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It's July 25th, which means it's Christmas in July!

Ok, it does seem silly to celebrate Christmas when we are currently having a heatwave right now. But every year, the Jersey shore (or at least my little corner of it) puts on a big event for this date. You can take pictures with Santa on the beach (and boy do I feel sorry for the dude dressed like Santa in this weather!), sing carols, and win 'presents' on the boardwalk.

I thought it might be a good time to show off some of my Christmas stories.

"Teddy Bear Christmas" is a short little tale.

Two lonely men, a lost teddy bear, and a sprinkle of holiday magic….

On a snowy night before Christmas Eve, Tyler Martin finds himself stuck in a Chicago airport, unable to get home to his family on the East Coast. After missing last year due to his jerk of an ex-boyfriend, the idea of not making it this time hurts. When he finds a lost teddy bear in the waiting area, his night changes for the better.

Aaron Klein is a bored airport worker, taking the Christmas shift because he’s Jewish. He doesn't expect to hit it off with the hot guy who brings a lost teddy bear to his desk, but it might end up being everything he didn’t know he was looking for.

You can find it at Dreamspinner, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks..

And if MMF is more your style and you haven't read Kitten's Ribbons yet, you can find the story (and 3 others!) in Kitten At Play.

First, let me announce me good news. I signed a contract with Dreamspinner Press for their States of Love line. I, of course, wrote about New Jersey. Love in the Time of Hurricanes will be published early in 2017.

I have been pretty busy writing. I have one short story and one proposal on submission. I'm currently working on two manuscripts for anthology calls.

Unfortunately in order to meet these deadlines I've put Angels Rising (Heaven Corp book 3) on hold. The ending needs a good rewrite, I think, and once I have some free time in my schedule I'll work on that.

I've updated my website with all of this, including a new page for Teddy Bear Christmas which includes one of the many very nice reviews I got.

Exactly one week ago today I was on the train to day 1 of Book Expo. I went in my librarian secret identity, not as an author. I had a blast.

I will sum up the highlights:

- I got to meet Sandra Boynton, who, in case you haven't heard of her, writes children books, such as 'Not the Hippopotamus.' I've read quite a few of her works to my son, and it was amazing to tell her how much those books meant to us.

- We frequently hopped on short autograph lines, and I met many new authors this way. I think the most hilarious was when we got in line for Kristan Higgins who was signing next to Dr. Ruth. Dr. Ruth had an overflow line that went back 5 or 6 rows. Ms Higgins cracked jokes and was completely lovely about the whole thing. I will have to check out some of her works.

- One of the things I really wanted to do was meet the creators of the podcast "Welcome to Nightvale." Luckily I got on line a half hour early, and was only in the 2nd overflow row. Of course, by the time I made it up to meet them, I was so flustered I had no idea what to say.

And this was all just the first day! There were train shenanigans going home, which was unfortunate, but we did it again Friday. By Friday we were just not up to waiting a half hour in line, so we didn't get quite as many authors. I did meet some old friends, and really wanted to stay longer. I felt that even after 2 days we'd barely scratched the surface. But, it was Friday, and so we took an early train home.

I've updated my website - http://ccbridges.net/ It is now mobile-friendly.

I hope to add more free reads soon. Several of my short stories are now out of print, so I'll be adding them to the website.

I'm pleased to announce that Kitten At Play is now available at major retailers.

Self-publishing is hard, guys. I don't know if I'd go through this all again.

Blurb:
Graduate student Jason has fallen hard for his library study buddy, Cooper. He knows about Cooper's girlfriend, so he expects his crush to go unnoticed. However when Cooper invites Jason to CatsEye, a member's only sex club, Jason finds out three is not such a bad number.

Cooper and his girlfriend, Lexie, take Jason on an erotic thrill ride, showing him kinks he never knew existed. But can they steal his heart as well?

Kitten at Play collects four erotic short stories, previously published, but now together for the first time.

Buy links
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T0V3MWS
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kitten-at-play-cc-bridges/1121132791?ean=2940046542936
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/514426
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/kitten-at-play/id962211272?mt=11

It's a new year and I have some new exciting things going on.

I'm currently working on formatting the Cooper/Jason/Lexi stories for self-pub next month. It's the first time all four stories will be available in a single collection, and I'm really excited about it. I hope to do a cover post soon.

(Note - self-publishing is hard. Remind me not to do this again!)

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you've seen that I've completed the first draft of Heaven Corp Book 3. My plans for 2015 include polishing up this draft and subbing it for publication.

Lastly, I'm writing a super fun short story. It's at about 10,000 words, and I hope to have it finished in the next couple of weeks.

It's been almost a month since Exodus was released and I wanted to share some lovely reviews I received.

Sandra from Hearts on Fire Reviews said:

"Interesting world, interesting characters, interesting plot. I will definitely be backtracking to read book 1, and I hope desperately that book 3 features Ty/Uriel!"

(I have good news for you Sandra, I'm working on the next book and yes, it's about Ty/Uriel:)

Smidgeson at Top 2 Bottom Reviews said:

"This is an excellent story that held me spellbound from start to finish. The story runs smoothly, the characters are well rounded and the world building detailed and captivating."

Thank you both for such kind words!

Exodus is now available at Dreamspinner, All Romance Ebooks and Amazon!

Tomorrow at noon EST I'll be at the Dreamspinner twitter giving away a giftcard to ARE, and I'll be hosting a chat on Facebook on Saturday:) Please come visit!

Good news, everyone! (I can't help the Futurama references..) Exodus will be released on March 3rd!

It's already up for pre-order over at Dreamspinner. Both ebook and paperback will be available on the same date!

I am so exited about this!

I just finished up the first round of edits on what used to be called Exiles. That was always a working title, and when the book is published this spring, it will have the title of 'Exodus.'

I'm pretty excited about this book. Working on the edits reminded me how much I love this story. I adore the main characters, Hank and Ian, and I am really looking forward to sharing their journey with all of you. Plus, we get some glimpses of characters from Angel 1089 as well.

It's also gotten me motivated on working on the third book in the Heaven Corp series. Right now I've just started jotting notes, but I'm optimistic:)