#SampleSunday: Out of Focus

The second Theatr Fach story, Blown Away, is coming out in November. But in the meantime for #SampleSunday, here’s a snippet from Out of Focus for you.

Welcome to the fictional town of Llanbaroc, on the north Welsh coast between the sea and the mountains! There’s a decent tourist trade, but there’s also a very close-knit local community, including resident hoteliers, the theatre/community centre, the hospital, the college, the hospital and the donkey sanctuary. There’s a livestock and produce market every Saturday and it’s a centre for the surrounding farming community.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS, A BROKEN WRIST, HURT-COMFORT AND PINING. A SHORT CONTEMPORARY GAY ROMANCE SET IN A LITTLE WELSH THEATRE.

Luke was furious. Bloody furious. His theatre. His crew. Alex.
He’d got back after a leisurely look round a potential new supplier of scissor-lifts and harnesses followed by a pub lunch with the business owner to find the theatre in uproar. Alex had tipped over on the zargees…which was bloody ironic given it was the approaching new height restrictions about using ladders to rig that had sent Luke on his errand.
He’d gone straight to the hospital and found Alex about to check himself out against the doctor’s advice. Bloody Alex, as well. 
Alex had been a thorn in his side since he’d started in post two years ago. It was a tiny theatre and the chief technician was responsible for anything with a plug on it as well as showing the film programme and doing the lighting and sound for shows. They’d done a panel interview and Luke, a couple of members of the board and Lacey the theatre manager had seen half a dozen people. Alex had come out head and shoulders above the rest. 
He’d walked in on his first proper day on the job and looked at Luke from underneath his ridiculously long eyelashes and smiled and said something perfectly professional that Luke hadn’t heard, because he was gone. Gone, gone, gone. His heart had given a big thump, he’d flushed from his chest to his hairline and he’d taken an actual physical step back because otherwise he’d have done something stupid.
Everyone on the circuit knew about Alex Tilsom by reputation. Not his professional reputation, although that was solid. His unprofessional reputation, as Luke privately thought of it. 
It was a small industry. 
Luke had seen whole companies explode because people fell into bed with each other and the detonation when they fell out of bed again meant they couldn’t work together. He’d been at Theatr Fach for a long time now and although there were no actual rules against it, his personal tenet was to keep his professional relationships professional. 
So he let Alex’s good natured flirting roll over him, he didn’t respond like he wanted to and he never, ever commented or ribbed him like the others did about his latest conquest. It was worse because strictly speaking he was Alex’s boss. He tried very hard not to be the older creep who letched on his staff.
Newsflash. In this case he did not always succeed. 
It made him feel uncomfortable and itchy inside his own skin. Alex was a funny guy. He worked hard, he was good at his job. He charmed passing crew and volunteers into bed and out again with no drama before or after. He’d be gone in two or three years…he was the sort of person who saw Theatr Fach as a stepping stone to something bigger and more challenging. 
All Luke had to do was hold on to that thought and not smile back.
He’d thoroughly fucked that up in the last twenty-four hours, hadn’t he? It was his job to go and see what was going on at the hospital. And he supposed he could argue it was his job to stay with Alex overnight if no-one else could, if the stupid arse wouldn't stay in hospital like he should have. 
It wasn’t his job to mostly fail to sleep in the armchair in the corner of the man’s bedroom and creepily watch over him all night. Or was it? Was that on the right side of the line? Fuck it, who knew any more. 

Out of Focus

Cover - A. L. Lester - Out of Focus

Alex has never quite believed he’s good enough. Not as a person and not as a lighting technician. He hates that however hard he tries he can’t get his boss, Luke, to like him. In the two years he’s been in the job it’s become a Thing with him and he’s got a huge crush on the man. He needs to move on for his own sanity and his career and he’s just about to accept a job at a bigger theatre when one of the volunteers he’s bedded and dumped pushes him off a ladder.

Luke likes Alex a lot and has done since the day he walked through the door of Theatre Fawr two years ago. He doesn’t date his staff though, or do casual—and Alex is the epitome of casual. So Luke keeps his distance despite Alex’s constant flirting.

Will Alex’s injury give Alex and Luke the push they need to open up to each other? Or will Luke’s inadvertent discovery that Alex has a secret job offer push them further apart?

A 17,500 word short story in the Theatr Fach universe.

Amazon US : Amazon UK : Everywhere ElseGoodreads

Out of Focus. Gay romance, Welsh theatre, hurt-comfort, enemies-to-lovers.

#RAtR: Favourite M|M books clothed in autumnal covers

Read Around the Rainbow

As you’re probably aware, #RAtR is a blogging project I am doing with a few friends who also write LGBTQIA romance. You can find everyone by clicking here or on the image to the right.

This month, to celebrate the start of autumn, we’re talking about our favourite books with red, yellow and orange covers! Mine are The Salisbury Key by Harper Fox, Slippery Creatures by K. J. Charles and The Lawrence Brown Affair by Cat Sebastian.

The Salisbury Key by Harper Fox

The Salisbury Key is one of my favourite Harper Fox books–and there are so many to choose from. Most recently I’ve listened to this in audio and it’s a perfect rendition.

There’s a lot of pain in this story. Warnings for suicide, grief and the trauma that falls out from them. It’s a long time since I read it and because the audio is much slower than I read myself, I think the grief had much more impact on me.

Dan is devastated when his older partner kills himself, and sets himself to find out why through the haze of emotion and guilt he’s surrounded by. He meets a young soldier, Rain, who he has an instant connection with and together they open a can of worms containing biological weapons and evil. It’s a bit of an odd mixture with the archaeology thread, but it works really well and it’s a favourite of mine. The narration is perfect. I loved Rain’s voice in particular and I love this version of the cover.

Slippery Creatures by K. J. Charles

This is the first of the Will Darling Adventures and I cannot tell you how much I love all of them. Not quite as much as The Green Men…but the cover colour was wrong, so here we are :).

1920s stories are very much my bag both to read and write and this one hits all my beats. Sparky flappers, wounded heroes, people utterly messed up from four years of war finding their feet again and a long, involved mystery arc that threads all three books together.

Highly recommend.

The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian

I love this series of Cat Sebastian’s. They are early eighteenth century historicals with an excellent portrayal of late Georgian England.

In this episode, we meet Lawrence, the definitive Mad Scientist archetype. He’s shut up in his ruinous castle in the middle of the countryside. Is he mad, though? Or is he just neurodivergent? YOU DECIDE! I love him.

I also love Georgie, who’s a proper con-artist, but goes straight for love and has to get himself out of the pickle he’s got himself and Lawrence involved with.

There is also a very large dog, which is another reason to highly recommend it.

Find everyone else’s favourite’s here!

Nell Iris : Ofelia Grand : Amy Spector : Ellie Thomas : Holly Day : K. L. Noone : Addison Albright

Guest Post: Holly Day

Hello, everyone! Thank you, lovely Ally, for allowing me to visit again 😘 I’m mostly here to boast today. Each and every one of us should blow our own trumpet more often. You’re doing amazing things, and you deserve some praise, even if it’s you doing the praising.

I recently signed a contract for my 24th story in 24 months. I haven’t written them all in 24 months, but my first story published as Holly Day was released in January 2021, and since then, I’ve had one release every month. The contract I recently signed means 2022 is done! 🥳

It’s become a challenge to have a story out every month, and some, like this month’s story, are short. I would never be able to do it if all stories were longer stories.

On September 17th Dear Diary will be released, and it’s 35 pages. And some of those 35 pages are airy 😁

If you’ve read any of my stories before, you might know that I write in third person and most often double POV. Not this time. This month we’re celebrating Dear Diary Day, so I’ve written a diary.

The reason I write in third person and (most often) double POV is that I feel trapped in first person. I feel that I’m only telling half a story when I’m only using one person’s POV and that I can’t tell the truth (silly, since I write fiction and none of it is true) if I’m not giving both sides. One person’s truth is another person’s lie.

So when I decided to do a diary, I had doubts. Major doubts. Not only would I be trapped in first person, but I would also be trapped in first person retelling the first-person’s lies LOL.

While writing it, I had some moments of frustration. I felt restricted, confined, and reduced. But do you know what? I’m quite in love with this story.

It’s not like my others, not at all. But I think I needed a break from that, and writing this, having to figure out a way to tell a story without my usual means, was an inspiring challenge.

I’m back to writing third person double POV now. I’m not converted! But I’m glad I wrote this one 😊

Below you can read an excerpt, and I should probably warn you… There are more than a few bad words. The guy writing the story is suffering from depression and his therapist, Janet, has asked him to write a diary every day where he lists at least three positive things. And the dickhead is his boss.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

My therapist wants me to write a diary to help me manage my depression. I have no idea how it’ll work, but I didn’t have the energy to argue with her.

All I want is for life to go back to the way it was before I walked in on Christopher and Jason. Or maybe not because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive Christopher for cheating on me in our bed, but I want to function as I did before that moment. Before I lost everything.

Do you remember Lars Olsen from school? I do my best to stay away, but it’s like he’s magnetic and pulls me in every time I see him. I shouldn’t be dating. I don’t want to force my crazy on anyone, but he’s asked me to dinner. He deserves a sane partner, so it would be unfair to go, wouldn’t it?

Buy Dear Diary:

JMS Book :: Amazon :: books2read.com/DearDiaryDay

Excerpt

Tuesday, September 13th

Dear Diary,
I think Lars works at the gym across from work. Either he was working or he was feeling some woman up while showing her how the torture device closest to the window works.
He was wearing black today, which is the smarter choice. You never know when some idiot will pour their coffee all over you, at least black disguises some of it. Sigh.
I think he saw me. He waved, but I pretended I couldn’t see due to the sun reflecting on the window.
It was raining.
Of course, it was raining. There I was, looking like a drowned cat, and he was smiling. Had I been sane, I would have waved back, but I’m not sane, and Lars deserves someone more… More is a good word. He deserves someone who is more.
I was late to see the cunt, seven minutes, but she acted as if I wasn’t. I wish I was a smoker, then I would have stood in the rain and smoked instead of walking in. I hate her office. It smells of citrus.
She insists I call her Janet.
She wanted to know how I found writing a diary, and I told her I was the next Anne Frank. Then I apologized because my God! How can I say things like that? So stupid! Anne Frank was hiding from the fucking Nazis. All I did was being spotted while hiding in the bathroom at work. Okay, they found me crying in the bathroom.
I can’t remember why I was crying, but it was nothing in comparison to the Nazis. No one will find this diary, print it, and be horrified about the way I’m treated. I bet Janet would’ve stopped reading by now.
They still whisper when I walk into the staff room, the bitches at work, not the Nazis. I’m sure it’s me they’re whispering about. Erin has always been a gossip, but Janet said I shouldn’t assume. Easy for her to say.
I asked the dickhead how long I had to keep seeing Janet. He wants me to go until I am well again. Well? Is anybody well? Was I well before I knocked my coffee cup over and soaked the notes I was processing and had a breakdown in the restroom? No.
This fucking world…

1. My breakfast coffee was okay.
2. My walking-to-Janet’s-office Caramel Latte was nice.
3. Lars waving through the window.

About Holly Day

According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.

Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.

Connect with Holly on social media:

Website :: Facebook :: Twitter :: Pinterest :: BookBub :: Goodreads :: Newsletter

Guest Post by K. L. Noone: The Naming of Weather

Hi there, and thanks again to Ally for letting me drop by to share a new release! (You’re very welcome!)

“The Naming of Weather” came out from JMS Books a couple of days ago—it’s about 8k, m/m, the latest (perhaps penultimate) bonus story for Jason and Colby, my Character Bleed main characters! In this one, they’re doing some wedding-planning, and Colby’s got a question about names and name-changing…

There also might be some poolside comfort sex. And calligraphy.

This story came about because of conversations with friends, honestly: a while ago—back when I was writing the first draft of the whole Character Bleed trilogy!—we ended up having discussions about whether Colby and Jason would take each other’s names, or if they’d combine or hyphenate. And, well—if you want to know the answer, there definitely is one in the story, and it suits them, I suspect…

A small bit of trivia: I have more songs on the playlist—some Fratellis, a bit of The Doors, and Bright Eyes—but the overall theme song for this one, which is a very Colby song, is “Aside” by The Weakerthans, which I’ve always loved: circumnavigate this body of wonder and uncertainty / armed with every precious failure and amateur cartography…

Thanks for reading!

The Naming of Weather

The Naming of Weather by K. L. Noone

Colby Kent and Jason Mirelli are getting married. Colby’s trying to balance wedding planning, writing the next award-winning screenplay, and a new life in his new home with Jason. He’s happier than he ever thought he’d be. But he’s got a question or two. He could use Jason’s help, but he doesn’t want Jason to worry.

Jason likes making Colby happy. He’s happy too: right where he belongs, at Colby’s side, together on movie sets and at home. But he can’t help worrying. Colby still forgets to eat, and to put on sunblock when swimming, and now Colby has a question. About their wedding.

Fortunately, it’s a question they agree on…

Excerpt

“Thinking about that…the wedding plans, and such…”

“Picking a calligraphy style?”

Jason had noticed the pen and notebook, then; Colby, entertained and in love, drew a J across his fiancé’s bicep, fingertip a writing implement for an instant. “No, that was only random. Keeping my fingers busy, while thinking about all the emails and production questions and answers for Jillian. Purely meditative, I’m afraid, this time.”

“I like it when you’re happy. So if not that, then what?”

“Ah…it might be an odd question. Or perhaps not. I don’t know.”

Jason moved a hand, stroked hair out of Colby’s face, gently defied the tugging breeze on his behalf. “Ask me whatever you want, cream puff.”

“Well…yes. All right. About the wedding plans…this was on a checklist I saw, and I hadn’t thought, but then I thought, well, if that might be perhaps a question, and then I thought about the question…” He’d begun now. No going back. “Do you want me to take your name?”

“Do I want you to—” Jason stopped. The afternoon skipped a beat, suspended in gold.

Even the breeze got expectant. Hushed. Paying attention.

“Colby,” Jason said, sitting back more. His hands were solid on Colby’s shoulders, one moving to touch Colby’s chin, to ensure their eyes met. He did not move much other than that, as if afraid to shatter a crystal moment.

“It was only a question?” Colby said, and then realized that that’d come out as a question, and cringed internally at himself.

Jason swallowed. “I know. Um…before I say anything…can you do something for me?”

“Of course, anything—”

“Think about how you just asked me that. What you said.”

“Whether you want me to…oh.” He heard it, then. About what Jason wanted: not about what he, Colby, wanted, nor about them deciding together. “Oh. I didn’t mean…I don’t know what I meant. I’m sorry.”

This time Jason flinched, visibly. Grief in those deep earth-rich wells, windows right down into a giant heart that opened up and bled for everyone.

Colby bit his lip, and then, because he meant it and because he had a decent guess about the reaction he’d provoke, grumbled, “Oh, damn.”

Jason blinked. Eyebrows going up. “You swear now?”

“Learning from the best. I could’ve said fuck.”

“I can count on maybe four fingers the number of times you’ve said fuck.”

“Only if you’re allowed to count multiple times as one, because I’m very sure I was begging you to, er, do that, that time. And I said it more than once. About now, and the question…all right, yes, I can hear it now. I didn’t even think about it. About how I…thought about it. Except I’m not sure I do. Or I didn’t mean to. Like George and the flowers.”

Jason clearly spent a couple of seconds working this out, and then said, “Because he doesn’t actually mean the complaining? Oh. Okay. Because the way he says it isn’t what he actually means. It’s what he’s used to.”

“Yes. And…it’s even fun for him, I think.”

“Got it. But you don’t need to apologize.”

“That one’s more of a work in progress, I’m afraid.” He leaned in, leaned weight against Jason; felt those massive protective arms go around him. Head on Jason’s shoulder, he added, “Let me try that first question again, then. Would you like it, and that’s me honestly asking because I want to know, so, would you like it if I took your name?”

Jason made a small considering rumbling sound, a shift of earth under sun and shade. Colby snuck a hand up under the clinging shirt just to touch heated skin and fabulous muscle.

Jason said, slowly, not as if hesitant but as if he’d not thought much about it, “It doesn’t really matter to me, I think?”

Colby, surprised, realized his fingers had stopped exploring Jason’s abs, at the first words.

“I don’t mean it doesn’t matter!” Jason had plainly also noticed the cessation of motion. “You can touch me, baby, touch me anywhere you want. Go on. I mean…I don’t know. I guess I feel like…it’s not up to me. It’s your name. And I don’t need you to do that. It really doesn’t…I think what I’m trying to say is, I know you love me. And I love you. And we’ll be married. No matter what our names are.”

“I know,” Colby agreed. “All of that.”

“So I guess it doesn’t matter to me, but…not in a bad way?” Jason let out a breath, wry about himself or his next thought or both. “Hell, I’ll change mine if you want. You’ve already got four names, and one of them’s Algernon.”

Meet Kristin

K.L. Noone teaches college students about superheroes and Shakespeare by day, and writes romance – frequently paranormal or with fantasy elements, usually LGBTQ, and always with happy endings – when not grading papers or researching medieval outlaw life. She lives with the Awesome Husband and a large black cat named Merlyn, who demands treats on a regular basis.

Twitter : Instagram : Blog (I’ve utterly failed at actually updating the book list on here, but the blog gets updated!) : Facebook : Amazon author page : JMS Books author page

#RAtR: My three favourite non-romance books

Read Around the Rainbow

As you’re probably aware, #RAtR is a blogging project I am doing with a few friends who also write LGBTQIA romance. You can find everyone by clicking here or on the image to the right.

I missed August’s topic because I’m still convalescing from what I think I have to say is the absolute worst summer I’ve ever had, including the one where we went bankrupt, lost our house three weeks before our baby was due, my dad and two good friends died and Mr AL’s parents went bonkers.

HOWEVER. It was a good topic and I am feeling incrementally better each day. I’m thoroughly enjoying not having a gallbladder. I recommend it. For your delectation therefore, may I present you with my three favourite non-romance books?

I’ve pulled the covers of my own editions from Goodreads, but all of them have a lot of alternatives. I read sci-fi and historicals, basically!

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

This was transformative for me. Firstly because LeGuin’s writing is so lyrical. And secondly because of her portrayal of a society where people are of both/neither gender. The book is part of her Hainish universe and I devoured them all, repeatedly, via the travelling library that visited my family farm during my teenage years.

Although her books are hard sci-fi, they are very people-centred. She examined the classic what would happen to society if I changed these one or two things? question again and again in her stories, perfectly.

Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture and prejudices and those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender–or both–this is a broad gulf indeed.

The Lymond Books by Dorothy Dunnett (blatant cheat, there are six)

Another series I owe the travelling library! I graduated to Dorothy Dunnett via Jean Plaidy when I was about thirteen or fourteen. Dunnett was a historian and her work reflects that…her portrayal of sixteenth century Europe and the Ottoman and Russian empires are absorbing and detailed and her characters step off the page and haunt you. I can remember reading Pawn in Frankincense in the common room at breaktime at school and being in tears.

The “Lymond Chronicles” is a series of six novels exploring the intricacies of 16th-century history through the exploits of the soldier Francis Crawford of Lymond.

A Deepness in the Sky by Verner Vinge

It was a toss-up between this one and Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep, which has the best alien life-form ever–they are distributed systems made up of puppies.

However, this one is the prequel so it slipped in by a fine hair. I’m not going to tell you what the aliens are like, because that would entirely spoil it for you. But they are fantastic. Their planet circles a star that switches on and off (and we’re left with the possibility it might be artificial) and the whole ecosystem is wired around that, including the intelligent lifeforms. There are two groups of humans who are fighting it out in orbit around the planet for trading rights with the first alien species they’ve discovered. And the aliens are also involved in what’s basically a planet-side foreverwar.

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.

The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens’ very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years….

Then, following terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike.

For my fellow #RAtR bloggers posts about their favourite non-romances, follow these links:

Ofelia Gränd :: K.L. Noone :: Amy Spector :: Addison Albright :: Fiona Glass :: Ellie Thomas :: Lillian Francis : Nell Iris