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NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter – Chapter Four [science fiction]

Harper Kingsley - Author of sci-fi and fantasy, loves to babble about books, movies, comics, and whatever

Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal

Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world’s most wealthy individual.

He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.

William always strives to maintain his image of “normal life,” though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he’s posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he’s accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum… he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.

Welcome to his world.

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

“So, RJ’s your best friend?” Alan asked, reaching out to take a carrot stick off the tray.

“Yes,” William said, snagging a cherry tomato for himself. It was sweet and tart at the same time and burst across his tongue. “He looks a bit like Richie Cunningham, so try not to mention anything about Opie or anything like that around him. He’s very sensitive of his red hair and I’m the only one allowed to make fun of him.”

Alan laughed and shook his head. “Opie? Really?”

William shrugged. “Yeah. Like a lot. They totally could be twins separated by a few decades.”

“And you guys met at school?” Alan clarified.

“We went to the same college,” William said. “He’s like two years older, but I graduated a year ahead of him. We were both in the prodigy program.”

“Huh,” Alan said. “So should I be intimidated?”

William snorted. “No! RJ’s probably the most relaxed guy you’re ever going to meet. I don’t know about the girl he’s dating now — she’s new — but RJ himself is a great guy.”

“Okay. Best friend, great guy, check.” Alan loudly crunched on another carrot.

William probably should have told him to leave the food until their guests arrived, but he couldn’t help sneaking some more tomatoes himself. It wasn’t like RJ was going to mind or anything. He’d once given William a half-eaten gift basket with the wide-eyed excuse of “I got hungry.”

The doorbell rang and William hurried over to answer it.

RJ was standing on the Welcome mat with a tall, willowy brunette in a too short skirt and inappropriate spiked heels. She looked like she’d dressed to go clubbing, then got dragged to a boring dinner party instead.

“Hey, come on in!” William said expansively, opening the door wide.

RJ grinned at him in passing, but headed right over to Alan. “So you’re that Alan guy I’ve been hearing so much about?” He examined Alan closely. “You don’t exactly look like a paragon of virtue.”

“I leave that with my other hat,” Alan deadpanned.

RJ laughed. “You’re cool. I like that.” He held out his hand. “Richard Jensen Long, RJ to the world at large.”

“Alan Trent. It’s nice to meet you.” Alan had a firm handshake that he’d probably practiced for hours on his constituents. It was just the right amount of firm and comforting without ever crossing the line into facetiousness.

“Hey, great to meet you. This is Leslie,” RJ gestured his date forward to get a shake of her own. He knew enough not to volunteer William for handshakes.

“Nice to meet you,” Leslie said in her little girl’s voice.

William blinked. In her current outfit he hadn’t recognized her, but the sound of her voice was familiar. “You’re in the linguistics department,” he said.

She gave him a surprised look. “Yeah. Dr. Leslie Nielson.”

“Huh.” He hadn’t realized that she worked for him. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“We’ve met before at the all department meeting last month,” she said. “That’s where I met RJ.”

“Oh, nice,” he said. He gave RJ a bright smile. “Well, dinner’s going to be ready in about twenty minutes. There’s stuff to eat until then.” He waved at the platter of sliced vegetables and dip and the large bowl of chips.

“My favorite.” Rj reached out to take a handful of cone shaped snack chips out of the bowl. “Where the hell did you get this many Bugles?”

William shrugged. “I am very wealthy. I went to the grocery store.”

RJ slapped him on the shoulder and they grinned at each other. Being nerds had been one of those things that had drawn them together in the first place, that and their love of Dragonlance books.

William waggled his eyebrows at RJ then flicked his eyes toward Leslie.

RJ laughed. “I know, right? When did we turn into these guys?”

William shrugged. “After we made our first ten million dollars. Money buys coolness and hot babes,” he nodded toward Alan, who sighed.

“Do you ever get the feeling that they’re talking about us?” Alan asked Leslie conspiratorially.

She was looking at them, and she definitely was not laughing. “Yeah, and I’m not sure I really like it.”

“Relax,” Alan said. “At least they’re not making pocket lightsabers like I caught William messing around with last week. It was awful,” he said to RJ, “he managed to burn a hole in the couch and still thinks I haven’t noticed that he’s replaced it.”

RJ made an “o” face and turned to William. “You made a lightsaber?”

“Just a little scale model,” William said, shrugging mock-humbly.

“You made a lightsaber,” RJ repeated, “without me?”

“Sorry. It was the middle of the night and I just decided to make one,” William said. “You’ll totally be in on it when I make the real thing.”

“You’re going to make me one too, right?” RJ asked, crunching on Bugles while he talked.

“Of course,” William said. “You’re my go-to guy when it comes to making awesome sci-fi weaponry. You wanna sit down?”

RJ looked over at the couch and started drifting that way. “Sure. So when are we going to start making our own X-Wing?”

William made a “sh” gesture with his finger on his lip. “It’s not going to be an X-Wing. It will be… it will be a Cy-Wing and it will be completely different from the copyrighted design of the X-Wing.”

“Should I be hearing any of this?” Alan said, sitting next to William on the couch. “I mean, when they’re deposing me later I would like to be able to say that I don’t know anything about any illegal activity with a clear conscience.”

William arched his neck to give Alan’s finger’s better access. “I would never get you in trouble. Worst comes to worst, I’ll send you out of the country until all the hullabaloo dies down.”

“Did you just say ‘hullabaloo’?” Alan asked in disbelief.

“Shut up.” William lightly hit Alan on the chest with the back of his fingers. “I never make fun of the way you talk,” he manfully ignored the way Alan snorted and kept going, “and I’ve always gone out of my way to make sure you’re happy and well taken care of.”

“Why do I feel like I’m hearing things I’m not supposed to?” RJ leaned forward to scoop out another handful of Bugles. He nudged the bowl toward Leslie. “You want some of these?”

“No thank you,” she said, sitting primly beside him.

William glanced at her, wondering what he was supposed to do to make her more comfortable, then shrugged. He grabbed some cherry tomatoes and a broccoli floret off the veggie tray. “You guys really need to eat this,” he said. “You especially, RJ. Get some fiber in your diet.”

RJ kept crunching his Bugles. “I eat plenty of fiber.”

“Whatever.” William had known him long enough to know when his attention wasn’t going to be shifted. He was in full-on snack food mode and there was no changing that, especially with an offer of healthier substitutes.

“So,” Alan said, “you’ve known each other since college?”

RJ laughed. “Yeah, I was there first, but he graduated before me. Two years younger than me, he just showed up one day and burned his way through school. It was actually pretty admirable.”

“‘Admirable,’” William snerked, then ducked out of the way of RJ’s swat. “Come on, when was the last time you used a word like that in conversation?”

“Today,” RJ said. “You just heard me use it, didn’t you?”

William stuck his tongue out, then blushed and jerked it back in. “Sorry,” he said to Alan. “Every time I hang around RJ, it’s like my maturity level drops to that of a ten year old.”

Alan laughed and pecked him on the cheek. “You’re more like a twelve year old.”

“I could make comments about perverts or whatever,” RJ said, “but that would be rude.”

The swinging door of the kitchen opened and a man and a woman wearing black aprons over black pants and red dress shirts came out. They carried heavy trays that they carefully and efficiently unloaded on the dining table.

“Looks like food’s ready,” William said, standing up. “Which totally saves your butt.”

RJ laughed. “Saves my butt? Saves your butt, more like. What are we eating?”

William led the way over to the dining table. “I asked for turkey and stuffing and to surprise me with the rest. God, I love stuffing, I could eat it every day.”

RJ gave him a look askance. “Are you high?”

William covered his mouth to muffle a laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Mr. Neeley, I am both shocked and appalled. I thought you were completely vanilla, yet there you are.” RJ shook his head. “Tsk tsk.”

William bumped shoulders with him before going to the seat with his name on the placeholder. “Just sit down already.”

RJ laughed.

 

They had a wonderful meal, the two couples sitting side-by-side.

Alan clearly got on RJ’s good side when he mentioned being addicted to RPGs and RJ realized that they’d actually met online before. William just had to roll his eyes. While sweet, he had no real interest in video games because he would much rather be living out those adventures in real life. Still, it was nice that they had some common ground.

William tried to like Leslie, he really did, but he must have done something to offend her. She just kept looking at him like he was the awfulest person she’d ever met, and he didn’t know why.

He’d tried to be friendly with her, then he shifted to just being polite, since he thought she didn’t like his humor, then finally he just ignored her all together. Anything to not receive that somehow deriding look, all haughty and nose in the air.

William hated that look.

It was the look he’d received as a child when his mother was out of work and didn’t have the money to pay all the bills. Those people would come around with their haughtiest expressions and he would feel about an inch tall. And the worst thing was that they were trying to be nice to him because he was a kid, so they would say awful things to his mother when he wasn’t there to hear.

He could still remember the horrible feeling he’d get when his mother would cry late at night. Heart-wrenching tears that he could hear right through the wall. She thought that she was quiet and he never heard, but he could hear.

And she’d died like that, still thinking that she was a failure. She never got to know that he had made a success of himself because of her. She never got to see that all her sacrifices had been worth it and that he loved her.

She died when he was sixteen years old, three months before the launch of his company and all of the wealth that was to follow. She never got to see him make something of himself.

Non-small lung cancer. Her inability to stop smoking had killed her when she was only forty years old. It was just one of those things.

He had thought he was over it until he saw the way Leslie looked at him and it reminded him of his mother’s tears. Just in that instant, he’d realized that there was no way he was ever going to be able to like Leslie.

Tolerate for RJ’s sake? Yes. Like? No.

It was just one of those things.

So he was pleased that Alan and RJ were getting along so well, but he felt bad that he simply couldn’t click with Leslie. It made him feel like a jerk friend, not liking RJ’s girl. But there it was.

After RJ and Leslie left, William slumped down on the couch. “I feel horrible,” he said.

“Why?” Alan called out from the bedroom. He had gone in to grab something.

William leaned forward over the edge of the couch to speak loudly toward the bedroom door: “I didn’t like Leslie.”

Alan came out of the bedroom, his tie gone and his collar unbuttoned. He wasn’t wearing shoes or socks and William just had to notice that he had beautifully articulated feet. He really was very sexy, especially with his hair ruffled like that.

“Why didn’t you like Leslie?” Alan asked seriously. He always asked everything seriously, like every bit of William was absorbingly interesting.

“Because she brought up bad childhood memories,” William said. “Plus, she didn’t laugh at any of my funny stories. How am I supposed to get along with her when she doesn’t seem to like anything about me?”

“So you don’t like her because she doesn’t like you? Is that what you’re trying to say?” Alan asked.

William huffed out a breath. “Yeah, probably.”

Alan snorted and went to pour himself a drink. “You’re ridiculous.” He held up the decanter. “Brandy?”

William cocked his head in thought, mentally evaluating what might get all messed up if he got hammered tonight. “Give me a small one,” he said.

Alan grinned and poured him a bit more than a “small one” into a glass. As he carried the glasses toward the couch, Alan abruptly made a side trip to click off the main lights.

William sat in the dimness of two mood lights while Alan brought him his drink. “You’re cute, you know that?”

“I’m cute?” Alan snorted, handing William his glass. “Sometimes I feel like I should buy you a mirror, but I don’t ever want you to leave me.”

“You sound almost obsessed,” William laughed.

Alan pressed a kiss against the side of his neck. “I am obsessed. You are my obsession.” He knelt up on the couch next to William, bending down to try and consume his mouth.

William gave a breathless laugh and had to turn his head to the side to gulp his drink down. He didn’t want to spill it.

He dropped the empty glass, then reached up to loop his arms behind Alan’s neck, pulling him down to meet his hungry lips. “I think I want to keep you.”

“Isn’t that a quote from one of your movies?” Alan gasped, their tongues and lips meeting and mashing together.

“Yeah,” William huffed, working his hand down the front of Alan’s pants. “Hooked. It’s about Peter Pan never wanting to grow up.”

“Is that some kind of metaphor?” Alan asked, sucking at the pulse point on the left side of William’s neck. He knew he was going to leave a big mark and William was going to have to wear a high-collared shirt for a few days, and he didn’t care.

William thought about being mad at him, then decided he didn’t care. He stretched his neck out to give him more access. “Why do you always want to have these deep discussions right when we’re making out?”

“Because I’m utterly fascinated by you and the sound of your voice is very arousing to me,” Alan said frankly.

William just moaned and pulled Alan tighter against him. “Come on,” that’s all he could say, but it was heartfelt.

Alan’s laugh was wicked.

* * *

Even though he’d realized it was pretty serious when Alan moved in with him, it wasn’t until they’d been living together six months that he realized he wanted to live with Alan for the rest of his life.

It was one of the strangest thought leaps he’d ever experienced and it had left him totally reeling.

He hadn’t even been thinking about relationships, yet he’d managed to find himself in one. A relationship that was so serious that he wanted to grow old with Alan.

“That’s so weird,” he said out loud.

“What’s weird?” RJ asked, switching off his welder. He used his arm to flip up his big metal welder’s mask. He looked vaguely like an old time blacksmith in his brown leather apron, but the things he was playing with were very serious business.

William set down his tools and pushed his goggles up on top of his head. “I realized that I’m in love with Alan.”

“Oh, is that all?” RJ snorted a laugh. “We all knew about that months ago.”

“What?” William wrung his gloved hands in his white lab coat. “How could you have all known about it months ago when I’m just figuring things out myself?”

“Please, you’re completely obvious, all the time,” RJ said. William’s mouth fell open.

“You should shut your mouth before you catch a fly in it.” William’s mouth snapped shut and he glared at RJ, who kept talking: “Come on, did you seriously think you were being subtle? One look at you after your first date with Alan and I knew you were totally crushing. Then when you introduced me to him, that’s when I knew you’d found your personal one.

“So stop freaking out and just be happy,” RJ said.

“The way you’re talking, it’s like you already think we’re married or something,” William huffed, crossing his arms.

RJ just looked at him for a moment, raising his eyebrows. “You have a dog together.”

William’s eyes went wide. “Oh my God.”

He was finally focused on what his life with Alan really was like. They lived in the same house. They spent all their free time together. They had sex regularly. And just the month before they’d gone out and gotten themselves a dog — a brown mutt they’d named “Kudos.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me I was in a serious relationship?” William asked.

RJ shook his head. “I didn’t ever think I would have to tell you something that obvious. You’re practically married to the guy, you’re so serious.”

“Well crap,” William said.

“I’m going back to work.” With a sigh, RJ jerked his mask back down over his face and went back to his welding project.

William sat at the workbench and stared into space, his little project of wires and circuits forgotten in front of him.

He just felt completely boggled.

 

That night he came home to find Alan already there.

“You’re here early,” he said, patting Kudos on the head before gently nudging him away.

Alan grunted. He was lounging in his suit pants and an undershirt on the couch, the lights turned low and the TV flickering across his face.

William usually didn’t like that kind of thing — he liked things to be neat and tidy and undershirts just didn’t scream tidy to him. So Alan’s pose on the couch probably should have sent him running in disgust; instead he found it oddly endearing.

“I found out that I love you today,” he blurted out.

Alan was still for a moment, then there was a faint “click” and the TV was shut off. He turned to look toward William. “You just found out today?” he asked in disbelief. Kudos ran up to him and tried to shove his nose in Alan’s hand.

William opened his mouth, but could only shrug.

Alan scoffed, then raked a hand through his hair. “I cannot believe you. I thought we were both in this to the same degree, and now I find out that you were just playing.” He shook his head. “I’m a Congressman, for God’s sake. There are reporters and news people that would love to have some kind of scandal off me. I mean, I’m not just representing myself, I’m representing every gay man out there, so anything that happens in my life is automatically blown out of proportion.

“So to find out that none of this is serious to you?” Alan stood up, glaring at William. “I just…” He shook his head. “What is wrong with you?” He stomped into the bedroom, Kudos running ahead of him. “Watch out!”

William’s mouth flopped and his eyes were starting to water. He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but there was no way he was going to let Alan go without explaining.

“Wait!” He ran toward the bedroom where he found Alan already bringing out an overnight bag. “Don’t leave me!”

Alan glared at him. “If you’re not serious, then we can’t do this. Because I don’t know what I would do if you broke up with me later after I’ve already burned all my other bridges. My job is very serious to me.” As he talked, he opened the bag on the bed and went to his closet to start bringing out clothes to pack.

“No, you don’t understand!” William ran over to the bed, standing close to Alan. He might have been tempted to grab him, but he really didn’t want to get punched. Alan would probably never do that, but he had bad memories of other people. “I’ve always been serious about us, but I just didn’t realize quite how serious we’ve gotten. I mean, I just looked up today and it just kind of hit me that we live together. We have a dog together. And then I couldn’t help thinking that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Alan stopped packing and turned to look at him. “Oh,” he said.

“Yeah.” William shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “I just had one of those great eye-opening moments today and I don’t think I’m ever going to be the same again. Especially if I’m living with you forever?” He cocked his head questioningly.

Alan stared at him, then the corner of his mouth curved up and his eyes stopped bugging quite so much. “Well, if you put it like that, I guess I could share my forever with you.”

“Exactly,” William said. “Forever.” He stepped forward to wrap his arms around Alan, pulling him closer.

“With you,” Alan said, tilting his chin back so the taller William could kiss him on the mouth.

After a minute of kissing and groping, William pulled his head back to gasp for air. He blinked at Alan in the dimness. “Just to clarify, we’re getting married, right?”

Alan bit at William’s Adam’s apple. “Of course.”

“And who’s the bride?” William asked.

“Why you, of course,” Alan said, then yelped and pulled out of William’s arms to run around the other side of the bed.

William chased after him and lunged to knock him on his back on the bed. “I’m the bride? I’m the bride? I don’t think so. You’re the bride.”

“I can’t be the bride,” Alan said, “I am a gentleman of uncommon virtue.”

William snorted. “I’ll virtue you.” He leaned down over Alan to steal himself some kisses. “This isn’t over.”

Alan gripped William’s arms above the elbow and flipped them over with a grunt. He sat back on William’s thighs, looking down at him. “It’s over for now. I’ve got other interests right now than who’s going to be the bride at our incredibly publicized wedding.”

“We could sell it as a TV show,” William said, lifting his head up to try and reach Alan’s mouth for a kiss. Alan just kept holding him down by the arms.

“Yeah, that’s never going to happen,” Alan said. He ground their pelvis’ together, seeming to like the sound William made at the friction.

Unable to resist any longer, William used Alan’s grip on his arms to pull the other man down on top of him. “Come on,” he said, undulating his body against Alan’s.

Alan groaned. “You’re evil.”

“I try.”

/ CHAPTER

From Diamond to Coal
Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal



Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world's most wealthy individual.



He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.



William always strives to maintain his image of "normal life," though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he's posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he's accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum... he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.



Welcome to his world.




Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four


Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter Eight

The post NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter – Chapter Four [science fiction] appeared first on Harper Kingsley.
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NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter – Chapter Three [science fiction]

Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal

Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world’s most wealthy individual.

He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.

William always strives to maintain his image of “normal life,” though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he’s posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he’s accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum… he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.

Welcome to his world.

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

Even though James didn’t like the thought of him falling into such an easily followed routine, William simply couldn’t help himself. He had always liked his little patterns of behavior; it was comforting to always have a general idea of where he was supposed to be.

He worked long hours and his company was growing at an exponential rate. He didn’t know how far everything was going to go, but he had already far exceeded his own expectations.

He honestly hadn’t expected his little idea to start a company would end up as one of the most successful companies in the world. He had almost over night gone from borderline poverty to amazing levels of wealth.

It was kind of frightening.

Which is why he fought to be able to pretend that he was just a normal person, some of the time at least. He didn’t want to lose his sense of self and just become some kind of human shell.

So he donned jeans, a tee shirt and a zip-front hoodie and pretended that he was just a guy. He liked wandering through the grocery store and shopping for himself. He liked going to the library and book stores. He liked walking through the park and seeing people enjoying the day.

Mostly, he liked going to his favorite coffee shop, A Shot In the Dark. They knew him there, though it was simply by the name “William” and he figured they thought he was some kind of college student or something. Which actually made him happy.

Graduating at fifteen meant he had missed a lot of the college experience. He’d been too young for anyone to really want to hang out with — except RJ, who was another prodigy and two years his senior — but he’d been just old enough to realize that he was missing out on all the good stuff.

So he tried his best, now, to play at being a normal person. His dream was to somehow be seen as just another face in the crowd.

Pushing open one of the double doors that led into A Shot In the Dark, he couldn’t help laughing when Cindy, his usual barista, saw him and pointed. “Got you covered, babe. Go sit down and I’ll bring it to you.”

“Thank you,” he said, looking around to find a free table. The place was pretty packed for this time of day. It made him wonder if something was going on.

He felt a frown tugging at his lips when he realized there was nowhere for him to sit. He really didn’t want to just grab his coffee and go, but that was what it looked like was going to happen. Maybe he could drink his coffee in the park?

“You can sit here,” a voice said.

William turned to see a blond man sitting at a table to his left. “Really?” He was already walking over.

The guy smiled at him, flashing nice teeth. He was good-looking and William couldn’t help running his eyes over what he could see of the man’s body. He really wasn’t into the idea of sitting with a serial killer or something.

William pulled out the empty seat and sat down. “Thanks. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

“I was surprised by how busy they are myself,” the man said. He had a newspaper folded under his elbow and he was wearing a dark gray suit. Up close, he had the beginnings of crow’s feet and faint smile lines around his mouth.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” William asked.

The man shrugged. “I guess there’s some kind of convention or something going on a few blocks from here. Most of these guys came from there.”

“Huh.” He held out his hand, “My name’s William.”

The man’s hand was warm and dry against his own, his handshake firm. “Alan. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.”

Cindy came swaying across the room, dodging tables and customers to bring William his coffee. “Here you go,” she chirped, “one quad-shot white chocolate mocha with a swirl of cherry syrup.”

William pulled a folded ten dollar bill out of his pocket and traded her for the cup. “Thank you,” he said, taking a quick sip before setting it down on the table. It tasted delicious. “Nice.”

She winked at him. “You’re the whole reason why I work here, sweetie. You’re the perfect eye-candy.”

“I try, ” he said, buffing his fingernails on the front of his tee shirt. “I pose in front of the mirror for a good five hours a day.”

“Oh you.” She lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “Well, I better get back to work. Are you going to be here for a while?”

He shrugged. “I was thinking I would be. Probably at least for another cup of coffee.”

“All right, I’ll leave the cherry syrup out just in case,” she said, walking away.

William shook his head and looked at Alan. “She likes to guilt-trip me into ODing on her drinks.”

“‘Quad-shot’?” Alan mock-shuddered. “And you’re going to drink two of them?”

“They’re good,” William excused. He carefully took a large gulp of his coffee. It was hot enough to burn his mouth, but there was no way he could wait until it cooled down. “So delicious.”

“Am I in the presence of an addict?” Alan asked, leaning back dramatically.

William shrugged. “Pretty much.”

Alan sat back up. “Oh, well, at least you admit it. There are some people out there… they won’t admit anything right to their graves. Very dramatic folk, those.”

“You’re kind of silly, aren’t you?” William covered his mouth with his fingers, hiding his smile. It was a habit he’d liberated one day in his youth and had never managed to give up. He figured it was something he’d take with him to the grave.

“What makes you think that?” Alan asked in surprise.

William shook his head. “I’m pretty good at reading people, and no matter the volume, I can hear sarcasm at any time. You hide it pretty good though. Do you work with the public a lot?”

Alan shrugged. “That’s actually pretty close. I have to give speeches and stuff all the time and I have to answer peoples’ concerns.”

William felt a sinking sensation. “With those kinds of experiences… do I have to guess that I’m in the presence of some kind of politician?”

“Possibly.” Alan took a drink of his latte. “Why, do you have an irrational dislike of politicians?”

“It’s not really that irrational,” William said, “considering all the lousy things politicians have done in this country lately. They almost disrupted the whole economy and wrecked America completely just a couple of years ago. It’s one of the reasons the progressive party got so powerful and…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alan waved his hands. “I can tell that you’re very into talking politics, but I can see that you’ve got your mind pretty set. So how about this, we continue to talk, but it can’t be anything about politics.”

“But you’re a politician,” William said, “it’s your job.”

“Exactly,” Alan said. “It’s my job. So if we make a deal not to talk about either one of our jobs, we can just be William and Alan when we talk to each other. And I think I want to talk to you some more.”

William blinked. “What?”

Alan looked vaguely embarrassed and he ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. “I know we just met a little while ago, but in my life I’ve learned to grab onto opportunity as it presents itself. So I can’t help thinking that our meeting was predestined in some way. We were always meant to meet here in this moment and that’s a pretty beautiful thing.”

“Are you a hippy or something?” William demanded.

Alan snorted and shook his head. “What?”

“Well, you’re sounding pretty hippy to me, very pagan ‘the universe is all one’ type thinking.” William fingered the cardboard sleeve around his cup that protected him from being burned. There was something completely relevant about the sleeve, though he couldn’t think what. That or he was trying to distance himself from the surreality of the situation.

“It doesn’t bother me or anything,” he said, “that you’re a pagan.”

“I’m not a pagan,” Alan laughed. The fact that he totally seemed to be getting William’s strange brand of humor was kind of a big plus.

For the first time William was seriously considering socializing with someone new. His life had been so shut off the last couple of years that he wasn’t sure he would know what to do, but he kind of wanted to try.

If Alan didn’t turn out to be some awful creep.

“I could be around here again in a couple of days,” he said nonchalantly, trying not to sound too involved.

“That would be great,” Alan said enthusiastically, “and I can be here. Around this time on Tuesday?”

William was surprised the guy was so enthusiastic, but he couldn’t help being a bit excited himself. He took a big gulp of his coffee, emptying the cup. “I will be here on Tuesday,” he said.

Alan’s smile was bright and happy. He didn’t look like he could be a bloodsucking, evil politician. He just looked way too nice.

“That’s so great,” Alan said. “We can talk about movies or video games or whatever. It will be so nice to have a normal conversation without worrying that someone’s going to take it out of context and I’m going to be looking at a dark prospect.”

William didn’t know what he was supposed to feel. He had been absolutely sure that Alan was totally into him and wanted to have a relationship with him. Then Alan acted like they were simply going to be best friends forever.

It made William seriously have to wonder if he had read the vibe around Alan wrong. Sure, every fiber of his being was absolutely certain that Alan was gay, but maybe he’d just made some serious mistake.

It left him feeling off balance and maybe a bit afraid.

“So, do you watch any sports?” Alan asked.

William shrugged, really not sure what exactly was going on. “Not really. I played some baseball, but I’ve never really liked watching other people playing games. It just seems boring to me.”

“Ah, you’re really missing out,” Alan said, then preceded to tell William exactly why he was wrong.

And maybe while William’s life wasn’t exactly enlightened by that conversation, his life was irrevocably changed.

Because after that, his trips to A Shot In the Dark weren’t just to get away from the stress of his day-to-day life. They were also opportunities to see Alan.

 

It was kind of nice to meet someone in a neutral setting. And since they had decided to not talk about their jobs at all, there was an exciting amount of mystery to it. They could have been anyone to the rest of the world, but they got to be just William and Alan with each other.

William threw himself through the door of the coffee shop and had to grin at Alan. “Whoo, it’s pretty windy out there,” he called cheerfully, striding over to the table.

Alan raised an eyebrow on seeing him and looked as though he wanted to laugh out loud. “You look like you’ve been in a wind storm.” He reached out to brush his hand through William’s hair when he sat down. “You’re all frazzled.”

William grinned. “I know, isn’t it great?”

There had been something wonderful about running through the storm. He’d felt a bit like Dorothy, though he hadn’t bothered to crush any evil witches today.

“I ordered your usual,” Alan said, pushing a cup toward him.

“Thank you!” William hurriedly took a sip. “You’re a lifesaver, you know that?”

“I do try,” Alan said modestly.

William reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a beat up old paperback. “Here, I brought you this.”

Alan took the book, examining the cover quickly before reading the back. “Is this that book you were talking about?”

“Of course,” William said, propping his elbows on the table. “You’re really going to like it.”

“Okay,” Alan tucked the book into his own pocket, “I’ll be sure to bring it back when I’m done.”

“Take your time,” William said. “That’s a book that’s meant to be enjoyed.”

Alan smiled at him, a semi-silly expression that William had been seeing more and more lately. “I’ll have to bring you a book to read too,” he said. “It would only be fair.”

“Sure,” William said. “We can swap books all the time. It could become our thing. We could be like a book club.”

“A book club that only has two people?” Alan raised his eyebrows.

“We could invite more people,” William said, and even to his own ears he didn’t sound that enthused by the idea.

“No, I think we’re good just the way we are.” Alan reached out to carefully lay his hand on top of William’s own. “What do you think about that?”

William looked down at Alan’s hand on his. This was the first time Alan had ever instituted physical contact and it made something fizz low in his belly. “Yeah. Just us. That’s the best way to be,” William said dumbly.

There was the sudden click of a camera and he whirled around, reluctantly pulling his hand away from Alan’s.

The man with the camera got a full-on front shot of him and William instinctively raised his hands to cover his face.

“What are you doing?” Alan demanded, pushing to his feet. He moved to stand in front of William, blocking him from view of the camera that kept snapping.

“Well, Congressman, it looks like I’ve just found you in your little love nest,” the man smirked. “Who’s the little boy?”

William gave Alan a surprised glance. “Congressman?”

Alan shrugged uncomfortably. “We weren’t talking about our careers, right?”

“Huh.” William stayed behind Alan, right up until he heard the distinct sound of James stepping up to handle the situation. Then when he next looked at the paparazzi, it was to find the man face-down on the floor with James’ knee jammed in the small of his back, his camera already half-disassembled.

“What is this?” Alan asked. “Who’s this guy?”

William stepped out from around him, now that he was fairly sure no one else was about to play candid camera. “That’s my bodyguard, James. James, this is Alan.”

“Hello Alan,” James said. He’d practiced his bland smile until it gave absolutely nothing away.

“Why do you have a bodyguard?” Alan asked, looking at William.

William shrugged. “It’s one of those job things we carefully weren’t talking about.” He sighed heavily and pulled on his jacket before picking his cup of coffee up off the table. “Why don’t you come back to my place with me and we can talk about everything?”

Alan looked at the paparazzi, then gave William a nod. “All right.”

James touched his ear. “The boss is going to be on the move. Someone come in and handle this guy.”

Immediately the door opened and a tall man in a tailored black suit strolled in. He looked like he would be able to handle any situation without breaking a sweat. “Here you go, sir,” he said, letting James move out of the way before taking charge of the paparazzi cursing about his camera.

“Byron, right?” William said.

The man flashed him a bright smile, looking more mischievous than dangerous for a moment. “Yes sir. I just started working for James a week ago.”

William nodded at him. “It’s nice to meet you.” He tried to be as friendly as possible with the men and women working to keep him alive.

“You too, sir,” Byron said. He had a nice smile, one that included a dimple at the left side of his mouth. “I’ve got this guy.”

“Thank you,” William said. He gestured Alan toward the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Alan followed him, “it looks like we have a lot to discuss.”

William had to carefully hide a wince. If there was one thing he hated, it was the Talk. It was one of those things his life definitely could do without.

 

It was a short walk to the brownstone William was currently living in. Sure, it may have seemed a little strange for a billionaire to be living in that kind of place, but William had fallen in love the minute he’d seen it.

He’d spent his whole life just wanting to be normal and having the same kinds of things that normal people did. And just because he’d started out life poor didn’t mean he wanted to blow all his money on shiny things.

He’d come to the decision that instead of living some lavish lifestyle, he wanted something real instead. He wanted actual friends and people he could count on. He wanted to surround himself with people that didn’t care about how smart he was or how rich. He wanted to talk to someone and not have them immediately point out that he was “the” William Neeley.

Anonymity had helped him a lot in his goal, but he still had to live surrounded by bodyguards. Because no matter how much he dreamed about things being different, there was a price to pay for the ridiculous amount of money he’d managed to accumulate. And the price was his privacy.

So taking Alan up the stairs of his house, William couldn’t help feeling nervous. People always took it so weird when they found out what William’s life was really was like. Either they were completely turned on by the money, or they were freaked out by all the security hanging around.

“So, this is my place,” William said, pushing open the front door into his private suite.

The building still had that classic brownstone look on the outside, but he’d had it gutted and remodeled on moving in.

He had his own suite — three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a large living room — and the rest of the brownstone was living space for his bodyguards. They had their own sleeping area and the large, expanded basement was a fully-stocked home gym.

For added security, he also owned the surrounding buildings. James had suggested it as a way to keep down the possibility of a rooftop sniper. He’d also completely ignored William’s objections that he was worth a lot more as a living hostage. So William had ended up owning the neighborhood that he lived in.

It was just another one of those things that he forced himself to ignore so he could keep to his delusion that he was a real boy.

“This place is nice,” Alan said, looking around.

William had to smile even through all the awkwardness. “I like it.”

The living room displayed William’s love of wide open spaces. There was a U-shape of cream colored couches filling up the living room and facing the large flat screen hanging on the wall. The coffee table had a glass top that peered into the terrarium William had built–inside, Igor the Iguana languished on his favorite rock, his belly fat from his rich diet. He didn’t exactly look as though he hated captivity.

William led Alan over to the couch. “Here, why don’t you have a seat?”

“Sure.” Alan sat, his long-fingered, artistic hands folding on his knees. “So, what’s going on?”

“Well,” William sat down on a couch half-facing him, “it looks like you’re some kind of important Congressman or something.”

“Yeah, about that.” Alan held out his hand for a shake. “Congressman Alan Trent, pleasure to meet you.”

William put his hand in Alan’s, feeling the warmth of skin on skin. “William Neeley, CEO of CyberAngel Industries.”

Alan’s hand tightened in surprise before he let William go. “CyberAngel Industries?”

“Yeah.” William shrugged uncomfortably. “It’s not that big a deal.”

Alan gave him a keen-eyed look, then shrugged. “Okay, if that’s how you want to play this.”

“What do you mean?” William asked.

Alan shrugged. “We both know that CyberAngel is getting pretty important in the world today, but if you just want to be Joe Normal Guy, well… Okay, we can do that. And I can stay being just Alan with you, right?”

“But you’re a member of Congress!” William hated the way his voice went up shrilly.

“So?” Alan cocked his head. “That’s my job, it’s not me. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve really liked meeting you for coffee and hanging out with you.”

William looked at him, examining the image he presented: Sandy blond hair that had been ruffled by the wind, clear blue eyes, and a handsome, intelligent looking face. He looked like someone that could talk about the national budget and be listened to.

“I do like talking about books with you,” he said slowly.

Alan grinned. “So why do we have to change the way we get along with each other?”

“But what about the paparazzi guy?”

Alan frowned. “Yeah, that’s going to be trouble.” He rubbed his chin with a sigh. “Once someone figured out where we are, that’s pretty much it. There’ll probably be even more reporters showing up, digging around.”

“You’re not married, are you?” William asked in sudden horror. There was no way he was ever going to let himself be “the other woman,” or a facsimile thereof. It just wasn’t his scene at all.

“No!” Alan shook his head. “I’ve never been married, and in fact I’m openly gay. It was just one of those decisions I made when I first started out, not wanting to hide anything big like that.”

“And you’re a Congressman,” William said.

“Of the proud state of Iowa. We gave the world fabulous corn and James Tiberius Kirk,” Alan said.

William laughed. “At least you’re still the same dork I first met. I don’t know what I would have done if your personality had suddenly changed.”

“I would never lie to you,” Alan said, and there was that silly expression again. The one that William had to be the only recipient of, because there was no way Alan would have been able to function in society if he was showing that look all over the place.

“Well, maybe we should get to know each other a little better,” William said. “Now that we’re not just William and Alan anymore.”

“We’ll always be just William and Alan to each other,” Alan said, “and that is a heartfelt promise.”

William couldn’t help a slightly silly grin of his own, though he couldn’t really explain it.

/ CHAPTER

From Diamond to Coal
Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal



Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world's most wealthy individual.



He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.



William always strives to maintain his image of "normal life," though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he's posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he's accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum... he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.



Welcome to his world.




Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter ThreeChapter Four


Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter Eight

Ficcer perspective: H&V, Ersatz, FDtC

Look, I’ll be honest and say that I have a very weird sense of humor. To that end, I love serious stuff, but I’ve also got a serious hankering for the crackfic. It makes me happy.

So I love slash, crossovers, and crack. What does that mean? Obviously I have MPD, and each one has her own voice.

Heroes & Villains, by Harper Kingsley –

When I wrote “Heroes & Villains,” I was channeling all the superhero comic books, cartoons, and fics I’ve always loved. That sort of wry, “life just sucks so get over it” kind of voice.

If you don’t love comic books and superhero novelizations, you probably won’t like “Heroes & Villains.” Same if you don’t like slash – non-descriptive, relationship slash – but a relationship between two dudes. This book’s probably not for you.

Ersatz, by Sol Crafter –

I admit that perhaps I poured a little too much crack into this fic ^_^; I thought it was absolutely hilarious and I had way too much fun writing it, which may have been a warning sign.

Too much angsty back story and melodramatic teenaged girl dudes for one small book. I still think it’s cute, but public opinion seems to feel it needs work.

If you don’t mind casual pot smoking, dudes playing too many video games, and a couple of slackers deciding they’re in love, you probably won’t mind this story. It gets a little wangsty, but I thought that was funny so my frickin’ bad. I’ll fix it in the remix I’m going to amend to the original – so for the price of one story, it will soon be two: crackfic original and serious second attempt.

From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter –

Science fiction super genius story with just a hint of crack for flavor. Because come on, in what universe does any super!genius have that much awesomeness in one lifetime? No way.

Since it’s not a Marty Stu, it has to be crack, right? But more through the looking glass crack and not full on tentacle porn, so we’re good. For now.

A step-by-step story building up to the future we caught at the beginning. And we still have to find out what’s going to happen to William now that he’s been sucked into the portal.

I was going to have an alternate world story where he runs into a different version of himself, but I think I steered myself away from that. I tried to kill William instead, several times.

 

NOVEL: Vedran’s Hand, by Harper Kingsley – Chapter Four [fantasy]

Webserial fantasy novel. Contains: violence, non-descriptive mm romance.



A duel to the death is to take place between two unbeaten champions. The Emperor’s Hand, the man known only as Dragon Knight, has been tasked with giving out eighteen gold seals to men and women of his choice, allowing them to witness the legendary battle between Hezzero and Nasbeth. Everyone wants an invite, and they are willing to do whatever they have to in order to get one.



Meanwhile, machinations are going on behind the scenes and someone is planning for a new Emperor to be crowned. All they need is the death of Emperor Vedran Malvorta.




Chapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter Four


Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter Eight


Chapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter Twelve

NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter – Chapter Two [science fiction]

Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal

Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world’s most wealthy individual.

He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.

William always strives to maintain his image of “normal life,” though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he’s posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he’s accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum… he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.

Welcome to his world.

CHAPTER TWO

At 27

 

The worst thing about any kind of state dinner was the awkwardness he felt at people looking at him. Underneath all those eyes, he wanted to run away. Instead he had to smile and remain calm and pretend that everything was perfectly fine.

At least he didn’t have to pose with Alan for very long before he got sent to the head table. Alan had to walk around shaking hands while William was allowed to settle down and get a glass of wine.

If there was one thing he’d decided would take the edge off, it was alcohol.

“How’s it going?”

William gave Moran a wry smile. “It’s going about the way anyone would expect it to. We really just weren’t prepared for any of this to happen. Our lives were pretty good before.”

“He’s doing an excellent job though.” Moran gazed across the room at where Alan was laughing at something a woman in a red dress said. He looked completely natural; not as though he’d had the Presidency thrust upon him unexpectedly.

“He always does his best,” William said, “no one can deny that. By the time he’s out of office, he’s going to have completely changed the world as we know it. Are you ready for that?”

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for since I first started working for the Obama Administration ten years ago.” Moran sighed. “I was getting tired of being disappointed, but I don’t think I will be anymore.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” William turned back around and set his hands in his lap to hide their nervy twitching.

Chief of Staff Seth Moran wasn’t a bad guy or anything, there was just something about him that rubbed William the wrong way. He just seemed plastic; his smile never looked real and there was something nearly vulture-like about his gaze.

William hated state events and he spent most of his time wishing that he could get away from them, but he was pretty much stuck. One of the “perks” of being the First Husband.

Putting on his blandest expression, he gazed at the table setting before him. He tried to appear occupied with his thoughts, which really wasn’t all that hard considering his mind had been spinning for weeks on ideas for how he was supposed to miniaturize the sub-capacitors for the replicator matrix they were working on in the lab. It was a frustrating headache of a problem.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Alan settling into the chair next to him. It looked like all the hoopla was over and they could get down to the business of pretending they cared about what was going on.

As the table filled up around them, William drew in a deep breath and went about the duty of shmoozing the world leaders around him.

He really hated that this had become their life, but it was one of those things they’d accepted could happen when Alan accepted the role of VP.

No one ever thought he was going to end up as the President. It had completely blindsided everyone. Alan and William most of all.

* * *

When he’d been hired by the CyberAngel Corporation it was as a simple bodyguard, but somehow his duties had been expanded until he became William Neeley’s personal assistant. Because of that he’d been forced to receive additional education and accept the fact that he was never going to be able to say he was “just a dumb guy” ever again.

Byron sat on the chaise lounge in the waiting room. Because there was a state dinner going on, he’d been forced to stay on duty. Not that he really minded. He didn’t really have anything else to do.

Being William’s PA meant that he got the best seat in the place, while the rest of the lackeys were forced to share a table and some folding chairs. He probably should have felt bad for them and how miserable their situation was, but he’d been there himself back in the day.

And sympathy was for losers. At least, that’s what his brother had always told him before punching him in the gut.

He flipped through files on his ePad, skimming through the documents their creators had thought were so very important. There was very little chance that William was ever going to even see them.

Byron was the last line of defense saving William from the vast stupidity of his underlings. It made him feel like a knight of old, guarding the honor of his king.

I’ve been hanging out with Morgan too much, he thought with an internal snerk.

He glanced over a request for purchase of a complete Archon Missile Guidance System and the missiles as well. Since it was coming from a hostile dictator that was probably going to use it to continue subjugating his people, Byron didn’t feel too bad about sending off a form rejection letter.

Why anyone would ever think that CyberAngel would be willing to provide weapons to anyone just because they had a bit of money was completely ridiculous. William had to be one of the most moral people he’d ever met. There was no way he would ever provide WMDs to the highest bidder.

Byron sent the request into the Saved folder, then started reading the next ridiculous message.

It was a relief when his phone rang, until he answered it.

“This is Hughes. Hello?” he said distractedly.

“You need to get William here right now,” RJ sounded panicked. “We’ve got like a Chernobyl situation going on here.”

Considering RJ was the head of R&D, Byron was already on his feet and heading toward the door before he thought to ask what was going on. “What’s happened?” He nudged a Secret Service agent that didn’t move fast enough out of his way.

“We were testing the Krioten Accelerator and something went wrong. We’re approaching a massive overload situation. Can you just get the phone to William? Maybe he can do something,” Rj said with desperate hope.

Jogging down the hallway toward the large banquet hall, Byron had a feeling things weren’t going to get any better. Especially when he heard the echo of alarms blaring in the background of the call and RJ cursed vehemently.

Byron fumbled his ePad into his jacket pocket as he ran and sent off a quick emergency message through his Cymplant to David, William’s head of security, telling him to arrange for the helicopter stat.

Whatever happened, even if RJ somehow got things under control, there was no way William wasn’t going to want to be there. He would want to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb and find out exactly what had gone wrong.

And if things really were going completely wrong… well, from what Byron understood, the Krioten Accelerator had the capacity to blow a large patch of city right off the face of the world.

Which was not something Byron wanted to have happen. Especially when it was on his watch.

* * *

At first it was kind of a relief when Byron showed up with the phone, right up until he figured out what RJ was yelling about. That’s about when everything went to total crap.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said to the room at large, standing up.

He gave Alan a sorry glance and got a shrug in return.

“Go,” Alan said. He was used to William having to run away at the drop of a hat, though it hadn’t happened in a while. Not since Ben had died.

William gave a farewell nod to the rest of the table, then hurriedly stood up. He snatched the phone out of Byron’s hand and strode quickly toward the door.

“How bad is it? I need a no shit assessment, RJ,” he said.

“It looks pretty frickin’ bad, William. For reals, this could go full on Chernobyl on our butts.” Rj sounded stressed and there was a lot of background noise going on — alarms, yells, and a curious thudding sound.

It took William a second to realize that the thudding sound was his heart.

This whole thing could be bad. Like, really really bad.

Even if they managed to get the situation under control, there was a good chance things were still going to be bad. At the very least they were looking to be sanctioned by someone like the EPA or something. Which never looked good on the public records.

“Don’t say the ‘C-word,’” he ordered. “Until I say it’s that bad, it’s not that bad and everything is going to be okay. Okay?”

“I don’t want to be a doubter, man,” RJ said, “but things are bad enough that I kind of have to say I’m doubting. This is pretty bad, right here.”

Byron jogged ahead to push open the double doors for him. William didn’t even break stride as he left the banquet hall and headed at a fast trot toward the utility exit.

There was the clatter of footsteps around him as Secret Service appeared everywhere. Sure, they’d been around before, but now they were in bulk.

Sometimes it got kind of stifling, always having someone around. There were just some times when he would really like just to be alone, and they wouldn’t let that happen.

He was “FHOTUS,” which stood for “First Husband of the United States.”

When he’d first heard the code name, he’d looked at Alan and said, “So you’re POTUS and I’m FHOTUS? What are we, a couple of cartoon characters?”

It had been kind of funny at the time, but really he didn’t appreciate his code name. It just sounded so completely ridiculous.

At least Morgan got to be “Salamander.” It sounded cool enough that he hadn’t objected to it at least, so that was something.

They raced through the back hallways toward where the car should be waiting to take them to the Dragonfly that would carry them to CyberAngel Labs.

He had his own small lab in CyberAngel Tower, but he’d made sure all the seriously dangerous stuff was outside of the city. Still, CyberAngel Labs was close enough to New Ibis that there would be some definite fall out if it blew.

“The car is waiting,” Byron said. He’d been arranging things through his Cymplant, which got William thinking.

RJ could have easily sent William an IM through the Wave. The only reason why he wouldn’t was if the Kroniten particles were in such an agitated state that they were actually disrupting the Signal. Which could mean very bad things, because anything powerful enough to do that usually ended in a big case of dead for those involved.

William let the Secret Service agents run up ahead of him to make sure the coast was clear, then he was gestured through the door and hurried out to the waiting black Cyan Arluxe (Cyber Angel Armored Luxury Vehicle).

He didn’t recognize the driver, but things were getting so large in the company that he didn’t recognize half the people that worked for him anymore. He used to know everyone by name.

He could have called up the woman’s complete profile with his Cymplant, but he always felt as though that were cheating. Not having to remember anything himself just because he had a database he could access with his brain.

Byron jerked the door open and William threw himself in the vehicle. “Once everyone’s in, we need to go,” he ordered.

“Yes sir,” the CybSec driver said. Her fingers tapped the steering wheel impatiently as they waited for the Secret Service to get in their own vehicle.

A man William knew as Joel climbed in the front seat, slamming the door behind him. “We should be ready to go in a moment,” he said.

“Just keep me in the loop,” the driver said.

There wasn’t a ton of love lost between CybSec and the Secret Service. Both saw themselves as an organization of elite operatives, and neither liked having amateurs stepping on their toes. There had been some messiness in the past, but for the most part they’d come around to at least the idea that they would have to work together.

It was a very reluctant thing on the parts of both groups.

Trusting that Byron would be able to handle things, William barely waited to buckle his seat belt before he was accessing the Wave. He felt his body going limp as he allowed himself to be fully submerged in his default Matrix.

He appeared in a clearing in the Black Forest. Tendrils of mist flowed over his black leather boots and he could feel the weight of his Sword of Damocles at his hip.

He whistled shrilly and there was the baying of Wolves.

The pack solidified out of the mist to circle him quickly before settling on their haunches in front of him. Five big beasts in darkening shades of gray, their fur bristling with poisoned spikes — a visual warning to Users that they were not a joke and messing with them would be a Very Bad idea.

“One, try to access the Labs mainframe,” he said. “Keep pinging to see if you can reach RJ’s Cymplant.”

One of the Wolves disappeared in a swirl of vapor.

“Two, three, see if we can arrange some kind of containment unit from the Hephaestus Project. Let Riley know we’ve got a Level 4 situation in the Labs that very well could end up going Code Plaid.”

The Wolves barked, then disappeared.

Looking at the other two Dire Wolves, William bit his lip for a second. “Four, run newsfeed checks to see if there’s any mention of anything going on with the company. I want to know if anything’s leaked. And five, start preparations for a Sunnydale Situation. Be prepared in case I send the command to Activate the Potentials. We don’t want anything getting out before we’re ready.”

The last Wolf paused a second before disappearing into the aether. It was probably a sign of just how unsure William was about the whole situation.

The Matrix and the Forest and the Wolves were all representations of his psyche as he manipulated the Wave. Every person saw something different, though interactions between Users enabled Group Matrix settings that caused a shared image state. It was one of the things that made online gaming so exciting — programmers created background Matrices and Dummy characters, but the Users themselves filled in the finer details.

Waving a hand, his desk and chair rose up out of the ground in front of him. They looked like something out of a gothic fairy tale, but they did their jobs well.

Settling in his chair, he reached out to pull a screen up out of the dark surface of the desk. With a gesture, the screen expanded until it comfortably filled the view in front of him.

Working quickly, he called up the project logs that had been auto-loaded to the main server. Time stamps indicated that the last update had taken place nearly forty-five minutes previous. Right before RJ gave the go-ahead for a minor test of the Krioten Accelerator — what should have been just a switch-on, switch-off situation. Except something had gone wrong with the system and the flow of Krioten particles had exceeded the capabilities of the safety utilities and burned out the shut off systems. Basically, the switch got stuck in the “On” position and from what William could see, there wasn’t a whole lot RJ could do about it.

William would have to physically turn the Accelerator off. Which meant there was a good chance he was going to end up killing himself.

“Dammit,” he muttered. He’d never been too keen on self-sacrificing situations.

Calling up another program, he began plugging calculations and scenarios in to try and come up with something he could use to counteract the Krioten particles.

If they were taken out of the situation and there was no more interference with the system, he would be able to remotely order the machine off. Otherwise someone would have to do a manual shut-off, and that someone was him because he was the only one that knew enough about the system to possibly survive the situation.

There were times when William really hated being the premier intelligence of his generation. Especially when he realized that the Accelerator really needed to be shut off.

The test RJ had been running was pretty small scale, but the out of control Kriotens had upped the danger levels exponentially. So from small puff of smoke, they were currently looking at an end of the world situation as the Kriotens self-propagated themselves.

It was an unexpected development he never could have foreseen.

Though really, who ever foresaw the end of the world happening? And who ever thought they were going to be the lead author of the destruction?

He cursed the day he’d first discovered Krioten particles and decided to experiment. It was one of those things he wished he could change.

But wishes were for horses or something like that and he had a job to do here.

William began running simulations, trying to figure out a way to stop the impending explosion.

He spared a quick thought for Alan and Morgan, but he didn’t have time for distractions. Not if he wanted to stop this disaster and ever hope of seeing them again.

* * *

There was something vaguely creepy about when someone fully immersed themselves in the Wave. Sure, Byron used the technology, but that didn’t mean he was fully comfortable with it.

It was still too new.

William’s head was turned to one side and his lashes were a dark curve against his cheek. His lips were slightly parted as he breathed in faint puffs. Someone might have mistaken him for being asleep, except his eyeballs twitched beneath his eyelids and there was a bonelessness to his body that was very worrying.

It took all of Byron’s self-control not to reach out and make sure his boss was still alive. His own Cymplant gave him a sidebar view that showed William’s heart rate and a general blurb about his health: Normal body functions, no need for assistance.

Still, just seeing him flopped over like that was very disconcerting. At any moment, Byron expected him to simply stop breathing. It felt strangely inevitable.

Byron turned his head to look out the car window. They were racing across the city with lights flashing and a police escort blazing their sirens up ahead. Everything was blurred, they were moving so fast.

With a thought, he opened a chat screen with his Cymplant. It was a sidebar hanging at the side of his normal vision.

 

[Byron to David Cochrane: Is the Abyssus ready to go?]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: Ready and waiting.]

[Byron to David Cochrane: We're moving pretty fast right now. You should get everyone ready for our arrival. We're still in state dinner gear, so we're going to need clothes to change into. Also, arrange extra security around the facility. There's no way we're going to be able to keep this quiet.]

[Cochrane to B Hughes: We'll be ready. I already had more CybSec officers put in place. We've taken one reporter in custody and we confiscated his camera.]

 

Byron winced. If there was nothing that made more bad press, it was when they locked someone up for snooping around.

Reporters liked to scream about free speech and the subjugation of justice implemented by big business. Byron had actually heard a journalist scream that as he was being hauled away for breaking into Compound B at Hephaestus. The guy hadn’t quite realized just how serious the trouble he’d gotten himself into was, right up until the NSA started talking about national security and Butcher Bay. That’s when things got ugly.

 

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: Hey Byron, you still there?]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: All contact with CyberAngel Labs has been broken off. Some kind of powerful radiation is keeping the Signal down, but it's also taken out the phone system.]

[Byron to David Cochrane: You should set up a system of runners or something. We need to know what's going on.]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: On it.]

 

Byron shook his head. He doubted he would ever become completely used to the idea of being able to contact anyone at any moment through the Wave. It just felt as though he’d given up all of his personal privacy when he got his Cymplant. But it was much too useful a tool to ever give up.

The worst thing was the inability to ignore a message. Considering they were being delivered right into his brain, he couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t received whatever they sent. No matter how much he wanted to.

The ability to chat with anyone in the world — even while talking to other people or pretending to work — was very cool. Being able to make digital images out of anything he could see with his eyes was great too. The drawbacks were a lack of privacy and a hard time telling what exactly was real or not.

Like right now. Some part of him was hoping that he was actually in an elaborate training Matrix and none of this was real.

He didn’t think he was that lucky.

Byron couldn’t help jumping when William suddenly drew in a gasping breath and sat up straight.

“Well, that totally sucked,” William said.

“What happened?” Byron leaned forward to open the mini-fridge and took out a bottle of water he offered to his boss.

“Nothing good.” William opened the lid with a hard twist. He drained half the bottle in one series of gulping swallows, his head tipped back to show off the line of his throat.

He pressed the bottle against the side of his cheek and gasped for breath a couple seconds before wiping his sleeve across his mouth. He didn’t even care that he was wearing a jacket that cost thousands of dollars. “There’s not a whole lot I can do right now and it looks like the situation could be worse than I thought. If the accelerator blows… well, Chernobyl wouldn’t be too bad compared to what could happen.”

“So, it’s pretty bad, huh?”

William rolled his eyes. “Wow, that’s a super understatement.”

“Are you going to tell Alan what’s going on?” Byron asked.

“When we get there and I can see for myself just how bad things are,” William said after chewing on his lip for a moment. “I don’t want to cause some kind of mass panic only to find out that it’s like a wrong system setting or something.”

Byron had known William long enough to see when he was trying to downplay a situation. “I think you should tell him what’s going on. He’s really not going to like being blindsided by something like this. It’s very serious business.”

“I don’t want him to be mad at me,” William said, “but…” He shook his head. “If this turns out to be something I can fix easily, then I don’t want to cause some kind of national incident. I just want to see exactly how bad things are before I notify him.”

All Byron could do was sigh heavily.

Sometimes he felt more as though he were William’s babysitter than his PA. Genius mad scientist billionaire… it had seemed like a cool title for a boss to have, right up until he realized how not cool it really was. Which was about the time he was drafting his first apology to the nation letter and signing William’s name to it.

For the most part, CyberAngel prided itself on keeping its proverbial nose clean, but there had been a handful of times when things had just kind of gotten away from everybody. Like that whole thing in Kazakhstan with the ambassador and the goat. That had been one for the record books.

Byron figured nearly destroying a large section of the world was another Very Important Situation that he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

The car rolled to a stop. “Looks like we’re here,” he said.

There was the slam of a door and the chauffeur opened William’s door, his face implacable.

William still held the quarter-full bottle of water in his hand as he strolled across the tarmac toward the dragonfly-class flitter waiting for them, its engine purring like trapped thunder.

The Abyssus was William’s personal dragonfly. It had extra armaments and had been fitted with the combat-mod version of vehicular shielding. So instead of just being able to survive an accidental crash, the Abyssus would have been able to take the direct impact of a ground-to-air missile and keep on going. It was powerful.

Black and bug-like, the front windshield looked like the compound eyes of a fly. The tail could make minute adjustments that let the dragonfly maneuver through the air with frightening ease and agility. Side-mounted on the flitter were pulsar cannons, and the strange looking nose cap was actually a gravitronic force lance capable of focusing over 3000x Earth gravity on a single target, or 1000x Earth gravity on up to four targets at once.

The Abyssus was probably one of the most dangerous vehicles in the world. And William had designed it from the ground up after he’d had a “dream about flying on a dragonfly.”

Byron hurried after William and climbed into the seat next to him.

Strapping himself in securely, Byron had to close his eyes and go through his usual pre-flight “I’m not going to die” mantra.

He didn’t used to be afraid of flying, not until they’d had that whole deserted island crash landing experience a couple of years ago. William had walked away with a concussion, Alan had a scar on his hip, and Byron was now deathly afraid of flying.

One thing no one had ever said about life around William was that it was boring. Probably because he liked to make his own terrifying entertainment.

Byron leaned his head back and tried to pretend that he was somewhere else. Somewhere on the ground where he didn’t have to worry about splattering into the Earth at eight hundred miles an hour–which was the Abyssus’ cruising speed.

He bit his lower lip and repeated over and over in his head, “We are not going to die. We are not going to die. We are not…”

* * *

They hadn’t even taken off yet and Byron was having a panic attack. It would have been pretty funny if it wasn’t so sad.

William wanted to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but Byron’s fear was not a logical thing and there were no words that would ever completely reassure him.

The Abyssus had fifteen seats and the Secret Service agents didn’t hesitate to find their own. A couple of the newer agents actually looked scared about flying in the new kind of vehicles, but most of them were pretending to be completely blase. It was kind of funny.

William gazed out the window as they rose effortlessly into the air. The pilot had a graceful skill that had them rising straight up and away with real sensation of motion.

If he hadn’t been watching the world blur passed, he never would have thought they were moving at all. The ride had to be one of the smoothest ones he had ever experienced, and it was incredibly brief too.

They traveled for barely twenty minutes before the pilot was announcing their arrival at the CyberAngel landing pad.

“Come on, we’re here and we’re alive,” William said, touching Byron’s arm to try and shock him back to reality.

Byron blinked around. “We’re on the ground already?”

William pointed out the window, then began to remove his harness. “He’s a good pilot. You could barely tell we were moving.”

“That was really fast.” Byron unhooked his flight harness and stood up, brushing imaginary wrinkles out of his usually pristine suit. “Why can’t all flights be short like that?”

“Because most people can’t afford such a good pilot, so flitters would be falling out of the sky left and right.” William hit the door release himself and it slid open.

Wind ruffled his clothes and he couldn’t help shivering in the cold. The sky looked darker here with a lot less stars in the sky. Even the air tasted differently.

To go from one end of the country to the other with no chance to acclimate… if it had been even just a tiny bit humid he probably would have thrown up. It was terrible.

William shook his head and fought through the sensation to stride quickly toward the side door into CyberAngel Labs.

Just to look at the place–a series of almost industrial-type looking buildings surrounded by a tall fence–an outsider wouldn’t have been able to tell that there was an emergency situation going on inside.

The usually cheery yellow spotlights on the roofs of the buildings had changed to radiant orange. It shouldn’t have seemed like such a dangerous color change, but it meant that the facilities were on high alert.

Reaching the door, William pulled his keycard out of his pants pocket and swiped in through the scanner, then punched in his code. There was a pause, then a small panel slid open and he was instructed by a soothing, mechanized voice to “Look into the camera.”

Once he had been sufficiently recognized, the door made a soft bell town and he was able to pull the door open and go through. Byron and the rest clattered after him.

He knew that more than anything the nervous looking Secret Service wanted to push past and go ahead first. But they knew better than to try anything like that in one of his buildings, especially when they didn’t know how serious the security measures were going to be.

Lethal in some cases, he knew. Especially in these Labs, not that he was going to tell any of them.

There had had to be special meetings and everything before a decision had been made about him being able to go ahead of his Secret Service in some situations. The General had been pissed, but after both William and Alan explained just how seriously CyberAngel took its security, he backed off a little.

The Secret Service were around to protect the President and his family from danger. But if the danger came from their assigned charge, well, they shouldn’t have to die for it.

There had been some harsh arguments made, but at the end of it all he was able to go ahead of his Secret Service minders in some situations. Like right now, when they were going through one of his projects.

William hurried through the building, running down seemingly endless corridors, before finally reaching Lab One.

He burst through the double doors to find himself facing a mass of hysterical geniuses running around, just basically freaking out.

“Status update!” he barked, striding across the room. He could see RJ’s head bobbing amongst a mass of other heads. He would always be able to recognize that distinctive red hair — creepy clown hair, he liked to tease. RJ would get so angry, but it was funny.

“Things are getting pretty volatile,” RJ said as he turned. He looked relieved just to see William. He was probably happy to hand off the responsibility of this debacle to someone else.

“I was running simulations in the car the whole way here,” William said, “and things definitely don’t look good.”

“Like, how not good?” RJ asked softly, standing near to his side.

“Code Plaid all the way,” William said.

RJ’s already serious expression went a tad bleak. “So what are we going to do?”

“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, but I’m going to have to go in there personally.” William raked a hand through his hair. “Do you have a suit ready for me?”

“You can’t go in there, it could kill you!”

“Sh!” William waved a hand toward the Secret Service agents lurking near the door. “If you say it too loud, those guys are totally going to freak out.”

“And well they should,” RJ said. “Are you dumb? There’s no way I’m going to let you go in there.”

William crossed his arms. “And who else would you be willing to send in my place? I am the most qualified person to handle the situation. Everyone else around here wouldn’t know what to do once they got in there.”

RJ looked at him for a long moment, then suddenly lunged forward to wrap him up in a too-tight hug. “I want to tell you ‘No,’ but you have to be the one to go in there. But… I don’t know what I’m gonna do if you die.”

William gave him a grin. “Then I’ll just have to make sure that I don’t die, amiright?”

“You’re right.” RJ stepped back, reaching out to tug William’s jacket straight. “I forbid you to die, so you better come back out all right.”

“I’ll try my best,” William said, “so where are those suits?”

“They’re over here.” RJ lead him across the room.

After almost dropping the suit RJ held out to him, William realized that his hands had somehow gone a bit numb with nerves. He drew in a deep breath and stepped into the curtained off area to change into the rather awkward suit.

He made himself change his clothes with forced care. He needed to find out whether he would be able to hold his hands steady when things were serious and one mistake would spell out not only his death, but the death of a whole lot of people.

After he was dressed, he carried his folded tuxedo out in his arms and passed it to Byron who would put it someplace for later. “This suit is so uncomfortable,” he said, unobtrusively tugging at his crotch. “Remind me to talk to the design team later and get something done about it.”

“Noted,” Byron said. “Are you doing something dangerous? Should I be concerned?”

William flashed him a bright grin. “You should totally be worried. Stuff is about to get stupid.”

Byron snorted. “How old are you again?”

“Old enough to know better.” William gave Byron a nod and walked over to where RJ was setting things up. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest and there was a pressure against his bladder that had him just a little worried.

RJ looked up at him. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

William laughed. “That’s exactly how I feel.” He sat down next to RJ and started readying things for what he was going to have to do. “You’ll tell Alan that I love him if things don’t go right, won’t you?”

“I will.” RJ swallowed audibly. “Try your best not to end up dead, okay?”

“Of course,” William said. “I always plan on not being dead. It’s just one of those things.”

RJ laughed and they both pretended it didn’t sound like a sob.

They worked soundlessly side-by-side, trying to create a scenario where William would be able to come out of it alive. Things didn’t look that good, though.

 

After nearly twenty-five minutes, with the danger levels mounting, William was finally able to sit back with a sigh. “Looks like we’re good.” He drew in a deep breath. “So, I’m going to finish suiting up while you get things ready. Then I guess I’ll be headed in there.”

“I don’t want to let you go,” RJ said, swiping the back of his hand across his eyes. “You’re my best friend. I don’t want you to die.”

“I don’t particularly want to die.” William stood up, tugging his suit straight. “Give me one more hug before I put the helmet on, then let’s just get this done.”

“Okay,” RJ said tremulously. He hurriedly pushed his chair back and stood up to give William a hard hug, burying his face against William’s next for a moment. “Please be careful.”

“I promise,” William said. He stepped back and they bumped knuckles once before going about what needed to be done.

William put on his helmet, then fumbled his gloves on. He felt like he was about to leave the spacecraft or something. It might have been cooler in another time and place.

“Here you go,” RJ came trotting over with a toolbox. “It’s got everything you need inside it.”

William took the toolbox, then patted RJ twice on the shoulder. “See you around, all right?”

“I’ll be here,” RJ said. His eyes looked red and his freckles stood out sharply against his ashen skin. He kept swallowing and swallowing and William figured it was only luck keeping him from crying.

“Coolios,” William said, walking toward the door into the laboratory containing the Krioten Accelerator.

The cylindrical machine pulsated with bluish-green energy that had the air rippling with waves of heat. Just walking into the room, he could feel himself beginning to sweat even inside his protective suit.

“Great, not only am I going to die, but I’m going to die while soaking in my own sweat,” he muttered.

“You know we can hear you, don’t you?”

William couldn’t help twitching at the sound of Byron’s voice in his ears. He had to fight the urge to turn around to see if Byron was right behind him. “Crap, I didn’t realize the speaker was on.”

“It’s always automatically on,” Byron said. “And I would just like to say that I don’t really like the negativity you’re currently expressing. I thought you told me you were going to come out of this alive?”

“I am,” William said. “I am totally coming out of this whole deal alive. You just wait and see.”

He carried the toolbox over to the accelerator and set it down on the small rolling table that had been positioned close by. The side panel on the accelerator was open and there were obvious signs that someone had been in the midst of working on it before everything went bad.

I am totally going to die, he thought, and couldn’t help laughing a little at the absurdity.

There had been plenty of times in his life when he’d practically believed a hundred perfect that he was about to die, but he’d always come out of them all right. So a big part of him wanted to believe that he was going to be okay this time too.

Except the accelerator was putting out massive amounts of kriotens and it was only the suit keeping him from melting into a pile of goo.

“Well, here goes nothing,” he said, opening the toolbox and pulling out a thumb drive and a pair of pliers.

He set to work, rewiring with quick efficiency while plugging the thumb drive with its auto-execute program into the USB port.

While he worked — sweat dripping down the sides of his face — he could only hope that he managed to shut the accelerator down before things went full-on Chernobyl.

* * *

As usual, Byron couldn’t help admiring William’s graceful speed as he as he broke the laws of nature.

William Neeley truly was a genius, able to do the impossible with an almost frightening ease. He had a way about him, a personal charm and presence that had him loom large in anyone’s imagination. He was just this larger than life figure.

Byron was always proud to admit that he directly worked for William Neeley. He was, in fact, William’s go-to guy. Because no matter the situation, William was always the one that took center stage.

He just stood out of the crowd and ended up in command of any situation he came across. It was almost a kind of magic, beloved William Neeley that would always do the right thing.

Byron drew in a deep breath. He wasn’t about to cry — not yet, maybe after a few drinks — but there was no way he was going to be able to watch William Neeley die and not feel a thing.

It was with dread that he watched William working at the paneling, waiting for that moment when sound and light would burst around William like halo and whip around to suck him down whole.

Maybe there would be a burst of ash as William was completely consumed by strange radiation Byron didn’t really understand.

Krioten was just some strange word he’d heard in passing. He’d never done any research on it and never read up on what it was, so he didn’t how dangerous it was.

But from the way the scientists were acting and the pain on RJ’s face, he knew kriotens were deadly. And William was in there working around them, being exposed to them in massive amounts.

How long could he be in there before the exposure reached such levels that he died anyway?

It was a question Byron simply couldn’t get up the strength of will to ask. He would rather be ignorant than to know for sure. He would rather the grieving process start as far in the future as possible.

His knuckles went white on the back of the chair he was holding onto. The woman sitting in the chair hadn’t dared say anything to him, not once she got a look at his face.

He didn’t know what he would do if William died. One of the greatest men he had ever know… snuffed out in a moment. All the possibilities that lay before him would go undiscovered and the world would be a much lesser place without him in it.

Byron watched as William worked with care and precision as well as an effortless speed. He should have been terrified of a mistake, but still moved with speed.

So it was with relief that he watched all the lights go off and the machine go dormant. He saw William take a step back. The sound of William’s voice was a warmth in his ears: “It’s all good. I’ve got the situation all good. No problems at all.”

He couldn’t help smiling at the thought that everything was going to be all right.

He watched William put all the tools away, then pick up the toolbox and start walking with it toward the door.

Everything was calm and peaceful and he was finally relaxing into the idea that everything was going to be all right.

Which is when the giant, swirling green vortex opened behind William’s back and sucked him right in before disappearing without a trace. There were screams and panic and RJ frantically typed things into his computer, but all Byron could think was:

I can’t believe this is how it’s ending. After all these years, it’s going out like this? It’s so strange and surreal, like some kind of crazy dream gone awry.

William… there’s no way he could really be dead. No way.

Except something inside him hollowed out. He wanted to deny it loudly, but he couldn’t dismiss what he had seen. There was a more than good chance that William truly was dead. That he was never going to come back, no matter what one lonely man wished.

/ CHAPTER

From Diamond to Coal
Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal



Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world's most wealthy individual.



He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.



William always strives to maintain his image of "normal life," though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he's posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he's accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum... he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.



Welcome to his world.




Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter ThreeChapter Four


Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter Eight

NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter – Chapter One [science fiction]

Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: http://www.harperkingsley.net/blog/free-reads/fdtc/

AUTHOR NOTE: This story begins in the future, then follows a chronological course through William and Alan’s life. This is not one of those stories that bounces backward and forward through time.

[In case you've heard me blab about this story before, I've changed the MCs name to "William Neeley" and switched the author to Sol Crafter, but that's all.]

Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world’s most wealthy individual.

He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.

William always strives to maintain his image of “normal life,” though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he’s posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he’s accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum… he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.

Welcome to his world.

CHAPTER ONE

At 27

 Trekking through the house seemed like some kind of never-ending journey, his feet dragging across the floor. He was getting the beginnings of a headache, one of those ones that hung just behind his right sinus and eye until he just wanted to cry. Not that it hurt that much, just that it was a never ending kind of pain.

He had some sympathy for van Gogh, though there was no way he was ever letting things get so out of control that he thought mutilation was a good idea. Not until he saw a doctor anyway.

“What’s with that look?” William demanded as soon as Alan came into the living room.

“Huh?” he asked intelligently. Alan felt off balance, sort of hanging between the open door and the room. He came the rest of the way in, closing the door behind him. He started to take off his jacket, keeping one eye on William the entire time.

Not that he ever wanted to look away from William. He was just so incredibly beautiful. Not handsome. BEAUTIFUL.

He was like poetry or something and there was no way Alan had ever done anything to make him worthy enough of that love. William was a good person through and through, and when combined with his awesome physical presence… he was like art and music and orgasms all rolled into one package.

William was standing on his knees, his crossed arms resting on the couch back. His black hair was a little tousled, probably from napping earlier, as there was a bit of puffiness around his dark brown eyes. His lips curved in amusement.

“You look like someone kicked you in the nuts. What’s wrong?”

Alan sighed and hung his jacket in the closet. “I’m getting a migraine. I just don’t feel like doing much of anything, but we’ve got to go to that thing tonight.”

William pursed his lips and glanced down at his watch. “Hm. Well, I can whip something up to take the edge off for you. I mean, I’m not a doctor or anything, but I do know a little something about chemistry.”

“Are you going to try and kill me?” Alan asked. He couldn’t help pressing the base of his palm against his brow bone. It felt like something was pushing in on his eye socket.

“No!”

“Oh, too bad. At this point I would probably welcome it if you went all homicidal. Anything to stop the pain in my head.” He walked over to the couch and flopped down next to William. He rested the side of his face against William’s hip. “I love you.”

William peered down at him, that little worry line appearing between his brows. “I love you too. You really do look horrible. Lie down and I’ll get you something to make you feel better.”

Alan groaned quietly, but he let William’s gentle hands guide him down on the couch so he was lying stretched out. He felt a bit disappointed that William immediately stood up afterward instead of snuggling with him, but he didn’t have the strength to object.

He closed his eyes and just tried to rest. He could hear William moving around, but his head hurt too much for curiosity.

Suddenly the cool edge of a glass was pressed cross-wise to his lips. “Here,” William said.

Alan opened his eyes a crack. William was kneeling in front of him holding a full glass of something pink and fizzy. “I don’t think so,” he said, taking one sniff. His nostrils burned.

“Uh uh,” William said, tugging on his arm until he was forced to sit halfway up. “You’re going to drink this. Then you can take a nap or whatever.”

Alan groaned, but knew he wasn’t going to win the argument. He started drinking.

It maybe tasted a bit fruity at first, then he got that awful medicine flavor. He wanted to stop drinking, but William was right there looking at him. He drank it all.

Passing the glass back into William’s hand, he pressed a fist against his chest. There was a definite fizzing sensation going on. “That was horrible,” he said, then barely muffled a belch with his other hand.

“Yeah, probably. But how do you feel?” William quirked an eyebrow.

Alan had to admit, “Better. I feel a lot better. My headache’s almost all the way gone and I don’t feel quite as much like I’m going to die.” He smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” William gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then stood up. “You rest a while, I’m going to go grab Morgan. We really should spend some time together as a family before we have to go to that thing tonight. I just always feel so bad when we don’t get to have dinner with him.”

“Okay,” Alan said, lying back down.

He closed his eyes and heard William walk away.

He didn’t know how he’d done it, but Alan Trent knew he was the luckiest man on Earth.

* * *

Giving Morgan’s door a soft tap, he pushed it open.

William couldn’t help laughing at the sight in front of him.

Morgan was wearing a purple tunic with a gold belt at the waist, brown curly toed shoes, and a crown on his head. He was wearing his most arrogant expression and looked really cute with one foot propped on the frame of the bed and holding a plastic sword in his left hand.

Byron was kneeling in front of him with a frightened look on his face as he cringed away from the cruel tyrant. He was wearing a dark brown jerkin over his regular clothes and had pulled a lumpy looking hat down on his head.

They were an evil prince and a downtrodden peasant.

From the weary expression on Byron’s face, they had been playing for a while. Still, he would happily play for hours more without complaining.

“What’s going on here?” William leaned against the door frame.

On seeing him, Byron hastily removed the jerkin and tossed it on the bed. He knocked the hat off when he tried to rake his hand through his brown hair, then had to twist around to catch it. “We were just playing evil tyrant.”

Morgan turned in surprise. “Daddy!”

Morgan was seven, a tiny elfling of a boy with straight black hair and serious blue eyes. Byron was twenty-nine, tall and muscular and trying to brush the wrinkles out of his dove gray suit jacket. He looked embarrassed at being caught playing make-believe.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my little Mordred,” William said, standing up straight and holding his arms open. “Aren’t you going to give me a hug?”

Morgan grinned and ran across the room to wrap his skinny arms tight around William’s waist. “We were having fun,” he said. “Byron’s my serf. He has to do whatever I say or I’m going to take his land away.”

William made a mock-disapproving face. “I don’t know if I like that game. Should you be being mean to him?”

“It’s not real,” Morgan said, grabbing hold of William’s belt loops and leaning backward. “I would never really be mean to Byron like that. He’s my friend.”

William braced himself to keep from going over. “Well, that’s good. Your dad’s out there waiting for you. I said we would hang out together.”

Morgan’s face brightened. “Dad’s not too busy tonight?”

William bit his lip. He hated the fact that Alan’s position kept him from spending very much time with Morgan. It just didn’t seem fair.

“Why don’t you go wash up real quick? Your dad’s waiting for us,” he said.

“Okay!” Morgan ran off toward the bathroom attached to his bedroom. There was some clattering, then the sound of water running.

William looked at Byron. “Thank you for keeping him entertained.”

Byron shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. He’s a funny kid.”

“Yeah, he kind of is.” William smiled fondly as Morgan stepped out of the bathroom. His face was still a bit wet and his hair was standing up on one side from his crown.

William ran a hand over Morgan’s head when the boy came to stand next to him. “Let’s go see your dad.”

They walked hand-in-hand into the living room with Byron trailing behind them.

William had gotten used to having bodyguards around at all times. It was one of those things that just kind of happened when you made your first billion dollars.

And now that Alan was the President of the United States… there was never a moment where they could just be alone.

 

It took a couple of finger prods from William, but Alan rolled off the couch and he definitely looked much better than he had when he first walked in. He was able to pull Morgan down on his lap and give him the big hug and smile he deserved.

“And how has your day been?” Alan asked.

Morgan shrugged. “Same old, same old.”

“Really?” Alan raised an amused eyebrow at William, who shrugged. He didn’t know where the kid got it from. “Well, my day could have gone better, but it was pretty all right too.”

“But you’ve gotta go to a thing tonight?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah,” Alan sounded tired. “I don’t want to go, but they make me. It’s either go to the thing, or they’re going to come after me.”

“You’re pretty silly,” Morgan said.

Alan laughed. “You’re calling me silly? Hello, I’m the President of the United States of America. You’re supposed to respect my authority.”

“Nuh uh,” Morgan said, crossing his arms. “You’re my dad. You’re not allowed to be mean to me or Daddy will give you trouble.”

William snorted. “You make me sound like some kind of Grinch or something.”

“Because you are!” Morgan exclaimed, then giggled and shrieked helplessly when Alan began to tickle him around the ribs and belly.

William leaned against the edge of the couch, watching them. Alan had to hold Morgan tightly to try and control the boy’s flailing legs as he tickled him. They were both laughing and William felt an ache in his chest.

He wished they could have more moments like this, but the world always seemed to get in the way. The sad thing was that Morgan was just getting older and older with everyday that passed by and someday soon he would be too old to play around. At least, he would think he was too old to play.

William knew that Alan regretted not being able to spend as much time as he wanted with Morgan, so he tried to make up for it, but there were just times when Morgan really missed his dad.

“Hey, Dad,” Morgan said after they’d calmed down and were sitting side-by-side, “do you like being the President?”

Alan sighed. “When I agreed to be the interim Vice-President, it was just supposed to be until Ben found someone else. No one thought he was going to die. But I took the job he offered, so I’m kind of obligated to do it.”

“I’m sorry,” Morgan said, giving him a quick hug. “He was your friend, huh?”

“Yeah,” Alan said. “He was my friend.”

“It’s sad that he’s dead. You’re not going to die too, right?” Morgan asked. “Those bad people aren’t going to kill you, right? We’re not going to let that happen?”

William bit his lip and clenched his hands into fists against the sides of his thighs. He hated the fact that Morgan had to worry about assassins and hate groups, especially since the boy didn’t really understand what he was fearing. All he knew was that President Benjamin Hale had been killed and there were people out there threatening to do the same thing to his dad.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Alan said quietly. He put his arm around Morgan’s shoulder and drew him close against his side. “That’s why we have the Secret Service. They’re there to keep us safe.”

“Okay,” Morgan said. He perked up suddenly. “Do you want to play a video game with me? I’ve got that new puzzle one.”

“Sure, I’ll play,” Alan agreed.

William hid his grimace at the thought of the video game. It was one of those boring search-and-find games. There was a list of objects and a picture they were supposed to be picked out of. How Morgan could love them so much was a mystery, but at least he wasn’t hot to play shoot-’em-up killer games. He just wanted to play his old man game.

“I’ll just watch, okay?” William said.

“Sure, Daddy,” Morgan said, not looking at him as he set up the game on the big screen. “Me and Dad are going to have fun.”

“Yeah, fun,” Alan said, so falsely enthusiastic that William gave him a mock-warning finger wag. It made Alan laugh.

Watching the two people he loved the most in the world play together, William couldn’t help wondering how he and Alan had managed to create such a wonderful kid. He must have added a bit too much of Alan’s DNA to the mix, that was the only explanation.

/ End Chapter

From Diamond to Coal
Title: From Diamond to Coal

Author: Sol Crafter

Genre: science fiction, mm romance

Rating: teen+

Landing page: From Diamond to Coal



Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world's most wealthy individual.



He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.



William always strives to maintain his image of "normal life," though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he's posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he's accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum... he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.



Welcome to his world.




Chapter One Chapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter Four


Chapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter Eight

My $0.02 Is Free: Making Coffee In Your Car

I’m sorry, but the Handspresso Auto http://gizmodo.com/5895577/handspresso-auto-makes-coffee-in-your-car/gallery/1 seems like an incredibly stupid idea.

Not only will there be more accidents due to people trying to make coffee at stop lights or whatever, but if someone crashes their car while brewing coffee… there’s more chance of serious burn damage to the victims, probably crotch localized. So yeah, I’m going to say “No thank you” to this idea.

You’re a lot better off pulling into a gas station or a coffee shop, walking around to stretch your legs, and saving yourself the $200 for terrible coffee.

EXCERPT: Serious Business [adult fiction]

Title: Serious Business

Genre: fiction

Excerpt rating: teen+/adult

Warnings: mentions non-con, language

Summary: She was not an object to be possessed. (This is the first part of an upcoming novel.)

 

Excerpt –

SERIOUS BUSINESS

 When she was a young girl, her mother had spoken of her growing up to marry a rich man that would treat her and her family well. It had seemed like nonsense at first, and she’d even joked about it with her friends. Then came the day she was told all the arrangements were made, contracts signed, and she’d realized that it was all real. They were marrying her off to some stranger for money.

She’d said “Fuck that!” and ran off an hour before she was supposed to be married. No money, no clothes but her traditional wedding dress, and no one she could go to for help.

For the first time in her life, she was completely alone.

Innocent, born of privilege, never having had to work for anything in her life, it should have been a terrible disaster.

It was probably a lucky thing that she found out so quick just how good she was at violence and crime. That wasn’t to say those first couple of months weren’t rough, but once she figured out what she was supposed to do, it was pretty damn easy.

She learned some very valuable lessons during those months about trusting strangers and taking drinks from people she didn’t know. After being taken into slavery by that asshole Montague, she’d really opened her eyes to the world around her. And once she’d killed him, it was like a light went on for the first time.

She’d watched him running his mini-crime kingdom—it was much too small to be an empire—and she’d soaked up the knowledge of how it was done. She’d hated him with a fiery vengeance for what he’d turned her into, the ways he’d degraded her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t learn.

It had been easy to pretend that she’d fallen under his spell, become one of his little toy girls, once she’d decided what she was going to do. As long as she held the image of her vengeance in front of her, urging her on, she was able to fake it. Her face had felt like stiff plastic, but she’d always been a good actor.

He’d started trusting her then. Started believing all the lies that came out of her mouth, but it was kind of a given that it would happen. She was gorgeous as fuck—a little Asian doll with rail straight hair and big brown eyes. She had long slender legs and pretty breasts and skin like smooth ivory. Of course he was going to want to believe that she was going to fall in love with him and want to suck his dick and whatever. So it was no surprise that he was going to let her steamroll him into giving her a job, into eventually letting her take over Rory’s spot as his second in command.

Montague didn’t even know what hit him when she arranged a little strike and die and he ended up being gunned down in the Emerald Dido Club. She’d been there of course, standing next to him like the good little sex doll, and it hadn’t been much of a stretch that she would be able to jump out of the way before any shots were fired and hide behind some tables. Everyone had bought that she was innocent, but he’d known she was behind his murder, she could tell because he’d turned his head toward her before the bullets hit. The memory of his expression was embedded into her brain forever, his mouth a disbelieving “o” and his eyes accusing.

She sometimes brought the memory out and rolled it around in her mind, getting the cool thrill of satisfaction. It had taken her a long time, but she’d gotten her pride back, not let herself be anyone’s possession.

It was after that that she dropped her old name, the name she’d never really liked and that seemed to have belonged to a different girl. She also shed the asinine name—”Jade Lily”—that Montague’d given her, trying so hard to play on the Asian thing. There was no way she was holding onto the name he’d given her when he’d treated her like an object, though she’d had to show a few minions the error of their ways before word finally sunk in and everyone started calling her by her new name.

Nails.

She should have felt bad about all the things she’d done once she became Nails, but she was having too damn much fun. She’d always wanted to be the bad girl.

/ Excerpt

 

EXCERPT: Fierce, by Harper Kingsley [contemporary]

Title: Fierce

Author: Harper Kingsley

Genre:  contemporary, mm

Warnings: mentions past non-con

Rating for excerpt: teen

Summary: Simon Peters is getting over what happened to him, slowly and steadily. This excerpt is taken from the beginning of the story.

EXCERPT –

There were moments in the stillness where he found himself afraid. He would close his eyes only to have to open them again, his every sense quivering alert, sure the Boogeyman was gong to get him. Again.

He hated being so scared all the time. He hated that there were marks on him he couldn’t see. He hated that someone as sick and twisted as Damien Prince had left such a permanent scar on his mind.

There were some days when all he felt was hate. For the man that hurt him, the world that watched, and for his own weakness.

It seemed there were some weeks when he had more bad days than good and no matter how hard he tried it was a battle even pretending to smile.

And yet he went on. Day by day. Week by week. Month by month. Until he was looking at the two year anniversary of the day he’d been raped on national television. Because even though the sexual assault had happened off-screen, he’d been raped again in front of the camera by all the eyes watching him.

It hurt. To realize that millions of people had seen his humiliation. To know that some people had watched and laughed.

He’d vomited the first time he came across the horrifying GIF someone had made of his own terrified, pleading face. All the fear and sick had just rushed through him and for a minute he’d been certain he was there again, trapped on that bed, the somehow rancid stink of the mattress filling his nose.

It had taken lawyers and lawsuits to stop all the public videos, though he knew they were still out there, being traded in the darkness. He rarely went on the Internet anymore and his staff went over everything before he saw it. Not just letters, but movies and books and any kind of news report. There were just some things he wasn’t willing to face, not anymore.

He had tried so hard to get past what had been done to him, but finally he had to accept there were some things he couldn’t change. Damien Prince had raped and humiliated him and there was no going back in time to change it. The marks had been made, and even if they faded with time, they were still there.

But that didn’t mean Simon had to give up and let go. Because even after what had happened, he was still alive. He had survived the ordeal and he wasn’t going to let Prince win.

His life was his and his alone.

 

Being on location was one of those things he used to love but that now made his stomach churn nervously. He didn’t really like being out of his safety zone, but it was something he felt had to be done.

Looking over and being able to see Byron Hughes standing with the rest of the crew made him feel better. His bodyguard had a gun and was willing to use it. He was perfectly safe.

“All right, Simon, in this scene you and Colby are entering the Dragon’s Tomb,” the director, Paul Bleek, said. “Just like in practice, you bring the gun up and it’s just ‘bang-bang-bang.’ Colby, you get hit and fall down, knocking over the Orb. We all good?”

Colby nodded and Simon said, “We good.”

They were standing in front of the archway leading to the “Dragon’s Tomb,” a temple built by the set designers in the middle of the desert. It was already hot and Simon could feel the sweat trickling down his forehead and sticking his clothes to his skin.

Waiting for the cue, he flashed a smile at Colby. “So what’s it like being the male Lara Croft?”

Colby Jackson gave his world famous grin. He really was amazingly good looking, a tall African-American with a leanly muscled body and a perfectly trimmed beard. “I feel very pretty.”

They’d never worked together though they’d known each other for years. It had only been because Colby asked so nicely that Simon had even accepted the role of “Percy Walden,” assistant and sidekick to itinerant explorer “Nicholas Blaine.”

“Places!”

“Let’s Indiana Jones this bitch up,” Simon said, earning himself a laugh.

Dressed in black pants, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a flak vest jangling with all kinds of faux-weaponry, Simon already felt like he needed a break and they hadn’t really even started yet.

“All right… Action!” Bleek called.

Simon drew in a deep breath and hurtled forward and kicked the stone door down with a grunt. He had a gun in his hand and he didn’t hesitate to run forward into the tomb. His head moved back and forth alertly and it seemed natural to bring his gun up and start shooting.

An Asian-looking tomb all shining with gold and jade. Dangerous looking men in lots of brown and gray clothing toting machine guns as they worked at stripping the place bare of treasure. They dropped what they were doing when he started shooting them and brought their own weapons up.

There were screams and shouts and the plink-plink of misses near his head and feet as he jumped, rolled, and dodged until every one of them was dead.

He stood from his crouch and turned to Colby. “It’s clear, sir.”

Colby sauntered in, his lips forming a disappointed moue. “Really, Percy, did you have to come charging through like a bull in a china shop? Perhaps some of these gentlemen would have liked the chance to surrender before you shot them in the face?”

Simon holstered his gun with a shrug. “We’ll never know now, will we?”

Colby smiled and started to say something, then hesitated. His expression congealed, his brows coming together, and he raised his right hand to his left shoulder.

“Sir?” Simon took a step toward him.

Colby pulled his hand away and there was blood on his fingers. He half-turned and there was a giant, bleeding wound in his back. “I think I’ve been shot,” he said calmly, then his legs wobbled and he stumbled sideways before collapsing. His flailing arm knocked against the pedestal and the glass Orb trembled and fell with a crash against the floor.

There was a puff of glittery dust that obscured everything.

“Cut! Good job everybody.”

Simon let himself pant as he mopped at his forehead with his sleeve. “I feel half cooked.”

The “dead” men were rising from the floor and some of the set crew rushed forward to start vacuuming up the glitter dust before it could get everywhere.

Colby had sat up and was shaking dust from his hair with a grimace. “Gross. I think I got some in my mouth.”

“Good job, guys,” Bleek called again. “Simon, Colby, you take a short break while this gets cleaned up. Everyone else, you know what to do.”

Simon let himself be thumped on the back before retreating to the catering tent for some water and sliced fruit. His mouth felt dry and terrible.

He sat at one of the picnic-style tables and rested his burning forehead against the cooler aluminum. Even just this much shade felt better.

“You all right?”

Simon raised his head to give the guy standing over him a slight smile. “Five minutes of hard action in this heat and I feel done in.” He held out a hand. “Simon Peters.”

The man was tall with dark brown hair, a beard, and startling blue eyes. He played one of the bad guys from the clothes he wore, though Simon had never met him before. It made him feel guilty that he didn’t know the names of all his cast mates. He used to be better than this.

“Hey, nice to meet you.” The guy had a firm handshake. “I’m Adam booth.”

Simon pushed his plate of fruit toward the guy. “Have some. We all need to make sure we don’t get dehydrated.”

Adam smiled and sat down across from him. “Thanks,” he said, taking an orange slice. His teeth were white against his dark caramel colored skin as he took a bite.

/ EXCERPT

4th of July Blog Hop [my prize: 4 ebook bundle]

Welcome to my stop on the 4th of July Blog Hop. My name is Harper Kingsley and I will be leading you on this tour through the history of my brain.

First there was “Visions of Blood & Shadow,” my vampire, elf, Other murder story. A young girl is hit by a car, and an uncontrollable snowball of events take place, culminating to the apocalypse. From there, we follow Valerie Pendleton Hardain into “Blood Wine” where he has to get used to his new way of life. And yes, the band playing at the beginning of “Blood Wine” is Ashes & Bones, but no worries. Ashley Valentine has his own story beginning in “Little Boy Blue” and to be concluded in “Residual Blue.”

In the same world as “Visions of Blood & Shadow” is the Julian Duncan series, about my psychic police consultant. Julian even had a cameo in “Visions of Blood & Shadow,” though his first story “The Center” is set before everything. I thought that I could start at the very beginning and go through his whole history. “Cannot Hold” is the next story and should be available in the near future.

After that, I switched gears and fell into the world of “Heroes & Villains.” A love story between an ex-superhero turned supervillain and one of the world’s penultimate superheroes. The love story between Darkstar (Vereint Georges) and Blue Ice (Warrick Reidenger Tobias) is one that makes me really happy. It’s basically the “how they met” as they handle dealing with terrorists and murderers and the unjust way the government controls metahuman criminals. My social discourse thinly veiled as a romance, “Muhahaha!” Not really. It’s more like a romance story between two very confused and stubborn men, from the first time they met (insta hate) right on until they get married in “Heroes & Villains: The Wedding,” which doesn’t need to be read to follow the series and contains a Mature mm scene. And coming soon in the “Heroes & Villains” trilogy will be “Allies & Enemies,” with “All That Remains” to wrap it up.

From romantic metahumans, I turned to the story of an amnesiac girl, Susie Smith, in the prequel to “Supergroup,” my YA superhero series. We follow Susie as she wanders through her own book, trying to figure out who she is, and dealing with the drama of discovering she used to run with heroes in “Pulse of the City.”

About here is when I started publishing my mm stories under Sol Crafter.

I started with “Narcissus,” my series of sci-fi shorts dealing with Ego-Corp and the erotic/romantic/horror aspects of cloning in the future. If your loved one dies, all you have to do is bring a sample to Ego-Corp and in ten months (just like a real baby!) you get your loved one back just the way you remembered. Bodies and minds intact. All of the stories are based on Greek myths, which corresponds to their titles: Narcissus; Orpheus; and Endymion. Features self-love and Mature depictions of mm.

I’m working on the next Ego-Corp stories, “Ganymede” and “Icarus.” They’re each novella length, like “Echo,” my contemporary mm romance about a shy man with a speech impediment falling in love with his boss. People seem to really enjoy this particular story (Goodreads) and that makes me very happy. I am incredibly grateful to everyone that has reviewed because it really helps me to know what kinds of things you all enjoy and what kinds of details you would like to see. Like maybe you wish I would describe the characters more, which is what Wendy asked for when she beta read “Echo,” and I was only too happy to oblige because I could see them in my head and wanted to share that vision.

Anyways, to wrap up my life, we’ve arrived at our current location. Um, I’ve got a finished story “Centrifical” that should be making an appearance, and I’ve got “Fiends” soonish. Oh, and I entered the Fantasy Fiction Contest. So no matter what happens, my short story will be available for you somewhere. I was really pleased with it, and I don’t care what anyone else might say. It was a really good short and it gave me some great ideas for my novel “Nyxti” that I’m writing for Sam Argent, who wanted some mpreg (though it’s not super really gross, I promise).

I swear, my brain is building a whole world. First there’s my free webserialized novel “Vedran’s Hand,” about Dragon Knight, the man known as Emperor Vedran’s Hand. He is an assassin, a diplomat, and a rogue, though the only person he cares for in the world is Vedran Malvorta. They have been companions and friends since childhood, which is why Vedran gives Dragon the task of overseeing the distribution of passes to see a duel to the death. Oh, and there’s some dangerous plots and machinations happening in the background.

After “Vedran’s Hand,” the events in “Black Hood” and “Nyxti” take place. And I think maybe my short story fits somewhere between “Black Hood” and “Nyxti” in the timeline of the World.

Also on the burner, there’s “Tuesday Night,” the first of my Kanon pieces. These stories all take place in alternate versions of any of my stories or worlds by any of my names. “Tuesday Night” by Sol Crafter is the mm “What if?” of “Pulse of the City,” by Harper Kingsley, while “Spores!” mm, “Spun” mf, “Just Another Titanic Tuesday” mm, and “Winter” mf are more generalized superhero alternate history stories.

I’ve also been writing some webserials. “The Red Bead” is the story of the Lotham family, headed by Anselm “Anse” Lotham, a close family that ends up ruling large sections of the city with an iron hand. The beginnings of a bad ass crime family. Take in the summary :

Anselm “Anse” Lotham starts out as “just a guy,” then events go out of control and he becomes the head of his family. He is hard as nails and nothing can touch him — except he’s haunted by his old online persona of “Eli” and the man he refuses to love. Because once upon a time Anse was a completely different person, back when he still occasionally wore dresses and answered to the name he was born with. But Poppy’s dead now, and so is the love she used to have for some boy he never knew.

Also for webserials, I’ve got “Shine,” an experimental project that went from a burning apartment, to the start of a criminal career. Some bad language, disturbing imagery, and a protagonist that is frightening in his thoughts and actions. I’m pretty sure it’s going to get very hardcore, though I know about as much as you do. That’s right, I’m writing this story directly into the post box and right on the blog, no beta’ing, no editing, nothing. My brain to your eyeholes. I have a generalized idea of what’s going to happen, but it could change with my moods.

I do accept prompts. Not plots, but if you say there’s something you might want to see, I have no problem giving you a nod. Bubbles said the word “moist” makes him giggle, so I threw that baby all in “Heroes & Villains: The Wedding.” And even my YA drama series “Ironic Diatribe” has a bunch of free short stories that I made a list of prompts for. Take “Ironic Diatribe: 01. Tired” for instance, the prompt was “tired.”

Anyways, thanks for joining me on this journey through my writing life.

 

If you’re old school, you can just leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win 1 of 4 ebook bundles containing copies of: “Visions of Blood & Shadow,” “Heroes & Villains,” “Pulse of the City,” and “Echo.”

Or you can enter through Rafflecopter below.

So you could win what I think is a really awesome prize. Four books from four different periods of my life given out to four people for entering an American blog hop celebrating the 4th.

It’s totally mind-bottling [sic].

Anyways, enjoy the rest of the hop. And happy Fourth!

a Rafflecopter giveaway