16Mar13 “Hat Trick” has a Publisher!

11582685-three-old-black-hockey-puck-isolated-on-white-backgroundIt’s been an incredible week!

On Sunday I submitted Hat Trick, the novel formerly known as Neutral Zone, to a publisher. The submission included the first three chapters as well as a synopsis that outlined all of the chapters.

On Monday I got a request for the rest of the manuscript.

On Thursday I got an acceptance email along with a contract, which will probably be officially signed at some point next week.

The current schedule is for Hat Trick to be published by Queerteen Press in September.

It’s going to be a busy summer as I’ll be working with the book’s editor to get the manuscript ready for publishing. Figuring out the cover and honing the blurb is also critical. There are promotional things to figure out too so that the book gets maximum exposure.

I’m ecstatic that the story of Simon & Alex is on it’s way to print. The story originally came into being during National Novel Writing Month 2006 (you can read the entires documenting the writing here: entry 1, entry 2, entry 3, entry 4). While the novel’s structure has changed radically since that first draft, the basic plot  remained. Even some of the original scenes are still in the final version, just much more polished now. The story will be just shy of its seventh birthday when it’s published.

It’s been a long time, and a lot of work. It’s all good though since the story will make it to an audience larger than the handful of beta readers who have helped me polish it.

Stay tuned… much more to come on this over the next six months!

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22Oct12 GayRomLit 2012: Fabulous Time in the Desert

It’s safe to say that GayRomLit 2012 exceeded expectations. I got to meet many of my favorite authors, find out what several of the leading publishers look for, hear some great readings and spend my anniversary with Will (our first as a legally married couple in New York State) enjoying it all.

So many things made the weekend great. Here’s a recap of what stands out for me, in no particular order:

  • Meeting Isabelle Rowan, author of one of my favorite all time books, A Note in the Margin (which also has a sequel, Twelve Days, that I also love), and discovering her working on a third book in the Margin series while manning her autograph table Saturday afternoon. She writes long hand, using pencils, in a note book. It was great to know that the words on that page were going to end up being another Margins book.
  • Z.A. Maxfield and JeffAfter a couple years chatting on Twitter, meeting Z.A. Maxfield was a blast. She is incredibly fun. I was able to get my copy of St. Nacho’s autographed (it’s another one of my all-time favorite books). She also gave me a I ♥ St. Nacho’s t-shirt, which I was wearing when we had our picture snapped.
  • Will and I met Geoff Knight last year when he was passing through New York on his way to GRL2011. We connected again in Albuquerque and we got to hang out with him (and his mother who made the trip with him) quite a bit. It’s always fun connecting with Geoff to talk about what’s going on in life, with writing and to take in what’s happening. Geoff also had the most hysterical reading as he quite animatedly read the first chapter of Paperboy.
  • I heard about Boxer Falls for the first time (and I’m really not sure how I missed out on this earlier). This is a unique, soap opera-esque series developed by a team of M/M writers. Set in the town of Boxer Falls, Maine, all kinds of crazy soapy stuff happens here. What makes it so unique is that each writer picks up the story from where it’s left off and can then take it in seemingly any direction they want. The first “season” of the weekly series is due to be anthologized in early 2013 with the proceeds going to charity. I’m going to pick that up and enjoy the entire first season in one block.
  • Jeff with Stephani HechtStephani Hecht is an incredible woman. She’s a prolific writer. She writes a series of M/M hockey books (Blue Line Hockey)  that I enjoy (I have four more still to read). She’s also a Detroit Red Wings fan! I was excited to see her on the list of authors for GRL and I was thrilled to meet her. Not only did I get to have a fan moment, I also interviewed her where we discussed her love of hockey, her books and her LGBT advocacy for an post/book review I’ll do later this fall for PuckBuddys
  • Speaking of PuckBuddys, I checked in with a number of publishers who were at GRL looking for hockey books in the back catalogs. I discovered a few so my reading list will be filling up as I acquire them.
  • It was cool to meet Elisa, who is behind Elisa Reviews. She gave a good review to Dancer and Sexy Big Man when it came out and it was great to meet her in person after years of following her on Facebook. She also shot this great picture of us on Saturday evening:
  • We caught up with Clare London, which was great since she didn’t make it to NYC for the Rainbow Book Fair back in March. She caught a bug (or maybe brought a bug with her) and was a bit under the weather, but we still had a couple of enjoyable breakfasts with her.
  • I even got a little work on my manuscript done on the trip. Between the 12-ish hours on a plane and two or three hours of down time at the retreat, I made edits on 17 scenes of Hat Trick over the weekend. I am pleased with that process. I’ve got 10 days to get the edits done so I can start NaNoWriMo so I can work on two short stories during the month.
You can check out more pictures from GRL in the Flickr album. You can also read Will’s recap over at jeffandwill.com.

Next year GRL is in Atlanta and we’re already making plans to go. We’re excited that there’s going to be a specific writer’s track added as well so that writer’s can further expand on talking about craft during the weekend.

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17Oct12 GRL 2012, Hockey Books, Bike Ride & Writing Updates

It’s been a busy couple of months since my last post, despite the fact that I haven’t been writing on here. Here’s some things that are going on…

GayRomLit: Will and I leave tomorrow for GayRomLit in Albuquerque. It’s going to be a great vacation, networking opportunity, chance to discover some books and publishers we may not know and connect with friends that we’ve not seen in a while. We’re both going as “readers” rather than “authors” so we’ll get to see what the authors do at an event like this. It will be some good learning.

Hockey Books: It’s no surprise that I like gay lit that involves hockey. The first story I published, Rivals, had hockey players falling in love. I also read as many of these books as I can find. I’ve started reviewing hockey-themed books at PuckBuddys.com, where I also cover the Detroit Red Wings (when hockey is actually happening as opposed to the locked-out state that it’s currently in). I did the first review back in August and looked at Stephani Hecht’s Offside Pass and Between the Pipes. I’ve got more reviews in the works already, and hope to find some new books to review at GRL too (plus the reviews will continue even when the lockout is resolved).

Bike Ride: Last month I did Cycle for the Cause and biked from Boston to NYC over three days to raise awareness and support for the HIV/AIDS services at the LGBT Community Center in NYC. It was a great ride as always and I’m proud to have raised just over $4,000 for The Center. Part of that total came from the royalties earned from the sale of Bicycle Built for Two so thank you to everyone who has bought that story so far. As always, all royalites from Bicycle will continue to be donated to this cause. Here’s a video that recaps the three days to give you an idea of what the ride is like.

Writing: There’s also writing going on! Hat Trick (which is what I’ve renamed Neutral Zone) is moving along at a good pace. I got great feedback from some beta readers and have been making some revisions–including writing some new scenes–to make the story work better. The revisions are completed and I’m in the process now of reading the new manuscript through to make sure everything hangs together correctly. The goal is that it gets in a publisher’s hands by end of the year! I think this is a very doable goal.

Meanwhile, on the back burner right now are a few things: I’ve got some good direction on Friday Night Snacking that I will take care of as soon as I’m able to give Hat Trick back to the beta readers to see what I’ve done. I’ve got a request to do a story that revolves around a goalie and I’ve got some ideas around that. And as I was watching some American Ninja Warrior this past weekend something started to form in my brain around a story that involves a parkour athlete. Time will tell if anything serious comes of this.

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1Jul12 Adventures of Jake #1 Ebook Arrives

The very first gay story that I ever sold, which published in December 2009, became available today as a standalone ebook from JMS Books.

Here’s the blurb for Adventures of Jake #1:

Jake is a pretty typical college student. He studies a lot, works two jobs and would like to find the right guy to share it all with. Work and love collide when the man he’s had a crush on comes into the comic book store where he works looking for a birthday present. They run into each other again at a birthday party where Jake’s been hired to entertain kids wearing a superhero costume. Will Jake’s love of comics and superheroes get in the way of winning Michael’s heart? Or is Michael looking for a super man to put some fire into his life?

You can go on over to JMS Books to read an excerpt from the beginning of the story and pick up a copy for yourself. (Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.)

I am excited to see this story have the chance to connect with a new audience. Beyond that I am thrilled to publish with JMS Books. I’ve been a fan of J.M. Synder for years as an author and I love that she took her passion for writing and created her own publishing imprint. JMS Books is celebrating its second year this July and the books, including Advenutres of Jake #1, are on sale to celebrate. So not only should you go over and pick up my book, you should shop the entire catalog for some good deals!

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29Apr12 “Bicycle” Continues to Give

Bicycle Built for Two came out last summer. One of the reasons for writing the story was as a way to give  additional funds for the HIV/AIDS services provided by the The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.

The story opens with scenes from an AIDS charity bike ride that runs from Boston to New York, similar to one I have done to raise money for The Center for the past two years (and have signed up to do again in 2012). All of my author royalties from Bicycle Built for Two go towards my fundraising efforts for the ride, which happens each September.

To date, Bicycle Built for Two has contributed $324 to the cause (that accounts for royalties earned through March 2012). Thanks to everyone who has purchased this novella to date and helped provide fund for the Center’s critically important services.

As I mentioned, I’m doing the ride again this year (for 2012 it’s called Cycle for the Cause). Please help me reach my $4,000 fund raising goal by picking up a copy of Bicycle Built for Two or by donating online. Thanks!

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2Apr12 News of “Neutral Zone,” “Friday Night Snacking” and more

The first quarter of 2012 was very productive for my writing, even more than I had hoped it would be. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on:

1) I’m excited to say that Neutral Zone is back in the hands of beta readers for the first time in over a year. This last round of revisions was lengthy, and included using the techniques in Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel course. I think the book reads better now than it ever has before and I’m looking forward to what the beta readers have to say about it. Five people have it, a cross between writers and people whose opinion I trust. While it’s being read, I’m working to hone the blurb and the summary so after any additional revisions I make based on comments back from the betas, it can be ready to submit. Many thanks to the readers–Ben, Cheryl, Connor, Michael B and Michael O.–for agreeing to read and give that most valuable feedback.

Speaking of the blurb, here’s the one I’m using at the moment. It’s still subject to change, but it does give the basics of what the story is about:

Simon Roberts is a hockey playing high school senior looking forward to moving on to college and, hopefully, a scholarship to help him pay the way. His senior year is turned on its head from the start, however, when he discovers the crush he has on one of his teammates is actually mutual. Like any secret, the one Simon shares with Alex Miller doesn’t stay quiet long enough and the two have to deal with a coming out publicly while trying to stay on course to the state championships and college. What price will Simon pay for falling in love with his teammate?

2) “Friday Night Snacking,” which has languished for over a year now, recently got read by a publisher friend and, for the first time, I’ve got some actionable feedback that should help this vampire/werewolf/human story see the light of day. It’s too early to say for sure, but the feedback I got makes sense. Now it’s a matter of revising and I’m getting started on that this week.

3) Speaking of beta reading, I had the honor of reading the second book in Michael Offutt’s A Crisis of Two Worlds series. I read the first one, Slipstream (my review | Goodreads), earlier this year ahead of its May release. Reading Oculus was unlike any beta reading I’d done before. As a fan of the first book, I was excited to see where the story was going and to purely read for the enjoyment of it. But I couldn’t just read on that level since I had an important beta reading job to do too. I can say that loved where Michael took the story and I look forward to reading the final version of Oculus when it is completed.

4) Back on March 24, I attended the annual Rainbow Book Fair at the LGBT Center here in NYC. As usual this was a great event and, as usual, it was bigger this year than the previous. It’s good to see how LGBT publishing continues to grow with more publishers attending each year. The fair was a chance to meet up with Andrew Grey and Zarha Owens from Dreamspinner Press, J.M. Snyder from JMS Books and Ken Harrison from Seventh Window Publications (it was particularly great to meet Ken in person after so many Tweets). I didn’t have anything out, or “coming soon” for the fair this year, but the goal is to have something for 2013.

5) I haven’t forgotten about the news I shared at the start of the year either… The Adventures of Jake #1 is coming this summer from JMS Books as a standalone e-book. I should have more details in another month or so, so please stand by for those.

 

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8Jan12 Get Writing in 2012!

The last half of 2011 got away from me. I did focus as much as I should on writing. This year, however, is going to be a year of better focus and more awareness of how I’m using my time. So far, after the first week, things are going well. Here are a couple quick bits of news:

1) Bicycle Built for Two became my best selling short story so far. The most exciting thing around that is that the royalties I’ve earned so far–just under $250–will go towards Braking the Cycle. Forty-two dollars went to the cause for the 2011 ride, and the rest of it is going into the 2012 ride. That account for the first two quarters the story was out. Later this month I’ll get a new royalty statement, which should include the third party sales, such as though Amazon. I’m looking forward to seeing how much more will go to the cause.

2) The Adventures of Jake #1,which appeared as part of Nerdvana in 2009, is going to become a stand-along e-book later this year. My new year opened with JMS Books contracting to publish the story. I’m excited to work with J.M. since I’m a big fan. Plus, it will be great to pump some new life into this story that I really like. More details on the release as I get them.

3) So far I’ve been focused on writing pretty well during this first week of the year. I’m determined to keep that going as I want to wrap up work on the Neutral Zone novel and get it out for consideration.

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30Jun11 “Bicycle” on Amazon… Very Cool

Wow!

I don’t know what more to say than that. I was checking the web to see what bits of news about Bicycle Built for Two I might find. I’ve seen a couple reviews/rankings on Goodreads, which is always fun to see. But tonight I found the Google listing for the novella in Amazon’s Kindle Store.

The rankings the book had made me happy too (although I have no comparison to know if this is the expected ranking for a book in it’s second day out). As I write this, within the Kindle store it has got these standings:

  • #21 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Romance
  • #26 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Gay
  • #44 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian

This makes me a happy author…and hopefully everyone who has purchased the book, and contributed to these rankings, are enjoying it!

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