She's Doing It Again...
Jul. 8th, 2009 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jl_merrowI feel a little embarrassed to be plugging another anthology so soon after the last one (and particularly, knowing that Sindustry 2 is due out next week), but hey, is it my fault they all come out at the same time?
Er, yes, probably, seeing as I knew what the publication dates were when I sent in the stories... ;)
This one, Cherry published by Torquere Press, is special to me because it not only has stories by some stonking big names in m/m romance: Julia Talbot, Kiernan Kelly, BA Tortuga, Sean Michael - it also has the first story I ever sold. Yep, this is the one I was pinging off the walls about way back in April!
It's also my first attempt to write in a foreign language, by which, of course, I mean American. That brought its own problems: I could hear the characters' voices clearly, but being a simple, untravelled English girl from the Shires (wait, that's Hobbits, isn't it? Well, you know what I mean) I wasn't at all sure where they came from. Cue slightly farcical conversation with the long-suffering beta:
Me: Um, I've written this story - can you tell me where I've set it, please?
LSB: *sighs, and wonders why she agreed to all this*
It's probably about time I stopped rambling and let you read a snippet:
Different Strengths
By JL Merrow
“Hell, never? You kidding me? Hell, boy, we gotta pop that cherry of yours!”
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Rufus T Earle III isn’t actually threatening to relieve me of my virginity, therefore I don’t have to throw myself off the nearest skyscraper which, this being Hicksville, Alabama, isn’t actually all that near. And anyhow, I managed to lose my virginity some dozen years ago. I’m not that bad looking. Well, I didn’t use to be, anyway. You know how some guys grow into their looks? I kind of grew out of mine. No, Rufus T just wants to take me to a strip joint. One with girls, in case you were wondering if this is one of those progressive small towns that caters to guys like me.
I know what you’re thinking. I should just tell him I don’t swing that way. And if this was back home, and he was just some guy I’d met, that’s what I’d do. Probably. Okay, maybe I’d just tell him I had to get back home to feed the cat. But he’s a client, and a damn wealthy one at that. And if I keep quiet about liking guys, I don’t have to find out Rufus T is a raving homophobe, and then I don’t have any qualms about doing business with him. Don’t ask, don’t tell: the office edition.
Plus, I don’t get the shit beat out of me. See? It’s a win-win situation.
“You’re gonna love these babes, boy. One hundred percent natural, home grown beauties. They don’t breed ‘em like that in the cities no more.” He leers at me. “And most of ‘em are amenable to providin’ a little personal service, if you get my drift.”
Oh, I get it all right. Dear old Rufus T. If there’s a prejudice he hasn’t got, it’s only because he’s never heard of it. Right now he’s busy buying into the popular belief that if you work in IT and wear glasses you never get laid, at least not without paying for it. The fact that he might be right in my case is neither here nor there.
If you enjoyed that, you can find the rest in Cherry, along with 9 other stories about popping cherries of various kinds! Yum. ;P
Er, yes, probably, seeing as I knew what the publication dates were when I sent in the stories... ;)
This one, Cherry published by Torquere Press, is special to me because it not only has stories by some stonking big names in m/m romance: Julia Talbot, Kiernan Kelly, BA Tortuga, Sean Michael - it also has the first story I ever sold. Yep, this is the one I was pinging off the walls about way back in April!
It's also my first attempt to write in a foreign language, by which, of course, I mean American. That brought its own problems: I could hear the characters' voices clearly, but being a simple, untravelled English girl from the Shires (wait, that's Hobbits, isn't it? Well, you know what I mean) I wasn't at all sure where they came from. Cue slightly farcical conversation with the long-suffering beta:
Me: Um, I've written this story - can you tell me where I've set it, please?
LSB: *sighs, and wonders why she agreed to all this*
It's probably about time I stopped rambling and let you read a snippet:
Different Strengths
By JL Merrow
“Hell, never? You kidding me? Hell, boy, we gotta pop that cherry of yours!”
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Rufus T Earle III isn’t actually threatening to relieve me of my virginity, therefore I don’t have to throw myself off the nearest skyscraper which, this being Hicksville, Alabama, isn’t actually all that near. And anyhow, I managed to lose my virginity some dozen years ago. I’m not that bad looking. Well, I didn’t use to be, anyway. You know how some guys grow into their looks? I kind of grew out of mine. No, Rufus T just wants to take me to a strip joint. One with girls, in case you were wondering if this is one of those progressive small towns that caters to guys like me.
I know what you’re thinking. I should just tell him I don’t swing that way. And if this was back home, and he was just some guy I’d met, that’s what I’d do. Probably. Okay, maybe I’d just tell him I had to get back home to feed the cat. But he’s a client, and a damn wealthy one at that. And if I keep quiet about liking guys, I don’t have to find out Rufus T is a raving homophobe, and then I don’t have any qualms about doing business with him. Don’t ask, don’t tell: the office edition.
Plus, I don’t get the shit beat out of me. See? It’s a win-win situation.
“You’re gonna love these babes, boy. One hundred percent natural, home grown beauties. They don’t breed ‘em like that in the cities no more.” He leers at me. “And most of ‘em are amenable to providin’ a little personal service, if you get my drift.”
Oh, I get it all right. Dear old Rufus T. If there’s a prejudice he hasn’t got, it’s only because he’s never heard of it. Right now he’s busy buying into the popular belief that if you work in IT and wear glasses you never get laid, at least not without paying for it. The fact that he might be right in my case is neither here nor there.
If you enjoyed that, you can find the rest in Cherry, along with 9 other stories about popping cherries of various kinds! Yum. ;P
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-08 09:42 pm (UTC)*whoopin' 'n' hollerin'* Congrats! Y'all did a fine job an' now y'all gotta go out and pop some a' that champaggny!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-09 08:45 am (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2009-07-09 05:28 pm (UTC)I lived in New Mexico and Louisiana, and often drove through Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Tennessee...I love to write "hick". On television, the woman in the show "The Closer" has a divine accent.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-09 03:10 pm (UTC)(oh god that sounded baaaaaad.....LOL)
^___^
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Date: 2009-07-09 06:22 pm (UTC)