'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 52

Short Stories 366:80 — “Lead Counsel,” by Aurora Rey

[image error]I listened to this audio novella over the course of two days of walking the doggo in the midst of winter, and the setting of a heat-soaked New Orleans was like a balm of relief, frankly. Once again, Lori Prince performs wonderfully, and her voice acting for the various characters left me never in doubt over who was speaking, as well as shifting in tone with the emotionality of the moment in a realistic, immersive way.

Narratively, Lead Counsel is a second-chance romance, a boss romance, and a dash of antagonism-to-lovers (not quite enemies) all rolled up into a novella-length piece that flowed wonderfully. Elisa had an almost-fling with Parker when they were in law school, where Parker was a year ahead of her, but the morning after their make-out session, Parker was suddenly aloof and Elisa was left shut out and burned. Fast-forward to Elisa’s firm bringing in a heavy-hitter to lead on a new case, and in walks Parker—who specifically requested Elisa for the team.

When it comes to novella-length romance, I love low-angst so very much. Rey is a master of putting just enough between the romantic leads to make them not have a clear path without even a hint of contrivance. Elisa isn’t furious with Parker, she’s a grown woman and it’s been years and she hasn’t pined away or anything. And Parker doesn’t remember things quite the same way. Professionalism and gun-shyness from a previous encounter are more than enough, and make the eventual arrival at a happy ending feel like a genuine payoff.

To All Our Customers from @BoldStrokeBooks

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From Bold Strokes Books

I wanted to pass along this message from one of my publishers:

We at Bold Strokes Books hope you all stay safe and well this trying time.

The news changes daily, and no one is sure what the future may bring. Our thoughts and wishes are with all those whose lives have been affected by COVID-19. Our health-care workers and all who are working overtime and putting themselves at risk to keep our communities safe and operational are heroes. We thank you.

For our part, Bold Strokes Books will continue working hard to publish our books for you. We can’t change the state of the world on a global scale, but we can do something to help those isolated at home. BSB is offering 15% off all ebooks storewide, though Sunday March 22. Our mission is always to publish stories that represent the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people. Now, more than ever, our stories hold us together, even if we’re far apart from loved ones or social distancing for the safety of the whole community. It’s not much, but we hope this helps everyone feel a little less alone.

Please use this coupon code for 15% off all ebooks when checking out at the BSB webstore ( http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com ):

BSBWELL

We’re wishing all of you good health. We will be here for you in every way we can. Rad, Sandy, and the Bold Strokes Books Team.

*Coupon is valid on all ebooks through March 2020 releases, not valid on preorders; cannot be combined with other coupons.

*Coupon is case sensitive and valid through March 22, 11:59pm EDT.

Short Stories 366:79 — “Young Cinrak,” by A.J. Fitzwater

[image error]I have a treat today, in that not only am I cracking a new collection I adore, but the author, A.J. Fitzwater, agreed to send me little snippits about each tale and where they came from. So! Without further ado…

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper!

Okay. I need a moment here before I begin to remind you how much I freaking loved Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space), wherein amongst the many wonderful pirate stories gathered, the final tale was about an anthropomorphized capybara pirate (no, really) and her ship of animal pirates, complete with awesome queer characters aplenty. It ended the collection on a note I’d never imagined: a squee for the adorable Cinrak the Dapper, capybara pirate. Fast-forward. I got an ARC of a collection of short stories about Cinrak and her crew and ahhh! So much squee.

Onward! The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper begins with “Young Cinrak,” where we meet the Capybara in question at her place of residence: an orphanage. She’s not yet adopted or apprenticed out (though all her other friends have been) and she’s wildly aware that all she wants in life is to be a freaking pirate. She has the salt in her, and despite the Orphanage matron’s best attempts to dress Cinrak up in more feminine and “appropriate” clothing, nothing is stopping Cinrak’s imagination or drive to get out onto the waves.

A trip to the market on the matron’s behalf offers an opportunity to connect with some pirates, and Cinrak takes it. Things don’t go quite as planned, but this is Cinrak (albeit a young, untried version of her) so you know she’s going to come out on top. And the journey begins with this story in such a way that the world-building Fitzwater undertakes comes out in tiny drips and little turns of phrase, both of which make it all feel seamless and natural. (Also, the notion of a pirate union is kind of awesome.)

From the author:

[image error]While this is the first Cinrak story in chronological order, it was the second to last story I wrote. I settled on the chronological setting early, but found it unsatisfying trying to weave bites of Cinrak’s back story into other stories; it would drag the pace down. So I lifted all these world and character building ideas and put them in one place, and of course it made a fitting rosetta stone for the rest of the tails. 

I was initially worried that the very straight-forward narrative wouldn’t be an effective start, but feedback showed me I’d build a young Cinrak as charming, intelligent, and fun, and the Big Idea of the story held tight. I wanted to show Cinrak yearning for a family and different horizons, but not from tragic or traumatic origins. I tried to build a society where family was a community experience – whether orphanage, at court, in apprenticeship, or on a pirate ship – so Cinrak could subjectively come to terms with the passing of her biological parents. 

Find The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper at Queen of Swords Press, or Books2Read.

Find A.J. Fitzwater on Twitter, or at pickledthink.blogspot.com.

Short Stories 366:78 — “The Half-Life of Marie Curie,” by Lauren Gunderson

[image error]Sometimes I think Max (and myself) owe a lot to Audible for our continued health, as listening to audiobooks is one of the ways I make it through winters with a husky, and he often ends up getting longer walks thanks to captivating stories if I check and see I’ve got, say, ten minutes left to go in a performance. I’ll just keep walking and listening, and he’s always down for more walking. Such was the case with The Half-Life of Marie Curie.

Marie Curie is someone I knew a moderate amount about, as I did a few projects on her when I was a geeky science kid in middle grades, but this two woman play takes a slice of her life I hadn’t delved too deeply into, and tells a story of the scandal of her life: her affair with Paul Langevin. It nearly ruined her, despite her also winning her second Nobel prize at the same time, and for a summer, she retreated to the seaside house of Hertha Ayrton, an engineer I’m sad to say I hadn’t been aware of before this performance.

And I mean performance. Both Kate Mulgrew and Francesa Faridany inhabit their characters so fully that this short play-turned-audio-performance is flipping incredible. Ayrton, the Jewish engineer who solved the electric light “buzz” problem (and later saved many a life that would have been lost to mustard gas thanks to another invention) basically steals Curie away when she is crumbling, and the summer is restorative in more ways than one. There is so much triumph here, despite the seemingly endless fight two brilliant women face in their time and place, and I adore their relationship, their intersection, and this performance left me moved and inspired in the face of what often feels like endless obstacles.

Short Stories 366:77 — “Beast,” by Anne Shade

[image error]You all know I love a good retelling, and even better when it’s a queer retelling. I imagine you also likely know how much I adore interconnected short(er) fictions, and so I leapt on Femme Tales the moment I read the blurb, which should surprise no one. Anne Shade takes three fairy tales: ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ and ‘Cinderella,’ pops a modern twist or three, and delivers three pairs of black women falling in love in our contemporary world.

The first of these tales, “Beast,” had me pretty much from the get go. You’ve got a small family unit (two sisters) forming a chosen family with an older neighbour to survive once their mother’s addiction puts everything at risk. From that particular crucible of childhood, Ebony “The Beast” Trent rises through the world of music to a pinnacle, doing everything in her power to make sure her sister, and the older neighbour who helped them make it, can flourish. That she’s more than a bit defensive and has a temper and perhaps runs through women isn’t going to make her happy-ever-after appear any faster, but when tragedy hits and a live-in nurse, Belinda Jansen, comes onto the scene, “The Beast” finds herself facing down feelings—and coping mechanisms and trauma—she can’t just bluster her way through.

Between Belinda’s blunt refusal to back down in the face of Ebony’s temper and the cast of secondary characters around Ebony who know her well enough to really get her, the charm of this story really takes off. Also, the sizzle? The chemistry between Ebony and Belinda is scalding from step one, and only adds to the stakes. I loved these two (and Ebony’s close circle) right off, and  I knew I was in for a treat with Femme Tales.

Also! I’m lucky enough today to have been able to touch base with Anne Shade about the stories, and I asked her if she’d be willing to tell me about the writing process, so as we work our way through Femme Tales, you’ll get to hear it from the author’s lips!

From the Author:

I’ve loved fairy tales since I was a little girl. Especially when they are re-imagined in unique ways. When I started writing general romantic fiction, I knew that at some point I would like to re-imagine at least three stories utilizing African American characters. No truly unique perspective came to me until I entered the lesbian romance genre. That’s when I came up with the idea for Femme Tales.

I chose “Beast” first because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale. Belle was just a regular girl who, through no fault of her own, was thrown into a unique situation and had to find a way to deal with the best she could. There was no prince charming coming to save her, she had to do that on her own. Through strength, determination and love she did just that. She was the savior of the story, not the prince. What better figure to be the savior but a nurse, Belinda, and what better figure to be a beast but a rapper with issues, Ebony. I didn’t want to do the usual story of the tragic accident that made the Beast the ugly creature it becomes. I wanted the beast persona to be more of an internal struggle than an external trait.

You can find Anne on Facebook and Twitter, and you can find Femme Tales at the Bold Strokes Books Webstore or wherever quality queer books are sold!

Short Stories 366:76 — “No Valley Low,” by Alyssa Cole

[image error]I love it when short fiction gives us another glimpse of characters we already know and love, and Alyssa Cole does this with “No Valley Low,” which returns us to the wonderful Sofronia and Ivan, from Let It Shine, and sets the clock ahead a few years into their relationship.

And things… aren’t going well. Ivan is returning home after time away, and he’s realizing that he has left too much unspoken after he and Sofronia suffered a terrible loss. I cannot tell you how much I truly appreciated Cole showing us a couple who loved each other, truly and deeply, but who were in a place where both were fragile after a loss and had stumbled away from communicating. To Ivan, it feels like a silence during a moment where he feels he should have said more (and done more) has only really grown, and now he’s heading back for Valentine’s day with a gift and the hope he can make it right.

What follows is a beautiful moment between two loving people—and a really welcome brief burst of humour—which caps off their story in a way that felt really grounded and, above all, healing and with a potential for something more. You don’t often get to read about characters who are already together moving forward through a tragedy in romance, and I appreciated it.

Short Stories 366:75 — “A Deeper Echo,” by David Jón Fuller

[image error]Raising the spectre not only of war and PTSD but of the abhorrent residential school history of Canada, “A Deeper Echo” takes us to Winnipeg, Canada in 1919. This time, the speculative element is at the forefront of the story, in the form of Thomas Greyeyes, Ojibwe veteran and father in search of his children, who were taken from the residential school. Thomas begins the story as a wolf, transforming back to a man once he arrives in the city and begins his search for the women who took his son and daughter. Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History delivers yet again.

What unfolds is such a slice of Canada’s wretched history—pre-unionization, racist, violent, the wealthy in control and believing themselves above reproach—spun through that lens of Thomas Greyeyes and his desire to reunite with his children. What Fuller does so well here is grounding Greyeyes in his reality as a man in pain, a man with loss, and a man with a goal, and the obstacles he faces? Well, it’s possible I was gritting my teeth many times throughout the story at the casual dismissal (or outright abuse) of the man, and wishing he’d just tear everyone limb from limb.

The strength of Long Hidden is always in how the authors take these real moments of history (often terrible moments of history, to be clear) and then spin speculative fiction to spin a story that brings power to a voice we almost never get to hear in the histories that are commonly told. Fuller’s is a perfect example of this, and all the more viscerally enjoyable as a result, as well as having enough hope in its conclusion to let me unclench my jaw and exhale with relief at the possibilities.

Short Stories 366:74 — “The Diary of a Hounslow Girl,” by Ambreen Razia

[image error]This was an unexpected delight from Audible, as part of their Audible Originals series. Originally a stage play, this was performed by the writer (and actress) and as such the level of performance was pretty much set on eleven from the first step. It’s about sixteen year-old Shaheeda, a British Muslim teen and begins with her hurriedly packing and getting ready to take off.

Then, as she tells her story and tries to record a message for her mother, we find out why.

There are so many facets explored in this narrative that I found absolutely charming. Family gets a huge piece of the stage: the relationship between mother and daughter is very much the significant thing happening here, but also Shaheeda’s life as the younger sister (and, in her mind, very much the lesser sister in so many ways). There’s also a lot about friends and friendship here, and especially the breakdown thereof. First love, and the all-consuming feelings often created in those relationships. Religion, faith, and Pakistani culture and values—and how Shaheeda tries to balance this with her own sensibilities and experiences in Hounslow, a place she just wants to escape from.

What surprised me given the break-neck pacing and the often dark turns of narrative was also just how often this story was funny (and the language was phenomenal, it was like time-travel back to the UK for me in spots). It’s not a long piece—an hour and a bit—so perhaps novella or novelette length, but it’s absolutely full. Shaheeda rarely gets to pause and take a breath, and that just adds to the authenticity. I remember being sixteen, and how heightened everything was. “The Diary of a Hounslow Girl” captures all that and so much more, and does so with punch.

Short Stories 366:73 — “The Lighthouse Keeper,” by Daisy Johnson

[image error]I’ve always loved stories about outsiders, and especially those who see or feel or understand the world in some way others don’t. With “The Lighthouse Keeper,” Daisy Johnson walks a fine line with her main character in this regard: read one way, she is exactly the character I just described, a woman who has had an encounter with a fish, but not just any fish, a fish that’s somehow different and perhaps even fated to have encountered her.

Read another way, the woman is just very lonely and isolated and doing a job that the people in the town feel isn’t right for her (as a woman) and she is projecting what could almost be a delusion out into the world.

It really could go either way, but my tendency is to read it as the former, and as the former the story takes on a whiff of magic. The townsfolk already regard the woman as strange—after all, a woman working a lighthouse?—but the fallout of a single moment threatens everything, and she has to decide what she’ll do to protect something as unique as herself.

I found his story through LeVar Burton Reads.

Short Stories 366:72 — “Croak Toad,” by Matthew Bright

[image error]Have you ever read a story that was just so freaking clever a notion that you felt something close to a burning jealousy for never having had the idea yourself in the first place? Well, allow me to introduce you to Matthew Bright’s “Croak Toad,” a short story that turns The Wind in the Willows into a kind of noir crime thriller and, yes, you read that right and I know, burning freaking jealousy.

Mole is in trouble and has been called upon to do something awful, Rat knows the only way out is a clever plan (if only he had one) and Badger is just the kind of muscle they’ll need to make it possible for them all to get out of there in one piece (assuming they can come up with a plan before they’re killed).

I don’t know that I can explain just how freaking wonderful this story is, how it takes the characters and twists them just-so, how the language is so artfully crafted to put that noir patina over the almost-puns of the country lore, or the sheer burning jealousy joy of realizing the anthropomorphized characters were discussing the human equivalent to furries at one point (what would you even call those, skinnies? Fleshies?) at a dirty club.

I’ve loved everything about Stories to Sing in the Dark—side-note: it just became a finalist for this year’s Lammies—but I won’t lie: “Croak Toad” was the moment I leaned back in my seat and realized just how freaking warped and amazing Matthew Bright’s debut collection is, and… Well, burning jealousy. As I said. Because he’s such a wonderful guy, I got over my burning jealousy and asked him just how he’d come up with this story, so without further ado:

From the Author:

Croak Toad started with the name – a pun I was so pleased with I knew I had to write the story to go with it. I tried three attempts at it – each for various dimly-fitting submission calls that I thought deadline panic would see me to, but it wasn’t until I got even stricter with myself that it came together: every section of the story is exactly the same number of words long. Restriction (and a handy dictionary of hard-boiled slang!) breeds invention.

You can find Matthew Bright online at his website.