Music in the Midst of Desolation by Charlie Cochrane

Music in the Midst of Desolation by Charlie Cochrane
Publisher: MLR Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, M/M, GLBT
Length: Short Novel- 20 Minute Read/ 58 pages

Old soldiers never die -- they get whisked straight back to earth to take part in angelic "manoeuvres". Patrick Evans has no idea why he and Billy Byrne, who fought their wars a century apart, have been chosen for this particular "op", nor why it seems to involve fixing up the man Billy left behind with someone Billy's always hated. When Patrick realizes his old lover also has a connection to the case, will the temptation to refuse orders become too great?


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Proving that old soldiers still know the drill, and that young ones who die haven't finished with their duty, Charlie Cochrane puts a new twist on the notion of guardian angels. Music in the Midst of Desolation has another mission for fallen soldiers Patrick and Billy, one only they can do.

Allot more than twenty minutes for this story no matter what the cover suggests; there's plenty going on. Patrick and Billy get tapped for some afterlife recon by a heavenly intelligence agency whose duty is to make sure important choices are made to play out long term goals and plans, and that certain people can perform their destiny-critical parts in life. If it takes some gentle manipulation and exposure of truths (these guys are literally on the side of the angels; they will do the work honorably) that's what they do, even if the living people are dear to them and the choices are hard.

Patrick's had nearly a century of afterlife to let his emotions cool into angelic dispassion, unlike Billy, for whom everything is very recent and raw. He needs Patrick's cooler head to keep him on mission, because he's so very close to the living people he's trying to guide. The two work very well together; Billy's modern directness and Patrick's older-school reserve mix together with their sense of duty and get the job done.

There's some subtle humor, such as Billy trying to curb his soldier's language for angelic surroundings, and when he finds out what people really think of him. Angelic agents trying to use corporate-speak and military-speak bring a smile; you'd think they be naturals at flow charts. No sex—none of the relationships are at that point.

Their mission becomes more clear as the story progresses; Billy is truly the only operative who can ensure success, and for him there is a separate success, in learning to see past what he believes. This is more a story of healing than a romance, although one couple who truly deserves their chance at happiness looks like they will have it after a long drought. The triumphs are low key and mostly set up to happen rather than playing out on page. The birdsong in the trenches that lifted the men's spirits is playing here: Music in the Midst of Desolation has hope for all these dead soldiers. 4 marbles

Sauntering Vaguely Downwards by Nessa Warin

Title: Sauntering Vaguely Downwards
Author: Nessa Warin
Cover Artist: Paul Richmond
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Genre: contemporary
Length: 192 pdf pages


Dylan Rojers is excited about Dragon*Con—a huge convention in Atlanta celebrating pop culture, science fiction, and fantasy—but he and his last-minute roommate, Brendan Stone, get off on the wrong foot. It seems that every time they manage a tentative truce, something happens to set them back, and by their second day at the convention, both think there’s no way they can get along.

But maybe Dylan and Brendan have more in common than they thought. Once they start talking, the sparks that were starting arguments ignite a different sort of passion. Through the four fabulous days of parties, shopping in the Dealers Room, costume parades, and discussion panels, Dylan and Brendan grow ever closer. There’s just one problem: they live in different cities, and Dragon*Con doesn’t last forever. Will Dylan and Brendan risk a long-distance romance or is a lasting relationship just one more all-too-brief fantasy?

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Dragon*con, for those of us who don't go, sounds like the most event-packed weekend ever, with panels, demonstrations, live action role playing, and cosplay, and probably another sixty things I don't even know about, so why can't a couple of guys fall in love?

Brendan and Dylan connected on line, strictly to share a hotel room, after both their usual companions backed out of coming. It's not just economics, though it sounded expensive; Brendan's wonderful buddy cancelled the hotel room too. Knowing each other only by their on line handles and not expecting to have to hang out together for anything other than some drunken snoring and struggling into costumes, they start off badly, and have to struggle from "gee this guy is a jerk" to "he's a kind of hot jerk" to "he's not a jerk, really."

The story is told in the present tense, which brings the story along in a moment-by-moment way over the course of the five day con. Brendan and Dylan have a full complement of con-going friends, who add their two cents in from time to time on the budding relationship. They vary from wryly amused to downright intrusive, but are all accepting to supportive, and add greatly to the con's festivity. The group costume sequence had everyone together, letting Brendan and Dylan see how the friends might blend. Without interference from a few of them, this relationship might not have gotten off the ground.

Brendan and Dylan have these few days to decide if they want to pursue a relationship beyond the con, which is a fantastical step out of real life as it is. While I'm all pleased for them finding both happiness with each other and a glorious time at the con, I can't say that there was a fascinating story to go along with the revelation. The conflicts that they experienced on the way to couplehood are the standard progression of finding out a little about one another, finding out they are both gay, and from then on it's logistics. Once they've gotten into bed, it's very little more than amusing anecdotes. One section where a small misunderstanding threatened to turn into a bigger misunderstanding, it got talked out and resolved in a matter of paragraphs. The biggest conflict seemed to be an argument over the superiority and relative contributions of Neil Gaiman vs. Terry Pratchett in Good Omens.

Adding to the slightly extra work of reading a present tense story, the characters' names are similar enough that it's not entirely effortless to keep them straight. Since they've stepped out of their usual lives, little of those details follow them to the con making the characters blur just a bit more. One does metalwork, the other does leather, neither does his craft on stage, nor shows his work this time, blurring them further. We don't even find out that Brendan is thirty-two until nearly the end of the book. The author has stated that this was originally a real person slash story, so it may be that getting identifying details out has resulted in these homogenous characters; the voices are very similar once Dylan gets over his initial snit.

Sauntering Vaguely Downwards reads a lot like a friend's accounting of a good time in a far-away place; it was a wonderful vacation but it's a little short on plot. 3 marbles

Happy Thanksgiving, a little late

Thanks to all you nice people who stop read, maybe comment -- it makes me feel like part of a community. I'm thankful for your willingness to swing by!

Shifting Steam ed Lorna Hinson

Shifting Steam
Editor: Lorna Hinson
Genre: steampunk/paranormal
Length: 209 pages / 57800 words

Steampunk and shifters? Do they even go together? Of course they do. Steampunk is all about the possible, the magical and the otherworldly. Shapeshifters are all about bending the idea of humanity into new shapes. Combine them, and you get Shifting Steam.

The stories in Shifting Steam pave the way for a magical journey through space and time to alternate realities, where anything is possible. From dragons to birds, from Victorian era expositions to secret laboratories, these stories explore what happens when man meets beast in a world of airship captains and fantastic creatures. Whether it’s a Jekyll and Hyde style beast, a wolfman who would rather not be a wolf, or a man who wishes he could fly, every kind of creature gets its day in the steampunk sun. Step into the world of Shifting Steam and let it transport you to a sexy, fantastical new universe.

Shifting Steam features stories from authors Rowan Benjamin, Missouri Dalton, Ekaterina Morris, Lydia Nyx, M Raiya, Lynn Townsend and Emory Vargas.

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This is a varied collection of stories, ranging from clunky to fine.

Review

Shadow of Kenfig by Lynn Townsend

The story leads off in a very unusual social club over a game of cards. There's a substantial cast, most of whom become irrelevant as the story progresses, though they are described in enough detail that I believe this to be one story in a series. The shifters are gwren, or wolves, much feared but not entirely shunned, although the use of real silver at table tends to weed them out as social acquaintances. The story has an authentic feel of social snobbery and notions of honor – a huge debt at the card table can force a man to do what he might not do otherwise. The gwr-infected Seth needs the gwr expert Dr. Poindexter Fitzhugh's help to learn about and possibly reverse his condition, and while he could have just asked, the card game set up was more interesting.

The evolution of the relationship is extremely abrupt: they go from the sparring of antagonists to protestations of eternal protection in the middle of a painful scientific experiment. It really read as if several pages of development had been accidentally left out, but I didn't find the breaks in the text to account for it. It was as if the damage each had taken and the mere knowledge of each other's sexual orientation was adequate to vault to "forever." Unfortunately, this, one of the more interesting plot elements being told to another character rather than dramatized, and wondering what the rest of the cast had to do with anything, interfered with an otherwise entertaining read.

The Cormorant by Emory Vargas

Miles become obsessed with possible supernatural creatures in the sea, a result of a near drowning as a child. His memory of a cormorant saving him from drowning drives his life and career choices. Another brush with death brings the cormorant again to him, for a brief encounter that might have been a dream, if Anahu had not left a sign of his presence. The steampunk elements are secondary to the story, but the shifter and the man's obsession are well drawn. No HEA, but a memory of a magical interlude that Miles could hope to find again.

The Shores of Loch Mor by Missouri Dalton

This story, with its oscillating POVs, was the most problematical for me. Every few hundred words we are propelled into the other character's head. The story unfolds after the insta-love befalls Carwyn, who is a shape-shifting fae, a puca. He follows the object of his desires, Felix, into town, to woo and win him. Felix, with secrets of his own, is an extremely self-centered jerk, which not only explains his secrets perfectly, but should make him grateful that the Mist-folk fall in love very abruptly and with no regard for the worthiness of the love-object.

Time frame and even world are a little misty here; it feels Elizabethan, even mentioning a local playwright as "William." Echoes of "Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet" crop up here and there, as does an unfortunate ring of "Othello." Casual interest becomes insta-love becomes a very heart-felt "you disgust me," becomes "oh I adore you after all." Between the ping-pong POVs and the ping-pong attitudes, this story feels very jerky.

Origin by M Raiya

This story has some overlap from the Notice universe – a dragon shifter and his knightly lover take on a strange creature in a Dickensian but steampunked Liverpool. This is an established couple's story, where Wells and Justin have to confront not only the creature but a magic-using engineer who has some really stomach churning notions of expedience, and their own longing for the days when life was simpler.

This story used the then-infant science of paleontology and mentions the novelty and impact of Darwin's Origin of Species, which I thought was a nice touch, since they were actual developments of the time with serious philosophical fall-out.

Nine and Fifty Swans by Rowan Benjamin

This is a lovely melding of the Victorian sensibility, advanced engineering, and shifter nature. Instead of shifters being hidden denizens of the world, they live openly and even have careers based on their shifting. All swans belong to the queen, even swan shifters, who form an elite fighting force with the new airships. Unfortunately, Swans have a few vulnerabilities, such as being very susceptible to cold while in human form, which requires the attention of a tailor/engineer to design their fighting kit. Sartorial Engineer Fanshawe and Wing Commander Cobbe have a rocky but charming courtship, as Fanshawe struggles to meet Cobbe as an equal. The author uses real swan attributes, adds a few details, and makes them well rounded. Each finds beauty in the other's form and self: there's no 'oh poor human' or 'oh poor shifter' here.

Mr. Black and the Expo by Lydia Nyx

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek take on the were-wolf idea, set against the Great Chicago Expo. Jack and Gerard have been travelling the world, each with their own mission, and are on the way home now. Some of the charm comes from the two prodding each other on how to behave in polite society; some of Jack's best moments happen on paws. His wolfiness has a known cause and a suspected cure; Gerard clearly loves him as shifter and fellow explorer. The affection between them is strong, the escapade dashing, and the resemblance to Gerard's beloved penny dreadfuls adds to the rollicking appeal. A nicely worked adventure.

Affliction by Ekaterina Morris

More of a Jekyll and Hyde transformation – the shifting monster is the experimenter himself, who risked all to cure a long-standing illness before he died, and now longs for death as a release from what he's become. With his unstable form and brilliant mind, Gideon Wright forms an unlikely alliance with chemist-fallen-to-opium addict and thief Harry Ashton, sent to steal the formulae by a criminal mastermind. This story has a lovely mix of steampunk engineering that works, Victorian chemistry and biology that works questionably as science and perfectly as plot, and a sweet relationship between the two MCs.

***

As with any anthology, there will be stories that work better than others. The difficulty of satisfying the shifter requirement, the steampunk requirement, the romance element, and the word count of this anthology's call may account for the extreme unevenness of the stories; some of the authors seem to be struggling to manage all the elements. Shadow of Kenfig needs triple the word count to do justice to everything currently packed in it; that would be a story I'd like to read. The Cormorant would work as well, maybe better, in a standard-tech universe.

The smoothest reads, Nine and Fifty Swans and Affliction, have no explicit sex, nor should they: the romance is clear as is.

The concept for this anthology is extremely ambitious; I applaud the authors for taking a swing at it. Rather than rate each story, the entire anthology should be awarded 3.5 marbles

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A Picture is Worth...

Warming Up

Our last pic brought us a couple of excerpts from JL Merrow's new release, Wight Mischief, which sounds really interesting!

Okay, what about our mountain men? What are they up to? Authors, if you have 100 to 1000 words of story or excerpt that might explain, send it with covers, links, and blurbs, and I'll post it here. (Seriously, no one ever writes short, why is that?)

All Shook Up by JM Snyder

All Shook Up by J.M. Snyder
Publisher: JMS Books, LLC
Genre: Historical, Interracial Romance, Erotica, GLBT, M/M
Length: 25,349 words

The year is 1883. Eduard van De Lier is a Dutchman overseeing a spice plantation on the island of Java, in the South Pacific. His obsessive attraction to dark-skinned men is just one of his many secrets. His wife Marien knows of his indiscretions, but as she's content with their Colonial lifestyle, she stays silent.

Until a former lover of Eduard's shows up in their parlor with thoughts of blackmail.

Reza was a crewman on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java. During the passage, Eduard spent many a night in the younger man's arms. Two years have passed, and the last person Eduard expects to find in his drawing room is Reza, a letter in hand that could destroy the life he and Marien lead.

Seeing him again ignites Eduard's lust for his first dark lover. He hopes to retrieve the letter, either through seduction or subterfuge, and the longer Reza eludes him, the more his desire grows. But they're on shaky ground, and before things can heat up between them, their world explodes -- literally -- when the unstable island of Krakatoa erupts.


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Volcanic eruptions tend to happen in bed in romances – JM Snyder has turned the tables slightly. All Shook Up has eruptions both in bed and out, because the greatest volcanic action of modern times blows Eduard and Reza around. Disaster brings out the best and worst in people, so Krakatoa would show what a man is really made of.

Unfortunately, Eduard van De Lier has a lot of reprehensible qualities even before the ground starts shaking. He's fine with lying, stealing, and laziness. Thoughts beyond keeping his comforts intact and his next seduction barely enter his head. He's managed to insinuate himself and his wife, Marien, into wealth and society, and while Marien works tirelessly to keep them in the good times, Eduard's more interested in finding a pliable servant. For one heart-stopping moment, the initial sex scene demonstrating this looked like it would turn into a rape.

When Reza turns up in the drawing room, Eduard at first doesn't recognize him, and then immediately assumes the worst, whether it's his greatest fear or because that's what he'd do in Reza's place is hard to say. Being completely led by his cock, Eduard decides that another seduction will clear all the troubles away, but wily Reza doesn't give in quickly a second time.

Formerly crew on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java, Reza remains a mystery; he speaks little and withdraws strategically. Somehow he transforms from a handy bedmate on shipboard to the great love of Eduard's life, apparently for being dark-skinned, well hung, calm in a crisis, and liking the unlikeable. Equally mysterious is what he sees in Eduard, aside from a bottom who can accommodate his enormous cock. The line

"the thick cock whose base Eduard could barely encircle with both hands"

left me holding my coffee cup that way and staring in pained disbelief.

Disaster actually does bring out the best in Eduard: in his case, hiding in the one firm sanctuary available and failing to assist a frantic mother in finding her child is an improvement on his previous history of looting the bodies. It just doesn't make me like him any better.

The eruption of the volcano shone, watching Reza and Eduard fight their way through ashfall and survive a tsunami were the best parts of the story for me. If anything, Ms. Snyder downplayed the horror of what happened, and it was still tense, dangerous, and gripping. Eduard still managed to fall asleep for a while during it.

A seriously flawed character needs some kind of redemption. Eduard does do something honorable at the end regarding Marien, but it's very little and so late as to not make much difference. They've reached their accommodations as a couple, and now one more lie makes it all better. That Eduard is married but pursues other partners wasn't a problem for me, Marien was aware from the start that she was a beard, and had her own reasons for accepting Eduard. She was the most sympathetic person in the book.

Unfortunately, the wonderful backdrop of the Krakatoa eruption was wasted on characters whose survival I couldn't particularly care about; Reza remained unknowable and Eduard was only too exposed. All Shook Up did not move me much. 2.5 Marbles

Headbangers

The more I review, the more I have to refine how I think about the story. I love it when language, situation, and plot all come together, but it doesn't always. I have to identify what's gone pear-shaped. Gone are the days when I could wave my hands and say oh that didn't work for me.

This list isn't complete, and it's in no particular order of importance. I've tied to remove identifying characteristics. The book with the issue may or may not have been reviewed here, and may not be m/m. But whatever it was made me grit my teeth, probably more than once per story. In possibly more than 1 story per week. If the mood strikes, I may expand on items in this list for future posts.

Have your characters fail to notice something overwhelming, unmistakable, and unavoidable. 

Have your crushed, broken, mutilated hero, who might need to be on life support, be ready for hot monkey sex.

Have your MC turn into a blithering idiot when love interest is in peril. 

Have your professionals be oblivious to doing what they are supposed to do best, with or without peril involved.

Fail to capitalize Deity.

Fail to provide a beginning, middle, and end to the story. Even if it's short.

Have your entire huge project brought to a halt because a non-essential team member gets incapacitated. 

Make the story encompass huge chunks of time where nothing happens, for no obvious reason.

Be gratuitously nasty toward women in general. 

Promise something in the blurb that the story was never meant to deliver.

Ignore the laws of physics. Paranormal/fantasy has some leeway here. Contemporary doesn't.

Save the day with cavalry coming over the hill if cavalry has not even been hinted at being in the story.

Make a big deal out of some person, attribute or object that turns out to be totally irrelevant. 

Use words that are out of place for the setting, time, or character.

Use words that have specific meanings in ways that have no connection, or that are indelibly associated with a particular book or movie.

The Great Wall of Text.

Baby talk. 

Twitching cocks. Pulsing assholes. Enough precome to submerge Cleveland. 

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What general situation did I miss that annoys you readers?

Thousand Word Thursday Excerpts from JL Merrow

 

An excerpt from Wight Mischief (actually, 2 separate excerpts) – here's where Marcus and Will first encounter each other:

It was a perfect night for a swim—warm and still, the moon shining brightly. Marcus stood for a moment at the foot of the cliff, just breathing in the air rich with salt and seaweed. Then he grinned to himself and hurtled down the beach, pulling off his shirt and flinging it aside. He resisted the urge to kick his flip-flops high into the air—all those pebbles would be hell on bare feet if he never managed to find his shoes again—and was forced to halt for a moment to undo his jeans and let them fall to the sand. Just for the hell of it, he pushed off his trunks as well.


The sand was soft and moist between his toes, like demerara sugar, and Marcus slowed to appreciate the feel of it. He walked along the tide line for a few minutes, leaving a barely visible trail of footprints like Robinson Crusoe. It was a bad idea, really, to go swimming when the tide was on its way out, but Marcus had been cooped up all day and felt like he’d suffocate if he had to wait another six hours for his swim. It’d be getting light by then, in any case. That would ruin everything. Right now was Marcus’s time.

Moonlight shone down, leaching the colour from everything it touched. Marcus smiled in approval and walked slowly into the water. A painful chill assaulted his feet, his ankles, then his knees. He felt alive for the first time that day. What it would be like to be swept out by the waves? He tried to imagine how it must feel to struggle, to tread water, then at last to grow weary and be sucked under by the unforgiving sea. How would it feel to drown? Would it be a hellish nightmare of fighting to breathe, of feeling the water entering his lungs? Or would it be a gentle death as the water enfolded him like a blanket? He should probably look that up. He might be able to use it for something.

Marcus was jolted out of his train of thought by a sound horribly like a foot sliding on pebbles. He spun round instinctively but couldn’t make out a thing against the dark looming shadows of the cliffs. About to call out, to challenge the intruder—if only to find out if there really was one—Marcus abruptly recalled his nudity and, horrified, flung himself into the sea.

The frigid water hit his chest like an iceberg of Titanic proportions making a direct assault on his lungs. By the time Marcus had recovered his breath and rubbed the salt from his eyes, it was far too late to detect any signs of movement from the beach.

***

Will cast his gaze around, admiring the way the moonlight glinted off the water. Funny how the sea always seemed so much more peaceful when it was dark—Will was willing to bet that was when most maritime disasters happened too, with people lulled into a false sense of security by the gentle tumble of the waves.

When he’d been a kid on holiday on the island, his mum had sometimes taken him to the beach in the evening. With most of the other tourists gone, it’d been a great time for a swim. The water was still relatively warm from the heat of the day, and the setting sun cast a soft glow over them. He’d never swum when it was completely dark, though. Will wondered what it’d be like. Probably a bit disorientating, although not so bad when the moon was full, like tonight. Dangerous, though. What if the moon went behind a cloud and you couldn’t tell which way the shore was anymore?

Will stopped dead as he spotted something unexpected. There was someone in the water—was there? Or was he just seeing things? Whoever it was, he was ghostly pale. And naked. Will looked down at his own arms. The moonlight was playing its usual tricks with colours, but his arms looked real in a way that the figure in the water’s…didn’t. Even his hair was bright white—and as Will’s gaze dropped unstoppably to the figure’s crotch, he could see no darker patch there. The man—boy?—was slender, almost elfin. He was walking out into the water, arms spread wide as if to welcome the sea’s embrace.

He was beautiful. Impossibly perfect, from his too-pale hair to his lean, sculpted legs, now knee-deep in the water. Could he possibly be real? Or—Will’s heart gave a jump—could one of Baz’s stories possibly be true? Could there really be such things as ghosts?

Will took an involuntary pace forward—and stifled a curse as his foot slipped and he sat down heavily on the shingle. Scrambling to his feet as quietly as he could, Will realised his caution was too late. The figure had disappeared. For a moment, Will thought of going down to the water’s edge to try to find it—but then a cloud drifted over the moon, and left him in absolute blackness. Shivering, Will turned back the way he’d come.
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Oh very nice! The rest is in here:

A stranger could light up his world...or drive him deeper into darkness.

Will thinks a camping trip with his friend-with-benefits Baz will be a fun break from his usual job as a personal trainer. But the trip turns into a rollercoaster ride as he meets author Marcus - and Marcus' mysterious guardian Leif.

Journalist Baz is supposed to be researching a book on ghosts, yet he seems curiously interested in secrets lying in the reclusive Marcus' past. But these are secrets that someone's determined they should let lie - and if they're not careful, Will and Baz could end up adding to the Island's ghostly population...

Product Warnings: Contains perilous cliffs, elusive might-be ghosts, a secret tunnel, and skinny-dipping by moonlight.

Available now from Samhain and Amazon.

Amor Prohibido by Ellis Carrington

Title: Amor Prohibido
Author: Ellis Carrington
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Quill
Genre: paranormal
Length: 127 pages


 Jacob Freehan has no job, no man, and no motivation. In pain both from ending a long-term abusive relationship and a severe back injury, he escapes to the sunny seaside town of Puerto Morelos for a little yoga, a little R&R, and possibly a place to quietly end his own life.

Pakal is a centuries-old immortal Mayan spirit guide who has been charged with getting Jacob on the path toward healing. Romantic involvement with a spirit charge is strictly forbidden, and it has never been a problem...until now. Pakal sees something special in Jacob, but failure to keep a rapidly growing attraction at bay could result in Jacob losing his life and Pakal being condemned to the Underworld forever...
_________
Ellis Carrington has given us a story with some fascinating and diverse characters, some serious problems, and a vivid setting. Woven into a page-turning whole, Amor Prohibido was a single sitting read for me.


Jacob has recently terminated a long-standing abusive relationship with Danny, who has been Jacob's one and only relationship throughout his adult life. It's left him hurting on many levels; Danny didn't hesitate to use violence or emotional manipulation. Jacob's head is clearing slowly; he's grieving the lost years and the wasted opportunities, and while he knows he's much better off without Danny, it hurts enough that the little bottle of pills looks like a very good friend to have around. Bringing them along when his best buddy Kelly drags him to the Mayan Riviera to a yoga resort, Jacob is anything but sure he wants to find out what life has in store next.

The spirit guide Pakal, charged with healing Jacob and other tattered souls, has managed a thousand years of duty without endangering his status by getting sexually involved. Like any good therapist, he's meant to help and guide, not entangle. However, the mystical connection he feels with Jacob convinces him that the relationship will be healing and thus part of his task. Big *GONG* for a modern therapeutic situation; anyone whose credentials come from getting ritually drowned in a cenote still can't--and the punishment is far more severe.

Even knowing, Pakal is willing to make this sacrifice- something in Jacob calls that strongly to him, and that's where things get really sticky. The gods are displeased, but not so much so that there isn't some kind of out, albeit with a really huge stinger.

The author has done a really good job of using the mystical elements; while I can't speak to the accuracy of the Mayan lore, it's consistent and vivid, good story-telling. Her sense of place is also vivid; the sun burns your neck, the cenote wraps cool fingers around your body, and the Underworld has to be experienced to be believed.

I had a little trouble with Jacob – he's been abused for many years. That he was willing to trust so rapidly might be waved away as the mystical connection he feels to Pakal, which is a lot deeper than him being the first good-looking man to treat Jacob decently, but it still seems to happen very fast. Still, Pakal's had a thousand years to get good at healing people... Details of Danny's temper and actions dribble out, building a real three dimensional history; what's happened to Jacob should not happen to anyone, and that he found the strength to get out is a cause to cheer. This is a man who deserves his HEA; every obstacle the gods threw at him and Pakal made me writhe in frustration of the very-involved-in-the-story sort.

The other source of frustration is that a major plot development falls on the page with no foreshadowing – Jacob produces the items he needs and some bizarre skills to use them just at the moment he needs them most, and that made the results seem unsupported. I did have to chuckle at the way he MacGyvered some lube, though.

The few stylistic glitches, such as multiple references to "the larger man" or "the thinner man" (okay, this is a pet peeve of mine, but people don't think of themselves and each other like that so it feels like a POV slip) and a few places where one person's actions fall in the same paragraph with another person's speech (which also feels like a POV slip) weren't enough to keep me from enjoying this story thoroughly. I delighted in a wonderful show of strength on Jacob's part towards the end, and in the resolution, which had a very joyous symmetry.

This is the first story I've read from Ellis Carrington, and I’m going to be on the lookout for more. 4.25 Marbles and now I need more graphics for Jessewave rankings.

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A Picture is Worth...

Boy On A Beach, 1912

Here's a bit of inspiration, I hope! Our last two pics generated two great little ficlets, so thank you PD Singer and Ellis Carrington!

Does this young man have a story? Anyone who tells it (100 to 1000 words, and why does no one ever believe short is okay too?  Or are these pics just that inspiring?)  please send it to CryselleC AT gmail DOT com, with covers, news, and links, I'll post them here.

Or does one of the older pics inspire you? Tag "Thousand Word Thursday" brings them all up, they're fair game, even if someone else has written for it. It's not first come/only one served, every bit of story gets appreciated here.

Pretty Monsters by Andrea Speed

Pretty Monsters
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 15 pages

Josh knew the night shift at the Quik-Mart would be full of freaks and geeks—and that was before the hell portal opened in the parking lot. Still, he likes to think he can roll with things. Sure, the zombies make a mess sometimes, but at least they never reach for anything more threatening than frozen burritos.

Besides, it’s not all lizard-monsters and the walking dead. There’s also the mysterious hottie with the sly red lips and a taste for sweets.

Josh has had the hots for Hot Guy since the moment he laid eyes on him, and it seems Hot Guy might be sweet on Josh too. Now if only Josh could figure out whether that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between. After all, with a hell vortex just a stone’s throw away, Josh has learned to take nothing at face value—even if it’s a very, very pretty face.
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Stories generally have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even stories in series. If they don't have those elements, they are either not terribly well written or they are something else, no matter what they are called. Perhaps a vignette, or a chapter of a larger work. Pretty Monsters from Andrea Speed is a beautifully written something else.


There is little to the story that doesn't appear in the blurb, and frankly, quite a bit of promise of plot that appears in the blurb and not the story. The set-up is quirky and witty, a convenience store near a hell portal, where weird beings amble in and out, paying for chips and burritos, and occasionally oozing on the counter. Hot Guy, aka Colin, finally wanders in after one third of actual text pages go by (there are 6 pages of narrative in this 15 page file). The story establishes that Colin and Josh are interested in one another, and that Colin is a really hot weird being. That's it. This is not a plot.

So what we have here is a set-up and a hook. The story has #1 attached and the publisher's site bills it as the first in a series, but this reads like the first chapter of a serialized novel. Fine, if I know that's what I'm getting into, but that's not what I've been offered here. This introduction is interesting enough that I'd read more; another installment or two should clarify whether these are meant to be stories or merely chapters doled out at intervals.

Consequently, this piece is hard to rate. If I look at it as the opening to a larger work that was of similar quality all the way through, a 5, easy. But since I've been offered a short story that has a beginning but no real middle or end, it loses one point for each missing element. And that's a shame. 3 marbles

Can't Be His by Shawn Lane

Can't Be His by Shawn Lane
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Genre: GLBT
Length: 34 pages



Exterminator Lonnie "Roach" Raines and ice skater Alexi Summerville have been friends and roommates for years, but they've never taken their relationship to the next level. When Alexi's coach wants him to train for the World Championship in another state, however, Roach is forced to examine his feelings before he loses Alexi, possibly for good.


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Friends to lovers describes Roach and Alexi's relationship; they've known and liked one another for years. Never being single at the same time, nothing has ever happened between them, and it begins to look like nothing ever will. Shawn Lane jolts these two out of their complacent little rut in Can't Be His.


Roach and Alexi are an unlikely pair: a top level figure skater who shares an apartment with an exterminator. They get along really well, both being serially monogamous, more or less, and discovering a shared kink. They've just never quite managed to be single at the same time and get together. Roach is protective of Alexi, and the affection between them is blindingly obvious to everyone around them.

Even a casual date can see the score before Roach does. Alexi's coach understands what's going on and figures it's bad for his skater's career. One advises to go for it, the other thinks there should be several states separating them. Since Roach celebrates Alexi's newly single status by making him listen to drunken screwing in the next room, I was in the "several states over" camp before Chapter 3. Roach may be protective of Alexi but he certainly isn't thoughtful.

There was actually very little story for the page count, about 6200 words divided into three chapters over 34 pages, some taken up by a beginning excerpt and various credits at beginning and end. Most of the really interesting action happened off-screen. The unfortunately named Roach, which I could see as a nickname for a man with cans of poison but it provided endless small icky jolts when applied to a leading man in a romance, tells about his encounter with the wasps afterward when getting first aid, but we don't see him in action. Alexi's skating is over and barely described after we find him wiping away the sweat. There's dialog and then sex.

The story missed the potential in the contrasts and similarities between the willowy but strong artist/athlete and the tatted, gruff working man. I liked the premise and their discovery of a shared kink, but the execution of Can't Be His didn't provide enough for this reader to fall in love with. 2.5 Marbles

Just Lucky Like That by Andy Slayde and Ali Wilde

Just Lucky That Way
Andy Slayde and Ali Wilde
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 144 pages/37500 words


Just because Zed Roxbury is hearing voices doesn’t mean he’s insane.

And if he is, all of his friends are joining him. Surely doing a favor for a friend should bring good karma, but a fun 4th July holiday turns into much more than anyone could have anticipated when bad luck dogs Zed. And the voices are just a small part of it. Could the opal brooch he finds have anything to do with it? Or perhaps it’s just Zed’s irresistible allure…

Maybe the past should stay buried.

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I was a little confused by this story at first; the blurb led me to expect something paranormal, and while I finally got it, it took a while. Just Lucky That Way opens with Zed and Alex heading to a moderately remote farm where they intend to spend the Fourth of July weekend helping a group of friends renovate an old farmhouse.


This group of young-twenties are sorting out their lives, pairing off, and there are old and subtle tensions within the group. The dynamics were interesting – Zed and Alex are well accepted by the group, and indeed, Zed had dated one or two of them in days gone by. His troubled past is alluded to, and Alex's frailties are also exposed but accepted. I was waiting for voices, but they all belonged to the various friends.

The farm has a mystery attached that goes back to the days of Prohibition; when Zed finds an opal brooch while cleaning out the barn, he attracts the unwarranted attentions and assumptions of the ghost who once owned it. This ghost has a lot of opinions, very strong desires, and the means to achieve them. Once the ghost manifests, the group gets cleared out and the novel assumes a tighter focus.

I got the uneasy feeling that this could have been two stories, or that I was missing something. The extended prologue, some 60 pages setting the scene and characterizations, read like a "Breakfast Club" sort of novel, and while I was enjoying it, a great many of the interesting issues brought up didn't get any further treatment. Zed's high-school suicide attempt, while clearly painful, didn't feel connected to any plot arc. Alex's fear of the water got explained in a small info dump late in the book, though it could have been worked into the narrative. Once the ghost showed up, very little of the early story seemed pertinent at all. Alex and Zed begin as an established couple, and while the relationship is threatened, the paranormal influence in that threat didn't seem clear or especially needed.

Another place it felt like I was missing some backstory was where the ghost shoes up. While everyone is frightened by the manifestations, there isn't much disbelief or denial. Has this group met the supernatural before? There's no mention. The ghost is dealt with, after much trauma and danger: a couple of improv ghostbusting methods play out well.

Zed is a simple guy on the surface: he loves Alex and has a bit of a kink for public sex, but more complex things stir in him. I would have liked to know more about his internal journey from persecuted and suicidal to out and happy, but that arc was background more than story. His interactions with a secondary character hinted at trouble in paradise. For a man in danger, Zed had a lot of mental power to spend on contemplating sex with other guys. Alex, with fragile health and a great fear of the water, was both sweet and feisty, he had to be both strong and resilient to take everything Zed and this story handed him.

The writing gives us their relationship, sometimes in bald statements, sometimes in beautiful writing. I would have liked more of their relationship brought out in illuminating passages like this:

“Why didn’t you date him?” Alex scrambled to his feet and pulled Zed to his.

Zed shrugged. “Don’t ever tell him, but he was a poor substitute for who I really wanted.”

“Good answer.”

“But when Johnny Depp took out that restraining order against me, I settled for you.”

The two have known each other back into toddlerhood, and have recently transitioned from friends to lovers, another piece of backstory. A line here, a line there explained it, but I couldn't help thinking there was an entire earlier book. I would read it: while I was confused by the conflicting directions this story took, each section was strong enough that I'd sit down with more work from this writing team. I just wish the early promise of the book had been followed through more. 3 marbles

A Thousand Word Thursday Story by PD Singer

Breakfast

The calendar had tormented Tommy for the last three weeks, ever since Jude had flown out of Heathrow to São Paulo. Phone calls were no substitute for the warmth of his lover in their bed or the skill of his hands in the kitchen – Jude had probably forgotten more about food than Tommy would ever know.
 
To hear the huskiness in Jude's voice from the other side of the Atlantic describing the joys of bolinhos and pastels doused in hot sauce for breakfast made Tommy want that desire for himself. He'd never be the fiery peppers in anyone's meal; no, he was just plain old Tommy Bell, landlord of the Good Man, and would-be chef. He wasn't in Jude's league, and every time Jude flew away to film another set of episodes for his show, Tommy worried that he'd find someone more exciting in a far-flung place and wouldn't be flying back.

 
But those calls, just about every day, said yes, yes, Jude would return. Tommy hadn't been best pleased when Jude tried instigating phone sex with his voice slurred from one too many caipirinhas, but he'd gone along with it, desperate to feel connected. Other nights, when Jude's voice was clear but his belly overstuffed with moquecas or grilled piranha, they didn't try for arousal, but talked about things that mattered. Best of all, there had been calls when Jude had not overindulged in anything on behalf of his show. Then they'd talked, and then their voices had dropped; they'd made love to one another with words and their own hands across the thousands of miles of Atlantic.
 
Jude's nights in Brazil kept Tommy awake into the wee hours, but he didn't begrudge the lost sleep. There'd be no call tonight—Jude had caught the red-eye express from São Paulo. 
 
Tommy looked around his little flat above the pub, knowing he'd have to go downstairs eventually to prep for lunch, but Jude's plane had landed in Heathrow while Tommy was at the market. Jude would need to find his luggage, get through Immigration, and catch the Express to Paddington. He couldn't possibly get here for at least another twenty minutes. He'd be tired, rumpled, and hungry after the long flight. He'd need breakfast.
 
The whole world fed Jude with things weird and wonderful; what could Tommy give him? Would beans on toast be one more unfamiliar thing to choke down, one more meal that said, "You are a stranger here"? Tommy checked the pantry in his little kitchen, where breakfast was the only meal he ate. Weetabix, no, not special, and his hand didn't even pause on the tin of coffee; he'd not push Jude to stay awake after eight hours of sitting bolt-upright in a flying pilchard tin.
 
He settled on shirred eggs, throwing the little ramekins of egg and butter into the bain marie¸ closing the door on the oven to let the egg set up. That should be familiar enough, shouldn't it?
 
Jude would have other hungers, too, but would he be too tired? No matter, Tommy would be happy to do nothing more than dip the bread soldiers into the runny yolk and hold them to Jude's lips, perhaps seasoning them with a kiss. 
 
Jude might have slept on the plane. He'd still be tired from traveling but... Tommy checked the clock, thinking of traffic from Paddington to the pub. Not long... He stripped, replacing the apron, hoping. Footsteps sounded on the stairs—Tommy posed against the table to study a cookbook chucked open upside down. Jude's key turned in the lock, the squeak announcing the door swinging open.
 
Lifting his eyes from the unreadable words, Tommy watched the smile spread across Jude's face. He couldn't hold the tableau one moment longer—dashing across the tiny sitting room, Tommy flung himself into Jude's arms, clutching, pressing, opening his mouth to the onslaught of Jude's tongue. 
 
The first desperate kiss broken, Tommy buried his face into Jude's neck, inhaling faint traces of tropics and the tang of the journey on his lover, whose hands lay hot against Tommy's back. Jude's cheek rubbed hard against Tommy's head, and his ribcage expanded past a normal breath—that should fill him with the scent of Tommy and baking eggs, with the scent of welcome.
 
"Oh, Tommy." Jude held him more tightly, swaying him slightly; Tommy could feel him pressing his lips against skin. "It's good to be home."

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Aw…  Jude and Tommy come from PD Singer’s Dreamspinner short, Prep Work, which was a 5 marbles/5 divas review.  

 

PD has a new one out! Maroon: Donal agus Jimmy is fresh from Torquere.

The best jobs in 1911 Belfast are in the shipyards, but Donal Gallagher's pay packet at Harland and Wolff doesn't stretch far enough. He needs to find someone to share his rented room; fellow ship-builder Jimmy Healy's bright smile and need for lodgings inspire Donal to offer. But how will he sleep, lying scant feet away from Jimmy? It seems Jimmy's a restless sleeper, too, lying so near to Donal...

In a volatile political climate, building marine boilers and armed insurrection are strangely connected. Jimmy faces an uneasy choice: flee to America or risk turning gunrunner for Home Rule activists. He thinks he's found the perfect answer to keep himself and his Donal safe, but shoveling coal on a luxury liner is an invitation to fate.

***

Available now at your favorite ebook retailers.

Paul Dot Go by Robin Anderson

Title: Paul Dot Go
Author: Robin Anderson
Cover Artist: unknown
Publisher: Nazca Plains
Genre: bizarro
Length: 200 pages
Rating: 1 star out of 5

Review Summary: A poorly-written descent into the bizarre and revolting; best avoided.

Blurb

Meet WILLIAM (WAN.W) WANDSWORTH, portrait painter extraordinaire, whose diverse backgrounds for his carefully selected subjects (and to their cost) vary from a converted country barn, a startlingly ‘reinvented’ and ‘mechanised’ chrome and mirrored 14th century Italian castle, a refurbished Victorian candle factory and last but not quite least, an eerie cemetery where clandestine midnight assignations could and do go horribly wrong. Added to this bizarre palette is a vibrant clashing of cocks, personalities and multi talents when the larger-than-life artist crosses paintbrushes with the likes of ruthless interior designer HARRY HUMPHRIES and boy wonder pop idol TOMMY TYLER. Aiding and abetting WILLIAM in his determination to become ‘a legend in his own time’ is his hand-picked coterie comprising the sinister dwarf duo, PAUL and NELSON, the olfactory major domo SKIDS along with his bête noir, the rapacious RUFUS, plus the dark, dubious PRINCE ALBERT. An innocent victim caught up within the artist’s ruthless ambitions is the long-suffering MIC SANDFORD whose infatuation with the aforesaid HARRY sees situations ranging from loss of body parts and even a soul or two.

Prepare for a fast, twisted rollercoaster ride - part scenic and part terrifying – of jealousies, perversions and violent revenge but always within the presence of the darkest of humour. As with WILLIAM’S nemesis PAUL GAUGUIN - the original PAUL.GO – this reincarnation is an acquired taste; for some a feast of unsavoury delights and for others a banquet of despair.

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The road to hell is paved with good intentions: I was moved to read this book because of some misguided willingness to try an author unknown to me from a press I didn't recognize. Further checking showed books from Lethe Press and Silver Publishing under Robin Anderson's name, although it may not be the same person, and by the time I researched Nazca Plains, it was too late; I was committed to finish it. The blurb, seen in depth a second time, had all the clues to send me running; I plead not considering that bizarro fiction might be submitted for review here. Learn from my error.


The names in caps is a convention from query letters to agents; the blurb might have been ganked from such a letter, so I read on. The first fifty pages lull one into complacency: the story has a prologue that reads like a horror novel, and then backs up three years. The body of the story begins innocuously enough with a fey and talented interior decorator acquiring clients, discussing same with his clique of employees and hangers-on, and all of them drinking like fish. The dialog is very twee and self-congratulatory, as Harry and all think he's the best thing to hit the inside of a house since paint was invented. Once Harry has a falling out with potential client William Wandsworth, returning his advance, the story descends into mass reshuffling of who sleeps with whom, an occasional who rapes what, and general acquisition of revenge in varied and vile ways. Wandsworth devotes the rest of the book to making sure none of the rest of the cast of thousands, aside from his loathsome sidekicks, is happy.

The plot is tissue thin and exists primarily to organize the assortment of despicable tricks and occasional bodily harm into a timeline. Wandsworth's overblown sense of entitlement suggests he compare himself to Paul Gauguin, something not at all supported by the text aside from the peculiar method of signing paintings. He believes that it's his right to spend years creating torment for everyone, something he's willing to devote most of his time and fortune doing. There are aspects of the horror originally promised in the prologue, but they don't maintain the promise and devolve into the merely horrible and somewhat ludicrous. The promised dark humor comes across as scatological: humor may be subjective but this created zero chuckles.

Characterization is slightly deeper; a few characters' voices stand out, but most fall into the general morass of "those to be tormented." The distinction is further blurred by a plethora of names beginning with "H" but keeping them sorted out was actually a moot point: I detested most of them. One or two, like Mic, were only unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with Wandsworth and his minions, and those I felt sorry for. Some of the characters do pair off into long-term couples, which unfortunately only makes them into bigger targets.

Style, sigh. Words do not mean what this writer thinks they do. An "olfactory major domo" turned out to be only odiferous; there are dozens of examples. Characters snigger, smirk, laugh, and camp their sentences rather than speak. By the time they finish "camping" their lines, it takes 2-3 pages to impart one tidbit of information. My copy was an ARC and may not have had a final currying, but extra words, typos, and absent commas did not improve the reading experience.

If the point of bizarro literature is to shock, it did. I waded through the musical beds, incest, shit-flinging, ear-severing and all, after another good long look at the blurb made me decide that I really had been warned, though I had not realized it at the time. "A feast of unsavoury delights" covers a lot of territory. This story, in any "I have not made promises to finish it unless something horrible and unwarned for crops up" scenario was a DNF even before page 84. That's where the bestiality scene caused me to part ways with my lunch. The author may be satisfied that his work here is done.

Readers of Carlton Mellick III may possibly find something to like here; the rest of us should be reading something else.

Galen and the Forest Lord by Eden Winters

Galen and the Forest Lord by Eden Winters
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: Fantasy, GLBT
Length: 119 pages


By the time Galen Olaf-kin woke up and smelled the spiced ale, it was too late, and he never finished the wicked deed for which he stood trial. Banished from his home, he flees to the forest, taking nothing but the unwanted infant he's rescued. Perhaps the legends are true and the forest lord will take them both in. The lord is said to give sanctuary to outcasts, but none of the stories mention the naughty, tempting things he whispers, or that he shares Galen's forbidden passions.

Lord Erik rolls his eyes at the prophecy that says when human hands deliver a babe to the forest, he’ll meet the mate destined to reunite forest folk with humankind. What interest has he in a child? The handsome human who brings the babe is another matter entirely, and a little thing like destiny won't stand in Erik's way of claiming the golden-haired Galen as his own. Or will it?

Sometimes prophecies are overrated, legends incomplete, and heroes not always the sharpest swords in the scabbard.

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I've learned to read Eden Winters' stories with a box of tissues nearby, because either I'm going to cry or snort my drink. When I read Galen and the Forest Lord, I should have put my ice tea down.

This story takes a very tongue-in-cheek look at the standard were-wolf tropes, making them fresh and funny. Just disclosing the forest-folk's wolfhood and playing with Galen's disbelief and fear was good for a LOL. The unwanted infant he's carrying is Galen's ticket in, and the source of considerable comedy.


The story does start more seriously, with some very important issues being decided, such as dispensing Galen's patrimony and punishing a young woman suspected of breaking the mores of this medieval feeling society. With just the discussion over whether Esja could have really done what she's accused of, the author signals that this isn't going to take the grim path. Everything after that is a comedy of errors.

Lord Erik isn't a shrewd leader though he can be guided into the paths of shrewdness if it's done delicately, as Jarl and Eydis manage to do – he's young and randy, befitting his rather earthy subjects. (The banquet scene is a good place not to be holding liquids.) Galen's a fish out of water, fully convinced he's going to be eaten for dinner, but he manages to adjust his sense of right and wrong to encompass ways different than he's grown up with. The two of them are cute together, each trying to understand the other's incomprehensible ways. Between them, they manage to make a hash of things, right an old wrong or two, and find what each of them has wanted all their lives.

The medievalness isn't strict, but the twisted modern sayings are funny because they aren't overdone. (Is that a tuber in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?) The dialect is a little overwhelming in places, but remains understandable.

If you like your werewolves tall, dark, and brooding, this isn't a good story for you, but if you like a story that refuses to take itself too seriously and resolves in a charming HEA, Galen and the Forest Lord will entertain you. 4.5 marbles