Fiction

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: What He Can’t Do

Happy Wednesday! Our household is once again back to the pre-holiday schedule. All classes and rehearsals have started. Last night, neither the kids nor I had anything, and the busyness the rest of the week makes us appreciate it all the more.

Meanwhile, I’m feeling like 2017 isn’t off to the greatest start in my professional circles. Let’s just say there’s lots of drama already. I think what makes me saddest is seeing how the behavior isn’t any more mature than middle schoolers. In fact, my own middle schoolers and their friends are mostly more advanced than a lot of adults.

Enough of that. On to my WIPpet. I’m still deep in edits on Keeping the Faith, and I did promise I’d post the next bit which follows last week’s. Micah is visiting with LR, and he’s asked if he can talk to her about something. It’s a sensitive subject for them both.

WIPmath: 1/11 = 1 + 11 = 12 sentences.

“Of course,” LR replied. She accepted Robbie into her arms and carted him to the living room, where she plopped him down with some toys. He promptly dropped into crawl mode and scooted away, dragging a stuffed bunny by the ear.

Micah fidgeted a little. “I don’t know how to say this, but…I can’t clean out his room. I just can’t.”

LR frowned. “I thought you already had.”

“Mostly, yeah. But I’ve got his shoes and his cello and some of his clothes, plus an attic full of his old tools.” He drew in a deep breath, holding it together. “I need to move on, but I feel so stuck.”

Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Witt for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Visit

Fiction, Other Relationships, Writing

Happy 2017! I’m starting my year the way I ended it: reading lots of books. I have a whole bunch of new ones on my Kindle that were part of my Christmas gift, and I have a few I’m working on by request of the author. My goal is 60 books by the end of the year. I doubled that in 2016, but it was a bit much.

I’m also whittling away at Keeping the Faith, the last part of Micah & Cat’s story. It’s bittersweet for a lot of reasons. I know some people would love if I wrote about them forever, but I can tell it’s time to let them go. I thought about waiting (this book is set several years in the future, and I can’t predict what will happen between now and then). But because I’m ready to move on, it needs to be done now.

I think it will be clear eventually from the context what’s going on (and it certainly is in the actual book), so I’m not going to spell it out here. You’ll just have to trust me, I suppose. In this snippet, Micah’s gone to visit LR, Cat’s sister.

WIPmath: No math. New year, new snippets, first chapter.

Micah sat at his sister-in-law’s kitchen table, spooning food into his nephew’s open mouth. About fifty percent of it made it—hopefully—to Robbie’s stomach; the other half landed on his chin, the tray in front of him, and Micah’s hand. Robbie giggled and blew a raspberry, resulting in flecks of pureed squash landing on Micah’s cheek.

LR glanced over. “You really don’t have to do that. He can eat Cheerios until I finish the dishes.”

“I don’t mind.”

Never having wanted his own children, Micah nevertheless loved the ones belonging to other people. Good thing, or he wouldn’t have made a very good teacher. It had surprised him—and Cat—that Micah had taken so readily to babies, though. Robbie was number four and the third unplanned surprise. LR swore he was the last.

Micah finished feeding the baby and stepped to the sink for a cloth to clean himself, Robbie, and anything in a ten-foot radius of the high chair. LR glanced at him and choked on a laugh.

“Got some in your hair,” she said.

“Gross,” Micah remarked. He reached up with the damp cloth and wiped at it.

While he cleaned up, he contemplated what he wanted to say to LR. He wasn’t sure how to explain. They were close, made possible in large part because LR lived next door to him. Cat had moved in with Micah, and the house, which technically she’d owned anyway, had become hers. It was a good thing, too—she and Jamal had barely been married five minutes when she officially announced she was pregnant. Only Cat and Micah had known before the wedding.

“Can I talk to you about something?” Micah asked, lifting Robbie from the high chair.

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: Power Outage

Fiction, Other Relationships, Writing

Happy Wednesday! There are now four parts of the Advent story up. All the links are on this page. I went back in and changed the settings because I forgot that you have to check the “allow comments” for pages; it’s not automatic like it is for posts. Sigh.

I haven’t written much in my main WIPs because I’ve had multiple editing jobs, book reviews, and my Advent story to finish. The last part of the story will be up tomorrow or Friday, depending on how much I get done today. If you’ve been following it, you’ll know I borrowed characters from all my (published) novels and threw them together in one place. The setting is Worcester, MA on Christmas Eve. Each of them has a different reason for being stranded there. The snippet sets up how Trevor, Andre, and Marlie got stuck.

WIPmath: 12/21/16 = 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 6 paragraphs.

Andre didn’t have time to respond before Nia left. He wanted to ask Marlie what in God’s name she’d been thinking, but he was distracted by Trevor talking on his phone.

“What do you mean, the entire neighborhood lost power?” Trevor snapped.

He kept walking, and he nearly slammed into a tall woman with elaborate hair who happened to be walking past. Marlie apologized to the woman and took Trevor’s elbow to guide him away. Trevor ended the call and stuck his phone back in his pocket with an expression somewhere between annoyed and resigned.

“That was Jamie. He says the power’s out in the entire neighborhood. I guess it was on the news—some drunk guy ran into the utility pole. No telling when it’ll be back up.”

Andre winced. “Well, that’s no good.”

“Yeah. There’s no point in going home until we hear something. We could get coffee here and wait to see,” Trevor suggested.

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: Roommates

Fiction, Other Relationships, Writing

Happy Wednesday! The first three parts of my Advent story are now up. All the links are on this page. I hope to have the next one up by Monday, and the final part by next Thursday.

Meanwhile, it’s also #QueerBlogWed. I haven’t written in any of my other projects because I’m busy with editing jobs and getting the Advent story done. In January, I’ll be going back to work mainly on Keeping the Faith. For now, I’m posting again from Drumbeat. This is what follows Jamie catching Mack in the act. He’d really like a shower, but someone might still be busy in the living room.

WIPmath: 12/14/16 =16 paragraphs, mainly dialog, for the year.

Jamie debated about whether to leave the bedroom and confess to having witnessed their moment, or stay inside and wait until morning to pretend he’d gotten home after Mack was asleep. The pros were smelling clean and…well, that was the only pro. The cons were having them still going or, worse yet, having them finished but the stranger still hanging around. The sort of man Mack usually picked up was exactly the type to be familiar with Jamie’s other work. He wasn’t in the mood for that. Before he could make up his mind which was the lesser of two evils, there was a knock on his door. He crossed the room to open it.

“Hey,” Mack said.

“Hey.”

“Sorry about that.”

Jamie swallowed a snotty reply. “No problem. Who was he?”

Mack shrugged. “Some guy I picked up in Starbucks.”

“What?” Jamie couldn’t stop himself. He giggled helplessly.

Giving Jamie a playful shove, Mack said, “He was finishing his shift. I suggested a more adult-friendly activity.”

“And just like that, he came home with you?”

“Nah. I told him I’m in a band.” Mack grinned. “Some people are into the whole ‘tortured artist’ thing.”

“And you’re among the most tortured.” Jamie laughed.

“Gotta keep up appearances.”

“Why the hell were you in the living room?”

“We got talking, and he said he was looking for a new apartment. We’re looking for a roommate. Win-win. So I brought him back here to interview him.”

Jamie gaped at him. “With sex? I thought we were looking for someone to pay rent, not to hook up with.”

“Didn’t think anyone would be home yet. He wasn’t a good candidate anyway.”

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Beginning

Fiction, Other Relationships, Writing

Happy Wednesday! I’ve been working on my Advent story, which you can read the first part of here. The overall plot (a whole bunch of people stuck at a random hotel in Worcester, MA) is probably a little contrived. Okay, a lot contrived. But it’s the holiday season, and this is my gift to readers.

Meanwhile, it’s also #QueerBlogWed, which applies to pretty much all my WIPs. I’m struggling to pull things together right now. I have significant chunks written on several projects, but I need to sharpen my focus. Today I’m posting from Drumbeat. This is the next part in my Notes from Boston series, this time about Jamie. This is the opening scene. Just to warn anyone who prefers not reading such things, there’s a direct reference to the “adult activities” Jamie walks in on in the apartment he shares with two other guys. There’s also a vague reference to Jamie’s previous employment.

WIPmath: 12/7/16 = 7 – (1 + 2) = 4 paragraphs.

Jamie Cosgrove yawned as he slid his key into the lock on his apartment door. It had been a long night, and all he wanted was sleep. He’d endured a table full of drunk women, one of whom grabbed his crotch. Despite being blitzed, the woman had recognized him, and not from the band. She had taken it as license to feel him up and check whether it was “real.” When he backed up and asked her politely to keep her hands to herself, her friend threatened to tell the manager he’d sexually harassed them. Not one of them left him a tip. He did succeed in talking to his supervisor before any of them had a chance to complain, and fortunately, she was on his side. Still, the end result was the same—he was out the money from their tip.

When he turned the key, the lock was already popped. One of Jamie’s roommates was home. He was surprised. Nate spent at least a few nights a week at his fiancé’s place, and Mack supposedly had a date and wouldn’t be home. Jamie didn’t really care, as long as neither of them wanted to have an in-depth conversation about anything. He opened the door quietly.

He stopped dead in his tracks, the door still ajar. Greeting him was the sight of Mack’s naked butt, rising and falling rhythmically. Jamie couldn’t see who was under Mack on the living room floor, and he didn’t need to. It was probably his friend-with-benefits, Amelia, but it could have been someone else. They weren’t exclusive. It was out of the ordinary, though, since Mack almost never brought anyone but her to the apartment.

As quietly as possible, Jamie shut the door. Neither Mack nor whoever he was screwing noticed. Jamie tiptoed past them to the bedroom, glancing down long enough to see that Mack’s partner was a slender blond man. Their grunts followed Jamie down the hall, mostly muffled once he had the door shut.

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Random Snippet

Fiction, Other Relationships, Writing

Happy Wednesday! I haven’t been around for a snippet in a while, due to the school musical and NaNoWriMo. But November is almost over, and I’m happy to say I think I might get to claim by badge this year. I gave up last year for a number of reasons, but I stuck with it this time, and I’m almost at 50k.

This is also my first week doing a New Thing and joining the #QueerBlogWed h/t on Twitter. So you get 2-for-1 today. My snippet qualifies for both (as they generally do). I’m working on several projects because I discovered I can’t focus on just one until I’m well into the project. So currently, I have three sequels, an anthology, and two back-burner projects I only work on if I’m stuck on the others.

I got a little stuck last night, so I put some words down for a YA coming-of-age novel. It’s actually not about the MC’s coming out (though that’s in there). It’s…well, maybe a little bit of political ranting about a social issue affecting my local school district, and that part has nothing to do with being queer. The reason I started writing it was because my kids came to me about something they saw at school which bothered them. I also had a request from a bi teen who wanted books with bisexual boy protagonists but which were not focused only on that or on a relationship, and the teen in question wanted to see parents like his (supportive, but perhaps mildly exasperated with their child’s non-queer-related shenanigans—yes, I do know the parents).

Anyway, the snippet here is based on a real conversation with a pair of 12-year-olds, which I have fictionalized with permission from the youths in question. Their school (a middle-high school, so ages roughly 11-18) is based on our neighborhood school. The MC in this story, Bert, is 14. He tells the story of what happens to him in a series of memories leading up to the current situation. In this bit, he’s recounting his memory of the time he and his bestie came out to each other. As amusing as the real-life conversation was, it also makes me sad that even at twelve, kids know what biphobia is, even if they don’t know the word for it.

WIPmath: 11/30/16 = 11 + 3 + 0 = 14 paragraphs

Since Neveah shared with me, I figured I’d better spill my own secret. I’d been thinking a lot—like, the sweaty palms, pounding heart, just ran a mile kind of thinking—about this boy I knew from the drama club. Not that he’d have looked at me, and probably a good thing he didn’t. He was at least four years older. He was one of those gorgeous people you want to hate but you’re too busy fantasizing about being around them all the time.I confessed my raging crush on Marcus Tedesco, and she reacted pretty much as predicted. Her mouth hung open for about twenty seconds, then she closed it and kept staring at me for another whole minute.

“Okay, didn’t see that coming.”

Yeah, I already worked that one out, thanks. I said, “Right. But…don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“Who would I tell?”

“Dylan.” My reaction was instant. I didn’t need him to know, and I wasn’t sure why. He was our friend too, and my best guy friend at the time, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t take it too well.

Neveah shrugged. “Fine. So you’re, like, gay then? It’s cool if you are.”

“I guess so,” I said. I wasn’t sure, actually. But I went along with it because Neveah seemed to have a pretty good grasp on All Things Queer. She’d been my go-to person for about five minutes by then, which was longer than I’d had anyone else to ask up to that point. I sat up. “But I’m not going to come out any time soon. Not at school, anyway.”

Neveah nodded. She knew some of the guys—like Frankie—had been teasing me forever. I’ve been called gay since third grade, when I turned up with a pink Shutterfly backpack and my nails painted neon green. Even a teacher said he thought maybe I ought to ditch the nail polish when I hit sixth grade. Pretty disappointing, considering it meant giving up my silver shine. That wasn’t happening then, and it still isn’t happening now.

“It’s just…” I hesitated, but plowed on when Neveah gestured for me to. “Well, if I tell anyone at school, it’s going to hurt my chances with girls.”

“What girls?” Neveah blinked.

“Like…Maddie Alhart.” I’m sure I was red as a tomato.

Neveah stared at me again, but only for three seconds before she laughed so hard she fell off my bed. I rolled over onto my stomach and peered at her over the edge. She came back to herself and sat up, looking me dead in the eye.

“Dude.” She shook her head, and one more giggle escaped. “Dude, if you’re worried about not getting a girlfriend ‘cause she thinks you’re gay, then you are not gay!”

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: What He Can’t Do

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Visit

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: Power Outage

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: Roommates

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Beginning

WIPpet & Queer Blog Wednesday: A Random Snippet

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