Getting Personal With My Readers

Happy Thursday, everyone! :)

If you're my friend on Facebook, you know a lot about me.

You know where I am with my wedding planning.

You know when the pizza has arrived to our house for dinner.

You even know when I have a migraine.

Though this may not seem important or relevent to selling books, I have found that it does in fact help.




You see, you are all involved in my life. I post polls about things relating to my wedding. I post pictures of our puppies. You see that I am human. I am approachable.

Am I a reclusive writer? Absolutely! However, I have also let all of my readers in to my life. And I have shown them that as reclusive as I may be, I am not completely anti-social.

I think it's important for readers to be able to connect with writers. If I want you to read my books, why not let you know the person behind the words.

Would you trust a doctor more if you never met them?

Or would you trust them if they spent time with you, talking with you and working with you?

I would hope it would be the latter.






Personally, I believe the same applies to us writers.





If you see just how much I love my dogs, you might just want to read my stories where pets are an integral part of the story.

If you can relate to my wedding madness, you will more likely be able to relate to my characters who are either like me, or are going through wedding madness of their own.

Do I apologize for posting my personal information? Not really. I have connected with readers from across the country,and even across the globe. I hope that I can (or perhaps I already have) connect(-ed) with you! Come get to know me! You might just want to read my books, too! ;)

Happy reading! :)

Good Thursday morning!

So, the holidays are here yet again. Another year has come and gone in the blink of an eye.

For me, 2011 has been a good year.

New York passed marriage equality.

I met the love of my life and we became engaged.

Impeccable was released.

I became a columnist for both gayleeds.com and gaylifenewsletter.com

I was named one of the Top 100 Authors on Facebook for the second year in a row! Last year, I was #3, this year I am #15! I must admit it is an incredible honor to be ranked so high two years in a row! I am flattered (and pretty darn excited!)! :)

So, as 2011 winds down it is time to look at the future.

What lies in store? I don't know everything that will happen in the coming days, months and years.



I know that there are projects - stories - I am working on and I hope to see come to fruition in 2012.

I will be getting married in 2012.

Aside from that, I don't know.



What I do know is that I will continue to grow and improve as both a person and a writer. I will give my best daily, and although that may not be much on some days, it's better than nothing!

So I wish everyone a bright, beautiful and blessed holday season (especially since today is Yule and Hannukah is already under way!).

And may 2012 exceed all your hopes and dreams! :)

Happy reading!

Coming Out Day

Tuesday (10/11) was National Coming Out Day.

Like any good LGBT author, I promoted several events and articles relating to NCO, but I also promoted my books.


Why?

Not because I am THAT much of a narcissist.

Close, but not quite. ;)

In all seriousness, I hope that Imperfect and Impeccable help others to come out. They helped me to come out, believe it or not.

I have known who and what I am since I was a pre-teen. I remember being in junior high and having "those thoughts." I had hit puberty early, mind you, and when you have a class that is full of beautiful girls, you can't help but be...interested.

I had said things or asked questions of my mother in pre-teen and teen years, but she dismissed them.


In my twenties, I had a few long-distance reltaionships with other women. Since they were short-lived and long-distance, it still didn't quite register with my mother.


Mind you, I hate to make my mother out to be some kind of ignorant fool. She is anything but. However, for whatever reason, my orientation just didn't click with her.




So, when I wrote Imperfect, my mother asked me why all my characters were gay (consider the fact that Loving Her was fairly hot off the press at the time).

So, I thus had to explain to mom AGAIN that I am bisexual (she still doesn't quite fully understand since I'm with a woman now, but that's a whole other blog! LOL).



So, writing love stories about lesbians helped me to come out as a "half-lesbian,' if you will.

Is that a bad thing? Not at all. If you look at Carol and Alex, you will see that they are strong women. They are not ashamed of who they are. They love each other regardless of race or gender. They show us what true love can endure, and what it should be. That can be a very powerful tool in coming out.

So, if you're closeted, please come out! Yes, the world can be a scary place. But it will be such a better place if you're true to yourself!

And if you can read, please read Imperfect and Impeccable. You might just like them! ;)

Impeccable Page 69 Trial

Happy Thursday, readers! Today, as with every release, I put my book to "The 69 Trial."

The PAGE 69 trial, that is ;)



Below is page 69 from Impeccable. Enjoy!

“I take it you don’t like that,” Dr. Parker said without any hint of emotion.

“The Elysian Fields, their version of heaven, sounds nice. But I’d hate to be permanently hungry and thirsty and to have what I want or need right in front of me but out of reach.”

“That makes sense,” he responded emotionlessly.

“In ancient Rome, life was considered a punishment and death was freedom.”

“What do you make of that, Carol?”

“I can easily agree that life is hell. I hope that death does bring freedom. I’m so sick of the darkness, pain and misery in life. I just want to be free of it all.”

“What about modern religions?”

“Well, any form of Christianity would send me straight to hell simply because I loved another woman. I don’t get it. Love is love, no matter who the person is, right? Apparently, some faiths believe we can turn off our emotions and ignore our hearts.”

“I wouldn’t say that, Carol.”

“Why not? Are you one of them? Do you want to condemn me to hell simply because the person I loved was a woman? What about love thy neighbor and all that bullshit?”

“I wasn’t saying that, Carol.” He gently replied. “I understand. Let’s face it, the gay community faces a lot of obstacles because people react out of fear. A lot of those fearful people use their religions to defend their actions and words. I don’t think they are actually against love. It might be that they are afraid or possibly even envious of a love that can endure such social scorn.

“Straight white Christians are basically well accepted in our American society. It’s easy for them to forget what hardships other races and groups of people have endured because it was never their problem. Perhaps people who are different from them, people who can remain stoic in the face of social adversity remind them that there is more to life than whatever is in their sphere of knowledge. Perhaps they’re jealous because they know they couldn’t do what you do. Maybe they’re not strong enough to stand up for themselves in the same way you and Alex did, for example.” He paused to watch Carol. “What do you think? Think it’s possible?”