Clean Sweep has been published, a 5400 word Christmas story with a M/M pair in a contemporary setting.

Clean Sweep came from a Christmas prompt. When I first thought up the silly soot monster idea, I’d envisioned it as something humorous and sweet, but my mind seemed to be in serious mode so almost immediately I had Trey’s motivation to decorate become something a little less than cheery. Which made me sad. So I had to spend some time fixing his problem because I’m generally a sucker for happily ever afters.

The title is supposed to be a nod to both the soot monster’s physical destruction and the need for Trey and Kevin to do some serious cleaning up of the mess they’ve made of their relationship.

This is the last Sunday story I’m publishing this year and while not all of them have been the most amazing, stupendous work in the world, I’ve had a lot of fun and have been pretty satisfied with everything I’ve accomplished. When I set out in February to publish a short piece every week, I honestly worried that my goal would fall by the wayside because, you know…life.

Instead, I feel as if I’ve written, edited and learned more this year despite (or maybe because of) my promise to myself that I’m just having fun and I’m not allowed to constantly second guess or throw my work out simply because it might not be up to some impossibly high standard set by some random person on the interwebs. Putting my work out there on a consistent, constant schedule has actually been freeing, surprisingly. It’s relaxed me. Made me care less about what might or might not get said about any specific story and care more about focusing on the next project because that’s where I’m happiest.

It’s been an interesting year.

Next year might even be more so because I’ve decided to change things up a little. Instead of publishing a story every week on my website all year, I’m going to only be publishing the first Sunday of every month from now on. Nothing serialized because that would be far too long to wait for the next piece. I’m doing this so I can concentrate on my longer stories in order to hopefully build a bit of a backlist of available work. I don’t have specific monthly/weekly goals, but my plan is to publish ten novellas/novels over the course of the next year. Wish me luck!

I know it seems as if I’ve been on a M/M kick for the past couple of months. I got caught up trying to even things out since I spent so much time earlier this year working on M/F pieces. I promise I’m still writing M/F. Speaking of which…

Sunday, Jan 4th: New Year, Old Loves (fantasy, short story, M/F) – Sometimes a letter means exactly what it says. Sometimes you have to know a person well enough to read between the lines.

Edited Dec. 28, 2014: Breaking Currents has been removed and is now only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available in January 2015.

Breaking Currents has been published, a 4500 word story featuring a m/m pair. It is the final installation of the Siren Song novella and is preceded by Like Dark Algae, Bright Storm, Run Aground, Barnacle Tide and One Last Song.

Uh…so…I accidently/on purpose didn’t write any Author Notes last week after I published One Last Song because frankly I couldn’t think of anything to say. Most of the comments I could say about the writing process and of the story itself have already been said and anything else would be spoiler-like or utterly pointless.

Like I said before, I’m going to have to edit Like Dark Algae since it was written long before I decided to extend the story into something bigger. Along with folding in some world building, I also have to fix a few details that I changed when writing the rest of the novella. I don’t intend on changing the story on my site though since I’m planning on pulling the stories shortly.

Thus…on Dec. 28th all the Siren Song stories will be pulled off my website, replaced with excerpts and republished for $2.99. If you have the desire to read it, I’d recommend you do so while it’s still free. The final version that will be going up will have the edits I talked about and possibly a couple hundred words of Caarafk’s Interludes at the end of each chapter. The added edits and words are not worth buying the novella if you’ve already read it, but if you want to support me and buy a copy anyway that is totally cool with me and I’ll think you’re awesome for it.

Next Sunday, Dec 28th: Clean Sweep (fantasy, short story, M/M) – Their first Christmas together might also be their last if they can’t sweep clean the ashes that have piled up since the file flickered out.

Edited Dec. 28, 2014: Barnacle Tide has been removed and is now only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available in January 2015.

Barnacle Tide has been published. It’s the fourth installment of Siren Song, a story featuring a M/M pair in a fantasy world. It is about 8500 words long and is preceded by Like Dark Algae, Bright Storm and Run Aground.

Normally I wouldn’t publish something quite so long in one go, but I didn’t want to break up this story any more than I already have. It was actually going to be even longer on the first draft, but I rearranged a few things and kicked a plot point to later on to keep sections less cumbersome.

As to the story itself, I wanted Rikel’s family to have a real part in it ever since I came back to writing more about him. I thought it was a little inevitable given his motivations in the story I published back in February. But more characters means more relationships and that means either more words overall or less words for the MC and love interest to interact. I tried to keep a balance in the overall story so Caarafk still has half a chance at becoming a real person in my readers’ eyes but doesn’t monopolize Rikel’s time too completely (despite monopolizing his thoughts).

Next Sunday, Dec 14th: One Last Song (Siren Song 5) – When the song fades for a final time, there might be nothing left to salvage.

Edited Dec. 28, 2014: Run Aground has been removed and is now only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available in January 2015.

Run Aground has been published. It’s the third installment of Siren Song, a story featuring a M/M pair, and is about 6900 words long. Previous stories are Like Dark Algae and Bright Storm.

This piece is far more erotic than the last, mostly out of necessity, though I had to be careful. Part of the problem with writing this story was the issue of consent because of the naturally occurring ability I gave the sirens that incites uncontrollable lust. To even out the issue, instead of making the siren in the story unaware or uncaring about the problem, I made him a victim as well as someone who can’t stop the way his voice affects Rikel.

And that’s about all I want to say because this part is really the middle of the story.

Next Sunday, Dec 7th: Barnacle Tide (Siren Song 4) – Temptation is never far away, sticking like barnacles to his mind and body.

Edited Dec. 28, 2014: Bright Storm has been removed and is now only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available in January 2015.

Bright Storm has been published. It is 6800 words, featuring a M/M pair and is the second in the Siren Song stories.

Back in March I published Like Dark Algae, a story about a man heading into siren territory and subsequently becoming enamored by one of them. It’s been a standalone for that long. A few months ago, probably because I was thinking about the syrens in Dark Phoenix, I came up with a continuing storyline for the characters in Like Dark Algae.

Bright Storm is thus the second piece of Rikel’s story. It mostly deals with the aftermath of the events in Like Dark Algae. Of course, because I had never intended on continuing the story, I hadn’t done anything excessive in the matter of world building, so I had to rectify that when I began working on the subsequent parts. I will probably end up folding some of those details into Like Dark Algae when I gather all the pieces of Siren Song together.

Next Sunday, Nov. 30: Run Aground (Siren Song 3) – There’s always something left to lose.

Sun Kissed has been published. It is a 7400 word short story that is more science fantasy rather than sitting firmly on one side or the other of those genres.

As to the pair featured in this (sweet) romance, the sex of the MC is ambiguous, but the love interest is considered male. I left the story with the ambiguous MC on purpose, though I hadn’t intended on making it that way when I started writing. On my first read-through (I cycle so this occurred when the story was about half-finished) I realized I didn’t have a single instance where I gave any indication of sex. Not a single one. Even the MC’s name–Jari–was a sexless one and stemmed from the unisex name Jerry.

It wasn’t on purpose, but it got me thinking about a situation in a workshop I attended a few years ago…

Continue reading →

Edited Nov. 25, 2014: Violet Flames has been removed and is now only an excerpt. To read the entire Dark Phoenix novella, you can go to the Books page for retailer links.

The story Violet Flames (Dark Phoenix 5) has been published. It is the 5200 word conclusion to the Dark Phoenix series. Previous stories are Phoenix Fire, Heated Invasion, Searing Betrayal and Gentle Burn.

Just like last week, I can’t say much about this story. What I can tell you was Violet Flames was easier to write than the previous two stories. My assumption on that is that when the end is near, words come faster. It’s a proven fact.

When I first started putting up short stories on my site back in February, I always intended on my long-term plan being to eventually have enough to group them together and publish them independently. Dark Phoenix has the distinction of being the first to undergo this change.

All five stories will remain on my site until Nov. 25th. On that day, I will be removing the complete stories, leaving excerpts up only. I will then be putting them together into a novella and republishing it on distributor platforms for $2.99 a few days later. I wanted to give a heads up so anyone who wants to read the stories for free can do so before they’re pulled.

Just to be clear, Dark Phoenix, when published, will have no new material added. The story will remain practically untouched with the exception of having another couple of rounds of editing done to it.

Next Sunday, Nov. 16: Sun Kissed – So bright it’s hard to stare at him. So shy it’s hard to speak with him. So kind it’s hard to forget him.

Edited Nov. 25, 2014: Gentle Burn has been removed and is now only an excerpt. To read the entire Dark Phoenix novella, you can go to the Books page for retailer links.

The story Gentle Burn (Dark Phoenix 4) has been published. It is a 5900 word story featuring the same M/M pair from Phoenix Fire (Dark Phoenix 1) and Heated Invasion (Dark Phoenix 2) and Searing Betrayal (Dark Phoenix 3).

Ugh, it’s hard to comment this far into the series because really anything I say can be technically spoilerific. This is the fourth of five stories featuring Landon and Jak. The average word count was longer in these last three than in the first two, mostly because there’s always more to say about an ongoing or long-term relationship than there is at the beginning of one. More baggage, more knowledge, more conflicts–some resolved and some needing resolution.

Part of the issue I ran into working on these stories was that I had to keep the main “reveal” (if you can call it that) for the last story, which meant I had to come up with stepping-stones in the course of the relationship.

Gentle Burn is more about the growth of equality in a relationship and the need to be transparent about personal wants with your partner. People tend to let these things slide in the beginning of relationships, out of embarrassment or fear or simple ignorance of what might be important, but the reality is there comes a time when those things need to be addressed. And when that happens…either you discover they outweigh whatever linked the two of you together or you find yourself in a much more satisfying relationship.

That’s pretty much exactly what I said last week as a hint for this story, but I can’t say anything more without giving things away.

Next Sunday, Nov. 9: Violet Flames – Dark Phoenix 5 (fantasy, short story, M/M) – It’s time for Landon to make a choice, a choice with dire consequences.

Violet Flames will be the conclusion to the Dark Phoenix story.