The Cascade and The Firebrand has been published. This story is a 5400 word fantasy story featuring a m/m pair.

I had been meaning to write a shaman story for a long time, the idea in limbo because I wasn’t sure how to make it different from a few other ideas I had already created in a novel I’d finished a couple of years ago. I took a couple different nuggets I’d planted haphazardly in a few shorter stories I’d written–some that had been published and some not–and came up with at least a semi-organized shamanistic city. The story itself is micro oriented so there’s not too much detail about the world surrounding the main characters, but I feel as if it’s a good start to something. A place I can definitely extend at my own pace.

And…it was a ton of fun to write. One of those stories that calls for you to revisit now, not later.

As a note about the totem names–they are taken from Latin. No, my worlds don’t technically have Latin, but I felt it was a good way to title the denizens that inhabit the totems of certain elements without completely making up their names or going with typical and/or over-used names.

Next Sunday, Sept 14: If These Walls Could Talk (f, ss, m/f) – They could do any number of nasty things.

Wounds of the Warrior (Part 3 of 3) has been published. This is the last part of a 15400 word serial that features a M/F couple. Part One and Part Two should be read first.

You can read some of the previous comments I made about this story here and here.

I don’t want to say too much about the end of the story since that would be spoiler-like, so instead I’ll talk about the writing of it. The story actually sat around on my computer for months, mostly written, maybe five hundred to a thousand words shy of “The End.” I only finally finished it because I was procrastinating working on a different project. Ending up finishing a number of things around the same time that had been floating in limbo waiting to see if I’d ever bother getting those last, all-important words down.

Wounds wasn’t as hard to begin as Marks had been. Where Marks had a few false starts and a lot of thrown-out words, Cohriahra took over almost immediately and Wounds poured out pretty quickly because of it. I had a few possible directions I could have gone–namely introducing more characters into the story itself instead of merely referencing them, but I think the story’s stronger with only Mahden and Cohriahra interacting the entire time, giving them ample opportunity to influence one another without outside interference.

Next Sunday, Sept 7th: The Cascade and The Firebrand (fantasy, short story, m/m) – He wore the water, a cascade flowing down his torso and crashing at his feet.

Wounds of the Warrior (Part 2 of 3) has been published. This is the second of three parts in a 15400 word story that features a M/F couple. The first part can be read here.

I made a few comments about this story in a previous post.

Most of this story is about Cohriahra’s internal struggles, with Mahden acting as a sort of foil to that end. However, he isn’t supposed to represent a “correct” way of life–though, I, for one, certainly prefer his beliefs. Instead, the idea behind the inception of the story was to show the Maslahr clan as people rather than as one-dimensional evil “bad guys.” She’s different, but that doesn’t make her any less…growler (…human).

Because of that focus in this story, it meant that the romance is more subtle, something that occurs as more of an accidental side effect as the two are learning about each other.

It also meant that the story was a lot longer than average since the issues are more serious.

Next Sunday, Aug 31: Wounds of the Warrior – Part 3 of 3 (fantasy, serial, m/f)

Wounds of the Warrior (Part 1 of 3) has been published. This is the first of three parts in a 15400 word story and features a M/F couple.

This story takes place following Marks of the Protector though it can be read as a standalone. One of the leads in Wounds is a side character in Marks, but I liked him well enough I thought he deserved to have a larger part in another story. One of the leads from Marks also puts in a short appearance. Very short though–I don’t particularly like it when a member (or both members) of a couple from a previous story try to take over a sequel.

Now, that being said, I will admit that there is no sex (I know, I know, I’m sorry) in this story. It just didn’t make sense. You can probably tell from the title, but wounds are involved and I’m not so silly an author that I’m going to make my characters start humping like rabbits when one of them is bleeding all over the place/suffering from infection/dealing with a broken bone or two.

Don’t get me wrong…they want to, it just isn’t feasible in this story. So, this one is more for those of you into fantasy and slow-building romance than those who like straight-up erotica.

Next Sunday, Aug 24: Wounds of the Warrior – Part 2 of 3 (fantasy, serial, m/f)

Edited May 12th: My Sister’s Shoes was removed. You can find it in the collection Nothing But Seaweed & Other Stories, coming May 29th, 2015.

My Sister’s Shoes has been published, a mini piece of about 1500 words featuring an M/F pair.

This was another prompt piece. Nothing really worth revisiting here, but it was fun to bring two hurt people together where they ought to be.

Next Sunday, Aug 17: Wounds of the Warrior – Part 1 of 3 (fantasy, serial, m/f) – Death is not to be shamed. But for the how of it.

For Want of a Man has been published, a fantasy short story of about 4200 words featuring a M/F pair.

The idea behind this story had probably been rolling around in my mind for years before I finally wrote even a single word. Even then, I ended up getting bogged down instantly because I know almost zero about cars. Really. To the point where I’m asking just about a million questions of my SO for simple things. Once I got a couple of basic things down I was able to get the story onto more familiar fantasy ground so that the story flowed out a little better…and then it got bogged down a second time and sat for months…

…Until I finally went back and erased the last two paragraphs I’d written where a character had started acting out of character. I don’t remember exactly why I even picked the story back up (since there’d been some serious consideration for trunking the thing) but I’m glad I did.

As a random side note, this was the first time I had to worry about trademarks since I don’t normally write in modern settings.

Next Sunday, Aug 10: My Sister’s Shoes (fantasy, mini, m/f) – She only meant to borrow them.

The second half of Only One Worth Kissing has been published, a novelette-length piece featuring a m/f pairing. The first part can be found here.

The setting for this story is linked to a few other stories I’ve written, but they aren’t close enough to see the connection. However, all the Bradd & Cerci stories take place on the same continent within the Empire that is mentioned in this story and the Lianal & Samouru stories take place farther south.

Next Sunday, August 3rd: For Want of a Man (fantasy, short story, m/f) – She didn’t think she’d ever rev for anyone again.

Only One Worth Kissing – Part 1 (of 2) has been published. This story is fantasy featuring a m/f pair.

I don’t normally dream stories. Sometimes when I’m in a half-awake state between falling asleep and waking up I will come up with a scene or two, but normally they seem horrible the moment I’m aware enough to realize what I’ve written down. Only One Worth Kissing started as one of those horrible scribbles. I didn’t use that first idea, but it spawned a different story using a frog pond.

For a long time, I had the outline written and waiting patiently to be used. In fact, I only ended up actually writing the story because I thought it would only take me a few hours to write (silly me) and end up being something…a lot shorter. I also thought it was going to be more comedic and while it did start out that way, as I went from start to finish the story became darker.

Next Sunday, July 27th: Only One Worth Kissing – Part 2 of 2 (fantasy, serial, m/f)

To the Sound of the Ocean has been published. It’s a m/f story of about 1100 words that has no fantasy element, something that rarely happens with me. I still thought it had merit, even if it isn’t my normal style.

I’ve been trying to practice how to control and contain story ideas, something that I still haven’t mastered. Mostly it’s about understanding how much space a subplot will take up once it sneaks into my story and knowing when to allow it to happen and when it needs to be tossed in order to make the story feasible and manageable.

For this story, I just couldn’t find a way to enter a magical element without exploding the story by thousands of words. Had I come up with a good fantastical idea, I would have shrugged and gone with it anyway because I believe that a story is as long as the story needs to be, but nothing seemed right in this case. In the end, trying to force something magical into this story would have just drastically hurt it, so I decided against trying to turn it into something it wasn’t.

Next Sunday, July 20th: Only One Worth Kissing – Part 1 of 2 (fantasy, serial, m/f) – A hundred frogs in the pond, a hundred kisses gone astray.

Purest of Intentions, a short piece of about 700 words, has been published. The protagonist is male and the couple is female so I filed it under M/F even though that’s not exactly right.

I know a lot of people don’t like prompts, but I happen to love them. This story came from one. A very strange prompt. I asked someone for a thing I could turn magical. I got back…”a doorknob.” Yeah. How exactly do I make that sexual? So I’m thinking all about opening doors or magical doors when I got another response…”keyhole.” I guess the thought process was that the keyhole was on the doorknob.

So I figured, if you’re looking through a keyhole at whatever’s beyond then technically you’re spying. It was only a short jump from that using scrying in order to spy on someone else and that could easily be made sexual. So you get…Purest of Intentions.

Next Sunday, July 13th: To the Sound of the Ocean (contemporary, mini, m/f) – Only the seagulls bear witness.