A Minute After Midnight - Brita Adams

The story behind A Minute After Midnight

A Minute After Midnight is a story of making uncomfortable, yet necessary decisions and how they affect your life, even years later.

As a parent, my job was to make decisions for my children, up to a certain age, to save them from themselves and to hopefully teach good skills in decision-making. I wrote Reid and Logan's story with that in mind.

Sometimes life takes turns we don't expect and familial obligations stand in the way of our own happiness. Such is the case with Logan. Despite his and Reid's plans to make a life together away from the old hometown, life got in the way, leading to a fateful decision and then one more. All combined, the course was set and two lives were never the same again.

I've always been terrible at goodbyes and once I realized it, I've embraced that as a part of me. I allows me to stay in touch with what is really important to me, with the recognition that I never want to let it go, even for a few hours. I'm sure there's something juicy in that for those who'd like to examine it closely, but for me, it's okay. My father used to say I was tender-hearted and I am, many times to my detriment. 

The theme of goodbyes brought me to Logan and Reid's story. That combined with the anger of youth. With a fateful deadline imposed, a minute after midnight, Reid forced Logan's hand and clock began to tick off years of timeless desire.

What does one do when they can't have what they most want? Do you settle for next best, do you suffer or do you never forget what it was that brought you together in the first place? All these elements play into the story, with varying degrees of success.

I've always firmly believed that the heart wants what the heart wants. I've lived my life with that in mind and happily so.

The title for the story came in the course of the writing. Reid imposes his deadline on Logan and I knew that was what the book had to be called.

Fiona Jayde did a wonderful job interpreting my vision for the cover. When you read the book, you'll see how perfect it really is. Even the expressions of the faces fit the moment in the book when that scene is played out.

I believe in love, in all its incarnations. I believe that we are each meant for someone in this world. Sometimes it takes a little longer to realize where we truly belong.

Here's the blurb from A Minute After Midnight:

A fateful decision haunted Logan Chalmers for years. A high school reunion brings Reid Wright back to the old hometown, but will Reid even remember Logan or has he moved on to the bright future they were to share?

Following the rejection of the man he'd loved for most of his life, Reid moved away to seek his fortune. The hurt and anger allowed him to move on, but years later, only thoughts of Logan could bring him back for the reunion – that, and timeless desire.

Click here for an excerpt and to purchase A Minute After Midnight.

You can find Brita at all these places:

Email address: britaaddams@gmail.com

Website/Blog

Twitter: @britaaddams

Facebook

Goodreads Page

Barry Brennessel and Tinseltown

Hi Jadette,

Thanks for having me as your guest!

So a funny thing happened on the way to Tinseltown. I had just published a mystery novella (The Price of Silence), and finished up a historical mystery (The Sulphur Cure), and my exhausted brain said, “Now what are you going to do?” I felt bereft of ideas. I think they call that writer’s block or something. I put down my pen and figuratively stared out the window for three weeks.

I remember many years ago one of my writing professors told us never to throw any notes away. I took that to heart, and have a cabinet filled with notebooks. On a whim, one day I pulled one out, and opened it up to the first page, where I’d written a single paragraph about a college student and his gang of six friends. It might have read like a personal journal entry except that the narrator was named 

“Micah.”

Micah kept speaking to me. I jotted down some of his ideas, viewpoints, dreams and anxieties. The story grew. But, I didn’t feel like writing something in a traditional form. I felt experimental. I thought, what if I just climbed into Micah’s head, and wrote what was happening in there?

And, there it was. Life inside the brain of a quirky and adorable film student named Micah Malone.

This was new territory for me in another way as well. Micah is gay, and very out, and I wasn’t sure at first how much of Micah’s love life I wanted to put down on the page. Yet, that really became the main focus of the story: Micah’s path to romantic happiness. I’d just written my first M/M romance! This was quite a turnaround from the other two works (blackmail and intrigue and murder).

So here I had this gay romance novel, written in a somewhat non-traditional form. The question was: What do I do with this? I was hesitant at first, but ultimately decided to enter it into the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest (where I’d made the finals with both The Price of Silence and The Sulphur Cure). I figured there was no way they’d take to Tinseltown. But wouldn’t you know—it ended up winning 3^rd Place!  Ummm, wow!

Emboldened, I sent the manuscript out, and a couple months later, I received the acceptance letter from MLR Press. I’m still bruised from falling out of my chair.

Since then, I’ve pulled out many of those old notebooks. My short story collection Reunion grew out of the pages of one of those dusty old things.

Two words: treasure trove!

Tinseltown, by Barry Brennessel

MLR Press

Blurb

Film student Micah Malone learns the hard way that when life sucks, you can’t just yell, “Cut! Let’s do another take!”

His grades are a box-office bomb. His friends create more drama than a soap opera. And his love life needs a laughtrack. While there’s no script to dictate what happens next, can Micah find the direction he needs? Life, after all, is no film school project. But it is great source material. The only source material.

Let the cameras roll. Micah’s quirky story has begun filming.

Excerpt

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” I asked my counselor, Mrs. Castor.

We had a Friday session to make up for three weeks ago when she was out sick. I wondered what she thought about seeing the likes of me twice in one week.

She contemplated my question for a minute and rubbed the back of her hand with her chin a couple times. “I don’t disbelieve in it. But it’s dependent on how one defines love.”

“What is love?”

“Volumes and volumes have been written, sung, acted out on the very topic.”

“No clear answer then, huh?”

She smirked.

“So, here’s the scene. We were at the butterfly garden and Lanh was thrilled. Way more intense than, like, a kid in front of a Christmas tree, you know, that sort of glee. You picture Dorothy seeing Munchkinland for the first time or when Willie Wonka opens up the chocolate factory and the kids are in total awe. It was that kind of look. And it really melted my heart. He was so sweet and innocent and happy. That moment, I think…I don’t know. It’s too early for love maybe, but it was some real cosmic shift.”

Mrs. Castor nodded. I felt like she was going to say something about rushing into things, but she didn’t. Maybe she didn’t want to squash my pathetic romantic ideals, or maybe by some miracle she actually believed I had a point.

She sat there quietly for another few seconds and then folded her hands in her lap, put her shoulders back, and lifted her head. I imagined this is what the Queen of England must do before she’s about to say something like, “Philip, please remove your feet from the rrrrrround table.”

“So, next week is our last session together.”

I felt like the wind just got kicked out of me. She saw my expression. She must have known.

“You wanna know how that makes me feeeel, Mrs. Castor,” I shouted in my head. “This sucks is how it feels!”

“You remember University policy is six sessions.”

So cold. So stoic. I’d like to believe deep inside she wasn’t slapping her knee and laughing, but shedding tears.

Ah, I joke, but this hit me hard. Tears started welling up. I can’t believe I started to cry, but…it was like my tour guide was jumping ship and leaving me adrift.

“I’m going to give you a list of counselors in private practice. I think you will benefit from further counseling. Now keep in mind this won’t fall under the University pricing plan, so you’ll have to check with your health insurance provider about what they specifically cover in this instance.”

She was sounding all robotic again. Were my tears invisible to her?

“We’ll wrap things up next week, okay?”

A little more maternal line delivery this time, but she may as well have told me the world was going to explode in six seconds, and yeah, whatever. Deal with it, crybaby.

I always believed that for every good thing that happens in life, two tragedies rush in to kick your ass to keep you from getting all saccharine and deluded.

It was as if just before you turned left into paradise, Ethel Merman popped up in your backseat and shouted, “Turn right, you idiot!”

Okay, now my mind was really going haywire.

“Micah?”

Yeah, yeah. Whatever, counselor. “See you next week.”

Exit stage left.

www.barrybrennessel.com

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowAuthorBooks.php?list=_ABKLIST68&author=Barry!Brennessel

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4638929.Barry_Brennessel


Bio

When Barry’s first collection of stories was read aloud by his second grade teacher, the author hid in the bathroom. As the years flew by, he wrote more, hid less (not really), and branched out to Super 8 films and cassette tape recorders. Barry’s audience—consisting solely of friends and family—were both amused and bemused.

Since those childhood days, Barry has earned degrees in English and French from the State University of New York College at Brockport, and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University.
Tinseltown is Barry’s first novel.

His second novel The Sulphur Cure is forthcoming from L&L Dreamspell. Reunion, a collection of linked stories, is forthcoming from Lethe Press. His novella The Price of Silence recently debuted.

His work has appeared in SNReview, Perspectives, Time Pilot, Liquid Ohio, Nocturnal Lyric, Midnight Times, Gival Press’s ArLiJo, Polari Journal, and the Dreamspell Nightmares (I & II) and Dreamspell Revenge (I & II) anthologies from L&L Dreamspell. His stories, novels and teleplays have won awards, including a 2008 Pushcart Prize nomination; 3rd Place in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) literary contest and finalist status in the 2006, 2008 and 2009 PNWA contests; 3rd Place in the 79th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and finalist status in theWinter 2010 WILDSound Screenplay competition and in the 2011 Dana Awards competition.

When not embroiled in his own writing, Barry sips wine, nibbles on chocolate, and watches films and TV—both the classic and the cheesy. (Mmm…cheese!)

Kate Sherwood - Behind the Story – Home Ice

I’d love to have some big, romantic history behind the origins of Home Ice, my m/m novella coming out TODAY from Ellora’s Cave, but the truth is much more pragmatic.

I like experimenting with new publishers.  Everyone does things differently, so I can learn new things from new companies, and, what can I say? The grass on the other side of the fence might not be greener, exactly, but it’s a different shade of green, and I’m intrigued by that.  And Ellora’s Cave is obviously a giant in online romance publishing, so I wanted to give them a try.  They had a submission call out for their Oh, Canada series.  I’m Canadian.  Seemed like a good match.

Except I couldn’t really think of what to write that was uniquely Canadian without making it a cliché.  A lot of my stories are set in Canada, but they aren’t written in a way that really focuses on the locale.  Well, Lost Treasure kind of was, but most of my books just happen to be set in places I know well.  And that didn’t seem like enough for a series of this sort.

So I ended up taking one of the biggest Canadian clichés—our love of hockey—and trying to turn it inside out.  Now, I love hockey, so I wasn’t going to tear the sport down, but I do think there are problems with the system.  The dominant route to the NHL has traditionally been playing junior hockey, and there are significant concerns, for me, with drafting sixteen-year olds to distant teams, billeting them with families that are just as obsessed with hockey as the kids are, and focusing on their development as hockey players instead of all the other things kids should be learning as they become adults. I think there are some great values instilled by this system: dedication, teamwork, etc. But there isn’t much opportunity for the kids to learn to value people who aren’t just like them, those who do not seem to be part of the team. While the NHL has generally avoided the significant crime issues of leagues like the NFL, there is still a troubling amount of sexism and homophobia in the game.

So. My story centers around a small town OHL (Ontario Hockey League, one step below the NHL) team, and the gay coach.  He’s been carefully closeted for his whole life, and he has no intention of changing that.  He loves hockey too much, and even though he’s a good coach, his position isn’t so secure that he can afford to take risks. When his old teammate comes back from the NHL, the coach feels the same attraction they’d shared years earlier, but he fights it.  At least, he tries to…

EXCERPT:

Damn. Mike looked good. A little older, sure, but Jason had seen the guy on TV enough to expect that. And he wore his age well. Still fit, of course, and the light crinkle of lines around his eyes just made him look like he spent a lot of time smiling. No trace of gray in his light brown hair, no hint of jowls on his square jawline. The wire-rimmed glasses were new, and Jason wondered if they were really needed or if Mike was just trying to set himself apart from his playing days.

He remembered how he and Mike had always been compared to each other, and told how alike they looked, and wondered whether he’d held up to the years as well as his old friend. But there was no time for further speculation, because Mike was walking forward, his hand outstretched, and Jason needed to get himself in gear. “Jason. Or Coach, I guess.” A quick, easy smile. “It’s good to see you.” They shook hands and Mike raised his free hand to grasp Jason’s shoulder. It was a standard manly greeting, but Jason really didn’t want the additional contact. He made himself smile and stepped backward as soon as he could justify it.

“Good to see you too.” He turned to Walt Kowalchuk, the team’s General Manager, who had accompanied Mike into the room. “Walt.” A nod in acknowledgment, and Jason continued. “You’ve still got time to meet after practice?”

“I’ve got all the time you need, Coach. But that’s not what you’re going to ask me for, is it?” Walt was an old pro, having bounced around half the hockey world before settling in Pine River for the last few years of his career, and he was good at his job. But not good enough to always have money for Jason’s projects. He didn’t wait for an answer. “But let’s focus on the positive.” He clapped his hand on Mike’s shoulder and turned toward the anxiously hushed team. “Guys, let me introduce you to Mike Whitby. I think you may have heard of him.”

The tension eased a bit as the boys laughed, and then Walt continued. “He’s got some time to talk to you all today, and if we’re lucky… I notice he brought his skates with him. You guys want to practice with an NHLer?”

Just before the boys erupted into a puppy-like frenzy of enthusiasm, Kelly spoke up. He was an “over age” player, kept around not for his skill, but for his sheer toughness. “Did he bring his pads and a helmet too?” Kelly’s voice was cool, showing that he refused to be impressed by the visitor, and there was just enough of a challenge in it to make Jason have to hide a grin. Kelly was good for the team.

The Wolverines were the up-and-coming players, and they should be respectful to someone who’d already made it, but not subservient. If Mike was really going to practice with them, he should be ready to work and, yeah, ready to take a few hits. If he wasn’t, if he was just there to skate around a little, well, the team should see that for what it was.

But apparently Walt didn’t share Jason’s attitude, and he was frowning at Kelly before Mike spoke up. “I didn’t. I retired for a reason, you know.” He grinned, making it clear that this wasn’t a tragedy. “I’m about done taking hits from guys as tough as Kelly Dunlop.”

Damn, that was impressive. Mike knew the kid’s name, and Kelly was just a grinder, not a star. Jason remembered the shy, introverted kid he’d known and wondered when Mike had gotten so smooth. Wherever the skill had come from, it was certainly being used to good effect here. The team was grinning again and Kelly looked completely won over.

Jason needed to get the team in gear before they turned into a bunch of little girls swooning over a matinee idol. “Okay, guys, enough chat, let’s get on the ice. You can talk to Mr. Whitby after the practice.” But even with visitors in the locker room, they still had their ritual, and the boys were clearly waiting for it.

Jason grinned and nodded. Okay. “Where’s the game, boys?” he asked, his voice loud and ringing.

The answer was even louder. The boys moved as one, tapping their temples twice, then thudding a fist over their chests. “HEAD, HEAD, HEART!” they yelled in unison, and then they sprang into action. They grabbed their gear, headed out the door and Mike stood and watched them go.

When the last player trailed out of the locker room, Mike turned toward Jason. “‘Mr. Whitby’?” he said quietly, his eyebrow raised in amusement. “I like that. About time I got a little respect out of you.”

But Jason couldn’t do it, couldn’t fall back into the old rapport that easily. They’d been teammates and they’d been friends. And then, briefly, they’d been more, before it had all fallen apart. Sure, it had been a long time, but that didn’t mean Jason was over it. No, wait. He was over it, he just wasn’t… whatever. He wasn’t ready to pretend it hadn’t happened. That sounded better.

He sat down and pulled his own skates out of his gear bag. He just needed to focus on hockey. The game made sense and he understood it. The best thing about being on the ice had always been the way it let him leave the confusion on the other side of the glass.

He felt the bench move a little as someone sat next to him, and without looking up from the skate he was lacing, Jason knew it was Mike. Jesus, his voice, and now his smell. The guy must have changed colognes at some point in the last fifteen years. Jason couldn’t remember young Mike having ever worn any, actually, and now there was a faint spiciness that probably cost more than Jason made in a month. But underneath it, somehow, was Mike. Mike, who Jason was completely over, he reminded himself. Fifteen years. He was not that pathetic.

Mike was lacing up his own skates, but he was also clearly waiting for Jason to say something. “Welcome home,” he managed. It was stupid, of course. Mike had been back in town since the summer and it was well past Christmas now. He’d already been welcomed back by everyone who meant anything. Jason was just babbling.

But Mike didn’t seem to think so. He bounced a little on the old wooden bench, looked down at their skate-clad feet and grinned. “Yeah, thanks,” he said. “It’s good to be back.”

Story Behind the Story, IMMORTAL by Bryl R. Tyne

Hello, Jadette! 

Thanks for allowing me to share a little about my story, IMMORTAL, part of the Timeless Desire Collection with Noble Romance.

A small group of Noble Romance authors got together and decided on a theme for a collection of novellas. The theme chosen for this tour was "Timeless Desire."

As with the last themed stories/blog tour at Noble, I was asked to edit them. When I saw the theme and heard some of the ideas batted around, I thought, "Wow," I want to write a story for this one too. I inquired in the group, and the other authors were like, "Hell yeah!"

So, I was thinking... timeless desire-- First thing that comes to my mind is unrequited love. The thought that followed was of a vampire who just cannot find love no matter how he tries. My next thoughts, which were sort of personal brainstorming, led me to at first think that was a pretty flat plot, next, I decided that it would have to be unrequited from both directions to make it "timeless", then I wondered who would be the "right" character opposite my vampire. That guy turned out to be a water spirit... Well, as with most of my creative streaks, my brain comes up with these grandiose ideas and then I'm forced to research my ass off to catch up. This time was no different.

"Water spirit?" WTF? So, I began my research.

Low and behold, I found water spirits, sprites, and gods, and a certain spirit called a bannick from whence my ancestors come (Slavic paganism). Bannick-Bath house spirit. Like the house and barn, bath houses (saunas, really) had their own particular domestic spirit residing there. Bath houses were a traditional berthing place, and in IE tradition spirits had to attend this event. It was customary in some places to offer every third or fourth firing of the sauna to the Bannik. The Bannick could also be propitiated with offerings of soap, fir branches, and water. If he became annoyed, he might throw hot water on his tormentors or even use his sharp claws to flay his victim alive. If he makes himself visible, the Bannik usually appears as a family member or friend. (circe-argent.com/slavic_paganism.htm) Interesting...

When all was said and done, I had a vampire who needs this bannick's power to maintain his youthful glow and a bannick who needs this vampire's bite to remain in human form. A kind of self-inflicted curse on this romance where if either loses the other, they both suffer, much like in Lady Hawke, where they were forever together but forever apart but with one of my famous twists, which you can find out about when you read the book. There you have my story behind IMMORTAL.

Blurb:

Found abandoned as a child and taken in by the Nevsky clan, the man Ivis now feels the call of the water, the sea, but Sefton and his family, one of the most influential vampire bloodlines in Russia, isn't about to let Ivis go. As Ivis's powers grow stronger—powers unknown to him—Sefton's instructed to detain Ivis at all costs to tilt in his clan's favor the balance of power in an endless struggle between the Bogdanov water gods and Nevsky vampires. Sefton's left with a choice: power or love. Which is the greater desire?

Link to excerpt: http://bryltyne.com/excerpt-immortal-by-bryl-r-tyne

Link to buy: https://www.nobleromance.com/Books?author=59

 

CONTEST: Leave a comment to win a Bryl R. Tyne Swag-pack! One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Bryl's novella, COIN OPERATED BOY, so be sure to leave your contact emails!

Continue the tour by clicking the Noble Tour button

Bio and Links:

BRYL R. TYNE is a wrangler by nature and a writer by choice. Balancing as many pronouns as hats, somewhere between the evil day job, editing, and helping a benevolent Sugar Daddy raise the last of seven kids, Bryl writes. Homoerotic romance is a favorite, but many of Bryl’s stories cross genres. Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-fi, even Westerns, Bryl writes them all.

Website: http://bryltyne.com

Blog: http://bryltyne.com/blog

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2877215.Bryl_R_Tyne

H C Brown and Time to Live Story behind the Story

This is the kick off of some of Noble Publishing's authors touring this month on my blog!  Here's H.C. Brown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had the notion at one time that BDSM was a fetish found in underground dungeons hidden down dark alleyways. Okay, so maybe out there somewhere this holds a grain of truth. My insight as it were came from some hard research. I was brainstorming an idea with Stormy Glenn to do an anthology for Noble Romance.  I wanted to try something our fans would enjoy but with a little difference. Stormy came up with a slave auction and I came up with Floggers BDSM Club.

We gave each other a brief outline of our main characters and the interior of the club with the Flogger's VIP bar for the doms, and the house subs, so we could blend both stories together. I spend a whole lot of time speaking with people in the BDSM scene. I purchased a few recommended BDSM manuals and went to work.

Surprisingly the characters for Dominate Me grew out of the attitude of the people in the scene I had spoken to about this subject. The scents and smells of a dungeon, the setting of a BDSM scene all gave life to my characters. The trust needed between the participants, the diversity of people who indulge and most of all the range of pleasure sought and given. I think I can sum it up in one word—respect.

I finished Dominate Me before Stormy had completed her story and although we had very little input into each other's work the stories blended very well.

My latest release for the Timeless Desire Blog Tour is Time to Live.  I go back to Floggers in this story and you will find old favorites Nash, Paul and Rio in cameo appearances. Time to Live is a story about sexual discovery and fulfillment. I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.

Blurb.

Seth Bannock is living a lie. Nothing in his life is working out. He likes women . . . he respects women . . . but when he tries to kiss a woman and she does that tongue thing, he wants to spew.

Confused by his body's reaction to the men at his gym, Seth seeks help from the only gay club he knows—Floggers. Is the man crazy? Seeking answers, the sweet, vanilla virgin marches into the BDSM club to speak to the owner, Rio Knight.

Realization that he has been on the wrong team all his life comes in the form of a six-foot-seven Adonis by the name of Matt Duffey. Instantly attracted to the leather-clad alpha male, Seth must leave his old life behind and embrace his newfound sexuality

Seth thought his life had complications before he met Matt, but nothing comes close to the rollercoaster ride in the big dom's arms.

Buy link: https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/343/Time-to-Live

H.C. Brown's Links.

www.hcbrown-author.com

www.hcbrownauthotoferoticromance.blogspot.com

Please leave a comment to go into the draw for a great prize. Don't forget to leave your email address. Then click on the Noble Romance Tour button to continue the tour.