See ya, 2012!

Okay, so you know how at the end of the year you’re supposed to stop and take stock and all that sort of thing? That’s for organised people, not me. Or people who know where their priorities should be.  “You know,” I said the other day at work, “I wish they sold bread at the liquor store so I didn’t have to stop at both places.”

(Except, IRL, I didn't say "liquor store". I said "bottle shop". But I've made the mistake before of telling an American about a bottle shop: 

"You mean a shop that sells, like, bottles?" 

"Yeah. With alcohol in them."

"Oh, a liquor store." 

"What did you think I meant?" 

"I really had no idea."

So for the purposes of clarity, which this explanation then ruined, I called it a liquor store in my anecdote.)

Where was I? Oh, right. 

The Island has been nominated in six categories for the Goodreads M/M Romance Member Choice Awards. How awesome is that? (Rhetorical question — it’s totally awesome!) Here are the six categories:

Hurt/Comfort

Beat Tear-Jerker

Contemporary

Slave/Dub

Law Enforcement/PI/Firemen/Military

Best Overall Book of 2012

And, you guys, you have to head over to the New Year’s Kisses Party, hosted by Kay Berrisford and Tara Lain. It is so much fun, and you can win so much stuff! Like a gazillion books. And a gift card you can use to buy even more books!

Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2013! 

Behind the bio

I had someone ask me the other day about my bio. Specifically this part: She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix up in international school systems early in life.

So here’s how that happened.

When I was three, I moved from Australia to Papua New Guinea because of my dad’s job. He worked for a bank. This is the first move that I actually remember, mostly because I got to go on a plane. Also, I had a passport. I was going to share that photo here, but then I couldn't find the passport. Also, from memory, I'm wearing overalls and a scowl. 

We’d moved from Queensland, where I was partway through kindy, to New Guinea, which operated under a different schooling system, and there was no kindy. After six months of my wandering the neighbourhood wearing nothing but underpants and a banana leaf on my head to keep off the rain, with my trusty canine companion Oplika Spot by my side (we called him Spot, but his owners called him Oplika, so we compromised) my mum decided I couldn’t be trusted to my own devices and enrolled me in school.

I turned four on my first day of Prep. My mum figured that Prep was the equivalent of Queensland Preschool, so it didn’t matter that I was a bit younger than the other kids. Having a late January birthday meant I was always going to be either the youngest in the class or, if she kept me back, the oldest, and did I mention she really wanted me off the streets?

Except it turns out that Prep was not like Preschool at all, at least not once we moved back to Australia. In fact, because I’d done Prep, I’d effectively done what would be considered Grade 1 in Queensland and had effectively skipped a year. This may explain, to this day, why I can't hold a pencil properly. I also still can't colour between the lines. 

“We don’t want to keep her back, she’ll get bored,” the teachers said, their teacher-senses tingling and warning them that bored + me would be difficult to manage. Which it was, until high school when I discovered truantism, but that’s another story.

“If she’s too immature, we’ll keep her back a year further down the track.”

I was still eleven when I started high school, still under threat of being kept back because of my age. It took until I was fifteen for them to stop threatening it. Because at fifteen everyone hits the Immaturity Plateau and doesn’t climb any higher for years. At least my friends didn’t. Some of us still haven’t. Hi, guys!

So there I was, first day of university, sixteen years old. And that’s where the age difference really became apparent because I was surrounded by kids who could vote, kids who could drive, and, most importantly, kids who could drink.

Luckily my older sister got me a fake ID to get me through until my 18^th birthday. 

You guys, don’t tell our mum. 

The Next BigThing blog hop

I have been tagged in The Next Big Thing blog hop by J.A.Rock and Madeleine Ribbon. Well, lucky this is called the Next Big Thing blog hop and not the Most Organised Thing, since I was supposed to post this on December 20. Oh well. I’ll blame night work, which is my usual fallback position.

1. What is the working title of your book?

The Good Boy. That’s actually the real title. The working title was “Insert Title Here”. It was kinda catchy, but ultimately we went with something more traditional. Like an actual title.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

An email brainstorming session with J.A. We started with, “Well, what do you think we should write about?” and went from there.

3. What is the genre of the book?

M/M BDSM contemporary.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

For Lane I'd have to go for Alex Pettyfer, before he buffed up. Look, here he is: 

It's okay, you can keep looking for a while. For Derek, hmmm...I don't know. Maybe someone like Paul Rudd, but with less perfect hair. You know, when the cute boy next door gets a few miles on the clock. And J.A. totally nailed our villain -- John Hamm in evil mode. 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?.

I’m stealing J.A.’s synopsis: Introverted college student Lane Moredock, the son of white collar criminals, learns to trust again after he’s made the victim of a revenge plot by a former investor in his parents’ company.

She doesn’t know it yet, but on the basis of that she’s also writing the blurb. Haha!

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency/publisher?

We will be publishing through Loose Id.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

This is a scary answer. We took a month. I’ve had clothes dry slower than how long it took to write the first draft of this book. It was crazy fast. But for once the International Date Line worked in my favour. When I was sleeping, J.A. was writing, and vice versa. So I’d wake up in the morning, check my email, and there would be MORE STORY! You know those elves that come into your house at night and mend shoes? J.A. was like one of those, if they sneaked into your email and left attachments instead.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I totally want to compare this to J.A.'s excellent By His Rules. But only because of the theme of Dom/sub training. Except it's not really like that at all. I mean, there's training, but it's kind of different. It's more like BDSM rehab. Hmmm. I mentioned I was on night work and tired, right? I can't possibly answer this question. It took me several minutes last night to realise I was trying to put my shoes on the wrong feet. 

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

J.A. Rock!

She said in her response to these questions last week that she’d be thinking about co-writing for a while. So had I, I guess, but had no idea how to go about approaching someone. So let’s call it serendipity! Mostly cos I like that word.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

 J.A. has already talked about Mr Zimmerman the foul-mouthed macaw, so let me tell you about Taco Hub: it’s cheap, the cheese is orange, the décor is mostly bright plastic, but they do a Hubba Hubba Beef Supreme that will knock your socks off. And kids eat for free. 

And now I'm linking to the wonderful Missy Welsh! Happy holidays everyone! 

Gay For You?

Some of my favourite stories are Gay For You. I like the idea that friendship (or, even better, total animosity) can be so intense that it might take you in an unexpected direction. I like the angst of a good Gay For You, in that a character is usually totally blindsided by his or her own desires. 

Source

But here's what I don't like: the crazy idea that another person can somehow make you gay. 

That's crap. What another person can do is give you the courage to explore a part of yourself you might have had on lockdown most of your life, but you cannot catch Teh Gay. 

Sexuality, gender and identity are weird, slippery fishes. Tricky to catch, impossible to pin down, always on the move. (Okay, now I'm thinking I could have picked a better analogy than fish, but it's late and I'm tired. And earlier I watched a program that had fish in it.) The point I'm making -- I think -- is that Gay For You is only half the story. And if you read a lot of romance, it's usually the only half of the story you get to see because a big Happily Ever After descends and there are rainbows and unicorns and puppies and bubbles. 

(I mentioned it was late and I'm tired, didn't I?) 

Okay, so here's an example. 

Once upon a time, there was a boy called Max. And he had a best friend called Paul. And one day Max looked at Paul and thought things that he'd never thought before. These new, unsettling thoughts began with kisses, and ended somewhere Max had never imagined he'd go. 

But he did, and it was good, and it was Love. 

The End. 

That's where romance drops the curtain. Except what if five years down the track Max finds out that Paul screwed around? Or what if Paul gets a job on the other side of the country? Or what if Paul is killed in a car accident? What if, for whatever reason, the man that Max was gay for is no longer in his life? 

Does Gay For You still hold? Does Max magically no longer enjoy sleeping with men? Suddenly he's straight again? Of course he's not. 

I don't believe there is such a thing as Gay For You in real life. I believe there is Out For You, it's just that in romance it's difficult to spot hidden under all those happy endings. 

Another winner!

Hi guys! The winner of the Dark Space giveaway at Kay Berrisford's blog is 

Kath Best. 

Thanks to everyone who commented! 

Dark Space: We have a winner...and another chance to enter!

And the winner of the copy of Dark Space over at Kari's Gregg's site is...

Judi P! 

Thanks to everyone who commented over there or on Goodreads. 

If you want another chance to win Dark Space, head over to Kay Berrisford's blog, where the competition is running until the 18th of December (give or take a few hours, since I'm so terrible at figuring out time zones!) 

And while you're travelling around the interwebs, check out this awesome review for Dark Space over at Reviews by Jessewave. That one got my happy dance going, I can tell you! 

Meanwhile, if you want to win a copy of Kay's fantastic Simon, Sex and the Solstice Stone, you've still got a few days left to leave a comment on the post below this one to be entered in the draw! 

Interview and Giveaway Kay Berrisford's Simon, Sex and the Solstice Stone!

Today I have another awesome guest and another awesome giveaway. It's Kay Berrisford, and you can win a copy of her latest release, Simon, Sex and the Solstice Stone. 

Kay! Welcome to my blog. If I’d known you were coming I would have tidied up a bit. Please disregard the dog hair. And the possums. 

Can I just add – squeeeeeeeeeeee! Possums! When I was in Melbourne zoo, I saw a wild possum, and was just as excited about it as I was about any of the animals I was supposed to be looking at. It turned out he was a poorly possum, and the zoo vet rescued him.  Aw!

No. Possums are not cute at all. They are the reason I have to keep my bananas in the microwave. They torment me. But thanks for coming over to answer some questions. Let’s start with the easy ones: How long have you been writing? 

I’ve been writing stories for as long as I could write, so basically since I was four. That fizzled out a bit at school and university when I threw myself into my love of history and trained to be a professional historian.  But it was no good. In the end, I just preferred making things up.  And adding spanking.

Well everything's better with spanking! Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote? 

Yes! It was about a creature called Ogog (basically, a blob with a smiley head, four legs and a tail) who lived in a cave. I still have the exercise book I wrote it in.  It spawned a many sequels, and in a kind of sub-Enid Blyton fashion, the plots got better and better. There were haunted castles! Smugglers! Pirates! Everything you possibly wish for (minus hot mansex. That came later. Fortunately, or it would have been a bit weird.)

I do wish for haunted castles, smugglers and pirates! Is there any genre that you wouldn’t write? 

I’ve never been to the USA, so I’d steer clear of writing anything contemporary set there. My ignorance would be obvious.  I don’t think I could write cowboy romance either. But if my luck holds I’m visiting Washington DC next year, so I’ll never say never.

As someone who lives in tropical northern Australia, I was amazed by something you told me the other day in an email: that you were putting on the washing machine in the hopes of warming the flat. Later, as I was bobbing in the ocean with a friend, I was telling her about it. 

(KB takes moment to go a bit green – either with jealousy or empathetic seasickness. Could be either.)

“Wait,” my friend said. “A washing machine? How does that work?” 

“I don’t even know,” I said. 

So here’s my question: Does turning the washing machine on really make your flat warmer? Because I’m sweltering at the moment and would love the excuse to turn the washing machine off. And the oven. And the vacuum cleaner. 

This is a great excuse for me to come over all “whinging pom” about my flat.  Basically, because this lousy/glorious little island is so crowded and the property so expensive, hubby and I live in a ridiculously tiny ground floor apartment, with no garden and no central heating.  The flat is north facing, which is great during our (two days of) summer, but when it’s freezing out—as it is right now—it gets a tad chilly.  I have storage heaters, and fan heaters that stink of burning dust when I turn them on. However, a good burst on the washing machine cracks the frost from the inside of our windows and introduces a level of warm humidity.  If we close our eyes, we can pretend we’re somewhere near your lovely southern seas.  Kind of. So, basically, if it’s cold enough, a washing machine makes nearly as much difference as a heater, as does a swift round with the vacuum cleaner.  The oven is best of all. Down your way, you therefore have every excuse to keep all such appliances off.

What can you tell me about your latest release, Simon, Sex, and the Solstice Stone? 

Simon, Sex, and the Solstice Stone, is about a lonely, geeky history student who meets the man of his dreams in the middle of a stone circle that he’s studying.  One problem – the amazing guy, Aubrey, claims to be a time traveler from 1647, and despite their mutual attraction, Aubrey’s desperate to get home before Christmas.  What’s more, Aubrey’s method of shifting through time involves outdoor sexual rituals at the stone circle, and shy Simon’s not entirely sure he’s up for it—particularly as he’s trying to resist falling in love with this man who seems desperate just to shag and leave him. So there’s all sorts of trouble ahead for my guys, particularly when Simon realizes Aubrey’s getting home might just be a matter of life and death.

Of course, my favourite bits are all the sex at the stone circle. And the spanking.  Though it was remarkably difficult to focus on even these fun aspects when I attempted to write scenes set in England in November when in Tuscany in August.  Not that I’m complaining about being in Italy, of course, but I don’t function that well in the heat.  Maybe it’s a good job I’m not an Aussie after all.

Simon is a history nerd, and I love that. I’m also a history nerd. And you’re a historian! What sort of history did you study? 

Oh help, a lot of different subjects over the years, mainly British and European-centric history. I spent a shamefully long time at university!  My specialist subjects have been concepts of gender and nationhood in Britain and Empire in the nineteenth century, and war reporting in the twentieth. These days, I’m way more into Tudor and medieval history, particularly folklore and magic—as you know!  I read all I can on the subjects and make it my mission to visit as many castles and lovely historic sites as possible. 

My other passion is classical civilization, though I’ve not tried writing a Rome or Athens set story, or tried to tackle those Mycenaeans or Persians. Yet. I did once write a very long fanfic au set in Roman Nimes, France, after a holiday in that part of the world, but it’s best to draw a veil over that. 

I’ve loved history ever since I realised it contained— literally — every story ever told. Despite spending my formative years living on an island with a jungle full of WWII tanks, planes and detritus, I was insanely jealous of people who had Roman settlements and Viking treasure hoards just down the road. Which is how I imagine all of the UK. What first got you interested in history? 

I spent the holidays of my formative years trekking across windswept Cornish moors in search of Celtic crosses and standing stones.  This might have put some people off, but no. History was always my best subject at school, and looking back, I was a bit of a brat about it.  I remember correcting my teacher on a school trip when she wrongly identified a Norman arch at Rochester Cathedral. Bad me!

I’ve not yet uncovered a Viking hoard, though my dad found a Roman meat cleaver on a dig last year. It was awesome! I wish I had a pic.

To be honest, most of the UK does have some pretty damn interesting stuff just down the road—or right beneath you—but it’s amazing how few people notice. In Southampton, the medieval city was badly bombed in WW2, yet there’s still impressive town walls, a fourteenth-century church, and some amazing timber-framed houses, to list a few highlights. Still, the old city is usually deserted, and most people who live up near the uni, as we do, don’t even know it’s there. Which is kind of sad.

A jungle full of WWII tanks, planes and detritus sound amazing and rather scary all at once! We have a few unexploded WW2 bombs still turning up around here too.

I wish I had a Roman meat cleaver! Apart from history, I’m also a fan of folklore, ever since I realised how terrifying it was. Can we please remove fairies from the bottom of the garden and put them back in our nightmares where they belong? 

Yes, I’ve got a butterfly net handy for this very business! I’ve spent most of my day trying to stop some sadistic fairies hijacking my story, so I can get back to the important business of mansex.

Seriously, though, fairies are vicious.  They’ve got fangs that gnaw right through that net. However, I’ve found that if you offer them a nice cup of tea, they get so angry at the pleasantness of it all that they pass into a catatonic state. Long enough to run into the nearest woodland, dump them, and then run for your life.

Sorry, that was probably rhetorical. 

(Whoops, I answered it anyway!)

That's quite alright. One thing I love about Bound to the Forest and Bound to the Beast is the very dark theme of blood sacrifice to the gods of the greenwood, which just happens to lend itself beautifully to BDSM. I also loved the way that you treated the paranormal aspects. I definitely got the same creepy-in-a-good-way vibe that I did from the folklore I devoured as a kid: that there are wilder and older things in the world than people, and you don’t want to catch their attention. 

I so agree. And thank you.  And talking of blood sacrifice, the form of sacrifice that Scarlet is terrified of Bound for the Forest (death three times over by poisoning, cutting, and suffocation) was inspired by evidence of similar practices carried out on real prehistoric bodies. *cackles evilly*

I remember learning about this is history in high school! Some man found in a bog, right, who'd had that happen to him? And the thing that struck me is that he was well fed, in good health, and there was no signs he was anything but a willing victim. Fascinating! And I just realised that wasn’t a question. So here’s a question: Do you live near a forest? If so, do you lock your doors and windows on the night of the Wild Hunt? 

I do! I live near the New Forest, which contains patches of England’s last primeval woodland. It’s about fifteen minutes drive from where I live, though sadly (well kind of) there haven’t been too many sightings of the Wild Hunt recorded in this region.  All the same, I take the baying of hounds and the bleating of goats—and, of course, the sight of a massive bloke with horns—as a prompt for battening down the hatches. 

As you might well know, The Greenwood of Bound for the Forest and Bound to the Beast, is my fantasy version of the New Forest.  I ended up blurbing about this at great length for the lovely JA. Rock, so I will include that here too, if you don’t mind? Created in 1079 by William the Conqueror as a royal hunting ground, thirty-six villages and churches were apparently swept away, and brutal laws were imposed for the next few centuries to prevent commoners’ hunting or even foraging. The most famous of these laws decreed that commoners could only hunt in the forest if their dog was small enough to fit through the verdurer’s stirrup (and if too large, parts of the poor dog could be lopped off! Aw, they were evil!) 

As in all the best narratives, the New Forest gained some small revenge in 1100, when William II (Rufus) the Conqueror’s heir and then king, was killed by an arrow during a hunting trip.  The Greenwood’s blood harvest did not stop there.  Rufus’s brother and three other relatives were also killed in the New Forest, allegedly in suitably ritualistic fashions:  Duke Robert was killed by an arrow through his throat, and his son was hanged from an oak by his hair.  Combined with the many tales of fairies and witches associated with the New Forest, it’s all grimly inspiring!

Spooky! I love it! Simon, Sex, and the Solstice Stone: 

Simon’s holiday season is looking grim. His boyfriend’s dumped him, and his self-esteem is rock bottom. Stuck in the UK where nobody celebrates Thanksgiving, the shy, geeky student drowns his sorrows at an ancient stone circle. When a gorgeous stranger, Aubrey, shows up and attempts to seduce him, Simon is flattered but also freaked—especially when Aubrey claims to be from an historic sex cult who’d uncovered the true powers of the circle. It’s a time machine. Aubrey intended to travel back three hundred and sixty-five days, but an error propelled him forward three hundred and sixty-five years into a world alien to him.

Simon reluctantly takes the lost time traveler under his wing, and Aubrey teaches Simon the ways of sex, love, and magic. Simon’s never felt so alive, but as their bond grows, Aubrey remains determined to perform a dangerous ritual and return home at the winter solstice. Fearing he’s no more to Aubrey than a sexual sacrifice, Simon must discover the dark secrets of Aubrey’s pagan past. Only then can Simon choose between risking all for the man he loves or a lonely Christmas without him.

You can buy Simon, Sex and the Solstice Stone at Loose Id, ARe and Amazon.

Giveaway! If you’d like to win an e-book copy of your choice of Kay’s back catalogue, please leave your email in the comments (spelling it out if you are worried about spam bots e.g. kayberrisford at yahoo dot co dot uk) Alternatively, email kayberrisford@yahoo.co.uk with Lisa blog comp in the title. Entries close on the 18th of December! Thank you!

You can find out about Kay’s books at her website.

Thanks for stopping by, Kay, and enjoy that chilly English weather! 

Interview and Giveaway: Kari Gregg's I Don't

OMG, you guys! The awesomely talented Kari Gregg is here, today, on my blog, to talk about her latest release I Don't: A Christmas Wish. Excuse me while I rush around and tidy up... Now quick, act cool and pretend I was just saying something witty. 

Oh, hi, Kari! Thanks so much for stopping by to answer some questions. We’ll start with the easy ones:

How long have you been writing?

Heya, Lisa! And thanks for inviting me to stop by!  How long have I been writing?  Oh, man. Forever. A grade school teacher found a snarky polar opposite of a Casey-at-Bat style poem I’d written about our school’s epically horrible basketball team actually winning a game. I’d written stuff before then, but that was the first time I can remember getting caught at it.

Sounds brilliant! I once got detention for satirising my high school principal as Hitler, I mean, he had the moustache and everything. What was I supposed to do? Ignore it? 

Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?

No idea. I’d have to say that Casey-at-Bat style poem since that was the first I got busted for, but I have no idea even what I titled it. I do still have a copy because I remember stumbling over it a few years ago. Cute. But it’s buried in a box somewhere.

Is there any genre that you wouldn’t write?

Historical. Too much research I don’t have enough patience for. My brain isn’t wired that way. I’d purely suck at it.

As someone who lives in tropical northern Australia, I’m fascinated by snow. Also, the idea of a White Christmas is completely foreign to me. When I was a kid, I thought White Christmases were something that only existed on Christmas cards. Do you get snow in your part of the world for Christmas?

Oh, you bet we get snow. In I Don’t, when Seth talks about measuring snow in feet rather than inches? That wasn’t an exaggeration. Around here, we get loads of snow. We cut a straight stretch of hillside into the trail we have running through our woods to take full advantage for sledding every winter. Our neighbors have snow plow attachments for their ATVs because the DMV rarely makes it out our way…I live in a winter wonderland, the kind that requires a degree of self-sufficiency and an alternate heat source because, guaranteed, we’ll be snowed in and out of power at some point every year. It’s beautiful, though, and sooooooooo peaceful. As long as you don’t mind hiking a quarter mile from the main road when no vehicle barring a Snowcat can make it up our hill.

I cannot even imagine that. Seriously, I'm trying, but I'm drawing a blank. 

Random question that I try to remember to ask everyone: What you can you see outside your window at the moment?

Bare branches and spiny tree limbs marching up the opposite hillside. In this part of the house, you can’t see other houses at all, winter or summer. In the summer, it’s better because the leaves block other houses from view no matter what window I look out. Not that we have a lot of neighbors, because we don’t, and not that we would live somewhere we didn’t truly have any neighbors, because I wouldn’t. I just like the idea of my home being a retreat away from the world. My house in the woods = my little slice of heaven. The only bummer is nobody delivers pizza this far outside town.

Sounds beautiful. Except for the part about no pizza. 

What can you tell me about your latest release, I Don’t?

Well, it’s a huge departure from what I usually write, although I did go for a few laughs in my charity short with Riptide, Foreshock. Zachary and Brian in In the Red were rather snarky too. To my readers, a romantic comedy might seem bizarre coming from me, but the smartassery is a big part of who I am IRL and closest to my natural voice. Plus, Question Six meant so much to me. I was invested in that fight before Maryland passed the law; I’d been debating and bumping heads since last fall. I Don’t put a smile on my face when I needed it. Made me laugh.

Sad to say, we're still lagging behind in this part of the world. Not for lack of trying though. 

I Don’t is a bit different from your usual work. As a writer, I like trying different things all the time, but were you worried about disappointing your dub-con and D/s loving fans?

Of course, I worried about disappointing readers who love the darker, grittier stuff. That’s why I took such pains to make sure everyone knew that this wasn’t my typical. I wanted readers to be fully aware of what they were getting before they plunked their hard-earned dollars on the table. I like my dubcon stories. No, I LOVE writing my button pushy, dubcon stories or I wouldn’t have written so many of them. But I like doing other things too. I like stretching my legs as a writer, challenging myself, trying different things. A lot of those experiments never make it off my hard-drive, a great many of them deservedly so, LOL. Question Six and this story meant so much to me on a personal level, though…I had to do it. As long as I clearly marked and marketed my departure from the darker stuff, I thought readers would know and be able to make up their minds about whether they’d like to follow me along on this ride too. If not, no harm, no foul. Another dark story will be coming. I haven’t given those stories up, not by a long mile, but if the answer is yes, fasten your seatbelts, compadres. I’m about to entertain you with my crazy. ;-p

Yes, please! More crazy! And for your dub-con and D/s loving fans (of which I’m totally one), when is our next fix?

I can’t spill any details yet, but something’s in the works that I think readers who like to take a stroll down the dark side will enjoy. Lots. ;-)

And again, yes, please! 

I still haven’t figured out if I’m supposed to ask this question, or if authors are meant to be like parents and incapable of answering. But I’ll go ahead and ask anyway: Of all the characters you’ve written, who is your favourite and why?

Micah from Spoils of War/Plunder. I love his vanity and he has such a lyrical way of thinking that is incredibly alluring to me because it’s so foreign to how I tend to think & process things. Writing him is a pure joy. I love how utterly broken and neurotic he is, but how he keeps on going, keeps trying, keeps fighting. Got a core of solid steel, that boy. I love that, in Plunder, he finally begins to take control of his life, to act rather than being acted upon. He’s a sweet, beautiful mess. And I love him.

Speaking of Micah…I’m not sure how the rumor started that I’m writing another sequel to Spoils/Plunder, a book 3, but I’m not. I never say never when it comes to these things, very true. I might one day write an epilogue or a short for Micah and Eli. Revisiting them again years after the war with Herra, when they’ve settled into their post-war lives, strikes me as especially lovely. I might return for that, as a freebie sort of deal, but I don’t have any novellas or novels in the works, no.

Micah is a great character, and I loved seeing him develop over the course of both books. 

When the Zombie Apocalypse comes, which of your characters do you want by your side?

It’d be a toss-up between Emmett from Collared, who runs a security company, or Zachary from In the Red, who is an FBI agent on loan to TFOS (which basically goes after terrorists from the money angle). Zachary can be quite lethal when he chooses to be, but Zachary has a questionable moral compass, to say the least. He went after Brian, even knowing how damaged & off-kilter Brian was, didn’t he? So let’s vote Zachary as my Hero Most Likely to Throw Me Under the Bus. Emmett, on the other hand, was all about Connor. The dude was obsessed. If I stick with Connor during the zombie apocalypse, befriend him, then Emmett would keep me alive just to make Connor happy. If Emmett can tolerate David, handling me would be no problemo.

Emmett would be a great choice! He had that scary alpha male thing nailed! So, as you flee from the zombie hordes and head for the hills, who is in charge of your ragtag group of survivors?

Brian from In the Red. The dude is smart. He also had his bug-out bag packed and good to go in ITR. He already has an isolated farm in Garrett County, MD, too, which strikes me as an ideal shelter.

Another perfect choice. The guy will see you through the Zombie Apocalypse without much trouble at all. And which of your characters isn’t going to make it?

Cal and Gabriel. I, Omega ends with Gabriel accepting and embracing his new life with Cal, but there’s so much of their relationship that they haven’t worked out yet. Like HOW TO COMMUNICATE. Epic fail. Unless they’ve learned to talk to each other, they’re toast.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for them! 

Now check out the blurb for I Don’t: A Christmas Wish.

At least he isn’t pregnant.

Seth Murphy campaigned for Maryland’s Question Six, wildly celebrating the Election Day victory for marriage equality. Divorce attorney and live-in boyfriend Owen, however, believes just as passionately that the gay community should focus on a plurality of equal rights protections instead of allocating so many resources and man-hours to one hot button issue. Owen won’t marry Seth. Relationship deteriorating, the couple visits the Murphy farm outside Brunswick for Christmas. Seth’s family never considered that Seth and Owen wouldn’t be first in line for a marriage license as soon as same-sex marriage passed. When they find out there won’t be a wedding, their season of miracles is invaded by pornographic gingerbread cookies, frowning church ladies, and a determined father with a tactical assault shotgun. Neither Seth, Owen, nor their love may survive the family holiday circus to say, “I don’t.”

Thanks so much for stopping by, Kari! 

You can get your hands on I Don't from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ARe and Smashwords. 

And if you leave a comment here or on the crosspost at Goodreads, you can win a copy of I Don't! Entries close December 14, 11:59 PM EST - that's US time.

And Kari was lovely enough to let me go over to her site and talk about non-con and dub-con. If you want to check that out, you could win a copy of Dark Space.