When, I was first learned I was going to be writing an article for Love Bytes Reviews, I was thrilled. I immediately started writing something along the lines of why I love doing research on my books and then I thought, some of these readers may not have any idea who I am. Why would they want to read some boring article on doing research? Dah! They wouldn’t. So instead, I decided to introduce myself.

Hi! I’m C.J. Baty and I have been writing in the MM genre for, unbelievably to me, eight years. I’ve always been an avid readers and I’ll mention some of my favorite authors later on. My children grew up with the “Library Lady”, a persona I used to tell made up stories to them when they were small. When I young, I wanted to be a journalist. Of course, that never went anywhere but my love of the written word stayed with me my entire life. I kept journals from the time I was a young girl until, I actually started writing stories.

My son introduced me to Fan Fiction and I began to read some of the amazing stories (and some not so amazing stories) that other everyday people were writing. This was around the time Twilight was huge. I found MM through stories about male characters from Twilight falling in love and having adventures. With lots of encouragement, I began to write my own stories and developed a following. You can still read some of my stories there under the writer name cbaty. Feel free to check them out.

A few years later, I was asked to write an original story for a Valentine’s anthology that a new Indie Publisher was putting together. I was so amazed that someone would want to publish something I had written. That was my very first MM story A New Dream. It celebrated it’s sixth birthday this year.

Six years and fourteen books later here I am. Still in love with reading and writing and the world of Indie Authors. At my age, (I’ll tell but only if you ask me privately) I never expected to be have published books and readers who can’t wait for the next book to be released. Every day I get up and thank God, that I’m able to do what I love. The future looks even brighter.

I’ve been able to travel to book signing events, meet readers and other indie authors. I’ve even had the wonderful pleasure of meeting the authors that I fan girl over. Talk about a thrill! Last year I was blessed to be able to attend GRL (Gay Romance Lit) for the very first time. I got to meet readers and authors from all across the globe who love MM and all the colors of the LBGQT+ rainbow. This wonderful community has opened my world to so many lovely people.

I have a plethora for favorite MM authors, too many to list here and I don’t want to leave anyone out. But for reading outside the genre, I enjoy Dan Brown, Karen Marie Moning, Sir Author Conan Doyle, and Clive Cussler (the original stories before he had co-writers).

So, you’ve learned a little about me and I hope if you haven’t read my work before that you might give it a chance. To me the world of books is a refuge and I firmly believe, That Loves is What Binds Us All.