The Crotchety Old Man

Tag: After Christmas Eve

  • No More Romance for Me

    Since my first novel was published in 2012, finding the right shelf in the bookstore for my stories has been a challenge. I’m talking, of course, about genre. Turns out, my stories don’t fit in any particular genre. Genre is a handy label to give readers an idea of the kind of story they’re about…

  • New Edits for an Old Story

    A few weeks ago, I wrote about the arrival of first round edits for Whippersnapper foiling my plans to spend Labor Day weekend working on my next novel. Two days later, first round edits for the re-release of No Good Deed (formerly After Christmas Eve) appeared in my inbox. Two sets of edits to work…

  • Happy Independence Day Release Party & Blog Tour

    Dreamspinner Press has officially released my third novel, Happy Independence Day. The story features the relationship between Terrence Bottom and Cameron McKenzie and is set in June 1969, a few years later than the prequel, After Christmas Eve, and about 225 miles farther north. Much of the action occurs in and around the infamous Stonewall…

  • Happy Independence Day Cover Reveal

    Getting a novel published is a roller coaster ride. Transforming a finished manuscript into a book people can read is a six-month journey filled with highs and lows. Difficult edits and short deadlines are lows. The high — at least for me — is my first glimpse of the cover. To celebrate the beautiful cover…

  • Five Steps to Becoming a Successful Author

    On this date just two short years ago, with a lot of encouragement from my friends in the Athens Writers Workshop, I submitted a query for my first novel. I waited for the “not what we’re looking for at this time” message to file with the rejections I’d already received for Glass Houses — my still unpublished memoir.…

  • Two at Once

    For me, writing a novel is a lot like a relationship. Managing more than one at a time is just too complicated for my simple mind. Yet, despite my usual single-mindedness of purpose, I’m currently working on two novels. After writing the first two books in the holiday series, I wanted to try something different. Adventures…

  • What’s In A Name?

    One of the first critiques of an early draft of my debut novel was that the names of the characters seemed random, like they’d been pulled from a hat. The comment surprised me. You mean there’s another way? The right name is a beautiful thing. That’s why parents spend so much time thinking about what…

  • The Evolution of a Writer

    I wrote my first novel using a technique known as pantsing — as in, flying by the seat of my pants. With nary an outline nor character sketch, I wrote chapter one of Until Thanksgiving — then known as Addicted — with no idea what chapter two would be about, and so on, until I’d…

  • A Slight Miscalculation

    Since at least September, I’ve looked forward to settling into my new normal. Living alone was supposed to mean more time to devote to my writing career. Those extra hours haven’t materialized. Apparently, I miscalculated. Knowing the transition to the bachelor lifestyle and moving would take time, I took a break from my writers group. From mid-2010 to…

  • Coming Soon: After Christmas Eve

    The folks at Dreamspinner Press, publisher of Until Thanksgiving, have been wonderful. When I finished After Christmas Eve (the prequel), I sent it to them, ignoring the part in their submission guidelines about the story having to be a romance. By ignoring, I don’t mean that I read and then disregarded the words. I never…