I’ve finished Shenandoah, yay! For anyone who hasn’t heard me whining about it lately, Shenandoah is the sequel to my short story Dragon’s Kiss (and second book in the Mother Earth series). It follows Bear and Dragon on their journey north. This one is a bit of a nail-biter O_O I think y’all are gonna like it. I hope so. Heh.

So now I’m just rereading, smoothing out, doing some minor tweaks and rewrites before sending it to Sasha. After that, I’m all fired up to start on the next one. I’m torn between a couple of projects:
1) the haunted house story I have sworn to write for MLR (I swear, Kris, I swear!!!). Not really sure of the exact plot, but I do have a title — These Haunted Heights. Or…
2) the story of a home health RN and the overweight, brittle diabetic Cherokee patient he falls for. Again, not really sure of the exact plot, but the guys are very clear to me. Not sure which press I’ll sub this to either. Hmmm…
I don’t know which one of these is gonna get written first, but I guess we’ll see. I might have to play with both of them and see which one grabs me the hardest.

I’m a bit late off the starting gate (my apologies, I’m in Olympics mode from now until next Sunday…) but I wanted to get in here and announce my newest release. A while ago I was on the phone with my friend, Jo, and she made a comment that spiralled into this crazy story so she’s completely to blame for it! She mentioned that she needed to go out and get the makings for Duck Fart. I promptly said “what?!?” and once we’d giggled over it she dared me to write a story with that title and set it in the Del Fantasma universe.

Note to self… stop taking dares from your friends.

I made the mistake of mentioning said story to my editor on the phone a few nights later and ended up with a contract in my inbox, LOL. Before i knew it, Duck Fart was official (Is it wrong that I giggle every time I write that?). For anyone who has read my Del Fantasma: Black Wolf, you’ll find some very familiar faces in Duck Fart. Enjoy! Continue Reading »

Sorry I missed the other week folks, I was knocked on my butt by a nasty virus.  But I’m up, I’m moving…I’m shilling for votes.

Voting for the LRC’s “Best of 2009″ Awards begins on FEBRUARY 15th and ends on FEBRUARY 22nd.

I’m up for three and other’s here are up as well!

I’ve proposed naked Jell-O wrestling to fight Laura and Jet for the Best GLBT Author slot.

Best Paranormal Book 2009

Dark Elves 6: Awakening (Jet Mykles-Loose Id)

Best Sci Fi/Futuristic Book:

The Edge of Desperation (Jason Edding and James Buchanan-MLR)

Best Erotic Book 2009

Dark Elves 6: Awakening (Jet Mykles-Loose Id)

Best Shape shifter book 2009

Horsefall: As the Crow Fly (Jade Buchanan-Changeling)

Best GBLT author 2009

James Buchanan

Laura Baumbach

Jet Mykles

Best Book all around 2009

Storykeeper (Jade Buchanan-AMP)

Best Alternative Lifestyle book 2009

Bittersweet (Maura Anderson-AMP)

Best Mystery/Suspense 2009

Personal Demons (James Buchanan-MLR)

Best Series 2009

Dark Elves (Jet Mykles-Loose Id)
To vote:
Email  dawn_roberto AT yahoo DOT com with “LRC’s “BEST OF 2009″ Awards” in subject. If this is not in the subject it will not be counted. You are to vote from the nominee list on your pick. The list will be up in our loop files under “LRC Best of award nominees 2009″.

All entries are to be in by 2/23/2010. Any entries received after that will NOT be counted and automatically deleted.

Forgive me for making this short and sweet, but I am on a roll with the w.i.p. I got offered a contract for With Abandon. I’ve very excited to be working with Samhain again. I don’t have an exact release date yet, but we are aiming for the last quarter of this year.

Okay, back to work…

Charlie’s story All That Jazz is part of the Encore! Encore! anthology, now available at MLR Press

*************************

Thanks for letting me come and guest here today. I’ve been made very welcome – like I’d dropped in for tea and cakes and we’re all sitting comfortably in
the kitchen.

All That Jazz is my first long(ish) contemporary published story. I had a short story about gay werewolf museum curators (I kid you not) in an anthology about a year back, but this was an attempt at something more. Usually I write historicals – Regency through to early 20th century – and it’s been interesting to get myself back into the present day, writing about an all male production of Chicago, taking place in London.

So what are the differences to an author writing ‘now’ as against ‘then’? I think the major one is the language – not just the words the characters use (my Edwardian blokes would die if they heard what Francis says) but the cadences and rhythms of speech. When I read ‘contemporary’ books – contemporary to when I’m setting a story – I try to absorb the way the language works and, rather than labour to reproduce it, try to give an impression of it. For modern stuff there’s no real effort required.

So while my Edwardian boys can have a conversation about gigolos along the lines of:

“They don’t restrict themselves to that, although whether it’s the same chaps doing the selling, or others, I have no idea and don’t want to find out. Women pay and these men oblige.”

“Well, I’m shocked. The absolute cads. And however did Miss Peters learn such a disgraceful term?”

Francis and Tommy from All That Jazz sound like this, talking about Tommy’s ex:

“He did, but I won’t tell you it. As I said, he’s still playing top flight, and I wouldn’t put it past you to turn up at a game in the full regalia and pretend he’d got you in the club last time they played the Ospreys.” Tommy grinned. “Actually, I’d pay a fortune to see that. Anyway, it used to be the same routine every weekend. The other players parking their cars, getting out their suit bags for after the match, unloading their girlfriends. They always had a girlfriend—the only other blokes in the players’ cars were their dads. Maybe if I’d been a willowy blonde, bust like a pair of melons, I’d have been allowed through the door marked Players’ Guests.” Continue Reading »

First off, Happy Fat Tuesday, y’all! For anyone in the Gulf Coast areas where it’s actually a holiday, I hate you.
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.
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Okay, not really. I love all you guys! But I AM jealous of y’all who get to celebrate it for real *g* I miss Mardi Gras back home in Mobile, where it’s a big deal holiday. It isn’t here. Sigh.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the basics of the Mardi Gras season, it’s the big-ass party where you get to overindulge in anything and everything FUN the last couple of weeks before Lent, wherein you are supposed to give up something. My Mardi Gras season has been bass-ackwards this year not because I haven’t been overindulging. I totally have. The thing is, I haven’t been overdoing the fun. I’ve been WAY overdoing the freakin’ work. EDJ, book deadline, various and sundry writing related doodads, financial aid forms for the girl-child’s school, Mom Stuff, etc etc etc. OMG. So busy! Right now the only thing I have to give up for Lent is WORK, and I can’t do it because none of the work is going away for at least another week o_O

So that’s my backwards Mardi Gras. Anyone else do the M.G. thing? What’s your overindulgence? Are you giving up anything for Lent? I feel like I’m giving up sleep. Yikes.

Now available as part of the Encore! Encore! anthology from MLR. Yay!

Available now in ebook. Soon in print.

This story is a sequel to Woman’s Weeds which appeared in the Bravo! Brava! anthology, also from MLR.

Blurb

Once David thought he and Kieran would be together forever. But when their careers take different paths, the powerful lure of ambition pulls them apart. Thrown together again by fate and introduced as strangers, each tries to resist the spark of desire that still burns bright. But when sparks turn to flames, the resulting blaze threatens to consume them both.

Afraid of future heartbreak, yet bound by love, each must find a way to convince the other that at long last, he’s found His Leading Man.

Excerpt

Copyright 2010 by Kimberly Gardner, all rights reserved.

Kieran stirred his drink then carefully plucked an olive off the stirrer and popped it in his mouth. The salty flavor burst over his tongue as he watched the entrance of the hotel bar. From the corner of his eye, he saw a guy seated several stools away spread his legs and discretely adjust himself as he not so discretely eyed Kieran up and down.

Like a chunk of meat on a stick, Kieran thought. He switched the cross of his legs, letting his skirt ride a little higher on his thighs. Picking up his drink, he took a slow sip and licked his lips. Did the guy realize he was mentally undressing another guy? Maybe. Maybe not. When he dressed up, he frequently got mistaken for a woman. He sent his admirer a smile then quickly averted his gaze as if he were too shy to maintain the eye contact.

Tonight he’d taken some trouble with his appearance, and not just because of that crap with Will. He’d done it for David and for himself, because putting on makeup and sliding into something sexy made him feel better, like someone else, someone whose life was not a total mess. And when exactly had feeling like someone else become so important?

Hooking his stiletto heel over the rung of his barstool, Kieran signaled the bartender for another drink just as David entered the bar. Continue Reading »

(forgive the 2nd post of the day. Forgot to post this new release)

Now available from MLR Press

Pairing: m/m

The powers that be at MLR Press asked for it and I, weak as I am, agreed to do a sequel to About Something.

BLURB:

Turns out life as a drag queen isn’t what Shawn thought it would be. He loves the costumes and dressing up, but he’s found he’s better suited to performing from a script than vamping onstage. Too bad Shawn figured this out long after breaking up with Roscoe when his bossy director boyfriend told him he didn’t have what it would take.

Two years later, Shawn may not be wildly happy but he’s content. That is until Roscoe shows up to ask him to reprise his role as Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Roscoe is as magnetic as he’s always been and the spark between them is still burning bright.

When Roscoe turns on the charm for a more personal reunion, can Shawn resist? Does he even want to?

*********************************

© 2010 Jet Mykles, all rights reserved

Roscoe folded his forearms on the bar before him, one of his elbows brushing Shawn’s. “It’s a paying gig. Equity. You could get your card.”

“Aha.” Shawn took a sip of his drink, keeping his eyes on the bar. “I get it.”

“Get what?”

“Why are you showing up, out of the blue, with an offer?”

Some of their audience had drifted away, but Shawn had no doubt those who remained would spread the word.

Didn’t seem like Roscoe cared who heard. “I told you. I need you. Play’s not the same without you.”

“Why that play?”

“I like that play.”

“You going to call Bonnie in California to come play Benedick?”

When there was no answer, he slanted his gaze at the other man.

Roscoe stared at the array of bottles on the mirrored wall behind the bar. He shook his head, not smiling now. “No.”

“What? You don’t think she did great?”

“I do, and you know it.”

“Right.” He took a healthy drink then carefully set his glass down. “But you weren’t sleeping with her.” Continue Reading »

I’ve been doing this a few years now and I thought I’d gotten into a rhythm. Once I really start on a story, I’ve been pretty good about finishing it. Just For You is the one exception I can think of since I started that in the middle of one year, abandoned it and didn’t get back to it until almost the same time the next year. But with all the others, once I really started writing I was able to stick it out.

Not this time. I’ve been working on Leashed 4 for over two months now and I made the decision over the last week to abandon it for now. The heart of the story has changed three times now and this third rewrite feels like a mess.

So, I’ve given it up for now. Not forever. I think this last storyline that I thought up with might be a keeper but I need some distance to do it justice.

I’m hoping that working on something else for awhile will give me a fresh perspective.

Has hit our house. The first to go down was the 11 year old. Four days of headache, grumpy-butt and vomiting. The last day he gave it to my husband. three days of headache, body aches, vomiting and grumpy-butt-ness. The second day into it the oldest’s girlfriend (who lives here or might as well) goes down. It was interesting seeing who got the bathrooms first. Tonight, as I slipped out of bed to sneak off to do some writing, the 19 year old meets me at the bottom of the stairs holding his head and stomach. Immediately vomiting, headache, more vomiting, and high drama replaces grumpy-butt-ness. So now it’s 1:40 am, I’m cleaning up to the sounds of retching and moaning from separate ends of the house and wondering when it will be mom’s turn to go down. I’m the last one left standing, and we all know how that ends. *sigh*

Wish me luck! And a speedy recovery!