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There’s not been much happening lately. I’ve been working my way through my NaNoWriMo story “Across Two Divides,” by Sol Crafter. It’s a mm contemporary novel following the life of Nicholas Underwood and Christian Jacobson, and their respective romantic partners.

It’s being updated at Smashwords if you’d like to pick up a copy. It’s set your own price, so you can buy a copy now and have it available when the final copy is made available. (I’m kind of boggled that more people aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity, but there you go.) Enjoy.

IRL — So my neighbor’s dog was eaten by coyotes. There was this loud animal scream last night and today the lady was driving around the neighborhood looking for her dog. The poor thing was blind and snuck out when the garbage was being taken out. I hope it was quick. V sad.

UBIQUITOUS EXCERPT — This is an excerpt from “Star Brite,” a YA-ish novel. Enjoy:

I could feel the humming sway of the world moving beneath me. It was sort of dreamy and frightening at the same time, but there was nothing I could do about it or anything else.

I existed in a cocoon of flowing warm air and there was a series of throbbing spikes against my head. It made my stomach twist unpleasantly.

I could not have said where I was or what was going on, but there was no doubt that something was very, very wrong.

 

I opened my eyes with a groan, blinking away from the overhead light. I felt faintly nauseous and the gray wool blanket was rough against my bare skin. I was in a ship’s bunk, the cabin around it small and cramped with a few bright posters on the walls — I thought I recognized the sultry pout of the wild Fringe singer Pater Familias, but I had never been a fan so didn’t really know.

I sat up and woozily climbed to my feet. I clutched the blanket close around me to keep as much of myself covered as possible. The blanket was terrible, but it was the best that I currently had to work with.

Picking carefully across the floor, I looked through the drawers built into the walls for clothes. There was a lot of different things that I thought might be useful later, but it all seemed like the possessions of a teenager. Drawer after drawer of someone’s life that I was digging through. It made me feel so uncomfortable, but I didn’t really have a whole lot of choice.

It was with a sense of relief that nearly halfway around the room I found three drawers with clothes.

I dug through the clothes and held shirts and pants against myself to try and guess the sizes. It was kind of surprising that everything seemed to be my general size. It made something strange twist in my belly and it took me a moment to realize that it was fear.

Something very strange was going on here. To wake up in a ship’s bunk in a room that had clothes in just my size? It sent a creepy chill down my spine.

I quickly pulled on a pair of pants made out of some durable feeling material and a long sleeved red and white striped shirt that was only slightly ridiculous looking. Whoever belonged to these clothes either didn’t have a very developed ense of style, or just didn’t care all that much.

I had to huff a faint laugh when I realized that I was stressing about fashion while not even knowing where the hell I was. Talk about a shallow sense of survival.

Turning, I spotted a pair of heavy duty black boots tucked under the edge of the bunk. I tossed the blanket back on top of the bunk and leaned down to pull the boots out, sitting down right on the decking to pull them on over the pink and black argyle socks I was currently wearing.

It was strange to feel so relieved at having my feet covered, but there it was. These boots made me feel just a little less helpless and a little more bad ass. Though what I was going to do if I ended up in a fight, I honestly didn’t know.

I looked down at my hands — they were small and delicate fingered, definitely not the killing instruments I was going to need to get out of a bad situation. And even though there was lots of junk tucked away in the cabin, there wasn’t much I could use as a weapon, not without being laughed at. It made me feel terribly helpless, a sensation I was quickly growing to hate.

There was a creaking sound from the hatch and I leaped to my feet, instinctively going into a half-crouch with my hands ready at my sides. Scenarios flashed through my brain and I thought that maybe I wasn’t as completely useless as I’d thought at first, though maybe I was full on delusional and just didn’t know.

The hatch opened and a bearded man stepped through, limping a bit on his left leg, though my judicious eyes told me it was an old injury likely as healed as it was ever going to get without a graft. He was dressed in standard spacer fare — a gray coverall with a ship’s patch on his left sleeve and magnetic soled boots much like the ones I was currently wearing. His graying black hair was cut close to his head and his brown eyes were hard as they looked around the room — right up until they landed on me and went so warm I could feel it through my bones.

“Star, girl, you’re back with us.” He strode toward me across the room, his arms opening wide as though to engulf me. He hesitated and lowered his arms when I drew back away from him nervously. The big smile fell off his face and he looked a bit more wary. “Star, are you okay, darling?”

“Who are you?” my voice sounded rusty and strange in my own ears. For some reason I had been expecting a different kind of voice, not this girlish thing. “Where am I?”

“Oh, honey,” he said sadly, “we were worried about something like this.”

“About what?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes. I inched slowly backward, wanting to get a corner behind me just in case it turned into a fight.

“You got knocked hard on the head and Gant said there might be problems.” He shook his head. “I should have trusted him.”

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” I asked.

He pressed a hand to his chest and tried to give me a sincere expression that I wasn’t buying. “It’s me, Star, your daddy.”

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. “What?”

Who was this guy and why was he trying to pretend he was my father? My father was… my father…

I sucked in a shocked breath. I didn’t remember my own father, and when I tried to think about it, I didn’t remember my mother either or any siblings or even any friends. All my frantic thoughts could draw on were the names of celebrities, nothing personal.

“Wh…” I raked a hand through my hair — it was short and felt vaguely fluffy, though like my voice it seemed strange and unfamiliar. “What’s happened to me? Where am I?”

He slowly extended a hand toward me and I couldn’t help the slight flare of resentment I experienced when I realized he was treating me like some kind of wild animal. “It’s like I said, you got hit pretty hard on the head. If we hadn’t been able to get you to Gant so quick, you might have been dead.”

“Who’s Gant?”

He shook his head. “Oh, right, sorry. Gant is our ship’s medic. He’s been taking care of you since you were a baby, so when he said there was something off about your brain waves I should have listened.” He blew out his cheeks, then gave me a piercing look that made me want to cringe back. “Do you know who I am, Star?”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” I asked.

He looked surprised. “What, ‘Star’? Honey, I been calling you that since you were shorter than the soles of my boots. It’s your name. Jenna Star Brite.”

The name didn’t mean anything to me, though when I tried to remember my name I drew a complete blank. A surge of panic went through me and my hands trembled so bad I clasped them together over my stomach in the hopes he wouldn’t see. “My name is Jenna?” I asked.

“Well, your legal paperwork name, anyways,” he said. “You’ve always just been Star since just about birth.” He made like he was going to step closer, but stopped when I cringed away. I didn’t like putting that hurt look on his face, but there was no way I wanted this strange man getting too close to me.

“And you’re my father?” I asked slowly.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said. “Willis Brite, captain of the Maybell.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I said. “There’s obviously something very wrong with me if I can’t remember anything. I mean,” I laughed, though it didn’t really sound like one, “I didn’t even know that I didn’t know anything. How screwed up is that? What’s happened to me?”

Willis made a shushing sound and carefully drew closer. This time I didn’t pull away and he slowly reached out to rest a hand on my shoulder. It felt strange, but what did I know; everything was strange. “It’s all right, Star, we’ll get through this,” he said. He tugged me and I let myself be pulled into his arms, let myself be hugged close by this man that said he was my father.

He smelled vaguely of some musty cologne that made my nose wrinkle against the cloth of his shoulder where he couldn’t see. I felt incredibly uncomfortable, but if he really was my father… How could I push him away when he obviously loved me so much?

“It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered, pressing a kiss against the top of my head. “I promise, Daddy’s gonna make everything be okay.”

/EXCERPT

 

Fortress in the Eye of Time at Amazon

Title: Tuesday Night
Author: Sol Crafter
Genre: mm superhero
Rating: Mature
A/N: Starts off with a m/f scene that’s pretty important to the plot.

Summary: In a world where Ashley never returned, Tony had to keep going forward alone. With just a few–giant!–life-changing errors on the way.

TUESDAY NIGHT
By Sol Crafter

ONE

Sometimes the loneliness ate away at him like a cancer. It made him writhe and scream and more than anything he wanted everything to be okay again. But that so rarely happened in real life.

He cried himself to sleep on the nights like those, depressed and gray and so horrible it made him shake in misery, his whole body aching with loss. With every breath he took, he got farther and farther away from his center, becoming something else.

Her name beat the sound of his heart: Ashley. The only girl he had or would ever love.

When he got too melodramatic, Sunfire would toss something at him and tell him to “Get over it. I know it’s hard, but she’s gone and you’re still here. You need to live.”

And it would be like someone had hit a switch deep inside and he would suddenly come back alive again. It was as though he’d been given the permission he needed to hear to be able to get past the death of her.

Loss was a swirling vortex beneath his feet trying to pull him down. He would fight it for awhile, but there was no way he was going to be able to withstand such force for very long. So one day he would slip and down he would go into the depths that only despair could take him, and who knew what would happen then? What could total loss get him to do?

Tony had to be grateful that Sunfire always seemed to show up just when he was losing control of himself. And just having his friend around lightened the pressure on him, seeming to give him the air he needed to breathe.

Sunfire made him feel that everything was going to be all right, if not immediately, in the future at least.

They played video games and watched movies and Sunfire never seemed to mind when Tony just wasn’t in the mood to talk. He just seemed to make allowances in their relationship for times when Tony would be silently moody.

It was kind of funny how such a tragedy could have led to him realizing just how great a friend Sunfire actually was. Always before he had just thought the man was kind of irresponsible. The kind of guy that would forget a birthday and would never be around when he was really needed.

Tony had had his eyes pried open when he realized just how thoughtful a guy Sunfire really was. Sure, he said dumb stuff sometimes, but he always remembered a promise and he always seemed to know what to say and what not to say. It was actually pretty great.

But sometimes Tony wanted something more. He wanted the warmth of physical sensation. He wanted to bury himself balls deep in moist heat and let go of everything that had ever troubled him. Even if it wasn’t for forever, he just needed that little bit of breathing room.

Which is how Tony found himself lounging on the couch in the common living area with Solar writhing in his lap, rubbing her naked breasts against his lips.

Faizel 02 at Amazon

NaNoWriMo seems to be going well 🙂 I’m actually pretty happy with what I’ve written so far and the story is coming together at a good pace. I’m very pleased.

I keep checking on Smashwords to see if anyone has downloaded samples of my NaNo and I would really like to see what people think of it so far, but that’s just one of those things. Reviews come when reviews come.

EXCERPT —

Nicholas woke with a groan. “Stop shaking me, you’ll give me the syndrome.”

“You’re not a baby,” Christian sounded amused, “so get up before I pour water on you.”

Knowing that there was no way Christian was going to let it go, Nicholas forced himself to sit up. His hair felt crazy around his head and his eyes were so dry and sore that he had to rub them until he could see clearly. “Why do you have to do this to me?”

“Because your brother made me promise to get you up so you could arrange our lunch with that guy from last night,” Christian said patiently. He knew that Nicholas was not at his best just after waking up.

“What are you talking about?” Nicholas threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, his hand going out to catch himself on the hotel nightstand before he went over. He yawned hugely and stretched his spine until it made the unpleasant cracking sounds Christian always professed to hate.

“You told that David guy that you would let him take you to lunch, remember?” Christian followed him into the bathroom and unscrewed the lid of a water bottle while Nicholas urinated. “Frankie said to make sure you called the guy.”

Nicholas sighed and flushed the toilet. “Do you have anything for my head?”

“Of course.” Christian filled a water glass and shook two Advil out of a small bottle. “Wash your hands,” he ordered, then preceded to ignore Nicholas’ roll of the eyes and turned on the tap for him.

“Yes, master.” Nicholas quickly washed his hands, then reached for his toothbrush. He couldn’t even manage to drink plain water with the horrible taste in his mouth. He’d always been finicky.

Christian was ever patient and had the water and pills held out toward him before he lowered the towel from his face. “Swallow these and drink all the water. I don’t know why you have to get so wasted whenever we go anywhere.”

“Because it makes me feel special.” Nicholas gave his best dipshit smirk and reached for the pills. “You’re such a dear.”

“Darling, you are a real bitch in the morning,” Christian said. He watched to make sure Nicholas really swallowed the analgesics, then pressed the water on him. “At least you’re getting some color back in your cheeks. We’ll eat some breakfast, then you can take a shower and we’ll go.”

“Why do you always have to push me around?” Nicholas gave him a quick shoulder bump as he took the glass in his hand and began drinking the water. “I’m not a little kid, you know.”

“Of course you’re not.” Christian gave him a catlike look of amusement. He was dressed in black slacks and a bright blue sweater. His black hair was neatly combed and he smelled like clean skin and cologne.

Nicholas huffed a breath and thunked the glass down on the counter. He was dressed in his pajamas, his hair was a mess, and he felt absolutely ruined from the night before, and Christian looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine. It just wasn’t fair.

“What?” Christian asked, quirking a brow.

“Nothing,” Nicholas said hurriedly, then felt a twinge of guilt go through him and he couldn’t even say why. He thought maybe he should tell Christian that he was having some of his weird moods again, but then Christian would get all paranoid and they were only going to be in Seattle for a few weeks before they went back to Malibu. Everything was going to be all right and he could maintain for a little while.

“Let’s get some food,” he said, pushing himself so he could be the first one out of the bathroom. Those bright lights would make it easier for Christian to read his face and there wasn’t anyone on the world that knew him better. One good look and it would be over.

“I’ve already called for room service and it should be here…” There was a knock at the door and Christian gave a pleased sounded grunt. “Right on time. You sit at the table.”

Nicholas mock-grumbled as he settled down on one of the chairs at the round table. He tried to flatten his hair with his hands, then gave it up as a lost cause even before Christian let the stiffly uniformed girl in with her service cart of covered dishes.

Pulling his feet up on the chair in front of him, he wrapped his arms around his legs and leaned his cheek against his knees. He watched Christian’s face as he watched the girl arrange the food on the table–scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, Belgian waffles, a whole platter of sliced fruit, orange juice, and coffee–he was very focused on the task.

Most of the time it was great that Christian cared about him so much. It was comforting and made him feel safer than he ever had before in his life. But then there were the times when Christian sacrificed something from his own life to make Nicholas happy and it was too much.

It hadn’t taken Nicholas long to realize that Christian seemed to really get something out of making him happy. There would be a glow about him and he’d have this satisfied smile and he didn’t seem to care what he had to do to give Nicholas whatever he thought he wanted. It was nice to be fawned over a bit and he loved that Christian cared that much about him.

But there were some times when Christian went overboard. He had no problem rearranging his schedule at the tip of a hat if it had something to do with Nicholas, and because of that he’d managed to offend some very important people. He’d lost out on several multi-million dollar deals and not given them a moment’s thought. And when Nicholas had found out what was going on… he’d been horrified to think that he’d been abusing Christian’s kindness and he was a terrible friend.

So he’d been careful about the things he asked for and he kept a copy of Christian’s schedule overlapping his on his phone. He was trying really hard to be responsible and he knew their Seattle trip was anything but a vacation and whatever Chirstian was doing was incredibly important for the future of DeLongeria Enterprises.

His bit of crazy was going to have to take a back burner to Christian’s schedule. Nicholas had made a promise to himself that he would maintain his control this whole trip. He could wait to fall apart when they got home and Christian could call the Doc.

Christian signed the receipt with a flourish, making sure to write in a very generous tip, then watched to make sure the girl and her cart completely left the suite. He was paranoid about that kind of thing, though he’d never said why.

Nicholas grabbed his fork and reached out to begin poking food onto his plate. He was feeling much better than he had when he’d woken up, but that didn’t really mean a whole lot. He still felt as though his head was stuffed full of straw.

“Here, stop, let me do that.” Christian gently pushed his fork out of the way and picked up Nicholas’ plate. He had an easy kind of grace as he used the serving spoons and tongs Nicholas had ignored. “You’re like a savage or something. If I left it up to you, you’d stab things with sticks and cook them over a fire. Or half-cook them knowing you and your impatience.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes and sucked on the tines of his fork. The smell of the food was making his stomach rumble, which was weird because he hadn’t even felt hungry before. “You nag so much I think I can hear your voice in my head even when you’re not there.”

“Good,” Christian set the plate down in front of Nicholas, “hopefully the me in your head at least tries to keep you out of trouble. I could use the support of someone that knows just how wily you can be.”

“Whatever.” Nicholas slid his feet back on the floor, curling his toes against the morning chill. He used his butter knife to first slather his waffle with strawberry jam, then quickly cut it into bite-sized pieces, then shrugged and cut his sausage up too.

Christian prepared two cups of coffee, sliding Nicholas’ across to him first. He always knew just the right amount of sugar and cream to mix in and Nicholas didn’t hesitate to give him a heartfelt “Thank you” before taking the first sip. He already felt as though he was being brought back to life by the delicious brew.

“Eat your breakfast and we’ll call that guy,” Nicholas said, pointing his fork rudely.

“You’re a real class act.” Christian shook his head fondly, but quickly swirled some maple syrup on his own waffle before sitting down to eat. “He better take us to a nice place.”

“You’re a snob.” Nicholas speared a cut strawberry and popped it into his mouth. “I’m the one that will be deciding whether I want to date the guy. Besides, there’s no way you’d let me live in a dirty hovel raising barefoot children, is there?” He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Christian’s nostrils flared. “Of course not. Just because you always feel like you need to sacrifice yourself for the good of other people, that doesn’t mean I’d ever let that happen to you.”

Nicholas hid a smile and went about the business of eating. “I’ll call the guy. We can find out if he’s good enough to date me.”

“You don’t have to put it like that,” Christian said. “At least don’t say it like that, especially if we’re in public.”

“It’s just the two of us here right now. Get over it.”

/EXCERPT

Faizel 02 at Amazon

I realize that I seemed to disappear for several days, but that’s because I’ve been doing a handful of different things… all at once 🙂

NANOWRIMO — I’m working on my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) story. If you want to cheer me on, here I am at NaNoWriMo.org: HarperKingsley. The title of the story I’m working on? “Across Two Divides,” by Sol Crafter, which you can find with the rest of the NaNo stories at Smashwords. 100% sampling if you want to read along 🙂 Across Two Divides.

I’m writing my heart out and I’m actually really enjoying this story. Feedback is much appreciated.


RUMBLE BUNDLE EBOOK GIVEAWAY — I’ve got a giveaway going on. You can enter now and it runs until December 15th. The bundles include exclusive content.

What I’ll be giving out:

  • 10 ebook bundles of “Across Two Divides” and “Woke Up In Vegas,” by Sol Crafter.
  • 10 ebook bundles of “Leviathan,” “Piece of Cake, Slice of Pie,” “Tuesday Night,” “Spun,” and “From Diamond to Coal, Arc 01.”

EXCERPT — Here, enjoy the start of “Woke Up In Vegas,” by Sol Crafter.

Title: Woke Up In Vegas
Author: Sol Crafter
Characters: Riley Curtain, Brent Caldwell, Natasha Swaggart, Geoffrey Heele
Genre: mm contemporary romance
Excerpt Rating: teen+
Warning: there’s some swears. Just a heads up about that

 WOKE UP IN VEGAS
by Sol Crafter

They lay sprawled across the tangled sheets, their faces turned from each other but their dark hair meshing on the pillow. Morning light edged in around the gaps in the curtains and the only sound in the room was their quiet breathing. The second double-bed across from theirs was still made up, a miniature pink bowling bag the only thing to disturb the white-on-white comforter.