Welcome!

Hello and Welcome,

Thanks for stopping by my blog. In all likelihood, you got here via a link at the end of one of my stories. If that’s the case, thank you for reading! I hope you really enjoyed yourself!

While it’s true that I’ve been making up tales for many years, I’m brand new to publishing them. For any new author, the climb up the “learning curve” looks precipitous from below—figuring out what appeals to readers… what I need to work on… So I'd love to hear your thoughts on my writing. And not just the good parts, although I never take praise lightly (*obsequious grin*).

I’m particularly interested in anything that didn't work for you, especially if you can share insights that might help me improve. If all you’ve got is “Hated it!” then I’m afraid all I can offer in return is, “I am truly, very sorry.” I’m an avid reader, and once in a while I’ll finish a book and not be able to put my finger on exactly why I didn’t care for it. But usually, I can at least narrow it down to a few likely suspects. So, as much as I’d adore hearing about what you liked, I’m even more interested in anything you didn’t—especially if you can say why. I hope to be in this writing game for many years to come, so this is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor—as it were—in helping me to improve my craft.  "Plastics, my boy. Plastics!"

As a reader, I love Author Bios! When it’s an author I haven’t read before, I’ll skip to the end and check that out before I start the book. It’s often less than satisfying, because it’s only a short paragraph and, in many cases, could be about almost anybody. So, if you want to know a little more about me, please read on. Otherwise, there are newer posts (above) that are less about me and more about what I’ve written (but, of course, what you really want is to get to know me, so why would you skip up there so soon? *bats lashes*).

As my Bio indicates, I grew up in The South. I was born in Atlanta and raised in North Carolina, with a one-year stint in Minneapolis when I was a toddler. From the age of three, I’ve been in North Carolina except for a few years in Boston in the 1980’s. I’ve worn a lot of hats over the years. After “some college”, I worked as a stage manager and lighting designer (I was “Born in a Trunk in the Princess Theatre in Pocatello, Idaho”—not really, that’s a song). After that, there was barista (decades before that became a thing), waiter, chef, technical support specialist, software consultant, trainer/road warrior, seamstress, nursing assistant, and medication technician. If I recall correctly, there were also numerous engagements as a professional dishwasher peppered in among the others. All these experiences have contributed to who I am and what I write about.

And, speaking of writing, how did that get tacked on, here at the end? Well… all my life people have told me I should do it. I never gave the idea any serious consideration until I stumbled across a genre that I find absolutely irresistible as a reader. As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, that would be Male/Male Romance. I don’t know what rock I’d been living under for fifty-some years, but it was about sixteen months ago when I inadvertently typed something into my Kindle search box… (I dunno, something like “gay cowboy”).  Imagine my surprise! (*grin*) Life has never been the same. I immediately tore through Laura Harner’s Willow Spring series like there was no tomorrow (in retrospect, I refer to Laura as my “gateway drug”). Then, I discovered Kaje Harper and couldn’t put her down until I’d read every single word she’d ever published! Since then, I’ve devoured nearly three hundred M/M titles.

Early in all that reading, a friendly soul directed me to the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, and that was another life-altering experience. If you read in this genre and aren't already a member, you should definitely join! I started “drabbling” on the flash fiction thread there, and the writing bug bit me. Hard! Then, Love’s Landscapes (their 2014 Don’t Read in the Closet writing event) got underway. I was delighted to learn that I would be provided with a full summer of free reads, but I had no intention of participating beyond that—I wasn’t “an author” after all. About a month after the last of the prompts had been claimed, one became available again due to some unknown difficulty. I hemmed and hawed for a while, but finally squeezed my eyes tight, pinched my nose, and leapt off the high dive. Suddenly, life got very strange! For the next two months it seemed that, every time I turned around, yet another unforeseeable aspect of the universe was unfolding itself in some unlikely way to aid in bringing the story to life.

The resulting novella, Raising Cade, will be released in the very near future (details coming soon). In the weeks since submitting the manuscript—during intermittent periods of waiting for feedback from an editor, then proofreaders, then formatters, and, finally, the fine folks at Quality Control—I’ve managed to finish a short story (which will very likely be included in a fundraiser anthology), and started a second one which, barring any unforeseen tragedy that might prevent its completion, definitely will be in an upcoming holiday anthology (more info on both of these in the very near future, as well).

So, again, I appreciate your time and interest. The men living in my head can be very demanding when it comes to having their stories told! I look forward to sharing their experiences with you, and writing more effectively with each new book. If you take half as much pleasure in reading my work as I do in writing it, then we really are helping one another out. Thank You!