Writing

In less than 4 months, my very first FF romance will be released. I’m still sort of stunned that this is actually happening. I’ve been wanting to make a shift from primarily writing about men (and male-assigned nonbinary people) to writing primarily about women (and female-assigned nonbinary people). Maybe some slice-of-life books that include a range of people, not really focused on romance.

And here it is, the first of those. I still have to get Tree of Life in shape, and that’s more male-centric. But that’s not a romance, and that’ll be the last of the books with exclusively male leads.

Every Time We Meet has my favorite trope, the time loop/do-over day. Think Groundhog Day and other similar stories. But I think I’ve added a bit of a twist, or maybe a few twists.

Today, I’m sharing the Big Moment, the one that starts main character Heidi on her way. I may share bits of the rest at another time, so the snippets won’t necessarily be in order. (Or will they? Mwahahaha!)

There was a place to sit near the stage where all the children’s events were held. Some group was there now, one Heidi didn’t recognize because she no longer had kids young enough to bring them. As she sat, she realized she was a little dizzy. Whether it was from the fall or from being so close to Angel was anyone’s guess.

Angel opened one water and handed it to Heidi. She took the other herself and sipped it, silently watching the kids’ concert. After a few minutes, she turned her attention to Heidi.

“I’m Angel,” she said. “But I take it you knew that.”

“Heidi, and yep. From the radio.” Heidi giggled nervously. “I listen to you every day on my way to work.”

“Yeah? Where do you work?”

“Twenty-three-hour surgery at General. I’m a nurse’s aide.” Heidi took a big gulp of water, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of the cool liquid sliding down her throat. The throbbing in her head eased, and she opened her eyes to look at Angel. “So you also moonlight selling Leather Anvil gear?”

“Something like that.” Angel laughed. “Being a morning show host is great. My dream job. But I also do some publicity stuff for Leather Anvil. I’ve known Martina my whole life.”

“The lead singer? No way!” Heidi shook her head. “I love them. I was on my way to get one of the CDs when…well, you saw what happened.”

“People are so rude. That guy definitely didn’t need to shove you to get through.” Angel put a hand on Heidi’s arm. “Are you really okay?”

“I am.” Heidi flashed her a grin to reassure her. “Physically, anyway. Not so sure about the rest.” She deflated, thinking about how horrible the day had been.

“No need to worry,” Angel said. “The others have it under control back at the booth. I was just there to hang out. No harm done, as far as I could tell. Even the table.” She elbowed Heidi, but that cute half-smile was back, the one that told Heidi that Angel was amused.

Angel obviously had it wrong. Sure, Heidi was a little embarrassed about her mishap. And she was definitely a little warm in Angel’s presence. But it was everything else, all the way up to and including dinner with Cass, that had her heart sinking. She had to go home soon and tell the kids what happened. They all loved Cass.

Heidi had thought she loved Cass.

“It’s not that,” Heidi said before she could think about what was coming out of her mouth. Maybe she’d been hit on the head hard enough to lose her inhibitions. “I proposed to my girlfriend, and she said no. Which was the perfect end to this perfectly sucky day.” Heidi set the water next to her and put her head in her hands. Even the music from the kids’ concert seemed to be mocking her.

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Angel patted her back, and for some reason, it made Heidi’s emotions contort themselves so she was laughing and crying at the same time.

“I just wish,” Heidi said, sitting up and wiping her eyes, “that I could have it all to do over again, you know? Not make the same mistakes.”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?” Heidi frowned.

“Wish you could have the day back.”

“Yeah. I’d get it all right, and everything would be perfect.”

Writing Wednesday: Justin

Books, Writing

Happy Wednesday! I’m getting ready for NaNoWriMo and the second half of this epic road trip novel. At the same time I’m writing, I’ll also be putting in some volunteer hours with my daughter’s last junior musical at school. She ages out after this one. Time goes so fast! Feels like yesterday it was her big brother’s last one.

Anyway, when I posted a couple weeks ago, I introduced a new character. He was making breakfast when Luke and Connor showed up in the kitchen. This time, we find out who he is (sort of). The first bit is from last week.

The man closes the oven door and steps back. When he does, he notices Luke and Connor hovering in the doorway.

“Hey,” he says, his full lips breaking into a big smile as he extracts his earbuds. He steps away from the stove long enough to offer each of them a hand. “I’m Justin.” His voice has a slight fry, and his sentence rises at the end, almost a hint of a question.

Luke’s cheeks burn. Justin is a good twenty years his senior, but Luke finds him very attractive. There’s something in him that draws Luke in and holds his attention. Despite Justin’s casual attire, Luke still feels underdressed in faded jeans and a worn black music festival shirt. He looks down at himself and wishes he had something nicer. Or even that he’d attended the music festival instead of buying the shirt at a secondhand store because he liked the band pictured.

Connor elbows him. Luke’s taken so long to respond that Justin is already back at the stove, finishing the food. Luke’s face goes from a little warm to flaming, and he’s sure Justin’s noticed. He’s still smiling, and his eyes twinkle.

“I’m Luke.” The words come out as a strained bark.

“Yes, your friend said.” Justin laughs. “Don’t worry, I get that reaction a ton. I don’t think I’m quite what people expect.”

“Not…really.” Luke chokes.

Writing Wednesday: Breakfast

Books, Writing

Well, I wasn’t going to do it, but I got sucked into NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m going to attempt for the third time to finish this novel!

I’m not usually a planner, but when you’re writing a story about a road trip, it really helps. I’ve sent my characters west via route I-90, and I’ll be honest: I don’t know a whole lot about the vast expanse of the U.S. beyond Chicago. I’ve only been to a couple more states past there. Mercifully, my characters haven’t been to most of those places either, so I can let them do touristy things. But hey, if anyone has insight into local foods or good places to see, feel free to tell me.

Anyway, I’m plotting (using tarot cards to boost my creative process) and researching. I have extensive notes, including a chart! My hope is to get another 7k words written ahead of time so that my 50k will bring me to the end of this story.

On to the snippet. Connor and Luke are staying at a B&B in Salisbury, MA. (The photo above is not Salisbury; it’s actually where we stayed in England. But it’s the only picture I have of a B&B, so…) Last time, Connor was helping Luke get back to sleep after a horrific nightmare. Nope, I’m not explaining yet. Instead, how about we wake them both up with breakfast?

The nightmare—and the flood—are forgotten in the morning. When Luke and Connor emerge from the bedroom, they briefly encounter a couple of the other guests. The sound of dishes in the kitchen drifts up the stairs. After a quick greeting, they leave the other guests to their business and head down.

Aunt Enid isn’t in the kitchen. Instead, there’s a man there, younger than Luke’s parents but older than Luke and Connor. Probably not quite old enough to be either of their fathers. He’s a little on the plump side, short like Aunt Enid. He looks a lot like her, aside from his full beard. His hair is long, pulled into a low ponytail that hangs halfway down his back. He’s wearing a pink T-shirt and gray sweatpants covered in pink stars, a flowered apron is protecting his clothes, and he’s swaying his hips to whatever music he’s listening to through his earbuds.

On the stove, there’s a pan of eggs and a second pan with thick slices of Canadian bacon. The man stirs the eggs and then flips the bacon with a fork. He steps back and peers into the oven, and a delicious smell of baking bread wafts out to mingle with the other breakfast aromas. The man closes the oven door and steps back. When he does, he notices Luke and Connor hovering in the doorway.

Rainbow Snippets: Sleepyhead

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! It’s been a while. I meant to keep posting, but this summer got out of control. For those who don’t know, I have an autoimmune disorder. We were still playing around with diagnoses and meds, and things happened. There’s more detail elsewhere on my blog for the very curious.

Anyway, I’m glad to be back. The school year has started, and I had a new release! The link is in the sidebar. Minuet is the last book in my Notes from Boston series. I’m hoping that people really enjoy this one, even though it’s different from what I’ve written before. It’s a complicated MMF love story, perhaps a bit outside the box.

In this scene, two of the MCs (Mack, a cisgender aromantic pansexual man, and Jomari, a bisexual biromantic trans man) have had quite the night.

Early in the morning, Mack woke and rolled over. He froze when his arm brushed something, and it took him a minute to remember. Jomari had stayed. No one ever stayed, other than Amelia…Mack withdrew his elbow and lay there unmoving, waiting to see if Jomari stirred. When his breathing was still soft and steady after five minutes, Mack deemed it safe to get up. He shifted slowly so as not to disturb his bed-mate’s slumber.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

Writing Wednesday: Afterward

Books, Writing

I have more projects in the background than I know what to do with right now, which is a nice feeling after worrying that I might be done after finishing Notes from Boston. I’ve set the newer ones aside in favor of returning to an older story. It’s about halfway done, and my hope is to finish by the end of NaNoWriMo. We’ll see…that only gives me about 2 and a half months.

This novel is a road trip story about Luke, who first showed up as a homeless teen in a short story I wrote back in 2014. Now he’s the main character, on a road trip with an old friend.

In this scene, they’re toward the beginning of their journey. Luke has some carefully guarded secrets about where he really came from. Last week, he’d just woken from a nightmare. Here, his friend Connor does his best to figure out what’s wrong.

“Luke.” Firm, steadying. “Stop.”

But he can’t. The fear he woke to is rising again, blossoming into a full-blown panic. All he can think, over and over, is about the rising water and the crackling sky and the whipping winds and the almighty boom before the gust of hot air. He shakes all over, unable to stop.

“Lukey, shhh,” Connor murmurs pulling him in. “You’re okay. It’s just the rain.”

“So hot…” Luke mumbles into Connor’s shoulder. “The fire…”

“What fire? There’s no fire. Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

“No!”

Connor steers Luke to the bed in his room and they sit on the bed. He puts his hand to Luke’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever.” He presses his fingers to Luke’s wrist. “Jesus. Your heart’s going so fast.”

Gently, he helps Luke lie down. For a moment, Luke tries to pop back up. He still wants to get out. But Connor’s hands rubbing his arms feel good, and he takes a deep breath. The room is back in focus, intact. There’s no fire or flood, no high winds turning over cars and splitting trees. The rain on the roof is letting up.

“I’m okay,” Luke says, more to himself than to Connor.

“Yeah, you are.” Connor presses his lips together as if trying to hold in the words trying to escape. He’s unsuccessful. “Is this something to do with Greg?”

Greg? His ex? No. The scars Greg left are different.

Writing Wednesday: The New and the Old

Books, Writing

I haven’t blogged regularly in months, probably for at least the last year. I didn’t blog much over the summer. My kids were home, I was having serious health issues, and I had to focus my attention on my paid editing jobs.

Now that my kids are back in school, I may attempt more regular updates. We’ll see. For today, though, I’m going back to an old project by doing some new things. Well, new to the WIP at hand, but not new to me (or in general).

I bought a new tarot deck. I don’t use the cards for personal reading or to read for others. That’s not my thing nor my area of expertise. Instead, I use them to open my mind creatively for character development and story building.

There’s no one correct way to do this, but for the very curious, I’ve used several methods. For previous WIPs, I’ve simply done a reading on a particular character when I’ve gotten stuck about where to take them. I’ve also used various spreads recommended by other writers when a thorny problem cropped up in the story.

This time, I’m using a three-card spread to write my way through the Hero’s Journey. For the first part, I was simply confirming elements I’d already created and using the cards to flesh those out better. I’m halfway through writing (or so; it may be a bit less than that). Now I need to go deeper into the parts I haven’t written. I’ve made extensive notes, but the cards help put those notes into a usable format in my brain.

Anyway, I’ve shared snippets from this WIP before, and then I had to stop in order to finish my recently released novel (at glacial pace, but at least I got it done!). This is the one I’m calling my “epic road trip novel.” Because everyone has to write a literal journey at least once, right?

In this story, Luke’s been invited to travel across the U.S. with his friend and former lover, Connor. I’m not sure either of them knows what’s going to happen. It’s not a romance, so don’t expect a lot of time spent on their feelings toward each other. In this scene, Luke has trouble pulling himself from a nightmare.

Hot. So hot. Luke is burning up. He wakes then with a start, his heart hammering. There’s a rushing in his ears. He squirms, trying to get away from the source of the heat. If he doesn’t, he’s going to melt and disintegrate. Kicking out with his feet, he manages to shove off whatever is on top of him, holding in the warmth.

Over his head, rain drums on the roof, and the wind whistles. A shutter rattles. He has to get away before the storm reaches him, and he has to get the others. He runs to the door between the rooms and yanks it open, dashing through the shared bathroom. He pounds on the other door.

It opens, and there’s Connor, in only his boxer briefs and socks. He rubs his face. “Luke, what the hell? It’s the middle of the night.”

“We have to get out! The storm!” Luke doesn’t understand why Connor stands there, unmoving. They have to leave. He gasps for air. “Please!”

“Are you okay?” Connor’s voice is so calm.

“We have to get somewhere safe,” Luke pleads. His head is still sleep-foggy, and he shakes it to try to clear his mind.

“It’s just a summer storm.”

“No! No. We can’t go to the basement. It’ll flood when the creek rises. We have to get to the middle of the house.”

He tries to push past Connor and get to the outer door. If Connor won’t listen, he’ll find someone who will. Before he gets far, Connor reaches for him.

“Luke.” Firm, steadying. “Stop.”

Writing Wednesday: Careful what you wish for

Writing Wednesday: Justin

Writing Wednesday: Breakfast

Rainbow Snippets: Sleepyhead

Writing Wednesday: Afterward

Writing Wednesday: The New and the Old

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