I did something!

Newest item in my inbox:
------------------

Samhain Romance Submissions	9:28 PM (0 minutes ago)
to me

**This is an auto-response**

Thank you for your submission to Samhain Publishing's romance line.

Please allow 12 to 16 weeks for a response from an editor.  If you
haven't heard from us after that time please feel free to email for a
status update.

Samhain Publishing
---------------------------

I really need to submit stories more often -- my heart was pounding just composing the query email.  :P

Were the world ending....

Just because the 13th b'ak'tun is ending doesn't mean that the world is. (I trust NASA.) But what if it were?  We hear all the time, "Live each day like it's your last!"

Well, that's not really very good advice, since if it were everyone's last day on earth, we'd be eating vats of whipped cream and punching our bosses in the face.  Or maybe that's just me....

But we ought to be able to find a happy medium, and not put off too long the things we'd really like to do in our lives.

I have two items on my bucket list, and I'm worried I've waited too long.

1.  Eat a deep-fried Twinkie.
2.  Ride in a rumble seat.

If Hostess really goes under, there may not be any more Twinkies.  And if my ass gets any bigger, it may not fit into a rumble seat.  So if I'm going to cross those two things off my list (and yes, I see the irony, that achieving the first may make it impossible to achieve the second), I've got to get my giant ass to a state fair and then to an antique car show, by way of many, many Zumba classes.  Maybe I won't get both of those items crossed off by Friday, but I'll make it a goal to get them crossed off by this time next year, in case the Mayans missed a decimal point or forgot to carry the one.

What are some of your bucket list items, and how do you plan to achieve them? 

gettin' stuff done!

I now have three first drafts finished:  Emily's Magical Bejeweled Codpiece (~14k), A Cunning Plan (~40k) and Here Lies Treasure (~140k).  Yeah, that one will need a few cuts.

And I think I need to take a class on revising.  Maybe there will be something at Moonlight & Magnolias -- this weekend, y'all!


So who's up for NaNo this year?!! *headdesks*

In good news, my friend Ulysses' sequel is out!  Vampire In Suburbia is now available at the Amazon Kindle store, as is the book that precedes it, Desmond, which was previously published by Alyson Books but has been re-released in e-format.

Hey, at least someone is getting stuff finished.  :P

Saturday Snark - first try

Going to try Marie Sexton's Saturday Snark for the first time.  My godawfully long WIP pirate historical is sadly lacking in humor, way more angsty than I usually write, but here's an exchange that might qualify for the Snark blog hop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Captain?”

“Aye, lad?”

“I must ask you to untie my hands.”

“And I must refuse your request.”

Philip drew in a breath and blew it out again.  “Please.  Sir.  I...I must answer the call of nature.”

“You’ve got to piss?”

“Y—yes.”

“All right.”  William opened a cupboard beneath the bunk and pulled out a tin chamber pot.  Setting it down on the chair between Philip’s legs, he reached for the buttons on Philip’s pantaloons.

‘No!” Philip shouted, recoiling so violently that he upset the chair and would have fallen to the floor had William not caught him.  The chamber pot went flying, ending up in the corner of the cabin. 

“Ho there!  Calm yourself, lad!”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you take a piss, that’s all!”

“No!  You can’t...please untie me, and I’ll do it.”

“You’re mad if you think I’m going to untie you.”  William looked him up and down.  “You’re a very dangerous young man, despite your appearance.  So you can let me pull out your prick so you can use the pot, or you can wet yourself.  Your decision.”

“Your chair.”  A glimmer of defiance under the fear made William blink.

“What’s that, now?”

“This is your cabin, isn’t it?  And it will be your chair soaked in p—piss if you don’t untie me and let me use the pot myself.”

“Hmm.  Clever lad.”  

guest blog post at Laptops & Lingerie

Hey, head over to Laptops & Lingerie and check out my guest blog post!  (Don't think about why I have time to guest there when I'm not even posting here, pay no attention to the writer behind the curtain, this isn't the blog you're looking for....)

AWAD serial - part 8: misoneism, magna carta, king's ransom

A.Word.A.Day serial – 7/10:  misoneism, 7/14/08:  magna carta, 7/17/08:  king’s ransom.

 

A WordA Day, by Anu Garg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

misoneism

PRONUNCIATION: (mis-uh-NEE-izm)

MEANING:  noun: A hatred or fear of change or innovation.

ETYMOLOGY:  From Italian misoneismo, from Greek miso- (hate) + neos (new). Ultimately from Indo-European root newo- (new) that also gave us new, neo-, neon, novice, novel, novelty, innovate, and renovate.

 -----------------------------------

magna carta

PRONUNCIATION:  (MAG-nuh KAHR-tuh)

MEANING:  noun: A document or a law recognizing basic rights and privileges.

ETYMOLOGY:  From Latin magna carta (great charter). After Magna Carta, a charter of political and civil liberties that King John of England was forced to sign on June 15, 1215. It was revised several times over the years, and it became an important symbol, establishing for future generations that there were limits to the royal powers.

---------------------------

king's ransom

PRONUNCIATION:  (kingz RAN-suhm)

MEANING:  noun: A very large sum of money.

ETYMOLOGY:  From the reference to the large sum required to secure the release of a king from captivity. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eric wanted to stay home, sprawled on the sofa, watching ESPN for the next week, or the next month, or the rest of his life, but HR had left him two voicemails on Friday, asking when he’d be back at work, so he figured he’d better get his ass to the office.  And he’d better start letting people know that Trudi had left him, otherwise they might start calling the police to look into where she’d gone.

But god, he knew what was coming:  the pathetic, pitying looks, the trite words of sympathy, and then the offers to set him up with any and all available women.  He’d have to get it over with so he could move on to the next stage of his life where things would be settled, where he could have his comfortable routine again.  It wasn’t misoneism to have things the way you liked them and not in constant upheaval.

He wasn’t even looking forward to fucking his way through all those women that would come flocking to a newly divorced man.  He’d had his share of pussy when Trudi first left him, because, hell, why not take advantage of  his new-found freedom?  He was a man, after all, and straight, and that’s what straight, unattached men did.  But now he’d started thinking that all those women would just cause more upheaval in his life.  They'd want his time, his money, promises of love, everything he didn’t want to give just then.  Wasn’t there some “Divorced Man’s Magna Carta” that he could use as a shield to stave off the ravening hordes of unmarried spin class instructors and co-workers’ wives’ divorced second cousins?

He just wanted to be left alone for awhile, or maybe to hang out with the guys, but all of the men he knew were half of couples, friends of “Trudi and Eric”, not “Eric’s buddies”.  He thought about Armand and his offer of a drink and a willing ear, but he pushed that option away.  Far, far away.  He would give a king’s ransom to never have met the guy, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to seek him out.  That would be as good as admitting that he really was gay.  Which he wasn’t.

AWAD serial, part 7: costive, atrabilious, linctus

A.Word.A.Day drabble – 6/30/08:  costive, 7/3/08:  atrabilious, 7/4/08:  linctus.

 

A WordA Day, by Anu Garg 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

costive

PRONUNCIATION:  (KOS-tiv)

MEANING:  adjective: 1. Slow to act or speak. 2. Stingy. 3. Constipated.

ETYMOLOGY:  Via French from Latin constipare (to cram together), from com- (together) + stipare (to pack or crowd).

 -----------------------------------

atrabilious

PRONUNCIATION:  (at-ruh-BIL-yuhs)

MEANING: adjective: 1. Gloomy. 2. Ill-tempered.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin atra bilis (black bile), translation of Greek melankholia.

---------------------------

linctus

PRONUNCIATION:  (LINGK-tuhs)

MEANING:  A syrupy liquid medicine, especially for treating coughs.

ETYMOLOGY:   From Latin lingere (to lick). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leigh- (lick) that is also the source of lichen (apparently from the way it licks its way around a surface), and lecher, but not lingerie (which is from the root lino: flax).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But why was it so important that he set things right with this guy?  Why did it matter so much what a total stranger thought of him?  Except he wasn’t a total stranger anymore; he was the guy Eric had called a fag.  And it wasn’t impossible, in a city the size of theirs, that their paths would never cross again.  Better to deal with it now than take the chance of running into him somewhere that it would matter.

Eric examined the packages of sunflower seeds, tubes of toothpaste, packets of aspirin.  The good stuff, like condoms and cough linctus, were locked up behind the cashier, so anyone wanting those was SOL until Daisy got back...but there she was, following close behind waving-hands guy, her mouth set in a hard, don’t-fuck-with-my-friends line.  The guy saw Eric and walked right up to him, stopping a few feet away.  He crossed his arms over his chest, and stuck one hip out as he shifted his weight to one leg. 

“Okay, I’m here.  Say what you have to say.”

The voice, the posture, even the guy’s hair – dark with blond tips -- made Eric’s mind scream the f-word again, over and over.  He didn’t dare open his mouth, just in case it jumped out, so he waited, trying to bite back the word and willing his mind to shut up.

But the silence had gone on too long.  He knew he was being costive, knew that every second that passed made it harder for him to get out that apology.  So he sucked in a breath, blew it out, then said, “I’m sorry.”

Waving-hands looked less than impressed.  “Why are you sorry?”

“What?”

“Why.  Are.  You.  Sorry?” he enunciated, as if Eric were deaf or stupid or both.  “Are you sorry I’m offended?  Or are you sorry because a pretty girl told you off, or because you couldn’t buy your beer, or what?”

“I’m sorry because…because no one should be called that.  I’ve, um.”  Jesus, his heart was racing.  “I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you, and that was wrong.  So I’m sorry.”  A bad mood.  Hardly an accurate description of the atrabilious prick he’d turned into over the past few weeks.

Waving-hands seemed to be on the fence, but then he shrugged one shoulder.  “Okay.  Apology accepted.”  He stuck out his hand, not like a normal handshake, but with the palm down, like he expected Eric to kiss it.

Eric hesitated, then took it, turning it so he could shake it properly and withdrawing his hand as soon as he could. 

Waving-hands made a “humph” sound.  “I’m Armand, by the way.”

“Um.  Eric.”

“Nice to meet you, Eric.  You want to go get a drink and tell me why you were in such a bad mood?”

Hell, no.  “Um, thanks, but I gotta, you know, I gotta go home.”

“Of course you do.  Wouldn’t want to be seen out in public with a fag.”

Blood pounding in brain.  “Look, I apologized for that!  It doesn’t mean I want to go out on a date with you!  I’m not like that, I’m not like you!”

“I wasn’t asking you out on a date, you arrogant little shit!” Armand shouted, and god, could his voice have been any louder or higher?  “I just thought you might want to talk about whatever bug’s crawled up your ass, but never mind!”

Eric cringed, hoping to God that the store was still empty.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.  He headed towards the door but didn’t make it outside before he heard Armand say, “Daisy, sweetie, I know you meant well, but next time, tell him to go fuck himself.”

amazing male stripper at Silverado in Portland, OR

Just need to drop a line about a fantastic dancer I saw at Silverado in Portland, OR.  It's a gay bar, the first I've been to that has strippers.  (Some of the drag performers have dancers backing them up, but they've always been clothed.) 

Quite a few of them just pulled their briefs down under their ass cheeks, below their hip bones and wandered around the stage like that.  One guy was very, um, into displaying himself -- briefs off, legs up and spread.  I was kind of glad that my view was blocked by guys going up to tip him.  But the dancer I wanted to talk about -- tall, wiry, dark spiky hair, a few tattoos on his chest -- he moved so beautifully!

First off, he undressed a bit at a time (lovely), doing body rolls and air-humping parts of the stage with his pants still on, but unbuttoned/unzipped.  Then he'd take off some more clothing, still moving sinuously, until he was finally down to briefs and socks.  He played with himself a bit, groping inside his underwear, doing more writhing, all the while looking like he was really enjoying himself, just having a fun time moving and taking off his clothes.  I didn't know why the guys in that bar weren't screaming at him, "Shut up and take my money!" At one point he kind of flicked along the top of his dick, just for fun, it seemed, and did the make-your-dick-flap move. 

We were getting ready to leave, but I stuck a dollar in his briefs.  I wanted to hand it to him, but he was holding them out, so what could I do?  One of two guys I tipped that night -- the other was the one dancing on the other side of the stage, maybe the only other guy there who was as good of a dancer. 

Anyway, just needed to post the images in my head (no photographs allowed inside the bar) before I forget them.  I'm tempted to put him into my drag queen story, but not as David's love interest; Jason, the staid-ish baseball player, kind of pales in comparison to sexy stripper guy.  So I think I'll have to save him for someone else.

YAM blogathon entry (I'm late, as usual)

(other YAM blogathon entries here)

The first thing that came to mind when I thought of LGBT entertainment was "Husbands, the Series”.  I hope it’s okay to link to a commercial venture – I’m not involved in it other than being a fan.

"Husbands" is about a couple who goes to Las Vegas, gets plastered, and wakes up the next morning, hungover and married.  But the couple in question are two men who have been dating for a short time, and who went to Vegas to celebrate marriage equality becoming law in the US (so it’s set in what I hope is the very near future).

The first season is made up of eleven tiny episodes, written by JaneEspenson (BTVS, Dollhouse, Caprica, Torchwood) and Brad Bell, whom you may know as Cheeks.  The cast and crew are white-hot bundles of talent.

I cannot recommend "Husbands" highly enough.  Each 2-3 minute episode will make you laugh, break your heart, maybe make you cry, then make you laugh again.  The only thing I don’t like about it is that I want more, more, more!

But they are filming a second season, yay!  So there *will* be more Husbandy goodness coming soon.  In the meantime, you can watch the first season, and here’s the first episode, to get you started:

Sodomite -- first attempt

I think there should be a cocktail called a Sodomite.  There isn't one yet, as far as I can tell.  So I'm trying to come up with a recipe, hopefully something I'll like to drink (so that leaves out things like whiskey, even though whiskey would make a great ingredient in a drink called a Sodomite) and also something that can be made with what I have in the house, since I'm a cheap bastard and don't want to buy a thousand different kinds of liquor.  I did buy maraschino cherries (with stems) because they seemed necessary.

So tonight's attempt:

1 part pomegranate juice
1 part Absolute Citron vodka
2 parts Canada Dry Bitter Lemon
1 maraschino cherry

Served in a champage flute

was, as I had feared, too sweet.  I do like the pomegranate juice, though -- it gives it a nice deep color.

Next time, I'm going to try the same first two ingredients but use tonic instead of the bitter lemon, with maybe a squeeze of lemon or lime in it.  And if that's STILL too sweet, then move down to club soda.

Any suggestions for other ingredients?  I believe I have Peach schnapps and Cointreau in the cupboard, as well as Kahulua and gin.  Irish cream in the fridge.  A tiny, unopened bottle of Absinthe we brought back from Italy, but if it's anything like the fake Absinthe I had in New Orleans, it will probably stay unopened -- the drink they made with it there was so disgusting I had to pour most of it into the sewer.

winner of Blog Hop drawing

Thank you to everyone who commented on the "Hop Against Homophobia" post -- I put all of your names on slips of paper, then stuffed them behind a sofa cushion and pulled one out.  The winner of an e-copy of "Cross Bones" is Erica Pike! Erica, I'll email you to let you know how to claim your book.

Marriage Equality vlog

Awesome video, especially the very last bit.  We Americans *should* be embarrassed that some of our fellow citizens don't have equal rights.

(pinched from 365 Pretty Good Reasons, a great blog with the crappiest interface in existence.  It's impossible to leave comments on it.)

Hop Against Homophobia -- my Blog Hop post

The Hop Against Homophobia is here!  (All avow alliteration! :D)

First thing:  make sure you visit everyone else's blogs, which can be accessed through the main Blog Hop site.

Second thing:  I'm a straight ally, so I don't have any personal experience with homophobia.  The closest I've gotten to it is reading those really ignorant, ugly comments that show up below online articles about gay rights.  I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have that sort of bile spewed directly into my face in real time, not knowing if words will be the end of it or if they're the prelude to a bashing.

So how do we end homophobia?  It needs to be extinct, not just driven underground. (I apologize in advance to any non-US readers -- this post is going to be very United States-centric.)

Despite the civil rights victories of the 1960s, racists still exist.  They know not to use the N-word in public (because if they do, they'll be told off, sneered at, ostracized by most Americans), but they'll say it in private, among their friends and families.  Just the fact that they still *think* it gives me the creeps, really.

I don't want to control people's thoughts or to force them to think a certain way -- no one wants the Thought Police -- but I want those bigoted, hateful thoughts to disappear organically, to be burned away by education, by open-mindedness and acceptance.

I have no idea how to do this except to Stay Calm and Carry On.  To not tell people that they're being MORONS, even when I really, really think it, because then I'll lose them forever.  To not drive that hatred (and idiocy) underground where we can't shine a light on it.  It's gonna be hard, but I'll try.  :)

We *can* win hearts and minds.  The man who organized NOM's bus tour last summer had his mind changed by the peaceful counter-protesters at the Atlanta rally.  My friends and I were some of those counter-protesters.  It feels great, knowing you made a difference.


There's still a long way to go -- the recent vote in North Carolina proved that.  But things are changing fast, and young people give me hope for the future.  I'll do my small part by continuing to march for equal rights and by writing as much HEA gay porn as possible.  :)


(You can read HEA (oops, spoiler!) gay porn in my story "From A Simmer To A Burn", one of the M/M pirate romance stories in "Cross Bones", an anthology published by Dreamspinner Press (and, I just discovered, on sale right now!).

Comment on this post from now through May 22, and I'll put your name into a drawing for a chance to win a free e-copy of "Cross Bones".)

Hop Against Homophobia on May 17

Okay, I need to start gearing up (i.e. should have started gearing up weeks ago, but see title of blog) for the Hop Against Homophobia, a blog hop that will take place May 17. Everyone who leaves a comment on any post in my blog from today through May 22 will have a chance to win an e-copy of "Cross Bones", an anthology of pirate stories published by Dreamspinner Press. I'll put all the names into a hat or a jar or behind the sofa cushions, then I'll draw one lucky winner's name on May 23!

I know that homophobia isn't something that's going to go away overnight. There are a lot of people out there who are misinformed about the LGBT community and, worse, wish to remain so. You can't force a person to open his or her mind, you can only offer them the opportunity to see that things might not be as black-and-white as they think. While I doubt that any anti-gay woman (or man) will ever read a M/M romance, it's a wonderful fantasy to think that one of our stories could change someone's mind about the real world.

M/M romances are, if not an antidote to homophobia, at least a balm to the soul.  My characters are men who love each other, not as friends, not like brothers, but in a TOTALLY gay way. No "no homo" here. Spoiler alert: I write happy endings. And the more homophobia I see in real life, the more I want to write stories with happy endings for my characters. Maybe someday those happy endings will translate to real life.

AWAD serial, part 6: sisyphean, Munich, brummagem

A.Word.A.Day drabble – 4/22/10: “sisyphean” , 4/13/10: “Munich”. 6/17/08: “brummagem”.
(turns out I missed some from even before June of 2010. Clearin’ out the ol’ inbox….)

A Word A Day by Anu Garg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sisyphean
PRONUNCIATION: (sis-ee-FEE-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Endlessly laborious and fruitless.
ETYMOLOGY: After Sisyphus, a king in Greek mythology who was cursed to push a huge boulder to the top of a hill, only to watch it roll back down and to repeat this forever. Roll, rinse, repeat.
-----------------------------------
Munich
PRONUNCIATION: (MYOO-nik)
MEANING: noun: A shortsighted or dishonorable appeasement.
ETYMOLOGY: After Munich, Germany, the site of a pact signed by Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany on Sep 29, 1938 that permitted annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland by Nazi Germany. WWII began a year later; Sudetenland was restored to Czechoslovakia after the war.

----------------------------------------
brummagem
PRONUNCIATION: (BRUM-uh-juhm) adjective
MEANING: noun: Cheap and showy. Something that is counterfeit or of inferior quality.

ETYMOLOGY: After Brummagem, a dialectal form of Birmingham, UK, where counterfeit coins were produced in the 17th century. Brummie is a nickname for someone from Birmingham.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the cashier (Daisy, according to her nametag, and wasn’t that just too cute) went to call her friend, Eric ran through possible scenarios in his head. Waving-hands dude could show up, listen to Eric’s apology, accept it, and leave. That was the best way it could go and also the most unlikely.

Maybe he’d want proof of Eric’s sincerity, and maybe Eric would agree to make whatever grand gesture required to be forgiven. He’d never needed anyone to approve of him before, but his life had just made a tire-screeching one-eighty and the look the guy had given him after he’d said the f-word had been like a knife plunging into his gut. Right now Eric was willing to say anything, to enter into a Munich, even, just to get the guilt off his own shoulders.

So if the guy accepted his apology today, then showed up tomorrow with new demands? Whatever. Eric would do his best to comply, even if the guy came back again and again, until Eric’s life became some Sisyphean cycle of apologies leading to bribes and possibly even blackmail, and holy hell, where had that come from? Surely waving-hands guy wouldn’t be that petty. As far as Eric could remember, the guy had been dressed fairly well, no gold lamé track suits. Maybe he was an antiques dealer or owned an art gallery, someone who could distinguish fake from genuine, someone who would recognize a real apology and would know that what Eric was offering up wasn’t mere brummagem.

AWAD serial, part 5: nescient, bromidic, esurient

A.Word.A.Day drabble – 6/23/10: “nescient” , 6/24: bromidic, 6/25: esurient

A Word A Day by Anu Garg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nescient
PRONUNCIATION: (NESH-uhnt, NESH-ee-uhnt, NES-ee-uhnt)
MEANING: adjective: Lacking knowledge or awareness.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin ne- (not) + scire (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-European root skei- (to cut or split) that has also given us schism, ski, shin, science, conscience, nice, scienter, adscititious, and sciolist.
-----------------------------------
bromidic
PRONUNCIATION:(broh-MID-ik)
MEANING: adjective: Commonplace; trite.
ETYMOLOGY: From the former use of bromide compounds as sedatives. Bromine got its name from the Greek bromos (stench) due to its strong smell.
----------------------------------------
esurient
PRONUNCIATION: (i-SOOR-ee-uhnt)
MEANING: adjective: Hungry; greedy.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin esurire (to be hungry), from edere (to eat). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite) that has also given us edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, edacious, prandial, and postprandial.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Eric walked home, his pride stinging from being kicked out of a convenience store. A gas station convenience store. Now he had a) no beer, and b) a face burning from humiliation.

So he’d called that guy a fag, so what. That’s what the guy was. What’s the big deal? All Eric had done was tell the truth.

So why was his face burning and his heart racing, and why did that word keep ricocheting around in his head like an accusation?

“Bullshit,” he said preemptively, as his wife’s words came back to him.

“Face it. You’re gay. In total denial, or maybe truly nescient,” she’d added, calmly packing a suitcase, and God, he hated it when she threw her Ph.D.-in-Literature vocabulary into their arguments. “But you are, and the sooner you admit it to yourself, the sooner you can get on with the life you’re supposed to have.”

Then she'd put the children into the car and drove to her friend Jackie’s house. After one week, she announced she had gotten a job in Phoenix and just up and left, taking their kids – his kids – with her. No trial separation. No tears or accusations. No, that would be too bromidic for someone as unique as Trudi.

Somehow they heard about it at work and told him to take a few days off, but that just made it worse. Without something to occupy his mind, he brooded, lay about the house, and drank way too much.

Which reminded him that he was out of beer. He'd have to get some at the grocery store, since the convenience store was dead to him now. He couldn’t go back there, wouldn’t go back, not if there was a chance he’d run into that guy again.

The shame of that word burned him up. That wasn’t who he was. Or, fuck, maybe it was. But it didn’t have to be.

He could apologize.

He would apologize. He needed to apologize.

He got up off the sofa and grabbed his keys – the buzz from the last of his beer almost gone – and drove to the convenience store to apologize...or maybe the esurient need in him was for forgiveness. Either way, he was prepared to grovel.

Of course the guy was gone by the time he got back, and he had to look into the stony face of the cashier. Medusa’s stare could not have been more deadly, and Eric didn’t even bother trying to charm her. “I need to talk to him.”

“Why? So you can verbally abuse him some more? Or are you looking to make it physical? After all, what’s a little fag bashing?”

He winced but didn’t look away. “I want to apologize.”

She didn’t look impressed. “Yeah, right. One of those ‘I’m sorry if you were offended’ apologies that you can shove right—”

“—No, no, no, I’m sorry I said it. I was wrong to say it, and stupid, and I didn’t mean it. Fuck.” He winced again. “I know you don’t believe me, but I feel bad about it.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“I know.”

She eyed him, her expression not softening one whit. “Wait there.”

blogging, and serial

I know I haven't been keeping up with this blog, but that was partly due to my various computer woes in January. And partly due to being lazy and forgetful, and partly due to working on actual stories.

But starting now, I'm going to to better, especially because I'm envious that Bryonna got invited to join Petit Fours and Hot Tamales. I'm thrilled for her, or course, but still, harumph. :P

I'm going to continue emptying my inbox of A Word A Day emails that have been backing up because, like the title says, I procrastinate. But instead of writing a random drabble using one word, I've decided to hit two or three words per post and not worry about word count.

I kept coming back to one character in some of the previous drabbles, so I've decided to write his story and post it here as a serial. And in case anyone wants to read the story in order, the links are at this page.

Blog Hop coming up in May

Hi, all, sorry I've been away so long. Just got my computer back from the doctor at the end of last week, when all hell was breaking loose over RWI's MTM contest. Just google it.

Anyway, I'll be participating in the Blog Hop Against Homophobia on May 17, and as part of the hop, I need to give away something M/M romance related.

So if you're the lucky winner, what would you like to get?