(Updated September 25, 2026)

What’s new/coming soon?

Glad you asked!

• Playing By Ear (Jamie/Perry novel, Glasgow Lads Book 5 and the final installment), coming September 29, 2026.
• Men in Shorts: A Glasgow Lads Collection (May 15, 2025, ebook and paperback): This short-fiction anthology takes us on a tour of the Glasgow Lads series. Featuring three novellas (novellae?), three short stories, and three new and exclusive “minis.”
• The Christmas Curse (December 10, 2024, ebook and paperback): A humorous, heartwarming M/M romance about luck, kindness, and the way a single day can change an entire life. 100% standalone, with a tiny tie to the Glasgow Lads world.
• Cicadas: A Totally Ordinary Epic Love Story (June 20, 2024, ebook and paperback): a standalone, second-chances, love-across-time male/male romance novel

In which order should I read the Glasgow Lads series?

It’s up to you! Each book in the series stands alone and has a happy ending with no cliffhanger.

That said, there is an overall arc to the series as we follow the ups and downs of the Woodstoun Warriors Amateur Football Club. Most of the main characters are friends or teammates, so they make frequent and significant appearances in one another’s books.

Here is the chronological order of the series (a few are concurrent but follow different characters):

• • • • Play On* (Book 0.5, prequel novella, Duncan & Brodie)
      • Playing for Keeps** (Book 1, Fergus & John novel)
      • Playing to Win** (Book 2, Colin & Andrew novel)
      • Play It Safe*,** (Book 2.5, Fergus & John short story)
      • Playing With Fire** (Book 3, Liam and Robert novel)
      • Auld Lang Syne* (Book 3.25, Evan & Ben prequel holiday short story)
      • Play Dead* (Book 3.5, Colin & Andrew short story)
      • Throwing Stones (crossover/spinoff series Glasgow Lads on Ice Book 1, Luca & Oliver novel).
      • Playing in the Dark (Book 4, Evan & Ben novel)
      • Play Hard* (Book 4.5, Liam & Robert novella)
      • Must Love Christmas (Glasgow Lads on Ice Book 2)
      • All Through the House* (Book 4.75, Duncan & Brodie holiday short story)
      • Playing by Ear (Book 5, Jamie & Perry novel, coming September 29, 2026)
      • * = also available in the Men in Shorts box set
      • ** = also available in the Glasgow Lads Books 1-3 box set

Some readers have told me they started with Playing for Keeps, then stuck with Fergus & John for their short story, “Play It Safe,” before reading the rest of the series. That sounds fun! It’s also spoiler-free, as “Play It Safe” makes no mention of the events of Playing to Win.

I wouldn’t recommend skipping “Play It Safe” before reading Playing With Fire. Something HUGE happens at the end of “Play It Safe,” and if you read about it after the fact in PWF, it’ll spoil the surprise. Make it easy on yourself by getting the collection Glasgow Lads Books 1-3, which includes “Play It Safe.”

Do these followup shorts mean the novels don’t have true HEAs?

Not at all! The novels provide Happy Ever Afters, and the shorts provide HAPPIER Ever Afters.

Given the ages of my books’ protagonists (18-25) and the obstacles they overcome to be together, it made sense to revisit each couple a few months (or years, in Duncan and Brodie’s case) later to see how they were getting on. The followups show how the love between these lads grows deeper, stronger, and more genuine as their weeks together turn into months and years.

What’s with the name?

Avery Cockburn (rhymes with Savory Slow Churn) is a pseudonym or pen name. I know it looks p0rny, but Cockburn is actually a Scottish surname originally meaning “wild bird (or possibly hill) by the stream” (burn = stream in Scots). I chose it because I wanted a unique, eye-catching name that made me happy when I saw it.

Only later did it strike me that Avery Cockburn creates the world’s greatest celebrity nickname: A-Cock.