WELCOME @KarennaColcroft to #RomanceBeckons

Welcome Karenna Colcroft to Romance Beckons.

Karenna Colcroft is the alter-ego of a relatively shy and sedate wife and mother. She- well, her mild-mannered counterpart, at least- wrote her first story at the age of five, and was immediately hooked by seeing her imagination printed on paper. Throughout elementary, junior high, and high school, she continued writing, though was too shy to show her work to anyone. By the time she graduated college, she had written over 20 book-length manuscripts, all longhand. *Shudder*

Karenna lives in the northeastern United States with her two children, her real-life romance hero husband, and two cats, one of whom occasionally tries to read over her shoulder. Fortunately, the cat is over eighteen in cat years.

Happy November, everyone! Here in the US, next Thursday is Thanksgiving, and one thing I’m thankful for is my new M/M contemporary romance novella With My Heart, which came out on November 14 from Jupiter Gardens Press.

With My Heart is the third in a series of dance-related books that I’ve written for Jupiter Gardens. The first novella, You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This, was released in February 2011 and is a hetero contemporary romance about Erin and Stefan, two West Coast Swing instructors who fall for each other as Erin struggles to move on from the death of her dance competition partner. In that novella, Erin’s male roommate, ballet dancer Merit Hartwick, stole the scenes he was in, and I knew I had to write his story.

That story, my M/M contemporary novella Dancing Away, was released in August 2012. Merit is astonished when a face from his past, Cole Dellany, shows up at one of his ballet performances. In high school, Merit had a huge crush on Cole, but at their senior prom Cole broke Merit’s heart by playing what Merit believed was a cruel joke on him. But dancing with Merit at the prom wasn’t a joke as far as Cole is concerned, and now he’s tracked Merit down to apologize—and to admit he loves him.

With My Heart picks up not long after the end of Dancing Away. Cole has relocated from their small hometown to the city where Merit lives, but it isn’t an easy adjustment for him, especially since Merit is incredibly busy with teaching ballet and performing with the troupe in which he’s one of the principal dancers. After an argument, they agree to see other people, but will their relationship survive?

Here’s a short EXCERPT from With My Heart:

The server approached the table with their food, and Cole turned on the charm to thank her. Merit sat back silently as his plate was set in front of him. Cole was right; he hadn’t cheated. But he wished he had just gone home alone the night before as he usually did.
He had fucked someone else in the apartment—in the bed—he wanted to share with Cole, and that was just wrong, no matter what Cole said.
The server walked away, and Cole looked at Merit, tilting his head to one side. “What’s the matter?”
“Erin’s moving out.” It wasn’t what Merit had planned to say, but it was as good a way as any to bring up what was going through his mind.
“She’s moving in with Stefan?” Cole asked.
Merit nodded. “It’s past due. She stayed with me because she’s a good friend, but it isn’t fair to them. And she’s barely home anyway, so it isn’t as if things will really change.”
“Which leaves you with the place to yourself.” Cole hesitated. “You aren’t just passing along information.”
“You have your own place, and now I’ll have my own place.” Merit stopped again, this time to pull his thoughts together. Given how the evening had started, it probably wasn’t a good time to ask Cole to move in with him, and yet that was exactly what he felt he should do. “Rents are expensive in this city, and it doesn’t make sense for us to each have our own place, especially when part of the problem between us is that we don’t have enough time together.”
“You’re asking to move in together.” Cole rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know if I’m getting a headache from the weather or mood whiplash. Last night you slept with another guy after telling me we should date other people to make sure we really wanted to be together, and now you’re asking me to move in with you.”
“I know. Stupid.” He shouldn’t have said anything at all. He hadn’t planned to. The words had just tumbled out, and part of him hoped Cole would say yes. They could fix things if they had more time with each other. They would be able to fall asleep and wake up together every day even if they were apart the rest of the time. It would be better.
Maybe he was naïve to think it, but he didn’t care. Something had to work out right.