Andrew Q. Gordon's Blog, page 59

The Importance of Marriage.

As many readers know, I’m about to get married. Today. Yes after almost 19 years, Mike and I are going to make it official. As my friend Larry Benjamin said to me yesterday – ‘we’ve come a long way.’ Sure there is more to do, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t achieved anything.

When Maryland agree to recognize all lawful marriages – including same sex marriages – from other states, we effectively had marriage equality in Maryland, Mike and I made a conscious decision not to take advantage of the ruling, preferring to wait until we could get married in the state where we lived. Perhaps it was silly, but it made today that much more special knowing that the people of Maryland  agreed it was wrong to deny us the right to get married.

But when Maryland passed marriage equality it also made it that much more important that we take advantage of it. The Governor, Lt. Governor, State Attorney General and others lobbied hard to pass this law. They used political capital to get it done. We donated money, went to meetings and fund raisers, brought our daughter with us to show that we were a family in every way except for the ability to get married. The world was watching – maybe not us specifically, but in the general sense – to see what happened once the law passed.

Imagine if after all that effort, just a handful of people took advantage of it. Would states debating the issue point to the apathy among same sex couples toward marriage to defeat future efforts? My friend Elizabeth – a straight, married woman – pointed out that we are at the front of wave. That same sex couples who marry give positive examples to LGBT kids to look up to.

When we rented the ballroom, we were told we were the first same sex wedding reception the hotel had held.  Mind you we live in a blue area of a blue state. One would expect these things to take place around here. But we were/are the first. Sometimes all it takes is that first one to open the gates.

Peel away the legal benefits, ignore the fact that we love each other and want to get married, and forget that we fought to have the right to do it, and it is still important for same sex couples to marry. With each new ceremony, the novelty of a same sex wedding wanes and retreats.  With enough ceremonies, people will stop referring to it as ‘gay marriage’ or ‘ same sex marriage’ or even ‘marriage equality.’ That is the ultimate goal, to make it so common that people won’t make a distinction.

Getting married just confirms what Mike and I already knew; in every way that matters, we are just like any other family. It may have taken 19 years to get to this point, but it’s really ‘just another marriage.’ The only difference is it’s ours and not someone else’s. That’s a distinction I hope never changes.

Guest Author: Kim Fielding

After today’s guest I think I need a break – I’m tired just thinking about all she’s done in the last year. I had the opportunity to meet Kim in Chicago this year and those pictures of her smiling are 100% accurate. She is so upbeat and positive that it’s hard not to smile when you’re with her.  So with that, take a moment to read on and see what Kim is up to these days.

Guest Author: Kim Fielding

Welcome Kim, I can’t believe it’s been seven months since you last visited.

Thanks for inviting me over again! 

Let me start with a bit of hero worship, I think Brute was a fantastic book. The fantasy element didn’t bog down the character driven plot.  Do you plan anymore books with those characters?

Thank you! Brute’s easy to fall in love with, I think. I’m not currently planning anything more with him and Grey, but you never know. My “to-write” idea file is 11 pages long and growing.

11 pages? Just slip this one toward the top. The other ideas won’t notice.  :) 

They will! They call my name: “Me next! Me next!” 

Your new book, The Tin Box, is set in an abandoned, old style, mental hospital. That’s an unusual setting.

It is, and it’s one I’ve been wanting to use for a very long time. It’s so emotionally evocative.

Once upon a time the model for mental hospitals was to build old grand buildings in Victorian style. Most of these facilities have been abandoned. Pilgrim State in New York , Norristown State in Pennsylvania and St. Elizabeth’s in DC are some examples of these that that I’m familiar with.  How did you become acquainted with these facilities?

First-hand… but not as a patient! I have degrees in psychology, so I’ve been aware of these old facilities since I was in graduate school. Heck, maybe even longer than that. I grew up in Oregon and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has always packed quite a wallop for me. More importantly, though, I got to know a former mental hospital in Stockton, California. It’s used for university classes now. It was built in the 1850s and was once the largest mental hospital in California. The campus is really pretty, and the main building’s on the National Historic Register. But it’s also a haunting place. Unmarked graves have been discovered on the grounds, which strikes me as so sad—patients so forgotten nobody even remembers where they’re buried. And I’ve walked the long corridors at night—many of the windows still have bars—and wondered about the thousands of people who lived there.

For some amazing photos of an abandoned (and now demolished) hospital from the same era, check out Matthew Christopher’s pictures of Taunton State Hospital: http://www.abandonedamerica.us/taunton-state-hospital.

I’m really glad the hospital in Stockton has been preserved. We need tangible reminders of what once was.

The book has many subplots – tells us about some of them.

With pleasure. On the one hand, there’s William Lyon, who’s trying to finish his dissertation on a fairly technical (some might say boring) subject related to memory. He takes a job as caretaker for the former asylum. We learn he’s also in the middle of a divorce. He’s been closeted his whole life—his parents forced him to undergo conversion therapy when he was a teen—and is now tentatively trying to find himself.

Then there’s Colby Anderson, who’s flamboyant and gregarious. He’s the clerk at the general store/post office in the little town near the asylum. He’s an upbeat kind of guy, but he has problems of his own. He’s had a difficult history and he’s yearning for something he believes he’ll never find.

And there’s Bill. William discovers a series of letters Bill secretly wrote in the late 1930s, when Bill was committed to the asylum for being gay.

How hard was it to write about the treatment – or mistreatment – of patients like Bill?

Very hard. There were times I had to stop for a while. Most of what we learn comes to us in Bill’s own words via the letters he wrote. I purposely didn’t go into a lot of detail about the things that were done to him, but even the barest descriptions speak for themselves. I think what made it most difficult for me was knowing these things were real. Bill may be fictional, but very real people suffered from these things—and not so very long ago.

Where did you find the information on what passed for ‘treatment’ eighty years ago?

I knew a lot already from my academic life. Some films were helpful too, such as Titicut Follies, which shows how appalling things still were in the late 1960s. I learned more from a few good websites. While there’s a fair amount of information on the history of asylums and mental health in general, I was surprised and upset to learn there’s very little on the forced “treatment” of LGBT people. It certainly happened—and not so long ago—but we seem hesitant to publicly acknowledge it.

Tell us something interesting that is not in the blurb for The Tin Box?

I didn’t really like William all that much as the story began. He seems pretty rigid and judgmental. But oh, I totally fell in love with him as the story progressed and I got to know him better. I think he and Colby may be my favorite characters I’ve written.

Given the characters you have already, that makes them pretty special.

Thanks, it does. I was honestly depressed for several days after finishing the book—because I missed the guys so much.

Are any of the characters based on someone you know?

Not really. I steal bits and pieces, though. For instance, I have several friends who married someone of the opposite sex and then divorced after becoming more comfortable with their sexuality. I know a lot of introverts like William, who often feel awkward when interacting with people. And I know some Colbys too—people who try really hard to see the best in every situation, and who can bring out the best in others. And Colby’s TOTAL DANCE WHORE tank top? I saw a guy wearing that last time I was in San Francisco.

What else have you written since Brute was published?

A lot! Brute came out in early December 2012. That same month I had two holiday short stories published: “A Great Miracle Happened There” and “Joys R Us”. Then in February my novel Venetian Masks came out, followed later by a novella called Night Shift and then the novel Buried Bones, which is a sequel to my werewolf novel, Good Bones. I wrote a fantasy novella called Treasure, which is available for free. Oh, and “The Gig,” a (free!) short story tying together the guys from the Bones books and the guys from Speechless.

Oh! And my Ennek trilogy is coming out in audiobook versions. The first one is available already.

But that’s not all! In October I’ll have a short story called “A Clockwork Heart” in Dreamspinner Press’s steampunk anthology, Steamed Up. In November, my novella Housekeeping will come out. In December I’ll have a holiday short called “Alaska.” And! I just signed a contract for a fantasy novella called Pilgrimage. It’s about a Californian fiscal analyst who gets zapped to an alternate world, where he has to undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of a death goddess. Luckily, he finds a hunky guide. That will release in February or March.

I’m exhausted just looking at all those titles.

Please! Your to write list is 11 pages long – you’re just getting started.

I like to think so. J My muse is a harsh, cruel mistress. Picture her looking like a cross between Meryl Streep and Kathy Bates, wearing bondage gear and wielding a whip. But I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

Since there is always another story to tell, what are you working on now?

I recently began a new novel—it’s so new it doesn’t even have a decent title yet. It’s about a guy who picks up a hitchhiking ghost along the old Route 66. After that, I think I’ll write a third book in the Bones series.

You traveled a bit this summer and some of those trips turned into adventures. What happened?

My family took a Disney cruise to Alaska, which was great. I’d never been there before and it’s more gorgeous than I’d imagined. We saw lots of wildlife, including dolphins, orcas, seals, and two kinds of bears. And we took a train excursion up White Pass Summit, which the Yukon gold rush miners had to travel on foot. I wrote my holiday short story (titled, not surprisingly, “Alaska”) on the ship, while watching glaciers pass by.

Later I went to Iowa for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I got to finally meet a wonderful friend in person. I got to sit in the basement for my first tornado warning in 20 years and later watch fireflies again. And thanks to airline screw-ups, I got an extra day in Iowa and far too much time at the Cedar Rapids and Minneapolis airports. While in the restroom in Cedar Rapids, I ran into someone I work with here in California!

After that came Denver for a wedding, where I experienced more weather (we don’t have weather where I live) and a zillion mosquito bites, plus a great wedding reception with Krispy Kreme donuts and Korean rice cakes instead of a wedding cake.

I took a weekend at the coast with friends, and not one but two of my car window mechanisms broke, leaving us unable to close the windows. We had fun anyway.

And finally, we were making a family road trip to Las Vegas when my husband surprised us all with a one night detour to Grand Canyon. I’d seen it only from airplanes before. It’s amazing.

I heard you ‘might’ be going to Turkey – what’s that about?

Istanbul’s still tentative, but such an exciting prospect! I’ll definitely be sending a week in Warsaw next month, and then all of November in Zagreb, except for a few days when I get to visit Sarajevo and Mostar. This journey is related to my day job, but I’m sure I’ll find plenty of writing inspiration.

Both of your daughters are teenagers now – how are you coping with that?

Is that a note of worry I detect?

Actually, only one is a teenager. The other’s a preteen, which is just as bad. I do a lot of driving people around, and I’ve become used to lots of drama. We’ve talked about creating a catalogue of teenage noises and facial expressions (think 10,000 kinds of eye rolls). But I have to say, the teen years are also turning out to be a lot of fun. I love seeing the wonderful young lady my daughter is becoming. And she’s so much fun to tease right now, and it’s so easy! For instance, all I have to do is threaten to wear my T-shirt with this lovely illustration when I pick her up from school. Also, she and her friends have fairly recently discovered slash fanfic, and I get to appall her by demonstrating that I’m familiar with that genre too.

More than a note of worry – she’s not yet two and already giving me a ration of sass.

Oh, you have no idea of the joys awaiting you! I’m especially distressed because my older daughter is showing signs of growing up to become a lawyer.

What have you read lately that most people haven’t read but should?

Well, lots of people have read this, and now I’m in danger of being accused of sucking up, but I just finished your Purpose and really enjoyed it. It’s such an original concept. Tali Spencer’s Thick As Thieves will make anyone who enjoys fantasy happy. Madeline Miller’s take on the Achilles/Patroclus story, The Song of Achilles, is fantastic. And I liked Raising My Rainbow, which is about the author’s family, most especially her young gender creative son.

Last question is all yours – feel free to talk about anything you want your readers to know about you, your book, anything at all.

Thanks to you, Andy, for letting me blather, and thanks to everyone else for reading! I just wanted everyone to know that The Tin Box is a special book to me, and I hope it is to you, too. And I want to give a shout out to Anne Cain, who made the gorgeous cover.

Thanks for being my guest, now it’s time to plug your work –

Blurb:

William Lyon’s past forced him to become someone he isn’t. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby’s offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.

William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Excerpt:

With the menus gone, William had nowhere to hide. He pretended to be closely examining his surroundings, but in fact the Java Joint was pretty unremarkably decorated, and he couldn’t avoid Colby’s thoughtful stare.

“You don’t like me much, do you?” Colby finally said.

“I… I don’t think I know you well enough to not like you.”

“Yeah, but you sort of make these faces and you keep flinching away.” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you homophobic? Afraid you’ll catch my queer cooties?”

If William had been sipping his water, he would have choked. As it was, he coughed rather loudly. “I’m not a bigot.”

“It doesn’t bother you to be seen with a flaming gayboy?”

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks.” That was true, more or less. Once he’d given up on gaining his parents’ respect, the only judgment he’d feared was his own. Unfortunately, he was a harsh critic of himself.

“So then what’s the deal? Hermit? Confirmed introvert? Asperger’s? Maybe you just disapprove of my stylistic choices.” Colby gave a significant look at his own tight and fairly skimpy outfit, and then at William’s Oxford shirt and sport coat. “Are you the fashion police, Will?”

“William.” He wanted to frown, but Colby was looking genuinely upset, his sunny smile replaced by troubled eyes and a frown. For the first time, William felt guilty for how he’d been acting. Colby seemed like a nice guy. Friendly and cheery. It wasn’t his fault he made William uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, Colby. I think I’m just kind of a jerk.”

The grin reappeared, and William was strangely relieved. “You’re not really a jerk,” said Colby. “We just need to work a little on your social skills. Loosen you up a little. ’Cause Will, my man, you’ve got a stick so far up your ass you must be tasting it. Who the hell put it there?”

William felt a little flutter of panic at the question. He intentionally pushed it down and focused instead on the coarseness of Colby’s language, which made him blush. It didn’t help that he knew Colby was right—William was about as uptight as they came. And Colby wasn’t the first to accuse him of it. Even Lisa used to complain and tell him to ease up, and she was wound pretty tight herself.

The coffee arrived, hot and blessedly caffeinated. William burned his tongue but didn’t especially care. Coffee had always been his one true vice, the one thing he wanted, knew he shouldn’t have, and couldn’t quite give up. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the rich, bitter flavor. He imagined he could feel his veins singing in happiness. Oddly, the song sounded a lot like the one Colby had been humming in the car.

“I’ve seen guys look less blissed out than that after a really good orgasm.”

William opened his eyes to glare. He looked around, but if any of the other customers had heard what Colby said, they weren’t reacting. “I need to buy a coffeemaker,” William said.

“Yeah, Frank’s will have one. How come you didn’t bring yours with you to JV?”

“JV?”

“Jelley’s Valley. See, now that you’re a local we can let you in on our secret lingo.”

“Oh.”

“So why no coffeemaker?”

After taking another soothing swallow, William answered carefully. “I didn’t have one before I came. I used to just go out for coffee.” That was sort of true. A few years back he and Lisa had splurged on a really nice Italian machine, the programmable kind that brewed coffee and espresso and probably did your income taxes if you punched the right buttons. Naturally, Lisa had kept it when he left. And during those miserable weeks of living in his office, he did go out for coffee, buying it from a campus vendor when he could afford it, pouring it from the burner in the graduate student lounge when he was broke.

“I guess that’s one of the advantages of living in civilization. You can go out for stuff.” Colby seemed neither sarcastic nor sad, just matter-of-fact.

“Have you really lived here your whole life?”

Colby had been slurping at his soft drink; now he smiled around the straw. “Why? You figure I’m a little too colorful for JV?”

“Maybe,” William answered cautiously.

“I thought so too, when I was a kid. Couldn’t wait to shake the dust from my feet. I graduated high school early, when I was only sixteen. Took off for the bright lights. San Francisco—homo heaven, right?”

“And your family let you go?”

Colby shrugged. “Dad was dead. Mom was remarried, to a truck driver. He has a house up in Redding but he spends most of the time on the road. Mom too. They’ve got their rig all set up like a little apartment, practically. It’s pretty cool. And Grandma and Grandpa, they were a little overwhelmed with me, I think.” He batted his eyelashes, which were unnaturally long. “I was just too fabulous for them to deal with.”

The waitress came to the table and plopped down laden plates. She pulled ketchup and mustard bottles from her apron pocket and set them on the table. “Anything else?”

“We’re good for now,” said Colby.

Bio:

Kim Fielding is very pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. She has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. She’s a university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full time. She also dreams of having two perfectly behaved children, a husband who isn’t obsessed with football, and a house that cleans itself. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.

Kim can be found on her blogs:

http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/

and on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites.

and on Twitter at @KFieldingWrites.

Wednesday Briefs: Second Shot – The Senior Year – 25

As some know – I’m getting married this weekend, so I figured it’d be a good time to see what the ‘guys’ thought about the topic. I’m planning something for Friday on the topic, but this sorta fit the story line so I went with it.

-AQG

“Do you ever think about getting married?” Blake asked then poured water over his head.

The question caused Jason to stop drinking. Blake and Ethan had been ‘dating’ less than a month. “Yeah, I do sometimes. Why?”

Before he answered, Blake shook his head, spraying Jason with water.

“Hey!” Jason flicked his bottle at his friend to no avail.

“Sorry.” He turned and shook again. “It was running down my back.”

Jason rolled his eyes and used the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face. “That usually happened when you empty a water bottle on your head.”

“I suppose.” Blake pulled his shirt over his head and used it as a make shift towel. Sweat matted the dark hair to his torso and Jason had to turn to stop staring at his friend’s body.

Chest hair had always been a turn on, so Jason understood why Peter got that little hitch in his voice whenever Jason mentioned that he and Blake went running. Once he realized Peter’s jealousy, he never mentioned any conversation that took place in the locker room, or worse, the shower.

Rather than dwell on that, he returned to the original subject. “Um, so why the interest in marriage?”

“Oh, well. . . .” Blake rooted through his bag and pulled out a clean white tee shirt with a Graydon logo on the front. “My Uncle Greg and his boyfriend are getting married.”

“That’s great.” Jason noticed all but a couple of their teammates had already left the practice field. “When’s the date?”

“They haven’t picked one yet, but they asked about my schedule so I could be there.” Blake rolled his eyes. “They were hinting I should bring Ethan. Everyone wants to meet him.”

“You don’t sound thrilled.”

“Well, no, it’s not that. I mean, I want them to meet Ethan, but you should have heard the conversation. They sounded like sorority girls the way they were laughing.”

After stuffing his cleats into his bag, Jason motioned toward the field house. “I got nothing. Maybe they were just happy because of their announcement?”

Blake shook his head. “That’s the f’ed up part. I don’t think they’re that excited about getting married – well Corey isn’t. I know Uncle Greg really wants to.”

“Corey doesn’t want to marry your Uncle, but he said okay anyway?” Jason arched an eyebrow. “How’s that work?”

“No, you dork.” He bumped shoulders with Jason. “He wants to get married, but he wants it to mean something. They live in Pennsylvania, which as we both know, doesn’t recognize gay marriages. Corey thinks they should wait until it’s recognized here.”

Jason understood that argument. He and Peter had discussed it several times, but always in the abstract. “So again, why get married then?”

As they neared the building, Blake slowed to a halt. “Corey loves my uncle and I think he’s doing it for him. Uncle Greg thinks it doesn’t matter if Pennsylvania will recognize it. The important thing is to do it to show the world and make a statement.”

“I take it Corey isn’t a make a statement kinda guy.”

“No, not really.” Staring back at the field, Blake didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I’m not sure which side I’m on.”

Now Jason understood the original question. “Isn’t it a bit early to need to decide?” He tried to inject humor into the question by ending with a snort.

“No,” Blake shook his head and turned back toward Jason. “I don’t think it’s ever too early to think about how I feel about this issue.”

Jason regarded his friend, wondering how their chat turned so serious. “You’re really thinking a lot about this?”

“Not a lot, but you mentioned that the female D.A. treated you like a couple and it made me think.” Kicking a clod of grass, Blake watched it roll. “My uncle says that it’s important. That if enough people do it, even if the state won’t recognize it right now, it might once it sees how many couples want it.”

“That’s a thought, I guess.” He doubted there would ever be enough married gay couples to sway the legislature by sheer numbers to change the law. “What do you think?”

“I think that if two people love each other, and want to get married they should. Whether the state recognizes it or not shouldn’t matter.”

“But isn’t that a waste of time? I mean, whether they’re married or not, they still love each other and everyone that matters in their lives knows it.” Having raised this issue with Peter, Jason was interested to hear what Blake thought.

“I kinda agree with you, which is why I’m not sure. But I think the real issue shouldn’t be whether it’s allowed.” He shook his head. “That didn’t make too much sense, did it?”

“Yes and no. I kinda get what you’re saying, but still don’t understand your position.”

“Basically I think people should get married for love and not any other reasons. Legal benefits and recognition are great, but it’s hardly a good basis to build a relationship upon.” He shrugged again. “I think you should get married because you love someone and want to marry them, not because you want the legal benefits.”

Jason listened to his friend’s argument. He and Peter had said much the same to each other. Finally he nodded. “I can see that. ‘Marry me because I love the legal benefits’ isn’t a very romantic proposal.”

“Ha! Nope.” A smile split his face. “If Ethan said that I’d smack the crap outta him.”

The image of Ethan on his knee, proposing with those words caused Jason to laugh. “I’ll let him know to find a different way to propose when the time comes.”

Please check out the briefs of these other flashers:

MA Church
JC Wallace
A.R. Von
 Victoria Adams
Lily Sawyer 
Shelly Schulz
 Nephylim 
Rob Colton
Cia Nordwell
Tali Spencer 
Elyzabeth VaLey  
Julie Lynn Hayes

New Releases: Monday September 23, 2013

All authors face the same daunting task – how to get their book noticed. In an effort to help some of my fellow authors, every Monday I’m going to post some of the numerous new books that have been released. For the most part these will be M/M Fiction with a heavy bias on Romance. That will probably evolve over time, but for now that’s were it is.

I’ve not read everything that is listed, though I’ve probably read or will read many. Which means inclusion on the list isn’t an endorsement or suggestion. You should read the blurbs provided to see if you’re interested. I’ll post reviews to books I recommend under the ‘Books I Reviewed’ tab. This is just a partial list of what’s new for visitors of my site to check out. That said if you end up reading something listed here and want to comment – please do. I reserve the right, however, to delete nasty or personal comments.

If you’re an author and want to include a new release, email me your blurb, cover image, buy links and any personal links you want included. No excerpts, interviews, giveaways etc. Those are welcome, but can be discussed separately.

Hunter’s Hunt; by Chris T. Kat
Blurb:

Wanted: one bear. Must be burly and hairy, and strong enough to paddle. Hunter Bell is on the prowl, and he knows just where to find his prey: at the Bear Trap, a gay leather bar he’s more than a little familiar with. So many men, so little time. He’s just about to pounce on his choice of the evening when a newcomer enters the bar, turning everyone’s head. Adrian Michaels is everything Hunter despises in a man. He’s lean and boyish looking, and he has the deepest dimples Hunter’s ever seen.

And yet there is an immediate attraction, one that neither man can deny. They’re both too astonished to do anything about this apparent interest in one another, and they waste their opportunity. Now it’s up to Hunter to forget about his stereotypical preference and go for the guy that’s just entered his dreams. If only he can admit to himself that Adrian’s what he really wants…

Buy links:

Torquere Press: Hunter’s Hunt – By Chris T. Kat

All Romance Ebooks: Hunter’s Hunt – By Chris T. Kat

Amazon:  Hunter’s Hunt – By Chris T. Kat

About The Author:

Chris T. Kat lives in the middle of Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of many years and their two children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes chasing after escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a harp—and writing. She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense, paranormal, and romance. If there’s any spare time, she happily reads for hours, listens to audiobooks or does cross stitch.

Social Media Links:

Blog: http://christikat.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/christi_kat

GoodReads:http://www.goodreads.com/ChrisTKat

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChrisTKat

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Chris-T.-Kat/e/B008FQQH2Q

Moon And Stars; by Zahra Owens
A Clouds and Rain Story (4th book of 5)

Blurb:

After an affair with a married DA led to scandal and disbarment, Cooper Nelson left his legal career in shambles, and found solace working as a hand at the Blue River Ranch. Eight years later, during a rare visit into town, Cooper bumps into Kelly Freed, a man he left behind fifteen years earlier when he started out as an attorney. Unfortunately, Kelly is running for sheriff and his wife is terminally ill, so Kelly can’t even consider rekindling their relationship. Cooper knows from sad experience that hiding the truth leads to lives being ruined, so for his part, he refuses to be anybody’s dirty secret.

In the meantime circumstances at neighboring Blackwater Ranch have taken a desperate turn. Gable’s friend Calley has breast cancer, and when Gable and Flynn take in Calley’s kids, they need help from their friends. Cooper and Kelly’s combined talents are put to work to ensure Gable can make a bid to become the legal father of his children, and that Calley’s affairs are in order if worse comes to worst. For Cooper, staying away from Kelly was never easy, and now with a common cause, Cooper finds he can’t stop himself from seeking the man out.

Buy Link: 

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4204

Author bio:

Zahra Owens is a multilingual globetrotter who loves big cities but also has a weak spot for the wide-open spaces that are so rare where she lives.

She likes her men every which way they come and never tries to change them. Men who are tough on the outside but have a huge soft center get extra credit, though, as do the strong, silent types who think they hide their damage well… but don’t. She makes it her personal goal to find them their happily-ever-after, even if the road toward this leads via hospital beds, villas with gorgeous vistas, or ranges full of horses.

Zahra is a proud member of the Rainbow Romance Writers, a special interest chapter of the Romance Writers of America, and won’t quit until M/M romances are treated like every other romance story. RWA allowed her into its Professional Authors Network, but she hasn’t quit her day job yet since it allows her to work in a man’s world. And what girl can resist that?

If Zahra had her wish, a day would have at least thirty-six hours, because how else would she find the time to finish all the novels still inside her head?

You can find Zahra at http://zahraowens.com.

The Sweetest Scent; by Susan Laine
A Senses and Sensations Story 
Blurb: 

Bro Sumner loves his girlfriend, Lacey Adair, who underneath her pretty dress is in fact a boy, and she loves him right back. They are an exclusive item in high school, but they face some dangerous opposition, including a bullying fellow jock on Bro’s football team and Lacey’s violent alcoholic father. Lacey gets some martial arts training from an ally, and both she and Bro end up having to use fists to defend themselves. Still, their high school years have been mostly happy. Their differing plans for the future after graduation, however, seem to separate them by thousands of miles.

A compromise with the help of relatives and friends means Bro and Lacey will go to school only an hour apart, but they still miss each other. It’s not long before they make new friendships and discover new romantic possibilities. Temptations, jealousies, distance, and expanding horizons could sever their relationship forever unless they can keep their dream of a life together alive in their hearts.

Buy link: 

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4207&cPath=55_561

Author bio: 

Susan Laine, a Finn through and through, was raised by the best mother in the world. She told her daughter time and again that she could be whatever she wanted to be. It still took Susan until her thirties to find the spark for serious writing when she discovered the gay erotic romance genre.

Her formal education revolves around anthropology, but she wishes to be a full-time writer sooner rather than later. Susan enjoys hanging out with her sister and friends in movie theaters and bookstores. Her other pastimes include walking, swimming, and fantasizing about sizzling hot manlove. Some of her likes are pop music, chocolate, and doing the dishes, and a few dislikes are sweating hot summer days, tobacco smoke, and purposeful prejudice.

Visit Susan’s website at http://www.susan-laine-author.fi/ or write her an e-mail at susan.laine@hotmail.com.

Social media links: 

https://www.facebook.com/susan.laine.author,

https://twitter.com/Laine_Susan,

http://www.goodreads.com/Susan_Laine_Author

Trapped In Time; by Julie Lynn Hayes
Blurb:

Life is good for Adalbert “Doll” Klein. He has his beautiful sexy Italian, Vittorio Genovese by his side,  he has his pennyfarthing, and his job at the Arabesque Theatre. The only wrinkle is the presence of Myron Cornwinkle, who has designs on Vittorio, but the man has no chance. Doll owns Vittorio’s heart.

Doll sneers at Myron’s claims of being a wizard. Until the day he goes to work and his whole world changes when Myron pulls his wand and casts a spell – and suddenly all three of them are stuck in prehistoric ages!

Is there a way to undo what Myron has done and return to where they belong? And if Myron doesn’t clean up his act, will he survive the experience?

And is there something lurking in the jungle that might be even worse than the dinosaurs?

Buy link:  

http://www.extasybooks.com/trapped-in-time/

Author Bio:

Julie Lynn Hayes was reading at the age of two and writing by the age of nine and always wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Two marriages, five children, and more than forty years later, that is still her dream. She blames her younger daughters for introducing her to yaoi and the world of M/M love, a world which has captured her imagination and her heart and fueled her writing in ways she’d never dreamed of before. She especially loves stories of two men finding true love and happiness in one another’s arms and is a great believer in the happily ever after. She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and two cats, loves books and movies, and hopes to be a world traveler some day. She enjoys crafts, such as crocheting and cross stitch, knitting and needlepoint and loves to cook. While working a temporary day job, she continues to write her books and stories and reviews, which she posts in various places on the internet. Her family thinks she is a bit off, but she doesn’t mind. Marching to the beat of one’s own drummer is a good thing, after all.  Her other published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, MuseitUp Publishing and No Boundaries Press, and coming soon with both Extasy Books and Torquere Press. She has also begun to self-publish and is an editor at MuseitUp.

Social Media Links:

Blog  http://julielynnhayes.blogspot.com

Twitter @Shelley_runyon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julie.l.hayes.7?ref=tn_tnmn

My Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3442231.Julie_Lynn_Hayes

The Tin Box; by Kim Fielding
Blurb:

William Lyon’s past forced him to become someone he isn’t. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby’s offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.

William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.

Buy links:

Dreamspinner: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4196

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Tin-Box-Kim-Fielding/dp/1627981691/ref=sr_1_1

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thetinbox-1300474-149.html

Author bio:

Kim Fielding is very pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. She has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. She’s a university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full time. She also dreams of having two perfectly behaved children, a husband who isn’t obsessed with football, and a house that cleans itself. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.

Social Media:

Kim can be found on her blog:

http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/

on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites

and  on Twitter at @KFieldingWrites.

Playing Ball: A Baseball Anthology

“The one constant through all the years… has been baseball.”—Field of Dreams

Blurb:

Baseball, America’s Pastime, carries with it a mythology like no other sport, entwined with the ups and downs of the nation. In Playing Ball, authors Shae Connor, Kerry Freeman, Marguerite Labbe, and Kate McMurray explore the love for baseball and among the men who play it, from the 1920s through modern times. These four stories tell the tales of baseball men who find love off the field, whether with the heir to a baseball empire, a sports reporter, a fan, or even each other, after their playing careers come to an end.

Home Field Advantage— Shae Connor

When college student Toby MacMillan, grandson of Atlanta Braves owner Ray MacMillan, meets Caleb Browning, who’s getting his first shot at the big leagues, an innocent dinner soon turns into a not-so-innocent night together in Caleb’s bed. Toby quickly calls things off, afraid of the ramifications of their tryst, but unable to avoid each other because of their jobs, the two men develop a tentative friendship that soon becomes more. After Caleb is injured on the field, Toby’s presence at his hospital bedside leads to their relationship going public—and Toby’s grandfather threatening to cut him off. Facing a choice between the team he’s loved all his life and the man he could love for the rest of it, Toby has to decide if he’s ready to make a stand.

One Man To Remember—Kate McMurray

In the summer of 1927, New York sports journalist Walter Selby has gained a reputation for being something of a dandy, but he’s a force to be reckoned with, too, as one of the most dynamic voices in the daily papers. He can’t help but notice Skip Littlefield, the Giants’ tall, lithe first baseman, and when he meets the man, he’s left breathless. Skip is talented, soft-spoken, and also incredibly handsome. Skip is terrified by Walt but drawn to him, too, attracted in a way he doesn’t want to be. Against the backdrop of the lights of Times Square, the excitement of the era, and some of the most incredible baseball anyone has ever played, he starts to fall for Walt. Their only hope is that the more charismatic stars will draw attention away from the quite romance blooming between Skip and Walt, or else Skip’s whole career and everything he loves is at stake.

Wild Pitch—Maguerite Labbe

For as long as Ruben Martell has known him, he’s been in love with his best friend Alan Hartner. They played together, traveled together, and dueled on opposite teams. Years later, they’re retired, running a business together, and coaching rival Little League teams, and Ruben hasn’t given up hope that Alan might return his feelings. Alan quit the game at the height of his career to take care of his sons, and the one constant he’s been able to rely on is Ruben. He’s tried to forget about the night everything changed, but being with Ruben on a day-to-day basis is weakening his resolve. They’d stepped over the line before, and it had hurt their friendship and left Alan with a guilt he didn’t know how to handle. Alan doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that friendship now, even if it mean denying the feelings he’s kept locked away for so long.

One Last Road Trip—Kerry Freeman

After the last game of his major league career, Jake Wilson is hitting the road. He’s got an ex-wife to manage in New Mexico, a son to see in Oklahoma, a future son-in-law he doesn’t know about in Tennessee, and a gamble of a lifetime in Georgia. In 2,500 miles, his life will completely change, and he can only hope that his unannounced visit to his first love will cause everything to change for the better.

Buy links

Ebook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4197

Paperback:

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4198

Brunch With Friends

Today was the monthly DC Area MM Romance Group lunch meet up that Joyfully Jay helps organize. The meet up which brings together readers and writers in the DC Metro area. [Though I'm sure anyone from somewhere else who wanted to come would be welcome.]  Today the venue was Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington VA. Since I used to be neighbors with Freddie, who owns his name sake, today was a do not miss for me and ‘lil q.

Aside from ‘lil q being a bit fussy at times – not really her fault, we had swim class right before, so she was tired – the day was outstanding.  ’lil q had competition/company in the baby department as Bella Leone brought her adorable son – Little Lion Man [for safety reason , neither Bella nor I use our child's first name] I wish I’d had a chance to take a picture of the two of them, but ‘li q wasn’t being the most cooperative by the end of lunch.

However, if around 12:45 eastern standard time, you felt what you thought was a solar flare, that was me. One of the people at the lunch – whom I adore, by the way so I’ll not name her – handed me a lollipop pacifier for ‘lil q without really looking at it in the semi dark room. Turns out I had better light. It was a pacifier lollipop in the shape of a penis.  I think half the room got sunburnt when I turned red, but fortunately ‘lil q was blissfully unaware.

Couple side notes – yeah yeah I know, get to the pictures and shut up. But it’s my blog so I can say what I want.  I really like these events. If you are local ask how you can come, if you’re not, you might want to have them in your area. I’ve met some really nice people at these lunches. It’s been one of the things I’ve found most rewarding about writing and publishing – meeting people. I’d list some of them, but if I did I’d leave someone out and I don’t want to do that.

The other thing is Wade Kelly is awesome. When ‘lil q was fussin’ me and I was trying to tweet something to Kim Fielding, Wade popped up and calmed the savage beast. . . eh. . . ‘lil q. So a great big thank you and an around the world and back snap to Wade.

Okay, here are some pictures:

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Guest Author: Larry Benjamin

Today I’m so thrilled to have dragged Larry Benjamin onto my site. Larry is one of the first MM writers I reached out to when I published my first book and we’ve been friends ever since.  I’m not sure how I became interested in his first book – What Binds Us, but I liked it so much, it was the first book I reviewed on my site.  Larry’s latest book - Unbroken comes out today so I thought it would be a good idea to have him on as a guest so he could tell you about his new release. If you’ve never read one of his books, you should. What Binds Us is a great place to start.

Guest Author: Larry Benjamin
Welcome Larry, why don’t you start by telling everyone a bit about yourself.

Thank you. That question always makes me squirm. On some level I’m afraid there’s not much to tell, that I the only things worth knowing about me are in the in the words I’ve written, the characters I’ve created. I’ve been writing since college but as I get older the urge to write became more powerful, more urgent.  I now juggle writing, dogs, my partner of 17 years and a full time job in corporate communications for a global chemical company.

Let me start with a bit of hero worship, What Binds Us is one of my top five favorite books – M/M or otherwise. 

Thank you. You are so kind. I remember when I finished writing What Binds Us, I was sure I’d never write another book. That I only had one book in me and that was it.

I know a bit about why you wrote What Binds Us, but I’m sure most people don’t. What inspired you to write this story?

Let me start by telling you something I’m not sure many people know. What Binds Us sat in a drawer for 17 years before being published. When I first wrote it and sent it out, almost every rejection said there was “no market” for such a book. I wrote it after seeing the movie Philadelphia which despite all the praise heaped on it, I thought did a poor job of capturing our lives and in particular the romantic relationship of two men who love and care for each other. Like most gay men at the time, I’d lost a bunch of friends to AIDS, and I thought they deserved to have a better more complete story told. After writing several editorials complaining about the movie’s deficiencies, someone wrote and said if I thought I could do better, I should. Unable to resist a challenge, I sat down and started writing The Sun, the Earth and the Moon, which eventually became What Binds Us.

What happened that it took 17 years to get it published? Didn’t it gnaw at you knowing it was there, finished, ready for the world to devour, and no one was getting to see it?

Actually, no. Once it got rejected a couple of times, I gave up.  It always seemed like a long shot. As kids we were pretty much taught that a career as an artist was a bad idea, impossible to achieve. My parents would no more have supported me becoming a writer than they would have me becoming a basketball player or a rapper. The fact that I am at my core a writer was irrelevant. It wasn’t until I learned to believe my own truth over another’s that I started writing again. In a way, that is what Unbroken is about—refusing to deny your own truth in favor of someone else’s.

Shifting gears, Unbroken. Talk a bit about your new book.

Unbroken is part coming of age novel, part romance and part love letter to the boy I fell in love with at 12. From the beginning, I wanted Unbroken to be more than a great love story. I wanted it to be about discovering yourself in an often hostile world.  I wanted to capture what it’s like to wake up one morning and realize you’re different. I wanted to show what it is like when others make you feel broken. I wanted to show our young people that we each have the power to unbreak ourselves. I wanted to educate and pay homage to those who revolted at Stonewall in 1969.  Rereading this I have to laugh—it all sounds so ambitious. In the end I hope I tell a compelling story.

That’s all? Nothing else? Wow, talk about being a slacker.

I know, I know. I take everything way too seriously. When I start a book, the actual writing process is chaotic and I’m never sure where it’s going but before I start writing, I write out what I want the book to accomplish and use that to guide the story.

Is this your first book with this publisher?  How was it working with them?

Yes and no. I first met Deb McGowan at Beaten Track after What Binds Us was released. I came across an offer to advertise the book on the Beaten Track website so I sent it to her. She read the sample chapters and liked it so I send her the book. A friendship was born. When Damaged Angels came out as an eBook she negotiated with Bold Strokes Books to obtain the print rights. She has been a fan and a strong supporter and she really gets my work so going to Beaten Track with Unbroken made sense.

Was it different working with a publisher who wasn’t just someone from ‘corporate’ but someone you were/are friends with?

It was, mostly because I think we were both aware that we wanted the friendship to survive. After the first round of edits we realized the friendship was one thing and the book was another and we both wanted to deliver the best book possible. And we both have pretty thick skins so it worked out fine although we retain some sensitivity over my use of emdashes. I still insist I am not “emdash- happy.”

What else have you written?

Unbroken is my third book. What Binds Us, which you’ve already mentioned—and read—was my first book. Damaged Angels wasmy second book. I stepped away from romance with that collection of short stories. All in all I’ve released three books in about 18 months.

Do you have any other manuscripts sitting in a draw for almost two decades that we can expect to see in the near future?

Funny you should ask…I found 5 short stories I wrote at some point. I only have hard copy I wrote them so long ago.  I think 3 of them could turn into something, but we’ll see.

You consider yourself a wordsmith – and I think that’s an apt description for your works – do you chafe working with editors or do they generally leave your work unchanged?

I’m always nervous when the editing process begins. I choose my words carefully, according to a certain rhythm I hear in my head so I’m always worried I’ll have to change my words.  Before I submit a book I try to make it perfect. I went through 22 drafts of Unbroken before I felt it was polished enough to submit.  Our biggest issue in edits was comma usage.  I use a lot of commas but hate Oxford commas. Because I’m so comma obsessed, my editor compiled a document with every comma she added or deleted so I could approve/reject. The document was 12 pages long! But for the most part the words themselves did not change.

You recently lost your Coco, tell us something about her that makes you smile.

Yes, we lost our Lhasa Apso after a 4 year battle with heart disease.  The day I picked her up from the ASPCA, I put her in the back seat and started to drive home. She started to scream. Panicked, I quickly pulled over and rushed to her aid. She settled down. I got back in the car and started to drive. She started to scream. I pulled over 4 times before getting home. It turned out she was afraid of the car—evidently she wasn’t used to riding in a car. I later learned this was called it “vocalizing” and was a fear reaction. But trust me, it was screaming. She’d drool. She’d shake. We tried everything—peppermint, candied ginger and finally Benadryl which resulted in us arriving at every destination with a half drugged dog. Her fear eventually faded to a kind of muted terror.

That reminds me of our first puppy – Odin. He flew from Oregon. We picked him up at the airport and he threw up three times on the way home.  It took a few years before he’d stop throwing up in the car.

My first dog would throw up after 90 minutes in the car. Exactly 90 minutes. So, every road trip was planned with a stop every 90 minutes.

Tell us something interesting that is not in the blurb for Unbroken?

The character Jose in Unbroken, is actually based on the boy who was my first crush. While I was writing the book it just so happened I reconnected with him. He knew I wrote and looked up my books. When he read the blurb for Unbroken, he wrote me. I confessed, after 40 years, that I had been in love with him al through junior high and high school.

Have you let him read the entire book yet?

He’s reading it now. I’m a nervous wreck.  Not only do I describe those feelings I had for him in school, in this fictional version of us, we go way past being casual acquaintances. I tried to explain that to him and his response was, “I get that: go big or go home.” I went very big.

Have you ever based characters on anyone you know?

I’m laughing. Most of my characters are based on real people. Sometimes it’s just an element of their personality, sometimes it’s the way they look. My mother appears a lot. My partner appears in one of the stories in Damaged Angels. The first night I spent with him I stayed awake and watched him sleep—does that sound creepy? Anyway, I wrote a description of him and the light from the window. The story isn’t about him but the main character was based on that description. In Unbroken, Lincoln is the character I have created who is most like me, I think. Jose, was actually based on my first crush, who was also named Jose.

What’s your favorite place to write?

I have an office on our third floor. It’s painted chartreuse, my favorite color. I find it cheerful and inspiring. I write at a gorgeous cherry leather-topped desk I bought when I signed the contract to publish What Binds Us. That’s my official writing space, but I’m a bit of a nomadic writer. That is, I write anywhere and everywhere—at the dog park, at work, in the car sitting in traffic. Driving through Jim Thorpe, PA to visit friends, I was so taken with the town I started writing down a description of the town as we drove. That description eventually became the fictional Halfryta, New York in Unbroken.

What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Writing a synopsis. I hate those. I’ve ranted about those in various blog posts.

Since there is always another story to tell, what are you working on now?

Generally after I finish a book, I stop writing for a while. I’m always amazed by writers who say they have a million ideas for books in their head. I don’t. I just try to relax until an idea grabs hold of me and then I’m off. So, I’m not actually working on anything now, though I do have a picture of a house where the next story will be set and I’ve written the first line but I have no idea what the story will be about. Here’s the opening lines: She looked into the enchanted mirror. Egg-shaped and old, it was foggy and veined except for the very center where her face appeared, and saw exactly what she was: a nurse; a doctor; an ancient healer.

What have you read lately that most people haven’t read but should?

Well I was going to say Unbroken, but I suppose that would be pushing it. Would it? Can I get away with that?

Yes, that would be pushing it. Try again.

Okay that was pushing it I know. When I was a kid, my mother used to say, “Give Lawrence an inch and he’ll take a yard.”  I’d sayGeorge Durrells’, My Family and other Animals. He does such a great job of using words to paint a portrait of a family, a place and a time in the distant past. I’d also say Purpose. Months after reading it, it remains with me.  I’ve seen where readers have wondered about a sequel but I don’t see that. I see it as a TV series. I’d love to know what happens to Gar in the future, There was so much promise at the end of the book.

If you could meet any writer, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

There’s actually two writers I’d like to meet. F. Scott Fitzgerald—The Great Gatsby is my favorite book and is, in my opinion, perfect. And James Baldwin. I’ve been heavily influenced by both. They were both so gifted and had such a talent with words. To be able to discuss their books and talk writing in general with them would be awesome.

What’s a fun – non-writing – day for you?

Well first it’s a day when I don’t have to get up to an alarm clock. I love it when I wake up naturally and the whole day stretches before me with nothing marked on the calendar or my to-do list. In that case, I like nothing better than taking the dogs—well, now it’s just the one dog—for a long hike in the woods and settling down by the creek to rest and day dream while they splash around.

Besides reading and writing, what else do you enjoy?

I—along with my partner—am obsessed with houses. Our house is buried in “shelter magazines.” We’re on our second old house so you’d think we’d be over it but we’re not. Every realtor in Philly knows us because we tend to show up at a lot of open houses. And we never miss our annual neighborhood house tour. Both our houses have been on the tour. Besides hanging out with the dogs, my favorite thing to do is look at houses.

You couldn’t pick something simple to collect, like tea cups or music boxes? You want to collect houses?

Collecting tea cups or music boxes would be too reasonable; I am not a reasonable man. Thanks for being my guest, Larry, now it’s time to plug UnBroken – Blurb: My parents, unable to change me, had instead, silenced me. When they’d stilled my hands, they’d taken my words, made me lower my voice to a whisper. Later I remained silent in defense, refusing to acknowledge the hateful words: Brainiac. Sissy. Antiman. Faggot. Lincoln de Chabert’s life is pretty unremarkable until he comes home from kindergarten and announces he will marry his best friend, Orlando, when he grows up.  His parents spring into immediate action, determined to fix him―his father takes him to baseball games and the movie “Patton”―igniting an epic battle of wills as Lincoln is determined to remain himself, and marry whom he chooses, at all costs.

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-ebook/dp/B00F2JLEMW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379114042&sr=8-1&keywords=unbroken+%26+larry+benjamin

Bio:

Larry Benjamin is the author the gay romance What Binds Us and Unbroken and the short story collection Damaged Angels.  He considers himself less a writer than a wordsmith—an artist whose chosen medium is the written word rather than clay or paint or bronze. Larry was born in the Bronx (New York) to parents from St. Croix, U.S.V.I. and attened the University of Pennsylvania.  He now lives in the East Falls section of Philadelphia with Stanley, his partner of 17 years, more than 2,000 books and their dog Toby.

Contact Larry:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriterLarry Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLarryBenjamin Website: www.larrybenjamin.com

Excerpt:
Brainiac

They hurled words like stones: “Brainiac. Sissy. Faggot.” I sat on the ground, surrounded by a circle of boys bigger and tougher than I. They’d taken my glasses so I couldn’t see. I could only sit there helplessly, trying not to cry, trying not to hear the names they called me. I let myself go silent in defense, refusing to acknowledge the hateful words: Brainiac. Sissy. Faggot. I refused to acknowledge their hostility, this hostility, this constant hostility, which seemed to be driven less by the fact that I was almost certainly gay, than by the fact I had never denied their accusations. I knew instinctively that to deny, to lie, was to agree they were right, I was wrong, I was broken. That I would not, could not, do. Looking back, I realize I’d let them, those savage boys whom I did not know or care about, silence me, take my voice away. It would take years, but I would find my voice. I would learn to make myself heard over the sounds of war. “Hey,” Jose shouted suddenly. “Hey!” I couldn’t see him through the circle of boys, but I recognized his voice, that deep, thunderous rumble. “Come on,” I heard Elsie say. “It’s just that faggot. This happens to him all the time. He’ll be fine.” She’d known me since fourth grade yet still, to her, I was “just that faggot.” “My name is Lincoln,” I wanted to shout. “You’ve known me since fourth grade.” Instead I remained on the ground fighting new tears. Jose pushed through the circle of boys. “Leave him alone.” He must have seen my raw, naked face for he turned to the boy holding my glasses. “Are those his?” he asked, pulling them out of his hands. “Get lost!” The boy, surprised, shrugged as if it made no difference to him, and he and his posse of tyrants turned and walked away. Jose crouched beside me; bouncing on the balls of his feet, he looked at my scattered books, my knapsack open, empty. His eyes went soft, dark with concern. He turned, and said something to Elsie. Then to me, “You okay?” I nodded, tried to smile, cried instead. “Hey,” he snapped. “What?” Elsie popped her gum, stared at him. “I said, give me a tissue.” She sucked her teeth, reached into her purse and handed him a single tissue as if it were her last dollar. He glared at her, dark eyes flashing. She reluctantly handed him a handful more which he gave to me. “Dry your eyes and blow your nose,” he instructed me. I did as I was told. “You okay?” he asked again, handing me my glasses. I took them from him, put them on. “Better now,” I said trying to smile. The boys gone, Elsie moved closer, hovering at the edge of our interaction. Her eyes darted around; she looked everywhere but at me. She appeared less concerned about returning danger than about witnesses to this. “Okay,” Jose said. “Let’s get your books, and we’ll walk you to the bus stop.” He glanced at Elsie who said nothing. At the bus stop, Elsie sulked on a bench, again looking everywhere but at me. Jose talked to me of little things: did I understand that Shakespeare passage we’d read in English today? Why does the cafeteria always smell of fish? Finally the bus came and we were each released from his prison. “Thanks,” I said as the bus drew to a halt. I was reluctant to leave him, my dashing young hero, but happy to put the day’s events behind me.

Guest Author – Augusta Li

Gus is visiting today to talk a bit about her new book - Iron and Ether - which is Book Three of the Blessed Epoch.  Book one’s cover featured Yarrow – the mage, Two had Duncan the soldier and now comes Three , with Sasha – the assassin. [Who is my personal favorite from the series]  Gus is going to talk about the role technology and manufacturing play in world building for fantasy novels/series. And when she’s done, there is lengthy excerpt to get you excited for the release next week.

Guest Author: Augusta Li.
Technology and Manufacturing in High Fantasy

Technology and manufacturing might not be the first things that come to mind when discussing world-building in a series of High Fantasy novels, especially novels set in a medieval-like period. I have often discussed the lack of technological achievement in the genre with like-minded friends (read: fellow nerds). Often, even in epic sagas spanning decades or longer, there are no mentions of advances in things like weaponry or medicine. To me, this has always felt like a bit of an oversight. Even alongside more glamorous things like magic and knights in shining armor, I believe human ingenuity and the quest for improvement would continue.

Medieval humans had technology, though they didn’t use that term, of course. Crossbows and catapults are examples of the military machinery they possessed—and worked to improve. As weapons became more sophisticated, fortresses also evolved to resist them. Armor appeared to counteract new and deadlier weapons, and when those weapons improved and changed, armor had to adapt. The cycle continued and continues to this day, and I think, at least to a degree, an epic fantasy spanning many years should reflect advances in the technology of the time, just because it’s realistic. People being attacked by certain types of weapons (or magic) would strive to come up with ways to defend against them. And people can be quite creative.

War often facilitates huge leaps in technological achievement. I’m not making any moral judgment on this, but one doesn’t have to look too hard at history to see it’s true, and has always been true. Both attackers and defenders are always seeking an advantage, and when they discover one, the other side will either improve on it or conceive of a way to cancel it out. Often victory goes to the side with the best tech. In my Blessed Epoch series, despite the presence of knights and mages, it was important to me to reflect advances in warfare technology. Important, because I feel that’s what people would really do, what history has shown they do. As much as I adore writing magical battles and describing crossbows and halberds being used in combat, I knew I couldn’t let the technology stagnate. My characters are fighting for their lives and their kingdom, which means they’d be looking for something, anything, to tip the odds in their favor.

The ruling class in my series realizes quickly in the third book, Iron and Ether, that they are suffering from the lack of a nautical force. They find themselves at a point in their history where seafaring and defending their coastal borders are becoming more and more critical. Fast, sturdy ships are essential to both trade and defense. Despite the expense, the monarchy sets about establishing a royal fleet. They draw on ship-building techniques from various sources, and the presence of the fleet begins to evolve their civilization from a land-bound one to one with a greater freedom to explore. As human history has shown, the implications for a society capable of long sea voyages is huge. Of course, their enemies are also striving to improve their ships and develop a seafaring force.

Explosives and rudimentary incendiary devices become known for the first time in Iron and Ether, and they are a huge factor in many of the battles. This technology is initially acquired from a hitherto unknown foreign culture, but one of my more clever characters (I bet it isn’t who you think) is quick to realize what they need aren’t the weapons themselves, but the knowledge to make them. And when they have that knowledge, they set out to make the weapons and their delivery system even deadlier.

I didn’t overlook magic, and my magic-users also recognize the need to bring their craft to a higher level by working together to formulate more devastating spells, as well as learning to defend against enemy sorcery. Poisons, my world’s version of chemical weapons, I suppose, aren’t neglected either, as those who make them strive to improve the formulae. As history has shown, necessity is often the mother of invention, and this is very much what happens for the characters in Iron and Ether. To survive, they must adapt and evolve their weapons, nautical force, magic, poisons, and more. They make great strides in all these things, with implications that are yet to be realized. As we all know, sometimes knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but once the box has been opened and the demons released, it’s impossible to force them back inside.

What do you think about improved technology in a High Fantasy series? Is it an interesting bit of world-building, or something you don’t miss when it’s absent? What about manufacturing? After all, gorgeous custom swords made by a master artisan are lovely, but what to do when a ruler has to arm a few thousand new recruits? Do you enjoy reading about how things function and evolve if it doesn’t drag the plot, or would you rather skip over it? Be honest. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Comment for a chance to win a free ebook copy of Iron and Ether. You can comment on this post, or on anything you like or hate about the series so far. I really like the feedback, and don’t worry about offending me.

Iron And Ether
Book Three of The Blessed Epoch
Blurb:

Blurb:

Sasha was born to, and has always defined himself by, the secret assassin’s Order of the Crimson Scythe. He chose the love of Yarrow L’Estrella and Duncan Purefroy over his duty to his clan, forfeiting his last mission and allowing Prince Garith to live.  Now, the order—previously Sasha’s family—has branded him traitor. He’s marked, and that means the brethren of the Crimson Scythe won’t stop until Sasha is dead.

Garith’s twin kingdoms balance on the brink of war and all three men have reasons to help the King, whether loyalty, duty, or the interests of their own lands. Still, Yarrow and Duncan are willing to seek out and destroy the assassins’ order to keep Sasha safe. But Sasha isn’t sure that’s what he wants. None want to admit their energy would be better spent helping Garith keep the kingdom united, or in his war against foreign invaders. All plans and assumptions shatter when it becomes clear that the real warmonger isn’t a foreigner, but someone who lives in their midst. Their world teeters on the precipice of change, and Sasha, Duncan, and Yarrow can only hope the links they’ve forged will hold if Garith’s kingdom is torn apart.

Pre-Order Link:
Iron and Ether, by Augusta Li.

Excerpt:

Prologue

The Dark and Beautiful One rose slowly from his expansive, scarlet, velvet nest, slowly disentangling himself from the languid limbs and strands of silken hair covering his body until he could push himself to his hands and knees and crawl slowly across the field of sumptuous cushions and interlocked flesh. Reverent hands caressed and clung to Thalil as he wove through the maze of arms, legs, adoring faces, and eager mouths, but he brushed them off like cobwebs until he reached the edge of his bed and swung his legs over the side. Moans and laments followed him as he crossed the warm, smooth floor made of eons of bones crushed, compacted, and worn smooth as ivory beneath his bare soles and those of his thousands of lovers and thralls.

Innumerable flames burned within crimson glass lanterns as Thalil made his way slowly across his hall. The lanterns hung from the vaulted ceilings and lined the shining black walls, outnumbering the stars. Images of him in marble, ebony, silver, and gold stared back as he sauntered toward the central fountain, but none, he knew, were as beautiful as the original. He had yet to find an artist with the skill to capture him, and still enjoyed looking at his reflection in his pool best of all.

The Thirteen who called themselves goddesses had prepared a spare and cold realm for those they felt unworthy or wicked—the Cast-Down—an Abode of Shades devoid of pleasure and sensation. Thalil did not reside within it; no, this demesne was of his own making, and his power guaranteed the sisters could neither enter it nor take it from him.

He reached the central chamber of his Crimson Palace and perched delicately on the edge of the great pool at the center, smiling at his image, mirrored back in the thick, rubicund liquid. Because of his mortal children, the blood flowed in an endless supply, always fresh, its ferrous scent robust in the sultry air, and the number of souls wailing outside his fortress walls increased almost by the minute, giving him the power to thumb his nose at the thirteen so-called deities. Thalil rippled the surface of the tarn with his fingertips as he sank down on one elbow to peer into its depths.

Thalil took a moment to watch his children, the brethren of the Crimson Scythe, at work destroying life from the shadows, from the periphery of everything good and wholesome. He smiled as they brought him longer life and greater strength with every throat they slit, and he spent a tiny spark of his might to protect them and increase the fear they inspired as they killed. Then, to entertain himself, he turned his attention to other events occurring in the mortal realm.

On the eastern edge of what the mortals now called Gaeltheon, at the feet of the Lapir Mountains, a small expedition of people chipped into the ancient stone and ice with picks and hand-powered drills. Thalil leaned forward to watch them work, his perfect lips twitching with interest.

The small party had been laboring for nearly a year: their wind-battered tents barely stood beneath the thick layers of rime on the canvas. Their leader, a stooped, elderly fellow called Torkan Mellinger, continued digging and scraping long after his disciples had retired for the night. Though frail of body, passion burned and bloomed around Mellinger like a bonfire, the bright light clear even from afar. Thalil leaned closer, thinking he might like the old explorer’s soul to add to his menagerie, but not yet, not before he discovered what made Mellinger laugh aloud and scrub tears from his wrinkled eyes.

Mellinger lifted a slab of rock with his gloved hands, revealing a small alcove preserved through the centuries. Slowly, with appropriate veneration, he began to lift the objects he found inside the cupboard-sized space, exposing them to the wind and stars for the first time in thousands of years. Thalil recognized things from his father’s reign, though most of them held little value: a dented golden goblet, a few clouded gems, a dinner fork adorned with jewels, and the brass pegs from a wooden instrument long ago disintegrated. The elderly scholar seemed most intrigued by the few inches of a carved column supporting the forgotten niche, and abandoned his tools to scrape the dust from around it with his hands. As he scooped, Mellinger uncovered a small tablet and brushed it off on his worn sleeve. He blew across it to clear the fine debris from the carved words and brought it near his lantern to read.

Thalil listened with interest to the scholar’s whispered words. He doubted many mortals would have been able to decipher the ancient language.

“Long before the arrogance of Fane destroyed the world, the Thirteen Sisters faced an even greater threat on behalf of all humanity….” A deep gouge marred the smooth stone, stealing the words that had been written there. Mellinger skipped over that section and continued. “Fane taught his thirteen disciples the most powerful spell ever wielded by a mortal creature. He taught them the enchantment and sent them forth to purge our world of sin. And the goddesses hunted and destroyed a vile race of demons, older even than the bones of the world. The Thirteen Holy Sisters stripped these creatures of their power, though their essences remain in the shadows, in the most hidden places. Praise to the goddesses. Praise to they who risked themselves to shield mankind from such a vile threat.” The old man squinted to examine the illustrations of the vanquished creatures, winged, horned beings larger and more perfect than mortal men, and then continued to read of the so-called goddesses’ triumphs against them. Finally, Mellinger whispered, “The power and black evil of these ancient threats remains. Be steadfast in faith to the Thirteen. Without them, the evil will overtake us. Only the goddesses hold these abominations at bay. Be always steadfast in faith.”

The old man wrapped his precious find in a few strips of old cloth and stumbled to his tent, where he slept with the tablet close to his heart.

Thalil considered.

The mortals had no knowledge of the creatures Fane, his father, had feared so profoundly. They also had no idea Fane had instructed those they knew as goddesses in magic; without his tutelage, the thirteen regarded as divine would have been mediocre mages at best, left out of history, forgotten. Would the knowledge of the old race’s existence cast aspersions on his detested mother and her foul sisters, or would it increase the dependence the mortals felt? Should he send one of his children to put an end to Mellinger before his discovery reached the light? It would be an easy task for a Crimson Scythe, barely worthy of one of Thalil’s assassins. Or should he let the discovery stir doubt, possibly weaken the foundations of faith the thirteen whores rested upon so comfortably? A new and unknown chapter in the mythology of the Thirteen would certainly be greeted with great interest by the mortals. How would they react to the idea of Fane instructing them? If Thalil knew anything of their nature, and after so many thousand years he felt sure he did, the mortals would fight over the implications of Mellinger’s discovery. It could lead to chaos, to rifts, or it could bind the faithful even tighter to their foolish and misguided beliefs. For all his power, Thalil could not divine the future, so he chose to let Mellinger live and bring his revelation to others. He swiped his palm over the roiling pool until another vision emerged.

Thalil saw a sailor, a good-looking, tall, and muscular man called Bartoum Astir. The Dark and Beautiful One easily discerned this man held no exemplary cleverness or skill, but Thalil saw threads of destiny wrapped loosely around the seaman’s thick limbs, and he couldn’t help but wonder why. He watched as the sailor set foot on the parched shores beyond the mountains. Captain Bartoum Astir had been here before, many times, after discovering the riches these lands held in the form of brightly dyed cloth and gems, as well as powders that enhanced the blandest of foods and kept them from spoiling, but today he’d come for something he felt infinitely more precious. Bartoum made his way from the quayside to the center of the coastal city, to the brothel he’d visited on his first foray to these distant shores. Thalil rolled his eyes as he watched; the dank creases of woman-flesh held so much influence over the men who craved it. He had never understood that, though he understood about lust.

Looking over his shoulder, Thalil surveyed the young men either resting or making love on his large bed and chose one to keep him company: a lithe, bronzed, young creature with wheat-gold waves of hair. He met the gaze of his former assassin, and the young man left the others and crouched behind the Dark and Beautiful One, kissing the soles of Thalil’s feet and caressing the backs of his calves. As the young man’s warm, damp lips moved up the back of Thalil’s thigh, Thalil returned his attention to the pool.

Bartoum, smiling, went to the brothel’s madam and offered her a pouch of gold. After trading heavily between Selindria, Gaeltheon, and this newly discovered kingdom, he’d finally managed to save enough. The bent and withered madam took the sea captain’s coin and returned with a small, dark-skinned woman. Like all of her countrymen and kin, she kept her head shaved to the skin, and a bright-red beaded scarf covered her head. She wore a matching gown, sleeveless, to expose slim arms covered in swirling scars. Similar, deep marking adorned her face and chest, and several gold rings dangled from her ears. A wide line of kohl extended across her eyes like a mask. With a giggle, the whore threw her arms around Captain Bartoum Astir’s neck, and he lifted her off her feet and twirled her around. With a few broken words, Bartoum explained that as soon as they returned to Selindria, they would find a priestess and be properly married.

Thalil couldn’t tell how much, if any, the girl understood. She seemed happy enough to be leaving the brothel, though. He continued to watch as Bartoum returned to the quayside and put his fiancée aboard his ship. Then he went to trade for the richly dyed thin cloth the noble ladies of Selindria and Gaeltheon so adored and would pay so much to have for their gowns. He bartered common Selindrian things like harrow-wolf furs and twirlhorn bone for sacks of gems and tiny, perfectly made glass beads. Spice, so common to the foreign savages, brought huge sums in Bartoum’s home ports, and he and his crew loaded crate after crate of the various roots, dried flowers, and ground minerals onto their ship. Unbeknownst to the sailors, some of the small red lizards common to the area also found their way aboard and curled in the cool shadows below deck. Back home, Captain Bartoum Astir eagerly told a man from his crew, they would make such a profit they’d soon all have fine homes and wives.

“Look there,” Bartoum said to his crewman, pointing out over the bay at the many Selindrian ships. “The window to become wealthy by trading with these barbarians is closing quickly. Many sailors know of this place and its riches now. They’ll flood the market and drive down the prices of these goods. We must make our gold before that happens, and if we’re smart, we’ll put away enough to sustain us for the rest of our lives.”

“The Emiri raiders have also learned of the riches carried back from this place,” a dark-haired sailor with a thick, knotted beard remarked. “Very few ships make it to market with their holds full anymore. Some of the Sea Folk even dare come here, I’ve heard.”

Bartoum nodded. Not far from where they stood, the native people of what the Selindrians referred to as Johmatra worked hard constructing ships of their own, based on Selindrian, Gaeltheonic, and even Emiri design. “These savages have been very keen to acquire maps and charts and have paid well for them. I wonder how long it will be before they build seaworthy vessels and make it to our shores. I wonder what will happen then.”

Thalil wondered as well. The people of Johmatra, which was actually a loosely allied collection of nearly a hundred city-states, didn’t worship the thirteen goddesses, kept the Emiri as slaves, and slaughtered all common-born mages, who they believed had no right to use up the magic that belonged exclusively to the nobility. All power fell to those who could supposedly trace their lineage to Fane, Thalil’s father. Centuries of inbreeding had left these potentates horribly deformed, though many possessed strong sorcery. Thalil didn’t think the two cultures would find much in common and longed to see what would occur when they inevitably clashed. Surely his children could help to turn the tide in whichever direction he felt most advantageous. He toyed with the idea of murdering Bartoum Astir and his crew, to possibly slow the coming collision, but he dismissed it. Things had come too far already for him to intervene. He closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the light kisses his disciple peppered across his shoulders. Then he let his gaze wander father up the coast, to one of the Emiri ships Bartoum Astir had mentioned.

A beautiful creature with blood-red hair and brilliant orange eyes captained this particular Emiri crew. As he watched the lithe young man, Thalil realized he had never known an Emiri boy, and he decided he would like to remedy that. They were an appealing people, and this one, who the others called Sai-Mir, put the rest to shame. Over the centuries, Thalil had paid the children of Emir little mind, because he possessed nothing he could use to persuade them to spill blood in his name. While comely, the Emiri were indolent and undisciplined. They valued neither power nor permanent wealth, but remained content to lie on their beaches, drink their potent liquor, and steal treasure to squander when the mood struck them. They lost interest in anything as soon as it ceased to amuse them. Thalil doubted they would ever leave much of a mark on history.

But then again….

Thalil leaned a bit closer as the delectable Sai creature and his shipmates skirted the coast with a hold full of jewels, cloth, and spices they’d pilfered from ships who’d traded legitimately for the goods. Sai sat straddling the bowsprit, his graceful legs hanging down and a small smile stretching his lips as he canted his face into the wind. The salty breeze whipped his crimson ropes of hair off starboard, and one of the shells adorning it happened to tap him on his small, round chin. Tugged out of his contented reverie, Sai looked back toward the land, his gaze following a huge flock of seabirds, so many their cries drowned out the rush of the waves. Curious, another common Emiri trait and sometimes a fatal one, Sai pointed, and the woman at the helm steered them back toward the shore, toward a tongue of brown rock jutting out over the foamy surf.

Just as Sai held up his hand to halt his crew, Thalil put his hand on his disciple’s slender neck to stop the pleasant movement of his hands and lips. Thalil could not see the future, but he felt the importance of this moment, pregnant with possibility, and knew it would alter the course of the world. After conception, something had to issue forth, for good or ill, Thalil knew. And this moment weighed heavy with… something definitive, as irreversible as the fall of the axman’s blade. Thalil almost heard iron strike flesh as Sai pressed a distance glass to his eye.

The Dark and Beautiful One needed no such device to see what went on upon that bony finger of rock; the native people were punishing their slaves. Over a hundred Emiri, their glorious locks shorn to the skin, stood inside a corral. Most of their bodies bore signs of very hard use, but the true horror stood at the center, where half a dozen slaves hung from their wrists. Their captors used dull, serrated blades—clumsy weapons that made Thalil roll his eyes—to make shallow wounds on the prisoners’ bellies, inner thighs, backs, and faces. They did not cut enough to do much harm—just enough to lure the seabirds to the scent of blood. Just enough for the birds to wriggle their sharp yellow beaks below the skin and get at the tender muscles and organs—the soft meat of the cheeks or the winding cords of the innards.

Thalil admired the slavers’ creativity, but he detested waste. He did not believe in killing a man who still might lift a blade in his name, and if death had to occur, he advocated efficiency; do as you must and move on. The death of these pitiable slaves would take days, and that meant sparing men to guard them. Still, Thalil supposed the display might serve to dissuade the others from rebellion.

Then again, it might not.

Loyalty and obedience based on fear were paltry and fickle compared to devotion based on love. For love, a man would scrape a mountain down with his bare hands until he wore away the last of his bones. For love, genuine love, he would change the place of the stars in the sky, no matter the cost.

Fear could always be overcome, but in Thalil’s experience, it was not so with love.

The Emiri captain went white beneath his deep tan, and his small fist curled around the distance glass as he dropped it slowly into his lap. Sai loved his people and the freedom they celebrated.

“Do you love me?” Thalil asked, stroking his disciple’s warm red cheek.

“Have I not proven my love for you when I walked in the land of the living, offering you hundreds of lives? I yearned to do more, master, but you called me away. All I have ever desired is to please you.”

“Shh. You have and you do. But the world is about to change,” Thalil muttered softly, mostly to himself. “I wonder how best to take advantage of what will come to pass.”

“Master?” the young man asked, lifting his lips from Thalil’s skin and savoring Thalil’s sweat by mopping his mouth with his tongue.

Thalil pressed a finger to the center of his disciple’s slick, swollen lips and shook his head. “Never mind, beauty. Good times are ahead for me, I think. For all of us. Before long, the mortals will wade through blood to their knees. Doesn’t that sound lovely?”

“You are lovely, my master.”

Thalil chuckled and raked his fingers through the young man’s hair. “Yes, I know. Quiet, now. I have one more thing I wish to see. Would you like to watch with me? Yes? It should be interesting.” With his fingertips, Thalil traced circles in the steaming scarlet liquid, and a new image began to form.

“Who is the pretty young man with so much death in his eyes?” the assassin asked.

“He is called Yarroway L’Estrella,” Thalil answered as he played with his disciple’s nipple. “I have been watching him for quite some time. He has a profound destiny. I think, perhaps, he’ll be the one to deliver to me what I most desire. My fondest wish.”

“What is that, master?”

Thalil remained silent, reluctant to give voice to his profane aspiration, even safe here within the walls of his Crimson Palace. Instead, he guided his partner’s hand beneath his belly to his hardening cock, and the lovely young assassin saw to Thalil’s pleasure as Thalil continued to watch Yarroway L’Estrella.

Links:

Gus’s blog: http://www.booksbyeonandgus.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ninja.Gus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ninja_Gus

My Blessed Epoch Series:

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=54_640

My other titles at Dreamspinner:

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_366

Goodreads (Where I really never go):

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2872255.Augusta_Li

 

New Releases: Monday September 16, 2013

All authors face the same daunting task – how to get their book noticed. In an effort to help some of my fellow authors, every Monday I’m going to post some of the numerous new books that have been released. For the most part these will be M/M Fiction with a heavy bias on Romance. That will probably evolve over time, but for now that’s were it is.

I’ve not read everything that is listed, though I’ve probably read or will read many. Which means inclusion on the list isn’t an endorsement or suggestion. You should read the blurbs provided to see if you’re interested. I’ll post reviews to books I recommend under the ‘Books I Reviewed’ tab. This is just a partial list of what’s new for visitors of my site to check out. That said if you end up reading something listed here and want to comment – please do. I reserve the right, however, to delete nasty or personal comments.

If you’re an author and want to include a new release, email me your blurb, cover image, buy links and any personal links you want included. No excerpts, interviews, giveaways etc. Those are welcome, but can be discussed separately.

Rock Hard; By Vona Logan
Blurb: 

Caught between a rock and a hard place two men stare death in the eyes and all bets are off.

Aidan Walker never envisioned death would come for him so soon, but holding on for dear life he knew his time is up. Matt Raine lives for the adrenaline rush his professional rock climbing career brings him, but saving another climbers life was not on his daily to-do list. During agonizing minutes of terror, Matt rouses something in Aiden he would’ve never thought possible. After their ordeal Aidan finds he can’t get Matt out of his mind and Matt seems to have the same problem as he surprises Aidan with a naughty visit. Can Aidan accept Matt in his life or is the price too high?

 Buy link -

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=VLROCKHD

Find Vona Logna:

My facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vona.logan

My blog:  vonalogan.blogspot.co.nz

Hungry For Love; By Rick R. Reed
Blurb:

Nate Tippie and Brandon Wilde are gay, single, and both hoping to meet that special man, even though fate has not yet delivered him to their doorstep. Nate’s sister, Hannah, and her kooky best friend, Marilyn, are about to help fate with that task by creating a profile on the gay dating site, OpenHeartOpenMind. The two women are only exploring, but when they need a face and body for the persona they create, they use Nate as the model.

When Brandon comes across the false profile, he falls for the guy he sees online. Keeping up the charade, Hannah begins corresponding with him, posing as Nate. Real complications begin when Brandon wants to meet Nate, but Nate doesn’t even know he’s being used in the online dating ruse. Hannah and Marilyn concoct another story and send Nate out to let the guy down gently. But when Nate and Brandon meet, the two men feel an instant and powerful pull toward each other. Cupid seems to have shot his bow, but how do Nate and Brandon climb out from under a mountain of deceit without letting go of their chance at love?

Buy Links:

BUY from Dreamspinner Press in ebook or in paperback

Amazon Kindle

About The Author:

Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love. He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation and The Blue Moon Cafe). Lambda Literary Review has called him, “a writer that doesn’t disappoint.” Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever “at work on another novel.”

Visit Rick’s website at http://www.rickrreed.com or follow his blog at http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/. You can also like Rick on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rickrreedbooks or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rickrreed. Rick always enjoys hearing from readers and answers all e-mails personally. Send him a message at jimmyfels@gmail.com

Reviews for Hungry For Love:

From LIVE YOUR LIFE, BUY THE BOOK

“I loved his writing style, I loved the flow of the book, I didn’t feel like there was anything missing by the time the end of the story came around and I was really able to love Brandon and Nate very easily…this story had romance, love, friendship, deception, jealousy, heartbreak…. Read the review.

From ON TOP DOWN UNDER BOOK REVIEW

“…overall, I really enjoyed this book…it was perfect…” Read the review.

From MRS. CONDIT AND FRIENDS READ BOOKS

“…written beautifully with humor, and love, and intelligence. Rick Reed has done a wonderful, wonderful job with this story!!” Read the review.

From AMOS LASSEN REVIEWS

“Reed has never been afraid to tackle the important issues of the LGBT community and here he looks at friendship, love, lies, heartbreak and jealousy while creating characters that we can identify with and grow to love.” Read the review.

From USA Today 

“I’ve gotten distracted reading a book before but never because I stopped to marvel at the genius of the author…sigh worthy….” Read the review.

Read an excerpt

Life In The Land; By Rebecca Cohen
Blurb:

The magic of the Sawyer family’s extremely green thumbs comes straight from the land. But Bobby Sawyer’s expected superpowers don’t become a reality until he kisses his best friend, Mike Flint. That kiss moves the earth—literally.

When Bobby moves to the city, leaving Mike behind, Bobby keeps his green thumb nimble by working in a garden center and uses his superpowers to help fight crime. He’s on a mission when a bomb explodes, leaving him seriously injured, forcing him to return to the family farm—the source of his strength—to recuperate.

While attempting to recover, Bobby realizes Mike is still the love of his life. But Mike is leery: Bobby left him once before. What if all Bobby needs is one more magical kiss?

Buy links:

DSP: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4109

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Life-in-the-Land-ebook/dp/B00EOHT98E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1377104211&sr=8-4&keywords=life+in+the+land+rebecca

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-in-the-Land-ebook/dp/B00EOHT98E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377102122&sr=1-1&keywords=life+in+the+land+rebecca

All Romance: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-lifeintheland-1269712-143.html

Review:

From Top To Bottom Reviews:

5+ Kisses.  ”Whoever said a short story couldn’t have amazing depth of characters, an actual plot, and soul-shattering emotions, should read this story—and be proven wrong. Highly recommended.” Read more:

http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/life-in-the-land-by-rebecca-cohen/

Author Bio:

Rebecca Cohen is a Brit abroad. Having swapped the Thames for the Rhine, she has left London behind and now lives with her husband and baby son in Basel, Switzerland. She can often be found with a pen in one hand and a cup of Darjeeling in the other.

Blog: http://rebeccacohenwrites.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/R_Cohen_writes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.cohen.710

This Little Whatever; By Nicole Forcine
Blurb:

Jonathan Mendoza used to live an even crazier life, partying with his tight-knit traveling performance troupe whenever he wasn’t on stage belly dancing. When his sick mother begged him to change his lifestyle, he agreed to try to live sober, but that change is hard. Neither is it easy to stop staring at Dean Winters after he nearly knocks the man over before a performance.

A former recluse, prone to panic attacks after surviving a traumatic accident, Dean isn’t Jonathan’s usual type. Still, Jonathan is irresistibly attracted to him, and decides to cure the itch with a one-night stand. But that night, he’s shaken by Dean’s kindness and consideration—something he’s not used to in a lover or a friend. His best friend, Rachel, who co-owns the troupe with Jonathan, sees Dean as a threat to their friendship and to the troupe—the dream they’ve worked together to build. She reveals a cruel and possessive streak that could do much greater damage on both fronts, and Jonathan realizes he will have to choose between the nomadic life he’s lived and the man who is stealing his heart.

Buy link:

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4162

About The Author:

Nicole Forcine was born a strange child and former Georgia peach. When she was younger, she was never far from a composition book, a pen in hand, and way too many people in her head (she’s even been known to talk back to them). When two or more of them talk loud enough to overshadow the rest, a story is born. After years of writing and storing her tales in those books, she had a revelation: man, there are a lot of dudes kissing in these stories.

Her stories include themes of creating families of choice, how love can come in all forms and supersede all boundaries, and the joys and sorrows of earning a happily-ever-after.

Currently, she resides in Minneapolis with one of the most laid-back men in history and his even more laid-back cat. When she’s not writing (ha!), she’s saving the world/galaxy/humanity as we know it in the world of video games and general geekiness and opening other people’s mail for a living.

Contact Nicole

By e-mail, littlewhatever@gmail.com

On her blog, http://nicoleforcine.wordpress.com/

On Twitter, @NikiForcine

On Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7160783.Nicole_Forcine

Review:

Lisa at Attention is Arbitrary gives This Little Whatever Four stars:

http://www.attentionisarbitrary.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-little-whatever-by-nicole-forcine.html

Lucky Friday 13

A few pictures from the last two weeks. She seems to be in a very good mood lately.  The two “portraits” were an attempt to get her to smile for an evite picture. The one with cupcakes was us trying out the cupcakes from the person we’re using to make them for her birthday. And the one with the dog is her on the dog walk with our dog Emma. ‘lil q loves dogs and they like her.

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Guest Author: Ashavan Doyon

I ‘met’ today’s guest during my Facebook chat for the release of Purpose. Unlike most of the other visitor, Ashavan really peppered me with questions – he basically asked me to justify why he should plunk down his money on my book – politely of course. In the end I managed to convince him to read the book, which made me feel good because he clearly was/is picky about what he reads.

Then I saw his newest work - Loving Aidan - had been released, so I hunted it down. I’m not a ‘buy the book by the cover’ kinda reader, but the cover was pretty cool. I finally approached Ashavan about an interview and he agreed. So – with that, here’s today’s guest author.

Guest Author: Ashavan Doyon.
Welcome Ashavan, why don’t you start by telling everyone a bit about yourself.

Thanks Andy. I’m a writer, and so I started as a reader. My mom instilled a deep love of reading in me from a very young age.Fantasy, mostly, though we read some science fiction, too. She read romance novels, which I didn’t get into when I was young because I never saw myself reflected there. I live in New England with my husband and our two pugs. They’re old ladies now, my two pugs, but I love them dearly. I work at a prestigious liberal arts college, where I work with students on their lives outside of the classroom. 

Let’s start by talking about your new release, Loving Aidan. First, I loved the cover art. It’s quite different.  What went through your mind when you first saw it? Was it the perfect match for your book?

When they sent me the cover art request it came with notice of which stock art sites Torquere uses and the suggestion of finding some models on those sites who resembled my characters. There were all these notes saying not to worry about it being exact, that it was just to give the artists ideas of what the characters looked like. But I scoured them anyway and I found two images that were just stunningly perfect. Because Aidan and Sammy being opposites was so important to the plot, I suggested putting the two together, half and half. So when I saw the art I was stunned. I’d been warned so many times that cover art was the discretion of the publisher and that they rarely used suggestions by the authors. But there it was, exactly what I’d asked for. I was very happy with it, because it is exactly the cover I wanted.

You got the cover back and  – bam – that was it? No revision, just love at first sight? I’m envious.

Well, I did ask them to make the rose red instead of pink. I got all my good karma with covers on the first book. It makes me worry for the next one. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

What inspired you to write this story? 

It’s funny because I’m inspired with stories all the time. I write constantly. It drives my husband nuts. But this story developed from the character of Aidan. He’s a sort of mix of the son of a friend and my favorite Quentin Crisp quote and a guy I knew in college and a bit of my own experiences as a student leader all mixed up. And when I had him I needed a foil, an opposite. And that became Sammy. I’m very character driven, the characters create the plot from their interactions, so I don’t start with a lot planned out. I find the characters have their own ideas about what they want to do and I try to trust them on that.

Did working at a college help you with some of the details to make it feel more real?

It helped me, but I think I tortured my poor editor. There were a lot of times I was told outright that what I wrote wasn’t realistic for a college setting. I can even see it. It’s hard sometimes being an insider, because a lot of what happens at colleges people just would never believe.

I’ve heard other authors that they’ve written a scene based on a real event and then gotten feed back from readers saying the scene wasn’t believable. Did you get any of those comments yet?

I think we all get those. There’s a scene after the violence happens on campus where one of the professors apologizes to Aidan for the attack on his community. I was told no professor would say that. It was something that was said to me, by a professor, after the attack on Matthew Shepard fifteen years ago. And there’s another scene where Aidan is on the balcony shirtless on his dorm floor with another guy. I was told no one would expose themselves that way. I used to walk in on people having sex on the analogous balcony at my University dorm at least once a week. There are a few other memorable ones, but they contain spoilers I want to avoid.

This appears to be your first novel length story – how different was it to write this from your shorter works?

I’m entirely comfortable writing at novel length. It’s the shorter pieces, honestly, that I have difficulty with. It’s really hard to squeeze a story into 15-20 thousand words! During editing I cut close to 12,000 words from Loving Aidan, though I also added about four thousand. I participate in National Novel Writing Month every year, and I credit it for helping me develop a daily writing practice and a comfort with lengthier works.

Hmmm, you sound like me. I can’t write hello in less than a thousand words it seems. What’s your secret to producing shorter works?

I think I’m helped in that I’m a big believer that falling in love can happen fast. Sometimes very fast. But it happens in moments, discrete identifiable moments. When I write a short story I try to focus on those moments rather than building setting. Use a setting that the reader will supply automatically without needing a lot of description. Minimize the supporting cast. In The King’s Mate the cast of characters is tiny, consisting of the two lovers and the owner of the cafe and a small number of characters who they interact with and are in the story for a page.

Tell us something interesting that is not in the blurb?

Aidan’s ex isn’t done giving him heartbreak, but not in the way readers probably expect.

I’ve just gotten to that part of the book. You’re right. It wasn’t the heartbreak I’d have expected from the ex.

Aidan’s ex Michael is really a statement that love endures a lot. I really liked him. And it’s meant to take you by surprise, but also be something that someone who has endured heartbreak can relate to.

Have you ever based characters on anyone you know?

I try not to do this unless I have a friend who excitedly wants me to put them in a story. But bits and pieces of my favorite people show up as aspects of characters unintentionally sometimes.

What’s your favorite place to write? 

I have a recliner next to the pellet stove. My husband has recently usurped it, which is a troubling development.

Sounds like you need his and his recliners. Aren’t there any good thrift stores near you?

No room in the living room, sadly. What we need is to replace our current couch with something fancy that lets both of us recline or not individually and still leave room for the pugs in the middle. The current one sags so badly that it’s not comfortable to write in.

What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Editing. After a while you’ve read the story so many times you don’t even know what you’re looking at. And sometimes you have to cut something that is just beautiful and no longer fits. That’s really hard.

Maybe the beautiful bits you had to cut could be worked into a short freebie to entice readers to buy the book?

Well, there is a short freebie, though it’s only 500 words. I talk in the story about a scene in the past where Aidan falls for Sammy on move in day, and I did write it. It’s on my website. In the story there’s a triangle, and Aidan has to make a decision between two men. I cut a lot of material, beautiful scenes, with the person that loses out. I stand by Aidan’s decision, but it was a lot harder for the reader to accept with that material in the story.

Since there is always another story to tell, what are you working on now?

I have a modern fantasy piece titled NEM that is currently under review and I should hear back about from the first place I submitted it in about another month. I wrote a novella for a Christmas collection that the publisher chose not to take, and I really believe in the story, so I’m reworking it into a full-length novel and I’ll pitch it elsewhere. I’m also going to come back to Loving Aidan… Aidan’s ex has a story to tell too, and he’s itching to get me to write it down. That’s a lot of balls in the air all at once, but I think that’s most of them.

Writing a story from Michael’s POV would definitely be a different tack than writing Aidan’s. The emotions would be so different. How soon can you get it done?

It’s on the list. I’ll probably write the draft for National Novel Writing Month this year.

What have you read lately that most people haven’t read but should? 

Well, it’s not gay romance, but I have to recommend The Hole Behind Midnight by Clinton Boomer. The man is a genius and the story is sick and twisted and just stunning. For gay romances, I would recommend Hunt and Pray by Cindy Sutherland. The story is a real departure for her, very different, and it had me at the edge of my seat reading it. I also, of course, read Purpose while I was vacationing over the summer. It’s a wonderful story, but it suffers, I think, from not having the degree of romance I think readers in the genre expect. I’d love to see a sequel, because I really felt that your characters had only just really found each other, and because it was also fantasy of a sort, they needed a book of world building and rule establishment before their personal relationships could really shine. I’d love to see that.

I could respond to the sequel to Purpose comment, but it might end up usurping your interview.  Right now, however, there are no plans for a sequel.

I really felt you wrote a story gay men could relate to. I think Loving Aidan struggles with that a little. Aidan’s choice I think is far easier to understand in the context of gay relationships than it is from a straight female perspective. And as you know, that’s our reader base for gay romances.

If you could meet any writer, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

That’s a really hard one. I want to say something cliche like Tolkien. But I think probably Mercedes Lackey. At a time when pretty much no one wrote gay characters, she made them her protagonists. And in fantasy, too!

She’s one of my favorites too. If you arrange a meeting, can you tell her you need to bring your sidekick [me] with you?

Magic’s Pawn was just brilliant. I’ll keep you in mind, you know, just in case she decides Loving Aidan is the best thing since sliced bread and invites me to meet. It could happen. I’m allowed unreasonable hopes and dreams!

What’s a fun – non-writing – day for you?

I play Dungeons and Dragons and have since I was about six years old. I still love it and play regularly.

Besides reading and writing, what else do you enjoy?

Playing with puppies cures all ills. I like to stroll. Not walk. There’s a difference. I play computer games, MMORPGs. Wizard 101 is probably my current favorite.

Last question is all yours – feel free to talk about anything you want your readers to know about you, your book, anything at all.

I love Aidan, but the character who shows the most growth in the story is actually Michael, which is probably why he’s pestering me to write a sequel. There’s an undercurrent in the novel about regret, and what regret means. I think most readers will start the novel really hating Michael. Because Aidan does. But he also loves Michael, and I think we really get to see a timeless quality in love in the relationship between those two, a real sense of regret and what it means to regret something that can’t be put right.

Thanks for being my guest, now it’s time to plug your work –

Blurb:

Loving Aidan

Samuel Riley is gorgeous – tall, muscular, and intelligent. The girls love him. And so does his roommate, Aidan Flemming. Secretly, of course, because even the out and proud Aidan knows there are limits to Sammy’s acceptance. Cursed to watch as Sammy dates half the co-eds on campus, a lonely Aidan spends his time writing, helping Sammy and his friends survive literature classes, and recovering from a disastrous love affair that left Aidan heartbroken.

But when happiness finally comes for Aidan in the body of his roommate’s fellow rower, all that changes. In Steven, Aidan finds happiness and romance. The rower, a blond, blue-eyed Adonis, makes Aidan feel desired and appreciated. But their very public courtship stirs up controversy and violence, and Aidan’s life gets very complicated.

Attacks rock the campus community, and in the middle of the upheaval, Aidan finds himself noticed by the last person he’d expect. Samuel Riley, his roommate, his impossible dream, and just possibly, a very jealous suitor. But the jealous suitor has a girlfriend. And she is not happy.

Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97&products_id=3955

 

Excerpt: (some strong language)

“I’m so sick of being stuck!” exclaimed Aidan, slamming shut the lid of the laptop and pushing it away. His bare leg still rested half on the table. He’d discarded the pants hours ago, though he kept the billowy, white shirt and his customary formal, tight waistcoat. He never discarded those, except to sleep. Aidan ran a hand through his thick, wavy, black hair and adjusted the bold black rims of his reading glasses.

“You’re always stuck,” muttered Sammy, pulling the blankets around his broad shoulders as he lay in an institutional bed too short for his frame, the heavy, wooden dresser casting a shadow that kept his face in darkness. “Go to bed. Your professor doesn’t need it now, does she?”

“You can’t delay these things, Sammy,” said Aidan, slapping his bare knees in frustration before twisting his body to stand. He padded barefoot across the room to the tiny fridge and opened it, pulling out a tall, black can emblazoned with neon green letters, one of the energy drinks Sammy favored, and stepped toward the other man’s bed. “I’m taking one of these, ‘kay?”

Sammy growled in response, then pulled the blankets over his head.

“Thanks,” said Aidan, pulling the tab and taking a swig. He wrinkled his face in disgust. “You actually like these?” Aidan sputtered, but the disgust provoked a certain sense of wakefulness, so he grimaced and set the can next to the computer.

“You’re not!” said Sammy, as he heard the sound of can hitting desk.

“What?”

“Just go to bed,” pleaded Sammy. “The story will be here tomorrow. Along with classes, and we won’t be in any shape for those if you don’t go. To. Sleep.”

Aidan laughed and switched off the lamp even as he turned the computer back on. “Better?”

“It’ll do,” grumbled Sammy, burying his head under a pillow and pulling blankets back over his head.

Aidan let himself grin. How the two had been paired together, that was a mystery the housing office had not managed to explain. They were opposites: Aidan white, Sammy black, Aidan a night owl, Sammy up before dawn to row, Aidan queerer than a three dollar bill, Sammy as straight as they came, Aidan a poetry and creative writing genius, Sammy a jock and a science nerd wrapped up in one. And yet, oddly, it worked.

The only periods of stress between the roommates were the occasions in which Aidan came home to a tie hanging around the door knob. Sammy getting lucky. He’d been kind about it, at least, trying to make those times as unobtrusive as possible, but he was an attractive man, Sammy, lithe and muscular and tall and prone to being shirtless all the time, much to the private delight of his roommate. But those good looks meant a lot of co-eds staying over.

It wasn’t the sex so much that troubled Aidan as the constant staying over. Nights he’d spend at the diner twenty minutes north of campus, sitting at his laptop, typing away. Nights he’d send texts every hour or so asking if it was safe to come home only not to get an answer. He knew what that meant. Bastard had fallen asleep in some girl’s arms leaving Aidan stuck out all night because she was uncomfortable being intimate with Aidan in the same room. Not that he blamed her for that. The idea of that happening just feet away between Sammy and a girl twisted his stomach. He didn’t like to admit why.

He’d been blessed, or perhaps cursed, with frequent insomnia, so from that standpoint, perhaps the pairing was even better. Sammy slept and fucked, and Aidan sat and ate omelets and typed, his thin, long sleeved turtlenecks and dress shirts, always covered by a waistcoat, attracting their own fair share of ladies. Ladies who doted on him, swooned over him. Ladies who eventually tried to seduce him. Aidan chuckled. No chance of that; he’d never gotten over the idea that sex with girls was just… ugh. Ick.

Aidan glanced at his roommate, the only part of Sammy not covered by heavy blankets a muscular arm dangling off the bed. He shook his head, put on his headphones, and began to type as the music blared into his ears.

He didn’t really notice as the dark of the room became lighter through the crack in the industrial plastic pull shade over the window. He didn’t really notice anything past the intense glare through his glasses from the screen. He was leaned back against his own dresser, one leg on the table, the laptop balanced precariously on the other as he typed. He felt the swat against the top of his head though, turning to see the glorious sight he was so often afforded.

Sammy was beautiful. There was no getting around that. He was tall, for one thing, slim all the way up to his broad shoulders. His torso was muscular like a swimmer or a dancer, and his arms and legs bulged as he flexed them unconsciously.

Aidan stifled a swallow, not wanting Sammy to get the wrong idea, and pulled off the head phones. “Yes?”

“You stayed up all night, didn’t you?” asked Sammy, casually scratching the scarce millimeter of tightly twisted black hair on his head.

“This surprises you why?”

“Fine. Just don’t expect any sleep tonight,” said Sammy. “Caroline is coming over, and I am not missing getting my hands on that hot bit of ass just ’cause you were an idiot and didn’t sleep.”

Aidan fixed him with a glare. “You could go to her room.”

“No, we can’t,” said Sammy, with a single shake of his head. “Her roommate is having Steven over. Why, I don’t have any idea.”

Aidan knew why. Sarah had said it often enough, gushing to her friend about her new romance. “He has muscles,” said Aidan glumly. “Really nice muscles.”

“Serious?”

“Hey, if he’d let me, I’d fuck him.”

“Aidan, man, if you’re looking at him, it’s no wonder you never bring anyone home.”

Bio:

Ashavan Doyon spends his days working with students as part of the student affairs staff at a liberal arts college. During lunch, evenings, and when he can escape the grasp of his husband on weekends, he writes, pounding out words day after day in hopes that his ancient typewriter-trained fingers won’t break the glass on his tablet computer. Ashavan is an avid science fiction and fantasy fan and prefers to write while listening to music that fits the mood of his current story. He has no children, having opted instead for the companionship of two beautiful and thoroughly spoiled pugs. A Texan by birth, he currently lives in New England, and frequently complains of the weather.

Ashavan loves to hear from readers and can be found on the web at ashavan.weebly.com

Website: http://ashavan.weebly.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ashavan-Doyon-Writer/307605309383614

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ashavandoyon