A. J.: Because love is all there is. Without love we would die. I’ve been reading romances since I was 10 years old and I’ve never stopped. I love romance.
S: Do you write in other genres?
A. J.: I write mysteries as well. Many of my books are romantic mysteries. They are the perfect combination. As a teenager, I used to hide in the library stacks of my high school and voraciously read gothic romances. I could hardly wait for the lunch bell so I could dive back into whatever Victoria Holt book I was reading. Romantic suspense still fills my head. These days, I like a lot of cop, law enforcement stories, too. I am proud of my Honeybone, U. S. Marshal series, which is published by eXtasy Books. There are five stories so far and there will be more. Honeybone was a series I spent a lot of time researching. I worked with a U. S. Marshal who had me sit inside an airport with him where he easily pointed out shifty people that could potentially be very dangerous. One of them was a woman carrying a teddy bear! These are realistic mysteries, but also love stories. I set the first book in Australia, and now Dean and his husband Jean-Luc and their adopted daughter are living in Texas. They are about to move again in book 6. I am also proud of my gritty series, Orgasmic Texas Dawn, 13 books so far, co-written with D.J. Manly. The rights have reverted to us, and we are re-releasing them starting in the spring. These stories are also about U. S. Marshals, but quite different in pace and tone from Honeybone.
S: When it comes to writing romance do you consider yourself a dreamer or a realist?
A. J.: I would have to say a combination of both. I believe in happy endings, but I also believe in character arcs and flawed characters. Some readers expect the people to be perfect from the outset, which I don’t really understand. I like stories that make me feel as if I am one of the characters. I love to see people grow and I’m so happy when my readers tell me they relate to the people in my stories.
S: Romance in 2022. What are people getting right? Wrong?
A. J.: That’s an interesting question. I write M/M novels and I read as much as I can. To be honest, there are some wonderful M/M authors out there and a few that well, I don’t feel their men are really gay men. They seem to be, as somebody else put it, "Chicks with dicks." I think it’s important to get things right as far as having men behave like men. Gay men are just like straight men. They just prefer men. That doesn’t mean they are emotional basket cases. As for what people are getting right, there are some good, strong, emotionally developed books out there which is wonderful.
S: I can't help chuckling at the chicks with comment. I have felt that way so many times when reading M/M. It's nice to know someone shares that opinion.
Have you ever tried online dating?
A. J.: Oh, dear. Well, I used to do a lot of online dating and met some interesting men. I almost married one. I still can’t believe it, but one night I woke up and found him on his computer having online sex with another woman. I caught her screen name--this was in the days of Love At AOL, before it became Match.com--and I waited until I got home and emailed the woman. She said they’d been talking for weeks and had even met. He’d gone to her kids’ soccer game. I was very involved with his kids and friendly with his ex-wife. It hurt to lose his kids. I loved them like they were my own. He kept hounding me after we broke up but there was no way I could get past what he did. Having said that, I know a lot of people who’ve had success with online dating so I say go for it to anyone who’s willing to brave it.
S: That sounds pretty traumatic. I almost hate to ask, what was the worst date you ever had?
A.J. Oh, boy. That’s easy. A New Year’s Eve date set up by my aunt many, many years ago. It was a toga party and I spent hours getting ready in a sheet for a toga and a gold wreath on my head. My date turned up dressed in a suit and tie. I was one of a few people dressed in a toga and I had nothing to change into. And then I found him having sex with another woman with her boyfriend watching and encouraging them!
S: I guess that date was hard to forget!
As a writer, did the pandemic and the subsequent isolation work to your benefit or detriment?
A. J.: Well, the pandemic continues, but I am finding it much easier now, even with continued restrictions. Here in California, it’s very strict. Mask mandates. Vaccine card proof mandatory to enter movie theaters, restaurants, etc. But the beginning of the pandemic was difficult for me because I had thyroid surgery in January 2020 and couldn’t speak for three and a half months. I was frankly terrified when California went into lockdown on March 17 of that year, because I couldn’t call and order food or speak to a friend. Or even call for help in an emergency. It really made me appreciate a friend of mine who lost his voice permanently in an accident. I couldn’t write. I was a mess. I was in pain from the surgery. It was horrible. A friend of mine sent me to a healer and she was very nice, and I know my friend spent a fortune on the woman, but she couldn’t help. She did say something interesting though. I told her I couldn’t write, and she said, “Of course you can’t. Writing is an extension of your voice and you’ve lost it.” I did get better and my writing came back. But I have been even more mindful ever since of other people who might be alone and need help. I’ve always done volunteer work. Now I do even more.
S: I suspect these experiences have helped shape your stories. Is there any one thing the inspires your stories?
A. J.: I am inspired by so many things. Snippets of conversations I hear. Stories people tell me. Because I write romance and I guess I’m a good listener, people tell me stuff. One night at dinner, a friend of mine who is an emergency room nurse, arrived late and told us she’d had an emergency. A man came in who’d been in a terrible car accident. His penis had been severed. He’d been driving and the woman in the car with him gave him a blowjob--as he was driving on the freeway--and he lost control of the car, slamming into the median wall. She accidentally bit down on his penis, severing it. My friend told me they were able to retrieve his penis and reattach it and said the couple was lucky to be alive. As she was leaving the hospital, my nurse friend encountered a weeping woman who said her husband had been brought in. Turned out it was the guy with the reattached appendage. This led me to writing my book, "Kaleidoscope," published by eXtasy Books. I also am lucky to have readers who suggest ideas to me. One reader had won an art auction in Florida and the prize was the leather jacket that belonged to a deceased artist. On the epaulet of the jacket was a cock ring. My reader said, “Wouldn’t it be fun if you had a character that got the jacket and used the cock ring and became possessed by the spirit of the dead artist?” It was fun coming up with this romantic ghost story, which became "The Sex Ring," also published by eXtasy Books.
S: What famous book do you wish you had written?
A.J.: I love this question! I would say "The Lovely Bones," because Alice Sebold’s book is just beautiful and an absolute joy to read. I loved every word. This book to me is exactly how I feel about heaven. I believe we are reunited with our lost loves on the other side of the rainbow. I believe the animals we’ve loved come back to us there. The way she explains why we gravitate toward some people in life is so well explained. I lost my mother when I was six and I know she is there in a beautiful place and we will meet again. If I had written this book, though, I would have never let the movie version be made. It was terrible.
S: Movies have ruined so many great books. I realize that it can be difficult to adapt a book to screen, but sometimes movies totally change the story. I hate that.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
A. J.: I once took a writing class from Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense. I traveled to New York and slept on a friend’s floor with a family of mice that lived in her vacuum cleaner--that was weird--but that class still sticks in my head. Mary told us all to read, read, read. Which I do. She also said find tiny newspaper articles and ask, “What if?” I’ve been doing that ever since. I have over 300 books published so I’ve been asking myself that question a lot.
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