I’m over at Tonya Kinzer’s blog today for my final stop on my Moral Authority blog tour. I talk about my writing rituals, offer some advice for writers, and answer some fun questions about what I like to eat. 😉 There’s also a giveaway. One free commenter will win a free copy of Moral Authority.
If you’re interested in the interview or the contest, click here and be whooshed away to Tonya’s site. I hope to see you there!
Today, I’m interviewed over at Books Books and More Books. It was a good interview and lots of great questions were asked about my writing process, author bucket list, and writing advice. I also talk about my upcoming projects and share an excerpt from Moral Authority. If you’re interested in reading the interview, click here.
I hope to see you there. 🙂
I’m so excited because today I’m over at The Novel Approach, one of my most favorite blogs, which just happens to be run by the super fabulous Lisa. TNA is also home to other fabulous peeps such as Tina Marie and Jackie and my super adorable hubby. How could I not love it over there?!?!
Now, why am I over at TNA, besides the fact that Lisa and I love to drink? Well, I was lucky enough to be included as part of Wilde City Press week over at TNA. I talk about my WC release Moral Authority, and I even have a video of me reading an excerpt. To see my post about “Love in the Most Desolate of Places,” and watch the video click here. Also, the always fabulous Jackie posted a review of Moral Authority. You can read the review by clicking here.
On the next stop of my blog tour, I’m over at Dawn’s Reading Nook. This was my first time visiting Dawn’s neck of the Internet, and it was a pretty fantastic experience. She asked some really great questions during my interview. I talked about what gets me in the mood to write, my upcoming projects, and other fun writing questions. Stop on over by clicking here. Don’t forget: if you leave a comment, you’re entered to win a free copy of Moral Authority.
I’m over at Top2Bottom Reviews, which is the third stop on my blog tour, talking about cliffhangers in fiction. The plot device is not a fan fave among readers, and I talk about why that is. See if you agree with me or not by clicking here.
The giveaway is still going strong. All you have to do is leave and comment and you’re automatically entered for a chance for a free copy of the book.
Today is release day for Moral Authority, and I’m kicking off my blog tour over at 
It was great to be back with Jay and all her pals. I talk about what makes Moral Authority gay mainstream fiction instead of a gay romance. I also set the scene for the dystopian America that I have created in the novel. If you’d like to stop by, please click here. Also, if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered to win a free copy.
I hope to see you there!
Mark Bryan
Hi, everyone. My name’s Mark Bryan. Have you noticed how seriously fu–, um, fouled up our country is right now? Yikes! I almost messed up on that one. We’ve all gotta watch our language, you know? I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking to violate the moral code of purity with profanity. Who needs a moral violation right now? I sure don’t! I’ve got enough on my plate with trying to finish grad school and working. I don’t need the moral foot patrol complicating my day. I just want to be left alone. That’s why I do my best to fly under the Moral Authority’s radar and be the perfect little citizen Uncle Sam is always telling us to be. Speaking of Uncle Sam, what’s with all these new moral awareness posters going up everywhere? It’s getting to where you can’t even walk down the street without Uncle Sam’s beady eyes following you. If I have to stare down that bony, accusatory finger of his one more time, I don’t know what I’d do. Maybe join those “domestic terrorists” in the Human Rights Campaign. Yeah, right. Like that’ll ever happen. I’m no one special, but I hope to be someday. I want to make a difference. Change this country. But attacking it like the HRC isn’t going to get me anywhere but killed. I have to be smarter than that. We all do. If we want to stay alive. And I don’t know about you, but that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Isaac Montoya
Hello. I’m Isaac Montoya. Lots of people these days are saying that America might be in trouble. That our golden moral age is being threatened by the HRC and their terrorist attacks against moral law. What do I think? I think change is coming. It’s an eventuality. Speaking like this could get me arrested for breaking the moral code of loyalty, but it’s time for different voices to be heard. Not just the voice the government thinks they give us. At the same time, though, we have to be careful. Being too brash leads to a stay in moral prison. Or worse. Like those containment camps I’ve been hearing about. I definitely don’t want to wind up there! That’s why it’s important to work within the system. Or at least appear that way. That’s all that really matters in America now anyway. As long as you appear to follow the rules, you’re left alone. And when I’m left alone to my own devices, well, lots of things can be accomplished.
Samuel Pleasant
I bid each and every one of you a good day. I am Samuel Pleasant, the Supreme High Chancellor of the Moral Authority, the august branch of government responsible with the moral direction of our great country and its citizens. I’ve heard many rumblings in recent weeks, if not months, about this Human Rights Campaign. They attack moral law, so they claim, to bring true freedom back to America. To silence the voice of moral law that they feel is a faceless, oppressive tyrant. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I, and the other High Chancellors, stand before you, unmasked. You know us. And our families. Like any other public official, we have nothing to hide. The HRC does. They operate in the shadows. Using fear and chaos as weapons. Against truth and morality, their tactics will not work. I know many Americans fear that change is coming. But do not fear the change. I ask you to embrace it. For change is coming. It’s just not what the Human Rights Campaign thinks it will be.
Follow Mark, Isaac, and Samuel into the pages of Moral Authority on sale May 22, 2013 from Wilde City Press.
Sarah Palin after her 2008 presidential election win
Washington D.C., March 4 (AP)—Plans are being finalized in our nation’s capitol as the country prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the newest branch of American government, the Moral Authority. Thirty-five years ago next month, the 44th President of the United States, Sarah Palin, made history for more than being the first woman to occupy the Oval Office. Former President Palin, and the constitutional amendment she helped push through Congress, added a moral branch to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches that helped found our nation.
Though a very vocal minority publicly opposed the creation of a moral branch of US government, the Moral Authority has been heralded a success by a majority of American citizens today.
“The Moral Authority is the best thing that happened to this nation,” says Ruth Monroe, 86, who plans on attending the celebrations that begin on April 6. “Before the Moral Authority, you couldn’t even watch television without seeing something scandalous or inappropriate. I don’t have to worry about what my grandchildren are watching anymore.”
In fact, thanks to the Moral Authority, media violence and pornography have ceased to be issues of contention between concerned citizens and First Amendment advocates. The American Moral Code of Conduct has made such hotly debated issues moot.
“I respect what the Moral Authority has been able to accomplish in such a relatively short span of time,” says President John Ellis Bush, Jr. “Due to their pioneering efforts in moral law, some of the most terrible offenses in human society, such as murder, rape, and assault are virtually nonexistent.”
The Moral Authority’s success, however, extends beyond its effect on violent crime. With strict adherence to the moral code of care, the Moral Authority, through a series of lifestyle legislation, has freed the country from unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as obesity, smoking, alcoholism, and homosexuality. As a result, there has been a sharp decline in diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer. Additionally, with the abolishment of homosexuality coupled with the AIDS cure discovered in the last decade, STD’s have been virtually eliminated as a social disease.
Recent HRC attack on NYC Moral Police Department
It is because of all these successes that the country is excited about the month long celebration. However, there are those in the nation who feel differently. The Human Rights Campaign, who have been dubbed as domestic terrorists by most media outlets and government officials, vehemently oppose the Moral Authority. Recently, the HRC has been linked to several smoke bombings of moral police departments as well as a rash of breakouts from moral prisons around the nation.
Supreme High Chancellor of the Moral Authority, Samuel Pleasant, plans to address the nation next month as part of the festivities but also in part to answer the recent concerns being raised about the HRC. Speculation abounds that as part of his speech S.H.C. Pleasant plans to unveil further legislation aimed specifically with dealing with the HRC. However, when asked, S.H.C. Pleasant had this to say: “Although I am not able to provide specifics at this moment, American citizens should rest assured that the Moral Authority has this situation well under control.”
Follow the rest of the headlines on May 22 in
Many of you know that I teach college English, and this week is finals week. Cue the fanfare and confetti because in just a few short days, I will be on summer vacation and pounding my computer keyboard as if it were hot, sweaty man flesh. It will definitely be time to
But as I sit here today, I can’t help but think of an important final exam that occurred a couple of years ago.
While my students were taking their final and I was updating Facebook (because that’s what I do while they are taking their two-and-a-half-hour final!) I started thinking, and as Gaston says in Beauty and the Beast, that’s
Lost of things were happening in our country at that time. I was extremely worried about the direction we were headed. I’m not going to get all political on you, so don’t worry. But I started thinking: what would happen if the “moral majority” took power and got everything they wanted?
So, I started a little writing exercise. You see, I hadn’t written in years. I had abandoned writing for my career in higher education and to focus on my family.
But at that moment inspiration struck.
Inspiration strikes me with rainbow stars 🙂
I had to do something with it or I was going to explode right there in front of my students. So while they worked on analyzing poetry, I imagined a nation where morality became prescribed. Because basically, that’s what I felt some people wanted. They wanted everyone to share their values and their beliefs whether they did or not.
Who decides which one is which?
I then drafted The Moral Amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America.
In that document, I created a fourth branch of government, one that was responsible for overseeing the moral character of its citizens. That fourth branch of government became known as the Moral Authority.
Once that new branch of government had been created, I made the Moral Authority get to work.
A year after the amendment that created them, the Moral Authority helped pass another constitutional amendment known as The Definition of Marriage, which stated: a marriage between one man and one woman was the only legal domestic relationship that would be valid in the country.
Naturally, that started a political firestorm in the America of my imagining. States that had previously allowed gay marriage were forced to abide by the law of the land. This created such a backlash among the gay community. The country was then forced to deal with angry Americans rioting against the new law. Therefore, a new amendment was passed two years later, where homosexuality was abolished. Being gay was now a criminal offense just like drinking alcohol had once been during Prohibition.
What? No more rainbows too?
This created an uproar in my future America. Citizens started to revolt, claiming that the Moral Authority was overstepping its boundaries, so the Moral Authority enacted another amendment two years after abolishing homosexuality to quell the rising tide of unpopularity that threatened to remove their power. They established a Moral Code for all citizens. Everyone was expected to do as the government dictated by following prescribed standards of care, fairness, loyalty, respect, and purity in their relationships with others and within their daily lives. A new moral law force was created to uphold moral code, and a new armed forces division was created to serve as a moral army. They were dubbed the K3, and their purpose was to deal with domestic moral terrorists, who sought anarchy through breaking moral law.
The fist of moral order
Needless to say, I was exhausted after creating this new America, and my students still hadn’t finished their exam. Now, however, I needed to do something with that new America. I couldn’t just let it sit there. I needed to populate it to show what could happen if individual rights were continually stripped away by government interference.
And during that final, approximately three years ago, I once again reclaimed my passion for writing, which turned into my novel Moral Authority.
So as I prepare for finals this year, I think back on that momentous day in my life. I have come a long way since I started scribbling out a dystopian America. I now have two published books under my belt and three more set to be published this year, one of those is the second edition of Moral Authority.
I can’t wait to see what I come up with next during these final exams. Stay tuned!