Kate McMurray's Blog, page 10

Coming Up in 2016

As we all come down from our holiday highs, I thought it might be fun to give a little sneak peek at what’s on tap for 2016:

Books:

My Gilded Age historical, Ten Days in August hits shelves in March. It’s one of Publisher’s Weekly’s top ten romances for the spring, and I gratuitously stole this photo from someone on Twitter because the article is behind the paywall now. (PS: There’s a Goodreads giveaway where you can enter to win a copy of the paperback. You have until the end of the month to enter!)

Then in July, my Dreamspun Desires book, called The Greek Tycoon’s Green Card Groom, will be available for you all to get your grabby hands on.

Also sometime in the summer, Dreamspinner is putting out a shiny new edition of The Boy Next Door.

I’ve got one other secret thing up my sleeve, too, but you will have to wait for news on that.

Devin December: Epilogue

The original draft of Devin December had an epilogue from Devin’s POV, but my editor thought, and I agreed, that it was too jarring and different from the rest of the book and that it didn’t really fit. However, I am going to make it available to you all for your reading pleasure. You can also download a PDF to make your reading easier. Needless to say, spoilers abound.

Epilogue

Next Christmas

“Ladies and gentlemen, Devin Delaney!”

I walked up to the dais, feeling intimidated and wishing Andy was there. It’s not like I was a stranger to speech-making; I’d won two Golden Globes, after all. Not to tout my own credentials; I’m just saying that this speech made me more nervous than having to accept my first award.

Andy should have been there. It was absolutely pouring rain in New York, and so it was icy in Boston, and the flight he was working, which was supposed to have landed with plenty of time for him to make it to this charity dinner, had been delayed. He’d texted me that the flight was about to take off about five minutes before I was called up to talk, so I was optimistic he’d make it to the cocktail party being thrown in my honor later in the evening, but I could do a cocktail party. I wasn’t sure I could get up in front of three hundred strangers and talk about myself.

The dinner was a fundraiser for a charity that worked with LGBT youth. I had almost turned them down when they asked me to be their keynote speaker, but Andy had talked me into it. I had never aspired to be an activist, but now that I was out of the closet, it didn’t feel like I had much choice. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Andy by my side, and I could only do that if I was open about it.

The audience was going nuts as I walked to the podium, which gave me enough time to take a deep breath and gather my thoughts.

When the commotion died down, I stepped up to the microphone.

“Good evening.” I looked around the room. They’d dimmed the lights in the hotel ballroom enough that I couldn’t see the audience very well. That was probably for the best. I pulled out my notes. I’d actually written this whole speech out and let Andy read it and make changes twice, and I’d tried to memorize it the way I did lines in a movie, but things were different when it was personal.

“I imagine most of you here know my story,” I said, “but here’s the short version. I’ve known I’m gay since I was about thirteen. I’ve known I wanted to be an actor since long before that. When I was growing up in the eighties and nineties, these two things seemed incompatible. There were no out gay actors for me to look up to, or if there were, they were relegated to minor parts. When my first movie hit theaters, marriage equality was still a dream. So I made choices. I’m not proud of all of them. Some of them may have been the wrong choices. I dated women. I lied. I did these things in the interest of keeping my career thriving, and it did thrive.”

I saw a few nods in the audience. This was a friendly group, all LGBT people and allies, but this was still incredibly hard to say.

“I regret the lies,” I said. “Lying is like a spider web, I think. It catches you, and the harder you try to extricate yourself, the more you get entangled. And I lied to everyone. I lied to my family, I lied to the public, I lied to my girlfriend, I lied to myself. The more lies I told, the worse it got, the more miserable I was. And then last Thanksgiving, I got snowed in at LaGuardia during that huge blizzard?” I waited for the murmurs of familiarity. “What could have been the worst Thanksgiving ever became the best because I met a man named Andy at the airport who is the greatest guy I’ve ever gotten to know. Falling in love with him made me want things to be different, not just for myself, but for anyone trapped in a similar situation.”

I took a deep breath and looked down at my notes. I was about halfway through the speech. I wanted to run screaming off the stage, but I gripped the edge of the podium to steady myself and kept going.

“It’s sad that it took me accidentally finding a happy relationship to want to change my life. I should have wanted something different for myself all along, but I felt like I wasn’t worthy.” I had to read this part. I couldn’t look at the audience. “I came out last year for Andy, because he deserved to be with someone who wouldn’t hide him in a closet. But I also came out for myself, because I was tired of the lies, and they were slowly killing me. And now I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”

I paused to move on to the next bit, but the ballroom erupted in applause. I looked up and saw a sea of dimly lit smiling faces. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“It’s been a good year,” I said when the roar died down. “Well, not all of it has been great. I’ve gotten some hate mail, stuff so vile I don’t even want to repeat it. My agent dropped me. I’ve lost parts I was up for. My mother was mad at me for a long time. I thought it was because I was gay, but she was actually angry that I’d come out on the Internet before talking to her.” That was true. My mother had come around quickly once we’d had an honest conversation. She wasn’t very comfortable with the gay thing, but she’d come to terms with it. She loved me no matter what, she said. And she found Andy adorable. “But for the most part, the support I’ve gotten from friends and family and fans has been amazing. Being able to take Andy to movie premieres and award shows and hold his hand on the red carpet has been wonderful. And now that I can be honest, I don’t have that cloud of fear that I’ll be discovered constantly hanging over my head anymore.”

There was more applause. So this was not going so badly. I was still glad I was almost finished.

“I never wanted to be an activist,” I went on, “but I can’t help but think about all the kids sitting at home wondering if there’s something wrong with them or thinking they aren’t worthy of love. My coming out was selfish, and I will admit that. I did it so that I could be with the man I love. But maybe a happy side effect is all those kids who will see me and think, ‘Hey, if it’s okay for Devin Delaney to be gay, maybe it’s okay for me, too.’” I took a deep breath. “I want to tell those kids that yes, it is okay. Be who you are. Find your own happiness. Don’t let the hateful people in our society bring you down.”

The applause was raucous and enthusiastic. I smiled.

I finished up, though. I had to cut out the end of the speech and improvise this part. “Andy’s flight was delayed, so he’s not here right now, and I kind of feel like I left my right arm at home. But I wanted to thank you all for welcoming me today, and if my presence here helped raise more money for this great organization, then I’m glad I could help in a small way. Thank you.”

The applause followed me back to my seat, which was between Andy’s empty chair and my new agent, a woman named Lori who was a much better fit for me than my old agent had been. She rubbed my arm and congratulated me on the speech.

The night carried on. There were two other speakers that I only half listened to. The time that I expected Andy to land came and went without a text message.

I wondered if he’d go home to change first. Back in February, I bought an apartment on the Upper East Side and moved Andy into it, all the while getting an earful about how he wanted to pay rent or at least be a contributing member of the household in some way. It took some bargaining. I mean, really, he didn’t even have to work; I could continue to support both of us until we were old and gray even if I never made another movie. But I understood he needed to keep working for his own sanity. So I paid for the apartment, but we split everything else, and we got a nice place to live that was convenient to LaGuardia out of the deal.

I didn’t make the decision to move to New York lightly, but honestly, I’d always kind of hated LA. After almost a year in New York, I was glad to be living in place that had seasons, for one thing. New York also had less artifice, less smog, and fewer people trying to crowd me to get my autograph. I did get asked to sign things if I sat still in a restaurant long enough, and I got my picture taken by hidden paparazzi plenty—Andy did, too—but for the most part, people left me alone in a way they hadn’t when I lived in LA. I went to fewer industry parties, but I got to go to the Met Gala with Andy, and that was a better trade-off because it had been so much fun to dress up and gawk at fashion with him. Really, the only downside to the move was that a movie shoot could take me away from Andy for weeks at a time, and I still had to go to LA so often that I kept an apartment there.

He came with me as often as was feasible. He worked fewer hours now than he had when we met, because he didn’t need the money he’d earned from working extra shifts. He typically only worked three days a week. That meant he could tag along to LA when I had to go for meetings, he came with me to the Oscars, and I dragged him to two movie premieres. His face was well-known enough now that gossip websites posted photos of us with captions calling him by his full name. He hated that. I knew he mourned his privacy and anonymity, but he told me it was worth it to be with me.

Basically, I thought about him nonstop through the whole rest of the dinner and told my tablemates about him even though they probably wanted to hear about my next film. Eventually, I explained that Red Skies, the Civil War movie I’d had a small but significant part in, would be out the following spring, and I was indeed playing a gay soldier who was married to the film’s protagonist but in love with another soldier. There was no onscreen hanky-panky, not even a kiss, just a lot of longing glances. I had asked Andy what he would have thought about me kissing another man in a movie, and he admitted he’d probably be wild with jealousy—more so than when he saw me kiss women—but he’d understand it was part of the job.

It was strange how the media portrayed me now. Websites combed through my backlist of films and looked at every relationship I’d ever had. One website had put up a post called “We knew all along” that included a lot of photos of me goofing around with my male friends when I was in my twenties as “evidence” I’d been into dudes. I’d been paired with men I’d never even met and it was reported that we’d been in secret relationships. The gossip drove Andy nuts, but he was a good sport about it. Mostly I just tried to ignore it.

Finally dinner ended, and many of the guests drifted away. A small number of invited guests were herded over to a sectioned-off part of the hotel bar for cocktails. I still hadn’t heard from Andy and was getting worried. I tried calling, but it went to voice mail. I went so far as to excuse myself from the festivities to check headlines on my phone. No news of plane crashes, so hopefully he was alive, at least. But where the hell was he?

I made small talk with the other guests and tried to accept compliments on my speech without getting too bashful about it. Some guy hit on me, and I tried to let him down gently.

And then, finally, Andy walked into the bar.

He’d recently bleached his hair white blond, a look I wasn’t completely sure I was on board with, but he looked good now in neatly creased gray trousers and a bright red sweater. His cheeks were pink, presumably from the cold outside. He looked fantastic. It was all I could do not to run across the bar to greet him.

He spotted me after a moment and smiled as we made eye contact. I beckoned for him to enter the roped-off area. He did by gracefully ducking under the velvet ropes.

And then he was in my arms, exactly where he belonged, and I hugged him tightly, as if I hadn’t seen him in weeks, even though I’d woken up beside him that morning.

Andy being Andy, he hugged me back just as tight.

“How did it go?” he asked as he pulled away.

“It went well, I think. I didn’t flub the speech too badly.”

“I’m so sorry I got delayed. I had to change at the airport, then I had trouble getting a cab, and traffic is just awful right now.”

“It’s okay,” I said, taking his hand. “You’re here now.”

I led him around and introduced him to people. A number of my friends had scored invites to the cocktail hour, so this crowd was friendlier and more familiar to me than the dinner had been. Andy had met most of my close friends, but there were a few people there he hadn’t met yet.

Eventually I surreptitiously had the bartender pour some champagne, and I turned to Andy.

“There was one part of the speech I had to change since you weren’t there,” I said.

“Oh?”

“It’s hard to sing your praises if you’re not listening.”

“Sing them anyway.” He grinned.

“Well.” I took my notes out of my pocket. “This is what I was going to say. It was a last-minute addition, by the way, so you didn’t see this in any of my drafts.”

“Uh-oh,” said Andy, though he smiled.

People had started to gather around us.

From the speech, I read, “I want to introduce you all to Andrew Weston, the best thing that ever happened to me.” I gestured toward Andy. “This is the part where you’d stand up and be embarrassed.”

“Har har,” he said, looking at me warily.

Back to the speech: “He’s completely changed my life. He helped me see the light when I was lost in the dark. He’s made me happier than I ever imagined I could be. He hasn’t just made me want to be a better man, he’s made me a better man.”

I paused to look at Andy, who was staring at me. There were tears in his eyes.

“This is cheesy as hell,” I said, “but I love him in a way that makes me want to shout it from the rooftops. Instead, I want to say in front of all of you that this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.” I reached into my pocket.

“You didn’t,” Andy gasped, covering his mouth with his fingers.

“Not yet,” I said. “I will now, though. Hey, Andy?” I got down on one knee as I pulled the box out of my pocket. “Will you marry me?”

The box contained two simple platinum bands I’d picked out at a jewelry store staffed by a completely starstruck saleswoman. When I told her I wanted to propose to my boyfriend, she grinned widely and said, “I’ve got just the thing.” And these were just the engagement rings; Andy was in big trouble when we had to pick out the official wedding rings.

If he said yes. I’d been so confident he would, but now doubt was drifting in as he continued to just stand there and stare at me.

His brow was furrowed. “You were going to ask me that in front of a ballroom full of people?”

“If you had been there, yeah.”

He scratched his head. “You’ve come a long way in a year.”

“Um, Andy? Sweetie? Love of my life? You going to answer my question or are you just going to stand there?”

“Oh,” he said, looking puzzled. “Oh! Oh, Devin. Yes! Of course I will!”

I don’t know who moved first, but soon we were hugging tightly again and he kissed me and somehow I managed to put enough distance between us to slip a ring on his finger. People around us clapped.

Andy hugged me again. “I can’t believe this is my life,” he whispered close to my ear. “I mean, the Devin Delaney just asked me to marry him.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too. So much. I would have said yes if you’d asked us in the privacy of our own apartment and I would have said yes if you’d asked in front of a stadium full of people.”

“I’m so glad,” I said. “Merry Christmas, Andy.”

He tightened his hug around me. “Merry Christmas.”

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Devin December is now available!!

Happiest of holiday seasons to you and yours. Why not celebrate with some sweet and sassy romance? My holiday novella Devin December is ready for purchase from your favorite ebook store! Makes a great distraction from your family when they start driving you nuts!

Description:

A freak blizzard strands flight attendant Andy Weston at LaGuardia Airport on Thanksgiving. Tabloid reports about Hollywood It couple Devin Delaney and Cristina Marino breaking up in spectacular fashion keep Andy sane. And then Devin Delaney himself turns up at the gate Andy is working. Against all odds—and because there’s nothing else to do—Andy and Devin begin to talk, immediately connect, and, after Devin confesses the real reason he broke up with Cristina, have a magical night together snowed in at the airport. But the magic ends when Devin boards his flight home the next morning, and Andy assumes it’s over.

Then Devin turns up on his doorstep. Andy is game for a clandestine affair at first—who could turn down one of the hottest men on the planet? But he soon grows tired of being shoved in Devin’s closet. As Christmas approaches, it’s clear that this will never work unless Devin is willing to make some big changes. Devin has a holiday surprise in store—but will it be enough?

Some places you can buy it:

Dreamspinner

Amazon

B&N

All Romance

Holiday bonus: Well, kind of. I threw up an excerpt of my current work in progress up on Tumblr, so if you want a sneaky-sneak peek at a future book, check it out.

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New York at Christmas—Sales, etc.

I’ve been procrastinating over the last couple of days by building this mega Christmas playlist, so I’ve been browsing Spotify for songs, and I’ve noticed there are a lot of songs about New York at Christmas. With good reason; New York has some magic to it at Christmas time. Truth be told, though, I’ve gotten a little cynical the last few years.

For example, this weekend, I went with my sister-in-law to the Union Square holiday market. It was mobbed. I always get nervous there because I got my pocket picked there once a few years ago. But we had a good time and found a lot of good gifts for our family members. Saturday was also SantaCon, an increasingly insane New York tradition wherein 20-somethings dress like Santa and barhop around the city—it’s like St. Patrick’s Day with Santa suits instead of green, and it goes on all day. It’s one of those things I used to find funny, but when we went to lunch, we saw a girl in a Santa suit already totally wasted… at 2 in the afternoon.

But big crowds and drunk Santas notwithstanding, there’s still some magic in the lights and the decorations and some busker playing “Silver Bells” in the subway, and that’s something I try to capture when I write holiday stories set in New York.

So, all that said, two announcements:

1. Dreamspinner Press is celebrating Christmas in New York by putting a bunch of romance novels set in New York on sales for $1 each through the 18th. So you can get your mitts on When the Planets Align, my angsty friends-to-lovers tale, for cheap!

You can also pre-order my upcoming holidays-in-NYC story Devin December from just about anywhere: Dreamspinner, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, etc. A flight attendant and a movie star get snowed in at LaGuardia in the first part, and get to know each other in NYC during December before they have to decide whether to step out of the bubble of the holidays together or let their holiday affair fizzle.

I wish you and yours a stupendous holiday season, no matter what you celebrate!

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Devin December Preorder—’Tis the Season for Holiday Stories!

‘Tis the season for holiday stories! I cracked open my first holiday read of the season over the weekend. So I thought now might be a good time to let you all know what I’ve got on tap, and holiday stories from years past you can read right now!

Devin December is up for preorder from Dreamspinner! (And at All Romance eBooks and hopefully everywhere else soon!) The book will be available 12/23! Here’s the blurb:

A freak blizzard strands flight attendant Andy Weston at LaGuardia Airport on Thanksgiving. Tabloid reports about Hollywood It couple Devin Delaney and Cristina Marino breaking up in spectacular fashion keep Andy sane. And then Devin Delaney himself turns up at the gate Andy is working. Against all odds—and because there’s nothing else to do—Andy and Devin begin to talk, immediately connect, and, after Devin confesses the real reason he broke up with Cristina, have a magical night together snowed in at the airport. But the magic ends when Devin boards his flight home the next morning, and Andy assumes it’s over.

Then Devin turns up on his doorstep. Andy is game for a clandestine affair at first—who could turn down one of the hottest men on the planet? But he soon grows tired of being shoved in Devin’s closet. As Christmas approaches, it’s clear that this will never work unless Devin is willing to make some big changes. Devin has a holiday surprise in store—but will it be enough?

For holiday reads from years past, here is a list of things to help you celebrate a, ahem, McMurray Christmas:

My freebie “In December” about an encounter on the Empire State Building at Christmas is here.

Not strictly Christmas, but I’ve done the snowed-in trope before (it’s one of my favorites!) in Kindling Fire with Snow (available from Dreamspinner and most ebook retailers).

I have a “He was in front of me all along” short called “A Walk in the Dark” (which sounds ominous but is not) in the Dreamspinner 2011 Advent Calendar.

I wrote a little flash fic about love and karaoke called “Let Your Heart Be Light” for a blog tour last year.

That should give you enough holiday content to feat on for a little bit, hopefully! Now to decide if it’s too early in the year to put on Christmas music while I work or I’ll be sick of it by December 15. Hmm. Well, either way, have a great holiday season and HAPPY READING!

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Across the East River Bridge, 2nd ed., now available!

Want something to read while avoiding your family this Thanksgiving? How about a hot award-winning paranormal romance with some ghosts? I’m pleased to announce that Across the East River Bridge is out once again in a shiny new edition that has been lightly revised.

When historian Christopher Finnegan walks into a new museum in Brooklyn, he’s chagrined to learn its curator is his old academic rival, Troy Rafferty. Worse, Troy is convinced the museum is haunted and wants Finn’s help learning more about the ghosts. Finn and Troy have never gotten along and Finn wants to run screaming, but then Troy offers him an intriguing proposal: Troy will help Finn with a research project for his overbearing boss if Finn will help Troy solve a mystery involving two men who died in the building under mysterious circumstances in 1878.

Finn and Troy piece together the two men’s lives—and the quiet romance that grew between them—through diaries, newspaper clippings, and police reports. They’re both soon convinced the men were murdered. They’re also convinced the ghosts are real—even Finn witnesses paranormal phenomena he can’t deny—and that they’re capable of affecting thoughts, feelings, and actions. When Finn and Troy start falling for each other despite years of animosity, Finn worries he’s being manipulated by the ghosts to stay with Troy and solve the case. Troy is convinced the love between them is real, but he’ll need to figure out how to get rid of the ghosts in order to prove it.

Buy it from:

Amazon

Kobo

All Romance eBooks

I’ll keep adding retailers to this list as more sales go live, so if your favorite ebook retailer isn’t up yet, just wait (pending: iBooks, Barnes & Noble).

If you’re a reviewer and would like to request a copy of the book, please fill out this form.

I’m working on paperbacks, too, but those are lagging behind a little. They should be available from most online retailers by mid-December, if you’re looking for a hot stocking stuffer.

Enter to win a copy of Across the East River Bridge, 2nd Ed.!!

Want to win a copy of the book? Enter below!

(Click here to learn more about Across the East River Bridge)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Request a Review Copy of Across the East River Bridge, 2nd Ed.

If you’re a reviewer, I’d like to get a copy of Across the East River Bridge into your hot little hands. Please fill out the form below.

(More information about the book can be found here)

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Cover Reveal: Across the East River Bridge, 2nd Edition

I am super excited to reveal the cover for the second edition of Across the East River Bridge!

Winner of the 2012 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Paranormal

When historian Christopher Finnegan walks into a new museum in Brooklyn, he’s chagrined to learn its curator is his old academic rival, Troy Rafferty. Worse, Troy is convinced the museum is haunted and wants Finn’s help learning more about the ghosts. Finn and Troy have never gotten along and Finn wants to run screaming, but then Troy offers him an intriguing proposal: Troy will help Finn with a research project for his overbearing boss if Finn will help Troy solve a mystery involving two men who died in the building under mysterious circumstances in 1878.

Finn and Troy piece together the two men’s lives—and the quiet romance that grew between them—through diaries, newspaper clippings, and police reports. They’re both soon convinced the men were murdered. They’re also convinced the ghosts are real—even Finn witnesses paranormal phenomena he can’t deny—and that they’re capable of affecting thoughts, feelings, and actions. When Finn and Troy start falling for each other despite years of animosity, Finn worries he’s being manipulated by the ghosts to stay with Troy and solve the case. Troy is convinced the love between them is real, but he’ll need to figure out how to get rid of the ghosts in order to prove it.

—

I’m self-publishing the second edition, which is my first real foray into self-publishing. It’s a little scary! But I hope to make the book available around Thanksgiving, so stay tuned!

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November!

It’s been a really strange couple of months for me, primarily because, at the end of September, I started working from home full time instead of going to an office every day. On the whole, it’s been fantastic, and I’m really happy with my current working situation—not the least because it gives me a lot more time for writing—but all changes have some unexpected challenges. So things have been a little zany around here.

But it’s November, so I decided to do NaNoWriMo. I further decided that, since my workload is lighter in November than it has been in months, that I’d do something really insane and try to write 100,000 words in 30 days.

Here’s the thing with NaNoWriMo. It works for some people, but not everyone, and that’s fine. The thing with writing is that there are as many ways to do it as there are writers, so if you try something that doesn’t work, that’s okay, go try something else. I do think NaNo is good for aspiring writers because it forces you to prioritize writing over other things in order to make the goal, and it makes writing a habit for the month. It also forces you to say, “I’m writing a novel” instead of “I want to write a novel,” and for a month, you’re working toward that goal, getting words down on the page.

One thing I learned about myself through the NaNoWriMo process is that the general idea behind it—get those words down on the page—is super important for me. Since my career training is as an editor, and I’m kind of a control freak anyway, I can get obsessive about word choice and phrasing and I used to get stuck in scenes for days or weeks because they weren’t quite right yet, and then I never finished anything. I also actually really enjoy revising. So writing a rough draft, even if it’s not so great, is still a better strategy for me, because if I have the words down, I can work with that and make the story better in the revision process. (And I tend to do 3–4 passes through something before I think it’s ready for anyone else to see it, but see above about control-freak obsessiveness).

I love hearing about how other writers do it. I’ve heard writers say they write in the afternoon because they spend their mornings revising what they wrote the day before. I’ve heard writers say they put painstaking effort into their first draft so that they don’t have to revise much. Some writers write slower or faster than others. Some have full-time jobs and families and just write when they can squeeze it in. None of these approaches are better or worse than others, it all depends on what works for the writer.

I’m a fast first-draft writer, but I take my time with revising. I know I can write 40–50,000 words in a month without breaking a sweat because I’ve done it many times before. Last November, I wrote the bulk of Ten Days in August, or about 75,000 words of it anyway, and I was working an absurd number of hours on top of it. So I figured, hey, I’m logging less hours at the day job—and I have a better commute—so I’ll have time to do more.

But that’s November. The only real difference between it and the rest of the year is that I set a more concrete goal and I tend to write more because… peer pressure, habit, I don’t know. I like going to the local events (I ran them for years, actually) and I get a lot of writing done at those, too. So I write more and my first drafts are consequently a little rougher (not bad, but more typos and dumb mistakes). I’ve become a crazy plotter, so I had an outline for the before November started, which means all I really have to do is sit down and write it.

So, 100,000 words in a month. I’m not entirely sure I can do it—the most words I’ve ever written in a month is about 90,000—but I’m on pace so far. And if I don’t, well, I’ll still have a really solid first draft to revise in December.

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