Ebook links (pdf, mobi, epub) are now available at the M/M Romance Group website here (free! :)). Will be up on Smashwords in a few days, or you can read it on Goodreads here.
***
Simon has found himself in an open relationship for the summer—though not by choice. Instead of wallowing, he’s decided to make the most of a family vacation to Costa Rica by hooking up with the first hot guy available. Trouble is, he has no clue how to go about doing that.
Luckily, he runs into someone with a little more experience. But when the moments of lust turn into something more, Simon isn’t so sure he’ll be able to return to his old relationship. And there’s no way to hold onto this new one, either, as thousands of miles will separate them in only a few short weeks. Either way, he’ll have to learn to let go.
Clearly, I’m not as good at multitasking as I’d like to be. I tend to drop off the face of the earth when I’m writing, especially if it’s for a deadline. Good news is, I managed to complete a novella for Love Has No Boundaries, the Don’t Read in the Closet 2013 Event. I’ll give a little more info on the story in a future post, but for now, here’s a cover image made by the talented Madison Parker:
Bad news is, I had to put Silent aside for a little while as I worked on that story. But, I’m going to buckle down now and do my best to get it done before the summer is over.
In other news, Social Skills is currently being produced as an audiobook. I really like the narrator, so I’m excited to be a part of the process and to hear the end product.
Well, that’s my past couple of months in a nutshell. Looking forward to getting things done this summer!
**Giveaway is closed and winner has been contacted by email**
May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. I started a lot of different entries for this hop, but since this is most likely a preaching-to-the-choir exercise, in the end I figured I’d just share a personal story of hope.
In my last year of college, my best friend of four years suddenly revealed himself to be homophobic and against gay rights. I’m not exactly sure how we spent four years as friends without the topic ever coming up, but there it was our senior year, rearing its ugly head in the middle of what had otherwise been a quiet evening spent talking as we lay curled up on my twin size bed.
First, I was shocked. Then he was. Why did the topic matter so much to me when I wasn’t gay? I couldn’t get him to understand, and as we continued to discuss the issue, voices rose and words became angrier. Emotions overcame me, and I may have resorted to name-calling. He brought his religion into the discussion and tried to paint me as the one doing the discriminating. At the climax of the argument, he went to storm out of my apartment, and I yelled, (loud enough so that all my apartment mates and probably the neighbors could hear) “If you were such a good Catholic, you wouldn’t be letting your girlfriend suck your dick.”
No, I’m not proud of the tactics I resorted to, or of making him feel like I was belittling his religion. Looking back, I think the reason I was so angry was because I was so close to him—it filled me with disappointment and sadness to learn we stood so far apart on this issue. Anger was just an easier emotion to cling to.
That night very well could have been the end of our friendship. And the experience wouldn’t have been without a lesson—I now knew to bring up such important issues earlier on in a friendship, so as not to waste time getting in too deep with someone who would only disappoint me later.
But instead of cutting ties, I waited about a week, giving us both a chance to calm down. Then I went to him and apologized for screaming about his sex life in front of other people. I also apologized for any perceived attack on his religion, and for the name-calling…but not for my beliefs. We spoke calmly, and I tried to point out the inconsistencies in his stance (essentially the my-religion-says-it’s-wrong stance) without placing too much judgment. And while I did not get him to magically change his mind in that one conversation, he did agree to reevaluate his beliefs.
Nothing happened overnight. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d given me a “final answer” of not supporting gay rights, but so long as he was open to the idea of change, I was willing to pursue the friendship. I kept my campaign fairly constant, and he always knew it was on my mind. Perhaps in part due to this conflict of ours, he decided he needed to broaden his horizons and experience a bit of life outside of his comfort zone. After we graduated college, he joined Americorps.
When he returned from that experience months later, he came to my house and I knew immediately from his face that we were going to have a serious talk. Turned out, he wanted to thank me and tell me I was right (not gonna lie, that was a fantastic moment). One of the members of his Americorps team had been gay—possibly the first gay person he’d ever met. After getting to know this individual, he finally realized why I was so adamant about supporting gay rights, even if it meant him turning away from his religion, at least in part. And while it was never my intention to get him to choose one or the other, in the end he decided he couldn’t reconcile his Church’s stance with his new beliefs. He chose to remain spiritual, and is now a firm supporter of gay rights.
I realize not all stories like this can have a happy ending. Some people are so set in their ways that no amount of arguing, civil or otherwise, will get through to them. But I wanted to share this positive experience in case anyone ever finds themselves in a similar position. Sometimes our inclination is to excise people from our lives who disagree with us on something so fundamental. While I’d never fault anyone for making a decision like that to keep themselves healthy in body and mind, I do think there are occasionally reasons to stick around and fight.
People can surprise you.
———————-
To be entered to win a NOH8 unisex tank top (as worn by my favorite gladiator), leave a comment below. Alternately, if you’d rather not give out your snail mail address, you can choose an equivalent donation to NOH8 and an e-copy of my novel, Social Skills. Contest closes on May 27. Winner will be notified by email.
I’ve mentioned before that I am a Googlopath. In fact, when making up the word “Googlopath”, I Googled “pathological” just to be sure I was using it correctly. I pretty much Google everything. And I laugh my *** off when Google tries to autocomplete the search phrases for me. As bizarre as they often seem, sometimes Google gets it right. Recently, my dog was up to his usual shenanigans and swallowed…well, can you guess? Yep, he swallowed my underwear. I freaked out and immediately turned to my pal, Google, to find out what one is supposed to do when her dog eats her underwear. (He’s fine, btw. Trust me, you don’t wanna hear how that one played out….)
I rely on Google to help me research things I need to know in order to write authentic characters. If I stuck to the “write what you know” mantra, my stories wouldn’t be nearly as interesting. One of my favorite means of research is watching YouTube videos. While writing Play Me, I’m Yours, I needed to learn as much as I could about playing the piano and swimming, and a little bit about swing dancing. These are things that are important to my characters, so they’re important to me. While I did read through websites and blogs, I also soaked up video after video on YouTube. In my exploration, I discovered Stone Nelson’s channel, and it was eerie how much he reminded me of my main character, Lucas. He even made a video of himself playing one of the songs in the novel, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl ”. I also watched dozens of swimming videos, like JimmyDShea’s “How to Swim Butterfly Stroke” (and was glued to Olympic coverage of swimming events). I learned about the various strokes and got a look at what swim meets are like. I even learned a few swim cheers! And I found myself so inspired by my research that I signed up for adult swim lessons shortly after completing the novel.
Although I learn a lot from watching instructional type videos, I find personal vlogs a great source of inspiration as a writer. Vlogging is a phenomenon that didn’t exist when I was in school, but there are—hang on, let me Google it—tens of millions of vloggers out there making videos for public consumption, and over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month. Many vloggers hide their real identities, which makes them feel at ease enough to speak freely about anything from the most mundane topics to those that are highly controversial. Do I steal their stories? No. But I watch and listen and learn, and most importantly, I feel. It’s “people watching”, up close and personal.
Sometimes I watch teenage vloggers to get a sense of how teens talk and the sorts of things they care about. With video blogs, you get an instant feel for the vloggers’ personalities. I find that when I connect to them on an emotional level, it sparks my creativity and the plot bunnies run rampant. Vlogs can also provide writers with excercises in identifying character tags (like voice, gestures, dialect, hair, clothing, etc.) and “show vs. tell” (try muting a video and using the subject’s facial expressions and mannerisms to interpret how they’re feeling.).
One of my favorite young adult vloggers is Joey VOV. My introduction to Joey was the video titled “gay couple in 7th grade???”. There are a lot of things I like about this video. I felt like I really saw a slice of his life in those four minutes. Joey comes across as a young man who is comfortable with who he is, self-confident, honest, vulnerable—a great role model. Don’t you think he’d make a terrific MC in a novel? Obviously I can’t claim to know the real Joey based on this four-minute video, but what I’ve seen here is enough to spark my creativity and create a character with an insteresting story to tell. By the way, this is an older video—Joey is in high school now and has continued vlogging. Be sure to check out his newer stuff too. 🙂
Another one of my YouTube favorites is depfox (Gay Family Values). Bryan and Jay are a married gay couple who make videos with their two children, Daniel and Selena, to show America that their family is fundamentally no different than that of straight couples. Imagine all the wonderful story ideas that could be insipired by their video “I Have Two Fathers”. Videos like these fill my heart with joy.
And then there are the heartbreaking videos like that of Austin Gates that remind us how important it is to tell the stories of those who suffer from all types of abuse and bullying. They remind us how important it is to listen, to reach out, and to offer hope to our youth that life does indeed get better.
The world is full of all sorts of wonderful, unique people. They have stories to tell, and by sharing their frustrations, struggles, hopes, and dreams—by sharing their hearts and their minds, they inspire me to tell my stories too.
Fairy Tate. Twinklefingers. Lucy Liu. Will the taunting ever end? Lucas Tate suffers ridicule because of his appearance and sensitive nature. When he’s not teased, he’s ignored, and he doesn’t know which is worse. His one comfort in life is his music; he feels unloved by everyone. What he wants more than anything is to find a friend.
Much to his dismay, both his mom and a schoolmate are determined to find him a boyfriend, despite the fact Lucas hasn’t come out to them. His mom chooses a football player who redefines the term “heartthrob,” while Trish pushes him toward the only openly gay boy at Providence High. But Lucas is harboring a crush on another boy, one who writes such romantic poetry to his girlfriend that hearing it melts Lucas into a puddle of goo. All three prospects seem so far out of his league. Lucas is sure he doesn’t stand a chance with any of them—until sharing his gift for music brings him the courage to let people into his heart.
Visit Madison Parker’s Website at www.madisonparklove.com for bonus materials including character sketches, piano covers, music videos, and lyrics for songs referenced in the novel.
Connect with Madison:
To celebrate the release of Play Me, I’m Yours, Madison Parker is hosting a giveaway. Enter to win your choice of a free copy of Play Me, I’m Yours or a $10 gift certificate from Rainbow eBooks by leaving a comment below along with your email address. For multiple chances to win, comment at each stop along the tour. Click here for the complete tour schedule. Winners will be chosen randomly on April 23.
If anyone is curious about the musical references in Social Skills, here they are! Arranged by chapter below (with some snippets) and in a playlist here.
[spoiler title=”Excerpt from Chapter Three”]”Seriously, dude. No roommate? That’s fucking awesome.” Jared breathed with a sigh, settling himself on the empty bed across from Connor’s. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Ben’s a cool guy and all, but…wow. No roommate. I wouldn’t mind that.”
Connor shrugged. He’d only grown less and less sure of how to behave as their strange day together wore on, and now Jared was in his space—his sanctuary—and there’d be nowhere to run to if things got awkward.
Or with his track record, when things got awkward.
“All right then, no more excuses. Play for me, maestro.”
Ordinarily, Connor hated playing for private audiences. But at this point, it seemed like the safest thing he could possibly do with Jared in the room. At least it would offer him a much-needed break from his anxiety.
He took out his violin and set some sheet music on his miserably bent wire stand, just so he wouldn’t be caught in his lie from earlier. Then, with only a deep breath to bolster him, he launched into the first thing he could think of—the solo from Scheherazade.
It was a haunting melody, wistful and yearning, yet with a touch of hopefulness to it at the same time. The room and the tension slipped away as he drew the bow across the strings, his fingers vibrating with emotion—a simple task given what kinship he felt with the piece. It was so easy in this space to express himself, to make perfectly clear who he was and what he wanted from life. If only it were possible to speak with these notes in the real world.
He pulled the last sweet note to completion and kept his bow poised on the string, soaking in the final drops of security.
“Jesus, that was incredible.” Jared’s awestruck whisper dropped into the charged silence. “You’re fucking amazing.”
Connor shook his head. “N-not really…I’m not playing the solo for the concert or anything.”
“Well you should be,” Jared said, standing and walking toward him.
Connor blinked a few times as Jared was suddenly taking hold of his violin. He rarely if ever let non-musicians handle it, but he couldn’t seem to find the willpower to either stop Jared or put the violin away himself.
With great care, Jared took his instrument and bow and laid them on the bed, then walked back to him. He grasped Connor’s left hand and turned it over in his open palm. “What did I tell you—you have great hand coordination.” His thick fingers flitted over Connor’s more slender ones. They paused to feel each fingertip, lingering in the faint grooves from the violin strings.
Connor closed his eyes, his mind reeling. Jared stood far too close, and the touching was beyond any contingency he’d ever planned for. If he didn’t keep a grip on himself, his body might decide to do something without his consent. Something he’d never live down. Something that would force him to drop out of school and move to a cabin in the middle of the woods, where he wouldn’t have to face this ultimate humiliation ever again.
“Your fingers are so nice,” Jared murmured. “Mine are like bear paws…”
Still hiding behind closed lids, Connor didn’t realize a tear had slipped out until a rough thumb brushed his cheek. And he certainly didn’t realize how impossibly close Jared had gotten until he felt pressure against his lips—soft, pliable skin, sliding over his, with the hint of a tongue begging for entry into his mouth.[/spoiler]
Tchaikovsky Concerto D Major- Andante
[spoiler title=”Excerpt”]Connor closed his eyes, pulling out a trill in the Andante from Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto and dropping it into a quick succession of thirty-second notes. Though he was beginning to tire, his fingers continued sliding gracefully over the strings. He had to take full advantage of these occasions whenever they came—with everyone out of the house, the only sounds that infiltrated the silence were the ones he created. Through his instrument he could command the most furious of tirades or the most romantic of appeals, and the longer he went without anyone interrupting him, the more powerful he felt.[/spoiler]
I’m a homebody, so I’ve never gone to Starbucks to write, but we all know (or learn from TV) that it’s “something writers do.” I thought it was mainly about getting out of the house–some people can start to go batty when they’re cooped up all day (not me; I’m a hermit). There’s also the people-watching benefit, but that’s probably best in a planning stage rather than a drafting stage.
Well, turns out, there may be more to it. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that a moderate level of noise is better for creativity than low/no noise. So it could be that all the clinking machines and murmuring voices in a coffee shop reach that perfect decibel level (70 Db, according to the study) to enable you to churn out a literary masterpiece (or an entertaining read– both are good in my book :)).
But I like to write in my pajamas, so I’m not sure about going the Starbucks route. Thankfully, some smartypants over at Coffitivity have solved the problem for me. They created a website where I can listen to the noise of a coffee shop from the comfort of my own home. They even suggest the balance you should shoot for between your music and the “ambient noise.”
I may give it a try some day. I don’t listen to music when I write because I can’t do that passively. I usually write in silence, but that has a tendency to get me sleepy after a while (especially if I’m doing any editing…zzz). Sometimes I turn the TV on to something I’m not interested in, but even the most boring show distracts me on occasion.
Maybe this will be my noise solution! Anyone else have some non-music ambient noise ideas?
Last week the multitalented Madison Parker made cover art for two of my short stories. If you’d ever seen me draw a stick figure, you’d know I’m no artist, so I’m always grateful whenever someone lends their artistic abilities to my stories.
<3
Madison will be by my blog in April to talk about some of the research methods she used for her upcoming release, Play Me, I’m Yours. Love that title!
For my giveaway this month, I asked readers to share their favorite orchestral or Broadway pieces, since Connor shares some of his in Social Skills. Going through their suggestions reminded me of old favorites, and introduced me to some new works as well.
I compiled a Reader’s Favorites list on Grooveshark, if anyone else is interested in giving these pieces a listen.
Beethoven’s 7th Symphony (Tim)- I’ve played it before, and loved it. It’s also pretty popular in movies, so even if you don’t think you’ve “heard of it”, you probably have. It starts out a little somber, builds into something brighter, and then tiptoes into the ending.
Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique (Madison)- A beautiful, mostly gentle piece that is popular even outside the classical music world (although it has its angstier moments). Found it on lots of good-for-your-baby CDs when compiling the playlist. ☺
“Move On” and “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George (Richard)- Some Broadway for a change of pace. I’ll confess I hadn’t heard of this musical before. “Move on” was a really nice song.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Jill)- Some more super-popular classical music. I’ve played Autumn and Spring in an orchestra (the ones everyone has heard before). The other day my brother and I were wondering if kids would still learn as much classical music without those old cartoons…I’m pretty sure they gave me my first exposure to the Four Seasons.
Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Phantasmagoria)- This one also makes an appearance in movies and TV shows to tug at people’s heartstrings. Oh, and in Social Skills, too 😛 Played it in high school and it definitely left an impact.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your musical favorites! If I haven’t bored you to death with music, a Music from Social Skills playlist is coming soon. ☺
Ebook links (pdf, mobi, epub) are now available at the M/M Romance Group website here (free! :)). Will be up on Smashwords in a few days, or you can read it on Goodreads here.
To celebrate the release of Play Me, I’m Yours, Madison Parker is hosting a giveaway. Enter to win your choice of a free copy of Play Me, I’m Yours or a $10 gift certificate from Rainbow eBooks by leaving a comment below along with your email address. For multiple chances to win, comment at each stop along the tour. 
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