Lovely Downtown Pacific Grove

Downtown Pacific Grove, California

I love writing when I'm at the beach-side town of Pacific Grove, California.  Some people in my family who will go unnamed think I'm defeating the purpose of being at the beach where I can stroll on the accessible walkway and soak up the sunshine and sea breezes.

But I prefer to go to the downtown Pacific Grove coffee shop, get a glass of iced tea (which they always seem to have to search for), get a piece of whatever homemade bread they're featuring that day, and while away the hours before lunch writing.

I started Behr Facts, third in the Foothills Pride series which is coming out at the end of October, there, and have written bits and pieces of the other Pride stories while letting the ambiance of the coffee shop settle around me.  People coming and going don't bother me, but sometimes when I really get into the writing groove, I'm stunned to look up and realize there are only one or two of us left when the place was packed only moments before.

Bloggers and readers like to ask how writers write.  This is my story, and I'm sticking to it.  It's not exciting, or flashy, or particularly inspiring.  But it's the answer to an often-asked question.

Where is your creative space?  The place where you actually get something done?  I'd love to know.

If you haven't read the first two of the Foothills Pride series, What's in a Name? or Redesigning Max, you can use the Amazon links to the right of this blog piece or click on the titles to order them.

While I Was Vacationing

Becca and cover model
 C. J. Hollenbach
at the RT Convention

I took the last week off and went to Pacific Grove, home of the wintering Monarch butterflies, next door to Monterey, California.  While there is a sandy beach where families and surfers play, what draws me is the rockier coastline, the small furry creatures, and the beautiful, endless waves.

Usually I try to do no work at all, but this time I had three review books to read--all for Booklist this time.  I've also decided to write a short story to submit for an upcoming Dreamspinner anthology, so I spent most of the time breathing in the sea breezes, reading, and writing.

In the meantime, here in cyberspace, my articles and reviews were being published.  Instead of writing blog pieces about them individually, I'm listing each of them here:

All About Romance ran both Surviving the Convention, my account of the Romantic Times convention in May and a blog piece, From the Review's Studio, about why I chose to review gay romances and how I choose the books to review.

Booklist also ran my account of the RT Convention in the Likely Stories book blog under the headline Gay Romance Comes Out at the Romantic Times Convention.  Also, my review of Jude Deveraux's From All Time ran in the July 2014 e-copy of the magazine.

The Romance Reviews ran my review of Missed Connections: I Swear to You.

So even though I wasn't at home, my week away was very busy online.