Ari McKay's Blog, page 26

Holiday Story #1: On the Rocks

On the Rocks is now available from Dreamspinner Press for $3.99! It’s 73 pages and comes in the following formats: .epub, .prc, html, pdf.

For years, Mal has given Aidan a little piece of the world for special occasions in the form of unique rocks and fossils—until the year he gives Aidan a piece of the moon instead. Aidan has treasured every gift: in a world of impersonal relationships, they’re the one reminder he has that somebody out there cares about him for who he really is. Then through a twist of fate, their relationship goes beyond personal and into intimate, leaving Aidan shocked and set to run the other way. Despite his feelings for Mal, past experiences have convinced Aidan that he’s a failure at relationships, and he’s afraid to trust his heart. It just might take a Christmas miracle for Aidan to find the courage to love.

Have an excerpt!

AIDAN Grimm strolled into Ground Zero at twelve fifteen, unrepentantly late as usual, but he knew Mal would be waiting, and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee greeted him as soon as he walked through the door. As he finger-brushed his tousled dark hair into place, he glanced around and saw that Mal was indeed waiting for him at a two-seater window table.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he approached, which they both knew wasn’t true.

Dr. Malcolm Saltzman raised one eyebrow at him, blue eyes dancing with amusement. “I’m sure you are,” he replied. “What was it this time? Traffic jam? Stolen wallet? No, wait. You stopped to help a woman who’d gone into labor in the middle of the sidewalk, and the grateful parents are naming their new son after you?”

Aidan fixed him with a wide-eyed gaze, trying to look innocent. “All of the above. How’d you know?”

Mal chuckled. “You’re incorrigible. That look might fool some people, but not me. I used to watch you practicing it in the mirror.”

“The dangers of keeping you around so long,” Aidan replied, plucking a menu out of its stand. “I should get a pass on tardiness today anyway. Isn’t there a rule about that? If there isn’t, there should be.”

“Oh?” Mal frowned in puzzlement. “Today? What’s so special about today?”

Aidan gave him an aggrieved look over the top of the menu. “Oh come on. Don’t try to tell me you haven’t already arranged for a stupid cupcake with a stupid candle on it to be brought out later when I ‘least expect it’. Deny it, and I’ll call bullshit.”

Mal’s jaw dropped. “Your birthday! Geez, Aidan, I’m so sorry, but I completely forgot!” he said apologetically. “I only got back from Morocco day before yesterday, and I’m still jet-lagged. I’m afraid the date slipped my mind.”

Try as he might to maintain his facade of casual aloofness, Aidan couldn’t keep his expression from crumbling at that. It wasn’t just the shock of Mal forgetting his birthday, because Mal was the sentimental type who always remembered birthdays, or that he cared much about his birthday in general, because he didn’t. No, what bothered him most was that it meant he wouldn’t be adding anything new to his collection this year, and that disappointed him more than anything else.

When they were roommates at Cal Tech, Aidan had been fascinated by Mal’s rock collection. Mal, a geology major, had an amazing assortment of stones. When Aidan asked, Mal had told him the significance of each one, both scientifically and personally. Aidan had particularly liked a small, rough piece of black stone that Mal had called an Apache Tear. He’d told Aidan the legend of how they had been formed when a group of Apache warriors, fighting a losing battle, had ridden their horses off a cliff, and the tears of the warriors’ families had hardened into stone when they hit the ground.

Aidan had been intrigued by the stone, and that October, Mal had given it to him as a birthday gift. Mal had seemed surprised when he displayed it prominently on his desk, but after a lifetime of being given impersonal gifts with no thought behind them, that simple rock meant more to him than any gold Rolex.

After that, Mal had given him a rock for every Christmas and birthday. They’d been from his own collection at first, but when Mal had started doing field work, he gave Aidan rocks he found on his trips. Mal explained what the rock was and sometimes gave him a book as well if there was a particularly interesting story behind it. But there was always a rock, each one unique.

Mal never asked what he did with the rocks, and Aidan had never told him. No one else knew but his housekeeper, who was the only other person who ever saw the inside of his bedroom; he rarely took lovers home, and when he did, he took them to a guest room, not to his private sanctum. So no one ever saw the case he’d commissioned to display the rocks Mal had given him over the years; each one was placed in the order it was received with a note to remind him of what it was and where it had come from, and he always looked forward to adding a new one.

“It’s okay,” he said, trying to sound more nonchalant than he felt. The last thing he wanted was for Mal to realize how disappointed he was. “I’m surprised you haven’t run out of ideas by now anyway. Sometimes I’ve wondered if you’ve just been wrapping pebbles you found in your shoe.”

“Oh, you expected me to give you a rock?” Mal asked, his expression suddenly too innocent. “Wouldn’t you prefer something more special for your thirtieth birthday?”

“Like what?” Aidan asked, eyeing Mal suspiciously.

“Well, a rock is boring, isn’t it?” Mal reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small black box tied up with a silver bow. “I mean, if you can’t tell the difference between a pebble I picked up on a street and a two-hundred-million-year-old piece of fossilized wood….”

Aidan could tell the difference between every single piece in his collection without even looking at the notes anymore, including the piece of fossilized wood Mal had given him for his twenty-fifth birthday, but he wasn’t about to admit that aloud.

“You said you forgot! You probably lied about the cupcake too,” he exclaimed, barely refraining from reaching across the table and grabbing the box in his eagerness to see what was inside.

Mal grinned. “After you kept me waiting for fifteen minutes, I thought a little payback was in order,” he replied, sliding the box across the table.

“I knew it,” Aidan grumbled even as he picked up the box and tugged the ribbon loose.

On a nest of black velvet lay a brownish stone, roughly the size of a walnut, with odd white patches all over and a rough, pitted surface. It wasn’t as pretty as some of the rocks Mal had given him, but it was definitely unusual; Aidan had never seen anything like it.

He took a moment to examine it, admiring its unique appearance, and he glanced up at Mal, waiting for the origin story he knew was coming. “Are you going to tell me what the hell it is, or do I have to guess?”

Mal’s smile turned smug. “You hold in your hand, my dear Mr. Grimm, a piece of the moon.”

“Seriously?” Aidan couldn’t keep the amazement he felt from permeating his voice as he stared at Mal. “Where did you get it?”

“It’s the reason I was in Morocco,” Mal said, his eyes alight. “I went to find out if a meteor strike there was a lunarite: a meteorite that originated from the impact of an asteroid on the moon. When that happens, rock is sometimes ejected from the moon’s orbit, and eventually falls to earth. I verified its authenticity, and the owner gave me this piece. Now you can say someone’s given you the moon.”

Aidan removed the piece of moon rock from its box carefully and examined it closely to cover the surge of wistfulness he felt at Mal’s words. When Mal gave him one of those earnest looks, he felt a dangerous surge in his chest—a much higher location on his body than where he usually felt surges. It didn’t help that Mal was ridiculously appealing. Blond hair, blue eyes, and usually sporting two or three days’ worth of stubble that Aidan would have loved to feel rasping against his skin. Mal was far more outdoorsy than Aidan’s usual type, but no one was perfect.

It wasn’t even incompatible sexuality keeping them apart since Mal was gay too. No, Aidan had to squelch any wayward longings because Mal was his best friend. Hell, Mal was his only friend. Aidan didn’t like or trust most people; they flocked to him due to his illustrious family name and even more illustrious family fortune, and he loathed gold diggers and ass-kissers. Mal was the one person in the world whom Aidan was sure liked him for himself, not his money or social status, and he didn’t want to ruin that with sex because he sure as hell couldn’t sustain a relationship. After being burned one too many times, he’d limited himself to hookups that lasted no longer than a weekend.

So the one person from whom he wanted the moon and stars and everything else was the last person in the world who could give it to him—and yet he held it in his hands nonetheless. The closest to the moon and stars as he would ever get, thanks to Mal.

“Thanks,” he said, offering a small but genuine smile. “It’s really cool.”

Mal’s smile faded. “Should I have gotten you something more—” He paused, looking uncertain. “Normal?”

“No!” Aidan shook his head, closing his fingers possessively around the lunarite. “No, I mean it. It really is cool. Normal is overrated, and I’d much rather hold a piece of the moon in my hand.” He smiled wryly and shrugged, trying to think of something that would explain his bout of melancholy without revealing anything about the true direction of his thoughts. “I guess turning the big three-oh is hitting me harder than I thought. I’ve been moody all day.”

Mal placed one hand atop Aidan’s. “Hey, thirty is no big deal. You aren’t going to wake up tomorrow with wrinkles and gray hair.”

“Just promise that if I start to lose my boyish good looks, you’ll lie and tell me I haven’t,” Aidan joked as he valiantly tried to ignore the warmth of Mal’s hand on his.

“You look better every year,” Mal replied. “I wish you’d tell me how you do it!”

Aidan chuckled, but he was also pleased because he knew Mal meant it. Unlike most people Aidan was surrounded by, Mal always told him the truth even if he didn’t always want to hear it.

“If you want my beauty secrets, it’s going to take more than a moon rock to pry them out of me,” he replied.

“I tried!” Mal squeezed Aidan’s hand before releasing it. “At least you’re smiling again, which is how it should be on your birthday, especially when you’re handsome, rich, and brilliant.”

“All that, and I have a new rock,” Aidan replied lightly, holding up the lunarite between his thumb and forefinger. “I can’t think of anything to top all that.” He paused and then fixed Mal with a stern look. “But if you had them put an ‘over the hill’ candle on my cupcake, you’re dead meat, Saltzman.”

Mal held up his hands defensively. “No over-the-hill jokes, I promise!” he replied, and Aidan suddenly heard the sound of clapping. The entire staff of the coffee shop surrounded their table, one of them holding a plate with a chocolate cupcake with mocha icing—his favorite—topped with a single white candle. Mal led them in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday,” his deep baritone louder than the rest combined.

It was no less than Aidan expected from someone as sentimental as Mal, who had seemed shocked and dismayed to learn that Aidan’s childhood birthdays hadn’t been filled with cake and ice cream, festooned with balloons, and celebrated with romping clowns. He doubted this was the kind of glamorous birthday celebration that the socialites of Seattle would have expected him to have, but it was the kind he wanted, and as he carefully put his little piece of the moon back in its box, he considered this to be a happy birthday indeed.

More for Christmas!

On 19 December our novelette “Santa’s Naughty Helper” will be published by Torquere. In this story, an office secret gift exchange becomes the way by a which a shy lawyer woos the man of his dreams. This was one so much fun to write, and I hope everyone enjoys it!

December 1 is still the publication date for our other holiday offering, “On The Rocks”, in Dreamspinner’s “Evergreen” Daily Dose anthology. The path to true love isn’t always easy, but sometimes a little help from a cinematic angel can make all the difference.

Thanks to everyone who is reading “Bay Leaves and Bachelors”! We’ve been so pleased with the reception it has gotten! We have plans for other folks at Montgomery House, so stay tuned!

Charity Sip Blog Hop!

As everyone who reads this blog knows, we like gay romance, which made it easy for us to decide to donate a story to the Leather Bound charity collection sponsored by Torquere Press to benefit NOH8. In conjunction with the story collection, we also volunteered to make a post here to help draw attention to this very worthwhile charity. The theme for this “Blog Hop” is “Leather and Love: How Romance Helps Stamp Out Hate.” To read other Blog Hop posts by contributing authors, please click the logo graphic.

The two of us who write as “Ari McKay” have slightly different perspectives on the topic; these views are complementary, but our life experiences help us see different facets of the topic, so we’d like to address the topic separately.

Arionrhod:

Romance is an important part of most people’s lives, so I do believe that it can be used to stamp out hate. Everyone loves a lover, right? Being in love is one of those fundamental human conditions almost everyone can relate to; the joys, the sorrows, the excitement, and the fear are all things anyone who has been in love has felt. It doesn’t really matter if the object of someone’s affection is of the same sex or a different one, or even if there is more than one other person involved; the feelings are the same.

That’s one reason I think that gay romance stories are an important part of the literary universe. By portraying gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered characters in positive, relatable ways, we can help overcome ignorance, misconceptions, and stereotypes. Since hate can only exist in an atmosphere of ignorance and fear, I like to think that in some way we really are making a difference in overcoming it.

As a parent, I want to do my best to leave my children a world where they never have to live in fear of expressing their love for their partner or partners, no matter who they might be. And I truly think it’s doable, if all of us do our best to break down the barriers to understanding. For me, this involves not only writing what I love, but also supporting marriage equality and never, ever tolerating hatred, no matter where it is or who it is directed against.

I was raised by parents who were both homophobic and racist, and I have fought against that kind of intolerance my entire life. I brought my own children up to judge everyone by their character, not by things like the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, or their sexuality. I was extremely proud when my son told me he was voting for marriage equality in our state, not because he was following a political agenda, but because he believes, as he put it, that “everyone has the right to be happy.”

If everyone thought about how wonderful it would be to make other people happy rather than cling to their prejudices, maybe someday we really could have a world without hatred.

McKay:

Unlike Arionrhod, I’m not a parent, but I am a teacher. I teach composition and literature at the university level, which means I see a lot of freshmen, many of whom are out on their own for the first time and are being exposed to ideas, cultures, and lifestyles that they’ve never encountered before. I try to help broaden their horizons, especially in my lit classes, by taking a multicultural approach and encouraging tolerance and open-mindedness in what they read, write, and say.

I think ignorance is the greatest impediment to overcoming intolerance, which is why I try to show my students how to develop their critical thinking skills and examine what they’re told rather than passively accepting everything at face value. I also try to show them that “different” doesn’t mean “wrong” or “scary”. If I can get just one student to change their world view or open their mind in a positive way each semester, then I feel like I’ve done my job.

I feel the same way about writing LGBT romance stories. The more LGBT stories that are available, the more resources LGBT young people have to reinforce the message that they’re not alone and their stories are just as valid as heterosexual and/or cisgender stories, which is why I think YA LGBT lines like Prizm are invaluable.

The fact that these stories are being published and that there are now multiple publishing companies just for LGBT fiction makes me hopeful that we’re chipping away at hatred and intolerance bit by bit. I want to be a part of that by telling the kind of romantic stories I love and sharing them with readers who enjoy seeing a happily ever after regardless of gender.

The bottom line is that Arionrhod and I are both hopeless romantics. In our fictional worlds, love always conquers all – even prejudice and intolerance – because we can make it happen. In the real world, we don’t have that kind of control, but hopefully, we contribute to the change by celebrating love.

Bay Leaves and Bachelors

Our first novella, “Bay Leaves and Bachelors”, is now available from Torquere Press!

When a carnival fortuneteller gives him a bag of bay leaves to sleep on, telling him it will make him dream of his perfect man, lonely historian Clay Turner is skeptical, to say the least. Since he has nothing to lose, Clay tries it, and that night, he dreams of a handsome, dark-haired man. But even that doesn’t prepare him for the next day, when he literally runs into the man from his dream on the street!

Rhys Montgomery is a rich, successful restaurateur, and he seems smitten with Clay, who is dazed by the attention. Rhys claims that he wants a slow, romantic courtship, but Rhys’ continuous refusal to take their relationship to the next level plays on Clay’s insecurities.

Is Rhys really interested in a happily ever after with Clay, or does his interest mask a far more calculating motive?

On the Rocks

“On the Rocks” is now available for pre-order as part of Dreamspinner Press’ Evergreen Advent Daily Calendar! The whole package containing every Evergreen story is available for $49.99 through November 25. On December 1, the price for the package will rise to $54.99, and each story in the package will be available for individual sale. Ours will be just $3.99!

For years, Mal has given Aidan a little piece of the world for special occasions in the form of unique rocks and fossils—until the year he gives Aidan a piece of the moon instead. Aidan has treasured every gift: in a world of impersonal relationships, they’re the one reminder he has that somebody out there cares about him for who he really is. Then through a twist of fate, their relationship goes beyond personal and into intimate, leaving Aidan shocked and set to run the other way. Despite his feelings for Mal, past experiences have convinced Aidan that he’s a failure at relationships, and he’s afraid to trust his heart. It just might take a Christmas miracle for Aidan to find the courage to love.

Coming soon!!!

We’re excited to have several publications coming in the next couple of months!

First on the list will be our first novella, entitled “Bay Leaves and Bachelors”, which will be at Torquere in their “Spice It Up” line. We’re excited because we really love working in a longer format, as many of our long-time fans know, and so this is definitely more up our alley! It will be released on November 7th.

Next, about 1 December, we will have a story coming out at Dreamspinner as part of their “Evergreen” holiday collection. Entitled “On The Rocks”, it’s all about resolving misunderstandings and finding love with the person you’re truly meant to be with.

On 30 January, we have another story at Torquere, in their Color Box line – “Caribbean Blues”. If you enjoy rebounds, love at first sight, and happy endings, this story is for you!

We’re currently working on another holiday story that we hope will be accepted and published in mid-December. We also just submitted a novel, and we’re biting our nails in hope that it will be published.

As the holidays approach, we hope everyone stays safe and enjoys a little romance in their lives!

New story!

“A Hundred Lonely Halloweens” is now available from Torquere Press!

When Micah Harrison bought Delany House, he didn’t suspect that it was haunted – or that the lonely ghost of Richard Delany would be the most appealing man he’d met in a long time. As Micah learns more about Richard, he realizes he’s in danger of falling in love, but he gives in to temptation anyway when Richard offers him the gift of an erotic Halloween encounter. However, Richard’s real gift is not only a night of sensual pleasure, but also a chance for Micah to find the love he’d been looking for and never found.

30 pages / 8000 words

Ebook zipped file contains – html, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

It’s also been added to our Short Stories page, along with our two other stories that have been released this year.

As I mentioned before, we were inspired by our mutual love of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, but we had another inspiration as well. While surfing through Livejournal, I came across a photo of this house:

The creepy yet oddly gorgeous decay of the old house perching precariously near a steep fall caught our interest, as well as the story behind it, which you can read about here. We wanted the Delany House to have the same sort of faded beauty (although it isn’t quite as run down as this!), and we incorporated the tragic aspect of the waterfall as well.

“A Hundred Lonely Halloweens” is a ghost story and a romance, and it’s a little bittersweet, which we thought was appropriate for the season. We hope our readers enjoy it!

It’s Here!!

Our latest work, A Hundred Lonely Halloweens, is here! We hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

When Micah Harrison bought Delany House, he didn’t suspect that it was haunted – or that the lonely ghost of Richard Delany would be the most appealing man he’d met in a long time. As Micah learns more about Richard, he realizes he’s in danger of falling in love, but he gives in to temptation anyway when Richard offers him the gift of an erotic Halloween encounter. However, Richard’s real gift is not only a night of sensual pleasure, but also a chance for Micah to find the love he’d been looking for and never found.

Halloween Sip: “A Hundred Lonely Halloweens”

This coming Wednesday, October 17, we’ll have a new short story coming out as part of Torquere Press’ Halloween Sip line called “A Hundred Lonely Halloweens”. As with “Steam Heat”, the prompt limited us to 8000 words, so we had another challenge in keeping our plot manageable and yet reasonably fleshed out within the set parameters, but we’re quite pleased with the results.

We’re both fans of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and we used that as inspiration for our own bittersweet ghost story, and we tried to infuse Micah and Richard’s story with the – ahem – spirit of the season. Speaking for myself, I was eager to write for this holiday prompt because I love Halloween, and I’ve always loved incorporating elements of folklore, legend, and superstition into Halloween-themed works.

We’ll post an announcement once the story is available on Wednesday and add it to our short stories page. We hope our readers enjoy this little Halloween treat!

Halloween!!!

We just received word from Torquere that our sixth story (although in publishing order it will be third!), “A Hundred Lonely Halloweens”, will be published on October 17th! This is so exciting, because as McKay pointed out, we will have had releases in September, October, November, and December of this year!  We don’t have a date for Caribbean Blues yet, but if it’s in January, that would be awesome. Keep your eyes on this space, hopefully there will be more good news to come!