Z.A. Maxfield

Happily. Ever. After.

Bluewater Bay Series…

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This picture is from Chicago’s GRL. It was taken the night I spent exploring with my friend, author Heidi Belleau. Heidi is a multi-talented, wonderful woman, mother, and author, who didn’t tell me she was pregnant while we were running from the Navy Pier to catch our architectural tour boat… I think I fainted when I found out, because as you can see from the picture, I was in pretty good shape at the time but whenever I was pregnant, the only way I could get out of a paper bag was to dampen it with my pitiful, hormone soaked tears… They’re making some pretty awesome women these days. Just Sayin’

Heidi’s way, way younger than me and her badassery that night was the stuff of legends. The only thing I regret is we can’t all get together twenty-five times a year.

The reason I mention this is three-fold. First, all the Bluewater Bay series books are interconnected, so when Healey Holly realizes he can’t stay in the apartment over the garage anymore, he has to go to the Burnt Toast B & B…and you can find out more about the place in Heidi and Rachel Haimowitz’s book, The Burnt Toast B&B!

“After breaking his arm on set, Wolf’s Landing stuntman Ginsberg Sloan finds himself temporarily out of work. Luckily, Bluewater Bay’s worst B&B has cheap long-term rates, and Ginsberg’s not too proud to take advantage of them.

Derrick Richards, a grizzled laid-off logger, inherited the B&B after his parents’ untimely deaths. Making beds and cooking sunny-side-up eggs is hardly Derrick’s idea of a man’s way to make a living, but just as he’s decided to shut the place down, Ginsberg shows up on his doorstep, pitiful and soaking wet, and Derrick can hardly send him packing.

Not outright, at least.

The plan? Carry on the B&B’s tradition of terrible customer service and even worse food until the pampered city boy leaves voluntarily. What Derrick doesn’t count on, though, is that the lousier he gets at hosting, the more he convinces bored, busybody Ginsberg to try to get the B&B back on track. And he definitely doesn’t count on the growing attraction between them, or how much more he learns from Ginsberg than how to put out kitchen fires.”

* * * * * * *

Bluewater Bay stories can be read in any order — jump in wherever you’d like!

Word count: 62,000; page count: 241

The Writer’s Police Academy

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WPA_LogoI really wanted to go to the Writer’s Police Academy again this year. Last year was so much fun. I did sign up, and I did have classes arranged and everything, but I am really sad to say I have a very sick dog and cannot go.

Many of you know that at the last Writer’s Police Academy, I watched a demonstration of K-9 officer training, and while I was there, I fell in love with German Shepherds again. We had a GSD growing up, and I never realized how much I wanted to find a GSD to love until I met Ledger. 2016-02-20 11.11.45-2

So here he is. He is a rescue, an elder statesman, and a really sweet boy. While we’ve been together, I’ve learned the most important thing about German Shepherd Dogs: They choose a person and stick to them like glue. They are, in fact, a little bit clingy. Like big, furry skirts, they swirl around your ankles everywhere you go, even if it’s only two feet. Back and forth. Sink to stove. Bed to bath. They follow. Everywhere.

And I don’t mind. Except when they’re sick they will not leave their “support bi-ped’s” side. And they do not appreciate being left.

But we found out that Ledger is actually older than anyone realized. They thought he was about 8, but X-rays show he’s probably over ten now. He’s has had a very difficult life. It’s always tough for older GSDs because they develop a number of issues due to bad breeding practices–things that make their final years especially difficult, like hip dysplasia.

None of which would stop me from adopting him all over again tomorrow. I love my dog.

But…

Now we are dealing with kidney problems and Ledger is on borrowed time. He is still eating, sometimes, but he doesn’t like low protein food. Just look at that face. He still thinks he can eat an In-n-Out quad, animal style. (Not that he’s ever done that on my watch.)

Most of the time, he enjoys sitting by my feet while I work. Or he sits by the pool while I float. Unlike Pepper, our Lab, Ledger dislikes the sun, so he sits in the shade. He gets up and walks over when I float his way to say hello.

Animals make us into better people. I hope I’m doing a good job of seeing to it that he doesn’t suffer unduly. The kids are all sad, but we’re philosophical. One does what one can.

At any rate, this is why I won’t be going to the Writer’s Police Academy, the family affair that started with Frantz, the K-9 officer, will probably be ending for me and Ledger pretty soon.

But Ledger’s the dog of my heart, and we got some great time together. Adopting senior dogs is tough, but so worthwhile.

Please give your pets an extra hug for me and until we meet again, be well.

 

 

 

Writing is Weird.

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DeepDeliverance72lg I’ve said this before. Writing is weird. I mean, a writer grabs words out of the air and arranges them like she’s hooking up train cars to an untested engine. This word must appear before this word, and then this one should come next. THEN that writer must roll that word train out there for everyone else to see if the train runs and well…

Writing is WEIRD.

Writing is especially weird if you have some kind of real life you need to live while you’re doing it.

Don’t get me wrong! Writing is still the best damn job a girl can do in her pajamas. I want to go to work, every single day, (almost). As long as I can make my living, even if it’s not quite as flashy as fictional author Rick Castle’s living, I am perfectly, justifiably, content.

But case in point, I’m editing the third novel in the vampire series I started back in 2009. I wrote the first two books for MLR Press. They were titled Notturno and Vigil, and I was to follow up with a third, Matins. Cue REAL LIFE.

Actually, painfully, cue the grim reaper.

It’s not a secret I was in the process of writing the second book, Vigil, when my mother passed away. Something about the book, or the universe I set it in, or the woman I was then–the optimist, the mother of elementary school kids, the daughter who lost her lifelong best friend and became an orphan in one day–created a barrier between me and those books I couldn’t get past for a long time.

I back-burnered the third book in the Hours series, I shelved the universe, and I put Adin and Donte away because I simply wasn’t the same woman who wrote them.

And I could pull them back out–rescue them from that place of dustballs and sadness–because I realized am never going to be that same woman again.

And that’s why writing is weird.

Writers take everything they experience in life and synthesize it into their work. They mash life and spindle it and fold it and mutilate it. They hold a mirror up to it or they fling it down and stomp on it. That’s the job, man. It’s fun. It’s exciting. And it’s never, ever boring. (Or well, yeah, it really can be but that’s a different blog post.)

At the same time writers are gorging on this big old crazy world buffet and trying to make sense out of it, they’re also required to be inside the drama, interacting with it, or simply reacting to it. You don’t get a time-out from the job of being a writer, even if you step away from the computer, put down the journal, and walk away from any kind of recording device.

Because it’s all still there inside your head.

The author who starts a book on day one isn’t even the same author who continues writing the book ten days later.

The author who writes book one of a series is a wholly different person than the author who pens book seven.

Of course, this is a major oversimplification and I don’t mean to be precious about it. As with a lot of the observations I make, this one took me a little bit by surprise. I’m very happy with how Deep Deliverance is going, but I can’t help but wonder who I’ll be when it’s time to write the next book, and what experiences I will take with me to that place…

Stay tuned for Deep Deliverance, coming out March 30th, 2016 from Samhain Publishing. 

And speaking of OBSERVERS–all caps–I thought I’d share a link to an essay that made a HUGE impression on me when I was a kid. Joan Didion, my favorite contemporary writer, talks about keeping a journal here:

https://www.penusa.org/sites/default/files/didion.pdf

 

The Writer’s Police Academy

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WPA_LogoIt WAS Awesome!

I got to play with handcuffs and a thermal imaging device. I got to see a K-9 officer (Franz) and his handler in action. I watched a bank robbery and car chase, a couple of rescues, and some really interesting speakers talk about things that ordinarily don’t come up in polite conversation (why a corpse might burst, for example.)

Wisconsin weather could NOT have been more lovely, and I found myself wanting to look for real estate in the Fox Valley. After all, we’re in a decades long drought in California, and when I saw all that green–green trees, green grass, green, green, green, I fell instantly and irrevocably in love. I’ve always loved Wisconsin because that’s the great state that produced Mr. ZAM, so I of course, I had to get my cheese curds and my Packer Backer T-shirts and my Bucky Badger sweatshirt.

Fox Valley Technical College has to be the most exciting place for the kids who go there. They have a whole fake village, complete with motels, bars, banks, and an actual airplane in which to experience these dramatic rescue and criminal apprehension scenarios. So much thought was put into this little school, it’s truly, truly a gem. I’d love it if my kid, the one who wants to be a firefighter, could go there.

The only problem I had was an iffy ankle (that I had to walk on constantly) and the fear that I wouldn’t know anyone when I got there! But on the very first day, I found Piper Vaughn, and on the second, I found Jamie Lynn Miller and J.D. Ruskin! Could I have been more lucky? I got to see my M/M cohorts there!

At any rate, I had a wonderful, wonderful time. A huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make that happen, especially Lee Lofland, Joe Lefevre and those amazing Sisters In Crime! I hope someday, once I’ve taken all this to heart, I’ll write a great scene with accurate technical details and make all of you proud.

Or maybe I can simply keep some of you from tearing your hair out!

I’m back at home now, but plot bunnies seem to be boiling out of the woodwork!

Celebrations…Counting down

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DSCF0004We celebrate whatever we can, chez Maxfield. Whether it’s our family’s tradition or someone else’s, we can always find something to be grateful for, to be joyous about. This is a picture of our tree the year before we had the fire, and the next is one taken while we were putting up the new things, after. We also got rid of those dated drapes (hey, they came with the house.)

Yes, those are my feet, I was too lazy to get up and take the shot, but in my defense, I didn’t know how long Zack would stand behind the tree, holding that pose. As an aside, when I messaged this picture to my daughter, she simply assumed we’d gotten a tree with arms. IMG_0004

Mostly we celebrate with music, and to that end I’d like to share one of my favorite groups, Pentatonix, and one of my favorite holiday carols, “Carol of the Bells” with you (although to be honest, I’m more likely to be playing the Transiberian Orchestra version while I’m assembling toys or wrapping packages last minute, like a mad scientist):

What’s your favorite Christmas song?  Although I’ve gone “Walking In A Winter Wonderland” once or twice, snow has been pretty scarce in my life, and so I enjoy the winter themed carols, the ones with snow and snowmen and sleigh bells glistening.

Here’s one of my favorites, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, with who else? Kurt and Blaine from Glee… I mean. Does it GET any cuter? These guys are adorable:

I also enjoy the strictly sacred music of the holidays. I love the contemplative nature of Gregorian chants and the frisson of something otherworldly devotional music brings, even without having an understanding of the words. (Except after all those years of studying Italian, Spanish, and French, it’s kind of hard not to get hit with the gist of things in latin.) While I enjoy the perfectly pronounced versions produced by churches and famous choirs, I enjoy this version of the carol “Gaudete”, recorded by Steeleye Span during their 35th anniversary tour. I have had a major voice crush on Maddy Prior for 35 years, and I doubt I’ll ever get over it.

And finally, this video needs no introduction, but I love Judy Garland so very much. This is from one of my favorite movies of all time, Meet Me In St. Louis. I think Judy Garland was at her most beautiful, most engaging, and most beguiling in that movie. My heart still breaks when I here her sing this:

Casual S*x Friday -Mea Culpa

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Normally, I do a Casual Sex Friday Post with a snippet of something — a bit of flash fiction — just because I like to sharpen the skill set, but gosh darn it real life just keeps happening.

I’ll be heading to GayRomLit next week, and as if that weren’t enough, not one, but two sets of major edits hit my inbox this week. So I’m working as hard as I can to get books out, because we all know what you really want is new ZAM titles on the shelves at your favorite ebook retailers.

(Plus, there’s all kinds of laundry and swag mailing and packing and that crack team of aestheticians who need to make me presentable before I’ll even get on the plane to an event like GRL…)

So allow me to apologize for this week and last when I failed in my Friday duties, and also, allow me to announce the winner of this weeks Tuesday Teaser….

DRUMROLL… Antonia!

Antonia will be receiving an email shortly, as she correctly guessed this weeks snippet came from Ethan In Gold, by the lovely and talented Amy Lane!!!

Please join me next Tuesday when our featured Tuesday Teaser author is NONE OTHER THAN Damon Suede…!

Check out Ethan in Gold at your favorite ebook retailer today!

ImageEvan Costa learned from a very early age that there was no such thing as unconditional love and that it was better to settle for what you could get instead of expecting the world to give you what you need. As Ethan, porn model for Johnnies, he gets exactly what he wants—comradeship and physical contact on trade—and he is perfectly satisfied with that. He’s sure of it.

Jonah Stevens has spent most of his adult life helping to care for his sister and trying to keep his beleaguered family from fraying at the edges. He’s had very little time to work on his confidence or his body for that matter. When Jonah meets Ethan, he doesn’t see the hurt child or the shamelessly slutty porn star. He sees a funny, sexy, confident man who—against the odds—seems to like Jonah in spite of his very ordinary, but difficult, life.

Sensing a kindred spirit and a common interest, Ethan thinks a platonic friendship with Jonah won’t violate his fair trade rules of sex and touch, but Jonah has different ideas. Ethan’s pretty sure his choice of jobs has stripped away all hope of a real relationship, but Jonah wants the whole package—the sexy man, the vulnerable boy, the charming companion who works so hard to make other people happy. Jonah wants to prove that underneath the damage Ethan has lived with all his life, he’s still gold with promise and the ability to love.

surprise

What she said…

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