An abundance of niceness

Writers, it is sad to say, are not known for helping each other. It's not because we're particularly nasty people but because the competition is stiff, the money is absolutely awful, and the duration of any attention you get for anything you publish is fleeting. We're not generally proud of any of this or our behavior, mind you, but the publishing industry is a dog-eat-dog world, and as Norm from Cheers once commented, "I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear."

It's a rare writer who goes out of her way to promote another. That's why I'm so grateful to Donna George Storey, who recently wrote such a lovely review of Your Erotic Personality. And because no good deed goes unpunished, I would like to extol her virtues here in my blog!

Donna and I first met a couple of years ago, when we both publicly read from our stories in the travel erotica anthology, Foreign Affairs. I was impressed with the story she read about Japan -- it was clear that she wrote from experience with that country and its customs. (Her story was sexy as well as informed, which for me only heightened the erotic experience.) I invited her to contribute to the three anthologies M. Christian and I were editing at the time, and as a result, she wrote an excellent story for Garden of the Perverse: Fairy Tales for Twisted Adults.

Then we both sold our first novels to the same publisher, a crazy division of Orion Books called Neon. I say crazy because these folks have some serious organizational problems -- I've been waiting for my novel, Giving the Bride Away, to come out since I turned in the manuscript back in August of 2005! Donna has been waiting almost as long, and finally, at the end of this month, her book, An Amorous Woman, will see the light of day! True to crazy Orion form, however, it isn't available in the United States yet (but they promise that it will be). So do keep your eyes open for it or order it through Amazon UK.

Donna is not only a terrific writer, but also a fine person and a good friend. You can bet I'll be reading her novel when it comes out.