Love Can’t Conquer
(Love Can’t series, Bk #1)
by Kim Fielding
Hi! This is Kim Fielding.
Inspiration is a lot like lightning—you never know when it might strike.
While some of my stories are inspired by more predictable things, such as travel, some come from unexpected quarters. For example, the idea for my novella Grown-Up came while I was shopping at Home Depot, and Rattlesnake was born when I saw a hitchhiker at a gas station in the Mojave Desert.
My newest novel is Love Can’t Conquer, and it came to me courtesy of my Noisy Neighbor.
I live in a neighborhood with big houses on small lots with backyard fences. We’re all scrunched up against each other, and although the wooden fences provide some visual privacy, they’re not soundproof. This wasn’t so bad when an older couple lived behind us, but they sold the house and moved away. The new owners have three little boys (one of whom, based on parental shouts, apparently has a penchant for peeing al fresco), a barky dog, and a really loud father. There’s a mother there too, but she’s blessedly quiet. The father makes up for it, though. When he’s outdoors, he doesn’t talk, he bellows. He has friends with kids over on Saturdays, then gets up at 6 a.m. on Sunday to (loudly) collect bottles and other debris from his backyard. And he blasts his music every weekend, all day long.
His musical tastes could be worse. Mostly 70s and 80s light rock. I occasionally listen to that myself. I’d just rather not listen to it all the damned time. I’ve considered counteracting it by blasting some of my own playlist back. Maybe he’d like to be treated to some Bosnian punk.
But I suppose I should be grateful, because one day last year he played Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” and that song plopped a plot bunny right into my lap. You can hear the song here, in case your neighbors are less obliging.
And then you can go read Love Can’t Conquer and see what the Noisy Neighbor did for me.
Has a song ever inspired you? Share in the comments!
Blurb:
Bullied as a child in small-town Kansas, Jeremy Cox ultimately escaped to Portland, Oregon. Now in his forties, he’s an urban park ranger who does his best to rescue runaways and other street people. His ex-boyfriend, Donny—lost to drinking and drugs six years earlier—
appears on his doorstep and inadvertently drags Jeremy into danger. As if dealing with Donny’s issues doesn’t cause enough turmoil, Jeremy meets a fascinating but enigmatic man who carries more than his fair share of problems.
Qayin Hill has almost nothing but skeletons in his closet and demons in his head. A former addict who struggles with anxiety and depression, Qay doesn’t know which of his secrets to reveal to Jeremy—or how to react when Jeremy wants to save him from himself.
Despite the pasts that continue to haunt them, Jeremy and Qay find passion, friendship, and a tentative hope for the future. Now they need to decide whether love is truly a powerful thing or if, despite the old adage, love can’t conquer all.
Available for purchase at
Excerpt
JEREMY COX first heard the news about Keith Moore at the Sav-Rite.
Mama had sent Jeremy to fetch some milk and cigarettes, and he took his time along the way, scuffing his tennis shoes over the dusty asphalt and listening to the cicadas shrill. He had his T-shirt balled in his hand, the heat baked him like a biscuit, and the sun turned his hair a shade paler as it birthed another freckle or two on his bare shoulders.
When he was halfway to the store, a car inched up behind him. He stepped onto the dry grass of the shoulder, but the car kept pace until he looked up.
“Hey, Germy!” called a familiar voice from the driver’s seat of the beat-up Buick. It was Troy Baker with his usual crew, and Jeremy anticipated the taunts that followed: “Germy Cox, ugly as rocks. Cox-sucker. Pansyass. Faggot!” The last one was accompanied by a tossed can that bounced off Jeremy’s shoulder and dribbled its final drops of warm beer onto his arm. Finally Troy sped away, trailing mocking shouts and leaving Jeremy with lungs full of exhaust.
Jeremy had hoped the torture would end when Troy and his friends graduated in May. But they’d all stuck around Bailey Springs, Kansas—Troy working at the gas station and the rest staying on their family farms—and they hadn’t yet lost interest in tormenting Jeremy. He realized that the only way out would be graduation and escaping town. Three more years. Just three more years. It sounded like forever.
Inside the Sav-Rite, he didn’t pay much attention to the little cluster of adults at the checkout. He walked back to the coolers, where he snagged a carton of milk and a glass bottle of Coke, which he’d drink on the way home. But when he went to ask for Mama’s Virginia Slims, he overheard the store manager.
“…as if the Moores need any more heartache in their life,” Mr. Stoltz was saying.
Mrs. Peasley nodded. “The Lord knows those poor folks have been through so much already.” Her purchases lay on the counter in front of her, not yet rung up. Looked as if she was getting ready to make coffee cake for the Wednesday card game at her house. Jeremy’s grandmother went every week and always came home complaining that Mildred Peasley couldn’t bake worth a darn.
“Are you sure he meant to kill himself?” asked Betty Ostermeyer, reaching for the bag of flour. She’d graduated from Bailey Springs High just a couple of years before. Her husband had run off and left her while she was still pregnant with their little girl, so now Betty kept the toddler home with her mother during the day while she rang up groceries at the Sav-Rite. “Maybe he just wanted to go for a swim. It’s been hot.”
Mrs. Peasley clucked her tongue. “Not even the Moore boy would be foolish enough to jump from the Memorial Bridge just for a swim. It’s too high, too dangerous.”
About The Author
Kim Fielding is the bestselling, award-winning author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.
After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.
You can follow Kim at
Giveaway
Presented by
Lee Aung is an omega werewolf who refuses to follow tradition. Omegas are expected to mate with an alpha and produce children, which they would then nourish and cherish until the child is of age to move on. Homebodies, omegas are happiest when serving their alphas. Lee is far from that! In fact, at forty-two, he’s past the age of going into heat, so alphas would no longer be attracted to him. But he has a secret weapon—he uses Wet Heat, an experimental spray-on fragrance that simulates the scent of an omega in heat, thereby giving Lee all the hookups he can manage. 
I always anticipate the next TJ Klune novel.
Humankind possesses a dual nature, the ability to rise to the brightest heights—or sink to the darkest and most perverse depths.
Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with drag queen hair and a trio of elderly Vespa riders known as the We Three Queens.
Ezra Kellerman flew across country to see if he had another chance with the man he let slip through his fingers. He didn’t. Rico has moved on, but he doesn’t just leave his ex high and dry. Instead, Rico entrusts his family and friends with Ezra’s care. Ezra, confused, hurt, and lost, clings to Rico’s cousin and his boyfriend as the lifelines they are—but their friend Miguel is another story.
