A Thousand Word Thursday Excerpt from Chrissy Munder

This picture made me shiver and reach for my furry boots. The thick drifts reminded me of Adam and Michael, stranded in Michigan's Upper Peninsula by the snowstorm of the century.

Excerpt from The Reason for the Season by Chrissy Munder

Adam collapsed on the motel bed. His back flopped onto the faded, blue plaid bedspread with boneless satisfaction, long legs dangling uselessly off the end. He knew he should take off his coat and boots, hang his wet pants to dry and see if Michael needed help with his hand. But right now he just wanted to lay back, bask in the heat produced by the rattling unit under the window, and do absolutely nothing. “We made it,” he said, staring up at the stained ceiling tiles.

“We sure did,” Michael replied as he picked up the remote control for the television and clicked through the stations to the weather channel. “I think those were the longest miles of my life.”


Adam nodded in agreement. His eyes closed as he remembered their slow journey to find an exit from the highway. The single wiper only worked a short distance before being overwhelmed by the volume of snow and needed repeated stops to be cleared off enough to continue. They had been lucky to find a development off the exit complete with services. Most of the off-ramps in this part of the state were miles away from any type of population center.

“I’m sorry about the motel room.” Michael sat down on the other bed and unlaced his boots, grimacing as he irritated his cut. “You sure this is okay?”

“It’s not like we have a choice.” Adam propped himself up on his elbows. “Besides, I live in a dorm. This is four times the size.” He tried to sound unflustered, but the truth was Adam was a little weirded out by the situation. Sheer luck had scored the last available room at the motel; with the roads being closed they weren’t the only ones seeking shelter. But no matter how comfortable he felt around him, Michael was someone he had just met today and didn’t know anything about. Sharing a motel room was a lot different than riding in a car for a few hours.

“Right. I forgot.”

Michael’s boots hit the floor with a thud, and Adam watched as he pulled his socks off as well and rubbed his feet. He didn’t want to be caught staring, but this was his first real chance to get a look at Michael. Adam was surprised at how much he liked what he saw. His initial impressions had been accurate, but not nearly enough to do Michael justice.

This guy was absolutely gorgeous, with high Slavic cheekbones and an amazingly shy smile. Adam had yet to get a chance to see the color of his eyes as Michael seemed uncomfortable meeting his gaze, and it eventually dawned on Adam that Michael was nervous.

Well, damn. Adam thought he knew what the problem was. “Look, Michael,” he said slowly, the words bitter on his tongue. “Yes, I’m gay, but that doesn’t mean you have anything to worry about, okay? I appreciate you footing the bill here. I’m not looking to jump you.”

“What?” Michael’s head jerked up and his eyes, a rich, espresso brown met Adam’s. “No, that’s not… I’m not….” He took a deep breath. “I don’t want you think I set this up, you know?”

“Right, like you’d conjure up the storm of the century just to get a chance with me,” Adam joked, more interested than he wanted to be in Michael’s unspoken acknowledgement. The monosyllabic hardass who had picked him up had been lost somewhere along the snow-covered miles.



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The Reason for the Season available from Dreamspinner Press.

All college student Adam Everett is trying to do is get to his sister’s house for holiday break. First his car breaks down, then his ride takes off to Vegas with his gas money, forcing Adam to come up with a Plan C. His last hope is a campus ride exchange, where he ends up with the reluctant Michael Brennan. When a “snowpocalypse” forces them to share a motel room, they soon find out there's more than one reason for the chance happenings of the season.



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Warm up your Winter with other stories by Chrissy Munder:



To learn more about Chrissy and her work find, friend, or follow her on the web:

Website: http://www.chrissymunder.com
Blog: http://chrissymunder.livejournal.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chrissymunder
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChrissyMunder
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Thank you, Chrissy! What horrid weather in your story and the pic! (And that's what it looks like outside right now.) Now I need to read the rest!

Landfall by Lori Toland

Landfall by Lori Toland
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: GLBT Contemporary
Length: 41 pages


ER nurse and hospice worker Jared White is caught up in more than just high winds when a hurricane traps him with Deputy Fire Chief Mike Brown. The handsome firefighter has had Jared drooling every time he visits the ER, but as far as Jared knows, Mike is straight – until a downed bridge strands them alone in an empty firehouse. Will their passionate encounter outlast the storm?

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Severe weather makes a sexy backdrop, as long as you're inside watching the elements rage on the other side of a window. Landfall, by Lori Toland, lets a nurse and a fire chief have their moments. It's in the middle of a hurricane, so the moments should be awfully good.

The story unfortunately requires severe suspension of disbelief, and I was tired of the logical inconsistencies by page eight. The island is being buffeted by ninety mile an hour winds, the roads are closed to all but emergency vehicles, the bridges are collapsing of the storm surge, but a hospice nurse has to make a non-emergent house call, the emergency equipment becomes his personal limo, and getting him back to the mainland when he was in a safe place is the fire chief's concern. The hospice nurse, Jared, doesn't have the sense to follow directions or to come in out of the rain, even when it's being driven into his face at ninety miles an hour.

Jared is a romantic, though, and he's harboring a secret crush on Mike Brown, the sexy fire chief who becomes his chauffeur and rescuer.

I was a dreamer deep down, always hoping one day my prince would pull me up on his white horse and we would ride off into the sunset together. Maybe his red fire truck is a white horse in disguise.

Part of this meet-wet scenario involves Mike carrying Jared back to the truck. This, a few pleasant but non-committal remarks in public, and some wild sex back at the fire station bring out the romantic in Mike: this is the sum total of their interaction but Mike is already dreaming too.

Mike pressed his lips together and then sighed. “I realize where we ended off that morning, and I feel terrible. I left abruptly and… I thought… I hoped you knew how much you meant to me.”

Readers who enjoy insta-love stories will probably like this; the weather and the sex are raging, but readers who want to see some development will be disappointed. I was rather sad, because the set up had a great deal of potential for adventure with two strong characters, which did not materialize. 2.5 marbles

Boats in the Night by Josephine Myles

Title: Boats in the Night
Author: Josephine Myles
Cover Artist: Unknown
Publisher: Josephine Myles
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 44K

Like two ships passing in the night—if one was a narrowboat and the other a luxury yacht.

Disgraced private school teacher Giles Rathbourne has been sent home on extended sick-leave and is stuck in a rut of obsessive housework and drinking. His ex may have been a snobbish bastard, but without him, Giles is adrift, rattling around his huge, lonely house. When a dreadlocked narrowboater’s engine breaks down at the end of his canal-side garden, Giles is furious at this invasion of his privacy—for a while.

Smutty might not have ever held down a proper job, but the fire-dancing, free-spirited traveller can recognise an opportunity for mutual benefit when he sees it. Giles’ extensive gardens are in as desperate need of attention as the upper-class hunk is himself, whereas Smutty knows a thing or two about plants and needs a place to moor up.

A simple business arrangement between two men who have nothing else in common? It would be—if they could keep their hands off each other!

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Giles and Smutty are opposites in every way—you'd think. Giles comes from money and lives in the ancestral house, which he's trying to take care of himself. The light bulbs are dusted, but the gardens are going to jungle, because Giles' obsessive cleaning keeps him indoors, fretting and drinking, trying to wash away the pain his stuck-up ex left behind. He's got a trace of whimsy, nearly dead and buried under the weight of Fabian's disapproval, but still hanging on, or he would never have gone out to the garden to chase away the intruder while wearing slippers with claws on.


Buying a wreck of a narrowboat with the last of his funds leaves Smutty depending on the goodwill of the property owner nearest where his engine expires. Raised in a commune that fell prey to developers and with a first love who ran out on him, Smutty's resisted forming ties anywhere else. A narrowboat's just the thing for a man who doesn't want to put down roots, until it won't run. With his dreads in bleached colours and tattoos blazing up his torso, Smutty looks like the flames he dances with; he's much too wild, and yet oddly too conservative, for a man like Giles.

Yet as they work out how to mesh, even if temporarily, the two are more alike than it seems at first glance, and if they don't mesh, the friction is interesting. Giles is teetering on the brink of alcoholism; Smutty shuns the stuff. Smutty dances with fire; Giles has reason to fear it. Yet they come together.

Fabian, the horrid ex, casts a very long shadow, even though he's offstage for most of his role. The author tweaks the reader's expectations of him masterfully; his truths are buried deep. Giles is still living in reaction to Fabian's expectations; this was a toxic relationship but repeated exposures to Smutty's herbal teas draw the poison from Giles' heart. Kindness and real love are so far in Giles' past he has some trouble recognizing the signs now. Fabian gets mentioned at times when I really didn't want him intruding, but I could see why Giles would think of him then.

The gap in social status weighs more heavily on Smutty, whose off-the-grid lifestyle lifts a lot of eyebrows. His Maori heritage is his pride, the source of his livelihood, and cause for discrimination. He's feeling the tick of time, not wanting to get too attached because he'll be moving along soon. A posh fellow like Giles surely can't want him long term, can he? The man who tends the gardens is only help to be dallied with, Smutty fears. A wanderer who accidentally boated into his life is only going to sail away again, Giles is sure. The gardens, long untended but starting to recover under Smutty's care, are a lovely metaphor for the relationship, with roots, blooms, and a lot of work.

This was a charming journey, as the two men find the way to be together, and around the barriers to happiness that their pasts have erected. I read this in one sitting, thoroughly engrossed, and wishing I could watch Smutty dance with fire.

The story was originally serialized on the author's blog, and is still there, but it's more than worth the modest cover price to have a nicely formatted version where all the text is in one place. If Josephine Myles wasn't already on my must-read list, this story would put her there. 5 marbles

Because I was so intrigued by Smutty's fire dancing, I went looking for more information. This has to be really cool to watch!

The Tea Demon by Cornelia Grey

The Tea Demon by Cornelia Grey
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Steampunk/fantasy
Length: 52 pages



Thief Eric Devon wishes one thing: for people to leave him bloody well alone. And maybe for more whiskey. Until a mysterious stranger offers him a job so dangerous that no one has ever attempted it and survived to tell the tale: recover a priceless object from the Turtle Merchants’ impregnable palace. Intrigued by the man and the challenge, Eric accepts—but the stranger is none other than the legendary airship captain known as the Tea Demon, terror of the Sea of Clouds. Eric must come up with the best plan in history if he wants to complete his job... and survive it too.
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Cornelia Grey layers a fantastical world with steampunk details in this entertaining romp of a story. The Tea Demon mixed whimsy with sexiness and adventure to create a lively story well worth the read.

Never one to shy away from the gritty details, Ms Grey starts us in a seedy bar, where a thief can be found for a fearsome job. A mysterious stranger approaches Eric Devon for a caper, but first has to challenge him into taking the job. The forfeit? A kiss that curls Eric's toes, and the caper? Steal the ultimate treasure from the impregnable fortress. The penalty for failure? Horrible, and it's a long way down.

Captain Jonathan Tea, that sexy beast, is the most fearsome sky pirate in this cloud based world, where airships tie up to bronze sky ports miles above ground and larger installations ride on the backs of turtles. Readers of Discworld will feel right at home, with the unquestioned oddities and strange characters who communicate in snappy one-liners. The Captain, prone to flying into rages that make his crew fear for the ship, has a whim of steel and can only be calmed with fine tea, or steamy sex.

Ms. Grey paints wonderful pictures with her words: she's becoming an autobuy for me, and here she's taking sly pokes at a lot of the fantasy/adventure tropes, making me snicker. She gives Eric a plan that's perfectly ridiculous and its execution outlandish -- between laughing and groaning I attracted a considerable amount of attention to myself at the coffee shop, but who cares, it was worth it.

The story ends in a big OH NO and a bigger AW, and was pure over the top fun. 5 marbles

A Picture is Worth...

Wow! Our last pics generated some real heat, enough to melt the Christmas snows! Thanks, Eden Winters, Tam Ames, and Chrissy Munder!

Who knows why this poor fellow is in prison? (It's John Barrymore in Don Juan, but a general inspiration is fine, it doesn't have to be him.) If you have 100 to 1000 words of ficlet or excerpt, I'll post it here with covers, blurbs and links. Send it to CryselleC AT gmail Dot com. If any of the older pictures inspire you, great, send it along and tell me which pic.

Blue River by Theo Fenraven

Title: Blue River
Author: Theo Fenraven
Cover Artist: Deanna Jamroz
Publisher: MLR Press
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 14k words


Photography genius Ethan Mars unexpectedly travels back in time and meets Quinn, a sexually-innocent farmer just begging to be corrupted. Falling in love is the last thing Ethan expects, and when he abruptly finds the way back to his own time, he is faced with an impossible decision. Stay...or go?

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That Ethan considers Quinn an innocent to be corrupted tells you a lot about Ethan. Very full of himself, Ethan's figures a little pleasure trip into another time via a handy fog-portal is a pleasant day's jaunt. If there's a cutie on the other side to mess with, so much the better. Quinn and his sister Hester have already had one fog-traveler drop in on them, so they aren't exactly taken by surprise when Ethan appears. They're willing to be hosts for as long as it takes the fog to return to take Ethan back to 2011.

Ethan's a crude young man, never using plain speech if a vulgarity will work, and not shy about revealing his gayness right off the bat before recalling the reality of frontier 1863. Quinn admits his own lack of enthusiasm for his upcoming marriage, and Ethan's ready to show Quinn everything he's been missing.

It takes Ethan a while to adjust to a previous time's way of doing things; he fluctuates between understanding that survival means a hell of a lot of work if you have to do everything yourself, and enjoying the vivid tastes and smells that come with this way of life. Some of the smells, at least. Unwashed bedding grossed him out but he wasn't offering to do the laundry either.

Quinn's pretty certain about what his life is going to be like: he sees his responsibility to marry and to be part of the community, no matter what his sexuality is. Never having been able to act on his desires before, he hesitates at first, but he quickly learns all that Ethan can teach him in bed and out. And while riding a horse backwards, too.

Somewhere in Ethan's desire to debauch Quinn—'corrupt' is Ethan's own word—his feelings turn to love, but the choices aren't really his anymore.

The necessary HEA happens, but at the cost of Quinn's turning his back on everything, including his honor, an idea that hovers in the background without being stated. Ethan, the POV character, possibly doesn't recognize the concept. For Quinn's sake, I was ready to sniffle for the star-crossed lovers until I didn't have to, and then I just hoped that Quinn was an adaptable sort and recalled where the fog was.

This probably should be considered a fairy tale with realistic elements and therefore I shouldn't be so picky about the sacrifices being made, but Quinn was a significant element of a small community, a responsibility he considered vital until he got laid. I couldn't help but think he'd given up the more important part of his manhood in exchange for sex with a not especially likeable guy, and was confusing love with Hobson's Choice. 3.25 marbles

The Zero Knot by K.Z. Snow

The Zero Knot by K.Z. Snow
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, M/M, GLBT
Length: 220 pages


Eighteen-year-old Jess Bonner is casting off pretense—and, with it, some friends from his past who aren’t particularly trustworthy. In just a few months he’ll be starting college, and it’s time for him to admit the truth: he’s gay, not bi, and only one of his old friends holds any kind of real interest for him. When Dylan Finch, aka Mig, follows his lead and puts some distance between himself and the old crowd, he and Jess give in to a mutual attraction that’s been building for years.

But navigating a fledgling relationship isn’t easy for beginners, and forces they can’t seem to control keep tripping them up: sexual appetite, personal insecurities, fear of discovery, and more. They need clarity. They need courage. Just as they’re on the verge of finding both, a vindictive act of jealousy sends one of them to jail. All their hard-won victories are in danger of falling to dust. And the only way to save what they have is to recognize it for what it is… and fight for its integrity.

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Part of growing up is figuring out who you are, what you want, and what you're willing to do to get it. In The Zero Knot, KZ Snow gives us a coming of age story where three young men arrive at two different answers.

The blurb describes the story rather completely, so the question here isn't so much what happens as how it happens. It's a bumpy road for Jess and Mig; their interest in one another is blooming to love, but the call of the hormones drags them in several directions. Jess in particular is having a rough time of it; he wants Mig but the lure of casual sex is hard to resist. A sordid encounter at his Renfaire job opens his eyes to the path he's starting to tread, as do the wise words of an older friend:

“The scales will always tip in favor of what enriches your life. That's the thing you'll end up choosing.”

Mig is a more thoughtful young man from the beginning; he's concerned that what Jess wants may not be the same as what he wants and is willing to spare himself the heartbreak while Jess grows up a bit more. Sometimes Jess calls him Mig, sometimes Dylan, his given name, and it's a pretty good symbol of how mature Jess is capable of being at the moment.

Sometimes it's not much – a heavy frotting session in the driveway of the untrustworthy friend's house isn't exactly discreet. Other times, it's admirable, such as how he looks for the solution to the legal problems.

The secondary characters don't come off so well: Tomby the Meddlesome Female at least has an unique method of meddling and the beginnings of a conscience. Any growth displayed by Brandon, the fourth of the formerly close knit group, is backwards, towards spoiled brathood. All sets of parents, who hover in the background, have their own maturity issues to work through, with varying success. The one totally bright spot is irritating kid brother Jared, all intrusive, perceptive, and with the absolutely best lines.

KZ Snow lets the young people flounder with skillful and imaginative writing; we can see them growing up, sometimes one sentence at a time. Some of their adventures are a bit stomach churning, particularly the casual acceptance of drugs, but feel like real youth happening. How much one enjoys the story may depend on how accepting one is of adolescent angst, it could be entertaining or just aggravating. I hovered on the edge of wanting to slap everyone at one point or another. The vindictive act that sends Mig to jail was wanton cruelty, and I did spend part of that sequence trying to puzzle out the time line and did it match the way the justice system is supposed to work, which it didn't really.

A zero knot, as Tomby tells the young men, has no beginning or end, it can be distorted, but remains an unbroken loop unless it's completely destroyed, and as Jess finds, sometimes its other name is love. Jess and Dylan end well on their way to forging an unbreakable loop. 4 marbles