New Novel Contract! CAREGIVER Accepted by Dreamspinner Press

I just wanted to share my good news that Dreamspinner Press has contracted with me for another full-length novel. This one is called CAREGIVER and the synopsis (as yet unapproved) is below. This is my most romantic and most autobiographical book ever, so I'm excited.

Dan Calzolaio has a new buddy. It’s not one he got through work, or school, or the usual places where one makes friends. No, Dan’s new buddy is Adam Schmidt and he comes to Dan courtesy of the Tampa AIDS Alliance, where Dan has volunteered to help people with AIDS.

It’s 1991 and Dan has just moved to Florida with his lover, Mark. The pair has fled Chicago and Mark’s addictions to begin a new life on the Gulf Coast. Volunteering for the Tampa AIDS Alliance is just one part of that new beginning.

Adam Schmidt is not at all what Dan expected when he signed up to be an AIDS buddy. The guy is an original—witty, wry, sarcastic, and with a fondness for a smart little black dress, Barbra Streisand, and a good Mai Tai. Adam’s doesn’t let his frailness and imminent death get him down. Dan’s relationship with him, through a downward spiral that includes Adam’s incarceration in the Florida State Prison, teaches Dan new lessons about strength and resiliency.

Adam also had a lover, Sullivan, for whom Dan feels an almost irresistible pull. Dan knows the attraction isn’t right, even when Dan dumps his cheating, drug-abusing lover, but when Adam passes away, leaving both Sullivan and Dan, can these two survivors turn their love for Adam into something whole and real?

Caregiver is a heart-wrenching love story that explores what it truly means to care for another human being and how adversity and tragic loss can bring two souls together.

Caregiver is set to be released on or about October 24.