Oaky, I haven’t exactly been on track with these. I didn’t post for a couple of weeks because I knew I didn’t really have time to read everyone else’s. This is my last “free” weekend before school starts. We’ll see what happens after that. Mercifully, I’m a secondary teacher, so my prep time for classes isn’t as taxing as for elementary kids. I spent this past week setting up my room and making it shine for when the students arrive. I wonder how many parents will complain after open house that I have posters of the reproductive system on my wall.

Snippet time! It’s officially Bi Month, so I’m choosing some excerpts that feature bi+ characters. One of my series is currently unavailable, as it’s going through some “tough love” for a re-release. The others can all be found where most books are sold.

This one is from my very first novel, Lower Education. It’s slightly longer than 6 sentences, but only because some of them are very short.

Phin sighed. “In case it wasn’t clear to you, I like men. I like sex with men. But, Alex, I like women, too. I enjoyed fooling around with Gia. Whatever else you may think of me, I wasn’t play-acting or just trying to work her over. She’s very sexy, and it felt good. That’s all. With some guys, I feel like I need to fake it—to them, shame is respectable, but enjoying myself with women isn’t. It would be easier for them if they thought I only ever fucked women because I was ‘doing business,’ as you said. Or maybe because I was still in the closet, I suppose. But I’m as out as I’m ever gonna be—I’m not hiding.”

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

Another week, another snippet. Today is my youngest child’s 18th birthday. It’s definitely a little odd to have a household full of adults, but I’m incredibly proud of the person they’ve become.

I meant to do a snippet last weekend, but it’s been really busy here. We currently have a friend of my oldest child’s and their partner staying here because we’re helping extract the two of them from a difficult situation. I’m glad to be at a stage of life where we can do this more easily.

On top of all that, I had 2 more job interviews for my primary profession. One of them resulted in a new position! I’m thrilled to be on this path, finally getting started on the career I want. I still love writing, but I never intended to make it my full-time job. Having work now means more financial security and a way to support my writing without relying primarily on my spouse’s income.

Now to the actual snippet. Posting has definitely been keeping me invested in writing, so here’s the next bit.

At one point, back when my children were young, my oldest told a classmate that the Black Diamond was his uncle. When the classmate called him a liar, my son sneaked a photo to school of the one time my brother graced our family table with his presence. He looked ordinary and happy at the time, which I suppose didn’t fit with his hard rock image. The kid still denied that my son was telling the truth, so Brian clobbered him and ended up suspended from school for a week.

This was about a year before my brother publicly announced—for the last time—that he was entering rehab. Neither of my children ever again made it known they were related to him.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

It’s been a very long time since I shared one of these. Two years ago, I returned to school to finish the teaching degree I’d planned to get before having children. Now that I’ve graduated, I have some spare time while doing the whole job search thing.

I have a couple of other WIPs, but I’m not feeling inspired. They were ones I’d worked on before school and my day job took up all my energy. I’ll probably finish them eventually, but for now, I’m working on something else.

This is a story about a woman searching for answers after her older brother’s death. They’d been estranged for some time before that. When his associate turns up at her home, it leads her on a journey to understand who he was—and, subsequently, who she is.

My brother was famous; I am not.

When he died, every tribute article included the same two images. The first was a twenty-year-old promotional photo for his debut solo album. The second was a picture of a group of fans holding a candlelight vigil on a city sidewalk. No mention was made of precisely where that one was taken or even which city. Presumably, it was somewhere in or near Chicago, where he’d lived on and off since leaving home.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

I see a lot of people ask why folks don’t report an incident when it happens, and answers vary. But one thing I don’t see discussed all that often is how it might be difficult to know if harassment has happened.

Last fall, I was working in a particular place for a couple of months. It wasn’t a friendly place to begin with, but there were a few people I connected with and some I could work with comfortably even if we weren’t friends. Being new to the job, I had to rely on others around me for support.

One of the people I considered supportive-but-not-a-friend asked me one day during my lunch break if I had some time. I said sure. In hindsight, I should’ve said no, but it’s not like I could have predicted what happened. He disclosed to me some personal information about his relationship and said he needed a “wife’s perspective.”

What followed was details about his sexual exploits at work in a way that made me uncomfortable. Would I have said it was harassment? Not at the time, no. Weird and awkward, yes. But on the level of a reportable offense? Well, I didn’t report it, so there you go.

Until I watched the training video for a different job (the one I’m currently in). I know I’m being vague, but trust me, when I saw the video, the specific things this person said to me and the way he cornered me alone and manipulated me during the conversation were absolutely and without question harassment.

This is the sort of thing I have dealt with since junior high school. Boys (then) and men (now) tend to say things to me that are definitely not acceptable. Nine times out of ten, it’s someone I barely know: a coworker I just met, a casual acquaintance from a class, a virtual stranger on the internet. There’s also a vastly different tone than a close friend talking about something personal. This includes threatening me or stalking me if I say I’m uncomfortable or I walk away. I once blocked a man on social media for the things he said to me, and he proceeded to stalk my website and send me angry messages because he “opened up” to me and I was being “cruel” for rejecting him.

I really don’t know exactly why this happens. Maybe I’m particularly gullible when it comes to the manipulation tactics these men use to get my attention before they drop the pretense. Maybe they either think of me as “one of the guys” (odd, since I’m definitely not particularly masc) or they see me as an unfuckable sounding board and figure it’s “safe” to tell me their sexual woes. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve written books that include detailed intimacy, particularly queer sex, so people think that I’m available to listen to their real stories.

Some of the problem is that I don’t always recognize the harassment immediately. As I mentioned before, I didn’t even think it was more than just uncomfortable until the specific things said to me came up in the training video. The people who have done this to me often phrase it in a way that makes me think it’s not that big a deal, at least at first. I once had a man message me because he wanted to thank me for being open-minded. He started off by telling me he’s had a lot of bad experiences with women not liking that he’s bisexual. And of course, I’ll always defend my bi brothers, so I had no problem with him sending me a quick note. Sadly, that exchange ended with him sending me a dick pic.

But I think there’s another layer. Without exception, every single person who has approached me in this way has been from a marginalized community. It’s almost exclusively men, but I have experienced it from a couple of women and a couple of nonbinary people. Only two (to my knowledge) of the men who have done this to me in my adulthood have been cisgender heterosexual, and while most have been white, not all have been. I think that this makes me particularly vulnerable because I try not to be seen as someone unsafe for marginalized folks. Yes, I’m part of some of those communities myself, but I’m also keenly aware of places where I have privilege. So no matter how uncomfortable I might be, I’m wary of doing harm by reporting these incidents or even saying no to lending an ear. I didn’t want to report Dick Pic Guy because I didn’t want him or anyone else to think the problem was his sexuality and not the fact that he sent a perfect stranger an uninvited image of his schlong. On top of that, the one person I told that this had happened excused the behavior and made it clear they did not think I was aware of how things are “really” done in queer circles.

Except that this type of behavior is doing harm to me. Being sexually and romantically liberated does not magically confer the right to exploit other marginalized people, to create unsafe and hostile environments. My work as an author does not make me a therapist or available to anyone who asks. And as much as I know I need to use caution when someone wants to speak to me, that does not in any way excuse the behavior of the other parties involved.

Unless we are good friends, have known each other for years, and have had conversations about many other topics that don’t involve sex, I do not want to hear it. I am not your therapist or your partner. Even if we know each other, please use care when sharing things with me. Ask first, don’t assume. And don’t put me in the position of having to decide if my trauma or yours takes precedence in matters of sex and intimacy. Definitely don’t send me pics of your genitals no matter how well we know each other.

I suppose that title accurately describes both the plot of Tree of Life and the epic saga (ha!) of how the book came to be.

It’s taken six years (and one month, but who’s counting?) to see this published. Five of those were spent in writing it; the last was revising, editing, proofreading, and creating the cover. It all started back in 2016 with the publication of An Act of Devotion.

That book in itself has its own back story. Around the time my first novel, Lower Education, was published, I wrote a number of short works for this blog and for Kindle to generate some interest in my writing. Among them was a story originally published under the title “Fifteen Minutes.” It’s sitting in a virtual drawer, awaiting the right moment to be re-published along with a few other works from over the years, all of which are connected to other books.

That story was about a high school sophomore developing an understanding of his sexuality. It was all right, as my early works go. Nothing that made it stand out as either amazing or awful. I did like the characters, though, and always figured I’d do something new with them.

“New” came in the form of a friend, author Adrian J. Smith, and extraordinarily talented writer of women-loving-women fiction. (If you have not read her work, you absolutely must go visit the link and do so as soon as possible.) Not being an author writing gay/bi men, Adrian asked me to write a story for a character in Memoir in the Making. Trust me when I say I was nervous as hell. When an author you love asks for something like this, first of all, you say yes. Second, if you’re like me, you spend the better part of six months stressing over it and worrying about getting it “right.”

I think I managed all right. An Act of Devotion enjoyed some modest success; not one of my best works, but by no means terrible. I was at that point still feeling torn between trying to write Romance (genre) and being true to my nature as a writer. Let’s just say I could have integrated those things better.

A not-small number of people who read both the original version of “Fifteen Minutes” and An Act of Devotion asked me about a couple of the side characters. I suppose what they imagined was more of a romance, which I’d hinted at a bit in AAOD. Hahahaha…I mean, yes, I did try that. And scrapped it.

Yet somehow, Luke and Connor wouldn’t let me rest without telling some kind of story about them. What happened that left Luke homeless? Why was Connor so angry? I messed around with the story for several years while I published a lot of other things: some short stories, a novella, and four novels. The pair of them were awfully patient with me, given how long I let them hang out in that virtual drawer. Long enough I nearly decided to give up.

The pandemic brought a lot of changes, among them the loss of my drive to write. I started a new career path (hi, I’m still on it) and went back to school. Still, I didn’t entirely give up. I worked on this story until there wasn’t anything else I could do except submit it and cross my fingers.

There are a couple of things to know about Tree of Life. First, it isn’t a romance. I suppose if you squint, you could affix that label, but I choose not to. This is slice-of-life/literary fiction. Don’t judge it based on how much “chemistry” the main characters have or which tropes it embraces. Those are great! But they don’t fit this particular novel.

Second, it isn’t necessary to have read any of the previous works that are associated with this book. There’s enough detail to make sense, but those stories have little impact on the plot at hand. If you want to read An Act of Devotion, be my guest, but that’s closer to a romance than this one and also genuinely isn’t for everyone’s taste.

I’m glad this book is now out in the world. I hope that people read it and enjoy it and that it makes them think. I hope it satisfies the curiosity of those who wanted to know what happened to Luke and Connor. Most of all, I hope that in finally telling their story, I find my writing joy again. If not, though, at least I’ve released this out into the wild and given it wings.

Purchase links:

Note: You can certainly purchase through one of the vendors, but my preference is that you buy from the publisher. This is a small press, and going through them supports the business directly rather than a large corporation.

BEATEN TRACK SHOP:

• Ebook Edition: £4.99 (€5.89 / $6.24)
• Paperback Edition: £12.99 (€15.33 / $16.24)

OTHER VENDORS:

• Amazon (commissions earned)
• Smashwords
• Google Play Books
• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Scribd

When I was writing this novel, I wanted some music both for the story and for inspiration. I asked friends and family on social media and offline to supply me with some songs. I anticipated I might get several repeats, especially some of the more familiar songs. However, what happened was a long list (160 songs!) with very few people suggesting the same ones. Instead of choosing, I added them all and figured a cross-country road trip definitely needed many hours of different music. This is the result. Enjoy!

Pre-order links:

Note: You can certainly purchase through one of the vendors, but my preference is that you buy from the publisher. This is a small press, and going through them supports the business directly rather than a large corporation.

BEATEN TRACK SHOP:

• Ebook Edition: £4.99 (€5.89 / $6.24)
• Paperback Edition: £12.99 (€15.33 / $16.24)

OTHER VENDORS:

• Amazon (commissions earned)
• Smashwords
• Google Play Books
• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Scribd

Synopsis

Luke works a job he hates and shares a dirty, small apartment with his roommate, barely making ends meet and envying the successes of his friends. When they all return for a wedding, Luke comes face to face with one of the people he left behind when he took off. Instead of the bitterness Luke expects, Connor invites him on a forty-day, cross-country trip.

They travel the length of route I-90, following the last journey Connor’s father made from Boston to Seattle, recorded in a nearly incoherent memoir. The two of them meet hitchhikers, stowaways, and a collage of people all willing to help uncover the secrets of who Connor’s father was. Along the way, Luke’s hidden past catches up with him when it collides with Connor’s present. With the help of friends and strangers, both of them must learn what home and family mean before Luke runs away again.

Excerpt

He returns to the RV, where Connor is already in the driver’s seat. Luke tucks the new postcards into the scrapbook. On a whim, he takes out his camera and snaps a picture of Connor, whose smile is shy.

“Enough of that. Ready?”

“Almost. Got any music?”

“Yeah, of course.” Connor taps his phone. “Help yourself.”

Luke opens the app and finds Connor’s playlist. His surprise increases until he’s laughing. “Connor, what the fuck?”

“What?” Connor sounds genuinely perplexed, but he could be playing around.

“Why. Why do you have ten goddamn hours of music on here?”

“It’s not ten,” Connor mutters.

“Close enough and…Jesus.” Luke’s laughing harder now. “Why these songs?”

“Because I like them, Janet,” Connor snaps. “Just pick something already.”

Luke shrugs and hits shuffle. He can’t help the continued random giggles as “Movin’ Right Along” plays. He says, “Oh, man. Fozzie’s smooth vocals get me right here.” He thumps his chest.

“Shut up,” Connor replies, but he’s grinning as he pulls back out onto the highway.

Playlist:

• The Saga Begins – Weird Al Yankovic
• Cello Suite no. 1 – Yo-Yo Ma/J.S. Bach 
• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
• Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
• Out There on the Road – Big Fish
• Join the Circus – Barnum
• Wake Me Up When September Ends – Green Day
• You Can Sleep While I Drive – Melissa Etheridge
• Ni Na La – Solas
• Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
• Wake Me Up – Avicii
• Movin’ Right Along – The Muppets
• Road to Nowhere – The Talking Heads
• Get Out the Map – Indigo Girls
• Invincible – Pat Benatar
• Friend Like Me – Aladdin
• Sh-Boom – The Chords
• Time to Move On – Tom Petty
• Best Day Ever – SpongeBob SquarePants
• Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty
• Ramblin Man – The Allman Brothers Band
• You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon
• Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry 
• It’s Raining Men – Pointer Sisters
• Girls/Girls/Boys – Panic! At the Disco
• I Wanna Dance with Somebody – Whitney Houston
• Dancing Queen – ABBA
• Shut Up and Dance – Walk the Moon
• I can’t drive 55 – Sammy Hagar
• Born In the USA – Bruce Springsteen
• This Land Is Your Land – Woody Guthrie
• R.O.C.K. in the USA – John Mellencamp
• Firework – Katy Perry
• Gary, Indiana – The Music Man
• Rainbow Connection – The Muppets
• I Ain’t Got No Home – Woody Guthrie
• All That Jazz – Chicago
• Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
• Stand – R.E.M.
• Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
• Cell Block Tango – Chicago
• One Jump Ahead – Aladdin
• My Shot – Hamilton
• Beat It – Michael Jackson
• Skimbleshanks: the Railway Cat – CATS
• Another One Rides the Bus – Weird Al Yankovic
• Yellow Submarine – The Beatles
• Youth – Troye Sivan
• Seventeen – Heathers
• America’s Sweetheart – Elle King
• Preachin’ Blues – Larkin Poe
• This Is Gospel – Panic! At the Disco
• Good Morning, Baltimore – Hairspray
• Runnin’ Down a Dream – Tom Petty
• Guys Like Me – Aimee Mann 
• Take Me Home, Country Roads – John Denver
• On Top of the World – Imagine Dragons
• On the Road Again – Willie Nelson
• Walk of Life – Dire Straits
• Somethin’ Stupid – Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman
• Livin’ on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
• Float On – Modest Mouse
• Georgia on My Mind – Ray Charles
• Man Like That – Gin Wigmore
• Cecilia – Simon and Garfunkel
• Best of Both Worlds – Hannah Montana
• Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Monty Python
• Gimme Gimme Gimme – ABBA
• American Pie – Don Maclean
• Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Sparklejollytwinklejingly – Elf
• You and Me (But Mostly Me) – Book of Mormon
• I Got This – Freaky Friday
• Mamma Mia – ABBA
• 1999 – Prince
• Thriller – Michael Jackson
• Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
• Life Is a Highway – Rascal Flats
• For Forever – Dear Evan Hansen
• Take Me to Church – Hozier 
• Headlong – Queen
• Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
• Running on Empty – Jackson Browne
• Highway to Hell – AC/DC
• Mama Who Bore Me – Spring Awakening
• Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn – Evelyn Evelyn
• On My Own – Les Misérables
• Open Road Song – Eve 6
• There Is a Sucker Born Ev’ry Minute – Barnum
• Ya Got Trouble – The Music Man
• You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son – Wolf Parade
• Carry on Wayward Son – Kansas
• You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home – Hannah Montana
• When You’re Home – In The Heights
• I’m Goin’ Home – Hootie & the Blowfish
• Home Sweet Home – Mötley Crüe
• Sincerely, Me – Dear Evan Hansen
• Fight the Dragons – Big Fish
• King of the Road – Roger Miller
• Satisfied – Hamilton
• Born This Way – Lady Gaga
• I Like It – A Bronx Tale
• I’m a Believer – The Monkeys
• I’ll Make a Man Out of You – Mulan
• I Feel the Earth Move – Carole King
• What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction
• I Want it That Way – Backstreet Boys
• Good Time – Carly Rae Jepson & Owl City
• When Can I See You Again – Owl City
• Drive – The Lightning Thief Musical
• Hakuna Matata – Lion King
• Only for You – Heartless Bastards
• Radar Love – Golden Earring
• Sedona – Houndmouth
• Amen – Halestorm
• Brown-Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
• Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
• I Gotta Feeling – The Black Eyes Peas
• Here’s to Us – Halestrom
• Make Me Feel – Jannelle Monáe
• Old Town Road – Lil Nas X
• John, I’m Only Dancing – David Bowie
• Cool for the Summer – Demi Lovato
• Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
• Rivers and Roads – The Head and the Heart
• Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
• Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams
• Crocodile Rock – Elton John
• Take the ‘A’ Train – Ella Fitzgerald
• Piano Man – Billy Joel
• Lone Digger – Caravan Palace
• Gettin’ Bi – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• America – Simon & Garfunkel
• Camelot – Camelot
• Sunrise, Sunset – Fiddler on the Roof
• I Believe in You – Michael Buble
• Crazier than You – The Addams Family
• If I had 1,000,000 Dollars – Barenaked Ladies
• Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
• Defying Gravity – Wicked
• I’m Still Standing – Elton John
• Happy Ever After – Gin Wigmore
• With a Little Help from My Friends – Joe Cocker 
• Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
• For Good- Wicked
• Viva La Vida – Coldplay
• It’s Time – Imagine Dragons
• Stand By Me – Ben E. King
• Somewhere – West Side Story
• Corner of the Sky – Pippin
• 50 Ways to Say Goodbye – Train
• 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon
• Back to the Middle – Modest Mouse
• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day
• I Don’t Know How to Love Him – Jesus Christ Superstar
• Michael in the Bathroom – Be More Chill
• Climb Ev’ry Mountain – The Sound of Music
• Seasons of Love – RENT
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – The Beatles

I’ve been to the store Luke is referring to here. It’s right off the Peach Street exit in Erie, PA. One half is a Jelly Belly store, and the other is guns, ammo, and fireworks. At least, it was the last time we travelled that way a couple of years ago.

Pre-order links:

Note: You can certainly purchase through one of the vendors, but my preference is that you buy from the publisher. This is a small press, and going through them supports the business directly rather than a large corporation.

BEATEN TRACK SHOP:

• Ebook Edition: £4.99 (€5.89 / $6.24)
• Paperback Edition: £12.99 (€15.33 / $16.24)

OTHER VENDORS:

• Amazon (commissions earned)
• Smashwords
• Google Play Books
• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Scribd

Synopsis

Luke works a job he hates and shares a dirty, small apartment with his roommate, barely making ends meet and envying the successes of his friends. When they all return for a wedding, Luke comes face to face with one of the people he left behind when he took off. Instead of the bitterness Luke expects, Connor invites him on a forty-day, cross-country trip.

They travel the length of route I-90, following the last journey Connor’s father made from Boston to Seattle, recorded in a nearly incoherent memoir. The two of them meet hitchhikers, stowaways, and a collage of people all willing to help uncover the secrets of who Connor’s father was. Along the way, Luke’s hidden past catches up with him when it collides with Connor’s present. With the help of friends and strangers, both of them must learn what home and family mean before Luke runs away again.

Excerpt

The sky is overcast, and it’s hot—almost ninety degrees today. Luke’s in threadbare jeans and a red-and-white-striped sleeveless shirt so faded it looks pink. Even in lighter clothes, he’s still sweltering, almost wishing he’d joined the others inside the store.

He takes a picture of it because he’s never seen candy and fireworks in the same place before. This stretch of road is almost nothing but restaurants and businesses. While Luke is standing there, looking down the busy road, a soft, “hey” alerts him to someone else’s presence. He turns.

A person who looks like a kid but probably isn’t stands right next to him. They have on black skinny jeans, a baggy white shirt, and a backwards baseball cap that hides most of their brown hair. Their arms are well-muscled, and their skin is deeply tanned. They have inquisitive brown eyes and a small, rosebud mouth. Luke has to swallow several times before he can answer. It’s been ages since he saw someone who instantly sparked his interest this way.

“Hey,” he says.

“You got a couple bucks?”

Oh. Luke holds in his sigh, but he knows before he answers that he’ll give this person what they want. He’s never been able to say no, not even when he doesn’t have any to spare.

“Yeah, hang on.” He reaches for his wallet and pulls out what little cash he has in there. He stashed a bit more in the RV, and he has his bank card, not that there’s much left in the account—or ever was to begin with.

“Thanks. Hey, you know where the bus station is?”

“I don’t live here.”

At that, the person’s attention perks up. “Yeah? You traveling?”

This is too many nosy questions, but Luke’s already said he’s not from Erie. “On a trip with a friend.” He tilts his head toward the fireworks store. “Waiting for him to get out here.”

“You think you could spare a ride to the bus station?”

Luke looks back at the store again. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask.”

“What, your buddy’s in charge?” The person scoffs.

“Kind of? It’s his RV.” Luke thinks, too late, that he probably shouldn’t have said which vehicle was theirs. Though the person might’ve figured it out eventually, given that there are only two other cars there.

The stranger whistles. “Sweet ride. Well, I’ll stay right here with you, since you don’t seem like you’re gonna give me a real answer.”

Luke waits until their back is turned then rolls his eyes. They are nosy and obnoxious, and he’s mad that he’s still reacting to their appearance. He could do without their personality.

“I’m Jory, by the way.” They don’t turn around.

“Luke.”

“Your buddy, he’s one of us, right?”

“Uh…” Luke fights the urge to give this person more details than they need. “One of us?”

“Come on. You know why I picked you and not that guy.” They hitch a thumb over their shoulder at the person on the other end of the parking lot, a beefy man in trousers and a collared shirt, talking loudly on his cell phone.

“I dunno. You didn’t pick him ’cause he looks like kind of a douche?”“Yeah, the kind of douche who at best will throw a name at my back when I turn around. Family knows family.” They turn toward Luke and eye him up and down.

Pre-order links:

Note: You can certainly purchase through one of the vendors, but my preference is that you buy from the publisher. This is a small press, and going through them supports the business directly rather than a large corporation.

BEATEN TRACK SHOP:

• Ebook Edition: £4.99 (€5.89 / $6.24)
• Paperback Edition: £12.99 (€15.33 / $16.24)

OTHER VENDORS:

• Amazon (commissions earned)
• Smashwords
• Google Play Books
• Apple
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Scribd

Synopsis

Luke works a job he hates and shares a dirty, small apartment with his roommate, barely making ends meet and envying the successes of his friends. When they all return for a wedding, Luke comes face to face with one of the people he left behind when he took off. Instead of the bitterness Luke expects, Connor invites him on a forty-day, cross-country trip.

They travel the length of route I-90, following the last journey Connor’s father made from Boston to Seattle, recorded in a nearly incoherent memoir. The two of them meet hitchhikers, stowaways, and a collage of people all willing to help uncover the secrets of who Connor’s father was. Along the way, Luke’s hidden past catches up with him when it collides with Connor’s present. With the help of friends and strangers, both of them must learn what home and family mean before Luke runs away again.

Excerpt

Because Luke hasn’t been paying attention, he misses the reason Connor is now saying, “…take about a month, all said and done.”

“What will?” Luke blurts, his admission he’s been in the land of daydreams again.

“Connor’s going cross-country,” Adam says, giving Connor a good-natured punch on the arm.

Connor rubs the spot and laughs. “Sounds like a cliché, doesn’t it? I’m driving from Boston to Seattle.”

“Why?” Luke frowns. “Just a vacation?”

“Nah. My father died.”

“Oh.” Luke realizes that sounds rude, so he adds, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, really. We weren’t close.”

Jax says, “So did he leave you a bunch of money or something?”

“Not a dime,” Connor tells them. “He left me a collection of his writings, and a lot of them refer to something he was looking for. Before he died, he traveled the same route. I guess…” He pauses and taps his lips. Then he curls his hands into fists and places them on the table. His expression is thin-lipped determination. “I wish I’d understood him better when he was alive. After he and my mother split up, she became bitter and angry. He lost his path, but he was documenting something. I want to know what he meant, so I’m tracing his footsteps to the other side of the country.”

“I have family out that way.”

Luke isn’t sure why he says it. Maybe it’s the alcohol, making him bold. Or maybe he’s latching on to something he has in common with one of them. He hasn’t seen his oldest brother in more than twice as long as he’s been away from Connor and the others. There are sufficient reasons why he’s never visited.

“You do?” Connor sounds puzzled, shaded with a bit of disappointment. Of course. Luke never shared much with him about his family.

“Yeah.”

AJ reaches out to squeeze Luke’s forearm. He knows part of the truth, but none of the others do. They didn’t know him well enough back then. Luke used to tell AJ his secrets, often after sneaking away from the group home to see him and touching each other in the dark of AJ’s bedroom. He still remembers how it felt.

“You should come with me,” Connor says.

When Luke looks around at the others, he realizes he’s been set up. He’s not so self-centered as to think the whole night was for this purpose, but the conversation was engineered for his benefit. Even Jax looks guilty.

“What about my job? My apartment? I can’t just leave them for a month on some whim.”

“You hate that job,” Jax points out. “And I’m leaving anyway.”

Embarrassed now and becoming upset, Luke says, “What am I supposed to do? Quit? Where would I go when I get back? It’s not like I have anyone.”

There’s a stunned silence that follows. It’s Adam who breaks it. “You’ll stay with us. We’ll be home from our honeymoon by then, and we’ll get you set up. We want you back with us, Luke.”

It shocks Luke to discover he’s serious. Adam, who’s always been jealous of Luke, wants him there. It doesn’t make sense to him, unless AJ did something to convince him it’s a good idea.

Luke’s face burns. The remaining guests now all have their attention on the conversation at Luke’s end of the table. He’s not sure what to say. He wants to be angry, especially knowing Jax had a hand in this. His protective but meddling roommate was obviously trying to make sure Luke was taken care of after they left for Boston, but it makes Luke feel like he’s being passed around by babysitters. They’re all so sure he can’t do anything by himself.

“I don’t know,” he says. It’s the only thing he can get out without raging at all of them and ruining the night.

“At least think about it,” Connor says. “I’m not leaving for another three weeks. I have to go home, get my shit together, and drive out to pick up the RV for the trip.”

An RV. Not quite roughing it but more flexibility than hotel stays for a month. The image resurrects memories Luke had thought long dead and buried. He wonders if there’s more to this trip than Connor’s letting on. He’s not interested right now in figuring it out because he’s still stinging from his friends implying he’s useless. Some of the hurt is because he doesn’t entirely disagree.

“Fine,” he says. “I’ll think about it.”

Connor beams at him. “You can let me know at the wedding.”

Two days. That’s all the time Luke has to decide whether he wants to upend his entire life and follow Connor on a hare-brained adventure across the country. Does he want a month with someone he can’t be certain has forgiven him? A small part of him, which he quickly stifles, knows already what his decision will be.

“I’ll think about it,” he repeats.

It seems to satisfy everyone, even though Luke’s head is still reeling. While he tries to wrap his mind around the previous few minutes, an arm slides around his shoulders, interrupting his thoughts.

“Lukey, how about you break out that camera again, hm?” AJ says. “We should get some group shots.”

Luke’s hand drifts to where the strap lies across his chest. Glad for the distraction, he agrees and stands to follow AJ.

My latest novel, Tree of Life, will be releasing on May 31, 2022!

Synopsis

Luke works a job he hates and shares a dirty, small apartment with his roommate, barely making ends meet and envying the successes of his friends. When they all return for a wedding, Luke comes face to face with one of the people he left behind when he took off. Instead of the bitterness Luke expects, Connor invites him on a forty-day, cross-country trip.

They travel the length of route I-90, following the last journey Connor’s father made from Boston to Seattle, recorded in a nearly incoherent memoir. The two of them meet hitchhikers, stowaways, and a collage of people all willing to help uncover the secrets of who Connor’s father was. Along the way, Luke’s hidden past catches up with him when it collides with Connor’s present. With the help of friends and strangers, both of them must learn what home and family mean before Luke runs away again.

Find it at Beaten Track:
Book page: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/treeoflife
Store (paperback): https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/shop/proddetail.php?prod=tol
Store (ebook): https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/shop/proddetail.php?prod=tol_format

Other pre-order links:
Amazon: http://mybook.to/tol
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1145089?ref=b10track
Google Play Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=krltEAAAQBAJ

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61021972-tree-of-life

And now for the good stuff. Are you ready?

What do you think? Leave me a note in the comments, and keep an eye out for updates as release day gets closer.

This was posted in one of my writing groups, and I think it’s probably the last straw for my interest in belonging there.

The text reads:

Side Note To Fan Fic Authors

Here’s the thing.

I read a lot of scripts. A lot. From professionals to aspiring writers to complete newbies. Features and pilots. Specs and treatments.

And 8 times out of 10 the fan fic I’ve read over the last, oh, fifteen years is leagues better than this stuff. It’s more inspired. It’s more compelling. It’s genre bending and creative and heartfelt. It’s well-paced and funny and sexy and meaningful. It’s smart and thoughtful and good. It’s novel-quality. Better than, sometimes.

Rare is the script I don’t want to put down, but how often have we stayed up until 3am to get to the last chapter of a 100k fic? And it’s not even a fan fic author’s day job. This is what they do on the side. In their spare time. For free.

So my point is, fan fic authors, you’re good. You’re good writers and great storytellers. I know it doesn’t always feel like it, especially if you’re one of the authors who’s not a BNF and doesn’t get the hits/notes that a few do. And because some people still view fic as “not real writing.” You guys know the shit that gets made into movies. You’re better than that. So be better than that. If writing is what you think you want to do, then just know you’re already doing it. you’ve already started.

There is so much wrong with this take that it’s going to take a while to unpack it.

First, I need to be honest about two things: One, I was a prolific fan fic author about 10 years ago. And I was GOOD. I had slow start, but then I found myself with lots of readers. I had very, very little negative feedback. In fact, the only few truly nasty comments I can recall came from beta readers. I was popular. Even now, I still open my email at least a few times a month to find that a new reader has found my nearly-decade-old fics and loves them. In a sea of brand new writing, much of which I think is superior to mine, this blows me away.

The second thing I should be honest about is that I wanted to be a published author and thought I could do a decent job because I was good at writing fan fic. It’s possible I’m selling myself short, but I don’t know if I was that good. I certainly never enjoyed the popularity I did as a fan fic author. I have no idea whether this is because I was genuinely better at fan fic or if I was never that great but people in fandoms sometimes enjoy things even when they’re not stellar. I know I have.

So let’s get to that bizarre word-vomit about how fan fic authors are apparently “better writers” than people sending in what looks to be screenplays (not really the same thing as “scripts,” which then makes me question exactly what this person does and if they are being honest about their job).

In no way am I saying here that fan fiction isn’t legitimate writing or isn’t often really good or that anyone isn’t a “real writer” if they create it. Just getting that out of the way.

Scripts and screenplays are an entirely different beast from novels. Even if I was at one point a good fan fic writer, there is no possible way I could’ve written a script. That’s a skill set I do not possess. I suppose it’s one I could learn, but no, my prior writing skill does not lend itself to that automatically. Right off the bat, this is a terrible comparison.

For argument’s sake, though, let’s pretend that this is the same skill set. I find it hard to believe that 8 out of 10 fan fictions are, in fact, better than attempts at screenplays. Has this person ever read some of the awful, trashy fan fics out there? My guess is that the person skips the bad ones and reads the ones they prefer. Fan fic readers are generally not doing so for the purpose of offering reviews or critiques the way book reviewers do, and they certainly aren’t getting paid to evaluate the quality. Therefore, most readers pick and choose the things that interest them. They might read a wide range, but they will still remain limited to things they thought looked interesting from the summary or the pairing or the fandom or whatever.

Which brings me to a related point. A person who is paid to read every script that crosses their desk doesn’t have the choice of deciding it’s in a genre they don’t care for or has a premise they find uninteresting. If they aren’t checking themselves and considering what other people might enjoy, they could easily think something is “uninspired” if it simply isn’t in their preferred genre or style or lacks elements they wish it had, even if it’s in their favorite genre. Someone who loves overt romantic subplots might be extremely disappointed by most Marvel movies, even if that person adores superheroes and action films. Does that truly make the MCU full of “uninspired” films? No, obviously not just based on that one thing.

Then we have the problem of praising fan fiction authors for being all these things the original writer suggests these screenwriters are not: creative, inspired, great storytellers. That’s a troubling sentiment for several reasons.

Fan fiction is terrific and fun, but here’s the deal: it is always based on someone else’s creative work. We can argue whether those works were all that good in the first place (see: all the discussions in the Harry Potter fandom). But what we can’t do is attribute all the creative genius to fan fic writers. They (we) are operating with certain elements already in place. There’s not only a built-in world and characters with ready-made personalities, there’s also an audience that knows the original story (canon) and multiple fan-created offshoots (fanon). Nobody has to explain in a fan fic how Iron Man came to be or what expelliarmus is or any number of other details. It’s expected that readers will know what’s up going in.

It is extremely easy to be inspired when writing in a world we know and love. Not only do we have relief from having to build everything from scratch, we also have these characters and worlds in our hearts. We love them. The authors who created them sparked something inside us, and we are letting out the joy these people and places bring us.

I can say from experience that these skills do not readily translate to original fiction. Sure, some do. But I didn’t find that it was easy to balance world building with storytelling and not simply info-dump on my readers. When I wrote a love story between two characters, I didn’t have the luxury of having readers already know their history together. I had to figure out a way to work that into the story. I also had to develop the same adoration and joy regarding my original characters. I had to learn to love them in the same way I loved the ones in the fan fics I wrote. I had to know them as intimately as I felt I knew the existing fictional characters. That’s much easier said than done for some of us.

There’s a common argument that all fiction borrows from or is inspired by other stories, and this is true. But it’s very different to have something that draws on elements of other stories and feeds into readers’ interest in those stories or that genre, vs. having a story directly written from a specific work (especially one that’s published and not in the public domain).

Now we come to the idea of doing it for free in their spare time. The person who wrote this seems to be unaware that a majority of original fiction authors are also doing it in their spare time. It is not easy to earn a living as an author. Most people have to have another source of income or be supported by someone else. Some of us reach a point where it’s no longer sustainable and we need to return to full time work elsewhere. For all writers, fan fic and original works, we often make sacrifices, including giving up writing for a season or permanently. Let’s not make fan fiction writers into some kind of martyrs here.

It’s really important to point out that there’s a reason fan fic authors do it for free: they aren’t allowed to make money from it unless the original is in the public domain. If it’s not under copyright, go for it. Publish away. But if that sucker is still under copyright, you’d better be able to do more than file off the serial number before you send it to a publisher. People writing fan fiction make a choice to write things that can’t earn money, and that is absolutely fine. They’re not somehow being held back by unreasonable laws governing plagiarism and theft of work.

Not only that, there is nothing wrong with doing something as a hobby, even if it’s something that theoretically could be monetized. Just because a person chose to write in their free time doesn’t mean anything special, any more than someone who skis on the weekend necessarily should be held aloft for how awesome and hardworking they are for “giving up” their free time to enjoy a hobby. That’s not to say there’s anything bad about having fan fic writing as a hobby; on the contrary, it’s a great thing to enjoy. It simply isn’t some kind of heroic act to engage in a hobby just because one is good at it.

I am all for people writing fan fiction and for fan fic writers to give it a go writing original fiction if they want to. What I’m not in favor of is pitting fan fiction writers against other kinds of writers without examining the conditions and nuances. We need to stop putting pressure on fan fiction authors to write original stories for money unless that is their own goal. We need to stop treating fan works as “not real writing.” But we also need to stop acting as if fan fiction is “better” than original works as compensation for all the criticism fan fiction gets. We need to acknowledge that there is as much crappy, problematic, badly written, uninspired fan fiction as there is original fiction, we just tend to skip reading those.

When people make these terrible comparisons, rather than being uplifting, it’s disappointing and has the opposite effect. It’s entirely possible to celebrate fan fiction without trash-talking original works.