A quote from One Little Lie, which will be released on Oct. 20.
Tag: gay
Nicknames are serious business
This is an excerpt from One Little Lie, which will be released on Oct. 20.
It was after lunch and Luke and I were discussing very serious matters.
“I think you’re just going to have to accept the reality of the situation,” Luke told me.
I frowned and leaned against his locker. “That really doesn’t sound like something I would do.”
Luke stood opposite me in a red shirt that hugged his shoulders perfectly. “Aren’t you all science-y?” he asked me. “That’s about facts and…” he trailed off.
“Go on,” I challenged. “Name one other thing.”
“Science,” he said decisively, like he wasn’t a big idiot.
I wasn’t fooled. “Science is about science? I’m dating a genius.”
His face brightened. “Oh, I am alright with that being my new nickname.”
Genius? “Like hell!”
He tutted at me. “You’re not being very accommodating and aren’t relationships about compromise?” Whatever, he wasn’t the relationship expert; I already called it.
“Lemon drop is mine,” I insisted.
He inched just a bit closer and in a low voice said, “Yeah, he is.”
~
Riding With Brighton Review
It’s hard to imagine anyone could find fault with Riding with Brighton
Summary: Jay Hall sees his life from a fresh perspective and finds himself wanting. He wants to change everything and knows just the person to help him: Brighton Bello-Adler, who is just about the coolest person in the world. They spend a few days together and go on an adventure of self-discovery and romance.
About Jay: Jay is unhappy with his life because he’s unhappy with himself. He’s good looking, popular, and an athlete, but he’s not impressed by his friends or any of his accomplishments. Because he’s been living with a part of himself he was too scared to acknowledge. But things are changing.
Jay’s been getting to know someone in one of his classes, Brighton. He likes talking to Brighton but feels really inadequate compared to him. Brighton is a shameless flirt with everyone, charming, an artist, and openly gay. He’s seems very confident and sure of who he is. And Jay wants to be like that. So he thinks.
It becomes pretty clear that it’s not hero worship Jay feels but a crush. It’s really sweet watching Jay gushing about Brighton in the safe context of a role model. He thinks he wants to be like Brighton, but he really wants to be worthy of catching Brighton’s attention.
About Brighton: In addition to Jay, there’s Brighton. Brighton is kind of a perfect angel who does no wrong but he’s still a strong character with his own voice. Jay’s the star of the show while Brighton is a supporting player, but again remember that this happens over the course of a few days and Jay has enough drama going on that it would have been too much to add more conflicts for Brighton.
What’s really great about Brighton is that he’s just a normal guy. He’s not boring but his life is going pretty well. And while that might not be great from a story perspective, it’s refreshing and a much needed portrayal of a gay teen in today’s culture. There’s no angst or depression. He has loving friends and a supportive family and being gay is just one part of him. He’s a good counterpoint to Jay and a realistic ,sometimes seldom seen, type of gay teenager.
The romance department is the only area lacking in Brighton’s life. He wants to be a normal kids who goes and dates and takes someone to prom. But there’s not a lot of dating options in his town. And he’s very attracted to Jay. He’s torn between the strong pull he feels for him and keeping his distance while Jay figures stuff out. He doesn’t want to get his heart broken but he can’t help the more attracted he becomes the more Jay shows of himself of Brighton.
What makes it unique: This is an interesting story because all the action takes place in the space of a weekend. It’s like a crash course in Jay’s psyche and emotional development as he dives head first into issues he’s never been able to confront before. The book provides a really in-depth character analysis and there’s lots of upheaval and revelations as Jay fits the coming out process into the span of a few days.
The Romance: The action is both the story of Jay finally being honest with himself and those around him and getting to know Brighton better. They can’t really help falling for each other the more time they spend together. They develop a real connection and a very supportive partnership.
There’s a lot of fun and flirty banter and swoon worthy moments. The book has the feel of a whirlwind romance, something intense and all consuming. But it’s not an artificial, insta-love kinda thing because the main characters get to know each other very deeply in a short amount of time and there’s both big romantic moments and more tender elements where the characters discovering each other and falling hard.
Favorite Part: The prose. The prose is just, really, really good.
My thoughts: Haven Francis wrote a beautiful book that should probably be read more than once in order to fully take in and appreciate everything. It’s life affirming and lovely but also doesn’t solve everything.
Excerpt from One Little Word- YA LGBTQ Fiction
Boyfriends Ryan and Luke prepare for a doubt date at a gay club.
We decided to dress up for maximum gayness. I had a shirt with a unicorn and Alicia had bought me a feather boa as a gag gift, so I was going to wear that too because why not. I wasn’t dressed yet because I was too busy laughing at Luke.
He faced away from me but glared at me through the mirror in front of him. “Ryan, stop laughing and just tell me which one of these shirts makes my eyes pop!”
I turned my head into the bedspread, giggling helplessly. I had started getting ready, then found that watching Luke worry about what to wear was much more important, so I lay on his bed and enjoyed the show. When I composed myself, I peeked up to see Luke was now glaring at the two shirts in his hands while holding them up to his chest one at a time and trying to decide.
I smiled sweetly. “Baby, I think you look good in anything.” Sure, my tone was still at least 20% sarcastic, but that’s my baseline.
And right now he just scoffed, sounding unimpressed with my answer. “Stop being a weirdo,” he said, eyeing the shirts critically.
We were road tripping to a bigger city called Fairview and heading to a gay club having an all ages night. Luke acted like a contestant in a beauty pageant, putting all of his focus into what to wear.
“I’m a weirdo for you,” I cooed.
Teasing was the only option if I didn’t want to combust into a puddle of hormones and fondness. He seemed like a big jock most of the time, and he could be confident and charming, but he was mostly an earnest goofball. Like now when he acted like the most important decision in the world was finding the right thing to wear.
He turned to look at me and said, “You do realize this might be the only time I ask you for fashion advice?”
Well played. I put him out of his misery. “Wear the red one.”
Luke frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, moron, I’m sure.”
I loved him in that color and who cared about what anyone else thought of him? He was my bf, he should look good for me. I tilted my head and idly wondered how I’d get him to agree to the glitter body paint. We’d said we were having a super gay evening, so how did we achieve that without body glitter? We didn’t. He needed to be a team player. Even if he didn’t officially bat for a particular team. Other than his baseball team of course.
Hey, could moron be Luke’s pet name?
He held the chosen shirt up one more time and nodded decisively. “Thank you.” A serious look crossed his face again and he turned to face me. “Your pet name for me is not going to be moron.” Then he turned around again.
Wow, had we become that in sync? Maybe we developed a psychic connection. Probably the first one but just to be sure I concentrated on thoughts of Luke’s ass. “What am I thinking about?”
“My ass,” he said without hesitation.
“You are psychic,” I marveled.
“I can feel and see you staring at my ass,” he said meeting my eyes in the mirror with a laugh. Then he started messing with his hair.
One Little Lie will be released on Oct. 20 and can be pre-ordered here.
What Love Means
Just a reminder that What Love Means is still free until Tuesday. Get it here!
Max is a thrill-seeker on the road but doesn’t take chances with his heart. He has a loving (and annoying) family, a part-time job, and his motorcycle. He doesn’t need anything or anyone else. Certainly not a blonde rich kid who’s never had to work for anything in his life.
Cal might not have a job, but he’s always busy. Getting into a good college takes work and it’s worth it even if he doesn’t have any time for himself. He doesn’t need a rugged dark-haired boy distracting him.
When Max and Cal’s siblings start competing in spelling bees, these opposites are thrown together. They have nothing in common. Except for their attraction to each other. As they grow closer while coaching their siblings, their attraction might lead to something more. But can their high school relationship survive real world challenges?
Spelling words and learning their dictionary definitions is easy. Real life is different.
Max and Cal know how to spell love, but they’re about to find out what it means.
In this teen LGBTQ story, opposites attract, enemies become lovers, and a second chance means two old friends could become more.
Summer Romance: New Material
I am trying to go through the books I wrote during the summer and turn them into a bundle but because I love giving myself lots of additional work, I’m adding a bunch of new content to Summer Romance.
Here’s a portion I worked on today:
A pop and a new Carter hairstyle? I had never wanted to say I was hashtag blessed before, but I felt very tempted now. I dragged my eyes away from his hair and told him, “Thanks again.” Then I couldn’t help myself. “We are so totally getting friendship bracelets.”
“Being friends with you is going to be painful, isn’t it?” he asked but with a smile.
“I can’t help it. You’re so…” I gestured vaguely at him. “Right there. And your face is so fun to mock.”
“I have a great face,” he defended.
Privately, I agreed. To him and his great face, I scoffed and said, “Look who’s modest.”
“You’re still an asshole,” he told me seriously. Had I gone too far? He smiled. “And I still don’t mind.”
I pursed my lips in contemplation. “I wonder if there’s a way to put that on the friendship bracelet.”
He gestured to the pop on the table. “Are you going to drink the beverage I so kindly procured for you?”
I made a decision and shook my head. “Nope.” His face fell for a moment and I told him, “We are.”
I got up and went to one of the market attendants behind the counter who wasn’t busy and he got two paper cups for us to use. I brought the cups back to our table and opened the can.
Carter wasn’t lying. He did have a great face. And hair, I couldn’t forget the hair. But his face stole the spotlight now. It was so soft and pleased when I poured us both a cup of pop.
The rest of the conversation was spent talking about trivial matters and trading stupid banter back and forth. I considered this whole day a true sign that we had gotten past the coworkers stage and entered into friendship territory.
FREE: The Beginning of One Little Lie
I actually have no idea if I’ve already talked about this, but I don’t think I have… I mean, I could go and check, but who has time for that? I’ve had a crazy couple weeks (a hurricane might have been involved) but hopefully I’ll get around to talking about that later.
Right now, I wanted to mention that the first four (I think its four, I could check but again, I’m not going to) or fourish chapters of my upcoming release, One Little Lie, are available for FREE right now on Amazon.
Here’s a snippet from the book:
It was really easy to get lost in kissing Ryan. Moments like this were my favorite. Not just because I was making out with someone, though that was fun too, but when I didn’t have to worry about defining myself. I had no idea what the hell I was. I didn’t care. Right now, it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to worry about having a boyfriend and could just enjoy touching him, being with him.
It never lasted long enough.
A loud series of knocks came from the other side of the door. “You have five minutes to open that door,” his dad called out, “Or I’m opening it for you.”
Ryan looked as exasperated as I felt when we pulled apart but he smiled anyway. “Don’t worry, there’s plenty we can do in five minutes,” he joked.
“I heard that!” his dad yelled. “You have two minutes.”
“I don’t think you’re keeping time accurately!” Ryan yelled at him. We lay next to each other on Ryan’s bed, our foreheads touching. It started as us catching our breath, but then our mouths drifted toward each other like magnets and we were kissing again.
Ryan sighed. “We should probably stop doing this,” he said.
I nodded and then we both looked down to my hands that were still pulling Ryan’s shirt off. I withdrew them. “Right, sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He pecked me on the lips and his eyes sparkled with fondness.
Maybe that was part of why this felt so different. I never had anyone look at me like that before. Sure, people liked me, I was popular, but it wasn’t like that. From someone who could call me out on my bullshit one minute and then be all sappy the next.
We grinned at each other. Our lips brushed. “As much as I like your dad,” I said when my mouth was free, “You should probably open the door so he doesn’t come back.”
“I don’t wanna get up.” Ryan groaned and buried his face in my chest. “Carry me.”
“Yeah, like that would work.” Ryan was taller than me, though it was hard to tell when we were lying on the bed and he was clinging onto me like an octopus. I poked him in the side with a finger and he squirmed, so I did it again. He clung onto me tighter in retaliation, but I didn’t mind him being pressed up close to me in the first place, so I let him.
“Are you calling me fat?” he asked in a mock scandalized tone but didn’t pull away.
“I’m calling you a giant.” I wrapped my arms around him instead of pushing him away like I was supposed to. This wasn’t cuddling or something girly like that. It was just… a lying down hug. Okay, that didn’t sound any better.
He pulled his head back enough to glare. “You’re ruining the mood.”
“Think your dad did that,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, he’s good at that,” Ryan sighed before pulling away and getting up and opening the door.
“Too bad,” I continued. “I’m sure you were looking forward to doing that yourself.” Ryan was a smartass and could be kinda awkward, so he wasn’t the smoothest guy I’d ever dated. Well, no, he was, because he was the only guy I ever dated. Somehow, he made being weird seem attractive.
He came back and sat on the bed, hitting me in the stomach with a hand. “How dare you,” he protested. “I am romantic and sexy and errrrrotic.” He dragged the ‘r’ sound out while waggling his eyebrows at me.
Okay, sometimes he made being weird attractive and sometimes he was just weird. But still, it was cute coming from him. Even if I didn’t tell him that. “See that right there?” I asked smugly. “Ruining the mood.”
~~~
Faking it
Captain of the baseball team Luke Chambers never falters when he’s on the mound. He can make split second decisions without breaking a sweat. In real life? He might have just told a lie that he was dating the only out kid in school. He should stick to baseball. Get the young adult novel One Little Word here.
In this excerpt, Ryan and Luke pretend to date with varying results.
Ryan
It was another wonderful day at school, being some kind of reverse beard for my amazingly attractive straight friend. My hand was casually linked in Luke’s while we walked down the hall. I still felt a tingle just touching him, but I worked hard to hide it while he tried to suppress whatever instincts told him this was too gay. We made an awkward, stilted pair that somehow people still didn’t figure out.
“You two look so queer.” Lydia watched us with an unimpressed look. I glared at her.
“That’s offensive,” Luke protested.
“Don’t let a teacher hear you say that,” I scolded. I couldn’t pretend to date Lydia too.
“I don’t mean queer as in gay,” she explained. “I mean as in weird.”
“You’re not very comfortable,” Alicia agreed.
“Well, everyone’s staring,” Luke protested.
Lydia rolled her eyes. “Please, everyone stares at both of you all the time.”
“Wait, shouldn’t we look queer as in gay?” Luke questioned.
“You should,” Lydia acknowledged. “But you don’t.”
I sighed. We stopped near my locker. I leaned on the metal instead of opening it as that would make this even more awkward since our hands were still joined.
Luke looked around, seemingly trying to gauge how much people were buying this. His calculations didn’t please him because it was like I could see a sign in his heading lighting up that said ‘drastic measures’ as he leaned in to me.
“Don’t kiss me again,” I warned. I couldn’t handle it. Both the hotness and that he then got all weird.
“Dude, we’re boyfriends,” he defended. Yes, a kiss was pretty effective at convincing people; it just worked a little too well on me. Especially now. I faced towards the windows at the end of the hallway while he faced away. Being lit by the sun made him positively glow, like a super-hot angel or something.
I pulled my hand out of his. “You need to relax. You’re trying too hard.”
“But this is… crazy.”
“Yeah, and you don’t let yourself stop thinking about that.” I looked to Lydia and Alicia. “Pretend I’m Lydia,” I said, grimacing.
He considered it for a second, then shook his head. “I can’t.” Thank God.
“Pretend you’re European,” Alicia suggested instead.
Luke nodded like that made perfect sense. “Yeah, okay.”
“That will work for you?” I asked.
Luke shrugged and nodded. “Europeans are weird.”
This was weird. Stupid. He was a terrible actor too, but I still got all nervous and weak-kneed at being so close to him. Luke shuffled his feet, and I prepared myself for insanity. He looked up and past me and something changed. All he did was take my hand and send me a flirty smile, but it seemed way more natural now. Was this him pretending to be European? Did he think Europeans gave bedroom eyes to everyone?
I felt light-headed. I could barely handle him struggling to be my fake boyfriend. I would die if he started to excel at it.
“Well now, this is better,” Lydia said in her version of an approving tone.
“I’m inspired,” he said while looking at me.
I couldn’t help blushing. This would kill me.
“Hey guys,” a new voice interrupted.
“Oh, hi Zach.” I turned my head to see him approaching from behind me. This was awkward, as close to a love triangle as I’d ever get. Holding hands with my fake boyfriend while an actual guy who was interested looked at us, his lips quirked up like this was hilarious. He didn’t seem to notice how weird this was.
“You guys can keep doing… whatever this is.” His smile grew, it was really cute. “I just wanted to see if we were still going to study tonight?” he asked me.
“Yeah,” I nodded and unconsciously gripped onto Luke’s hand tighter. He sent me an annoyed look that I ignored. I shyly looked up at Zach. “Yeah, of course.”
“Good.” He grinned at me, sent Luke another amused look, and went on his way.
“You’re studying with him?” Luke asked.
“It’s just studying.” I shrugged.
“That’s an obvious line,” Luke insisted.
“Who cares?” Lydia said, smiling. Her and Alicia took turns giving me a high five.
~~~
Carnival Contest
Fake boyfriends. Sarcasm. Hand Holding. Find it all in One Little Word. Here’s an excerpt.
Ryan
Luke stared down my grinning form, his arms crossed against his chest, a reverse of our earlier position. Except his arms were more impressive, muscles bulging and straining against the material of his shirt. I teased him to avoid the distraction.
“Now you’re the one who’s a sore loser,” I said. I held a cake wrapped in plastic in my hands. It was white frosting with sprinkles and funfetti cake. Luke tried to get me to pick brownies instead, he was so weird. Funfetti was the best.
He wasn’t impressed. “That was entirely luck based.”
“There was no rule there had to be skill involved.” The possibility of winning sweet treats kept him from complaining when I selected the cakewalk, but he probably didn’t expect me to win. Maybe I had good karma stored up because I always won cakewalks.
“You’re at least sharing that cake with me,” he argued.
“Keep dreaming.”
Luke had given me a root beer when he won the ring toss, which was unexpectedly sweet. Not that he gave it to me, he was probably trying to bribe me into the dunk tank but that he remembered my beverage of choice. I might share my dessert, but he didn’t need to know that yet.
We did basically every event, jostling and trash talking each other at every opportunity. Things that weren’t even really a competition we turned into one, like the duck pond. Except we got into an argument about what actually constituted winning, getting a higher number or drawing a duck that earned two candies instead of one.
It was almost time to head back to our booth. We had time for one more game, where the objective was to knock down cans with bean bags. This was another game where Luke had an advantage, but Alicia was manning the booth for community service credit, so maybe she would help me out.
She just stared at us when we stepped up to her table. “Isn’t this game a little too easy for you?”
Luke nodded. “For me, but I have to give Ryan a fighting chance.”
“Tell that to duck pond, jackass,” I told him hotly.
“I won the duck pond, not you.”
Before we could get into it further, Alicia held up her hand. “Yeah, this and the duck pond are for kindergarteners. You know that, right?”
We looked around. The cans were regular empty pop cans, and the bean bags were about half their size, so it did seem pretty simple. Unless you were six and could barely aim. And the people in this line were especially young and all of them had parents holding their hands who were looking at us in exasperation. The little competitive bubble Luke and I were in burst.
“Oh, I guess we shouldn’t do this one then,” Luke said, sounding as silly as I felt. It had been so easy to get absorbed in trying to beat him, everything else was in the background. There was a lot of trash talking and bragging when one of us won with petulant whining from the loser. I wouldn’t admit I hadn’t minded being in Luke’s presence for the moment, that it was almost fun.
“No, don’t let that stop you. By all means, play the angriest game of Can Knock Down the world has ever seen.” Her sarcasm skills were almost as good as mine.
We retreated from her booth as she laughed at us for being giant children. I wished I hadn’t drank the root beer Luke gave me. I could have chucked it at her.
“So, who won?” I asked.
I’d stopped keeping score at one point, just wanting to beat him so he wouldn’t be so smug. Plus, maybe he had this ridiculous pout whenever he lost that I wanted to kiss away. Ugh. Being attracted to someone I hated was difficult. I’d feel the urge to punch him one moment and want to shut him up with my tongue in his mouth the next.
“I’m not getting in the dunk tank again,” Luke declared. He looked like he had a bad spray tan, but even orange he was still hot. I didn’t think I could pull off that look so well.
“What if I promise not to accidentally dunk you?” I offered.
“That doesn’t stop everyone who tries to hit the bullseye.”
I smiled. “I may be able help with that too.”
“I knew it!” He rounded on me in anger for a moment. “You’re such a cheater!”
“Do you want to cry about it or do you want me to rig it?” I asked.
He stopped and paused. “Definitely, definitely rig it.”
~~~
Quote
You might be surprised to learn I’m an author because the following description is going to be really un-authory, but Riding with Brighton
This isn’t a review as I’m not finished yet, but sometimes it takes me forever to read and post reviews, so I figured maybe sharing quotes while I read would be fun.
Quote: “A simple piece of paper with a few numbers on it scratched on it. A piece of paper that ended up turning my life upside down and cracking me open in the process.
On Friday morning if you had told me that a damn piece of paper would, within twenty four hours, cause my entire world to implode, I would have told you to shove it up your ass. Paper schmaper, I was working with a goddamn epiphany.”
Gay Paranormal Romance 