It’s an experience that never gets old, no matter how many times it happens. The box arrives on my doorstep and I crack it open, take out one of the books, inhale its freshness and check for typos on the cover (which are MY fault for not proofing the galley). Last week I sent out […]

I have arrived! After three years of wondering “What do I have to do to get noticed for this Cocktail Hour thingy?”, Andy & The Rev finally came calling last night. We had a great hour-long chat that covered lots of topics — Playing With Fuego, The Shaken Series, Rhapsody, my Xenaverse fanfiction days and […]

Anita Peiker!! As the winner of my first drawing, you’ll receive an advance copy of West of Nowhere as soon as I get it from the printer, probably sometime next month. Contact me through the website with your mailing address, please. If you saw my post a couple of days ago on FB, you already […]

Great, great news about a promise I made back in December! If you recall, Bella Books offered a free holiday gift to its customers, a copy of Photographs of Claudia, and I pledged all of the royalties to the GCLS & Lambda Literary Foundation. I figured it would be a few hundred… Because of you […]

I had the great pleasure on Tuesday night to experience down-home Texas hospitality at the Dallas JEWEL LesFic Book Club. Many thanks to those who came out to play for your questions, comments & kind attention. Are we done? 😉 It was my first chance to read a couple of excerpts from my upcoming June […]

I sometimes go months with nothing to do and then all of a sudden it’s raining membership drives, book events, convention panels & deadlines. I’ll skip the convention panels & deadlines for now but this other business is coming up fast. Monday March 18 I’ll be giving some books away in conjunction with the Lambda […]

That’s my excuse for letting a whole month go by without blogging. That, and the fact that my New Year’s resolution was not to complain constantly about politics. It’s helping my frame of mind and probably yours too. In retrospect, I realize several things happened last month but they were mostly on the quiet side […]

Sorry, we had to give up on that idea. Poor Patty Schramm kept hammering her thumb. It was pitiful … she’s picked up some really bad words in Dutch. GCLS member Carleen Spry — reader, blogger & person extraordinaire — is currently hosting a Guest Blog each week from past convention attendees. The idea is […]

This year-end blog has become one of my favorite traditions, having long ago abandoned the actual act of watching the ball drop. I honestly can’t remember the last time I stayed awake long enough to ring in the New Year, but I think it was 2000, and the most memorable part was Jenny hobbling around […]

If you’re subscribed to the Bella Books newsletter, you’ve already heard the news. In a show of thanks to our readers, Bella is giving away to everyone a FREE copy of Photographs of Claudia — ebook or paperback, your choice. All you have to do is redeem your prize. Already have it? Great — thank […]

I promised on my homepage that I would only on rare occasion venture off the topic of books on my blog, because I understand most of you know me as a romance writer, not as an ordinary person who has opinions on things just like everyone else. I usually post political & social commentary on […]

Unless you’ve been reading under a rock these past couple of months, you probably know all about this Next Big Thing—Blog Hop hopping around. Last week, Ann McMan told us all about her Work In Progress (WIP), a book called Backcast. Buried in that blog was the revelation that she’d fallen in love with her […]

It was a year ago today that I walked out of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter with a new cat, promising the staff there that she was on her way to becoming the Queen of Indio. By their best estimate, she was about a year old, but since I don’t know her exact birthdate, I […]

Playing With Fuego is now shipping from Bella Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. E-book available *only* from Bella. You’ll find the synopsis on the book page and the first chapter in an earlier blog, but I know some readers want to know even more. After Rhapsody, you may even wonder how you’re going to […]

Wondering what you’ll do with yourself after Election Day? You can order Playing With Fuego from Bella Books and have it in hand on or near the release date of November 12th. It’s set in Miami, a place near & dear to my heart, where I lived for 11 years before moving back out to […]

Playing With Fuego is less than a month from release from Bella Books! Lucky for me, that coincides with two very special fall events. First is Greater Palm Springs Pride Weekend, where I’ll be appearing with Katherine Forrest & Michael Nava at Q Trading Post next Friday (Nov. 2) at 6:30 p.m. for reading & […]

A few years ago, I wrote a short story called “Community Service” about a woman who was assigned to a Habitat for Humanity site to work off her debt to society. The premise lent itself to a full-blown novel, but I re-conceptualized the characters & setting to meld with another idea I’ve had rolling around […]

It’s almost impossible to concentrate on getting a book off my desk during the last months of the presidential campaign, aka Silly Season. When I’m not writing, I’m drawn to political stories on the internet, many of them jaw-dropping in their inanity or absurdity. I can’t bear to turn on the TV because I’m in […]

Hard to believe Summer 2012 is almost behind us. The temps here in the NC mountains are already dropping into the low-50s at night, and the trees are sprinkled with color. One of our last hurrahs of the season is hosting my good friend and editor, Katherine Forrest, and her partner Jo, for a week […]

It’s been a rough week for a lot of folks in the LGBT community. The flap with Chik-Fil-A was more or less standard fare for us when CEO Dan Cathy first claimed that he unapologetically gave tons of cash to groups that want us back in the closet, outlawed & even murdered. *yawn* The real […]