Category Archives: Team Have Your Back

Bored Angels

Posted on by

Peters photo 02-2013

 

The Arch Angels, Jeff and Matt, were bored. It was a Wednesday, mid-week, hump day. There were no Lenten services, it was the wrong season. Choir practice was done for the year. No one was getting married, no one had died–although Jeff told Matt he smelled like someone had crawled up his ass and expired. “It’s the stale communion wafers! They always give me gas, you know that!”

“Well why do you eat them then?”

“You know very well why–Blood of Christ, Body of Christ–we’re angels, what else can we eat? So I binge on the leftovers once in a while, forgive me!”

“Whatever…”

Bored angels were generally not a good thing. Of course there were all the rules. No interfering with an individuals right to choose good versus evil. No showing yourself to those still alive. No playing cupid, except of course on St. Valentine’s day. Being an angel wasn’t all fun and games. In fact, that was Jeff’s major complaint. He figured it should be all fun and games. “I mean really, I got the golden ticket, right? Why not flowing chocolate fountains?”

“Let’s go check out that big Leadership conference of the Order of the Holy and Pious. I think it started yesterday in Geneva.”

“Sure, it could be interesting. There’s plenty to talk about what with global health crisis’s, child pornography, drug abuse, trashy ecosystems, opportunity inequity, hunger…”

“Well, lot’s has been getting better, too. You shouldn’t always keep harping on the negative! Accentuate the positive!”

“Whatever, let’s see what some of the break-out groups are studying.”

“…we’ll need to increase security to assure safety post-transition, of course…”

“… abstinence, that’s God’s way. We’ll crack down on those having relations for reasons other than procreation! I mean, really, if I had only known what I know now when I was a teenager…”

“…welcome you all to Protecting Yourself from Lawsuits – 1001. This class is vital to the fiscal preparedness of the…”

“…attendance numbers are down in the United States and Europe, let’s hope that the conversion focus on Latin American and Africa can bring back…”

“Oh my God, this just makes me want to break into the communion wine!”

“Come on, Matt. This is worse than being bored. Let’s go see if we can save some poor slob from slitting his wrists over the futility of trying to house, clothe and feed his family of four on his two, no benefits, part-time jobs at McBurgers and Walsmart.”

The inspiration for this story came from my nephew’s drawing.

Beautiful Pleasure

Posted on by

Once there was a much loved Mother that gave birth to a son.

He was beautiful and round and brown and soft and she loved him so.
He cried and he suckled and he smiled and he suckled some more.
As he suckled she thought to herself “I shall call him Beautiful Pleasure, because he brings me pleasure and he is beautiful.”

The son grew, happy in the shadow of his mother, constantly aware of his surroundings and gentle in his heart.
His life was like a train ride with some track smooth, some bumpy and some so rough that the cars seemed as they would be bounced apart.

As happens sometimes in life, the rough parts overtook the smooth and the gentle soul was snatched out of the son’s body, leaving only a husk, with no promises of return.
The husk was not allowed to die, nor was it allowed to live…exactly.

Through it all, the much loved Mother never quit her Beautiful Pleasure and the husk never lost all the oils that had once made it smooth and soft.

When the land helped smooth the rails again, as nature has a habit of doing, the gentle soul slowly resurfaced.
Renewed, and still gentle, but with a stronger covering, the boy sprouted and grew and survived and overcame and succeeded.
Now he was again beautiful and round and brown and soft.

But now he also had a fire light shining within him.
Sometimes it burned blue and soft, while other times it burned red and hot.
It wasn’t always controllable, but it was always true.

The much loved Mother, who thought of her Beautiful Pleasure often, but saw him not, was able to feel the fire light.
Most often it warmed her, but indeed, even she was scorched at times.

When she felt the scorch, she said, “My beautiful, round, brown and soft acquired a rocket that will not be tied down.”

And together they smiled, in their hearts, knowing and loving each other well.

Copyright 2012

The next big thing, self interview blog…

Posted on by

Sarah R. Yoffa invited me to participate in a blog series she is doing called “The Next Big Thing”. Since the next big thing, in my case, is pretty close to the first big thing and could use all the press it can get, I readily agreed.

A self interview is quite a bit like an informal chat with friends, except by yourself. I like informal chats and I find that I talk to myself a lot as well. Sara gave me the following list of interview questions and I took my best shot at the answers:

1) What is the working title of your current/next book?

Alexander’s Tail. I have to admit that I am loving the story and the characters, but not the title so much right now. I also haven’t done much tweaking of the title at this point.

2) Where did you get the idea for that book?

Unlike some of my story ideas, that have literally come to me in dreams, this one came through channels solidly tethered to earth. The three main characters began as real people and quickly morphed. Even more so, the situations are ones that hovered around the edges of real interactions. The inspiration was bringing the story and the characters together to play, I guess. That said, I must state that the situation(s) in the book have not been experienced by me, or anyone that I know, and none of the characters portrayed are remotely real. They are both composite figments of my (often provocative, sometimes ill) imagination.

3) What’s the genre of the book?

Ugh, I knew this question was in here and I’ve thought about it dozens of times. I don’t like the question simply because, as a writer whose characters are often gay, I feel like my stories will get pigeon-holed into the “Male – Male Romance” genre. At the point I am at in my published writing career, the very cusp of it, if you will, I guess it is what it is. However, I have other themes and stories started and hope that I can break out of this label sometime. Time and the quality of my writing will tell, I guess.

4) If you could pick actors to play the lead characters in your story, who would you pick?

If I can freely use hair dye…maybe lifts…and a time machine…I would choose Orlando Bloom to play Alexander, Cory Monteith to play Brice, and Taylor Lautner to play Nico.

I’ll never get over Orlando as the tall, slender elf. That physical presence is what I am imagining for Alexander.

Brice is just as tall, but built heavier and it is his nature and demeanor to be more innocent and open. Cory Monteith fits this bill for me.

Finally, I need someone dark and muscular, serious, older and shorter in this triumvirate. The boys use their height to their advantage, but Nico has power from within and doesn’t need to tower over anyone to dominate. I must admit, who plays Nico was the biggest struggle for me. It’s not a type I’m generally on the lookout for, but I think Taylor Lautner would carry Nico off well.

5) How would you describe your book in one sentence (10 words or less)?

Alexander’s Tail is about love, neglect and broken personality.

6) (a) How will your book be published, submitted through the traditional route to a traditional publisher or will you be handling it yourself through Indie Publishing methods?

Hmm, excellent question. I haven’t thought it through yet, but I’m pretty sure I will not be looking at traditional brick and mortar print publishers.

6) (b) If you’re an Indie Author, will you be publishing through your own Indie Publishing company or in a collective with other Indie Authors?

Again, I must say, I have not yet decided. I’ve been talking to a number of authors who have published using several directions and it surprises me how many options there are to successfully publish a book without every approaching a traditional publishing company. The market for books is so very much larger than it was when I was a child growing up in Baudette, MN. Then, if I couldn’t get the book from the library, which housed mainly traditional titles and authors, or one of the drug stores in town, which was the place to go for paperback best sellers and romance novels, I was out of luck. Today, the options for finding reading material are almost as unlimited as your imagination.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of this book?

A little more than a year (I’m hoping, lol). I began in December of 2011 and I am almost done with the first draft. Rewrites and editing are my next big worries at this point.

8) What other books within your genre are similar to yours?

None, mine is totally unique *eye roll*.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The original inspiration came from within, after a number of life changes. The on-going inspiration came from a group I call my original “have your back” friends. Most of them have read different stages of the draft and given me constructive feedback and fraternal enthusiasm. A couple of them have inspired and helped me every step of the way.

10) What about your book will pique the reader’s interest?

Everything, I hope! But, realistically, the creation of characters that are able to have strong relationships with each other, while being engaging, funny and multidimensional, is what drives and motivates me.

I’m thanking Webbiegrrl Sarah for asking me to do this blog and tagging several of my favorite authors to ask them about their “Next Big Thing”. The tag is a surprise for some and expected by others, so we’ll just see where it goes!

Tag, you guys are it, I hope you want to play! –> Andrew Ashling, James Austen, Alex Akira, Edward Jakob and David G. Hallman.

For anyone that feels the need to rummage through this site and look at what I’ve posted about Alexander, Brice, and Nico already, click here.

 

The Invisible Hands – Part 1: Gambit (Dark Tales of Randamor the Recluse, book 4)

Posted on by

As Andrew Ashling moved toward completion of the first book in his second trilogy…or the fourth book in the second movement of his double trilogy set…I was looking forward to more of a lot of things. I got it all, plus kind of an interesting new surprise.

I love the depth of character development he brings to the warriors, pages, dukes, mothers, aunts, brothers, etc. that have been carried along through the four books. Andrew makes me laugh at the antics the besotted pages get into with both their boyfriends and their girlfriends. I still cringe at the new and nasty torture techniques and depth of descriptions he lays before us for those who have done (or thought…) terrible things which he deems punishable. And I am rubbing my hands together in glee as I get to know an additional brother / prince that will certainly play a significant role in the future books.

In the third book Andrew proved that he was a chess player in the story telling sense of the word. He handled a number of dissimilar plot lines and blithely moved them forward to completion without using the wave of a magic wand. In this fourth book he pulls out all the stops and proves that in triplicate. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the written history of a story that happened far away and not a yarn spun by a pencil chewer sitting at a computer terminal. My eyes and fears (yes, I meant fears) opened with the new realizations that Anaxantis made as he moved through the story. This heightens my enthusiasm for the fifth and sixth installments of what, seems like, could be a life long endeavor for Andrew.

Book four has made me look at Andrew Ashling with new admiration for his story telling ability, and retained love for the wit, humor and sexuality in his writing. Thank you once again for bringing entertainment to my life, Andrew!

Andrew Ashling, “The Invisible Chains – Part 1: Bonds of Hate” …Abyss

Posted on by

“Deal with all this, live with myself, you mean? I honestly don’t know. I stand often enough at the abyss of my soul, asking that same question, looking down in the dark crevices where the black monsters dwell on the bottom. They gaze up at me, and I look them in the eyes. “This also you are,” they say, and I almost fall into the void.”
“And then?”
Anaxantis shrugged.
“And then? I turn around and go do what needs to be done. What else is there?”

― Andrew Ashling, The Invisible Chains – Part 1: Bonds of Hate

The Egyptian Correspondent

Posted on by

My flat in Cairo was inside the city and in the worst traffic, crime, and lowest price area that would consider renting to foreign service employees; therefore, I could afford quite a respectable place on the per-deim that USGCC gave me. I had always been of the mind that I would rather buy my own housing and cars than have the company pay terrible prices for renting them in the fenced in American getto communities.

The flat I had chosen was two stories, both stories were above the ground so they were –a little– less dusty and a bit safer. Of course the upper floors were also less likely to be over-run with bugs, snakes and weird colored lizards. I actually lived in what we might call a Townhouse in the U.S. with my storage and garage being on the ground level. As I changed countries I would sell everything that I had and usually make a nice profit at the same time as having USGCC per-diem pay well more than any payments I had been making. In Cairo I had a two year old small Mercedes and a ten year old Jeep, which was actually much more useful.

Friday morning started out as it often did, with Bogey at my door at seven o’clock pounding and creating a riot in my hall and head. Being a correspondent usually didn’t entail early hours, but somehow Boge had never held with the lazy morning routine. I pulled on some shorts and dragged over to the door to let in my best friend. We had been at the Club Alex until one in the morning discussing the details of our trip and, already, Bogey had her arms full of guides, newspapers from Alexandria and Cairo, travel brochures from the Company and –Thank God!– my bagel and a pot of fresh brewed coffee.

“Bogey, can’t you see its only seven a.m. and I’m still practically dead?” I said, through stale mouth and crusty eyes. “I don’t understand why your damn clock goes off so early in the morning, why don’t you have it fixed?”

“Well if you weren’t always out until the crack of dawn trying to hustle stories or dark haired boys you’d be better off anyway.” She always said this even though I always spent the entire evening with her. With Boge it just didn’t make any difference, your time was her time and you should just know it. “So I suppose you need an entirely new wardrobe for a week on the Nile?” she said. “I have tons of equipment to round up and need your help all afternoon, so I’m here to help you get your shopping done this morning!”

With a grunt of acceptance, I burned my tongue on my coffee and started scanning the papers for anything interesting. “Hey look at this” Bogey said, “they have Peaches at the market this week for only $1.59 a pound.” God, how I longed for more literate company! Actually, Bogey was the truest friend I’d had since Tim stayed behind at my last post in the states.

He was fabulous in bed, was inked and full of kink, but not the kind of person that could stand dust in his underwear or someone you could count on to have your back in a knife fight. With the damn Egyptian heat and our need to seek out stories, someone who could pull me through a tight spot was probably much more useful to me than someone who had, well you probably get it. So here I was with Bogey, listening to the price of peaches and thinking about my past men.

 

OMG, I forgot!

Posted on by

This morning I was drinking my protein shake for breakfast, minding my own business and reading Zite…or Twitter…or Facebook…something like that. My BF, Paul, comes up behind me and starts bugging at my neck and playing with my hair. I kept rolling my head around, but finally I had to say, somewhat irritably, “What do you want?”

This got him to stop, just long enough to hand me a card, smile, roll his eyes, say “Happy Anniversary” and walk away. How do you think I felt? Well, a little chagrined that I had forgotten our 26th anniversary, needless to say.

Now don’t everybody jump down my throat at once! We take turns with forgetting things. Like, I remembered, way in advance, to order beautiful flowers for Valentine’s Day to be delivered to his office. I did happen to get one of the extra boxes of chocolates that he picked up for his sisters, brother in law, and nephew -__-. I blew off Easter (baskets), but he had a stuffed lamby, caramels, a card and two solid chocolate bunnies (I noticed one was dark chocolate, I don’t  like dark chocolate, guess who does).

Maybe it should have been my turn to remember, so shoot me, I’ll remember something in the future. That’s the way it goes.

And, by the way, he was smiling when he walked away after handing me the card. Did I mention that, sometimes, its nice to know that you remembered something that someone else didn’t? To know that you just made their day? It’s not all about you, sometimes its all about the other person.

#RealRelationshipAdvice

Dark Tales of Randamor the Recluse, #3

Posted on by

The Invisible Chains – Part 3: Bonds of Blood (Dark Tales of Randamor the Recluse, #3)

by Andrew Ashling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Andrew Ashling’s story telling gets deeper, more intricately planned and funnier. Be warned, my review may contain small spoilers. In the third book in the Dark Tales of Randamor the Recluse series, “Bonds of Blood”, he brings in the Mukthars and their prince, Timishi. The Mukthars are the sworn enemies for which the the War Lord, Anaxantis, has been preparing. They are fierce, have bad manners and, of course, are sexy as hell.

At this juncture, Andrew has made me feel like an intimate friend of the pages as well. Their story, while very light on actual combat, is clearly a major tactical play. I love to hear poor Obyann complain about his charges nakedness and their apparent love of each other’s bodies. Andrew has funny and horny all mixed up with these guys and its a great combination.

Finally, I must say that, typically, descriptions of battles either bore me or completely mix me up. Andrew’s descriptions, including battle plans and maps, made the battle scenes come alive for me and I was totally able to follow the action. There was never a point where I thought –and a miracle happens here– in order to end the scene.

I understand Andrew has another series, or continuation of this series, almost ready for his loyal followers. Whatever it is, you can bet it will quickly find its way onto my e-reader and into my heart. Thank you Andrew, for the wonderful read and marvelous entertainment you’ve given me through your words.