Which of your books is your favorite?

This question was asked of me at a recent vendor event for Fox Valley Pride. It wasn’t the first time I was asked the question, but like the other times, I didn’t have a satisfactory answer. It’s akin to asking a parent who their favorite child is.

However, after I got home, I started thinking that each of my books represent something new and different. Some of those stories still stand out to me, and my “favorite” can vary depending on the day or year, but there are still many of my books that I’m very proud of.

To steal a line from “The Sound of Music,” these are a few of my favorite things:

• White Christmas in the Desert: This was my first story set in my hometown of Chino Valley, but I loved doing this story for other reasons. Most of my novels require a good six to eight months to get through the first draft, mainly because I have a day job, but this book saw its first iteration completed in three months. Many weekends, I wrote multiple chapters because this story grabbed me by the hair and did not let go.

Besides this story “bringing me home,” I enjoyed writing this one because I got to include a child’s point of view as the main storyline. While the main characters are two lonely men trying to get through life, they’re united in their effort to figure out how to bring a white Christmas to Arizona during a time of drought.

• Hex of the Dragon Fruit: This book qualifies as my longest one at over 110,000 words, which floored me once I did a word count after finishing the draft. I also loved doing this book because I had the chance to create a completely new world. There were no hard and fast rules as I had a main character who dressed like a Scottish warrior while living in a building that took after Japanese architecture. I got to intermingle various cultures, which was fun.

Another thing I enjoyed about Hex of the Dragon Fruit was putting together two characters who disliked each other in the beginning but who found their way into each other’s hearts. Love is supposed to be the answer, but their relationship initially feels like a wrong number.

• The Colors of Love and Autumn: Just like with relationships, there’s nothing sweeter than your first novel. This was the story that showed me that I could write a full-length book—I was not limited to newspaper articles and plays. I took my experiences from a vacation and visiting new places in Wisconsin—before I moved there—and turned it into a beautiful love story.

I also took an interesting step that not many gay romance authors were taking at that time almost 20 years ago. I didn’t write detailed sex scenes, instead treating the intimacy as a fade to black, which some online reviewers felt was unusual.

• A Cure For Hunger II: Howl of the Wendigo: Admittedly, it might seem strange that the first book in this trilogy isn’t my favorite, but the second one really hit home for me for two reasons. The first is that the normally reliable powers for Benjamin Carpenter are expanding against the laws of magic, which is a cause for concern when he starts to lose control.

The second reason I liked doing this story is because Ivan Salazar, the only non-mystical protagonist in the series, takes center stage as he’s bitten by a lover who turns out to be a wendigo, and he has to face up to his unrequited love for Benjamin in order to be saved. Most of my books have completely happy endings, but this one ends with Ivan having to accept that Benjamin already has a lover, and Benjamin’s magic issues aren’t over.

• Miss Phoenix Goes Deliciously Mad: I loved putting this together because I was able to bring forth representation from the gay community that I hadn’t done very much before—drag queens and furries. Both get a bad rap from certain folks, but I loved taking the opportunity to show their human side.

I also got the chance to touch on the issue of bullying in two ways—one involving a pre-teen girl who is harassed for dressing like a tomboy, and another involving a high school quarterback lashing out at his gay classmates while in denial about being gay himself.

This might not answer the original question, but I’m hoping this shows readers that I like each novel I create for different reasons. In the meantime, happy reading.