Tag: lgbt

Posted in Books, Coming Soon, New Release

Coming June 25th – Sea Lover – Gay Merman Romance 💙💦🧜🏾‍♂️ – Cover Reveal!

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hi everyone! I’m pleased to announce that Sea Lover has a brand new, sparkly cover and a release date of June 25th!

Pre-order is available on the NineStar Press website, and if you pre-order, you get it 3 days early!

Here’s the beautiful cover by Natasha Snow, and the blurb:

Ian is happy with his life in a remote Canadian fishing town, where he has only the sea and his fishing crew for company. People say being alone is terrible, but he’s never had any problems with it.
Then his peaceful life is thrown into upheaval when he finds an injured merman washed up on the shore. With no idea what else to do, Ian takes the merman home and nurses him back to health.
But as he helps S’mika heal, a bond begins to form, and Ian starts to wonder if maybe there is more to life than being alone…

It’s a cute little hurt/comfort story with a language barrier, so if that’s your thing, please consider picking it up! It’s also an #ownvoices project – the main character, Ian, is trans. I also wanted to do something a little different for a Canadian merman – I figured that merfolk from the area probably wouldn’t have dolphin tails, and they definitely wouldn’t be white. So S’mika is half seal, and First Nations. There is some angst here and there, but overall it’s a pretty light, cute story. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope it will be enjoyed!

Thanks for reading!

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Posted in Conventions and Guesting

Convention News! FujoCon BoysLove+ Virtual Con PLUS Call for Panelists!

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hi everyone! Got some big news to share: I’m a guest author at this year’s FujoCon, a virtual gathering celebrating all things BL, shipping, fandom, and more! It’s a free, three-day event featuring panels, screenings, games and more with lots of cool guests! The dates are June 11-13, 2021.

I’m planning to do a round-table panel, and the topic I’d like to focus on is the intersection between queer and trans identities and m/m romance. By now most of us know that m/m romance and gay fiction is loved by more than just straight women and gay men. I’d like to put together a rainbow panel of different queer and genderqueer authors/creators to talk about why they are drawn to m/m and try to get to the bottom of why the genre attracts so many queer-identifying folks. It’s a fascinating topic, and the folks at FujoCon are super enthusiastic about it. It should be a really fun panel!

If you’re a queer author or creator and would be interested in participating in the panel, please shoot me an email at jes.k.pendragon@gmail.com and tell me a little bit about yourself and why you’re interested. All panelists will get a Guest spot at the Con and be promoted on their website. Panel submissions are due by May 1st, so please reach out ASAP!

In other news, Junior Hero Blues came out last week! It’s been receiving some great reviews, and I’m so glad folks are enjoying it! Please consider checking it out if you haven’t already! I also still have some Free Reads available to check out if you’d like a sample of my work.

Thank you for reading, and hope to see you in June at FujoCon!

Posted in Books, Coming Soon, New Release

Book News! Junior Hero Blues Cover + Release Date, plus Ink & Flowers Ebook!

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hello all! Got some exciting news to share! Junior Hero Blues has a brand new cover, and a release date of March 29th! PLUS if you pre-order you get it 3 days early! Here’s the new cover:

I love it! It feels like an upgraded version of the old cover. ☺️

I’ve been having fun with artbreeder.com and came up with portraits of the two main characters:

So much fun! Oh and also here’s a moodboard I did a while ago.

What, you want to know what the book is actually about? Okay, fine:

Last year, Javier Medina was your average socially awkward gay high schooler with a chip on his shoulder. This year, he’s…well, pretty much the same, but with bonus superpowers, a costume with an ab window to show off his new goods, and a secret identity as the high-flying, wise-cracking superhero Blue Spark.

But being a Junior Hero means that Javier gets all the responsibility and none of the cool gadgets. It’s hard enough working for the Legion of Liberty and fighting against the evil Organization, all while trying to keep on top of school work and suspicious parents. Add in a hunky boyfriend who’s way out of Javier’s league, and an even hunkier villain who keeps appearing every time said boyfriend mysteriously disappears, and Blue Spark is in for one big dollop of teenage angst. All while engaging in some epic superhero action and, oh yeah, an all-out battle to protect Liberty City from the forces of evil.

Welcome to the 100% true and totally unbiased account of life as a teenage superhero.

Can’t wait to once again share Javier and Rick with you. This book was so much fun to write, and is really special to me. ☺️ I hope you’ll consider checking it out!

Other news!

Ink & Flowers is now available to download as an ebook on Kindle and Kobo! It’s been out of print for a while, except for the Audiobook so it’s great to finally have it available again!

Ink & Flowers

Ink & Flowers is right now the only contemporary novel I have, and it’s full of coming out themes and anxiety, something that I struggled with a lot in my early 20s. It’s a personal book, but it’s also a little escapist. Here’s the blurb:

About to lose his apartment, and desperate to avoid having to move in with his horrendous relatives, shy art student Luke impulsively agrees to a deal from hell: sex with a man he doesn’t know in exchange for a couch to sleep on.

His new “roommate” Cooper is everything that Luke hates: crude, uncouth, and covered in tattoos, not to mention openly gay. Luke has all but resigned himself to a miserable fate when it turns out Cooper might want something a little different than he expected.

I hope you’ll consider checking it out as well! I think that’s all the news I have today, but I have another big announcement coming soon, so stick around!

Thanks for reading and here’s a picture of my cat looking out the window.

Posted in Books

FREE READS – M/M Romance Novellas Now Available at JKPendragon.com

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

That’s right, turns out there IS such thing as a free lunch ebook!

I’ve had a few older books sitting around that for various reasons I didn’t feel like were right to re-publish. They’re stories that I wrote when I was quite a bit younger, and I don’t feel like they necessarily reflect who I am as an author anymore…. so why not make them available for everyone to read as an introduction to my writing! 😅 Makes total sense.

Well, in any case, the PDFs are all there at ✨FREE READS✨ (the emojis are important.)

I’ll also be working on getting them uploaded to Amazon and Kobo for 99 cents each so you can have them on your e-reader if you like. I have a few more shorts that I will probably add at some point, so keep an eye out. Please share with your friends, and if you read and enjoy, consider checking out my New Releases and Coming Soon! I’ve also set up a Ko-Fi so if you feel so inclined after reading you can offer a tip.

Thanks so much for reading! Here is a picture of my cat annoyed at me for interrupting her favourite show:

Posted in Awards, Blog, Books, Coming Soon, Uncategorized

News! The Fairy Gift Re-release – New Cover – #Trans wins Best LGBT Memoir/Biography at Rainbow Awards!

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hello everyone! Long time, no blog! I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful holiday season! I was actually down with a bad cold for most of the holidays, so I didn’t get much celebrating done. I did go and see The Shape of Water, which was excellent and filled the fishman-romance-shaped hole in my heart.

This blog post is just to share a couple different pieces of exciting news! First up, The Fairy Gift has been picked up for re-release by Less Than Three Press! A new, lightly polished second edition will be available for purchase on January 24th, and is has a new cover!

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It’s so pretty! @.@ If you haven’t read The Fairy Gift, it was my first published book, and it’s a fun, sexy fairy tale about a plain young man who receives seductive powers from a fairy and is dragged into a world of magic and romance. And brothels. If you’re up for a light, tropey read, check it out! Pre-order here.

The other exciting news is that the trans memoir anthology I contributed to, #Trans did really well at this year’s Rainbow Awards! It tied for first place in the LGBT Memoir/Anthology category, and got second place in Best Transgender Book. Here’s what they had to say about it:

1) Trans was somewhat painful to read – not by any fault of the author but as a collection of difficult and heartfelt stories it was heart wrenching, but I felt it was a book that needed to be written and will be loved by many.
2) I rather like that each piece was allowed to create it’s own setting. The diversity of the pieces was part of the power of the book. The voice of each essay allowed me to glimpse into different worlds and gave me a clearer understanding of many things.
3) #Trans brings use collection of genuine stories from transgender and non-binary writers who share their heartfelt experiences and insightful thoughts on identity formation and how it has been impacted by technology, film, literature, social media, and music. Well written and edited, this is a must read for youth and adults.
4) #Trans is by turns academic, thoughtful, and provocative, providing insights and deconstruction of what it means to occupy a body in space and time… and how the internet has made it more possible than ever to find the others asking those same questions.
5) Thought provoking and informative, well written and edited, I really loved this book. It sparked quite a few family discussions! 
This was a total departure for me, but I’m really happy with how the anthology came out, and super proud of how well-received it’s been. Evelyn did an amazing job with it!
Well, I think that’s everything. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year, and gets to read lots of excellent books. As usual, here is a picture of my cat being cute this Christmas:
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Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
Posted in Blog, Blog Tours, Uncategorized

#Trans Blog Hop – An Anthology about Transgender and Nonbinary Identity Online

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hi guys! Guess who nearly forgot that I was supposed to write this blog post! In my defense I’ve been working all week and um… it’s  my birthday tomorrow?

b7b5193632599af1554c82fa0950e4f061ad71aeAnyway, this post is part of a blog hop to promote a new collection of essays put together by the amazing Evelyn Deshane called #Trans about how transness intersects with technology and the internet. It’s subject that’s near and dear to my heart because (like a lot of people) I discovered that I was trans because of the internet. If it wasn’t for the community and support I’ve found online, I would probably still be very alone and confused. I believe the internet and online communities have revolutionized the queer experience, allowing otherwise isolated young queer people to discover a community of people like them, to connect and grow together.

My essay, which is called Trans Romance and Radical Love: My Autobiography in Binder Rippers (couldn’t pass that title up,) is about existing as a trans person in the larger LGBT+ romance community. I talk about both the good and bad aspects of it, from discovering my identity alongside other non-binary authors, to the difficulty trans authors in the communities have faced and continued to face. It was actually a pretty difficult essay to write because some of the stuff I talk about is still pretty upsetting for me, but Eve was an absolutely phenomenal editor and she helped me turn my personal ramblings into an essay that I’m pretty proud of.

So, #Trans is available at Amazon and Smashwords now! Here’s the blurb:

#Trans is an essay collection featuring the works of twenty transgender and nonbinary writers as they share their experiences with online communities, video games, and dating apps–among other technologies. Each author’s experience of their identity breaks away from the typical transgender narrative that is predominantly hung up on surgery and medical intervention. While that aspect is still a part of the story for some of these writers, surgery has never been the sole inspiration which pushes these writers forward.

Whether it was the love of a particular movie, the desire to share a feeling on social media, or a song they couldn’t get out of their heads, these twenty writers’ experiences of their identity have been shaped by media, technology, and the internet. And now, #Trans is ready to share with all of you.

It’s also going to be available in print on March 31st. If it sounds at all interesting, please go check it out, and maybe leave a review if you feel up to it! That would be great!

You can check out the official site here, and I’ll list the other stops on the blog hop below.

Thanks for reading, and hope you’re all having a great spring!

#Trans Blog Hop Schedule:
March 10th: Eve Deshane blogging evedeshane.wordpress.com.
March 13th: Erika D. Price blogging on their tumblr.
March 17th Ariel Estrella on their website.
March 20th: J.K. Pendragon on their website.
March 22nd: Gabriel D. Vidrine on their tumblr.
March 24th: Velvl Ryder on his website.
March 29th: Allen Hope on #Trans site.

 

Posted in Books, Giveaway, New Release, Uncategorized

JUNIOR HERO BLUES Blog Tour! Dates and Giveaways

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

My hard work has finally paid off! JUNIOR HERO BLUES is now available and the truckload of blog posts I wrote about it are crashing out of the back of the truck at an alarming rate and onto a computer screen near you!

That was a weird metaphor. Anyway, blog tour!

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Along with me rambling about just about everything superhero and writing related I could come up with, I’m also giving away three $15 Amazon gift cards! Just leave a comment with your email address on any of the posts to be entered.

In case you want to leave your name on every single one of the posts, here’s the links to where and when they’ll be posted:

November 7, 2016 – Joyfully Jay
November 7, 2016 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
November 7, 2016 – Bayou Book Junkie
November 8, 2016 – Prism Book Alliance
November 8, 2016 – The Novel Approach
November 8, 2016 – The Day Before You Came
November 9, 2016 – Love Bytes Reviews
November 9, 2016 – Diverse Reader
November 9, 2016 – Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents
November 10, 2016 – Dog-Eared Daydreams
November 10, 2016 – Booklover Sue
November 10, 2016 – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
November 10, 2016 – MM Good Book Reviews
November 11, 2016 – Book Reviews and More by Kathy
November 11, 2016 – My Fiction Nook
November 11, 2016 – OMG Reads
Have fun reading guys, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
Update: Giveaway winners have been selected. Thank you for entering, everyone!
You can purchase copies of JUNIOR HERO BLUES at all these fine retailers:
Riptide
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
ARE
Kobo
Cheers!
Posted in Blog

GRNW 2016

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

grnw_wordpressbanner

Hello everyone!

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Seattle! We drove down early today, and spent the evening having delicious Chinese food at PF Chang’s, buying lots of body products at Lush, and even more makeup at Sephora. Now were back at our favourite haunted hotel, the Moore, relaxing for our big weekend!

transficsThere are two main events that Alex Powell and I will be attending and speaking at this weekend. The first is TransFics + Love Bites, a free to attend reading at the Hugo House where we’ll be reading snippets of some of our published works, alongside Austin Chant, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Laylah Hunter and EE Ottoman! Then there will be an intermission followed by more short readings by a variety of LGBTQ authors! If you’re going to be in the Seattle area tomorrow (Friday the 23rd) night, please stop by! The readings start at 7PM.

Then on Saturday, the main event! Gay Romance NorthWest 2016 at the Seattle Library! Unfortunately, passes for the event are completely sold out, but if you already have a pass, I can’t wait to see you there!

Registration starts at 12, and then there are panels from 1PM to 4PM. Alex and I, along with the other readers from TransFics will be speaking on a panel called “Trans Authors on Characters, Stories, and Industry” that starts at 2:10. Austin is the moderator, and it looks like it’s gonna be a really awesome discussion!

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I made a bunch of these! Please come by and grab one!

Finally, from 1-6, basically the whole time, there will be a book fair where you can buy books from the bookseller, and from 4-6 there will be an author meet and greet! I’ll be at my table handing out my little business cards and candies that I put together! If you’d like a book signed, or just to chat, please stop by!

Also, when you get a swag bag, check inside for a “Hello, my pronouns are:” tag courtesy of Alex and I! Even if you’re cis, wearing a pronoun tag is a great way of normalizing the idea, and makes trans people more comfortable wearing them as well!

I think that’s everything! There will be an afterparty at the Rendevous after the conference, but last year we were way too tuckered out to go, so we’ll see about that one. XD

We have all sorts of other fun things planned for the weekend, including Alex and I getting matching tattoos and a visit to a cat cafe, The Meowtropolitan! I can’t even tell which of those I’m more excited about. I’ve wanted to go to a cat cafe since I first learned of their existence. I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated via twitter, so feel free to follow me there! I’m @JKPendragon.

And now, I must go wash a green mud mask off of my face and head to bed. Hope to see you all soon!

Cheers!

Posted in Blog, Coming Soon

All The News! Cover Reveal, Tattoo, Print Copies etc….

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

Hello, everyone! Long time, no blog! I’ve been taking it easy, enjoying my new place, intermittently battling the great depression beast, as you do. I haven’t been writing at all, something I hope will change soon, but I have been editing and preparing for a couple of new releases, as well as preparing for GRNW in September! So, to that end, I have a bunch of stuff to share with you guys! Hold on, lemme get my camera.

Okay, so first off, these babies arrived:

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They are gorgeous, and I wish I could bring them with me to GRNW, but they don’t come out until November! *pout* But I think I’m going to see about maybe doing an advance giveaway possibly maybe. We’ll see. Anyway, next up is these!

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Please ignore the typo on the back. Oh great, now you can’t because I drew attention to it. Go me. I seriously can’t believe I didn’t notice that but… ah well, what can you do? Nobody’s perfect. They are still glorious and rainbow, and I’ll probably be handing them out at GRNW (with candy bribes attached!)

ALSO, I’m going to be on a panel at GRNW! It’ll be Trans Authors on Characters, Stories and Industry. We have an amazing line-up of trans authors, and it should be a pretty great panel! I’ll also be at the book fair selling books and just hanging out, if you want to come and talk to me!

So JUNIOR HERO BLUES is coming out November 7th (go pre-order!) but I also have another romance novella coming out sometime after that! No blurb or release date yet, but I just got the cover, so I have to show it off! It’s by the wonderful Aisha Akeju who like, takes images directly out of my brain and turns them into covers (she is obviously a witch) and this one is no different!

SeaLover

Perfect, right? Sea Lover is a fairly low-key, sweet romance between a seal-merman and a reclusive fisherman who finds him on the beach. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I can’t wait to share more!

And finally, in personal matters, I finally got a new tattoo!

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Taking pictures of your right arm with your left hand: surprisingly difficult. Anyway, it’s based off of the designs at Newgrange, and I couldn’t be more in love with how it came out. The placement, the size, even the fact that it looks like it was drawn by a human, and not a machine, are all exactly what I wanted. I actually didn’t know the exact placement I wanted going in, so I let the artist (Deborah at Unicus Studios) decide how it would look best, and she came up with this kind of off-centre position that I think looks so great and organic.

This one hurt like a mother-fucker too. Inside arm, and she had to start with a thin line and then go over it multiple times to thicken them. Ouch. It’s still quite tender and sore today, but it seems to be healing well. You can tell in the picture it’s still at that awkward healing, slightly swollen stage, but I’ll post photo updates on my twitter  to show how it comes out!

Thanks everyone for reading! 2016 has been an awesome year so far, and I hope it continues that way. Stay tuned for more info about Sea Lover, and a Junior Hero Blues giveaway.

Oh, and one more thing. No blog post is complete without this face:

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She loves the camera.

Posted in Books, Coming Soon

JUNIOR HERO BLUES is up for Pre-order! (Plus Cover and Blurb Reveal)

Posted on by J. K. Pendragon

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So around this time last year, I was staring at this manuscript I had written, having no idea what I was going to do with it.

I had originally put off even writing it. I’d loved the story idea, had the whole thing planned out on paper, and was totally in love with the character and world. But it was YA. I wrote adult romance. What was I even going to do with it if I did write it? But the story and the characters wouldn’t leave me alone, so eventually, and after a few false starts, I settled down to write it. It was probably the easiest time and most fun I’ve ever had writing a book. I wrote steadily for about three months, and at the end of it, I had a manuscript that I was sure was the best book I’d ever written. And it was absolutely and definitely a YA.

And then, kind of like fate, a press I’d been wanting to publish with for ages, Riptide Publishing announced the release of their new YA line, Triton. A line of books about queer kids, for queer kids. How could I pass that up?

I read a lot growing up, but for whatever reason, the books I remember reading the most, the ones that really stuck with me, were about lgbt characters. So maybe I’ve always wanted to add to that collection of books, and maybe help a young person come to accept themselves, even subconsciously, the way those books helped me.

I’m still going to keep writing romance, of course. But I’m excited about this new direction as well. And I don’t think JUNIOR HERO BLUES will be my last queer YA.

So, with no further rambling, I present:

Business Superhero with city

Last year, Javier Medina was your average socially awkward gay high schooler with a chip on his shoulder. This year, he’s . . . well, pretty much the same, but with bonus superpowers, a costume with an ab window to show off his new goods, and a secret identity as the high-flying, wise-cracking superhero Blue Spark.

But being a Junior Hero means that Javier gets all the responsibility and none of the cool gadgets. It’s hard enough working for the Legion of Liberty and fighting against the evil Organization, all while trying to keep on top of school work and suspicious parents. Add in a hunky boyfriend who’s way out of Javier’s league, and an even hunkier villain who keeps appearing every time said boyfriend mysteriously disappears, and Blue Spark is in for one big dollop of teenage angst. All while engaging in some epic superhero action and, oh yeah, an all-out battle to protect Liberty City from the forces of evil.

Welcome to the 100% true and totally unbiased account of life as a teenage superhero.

Pre-order Now!