Rainbow Snippets With All the Bells And Whistles from Jeff Baker. (March 30, 2025)

Posted on March 30, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Every now and then I post on the weekly Rainbow Snippets page https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 where we post six lines from a work of ours, published or in progress, or a recommendation of someone else’s work that has at least one LGBT character. From my story “All The Bells And Whistles,” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/03/14/all-the-bells-and-whistles-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-march-14-2025/ we meet Steve, Horacio and Corby. Lifelong buddies now in their twenties, hanging out in Steve’s family garage like they did when they were in school.

Steve had invited them to lunch with Lance the day before. It had gone well, Steve had introduced Horacio and Corby as “My straight best bros,” and they had hit it off. Steve had been nervous as hell, but everything had been fine, even the burgers.

Steve looked around the garage again and smiled. “I really can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Doing what?” Horacio asked. “Getting hitched?”

Steve looked over, surprised. “It’s written all over my face, isn’t it?”

“You two were holding hands under the table,” Corby said.

Here’s just a little more (okay, here’s more snippets going over the six-line thingie again.)

“Yeah,” Steve said with a grin. “We got a license and were planning on this coming fall. Big wedding. Reception. All the bells and whistles. But we decided, you know, we’d better speed it up. We wanna do it next weekend.” Steve took another deep breath. “My folks are gone, and my cousins live out in California so would you two be there? Kinda best men, family, standing up for me, witnesses kind of thing?”

“Hell, yeah” Corby said.

“Same here, bro” Horacio said. “Whad’ you think, we wouldn’t want to be there?”

Over the limit, but what the hey, it’s worth it. I consider little stories like this even for my little audience a form of protest. As a friend of mine said, visibility is protest.

See you next time. ——-jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

“The Cats Of Mars.” Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker. (March 28, 2025)

Posted on March 28, 2025 by jeffbaker307

The Cats Of Mars

by Jeff Baker

The Tortoiseshell cat was sunning herself on the wooden floor by the front door when Petro walked up and set his overnight bag down.

“Well, Kit,” the young man said. “Here I go. I’m seventeen. I always thought that when I left home I’d be going to University. But I guess not.”

Petro bent down and scratched the cat behind the ears. She opened her eyes partway then closed them, a seemingly blissful smile on her face.

“You’re lucky, Kit,” Petro said. “Like me you have a place to stay. Food. Warm house. I saw something online the other day about all the cats in Kiev who have no place to go now. Orphans of war.”

Petro glanced outside at the sunny street and the distant hills. “You know, Kit, you inspire me. You always do what has to be done. Raising kittens, guarding the house from mice, playing and keeping us happy and making us feel warm in here.” He tapped his chest.

“And that’s what I have to do,” Petro said. “I have to go after the mice…only they aren’t mice.” He took a deep breath. “Invaders who represent a bear. I have to go fight. I have to be like a cat. One of the Cats of Mars, the Roman God of War.” Petro sighed again and then stood up, patting his leg nervously.

“So that’s it, Kit. I don’t know if they’ll take me and let me fight but I’m going anyway. I’ve been pretty sheltered. It’s time I went outside.”

Petro picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “And I do know how to shoot,” he said. “Father taught me a few years ago, out in the woods. He and mother aren’t happy about this but our allies have deserted us so I don’t think there’s any choice. Other than just sitting around.”

He put his hand on the door handle.

“Wish me luck, Kit. I’m off to get some mice.”

And Petro walked out the door.

—end—

Posted in Cats, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“A Silver Bow…” Friday Flash Fics (as by Mike Mayak) March 21, 2025.

Posted on March 21, 2025 by jeffbaker307

A Silver Bow New Bent In Heaven

by Mike Mayak

“Crazy going to a car wash at night,” Artie Beechcroft said.

“Yeah,” Ferdie Ridgeway said. “But it’s not night yet, it’s just around seven-fifteen.”

“Town I grew up in, car wash and convenience store might be the only places open on Saturday night.” Artie said.

“Yeah,” Ferdie said. “To be twenty-something, and out on our own on a Saturday with nothing to do.”

“Except maybe a term paper back at the dorm,” Artie said. “Gotta love Spring. Hey, there’s the car wash.”

They’d driven down West street after leaving Saturday evening Mass at the College and were doing their usual bit of driving around in Ferdie’s beat-up ‘74 Mustang, stopping at the mall, grabbing something to eat and staving off boredom.

“Looks like they got a line,” Ferdie said pulling in behind several cars at the automated car wash.

“Yeah, and you just drive up, punch in a few buttons and swipe your credit card,” Artie said. “Gotta love all this Jetsons stuff.”

“Yeah, and if we get stuck in the car wash we blare the horn,” Ferdie said.

“Hey, what the hell?” Artie breathed.

There were two cars ahead of them, one with a customer paying for their wash. From the car right behind the paying car someone snuck out, crouched down and ducked between the cars. In another minute, he slipped back into their car and Ferdie and Artie could see him clutching a license plate.

“That guy just stole that…” Artie said.

“Yeah, I saw,” Ferdie said. “Hang on.”

Ferdie opened the armrest and to Artie’s amazement pulled out a car phone. In another moment he had dialed a number.

“Mom and Dad and my Grandparents went in on this,” Ferdie said. “They didn’t want me to be stuck somewhere. Sometimes it’s nice when your family still thinks you’re in grade school and…hello? Yeah. I’d like to report…”

Ferdie gave them all the information he had and then pulled out of the line to tell the owner of the ripped-off car when he came out of the wash and had Artie run into the office to tell them.

Then Ferdie drove he and Artie down the street to the convenience store to be a safe distance away when the police arrived.

“Yeah, another dull Saturday Night!” Ferdie said as they sat in the car munching cheap convenience store tacos.

“Yeah,” Artie said. “Hey, look!”

He pointed at the western horizon. Clouds had moved and they could just see a thin sliver of Moon in the Western sky.

“Like to a silver bow, new bent in Heaven,” Artie quoted. He grinned. “Glad we read Shakespeare!”

“Yeah, but he never wrote about a car wash!” Ferdie said laughing.

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE; Title is from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” —-mike

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February/March Progress Report from Jeff Baker. (March 20, 2025)

Posted on March 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Progress Report, February March 2025

First off, I finished a longer story (one I started maybe a year or so ago!) Sent it off to the Saturday Evening Post where I’ve received encouraging rejections in the past. It’s one of a series of stories and I am working on another in the series. (I’ve been lazy but I’ve been working on it!)

Wrote at least one poem and started on another (maybe more.)

Wrote or finished a few of the Queer SciFi columns I’d started last month. I feel better having a few “at the ready” for the next couple of months.

Got ideas for and plotted out (half-assed) a few longer stories.

Wrote the weekly flash fiction stories and the monthly one as well.

I am slipping into that stereotype of the guy who watches videos all night instead of getting the writing done. Need more discipline; I’m kind of slipping.

And as I was readying this post I found the story I sent to the Post was rejected (nicely!) so I sent it off somewhere else!

That’s progress!

That’s about it for now!

—-jeff baker, March 20, 2025

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February/March 2025 Reading Report from Jeff Baker. (March 20, 2025)

Posted on March 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report February/March 2025

Got two anthologies by Ardath Mayhar, who I’d heard about but never read (after a post on Keith West’s blog https://adventuresfantastic.com/ for her birthday; he had met Mayhar!) And I’ve been on a Mayhar jag, I don’t know if I’d read her stories before. Read “Aunt Dolly” and “The Creek, It Done Riz.” Both in “100 Menacing Little Murder Stories.” Very dark fun!

Also read two stories out of her collections: “The Affair Of the Midnight Midget,” a Sherlock Holmes (really Mrs. Hudson!) story from “Crazy Quilt, the Best Short Fiction Of Ardath Mayhar.” Mrs. Hudson is perfectly in character; she doesn’t suddenly show Holmes’ deductive abilities. Also read the title story in “Slewfoot Sally And the Flying Mule.” Both great fun! Also read her story “The Weapon,” in the “Best of…” collection.

Also on my Mayhar jag I read “A Night In Possum Holler” which is in “100 Fiendish Little Frightmares.” Those “100 Little…” anthologies are a treasure trove of new/old stories. (Okay, new in the 90s!)

Speaking of the “100 Little…” anthologies, I read some Edward D. Hoch stories for his birthday: “Twine” and “The Man Who Was Everywhere.” Both from “100 Menacing Little Murder Stories.” Also read Hoch’s “Traynor’s Cipher,” “Violet Crime” and “The Spy Who Did Nothing.” Those three in “100 Sneaky Little Sleuth Stories.”

I tried to read some of the non-Dickens stories in his anthology “The Haunted House,” taken from stories in one of his magazines, but I gave up on one and the other wasn’t worth it; just a waste of time joke story where it is all a dream brought about by the Ague. For the record, the stories were “The Ghost In the Clock Room,” by Hesba Stretton and “”The Ghost In the Double Room” by Gorge Augustus Sala.

I probably have the other stories by Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins somewhere and I know I have the Dickens stories in a book.

Much more worthwhile was “The Switchin’ Tree” by Elwin Cotman. From his horror/fantasy anthology “Weird Black Girls.” Excellent!

Read some stories from the 19th Century writer Richard Garnett, from his only collection “Twilight Of the Gods.” Read “The Potion Of Lao-Tsze,” “The Wisdom Of the Indians” and “Abdallah the Adite.” Pretty good!

Read some of Clark Ashton Smith’s stories in “The Tsathoggua Cycle,” a Chaosium (publisher) book featuring Cthulu-esque fiction new and old. Read Smith’s “The Seven Geases,” where he’s having some fun with a fairy tale trope. Not the Smith of the later Xothique-type stories but fun to read! Also read “The Family Tree Of the Gods” (a Lovecraftian essay) and “The Testament of Athammaus.”

The real fun came with Smith’s “The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Gables,” set in a Howard-esque (I say “esque” a lot, don’t I?) medieval fantasy world. A fun caper story! It’s one of Smith’s later stories and I wish he’d written more about this thief.

Read Mack Reynolds’ “Posted,” in a Greenberg/Asimov/Waugh anthology “Flying Saucers. From same book read Thomas Burnett Swann’s “The Painter.” I hadn’t read Swann before I think. I stumbled across his name researching Richard Garnett. Read Swann’s “Night Of the Unicorn” in the Dann & Dozois anthology “Unicorns.” Excellent! A wonderful writer!

For Jack Kerouac’s March 12th birthday I read his story “Ronnie On the Mound” in the baseball fantasy/supernatural anthology “Field Of Fantasies.” Not much fantasy in the story except it was based on a baseball board game Kerouac invented when he was a kid. Sort of a fantasy league. Story is about pitcher Ronnie who is getting his big chance in a game. Story would probably have grabbed me more if I understood anything about baseball. There is a sweetness to it.

Read Stephen King’s new story “The Extra Hour,” in “Cemetery Dance” Magazine issue . First-person narration of a nightmare that gets bleaker and more surreal. King is still damn good. Maybe even better than when I read “Night Shift” in college.

And I’ve been reading stories in the aforementioned anthology “Flying Saucers.” Read Avram Davidson’s “The Grantha Sighting.” A sweet, funny and very telling story that’s not about flying saucers, it’s about the nature of people. Read Howard Fast’s “The Mouse.” A moving and perfect story from the author of “Spartacus.” (This is one of three sci-fi stories I know about mice and spaceships; I think the other two are by Frederic Brown.)

Of course I’ve been reading the regular flash fictions by Kaje Harper and E. H. Timms, as well as the fine serial by J. Scott Coatsworth “Down the River.” https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/serial-down-the-river-chapter-thirty-nine/

And I read Volume Two of “The Justice Society,” collecting the stories from the 1970s and ‘80s about the world’s first superhero team. When I was in High School and College I read the original comics (“All-Star Comics” and “Adventure Comics,”) mainly for the fantasy and fun but now I appreciate the stories. They hold up.

And I was floored that one story has a climactic scene taking place atop Gotham City’s Twin Towers. Yes, THOSE towers. A character even falls to their death from one of them. This was about 1980…

And Gay author Felice Picano died this past week, so I’m reading stories in his collection “Tales: From A Distant Planet.”

But I didn’t even read a word of the Henry Kuttner story I started on a month or so ago!

——jeff baker March 20, 2025

Posted in Avram Davidson, Books, Clark Ashton Smith, E. H. Timms, Edward D. Hoch, Henry Kuttner, J. Scott Coatsworth, Kaje Harper, LGBT, Reading, Reading Report, Stephen King | Leave a comment

“All The Bells And Whistles.” Friday Flash Fics From Jeff Baker. (March 14, 2025)

Posted on March 14, 2025 by jeffbaker307

All the Bells And Whistles

by Jeff Baker

“Wow,” Steve Jones breathed, looking around the small garage which opened onto a side street. “How long has it been since we started hanging out here?”

“High School,” Corby Austin said, sipping a soda. “Remember? We had that school project due and we walked over from school to your house to work on it out here.”

“Yeah, and you guys grabbed me because I had the car and you needed to get that thing you two built back to school,” Horacio Owen said.

“And because you’re my cousin,” Corby said.

“And because Mom told me to,” Horacio laughed. “Wow Fifteen years ago.”

Corby finished his soda with a characteristic slurp, crumpled the can and tossed it into the bucket with the others.

“Two points!” Horacio said.

“Yeah.” Corby said. “It’s one point when I have to go over, pick it up from the floor and toss it in.”

After a moment, Steve took a deep breath. “Sooooo, what do you guys think of Lance?”

“He seems nice,” Corby said.

“And tall,” Horacio said. “And wayyyyy to good-looking for you!”

They laughed again.

“Thanks!” Steve said. “You know, he doesn’t think he’s that good-looking.”

“Yeah, right!” Horacio laughed.

Steve had invited them to lunch with Lance the day before. It had gone well, Steve had introduced Horacio and Corby as “My straight best bros,” and they had hit it off. Steve had been nervous as hell, but everything had been fine, even the burgers.

Steve looked around the garage again and smiled. “I really can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Doing what?” Horacio asked. “Getting hitched?”

Steve looked over, surprised. “It’s written all over my face, isn’t it?”

“You two were holding hands under the table,” Corby said.

“Yeah,” Steve said with a grin. “We got a license and were planning on this coming fall. Big wedding. Reception. All the bells and whistles. But we decided, you know, we’d better speed it up. We wanna do it next weekend.” Steve took another deep breath. “My folks are gone, and my cousins live out in California so would you two be there? Kinda best men, family, standing up for me, witnesses kind of thing?”

“Hell, yeah” Corby said.

“Same here, bro” Horacio said. “Whad’ you think, we wouldn’t want to be there?”

The three twenty-somethings hugged, stumbling awkwardly around the riding mower in the middle of the floor.

“Look, I just want to thank you guys for doing this again,” Steve said.

“Hey, no prob! ‘Sokay” the two others chorused.

“Hey! We can hold the reception here!” Horacio said.

“Yeah, right! We’d have to move the riding mower!” Corby said. “Dad doesn’t allow it to leave the garage until spring.”

“Uh, thanks guys, the rec room at Lance’s apartment building will do fine.”

“Sounds good to me,” Horacio said. “Hey We can ask Corby’s Dad if we can bring the mower”

“Or that old school project,” Corby said. “I still have it in a box somewhere.”

“You’re kidding?” Steve said.

“Yeah,” Corby said with a big grin. “But I’m glad I still have you guys!”

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

The Moon And Uluru. Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Results For March, 2025. Jeff Baker, March 10, 2025.

Posted on March 10, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Hi! I’m Mike, A.K.A. Jeff Baker.

The draws for the March 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were:

A Paranormal Story

Set in The Australian Outback

Involving a Set Of Stereo Speakers

E. H. Timms wrote: “Moonrise” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2025/03/flash-fic-challenge-moonrise.html

And (as Jeff Baker) I wrote: “Here Comes the Sun” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/03/06/here-comes-the-sun-and-my-march-2025-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-jeff-baker-march-6th-2025/

Thanks for participating, and for reading and remember it’s never too late to write your own story, post it in the comments and I’ll link it here.

We’ll be back with another draw on April 7th, 2025.

Thanks again!

—–mike

Posted in E. H. Timms, Fiction, LGBT, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Listening to “The Scary Fairies” Podcast. Jeff Baker, March 10, 2025.

Posted on March 10, 2025 by jeffbaker307

by Jeff Baker

I’ve been listening to a new (and fun!) movie review podcast!

“The Scary Fairies” described as “a trio of long-lost fairy companions” who hold court in a hollow tree (the magic of radio or podcast!) and talk about a horror movie they’ve recently watched.

The trio (Matthew, Hannah and Evan) seem to be having a load of fun doing this, making the podcast enjoyable for the listener as well. (Word of caution, the Fairies’ commentary is sometimes rated PG.)

And yes, our trio are all LGBT.

I will have more on the show later on, in the meantime take a listen. New episodes are posted weekly on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scary-fairies/id1790379606

Posted in LGBT, Movies, podcasts | Leave a comment

Here Comes the Sun to Make A Rainbow. Rainbow Snippets from Jeff Baker; March 9th, 2025.

Posted on March 9, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Jonas Schallenberg on Pexels.com

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

I don’t post as many snippets as I used to but these bits from my recent story “Here Comes the Sun” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/03/06/here-comes-the-sun-and-my-march-2025-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-jeff-baker-march-6th-2025/ fit the bill. Our snippets take my happily married Earthman Kenny and incognito extraterrestrial sorcerer Hank on a task to the Australian Outback,

Kenny Briscoe had been a few odd places since he’d fallen in love with an alien sorcerer. But the Australian Outback in the pre-dawn hours beat zipping to the convenience store at two A. M. for a sweet roll. He stared up at the brightening sky and the stars.

“Hey, look!” Kenny said. “I think that’s Alpha Centauri!”

“Been there, not impressed,” Hank said.

Okay, a bit more…

Hank Jones, Kenny’s husband was fiddling with a gadget that looked like a TV remote and pacing back and forth. And swearing in at least a couple of alien languages. The gadget would occasionally make a peeping noise and flash a light or two.

“C’mon! Deccha take you, you miserable…C’mon!” Hank muttered.

Kenny smiled. It reminded him for all the world of Dean Stockwell in a scene from the old “Quantum Leap” show. But his tanned, tall, slightly overweight husband looked a lot better to him than any actor.

Here’s a little bit more as Kenny asks Hank (who has been around for centuries) if he thinks we will get through the current troubles.

“If people sit around and do nothing, no. If they lose interest after a couple of weeks or get discouraged because of time or roadblocks in the way nothing will change. But one person can make a difference by speaking out or even posting online, writing a letter to the editor…one person’s effort could be seen by one other person who it changes. Then they go and affect someone else.” Hank looked over at Kenny.

“One person matters.” Hank said.

They kissed for a few moments standing there in the desert.

Sorry if I got a bit preachy, but my literary heroes Charles Dickens and Rod Serling used their work to explore society’s ills and current events so I must too.

Here’s a link to another of Kenny and Hank’s adventures. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/08/17/nothing-up-my-sleeve-a-coin-trick-for-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-august-17-2023/

See you later! —-jeff

Posted in Fantasy, Hank and Kenny, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

The Play’s Still the Thing, Newman University’s “Hamlet.” Review by Jeff Baker. (March 8, 2025)

Posted on March 8, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Hamlet (Corbin Molina, L) and Laertes (Austin Schwartz, R) are ready to duel as King Claudius (Daniel Graber, back L) and Queen Gertrude (Anna Corbett, back R) look on, in Newman University’s production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

Review by Jeff Baker

William Shakespeare’s ancient but still timely “Hamlet” was performed at Newman University on Friday March 7th, 2025 in a shorter version “designed to tour high schools so that current high school students can see the play come to life before their eyes.” (According to program notes by Director Mark Mannette.) The condensed version has lost none of its power to entertain and captivate the audience.

With painted castle backdrops, black curtains a raised platform and movable crates the production conveyed the play’s famous locations, including Elsinore Castle and a graveyard. Well done lighting and offstage sounds brought the audience to the Denmark of a bygone century. Doing it in modern dress worked in the play’s favor; the suits and ties worn by (among others) Polonius and King Claudius gave the royal family the feel of a family of mobsters. Hamlet wore leather vests, jackets and gloves which somehow accentuated his youth and the violent times in which he lived while Laertes upon returning from his travels was in a brown leather jacket and fedora that smacked of Indiana Jones but somehow seemed perfect!

In a cast full of standouts, many of them doubling (or tripling) up in roles, mention must be made of Daniel Cubias’ mobsterish Polonius and his scene stealing turn as the Grave Digger; Steven Brown’s fine and supportive turn as Hamlet’s best buddy Horatio. Anna Corbett as Queen Gertrude and Austin Schwartz as Laertes.

Abi Oberly’s Ophelia came off as tragically mad as she sang her lines while handing out rosemary for remembrance and Daniel Graber’s King Claudius had a nasty leer which seemed to say “Ha-Ha! They don’t know I poisoned my brother the King!”

Corbin Molina’s Hamlet bounded and stalked through the role as the now-obssessed young Prince who must come to grips not only with his father’s recent death and his uncle’s marrying his mother but with the charge by his father’s ghost to avenge his death at the hands of King Claudius. Molina conveyed the Prince’s inner agony and conflict without any hand wringing.

And in a very fitting touch, the ghost (Luke Jones) is made up with his beard to resemble Molina’s Hamlet.

Staging was not just actors standing around saying “To be or not to be,” there is a convincing near-brawl where Hamlet and Laertes must be physically restrained and the climactic swordfight, (very close to the audience!) which does not go well for any of the characters.

All in all, a marvelous evening of live theater from a Newman University Drama Department that is still thriving.

“Good night, Sweet Prince…”

Further productions of Hamlet at the Jabara Flexible Theater, Newman University, 3100 N. McCormick, Wichita will be March 8th at 7:30pm and April 3rd, 4th and 5th also at 7:30pm.

Program art by Luke Jones

Posted in Newman University, Reviews, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment