Cover for Deep int he Heart of Hexes

Coming Out February 8!

Country Don't Mean Dumb

I'm stealing my post title from Stephen King today (it's my favorite quote from the Stand miniseries, actually).

I write a lot of Texans. I'm a Texan, through and through. My partner is a fine mix of New Mexico, Colorado, and South Carolina. I have known a ton of southerners, a ton of rural folks, and more cowboys than I can shake a stick at.

I'm here to tell you, we may not speak with perfectly grammatically correct English. We have weird colloquialisms. I write my characters as they speak -- internal and spoken dialogue.

This is a stylistic choice, absolutely. I try to tone it down when it doesn't fit a publisher's house style, but I tend very much toward tight, tight third person. My boys don't worry about the difference between who and whom.

I've been asked, does that make them sound dumb?

Not to me. I'm writing characters that belong in a particular time and space, with the voices they come with -- educated, not educated, brilliant, average intellect, challenged.

Did you know there are 7 distinct Texan dialects? For instance, I grew up in east Texas, but I've lived in central Texas for 15 years. In my home town, I sound like Austin. Here in Austin, they say I sound like east Texas. West Texas doesn't sound like me at all. ;-)

*shrugs*

There's also a difference between the Carolinas and Georgia. Western Colorado and Front Range. New Mexico and Arizona. Shreveport and NOLA.

I believe in letting the characters live in their skins, even when their skins don't sound like TV announcers.

Not only that, I love colloquialisms. I love that in the Ozarks, the answer to "What for?" can be "Cat fur, to make kitten britches." That in West Texas you can be plumb fool for a girl. That we're always fixin' to run somewhere. That we get mad as all get out or that it can come up a cloud outside. That the plural of y'all is all y'all (and only in Texas do you have all y'all ladies). That there is a particular brother in the family that is your bubba and that I'm Sister to my sister, Baby Girl, but Baby Girl to my daddy. That I have a Moma (not a momma) and a sister called Tootie.

I love that our new nephew, Boo, is 3 months old and has 15 nicknames, all of which will stick his whole life.

I love that, in our family, there's a pappy, a poppy, papaw, peepaw, grampy, nana, granny, mawmaw...

This is where my heart lives, in celebrating the voice that fills my ears whenever I go outside.

Is it dumb?

You'd be a damn fool to walk that road. ;-)

A hell of a way to wake up

We had a wicked bad storm last night and at 7 a.m., there was this sound like the earth was splitting -- my eyes popped open and there was flame, shooting balls of flame right outside the bedroom window as the transformer went kaboom.

Me, Julia, and the dogs popped out of bed like daisies from the snow. The lights were on in a couple of hours, the net and phone a couple of hours after that. Of course, one of the Macs blew up and we lost a switch, but we did not lose the file server.

I'm *so* grateful the transformer blew during a downpour and there wasn't a huge fire, so I won't even complain.

Except that my heart is still racing, 10 hours later. O.o

Challenges :D

So, I'm doing this yoga challenge -- 30 classes in 40 days which, okay, not too bad.

Except...

Well, you see. Julia and I are considering moving to Colorado, so we're going up for a week in February so I can see how I handle the cold and...

Yeah.

A whole week.

So, I'm doing the 30 classes in 33 days challenge and my butt hurts.

My back hurts.

My hamstrings have moved to Mexico.

My neck... I'm pretty sure it's turned to Rice Krispies.

I'm 7 days in. I'm fairly sure by Feb. 24, I might die.

;-)

My Boys Touch

There's been a little confusion going around and I figured I'd just be upfront.

I write gay romance. I write lesbian romance. I write het romance. I write threesomes -- lately I'm writing a *lot* of threesomes because they're what wants written.

I don't write m/f/m.

Now, am I saying I don't like it? Nope. I read it. A couple of my favorite authors write it and I enjoy it thoroughly.

Do I typically buy that 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6) people can all be in bed having sex and none of the same sex people in the bed are attracted to each other? Not usually, no, but that's me (and I can tell you, the only time it throws me out of a story as a reader is when there are 3 or more men and 1 woman and they have to take turns sleeping with her in twos because they might touch each other. That always makes me sad).

That's not even what it's about for me when I'm writing.

When I'm writing, I have be honest to *my* muse. To my characters. I love m/m. Love it. Love it enough that I started Torquere Press damn near 9 years ago to publish it because no one else would. In my mind's eye, characters fall in love and I have zero control over the sex(es) of the folk(s) they fall in love with. My boys fall in love -- with the girl, absolutely, but also with each other. Three people who are in love together and, damn it, they're going to be in love together at the end, too.

I'm a sap. I want my HEA -- reading or writing. And, yeah, if there's a menage threesome (or moresome, although I haven't done that yet and the pronoun confusion there sort of makes me dizzy), my boys will touch.

Reader beware. ;-)

10 Weird BA Factoids

1. I'm left-handed. As in whoa freaky living in a right-handed world is hard left-handed.

2. I can fold my tongue 4 different ways.

3. Sean Michael is my best friend. Julia Talbot is my life partner. We really are three different people.

4. I do yoga a lot. I sort of need it.

5. My favorite food is popcorn.

6. My favorite author is Stephen King, with Dean Koontz a close second.

7. I am getting my Master Instructor Qualification in Crochet.

8. I love to swim; I hate to get wet.

9. My favorite color is pink. I refuse to be ashamed for it.

10. I eat kale, apples, and berries pretty much every day. Not at the same time.

Top Ten Things I'm Looking forward to this Spring

1. Luke Bryan Concert

2. Chris Young Concert

3. Bluebonnets

4. RT in Chicago

5. Visiting Sean Michael for a week

6. Houston Rodeo

7. Austin Rodeo

8. Rodeo season starting

9. Planting flowers in the front yard.

10. Being one season closer to the Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert! :D

New Series Coming in February

Hey, y'all!

It looks like the first in my new romantic paranormal series, Cowbell, Book, and Candle is coming out in early February! :D

The CBC series is focused on a New Age/Art/Antique store in Central Texas, and on three high school best friends. Lily St. Marc, Bobbie Jo McMillen, and Sara May Light have been best friends since grade school. They studied together, were on the drill team together, went to Texas State together, rushed Tri-Delts together, then graduation happened.

In Cowbell, Book and Candle: Deep in the Heart of Hexes, Lily really isn’t the shop-owner type, but she knows she has to go back home after college and take over her granny’s weird, wonderful store, just like she promised. The problem is that Granny wants her to get serious about things she’s not even sure she believes in. When Granny falls mysteriously ill after an antique shatters in the shop, Lily starts to think that the whole world is off-kilter.

Marc deals daily with the kinds of phenomenon Lily is struggling against. He knows it’s magick, but he’s not sure how to convince such a beautiful, stubborn woman how to start looking for solutions of the supernatural variety. Lily thinks Marc is arrogant and amazingly handsome, but she doesn’t want to trust him. Can the two of them learn to work together in time to save all that Lily holds dear?

:D

The first book is m/f, the second is m/m/f, the third is m/f, and the fourth is m/m/f. I make no promises after that.

As soon as I have a cover, I'll make sure to share.

Happy birthday to Me

Lovely day with Julia seeing the 2nd Sherlock Holmes movie and making gf strawberry cupcakes.

Everyone's been darling all day and I'm feeling not particularly Too Old. ;-)

:D

New Ink!

Happy New Year!

*grins*

Oh, y'all! Happy happy! I had a lovely new year, restful and joyous. My house is clean, my heart is full, and my fingers are typing.

I resolved a number of things -- mainly to repeat my 100 books read in 2012, and I'm going to track them on GoodReads. I'm also backing away from processed food. Of course, I need to keep my word count up.

:D

What did y'all resolve this year?