Lovey Porter and Royal Duval of Whiskey Sunrise.

I was planning to write something that looked back at the past year, but I decided to look forward instead. Mostly because I just finished proofing the final edits for my fourth novel, Whiskey Sunrise. This is a story that’s very close to my heart. Growing up in the South, in a deeply religious family, enabled me to use a lot of my own experiences for conversations in this book and for the obstacles the characters face. I set this book in the late 30s, but it could easily have been written in a contemporary setting because many in our Southern LGBTQ community still struggle with all of these same issues of culture, religion and race.

Whiskey Sunrise is set in 1939 in rural north Georgia, the moonshine capital of the world according to some. Lovey Porter and Royal Duval cross paths unexpectedly and immediately Lovey’s world begins to tilt. Her feelings for Royal challenge every belief that Lovey holds dear and calls into question every truth she felt sure was absolute. Even if she must defy her father, the local Baptist minister, in the end, Lovey has to find her own path to faith and love.

Here’s an excerpt from Whiskey Sunrise:

Temptation. Lovey had heard her father speak of it from the pulpit numerous times and never fully understood it until now. The vices that seemed to tempt others beyond their ability to resist things like cards or whiskey had never held any sway over her, so she’d wrongly assumed that temptation was a problem for others. No one warned her that temptation would smell this incredibly good, feel so exquisitely satisfying, or burn as hotly across her tender flesh as this did.

Whiskey Sunrise will be out February first through Bold Strokes Books, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Thanks for a great 2015. Here’s to a splendid New Year.