About Me

In 2020, I was laid off from my job of six years because of COVID 19, so now I practice social distancing and use my time to write more fiction. My world feels a little smaller since the interactions I once enjoyed in my daily life have gone away. If I could have anything I want related to this site and my daily posts, it would be that friends and family and people from all over would read and comment. I’ve greatly reduced social media activity because of its abundance of toxicity. I don’t need that in my life. This is a site for tolerance. Comments are always welcome, but I reserve the right to delete anything that expresses a view of intolerance, hate, or extreme discourtesy. Please play nice.

Sometimes I pre-write posts and schedule them to publish on days like Button Sunday, Mindful Monday, and Tiny Tuesday. I share this to point out that whatever is going on in the outside world, a post may publish in the middle of the night that makes it seem like I’m oblivious. I’m never oblivious, even if I sometimes wish it could be true.

This is a dog- and toy-friendly site. It’s random, even when I impose order on it. It’s whatever I see, read, think, listen to, or am doing on any given day. I post every day as a way of keeping up with the years. As I get older, having a little recap helps fill in the memory gaps. Thank you for reading here, and I enjoy reading your comments, thoughts, and reactions.

CURRENT WRITING: In 2019, I made the decision to rewrite fiction I began when I was a teenager, addressed again in my early twenties, and once more in my thirties. At that point, I wrote three (unpublished) novels that had common connections but focused on different characters. When those characters began surfacing in my thoughts in 2019, I wondered how their stories would change based on how I’ve changed through the decades. It turns out: A LOT. The first novel, that in earlier years was rewritten at least three times, has now turned into a series of seven novels, and counting. My characters had far more detailed/complex lives than I’d ever explored, and I fell and fell hard for them, the good and the not-so-good. They’re more layered, their stories more nuanced, and they surprise me all the time. I think this happened because after co-writing fiction with other writers who also surprised me, I became less rigid about my writing and more willing to let storytelling happen organically.

I don’t know if this series will ever be appealing to a publisher, and I don’t care. When I think the novels are ready, I’ll find a way to make them available to any interested readers.

About my previous work: I write fiction. My novel A Coventry Christmas, a contemporary romance, was released in October 2006. My second solo effort, A Coventry Wedding, was released in January 2009. Both books are from Zebra.

My Timothy James Beck writing partners and I wrote It Had To Be You, He’s The One, I’m Your Man, Someone Like You, and When You Don’t See Me (all from Kensington).

My writing partner Timothy J. Lambert and I wrote The Deal, published by Alyson in 2004, and Three Forunes In One Cookie, under the name Cochrane Lambert, from Alyson, 2005.

Timothy and I also edited anthologies of romantic stories from brilliant veteran and new writers: Fool For Love: New Gay Fiction (February 2009), Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction (January 2014), and Best Gay Romance 2014 (February 2014), all from Cleis Press.

About my life: In 2015 my husband and I packed up our possessions and loved ones and moved from The Compound to Houndstooth Hall. We have four quirky dogs–little Anime, who is always full of love and happiness even with her Addison’s disease; the delightful dachshund mix Delta, who we adopted in early 2016 and who loves Uma Thurmond; [Just] Jack, who makes every other dog look well-behaved by comparison–he’s complicated; and Eva Ruby, a batshit crazy chihuahua who sings like Mariah Carey on helium. Our dachshunds, Pete and Stevie, who died only a week apart in 2000 of unrelated illnesses, and Margot and Guinness, who died in 2015 and 2016 after living into graceful old age, gave us years of loyal companionship, for which we’ll always be grateful.

The Houndstooth Hall property also includes our family: in Fairy Cottage, where Debby lives, and Fox Den, home of Timothy J. Lambert and his dog Pollock “LG” Lambert.