Fiction

What started as a relatively quiet week ended up with plenty of excitement. I just had a novella published through MLR Press, What Once Was Lost. About a year and a half ago, when my first novel came out, I wrote several short stories which I put up on my blog as part of launch week. WWOL is a stand-alone, but it’s actually a sequel to one of the shorts.

Meanwhile, my May release, An Act of Devotion, which you may remember from past WIPpets, is now available for pre-order.

On to this week’s WIPpet. As you might recall, last time we saw Cat, he was having a reaction of sorts to sex. This week, he’s dealing with it. (When Cat refers to school here, he means the community college where he and his boyfriend are taking classes. Cat’s father is a professor there.) For the very curious, Cat has hemophilia A (clotting factor VIII deficiency), severe form, which is the most common type. Sex is not a “dangerous” activity, but there are precautions people can take because breakage of small blood vessels is possible, as are other injuries. Most people nowadays use recombinant (basically genetically engineered) factor to infuse, but some, like Cat, have immune reactions to it and rely on donated plasma.

WIPmath: 3/16/16 = 16 – (1 + 6) = 9 paragraphs or 16 + (1 + 6) = 23 sentences.

Cat got up and began dragging his clothes back on.

“I gotta get home,” he said. “I need my meds.” He stumbled as he yanked up his jeans.

Bryce slid to the edge of the bed and swung his feet over. “Didn’t you bring them?”

“No,” Cat said quietly before pulling his shirt over his head. “We were at school. Dad has shit for me in his office.”

“But you brought your stuff to go to Zee’s.” Bryce’s expression reflected his bewilderment.

Cat turned around and stood by the door. He couldn’t explain to Bryce that it was just one night at Zee’s, and he’d wanted to pretend for a few hours he could leave the house and be normal for a change. It didn’t matter that his parents were a phone call away if anything happened or that he wasn’t likely to sustain life-threatening injuries from take-out Chinese food, birthday cake, and a few games of stripes and solids in Zee’s basement.

“I forgot,” he lied. “I have to go. My parents—”

“Are they home?” Bryce began putting himself back together.

“No, but they will be soon, and I don’t want them asking me why I need an infusion. Shit!”

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!

Happy Wednesday! I’m deep in the midst of a whole bunch of editing this week. I already did final edits on a novella and first-round edits on a novel, both back from publishers. I have a paid gig that I’m really excited about and enjoying (it’s not every day I get to work with an author who is quickly becoming a favorite writer and client, so I count myself really fortunate). Finally, I have 2 chapters and a short story to beta read.

I’m also reading, reading, reading this week. I have 3 books due for reviews next week, but I just picked up BrewGirl by Eliza David as my treat to myself (she had me at “a feminist falls for a chauvinist”). It’s funny, smart, and exactly what I needed.

On to this week’s WIPpet. Last week, Bryce gave Cat an unexpected semi-public kiss. I’ve skipped over what follows, but I’m fairly sure you can work it out from this week’s snippet. It was about as awkward as you might imagine. Note: Cat and Bryce are both 19. The mention of Bryce’s parents is about Bryce not being out to them, not about their age. Warning for swearing.

WIPmath: (3 x 9) – (1 + 6) = 20 sentences

Cat withdrew, causing Bryce to wince and grunt, and they lay next to each other, panting. After a couple of minutes, Bryce looked over at Cat. A look of alarm crossed his face, and he sat up.

“What’s wrong?” Cat asked, thinking maybe Bryce had heard his parents’ cars.

“Cat…” Bryce’s eyes crinkled with worry. “You’re all red.”

Cat laughed. “Yeah, of course I am. We just had sex. That’s supposed to happen. Even I know that.”

Bryce shook his head. “No. Look at yourself.” His voice trembled.

When he looked down, Cat gasped. His pale brown freckles were mingled in with pinprick red spots, all over his chest and down his belly. “Shit.”

Having sex must have caused a few surface blood vessels to burst. It wouldn’t kill him, but he needed to get home for his meds as soon as possible. Whether it was from the heat or the strain of sex, he didn’t know, and it didn’t matter anyway.

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!

It’s been about 6 weeks since my last WIPpet. I promised I would get back to it, and then I didn’t. A big reason is wanting to do the other WIPpeteers justice. If I can’t take the time to read them all, then I won’t post one because I don’t feel it’s a fair trade. Doing that once in a while is okay, but I knew with several editing projects and a book launch (yesterday!) it would be nearly impossible. I hope today marks the start of getting back to joining the fun!

Speaking of the book launch, Trevor and Andre are finally live. Anthem is now on Amazon! So far, it’s gotten some good attention. I did a cover reveal a couple of weeks ago and then a virtual book blast. I still like to admire the cover; the artist did such a nice job with what I asked for.

On to this week’s WIP. Believe it or not, I’m still editing Cat’s story. I’m working on three other WIPs, but I’m not quite ready to post bits of them. The first is a short story I’m submitting to an anthology. I’m actually writing women this time! The second is the next book in the Notes from Boston series, and the third is a sequel to Passing on Faith (Walking by Faith is a prequel). Only the short story is actually in the writing stage—the others are still in research/planning mode.

When we last saw Cat, he was upset over an argument with Micah and remembering something from his past. WbF is primarily a prequel with a few flash-forwards to PoF. This is from the opening scene of the earlier time period. Cat is a 19yo college student.

WIPmath: 3/2 = 3 + 2 = 5 sentences

When Cat stepped onto the porch, Bryce tangled his fingers with Cat’s. He dragged Cat into his personal space, giving him a light kiss on the mouth. Sure, they’d kissed before, but never anything out where someone walking by could see. It was always just messing around in their rooms—nothing serious. Cat jerked back, startled.

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!

Coming up on another busy time in our household, but this time, I’m not also doing copyedits, my own edits, finishing a novel, and beta reading for 5 people. Both kids have winter concerts, 10yo’s is tomorrow and 12yo’s is next Thursday. In between, we have a Girl Scout camping trip and a cast & crew lock-in (which means both kids out of the house and a real date night on Saturday without hiring a babysitter!).

Anyway, I’m still in edits on Cat’s story, of course, so I’m sharing from that one. This is another bit from the prologue, which is current with the events in Passing on Faith.

WIPmath: 1/13/2016 = (2 + 0 + 1 + 6) + 13 – 1 = 21 sentences

To guard himself from uncomfortable truths, he shucked his jeans, curled up on the couch, and buried his head in a pillow. It didn’t help. All the reasons why he’d avoided situations like the one with Micah swarmed his brain, twisting in a familiar way to leave him feeling shame for his broken, sick body. He felt trapped by a disorder which left him looking whole on the outside while slowly destroying him from within.

Cat wasn’t much of a crier. Sometimes he wished he could be, able to spill out his emotions as they struck. Micah was like that, openly pouring everything out—Cat had lost track of the number of times he’d found Micah sobbing that summer. Whatever else was wrong with him, at least he possessed the magical ability to release his pain; perhaps that was what drew Cat to him in the first place. Cat lay on the couch, wishing for tears that wouldn’t flow. His eyes stung and his throat was tight, but everything remained trapped just below the surface. He closed his eyes and willed sleep to come.

It didn’t. Instead, his mind supplied the details, the things he’d worked for years to shelve and forget. All the reasons Micah was a bad idea stemmed from one source, and in his loneliness and frustration, he finally allowed himself the luxury of reliving those moments. He rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. More than eight years had passed—almost a third of his life. Yet here he was, still wondering if things might have been different if he’d chosen some other path. As he let his mind go there, he discovered what he’d been holding back even from himself. Desperately, he tried to suppress it, but the dam broke. At last the tears he’d prayed for began to fall, washing away the months and years of guilt and grief.

Oh, David, he thought. I am so, so sorry.

Who is David, and why does Cat feel so guilty? Hm. Guess we’ll find out…but not today. (Actually, those who have read PoF know who David is already, but I won’t spoil it.)

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!

OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh I can’t believe it! I’m so freaking excited. I finally got to start edits/rewrites/additions on Cat’s story. Adam and AJ got their (mostly) happily ever after, and there should only be minor tweaks. It’s no longer in serious edits, so I’m laying it aside until a friend finishes looking it over for me.

Fortunately, there isn’t much life stuff going on at the moment. Kids are back to school, winter concert season is here, and my 12-year-old is auditioning for All-County Jazz Band in a few weeks. Busy, but it’s a more typical busy than Christmas.

All right, on to the WIPpet featuring Cat! This story is structured in two parts: Cat’s present, which is concurrent with Passing on Faith, and his past, which are the events he briefly describes to Micah. The concept for the story (which I’m leaving a surprise for now) was taken from this line in PoF (this is LR, Cat’s sister, talking to Micah):

“He’s in complete shut-down mode and won’t even talk to me. I know you had something to do with it, because he adores you, God only knows why. What the hell happened?”

I figured in typical Cat fashion, he wouldn’t do something halfway, so a story was born.

WIPmath: New month, new novel, first 5 paragraphs. Or if you like, real math 1/6 = 6 – 1 = 5 paragraphs

Cat wasn’t running, exactly—more a fast lope. He was all the way to his own front door before he processed his bare chest, having left his shirt next door. There was no chance he was going back for it, certainly not that night and probably not any other. It was fine; he had plenty of other shirts. A missing sunset orange v-neck was the least of his worries, even if it was one of his favorites and complemented his ginger-blond hair so well.

He hurried inside his house and shut the door, turning around to lean on it despite knowing his back would stick to it. His skin was damp, and his breathing was shallow. Every inhalation shuddered with longing and regret. He should have known better than to give in to his own wishful thinking. It was too much to ask just once God might send him someone who could see past everything wrong with him to the real person he was.

No, that wasn’t right. He didn’t want someone to see past it—he wanted someone to embrace it. He’d done the whole “seeing past” thing once, and it had been all right in its way, but it wasn’t what he needed. For all of a few minutes, he’d been sure this time he’d found the right person. It hardly mattered that Micah, his gorgeous neighbor, was a mess of his own problems or that he was only going to be around for the summer. Sure, they couldn’t have the kind of passionate fling which was the stuff of movies. Cat’s body wasn’t fit for such things. They could have had something all their own, though, and it would have been enough.

Or rather, it was until Cat discovered once again how his train-wreck of a body would always be in the way. His usual trouble with the world of dating and mating was how many people saw him as a liability. Hooking up was largely out of the question, not that he was interested anyway. He never had been, no matter who believed he ought to be available. It was one lie of many which had followed him for eight long years. It made Cat hate how much people assumed about him because he was small and pretty.

He sighed and shoved off the door, wincing as it tugged at his skin but appreciating the way the burn grounded him. He flopped onto the couch, tired and a little sore and a lot heartbroken. His mind wandered back to the previous five minutes, and he closed his eyes. Whether it was to block out the images or embrace them, he wasn’t sure. It was his own fault—he’d made the first move. He’d kissed Micah.

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!