Celebration of Community: Scotty Cade and SJD Peterson

As most of the Dreamspinner family already knows, SJD “Jo” Peterson and I are BFFs. We met just after the release of our first books almost ten years ago and have remained best of friends.

We’ve been to many functions together, Dreamspinner author workshops as well as GRL and a few others conventions, and always travel well together. She stayed with my husband Kell and me for a fall and summer at our home in Greenville, South Carolina, and believe it or not, the many years of spending a lot of time together has brought us closer.

One particular story sticks in my mind, when Jo came to visit us at our home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The first night she was there, we took her to a party thrown by a group of guys with whom we meet once a week for dinner. Anyway, there were about twenty-five guys there, all gay, and we worried a bit if she would feel uncomfortable being the only female. Boy, was that ever a mistake. She took to the group like a moth to a flame.

A few minutes after we arrived, the host asked us what we wanted to drink. Kell and I ordered, and Jo asked for a screwdriver. Shortly thereafter the host returned with Kell’s and my drinks but told Jo he was sorry they had no orange juice. But he said they had Orangina, which is sort of like a processed orange drink but not juice. Just like Jo, she said “That will be just fine,” and a few minutes later he returned with her drink.

Apparently she didn’t know she liked Orangina but sucked drink number one down pretty quickly and immediately ordered another one. She was talking to one of the guests standing in our group, and Kell and I got pulled in another direction. About fifteen minutes later, I hear tons of boisterous laughter, and I turn to see Jo holding court in the middle of about fifteen gay men. She was animatedly laughing and telling stories on me, of course, but mostly bragging about how she’d created a new drink. It was called “Jo’s Va-gina.” Of course, the guys were howling and Jo, who never shuts up, lived up to her personality and charmed everyone at the party. Which made me love her even more. 

To this day when we’re together, we make Jo’s Va-ginas and laugh and laugh.

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Read other Celebration of Community stories here:

Celebration of Community: Kim Fielding, Venona Keys, Shira Anthony, and Eli Easton

Celebration of Community: C.S. Poe, TA Moore, Rhys Ford

Celebration of Community: Will Parkinson and K.C. Wells