Looking Back at 2015

The end of the year is always a time of reflection for me. I've been thinking back to the books I brought you during 2015, beginning back in January with Against the Wall, and decided to put together a little retrospective of the journey all of us went on together.

Against the Wall took us to the back alleys of San Francisco with street artist Christian. We cried at his struggles and watched love bloom between Christian and sweet, steadfast Shea. Here's the link to a little video I made to share the beauty of Christian's World.

From an isolated mansion in Marin County to Lake Tahoe to the stage of the L.A. Coliseum, we followed Gianni and Zan as they overcame personal obstacles and dealt with life in the public eye in Belonging. Jared Leto was my inspiration for Zan, and this song seems particularly apt.

In Coming Home, we went along for the ride with Chance as he traveled to his home state of Wyoming, then back to San Francisco. Along the way, he found his family -- just not the one he'd expected. Here's a look at a fun reading from Coming Home from this year's GRL Retreat.

All I Believe took us on vacation in Italy, then on to Malta, Tahiti and back home to San Francisco, as shy, quiet law student Nico learned to love again and Nana Dombruso proved you're never too old -- for anything! Check out this amazing 86-year-old gymnast, who reminds us that Nana can do whatever she sets her mind to!

And finally, the bonus Christmas novella Hitman's Holiday spanned more than a decade and took us from London to Brooklyn to Belfast, then back home to San Francisco as we followed Andreo and Constantino's game of cat and mouse. Here's the link to an amazing video made by a reader to celebrate Hitman's Holiday!

 It's been quite a journey. Thanks for coming along for the ride! I'm looking forward to seeing where the road takes us as the Firsts and Forever series continues in 2016 and beyond.

Thank you!

I wrote Hitman's Holiday as a little holiday treat for my readers, and I'm absolutely thrilled that so many of you have been enjoying it! It's currently the number one book in Gay Fiction and Gay Romance on Amazon.Thank you for making that happen! <3

Giveaway!

To say thank you to my readers, I'm giving away a $100 Amazon gift card on my Facebook page! If you're not on Facebook, you can still enter the drawing by emailing me at AlexaLandWrites at gmail and your name will go in the hat! The contest is open to readers worldwide, and closes on 12/24/15 at 5 PM PST. Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

I wrote a fun little short story as a holiday treat for my readers, I hope you enjoy it! It's 21,000 words, it's live on Amazon and Smashwords and is just 99 cents. It's told from Andreo's point of view. We met Luca's brother in All I Believe. That's Nico's brother Constantino (Connie) on the cover.

Here's the blurb:

It’s Christmas Eve at Nana Dombruso’s house, and a wild party is in full swing. Gangsters, strippers and Nana’s ‘gay homosexuals’ are certainly bringing the holiday cheer. But all I can think about is what will happen when I see Constantino Dombruso again.

Connie and I have a very long, very complicated history. The last time I saw him, he’d been hired to carry out a hit on my brother Luca and me. He didn’t go through it, but the tension between us is at an all-time high.

His life has been on a troubling trajectory over the last decade. But the fact is, Connie got under my skin a long time ago, and despite everything, the attraction between us has always been electric.

When we see each other tonight at the party, there could be fireworks or gunfire. It could go either way.

***This holiday short story features characters from Alexa Land’s best-selling Firsts and Forever series. It’s told from Andreo’s perspective, who was introduced in the most recent book in the series, All I Believe. But it can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone for those unfamiliar with the series.

Happy Holidays!! <3

A Note to my Goodreads Friends

I had to go in today and delete my entire friends list on Goodreads, and will not be adding any new friends. I apologize if you were a GR friend and I removed you. It was nothing personal. This is what happened: today, 14 reviews for my new book disappeared from Amazon. The book has been out just two weeks. The reason the reviews were deleted is because I was "friends" with those reviewers, either on Goodreads or on Facebook, and Amazon is now enforcing their policy of not allowing reviews by "friends" of an author.

What they fail to realize is that I created my GR and Facebook accounts specifically for my readers. No one who knows me "in real life" is friends with me on these accounts. So basically, I was penalized for keeping in touch with my readers.

GR and social media are among the only ways I can let people know when a new book is coming out or promote my work. Amazon's policy fails to take into account the fact that authors use social media for these purposes, and our "friends" on these sites aren't our mom, our neighbor, our boyfriend, and so on. They're our valued readers, the people who buy our books and are often kind enough to leave a review.

Reviews are the life blood of any author, perhaps even more so for an independent author like me who relies on them heavily to bring in new readers. Since I want my readers to have the opportunity to review my books, I went in and deleted my friends list in order to remove what Amazon preceives as a conflict.

I believe it's still fine to "follow" an author on Goodreads. Only people in our friends lists and their reviews are affected by Amazon's policy.

Again, I'm sorry if you'd been in my friends list, and I hope you understand.

The Family Tree

Thank you for all your messages as you've been reading All I Believe! I'm thrilled that my readers have been enjoying it, and I'm so happy to announce that after more than a week, it's still #1 in gay romance and gay fiction on Amazon!!

I've been asked about a family tree on occasion for all the characters, and I've had this posted in my Firsts and Forever facebook group, but thought I'd share it here, too. I hope it helps keep all those characters straight!

The Firsts and Forever Family Tree:
Who's Who and How They're Related

The Dombruso Family:
Sicilian-American family with roots in organized crime
Dante, Vincent, Gianni and Mikey are brothers
They were raised by their grandmother, Stana Dombruso (Nana)
Nico Dombruso is their cousin, and close friends with his cousin Gianni
Jessie works for Nana as a chauffeur/assistant

The Nolan Family:
Irish-American family, many of whom are in law enforcement
Kieran and Brian Nolan are brothers
Shea and Finn Nolan are brothers (Kieran and Brian are their cousins)
Jamie Nolan is their cousin

The Friends:
Christian and Skye are best friends. They went to Sutherlin art school with Christopher Robin
Skye’s brother is River. River’s boyfriend is Cole
Christopher is friends with Hunter Jacobs (Storm)
Chance and Christian are friends
Zachary is Chance’s friend
Yoshi is Gianni’s friend
Charlie is Jamie’s friend and ex-boyfriend

More family ties:
Zan is Christian’s father
TJ is Trevor’s father
Tony is Chance’s father
Chance’s brother is Colt
Colt’s boyfriend is Elijah

The Books in Order, and the Couples:
1. Way Off Plan: Jamie Nolan and Dmitri Teplov
2. All In: Charlie Connolly and Dante Dombruso
3. In Pieces: Christopher Robin Andrews and Kieran Nolan
4. Gathering Storm: Hunter Jacobs/Storm and Brian Nolan
5. Salvation: Trevor Dean and Vincent Dombruso
6. Skye Blue: Skye Fleischmann and Boxer Boy or Dare Evans (no spoilers) ;)
7. Against the Wall: Christian George and Shea Nolan
8. Belonging: Gianni Dombruso and Zan Tillane
9. Coming Home: Chance Matthews and Finn Nolan
10. All I Believe: Nico Dombruso and Luca Caruso


If you're interested in joining the group, you can find it here.

Happy Holidays! <3

Thank you!!

Thank you so much to my readers! You've made All I Believe the #1 book in gay fiction and gay romance on Amazon, and it's currently #132 overall on Amazon, across genres! <3

Thank you!

I've been so happy with the wonderful feedback I've been receiving for All I Believe, including an incredible 5-star review from Sinfully, which you can read here! Thank you to all who've reached out to tell me how much you're enjoying Nico's story!

All I Believe Links

The tenth book in the Firsts and Forever Series went live a day early! Here are the links:

Amazon

US: http://www.amazon.com/All-I-Believe-Alexa.../dp/B018UUAPYM/

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018UUAPYM

AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/All-I-Believe.../dp/B018UUAPYM/

CA: http://www.amazon.ca/All-I-Believe-Alexa-Land-ebook/dp/B018UUAPYM/

It’s also up on Smashwords for all other platforms besides Kindle: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/597693

All I Believe is LIVE!!!!

Great news! All I Believe, the 10th book in the Firsts and Forever series, went live a day early on Amazon! :) Here's the link. I hope you enjoy it!!