Category Archives: events
My Favorite Christmas Song
When I was young, my grandmother played in the handbell choir at our church. It still fascinates me that a whole group of people have to coordinate their efforts to play what has to sound like one instrument. Each person is responsible for 2, maybe 3, individual notes!
Christmas is the handbell season, and I can remember going with Mamie to practices. Trinity Church is this massive structure that makes me think of castles and knights for all its heavy woodwork, alcoves and bright stained glass. To hear those bells inside that space was to touch on something heavenly for me. Nowadays, I can’t hear them and not remember my Mamie and what it felt like to be a child awed by what she could do with a simple little bell.
Here’s a YouTube video of my favorite Christmas song, Carol of the Bells, that should give you a taste of it’s like to experience handbells at a Christmas service. (Turn your sound down a bit to avoid a tinny sound to the bells.)
Updates
I have taken the advice of a brilliant man and created a Press Kit page in here for all those curious souls desperate for information about me and my work. I know. Stop laughing.
I also added an excerpt from the forthcoming Every Time A Bell Rings Christmas short story releasing from MLR Press on December 23rd. No cover yet, but you can read about Brian meeting Trent for the first time. (And the answer to Mike’s question is yes 
)
I have been invited to join the Amber Quill Press family…just as soon as I have a finished piece to send them! Feeling very honored over here since it came out of the blue and knocked my stockings right off. I was, thankfully, coherent enough to accept the invitation rather promptly.
All three volumes of Don’t Read in the Closet, the Goodreads M/M Romance group’s Hot Summer Days series of short stories, are now available. That’s 113 FREE short stories covering all kinds of themes and is a great way to get something new from your favorite authors as well as discover new ones. My short coming-of-age, OFY, barely legal story You and a Billion Blue Tiles is included in both Volume 3 and the special authors of GRL2011 volume.
On a personal note, I’d like to direct everyone to check their vehicle registration sticker to make sure they aren’t 6 MONTHS expired like I recently discovered thanks to a local officer who can tell the difference between 11 and 12 and the $90 ticket he gave me shortly afterward. I know. Stop laughing.
Eye-Opening: I See You
Yesterday was International Transgender Day of Remembrance. I had to click on the link to find out what that meant, that it’s a day for remembering those trans* people who have been the victims of hate crimes, and my heart started breaking. I just had no idea. I’d heard of one incident a few months ago, felt very badly for her and hoped she recovered, but didn’t really understand.
I think I have a better understanding now and it is thanks to these people’s experiences that my eyes are open:
- Aleksandr Voinov
- James Buchanan
- A.J. Lewellyn
- Vic & Cherie (becoming a chosen family)
- Art of Transliness (Q&A format tumblr regarding FtM)
- Anderson Cooper (episodes & info regarding trans* youth)
- National Center for Transgender Equality
So this is my “thank you” to the people and groups above as well as a request for more information. If you have a link that gave you something–opened your eyes in some way–please share it in the comments.
Thank a Veteran
Every year, on Veteran’s Day, I seem to get into it with someone who puts up a fuss about thanking a veteran for their service. This person thinks war is bad and doesn’t want to thank a soldier for waging it. Well, yes, war is bad. Please think for a second, though, on who it was that declared it and sent the soldiers into it. Tennyson comes to mind with “Theirs not to make reply / Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.”
Maybe that’s simple of me, but that’s my take on what it’s like to follow orders and why I tend to resist doing so.
I don’t, can’t and won’t blame the soldier for the wars of the past, present or future. These men and women do what I’m unable to do, and they have as many reasons as there are stars for why they do it. I’m just glad they do.
So to every last one of them, then, now and always, I say a very heartfelt “thank you” on this day especially. Doesn’t hurt to do say it every other day either.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, SACRIFICE AND COMMITMENT. I GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.
Why I’ll Attend GayRomLit 2012
I didn’t attend GayRomLit this year to increase my readership or “get my name out there”, though I’m sure my publishers would like it if that happened. No, I went because writing can get lonely and it’s especially so when you find yourself getting that look after saying you write gay erotic romance. So attending GRL was this amazing opportunity to be surrounded by people who hear that news and smile, squeal, clap, and who actually ask my name and what I’ve written. Then to have them squeal again because they love My Summer of Wes? I’m still grinning about that.
The best part of this event, for me, was hanging out with a great mix of new and established authors and seriously enthusiastic readers. Sure, we talked books and characters and half of us were giggling over meeting each other in person. But I also spent hours in the lobby or by the pool chatting about life experiences, getting and giving advice, sharing hugs, and making or renewing friendships.
That’s why I’ll attend GayRomLit 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Hard Rock Resort and Spa from October 18-21, 2012. I hope to see you there! 
