Laylah Hunter's Blog, page 6

"Safe Harbor," gay historical romance short, available now

My contribution to Dreamspinner's 2012 Advent collection, "Safe Harbor," is now available from DSP's site. Sailor Blake ran away from home seven years ago to avoid having to face his grief over his father's death or his tangle of romantic feelings for his best friend Tom. Now, his ship has come in to port on Christmas Eve, and he's going to get a second chance at family and love.

This story is a warm fuzzy blanket in prose form; the excerpt available on the site is a little bittersweet, but the sweet chases off the bitter by the story's end (spoilers!!!).

If you're in the mood for some nice cuddly Christmas fic, give it a try!

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Whew. Three short stories out the door this month; here's...

Whew. Three short stories out the door this month; here's hoping December will bring me good news on one or more of them.

December's drafting will probably focus on some pieces that friends have commissioned to help me come up with suit money; I'll also be dedicating some time to the final round of pre-submission edits for The Dragon's Tale (FINALLY, I know).

Also I suppose I should be sending out resumes in search of a new day job. I'm not ready to go back yet, but the unemployment office doesn't want to hear that.

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a kickstarter dear to my heart

Saint Harridan is raising funds for a line of men's-styled suits that are designed to fit XX-chromosomed bodies.

I am incoherent right now about how much this means to me. I've always been of the "oh, it's just clothes" mold, and trying not to think about them any more than I had to. I'm genderqueer XX butch, with a body type that does not fit well into clothes made for XY shapes; my hips have never let me pass. Trying to shop for clothes has been an exercise in frustration, anxiety, and flat-out misery for years.

And now there's Saint Harridan. This post about their name made me wibbly when I first saw it, and now the kickstarter has me in tears.

Because this project, these clothes, say to me, Yes, you are allowed to be what you are. Yes, you deserve the chance to be stylish and fancy. You don't have to choose between physical discomfort and emotional discomfort to dress up.

If you can afford to kick them a few bucks, please do.

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whoops

And then I went silent for ten days!

Since we last spoke, I've gotten a rejection from one place I really wanted to work with and an acceptance from another one. I've sent out a short story and finished a draft for another one in time to revise it before it, too, needs to be sent out. And I've found another call due at the end of the month for which I currently have 3k of a necessary 5k. And I've done a quick copy edit pass on my first novel before sending it to a couple of people so I could get feedback before it goes out into the wide world of submission.

...I feel like I've been slacking -- the last two days all I've done was play video games and eat pie -- but writing it down makes it look less so. Yay!

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being visible

Just a quick FYI, before I dive back into the writing mines and try to get the rest of this short story drafted -- I now have a twitter account for writing purposes, which is (predictably) LaylahHunter. Please feel free to add me, if twitter is a thing you do!

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feels good, man

In a month or two when the rent keeps happening and I'm not getting paid, I'm sure I'll be more sorry about unemployment. But right this minute, honestly, it feels like such a relief to have time, at last. I've wanted to have time for myself for years.

And I'm not even entirely fucking off with it! Yeah, there's some Skyrim in the evenings (my dunmer is almost to level 50, you guys! she stopped the civil war and now she's chasing down the betrayer of the thieves' guild!), but I'm also settling in to be my own project manager:



Also, I'm the kind of boss who lets my employees use the internet at work. Aw yis.

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Hurricane auctions - almost over

Just a few hours left for bidding on the Hurricane Sandy charity auctions! Mine currently stands at $100 -- if we can hit $150 in these last few hours I will up the story minimum to 7,500 words. (...Stretch goal: If we could get to $200, I'd up it to 10,000.)

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well.

Lost my job today.

I'm...okay in the short term; I've been living below my means for a while, so I have enough of a cushion that I don't need to worry about being suddenly homeless in the winter. Here's to hoping I can find something within a reasonable amount of time.

...I'd been pining for some time off for so long, too. I just wish it weren't this expensive.

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Obligatory

If you live in the US, please vote today.

...And more selfishly, if you live in Washington State, please vote to approve Ref. 74.

(The church up the street from my apartment has an electronic message sign that currently reads, "We affirm the dignity and the rights of all people. Marriage, however, should not be redefined." Gotta say, I like the first sentence a lot better than the second.)

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"Safe Harbor" in Dreamspinner's Evergreen collection

Evergreen, Dreamspinner Press's 2012 Advent Calendar collection, is now available for preorder! The collection contains 31 short holiday-themed stories, one of which is mine. You can preorder the entire collection at the link for $49.99; if the price is too rich for your blood, or if you'd prefer to sample some a la carte dishes instead of buying the entire buffet, you'll be able to buy individual stories on December 1st. (The "Excerpt" link on that page is actually a list of all the stories, with their summaries, so you can see what sorts of things you'd be in for.)

My contribution, Safe Harbor, is a warm fuzzy blanket in story form: lonely sailor Blake comes in to port on Christmas Eve to an unexpected reunion with the best friend he's loved—and thought he could never have—for years, and it turns out they're both exactly what the other wants for Christmas.

I can't wait to share it with you! Especially now that DST has ended, and the dark sets in early this far north.

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