In March, I moved away from my family and to Atlanta to start a different kind of life. Being in Atlanta with no family, I didn’t really want to play the “who is going to take Trish for Thanksgiving” game with my friends. So, when my friend Howard asked me to come down to Ft. Lauderdale for Thanksgiving, I readily accepted. Who doesn’t want to spend the weekend with hot guys, gorgeous weather, and great friends? The drive to Ft Lauderdale from Atlanta takes about 10 hours, so I decided to make a few stops along the way.

Stop 1: Dreamspinner Press

When Elizabeth heard that I would be in Florida for Thanksgiving, she invited to spend a few days with her and her family. If you’ve never met Elizabeth North in person, she’s amazing. Warm, kind, friendly—I’m not sure she’s ever met a stranger. You’re just a friend she hasn’t met yet. So, on the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving, I packed up the Camaro. Just as I was about to leave, I got a text telling me “you have a lot of breezeway lights”. My friend Jamie had stopped by with a cart of baked goods and a cooler of Diet Pepsi for my trip. He’d made my very favorite cookies, banana bread, and the most AMAZING pumpkin squares to offer to my hosts and hostesses in tribute. I really lucked out when Shae Connor introduced us. He’s truly an incredible friend.

I made the drive to Dreampinner in about five hours through some of the most rural area I’d ever been. Shae Connor and I bantered all the way through it. Yay for voice to text. But when I pulled up at the house, it felt comforting and inviting. Three enormous dogs came out to greet me in the quiet shy way that huge dogs do. They scared the living crap out of me. One of them, Bear, was big enough to look in through my car window without jumping up. He just leaned his head in and said “hi, get out of that car, and I’m going to eat you.” So, we came to the understanding that I would stay in the car, and he wouldn’t eat me. Little did I know that these three dogs were big cuddly marshmallows. Milo, the beautiful golden lab liked to walk with me while Penny, the smallest, but not small by any means, cuddled with me whenever she got the chance.

Of course, I was there during the business week so Elizabeth and I spent our days working—her behind her desk and me settled into the big comfy chair across from her, feet up, Surface in my lap. While I did end up writing about 10,000 words during my three-day stay, I also got to see some of the inner workings of Dreamspinner Press.

Lately, I’ve had more than a few new authors ask me about who they should choose as a publisher. I’ve told them all about my experiences with Dreamspinner and that after fourteen novels with them, I’m still very happy there. And here’s why:

• The offices for Dreamspinner Press are in a couple of buildings. Elizabeth has a building for her office – it’s like a little cottage – and it’s amazing. I swear I’d live there. It’s a beautiful, warm, inviting space that is uniquely Elizabeth. You know what else is there? Tons and tons of our books including the new hardbacks. They look awesome.
• The second building up the road is the paperback warehouse, though DSP is phasing out keeping paperbacks onsite, that’s where their stock is kept.
• The third building is the office where our site staff is. All of the desks face the center of the room so the friends and co-workers can collaborate. I worked for a bit at a spare desk near the front, and they truly work together as a team. Working for us.
• While I sat in Elizabeth’s office, I hung out for a couple of Skype strategy calls. People from across the country coming together to help sell our books.

This is no person in their basement running a publishing company because it sounded like fun. Dreamspinner Press is a multi-million dollar organization with a small legion of people working together, dedicated to its success. It’s pretty amazing.

Now, it’s no secret that I haven’t published anything in a year. Last year I had a “crisis of faith” of sorts. Most of what we do as authors has nothing to do with writing, and I had some negativity in my career that really wore me down. I wanted to walk away from my writing career. At the last Dreamspinner conference Elizabeth and several of our family of authors sat me down and really made me think about it. I also took the last year to think about it, and I’ve decided that I can’t control what other people say about me. I can’t control what other people post on Facebook about each other. All I can control is what I post and the books I write. So, I’m going to continue to do that. But, I’d been out of the groove for a year. I am not a top tier author. I am a mid-list author. My books get solid reviews, and the people who brave reading them are incredibly dedicated to them—but they are a hard read. Any other publisher would have written me off. Instead, Elizabeth brought me into her home and she believed in me. Like she’s been believing in me for the last five years. We talked marketing strategy, publication strategy, and came up with some inspired ideas for what we’re going to do with the books coming out in 2016.

I also finished Anthony.

The people at Dreamspinner Press from Elizabeth to Ariel to Poppy to Tammy and all of the other people who make it what is—the way they stand behind their authors—and of course their faith in me—these are all of the reasons that I will forever be a Dreamspinner girl.

Stop 2: Sir and boy

Because the trip would be long and Orlando is halfway between, I sent a text to one of my very first leather brothers to see if I could bunk over for the night. Since I only get to see them at IML, or when I wander down to Orlando for an event, he and boy were happy to spend time with me. So, I stopped in and spent some time with them. We ate, we hung out on the couch and watched South Park, and they showed me their newly constructed dungeon. They’d converted the garage in their house into an impressive play space. Two of the long walls were covered in particle board with hooks for their massive amount of equipment—deprivation masks, floggers, paddles, nipple clamps, gags—you name it, it was hanging on those walls. In the center of the space they’d erected a bondage bed with chains and anchors to put a person in any position the Sir wishes. The back of the bed is a series of wide slats, like a ladder. I got a hundred different scene ideas just from spending 15 minutes in that room.

Stop 3: Howard

Now, we get to the reason for my trip—Thanksgiving at Howard’s. Howard Andrew is the founder of FabScout Entertainment, an agency which represents models in the adult industry. He negotiates contracts, books scenes and appearances, and generally tries to bring order to chaos. I arrived at the beginning of the dinner chaos, and helped him get everything ready for the big event. Howard is a pretty altruistic man, though he’d never admit it. Not only are his friends and family around his table, but anyone who doesn’t have a place to go for Thanksgiving is welcome with him. So many LGBT brothers and sisters aren’t welcome at their own family table, so they come to ours.

We had about 15 people and surprisingly, it went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day full of laughter and light. No drama, nothing broken, no corn left in the microwave forgotten—just fellowship.

Thursday night, we headed to Boardwalk for Ryan Rose’s show and I got to see my Drake Jaden for the first time in a year and a half. Domestic life suits him—he looks fantastic, and happy. I also got to meet his sweet (and hot) new boyfriend. It seems they’re going strong. The man is obviously pretty strong willed to tame the absolute chaos that is Drake Jaden.

As I write this, it’s a quiet breezy Friday morning, warm, sunny, and beautiful. Tonight we’re headed over to le Boy for Boomer Banks’s show. I’ll be here until early Sunday when I’ll hop back in the Camaro and drive straight through to Atlanta. It still kind of blows my mind that I’ve traveled the entire length of Florida this week. But the gorgeous 80 degree weather, the sunshine, the amazing people—it was all worth it.

By the way, did I mention that I finished Anthony?!?!

XOXOXO,

JP Barnaby