Fresh Starts and New Beginnings featuring AKM Miles

Beginnings and New Beginnings

Okay. I can write about that. This will be a two-parter.

Beginnings:

     When I was in college I discovered Gordon Merrick. My mom and I called them the Peter and Charlie books. Then, flash forward to about 4 years after retiring from teaching Special Education for 27 years. I saw Brokeback Mountain, okay, more than once. Ordered the DVD when it came out and it came with the script. I read it. I went on line looking for more of same. I found a lovely French movie called Just a Question of Love. I loved that. While looking in the genre I found a company, Torquere Press, that had fiction books, M/M books. The first thing I got was an anthology, Cowboy Up, and I was hooked.

     I had written three mainstream books and done nothing with them. I suddenly was inspired to try my hand at writing M/M. I wrote Smart Alex and it was accepted at Torquere. Since it would take a while to go through edits, they suggested I write a short story as it would come out sooner. So, I wrote Uniforms. and that was my first publication. Then came Smart Alex, Brackets, Dare To, Soldier, and it was on. I wrote and wrote. Then I wrote for Total-E-Bound and then for MLR and then for Silver. Now I write mostly for MLR.

     So that was my beginning. The response to Soldier was so good and I loved all of those characters so much that I've made it a series and it can all be found at MLR now. (As a matter of fact, I am writing on number 7 now, Seeing Double.) That all started in 2007. Now it is 2015 and there was a stutter/blank spot in there. My mom died and I had health problems and the writing took a hit.

New Beginnings:

     I'm back now. Since being out of the picture for a bit, it's been an uphill climb to get back into the flow of promotion, etc. I've been to three GRL conferences. I so enjoyed seeing my favorite authors and meeting fans. That blew me away. In the Scarcity Series, there is a book called For Gom's Sake that takes on the subject of bullying in high schools. Someone, a line editor, I think, suggested that it be made into a Young Adult book so high schoolers could get their hands on it.  Well, at these conferences I've had parents come up and tell me that they've tried to get that book put into the school library. That meant so much to me. I even wrote another book recently about Gom's work with bullying. It's Okay came out in October, right when we were at GRL! Sadly, I could write story after story about Gom and his work because there are so many stories out there about bullying today. Anyway, I do continue the Scarcity books because I have to.

My health is better and I am back to writing as much as I can. I am on facebook and I have a website.www.akmmiles.com  and my email is akmmiles@yahoo.com  Feel free to get in touch with me and tell me your experiences with my books. I love to hear from readers. I include the cover for It's Okay as it is such a perfect cover for that book. Meet Taco. Best wishes in this new year. ---AKM Miles