Over at the Torquere Social email list, Vince Diamond threw down a ficlet challenge: 100 words or less using the words:'June', 'nuclear', and 'garage'.

I'm not doing so great at writing short today, it seems, so here's exactly twice as much ficlet as required (which is why I'm posting here not there.)

*****

The metal garage door was hot to the touch, and when Mark turned the latch and lifted it up and over the June heat slammed into him, prickling his temples with sweat and making him squint against the sun's nuclear-blast brightness.

He retreated a few steps into the relative coolness of the shaded garage and screwed up his eyes, watching the sunspots dance across his closed eyelids.

Fuck, it was brutal out there. A beer out of the fridge, and his recliner positioned between two fans seemed more tempting than ever, but he'd promised Hal that he'd clear out the junk boxes today, and, well - a promise was a promise.

That went for his promised reward, too, he reminded himself, and the mirage of the fans faded away, replaced by something much more distracting.

Mark loved water and sex together, which, admittedly, wasn't Hal's favourite thing about him. Hal wasn't above bribery, though, and especially after nearly two weeks of heat-wave which made even the slightest touch sticky and irritating, the prospect of Hal stretched up against the wall in the shower stall, water running over those muscles, begging Mark to touch him…

Mark shivered.

The beer could wait.

*****

A tiny, off-the-cuff snippet for @melfaescotland over on Twitter, who asked for Teague and emo boy's in bands

*****

It's afternoon when he wakes, at least he thinks so from how it feels. The room's sun-baked air still stuffy from having passed through too many lungs, even though he's alone now.

He remembers sprawling out on the couch, dumping his legs across someone's lap. Sam? Teague? The details aren't there yet.

He remembers laughing wildly at something, laughing till his lungs hurt, his stomach ached, until he slid boneless onto the rough carpet. He remembers pulling people down on top of him in a hot, heavy, ridiculous pile. He remembers deciding that standing up was way too much effort, and the conversations were all floating above him, up, out of reach, disjointed because every time he blinked his friends skipped into fast forward.

He doesn't remember the party ending. There must have been a moment when the room fell silent, and someone caught someone's eye and made some gesture that asked 'time to go?', because why else would he be alone?

The room's wrecked, although it's only because it's his mess that he can tell how much of the chaos is new. A t-shirt balled up under the couch, right at his eye level. He stretches awkwardly to tug it free, sky blue against the grubby charcoal of his rug, soft under his calloused fingers, and he wants, so badly, for it to smell of Teague, but when he buries his face in it, there's just the sharp smell of stale beer.

*****

Saffron Stain's first review is 5 stars from Rainbow Reviews! - The two lovers come from very different backgrounds, and that is very nicely detailed in these pages. As is their love and commitment, the way that even in pain and discord they never forget each other.... The intrigue and the subplots are so captivating that one cannot help but enjoy it. Go read!

Joyfully Reviewed also gave Stay Tape a lovely write up - Stay Tape is a cute and funny story... Stay Tape is great when you need a chuckle and a little uplift in your day.

(And I got good reader comments via Twitter today. All in all, a very good day indeed :D )

Joyfully Reviewed has given Sleeping Bears Lie a lovely review.

Sleeping Bears Lie is an intriguing tale that travels into the land of myths, deftly blending them with reality.

Be in with a chance to win one of two Torquere gift certificates - enter my contest here .

I am so excited to finally see Saffron Stains in e-print.

I mean, any day you have a book come out, that's a good day, and something to get excited about, sure, but this one's extra special to me, because it features Kael and Jem who are the very first queer characters to have shown up in my head. I have been trying to tell their story for years, and finally, in Saffron Stains, I feel like I've written them a story that's good enough for them.

Saffron Stains is a British urban fantasy - Kael's an elf, Jem's half elf, half brownie, but they live in a medium sized town in the south of the UK, and neither of them have yet worked out how to use magic to pay the gas bill, or do the washing up.

There's a snippet of Kael and Jem from the opening to Saffron Stains at the Torquere website, and here's a little bonus snippet of Kael and Jem, which does not appear in the book.

( behind the cut )

I'm hosting over at torquere_social today, if you'd like to head over and join us?

Rainbow Reviews has given Favor a lovely three-and-a-half star review.

Their encounter in the church graveyard is fun and steamy, as are the two young men.

The author has a great voice ... blending easy and descriptive writing with humor and romance makes this short story a fun and enjoyable read.

(and if you're wondering about the happily ever after element, check out the 'extras' on Favor Favor's page on my site</a>)

Check out the fabulous cover art for my up-coming story, Saffron Stains. Isn't it beautiful?

(It's my very first custom cover - I am so pleased to see it and have it be real!)

I got my email inbox at my day job down to one single solitary message today - and that's just to remind me to chase someone up if I haven't heard from them by Thursday. I'm making a (doomed) attempt to get equally caught up on my personal email this evening. (It's really hard to concentrate on the stories when my head's full of 'I ought to's, and I really want to get back to the stories!)

Dear author-friends,

Would any of you be interested in pairing up with me for either a book post or an author post at authorsbyauthors.blogspot.com?

Please and also thank you.

Over at CoffeeTimeRomance, one of the recent open questions was

If you could have your dream "writing cave" what would it look like?

This is my answer.

My ideal writing cave is snug and thick walled, so it's cool in summer and warm in winter, and so I can ply my music at my volume without upsetting anyone. There's a lamp on my desk, shedding a golden pool of light, and a string of white fairy lights wrapped in spirals over the ceiling for light.  The walls are a patchwork of inspirational pictures and clippings and postcards, everywhere where there aren't book shelves. 

The desk is a big dining room table, sticking out into the cave, with room for all the books and notebooks I want at arm's reach for the project of the day, and space for both my computer, and to write long hand.  There are various nooks and cranies for my cat to snooze in, when she's not trying to stand on my keyboard or sit on my paper, and a battered sofa covered in fleece throws so I can curl up in comfort when I need to change my perspective. 

There's a big pot of flowers on a shelf above the desk - right now I'm craving daffodils and narcissi - that magically gets refreshed with new flowers,  and a never ending supply of mugs of tea (tea-tea in the day, and spiced herbal teas at night) and fruit in the fruit bowl.

There's also a pause button by the entrance, so I can pause the outside world until I'm ready to come out of my cave and interact with it again.

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