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AND, in a three-way tie for third place in the Best Gay Book Category!

I am quite beside myself this morning. I was hoping to be a finalist again, the way I was with Another Healing. All last evening, I sat watching the results come in one category at a time, never quite sure when Gay Paranormal would pop up. I texted with some friends who were anxiously waiting with me, I worked a little on my new novel, and I hit refresh a lot. My husband came home from a band rehearsal. We watched the Joan Baez concert we’d recorded on PBS. I hit refresh — and saw that I was a winner.

Not only is it wonderful, but it really came at a good time. It helped confirm that I’d done the right thing to leave my teaching job last spring to write full time. It also was a reminder of who I am, as I have spent months wallowing through the depressing tasks of settling my mother’s affairs after she passed away last spring. It’s great to be able to move on to something positive in my life.

Writing is that thing that I love to do more than anything, and I will always keep doing it, no matter what. I majored in writing in college and got my masters degree in English. I was told from day one that writing anything other than literary fiction was worthless. Nor did anyone teach me how to get published. A good novel just will, was what I heard over and over. I learned what I could from my teachers, and I didn’t let them stop me from writing what I wanted to write.

It’s been a long road since those days, and I’ve had some wonderful help and support on the way. I’ve learned to write what’s in my heart, and that publishing and all that goes with it is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

I’m incredibly proud of Depth of Return. Last night, after I found out it had won, I thought about what my main characters would do. Alan would grin his head off and give me a big bear hug. North, however, would give that little twitch of his lips that means “You did well, kid,” and then turn away. But then he’d turn back and give me a hug, too. And that’s when I’d start to cry.

And Jade, of course, would jump all over me and slobber.

Thank you, readers, for all your support, too!

Well, we moved home from camp last weekend, and I’m exhausted from all the packing and unpacking and feeling generally unsettled. This is the moment when it’s really hitting me that I’m no longer a teacher and am a full time writer. School actually started almost two months ago, but while I was at camp, I just carried on with my normal summer routine. Now that I’m home, where I’ve never been all day, every day, except for brief school vacations, I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. There are zillions of projects staring me in the face that I’ve never had time to do, like organize my files and straighten out the bathroom closet and stuff like that. There is also the ongoing stress of settling my late mother’s affairs (joys of being an only child). But I’m going to try to regulate all that to a few hours a day, and try to spend the rest writing, reading, going for walks, and taking lots of photos.

I’m feeling a little displaced — I miss camp: lake, kayaking, swimming, sunsets, peregrine falcons just down the cliff, spectacular thunderstorms, everything permeated with the sound of waves on the shore. I love being home: warmth, convenience, mountain views, bird feeders, soft silence everywhere. I miss my students and fellow teachers at school. I miss feeling like I’m making a difference in kids’s lives. But I like sleeping later and not having to face a long, dark, often icy drive. I’m looking forward to being more of a part of seasons changing, being outside, and putting my energy into my words again. I’m in excellent health, my family is healthy, our two kittens are thriving, and we are first on the list to adopt a puppy next spring. My husband’s band is going places. And my friends all still seem to like me.

And so, back to writing.

Happy Winter!

I know, it’s summer, but my newest work in progress is called Winter. I’m really excited about it — I’m about half way through the rough draft and it’s heaps of fun to write. It’s a paranormal stand alone, and it’s about a guy who works in a sex shop and meets a guy in Montreal while he’s travelling for business (checking out new product) and, well, he finds out he’s part of a very old world he didn’t know existed. Winter is his safe word, so infer all you want about what kind of novel this one is.

Stay tuned for more info on Cricket — it will come out, but not for a while. It will be self published, which is a new journey I will be embarking on shortly. I also want to get my whole Notice Series available again, with a new piece about Josh and Varian’s daughter learning how to fly. Imagine that! And while I’m at it, my older pieces will be released again, too…

And yes, I will have time to do all this, because I have officially quit my day job. I am following my dream and I’m now a full time writer. I have a feeling I’ll be far busier than I ever was teaching, but I can’t express how wonderful it feels to be me, full time, at last.

So wish me luck and stay tuned.

I’ve been having a wonderful and very busy summer at camp, and I’m finally gotten a lot of stuff taken care of that needed taking care of, and now I’m feeling like I’m back in business. So while the real world out there is dissolving into chaos, I’ll be busy creating places of respite with my words, which we all need so badly right now.

Here’s a recent sunset to bring a little light into the world.

 

 

Well, this is a hard year to reflect back on. Everybody knows about all the awful shit that happened and it’s been well covered elsewhere, so I’m not going to get into it except to say that I hope we all survive. I’ve had some hard stuff to deal with personally, including a knee and a back injury. A few weeks ago, a student was found with a loaded gun in my school. My first publisher, Torquere, is going down, and I have two YA novels caught in the death throes. All Romance Ebooks is going down, too, and it’s unlikely they will pay for my books they sold in the last quarter. I feel like my world has been shaken in some very fundamental ways by these breaches of trust.

But it hasn’t been all bad. My family is healthy and thriving. My friends all still like me. (I hope.) My students keep coming back to me for help and we laugh every day. I’ve gotten some new birds on my life list and I’ve taken some photos I’m proud of.

I had a wonderful summer at camp with long days spent writing and kayaking and swimming and dozing in the sun. I watched spectacular sunsets and thunderstorms, and fell asleep every night to the sound of waves. With the lake levels at record lows, I was able to see into the backs of some underwater caves I always knew were there, but never dared explore. I soared with peregrine falcons and dove with loons. And I ate lots of good food off the grill.

Now we’re back in our winter abode, which is toasty warm with snow falling outside and lots of birds at my feeders and the tallest mountain in Vermont just outside my window, and sunrises and northern lights and stars. I know how lucky I am to live in two such places, and I draw strength from the beauty around me to help heal the wounds that the outer world inflicts.

I had a novel, Depth of Return, released in September, and I’m really proud of it. I just finished a draft of the sequel, Cricket, and I hope to submit it soon. I have another novel tumbling around in my head that I’m really excited to start working on next.

Thank you all for following me here, on Facebook and Twitter and, of course, for reading my books. I’m usually around if anyone wants to chat, and let’s hope for the best next year.

People who have already read Depth of Return will know exactly why I am posting a photo of a jade necklace.

So here’s some trivia about the novel that didn’t make it into my blog tour. Originally, the dog in the book was trapped in another object. My editor at DSP suggested I change the object, and since I’d already named the dog Jade, we decided that a jade necklace would be appropriate. (Yes, I came up with the name first and then the object, whereas the characters had the object first and named the dog after it. One of those weird things that made writer’s heads explode sometimes.)

The problem was that I didn’t own any jade. I looked at lot of jade on the internet, but I really needed to see a piece to describe it. So that meant a research trip to a jewelry store. I knew of a perfect one in downtown Burlington that specializes in imported jewelry. I may or may not have bought a lot of presents for myself and others there over the years. Suffice it to say, when my husband and I came in, the owner headed right over with a big smile.

I browsed around a little while my husband and the owner chatted. My husband loves to talk, and I wasn’t paying any attention to what they were talking about. Until the owner calls me over with a big grin and announces to the whole shop that he has some nice demon possessed jade right here.

Of course, I was ready to kill them both. Of course, I ended up buying a jade necklace. I mean, I needed to have it to study, right? Heck, maybe it can count as a tax deduction. And yes, everyone in the store ended up knowing I was a writer and I was writing a book about a dog trapped in a…

As soon as we got on the sidewalk, I informed my husband that the dog was not in fact a demon, but a demon had trapped him in the necklace. There was a huge difference. My husband just rolled his eyes.

But I will pay him back. My next novel will have a dog trapped in a diamond necklace.

Okay, the Depth of Return Blog Tour is winding down. I’m still looking for Susana, my final winner. If anybody knows her, tell me to email me at m.raiya@comcast.net.

Thanks so much to everyone who followed the tour and left great comments and made me feel warm and fuzzy. I’m always here if anyone wants to ask me anything. And thanks to everyone who bought the book, of course.

Whew. I am feeling frizzled and tired, but happy. The book is launched, the first reivews are good, and it’s time to start looking ahead. Now to get Cricket polished up and subbed. I’m a bit hindered at the moment because my very old laptop crashed last week. I bought a new one this weekend and am in the middle of the laborious task of getting it set up.

But when it’s ready to go, look out, because I am all inspired and ready to do it again!