I've been a slacker

In honour of the "almost kiss", I stole this from TA Chase's website today. Hot hot hot. (Obviously he stole it from Beautiful but whatever.)

I haven't read much in the last day or so. Not sure why. I have been kid-free, Monday I had no work ... *shrug* Maybe I burned out. Sometimes I read and read and read and then ... crash. I end up reading a bunch of old stuff, just because it's easy, I don't have to concentrate and I don't have choose what to start next. So ....

I've been hanging out at Matthew Haldeman-Time's website were I go when I want to reread some free stories that I adore. He doesn't have a lot of published stuff and he seems to have this whole fantasy thing going on at his website but I love some of his short m/m stuff that he posts. Some of his stories are graphic in the smexin' department and some are very sweet stories (often of college guys - shut up!) just meeting and maybe making a first date.

Two of my favourites are Incredible and Stupid Question.

Jason is a typical goth boy who shows up at the swimming pool every time the swim team has practice. Trent is the 6'4" star of the swim team who gets curious as to why Jason is there everyday and becomes so intrigued. He's determined to be the first guy on the team with a goth boyfriend and sets out to meet his goal despite the fact that Jason is less than warm and fuzzy when they interact. Incredible is the story of how they get together, then Stupid Question is a few months down the road when they've been dating and Jason's friends think he should ask Trent if he loves him but he doesn't want to fuck it up by asking a "stupid question". I just really like these two guys, it is light and playful and you really get the sense of both personalities and how they mesh even though they come from very different worlds. I reread them often and would love to see a longer story someday with them.

Some of my other favourites are Purple and Magenta, about a guy who just can't focus on studying at the library and finds something way more interesting to capture his attention. Two Bodies which is kind of obsessive and stalkerish but works for me. LOL I also enjoyed Ten Weird Things about two roommates with seemingly nothing in common but bond over a book about weird things, like people who lay down in the road and die in the Southern US. Seriously, it uses real examples from a book about stuff like that. Some of it is hilarious and seeing Eric figure out that he's crushing on his roommate and deciding to do something about it sweet too. There is also some really funny spoofy stories in The Adventures of Jonathan Jackmore. Made me laugh.

So there is my MH-T pimpage for the day/year. If you are looking for a quick little fun read, check out his shorts and I've also enjoyed his published stories as well which got pretty good reviews around the web (at least the parts I hang out in.) On with the stuff I paid cold hard cash for. Well, the credit card was cold when I got it out of my purse.

Pleasures with Rough Strife by JL Merrow (45 pages)

This is set around 1920 (ish) and Daniel is poaching on his landlord's land at Christmas and decides to climb a tree and get some mistletoe for his mother. He falls out of the tree and smacks his head and breaks his leg and some ribs. The gamekeeper (who hates Daniel's family) finds him and takes him to the main house where Philip, the young lord lives a reclusive life following the death of his lover 4 years earlier to the Spanish flu. He finds himself drawn to Daniel and awkwardly spends time with him but starts to come back to life. When Daniel makes a play Philip freaks and Daniel tries to apologise ending up with him hurting himself again and Philip finally confesses he likes guys too. How historically accurate? No clue. Would the servants really be okay with their master being gay? Maybe. But I quite enjoyed how Daniel's enthusiasm for life despite his father dying when he was a young man and living in abject poverty managed to wake rich Philip out of his grief-induced stupor. They also make reference to a poem in the book which is published in full in the back. I always like when author's do that. So there are no declarations of undying love and will they make it? Who knows but it was a nice story about moving on, finally.

Spam! It's What's for Christmas by Lenore Black (41 pages)

Who can not love a book with Spam in the title? Ben is a former baseball player who's knee blew out and now he's been fired, his boyfriend of two year's kicked him out and he's out of money. He finds an ad for nude male models and figures what the hell. He needs the money to buy an amazing gift for his ex to win him back. There were lots of funny lines that made me smile like
Nude Male Models Wanted! Here at least was a skill set he possessed; he definitely knew how to be naked and a man. Anyway, he gets a job for a spam penis enlargement ad working with photographer Gavin. After the ad Gavin asks him to pose for some personal photos and things get very personal. But Ben confesses he has a boyfriend he's trying to win back so figures that's that. He gets some more work and gets the money for the $500 present for his ex, only to find out his ex moved waaaaay on, like months before they broke up. Ooops. Unexpectedly Gavin shows up at his door on Christmas eve and ... There is a whole little side story of a snarky tattooed Santa at the bus stop who talks about giving Ben what he NEEDS, not what he WANTS but he's also very funny because he's so snotty and unlike Santa, but is he? Hmmmmm. :-) Anyway, I quite enjoyed the humour in this story, again, no declarations of true love but figuring out that clinging to the past just because it's been there is not always the way to go. This one made my morning a little brighter today.