Some of us write because we love the words. Little words like His and At; words like Remorse or Morbid, and big words like Turpitude or Grandiose, that convey the thoughts that are ever wandering around in our minds.
Some write because we desire attention. Spilling our guts on black and white, calling attention to the bloodstained tear streaks of our lack of social status, hoping our voices are heard over the din. Willing our uncensored passion upon you.
Some write because we seek release. The bottled up thoughts, wishes, hopes, goals, passions, cravings, teeming against each other pushing against our synapse waiting for the explosive gasp of the muse.
Whatever the reason, the stories and verse we set down become as important to us as air is to lungs, or white cells to blood. Without our stories and verse we would gasp and choke, shrivel and die unable to fend off the invading virus of flaccidity; willing ourselves to step out into the crowded lanes of fast moving traffic. So, we write. Some of us are lucky to have our words read by others. We delight when others read and move their heads, either yes or no; it does not matter so long as the words are read. We pump our fists and raise our arms in the air when we receive a comment on our words. A review; a posted comment on a social network; a whispered “have you read this” heard on the train. We are amazed when others like our work, even though we ourselves love it. We nurtured it, fed it, cared for it, gave it a bath; a haircut, a new suit, made love to it. It is ours, and we expect to adore it. It is when you the reader finds a piece of our word filled pages and claims it as something that moves you one way or another, that we the writer stamps ‘paid in full’ in our ledger. Only then can we move on.
When I first put my Scar Tissue characters down on paper, I did so with timid and unsure hands. I wanted to tell a M/M romance story of two men who come together because of an underlying current of connectivity. Each having shed past demons to become better acquainted with themselves. I had past demons. I needed to excise those demons. Thus, the two men came to my aid. Though these two men started out in a different story, they made their debut to readers here in Scar Tissue. For one of the men – Bob Elkins, it was a flippant journey. Callous at times, tender at other junctions, ever leading him along a path where he eventually becomes a stronger, more confident man in his own skin. For Mike Wells, it was a path strewn with boulders; one’s he could not surmount, being forced to go back and find another way around. Each retreat led him deeper into a solitary existence. Where Bob could laugh at his past and the deeds he committed to keep from starving on the streets, Mike could not laugh, and he hid from his past. There was anguish there, and pain.
When the two men come to the fork in the road that will either take them one way together, or split them apart, Mike is able to reach the top of the largest boulder that had been blocking his way forward. On the other side stands Bob; hands outstretched and waiting. They have many things in common. They are both former military, and fiercely patriotic. They are both loyal when it comes to friends. They both have lost parents. They are strong men; in heart, mind, and body. Physically intimidating, tall, and muscular. And, they are both gay. Each employed by the government during a moment in time when outing themselves could get them fired from their jobs…or worse. They struggle with their relationship as does any couple. What they have together cannot be denied, and it will endure. Scar Tissue is a novella and is available through Seventh Window Publications here: Scar Tissue
You can also find Scar Tissue at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
My next book, Light and Shadow, another M/M romance, again places two men at a crossroads. Cody Andrews has left his fast lane partner, and the glimmering sights and sounds of Los Angeles, for an abandoned and run down lighthouse on the rugged Oregon coast. He is determined to renovate and live in the lighthouse and create a new life for himself; far from the fast lane and its inherent dangers. He finds himself attracted to a tourist, Nick Stanton, who is out visiting the Oregon coast from Chicago. Cody and Nick hit it off at their first meeting, with just one little hitch…Nick has a partner of his own. A greedy, manipulative man named Ray Milner. Ray’s constant badgering of Nick and the quiet coastal town grates on Cody’s nerves, and Cody wishes he could silence Ray’s harpy declarations.
When Ray pushes his luck at little too far, Cody is the only one around to save Ray from his own stupidity. Nick is grateful, but can Cody leave it at that? Will he allow Nick and Ray to leave the coastal town peacefully at the end of their vacation, or will Cody try one last time to win Nick from Ray?
Cool winds, bright sun, a lighthouse, and two men; one who thought he had escaped the drama, the other deeply embroiled in it. Light and Shadow will be available later this year through Seventh Window Publications. More information will made available as the book nears its go live date.
A short story written for the Goodreads M/M Romance event “Love is Always Write“, entitled A Pharaoh’s Promise, is set in Ancient Egypt. A Pharaoh of the Hyksos Dynasty, King Khiyan, has fallen in love with the slave that carves and paints his image on the walls and obelisks of Lower and Upper Egypt. The slave, Gehdur, cannot believe he has been chosen by the King. He realizes his place is to obey, but his heart wants more than just to pleasure his King. He wants the King’s love as well. This story will be made available free to all Goodreads members June 14th. I will post a link once the story is published on the Goodreads site.
In the works is a followup novella to Scar Tissue. This one takes Bob and Mike into the jungles of Honduras and Nicaragua on Mike’s first covert CIA operation. Bob is already in Central America with the DEA, when he learns that Mike will join him; he is at first excited, and then distressed. Their forbidden relationship, thus far secret, threatens to heat up the already warm nights in the jungle and each man must make the hard decision to back away from the other before lives are lost. Sandinista guerrillas, drug lords, and steamy jungle nights bring Bob and Mike to a bridge that must be crossed…or burned.
And, for readers of fantasy romance, Shieldmaiden, is the F/F romance story of unrequited love between the daughter of a famous Druid High Priest, and the daughter of the King of the realm. The Princess, a dragon mistress, champions her dragon to find her true love. When the dragon discovers it is the daughter of the Priest, the challenge is to get the two women to recognize their destiny. The Priest’s daughter knows she is in love with the Princess and with the support of the dragon, sets out to prove her love worthy of a Princess. Shieldmaiden has not yet been picked up by a publisher, but my fingers are crossed…
The three novels in which Bob and Mike take a long journey through the jungles of Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, to the drug labs in Columbia, are ready and waiting for an editor and/or publisher to give them a home. Until then..
For those of you who follow my blog, I wish to express my sincerest thanks for doing so. My stories and poems are the white cells to my mind; keeping all dark thoughts from manifesting into crowded lanes of fast moving traffic.
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A Thought For Every Word
GL Roberts Books 