Ghost Rentboy Release Almost Here! *\o/*

On Wednesday, my short story Halloween Trick is being released. It is the direct result of some Twitter shenanigans involving a suggestion that rentboys + Halloween would be pretty great, thereby unwittingly volunteering myself to write such a thing, and then Megan Derr proposing, when I asked for ideas, that I make my rentboy a ghost. Since I thought that sounded fun and totally out of the ordinary for me, I set to work. Five to ten thousand words of fun Halloween fluff? Piece of cake.

Really, I should know better.

I forgot that there is a reason I avoid paranormals unless I really love the author writing them. I am the sort of woefully literal person who reads vampire sex and gets distracted by thoughts like, "Wait, if you don't have a beating heart and blood flowing through your body, how did you get an erection?" (A shameful waste of perfectly hot vampire sex, I know. No one regrets this more than I.) When reading, I can mostly set these things aside for the sake of the story. Trying to write a paranormal, on the other hand, was a whole other ballgame. By the time I finished the rough draft, I was practically twitching from all of the self-correcting thoughts of "delete this--a ghost can't sigh, because he doesn't have breath; oh, erase that too--he can't blush if he doesn't have blood."

Over-think much? -_~

But now that the hard part is over, revisions are done, and I get to just enjoy the finished product, I must admit to a definite fondness for my poor dead rentboy, trapped forever in his work clothes from 1987, tethered to a teddy bear named Mr. Snuffles, and totally dependent on the man he's in love with to set up his tricks.

  In place of a blurb, which you can find if you follow the link to the book, I offer you the opening of the story:

Three hundred sixty-four days a year, the average john is just looking for a hot little ass to stick his horny dick in. That's why I usually wind up with the criers, the ones desperate enough to pay somebody to nod along as they pour out the woes of their conflicted, closeted souls, but who aren't quite sure they're up for the physical deed. I swear death has turned me into more of a shrink than an escort.

That three hundred sixty-fifth day, though, I suddenly get all the business... 

Halloween Trick is currently available for preorder at 15% off, along with nine other Halloween Rentboy stories.

Happy October!

My favorite month of the year has arrived! I have absolutely no good reason to love it above all others other than the beautiful blue skies, crisp, cold weather, and gorgeous fall leaves. I love my home state for the trees above all, and I have the most magnificent maple tree in my front yard--right up until I have to rake all the leaves off the grass in the two seconds between the time they fall and the time the snow starts to fly. ^__^

School is also in full swing. The two schools where I teach at about a 30 minute drive apart from one another (and then a 30 minute drive from home), so I spend a lot of time in my car with a travel mug of tea, my iPod playing, and my brain full of thoughts about classes, errands to run, and things to write/revise. I finally finished my Fire and Lightning revisions, so those are (mostly) out of my head. It's definitely not a story for everyone (it's f/f, for starters, involves no sex at all, and isn't exactly a whirlwind of action), but I'm really pleased with how it came out. Of course I would love for everyone to read it and love it, and I think people interested in history, mythology, and the development of a friendship with a side of forbidden love will enjoy it, but I've reached the point where I'm proud of it regardless of what other people think. That leaves me doing the last fixes to Halloween Trick, which is completely different and a pleasant change of pace. I'm excited for the rentboy collection to come out at the end of the month--I think it'll be tons of fun. 

All of this listening to music I've been doing always gets my muse whirling with new ideas. For me, certain phrases and words trigger entire stories. For instance, I've always wanted to write something based on the Cake lyric (from It's Coming Down) "she's gone/ and she's wearing your red sweater." I promise myself that someday the story that evokes in my mind will make it to paper. And my characters in Can Anybody Find Me got their personalities, relationship, and physical characteristics (and an entire scene) from my favorite Patrick Wolf verse: "Oh I love the curling of your hair/ gives me the greatest peace I've ever known/ I see Dylan Thomas in your face/ reciting Butler Yeats within your grace." (Speaking of Patrick Wolf, his new album Sundark and Riverlight is absolutely stunning if you like well-crafted acoustic arrangements.)

The flip side of this is that sometimes when I'm reading, certain phrases cause me to burst into song. Any time I read "right here, right now", I start humming Jesus Jones. "Shot through the heart" gets me singing Bon Jovi without fail. Even just "call me" is enough to get Blondie playing on cognitive repeat. 

What about you? Are there phrases that make you break out in song? Or are there songs that make you want to sit down and write a story about them?