Hedgehog vs. Spiders

Have you ever forgotten your significant other's birthday? Wedding anniversary? Date your bills were due?

I thought so.

Have you ever forgotten your story is about to be published?

Yup. That's me. My short story has been out for a bloody week and I completely missed it.

Real life taking its toll, I guess. Or I'm a moron.

Anyway, Along Came Spiders made its way to the Dreamspinner Press anthology, Animal Magnetism. It looks like this:

And it's available here as a paperback or here, if you prefer e-books.

It's about this:

Good-natured and easygoing, Hedge is the most atypical nurse you could encounter. But when an earthquake hits town, Hedge is out there to help. Somehow, he ends up stuck in a basement with an unconscious arachnologist, a very handsome policeman named Alec, and dozens of dangerous spiders on the loose. And those things BITE.

Happy reading!

The Jackalope Secrets

I made it! I made it! I became a victim a volunteer of Kris'n'goodbooks Choose your own m/m story challenge - and I survived!

As you know, readers voted for 5 story prompts that I had to include into the story. I decided to put all of them in, plus one suggestion from the discussion after the voting has ended. So it was 21 things I made a story about. Just how good am I? Not to mention I had to put in two nerds who think they are Sam and Dean from Supernatural - I have never ever seen a single episode of Supernatural!

OK, enough bragging: you can read the story here or download it for your e-reader here.

And what it is about:

What can make a young director hide under the stuffed bison? The answer is in the museum after hours where Will struggles to keep his sanity. His crew is sent directly from hell, there are too many ghosts and the crowbar and the curator are nowhere to be found. When Will finally finds the latter he wishes he rather had gone insane. The curator is Roger, Will's lover who has left him unexpectedly and rather mysteriously three years ago. And there are more and more surprises to come including mythical creatures, shocking revelations and life-changing decisions.

The greatest challenge

The time has come. I found myself in some creepy dark dungeon, tied up and tortured by a bunch of extremely perverse sadists...

Ahem.

I mean I volunteered to a big challenge, the greatest of them all, actually. Choose your own M/M story, hosted by an evil mastermind... err... I mean our lovely and awesome and genius Kris. You remember the platypus picture, right? The one where there was no Kris. That was her. I mean, it wasn't her. You know what I mean.

So, what to do? Click on the link above (or, if you're unsure where to click, click right here) and follow Kris's rules. I mean it. Don't even try to disobey. You don't want to piss her off. You just don't, trust me. *shudders*

Have fun!

Strange Carnivorous Freebie

What can you do with a short story which didn't make it to an anthology? Well, make it a freebie!

Do you know what is worse than your boyfriend meeting your parents? Him meeting all your family including drunk aunt and adolescent cousin. Oh, and your boyfriend is an alien. This can't possibly go well, can it?

Enjoy Strange Carnivorous Flowers From Outer Space.

Troublesome plot bunny

He just popped in my head from God-knows-where. A plot bunny. Sometimes I can spot them before they make a home in my brain but sometimes they just appear and there they are.

I'm used to them so now I did just what I've been doing for years: I fed him, played with him and watched it growing. Some plot bunnies are weak and won't see their adulthood but this one was strong and intriguing. I was happy to have him because, frankly, MOST of plot bunnies die before they grow up.

But suddenly this one grew to a point when he said: "You realize there is no HEA for those two guys."

Ooops. He was right. No way this one can end with a kiss and stuff like that. I tried to negotiate but the bunny was insistent. Mostly because he was right. So, now I'm left with him and a question for my beloved readers:

How important is HEA for you? If every story from a certain author/publisher has a happy ending, would you feel deceived when suddenly one ended with a goodbye? Is it more important for a story to be believable than romantic?

Thank you. And have a cookie. :-)

I just have to say it: Men???

When I discovered M/M and gay fiction, I was thrilled. One of the reasons: end of stereotypical gay men as depicted in TV and other books.

After hundreds of read books under my belt I can freely say: There are even more stereotypes in M/M!

Kris made me do it!

I swear, I wouldn't do it by myself but Kris made me. She's that way, you know. "Either you do a new blogpost or I'll stop sending you Sean's naughty pics." *sigh* You can't say no to that, can you?

Sooo, this one is for you, Kris.

The Platypus Learns Astrophysics is getting good reviews. Can you imagine how happy I am for that? It got mentioned in every review of Brush of Wings anthology. RJ Scott said she "didn't want this story to end". Jenre called it "a delightful story to read". Tam concluded it was "one of my favourites so far in the anthology". Nice comments from other readers, too.

I know, I'm bragging. But it's so nice to know people like what I write. Writing just for myself would never be satisfying for me. I hope there are more stories to come!

P. S. None of the creatures on the picture is Kris, of course. That's platypus. I mean, the platypus is on the picture. Kris is not a platypus. *sighidefinitelyneedcoffeesigh*