Thursday, April 26, 2012

Video Interview:

Last August as part of the Popular Romance Project in Philadelphia I got to talk, on camera, about myself and Romance -- especially gay romance.  Come watch and comment:  http://popularromanceproject.org/category/interviews/.

This is all part of a film project by an experienced documentary crew who did Tupperware! and A Midwife's Tale. I encourage you to explore the site and see all the cool things it has to offer.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Looking Good

New cover! *pets it* This is the next thing you'll be seeing from me. It's about Dylan, Aaron's (from Collision Course)brother, the loud-mouthed one. The one with a touch of the doth protest too much. I really love the attitude and the eyes that the cover artist did for Dylan there in the foreground. It captures him perfectly. Look for Dylan and Mike to be getting on each other's nerves and turning each other's crank in August. It's available for preorder at Amazon. Now, I'm going back to guys with Bad Attitudes in Baltimore.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Sounding a Retreat

A writing retreat, that is. Come Friday, three of my writing buddies and I are off to the quiet of the peninsula for an orgy of verbiage! There will be many words, much delicious food and wine, and several gallons of coffee. And, we hope, by the end of the weekend, yours truly will have finally completed her 2011 NaNoWriMo novel. Remember, just because I "won" doesn't mean it's done.

Wish me luck!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Does anyone else hate the transition period between the seasons? We don't get REAL seasons here in California, but there's a difference between summer and winter for sure. Right now we're definitely leaving winter behind and are well into spring, but I hate trying to figure out if it's going to be a short-sleeved top kind of day or "wear jeans and don't forget your hoodie". My mom has a complete winter/summer wardrobe change thing she does, but that's way too complicated for me.

In any case, there's a reason why most of my books either take place in California or do not have weather mentioned. The climate here can't be beat. However, I still have in between season angst for myself, and let's not even mention what a bathing suit looks like on me right now. It might be spring, but my body thinks it's the dead of winter.

Happy Sunday, all. May the weather cooperate with your plans!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

While I Was Out


I'm on vacation (but still working on Jamie's book, Bad Attitude) so my wife offered to do a guest blog to free up my brain. Isn't she awesome? She has a message for all the writers' spouses.



Hi everyone!



My name is Kathy. As an early birthday present, I've given KA the week off so I'll be your guest blogger. I want to clear something up before we start, I am not a writer, but I am here to tell you a bit of what it's like to to be the spouse of one. When I tell people who my wife is or what she does for a living, I get the usual responses of "really," "wow," or "cool," but I I guess my favorite response is "I bet it's a lot of fun to live with an author."



Well, I have to say for the most part it is. Though you have to remember I don't just share my life with KA, but with her comes Joey and Aaron and Kim and Shane and--whoever she's writing about now. But for the most part it is a fun time, that is, until...the DEADLINE.



Now there are few words that can bring the strongest of souls to their knees, but for the spouse of an author, the word deadline is worse than staring down Satan in the bowels of hell. This one simple word has the power to turn a calm, creative, sensitive artist into the Hyde part of Dr. Jeckyll. Imagine the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Everyone starts out happy, excited and enjoying the journey, when from out of nowhere, the iceberg--the deadline rears its ugly head. Before you know it, the peaceful voyage has turned into a panicked, stressful struggle to make it to the end on time.



Since picking up and moving to the local YMCA is not an option, the cats and I have devised a code of survival. Each day, starting two weeks before the deadline, the cats will hang one of three colored signs in the window before I return from work. The yellow sign indicates stress is moderate, and I should proceed cautiously. Quiet tip-toeing, light household chores, a prepared dinner delivered to her office and quiet viewing of Spongebob are all acceptable. The orange sign indicates a high level of stress. This means under no circumstance should Spongebob be on, chores should stop, meals of non-perishable items are quietly left outside office door and I am to only quietly lie in bed reading.



The final color is red. At this stage you can smell the stress and panic a mile away. This is, thank god, a short-lived stage which occurs when the time to deadline can be counted in hours. During this Code Red, one should avoid contact with the writer at all costs. Sleep in the garage or backyard. Do not approach asking, "So how's it going?" This apparently simple question provokes the response one might expect when trying to take dinner away from a starving lion. Instead, do three consequetive spin classes at the local gym, have a root canal, or volunteer as a crash test dummy. Just stay clear of the Code Red.



When the deadline has been met, you may return home with flowers and an offer to take the writer out to dinner to celebrate the completion of another book. Above all, when your writer asks, "I hope I wasn't too cranky while I was trying to meet my deadline," one should smile and respond, "Not at all, dear. You were a pleasure as always."

For other insights into being the spouse of an author (and my thoughts about being her lackey, the TV show Survivor, and biking) you can follow me on Twitter @acrkal8.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Birthday Traditions

It's my birthday today! In that vein, I'm looking for birthday traditions people celebrate. For example, my dad, for decades, always gave me flowers on my birthday. Another example, family friends whose tradition was for the birthday person to cut the first piece of cake for him or herself from whatever part of the cake and in whatever shape he or she wanted.

So what are the birthday traditions in your family? Or how about one you've heard about that you'd like to try yourself?

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Lucky Sevens Meme

I've seen various versions of the "Lucky Sevens" meme going around. I was tagged by Natalie G. Owens for this particular version:

Time for Short Sevens (an alteration of the Lucky Sevens going around today...for the shorter stories.) From page seven, starting on paragraph 7, copy the next seven lines...no cheating. Take them from a WIP, new release, coming soon, or book published this year.

Here's my Lucky 7 from my current M/M work-in-progress. (I previously posted an excerpt from this same WIP on Slash & Burn here.)

*****

"All right?" Seth said with mock affront. That smile had him practically melting on the spot, but he wasn't sure about Logan's assessment of the food. "I guess that's better than not good. Which sandwich do you like better?"

"Hard to say." Logan folded his laptop shut. "How long have you worked here at Xandra's?" he asked, mispronouncing it as "Ex-andra's" like new customers commonly did.

Seth wiped the nearest empty table, trying to look busy before realizing the table was already clean.

*****

Nothing like a little pleasant distraction to leave the table sparkling. I hope you enjoyed my teaser. As for who's next, I think most everyone has done this meme by now so "Tag, you're it!" to whoever the heck wants to be "it"!




Sunday, April 1, 2012

Character Pains

When it rains, it pours. That’s the saying, isn’t it? It certainly suits my writing style. I’ll have weeks where I don’t have enough hours in the day to complete everything on my To Do List, and then there will be several days in a row where I don’t even think about a current project. Part of the latter is often a reflection of busy periods at the Evil Day Job, but that’s a topic for another blog post.

This weekend the downpour started again. My current contracted project, Hounded By Love, is out with the line editor, so I should have time to be social for a few days. Right? Well, I had friends over last night, but today I have to write the next chapter of CRANK, this Slash and Burn post, and do some major revisions for a Coming Out call. I’m fairly certain one of my publishers had an LRC chat scheduled today too. Besides that, I need to start scheduling guest blog visits for the release of Hounded, and let’s not forget a meal or two and, hopefully, a little physical exercise to combat staring at the laptop all day.

No, it’s not all going to get done. I know that, and it’s okay.

But, then a girlfriend that is always just as busy calls to see if I’m free for dinner. It’s enough to make me scream. Except…the screaming is taking place on the page, because if I don’t have time during a brief interlude when my friend does, then I can, at the least, channel that frustration into a story, and take it out on fictional characters. Sorry, boys, but it’s not my fault.

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