Author Interviews

Spotlight: The Boy and His Wolf – Paranormal Romance

December 15, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

Welcome new author and Librarian of the Year, Sean Thomas, to the blog.

My time in the self-publishing industry has been very short and in less than six months I received recognition as Librarian of the Year by the Romance Writers of America, wrote a novella, and now made it into an audio book. If anybody asked me six months ago if I believed any of this would be possible I would have looked at them like a crazy person. Sure, I’ve always loved to write but I never actually expected to publish anything and to be honest, I hadn’t given self-publishing much thought until very recently. Calling myself an author was just a far off dream that I only hoped I would aspire to one day. [Read more…] about Spotlight: The Boy and His Wolf – Paranormal Romance

When gay fiction becomes a personal journey

December 2, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

Friend and fellow author, Allen Renfro discusses his new book, Ambiguity. As many writers (and readers) can attest, a novel in the making is often a testament to a life’s journey.

I think I speak for many writers who become inspired that sometimes a story simply won’t leave you alone. The words come to you as you try to sleep. Walking along the street you see the characters in the faces that pass by. You hear the voices of the characters as you’re sitting in a restaurant and quietly listening. Finally you surrender and began the process of putting words to paper. The story for my novel Ambiguity came to me in such a manner and I think the story resonates even more right now at this point in time than when I first became inspired.

If you’ve read any of my work you are very much aware that my characters often wrestle with the centuries old conflict between religion and sexuality. In my novel Ambiguity, this conflict erupts into all out war. I wanted to explore the horrors of religious hatred toward homosexuality and also show the repercussions on both sides of this hatred. I wrote Ambiguity more for myself than anyone else. I needed to delve into my own experiences with religion, to understand my own mistrust of people who claim religion as their sole purpose for condemning homosexuality. In my own cynicism I wanted to show that many times people use religion to hide behind, to cover up their own secrets. There are many closets to hide in and come out of. [Read more…] about When gay fiction becomes a personal journey

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

October 15, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month. Today, Oct 15th, is the day especially set aside for remembrance.

When I first started researching Summer Symphony I found little to help men deal with the pain of losing an unborn child. At the very end, when nearly all the final edits were done, one of my beta readers came across Grieving Dads. It is one of the only online places we could find where men were able to connect and share over the devastating losses they suffered. I asked the host of that forum, Kelly Farley, to stop by and share a little insight with us.

To My Knees

I was lucky enough to live 35 years without having to deal with any adversity in my life. Yes, there were the normal bumps in the road that most people go through, but nothing that brought me to my knees.

In 2004 and right before my 36^th birthday, my luck had run out when I lost my first child and daughter Katie. The death of my daughter dealt a blow that was staggering. However, due to my upbringing and how I thought I was supposed to respond as a man, I refused to allow myself to feel the impact that had been inflicted upon on me. Instead, I stood back up as quickly as possible before someone saw me in a moment of weakness.
[Read more…] about Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Meet me at Shira’s

September 29, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

I’m over on Shira Anthony’s blog talking about The Power of Music and how it relates to my new novel, Summer Symphony.

We all have a story about a particular piece of music, or a memory which is triggered when we hear that song. Stop by and share your thoughts.

Summer Symphony is available for pre-order from Amazon, iTunes and Smashwords.

The Old Ball and Chain

September 12, 2014 By Brandon 1 Comment

Welcome Rainbow Award Winner Lewis DeSimone to the blog. I’ve been wanting to get him here since 2012, but our schedules have conflicted. He’s here today to give us a little of the story behind his novel, The Heart’s History.

Writing is a lot like love: it’s all about your degree of commitment.

For me, poems are basically one-night stands—capturing a moment in time. Short stories, requiring a longer gestation period, are more like boyfriends. But a novel is a husband. A novel is a ball-and-chain. A novel takes years off your life.

And as with a man, sometimes you fall in love with your book at first sight.

That’s what happened with The Heart’s History. It was the late 80s, and I was fresh out of the closet. I was working at a publishing company, and one of my colleagues was a gay man in his thirties. I didn’t know him well. I wasn’t even sure he was gay until I learned he had a lover, and that his lover had died of AIDS. Several of us from the office went to the memorial service. It was the first time I’d ever attended a service for someone who wasn’t a relative, let alone someone I’d never met. [Read more…] about The Old Ball and Chain

Hot n Horny in the days before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

July 25, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

I asked acclaimed gay novelist Elliott Mackle to stop by and tell us about his Captain Joe Harding historical romance series. Several of my own fans pointed me in his direction and nominated the books for a 2014 LGBT Book Gem so, here he is, as requested.

I’ve said elsewhere that my Captain Joe Harding series is based on four years of Air Force service during the Vietnam era. That’s essentially true, but with reservations. For instance, each of the three novels includes at least one fatal plane crash. During my time in uniform I never witnessed a crash or even a serious mishap. I was a food service officer, not a pilot or air traffic controller.

But most officers, then and now, are assigned what’s called ‘additional duties.’ Among mine, at a Strategic Air Command bomber base in California, was occasional duty as a Disaster Control or Safety Officer. My tasks included driving down three miles of runway, and twice that of taxi way, sometimes at night, checking to make sure no parts had fallen off an aircraft. The potential to damage another plane was real and serious–as happened later, in 2000, outside Paris, when a Continental airliner shed a piece of metal engine cowling that damaged, and doomed, an Air France Concorde taking off right behind it.

I was trained to inspect flight lines, missile sites, maintenance areas and alert facilities, and to investigate and report on problems such as outdated fire extinguishers or incomplete training records. If an accident occurred, I knew to take charge of rescue operations until a higher-grade or better-qualified officer arrived. [Read more…] about Hot n Horny in the days before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell