"…his stories are always sharp and compact and interesting." ——Angel Martinez "(One of) the hottest authors in the independent horror scene…" —-Hellbound Books
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
The house had originally been owned by a man named Peregrine and there had been a stone falcon set into the concrete of the low wall at one end of the spacious, welcoming front porch until it had been worn away by generations of young children and toppled by a falling tree branch during a storm. It had been part of the Rawley family since the late 1950s when it had been bought by the patriarch and then inherited by the younger son, Gus Rawley, along with a lot of money and Gus lived there, wrote articles for magazines there and was happily ensconced with “Bertie,” really Bertram, the man he had met at a party and they were the rare couple in that generation of the family who actually stayed together over the years. They were, in fact, together in the house for just over forty years before they both passed away.
“I don’t like ‘Passed Away,’” Gus had said at a family Christmas at the house. “It makes it sound like someone just farted.”
Okay, that one sentence was waaaaay too long! (Bad habit of mine!) Next week, something a little more adventurous! Until then, pleasant dreams! —-jeff
December 31st, 1969 my Mom & Dad went down the street to a party, leaving me with a babysitter; Jan, the girl who lived next door who was about five years older than me (I was nine. I had this big, unrequited crush on her!)
I wanted to see the New Year come in. Mom & Dad said it was okay as long as I went to bed first, I could get up just before Midnight.
I had dinner from the fridge, drank a bottle of 7-Up and checked my watch. I don’t remember what was on TV. I don’t remember what day of the week it was. (Wednesday. I just looked it up.)
I hopped in bed around nine or so and set my alarm for about 11:50. Jan stayed downstairs and did homework.
I snoozed, the alarm went off, I got up, we watched the clock and then 12:00am came and…
Nothing.
We turned on the TV, nothing on but an old movie. (Remember, 1969.)
We went outside. Nothing. Night, stars, breeze.
We figured the clock was off. So I checked my watch, re-set my alarm and in a few minutes it went off at 12:00.
Fireworks popped outside!
We yelled, we jumped, we danced, we welcomed 1970!
I had another bottle of 7-Up and went back to bed. And that was New Year’s when I was Nine…
Every week we post six lines of a story of ours, a work-in-progress or from someone else’s work that we recommend that has LGBT characters on Rainbow Snippets, here; https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets
I hadn’t planned on working New Year’s Eve when I got the text message. Enough cash to pay off my post-Christmas credit card balance, so I packed a toothbrush and my private eye license and checked into one of the ritziest hotels downtown for the night. Another working holiday for Andrew Navarro. I was between boyfriends, so no big deal. The party was on the top two floors, a New Year’s bash with booze and snacks and a posh room to safely crash in after ringing in the New Year. All part of an expensive package. I got with hotel manager, my latest employer, about Noon in the hotel lobby on December 31st.
Here’s more.
The rest of the partiers trickled in as the afternoon went on, and most of the guys were pretty well-behaved at first, but some of them had evidently started partying early. About five-thirty with the lights coming on in the darkening city I saw a buff young guy in the hallway wearing nothing but a red speedo, a Santa Claus hat and “Naughty or Nice” printed in black marker across his chest and abs.
“Happy New Year, dude!” he said, giving me a thumbs-up. I gave him a nod and grinned.
And just a little more…
I checked in at the ballroom from time to time but mainly I patrolled the hallways, keeping my eyes and ears open for any trouble. It was after nine thirty and the music was blaring from the ballroom when I found trouble. The kid from earlier in the hallway with the Santa hat was lying face down on the floor. It didn’t take me more than a minute to realize he wouldn’t be ringing in this or any other New Years.
Hope your New Year’s isn’t anything like that, except maybe for seeing hunky guys! (Live ones, of course!)
Wishing you all the best for the New Year, 2024! —-jeff
AUTHOR’S NOTE: No Friday Flash Fiction story this week, but I have a story for New Year’s that I’m posting this week. The picture that inspired it I took right before Halloween and I wrote the story a week or so later. Enjoy! ——–jeff
Peregrine House was the name attached to the stylish old brick house, one of a neighborhood of stylish houses that had stood in that area near the river since just after World War One.
The house had originally been owned by a man named Peregrine and there had been a stone falcon set into the concrete of the low wall at one end of the spacious, welcoming front porch until it had been worn away by generations of young children and toppled by a falling tree branch during a storm. It had been part of the Rawley family since the late 1950s when it had been bought by the patriarch and then inherited by the younger son, Gus Rawley, along with a lot of money and Gus lived there, wrote articles for magazines there and was happily ensconced with “Bertie,” really Bertram, the man he had met at a party and they were the rare couple in that generation of the family who actually stayed together over the years. They were, in fact, together in the house for just over forty years before they both passed away.
“I don’t like ‘Passed Away,’” Gus had said at a family Christmas at the house. “It makes it sound like someone just farted.”
The house was vacant for a few months before a Rawley nephew took possession and moved in. But he didn’t stay. Little things moved when he wasn’t there. Strange noises in the night. Laughter. Voices. The nephew believed the house was haunted. And that was how Peregrine House’s reputation stayed until several years after when the nephew’s cousin and her husband took possession.
They heard no creaking, no noises, found the house warm and inviting and dismissed the stories and the stories were forgotten. They raised children who they didn’t tell about the house’s reputation and nobody saw anything unusual.
Almost nobody.
One bright, brisk New Year’s Day morning one of the neighbors, John by name, was walking home from spending the night on another neighbor’s couch after a New Year’s Eve party a few doors down from Peregrine House. As he passed buy, he glanced up at the porch.
There, sitting on the metal chairs that stayed out there in all kinds of weather were two full-sized human skeletons.
“Bout time to take those Halloween decorations down, isn’t it?” John said to nobody in particular, his head throbbing.
One of the skeletons sat up off the chair and waved.
“We’ll do that,” the skeleton said.
“Hi, John!” the other skeleton said, waving.
John stared for a second and ran, barely registering the laughing from the cozy porch as a ghostly couple celebrated the arrival of yet another year.
No better place on Christmas Week to visit than a Christmas Party. And no better book for our purposes than ‘Nathan Burgoine’s excellent Christmas story “Handmade Holidays.”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55992618-handmade-holidays?ref=nav_sb_ss_5_17The book follows Nick, on his own after his homophobic parents toss him out at age nineteen, on a series of Christmases over the years. Nick and his friends call themselves “The Misfit Toys.” Let’s join them. The party is in full swing…
“When your number comes up, you get to pick an ornament off the pile,” Nick explained to Erik, while Haruto shredded the wrapping paper. “Or if you like something someone else already has, you can take it from them, and they get to do the same thing—open a new present or take something someone else has. But the ornaments can’t change hands more than once a round. Once they’re all open, you trade instead, or you can keep the one you’ve got. You’re in the deck three times.”
‘Nathan Burgoine says that the collecting of Christmas ornaments to symbolize a year came from his own experience. Which he put into the highly recommended book.
Next Week; A New Year’s Eve party that does not turn out as well.
And I wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season! —–jeff
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here’s my Friday Flash Fics Christmas story! We’ll be taking a break for the holidays, and be back with another prompt picture January 5th, 2024. Until then, thank you for participating and thank you for reading. More great stories to come! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! —-jeff
We were lucky the snow held off a few days when we decided to drive out to D’Artagnan, Kansas for Christmas. I grew up there but I hadn’t been back for Christmas in about four years. My husband Miles and I drove out for a visit every summer but Mom & Dad had come to our place in Wichita for Christmas the last few years.
My big brother Lance Biggs had actually flown into town on business the week before Christmas, stayed with us and the three of us drove out two days before the holiday as soon as Miles got off work.
It was kind of fun, really. The weather was nice and we felt a little like kids on a car trip with the folks.
“Except nobody’s fighting over the radio,” Miles said grinning.
We stopped a couple of places to gas up, use the restrooms and grab snacks. Miles standing in the parking lot gawking at the Kansas prairie.
“A lot different than where I grew up in Wisconsin.”
He and I had met in College over in Wichita about ten years ago. We’d both been nineteen. Now we were all in our early thirties.
Lance was driving for the last leg of the trip, down a back road that we always used as a shortcut. “The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,” he’d started to sing.
My Brother could never sing!
It had gotten dark. We could see a couple of farmhouses and a grain elevator with a sprinkle of Christmas lights and the lights of the town in the distance topped by the modern water tower next to the High School as we turned back onto the highway into town.
“Gotta love that water tower,” Miles said from the back seat.
“Yeah,” I said wistfully.
“Hey, Lonnie,” Lance said to me. “Remember Grandpa Biggs’ old gas station?”
“Oh, yeah!” I said with a smile.
“Remember how we went there after school sometimes and tried to help him out?” Lance said.
I laughed again. “Yeah, and he’d send us up to the drugstore to buy candy to get us out of the way! But you were the one who actually got a part-time job there.”
“Yeah,” Lance laughed. “Until my grades slipped and I had to quit! That was just before Granddad retired and sold the store.”
I looked back at Miles. “It was a knicknack shop last time I looked.”
“Mmmm.” Miles murmured.
“Can’t believe he’s been gone ten years now,” I mused.
Lance turned the car down onto Main Street.
“Look at all those decorations,” Miles said.
There were a few houses and then shops and the main intersection, some of the buildings with strings of lights and decorated trees.
“Hey, remember when he’d have the station all decorated for Christmas?” Lance said.
“Oh yeah,” I said, remembering.
Before we got to the intersection, Miles turned right.
“Hey, Mom & Dad’s house is back that way,” I said thumbing behind us.
“I know,” he said as he turned left down the street. “Take a look.”
Ahead a few blocks was the old gas station. Lance pulled the car into the lot. The old pumps weren’t there but the poles holding the towel dispenser and air hose were still there. There was a string of lights between them. There was a little Christmas tree lit up in the front window, and a plastic snowman standing cheerily to one side. A big Santa’s sleigh was parked in front of the old garage doors and a big cement block I remembered was wrapped like a Christmas package. And there were twinkling lights around the windows and on top of the little building.
“Oh, my gosh!” I breathed. “That almost looks like…my God! Those are Grandpa’s decorations! The ones he used to put up! How…?”
“Thank your Husband,” Lance said. “Last year when I was up for Christmas and I told him about decorating the store and that Mom still had those same decorations, he suggested somebody do this.”
“They talked to the lady who runs the place now and she agreed to put up the old decorations,” Miles said. “Your Brother helped. The lady thought it was nice.”
“We thought a lot of people in town would like it,” Lance said. “We thought you would like it.”
“Aw, man!” I said. “Thanks!”
We sat there for a few minutes, the lights twinkling onto the car.
“Let’s get home,” I said.
We drove back to our folks’ house, the house Lance and I grew up in, the three of us singing “Jingle Bells” with the windows rolled down, laughing all the way.
First off, an addenda to last month’s report; I read a Sherlock Holmes story I hadn’t read before. “The Adventure of The Three Students.” I’m crazy about anything Arthur Conan Doyle wrote and this story is fun, even though the resolution is a sad one. I didn’t remember reading it until I was putting up my books and found the story bookmarked in “The Complete Sherlock Holmes.”
For Mark Twain’s birthday (November 30th) I read a few of his shorter pieces, including “Curing a Cold,” “A Visit to Niagara” and “A Fine Old Man.” Also bummed through just a little of “The Prince and the Pauper.” Also I got a signed paperback copy of David Morrell’s collection “Black Evening.” Read through the story introductions. Had no idea he was inspired by Stirling Siliphant’s TV scripts or that they had known each other! Read Morrell’s fun story “Partnership.” Very much an “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” kind of story and first appeared in AHMM. Also bummed through his story “Dead Image,” which I’d read years ago and loved.
Read a couple of stories in Kaje Harper’s “The Distant Hills” that I may have read before online but may not have read in the book. “Perceptions” and “Looking Forward.” Excellent as always.
And I read a few stories from J. Scott Coatsworth’s fine collections “Spells and Stardust” and “Tangents and Tachyons.” The stories; “A New Year,” “The Frog Prince” and “The System.” Wonderful!
Read “The Terror of Blue John Gap” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
And I read the first of my Edgar Allan Poe stories for my Poe Project: “King Pest.”
Got Nelson Bond’s fix-up novel containing the stories about “Lancelot Biggs, Spaceman.” Looked up which stories were turned into which chapters and read “FOB Venus.” It’s a typical Bond comedic romp where there’s a comedic twist at the end that saves the day. Science-fantasy, not hard sci-fi. Great fun! And as I read it I mentally compared it to Heinlein’s “The Rolling Stones.” Rbt. & Ginny Heinlein did meticulous research for their book. I’m guessing Bond just made it up. Both are intentionally funny; with the humor in the Heinlein flowing naturally from the characters.
Oh, and the Bond story has a Scottish engineer on a spaceship. This some twenty-plus years before “Star Trek.”
Also read some of Carol Burnett’s memoir “This Time Together.”
Commemorated James Thurber’s December 8th birthday with a Thurber read; “More Alarms at Night” from “My Life and Hard Times.” I decided to read through the stories I hadn’t read in the book and then thought “what the hey.” and decided to read the whole thing. So far I’ve read “University Days,” “A Sequence of Servants” and “Draft Board Nights.” The latter of which ends with Thurber being awakened by bells ringing the Armistice all over town. “The Car We Had to Push” made me laugh out loud.
I’d read “The Night the Ghost Got In” before but listened to a fine podcast reading of this funny (and apparently true) story. (This is what inspired me to read the whole book again.)
Not a part of “My Life and Hard Times,” nonetheless I, uh, Thurbed-out with “A Box to Hide In,” and “Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife.” And yes, I DO consider an audiobook to be “reading.” The feeling is the same.
More from J. Scott Coatsworth, who was kind enough to send (okay, sell) me signed copies of his collections “Androids and Aliens,” and “Love and Limitations.” From the latter I read “The Boy in the Band,” “Ten” and “I Only Want to Be With You.” From the former I read “Rise” and “Ping.” (I had read some of those stories before but I re-read them. He’s that darn good.)
And one more by Arthur Conan Doyle; someone on a book video was gushing about how good “The Boscome Valley Mystery” is and I agree. It’s a Holmes story I didn’t remember reading. From “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.”
And that will do it for this month, but I have more books/stories to read. I’m surrounded by books as I type this, including “The Rolling Stones” which I’ve got to finish and what looks like a fun Christmas sci-fi/fantasy anthology with a story by Joe Haldeman I hadn’t read.
As it is a few days before Christmas, I’d better start in!
I started doing these Progress Reports a few years ago and started doing them on a monthly basis this year. I did a year-end wrap-up last year, so I’m doing another one now.
2023 was a year that had the potential to be all-around awful. But I managed to do a lot of writing and submitting anyway and had a few successes.
The big story for me, writing-wise, is that the RoMMantic Reads ‘zine continues to be a welcome market for flash fiction and articles. The bulk of my publications (that weren’t posted by me) were there.
In 2023, I submitted a grand total of 23 stories and four articles. (Actually about 26 fiction submissions, counting re-submissions.)
A couple of them went to markets that acknowledged it would be a while before they got back to us.
I have about three stories from earlier years that are still hopeful, I think. One editor told me as much but then his computer (with the files) was damaged. Another editor was waylaid for a while by COVID.
To break it all down;
As Mike Mayak, I submitted four stories (one significantly revised.)
Two were rejected, one I haven’t heard back from and the other was accepted(!!!)
As Skip Hanford, I submitted two stories (one of them twice!) One rejected, one posted in RoMMantic Reads.
In addition, I got a rejection for a story I had sent out in 2021 (!!!)
As by Jeff Baker I submitted eleven different stories, one three times, another one twice.
Got eight rejections.
Five of those stories are still out there, submitted or re-submitted.
Got two accepted! One published in the QSF anthology “Rise,” and an Honorary Mention to boot!
On RoMMantic Reads I published six stories (one noted as “Skip” above) in addition to two parts of a serial.
This was also my major non-fiction market (except for the blogs!) I published four articles, mainly about earlier LGBT Gay themes in TV series.
RoMM was also my major poetry market, publishing four poems I submitted.
Angel Martinez did me the kindness of reading three of my stories aloud on her blog.
I submitted one item to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” which didn’t use it.
I also did the monthly Queer Sci Fi columns (Thanks, Scott!) and I’ll admit I have several already written in the pipe for next year (I like doing that!)
As for my own column, I stuck to Progress Reports, the occasional blogger stuff and the weekly (or more!) stories. Doing them for various themes and holidays can be fun! In addition, to push myself into reading more I started doing a monthly Reading Report last month and have been reading James Thurber and some of Edgar Allan Poe’s lesser-known stories.
I posted about fifty-two weeks of weekly stories, mostly from the weekly prompt pics on Friday Flash Fics (which I still moderate!). I also wrote twelve stories for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge which I am also moderating (I gotta be out of my mind!) Those are challenging, but loads of fun! And I marked seven years of weekly stories last May!
An important detail in the writing for me was that I really started writing longer fiction again, not just the flash stuff. I have more time now that I am no longer a caregiver. It keeps me busy and I am grateful for that. Of the stories submitted this year, five of the full-length stories were written this year. In addition, I have a handful of full-length stories in progress right now, and yes I keep a list!
A decade or more ago when I really started pushing doing the writing I decided to concentrate on only one story at a time. In the last few years I have achieved the discipline that allows me to do several. I don’t write every day but I come close. And I actually feel good about the writing. It has helped me a lot in what could have been a dismal year, given me something to do besides curl up in the dark by myself. And it has been part of my realizing how lucky I have been.
I had wonderful relationships with my parents and Husband. That does not change even though they are gone. I have friends all over the world who check in on me and that helps keep me going.
So this year-end wrap-up is as much theirs as it is mine.
Not a huge amount of progress to report this month and that’s a good thing. After being under a few big deadlines through the summer, I told myself I would take it easy for a while. Then around September I saw two submission calls that were too good to be true and gave me a few months to do them in. “I can do this,” I thought. I finished the second of these and sent it off a week ago. WHEW!
So, I’m taking it easy and concentrating on reading (see “Reading Report” elsewhere on this blog) and a few little things. Did the weekly stories and the monthly Draw Challenge story. Got the last official Friday Flash Fics story written and will take a break from those until the first Friday in January. (I do have a New Year’s story to write but I wrote that a month ago!)
Only thing I’m going to work on is the Queer Sci Fi column for January.
This has been a rough year and the writing helped me push through it.
There’s an end-of-year wrap-up on this blog too.
But that IS about it for now!
“A Merry Christmas to Everyone. A Happy New Year to all the World!” —–from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
I was working there with Mark and a couple of girls. I was just starting to realize I liked girls and guys but I was still stuffed in the closet. This was the late 1990s. It was just after sunset that I noticed the first of the fairies. I thought it was just a big moth. It flew past the front window as I was bussing the table at one of the back booths. I happened to be looking up.
Here’s snippet #2
It passed by a couple of times and I thought about the Hummingbird Moths my folks saw in their garden sometimes. Then I noticed this one had arms, legs and a very angry expression. Then I noticed a whole swarm of the things hovering and swirling over the parking lot; luckily the only cars were the employees’ in the back. No customers then.
“Billy!” Mark hollered from the kitchen. I ran over. He looked sick.
“There’s, there’s THINGS flying around outside.”
Well, that should be snippet enough for anybody! Next week, something for the holidays! Until then, watch out for very big flying things! —–jeff
authorjeffbaker 