Sue Swift's Blog: Welcome Back, Suzie!, page 19

I blogged about my HS reunion at http://t.co/v3yaRKbL

There are a lot of photos so check it out if you like Malibu :)

Deb, a.k.a. Leonna, and I drove from SacTown down I-5 to SoCal for this shindig, both of us certain without any reason that we were gonna have a great time…and we were right. The reunion was in Calabasas, which meant that we didn’t have to drive through too much of LA to get to where we were going. Plus, getting to Malibu from our hotel was easy.

We ate dinner Friday night at this cool, funky place in Malibu.

Malibu Beach, early morning

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Deb walked on the beach and I jogged. Then we both did some yoga.

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I ate brunch with the Chatsworth Class of ’72 Official Geek Squad. Or, AP English. (With thanks to Nancy Jewhurst for the photo).

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A bunch of us gathered at a local snack bar for a bite before visiting the old school.

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A pang of sorrow pierced my breast when I saw that the vacant lot across from Chatsworth High where I’d smoked every day before school had become just another suburban tract house.

Or maybe it was heartburn from the food at Brent’s Deli, scene of the brunch, or from the root beer float I had at the Munch Box. Who knows?

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Then we went to the school. Yikes! My prevailing emotion was happiness–not from recollecting the good times, but from realizing that I’m an adult and I never have to be trapped someplace so awful again. Freedom is a wonderful thing.

The photos make the place look far more pleasant than it is. It’s fenced. There’s concrete.

Deb at school

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That evening we went to the big event–the reunion itself, which was held at the Sagebrush Cantina.

Flyer and nametag, so people who were stoned for three years could recognize each other.

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Having been out of it for most of the three years I attended HS, to say nothing of the prior three years in middle school, I recognized few but those I did, I absolutely adored seeing  again. My classmates are lovely people.

The guys seemed to favor Hawaiian shirts. Can you say “aloha” after six beers?

Thanks, Nancy, for the photos.

Lisa

After drinking a beer, socializing to the max and eating some decent Mexican food, I danced to a retro band for the rest of the night. Had a great time!

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The next day, Sunday, I visited a park and the Getty Villa in Malibu before returning home on Monday. Waaaahhhhh!!!!

All in all, I had a great weekend I was sorry to see end.

I’m blogging again at Maria-Claire Payne’s–check it out:

http://maria-clairepayne.com/burning-cold-meet-suz-demellos-vampires

 

Enjoy!

Today I am the guest of the marvelous Maria-claire Payne, who allows me to exhort my fellow writers on the extremely important subject of dialog, using an example from Highland Vampire--this is Maria-Claire's Merry Month of May I suck your____ promo.

http://maria-clairepayne.com/your-vam...

I'll be back at her blog next week with more about writing, vampires, and other scary stuff.

Today I am the guest of the marvelous Maria-claire Payne, who allows me to exhort my fellow writers on the extremely important subject of dialog, using an example from Highland Vampire–this is Maria-Claire’s Merry Month of May I suck your____ promo.

http://maria-clairepayne.com/your-vampires-should-suck-not-your-dialog-welcome-sue-swift

I’ll be back at her blog next week with more about writing, vampires, and other scary stuff.

 

Try it, you’ll like it

Of this romantic suspense story one top reviewer said, “fans will enjoy this fine, at-sea mystery.”

Here’s where you can get it:

http://www.amazon.com/Sherry-Baby-ebook/dp/B007ZS6VIA/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336144949&sr=1-21

Here’s what it’s about:

The cruise from hell…

Gen X meets Agatha Christie on the high seas of the Bermuda Triangle when Sherry Case, gofer for the battling bigwigs in the family-owned firm Genesplice, arranges for a team-building cruise aboard the yacht Swashbuckler. The mismatched group of passengers feuds even before the yacht has left the harbor.

A rogue wave, faltering navigational instruments and a trio of sharks continue to challenge Sherry and her new lover, the yacht’s Captain Freeman. But Free and Sherry aren’t fazed until a passenger turns up dead in her locked cabin. The vicious murder throws the ship, its crew and passengers into panic. Who could the killer be? Suspects and motives abound.

Ordinary twenty-somethings thrown into an extraordinary situation, Sherry and Free must solve the mystery, defeat the myriad dangers of the triangle, and reach land before the villain can kill them.

And here’s a snippet:

Prologue

He turned the tap counterclockwise. After waiting a couple of minutes for the water to heat, he stepped into the oversized shower. He admired its custom glass-block construction and four shower heads, which rinsed the blood from his body quickly and efficiently.

He preferred to kill naked. Blood-soaked garments were a disposal problem and, if found, easily traceable evidence. Though he avoided ruining good clothes, getting blood out from under his fingernails was a bitch.

 

Unspoken, or the ugly reality in historical m/m fiction.

By R.A. Padmos

Before anything: thank you so much, Sue, for your more than generous hospitality.

Romantic and erotic stories taking place in the past are hugely popular, and for good reasons too. It’s a great excuse to put characters in nice costumes, surround them with beautiful objects and allow them to live in houses we consider treasured heritage. Or what about some sexy frolicking in an unspoiled landscape?

And if, in the case of romantic and sexual affection between men, we have to tweak reality a bit extra to make sure that same reality doesn’t slap the unsuspecting reader painfully in the face… well, what’s wrong with a bit of fantasy?

Sometimes, however, stories insist on being what they are, namely expressions of an unpopular and even downright nasty historical reality.  Unspoken is such a story.

Don’t get me wrong, Unspoken is still very much a romantic tale about the love and friendship between two men who are devoted to each other. They express that love both in a sexual manner and in many other ways. There’s nonetheless no denying that Stefan and Adri live in a Dutch town in the nineteen-thirties. Houses are crowded, money is scarce and privacy is an interesting concept at best.

Stefan Doffer, the main character, is married, because most gay men were actually married in those days. His wife doesn’t conveniently die during childbirth. She’s also not an evil witch we can easily hate, but a good woman with a heart as big as the world. She’s as much a victim of the circumstances as her husband.

Stefan is a family man with a keen, be it patriarchal, sense of responsibility. He’s fiercely homophobic and has an outspoken tendency to look down on men who don’t meet his strict criteria for real masculinity. That’s not because he’s a bad human being, but because he’s so much a child of his time and social background.

Stefan and Adri somehow manage to find the space, courage and imagination to be together.

This is a story about love, but it doesn’t make ugly reality magically go away. 

 

A small excerpt:

It was such a luxury to know the landlady was out of town, at the wedding of her eldest niece, and wasn’t expected back until after dinner; a whole afternoon without a discreet knock on the door and the question whether the gentlemen cared for a cup of tea! And, in contrast to the few times they’d spent an hour or so in Adri’s room and had fallen into each other’s arms like famished dogs on the nearest bite of food, they sat in the moss-green overstuffed chairs and drank coffee. They took their time to make small-talk about the weather, smoke a cigarette, and to enjoy each other’s company as if they had just got home from a good day’s work.

“Come.” Adri stretched out his hand in invitation and Stefan dropped to his knees next to his lover’s chair. He rested his head against the thighs of the other man, and sighed when he felt the warmth of the muscles through the fabric of the trousers and the hand playing with his hair. No matter that he had lost almost every certainty about who he was, and what he was, he couldn’t imagine sharing his body with a man who wasn’t at least his equal in strength. Why give his body to a man who wasn’t a real man?

His lover caressed his back and whispered, “Redhead.”

He lifted his head. “I’m not going to tell a lie and say that my marriage is all pretence, because right up to the moment I met you I had no idea what was going to happen to me. It’s just that now I do know you, I realise I never had any idea what it means to walk next to someone and feel nothing but desperation – because how do I keep my hands to myself?”

“We almost never get the chance to share even a single kiss when we see each other. On those days, I doubt everything and wonder why I had to fall in love with a married man. So often I don’t want to meet you, if meeting you comes down to spending the night alone in my own bed fired up by the knowledge that half an hour’s walk away there’s you. I hate having to make do with my own hand, and always feeling miserable afterwards.” Adri grinned, so obviously hiding the pain that Stefan felt the hurt in his own stomach. “But today belongs to us. No one will bother us or chase us away. Please, come to bed?”

 Unspoken by R.A.Padmos is available at Manifold Press. http://www.manifoldpress.co.uk/2012/04/unspoken/

My blog: http://rapadmos.wordpress.com/

I’ve been on the road–or, rather, on the high seas with my mom–we enjoyed a wonderful cruise through the Panama Canal, which I”ll be blogging about in the days to come.

Here’s a teaser photo:

in the first set of locks, Panama Canal, 2012

In any event–today I’m blogging at Tristram LaRoche’s blog about Sherry, Baby, my new release.

http://tristramlaroche.com/2012/05/05/a-different-kind-of-cruising/

Enjoy!

This is the Lucky 7 challenge according to author Julia Kavan:

Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript

Go to line 7

Post on your blog the next 7 lines, or sentences, as they are – no cheating

Tag 7 other authors to do the same

Now, I don’t know why this is supposed to be lucky–the instructions didn’t come with those internet promises/threats like, “If you edo this in the next 7 minutes, a leprechaun will show up at your door with the proverbial pot of gold, but if you don’t, your hair will fall out, your face will sprout pustules and you’ll never get laid again.” But here goes:

***

When she’d seen the cave first, it had been strewn with garbage, old clothing, sea-wrack and the like. Now it was strewn with bodies.

Scattered bits—heads, arms and so forth—were tossed willy-nilly. Blood oozed, its stench mingling with the miasma of rotting seaweed. Bile rose in her throat and her body convulsed.

Dugald sprinted for the cave’s mouth. She heard the splash of water beneath his boots, heard the crash of waves. Turning her head away from him, she gulped in a deep breath of fresher air. Her muscles loosened as her body relaxed.

***

So what you think? Would you read this book? That’s the real question, hmm?

 

 

 

This is the Lucky 7 challenge according to author Julia Kavan:

Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript

Go to line 7

Post on your blog the next 7 lines, or sentences, as they are – no cheating

Tag 7 other authors to do the same

Now, I don't know why this is supposed to be lucky–the instructions didn't come with those internet promises/threats like, "If you edo this in the next 7 minutes, a leprechaun will show up at your door with the proverbial pot of gold, but if you don't, your hair will fall out, your face will sprout pustules and you'll never get laid again." But here goes:

***

When she'd seen the cave first, it had been strewn with garbage, old clothing, sea-wrack and the like. Now it was strewn with bodies.

Scattered bits—heads, arms and so forth—were tossed willy-nilly. Blood oozed, its stench mingling with the miasma of rotting seaweed. Bile rose in her throat and her body convulsed.

Dugald sprinted for the cave's mouth. She heard the splash of water beneath his boots, heard the crash of waves. Turning her head away from him, she gulped in a deep breath of fresher air. Her muscles loosened as her body relaxed.

***

So what you think? Would you read this book? That's the real question, hmm?