"…his stories are always sharp and compact and interesting." ——Angel Martinez "(One of) the hottest authors in the independent horror scene…" —-Hellbound Books
NOTE FROM JEFF: I’m turning this over to my alter ego Skip Hanford (the side of me that writes more erotic, kinky stuff) as he basically wrote this new story! —–jeff
Hi! I’m Skip and my new story in “RoMMantic Reads” is called “At Auction.” A fantasy/paranormal kink thing that is based on a couple of things. First: my wishing that I’d been able to be “out” when I was in College about 40 years ago. Second: some kinky stuff I have fantasized about doing when I was with my closeted boyfriend in the mid-1980s.
It also has some hints of the kinky dystopia I use as a background that I (Skip) am using in a longer story/novel that slothfully working on!
And I wouldn’t mind looking like that alternate world version of Ty; minus the scar, tatts and that blinking light thing!
First, here’s the prompts for the October 2023 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Then my usual long-winded explanation:
A Romance
Involving a Rusted Musket
Set on the Interstate.
Now, on to the details.
Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.
Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (and hopefully have one of my own written!) the week of October 16th, 2023.
As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage and the results were the Five of Clubs (a rusted musket) the Four of Hearts (a romance) and the King of Diamonds (the interstate.) So we will write a romance, set on the Interstate Highway (or any highway!) involving a rusted musket!
So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week!
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 love anthologies! Especially YA anthologies! This snippet is from Wednesday Books’ new YA anthology “Night of the Living Queers.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61775756-night-of-the-living-queers the book’s theme is LGBT People Of Color (writers as well as characters) set on a Halloween Night with not only a Full Moon but a Blue Moon! (Yes, the second Full Moon of a month on the 31st will always be a Blue Moon.) Of course, very strange things happen on this Halloween with stories running the gamut from comedic to affirming to tragic.
My snippet is from Kalynn Bayron’s story “The Visitor.” I love this description of the anticipation of Halloween. It reminds me of my Grade School days. Of course, Toya has other reasons to want that night to get here…
All day I counted down in hours. Big chunks of time seemed to go by quickly when I kept track that way. But in the afternoon I switched to increments of thirty minutes, then fifteen. The anticipation grew as the moments passed…By the time the sun tucked itself behind the horizon and the clock lurched past the 8:30 P.M. mark on Halloween night, time felt like it wasn’t moving at all. I looked at my phone for the hundredth time that day.
Yeah, a flashback to October nights around 1969 for me!
Next week, something else from this cool anthology, something a little goofy! —-jeff
We knew something was wrong when we stepped out of the hotel.
My younger brother Zander and I had gone with our Dad on a business trip, staying in some town on the edge of the Malacruz Mountains. We’d bugged Dad to take us up on the ski lift which ran for tourists all through the summer but he was busy.
He always said he was busy.
The snacks at the hotel were expensive, at least a buck-fifty for a small bag of chips seemed expensive back in 1975 when I was fourteen and Zander was twelve. So early that evening we decided to go to the gas station which was only half a block away. But we stepped out the hotel’s front door, stopped and stared.
We could see the Malacruz Mountains in the distance but they weren’t their usual mottled brown and green; they were covered in snow. A cool breeze was stirring up. I glanced up and down the street; a lot of the flat roofs of low buildings were replaced with pointed domes like I’d seen in an Arabian Nights cartoon. In addition to cars there were several horse-drawn wagons on the street. A few of the people walking around were wearing flowing robes.
“I know this is California, but this is crazy,” I said.
Zander was pulling on my shirt and pointing at the mountains. There was a pinkish-white full Moon rising over the snow-covered peaks.
Zander stammered. He did that sometimes when he got excited. Or scared.
“G-G-Gordie! Th-the Moon! It’s full! It’s not supposed to be full, it was full last week, remember?”
Zander was the one who was into Astronomy and was always trying to take closeups of the Moon and stars by holding his little Kodak up to the eyepiece of the telescope. Me? I was into sports and checking out girls and guys. (But I hadn’t told anybody that last part yet!)
“Let’s get back into the hotel,” I said, grabbing Zander’s shoulders and steering him back through the doors. I stared again; the big stone pillars were now carved images of tall, thickly-muscled men holding scimitars at their sides.
Inside, the hotel lobby now looked like a set for a sultan’s palace in a movie. Big pillows on the floor had replaced the chairs and couches. There was a round pond full of glittering fish in the center of the floor under a round skylight. But the hotel desk was still there even if the desk clerk didn’t look familiar. I walked up to the desk, pulling Zander along with me, both of us trying not to gawk at the lobby. I felt that a lot depended on our acting like nothing was different.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Gordon Hankins. My brother and I are here with our Dad, Alexander Hankins and we got turned around. Could you look him up please? I think he’s in Room 786.”
I was hanging on to the hope that we’d gone out the wrong door.
The desk clerk gave us the once-over and flipped through the registration book. He was, thankfully, wearing a conventional suit and tie.
“Alexander Hankins, Senior,” I said. “We checked in three days ago. It was Monday.”
The clerk ran a finger over a list of names.
“Noooo,” he murmured to himself. He looked up. “No Alexander Hankins registered here. And we don’t have a Room 786.”
“This…this is the Broadway Hotel, isn’t it?” I was trying not to panic.
“Of course,” said the clerk. “But there’s nobody by that name here.” The clerk gave us another once-over. Our shorts, sneakers and cartoon t-shirts felt way out of place.
“Are you two wanting to check in?”
I barely had enough change for the chips and soda I’d planned to buy. I managed a “no” and half-walked, half-pushed Zander through the front doors and out onto the sidewalk.
—end—
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I certainly didn’t plan on starting another serial, but here it is! (I already have one going on in “RoMMantic Reads” https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/jeff-baker-at-the-market-of-the-two-dark-moons/ ) By the way, those aren’t mountains in the prompt pic (taken by me, by the way, from the second floor of the Wichita Public Library where this story was written!) they are clouds! And I have seen the Moon rise over mountains—beautiful! —-jsb
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
My snippets this week are from a nearly-forgotten hard boiled detective novel by Lou Rand called “The Gay Detective.” It takes place in “Bay City,” a thinly-disguised version of San Francisco. First published in 1961 and only recently reprinted. Here’s a link: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/491567.The_Gay_Detective
One complaint about the book is that the detective Francis “Frank” Morley puts on an effeminate manner. Here, Morely’s tough, ex-football player assistant “Tiger” Olsen is discussing that with Police Captain Starr. Olsen is speaking first in this snippet.
Olsen has apparently learned a few things…
“Yeah we got together. Down at Sandy’s Gym. Morley knocked me on my ass twice in five minutes, just for thinking what you think.”
“Oh, no! You mean that guy can fight too?”
“That I do.” Olsen rubbed his jaw reminiscently.
“Well then, why the hell does he act—”
“I don’t know Captain,” Olsen cut in. “Maybe it’s some kind of Eastern gag.”
There was no breeze but the late September evening was cool. Stephen Bauer stood by the big barbecue grill and watched the flames and sparks rise upward. He closed his eyes and breathed deep. It was tradition, the last cookout of the year.
Stephen’s Grandfather (who he had never known) had started doing the end-of-September cookouts decades before and Stephen’s Dad had continued the tradition. Stephen’s brother, Mom and cousins in town (and their kids) all looked forward to it. It was sort of the last party before Fall really kicked in and schoolwork became intense.
Stephen smiled and glanced around. Over the fence he could see the other trees and houses in the neighborhood. He glanced through the kitchen window; some of the family were piling buns, and hot dogs on plates and grabbing ketchup and mustard. They’d have to get the flames to calm down; they were way too high.
And after the hot dogs somebody would sing the old song about the last rose of Summer.
Stephen closed his eyes and spread his arms, imagining himself rising with the sparks and looking down on the neighborhood.
“Hello, Fall,” he whispered.
—end—
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This little vignette was not what I planned, but it just popped into being. Happy Fall, everybody! —–j
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
My snippets this week are from James K. Moran’s fine collection of horror stories “Fear Itself.” https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p635/Fear_Itself.htmlIn “James Harker Tries to Have the Talk,” a Bisexual college student in sorcery is having a bad day…
James blinked. Now a tall, black man grinned lasciviously at him.
“You didn’t think you could just summon me by saying my name three times, did you?” said the new man in a voice with deep, sweet-as-caramel tones. He threw back his head and laughed heartily.
As he looked at James again, he was a blonde woman with a curl of hair blocking her right eye…
The demon shook her head, ran her fingers through her hair, and revealed herself as a redhead flaunting her bosom.
What the devil is James going to do? Oh, well, at least the last name Harker is a good one to have when you’re facing the unholy.
I hope YOU don’t have to face anything like that this week! Me? I’ll see you next week, when we will walk the mean streets of a very familiar-seeming city! —–jeff
They had heard the sound from outside, a rushing, steaming kind of noise in the middle of a summer afternoon. Sol Gribbs had stepped out of their house in an older suburb of town to investigate.
When he came back inside he was smiling.
“Fire hydrant,” he said thumbing at the door. “The one on the corner at the intersection. It’s opened up and spewing water down the street.”
“The neighbor kids didn’t do that did they?” Jeanne Gribbs had looked up from the table where she was perusing the newspaper.
“Nah! It was the City Water people,” Sol said. “Not sure why. One of the kids told me.”
“What kids?” Jeanne asked.
“The ones from the neighborhood.” Sol said. “They’re out there jumping in the water and playing. First time I’ve seen them play with something other than those damn cellphones.”
“Their parents should watch them better,” Jeanne said.
“Let’s go out and play in the water!” Sol said.
“You’re crazy!” Jeanne said. “We’re not kids!”
“Let’s play like we did in the summers back in New York City when we were kids,” Sol said.
“That was almost sixty years ago!” Jeanne said.
“I know!” Sol said. “Remember when we used to pretend it was Niagara Falls?”
“Niagara falls…” she said smiling.
“Remember when we went to see the real Niagara Falls?” Sol said grinning broadly.
“Slooooowly I turned…” Jeanne said and the two of them started laughing.
It took the couple five minutes to find their bathing suits. Another two to get down to where the hydrant was still flowing into the street.
They whooped and laughed as they ran and danced through the water.
My friend J. Scott Coatsworth’s latest book is out! “The Gauntlet Runner.” Part two of The Tharassas Cycle. But I’ll let him tell you about it. (That’s what press kits are for, isn’t it? 🙂 )
A GUARD AND A THIEF. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Aik has fallen hopelessly in love with his best friend. But Raven’s a thief, which makes things… complicated. Oh, and Raven has just been kidnapped by a dragon.
Now Aik is off on a quest of his own, to hunt down the foul beast and make them give back his … friend? Lover? Soulmate? The whole not-knowing thing just makes everything harder.
Meanwhile, the world of Tharassas is falling apart, besieged by earthquakes, floods, and strange creatures no one has ever seen before. Aik’s ex, Silya has gone back to Gullton to do try to save her people as the Hencha Queen, and Aik’s stuck in a caravan with her mother and a damnable magical gauntlet that won’t let him be. He has to find Raven, before it’s too late.
Things were messy before, but now they’re much, much worse.
Series Blurb:
The Tharassas Cycle is a four book sci-fantasy series set on the recently colonized world of Tharassas. When humans first arrived on planet, they thought they were alone until the hencha mind made itself known. But now a new threat has arisen to challenge both humankind and their new allies on this alien world.
Both the prequel and book one are on sale for just 99¢:
He has to be here. Aik searched frantically through Raven’s pack as the early morning sunlight slipped across the stone windowsill and across the floor, a long, green-tinged ray of light.
He was anxious to be on his way after Raven. His heart was pounding, his thoughts skipping like a spinning stone off hard waters. No one else was awake yet, as far as he could tell, and he wanted to be in and out of the room before anyone was the wiser. Aik glanced at the unmade bed and blushed at what they’d done there the night before. He could still feel Raven’s touch, their bodies entwined….
The sooner he set off, the sooner Aik could rescue him from those awful creatures. The verent must have coerced him; Raven had all but said so. If he could just find Spin, the little familiar could guide him.
He doesn’t love you.
“Shut up.” Knowing that Raven had chosen the verent over him still burned. And that he didn’t say ‘I love you.’ But surely, he wasn’t allowed to be angry about that in the face of what had happened.
His mind was spinning, looking for answers, scared for his love, returning to old, stupid wounds and weaknesses.
Why?
The question reverberated again and again, but not even Aik knew what he was asking. His panic stripped away reason and maturity, and left him dizzy and afraid.
He got to the bottom of the pack, finding nothing but clothing and some toiletries. Farking hell. Where are you?
He started opening some of the side pouches, checking through each one before tying it closed again. Maybe Raven had taken Spin with him?
“Searching for this?”
He spun around to find Tri’Aya leaning against the doorway, looking as fresh as if she’d just slept ten hours, though she couldn’t have gotten more than four at best. How does she do that?
She held Spin’s silver sphere between two fingers.
Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.
He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.
A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
First off, after last month and my swearing I wasn’t going to get under somebody else’s deadline again I found a submissions call that was too good to resist. The submission period doesn’t even open until mid-November and ends New Year’s Eve. Two-Thousand-Five-Hundred words in three and a half months. I can swing that. As of today I’m at over 800 words. That’s over 1/5 of what I needto write.
Now on to other stuff.
I’ve kept up with the weekly and monthly flash fictions as well as submitting stuff and I got some unexpected good news; a story I wrote that’s a continuation of one of the weekly flash fiction stories will be published next year in “Schlock! Webzine.” Wow! Didn’t see that coming!
Also, I’ve written up several of the Queer Sci Fi columns (I like having a backlog!) and am reading a book I’ll try to review for the November column. I have about six months worth of columns written or almost written.
I’m also doing a Goodreads/Amazon review of James Moran’s collection “Fear Itself.” I’d ordered a signed copy but after Darryl died he contacted me and said since I was having such a crappy year he would send me the copy for nothing. And he did!
I’ve been writing pretty regularly. Usually at the Riverside Coffee House in the afternoons or at the downtown Public Library usually on the second floor with a view of Exploration Place. I like that. I can take a bottled soda to the Library and I usually order a slice of pie at the Coffee House. Plus, I’m around people for a bit at both places (which I like!) and can shoot the breeze for a bit, especially at the Library where I know a few people. Both places with a spiral bound notebook and ballpoint pen.
I also do some writing in the early morning on “our” bed in my bedroom. I like privacy too. Besides, I don’t feel as alone on that bed as I did in the living room for a while.
Right now I’m doing the writing at 1:45 am on the big bed in my Brother’s basement guest room. I like writing in a house full of family. And I scrolled through some of these earlier reports on the blog. It’s a lot better to do them once a month instead of once a day.
And, as I said, I’m reading. I AM trying to read more. I read a few Kipling stories I hadn’t read yet, I have a stack of books (the TBR pile every writer has!) most of which I bought just to read one story! Also, I’m starting to read Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charley,” the book my Dad gave me ages ago when he’d finished it. I had just bummed through it but now I’m reading it in earnest!
I keep a big list of stuff I need to finish NOW and stuff I can write later, so here are a few of the titles from the “now” and “later” list.
“The Apostle Bird.”
“Wayfaring Stranger”
“The Mad Matzo Party.”
“Me And Eddie Birnbocker In the Grass In the Dark.”
“Hark! Hark! The Mummy Speaks!”
“One Dark Night, In the Middle Of the Day.”
I’m not bragging, I’m goading myself to finish these!
In addition to the review I have the weekly story to finish by Friday and it’s already in my head, so I’ll hop to it!
