March Backlist Bonanza: 'Icarus in Flight' and 'The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles'

New month, new backlist sale. This time it's on the following books:

ICARUS IN FLIGHT

James Ellsworth is a bit jaded, especially for his young age. He hates school and longs for his parents' estate, where life is far more pleasant. Meeting new schoolmate Daniel Courtney is a much-needed distraction, one that will prove more and more engrossing as James and Daniel grow older.

When his father dies, James is thrust into a position of responsibility, not just to his estate, but to his mother and sister as well. He leans as much as he can on his friendship with Daniel, but young Courtney has his own problems. His brother, George, is all Daniel has left in the world, and when he loses his brother to a freak accident, Daniel is left alone and without prospects.

All the while, the two young men are discovering a relationship that their Victorian world will never approve of. Trying to deal with their loss and their love for each other drives them apart -- James to a life of debauchery, Daniel to a life of study and work.

As they grow older, James and Daniel discover that life is not what they thought it would be when they were schoolboys together, and that, even as they try to make their own way, they will always come back to one another.

and 

THE CECILIAN BLUE-COLLAR CHRONICLES

In the year 8016 on the newly colonized planet Cecilia, space-age technology, hapless Earthling colonists, and a magical realm no one knew existed, will come together in a collision course when two young men from different worlds cross paths and fall in love. Sheridan Diggins, an astro-cab driver barely scraping a living, finds himself thrown into the deep end of a magical pool when Yuli Soulweaver, the prince of the dead, decides to come to the surface and woo him.

Of course, as it usually happens, nothing goes as planned, and murderous entities from Yuli's world come after Sheridan to stop him once and for all. In the distant planet Cecilia, there are no grand space operas. No thrilling space adventures. No exciting scientific explorations of unknown quadrants. Only a young Earthling suddenly embroiled in high stakes drama when science and magic come together in the most hilarious ways possible.

Contains the novellas Sheridan Diggins and the Dead Horde, The Golem Upstairs, The Romeo and Julian Effect, and Monsters, Science, and Fanatics.

Both of these books are firsts for me. Icarus in Flight was my first attempt at a purely historical romance. What I mean is it's realistic historical romance with not a whiff of speculative elements anywhere. Lots of research went into this book, and it's also the one gay YA book in my backlist that has mature themes.

The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles was my first ever attempt at writing a purely sci-fi collection of novellas (this current volume is an omnibus)... and I utterly FAILED. Because I couldn't work with the plot without weaving more fantasy bits into it.

As with previous months, I'll be posting more background stuff for each of these books in the coming days. Both are marked down by 50% with Icarus in Flight at $1.49 and The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles at $2.49 through the month.