Monday, April 25, 2011

From Fiction to Reality Pt. 1

I have found myself suffering from a bit of Writer's Block lately, and I finally figured out why. I'm not writing just for fun anymore. This realization came about during an email conversation with a friend. She invited me to go onto the Silver Publishing Blog site and join in on a 1000k word weekly Blog story chain. I'm not sure I can do the whole following a theme deal, but I know that I want to start writing a weekly 1000k entry to work on writing for fun again.

The following story is one I thought up on the fly. Sam Evans is a best selling author living in Chicago and he realizes that something is missing from his life. I will leave it at that in order to keep from giving away too much. :-p

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From Fiction to Reality



Sighing, Sam Evans rubbed the back of his neck tiredly and sat back from the screen. The cursor blinked furiously at him, taunting him. His next deadline loomed perilously close and he didn’t even have half the book written. Writer’s block plagued him for months now. His agent and editor constantly hounded him for an update on his progress, but he couldn’t give them anything more than a simple, “It’s coming along.”

Except it was nothing other than a lie.

Restlessness had settled on his shoulders right around the same time as his writer’s block. Sam couldn’t quite place his finger on what caused it. Thirty-two years old, he had a beautiful penthouse, great friends, and six New York Bestsellers, but it all seemed as though something that should be there wasn’t. Ever since his brother Sean’s wedding, he’d felt like something was missing from his life. He’d watched his brother laughing and dancing with his bride, Lisa, and an ache built inside his chest.

His last relationship ended over a year ago. He’d been too busy trying to juggle his writing and his real life to bother looking for another. Sean tried to introduce him to a couple of guys he knew at the wedding yet none of them captured his attention. Had the constant writing about lies, betrayal and death made him as cold as his ex, Mike had thrown at him all those months ago? Why else would he have remained single for so long?

Pushing away from the desk, Sam stood and walked into his bathroom, twisting the shower knob to turn on the hot water and set it to fill his huge Jacuzzi tub. An interior decorator had chosen the designs in all of the rooms. The bathroom, done up in a mixture of light creams and beiges, soothed Sam whenever the restlessness became a physical discomfort. He’d spent many nights in the Jacuzzi over the course of the last six to eight months.

Looking at the mirror, he studied himself intently. He didn’t feel he was model material, but he at least had confidence he was semi-attractive. Dark blue eyes set evenly apart were framed by long, blond tipped eyelashes. A slender nose with a slightly curved tip rested above plump, full lips and straight, white teeth. He took pride in his smile and never missed a dentist appointment or forgot to brush. His chin had a small dimple in it that gave him an almost arrogant appearance, or at least that’s what a couple of his boyfriend’s had told him. Dirty blond hair kept short on the sides and spiky on top, Sam usually didn’t bother much with a brush. He could run his fingers through his hair and be done with it most days if he wasn’t going out.

A track star in high school, Sam spent most of his time running on the streets of Chicago late at night unless the weather didn’t permit and then he ended up using the weight room in his apartment. His body had the lean muscles of a runner and the strong legs to match. Unlike his father, he didn’t have a whole lot of body hair, just a light sprinkling of blond feathering over his chest and a thatch of darker hair around his cock and balls. The only ‘wild’ thing he’d ever done in his youth had been in college when his roommate and eventually long-term boyfriend convinced him to get his tongue pierced. He’d kept the piercing open by wearing a simple post but no adornment.

He stripped off the sweatpants and t-shirt he wore, dropping them carelessly to the floor, and picked up the remote to flip on the television mounted in the wall across from the tub. He stepped into the tub and groaned as the hot water lapped at his skin. Once he’d settled in completely, he flipped the switch to turn the massaging jets on. A loud moan tore through him as the forceful pulses kneaded his tired muscles.

Glancing at the T.V., Sam saw a story about a murder last night and nudged the volume up a little higher to hear above the water. ‘Twenty-one year old, Theresa Martins, was found strangled to death in Millenium Park near the Crown Fountain early this morning. She worked for Northwestern Memorial Hospital as a nurse and had just come off a twelve hour shift. Her family expected her home around three a.m., but she never arrived. If anyone has any information or possible leads about this woman,’ a picture of a pretty blonde woman, petite with a beautiful smile, flashed up on the screen, ‘please contact the local tip hotline at 312-555-6109. Now for the local weather forecast. Jaime?’

Sam muted the sound. A sense of foreboding trickled down his spine. It seemed so similar. No, his mind scoffed. It’s just a coincidence. Flipping to another channel, he chose to watch a sitcom instead of the news, but his mind continued to travel back to the report until he snapped off the television in frustration, stood up and grabbed a towel. He needed to run off some steam.

He yanked on a fresh pair of dark blue sweats and a dark grey t-shirt, strapped on a pair of running sneakers and grabbed his keys and wallet before exiting his front door. The upper penthouse floor only contained three apartments; his, an old man in his late eighties named Bart Powell, and an empty unit. The corridor seemed eerily quiet as he waited for the elevator to reach his floor. A sound brought his head around and he saw the empty unit’s door cracked open and light shining through. Frowning, he moved closer, stiffening when he heard someone swear and the loud crash of glass hitting the floor.

Sam put his hand on the door and lightly pushed it open, peering inside the unit only to stop short in surprise. Furniture and boxes sat haphazardly around the no longer empty apartment. “Oh, hey,” an easy, deep voice called out.

Friday, April 15, 2011

2011 TLA Gaybies Best Gay Romance Winner!!!

I am so excited!! Touch Me Gently won the Best Gay Romance category in the 2011 TLA Gaybies website! I was soooo excited when I saw the results posted last night! I can hardly believe it!

I want to say thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. It is an extreme honor to be nominated and an even bigger honor to have won.

Touch Me Gently has had its fair share of reviews, positive and negative. I know there were a lot of negative reviews from people who absolutely hated it. They felt it sloppy, unrealistic, and Kaden was a woman written as a man. The majority of the people who read western m/m romance do not understand how Yaoi is written. The story I wrote followed that style. As did my next novel accepted by Silver Publishing. I do have to say in regards to the unrealistic comment... a romance story doesn't always have to be realistic. It's about romance and sometimes romance in real life can feel as unrealistic as it does in a novel. The point of reading a book is to immerse yourself in the dream of what we all want. A Logan to love us unconditionally and show us how beautiful we are despite the scars we carry. Maybe my story didn't touch the hearts of everyone, but I sure hope it touched the hearts of some. Kaden's story isn't far from what reality can be. The abuse, the rape, the fear. Those are extreme situations and maybe some of the readers who felt it over done doesn't know what it is like to live like that.

Scars don't go away. They stay with us forever. We just have to find a way to survive to pain and the heartache to grow stronger and be who we were meant to be despite the nightmares we suffer.

Touch Me Gently has a special place in my heart because it's the very first novel I ever wrote and it had a huge following the website I first posted it to. AarinFantasy - The BEST Yaoi website ever! The friends I made on there encouraged me to put my story out there and it was accepted despite my belief it wouldn't be. There are so many wonderful and talented writers on there and a lot of them will never have the courage to offer up their writing to be scrutinized. It's not easy reading the negative reviews. It hurts each time I see one. But I know you can't please everyone in this life, and yet it doesn't make it any easier to swallow when someone says my story was awful or unpolished or stupid. So if any of you like to read, check out Aarinfantasy because those writers can use the encouragement just like I did.

Anyway, thank you EVERYONE who voted for me. I am so happy to have been given such a wonderful gift. :) Nothing like seeing your book chosen over so many other great ones there.

*kisses*

~J.R.~