A Thousand Word Excerpt from Tam Ames

Hee, this one's on the naughty side! Tam sent us an excerpt of her new story, The Santa Problem.

****

The door opened and I glanced up to see one of the elderly security guards staring at us. I looked down and realized how it looked, me without pants and Gavin kneeling at my feet. Granted he was scrubbing my thigh down with soap but...

The guy stared for a moment, then quickly turned and practically ran out of the room as fast as his geriatric legs could carry him. I couldn't stop the laughter. Gavin looked up from his scrubbing. "What?"

"You didn't see him?"

"See who?"

"The old dude who thinks you were down there giving me a blow job."

He quickly stood up, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me around the corner into an area with mirrors and a small chair. It was separated from the rest of the bathroom by a partial-wall. He shoved me back against the wall. You could only see us if you actually entered the area rather than turned right toward the cubicles.

"What the fuck, Gavin?" His grin was evil. "You're going to get in trouble. I can't afford to support us both if you get fired."

He just smiled wider and dropped to his knees again. He yanked down the front of my underwear. I wasn't hard, I was too shocked, but he leaned forward and took me in his mouth, and about two sucks later I was too big for him to take the whole thing. He glanced up and fluttered his eye lashes. "You want me to stop, Lane?" He licked my balls, knowing there was no way I'd ask him to stop.

I ripped that ridiculous elf hat off his head and grabbed his hair. I pulled his head back and gave him my I'm the boss look. "You have five minutes. It had better be good."

"Oh, baby, you know it'll be good." The smirk made me want to prove him wrong, but when I saw us reflected in the mirror, I remembered where we were. I didn't want to get him in trouble, so speed was probably for the best.

"Then hop to it, elf-boy." God. Maybe I was developing a Christmas fetish. I looked in the mirror again, me in the Santa jacket, him in the elf costume at my feet. Hot. Freaky weird, but hot.

"Oh, yes, Santa, whatever you say." He cooed. Okay, crossing over into too weird, but then his mouth was back on me, taking me as deep as he could, so I didn't care much. He began sucking with a vengeance, doing this little flippy thing with his tongue as he pulled up that made me crazy.

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If you want to find out whether they get caught or not, read the rest of Tam's Christmas short, The Santa Problem, published by Torquere. Gavin is a very naughty elf. 

Blurb:

Lane would do most anything to make his live-in love Gavin happy, but this is taking things too far. Just because Gavin can’t find someone to play Santa at his office building doesn’t mean it’s Lane’s problem, too. But Gavin can be very persuasive when he wants his way, and Lane may be taking on more than he can handle in order to keep his man content.

Buy here.

A Picture is Worth...

Ahem! Well, can't guarantee that this guy won't get kicked off, but while he lasts, won't someone puh-lease write him a little story? Or do you have an excerpt that fits him?

If any of the older pictures tickle the muse, just tell me which one. But 100 to 1000 words (honest, short works!) of story, and I will post it here with links, blurbs, and covers for you.

Winter Warmers anthology

Title: Winter Warmers
Editors: Josephine Myles and JL Merrow
Cover Artist: Lou Harper
Publisher: Pink Squirrel Press
Genre: contemporary
Length: 126 pages


Baby, it's cold outside! Beat the chill with Winter Warmers—a seasonal anthology.

Mulled wine. Butterscotch kisses. Hideous sweaters. Candy at the beach, or a trip to a sex shop in Amsterdam. And the man of your dreams, wrapped around you... Winter warmers come in many shapes and sizes, from the tongue-in-cheek to the hot-as-hell. Enjoy a quintet of heart-warming tales of men loving men from Clare London, Chrissy Munder, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles, and Lou Harper that are guaranteed to leave you with a smile on your face.

One thing's for sure—it's going to be a red-hot Christmas!

Lucky Dip by Clare London
Andy Jackson always knew that class 2C’s help in preparing for the annual Christmas Fair would be a mixed blessing. Then he’s paired up on the Lucky Dip with Greg, the man who dumped him but now can’t keep away, the pupils are either lecturing him on his lovelife or losing bladder control, and no one’s fixed the broken handle on the storage room. It may all be one whoopee cushion too far for him.

Butterscotch Kisses by Chrissy Munder
Matthew Morrison is determined to conquer his fear of heights and achieve a winning outcome. At least, that’s what the best-selling, self-help book he’s listening to promises. Being stuck on a three-story tower in the middle of a snowstorm wasn’t part of the plan. With no St. Bernard in sight, it’s Cute Ticket Guy Adam to the rescue, and an outcome Matthew never anticipated.

Wintertide by Lou Harper
May meets December when Jem and Oscar chance on each other at the Santa Monica Pier, only weeks before Christmas. The two men are separated by age, social status, and their taste in candy, yet if they are both naughty and nice, they might just find holiday cheer together.

When in Amsterdam... by Josephine Myles
Brandon is on his first visit to new boyfriend Jos’s home country, just in time for their Sinterklaas celebrations. But an unexpected detour into a sex shop leads Brandon to new discoveries about himself, and a whole new dynamic to their relationship. The weather may be cold and damp, but Brandon and Jos soon heat things up!

A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips, and Thou by JL Merrow
What’s the best gift a young man could get for Christmas? Mohawked saxophonist Liam wouldn’t have picked the hideous collection of knitwear he’s presented with by his mum and his aunties. He’d rather have the gorgeous older man he sees every day while busking at King’s Cross. But with a little Christmas magic in the air, maybe those garish garments are just the thing for attracting a silver fox…

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Lucky Dip by Clare London

Poor Andy Jackson—if something can go wrong, it will go wrong, all over him. This poor klutz trips over himself and the small children working on the festival displays. Not only is he a hazard to himself and others, it makes him feel like a fool in front of Greg Canbury, the debonair uncle of one of the students, and Andy's former lover. They'd broken up once before, breaking Andy's heart, and now, he's got to work an entire carnival in close proximity to the man. Sometimes, what goes wrong is really what goes right—one last disaster gives Greg a chance to talk with him.

This was a really cute story, although the non-stop accidents began to get a tiny bit wearing, particularly when they involved a toddler who had no business being there that I could see. However, this story of second chances is so charming that I left off wanting to swat the toddler's mother to say, "Awwww" for Greg and Andy instead. Out of the mouths of babes...

Butterscotch Kisses by Chrissy Munder

Matthew's trying to conquer his fear of heights, as step one of his road to more self confidence in general, a goal that costs him ten bucks, some fear, and an adrenaline hangover every night he tries to ascend a toboggan run. Cute Ticket Guy, with his massive collection of strange hats, isn't too clear on what this project is – no one likes toboggan runs this much, but when he has to rescue Matthew, a lot becomes clear.

I really felt for Matthew, who is feeling the effects of more than one bad boyfriend to go with an already debilitating phobia. He's trying so hard to cure himself of this, so that maybe he can tackle the other issues in his life. Cute Ticket Guy turns out to be Adam, who is a nice guy with a small streak of wickedness, which I really liked. This story ends on a beginning; they've really only just met, but it's a nice warm beginning.

Wintertide by Lou Harper

Jem and Oscar have so little in common that they use different POVs: Jem's is third person, Oscar tells his story in first person. The effect is a little ragged. Older, bereaved Oscar is looking for another chance at love; Jem's young and casting around. There isn't really anything to bring these two together other than Oscar's desire to take care of Jem and that they are both alone. A third party kibitzing on Oscar's end says some wise things and doesn't question Oscar's choice, though I did. The story is low-key, as befits Oscar's emotional state.

When in Amsterdam by Josesphine Myles

Joesphine Myles has become an autobuy for me, and I would want to read this collection if I knew nothing about it other than she has a story in it. Once again, she combines a bit of fish out of water, sly humor, and sexual heat. The reason for Brandon and Jos to be in the sex shop seemed a tad thin, but hey, they are there, and one thing does lead to another. Brandon had to expand his horizons just a bit, and Jos is willing to adjust his desires to what Brandon can handle. It's not the sex alone where they compromise, it's traditions and expectations, and both men are willing to give a bit. Loved this one.

A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips, and Thou by JL Merrow

This story starts off with a shocking remark, and only gets sillier. Liam, raised by witches, has the kind of good humor to accept his aunts' gifts in the spirit in which they were intended, and if their knitting looks like an explosion in a head shop, he's still game to wear it. And it's pretty good bait:

This time, though, he was frankly staring. Well, I couldn't blame him, now could I? He'd probably never seen a busker with a teapot on his head before.

Enough crazed knitting later, Liam does get his date with Neil, and a truly unconventional first date it is. Neil's assessment still has me laughing. Another ending on a beginning, and I hope Neil's got the fortitude to go the distance, because I want to read about it!

***
As with any anthology, some stories are stronger than others, but the quality here is high overall, and the last two stories alone are reason enough to buy the book. As a lovely bonus, the formatting is pretty, with snowflakes as scene breaks. Best of all, my copy had internal anchors for good interior navigation, which makes revisiting my favorites one at a time much simpler; I do not know why this feature is not more widespread in PDF files. This is the first project from Pink Squirrel Press, and they are doing a lot of things right. 4.25 marbles

The Right Wrong Turn by Heidi Champa

Title: The Right Wrong Turn
Author: Heidi Champa
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Quill
Genre: contemporary
Length: 158 pages


Derek Owen has made a new life for himself in Austin after leaving his hometown of Cedar Bluff years before. In his rush to start over, he left behind his first and only love, Luke McLeod. He's moved up and moved on with a job at an accounting firm and a completely inappropriate relationship with his boss, Ben Dickson.

When Derek and Ben are caught in a compromising position, Derek is sent into exile, ostensibly to do an audit of a ranch near Cedar Bluff that's keen on expansion. Going home means confronting the past, and Luke, who is still living there. Derek soon finds himself tangled up in small-town secrets and lies. And, fighting his old feelings for Luke.

Can Derek figure out the right way forward, or has his life taken one too many wrong turns?
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The narrator, Derek, has left his small town roots and his small town love, Luke, far behind in his search for success in the big city. He misplaces his sense of right and wrong intermittently; it disappears when his cock goes up and manifests when he's flaccid.

Derek's supervisor Ben, theoretically in a committed relationship, summons Derek frequently, in spite of their mutual protestations that they shouldn't be involved. Furtive blowjobs in dank supply closets do not a relationship make, but his spine is a good grade of macaroni; he drops trou at the crook of Ben's finger. This isn't even an office romance, it's office tawdriness, showing Ben in his amoral self-centeredness. Derek doesn't come off much better, and when he's shipped off to pay penance by doing an audit in the boondocks, all he can think of is how fortunate he is not to be fired immediately.

The boonies in question are his old home town, and the audit, he comes to find out, touches his former lover's hopes and future. Luke, who summoned the courage years earlier to tell Derek that he didn't cherish hopes of finding his fortune in the city, is both alarmed and interested in Derek's return. Luke doesn't get a lot of honest answers at first, and by the time he does, he's well on his way to getting his heart broken again.

Luke is the voice of honesty here; he knows what he wants with his life and with his partner, and he's willing to make the hard choices that pay off in the long term. He's still a bit bitter about how things went between him and Derek, but finds enough forgiveness to start crawling through Derek's bedroom window again.

Derek's relationship with Luke, his relationship with the truth, and his job all come together with a resounding smash. Since Derek hasn't shown any great strength of character so far, reading how this shakes out was quite stomach churning. This book had me cussing and muttering instructions to the characters; Derek followed almost all of them eventually, but geeezzzzz (though he missed a chance at a final flip-off to someone who deserved it.).

The writing is smooth, letting the story unfold in first person from Derek's POV. His mental progressions flow, from disbelief to self pity, to resignation, and at last to determination and understanding that what's right isn't going to be easy. The impression that he's the sort of sleaze who deserves a Ben takes a long time to change; Luke's much too good for him, right up to the last few pages. Luke vaults from "I can't trust you" to "I still love you" which should be accounted a gift from God; all the intervening years and Derek's crappy behavior gets wiped away for doing the right thing one time.

The small town of Cedar Falls, is a puzzle; it's big enough to support a restaurant with a French trained chef but not big enough to support two accountants; it's rural Texas but one man hand-feeding another in a cowboy bar doesn't arouse comment. They feel very free to speak of intimate matters in a public place, and while that strikes me as a good sort of environment, it also, alas, doesn't seem very realistic.

The proportions of the story seem skewed—the cock-driven affair with Ben gets a lot of page time; by the time Derek gets back to Cedar Falls, half the book has elapsed. Derek doesn't examine why he's willing to screw around with a slimeball like Ben, whose lover seems ruthless enough to be a good match for him. "Not being over Luke" doesn't explain the self-destructiveness of this affair. It was interesting to read, in a "watch the car crash" way, but Derek doesn't seem to have learned anything from it. The relationship with Luke gets about half that much treatment, including the flashbacks, and quite a bit of important business between them happens offstage or in the past.

That said, I liked this story quite a bit more than its flaws would suggest: Heidi Champa somehow writes around them in a way that is a pleasure to read. The Right Wrong Turn is more about Derek's moral evolution than the romance. 3.5 marbles

Angel by Laura Lee

Angel by Laura Lee
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: GLBT Contemporary
Length: 200 pages


Summary: Itineris Press, the best in quality GLBT faith-based fiction, is proud to offer Angel by Laura Lee.

Since the loss of his lively, charming wife to cancer six years ago, minister Paul Tobit has been operating on autopilot, performing his religious duties by rote. Everything changes the day he enters the church lobby and encounters a radiant, luminous being lit from behind, breathtakingly beautiful and glowing with life. An angel. For a moment Paul is so moved by his vision that he is tempted to fall on his knees and pray.

Even after he regains his focus and realizes he simply met a flesh-and-blood young man, Paul cannot shake his sense of awe and wonder. He feels an instant and overwhelming attraction for the young man, which puzzles him even as it fills his thoughts and fires his feelings. Paul has no doubt that God has spoken to him through this vision, and Paul must determine what God is calling him to do.

Thus begins a journey that will inspire Paul’s ministry but put him at odds with his church as he is forced to examine his deeply held beliefs and assumptions about himself, his community, and the nature of love.

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From the very beginning, Laura Lee warns you that this is not a standard romance. More literary and philosophical than most, pausing frequently to consider the ramifications of mountains as the high places of God, Angel tracks the spiritual and sexual journeys of a minister and a recovering alcoholic. No longer attached to a church, Paul Tobit gives us a glimpse of what is to come in the very prologue, where his small cabin at the base of Mount Rainier contains everything he needs, but that list does not contain Ian.

We meet Paul six years into his widowhood – he lost Sara, his wife, during their mid-thirties, and has been going through the motions since. Never the life of the party, Paul needed Sara's ebullience to effectively do his work. He loved her deeply and sincerely, and is genuinely startled to discover that he's intensely attracted to an "angel" that he sees in the church.

The angel is Ian Finnerty, a beautiful young man trying to leave his self-destructive path, come to the church for an AA meeting. Caught in the light, his ethereal appearance enchants Paul, who is truly shocked to find Ian is male. They embark on what is initially a mentor/protégé relationship that quickly becomes more, though how much more, they dare not disclose to the congregation. This sect holds to conflicting attitudes toward homosexuality – gays are to be welcomed into the community, but may not officiate; that's "inconsistent with Christian teaching."

The story is not precisely "gay for you" or even "out for you," but probably the most genuine expression of "love the specific person" I've read. Paul struggles with the categories, not thinking of himself as gay or bi, or even actually heterosexual. He's never questioned his desires before, apparently since he never needed to, fantasies being only fantasies. By book's end, he hasn't quite come to any conclusion but that he cannot stay in the ministry. Ian's more straightforward; he's definitely gay and the church he grew up in rejects him completely for it.

The men are very complementary, each teaching the other some important lessons. Paul helps Ian find his way to sobriety and back to God. Ian teaches Paul about love, questioning authority, and living fully. Ian's characterization was a little unusual in that he's spent most of his youth and early adulthood self-medicating away from reality with the booze, but now lives a very full and self aware life, without much consideration of why he turned to alcohol or what function it served for him.

The church and Paul's deceased wife are never far away from Paul and Ian; "Saint Sara" is almost more oppressive than centuries of dogma. Ian feels that she's on a pedestal, being a woman and dead, and that he can't compete. Paul can't quite shake his anger that Ian had a life before him, with sex that might or might not have been meaningful. Neither is quite secure in believing in his place in the other man's life, and then there's the church, that 800 lb disapproving gorilla.

The story is told in a distant third person, nearly omniscient viewpoint, separating reader and protagonists. The omniscience isn't quite complete, since it dips infrequently into Ian's head, more often telling us Paul's thoughts, memories, and backstory. The invisible narrator (it does not "feel" like Paul's mind) pauses often to muse on the nature of friendship, relationships, communities, other people's life stories, and more, before returning to the action at hand. The few times the story truly showed us their growth, such as the "decorate-the-Christmas tree" scene, came as a great narrative relief. The effect is very literary and a little dry, reminding us that the primary romance is between Paul and religion. Perhaps Ian's greatest gift to Paul is reminding him that God, religion, and the church are not one and the same.

Approach Angel as a literary quest and questioning of Christian attitudes to homosexuality and love, not as a romance, and it will be a more satisfying read; the story and Ian raise some extremely good points. 3.5 marbles

Junction X by Erastes

Title: Junction X Author: Erastes
Cover Artist: Alex Beecroft
Publisher: Cheyenne Publishing
Genre: historical
Length: 200 pages
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
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Set in the very English suburbia of 1962 where everyone has tidy front gardens and lace curtains, Junction X is the story of Edward Johnson, who ostensibly has the perfect life: A beautiful house, a great job, an attractive wife and two well-mannered children. The trouble is he’s been lying to himself all of his life. And first love, when it does come, hits him and hits him hard. Who is the object of his passion? The teenaged son of the new neighbours.

Edward’s world is about to go to hell.
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Readers who require happy endings, you are excused now. The rest of you, come over here, let me tell you about something really extraordinary.

Conformity, thy name is Edward Johnson, stockbroker, family man. Aside from a friendship with benefits with his neighbor, he's the picture of standardized suburban success. And why shouldn't he indulge? It's not like either Phil or Ed's wife will give them blowjobs, and it's really the best way to cap off a round of golf. His life is stable with this unconventional arrangement until Phil and his wife move away.

The new neighbors don't fit the neighborhood: he's an engineer (how shocking! He works with his hands!) and she's a nurse (extra shocking! She works!). They've come to a neighborhood nearly beyond their means in order to get their beloved, brilliant son into the best school, hoping to prepare him for the best universities.

Alex is a youth born too soon for the love he's about to encounter. This is 1962, he's still under-aged, and he's gay in an exuberant way that it hurts him to hide. He's on the cusp of adulthood, knows what he wants, and what he wants is Ed. It's fitting that they begin to bond over his huge set-up of model trains: too serious to be toys, too playful to be work, but an acceptable reason for a thirty-three year old man to spend time with a seventeen year old boy.

This is told as Ed's memoir, which gives a definite air of doom from the very beginning. From his intermittently frosty relationship with his former tennis-pro wife, his indulgent irritation with his young twin children, to his strangely lopsided relationship with Phil, Ed is bored and primed for a grand passion, but given the times, his lover, and his self-delusion, there isn't a bit of hope that this will end in any way but tears.

And I cried, oh I cried. I gritted my teeth, I wanted to shake Ed and smack Phil: I wanted to lead Alex by the hand away from this life, this man, into another decade where he could be happy all his life. This might be a throwback to an older form, where gay lovers had to be punished, but the prose is so beautiful, the tragedy so poignant and inevitable, and unfolds so perfectly that the step back works. Ed is not an entirely reliable narrator: his capacity for deluding himself is high, though he comes to recognize that he is depraved, but it's a corruption of integrity, not sexuality. Everyone around him, from his family to his friends, suffers from his flexible honesty; Alex suffers most of all.

Ed lays himself bare, given the restrictions of his ability to speak honestly; Alex is seen through his eyes with either a beatific glow or an unwarranted dismissal. The secondary characters suffer from Ed's narration but have a vivid presence: Valerie chafes at her life, worrying at Ed, Phil, who can do friendly blowjobs and winks at an affair as long as he thinks it's a woman, and the Charleses, Alex' parents, horrified at the last by their golden child.

This story has a lot of elements that I'd say, as a knee jerk reaction, that I hate. Lying, cheating, an underaged MC. And yet I loved the story. I do sad endings if they're fitting. This is fitting.

This is one gorgeously written story; it's painful but intense. I'm glad I read it, though I don't know that I'll revisit it; it hurts too much. But one time through hurts so good. 5 marbles

A Picture is worth...

It doesn't look quite this bad outside, yet, but it's snowing! I still have hopes that some author will tell a story for our mountain men, and who can tell us more about what's going on here?

 Send a ficlet or an excerpt to go with this picture, and I'll post it with a cover, blurb, and links. If an older picture pokes your muse, great, just make sure I know which pic.