Here’s an unedited excerpt from my novella, The Shape Of a Heart, which will appear in the Hot Comfort anthology from MLR Press.

Blurb

Grieving after the death of his partner, Zach finds comfort amidst bookshelves and coffee beans in the arms of his new employee, but a secret from Keith’s
past will threaten their new-found happiness and test the strength of their tender, new love.

Copyright 2008 by Kimberly Gardner, all rights reserved.

Excerpt
Keith opened the refrigerator, grabbed the wedge of Locatelli Romano from the top shelf and set it on the counter. What else? While the cool air caressed his heated skin he reviewed the ingredients for the dinner he was cooking for Zach.

The salmon in its white paper sat next to the colander of spring mix, rinsed and ready to go. The little basket of raspberries for the vinaigrette peeked out from behind the tall, dessert glasses filled with chocolate mousse. Maybe they would eat the mousse in bed. That would be fun.
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November is the month of the full Snow Moon. If the lovers in my new release DESERT FEVER by Adele Dubois were driving through the Mojave Desert in Marybeth’s convertible, the moon would cast bright light over the Joshua Trees ahead. Marybeth and Jake would hear the sounds of coyotes, mountain lions, crickets, and katydids in the distance. The ‘booming’ noise of the Kelso Sand Dunes, where rose quartz particles and residual sand collide to form a distinctive pink, would echo in the cool autumn air. The citrus fragrance of ragged rock flowers that grow through cliff side cracks would scent the night.

The November full moon will arrive November 13, 2008, when the astrological calendar is in Taurus. The full Snow Moon is also called Frost Moon or Fog Moon, due to the month’s predominant weather pattern, and Beaver Moon in American backwoods tradition. I like the sound of Snow Moon best, because its name is the most romantic.

The Joshua Tree is the symbol of the Mojave Desert; the only American desert where these trees will grow. The full moon is a symbol of love. The Celts called November the time of beginnings and endings, and I think Marybeth and Jake would agree. Their love began in the Mojave Desert, where DESERT FEVER is set; the place Marybeth found Jake after his motorcycle became disabled.

What about the hero and heroine’s ending? In romance, there can be only one.

Happily-Ever-After, of course.

http://www.ellorascave.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419919060

Adele Dubois will be joining us on November 13th to promote her new book, Desert Fever

Can you believe it’s winter already? OK, so almost winter. Either way, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that means Christmas is looming out there like that monster at the firehouse on Halloween scaring all the kiddies.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This is my favorite time of year. From Thanksgiving until Christmas, there is so much to do I get nervous just thinking about it. J But it’s a good nervous. I tend to not get much writing done, but it’s a wonderful time for my son, who’s five. He loves all the cooking and baking, not to mention the toys on Christmas. I think my holiday spirit is contagious.

I’m not big on decorating, though my son loves the tree if it has lots of lights. He could care less about anything else. Naturally, I cram as many lights as my little four-foot tree will hold, and rig up more extension cords than I should, but hey! Ya gots ta have da lights at Christmas.

My mother gave my son a “cooking pumpkin” this year instead of a “carving pumpkin.” It was fun gutting and pealing the thing. *rolling eyes* But it tasted out of this world when I made the pie! I’ve frozen what was left to make for Thanksgiving. Should be fun.

I’ve already got the turkey and will defrost it the week of Thanksgiving. I could have gotten a ham, but after doing that the year before last, we decided it was worth the extra money for the turkey. Cause, it’s just not Thanksgiving without a turkey. Ok, at least that’s what my husband said. Personally, I was good and the little one didn’t care. He’s like a human garbage disposal at this point. He eats anything not nailed down to the table.

So, while all that stuff is cooking, while I have my husband and son untangling miles of Christmas lights. I’ll be plotting. Thinking. Devising all kinds of sexy things I’m going to do to Santa while everyone sleeps.

Hum. Wonder if I should put it in a book?

*evil grin*

Teeka
www.marteekakarland.com

A lot of people say I don’t. I have kind of a corny and crude sense of humor, my second favorite singer is young enough to be my son, I refuse to wear Mom Jeans, and oh yeah, I write gay romance. Erotic gay romance.  And I for one think there’s not a thing juvenile about that.

We were talking about age earlier on my Yahoo group. Okay, I was talking about it and making everyone else listen *g* A couple of the group members are age fifty and up, and one mentioned that she is usually the oldest member of groups who are fans of gay romance. That really made me stop and think for a minute. I see the same lopsided bell curve she does in the online gay romance communities — A few barely-adults, a swell of people in their twenties and thirties, a downslope of folks in their forties, and a trickle of those fifty and up. Why is that? Is it just that people upwards of fifty are so busy with their lives these days that they don’t care to spend time online? Are they unaware of the groups out there? I’d be more inclined to believe those explanations than to believe that people over forty-nine aren’t interested in gay romance, because I’ve not found that to be the case at all. I know for a fact that all sorts of people of all ages read and enjoy romance of all sorts, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.

So do I act my age? I don’t know. What does that mean? If there’s some sort of universally accepted code of conduct for women in their forties, I never got the memo. IMHO, our thoughts, feelings, ideas and beliefs, are unique to ourselves no matter how young or old we are. And in that case, acting your age simply means being who you are. I think I can do that

This past weekend I worked the vender booth for my publisher, MLR Press, at the gay erotic expo in NYC. I met a lot of nice people and, though completely exhausted by the end of the weekend, I had a good time.

But I’m not here to talk about my vender experience.

What I do want to talk about is books, specifically whether you’re reading, and consequently buying, more or fewer books than you once did.

On our table at the expo we had an attractive display of books, all gay fiction, all discounted for sale at the event, and they got quite a bit of attention. People would come up to the table, pick up one or another book, admire the cover, a few even engaged us in lively and interesting conversation about reading.

But do you know how many books we sold?

None. Read the rest of this entry »

My muse is one tough guy. He likes to go off to the islands, sip fruity drinks with umbrellas and listen to me gnash my teeth as I try to pound out a manuscript. Can anyone be so annoying? My honey likes to give me funny looks as I mutter under my breath at the computer about the way I am going to castrate the muse or heck, beat him into submission but once he decides to take pity on me, I am able to flow completely and am grateful for the muse’s help in getting the characters in order. As an author, I try to find  a way in between family, kids and other activities to write but some days I can not write due to other commitments. The one complaint I have on my muse is that he likes to start yammering away when I am gong to sleep. Do you know how annoying that is to hear the voices or feel that prod to write when I am just about to crash into la la land? *sighs* My honey tells me to keep a notebook by the bed to write what I am hearing but for some reason I can not make that work though I have heard it being done before by other authors. Can I get my muse to stay on the job when I need him to? Probably not but when he is in the house, I am creating worlds, characters and stories that make me feel like I am living it as it is played out. I like to think my muse is a cross between Johnny Depp’s character from the Pirate movies and Gerard Butler. What a combination in my mind for inspiration and one I would not change in a heartbeat.

Hello everyone. My name is Laura Baumbach. For the legions of people who don’t know me, I write M/M erotic romance. I’ve won a few writing awards here and there, the most recent being the 2008 EPPIE Award for best GLBT story, The Lost Temple of Karttikeya. In 2007 I finaled in the same category with my scifi novel Details of the Hunt. I’m currently writing the sequel to that one titles Genetic Snare–all beefy alien bounty hunter and wily, light-fingered, confused pirate for heroes.

While my writing keeps me pretty busy, I devote a portion of very day to the M/M authors co-op group I formed to venture out into more expensive advertising venues called Manloveromance.com. We run ads in places like gay.com, advocate.com, romance sites, and do public booths and appearances at big ticket events such as Book expo America, Yaoi Con, and GEE to reach our target audiences of straight women and gay men. Read the rest of this entry »

I could shamelessly plug all my books, and don’t think I’m not tempted, but perhaps you’d like to know a bit more about me, Sloane Taylor - Erotica Writer.

The best thing my parents taught me was to read. The best thing my first husband taught me was to travel. What a combination! As an adult I discovered reading on vacation was the epitome of self-indulgence. My favorite reads were and still are fiction. Escaping into an author’s dream world forced my then mundane life into the background. Read the rest of this entry »

As the Summer turns to Fall and all of those warm weather activities draw to a close, I find myself already missing one of my favorite pass times. Being the mother of a very active little boy, much of my time has been out doors. Now, I’m a big girl. The heat is not one of my favorite things about summer, but I found a way to cope.

There’s nothing more relaxing than simply lying in the sun. In this day of deteriorating ozone layers and skin cancer and healthy everything, perhaps it’s not the most politically correct thing to do, but oh man! It sure relaxes one’s troubles away. Read the rest of this entry »