Kara Leonardo has been a wonderful fan and friend to many of us in the lesbian publishing industry. She’s come upon some horrific hard times and needs our help. I’ll let Roselle Graskey tell you what the deal is:

On February 11, 2012, Kara and her partner, Stephanie Marvel, were involved in a motor vehicle accident. Stephanie was driving and their car was hit head-on by another driver. Stephanie was killed on impact and Kara sustained a fractured arm, multiple fractures of her leg and pelvis along with internal injuries. Kara was in and out of the ICU a few times before landing in a regular room and ultimately transferring to a rehabilitation facility at the end of March. She is learning to walk again with the use of a walker and will soon be ready for discharge from rehab. This is where her situation becomes even more difficult… Kara relocated from Illinois to Delaware to be with Stephanie… When she is discharged from rehab, she will have no place to go.

Many of you may recall from last year that author Nene Adams had a serious infection. It nearly killed her, and she lost her leg to save her life. We were able to raise over $5,000 to help with Nene’s medical costs in an auction.

This year, Nene needs more help. She’s stronger and healthier, but still can’t enjoy the simple pleasure of walking down the street, strolling through a park, or picking up a gallon of milk at the local market. It’s taken most of that year for her to even be able to make it upstairs to sleep in her own bed. She needs our help again. She needs an artificial leg.

Please go to either of the sites below to hear more specifics from Nene. Just a small donation could make the difference.

Nene’s blog

Nene’s Facebook page

Thank you!

It’s interesting that this month’s Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour topic is about revisions. I just finished a monster revision / writing project in August. Excellent timing!

Back in 2005 I wrote a novel called Broken Trails about two women who come together during the Last Great Race – the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska. (Actually, the novel was untitled and remained so until about a year ago.) I love the Iditarod, and read everything I could get my hands on about it. Others enjoyed the online version, and I received a great deal of praising emails.

But not from everybody.

Continue Reading…

Yeah, that’s my chin. Barely tapped it on the asphalt, but the black half-circle ain’t dirt. This is what my second childhood is going to be like. Hope my wife survives.

In all the hubbub regarding Facebook’s changes, I’ve been fiddling around with Google+. Good thing I did! One of the first things I discovered was this:

Another maudlin indulgence ahead. You’ve been warned. If waxing philosophic about a stranger’s deceased pet is not your cup of tea, skip to another page of this blog or move along.

Sunday morning I climbed out of bed both hopeful and terrified. Seeing Lester, our nine-year-old gray tabby, huddled on the floor killed that hope. While the world mourned the tenth anniversary of 9/11, my grief was sharper and closer to home. Continue Reading…

In my search for the ‘correct’ way to write, I’ve read a number of articles and books about the accomplished writer’s interactions with non-writers. It’s true! A co-worker discovers that you write books, and he marvels over it, mentions that he’s always thought about doing that, then asks your advice. ‘How do you write a book?’ I have a one word answer:

Write.

Of course, it’s never that simple, is it? Maybe I should beef it up a bit…

Write. LOTS.

Continue Reading…

Nothing big, just added a couple of things on the News & Info page.

The past couple of weeks have been…well, not busy. It was spent waiting for my alpha readers’ responses to Beloved Lady Mistress, and editing said manuscript. If not writing every day (as I have been for the last three months), I find it difficult to focus on writing anything at all. So not a lot of blog entries have been forthcoming. Apologies.

In any case, I’m back on the horse. Beloved Lady Mistress has been sent to Bella, and I’m beginning the third book of the Sanguire series, working title Defender of the Crown. I’ve given myself a deadline of August 1st, but I think I’ll be done long before that. (Watch. I’m jinxing myself here…) I’ve got about sixty thousand words collected from two previous manuscripts for this novel, as the plot is somewhat the same. I won’t be writing it as much as rewriting it. Hopefully that’ll save time. Continue Reading…

And so it goes — the first draft of Beloved Lady Mistress is complete, weighing in at 80,800 words! YAY! My alpha readers have it now, and I get a few days off. Then I do a line-by-line edit before sending it to Bella Books. Next step is to begin outlining book three.

No takers on last week’s contest. Small wonder. This website has gathered so much dust over the years, it’s hardly surprising that not many read it anymore. Ah, well. Such is life. While a part of me wants to play the petulant child and stop updating the thing, the grown up in me plans on being stubborn. Besides, I made a promise to myself at the beginning of the year to post every week barring emergencies, even if I am talking to myself.

Besides, talking to one’s self isn’t crazy. It’s gossiping to one’s self about what one said is crazy. Which takes me to this week’s topic! Continue Reading…

Last weekend I was bored. I picked up Once by LT Smith, and let me tell you, I wasn’t bored any longer! Wow! It was a fantastic read! (And for anyone wanting to know the thought process of an author sitting in front of a blank page, the opening scene of this book is perfect.)

Beloved Lady Mistress (note the slight name change) is still going like gang busters. I’m into the final quarter of the book, and liking what’s on the page. I haven’t reached the point of complete and utter annoyance with it, yet, which is amazing in itself. Even now each new scene surprises me! That’s very unusual.

Heard from my PD Publishing editor! Yay! Looks like Broken Trails is on its way through the editing process! Can’t wait to get back to this one, especially with the Iditarod going on right now! Continue Reading…

It’s been quite the productive week — scenes spawning new scenes, some shuffling of things that came too early or too late, and steady growth to Lady Mistress. Total word count sits at about fifty-four thousand words, with another twenty-four scenes left to write. (And who knows how many more will add themselves to the mix as I go?)

I like it when a story grows beyond my original plan. Most of the time, my outline is bare bones and… unpretty. As the story gets written, it fleshes out and makes the former ugliness worth it. Continue Reading…

Wow! This week’s been quite productive! 9435 words!

It’s been so long since I’ve sat my butt in the chair to write that I wasn’t certain about my abilities any more. Rather than set the goal at a thousand and fail, I set it at five hundred. Since January 1st, all but two of the days I’ve written has been over a thousand! Yay, me! I think for March 1st, I’ll reset my goal to 1k/day.

The second Sanguire novel, Lady Mistress is at the thirty-eight thousand mark. I’m shooting for eighty thousand words, but I think it’ll go over a bit. I’m at the stage in the novel where scenes are spawning new scenes, expanding things beyond the outline. Not too awful, really, when the first book, The Strange Path clocked in at eighty-eight grand. Continue Reading…

Spent this morning going over some final payments to Nene’s Auction… We broke the FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR mark WOOT Some last minute donations came in to put it over the edge!