Tag: M/M Romance

Scary Gary on New Adventures

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

A little while ago, I talked about the Publishing Partner program JMS Books has where they help struggling authors, such as myself, distribute self-published stories to platforms where it otherwise can be hard to find an in.

Now, it’s time for Scary Gary to find new shelves to sit on.

I wrote Scary Gary as part of a project I never finished. I had this idea of writing twelve short stories in a year, one for each month. Elevator Pitch was one, Scary Gary another, and that was how far I came. So I published them without any connection to each other.

Scary Gary is a freebie, 5.3k long, and it’s about a grim reaper called Gary LOL

JMS Books :: Amazon :: books2read.com/ScaryGary

Excerpt:

Gary glanced out the window. “Maybe I should get going.” His skin shone white in the dark, the scythe was leaning against the backrest of the sofa, and the hood of the cloak was pushed off his head to reveal short black hair and chiseled features.

Micah bit his lip, wanting to demand answers but also knowing that if he didn’t change the topic Gary would leave. “You’re such a coward.”

Gary grinned. “Never said I wasn’t.”

So something about Micah scared Scary Gary. That couldn’t be good. “Tea?”

Gary stared. “Tea?”

“It’s a chilly night, I figured we could use something warm and soothing. Or is tea too lame for the lord of the underworld?”

Gary shook his head. “I’m not the—”

Micah laughed at the exasperated look. Gary’s snort only made him laugh harder. “I’m sorry, it must be stress.” Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes, but he blinked them away. Why was the world pressing down on him today? Gary was here; Gary made all his problems go away.

Gary’s arm curled around him. “You’ll be the death of me.” The words came in a whisper close to his ear. Time slowed and Micah wished they could stay like this forever. Gary’s strong arm wrapped around him, his body a little cooler than would be considered normal, but not cold. His scent made Micah’s nose tickle. It was a mix of lemon and burning wood, nothing that could be bought in a bottle.

“I thought you were already dead.”

“Ha!” He was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I am, and yet I’ll live forever.”

Micah looked up into those electric blue eyes. “Me too.” The frown was small and quickly concealed but Micah saw it. “Won’t I?” Wouldn’t he? It wasn’t fear spreading in his gut, not exactly, but he couldn’t deny the unease.

“As long as I have any power, you will.”

“Gary.” It wasn’t a whine, but close. Micah pushed against Gary’s chest to get away so he could pace, but the arm around his waist didn’t budge. “What are you doing?”

Gary touched his lips to Micah’s, and he forgot how to breathe.

 

Scary-Gary-gifMicah Thaxter has a problem — one scary, inconvenient problem. His shadow wants him dead and isn’t shy about it.

On the plus side, it’s not his time to die and Scary Gary is always there to carry him back to the land of the living. Gary is far too pale, his black cloak a bit out of fashion, and his scythe quite terrifying, but he’s still one of the most beautiful men Micah has ever seen.

Micah may be stuck with a homicidal shadow, but perhaps there’s a way to keep Gary around too. His job escorting souls keeps him busy, but since Micah has already died once today, Gary’s there. So what’s the harm in offering him a cup of tea?

Guest Post | As the Crows Fly

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Guest-Post

Thank you so much to Ofelia for having me here to day to tell you about As the Crows Fly, my new short story—11,500 words—in my Reworked Celtic Myths collection. The stories are a loose set of contemporary stories set in Wales, and the seed of each one comes from a Welsh or Irish legend.

As the crows fly

The seed for As the Crows Fly is the story of St Kevin. You can read about him in the afterword of the story (ha! See what I did there!) or on my blog. The original story was a bit lacking in romance, even more so that my previous story Playing Chicken, which involved St Dwynwen and a magic well full of eels; so I took the bits that interested me and ditched the rest—the murders and the almost drowning the woman who tried to seduce you, that sort of thing!

The stories so far are based in very resonant locations for me—I lived in Wales for quite a while in my twenties and thirties and I love the landscape and the sense of ancient place that’s there in the countryside.

As I was writing the first scene in this story, it was rolling out in my mind at a place called Manorbier, that turned into Flint Head in the story. It’s a village with a ruined castle, right on the edge of the sea. I envisaged poor Kevin and his sick car in the car-park by the beach and saw him walking home westward along the cliff-top with Webster. It’s somewhere I’ve been many times and without wishing to sound like an employee of the Pembrokeshire Tourist Board, it’s a lovely area.

The castle is open to the public, but if you go down to the beach you can look back up toward the village, past the castle, and see the crows. There are always crows, dancing in the wind above the ruins. On one side you have the sea, crashing on the beach. And on the other you have this beautiful, majestic, eerie ruin, strewn about with tiny black specks tumbling and twisting above it.

So, that’s some of the background! It’s a short, hopeful story, a complete change from my usual longer historical angst-and-magic-filled queer books. I hope you enjoy it! I’m planning on adding to the collection regularly over the next few months.

As the Crows Fly

As the Crow Fly

Paul Webster has come out the army after a twenty-two year stretch with a trick hip and no idea what to do with his life. He takes a few weeks walking along the Welsh coast to get his head on straight.

Kevin Davies is a veterinary nurse and an artist. He’s getting lonelier and lonelier in his cottage on the edge of the sea, kept company by his cats and a friendly flock of crows.

What happens when the two men hunker down together to wait out a wild March gale?

A 11,500-word short story in the Reworked Celtic Myths series. This time, there are crows.

Buy As the Crows Fly

Crows banner

Find Ally

A. L. Lester is a writer of queer, paranormal, historical, romantic suspense. She lives in the South West of England with Mr AL, two children, a badly behaved dachshund, a terrifying cat, and some hens. She likes gardening but doesn’t really have time or energy. Not musical. Doesn’t much like telly. Non-binary. Chronically disabled. Has tedious fits.

Find her at her website, allester.co.uk or you can find on your preferred social media via lnk.bio. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and now, shockingly, Tiktok!

Cover Reveal | Dazzle Me

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Cover-Reveal

Back in 2015, I wrote a story… Beaten Track Publishing put together an anthology called Summer Bigger Than Others – A Summer Anthology. It was to be summery short stories, and most often I write dark, grey rainy autumn stories, or I write biting cold winter stories. 

Summer isn’t really my thing. 

I mean, living in Sweden, we’re deprived of sunlight, so spring and summer bring hope and a little bit of energy. This time of year, our vitamin D levels are scary low LOL 

But the bugs, and the frogs, and the sweating… *scrunches nose* 

Anthologies are always fun, though, so I wrote a story. Dazzle Me is now being re-released with JMS Books, and Tom likes tropical climates about as much as I do… 

It’ll be released on the first of May, but I have the cover. Do you want to see it? 

 

Blurb:

Tom and Santino’s anniversary is coming up, and Tom has a plan. He’s going to show Santino how much he means to him. The night will be magical.
Tom’s plan did not include a trip to Thailand. He doesn’t do aeroplanes, doesn’t do tropical climate, and he doesn’t do spas. Yet he finds himself without a stitch of clothing on a spa table, with a man he’s never met before while Santino is away on a business meeting.
This was not how it was supposed to go. Tom will do his best to live through the day so they can celebrate their anniversary when they get back to the hotel, but If Santino wanted him smooth and sparkly, couldn’t he have told him instead of booking him an appointment?

Note: Dazzle Me was first published as part of Summer Bigger Than Others – A Summer Anthology from Beaten Track Publishing.

Pre-order in the JMS shop (20% off)