Passing on Faith

Happy Wednesday! The pre-launch festivities for Lower Education are in full swing, and I’m loving all these wonderful guest posts, interviews, and cover reveals. If you missed it, go have a look at Friday’s fantastic short by Kate Sparkes. Her post was definitely a highlight, so be sure to check it out!

Today, I’m asking you all for a teensy favor. On Thursdays, I post a Q&A. This week, it’s all about my characters. I’m answering the question of who should play them in a movie (nope, no hints!). If any of you remember enough about Phin, Alex, and the gang, I’d love if you could comment here with something you wish you could ask them.

On to my WIPpet

I debated what I wanted to share, and this is the one I chose. There are so many things I want to keep secret, but at the same time, I want to share them all. This scene requires a little background. I (like Micah) came out of a fundamentalist/conservative evangelical religious background. It’s hard to leave that without being hurt, confused, and angry. Often, good people who have never experienced that pain simply don’t understand, while those who are hurt may lash out unfairly at people who weren’t part of the harm. That’s what’s going on here. Also, no, I’m not telling you what’s wrong with Cat. [evil grin] Warning for crude language.

WIPmath: 1 + 0 + 15 = 15 paragraphs.

Micah panicked. He’d thought he was years past dealing with anything he mentally referred to as “religious bullshit.” If Cat was only helping him in order to rack up another notch in his saved belt, Micah wanted to know. He quickly caught up and grabbed Cat’s arm.  “Are you some kind if holier-than-thou religious nut?”

Cat’s face contorted with anger. “Is that what you think of me?” He jerked his arm free. “Well, good thing you have better people to spend time with.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to convert people, save us all from burning in hell for our sinful lifestyle?” He’d heard it a thousand times, and it still invoked an involuntary reaction.

“I don’t do that. You know what? Let’s just go.” Cat turned away again and continued walking.

“No.” Micah stood where he was and crossed his arms. “I deserve to know. It seemed to me like you were cool, but I’m not interested in learning how I can live a long, healthy life of celibacy. I’ve had that offer held out to me before. I didn’t take it then, and I won’t take it now.”

Cat had stopped walking, but he kept his back to Micah. He sounded tired when he repeated, “I don’t do that.”

“Fucking hell. Is that why you got so weird when I kissed you? You’re trying to be a good gay and stay away from cock?”

“No.”

“But you still believe all that church shit, right?” Micah folded his arms.

“Yeah, I do. But it’s not what you think.” He turned around slowly.

Micah growled. “I can’t get dragged back into that life. I left the church ages ago. It’s why I’m here. God—or whoever—screwed me over, and I don’t need someone telling me that Big Angry Sky Daddy has a plan for my life if only I believe. And stop being gay, of course.”

Cat recoiled. “Is that really what you think I believe?”

“I don’t know,” Micah admitted. “It’s what I learned in my house.” His voice was down to a harsh whisper when he said, “Your God hates us. I don’t know how you can still believe in all that crap.”

“That was never the God I believed in,” Cat said. There was hurt in his eyes, and he held his hands out, palms up. “I don’t know what God you’re talking about.”

Micah scoffed, “No wonder you still cling to religion. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up under that kind of control of everything you did.”

Cat’s face contorted. “No? You want to know about my shit childhood? Stop by. I’ll make you a whole pot of coffee and tell you what it’s like to live with a constant stream of hospitals, doctors, and overprotective parents.” He turned around again and yanked open the car door. “Congratulations. You’ve succeeded in getting rid of me. Find your own damn help on that house.”

WIPpet Wednesdays are hosted by the excellent K. L. Schwengel. If you enjoyed this, you’ll love reading the other entries and perhaps adding one of your own. Happy writing!

Welcome to wonderful Wednesday! I’m having a blast with all the guest posts, interviews, cover reveals…this book launch thing is exhausting but fun.

I’ve decided to skip out on ROW80 this time. I don’t really have time to write or keep up with goals. I’ve got so much going on right now for this book launch that I can’t see adding more to it, and I don’t want to reduce my pre-launch month to a list of things I have to report on every week. I’m hoping to join in again next time, though.

This week’s WIPpet was inspired many months ago when someone (I’m thinking it was Shan Jeniah Burton) mentioned in the comments that she pictured my Cat behaving much like his feline counterpart (really, I did write him that way). She suggested perhaps he might sit on Micah’s lap and mess with his keyboard. I’d already established (but hadn’t mentioned) that Micah’s an author, so I found the idea hilarious—but I couldn’t share why! Now that I’ve given you all last week’s post with their exchange regarding Micah’s novel, I thought I’d treat you to this bit inspired by my fellow WIPpeteer.

WIPmath: 10 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 4 = 17 paragraphs.

Cat looked over at the screen. “What are you working on?” He grinned. “Another het story without the heaving boobs?”

Micah let out a snorting laugh. “This one’s a little different from the last.”

Cat’s eyes widened. “Ooh! Is it lesbian porn?” He leaned in and whispered, “Lesbian alien tentacle porn?”

“Oh. My. God.” Micah laughed and swatted at Cat. “You are awful.”

Cat plopped himself in Micah’s lap, startling the breath out of him in a whoosh. “Let me see.” He twisted slightly so he could peer at the screen. “Why, Micah!” he said. “Are you actually writing a gay story this time?” He snickered.

“I wasn’t going to, no.” Micah tried to reach around to close the laptop, but Cat blocked him.

“But you have these two exceptionally hot guys, and they are totally flirting.” He read Micah’s most recent paragraph out loud. “Oh, they want each other bad. So much sexual tension there.”

“They’re on a road trip, discussing driving directions to the next city.”

“Exactly!”

Cat began typing, and Micah made a grab for his hands. “Don’t mess it up!”

“Not messing. I’m telling them they want to have hot sex on the hood of the car.” Cat elbowed Micah.

Giving in, Micah let him continue to type for a few minutes. He longed to stretch out his hands along Cat’s legs or wrap them around Cat’s waist. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes to rid himself of the intrusive thoughts. It wasn’t easy, given that he had a sweet, sexy redhead sitting on his lap, fooling around on his keyboard. With a low growl, Micah decided to do something about it. He put out his index finger and dug it gently into Cat’s ribs.

That did it. Cat yelped and pitched sideways. Micah grabbed him to steady him, and Cat stood up. He glared at Micah. “I was just getting to the good part.”

Micah studied the screen. “This is…absolute shit, you jerk,” he laughed. “Good thing I’m the one who does the writing. Also, this guy? Brad? He’s in love with Tammi. So it’s no-go with Karl.”

Cat crossed his arms and pouted. “Karl has an unrequited crush, then. Can’t you make at least one of them gay?” He batted his eyelashes. “Please?”

“I could. But I’m not going to.” He rolled his shoulders. “Maybe one of these days I’ll write a gay story. But I’ll need a new pen name for that.”

“I’ll bet I could think of one,” Cat said with a smirk.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll take some time to check out the other entries. Many thanks to K. L. Schwengel, especially as she didn’t send her monkey minions after me last week. Happy writing!