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…

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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.

Edited Nov. 25, 2014: Searing Betrayal 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 Searing Betrayal (Dark Phoenix 3) has been published. It is a 7300 word story featuring the same M/M pair from Phoenix Fire (Dark Phoenix 1) and Heated Invasion (Dark Phoenix 2).

Without saying too much I wanted to point out that this middle story (of the five) became sort of the turning point between Landon and Jak. It’s also the piece that delves the deepest into the minimal world building I did for the entire story. There’s a lot more to be discovered, obviously, but given the fact that dark phoenixes are solitary creatures, there just wasn’t any need to do anything expansive.

This piece did let me play with the syrens a little–which actually reminds me to tell you why I choose such a weird spelling when a normal spelling and a million other names for mermaids abound across a great many cultures. Well…the real reason was because I already had another story with sirens (Like Dark Algae) and they were inherently different in that their voices were automatically powerful sexual attractors without their explicit consent in the deal.

I wanted a mer-creature who could still manipulate people using their voices, thus needing sirens because that name gave the automatic assumption of the ability, but I also wanted to make it clear that they were of a different breed altogether than my original creation. Probably unnecessary considering these stories are contemporary based and the other had a secondary world setting, but those were my reasons for using syren vs. siren/mermaid/naiad/merrow/nixies, etc.

Next Sunday, Nov. 2: Gentle Burn – Dark Phoenix 4 (fantasy, short story, M/M) – There’s a point in every relationship where it either becomes more intimate…or completely fizzles.

Edited Nov. 25, 2014: Heated Invasion 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 Heated Invasion (Dark Phoenix 2) has been published. It is a 4200 word story featuring the same M/M pair from Phoenix Fire (Dark Phoenix 1).

When I first wrote Phoenix Fire I hadn’t intended on doing anything else with it. The story was supposed to be just a couple thousand word solitary piece. Then I went to bed and fell asleep with Jak irritated with me because I’d turned him into some sort of user who had a sincere lack of feelings. It was almost a sob story, Jak style, with lots of threatening glances in his (inept) way to prove to me he wasn’t the person Landon thought he was.

I admit I was a little surprised because the entire pieced-together story is written from Landon’s perspective so I would have assumed it was him who would be annoyed at being left without any sort of romantic happily ever after. Nope. Not the case.

I probably could have written the story from Jak’s point-of-view, but then it would have been an entirely different type of story. A lot less mysterious and a lot more boring (in my own opinion, that is).

Next Sunday, Oct. 26: Searing Betrayal – Dark Phoenix 3 (fantasy, short story, M/M) – There’s a reason the dark phoenix keeps his visits short and Landon is about to find out why.