MM

September 10, 2013 4 comments

Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 4 [superhero, mm]

Title: Allies & Enemies
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero
Summary: Vereint and Warrick are still adapting to having a teenaged girl in their lives.

CHAPTER FOUR

Life settled into a routine they could all live with. The whole having a kid thing no longer seemed like such an emotional ball kick and Melissa really began to seem like a member of their family.

It was hard keeping Warrick’s identity as Blue Ice away from her, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t been practicing liars before. Vereint’s supervillain past seemed more like dirty laundry than Warrick’s predilection to go out and save the world.

Melissa spent most of her weekdays at the expensive prep school they’d gotten her into. Burstow Academy was the same place Warrick had gone to as a kid, so she received a legacy benefit, and even though her last name was Kim, it was well understood that she was a member of the Tobias family. Special treatment abounded.

There had been a few rough spots, like when Vereint got called in because Melissa had been “acting out.” He’d shown up nervous, expecting to hear that his kid had killed someone or leveled a large chunk of the school. Instead he’d had to bite his lip hard to keep from calling the teacher a “Nominal bitch” to her face and flinging her desk at her. He still had a few anger issues he hadn’t managed to tame.

Some jerk had called Melissa a chink whore. So naturally she’d kicking him on the shin and cursed at him in Korean. By the time Vereint got there, the kid had already been sent home with an ice pack and Melissa had nearly been suspended for physical assault. He’d had a long talk with her about how physically attacking someone was not the correct response, especially when she was at school, and she seemed to really understand. Especially when he pointed out that his being called into school was not a good thing.

Vereint was proud of his level of control. Nobody died and he got Melissa’s suspension revoked. But that teacher had been added to his List.

Other than a few minor issues, Melissa settled into school with the kind of easy grace other kids envied. It seemed natural that she would become popular and join after school activities such as Cheer Squad, gymnastics, and drama club. She was so full of energy that she was constantly looking for something to do with it.

Life was good.

September 6, 2013 3 comments

Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 3 [superhero mm]

Truly, Vereint is desperate to fit into normal life. I think that’s what I like about him. Sure, he messes up, but he tries hard. He just can’t help it that sometimes he forgets how breakable other people are.

Title: Allies & Enemies – Chapter Three
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero novel
Rating: mature
A/N: Sequel to Heroes & Villains.
Summary: Chapter One & Two HERE (opens in another window.) Chapter Three has Vereint panicking over his parents wanting to meet Melissa. Yet Warrick can’t be found.

CHAPTER THREE

Life with Melissa wasn’t all roses and happiness. She was a grieving girl, and once the shocked placidness wore off, she was a bit of a spitfire. There were definite traces of a brat in there.

There were a couple of times where Vereint had to remind himself that he wasn’t a supervillain anymore. There were a couple of times where Warrick had to remind him rather forcibly as well, though those little scuffles usually ended in fabulous makeup sex, so he didn’t mind that as much. Still, having a kid around was a whole different world for them. It added depth to their relationship or something.

Vereint’s mom, Sandra, barely gave him any warning before she was in a car with Patrick and Hank, promising a long visit. She was desperate to see her new granddaughter and she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way, Vereint included. Not that he would ever try to block her from anything–he wasn’t that stupid.

His mother was a force of nature wrapped up in a human skin.

Instead, he made sure the apartment was immaculate. He liked hearing Melissa’s soft giggles as he raced around at human speed washing dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming, and preparing a feast for their guests.

“You could help me, you know,” he said, giving her a sideways glance. She was curled up on the couch, her little feet wearing brightly colored striped socks.

She shrugged. “I could. But you seem to be having a lot of fun.”

He switched off the vacuum cleaner and put his hands on his hips. “That’s it, little lady. Get your hiney off the couch and go make sure your room is clean. My mom’s going to want to see it first thing to make sure you’re not living in squalor.”

There was a visible shifting behind her eyes, as though she was contemplating telling him to go shove it. Finally, she threw her feet off the couch and stood up, padding quietly toward her room.

“I’ll be in with fresh sheets in about ten minutes,” he called after her. “I don’t want to see a single toy on the floor.”

“Gotcha!” she called back.

Vereint stood there for a long moment. His life really had become something very different and strange, yet it was a good kind of strange. Warm and quietly happy.

He shook his head and switched the vacuum cleaner on, going back to making sure all the lines in the carpet bent the same way. He paused midway through to light the scented candles on the coffee table and on both end tables, sniffing contentedly as he worked.

He glanced at the decorative sun-faced clock on the wall and had to wonder where Warrick was and when he was going to be home. Warrick had promised that he would be here when the Georges appeared.

August 23, 2013 0 comments

Master Post: Paradigm Shift

Title: Paradigm Shift
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm science fiction
Rating: mature
Status: WIP
Notes: This is a State Rule story. There are Judges, Law Officers, and zombies.
Warnings: genetic modification capability of mpreg, mentions of forced breeding, fascist society, post-zombie apocalypse
A/N: I’m posting the Gregor POVs at my LJ in 500-1000+ word bursts. The version that will be available for purchase will have Dylan’s POVs, and his part of the story includes the intrigue and action happening in the backgound. Dylan’s actually scarily bad ass.

Summary: Gregor has been living as a Two for most of his life, but it’s a lie. He’s really a Third. And now he’s been found out and pulled into the lives of one of the great Families.

“I am a member of the Family,” Park stated as though it was everyday kind of news, and to him it probably was. Gregor was shocked enough for two people. “The Family requested that I assess you for the possibility of merging your genome with the Duadenora.”

“And I passed?” Gregor hadn’t meant to ask, but the words had slipped out.

Park looked amused. “So far.”

Chapter One: 01 – 02
Chapter Two: 03 – 04 – 05 – 06
Chapter Three: 07 – 08 – 09 – 10
Chapter Four: 11 – 12
Chapter Five: 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19
Chapter Six: 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 24 – 25
Chapter Seven: 26 – 27 – 28 – 29 – 30
Chapter Eight: 31 – 32 – 33 – 34
Chapter Nine: 35 – 36 – 37 – 38 – 39
Chapter Ten: 40 –41 – 42 – 43
Chapter Eleven: 44 – 45 – 46 – 47
Chapter Twelve: 48 – 49 – 50 –51
Chapter Thirteen: 52 – 53 – 54
Chapter Fourteen: 55 – 56 – 57
Chapter Fifteen: 58 – 59 – 60
Chapter Sixteen: 61 – 62
Chapter Seventeen: 63 – 64 – 65 –

Gregor Tierney. Magister Dylan Park. Zero Park. Judge Rulf Tersoe.

EXCERPT:
This story is rated: Mature (for violence and sex)

He didn’t hesitate a moment to slide into Park’s abandoned spot and peer out through the observation hole. He had to kind of mash his face close to see, but he didn’t care.

Their balcony overlooked the whole theater. People were huddled in groups around the seats, their finery in disarray and their expressions terrified. The Players had been hustled off the stage and shoved in amongst the Patrons, their brightly colored costumes contrasting sharply.

There had to be over a dozen members of the Halcyon Horde standing by with weapons slung. They wore black and blue camo pants, black boots, and heavy flak vests. Each of their faces was covered with the flat black mask of the Horde, the only color the gold outlining the eye holes.

Gregor winced when the leader of the Horde cell opened fire on a woman in a red dress. A man had been holding her in his arms, and when the multicolored blast hit her directly in the chest, the man too went down with a choked cry, his limbs flailing before going still. The woman died without a sound.

“Now you see that we are serious,” the leader’s voice was strange and mechanical. He had a voice distorter built into his mask. “Would you like to live?”

No one said anything, too terrified of giving a wrong answer.

“I said, would you like to live?” the leader asked. “Answer me!”

“Yes! Yes we want to live!” “Please don’t kill us!” Hundreds of voices shouted out, pleading for their lives.

The leader laughed and turned to one of his own men. “You see how easy it is? You threaten the safety of the herd, and the individuals fall over themselves to spare their own lives. Pathetic.”

He turned and shot a young man; the guy was just a kid really, probably still a teenager. An older man shouted something–a name–and made to go to his son, but his wife held him back. She was crying, but resolute. Her husband stopped resisting.

Gregor had seen violence before, but it had always been through the safe medium of a view Screen. This… this was real and horrible and he hated his sense of helplessness, but there was nothing he could do to help. He had no training and no real weapons.

But Park does, an insidious voice whispered in his mind.

Park had weapons and training and he was out there, planning something to save the hostages. Something dangerous enough that he hadn’t been sure he would survive it, which is why he had told Gregor to stay hidden.

The leader of the Horde was still talking, rambling on about human weakness and animal herds and blah, blah, totally crazy, blah. Gregor had spotted Zero surrounded by the circle of his Family bodyguards. He was sitting quietly, not making a fuss, not drawing any attention to himself.

Gregor couldn’t help admitting that Zero had impressed him a bit. The guy had seemed like a complete airhead when Gregor first met him, the kind of useless, ornamental rich guy that wasted all of his opportunities by not even realizing what he had going for him. But Zero really knew how to be a good hostage. He didn’t even look afraid.

Gregor had been staring at Zero, so he was just as surprised as everyone else when the leader of the Horde developed a hole where his right eye used to be. The shot punched through the lens of his mask and continued on into his brain.

His legs folded up and he dropped to the floor. Dead.

There were screams from the hostages and the Halcyon Horde members started waving their guns around wildly, trying to triangulate where the shot had come from. There was no sign of Park.

When a female Horde member tried to scoop up the dropped Tumbler, her hand was barely an inch away before she was struck between the shoulder blades and was sent flopping forward, her spine severed. She aspirated a bit of blood across the polished floor and her limbs twitched minutely, then she died.

Gregor covered his mouth with his hand. His breathing was loud and wheezy to his own ears. His paranoia insisted they would be able to hear him.

/ EXCERPT

Aside 0 comments

Okay, so there’s been stuff happening with me. Sorry I haven’t kept you up-to-date, but I’ve been in one of my moods, though I seem to be coming out of it fast 🙂 So that’s good.

Heroes & Villains is releasing August 14th (tomorrow!) from Less Than Three Press. You can pre-order it now if you don’t already have a copy. Or if you want to try and win yourself a copy, follow the blog tour. A winner will be drawn August 19th, and since there’s five stops, you have five chances to win. Awesome.

The Armchair Reader – Aug 12th with the awesome Cole Riann.
It’s Raining Men – Aug 13th.
Pants Off Reviews – Aug 14th.
World of Diversity Fiction – Aug 15th.
Megan Derr’s LJ – Aug 16th.

And if you don’t know Heroes & Villains, it’s the first full-length novel in my superhero series chronicling the life of Vereint and Warrick.

Set in a semi-dystopian world where everyone can have superpowers if they’re lucky in the genetic lottery or they have enough money to buy some, Vereint starts off wanting to be a superhero like his idol Blue Ice. He was lucky enough to be born with metabilities, so he set off to build himself a secret identity and became the superhero Starburst.

Quickly nicknamed Candy Ass for being so lame.

Everyone seems against him, especially the man he spent his teenaged years admiring, Blue Ice. It feels as though nothing he does is every enough, he needs to break out of his humdrum life where he has an office job for money and is mercilessly mocked every time he goes out to help people. Nothing he does seems to alleviate the public’s opinion and he feels like he can’t take it anymore…

So he doesn’t. He sheds his superhero skin and becomes the supervillain Darkstar.

He’s no Lex Luthor plotting and planning world domination. He’s out to have some fun and make some money. He’s not interested in atrocities, especially when they’re done in his name. He’s got no interest in minions or followers and he’s a little creeped out by all the fanfic. He’s just a guy with superpowers having a good time and committing some crimes.

Though it’s kind of cool that Blue Ice is his arch-nemesis. There’s nothing like making the guy that bullied you squirm.

Darkstar x Blue Ice.

(And suddenly I started sounding like a commercial for toys. Unfortunately, I talk like that in real life too. Never ask me to describe a stirling engine. It gets real weird real fast.)

Plus there’s this 🙂

Across Two Divides: Arc One comprises Chapters 1-10 and is available now from Amazon and Smashwords for $2.99.

You can still catch up with the free version at FictionPress. But look, I made such a nice cover! I’m so proud of myself.

This is my soap opera romance novel family life story. I’m already planning out all these story arcs that these people can go through. The assassination attempts, the killer allergies, the grief for a cousin that’s gone… This is totally my soothing brain story.

And this is the same world as The Panic Pure and From Diamond to Coal, so there might be crossings with Arianetta and his creepiness, or William with his giant robots.

EXCERPT:

-FRANKIE-

Sitting broody on his couch wasn’t something that Frankie did very often, though he’d caught himself drinking more and more until he was starting to get vaguely concerned. It was one thing to be a social drinker, and something completely different for him to need a drink in his hand to be able to even think about facing his day.

Looking around his living room, his accomplishments hanging from every wall, he should have felt proud but it was just empty accolades from people he didn’t care about.

He looked down at the magazine still held in his hand and tossed it away with a grimace before taking another swallow from his tumbler of scotch.

It was just a stupid magazine and he shouldn’t let it get to him, but it was the little things that always ended up cutting him the most. He’d had a lot of respect for Hester Mann, but it looked like that feeling wasn’t returned, to the point that she’d written such an awful article about him. It was like a straight stab to the heart.

Frankie let himself flop sideways on the couch, resting his head on a fat red decorative pillow, the rich brocade probably leaving marks against his cheek.

As a kid he’d believed that fame would bring happiness and everything that he wanted out of life. Instead, he’d found himself emptier than ever.

“I’ve got a black hole heart,” he muttered, then barked a laugh that sounded more like the start to tears.

He held his arm up in front of his face, making the medical alert bracelet dance and sparkle against his wrist bone. He could see the reflected light hitting the opposing wall and that entertained him for a while. Anything not to think about Hester Mann and her strange vendetta against him.

His thoughts were broken by the vibrating buzz of his phone in his front pocket and he had to fumble around to get it out. “Hello?” He was proud that the word came out clearly and not the slurred mess it might have been.

“Francis? This is Christian.” There was something dark in the man’s voice that had Frankie forcing himself upright on the couch. He didn’t even care that Christian had used his real name.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

There was the sound of a heavy sigh. “Do you think you could come and see Nicholas?”

“Why? Is he all right?” Frankie was worried, more worried than he’d thought he could be. There was just something so fragile about Nicholas, a brokenness that no one had ever been able to completely fix.

“I don’t know,” Christian said. “He was fine at work, then there was a bit of an accident with some spilled coffee and now he’s crawled into bed and I just don’t know what’s going on with him.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Frankie said. “You still at that one hotel?”

“Yeah, the same one we always stay at,” Christian said, then gave the room number. “Hurry.”

“I’ll be there.”

Hanging up his phone, Frankie wasn’t sure he would be able to make it there as easily as he’d thought. He’d already drunk more than enough scotch and he wasn’t sure just how steady his legs were going to be, but it wasn’t like he had a lot of choice. Nicholas needed him to be there for him.

He’d failed before, but never again.

/EXCERPT ∞