Z.A. Maxfield

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News, Reviews, and Birthday Fun

June 24, 2013 by Z.A. Maxfield

ZM_GrimeAndPunishment_coverlg

Grime and Punishment has been getting its fair share of really nice reviews, among them:

…Not only is there plenty of emotional substance to sink your heart into, but there’s also the very simple fact that ZAM has come up with another great couple of MCs whose verbal skills rival the non-verbal for a practically perfect validation that they should continue to investigate what’s happening between them…. From the The Novel Approach HERE

***

…Z.A Maxfield wrote a beautiful story about life, honesty, and love. The writing is clean and pulls at your heart strings in places. I loved the way she handled this couple in the bedroom–so wide open one to one another, filled with such passion. Those scenes were key to zoning in on who these guys are, and that’s how I love my steam best: hot and integral to the plot rather than just there to fire things up. I cannot wait to read more of this author… From My Devastating Reads HERE

***

So I will recommend this to those that love budding romances, secrets emerging, great supportive family and friends, hot sex and a happy ending. From MM Good Book Reviews HERE

***

Who you gonna call? No, this isn’t some eighties movie throwback. It’s the latest from ZA Maxfield. And I don’t know anyone else who would write a story about a company that handles these grisly jobs and does it with humor and sympathy. From Mrs. Condit and Friends HERE

***

ZA Maxfield is one of those unspoken authors that just naturally seems to go onto my Classic Great M/M Romance Authors list, and I think that this book is a good illustration of why she deserves that spot. I read a lot of likable m/m romances, but it takes a little something extra to sink into the story. The more of this genre that I’ve read I’ve realized how that has less to do with how much I like a plot, and more how the author extends the story into wordplay — one of the biggest reasons that I review a book first on it’s execution and only after on the author’s choices. The best books use prose like an extra limb, manipulating the reader’s emotions not by what they say but how they say it. From The Armchair Reader HERE

***

A BIG thank you to everyone who took a chance on a book about a guy who cleans up dead people!

The next story is Eddie’s, and he’s been pining for his niece Lucy’s first grade teacher, Andrew Daley, so long it was just a mercy to finally let him loose.

When Eddie and Andrew find Eddie’s favorite elementary school teacher — the long retired Mrs. Henderson — wandering around the school grounds in a daze, Eddie’s afraid there’s more to her story than a failing memory. His and Andrew’s mutual concern for the old woman is just the icebreaker Eddie’s been waiting for. Her story is sadder than either man is prepared for.

While Eddie helps take care of Mrs. H., he and Andrew he begin a happy courtship. But nothing ever runs smoothly. Eddie’s secrets and Andrew’s emotionally abusive father make things way harder than they have to be and moving too fast might be as bad as moving too slow…

Boy meets boy. Boy loves boy. Boys have to clean up something horrific together — something that will teach them more than they ever wanted to know about life and love and growing old. What can go wrong?

Unedited Excerpt

Eddie sat down at his desk and got out his headphones. When he worked, he used his computer’s speaking capability to read what he needed of the day’s events.

Mrs. Henderson could not have foreseen the computer he used. She probably couldn’t have imagined something like a reading “pen” that used OCR technology to help severely challenged dyslexics like him, but she’d believed things would get better with time and somehow, she’d made him believe as well.

She’d been so, so right. Her faith in him cracked a hole in the ceiling and let him see the sky for the first time and he’d loved her for it. Seeing her today was particularly poignant, because she’d recognized him, after a fashion. She’d remembered him, after all these years.

A quick perusal of a dictionary site revealed the word of the day, caterwaul. Eddie knew what that meant, but just to be sure, he listened to the definition. Every day, he vowed to find a way to use each new word he learned. Caterwaul should be easy. That was a nice word for how Skippy and Kim usually bitched each other out at the end of a work day.

“Stop your caterwauling,” he practiced.

His phone rang, and he glanced at it. Lucy’s face, pink and softly rounded, smiled at him. He shifted his earphones to answer, “Hey Lucy loo-loo, whatcha up to?”

“Uh…” A very masculine voice responded, and Eddie sat straight up in his chair.

“Is Lucy okay?” Eddie demanded, imagining all sorts of awful scenarios. With the business he was in, he didn’t even have to imagine — he’d seen them all. “Is she–”

“No, she’s fine, she’s perfectly safe. This is her teacher, Mr. Daley. She let me use her phone so I could call you.” There was a lot of background noise, children playing, Eddie assumed. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“It’s fine. I probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” Eddie heard the sound of a door closing and less background noise. “What can I do for you?”

“I guess I wondered how Mrs. Henderson is doing. That is her name, right? You were amazing, how you handled her.”

“Well…”

“You were so gentle with her. She really responded to that. There could have been a big scene, and instead…You were awesome.”

“Wow. Thank you. I–”

“Is she going to be all right?”

“Yes. I took her to the hospital. She had a seizure while we were waiting and they admitted her. I don’t know anything else yet.”

“A seizure? That’s not good, is it?”

“I don’t think so, no.” Eddie shifted papers on his desk, straining for something useful to say. “It’s not, probably.”

“Were you really in her class all those years ago?”

“Yes,” Eddie leaned back. “She was my third grade teacher.”

“That’s wild. I don’t think any of my little ducklings remember me after summer vacation.”

“I’m sure they do.” I never stop thinking about you, anyway. “I can’t believe she remembered me.”

“You must have stood out somehow?” Andrew asked. “Were you a bit of a trouble maker?”

“Maybe.” Eddie thought back to those confusing early years of elementary school. How angry he’d been that he never got things right. How hard every single lesson seemed once he got it home and had to do it by himself. “She had a real nice touch. I was crazy about her.”

“That’s nice.”

“I’m going to do what I can to help her.”

“You’re going to think I’m awfully nosy, but Lucy told me you clean up dead people. Are you in the death care industry?”

“No. I…” This is where a lot of guys stepped off the ride. “I’m a partner in a trauma scene cleaning company. We clean crime scenes, suicides, traffic accidents. Anywhere there’s likely to be biological waste or–”

A cough. “Whoa, okay. That’s…I’ve never met anyone who does that. People really do that?”

Andrew didn’t sound disgusted…yet. Eddie minimized things. “I do. I mean my company does. We’re called The Brother’s Grime. You know… for when life’s not a fairy tale?”

Andrew practically purred. “Oh, my God, that’s amazing.”

“I uh…Most people think it’s kind of gross.” Eddie waited to hear if that was the case with Andrew. “The coroner takes the decedent from the scene, the police process it. Someone has to clean up after.

“How could anyone think that’s gross. Imagine if you didn’t. I guess I never thought about what would happen if–”

“Most people don’t think about it until something tragic happens to them.” Silence stretched out between them.

“Well…I’m going to have to go in a minute because recess is nearly over.”

Say something, say something, you’re going to miss your chance. “Oh. Okay.” Estupido!

“Hey. I was thinking. Tonight’s my book club. We’re reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. Have you read it?”

Again with the books. “That was a movie, wasn’t it?”

“You haven’t read it then? I thought maybe you could–”

“I saw the old black and white film — the one with Angela Lansbury.”

A brief pause. “It’s not the same as the book.”

“I don’t suppose so.” Eddie cursed his inability to say with any certainty. And he still wasn’t sure he could ask the man out. “I saw the film when I was a kid.”

“Okay. Well.”

“Look, do you — maybe — want to get a cup of coffee some time and tell me about…the books you like?”

“Yes.” The enthusiasm in Andrew’s voice took Eddie completely by surprise. “I have some time this afternoon. Are you busy? I get off here around 4:15”

“This afternoon?”

“Too sudden?” Andrew asked. “Yeah, I guess it’s–”

“No, I can do that. Want to meet somewhere at 4:30?”

“How about Stomping Grounds on Chapman, by the high school, is that good?”

“Yeah.” Eddie smiled into the phone. “That’s great. See you then.”

“See you.”

~*~

And finally, I want to thank everyone for wishing me a happy birthday. I had a GREAT day. It was just magical. I took my son to see the Gay Men’s Chorus Of Los Angeles, who were joined by Stephen Schwartz and Liz Callaway for music from Schwartz’s musicals (including Godspell, Pippin, The Prince Of Egypt, Pocahontas, and Wicked.) The chorus was wonderful and there was a reception for Mr. Schwartz afterward, so my son and I got to meet him and tell him how much  his music has meant to us over the years. The GMCLA also performed Testimony, a number inspired by the It Get’s Better Project. Here’s the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus singing it. The song is taken from, and inspired by, actual It Get’s Better messages. Get your tissues.

Filed Under: real life, Reviews Tagged With: Grime, Real Life, reviews

Notes from the wreckage…

March 1, 2012 by Z.A. Maxfield

On A Personal Note…

Many of you probably heard we had a pretty significant house fire at the end of January. It’s hard to conceive of how much something like that can change your life! If I used to take for granted that I had a nice home to live in, that my kids could walk to school and to visit with their friends, and that as long as I worked hard and kept things up very little would change, I am now thoroughly disabused of that notion.

We’ve been living in a residence hotel for about four weeks now, and have taken a lease on an apartment (small, but it will suit our needs) for about six months while they make repairs to our house. Between asbestos abatement, having to rebuild the garage entirely and de-smokifying the house itself, it’s a huge project, as smoke apparently moves through the attic and walls and pours out like water from behind things like outlets, medicine cabinets, light and faucet fixtures, and it saturates everything with this toxic miasma that has to be got rid of before we can move back.

There is a staggering amount of work to be done. Thank heavens I’m not the one to be doing it! Thanks to everyone who expressed their best wishes, and all the kind notes I’ve received about this. My family is pretty adaptable so far, the kids treat these things like adventures and not crises, but I imagine our enforced captivity into a space half the size of our house might prove to be complicated over the long haul. Wish Us LUCK!

P.S. I’m registered for GayRomLit in Albuquerque! I hope to see you there!

On A writerly Note:

Lots of you noticed that two books are missing from my backlist, Family Unit, and The Long Way Home. The rights to those two books reverted back to me, so I’m re-editing (I have honed my skills since I wrote those, I hope, and I’ll be giving them a critical once over) and commissioning new covers for them, and then I’ll be re-releasing them sometime this spring. Stay tuned for those! To find blurbs, excerpts, and buy links to all my available books CLICK ON THE BOOK COVERS OR THE TITLES ON MY BOOKS PAGE.

In the meantime I’m working on three different projects (One of which I’m co-writing with the knockout talent of none other than Heidi Cullinan, so that should be something!)

A Picture Perfect Holiday, released by MLR Press in November, and Secret Light from publisher Loose Id in December, are my latest releases. Secret Light is the #3 Top Ebook at Fictionwise today, 3/1/2012, and they’ve both been getting some great reviews, including a Night Owl Reviews Top Pick, so thanks to everyone who helped in making this book a success.

Among other things, they said:

“Secret Light is, for me, about trying to fit in at a time when certain differences can not only be unhealthy, but deadly. It is also a story of finding your way to happiness, love and friendship.

A truly wonderful read.”

I’m also expanding The Artist’s Model and giving it a virtual facelift. It will be re-released by MLR press, who is also releasing a single print book containing my two novellas, Stirring Up Trouble and All Stirred Up. Look for something a little bit extra (and fun) there.

As always, thanks to you, my readers and friends. Your letters and comments keep me on my toes and working hard. Thanks for your support!

 

Filed Under: Blog, Breaking News!, real life

My day in the sun!

December 13, 2008 by Z.A. Maxfield

I woke this morning to discover, alas, that my day in the sun is over.  Still, considering I never imagined in a million years I’d ever make the top ten of ANYTHING, at all, getting to number one at All Romance Ebooks for twenty-four hours was more than fun.  

Did you ever have one of those days when every news headline from “Jellyfish Gone Wild” to “California Plans to Control Emissions” just cracks you the hell up?  Or a simple misreading of something or being interrupted makes them seem funny?  Like “Protect Your Most Valuable Asset“.  

My family is putting up Christmas lights, and naturally, all four of my men are screaming at each other.  It’s kind of that time of year.  “Shut up, don’t know you know this is a dang joyous family event?!!”  During the annual lighting of the house, my daughter and I hide in my bedroom like the family Frank.  I’m sorry, now, that I didn’t write a Christmas-themed story.  I am sure to rectify that for the coming year, because I like Christmas and have always made an effort to make it as special as possible.  Now that the children aren’t little anymore that has become harder, what with everyone wanting to go everywhere with their friends and liking their music better than carols.  It’s becoming more difficult to involve them in family activities that don’t have to do with them getting cash.  

It’s fun to remember though, back to my own childhood, that when my parents were saying the same things about me I wasn’t gone, I was just different.   

So, tomorrow, the TREE.  Yep.  This will mean housecleaning and possibly cookie baking.  In the mean time I have finished the rough draft, (actually this time I think I really did) of the sequel to St. Nacho’s, and next week I will be working on my one other WIP, ePistols at Dawn and then, perhaps, I can submit them and spend Christmas doing something else besides worrying about work. 

And for Aidara because Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Korean boy bands or colorful scooters…

Filed Under: real life, The Long Way Home, writers, writing Tagged With: The Long Way Home

Tis The Season

December 9, 2008 by Z.A. Maxfield

At last, a blog entry that has nothing to do with me, me, me.  (sort of)

Tis the Season for FOOD PORN.  I just got my Williams-Sonoma catalog in the mail, and even though I’m actually under the weather today in a way that makes food sound… well… like a good idea someday maybe I can’t help but look at all the lovely pictures.  This year’s catalog is actually slimmer than I’ve ever seen it. Perhaps it’s a sign that people aren’t into importing giant wheels of cheese from England and France this year.  Less caviar.  Less ostentation.  There seems to be a general consensus that breakfast is still a good thing since there’s a waffle iron on the cover.

Perhaps it’s come to your attention, those of you who have read my books, that I have something of a… cooking kink.  It doesn’t make it’s way into all my books, no.  But my first was a Y/A novel about a boy who was a masterful violin prodigy but wanted to go to the CIA.  (Culinary Institute of America.)  My characters make fritattas.  They boil sugar syrup.  They ignite sauces after pan frying steaks. They know what wine will go with dinner and would not ever, as I read recently in a book, leave the beer in a cooler while eating pulled pork barbecue (in TEXAS where beef is usually king but okay, I could go with pork) in order to drink champagne with it.  

So yeah.  Food kink.  Which is bizarre because I staged a total makeover of my kitchen two years ago today, which cost, I dunno, I’d hate to say it, but I wouldn’t mind having it back, to put in nice equipment, gorgeous stone countertops, maple cabinetry with glass insert, mood lighting, and all the usual trimmings, and never put all my stuff back into it.  No.  I started WRITING, and never got around to cooking.  We’ve eaten a lot of fast food lately.  Lots of pre-made stuff.  Frankly?  It shows.  My children are so hungry for a good meal they actually started asking me to cook.  No mommy please, no more fast food!

Yes!  I will cook.  As soon as I get my 100 cookbooks down from the attic where I stored them when they redid my kitchen.  Oh, and a little aside?  The bookshelf they put in the kitchen?  NOT big enough to hold my cookbooks.  Not just the number, the size.  The new shelves in my kitchen are exactly perfect for holding the hundreds of manga that my children collect.  Anything taller?  Like Julia Child’s The Way To Cook, which I need, along with Joy of Cooking at a moment’s notice day or night?  Nope.  Not going to fit.  Anywhere.  Which is an ongoing problem in this house.  

My Christmas Cooking Gift to you, though, is this.  Epicurious.  Every recipe you ever wanted, anything from soup to nuts to nut soups, you will find at that website.  These are my Christmas Cookies.  I make them every year when I make Christmas cookies at all.  These are the most like the cookies my Austrian father taught me to make, from my Grandmother Elsie’s recipes. Oma’s recipe called for things to be measured in pounds and the cup of your hand and a whole bunch of other odd things like, no actual measurements at all.  We need a pensieve.   That recipe comes from the 1995 issue of Gourmet magazine.  That basic butter cookie dough can be made into several different types of cookies, and if you go to Epicurious, you can search for butter cookies, find any and all cookies from that issue of gourmet, and they’ll probably all be made with the same dough.  Each batch of dough makes two types of cookies.  

Can you make cookies that don’t use pounds of unsalted butter, egg yolks, sugar, and pale white flour; in short, can you make cookies that won’t kill you?  Yes.  But for the holidays, I want to go home.  I want to pull out the old tin cookie cutters and the sprinkles and try to remind myself what it was like when my parents’ family was together, the tree smelled like an actual tree (and not a reed diffuser), and the kitchen smelled like something that didn’t come from taco bell.

Maybe food porn was a little misleading.  Maybe you were thinking about that Nine1/2 Weeks scene with the blindfold.  Nope.  Maybe I should have said ‘culinary porn’.  Because this time of year, when the catalogs come out, and the December issue of Gourmet hits the stands it’s not unusual for me to take the phone off the hook, put away the computer, send the kids to the movies with their dad, and just… *sighs* dream a little.

Happy cooking!

Filed Under: real life, Uncategorized

Let the tournament begin!

November 1, 2008 by Z.A. Maxfield

Welcome to November, the month of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.  Five people in my family, aged ten through, well… my age, are signed up to participate, and we began at midnight last night PST, with a Halloween candy infused burst of creativity that left us surly and dragging and kvetchy when SOMEBODY set off the security system at 6:00 a.m.  Somebody owes me caffeine.

Feel free to sign up and join NaNoWriMo, it’s a fun and creative way to stretch yourself beyond your boundaries.  If you are signed up, buddy me, and I’ll celebrate your accomplishments as well.  The only stipulation is to have fun, I think.  At least that’s what it is for me.

Meanwhile, never fear that I will be letting edits go undone.  My release schedule for the next few months should be solidifying and as soon as I have more information I’ll pass it along.

Thanks again for all your support!

~ZAM~

Filed Under: real life, writers, writing Tagged With: The Long Way Home

ROCK THE VOTE!

October 13, 2008 by Z.A. Maxfield

Click on this link to register to vote. In California you have to register before Oct. 20th.

Register to Vote: Rock the Vote, powered by Credo Mobile

Filed Under: real life Tagged With: civic duty, elections

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