I’m so excited about my Amber Allure cover by Trace Edward Zaber. Painting in the Rain, wherein Mike and Gabe find love and danger on the Oregon coast, is scheduled for release June 16th (June is a big month for me – I have another book coming out from Loose Id on the 11th, stay tuned for more on that).

I love this cover. It’s very special to me because under my name that’s my photo of rocky tide pools, taken a few years ago at the Newport Oregon lighthouse.

The story is one of my favorites, too. Check it out:

Helping teenagers is tough. They face so many dangers – peer pressure, drugs, pregnancy, STDs. As a trained social worker, Mike knows all about it. He’s taken a temporary job on the Oregon coast working with at-risk kids. But when he meets Gabe, the father of one of his charges, he finds himself in another type of danger – that of falling in love and getting stuck in a small, conservative town, not to mention living with an angry teenager. And yet, he’s drawn to Gabe in a way he never imagined possible.

Gabe, whose own father left before he was born, stays in a town where he no longer feels welcome. He’s living the life of a lonely artist so that he can be a father to his son, a bond that’s been threatened by divorce and Gabe’s public coming out. When he meets Mike, Gabe is bowled over with a longing so deep that he finds himself willing to risk everything.

There are plenty of dangers in a small town. When a gay kid gets hurt and they refuse to leave him to his fate, Mike and Gabe may be risking more than their hearts.

This is the view outside my bedroom window today. It’s late April and spring seems a very long way away. Pretty, though, isn’t it?

Photo by uzumewinter on Flickr

The first Tarnished Souls story – Learning from Isaac – was published last Passover and since then I’ve had a great time writing Jewish holiday stories. What started as a coincidence, a story with a seder in it that happened to be coming out around the holiday, turned into a somewhat hectic year of holiday stories.

The last Tarnished Souls book will be released June 11. It’s a Purim story (I know, I know, Purim was in February but at that point I was still breathless from Hanukkah). This one belongs to Kenny and George. It’ll be part of Loose Id’s June wedding extravaganza. Yes, there’s a wedding. In fact there are ten.

In the meantime, enjoy the spring as the earth up here in the northern hemisphere wakes up. We still have two feet of snow, so I’m not planting flowers just yet – but I can feel the warm weather coming.

You doing anything fun this spring?

I’m a finalist – can you believe it? This is so exciting.

Here’s the whole list: http://dabwaha.com/2013/03/10/2013-finalists/

I love romance. I rewrite the endings of movies in my head so that everyone gets their HEA. And yet, without winning characters, believable plots and clear prose, even I can get squeamish.

I’ll forgive a lot for a good character. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. But you know, if the plot gets squirrelly who do I blame? First the author, of course, but after that I start thinking less of the character for showing up in this stupid plot. As for clear prose, how do I find out about this great character if I can’t understand the sentences, or if I’m constantly getting tripped up by jingly, jangly, dangly adjectives or metaphors that leap across the page like herds of delicate does prancing across a snowy field? Now you know why no one gets to read my first drafts.

A good character comes to life with simple words and propels himself/herself forward through a series of logically connected events. Which isn’t always as easy as it sounds. I just spent two days trying to decide if the guys in my WIP were the type to say no to sex (um, no) and whether there were any extenuating events that could logically keep them from doing the deed (are you kidding?). So now all I have to do is pry them apart and figure out what’s going to keep them out of bed long enough for me to finish the book. I’m thinking snow, maybe an avalanche – that’s a logical plot point, isn’t it? In the very flat Midwest?

Hmm. Maybe one of them will have to behave badly. After all, a good character doesn’t always do the right thing, or even do the wrong thing well, but if he’s going to mess up, it had better be in a way we can believe – and maybe come to love.

What do you think? What makes a character work or not work for you?

I’m incredibly excited to interview Jordan Castillo Price here today. She’s the legendary author of the hugely successful Channeling Morpheus and Psycop series, as well as amazing stand alone novels like Hemovore, Zero Hour, Starving Years and Magic Mansion (be still my heart) as well as being the visionary editor responsible for the Petit Morts with Josh Lanyon, Sean Kennedy and Clare London. Today she’ll be answering my questions about her newly completed series – Turbulence, and she’ll be giving away to one lucky commenter.

DEV: I’m always impressed by your ability to write a novel serially and have everything hang together with very little editing needed when you bring it all together at the end. Does your process writing this kind of book differ from how you write your other work? And do you think that writing chapters on a deadline for your newsletter has changed the way you write your other novels?

JORDAN: I think there’s definitely a difference, because when I release something serially and I discover a contradiction, I simply have to let it go and fix it in final edits, and presume my audience understands that the first release may have an inconsistency here or there.

That said, I don’t deliberately contradict myself. In Turbulence, there’s an important rainbow sticker about 3/4 of the way through the series. If I’d been writing it as a novel rather than a serialized piece, I could have gone back and planted the sticker at the DC bar scene that happened in book 4. There’s a kid by the door and Paul hands him an awful martini as he storms out. If I could have gone back and added foreshadowing, I could’ve had the kid give him a sticker. Instead I had to explain the sticker on the spot in book 7, and it didn’t feel as integrated as it would have if I’d planted it earlier.

A story is really a series of causes and effects. The story feels more resonant when the causes are seeded early and play out in a satisfying way throughout the piece. I suppose writing serially has made me appreciate that when writing novels I have the ability to go back and weave in new parts of the story as they occur to me so they feel predestined.

DEV: Dallas and Paul are both really sweet guys and I love how well suited they seem. There are so many nice balances between them like that while Paul has the higher income job, Dallas has much more experience on this particular spooky flight. How do your characters come to you – are they fully formed when they arrive in your head or do you build them more consciously?

JORDAN: Your question is interesting because there are things that could be seen as differences, but you see them as balances. Maybe difference and balance are two sides of a coin. I think neither of them would be much attracted to someone like themselves. They need contrast, difference and balance.

When I create a new character, they aren’t exactly fully-formed, but I start them off with some key personality traits that I’m dogged about remaining faithful to. Dallas, at heart, is a competent caretaker, and Paul is a tightly-wound skeptic with something to prove. Being super clear on a character’s core can often make it seem as if I’ve spent ages fleshing them out. I find that pre-fleshing a character, as some writing workbooks might have you do by subjecting them to a lengthy and arbitrary character interview, is actually counterproductive. It takes the life and discovery out of putting the character through their paces.

DEV: It’s rare to read a story in which race is handled with subtlety and grace. It seems to me you’ve done that with Dallas and Paul. Can you talk about that aspect of the relationship, what it was like to write it and how readers have responded to the subtle and overt racism exhibited by various characters in the series?

JORDAN: Early readers wanted me to tone down the racial aspect, but I felt that by having Paul and Dallas encounter resistance to their budding relationship, I was honoring the reality. Later readers let me know they thought I hit the right balance. I’d say the racism was mostly subtle, mostly matter-of-fact, at least until Paul introduces his racist drinking friend to his new black boyfriend. That conversation was maybe 300 words long and took me two days to write, because it was so crucial to have it be as perfectly insulting and horrible as it needed to be.

DEV: Dallas is a caretaking type of guy – he raised his niece and he takes care of the pilots when they’re in alternate Bermuda. How do you see that changing on the few occasions when Dallas climbs in the cockpit for the turbulence and alternate Dallas ends up in Bermuda?

JORDAN: I think alternate-Dallas still takes care of people, but in an entirely different and much sassier way. He’s probably responsible for providing free mimosas for the passengers. Probably with Paul’s money.

DEV: The whole situation challenges Paul much more than Dallas, not just because he’s new to it, but because it shakes up his view of the world. And in turn his skepticism is the hardest thing about him for Dallas. What would you like your readers to take away from that dynamic?

JORDAN: I think we need to allow our friends to be who they are. Basing your approval of someone on whether they’ll change for you is a sure way to end up with a lot of resentment down the road. Paul and Dallas would not have been compatible, ultimately, if Paul remained an atheist, because faith is simply too important for Dallas. But the shift from atheist to agnostic is actually enough to bring them into alignment.

DEV: Marlin – he’s the joker in the deck, a secondary character so important he gets his own cover. Marlin’s already dead by the time Paul enters the story, and yet Paul’s relationship with Marlin changes over the course of the series. Does that mirror Paul’s personal development and what influence do you think Marlin has the story even though he’s absent? In other words, could you talk about Marlin for a little bit?

JORDAN: I’ve been thinking about it and I think Marlin may actually be the antagonist. His intent isn’t malicious and he isn’t actually present, but his past actions create conflict after conflict for Paul, every step of the way.

Marlin shapes the whole story, no doubt. Having him kill himself in the first scene set a certain tone: that the story would be intense. That stakes were high. And, for the people who paid attention to his emotional state, that something very weird was going on.

The Paul/Marlin relationship doesn’t have a gradual arc. It has a pronounced shift, a kind of epiphany, in the final book. There’s a moment where Paul realizes they’re not opposites at all, as he’d been presuming, and that in fact they’re a lot alike. That realization mirrors his relationship with Dallas, I suppose. It reflects that they’re different, but in the ways that are important, they’re in synch.

Thanks so much for having me over to chat about the Turbulence series, Dev, it was fun! And I’d also like to give away an ebook copy of the Turbulence Collection to one of the commenters, so if you’re reading, be sure to comment!

She’ll be talking about the Turbulence series and giving away a copy of the Turbulence Collection.

In honor of my first blog guest AND to warm things up for her, I’ll be doing a giveaway myself. Leave a comment between now and Tuesday (3/19) for a chance at an ebook of your choice from my backlist.

And come back on Wednesday for a fabulous interview with JCP!

Happy Valentine’s Day– you know I’m all about the love story

photo by emdot (flickr creative commons)

Elizabeth Bernstein has an article in the Wall Street Journal about the different ways of we can express our love.

I’m a words kind of girl so I tend to say “I love you” too soon and too often, a trait that’s gotten me into trouble over the years. But I have to admit that I’m more likely to feel loved when my significant other does the dishes or rubs my back or scrapes snow off my windshield. And I’m likely to swoon when he makes me coffee and delivers it in bed. That’s real love.

photo by chichacha (flickr creative commons)

Clara Smith, a blues singer from the 20′s, was right – we all deserve someone to grind our coffee.

I’m feeling the love right now because next week Jordan Castillo Price is coming here to talk about her Turbulence series. I can’t believe I just said that and it’s true – JCP here on February 20^th! And she’ll be giving away a copy of the Turbulence Collection to one lucky commenter. Whoo hoo!

So look for that. And in the meantime – do something nice for the ones you love. Just because.

In my lifetime we’ve made a lot of progress.

When I was born, Jim Crow segregation laws poisoned the U.S. south, although Rosa Parks had already ignited a firestorm by refusing to give up her bus seat. Homosexuality was illegal in all 50 states and it was still kosher to pay women less than men for the same job. This month our black president has chosen a gay Latino poet to read at his second inauguration. In Obama’s first term 43% of his appointees were women. The new United States congress opens with a record number of out LGB members and Tammy Baldwin as the first openly gay senator. Okay, Obama’s second term cabinet could be more diverse – but I was born during Eisenhower’s second term and that cabinet was all white, all male and all purportedly heterosexual

There’s still a long way to go. Unemployment among young black men is staggering, wages are still stratified by race and gender, we have record income inequality, there’s been an upsurge in membership in extreme racist groups and last month the Southern Poverty Law Center reported hate crimes against gays from Washington DC to California. But it gives me hope to pause for a moment and reflect on all the changes that have occurred in the last 50 plus years. Equity seemed an impossible dream when I was a child, now it feels like a reasonable goal.

Photo by monkeyc.net (Flickr Creative Commons)

I like to spend New Year’s Eve writing a gratitude list for all the good things that came my way during the past year. My 2012 list was long and full. It was a remarkable year for me. My first m/m novel came out in March, followed in quick succession by four more books. I’ve learned a great deal in the year and a half since I signed my first contract. I’m incredibly grateful to the publishers, editors and writer friends who have helped me shape the stories and launch them into the world. Special thanks to Larke Butler, my Loose Id editor, Rhonda Helms at Carina and the incomparable Jordan Castillo Price. And readers. Oh my, what a blessing. When I started, one of my goals was to be read by people I hadn’t met. Not only has that happened, but I’ve been heartened by the response. The year ended with a bang as Sacred Hearts earned two (2!) five star reviews – Mrs Condit and Friends Read Books and Book Reviews and More by Kathy. I couldn’t ask for a better way to ring out the old year.

Photo by John Lester (Flickr Creative Commons)

Writing fiction is a leap of faith where you do your best to render the images in your mind and toss them out for other people to interpret. Hearing from readers has allowed me to discover how well that transmission worked. Sometimes beautifully (almost everyone who read it seemed to love the setting in August Ice as much as I did) and other times not so well (the infamous cucumber scene in Learning from Isaac, got it – no more vegetables in the bedroom).

Photo by Andy2Boyz (Flickr Creative Commons)

I’ve grown a lot as a writer this year. Each story I release seems to me to be more mature than the last. I hope you all agree.

I wish you all a happy, healthy, rewarding 2013.