From Rocktoberfest 2022: Bleeding Dawn

Identical in appearance, twins Winter and Tripp are as different as night and day when it comes to everything but the music they’ve spent the bulk of their lifetimes composing. Now they’ve attained the fame they always hoped for, and it’s as empty and meaningless as the remains of route 66, and about as broken too. Would help if Winter could see it. Tripp’s sure he’ll lose his shit completely the next time some random groupie leaps on the hood of his car and begs to take a selfie, but to Winter, every night is a party, he lives for the crazy hookups, lives for the crazy, period.

Another place they differ.

Tripp would kill for one season to slow down. Just three months where he and Zakk could melt into obscurity and be whomever they wanted, together. Only Zakk’s band, Tattered Angel, is on fire too and it’s starting to seem like the music he’s always loved is hell-bent on keeping him from exploring love of a different kind. Last year’s Rocktoberfest was an amazing triumph, this year, it’s starting to feel like the road to the desert is burning him alive.

Would be so easy to slip off across the sand, melt into a dune on the back of some strange, psychedelic serpent, never to be heard from again. If only there was a way to ensure Zakk took that last ride with him.

My first rockstar romance: Desolation Angel

Dare gets lost in music only he can hear. Since childhood, it would roll through his mind, soft at first, then loud, drowning out everything until the rest of the world melted away. When he comes back to himself, he has notes and lyrics, the base of the songs his band plays all over the city. But some days he finds himself wondering what good talent is when the rest of his life is such a mess. His music is his passion, but it interferes with simple things, like learning to drive or cooking a meal without catastrophe.

All Sionn has ever wanted was Dare’s attention, his full attention, and that won’t happen as long as he continues having his ‘musical dreams’ so the stubborn keyboard player is determined to keep his attraction a secret. Too bad it’s impossible to keep anything secret when you live with your three best friends. When Sionn’s temper reaches a breaking point following another near disaster in the kitchen, he sets Dare on a question to ‘fix’ himself in the hopes of gaining the love of the man he adores.

But fate has a funny way of twisting things up and ‘normal’ is just a state of mind, isn’t it? While Dare struggles to change everything he believes is wrong with himself, secrets are revealed, loyalties and relationships are tested, and the band is offered the chance of a lifetime. Can they pull themselves together fast enough to take advantage of it, or will Dare’s quest to be ‘normal’ unravel all of their lives?

One Cabin, two stranded men, and a stalker lurking for the perfect opportunity. Halfway to Someday

Rocker Jesse Winters just wants to be left alone. If he could melt into oblivion, he would bid farewell to the wild child of rock n’ roll so many have dubbed him in recent months. Truth is, there was never anything reckless, wild, or even deliberate about most of the things that had happened on Wild Child’s last tour, but had anyone cared to listen? No! Which was precisely why he was sitting in a cabin high up in the Colorado mountains, hoping the incoming blizzard would bury him forever.

Ryker Jorgensen left the VA hospital with a bunch of prescriptions and pamphlets on how to deal with reentering the civilian world, not that he’s in any hurry to do so. His nightmares still keep him up at night, and every new limitation he discovers gives him more reason to believe that he’s hopelessly useless now. Better to drive up to his cousin’s cabin and lick his wounds. Come spring, maybe, he’d look into being around people, if only for long enough to make the kind of money he’d need to buy his own secluded place.

The last thing he ever expected to see was the man whose face had been plastered in his footlocker and his dreams for the better part of the past six years, but Jesse Winters is nothing like he imagined. When trying to leave Ryker out in the storm doesn’t work, Jesse resorts to ignoring him. But two wounded souls trapped in a snowed-in cabin have little choice but to reach out for one another when emotions get frayed. His only hope is that Jesse will trust him enough to let him drag him back from the edge before he’s just another burned-out star in the legacy that is rock n’ roll.