Hey, Jadette. Thanks for inviting me to blog here!
Once a Marine, my new release from Riptide Publishing, took
a long time to gestate. I’d been wanting to write a m/m book with a DADT theme
for a couple of years, but I had to wait for the policy to be officially
repealed before I could see giving that kind of story a truly happy ending. So
when President Obama signed the repeal into law right before Christmas in 2010,
I rubbed my hands together and started brainstorming ideas.
As luck would have it, I’d also been following the awesome
Rachel Maddow’s ongoing series of interview with service men and women
discharged under DADT. Here interview with Army Captain Jonathan Hopkins struck
a chord with me. When he told her he’d effectively put his personal life on
hold for the better part of ten years because any relationship he had would
have to be closeted, I knew I had the model for my Marine, Cole Hammond.
Then I had to come up with a worthy object for his
affections – and I’ll admit, I didn’t look too far. I knew I wanted to set the
story in a university town, so I picked Berkeley – because I HATE location
research, and UC Berkeley is my alma mater, so I already know the town really
well. And I made Marc Sullivan, Cole’s lover, a writer because I’d never
written a book with a writer protag before. Basically, Marc is me if I were a
thirty-year-old gay man. So once I had that down, I was good to go.
Writing the first draft took about a month, which is pretty
fast, but I can normally knock it out quickly when I have the characters and
the story firmly in mind. It was the editing that nearly killed me – in the
best way possible. I’d never had developmental edits before, and needless to
say, they were an eye-opener. But they helped kick-start my writing brain into
overdrive, and by the time we were done, the book was a thousand percent
better.
Many readers have commented on my choice to write the story
in one 1st person POV (Marc) and one 3rd (Cole). Some
have found Cole’s POV a bit distancing, which is exactly what I was aiming for.
I wanted readers to get to know and slowly fall in love with Cole, the same way
Marc does. Was I successful? That’s for readers to judge.
I had a great time researching and writing Once a Marine. It
was a privilege to tell Cole and Marc’s story. I can only hope I’ve honored
Cole’s sacrifice, the same sacrifice made by so many of our valiant service men
and women, who can now serve openly, with dignity and honor.
Here's the blurb:
Love is a battlefield.
Discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, former
Marine major Cole Hammond is struggling to find a new identity. But PTSD casts
a pall on everything, and his hard-nosed, homophobic father can’t even bear to
look him in the eye. To top it all off, he’s pretty sure he’s flunking out of
law school.
Marc Sullivan is a kind, sensitive romance
author-slash-waiter with a thing for men in uniform. Cole’s not wearing his
anymore, but there’s no mistaking the warrior Marc meets in the diner one rainy
afternoon. Cole’s sexy smile and Carolina drawl prove irresistible, but Marc’s
played this game before, and he always loses. Once a Marine, always a Marine,
and if there’s one thing Marc knows about such men, it’s that they all leave
him in the end. It doesn’t help that Cole’s practically closeted in public, or
that he refuses to seek treatment for his PTSD.
But like any good Marine, Cole’s willing to
fight for what matters. And like the characters in Marc’s stories, he’s certain
that if they try just hard enough, together they can find their own happily
ever after.
Click the title to read an excerpt and purchase Once a Marine.
Visit my website for
more information on my work.
