Breaking News

As you can see over on the left, my new cover for The Arms of Winter is now completed, and the book is due out in June, a month after I release Heart of the Warrior.

I didn't set out to release two M/M pieces back to back, but that's how it looks like it's going to be.

I can't help but wonder what some of my fans who've read Rise of the Fallen will think of me writing M/M romance. As a matter of fact, some of my author friends suggested I should write my M/M pieces under a different pen name...and I even considered it for a while. But that wouldn't work for my AKM series, which is predominantly M/F, but which will have a couple of M/M novels in the mix. I mean, I can't very well write most of the books under one name and the M/M under another. That would be like J.R. Ward writing the upcoming Blay and Qhuinn novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series under a different name than all the other books in the series. Kinda silly, that. Consequently, I decided that, as a romance author, I didn't want to have to classify my M/M work separately from my M/F work, and thus create a new type of segregation.

I write romance. Period. The majority of it is M/F, but some of it falls into the M/M category, but it's still romance. Not smut. Not porn. Romance. I love conflict, adversity, and tension in my stories, and the area of homosexual romance is rife with the potential for all of the above. So, yeah, it's right up my alley. And I do love a challenge.

So, no, I don't want to segregate my M/M romances from my M/F. And here's one reason why:

I saw this picture today and it struck a chord. Now, I am not anti-Christian, but this picture does prove a point. And for me, I didn't want to contribute to the archaic beliefs some in our society have simply transferred from African Americans on to homosexuals. By segregating my work into separate author names, I would be reinforcing the belief that there is something wrong with homosexuality. I would be giving in to the idea that homosexuality should be hidden and ostracized. I'll be damned if I'm going to do that.

People can turn their back or a blind eye on it, or sweep it under the rug, or even condemn it head on, but that will not change the simple fact that there are men in the world who love other men. And women who love other women. They aren't hurting me with their beliefs. Why should I care who they love, because I tell you, heterosexuals have done more damage to the sanctity of marriage than homosexual couples have. If those who cry out in defense of the sanctity of marriage really want to do marriage a favor, they should work on a program that will prevent celebrities from getting married. Now, THAT is legislation that could improve the sanctity of marriage and lower the divorce rate and incidence of extramarital affairs. And while we're at it, let's add politicians to that group. They seem to be just as bad as Hollywood in this regard lately.

But nooooo. It's the gay people who are destroying marriage, not any of those legally-allowed-to-get-married-and-divorced folks.

At any rate, I didn't mean for this to become a political statement, but as with most of my writing, it sort of took on a mind of its own as I began typing. The Arms of Winter is really quite a touching love story, as is Heart of the Warrior. These may be my first two published M/M pieces, but right now, they are two of my favorite pieces in my body of ongoing work. Both stories moved me in wonderful, emotional ways. And if you have an open mind, they might just move you, too. Heart of the Warrior comes out on May 25, and The Arms of Winter will be released sometime in June. Stay tuned for more details, and happy reading!