Story Summary: Dominic and Jacob contemplate their new bed, old scars, and an unexpected Halloween request from their young human son.
Author’s Note: I was originally going to include this flashback story with all the other bonus content in Family Matters, but then I decided that I wanted to share it separately for Halloween instead. Contains adult themes.
I know the title is trash. It’s 7am, and I’m still up. Work with me.
Sometimes I have no idea where I fit in this literary adventure that I’m on. I’m Black, but I don’t write only POC characters. I’m a bisexual female, but I write predominantly gay and bisexual male characters. I’m a human being, but I write vampires. See what I mean?
I occasionally wonder if it would be easier if I crammed myself into a single box. That’s never been my style, though. In writing or life in general. And while I absolutely love and appreciate being able to read stories with only POC characters, predominantly gay and bisexual females, and regular old human beings, I’m never going to be that writer myself, at least not exclusively. And I think that’s okay?
Plus I’ve been on this rock for just over half a century now, so old habits and all of that.
On the bright side, I was going through some old Word docs and found a Harborview Immortals flash fiction that I wrote in 2015 and completely forgot about. And it’s actually kind of… good? Good enough to include as bonus content in Two Princes, even. I’m pretty excited about that.
Have a great weekend.
(Apparently, “flash tease” is a p-hub category. You learn something new every day.)
In addition to working on my current stories, I’m also rewriting a Harborview Immortals Halloween-themed prequel flash fiction that I plan to post here in October, before Two Princes is published in November. I commissioned a friend of mine to do a piece for it, and she sent me a preliminary sketch last night.
Here are some sketch teasers:
As someone who can barely draw a straight line, it always makes me happy to see my characters make the leap from my brain to actual images and not just words. I think I’m going to be very pleased with the end result.
But for now, words await.
Happy writing.
I wanted to share the opening scene of Two Princes featuring my favorite vampire twins. Their conversations are entirely too much fun to write.
See my Published Works page for info about the two preceding stories, Family Matters and The Rising Son.
Enjoy!
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(more…)In my last, so very long ago post, I mentioned that I was about to (re)publish Freeroll so I could be done with my old pen name. Well, apparently my vampires became jealous that I dared to pay attention to another story for even a moment and decided to bombard me with all the inspiration. As a result, Two Princes is pretty much finished, and now I will start editing it and pretend that I haven’t been doing that all along while writing it.
But first, I will get Freeroll published. I’m giving myself a deadline of my birthday to do it, which is coming up soon. So no more moving the goalposts, damn it.
Anywho, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was lovely, even though I’m pretty sure I ate enough turkey to last me until next year. 🙂 Happy writing!
Some belated Fathers’ Day love for my two favorite vampire daddies. Vaddies?
From An Unexpected Addition, a short story included in Family Matters as bonus content.
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For a couple of vampires who had learned, sometimes begrudgingly, to make use of all the modern conveniences that the world now had to offer, Dominic and Jacob were quickly discovering that diapers were one of the most frustrating modern conveniences of all.
(more…)When it comes to creating stories, I think I spend more time coming up with character names than any other step in the process. I even remember having one of those baby name books back in the day for the sole purpose of having ideas for character names. And while I’m hardly naĂŻve enough to think that every single one of my characters’ names are original, sometimes I do think I might be a little bit in the clear with some of them. Except apparently not.
I loved the movie Mulholland Drive. It was mysterious and creepy and lovely, the kind of movie that was stuck in my head for days after I first watched it 20+ years ago. A few weeks ago, I decided to read the TV Tropes pages for it (something I’ll occasionally do for movies as opposed to rewatching them), and it was there that I realized that a fictional Vincenzo Castigliane existed well before I named my Vincenzo Castigliane.
I totally remember Dan Hedaya’s character, and I remember that scene. But if you had asked me his character’s name before I read that TV Tropes entry, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. And yet, deep in the pit of my subconscious, I must have decided that Vincenzo Castigliane was an awesome name. And, I mean, it really is. Also, this Vincenzo probably hasn’t done half the terrible things that my Vincenzo has done… maybe.
Anyway, hi there. Two Princes is coming along nicely. In a perfect world, I’d have it done by the end of this month. Realistically, I’m aiming to have it done by the end of next month, though that might depend on whether or not I decide to pause writing it to work on a short story for Father’s Day. I want to write all the things. I just wish I had all the time.
Until next time.
“The world was a different place when I was turned. For all I knew, it was never going to change. I would have rather died than spend the rest of existence as someone’s property.” ~ Jacob, Family Matters
“Did you know they all cheered with every single lash? My punishment was very entertaining, apparently. I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t hang me. The show would’ve been over much quicker.” ~ Jacob, Scars from the Past (a Family Matters bonus story)
Today I was thinking about my fictional character, who was partially inspired by a very real person.
While his past as a slave isn’t a primary focus of the series, it is something that I wanted to acknowledge. And while he is, perhaps oddly enough, one of the most well-adjusted characters overall, he is still occasionally affected by his past trauma, as evidenced by the fact that after two centuries, he still cringes whenever his partner touches his scarred back.
I was thinking about this because there are those who would say that slaves didn’t have it all that bad. There are also those who would rather erase that time in our history altogether. And that, friends, is all the bullshit.
Anyway, I have to be up in six hours. Have a great day, and a fantastic Black History Month. And always remember what they want you to forget.
“How long have you and Michael been together?” Denny asked after the server left.
“One month.”
“That’s not long.”
“It is for me,” Xan said. “Before Michael, I was pretty… open.”
“Open-minded?”
“Open-legged.”
The Rising Son is now available.
My Published Works page has been updated.
It’s 6am. That was the best I could do.
The Rising Son has been submitted to D2D and will be added to the Published Works page once digital and print options become available. Now I can finally focus my full attention on #3, Two Princes. I really can’t wait to get to where the story is going. It’s tempting to wish that I could write full-time, but I also know that if I didn’t have my day job, I would just spend most of my free time gaming and napping and thinking about writing. Plus I would be considerably poorer.
I really intended to avoid doing all the social media writer stuff, but that Bluesky seems like an okay place. More importantly, a safe place. I’ll update when I get around to creating an account.
That’s all for now. I’m off to bed in the hopes that we’re not buried in snow when I wake up. At least not more than we already are. If any of you are also in Northeast PA, stay warm and stay safe.
