HEALER IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-SALE ON AMAZON!!!! Yaaaaay! You can purchase it here. It will be released October 8. This book has truly been a labor of love, and we're so thankful to those who have helped us along the way.
So BUY BUY BUY! (Just kidding. But not really.) It can be read on e-readers, or on the computer using the free Amazon Kindle app. Paper books will follow in a few months. We're thrilled and we hope you are, too! Curl up for a good read, then tell us what you think in the comments!
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
It's Bi time we talked about this...
Today is Bisexual Visibility Day. And I feel a bit
like a hypocrite, because I am bisexual, and up to this point I have been
anything but visible.
I am bisexual. While a very close circle of people
know this, most don’t, because I have been afraid to live “Out and Proud.”
Coming from a small Eastern Washington town, it’s easy to internalize the
beliefs of those around you – while not inherently homophobic, those beliefs
told me to keep to myself, because people would not accept me.
But I’m a writer, and I write about people, gay,
straight and undecided, who live their truth. And it’s gotten to the point in
my life where I don’t think I can continue to write about my characters living
honestly without doing so myself.
Up to this point there was no coming out. There was
only inviting a few select people to share my closet.
No more.
I am bisexual. I am also a writer, a booty-dancer,
an animal lover. I have purple hair and hate beets. My bisexuality is simply
one part of me, not the sum of my parts. I have known this about myself since I was 12 years old. I am bisexual, but more importantly, I
am happy with who I am.
Bisexual people tend to get a bad rap from people on
both ends of the sexuality spectrum. Straight people say it’s a phase or – for women
– a way to impress heterosexual men. Gay people say it’s a cop-out or an excuse
to blend in. And people of many different orientations accuse bisexuals of
being “greedy” or using the term “bi” as a pit stop on the way to full-on
Queersville.
To those who don’t or can’t or won’t understand – I’m
not sorry. I refuse to be apologetic for something that is an integral part of
my being. I won’t be ashamed of my right to exist.
Here’s the thing: I want to fall madly, truly, deeply
in love. I want to hold hands with my significant other 25 years from now. I
want to find love notes on my dresser, my favorite food in the fridge, tickets
to that thing we love on the kitchen table. I want to dance with my lover in
our living room on a Saturday afternoon. I want witty banter, sultry looks and
constant laugher. I want to make out in the damn nursing home. And if I find
this person, to love and be loved by
in return…then their gender really doesn’t matter a bit.
I am bisexual, and I have an amazing support system.
My immediate family and incomparable significant other have been there for me
throughout this process, and I never would have made it through the confusion-tornado
of coming out without them. From here on out, I’ll be tackling queer issues and
specifically bisexual issues head on, so let me know in the comments if there’s
any you’d like me to talk about specifically.
Ultimately, I leave you with a quote from Oscar
Wilde – a writer, a bisexual, a flawed personality. At the end of the day, all
you can do is be yourself. Everyone else is taken.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Updates, change, and lots of excitement
In the constantly changing literary world, your book isn't set in stone until it's being bought by the masses - and sometimes, not even then. We experienced a bit of this recently when one of our books underwent a (completely necessary) title change. The novel formerly known as "Fire and Water," contracted with Dreamspinner Press, will now be known as "Sweet Fire." It's sexier and won't compete with other works by the same name. In conclusion? Change is good, and that's the book you should search for when it comes out, probably sometime in January of 2015.
We also just received news that Healer may be available for pre-sale as soon as Monday. SQUEE! This is where shit gets real, right? This is where we as authors have to implore you to BUY OUR BOOK! Plug, plug, plug. I'll post the link as soon as we have a pre-sale page. Be on the lookout for that, and keep an eye out on this site as well - we'll be posting all our updates right here!
We also just received news that Healer may be available for pre-sale as soon as Monday. SQUEE! This is where shit gets real, right? This is where we as authors have to implore you to BUY OUR BOOK! Plug, plug, plug. I'll post the link as soon as we have a pre-sale page. Be on the lookout for that, and keep an eye out on this site as well - we'll be posting all our updates right here!
Judge not, lest ye be judged.
I try my best to always look for the best in the people that I know. Most of the time it
works. I enjoy what I like about the people passing through my strange, chaotic life and
ignore things that I don’t like about them. If you look for perfection, you doom yourself to
disappointment and life’s too short for that. I do have a couple of hot buttons though, things
that make that small pessimistic harpy slumbering inside me wake up and start ravaging the
countryside. Sometimes she really needs to be gagged and wing-clipped.
A prime example: Last weekend my local RWA chapter offered up a critique session.
We each submitted a 3,000 word piece of our current WIP and filled out a critique form on
everyone else’s work. We are a very diverse group in terms of what we write but I am the only
one writing m/m romance. (I say the only one; even though Shannen is my co-author and is
technically a member of the chapter, she lives in another city and isn’t around for most chapter
activities.) I’ve seen a few raised eyebrows in the group and I suspect there are a few who are
uncomfortable with the very idea of two men together in a romance novel.
That nasty, judgmental little harpy was already stirring when I walked in there. I fully
expected to have a couple of people decline to review my work because it’s m/m or to criticize
it harshly for that reason. I especially expected censure because my young gay hero is a child
care worker in a preschool. I walked in there with my defenses up and my arguments marshaled
and my harpy muscles pre-flexed. Sure enough, the one major fault the group found in my piece
was the profession of my hero. One very nice woman spoke up and told me that she had a real
problem with my guy working as a babysitter.
Oh no she didn’t! Harpy-woman sat up and took notice. I gritted my teeth, sucked down my
righteous indignation only a little and told her in no uncertain terms that being attracted to one’s
own sex had nothing to do with being sexually attracted to children of either sex and that there
was no reason on earth why a gay man shouldn’t care for children.
Crickets....
My fellow author blinked at me for a minute and responded with commendable calm. “Of
course. I only wonder why he isn’t a kindergarten teacher or someone who would make better
money. How can he afford his own apartment in Spokane on what his job would bring in?”
Oh man. While I sat there trying to extract my foot from my mouth, it went around the table
and several others expressed the same concern. The fact that he was gay didn’t even deserve a
mention.
Let that teach me to be so wary of being judged by others that I beat them to the punch and
judge them first. There is enough real bigotry in the world without me going out and looking
for it where it doesn’t exist. My thanks to my critique group for pointing out something I hadn’t
considered. My sweet boy will remain a preschool teacher. I’ll just have to address why he’d
want to work in what is clearly an undervalued profession and to remember that he’s broke. He
can let his studly love interest pay for dinner.
works. I enjoy what I like about the people passing through my strange, chaotic life and
ignore things that I don’t like about them. If you look for perfection, you doom yourself to
disappointment and life’s too short for that. I do have a couple of hot buttons though, things
that make that small pessimistic harpy slumbering inside me wake up and start ravaging the
countryside. Sometimes she really needs to be gagged and wing-clipped.
A prime example: Last weekend my local RWA chapter offered up a critique session.
We each submitted a 3,000 word piece of our current WIP and filled out a critique form on
everyone else’s work. We are a very diverse group in terms of what we write but I am the only
one writing m/m romance. (I say the only one; even though Shannen is my co-author and is
technically a member of the chapter, she lives in another city and isn’t around for most chapter
activities.) I’ve seen a few raised eyebrows in the group and I suspect there are a few who are
uncomfortable with the very idea of two men together in a romance novel.
That nasty, judgmental little harpy was already stirring when I walked in there. I fully
expected to have a couple of people decline to review my work because it’s m/m or to criticize
it harshly for that reason. I especially expected censure because my young gay hero is a child
care worker in a preschool. I walked in there with my defenses up and my arguments marshaled
and my harpy muscles pre-flexed. Sure enough, the one major fault the group found in my piece
was the profession of my hero. One very nice woman spoke up and told me that she had a real
problem with my guy working as a babysitter.
Oh no she didn’t! Harpy-woman sat up and took notice. I gritted my teeth, sucked down my
righteous indignation only a little and told her in no uncertain terms that being attracted to one’s
own sex had nothing to do with being sexually attracted to children of either sex and that there
was no reason on earth why a gay man shouldn’t care for children.
Crickets....
My fellow author blinked at me for a minute and responded with commendable calm. “Of
course. I only wonder why he isn’t a kindergarten teacher or someone who would make better
money. How can he afford his own apartment in Spokane on what his job would bring in?”
Oh man. While I sat there trying to extract my foot from my mouth, it went around the table
and several others expressed the same concern. The fact that he was gay didn’t even deserve a
mention.
Let that teach me to be so wary of being judged by others that I beat them to the punch and
judge them first. There is enough real bigotry in the world without me going out and looking
for it where it doesn’t exist. My thanks to my critique group for pointing out something I hadn’t
considered. My sweet boy will remain a preschool teacher. I’ll just have to address why he’d
want to work in what is clearly an undervalued profession and to remember that he’s broke. He
can let his studly love interest pay for dinner.
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