This story is more complicated than the blurb leads you to believe so when the story is finished I think I will redo the blurb. The story is basically the same, but I think a little more in the blurb will help readers to know what they are getting themselves into when they pick it up.
My 4th of July…
I spent time with family. Our family tends to sit around and talk. Yes, boring to some, and normal to others. IDK. We sat around, drank a few beers, talked, and tried to keep the dogs from fighting. I brought my two and my niece has 5. My male dog is young and doesn't back down so he was riling up the other male dogs. They did fine after a while. But then my dog noticed the chickens and had one in his mouth. OH MY! The chicken is fine. And then there are the cats! And one scratched me because it hates my dog. It was an adventure. We ate a lot. Smoked pork butt, ribs, burritos, some cheeses, corn casserole, Spanish rice, taco dip… it was a weekend of never ending food. :) BUT, I did not over eat. I ate little bits at a time. AND I also got to write as we chitchatted around the table on the porch. I sat and typed here and there. 4065 words! Filling in the gaps. I also played Mahjong, and texted my son who was not with us all weekend. (He was with his girlfriend at the beach.) Also listened to the Orioles vs. the Red Sox. YAY O's! We at least took 2 from the Red Sox. (Sorry Matt.)
I also don't know how much I've said in BLOG-form about "coming out" as a writer to more and more of my personal friends. IDK. (and by personal I mean people I know in my town and everyday life. Some of YOU are personal friends but I do not SEE you everyday/every week.) But I have been doing more of that. Telling people I am published leads to a discussion of WHAT I write and of course there is controversy there and people wondering and questioning WHY of all things I would write GAY romance. It is a tricky subject indeed. I've talked to a few people recently. Only once seemed to be freaking out a tad. We'll see. It is a hard subject. As it says on my bio, I live in a place where it is not real easy to live open in my beliefs. Well, I don't. This is a conservative area and I think people are less accepting of LGBT rights and issues. I think it is changing, but it is still a touchy subject. And then the whole part where a straight woman would write about men loving men???? Oh my gosh! Hot topic. Shock-buttons pushed. Especially because I've said I am a religious person. Some might think I've lost all my faith. IDK. I don't think so. I write my religious views into my characters. Don't I? Have you read The Cost of Loving?
I have said before I write about myself. Me and God are not really separable when God is a huge part of my life. But am I going to write a long theological dissertation about Christianity? Um, no. Some of my characters are Christian. That's it. I write about my views IN my characters. Why? Because I think religion is important. Important to ME, but also important to other people. I was even on a panel at Rainbow Con talking about writing religion and religious characters in genre fiction. I found it is important to others too. Religion is a strong cultural element to many. So this is where I talk about MY views. I write hateful Christians, because they are realistically valid, and I also write more understanding and loving Christians because I have seen those too. I'd like to think I am one. I'd like to think my church is different than most. Is it? I don't know. I have limited experience and have not traveled the country to see. But I like to put my thoughts out there and maybe make people think. There are plenty of thoughts out there about who Jesus is. I don't see anything wrong with presenting MY VIEWS in my characters. Everyone else has the freedom to do the same.
In doing this, I am in that state of tension where I am going to offend people. I'll offend my "church" friends because I dare write GAY characters, and I will offend the mainstream, non-religious populous, because I dare to write about Christianity. Perhaps this is why I have very few readers???? LOL. (funny, but not funny.) Oh well. I am not writing to be rich anyway. I am writing to present the issues. I am writing to make people aware of things that go on in life. I am writing to give people hope. I am writing because some go through REAL pain and need to know they are not alone! I write to touch people. I write as a way to vent and spill out all the stuff I have in my head that can not stay there for fear of it driving me insane. I write because I think I have the God given ability to do it! I have a T-shirt that says "I'm a writer. What's your Superpower?" (I'd post a picture but the T-shirt is all the way down stairs and I can't be bothered to walk that far.) So if writing is my superpower, then I need to use it for good. MY WORDS MATTER. So if you are dealing with bullying, hate crimes, self-esteem, depression, suicide, grief, abuse, etc… There is probably a book for you in my list of publications. I want to write about things people go through.
If there is a topic you need to see fleshed out, HEY--TELL ME!!! I might already have it in the works or I might think of a way to include your issue into the next book. Knowing you are not alone is a HUGE factor in over coming pain. I'll walk thought the pain with you.
What else?
The contest for the GUESSING GAME is still on. You can comment on THAT POST or here, whatever. And on FB. And you can PM me or e-mail or whatever to get in your guess. I have 8 guesses so far as to WHAT DATE Names Can Never Hurt Me will be released. Dreamspinner sets the date and I have not heard about it yet. This is a very romantic story (So I'm told.) If you want to win a eCopy, comment. Guess the release date! OR you can also choose a story from my back log if you wanted to read WLINE or something and haven't bought it yet.
I'm getting together a blog tour of sorts for NAMES. I have a few dates set aside for me in august. I hope you can stop by those bloggers and show support. I was on ZAM's Teaser Tuesday and I don't think anyone commented :( Maybe the excerpt was too hard. Sorry. maybe next time.
Is there anything else? I can't think of anything. Wow, I've hit all kinds of topics here!
over and out!
The WADE BRIGADE !! :)
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