I’m grieving tonight for the loss of Theia, a standard Goldendoodle who stole my heart twelve years and five months ago when she arrived high and dry on a Delta flight from South Carolina into Los Angeles. I drove around to the cargo pick-up, spotted her crate, and carried it to a grassy patch where I was parked. Upon opening the door, she tumbled out, took a pee, then drank from cool water I’d poured into my hand. The sensation of her small tongue licking my palm melted my heart and I was a goner.

When I was creating the story arc and characters for Saving Luca, Book three of my Pansy Park series, I knew the narrative would be around Luca, whom I’d introduced in the previous book of the series, Daddy in Love. Luca was on a path of self-destruction and my vision was to bring in a coldhearted Sadist, the perfect avenue for Luca to continue on his path of self-worth. In came Cain, twenty years older, filthy rich, a mammoth physically who’d been in the BDSM lifestyle his adult life and was renowned for the creative ways he inflicted humiliation and pain. I had no plans for Cain to become Luca’s love interest. I’d planned for two other Doms from Daddy in Love to rescue Luca physically and emotionally. But as anyone who writes books can attest, oftentimes the characters write their own stories. Sure enough, Luca began to melt Cain’s icy heart and by the end of the book, they were in love!

I sent the manuscript for my book, Touch, off to the editor this morning at 9 AM CST. Perfect! For the next few weeks while she completes her first go-around, I’ll have time to tackle my to-do list, the one I promised myself two months ago would get done as soon as Touch was out of my hands. Tasks having to do with my house and garden that I always let go when I’m in the middle of a book. Sounds like a plan, right?

Why Annie Moon?

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my name. I mean, let’s face it… Coccioli? As a child in urban Union City, NJ, I wasn’t happy about having a surname that could be manipulated into cocky or caca, words that both mean feces. Even teachers in school would screw up their faces in doubt about the pronunciation. Consequently, I couldn’t wait to get married and take on an easy, short name, which I did. Only to realize that strangers could mess up a three-letter name as much as they did Coccioli.

I did it! After ten months of being housebound except for grocery shopping and the occasional outdoor coffee meet during the spring and summer months, I flew to southern California for the holidays—COVID be damned! In reality, I weighed the risks versus rewards and the night before I was as nervous as I was excited about traveling during the pandemic. However, I am a huge proponent of mental health and having a change of scenery and a body to talk to other than my two dogs became a need rather than a choice.

Women are catching up! I’ve been shaving my head for ten years so when I came across an article in Glamour Magazine regarding a new trend of young women deciding to sport buzz cuts, I wanted to share their thoughts—nine women who took the clippers to task and found just what I did the first time—liberation!

I came across a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962).

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

I didn’t have to think to know what I did every day that scared me—writing.

Even now, nerves twist in my belly. The more important the work influences the extent of dread I experience. My need to get it right, to make my words both beautiful and efficient war with the accepting non-critic who remains hidden in the recesses of my brain, craving to be set free but more often than not, held captive.

In her famous book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Angelou’s quote is personal because after a lifetime I’ve finally told my story. It’s one filled with the trauma of incest and mental cruelty, staying closeted and the specter of my father’ gun. The title of my book is Paradise and it’s inspired by real life. Carrying the burden of my story for so many years has truly been agony but I was so afraid of what people would think of me if they knew the truth of who I was, and why I’d made so many bad choices in my life regarding the people I invited into my life.