So it’s Monday night, or more accurately Tuesday morning and that little bugger, menopause, just sent a heat wave through my body. I open one of my bleary eyes and flip open my iPad to look at the time. Okay maybe that’s a little fib, I’m checking Facebook and e-mail because it’s Monday night and my wife isn’t there to keep me in check.

I blink a few times and notice a flurry of congratulations, a tag on my timeline, and posts on various sites—my favorite baby (Locked Inside) is a Goldie Finalist for the Contemporary Romance category. A couple of thoughts run through my head, okay maybe it’s a mistake, after all it is a literary society, not a math club. They got the scoring wrong. And then the panic sets in….

Crap, I just posted earlier that I would be revealing some exciting news the next day. Somebody out there is going to think I had the inside scoop, or worse yet, I somehow rigged the results. My announcement had nothing to do with the Goldie’s, but how was I to know they would post the results at the same time that my podcast interview with Marion Dries of Women and Words would come out. Yep, that was my exciting news. Side note:  Marion managed to temper my overall dorkiness. Thank you Marion.

 

Podcast 

I hastened to clarify that the Goldie finalist announcement was not my exciting news on my Facebook page. I sure hope everyone believed me because I can 100% guarantee that the news was a big surprise. In fact surprise is an understatement, I believe I went into shock!

Now…I want to be completely transparent and confess to the fact that I’ve been dishonest exactly twice in my life. The first time was at the ripe old age of three. Grocery stores should never have those open bins of candy because they encourage budding criminals like myself. I plucked that tempting piece of candy (I’ve always had a serious sweet tooth) from the bin and shoved it in my little pocket, creating a noticeable bulge. Uh, uh, uh, don’t go there…yes I did receive my butch card, but no, I’ve never packed…. When my father noticed the pooch in my pocket, he nipped my blossoming life of crime in the bud by making me give it back and then promptly swatting my little butt. I never stole again. Look at that innocent face…would I do something wrong?

The second act of dishonesty and defiance occurred when I was fifteen and let my friend cheat off my paper in Latin class. In my defense, she was hot and believe me there were no other hot girls in a Latin class. Yep, I was the quintessential nerd. That little slip of virtue earned me an F on the test and a lecture from my parents. I still ended up with an A in Latin, but I had to represent my school in some big statewide Latin competition. See nerd comment above. I bet you never even heard of a Latin competition, did you? I swear they did exist when I was in high school and I was a key member of the team.

Since thenI’ve mended my wicked ways and I would never get involved with anything nefarious so you have to believe me that others found this out well before I did.

So what does this have to do with my bucket list? Well…I think (sometimes I forget what I’ve shared before) I may have mentioned that I have two writing related items on my bucket list and one of them is being a Goldie Finalist. The other is hitting the #1 spot on Amazon Lesbian romance (even if it is only for a nanosecond). I took great pleasure is crossing this off my list.

In all seriousness, I’ve had a great week, but none of this would have been possible if the wonderful women at Affinity e-book press had not taken a chance on me. Erin for her continued mentoring, Julie for her keen sense of what’s a good story and what is crap, and Nancy for her butt-kicking covers (which coincidentally Locked Inside is on the short list). The other three women who really ought to share in this honor are my editors: Kay Carney, Nat Burns, and Alexis Smith. In the famous words of my wife, “I’m not reading it until it goes through the final editing because it’s so much better after it’s been edited.” I’m paraphrasing, but it was pretty darn close to what she said.

Oh…and with these two wonderful events this past week I was a two time virgin once again. God, I am absolutely loving losing my virginity so much this year.

If you haven’t had a chance to read Locked Inside, I hope you’ll take the chance now because apparently it’s pretty good according to GCLS.

 

Amazon – Locked Inside   Affinity – Locked Inside  Bella Books – Locked Inside

 

Affinity Author Page         Amazon Author Page