Frosty Fiction, Day 8: Samantha, Kody and Mesa

Kody stood in the main house, staring. “Uh, Mesa?”

“Yeah, baby?”

The room was filled with boxes and lights, garland and sparkles and... wow.

“Did the North Pole explode in here?”

His Alpha stood there, hands on his hips, glaring. “What? It’s Sammy’s first Christmas with us. I don’t want her disappointed.”

Kody snorted. Their mate wasn’t sad. Samantha loved it here, loved the clan.

Loved him and Mesa.

“Don’t you snort at me. It needs to be perfect.”

“You’ve got enough lights to signal space.”

“I might have a few too many.”

Sammy walked in the living room, whistling happily, before she stopped, blinking, and Kody winced, waiting for the explosion.

What he got was a happy laugh. “Are we all decorating together?”

“Yes!” Mesa, his big alpha Mesa, bounced. Bounced.

“Oh, how fun. I’ll get my iPod. There’s Christmas music.”

They’d lost their minds, both of them. They were wolves. Did wolves really even do Christmas? Kody chuckled. “Can I have a Yule log?”

“Baby, you can have a Yule tree if you want.”

“And hot chocolate, Kody-love. With booze.” Sammy bounced, and Kody’s eyes crossed at the boobage. So pretty. “Our first Christmas altogether!”

Their joy was infectious, and he found himself nodding. “I’m on it. Don’t start without me.”

“Start what?” Mesa popped his butt on the way by. “You’re right here.”

“Decorating. I was going to make drinks.”

“Oh!” Mesa came back to kiss him. “We’ll help.”

God, his mate was like a puppy. It was adorable.

Christmas music filled the air and he heard Sammy’s laughter. “Boys! Come on! Let’s play!”

Mesa kissed him one more time before whispering, “Don’t worry, baby. I got mistletoe, too.”

“You’re good to me.” He hummed, rubbed their noses together. “Mate.”

“Yeah. Finally. So it’s okay that I went a little nuts?”

“She brings it out in you.”

“You both do.” Mesa tugged him toward the kitchen where their girl was already heating milk for hot chocolate. This whole Christmas thing might just be fun.

***

Mesa, Kody and Samantha's story is Shifting Streams: Climbing the Ladder. You know the drill by now, y'all. Comment for a chance to win.

:D

Much love, y'all.

BA

Writing Contemporary Western Menage, or why it took my 3 years to write What She Wants...

Julia dared me, a few years ago now, to write a western contemporary menage that made sense to her. 

Now, I'm a fan of menage books -- in fact, I read them sort of voraciously. I love the werewolves, the were kitties, the contemporaries. I've got a huge collection and I enjoy them. 

Julia, though, the western contemporaries bothered her. 

"I want one that I buy, baby," she told me. "I want one where I can go, okay, yeah. Those two cowboys would share each other and some incredibly patient girl. I want you to write it for me."

I know a lot of cowboys. Rednecks? Rednecks play fast and loose with the rules, but cowboys are harder, cowboys have a code, rules. Y'all, I actually discussed this with my daddy and my brother. OMG, the awkward.

Finally, though, I did it and once the thought was out there? Let me tell you, Adrian and Packer were happy to oblige, and Calleigh? Well, this woman knows her own mind, that's for sure...

So, I got the concept pretty quick. What if there was this couple in an open relationship and the wife decided she was tired of waiting for her husband to come home to her? What if she wanted to play with him and his 'traveling partner', too.

Boom.

So I wrote.

And wrote.

And wrote.

And about 10K from the end, the file corrupted.

The backup corrupted. 

I ended up with the first, oh, 8,000 words recoverable?

So, Calleigh and the Aussies went in a box while I licked my writerly wounds. And lord, I did. God help you if you asked me where they were, how they were doing, because I'd just burst into tears.

Then one day I thought about them and didn't cry.

That's the day they went on the writing board.

What's the writing board, you ask? 

It's the whiteboard in the office where Julia and I pretend to keep track of things. (What She Wants isn't on this one because it was in editing already. For the record, (looks at the current board) it doesn't look like this anymore...the ink story is done, Julia's current square has stuff in it and my NEEDED square is, like, totally got 6 projects in it... O.o

It lingered for a few months, then I opened the file.

Cried.

Closed it, BUT I started talking about Adrian and Packer. Julia played along, encouraged me, then Calleigh started poking and, 70,000 words later, they're real.

:D

Also, Julia dubbed them incredibly hot, so yay. :D

Okay, so, that was the story of how Julia asked for a western contemporary menage and how it almost didn't happen.

Much love, y'all,

BA

Six Sentence Sunday -- Mating Call

She knew what they were, knew they couldn’t mate with someone for life who wasn’t one of them.

He smacked Shaw’s shoulder, just a little too hard. “It’ll be cool. We’ll be stupid in love and wanting to make puppies.”

Right?

Right.

 

This snippet is from the first book in my newest paranormal menage series, Mating Call, just released from Ellora's Cave :D .

 

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy

1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published

2. pick six sentences

3. post ‘em on your blog or website on SundayThis snippet is from Adam's story, Tag Team, that I'm currently plugging away at. The boys are currently in a pervy position, in fact. :D Want to play along? It’s fun and easy 1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published 2. pick six sentences 3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday -- Mating Call

Stephanie shook the heavy ceremonial robe, the fabric soft in her hands, and sighed. Maybe it was time to take it to the dry cleaners -- obviously Woolite wasn’t doing it. She hung it over the back of her grandmother’s rocking chair. Tomorrow she would worry about the robe. Tonight the boys were coming over.

Tonight she’d be coming, over and over, if she was lucky.

 

 

This snippet is from the first book in my newest paranormal menage series, Mating Call, coming from Ellora's Cave this Friday.

 

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy

1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published

2. pick six sentences

3. post ‘em on your blog or website on SundayThis snippet is from Adam's story, Tag Team, that I'm currently plugging away at. The boys are currently in a pervy position, in fact. :D Want to play along? It’s fun and easy 1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published 2. pick six sentences 3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Flash Fiction featuring Mating Call

NEXT WEEK!

*grins*

To help celebrate the turkey day season, I've written a flash fic featuring Steph/Jordan/Shaw. :D Totally safe for work.

http://batortugaflashfiction.blogspot.com/2012/11/mating-call-thanksgiving.html

Much love, y'all.

BA

Mating Call (coming November 23 from Ellora's Cave) Playlist

So, Mating Call is coming! I'm *so* excited and I can't wait for y'all to meet Steph, Jordan and Shaw. Yes, that means m/m/f. It also means werewolves. Witches. Boulder, Colorado. Biting. Fun stuff.

I just put the playlist for this book (hopefully this series, the second book is in my editor's hot little hands) up at http://baswritingplaylists.blogspot.com/2012/11/mating-call-playlist.html

:D

Much love, y'all!

BA

My Boys Touch

There's been a little confusion going around and I figured I'd just be upfront.

I write gay romance. I write lesbian romance. I write het romance. I write threesomes -- lately I'm writing a *lot* of threesomes because they're what wants written.

I don't write m/f/m.

Now, am I saying I don't like it? Nope. I read it. A couple of my favorite authors write it and I enjoy it thoroughly.

Do I typically buy that 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6) people can all be in bed having sex and none of the same sex people in the bed are attracted to each other? Not usually, no, but that's me (and I can tell you, the only time it throws me out of a story as a reader is when there are 3 or more men and 1 woman and they have to take turns sleeping with her in twos because they might touch each other. That always makes me sad).

That's not even what it's about for me when I'm writing.

When I'm writing, I have be honest to *my* muse. To my characters. I love m/m. Love it. Love it enough that I started Torquere Press damn near 9 years ago to publish it because no one else would. In my mind's eye, characters fall in love and I have zero control over the sex(es) of the folk(s) they fall in love with. My boys fall in love -- with the girl, absolutely, but also with each other. Three people who are in love together and, damn it, they're going to be in love together at the end, too.

I'm a sap. I want my HEA -- reading or writing. And, yeah, if there's a menage threesome (or moresome, although I haven't done that yet and the pronoun confusion there sort of makes me dizzy), my boys will touch.

Reader beware. ;-)