Rick knows his lover Danny has a secret and has been lying to Rick in order to keep it. He’s pretty sure this secret has something to do with seeing another man once a month for three days at a time.

Determined to show his boyfriend that he can be everything Danny needs, Rick hatches a plan that ends up revealing way more than he could’ve imagined.

Visit the Yours Forever page for an excerpt!

Buy now from Amber Allure!

I asked my mother to pick a number between 1 and 31 this morning — after assuring her that I’m really just fine since I never call her at 7 AM — and she chose number 17.

Congratulations, Tami!

I’ve contacted Tami with additional instructions already and will send out her book choice as soon as she lets me know which one she wants. I am now going to get ready for a day of writing about gay men overcoming hardships and falling in love. Thanks again, everyone!

In the pamphlet about “Sexual diversity in the workplace. It pays off!” they define homophobia like this:

Like racism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism, homophobia is a type of discrimination. It is a negative attitude, a negative feeling, an aversion to homosexual people or homosexuality in general. Homophobia manifests itself as hate, disdain, hostility and rejection of people thought to be homosexual and anything related to them, especially people whose appearance and behaviour do not fit the stereotypes of masculinity or femininity.

A former coworker was the one person in the office I thought I could trust with details when my first story was accepted for publication in March of 2010. In April, I discovered that she’d told everyone else in the office despite me asking her not to because another of our coworkers and our boss always struck me as being the religiously-fueled type of homophobes.

By June, I was demoted to being a part-time employee with the IT portion of my job outsourced to a tech support company and made to report to that homophobic coworker. They told me it was because they couldn’t afford to keep me full-time due to the economy. Since all of us had already had no raises in 2 years, pay cuts that year, and our health benefits threatened by the board, I believed them. I made do and started looking for another job in an Ohio economy that had none.

In August, my first book was published and two of my coworkers — the one who’d outed me and another — asked to read it. Not making the connection or maybe just being naively trusting, I gave them copies. In November, my second book was published, and they asked to read that one too. They told me they liked both of them, and I believed them and enjoyed the discussions we had about the books.

By December, when I didn’t quit on my own, I was fired for failure to do my job, but told I could list it as being downsized to collect unemployment and not look bad during future interviews. I was given 6 days to sign the termination letter or I would lose my “severance package” which was actually my 3 weeks of vacation time and my final paycheck. I didn’t fight them, but it was mostly because I was in shock.

I had worked for that 8-person, non-profit company for 10 years. I believed my homophobic, misogynistic, racist boss when he said we were all a family and important to him. I have not heard from any of my coworkers in over a year and, considering they all knew I was being fired before I did, I’m pretty sure I know why they’ve kept their distance and maintained their silence: Jobs are still scarse here. I don’t have any proof, of course, so I can’t sue them. It is still my belief, though, that I was terminated out of homophobia because no one ever had a discussion with me about poor performance or unmet expectations in those 10 years, including the 6 months I worked part-time.

Since I now list my publishers on my resume, I have a feeling homophobia has been influencing potential employers too. I won’t remove my writing successes from my resume because I am proud of my accomplishments and I honestly don’t want to work for someone who would read ManLoveRomance Press and make assumptions about me without ever asking me a single question. Just like my old boss did.

So here I am, a straight woman in favor of human rights for everyone regardless of their gender identification or sexual orientation, and I’m a victim of homophobia. There are others like me out there, authors persecuted for what we write and what we believe is right, and yet we’re all still publishing our LGBT romance stories. I may never again tell a coworker my pen name, but I won’t be quiet in the face of homophobia.

And I hope you won’t either.

In keeping with the requirements of Hop Against Homophobia, I’m offering one commenter their choice of my books, either one that’s already published or one that’s coming soon (with the exception of the paperback and those listed as works-in-progress). Just leave a comment and make sure to include your email address when you fill in the credentials (you don’t have to put it in the comment itself).

UPDATE because I should’ve been more specific: I’ll choose someone at random and alert the winner via email on MONDAY, MAY 21, as well as list their name (linked to their website, if included) in a follow-up post that day.

Your Biggest FAN

Connections: Greeks Invented Love series, Book 1
Description: Truman Durant has two painful secrets. One keeps him in the closet and the other hangs inside his closet. Letting either out seems like the equivalent of suicide to him. He didn’t know just how badly he needed Stasi Manolis until he found himself in the pushy Greek’s sights. Would giving up his secrets and maybe falling in love really be so bad?
Intended Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Status: Editor Reviewed – Looking forward to finished manuscript!
Deadline: June 15, 2012

You see that deadline date? You know what day it is today? That’s right, baby! I finished a whole month in advance of the deadline. Boo-yah! Sending this sucker over to my editor on Tuesday.

To see more of my current WIPs, click here.

Amber Allure - the publisher
Amazon for Kindle
All Romance eBooks

Sam’s life changes completely when his boss Jeremy finally reveals the secret he’s been keeping from Sam since the day they met: They’re mates and not only is Jeremy a panther, but so is Sam.

With rules to follow so they can be together, Sam has to step up and be the patient lover his formerly straight mate needs him to be while learning about his new self as a panther.

Visit the What page for an excerpt!

Buy now from Amber Allure!

Related articles

• Inspiration Behind the Story: What (missywelsh.com)

Some other distractions I’ve attempted:

1. A passenger train leaves the train depot 2 hours after a freight train left the same depot. The freight train is traveling 20 mph slower than the passenger train. Find the rate of each train, if the passenger train overtakes the freight train in three hours.
2. Pintrest, for when I’m feeling bored and innocent.
3. Tumblr, for when I’m feeling bored and wicked.
4. Writing — or sort of poking at — other stories just to fend off the insanity.
5. Occasionally finding photos like the one below and writing new stories.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to look at this guy and his shorts and NOT get any ideas.

(BTW, authors are readers too, so don’t think you authors can’t participate because you so can!)

Tucker naively posted a half-naked photo of himself on Pronblr and requested that someone come cuddle him for the night. He really did mean cuddling, but he didn’t mean for his friends to reblog his request since it also had his address attached. Now he has his neighbor Bill pissed at him for being so stupid while a parade of strangers answer Tucker’s plea…whether he wants their attention or not. Tucker needs someone to save him from himself and Bill might just be that guy.

Check out the Come Cuddle Me page for an excerpt!

Available mid-July 2012 from Amber Allure.

Related articles

• Inspiration Behind the Story: Come Cuddle Me (missywelsh.com)