Treadmill desk failure: Editing and Synopsis Writing! And a longer excerpt from Book 3 of the Least Likely Partnership Series.

The list of things I can't do while walking on a treadmill includes: writing by hand, making paper airplanes, applying makeup, snacking on messy things, and effective parenting. But editing and synopsis writing are the important epic-fail items on the list.

While The Intersection of Purgatory and Paradise has been done for a couple of weeks, every time I tried to use my homemade treadmill desk to edit it, I got horribly distracted by something cute, shiny, yummy looking, or another damn facebook personality quiz.  I found myself wondering if I was always this air headed while sitting at a desk. Then ten seconds later I found myself trying to find a recipe for vegan loaded potato skins I might have all of the ingredients to make. And fifteen seconds later giving up on reading the list of ingredients and, once again, making cupcakes.

Walking while writing tends to let my mind wander, to follow whatever creative path it's inclined to explore (hello tattoo artists story!), and to really push through difficult scenes. Provided my fingers can keep up, it seems to facilitate my desire write whatever the hell comes into my head. But I become absolute shit at detail-oriented tasks requiring analysis and organization. (It also hasn't helped me lose weight but I'm blaming that on the cupcakes.)

So, I stopped being stubborn, moved to the kitchen table, and got the manuscript proofread, summarized, and sent out to DSP. Assuming they like it (HERE'S TO POSITIVE THINKING!!!!) it should be available in May/June of next year! I went ahead and posted a longer, but still rough, excerpt HERE.

My treadmill desk adventure continues, although my body has decided five miles a day is the point at which it wants to start bitching, via shin splints and swelling, about being abused. Sitting all day might be slowly killing us all, but walking all day hurts.

CHATTING WITH GAY ROMANCE AUTHOR JAMIE LAKE!

Today I'm welcoming fellow m/m author Jamie Lake, author of the Boyfriend for Rent and the Marked for Love series, to talk about her newest Bad Boy release!

For those who aren’t familiar with the Bad Boy series, tell us about it? It’s the story of a really hot teacher who becomes desperate for money when his hours are cut and the only choice he has is to moonlight as an erotic masseuse for men. The problem is, he has to keep his profession a secret from the school and it’s right when he meets the guy of his dreams, who happens to be not only one of his student’s dads but also a cop.

You have about 4 different series running right now, how do you juggle all the storylines? It’s not easy. But I try to focus on just one series at a time. I put my whole heart, soul, tears into each novel I write and I try to focus on just that novel. It’s like trying to date more than one person at a time, it can be done but it’s real hard. Believe me, before I met my partner, I tried. If you really want to have a great novel or relationship, you really have to put your everything into that one. That’s what I believe, anyway.

When you come up with an idea to write a novel or a series, how do you go from idea to completed book? Well, lately I take something that’s happened to me or someone I know and sort ask myself what if ….? And I think to myself, what would make this situation even more intense or more emotional for my readers. Then I write a loose outline and start writing. When I say outline, it’s usually just a few sentences about what I think each chapter will be about and I write, typos and all. I don’t look back while I write. That’s why when I do read the entire thing, I think “wow! Did I write that?” then it’s off to my editor or co-writer depending on the story to fill in the details. I love storytelling but other people are much better at prose than I am, so I let them do their job. Then I read the whole thing from beginning to end, making it better along the way and it’s off to the copyeditor and my beta-readers. It’s a system that seems to have worked for me so far.

People have a lot of choices for m/m, at last count, I saw there were something like 25,000 m/m titles out there from years past, what makes this Bad Boy series so different? Well, that’s the thing there are thousands of titles available but there are at least a million or so m/m readers out there and new readers are born every day. There more than enough readers to around for everyone. That’s why I like supporting other m/m authors, we can introduce our readers to each other and each other’s books.

Your style in Bad Boy is very simple but descriptive. How do you decide what type of style or voice you’re going to use for each story. Well, I think a novel sings to me. A lot of times, I’ll take a real long walk and I’ll almost hear how a certain scene should be written. A statement or a question will pop out and I think to myself, “That’d make a great opening line or beginning of one character’s dialogue.”

What is your greatest dream for the Bad Boy series? Wow. I’d absolutely love it if readers demanded the story continue on past Book 5, if they were emotionally invested in the characters. I’d love to write a parallel series of Chip and his son and his life and what happened before he met Peter. If readers want that, I’ll do exactly that.

Where can we get a copy of Bad Boy? You can get it exclusively on Amazon or email me at JamieLakeNovels AT gmail.

Thank you, Jamie, for sharing a bit about the series with us! And for the drool-worthy tattoos cover art:)