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.