• Question 1: How did the first story you ever wrote influence your career as an author, and how do you feel about that story now?

Don’t tell anyone, Andy, (smile) but I had a wild infatuation on a handsome football player when I was in high school. Ten years later I went to my high school reunion. To my surprise, all of the troublemakers in high school had become police officers. (smile) I was equally surprised when my past crush took me by the arm to the football coach’s office for a private and very surprising chat. That led me to write An Infatuation, a one-act play, which premiered Off-Broadway. Eight years ago, I adapted the play into a novella, which was published by Dreamspinner Press. To this day I hear from readers who tell me that little story changed their lives. Reading it still makes me laugh out loud, feel incredibly romantic, cry, and see life in a whole new way. Next, I wrote A Shooting Star about my experiences as a theatre major in college. Dreamspinner Press paired the two romance novellas for a paperback anthology appropriately titled In My Heart, since both stories were truly from the heart. The anthology won a Rainbow Award Honorable Mention. Since sales and reader comments were very strong, I went on to write for Dreamspinner Press the Bobby and Paolo Holiday Stories: A Home for the Holidays, The Perfect Gift, and The First Noel (the romantic tale of a young couple meeting on the gorgeous Island of Capri and moving to Philadelphia where they marry and adopt a son), the Found at Last series: Finding Giorgio and Finding Armando (two moving stories of new young lovers reuniting older lost loves who had been separated by homophobia), and the Tales from Fairyland Anthology: The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland and Holiday Tales from Fairyland (my comical gay take on my favorite fairy tales).

Most recently I decided to join you, Andy, in writing a paranormal series. Mine is the Player Piano Mysteries: The Player and now The Player’s Encore. I decided to blend my love of the Art Deco period, a player piano I found in an antique shop, the contemporary cozy mystery, and gay romance and out came The Player. It is the story of Andre Beaufort, a grade school music teacher living in Hoboken, New Jersey, who having found a player piano in his basement, brought back to life the spirit of dapper Roaring Twenties playboy Freddy Birtwistle—the original owner of the house. The two men got off to a rocky start in The Player, but they eventually fell madly in love and solved two murder mysteries—in Freddy’s old city house and country house. 

In my current release, The Player’s Encore, Player Piano’s Mysteries Book 2, in The Beach House Freddy yearns to visit his family’s beach house in Florida. So, Andre and Freddy embark on a vacation to the stunning home which has become a bed and breakfast. Before Freddy can say “zotched,” a young, mysterious houseboy is murdered, the second hunky houseboy to meet the same fate. As it turns out, the suspects are all related to the latest victim: his desk clerk boyfriend, his incredibly handsome cousin who happens to be a doctor, and his feuding parents. Also in the mix are the accountant with slippery books, a studly new houseboy who can’t keep his feather duster in his pants, and a little girl with a secret that changes Andre and Freddy’s lives. Since the detective obsessed with the case has come up with an empty seashell, it’s once again up to lovers Andre and Freddy to find the murderer and save the inn—and themselves!

In part II: The Villa, Andre and Freddy venture off on a vacation with Andre’s uncle, an ex-priest, to Tuscany, where they stay at an inn that happens to have once been Freddy’s old family villa. Before the sun sets golden on the hills, a young, handsome, wealthy guest is murdered. The suspects are the victim’s distant father who is his competitor in business, a sexy Italian guide with a secret, two hunky gay travelers with a surprising connection, and a straight married couple who appear ready to embark on new sexual conquests. At the same time, Freddy finds his deceased sister’s diary and makes a surprising discovery that changes his life. When the muscular Italian detective investigating the murder seems lost in his spaghetti, it’s yet again up to lovers Andre and Freddy to solve the mystery and save the day!

• Question 2: Which of your characters is most like you?

Martin Anderson in my Nicky and Noah mysteries series is based on me. He is the theatre department chair at Treemeadow College (named after its founders, gay couple Tree and Meadow). Martin is hysterically funny and a major gossip. He’s also adorable couple Nicky and Noah’s best friend and mentor. He loves sipping cocoa with the gay Holmes at Watson at his office’s fireplace, where they discuss the latest murders at Treemeadow College. After eleven novels in the series so far, so many people have been murdered at Treemeadow College that Nicky’s nemesis, Detective Manuello, says the college’s acceptance letters should include a burial plot. Martin and his husband banter in the same manner my husband and I tease each other. For example, someone asked Ruben his husband’s age. Ruben replied, “You’ve heard the term ‘in the beginning.’ Martin was born before that.”

• Question 3: What is your favorite trope and why?

Since Freddy Birtwistle in my Player Piano Mysteries series is a ghost from the Roaring Twenties, he uses delightful expressions from his time period. Here is an example just for you Andy from The Player’s Encore, Player Piano Mysteries Book 2:

Freddy sat next to me on the chaise, placing his large hand on my shoulder. As usual, I shivered from his touch. Though we had been together for two years, Freddy appeared exactly as I had first met him: tall, thin, with black hair parted in the middle and slicked back off his handsome face. “You should have been a dewdropper, Andre.”

Over the past two years, I learned a lot of Freddy’s colorful Roaring Twenties lingo. He was speaking of someone like himself, who lived off his family’s wealth. “I love being a music teacher.” Grinning, I added, “Especially in the summer.”

Freddy placed his arms around me and rested my head on his lap. I gazed up at the man of my dreams. As always, he looked amazing in the clothing of his era: a pinstriped black suit and vest, white silk shirt, and gray suspenders with matching bow tie and silk pocket handkerchief. He also wore his tantalizingly sexy smile. “Time for a beat session, my love.”

This isn’t what you think. A beat session is Freddy’s jargon for a chat between two men. “I’m too tired,” I whined.

Freddy rubbed my forehead and temples, his long, thin fingers like silk on my skin. “As I once said to my old friend Israel—Irving Berlin to you—after I turned down Israel’s advances in the music room of his manse, ‘When you’re put out because someone won’t put out, it’s time for Puttin’ on the Ritz!’ And the rest is history!”

I sat up and focused on his perfectly proportioned face. “What does that have to do with me feeling exhausted?”

“It’s time for us to put on the Ritz. Dress up. Party. Have a change in scenery.”

I moaned. “I can’t move. The scenery in this apartment is fine with me.”

He placed a warm hand on my cheek. “As my dear friend Mae West once asked me, ‘You want to play in the sand with me and then make some waves?’”

I was lost in his violet eyes, sparkling like jewels. “What do you mean?”

“Andre Beaufort, love of my life, I’m asking you to run away with me to the beach.” Freddy nibbled on what he called my milk chocolate neck, which caused my pants to tighten.

I held his beautiful face in my hands, enjoying the feel of his peaches-and-cream complexion. “Freddy, have you forgotten? You’re a ghost.” For some reason, Freddy’s ghostly status meant I was the only person who could see him, and Freddy was unable to leave his former sitting room, bar, and bedroom—my apartment. Happily for Freddy, I had decided to keep the Art Deco character of the rooms.

Freddy cocked his head at me. “Have you forgotten we went to my country home upstate New York?”

“Because it was turned into a bed and breakfast, and I was able to summon you there via the player piano in my room—your old bedroom.”

“Now you’re in the trolley!” His soft ruby lips covered mine, and I melted into his arms.

In a dreamlike state from his champagne scent, I ran my hands along his broad back as we shared another kiss and then another. Each was deeper, wetter, and more passionate than the one before it. As we parted, I played back in my mind what Freddy had said. A light bulb went off. “Your family had a beach house?”

“Of course.”

I rested my hands on his broad shoulders. “Where?”

His white smile widened. “On Key West in Florida.”

Also, my Nicky and Noah mysteries series includes Professor of Play Directing Nicky Abbondanza’s wacky and wild metaphors like, “I’m happier than a past Republican president taking away people’s medical insurance,” “I’m more relieved than a closet gay congressman in the back room of a gay bar during a blackout,” and “I’m more excited than a priest at altar boy induction.” Nicky’s witty metaphors make me laugh out loud as I write them. The first novel in the series, Drama Queen, was voted Favorite MM Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Novel of the Year by the readers of Divine Magazine. Many of the following ten novels so far in the series won Rainbow Award Honorable Mentions. Reviewers called this series “a combination of Laurel and Hardy mixed with Hitchcock and Murder She Wrote loaded with puns and one-liners…Right to the end, you are kept guessing, and the conclusion still has a surprise in store for you…with adventure, mystery, and romance on every page.” I’ve read hundreds of mystery novels, and I haven’t found another gay comedy romance cozy mystery series out there. As a college theatre professor and department chair, I can attest to the fact that a college theatre department is the perfect place for drama, comedy, romance, and mystery. As I tell my students, “If you annoy me, I’ll kill you in my next book.” (smile)

• Question 4: How many half-written stories are on your hard-drive and what do you plan to do with them?

None! I’ve written twenty-seven novels in eight years. My readers tell me I write faster than they can read. I generally get an idea at 3am. I jot down some notes on my night table. If I can read them the next morning, I start writing the outline and character biographies. When I was a professional actor, I loved improvising. So I very quickly begin to see, hear, and engage with the characters in my mind. Thankfully I type 90 wpm, so I am able to capture the dialogue relatively quickly. My husband and I have travelled all over the world. So it isn’t unusual for my stories to be set in gorgeous and enticing locations like a Scottish castle, an island paradise in Maui, a cruise to Alaska, romantic Key West, or the stunningly beautiful Tuscany. My five Cozzi Cove novels (Ninestar Press) take place in a gay private resort on a stunning cove in the New Jersey Shore. Since I spent my summers as a child with my aunt and uncle in a similar location, I recreate that unique environment in the novels, which feature ex-football player Cal Cozzi, his family, and his guests at the gay resort. Cozzi Cove is truly a place where romance is always in the sea air and nothing is what it seems at first glance. Once you check into Cozzi Cove, you won’t ever want to leave.

• Question 5: What are you working on next?

My current project releasing in June is the twelfth Nicky and Noah mystery, Drama Pan, where Nicky, Noah, their son Taavi, their best friends Martin and Ruben, and their son Ty sprinkle on the fairy dust at Treemeadow College to present an original musical extravaganza of Peter Pan entitled Every Fairy Needs a Big Hook! Pirates shout more than “Yo ho!” when a family of visiting technical designers, the Coutures, drop like yesterday’s fashions. Once again, Nicky and Noah will need to use their drama skills, including playing outrageous characters, to catch the killer before they get the hook. So get ready to believe in fairies. The stage lights are coming up in Never Land on a lad who won’t grow up without Viagra, a pirate with quite the hook, a twink called Tink, a Lily who’s a tiger, a Merman surprised at what’s between his legs, and murder!

It’s been great chatting with you Andy. Let’s make a deal. If you keep writing great books, I will too!