If you love your gay romance novels with a massive side of emotional tension, high stakes, and characters who are brilliant at their jobs but a total mess around each other, then my upcoming MM romance release, Making It Live!, is written just for you.
When it comes to the second-chance romance trope, authors usually have to find a way to make two exes talk after years of silence. But what happens when you don’t just force them to talk—what if you trap them in a room where millions of people are watching their every move?
Welcome to the ultimate pressure cooker: a live, primetime television newsroom.
The Setup: 13 Years of Baggage meets a Live Control Room
In Making It Live!, star anchor Nelson Mackenzie is the face of American news—polished, impeccable, and famously unflappable. But behind his chilly, professional exterior lies a thirteen-year-old scar left by the only man he ever loved: Jimmy Goodman.
Jimmy, now a broke but brilliant Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist, is fresh out of options and forced to take a job as the Executive Producer for Nelson’s nightly broadcast. They haven’t spoken since the day Jimmy walked out with nothing but a note. Now, they have to run a major network news show together.
This isn’t just regular workplace forced proximity. This is a environment where a single mistake cost reputations, breaking news can drop at any second, and a frantic control room demands total synchronization between the man behind the glass and the man in front of the camera.
Sneak Peek: Caught on Camera Two
To give you a taste of the agonizing tension heading your way, let’s look at the exact moment the past collides with the present.
Nelson arrives at the studio, entirely unaware that his network executives have secretly hired his ex to save a fraying broadcast. He gets into his charcoal suit, reviews a messy lineup filled with filler segments he despises, and takes his place at the desk.
He does what he does best: he stares directly into the red light of the camera, completely focused on the fourteen million people watching him from their living rooms. For Nelson, the job is entirely about trust.
And then, the trap snaps shut.
The red light on Camera Two holds steady. Nelson is mid-broadcast, delivering the news flawlessly, completely locked in. He is utterly helpless to stop what happens next, because when the executive producer speaks, the sound feeds directly into the IFB earpiece snuggled inside Nelson’s ear.
Suddenly, it isn’t a nervous temporary producer in his ear. It’s Jimmy.
It’s the low, slightly gravelly voice he hasn’t heard in over a decade. The voice belonging to the man who broke him.
Behind the glass in the control room, Jimmy watches Monitor Three and sees the exact instant his voice hits Nelson’s earpiece. Nelson’s hand tightly grips the edge of the anchor desk. It’s a micro-expression—a tiny, controlled twitch that anyone else would miss, but Jimmy knows exactly what to look for.
Nelson can’t yell. He can’t storm off the set. He can’t even let his facial muscles betray a hint of shock or anger. If he flinches, millions of viewers will see it. He is forced to sit there, completely trapped, listening to his ex-boyfriend’s voice command his movements while keeping his own presentation perfectly smooth.
Why Romance Readers Love “Competence Porn” + High Angst
There is something deeply satisfying about watching two people who are absolute titans in their professional fields lose all composure when they look at each other. Jimmy’s tight, flawless, no-nonsense news lineups throw Nelson completely off balance, stripping away the star anchor’s rigid need for control.
Every cue given over the earpiece becomes a battleground of buried attraction, old resentment, and undeniable chemistry.
Making It Live! delivers everything you want in an angsty, workplace MM romance:
- Forced Proximity: They are quite literally wired into each other’s ears for hours every night.
- Second-Chance Yearning: Thirteen years of unsaid words bubbling just under the surface of professional jargon.
- High Stakes: Managing breaking news events while trying not to let their past destroy the broadcast.
Add Making It Live! to Your Reading List
Mark your calendars! Making It Live! officially releases on July 23. The good news is that you don’t have to wait until launch day to secure your ticket to the control room—the book is available for pre-order right now at all major online bookstores, including Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, and Nook. To make things incredibly easy, you can find the direct link to your favorite digital storefront by visiting the Universal Book Link. Pre-order your copy today to lock in the low preorder price of 3.99. The price goes up to 4.99 on release day.
Ian O. Lewis and Luke Jameson 