New and Old

Oooo, look. Shiny new print book. I think that may be my favorite cover so far. There’s something about the 3D effect. And hey, check out that name with mine on the cover. I was thrilled to be included in an anthology with Josh Lanyon. I love his voice. His story "The Dickens With Love" is a really fun read, and I highly recommend it (either in the print or separately in digital).

My story is the historical Christmas novella that came out last December, “An Improper Holiday.” It’s funny that it wasn’t until my sixth published work that I sold a historical. When I started trying to make a living at writing, I always thought that I would write historical romance. After all, it was my first love as a romance reader. I went right from The Black Stallion and Trixie Belden to Shanna. As far as my published work goes, I think it’s my best piece of writing, maybe because I wrote the first draft of it twenty years ago, never imagining it would ever find a market. Twenty years is a nice long time to get the revisions done! That early draft was full of overblown prose and sappy declarations, but I loved the structure and the characters: a twelve-day house party, a wounded veteran with issues, and the holiday traditions of another time.

No one could be happier than I am to see Nicky and Ian’s love story make it to the page after all these years. I have a few other old gay historicals hanging around in my drawers—my file drawers, thank you very much. I think maybe Deverell and Ethan are due to be dusted off and spruced up.

Contest and How I Got Here

Although they often feel like independent entities (I certainly can't make them do what I want), the existence of my characters is tied pretty damned closely to mine; and my existence is tied pretty damned closely to a fairly bizarre holiday appellation. Yes, from Ryan and Jeff to Nicky and Ian, we owe it all to rain.

Regionally, people have different names for the same things. If you want a carbonated beverage made from brown syrup, you have to ask for pop west of me, coke south of me, and right here we just call it soda. Similarly, in the household where I grew up, the breaded mush you put in a turkey is called filling, not stuffing, or even dressing. My parents come from the same hometown Chasing Smoke's Daniel Gardner and Trey Eriksson's hometown) of Easton, PA though they attended different high schools. When my dad was at college, he was helping another man hang the long thin tinsel that most people call icicles on the Christmas tree. On the ladder, my dad called down to the other man, "Hand me up another box of that rain." The other man held up the box of tinsel. "This? Funny. My girlfriend calls this rain, too." My dad said, "I'll have to meet her." The result is my genetic history. Oh that magical power of words.

The fact that the Christmas trees in my family sporting tinsel will have rain and not icicles on them and that our plates will get a spoonful of filling and not stuffing are not our only quirks. We also will not be eating the point off our slices of pie first as that brings bad luck. And it wasn't until my age hit double digits that I realized other people decorated their Christmas trees in more than a single color. (I was the only kid in elementary school art class who didn't fight over the red and green markers at Christmas. If the object wasn't blue, it didn't go on Mom's tree.)

When I wrote An Improper Holiday, I had fun looking up historical Christmas celebrations. The game of Snapdragon, which seems like an invitation for self-immolation to a klutz like me, was particularly interesting. When I read about it, I knew it had to go in the book. I'm all for Twelfth Night celebrations. Anything that makes the holiday season longer before we go back to enduring a Northeast winter is fine with me.


That brings me to my part of the holiday contest. I will draw a winner from anyone who leaves a comment here and tells me about a holiday tradition. (Any holiday—hey, we're weird on the fourth of July, too!) That commenter will win a free copy of his or her choice of any of my ereleases (including An Improper Holiday). That part of the contest will be open until midnight EST on December 11.

The first commenter who correctly guesses the color of decorations on my own mono-chromatic Christmas tree will win a ten dollar gift certificate to Amazon, sent via email. (No, Mom—and other family members, you can't play.) This part of the contest closes when I get the first right answer or on December 14 at midnight EST.

And hey, doesn't that stuff look more like rain than icicles anyway?

In Which I Ask Your Further Indulgence of My DID

Hi! Isn't my cover gorgeous? It's for my new release, An Improper Holiday, available from Samhain Publishing on December 1. That's Nicky in the back and Ian in front of him and they appear to be acting out an excerpt that I just posted over at my live journal.

I'm excited since it's my first m/m historical, and I'm eager to find out what readers think of my historical voice. It's set during the--

Ian : Whatever is she doing?

Nicky: It appears to be some species of slate, magnetized, with clockwork or some such, perhaps. What's positively frightful is the uniformity of her letters. Reminds me of Beresford. Used to birch my hands, remember him, Ian?

Ian: He would scarcely have been taking it out of you at that rate if you had your translations ready.

Nicky: And that could only ever happen if you did them for me.

Ian: Lazy ass.

KA: Excuse me. I was talking.

Nicky: About that, love. You do know the only reason anyone cares what you have to say is because of us.

KA: And if you don't let me tell people about the release, no one will find you and how will you exist then?

Nicky: Is this that self-promotion thing you've been on about? Why don't you do what you always have done?

KA: Because what I usually do is offer a free prequel about—

Ian: Prequel?

KA: It's a short piece about something that happened before your story started. Which in your case—

Ian: Your atrocious grammatical construction notwithstanding I begin to see the difficulty.

Nicky: Well, I'm deviled if I do.

Ian: Where did we meet, Nicky?

Nicky: At school.

Ian: And how old were we when we first, ahh, made a connection of any sort of an intimate nature?

Nicky: I still don't see.

KA: You wouldn't. Of course my other option is the time before Ian left for war—

Ian: And recalling that incident, particularly given your penchant for detail is something I will not countenance. I refuse to be put through that dreadful—

Nicky: Dreadful, he says. Noddy fool. Very well. What then, Mistress of the Magic Slate?

KA: Well, aside from this blog—err, unstructured conversation on the slate, I thought you might be willing to take questions from readers, or potential readers.

Nicky: It sounds like an examination at school.

Ian: I very much doubt we would face similar questions, Nicky.

Nicky: More interesting, then?

KA: Much more.

Nicky: I can only consent if Ian is amenable. You know how uncomfortable he gets.

KA: I'll protect him.

Nicky: Your desire to do so could never equal mine.

KA: Understood. Agreed then?

Ian: If you truly feel this is the way to bring harmony to the lives of others through reading our story, then I am agreed.

Nicky: Harmony, indeed. My what a name for it. I do so love you, Ian.

KA: All right. So here's the link again to the excerpt on my livejournal. And here's the link to the first chapter on Samhain's website. Nicholas, Lord Amherst and the Honorable Mr. Ian Stanton would be available for your questions either here, or at my livejournal through December 9, 2009. Check back on December 9 for a chance to win a free copy of An Improper Holiday. Thanks for visiting guys, uh, chaps.

Ian: Did she mean some sort of imprecation with this "guys"?

Nicky: Perhaps the answer lies in the slate. Lend your brain, Ian, and we shall figure out how to use this thing.