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Emmi Lawrence

~ MM Fantasy Romance Writer

Emmi  Lawrence

Category Archives: Fantasy

Canvas Blues – LII: Yesteryears

20 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, Flash, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, prose, reading, Short Fiction, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

LII: Yesteryears

The races grew dull that summer, at least in Brendon’s eyes. Same roaring engines. Same pisswater beers. Same booming music. He spent the time drawing cars, peeking in at engines Casey could identify by sound alone.

They would linger far into the warm nights, creeping through tall grass, scratching at mosquito bites for days and days after. Casey got to sit in Taylor L.’s car—black leather seat sticking to the underside of his knees—and press that pedal like he owned it, blowing smoke and cooking oil like butter in a pan, but sweeter. Least that’s how Casey described it, all tingling from the tips of his fingers to the bottom of his soles.

Taylor L. would nudge and chuckle and sit a little too close, always with that swagger that made him seem like a God with a capital. Magnanimous and easy with his blessings, though Brendon always got the impression that Taylor L. would have been just as happy to forget Brendon existed, especially when he spoke in a foreign language—spouting torque and horsepower while Brendon’s pencil focused on the glint of light off the studded belt one of the other boys wore.

“Dad’s gone, for the whole week. Heading out west—Tennessee to see family and a doctor out there for a second opinion.” Casey threw up a hand and waved in the general direction of west, which also happened to be upstreet, road coursing off, gravel offshoots spitting out like branches from a trunk.

“So you’re staying with your mom?”

“Nah. Becks is still mad at me. Says I wasn’t empathetic enough to her situation.” Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – LI: Yesteryears

13 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, prose, reading, Romance, Short Fiction, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

LI: Yesteryears

The summer before high school sped past at a sprint, his mom and Aunt Laurel still gushing about the painting Brendon had at The Bayscape to anyone who would listen. He started ducking his head whenever he heard his name fall off their lips and picked up the habit of throwing something up to cover his face whenever the camera turned his way: a hand, a hood, his sketchbook.

“He’s my quiet one,” his mom would tell people. “The only one of the bunch. Buy him a stack of sketchbooks at Christmas and you won’t see him till Easter and only then to ask for another stack.”

Fair’s fair, he reasoned, though he’d still duck his head and scribble cross-hatches faster.

Donna Pierceman rang him up mid-summer. July 17th. Hot and humid, skin smelling like his mom’s lotion because the unscented had run out. He’d been curled on the cushioned bench on the porch, drinking sugar with ice tea in it and playing on Robbie’s tablet when his mom came out with the phone.

“Ms. Pierceman’s called for you.”

“Who’s that?” asked Robbie as Brendon sat up and reached for the phone.

He made a hushing noise and cleared his throat, scarcely noticing his mom still lingering in the doorway, holding open the screen in the way she’d have yelled at him for.

“Ms. Pierceman, this is Brendon.” Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – L: Present

06 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, Love, M/M, microfiction, Mystery, Novel, prose, reading, Romance, Short Fiction, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

L: Present

That night, Brendon spent an hour peeling his bedroom walls. Photos and pictures and sketches going in piles in the living room and kitchen. Every single piece of art torn down, until the barrenness became oppressive, the blankness like a canvas daring him to start.

Then he opened the hall closet and flicked through history: Robbie perched on a fence post near the bay, Aunt Laurel in her flowing skirts at her wedding, Mom in the kitchen, flour on her apron and pecan bread dough being beaten within an inch of its life. In the far back, sticking to the old paint on the wall it’d been hidden for so long, Casey grinned, his head thrown back, his hair a wild, wild mess, and the straightaway outside St. Thomas’s soaring into the distance behind him.

Brendon pulled the painting out and held it in two hands, his vision going double, seeing into the past. He’d used pale ivories and peachy tones to capture Casey’s body. Dressed him in a tank and greased him with summer sweat. Like the way he’d look after they’d parked in the field in the growing development, hot hands against one another. Skin sticky, as if the humidity conspired to glue them together in the back seat of Casey’s car.

Their world had been tight and narrow and Casey never had seen the side streets. Brendon hadn’t either, too focused on the car in front of him, uncaring where it might be heading.

He hung Casey’s portrait in his bedroom, a singular point in the barrenness.

“If it’s true,” he whispered to Casey. Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – IL: Yesteryears

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

IL: Yesteryears

Mr. Wexlar had a tendency to wave the eighth graders out, out and toward the rising sun of high school, like it was his business to shuffle them along, toward the next art teacher. The motion became more pronounced the closer Brendon got to promotion, like Mr. Wexlar had a habit of swatting flies from his face, except those flies might well have been early teens just about to start their most troubling years.

He’d come in with a ruddy face blotchy with bug bites, assumedly from a night out on the lake, and demand perfection up until that last bittersweet week where he became maudlin, repeating himself.

“You’ll come back now. Show me upgrades you’ve done to that portfolio. It’s a good one. Serve you well until you make another.”

“I will.” And Brendon meant it at the time, though later his mind feasted on fears that kept him from lugging new paintings back to middle school to show Mr. Wexlar.

“If you need help with college applications. Or need a recommendation. Or anything at all.” Another wave across his face at an imaginary fly. “You’ve got vision, Brendon. You’ll go far.” Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – XXXXVIII: Yesteryears

23 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

XXXXVIII: Yesteryears

Mr. Wexlar showed Brendon how to fold used cardboard and poster board into a makeshift portfolio. Was a project for the week for the entire eighth grade glass toward the end of the school year, but while Mr. Wexlar didn’t seem to care much what other kids did with theirs, he paid special attention, much of it critical, to Brendon’s work.

“You’ll want to smooth those edges. Here. Here’s a file. Get to shaping that. And make it even. Marks off if the angles are wrong. No, I don’t care if you haven’t had trig yet. You at least have your protractor, well, use it and your ruler and figure it out.”

And later, during decorating:

“You want to stand out, but not be gaudy. You want to say, ‘I’m worthy of attention’, not ‘look at me, look at me, look at me.’ See all that glitter Emma and Jasmine are using? Yeah, don’t do that.”

“I wasn’t going to use glitter.”

“Of course you weren’t. Not my point.”

“What was your point?”

“To push yourself just shy of the glitter stage. There’s a sweet spot, between too-much and not-enough. And more often than not you like to swim about in not-enough because it’s comfortable.”

“I do not,” muttered Brendon. Because yes, yes he did. Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – XXXXVII: Present

16 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

XXXXVII: Present

“As you wish.” Orion set his glass down. “I’m too curious about people, normally a positive trait, unless one takes it to extremes and ceases to think of a person as a person and instead as a puzzle. I lack a certain amount of empathetic capability, but have taught myself to see things I can’t understand, to remember what gets me the response I want and what to do to avoid situations I dislike.”

“You sound like you’re describing a psychopath.”

Orion laughed and gave a rolling, one-shouldered shrug, his gaze like knives flicking about the room. “I have emotions. I’m just selfish and wish everyone thought as I do even knowing that’s unrealistic to the extreme. But knowing is half the battle and being in control of myself allows me to avoid much of the drama of my youth.”

“You? Having drama?” The anger hadn’t fled, but it’d banked in the easy acceptance Orion had of laying himself bare in such a simplistic, open manner. His faults on display, his complacence lacking in malicious intent.

“I assure you, the amount of drama existing around my younger years would have drown you. Especially if you’ve become less reserved, as shy persons are wont to do as they gain experiences that teach them to be less afraid of the world in general.”

“I’m not afraid of the world. I just don’t like it invading my space.”

“You’re afraid now.” Orion’s gaze turned considering. “I’m just not sure of what.”

“I’m not a puzzle,” murmured Brendon. Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – XXXXVI: Yesteryears

09 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

XXXXVI: Yesteryears

They talked about running away. Not to the circus, but to the races, of course. To Dayton, to Nashville, to France for the Grand Prix, all the places that made sense in middle school because those places couldn’t be that far away, could they?

The talks were cathartic to Brendon for those days when life felt unfair because he’d been forced to do extra dishes or bathroom scrubbing or burgeoning yard work as the season did its slow change. He hadn’t quite been aware of Casey’s seriousness, even after that afternoon spent hidden away with Taylor L. Casey certainly didn’t talk much of it, though he got surly and muttered worse things about his father than he ever had about Tori Kel.

“Maybe we could talk to Robbie, the three of us do something like we used to. Paintball, maybe? Robbie’s got the extra guns.”

Casey’s expression about split Brendon’s head in two it was so vitriolic and cruel as he returned Brendon’s words in a mocking tone. “Robbie’s got extra guns. Of course Robbie’s got extra guns. Got extra everything. I thought you were my friend.”

“I am.”

He’d been nostalgic, thinking of the days the three of them had rode their bikes down The Big Hill, racing against age and time and color and all things grown-up. Back when he hadn’t noticed that Robbie’s bike had been newer, cleaner, more expensive. That Casey’s clung to sun-warped stickers that had originally been pink, now faded a dirty white. Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – XXXXV: Yesteryears

02 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

XXXXV: Yesteryears

There’d been an argument that winter between Casey and his father. The sort that started like a low buzz, obnoxious frustration simmering, straining. Turning from cold breath to hot steam, Casey just turned fourteen, but filled with so much fury and confusion he never quite knew who to turn to for what, with a father too bitter to see anything past the pile of beer tabs and broken down cardboard boxes that he’d been so sure had at least one more can left in the bottom.

Taylor L. picked Casey up at the end of the street and took him who-knew-where for an unprecedented amount of time. Long enough even Casey’s dad got worried despite being drunk off his ass and raging about that supposedly left-open window. The conversation on Brendon’s porch had gone something like this.

“Where’s that boy at?”

“Casey? Casey’s not here. I’m still doing homework.”

“Fuck. Don’t lie to me.”

Brendon took a step back. “He’s not here. Did something happen?” Continue reading →

Rise of the Snowmen: Chapter One Excerpt

27 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Excerpt, Fantasy, M/M

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action adventure, adventure fantasy, bisexual, Christmas, Contemporary, contemporary fantasy, dark holiday, deadly holidays, erotic, Fantasy, fantasy fiction, fantasy-erotica, Fiction, gay, gay romance, Holiday, mm romance, Novel, Teaser

RISE OF THE SNOWMEN

Enjoy this excerpt from my upcoming novel!

This is a sequel to Those Bloody Christmas Elves, which you can read about here. The excerpt below will give spoilers to Those Bloody Christmas Elves, however, it is not a requirement to read the first story in order to understand or enjoy Rise of the Snowmen :)

CHAPTER ONE

Where the angels creep and the snowmen feed…none survive.

Twas the season, once again, of blissful ignorance and peppermint. Of flashing rainbow lights and warm apple cider. Of spruce and spiders inside homes and sugary delights that ended most often with stomachaches. Not to mention too many presents, off-key carols, and trash. Oh, so much trash.

Too cynical by half.

Taylor frowned into his burnt coffee and shoved his other hand deeper into his jeans pocket. That’s what Greg had said at the start of the drawn-out holiday season, long before turkey had been carved or costumes put to good use. Too cynical by half.

As if the man couldn’t remember how he’d almost lost his little girl last year to an elvish kidnapping and thought the world seemed greener now that days had dulled the terror. As if she had never been in danger of being dragged off to the North Pole in the clutches of the cruelest lie parents told their children.

In fact, that was her laugh now, Mandy Westmill tugging her mother along in her wake as she filled a bag of reindeer food, spilling oatmeal and glitter across the gymnasium floor.

Even with her black hair braided over the crown of her head, Mandy held a hint of her father in her manner. That stubborn set of her jaw. Those dark eyebrows. The way her lips twisted slightly when she grinned. And, of course, that single dimple that popped inward and seemed stuck there in her contagious happiness.

Truly her father’s daughter in so many ways.

Taylor caught her winking at him from across the gymnasium, her finger to her lips in a hush sign and her shoulders hunched forward in a cute attempt at subterfuge. Taylor smiled at her from behind his coffee and returned the wink before casually turning in case Mandy’s mother, Katie, might send a glance his way.

She might not recognize him. After all, they’d only met the few times when Taylor had lingered at Greg’s house during a drop-off or pickup between the two, but Greg wanted to avoid a confrontation. Reason enough why Greg sat safely out in the parking lot of Reynald Elementary school while Taylor cased the place, searching for signs of elvish infiltration.

In years before, elves had nabbed kids right out of the parking lot or snatched them during solo bathroom breaks. Once, during a warmer December, they’d even joined a game of hide and seek out on the playground. Yet Taylor had been there each year, thwarting their efforts and rescuing children from elvish clutches, normally all without parental involvement, or even knowledge.

But last year the elves had struck early and strong, using laced sugar sprinkled on top of the cookies. Mandy hadn’t been the only child nabbed, but she’d been the one Taylor had noticed. And with Mandy had come her father and Greg Westmill wasn’t like any of the other parents Taylor had ever stumbled into dealing with. That man’s stubbornness, his absolute refusal to leave Taylor’s side, not even to go to the police, had spawned a whirlwind of emotions, some of which Taylor still wasn’t sure he understood. Continue reading →

Canvas Blues – XXXXIV: Present

25 Wednesday Nov 2020

Posted by Emmi Lawrence in Contemporary, Fantasy, M/M, Serial

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Canvas Blues, Erotica, Fantasy, fantasy romance, Fiction, gay romance, LGBT, long-reads, Love, M/M, Mystery, Novel, paranormal, prose, reading, Romance, Writing

CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

XXXXIV: Present

Though Brendon tried to bow out, Orion insisted on treating dinner in that confident way of his. Yet with each passing moment, Orion’s presence felt more like an imposition rather than a treat. The entire day more a press of weight, a guilt riding on Brendon’s shoulders and a sick sense of dread that kept him from reaching for his sketchbook.

“We’ll have to go through your sales book,” Orion said as they waited for a table. “Find the most likely to cause problems and double-check that everyone is safe.”

And if they’re not? Brendon wanted to ask. What then? Did he take the blame for the suffering, the death? Would the legal system even consider his guilt? Would they—

“This way, sirs.”

A heavily tanned girl—no more than sixteen or seventeen, with plastic nails and purple eye makeup that cast interesting shadows around her eyes—guided them into a booth and rattled off a series of daily specials that sounded decidedly unspecial.

Then she whisked away to fetch Orion a couple fingers of bourbon and Brendon a water. Just a water, he’d said. He couldn’t handle anything else. Or maybe he should drink. Drown away this inexplicable dread, tear away the filters stopping him from cursing Orion for all the doubt he’d brought.

“This whole situation is troubling. Just got off the phone with Wendy and she agrees that we need to get to the bottom of this. Not just the paintings you’ve already done, but why and what and how. Can it be replicated? Can it be militarized?” Continue reading →

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CANVAS BLUES
Vignettes Regarding the Artwork of Brendon Kotes

A serialized novel begun Jan 29th 2020. Here you can find links to the beginning and the most recent additions.

I: Prologue
II: Present
III: Yesteryears
IV: Yesteryears
V: Present

……….

XXXXIII: Yesteryears
XXXXIV: Present
XXXXV: Yesteryears
XXXXVI: Yesteryears
XXXXVII: Present

New chapters published every Wednesday!
Next up: Dec 30th 2020

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  • Canvas Blues – L: Present

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