speaker at regional and national writing conferences she enjoys giving back to the writing community that nurtured and inspired her early career. She has a Masters degree in Literature from the University of Louisville but credits her fiction writing skills to her intensive study with friend and fellow author Catherine Mann. When she's not writing, Joanne enjoys travel, especially to see her favorite sports teams play with her former sports editor husband and three athletic-minded sons.
Ellie came to me with a bargain. Her life for her father's, but I didn't build my empire by letting debts go unpaid. You owe me, you pay. End of story.
But this girl didn't just walk in shaking and begging for mercy- no, Ellie charged in demanding her father's freedom.
I take her deal, adding my own conditions, of course. I'm not a good man. I'm a beast, and my hunger for her will be fed. I will possess her.
But there's more at play here than just the love of a daughter, the possession of a beauty. Secrets that won't stay buried. Dangerous desires needing to be explored.
Outside forces want in, want to take what's mine. And when Ellie finds out the secrets of her own past, she'll need to decide. What exactly is she willing to risk for love.
I took Azalea from her tower. She didn't come willingly, but she's not going anywhere. She's staying right where I have her - no matter her demands for freedom.
Azalea thinks the world outside is full of wonder and beauty. She has no clue about the danger that lurks within every shadow - and hell if I don't want to keep her from finding out.
She's sheltered but not stupid - and damn is she gorgeous. That long stark blonde hair and those crystal blue eyes - hit me in the gut every time I look at her.
The fire in her spirit only makes me crave her more. But, there are secrets in her world - secrets I intend to uncover and protect her from.
Nowhere in the requirements did it say anything about falling in love.
Melinda thinks she's just coming to grandma's for dinner, but she's wrong. She's wrong about a lot of things. None of which is my business.
The only business I have is to settle the open accounts on my uncle's books, so I can collect my inheritance and move on with my life. Collecting Melinda in order to cross off her grandfather's debt wasn't hard, but she's not exactly marching gracefully up to the auction block for me.
I'm not the monster here.
I'm not the one who sold her to my uncle, I'm just the collector. My hands are as bound as hers thanks to the whims of our families. But with her red hair, and fiery spirit, Melinda's giving me more trouble than I anticipated.
Measha Stone is an international bestselling author of erotic romance. She’s had #1 top-selling books in BDSM, and suspense. She lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with her husband and children, who are just as creative and crazy as her. Her vanilla writing has been published in numerous literary magazines, but she’s found her passion in erotic romance.
Four devastatingly handsome windsurfing champions.
And the game that changed their lives forever.
Back in school Ausra was forced to act the good girl, with her conservative clothes and her head always down. Everyone laughed at her, even the four popular brothers. She hated them for it.
But high school is over, and when they meet again, a lot of things have changed including Ausra . The brothers hardly recognize her and they love a challenge.
The rules are simple: their plaything needs to know what she’s in for and needs to agree to play.
Will this transformed preacher’s daughter be up for it? And what happens when more than bodies are in play?
Do Ausra and the 4 beach gods stand a chance at love or will the reach of her father, the preacher, taint and destroy everything?
Warning: this book is part of a duet and ends in a cliffhanger. This is a why choose story where the heroine won’t have to choose between her different love interests and has sexual scenes, swearing and mild violence. Suitable only for readers aged 18+
I’m The Preacher’s Daughter and they’re four beach gods. My windsurfing champions.
Our game was supposed to have no strings attached but against all odds—I care.
We’re all new at relationships and my father and his church aren’t the only thing threatening to tear us apart. Secrets and rivalries, old and new, are driving a wedge between us, but staying together isn’t only what we want—it’s what we need.
Dad is determined to bring me back into the fold, where women are seen as nothing more than men’s property, and I’m determined to be free. Will I be able to save myself and the men who own my heart?
Warning: this book is the conclusion of a duet and ends in a HEA.
*However readers be warned that while Ausra’s story will come to a conclusion, the book will end on a mini-cliffhanger that will be the beginning of Lynda’s story and her own duet The Preacher’s Wife.
** This book contains triggering situations with extreme violence, trauma, abuse and PTSD. It also contains sexual scenes and this duet is a whychoose story, so Ausra won’t have to choose between her love interests.
Melissa Adams is from the UK but was born in Italy and grew up between the two countries. She’s now UK based and her day job is connected her other huge passion after writing and reading: flying. She lived in the US and got herself a super hot Yankee husband who followed her back to Europe.
Her obsessions: Yorkshire terriers and Norse gods!
She’s often heard saying that she never trusts people who don’t love animals.
Her passions have been reading and writing from an early age and her first adventure in writing was in journalism.
Melissa’s stories focus on the romance, on character development and on the sensual aspect of love. Summer romance is her absolute first love but every story she writes has a mystery twist because life is nothing but a mystery.
I love my job. Editing from home has been a dream come true, but now my publisher wants me to work in their main office in the city. They’re giving me a chance to check it out first, and while I don’t love the hustle and bustle, at least I have a connection there. My brother’s best friend.
What I didn’t realize, was how insanely hot he was. I’ve never been so attracted to a man in my life, but I don’t know a thing about billionaire playboys like him. Would he even be attracted to a shy, nerdy…virgin, like me?
I’m willing to find out.
Drew
Playboy. Arrogant. Cocky. I’ve heard it all, and maybe some of it is true. I don’t care.
I’m a thirty-year-old CEO and don’t have time for games, romance, or relationships. But when I promise my best friend I’ll look after his little sister, I change my tune faster than a stock market crash. She needs to be mine.
Trouble seems to follow me these days. I thought finding out my boyfriend was cheating was the worst thing to happen, but it turns out it was just what I needed.
When I find my myself in more trouble than I can handle on my own, the Viking Sex God known as Rhys, comes to my rescue. I didn’t want to be the damsel in distress, but if this sexy, motorcycle riding, heart breaker is my knight, I’ll let him save me any day.
Maybe my Prince charming rides a motorcycle.
Rhys
All I need is my work, and my bikes. I enjoy keeping to myself. That is until I met her.
Not my typical behavior, I find her in need of some help and arrive just in time. Now she’s all I think about, I’m consumed by my need to protect her. Now, I just need to convince her to move in with me so I can take care of her.
She’s meant to be mine.
Trigger Warning(s): Mentions of Attempted Sexual Assault
I’m just a true Southern girl, reading and writing books, asking you to love me. I hope my mix of romance, with a dash of swoon, and a pinch of smut brings a smile to your face and a tingle to your fun bits.
