Andrew Q Gordon

not that I'm glad you cried, but I feel I did a good job with that if you did. 🤓

I really can't answer that. 😇

In the end Jason realized Peter was right. As for the Grans, going there meant killing any hope with his mom (which as you point out was probably a pipe dream anyway,)

lol I had to go re-read. No, this is correct. Jason is thinking about how Peter always had nice things to say about his mom and this was Jason's first time seeing the together.

I might have stolen a bit of this chapter for my newest release - Better Have Heart. I cheated and didn't research antique cars, I just lifted the one Pop bought Jason and had Darren's grandfather buy it for him. Hey, it worked, why re-invent the wheel.

Once upon a life time ago I had such plans for this 'franchise'. Clearly most of those came to fruition. The shower scene is also some what taboo now in MM romance - cheating is NOT allowed if you want to keep your fan base - never mind 'cheating' is a real thing. MM Romance, as I've learned over the years is as much about fantasy as LOTR or other epic fantasy stories. In a perfect world of HEA - cheating doesn't happen. When/If I repurpose this for my Group/newsletter, I'll have to see what I do with this. Give Barbara a chance - we all deal with disappointment in different way.

Story time - I wrote this before my daughter was born, but when I came out - in the last century (sigh) - my mother said to me her one regret was she'd never hold my child. When my daughter was born, I handed her to my mom and said "and you thought you'd never hold my child.' She asked if I remembered that and I obviously had. I suspect part of this chapter is an off shoot of that conversation my mom and I had twenty years before this was written.

The hard part of commenting is that I "KNOW" what's coming lol. Royce's sending the boys away has more to do with parents should never argue in front of their kids. That is how my husband and I approach our daughter. But Royce isn't a closet case, he's just a good man and a good father.

There is so much to unpack in this lol. My life as an author started with GA - for which I am eternally grateful. I still count Cia as a good friend. Andrew Q. Gordon the author name I chose (with help from another very close friend, Anyta Sunday). At the time I really had no idea what I was doing. This story was the first story I published on line - and it's is an Contemporary MM Romance. But The first story I wrote was Champion of the Gods. That is the first of mine that got published. Fast forward a few years - my Fantasy has LGBT characters, but it is really fantasy not MM. I learned over the last 10 years that I needed to separate my MM from my Fantasy, and again with the help of Anyta, I chose a new pen name. Andy Gallo - this story really needs to be rebuffed and rebranded under that Pen Name. (and it will in some form, at least on my Facebook Group.) That was a lot of words to say, I don't have much else on GA the is like this. Mostly because since I began writing, I became a parent and my day job kicked into higher gear. I would love to have some time to do more on GA, I just don't. Maybe sooner than later I'll retire and be able to do it then, but I have this sense that if I retire and start to 'really' write, I'll have less time that I do not. The successful writers I know spend as much or more time at it then I do with my day job lol. Thanks again for your thoughts and for taking the time to send them. This may be old, but it is still something I think back on.

Thanks for letting me know. it has been a few years since I wrote this story (well maybe more than a few) but I can still 'see' what I was picturing when I wrote it. Thanks for reading.

Thank you, Peter. It's funny how much my life - both work, personal, and writing has changed and yet this story is still there with me. But I think this is the story that taught me I could do it, so it's not a surprise I still see things that remind of this. Thanks for reading and for sending me a note. Much appreciated. ~AQG

@wildone You admit that? Wow, you're brave. 🙂 That trip had a lot of good memories, meeting you was one of them.

Yes. @CassieQ I wish we'd do another meet up in the area. So much has changed in those years - most notably from me aside from the gray hairs, 'lil q doesn't need me to push her around in a stroller or strap her to my chest. [Though she does still want to be carried - lazy little thing that she can be. 🙄 )

Hi Like so much else I've written before, this has morphed into something different. The premise is something I still like, but the plot I envision is very different. I've been toying with this off and on for years now, and when I thought I had it right, I sent it to a beta reader who basically said, um no. You need to rework this with someone else as the main love interest. SO it's back to the to be written folder and we'll see where it goes. Thanks for the comment and for reading. ~AQG

Trying to write this was a bit harder than it seems I suppose. My parents were like Royce, not Barbara. And that was 30 plus years ago - go figure. Thanks for reading and commenting.

No worries, I don't think folks are evil. Only I like to torture my characters (well almost all authors like to torture their characters, but only I get to do it to mine. )

Have a great time at GRL. Sorry I won't get to meet you in person (GRL is not my target audience I found after going 3 years ago), but I know you'll have fun!. Pictures maybe?

I came to GA about eight years ago. (It's hard to believe it's been that long, but then my daughter is almost six, so yes, it is that long ago.) When I joined I had no writing experience, and as much as I hoped to get published one day, I didn't think it would happen. I enjoyed writing and the readers seemed to enjoy my stories, so it was a good fit. In the back of my mind, however, I still had the goal of being a published fantasy author one day. One of the least recognized attributed of GA is how nurturing Myr and the others are with new and just starting writers. They provide us with a platform to test the waters. More, they help build our confidence. Myr not only bought Chosen of Honorus the first book in the Champion of the Gods series, he also agreed to let me shop it around to publishers. DSP Publication purchased the book and renamed it The Last Grand Master in 2012. Since then they've published three more books in the series. As I work on Book five, the last in the series, I look back on where it all began. Fittingly, Chosen of Honorus was the April Classic Author of the Month selection. Publishing is not what I expected. Some of it is better than i anticipated, other parts are not as great as I expected. It is far more of a business than writing and posting on GA ever was, and that work takes a bit of the enjoyment out it. But I regret none of it. Seeing my books published was a dream of mine and with the help I received from the readers and admins at GA, I achieved that goal. For those who would like a free copy of The Last Grand Master my publisher allows me to give away eCopies in exchange for readers signing up for my monthly newsletter. You can claim your copy here: http://GAAQGNewsletter.getresponsepages.com It is available in all formats and as a special thank you, I'll send you another short story. There are a few emails over the first month, but after that, I typically only send out one newsletter a month, never more than two and those are few and far between. And last, I'll make a special offer to everyone on GA. I recently wrote a prequel to give away to everyone who purchased book 4 (Child of Night and Day.) It is not available for sale anywhere. But for anyone who leaves a review of The Last Grand Master on Amazon , I'll send you a free prequel, A Mother's Love, as a thank you. Just email at andrew@andrewqgordon.com with a link to the review (or tell you did it) and I'll send you the link to where you can download your free copy. (If you already left a review, email me and I'll send you a copy.) If you'd like further information about the series, you can check it out on my website: http://www.andrewqgordon.com/champion-of-the-gods/ There are video trailers for each book as well as 'fact sheets' for various aspects of the world, gods and people. Book 1: The Last Grand Master Book 2: The Eye and the Arm Book 3: Kings of Lore and Legend Book 4: Child of Night and Day If there is something you would like to learn more about, email me and I'll try to add some new content to the Series Page to answer your questions. Best regards, -AQG

Congrats Sir!

Yes, it has been forever and a day since I added anything to the blog. I feel like one of those co-workers who leaves the office for a new job and promises on their mother's grave they'll stay in touch. Then you only see them when lightning strikes and you're in the same place at the same time and you swear once again you'll stay in touch, but in reality you know the demands of your job will never allow for it. That's a convoluted way of saying, sorry I've been so absent, but I've been crazy busy. That said, I need to say thank you to GA and Caz Pedroso for nominating Chosen of Honorus for story of the month. Chosen of Honorus was the precursor to The Last Grand Master - the first book in the Champion of the Gods series that DSP Publications is publishing. It was/is the book that jump started my publishing career. I owe a big debt to GA for taking a chance on me and giving me the confidence to push out into the wide literary world. There is a prequel to Chosen of Honorus - First Love - that is available on the DSP Publications site or you can find a link on my website. If you sign up for my monthly newsletter, there is a link in one of the welcome emails as well. If you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can use this link: http://GAAQGNewsletter.getresponsepages.com In addition, if you like Chosen of Honorus, there are now three more books in the series available from DSP Publication and the last book in the series will be released in 2018. Books 1-3 are also on sale now through the end of April. Here is a link to the sale page on my website: http://www.andrewqgordon.com/2017/03/champion-of-the-gods-sale-through-april-30-2017/ Despite what I said above about being the co-worker who left, sometimes a little jolt reminds you of what you're missing. In my case, I realize how much I miss the people I met here. I think if I have time to socialize with fans on Facebook and Twitter, I can use some of that time to come here once a day too. I'm going to do my best to do that. That said, the new set up is going to take me some time to get used to so if I miss your comments, you can always email me - Andrew@andrewqgordon.com. I'm usually very good at responding to emails. Thank you all again. It's humbling and flattering to realize people haven't forgotten you. It's a very good feeling. Best regards AQG PS In case you forgot what I look like or want to see a new picture of 'lil q (way more likely than wanting to see me) I'll post a few pictures in a few minutes. .

Thank you all for the kind words. I want to say a special thank you to Caz for nominating this and for being such a loyal fan. I'm trying to put a post together about this and I'll post it in the blog section soon(ish). For those who haven't read the free prequel, I'll include a link to in the blog post. I'm also going to give GA a copy of the other prequel that isn't being offered anywhere except to buyer of Book 4 (I can't give any of the other other books to GA as I don't own the rights to them, but I kept the rights to the prequels.) I'm not around near as much as I like, but publishing is like a hamster on a treadmill. Once you get started, there never seems to be a good place to end - short of walking away totally. But I'm working on that too. In the mean time I'll see about doing a few shorter items to keep my presence alive here. I do miss the people here. Without GA and the people I met here, I would never have had the gumption to try and get my work published. -AQG

One box of tissues. Check. I hope Amazon delivers where you live.

Sorry about the editing issues, I'm aware of many of them, but with demands from my publisher, editing this never makes it to the top of my to do list. I doubt any of them were Americanism, more like Andrewism, I'm a crap self editor.Sorry for the distraction, but thanks for sticking with it for taking the time to review. -AQG

IDK, there were things about my husband I didn't know until we'd bought our first house. The BF was out of sight so to speak. But yeah, it could have been brought up sooner. Something else to put in the to be revised stuff for that elusive one day. -AQG

Pride is very much worse than money (or lack of it) you can always make more money, but it's hard to kick the 'pride habit' I didn't want the 'reason' to just be one bad apple, but let's be honest, once bitten twice shy has some truth to it, and I'm very much fool me once shame on you, twice? Shame on me. I'm slow to give second 'shots' (okay that was bad, sorry.) -AQG