Chasing Joy
My stuff
Recently, it dawned on me that several of my short stories that have been published are now also out of print—either due to magazines folding or anthologies fading into obscurity along with their publishers. So I figured I might as well dust them off and give them a new lease on life.
All of which is to say I have the original files and some ebook-formatting software that I kind of know how to use. I’m making these available for free/pay what you want over at ko-fi.com. The first of these is Snowblind, originally published in 2014 in the anthology The Bears of Winter. It was a collection of very frequently spicy stories centering bears in cold climes. (If I have to explain what a bear is to you, think “gay Grizzly Adams.” If I have to explain Grizzly Adams to you, look it up.) I interpreted the theme a little broadly, which led to editor Jerry Wheeler nicknaming my story “Bears in Spaaaace!” Maybe this will give you an idea why:
Don should have known better than to follow Jamie to Delta Aurelius. They'd known each other exactly three blissful weeks before Jamie's leave was up.
“It'll be an adventure!” Jamie said when he suggested Don look into coming to Delta A. “We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
Jamie was right about the adventure part, at least. About every other thing, he was a damn liar. He was also seven thousand light years away after accepting a sudden change of orders. Don arrived on Delta A to a “Dear John” letter from Jamie and no forwarding contact information. Now Don was freezing and facing what had to be the planet’s biggest blizzard ever.
Never go halfway across the galaxy for a man.
If it sounds up your alley, go check out the full story at ko-fi.com.
Chasing Joy
In other news, the world continues to be a dumpster fire. Yeah, I know that’s not news to anyone who’s paying attention, but… this current timeline is a lot. It’s making me anxious all the time (and as my friend Tricia and I were fond of pointing out in college, there’s a difference between “eager” and “anxious”).
Obviously, anxiety isn’t a state that’s good to stay in any longer than you have to. (I will resist the temptation to say the same thing about Missouri, where I lived for *checks notes* thirty years before I finally left.) I’m not an advocate for sticking your head in the sand and pretending all the 💩 doesn’t exist, either. Besides, that’s how you wind up getting your 🍑 shot off.
So I pay attention to the news, and the state of the world, and give money to worthwhile causes and people in a bind, call my elected officials (and there should be a law forbidding them from not allowing constituents to leave voicemails), and once I’ve done that and can feel myself doomscrolling?
I go in pursuit of some joy.
Most recently, that has meant reading all of Rachel Reid’s queer hockey romances. (If you haven’t heard of Heated Rivalry before this point, what are you even doing? It’s on HBO in the U.S. Go!) I’ve also started listening to audiobooks lately, and I’m a convert. Most recently, I listened to the YA romance Most Valuable Playerand the YA family saga When the World Tips Over. They both feature Briggon Snow, one of my favorite voice artists, and Michael Crouch, who is quickly becoming one of my favorites as well. If I ever find myself in the position where I could have audio versions of my own stories created, I hope I can afford one of them!
It’s not lost on me that all of the stories I’ve been reading lately have been about love. Whatever genre or age range I’m writing in—whether it’s straight-up romance, young adult, science fiction, fantasy, comedy, or anything else—chances are I’m putting a love story front and center. So it’s probably no surprise that I’m also writing a romance at the moment. A queer holiday romantic comedy, to be specific, about someone in their fifties who hates the holidays but finds a chance at love with someone who’s relentlessly cheery and might believe in Santa Claus for real. I’m having so much fun working on this, not least because it gives me a place to go when I need a breather from *waves hands* all this.
Anyway, the working title is Kiss Me, Grumpy. If you want to check out my inspiration for this book, I’ve started putting together a playlist that I listen when I’m thinking about it—although not something I listen to while I’m writing, since I pretty much need silence when I’m writing. Listen to it here.
And—god help me—I’ve started putting together a Pinterest board, in case you’d like to see how I picture the two leads and some of the places they go. Check that out here.
And that’s all for this month. See you in April!
