Pictures from the local skate park that is featured in my book Rinse and Repeat. You can see the ice warehouse and basketball court in the background.












These are the murals and above is what locals call the connector.

Rinse and Repeat just went on sale. Watching my cover switch from the coming soon to the new release page...definitely worth staying up for.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

Whatcha doin?

Tonight I'm at Rediscovered Bookshop with Val Roberts talking about ebooks. If you're in Boise, swing by and say hi.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with the board of Mayhem in the Grove to finalize or June 2011 conference with Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Monday (which I have off) is release day for Rinse and Repeat. Hooray!

Marie Sexton and Heidi Cullinan have started a new site called Cup O Porn. On Friday Feb. 11 they'll do a give away of my book Rinse and Repeat and I'm doing my first ever guest blog for them Wednesday Feb. 9th.

What about you? What are you doing this weekend? And, hey, if you've got any helpful tips on guest blogging I'd love to hear it.

Educate Yourself

Ideas for stories usually come two ways. Either you think of a character and then put them in a situation that will make them grow or you think of a situation and try to find characters that would struggle or thrive in that situation. Situations I've thought and written have included the Witness Protection Program, South American guerrilla groups funded by kidnappings. Characters have included the Amazon Queen, a gay navy SEAL named Deck.

With Rinse and Repeat, I got both at the same time. Just bam. A fully developed story idea and character in a very clear opening scene (it now stands as the third scene, not that you are counting). His name, Peat. What he is, a Repeater. Why he's in a skate park, to stop a murder. And I knew that Peat was gay. So I discounted the story idea. Sure gay romance is among my eclectic reading tastes but in the write-what-you-know tradition I didn't know gay.

But the idea wouldn't leave me alone. It dwelt in the in-between of wake and sleep, it floated to the surface in the daydream state of my daily showers. It got bigger. Peat became real and stubborn. So I went to my husband, thinking he would talk me out of the idea.

"I have this new idea for a story."
"Yeah?"
"It's about this guy who repeats the same day over and over to save people." I described how vivid the skate park looked in my head. How the natural conflict of being forgotten each day would torture my main character.
"Sounds good. But?" Because he knows me.
"Peat, the main character, is in love with the person he is trying to save."
"Assumed that, since you write romance and all."
"In love with the guy he is trying to save." Pause. "Peat's gay."
"Okay. And?"
"I can't write that."
"Why not?"
My response was fairly inarticulate.
"Just a different kind of research, right?"

Stephen King has never been abducted by aliens but he writes it fairly convincingly. Nora Roberts has never killed anyone but her villains give me the hebejebes.

So in researching for Rinse and Repeat (besides the looking for a publisher, reading what others have written) I read psychology books, attended PFLAG meetings, marched in a couple of pride parades (I have family members who are gay), I played pinochle with long term gay couples, I read The Joy of Gay Sex, I watched gay movies, I lurked on gay sport forums like OutSports, I followed Five Awesome Gays on Youtube and more.

And that was just for the characters. I also watched skating videos, attended the Citizen Police Academy and went to a local skate park to take pictures and talk to homeless guys.

I loved it. All of it. Hopefully I got it right and reading my story gives you the hebejebes or at least the warm fuzzies.

Rinse and Repeat on sale January 24th. Seven days! Check out the excerpt here. Available in ebook and Paperback.

Rinse and Repeat - Excerpt

Peat had tried to keep his distance. He was only in Boise for the day. Tomorrow, the real tomorrow, he’d be back at college, groin-deep in guys and senior projects.

Reliving the same day was par for the course as a Repeater. And if he’d come from a long tradition of Repeaters, if the Powers That Be had sent Doyle to tell him of his new calling, hell, if he’d walked into a science fiction portal, then it would be easier to accept. But the why behind it, the who that resided behind Dorothy’s black curtain, was unknown. Peat had no fucking clue why him or why them.

He did it because he had no choice. He did it because he had only hope. Hope that it was good or right. That it would make a difference. That the days would stop.

And maybe one day he would know the why. Why Jake and why him.

You can read the whole excerpt here. http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2161

18 Days Unitl Release of Rinse and Repeat

I originally hoped to have a blog tour in anticipation of my first full length book coming out. Heck, in the early days, I thought I would sell my first book and I would plan a whole marketing campaign, spend a year creating buzz, being interviewed and having a launch party.

Instead I sold in August and now a little over five months later my book is coming out! And I am thrilled. And I am giddy (though that maybe sleep deprivation). And I am too busy to do any of the above.

You see I went back to school to get my bachelors and now 15 months later I am two weeks from graduation with a major Capstone project to complete, 18 credit hours besides and a determination to maintain my GPA.

Then there is the full time job, the family and the nonprofits I volunteer for. Oye vey!<- a little Yiddish (I'm researching Judaism for a future book in my spare time).

Once school is done I'll have more time to write and promote my writing. Until then, think fondly of me or think me foolish.

Rinse and Repeat - 18 days and counting

Rinse and Repeat - Cover

It's so pretty I want to pet it. Dreamspinner Press and their art depart have mad skills.

Plus, yes there is even more, the release date is locked for January 24th. Three weeks! Holy smokes.....wow

and here is the blurb

After reliving the same day sixty-two times, Repeater Peat Harris is about to give up on his latest case: saving Jake Schwinn. In the past, Peat has solved some seriously twisted crimes, caught the bad guys, and kept an emotional distance. But this time, his heart’s involved, a definite must-never-do on Repeats, and he can’t just walk away—even if that means putting himself into the bullet’s path.

A year ago, Jake’s best friend was gunned down in this skate park, and Jake has been playing bait to catch the killer. But now a wicked-looking hottie named Peat is warning Jake that he’s about to die—again—unless they can catch the shooter. Yeah, right. Then Jake starts to remember
the previous Repeats and how he and Peat hooked up….