Standard Books

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages.

The Angels Have Always Been Black is a metamorphosis of Black girlhood, queer sexuality, God, and family. Through a mix of traditional forms, as well as her own style of verse, the angels will take you up, then down, then up again, weaving hope through all the memories, beloved and triggering, before resting once again on the shelves of Mommy’s freshly dusted mahogany shrunk. This narrative is matured into Black womanhood on these wings, journeying home, earth, riverlands, and sky. Granny braids your hair, a new lover breaks your heart, and Black women prevail. Aliyah Curry is a queer Southern bred writer, focusing on Black female sexuality and mental health.

Stand at attention with this pocket-sized army of free, proud, masculine fantasy men committed to pleasure and male camaraderie. With multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings, as well as personal photographs and sketches, The Little Book of Tom: Military Men celebrates the artist’s most iconic vision of masculine perfection.

Criminal justice never looked so good as in this pocket-sized collection of Tom of Finland’s favorite tightly uniformed cops and suitably butch criminals. Multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings are contextualized with sketches, reference images, and personal photos of Tom.

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages,

A Funeral for Frozen Peas is a chapbook that unearths the raw, tender, and often unspoken corners of humanity. Each poem acts as a window into what it means to feel deeply. It does not seek to explain or resolve the complexities of the human emotion, but rather to sit with the feelings, to hold them up to the light, and acknowledge their weight. This collection reminds us that emotions—no matter how fleeting or overwhelming—deserve to be honored.

A Funeral for Frozen Peas invites readers to feel freely, no matter how uncomfortable. The collection does not shy away from vulnerability, instead, it embraces vulnerability as the thread that connects us all.

Poetry, chapbook, 40 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Lavender & Cigarettes: poems of queer sex and yearning is a collection of poetry about love in its many forms through a queer lens. The poems explore friendship, romance, and sex, and the intersections between them. Love is complicated, growing up is complicated, finding courage in queer identity is complicated. Honest and nostalgic, Nelson writes of these complications, of the messiness of life lived boldly and with a tender heart.

Written during Nelson’s final year of college, Lavender & Cigarettes is full of moments that feel definitive of a queer twenty-something’s experiences. Drunken kisses at a gay bar, holding hands with friends on late night walks, the gender euphoria of a cheap strap-on – it is as much an ode to heartache and sensuality as it is a celebration of platonic intimacy and self-love.

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

In Monsoons, history becomes a girl. Two sisters fall in love during a war at sea: their incessant arguing rewrites the very history of lyric poetry into one tongue-tied love song. Here we do things our way: we macerate Milton’s form and let Eliot’s meter bleed out, we lace the epic verse of Gilgamesh and H.D with indie rock songs like Car Seat Headrest and Caroline Polachek.

Monsoons is excerpted from Homily, a longform epic poem that recalls Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, Alice Notley’s Descent of Alette, and the book-length projects of Tommy Pico. Like the fleeting radio you’d overhear from a fast car, the pulsing fragments of Monsoons rewind and erase the history of war and girlhood.

Prose, chapbook, 36 pages, illustrated, from Bottlecap Press.

Katabasis is one heart’s erratic journey through the past to gain clarity and closure for the future. It is the descent into the darkness in order to find the light. This story tirelessly wades through the muddy waters of heartbreak, presses on the bruises of confusion, and pulls out the splinters left behind by great loss. It explores intimacy and rejection, new attempts and new failures, and the ever-changing and unpredictable direction of life.

One page we’re dancing in the kitchen with a lover while making breakfast, and the next we’re staring out the window while the garbage truck drives away with their belongings.

Prose, chapbook, 40 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

“All I have left…” begins the narrator of the title story in Figs, Lukas Tallent’s second collection of flash fiction, where characters are enthralled, trapped, dislodged, and sometimes, redeemed by their incessant want for another.

"Figs is hot and aching. Every story is pulled taut, thrumming with tension: sexual or otherwise. Its characters reach for physical reminders of their desires: discarded still warm t-shirts, lip stained coffee mugs, streaks of body wash clinging to shower walls. They’ve lost something, are hungry, even desperate, to claw it back. By the end of this collection, like them, you’ll want more.

Magic is a rare gift, and Dominai is losing control of his. He was always told that magic wants to obey, but between the waking dreams and alarming visions, Dom’s magic is going rogue. When Dom’s wayward power lashes out against Olbric, he’s forced to confront what these visions are trying to tell him: He needs to return to Airedale and find his mother.

But in the fallout of the events at the Eastern Tower, Dom and Olbric learn that leaving the Crux won't be so easy. The Royal Guard is watching wizards closely, and while the two plan a grand escape from under the Guard’s nose, Grandmaster Arlon and his newly appointed apprentice, Galiva, are chafing under the strain of the Crown’s expectations.

When the mantle of Grandmaster suddenly falls on Galiva’s shoulders, her loyalties to her friends are pitted against the Crown’s interests. Galiva struggles to navigate the demands of the position, keep her friends safe, and repair the trust between the Crux and the people of Straetham.

To avoid a war with Immenbach, Dom, Olbric, and Galiva will all have to decide what lengths they will go to, and what they are willing to sacrifice to keep the Crux—and each other—safe.

Fate is a fickle creature, is he not?

Sunday
My name is Sunday Mourning. Yes, you heard that correctly. And no, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about the fact I’m having a dry spell, or that I’m about to lose my job because I told a kid to screw off. And I definitely don’t want to talk about the fact that my impromptu nosebleeds have just proven the existence of the occult.

Bellamy
After my marriage rots apart, I take a leap of faith and pursue a job at a museum in Salem. It feels like a lifeline, the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. That is until I stumble upon their resident taxidermist, a ghost from my past I’d thought I’d never see again. But when Sunday gets himself into a spot of my particular brand of trouble and realizes that I was never joking when I said I could see dead people, it seems like our tattered past might stitch itself together again.

The day his human partner died was the day Haleth Maerenthros became a monster hunter.

Nearly three centuries later, Haleth is apathetic, loveless, and haunted by the memories of his long dead partner. For years, his sole purpose has been destroying vampires, but even that is beginning to lose its appeal as Haleth wishes more and more to fade into nothingness.

When the master of the Monster Hunter Guild himself assigns Haleth a job he can’t turn down, he journeys to the far north hunting for a vampire that could threaten the safety of every mortal in Karrador. Only, when Haleth finally reaches his mark, he finds himself staring into the reddened eyes of his long dead partner. Grappling with his morals pitted against a deep well of love as their spark reignites, Haleth must decide where his loyalties lie, and if loving on borrowed time is worth facing the Monster Hunter Guild's deadly retribution.

Heartbroken art student Noel Underwood isn’t looking for anything serious when he hits the club looking for a distraction. But a reckless encounter with Luca Karvelas—an older tattoo artist with nowhere else to go—quickly turns into an arrangement neither of them can walk away from.

Fresh off a separation from his wife, Luca has spent his life burying parts of himself he never wanted to face. Getting involved with a man nearly a decade younger is a bad idea; moving in together is even worse. But the fierce, prickly boy he’s made his roommate makes him feel comfortable in his own skin for the first time in years.

Noel has demons of his own. Beneath the sharp edges and a wildly self-destructive streak is a desperate and vulnerable need to be loved. With Luca, he feels whole in a way he never has before, and together, their chemistry is impossible to ignore.

But when the past comes crashing back into their lives and old patterns resurface, Luca is forced to make a choice—one that could cost him the only person who’s ever really seen him.

SUCKER LOVE is a soft D/s, hurt/comfort MM romance centering BPD representation and brimming with angst, drama, and messy desire. 

Months ago, Luca walked away from Noel. Now he’d do anything to get him back.

But making things right is impossible when the love of his life has blocked his number, moved apartments, and vanished from every corner of Luca’s life. Still, Luca can’t let go. He haunts the places they used to visit together, hoping for one more chance to face the boy he hurt so badly.

Noel isn’t doing well—but he’s trying. He’s going to therapy, keeping up with his new job, and learning how to survive on his own, no matter how badly it hurts. And the worst part? He’s still hopelessly in love with the man who crushed his heart.

When Noel agrees to take a heartbroken friend out for the night, the last thing he expects is for the evening to end in disaster. But at the club, Noel comes face-to-face not with Luca, but another ghost from his past.

And in a single moment, the fragile life he’s rebuilt begins to crack apart all over again.

SWALLOW is a heartfelt MM romance about fighting for happiness and finding solace in a second-chance. Featuring a very hard-won HEA, it is the second book in the Sugar Pill Duet and should be read after SUCKER LOVE.

One car. Two strangers. Thirteen hundred miles. What could go wrong?

When Ash rolls into town with a backpack full of cash and a bullet wound, the last thing he’s looking for is a connection. All he needs is a ride south, fast.

Enter Sam: a young man struggling with his identity, freshly dumped by the girlfriend he drove up the coast to visit. He doesn’t know a thing about the gorgeous stranger begging him for a ride back to Miami, but when Ash offers to cover all expenses, it's hard to say no.

What starts as convenience turns into late-night confessions, shared hotel beds, and feelings neither of them are prepared to name. As they rack up the miles, casual recklessness turns into something intimate and real.

But Ash is lying—about who he is, what he’s done and why. And when his secrets catch up with them both, it’ll put their fragile new connection to the test.

WISH WE WERE HERE is a whirlwind strangers-to-lovers MM romance set against the grungy backdrop of the mid-90s. Featuring a bisexual awakening and a guaranteed HEA, it’s a standalone love story shaped by tender nostalgia.

True love is never transactional.

In the winter of 1994, twenty-nine-year-old Jamie Hollis is left reeling when he inherits a fortune in the wake of his estranged father's death. On the way home from the funeral, he spies a young hustler on a frozen street corner...and makes an impulsive decision.

Ben Greer is surviving one night at a time. At twenty-four, he’s bitter, burnt out, and barely scraping by on the streets of Providence. With no family to speak of and bearing the scars of liaisons gone wrong, he’s long since stopped believing in happy endings.

Their arrangement is supposed to be simple: Jamie wants exclusivity, and the money's too good for Ben to refuse. But as the weeks pass, what begins as transactional gives way to unexpected intimacy. Beyond Ben’s barbed defenses is someone Jamie is desperate to protect, and beneath Jamie’s isolation is the first person Ben’s trusted in years.

But when Jamie is dragged back into old family drama he once thought he escaped, Ben will have to decide what matters more to him: money...or love?

TO THE END is a class gap MM romance set against the nostalgic backdrop of the mid-90s. Serving as a prequel to WISH WE WERE HERE, TO THE END features a cast of familiar faces and a poignant HFN.

The ultimate in Risa Cruises' Love on Rewind series,, featuring two signed paperbacks, six Safe-for-work art prints and four stickers.

Book One: Wish we were here

One car. Two strangers. Thirteen hundred miles. What could go wrong? When Ash rolls into town with a backpack full of cash and a bullet wound, the last thing he’s looking for is a connection. All he needs is a ride south, fast. Enter Sam: a young man struggling with his identity, freshly dumped by the girlfriend he drove up the coast to visit. He doesn’t know a thing about the gorgeous stranger begging him for a ride back to Miami, but when Ash offers to cover all expenses, it's hard to say no. What starts as convenience turns into late-night confessions, shared hotel beds, and feelings neither of them are prepared to name. As they rack up the miles, casual recklessness turns into something intimate and real. But Ash is lying—about who he is, what he’s done and why. And when his secrets catch up with them both, it’ll put their fragile new connection to the test.

WISH WE WERE HERE is a whirlwind strangers-to-lovers MM romance set against the grungy backdrop of the mid-90s. Featuring a bisexual awakening and a guaranteed HEA, it’s a standalone love story shaped by tender nostalgia.

Book two: To the end

True love is never transactional.

In the winter of 1994, twenty-nine-year-old Jamie Hollis is left reeling when he inherits a fortune in the wake of his estranged father's death. On the way home from the funeral, he spies a young hustler on a frozen street corner...and makes an impulsive decision.

Ben Greer is surviving one night at a time. At twenty-four, he’s bitter, burnt out, and barely scraping by on the streets of Providence. With no family to speak of and bearing the scars of liaisons gone wrong, he’s long since stopped believing in happy endings.

Their arrangement is supposed to be simple: Jamie wants exclusivity, and the money's too good for Ben to refuse. But as the weeks pass, what begins as transactional gives way to unexpected intimacy. Beyond Ben’s barbed defenses is someone Jamie is desperate to protect, and beneath Jamie’s isolation is the first person Ben’s trusted in years.

But when Jamie is dragged back into old family drama he once thought he escaped, Ben will have to decide what matters more to him: money...or love?

TO THE END is a class gap MM romance set against the nostalgic backdrop of the mid-90s. Serving as a prequel to WISH WE WERE HERE, TO THE END features a cast of familiar faces and a poignant HFN.

Book one:

Heartbroken art student Noel Underwood isn’t looking for anything serious when he hits the club looking for a distraction. But a reckless encounter with Luca Karvelas—an older tattoo artist with nowhere else to go—quickly turns into an arrangement neither of them can walk away from.

Fresh off a separation from his wife, Luca has spent his life burying parts of himself he never wanted to face. Getting involved with a man nearly a decade younger is a bad idea; moving in together is even worse. But the fierce, prickly boy he’s made his roommate makes him feel comfortable in his own skin for the first time in years. Noel has demons of his own. Beneath the sharp edges and a wildly self-destructive streak is a desperate and vulnerable need to be loved. With Luca, he feels whole in a way he never has before, and together, their chemistry is impossible to ignore. But when the past comes crashing back into their lives and old patterns resurface, Luca is forced to make a choice—one that could cost him the only person who’s ever really seen him.

SUCKER LOVE is a soft D/s, hurt/comfort MM romance centering BPD representation and brimming with angst, drama, and messy desire.

Book Two:

Months ago, Luca walked away from Noel. Now he’d do anything to get him back.

But making things right is impossible when the love of his life has blocked his number, moved apartments, and vanished from every corner of Luca’s life. Still, Luca can’t let go. He haunts the places they used to visit together, hoping for one more chance to face the boy he hurt so badly.

Noel isn’t doing well—but he’s trying. He’s going to therapy, keeping up with his new job, and learning how to survive on his own, no matter how badly it hurts. And the worst part? He’s still hopelessly in love with the man who crushed his heart.

When Noel agrees to take a heartbroken friend out for the night, the last thing he expects is for the evening to end in disaster. But at the club, Noel comes face-to-face not with Luca, but another ghost from his past.

And in a single moment, the fragile life he’s rebuilt begins to crack apart all over again.

SWALLOW is a heartfelt MM romance about fighting for happiness and finding solace in a second-chance. Featuring a very hard-won HEA, it is the second book in the Sugar Pill Duet and should be read after SUCKER LOVE.

Book Three: Wish we were here

One car. Two strangers. Thirteen hundred miles. What could go wrong? When Ash rolls into town with a backpack full of cash and a bullet wound, the last thing he’s looking for is a connection. All he needs is a ride south, fast. Enter Sam: a young man struggling with his identity, freshly dumped by the girlfriend he drove up the coast to visit. He doesn’t know a thing about the gorgeous stranger begging him for a ride back to Miami, but when Ash offers to cover all expenses, it's hard to say no. What starts as convenience turns into late-night confessions, shared hotel beds, and feelings neither of them are prepared to name. As they rack up the miles, casual recklessness turns into something intimate and real. But Ash is lying—about who he is, what he’s done and why. And when his secrets catch up with them both, it’ll put their fragile new connection to the test.

WISH WE WERE HERE is a whirlwind strangers-to-lovers MM romance set against the grungy backdrop of the mid-90s. Featuring a bisexual awakening and a guaranteed HEA, it’s a standalone love story shaped by tender nostalgia.

Book Four: To the end

True love is never transactional.

In the winter of 1994, twenty-nine-year-old Jamie Hollis is left reeling when he inherits a fortune in the wake of his estranged father's death. On the way home from the funeral, he spies a young hustler on a frozen street corner...and makes an impulsive decision.

Ben Greer is surviving one night at a time. At twenty-four, he’s bitter, burnt out, and barely scraping by on the streets of Providence. With no family to speak of and bearing the scars of liaisons gone wrong, he’s long since stopped believing in happy endings.

Their arrangement is supposed to be simple: Jamie wants exclusivity, and the money's too good for Ben to refuse. But as the weeks pass, what begins as transactional gives way to unexpected intimacy. Beyond Ben’s barbed defenses is someone Jamie is desperate to protect, and beneath Jamie’s isolation is the first person Ben’s trusted in years.

But when Jamie is dragged back into old family drama he once thought he escaped, Ben will have to decide what matters more to him: money...or love?

TO THE END is a class gap MM romance set against the nostalgic backdrop of the mid-90s. Serving as a prequel to WISH WE WERE HERE, TO THE END features a cast of familiar faces and a poignant HFN.

Book one:

Heartbroken art student Noel Underwood isn’t looking for anything serious when he hits the club looking for a distraction. But a reckless encounter with Luca Karvelas—an older tattoo artist with nowhere else to go—quickly turns into an arrangement neither of them can walk away from.

Fresh off a separation from his wife, Luca has spent his life burying parts of himself he never wanted to face. Getting involved with a man nearly a decade younger is a bad idea; moving in together is even worse. But the fierce, prickly boy he’s made his roommate makes him feel comfortable in his own skin for the first time in years. Noel has demons of his own. Beneath the sharp edges and a wildly self-destructive streak is a desperate and vulnerable need to be loved. With Luca, he feels whole in a way he never has before, and together, their chemistry is impossible to ignore. But when the past comes crashing back into their lives and old patterns resurface, Luca is forced to make a choice—one that could cost him the only person who’s ever really seen him.

SUCKER LOVE is a soft D/s, hurt/comfort MM romance centering BPD representation and brimming with angst, drama, and messy desire.

Book Two:

Months ago, Luca walked away from Noel. Now he’d do anything to get him back.

But making things right is impossible when the love of his life has blocked his number, moved apartments, and vanished from every corner of Luca’s life. Still, Luca can’t let go. He haunts the places they used to visit together, hoping for one more chance to face the boy he hurt so badly.

Noel isn’t doing well—but he’s trying. He’s going to therapy, keeping up with his new job, and learning how to survive on his own, no matter how badly it hurts. And the worst part? He’s still hopelessly in love with the man who crushed his heart.

When Noel agrees to take a heartbroken friend out for the night, the last thing he expects is for the evening to end in disaster. But at the club, Noel comes face-to-face not with Luca, but another ghost from his past.

And in a single moment, the fragile life he’s rebuilt begins to crack apart all over again.

SWALLOW is a heartfelt MM romance about fighting for happiness and finding solace in a second-chance. Featuring a very hard-won HEA, it is the second book in the Sugar Pill Duet and should be read after SUCKER LOVE.

Max

Wearing nothing but a towel—because why not add embarrassment to an already horrifying situation—my life turned upside down the night a masked vigilante alpha broke into my apartment and ripped away all sense of safety. He swore he’d never hurt me, and surprisingly, he kept his word—and told me to put my clothes back on—before wiping my tears with leather-gloved hands coated in someone else’s blood and disappearing back into the shadows.

Who was this blue-eyed masked man who looked at me like I already belonged to him, and why did I so badly want that to be true?

It doesn’t matter. The best thing for me to do is move on. Return to my normal job, decidedly nonthreatening friends, and uneventful life. Except, too many sleepless nights fueled by a completely rational fear, thank you very much, and my heat approaching faster than an oncoming train have clearly scrambled my brain because all I crave is him.

The arms of a vigilante killer should not be where I feel safest—it’s ridiculous. I don’t even know his real name or what he looks like. There’s absolutely no way, at all, whatsoever, I’d ask him to help me through my heat, and certainly no way I’d fall for the man. Nope. Not happening.

Yeah, right.

Heat Lightning is an omegaverse romance that is dark, funny, and full of heat, featuring a morally gray, masked vigilante alpha and the omega he will protect at all costs—even if it means breaking into his apartment. More than once. It’s for safety, okay? This is a non-shifter story with no Mpreg (but possible in world).

Tropes: Masked vigilante stalker / Morally gray MMC / Hidden identity / Touch him and die / Obsessed alpha

Flowers are symbolic, a universally known means to relay a variety of thoughts. Humans have used them for generations to convey their feelings without the requirement of empty words.
Staring at this flower, my mind settles in a desperate place- is this flower simply a past acquaintance offering a dew drop of remembrance, or possibly a dark ominous message from an unknown sender, informing me that they know what I’ve been doing.

Della has spent her life trying to move on from the trauma of her past.
But when her dream job of owning her own flower shop brings her back to her home town, she is hopeful for a new beginning.
With a beautiful new store Della is set to bloom.
But things quickly take a dark turn.
After the death of friend, ominous messages and eerie memory lapses, Della is plunged into psychological turmoil all over again.
Is what she is seeing real?
Or is something playing a cruel trick, digging up her past in the hopes to bury her back down with it.

Heathers best friend has been found dead.
She was buried in the woods,
life choked from her young body in a brutal death.

But Heathers thoughts and memories are unreliable.
They're scattered and incomprehensive ,
making it difficult to surface any answers to
what happened that fateful night.

Regardless though, the forest has secrets,
and everyone has their own worth killing for.