W_L

Cool, I'm working on a untitled story around wilderness survival between two sixteen year old high school boys. One of my characters has limited hearing and uses hearing aids. Being low vision myself and having dated a limited hearing individual, there's a middle ground between complete disability and full capability. Also, just so you know, a lot of the deaf community does not like to consider what they have as a "disability" per se. The other character in my story has ADHD; in the wilderness environment, there's no Ritalin, impulse control and focus are not possible for him. He's based off a friend of mine from High School and some interesting conversations I have had with him, when he's not on medication. ADHD is not as glamorous as Percy Jackson makes it out to be, but I did like how he structured his thoughts and there's a rhyme/reason to it when you break down all the components. At the heart of this new story is communications, two people with physical issues that limit their ability to communicate are stuck in a life-death situation, where communication and coordination will help. Add to the fact that they have a sexual attraction to one another, hormones from teens, and odd things from nature, I hope it can be fun.

Comforting Touch Series, Story # 4 Ben Do I still trust Jason? I want to trust him and I want to love him, but Jade revealed a side of him that neither he nor I realized he possessed. As I held Jason in my arms, through the night, comforting him after his ordeal; many thoughts crossed my mind. Did I push him into what happened? Could I have prevented this by being more attentive? Were my needs for complete openness and our common agreements doing more harm than good?

@Headstall and @Page Scrawler If you enjoyed Song of Achilles (I listened to the Audible version and afterward bought a hardcover version as a gift for a gay friend), I have a recommendation for you both along with others that I am starting soon: Axios: A Spartan Tale by Jaclyn Osborn The Spartans of ancient Greece were an incredibly harsh culture, but even in such ugly ground, there's still flowers of love. I'll probably get to this book next month, need to finish up some other reading

Well just to make it clear for people who do not know, I suffer from Congenital Glaucoma, I was born with bad eyesight, and am legally blind with very low vision. One thing I've learned as I read stories, there really isn't much diversity or representation of people with disabilities in various gay fiction genres. People like me exist throughout the world in various forms; for instance, my last boyfriend was deaf, but it very hard for me to find any kind of story that reflect that kind of relationship. Suffice to say, I wanted to started writing again, because I felt a need to represent myself and those that I know, whose stories and lives are not talked about much. I wrote Comforting Touch as a type of meta-fiction to combine my love of gay romance with a different reflection on demisexuality that I also possess. Some of the story is fictional, i.e. I have not found a 23 year old gay guy on the street yet that I wanted to sleep with , but on the other hand, I have offered my assistance and home to homeless people in the winter due to need. While people may say I should be wary of showing kindness as a blind man, but I don't buy that kind of argument. Some of the more surreal elements are true: like my Cousin is an unsuccessful alternative Rockstar and his sister is in the US Army. Right now, I am writing something different and far less personal, but I still want to include characters with physical limitations. It's a story about 2 sixteen year old boy, who are lost in the Canadian Wilderness after their bush plane crashes. The set up is a wilderness survival story like many others, but I added a unique twist. The characters: Danny Deere is mostly deaf with his hearing aid broken and Bobby Wolfe has ADHD without a supply of Ritalin. They're both gay/bi, so there's the logical romantic component there, but the deeper problem beyond romance is how can they survive the challenges they face. It's an interesting concept, Danny is intelligent and mentally capable of doing a lot on his own, but with limited hearing in the woods, he can run into a lot of fatal issues. Bobby on the other hand is outwardly physically capable, but ADHD affects your ability to focus and make rational judgements, he faces basic issues of survival and impulse control. I like both character and I really enjoy writing Bobby's thought process. One of my close friends in high school had ADHD and we talked out his method of contextualizing thoughts, when he didn't take Ritalin. I took that concept and expanded into Bobby's mindset. It's really fascinating, like James Joyce's stream of consciousness, it's interrelated rambling that you can actually follow backwards to the original subject. I am really getting into the writing on this story, but I don't have an Editor/Beta Reader, so I don't know if it will ever be up on GA If anyone is wondering what the story looks like right now, I posted the unedited Chapter 1 as an example for potential Editors/Beta Readers. If this goes into my unfinished list of abandoned stories, it's alright, but I really hope someone joins me on this journey.

I read this stories years ago, when you first published it on Nifty and I just re-discovered it now. It's an interesting plot concept with 2 boys finding their romantic matches/soulmates.

Geographically the island could still fit North American or South American climates, depending on the season. May I suggest that you consider giving your boys "Fishing Spears", they were one of the earliest fishing tools early man developed and Native American were using it until the 19th century. They also developed more complicated fish traps by utilizing inedible fish bones to lure larger fish into "fish pools", by doing that and using a spear you can get much more fish. A fish spear is also fairly simple to fashion as well. (Beware though, do not give your boys bows or design arrows. As an archery enthusiast, I know those things were developed with a lot more sophistication further in human history and require material that may not be available in a tropical island, hence why native peoples in New Zealand and Australia never had that technology. It is also very difficult to train and use them properly.)

Correct for natural occurring coconuts, there's also modern varieties of coconut, Maypan Coconut, which is a hybrid. They were created via F1 hybridization of palm trees in the Americas. @Vikki It's not a bad story, I can tell you spent a good deal of time on it. It reminds me a little of the opening of LOST American TV show.

Fascinating, I like the concept and setup. Indian backgrounds are a nice touch.

Interesting premise

So the next story in the Comforting Touch series is live now: Fanning Flames The story goes into areas I rarely explore in the past. It was an interesting exercise. One area that people might have caught on from last story, I think the best way to describe my sex scenes in this story is with one word, Sensuality. Using your hands, your nose, and your tongue is just as important to the experience as any other area. While Sexuality is what many people like to describe in both heterosexual and homosexual romance, but, in my opinion, the sensual nature of being with someone needs to be represented just as much as sexual passion of wanting to get off. Touching, feeling, smelling, and tasting (Jason has an oral alignment, which to me is fun) are important aspects of being with that special person you are in love with. I read stories with sex, where are the stories for those little aspects of affectionate expression? The soft caresses? The little quick kisses? The lick of your neck? I hope you enjoy this new story. I'll cross my fingers for @Talo Segura to send me Story # 4 Roasting Fires and Story # 5 Hearth Keepers at some point this month or next.

Jason is getting his life back together with Ben's love and help. However, the unexpected arrival of Ben's sister, Jade, throws their happy little bubble into chaos. New experiences and feelings arise in Jason that could cause problems for their budding relationship.

Comforting Touch Series, Story # 3 Jason I can’t believe life can be so amazing. Three weeks ago, I was sleeping in an alleyway’s dumpster, but now I was snuggled up naked next to the most amazing guy in the world. There were nights, when I woke up wondering where I was, what happened to my dirty clothes, or where would I get my next meal. All I needed though was just Ben’s warm body to remember, I was safe and home. Ben took me to the clinic to get tested the Saturday after the

Have you read Ready Player Two That's my current non-LGBT reading Good Choice @Wesley8890 , it's a really emotional book. --------- For my gay romance book right now, I am reading Love's Magic by Janice Jarrell right now, it's part of a book series called Revolutionary Heart. It's an interesting book and series.

My taste in Gay Romance novels made me wonder, why no one has ever done any reviews of well-known and established Male/Male novels on GA. Well, I'll break that mold. I have a lot of respect for Sarina Bowen, especially after reading her 2.5 novel series about these 2 guys, who are given a second chance at love. She writes it with a bit of integrity, a bit of nuance, and believable realism. Also, the Hockey being played in the background is very good, (I was one of GA's last NHL bracket champs, when we had those So it helped get me into the action ). Goodreads has a description of these books https://www.goodreads.com/series/166433-him Anyway, let me get to my brief reviews of the books: Him Book 1 Ryan and Jamie are adorable couple for guys, who can double as hockey players. They were best friends as teenagers in hockey camp over the years, then one night Ryan coaxed Jamie into exploring sexually, but both were scared of what happened to admit their true feelings and drifted apart. Now after college, they are both back in each other's orbit coaching a summer hockey camp again as counselors and are rooming together. I know the set up is formulaic, but formulaic stories aren't bad if the details within the story are believable and logical, which Sarina Bowen handled with very adept plotting. Jamie's development in the first novel from the oblivious former best friend to lover felt very organic. I don't know how bisexual guys feel, I never had really felt the way about women as I do about men; though, I have tried. I can't imagine how it must feel to go from thinking you are completely straight to realizing you actually can like guys. The sexual undercurrents of Jamie's evolution is contrasted with the meaningless sex of Ryan, who is very much gay though not open about it. It added another layer of complexity to the relationship, I think Ryan had a tough situation as well; he wants to be a professional hockey player and was good enough to do this, but sexual orientation hang ups are still very much a prevailing issue in professional sports. With all of that twisting and churning, the two young men find themselves inextricably drawn together, realizing that their one night of teenage exploration years ago was not just a simple encounter; it opens up a lot more cans of worms. Seriously, I loved the story and I would recommend it to anyone on GA. It is fun for people who love reading about logical progression the different levels of sports from summer camps for teens with ability leading to professional level athletes. It is also a good romance story about two best friends, who found one another and sexually developed a connection, but due to their perceived fears, they abandoned what could have been fulfilling experience. Sarina Bowen as I have read this female author's work over the years has developed a very good writing style. She also has a penchant for using a particular kind of perspective storytelling that I find myself to be growing attached to, Dual Protagonist story, which is basically a story that follow two main character 1st person perspectives. It's basically 1st person, but grants the reader insights into 2 minds, perfect for romance fiction in my view. Rating: 5 out 5 US Book 2 Ah, the honeymoon period after accepting you love one another and you are living together, this is a complex topic to tackle. For me, this book felt a little draggy in certain areas due to Jamie's character. He internalizes his issues far too much, Ryan on the other hand doesn't talk to his boyfriend/partner like he should and he knows it throughout the book. At the end of HIM, Ryan commits to playing professional hockey, in the closet as a gay man with Jamie in tow. Being your boyfriend/partners dirty little secret can't be easy and I get that Jamie is suffering in this kind of closet, I also get that he loved Ryan and only wants the best for him. However, I hate what all these secrets are doing to these guys, there's no good reason for 2 consenting adults not be open about the ones they love. The addition of Blake, a noisy and very big "bro"-tastic character, who happens to be Ryan's teammate on their professional hockey team just makes this worse as the threat of exposure and fear of people evaluating Ryan for his sexuality rather than his talent kept Ryan on edge to the point of suffering a panic attack. I like this story and it's complex dynamics about people in the bright lights trying to find a way to be both themselves and be true to themselves. It's hard to be gay, it's hard to find a balance of expectations, and ultimately the ending felt a little too tidy for me personally. I do concede I think Canadian team was probably the best choice for Ryan to come out, it makes the dialogue and relative lack of homophobia more realistic. However, Jamie's runaway bride moment felt a little too contrived as a plot device, I think ultimately the issues in the story could have easily been avoided if the two guys just talked, plus given Blake a strong "We're kind of busy being gay here" message even after Ryan came out. I like happy endings, but I felt the problem here wasn't the message of the story, but how Sarina Bowen reached it in the end. It's still a good story and anyone who loves HIM should read it Rating: 4 out of 5 EPIC book 2.5 After 2 novels, there came a baby Novella in the series called EPIC, which was really straightforward story about Jamie primarily trying to find professional fulfillment. He gets a chance to play backup hockey goaltender professionally for one of Ryan's games. It's not unheard of to have non-professional goaltenders and for fans of Hockey, we've seen this happen in real life, it's a one in a hundred thousand chance that a local would be called up to play relief due to injury in the middle of a game. Sarina Bowen knowledge of Hockey deserves praise here, it's a magical moment. Now, Ryan is facing off against Jamie, his partner, like they used to as teenagers. Jamie's success seemed to imply he has a chance at Professional levels, which could imperil Ryan and his relationship due to the distances between the teams. This is a cute story, it has none of the emotional depth of energy that either HIM or US did, but it was fun to see how these guys squared off. Also, as a reader who enjoy the sport the plot is set in, it is nice to see that Sarina Bowen paid homage to her plot device. A simple story can easily be derailed by complicated structure or plot elements. There was no lack of communication in this story and the two main characters felt like they had grown through all these books into responsible adults, who had bright futures ahead of them. Rating 4.25 out of 5 Overall Rating: 13.50 out 15.00 or 90% score, pretty good series overall. ------------------ What do other readers think? Feel free to disagree with my reviews on these books if you want, I won't take offense as I am just an avid reader. However, I hope other people share their own opinions and reviews of stories they read from the published fiction world. PS: I just found the wiki for the non-professional Hockey Player who played a perfect game in 2017-2018 season when he was called up in emergency backup after the Chicago Blackhawk's back up went down, I was not joking (Also the fact that he's in the same profession as me does mean I am bias to this kind of story line ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Foster_(ice_hockey)#Chicago_Blackhawks

Isn't an Omen usually bad though Maybe I am just thinking of the movie series:

Coming out to my parents was freeing. There was always an anxiety about being gay that held me emotionally in check, I tried to justify to myself it wasn't a big deal if I came out or not. Looking back on it, I think I was more worried of being rejected than anything else. At the time, I was 22 and I had no boyfriend, only a few gay stories that I enjoyed reading, and only 3 sexual experiences with other guys. Courage isn't what led me to come out, nor confidence, it was a simple and immovable truth that I just had to reveal about myself. My father took it with denial at first and tacit acceptance, nowadays. He's complicated in his own single-minded attraction to my mother/his ex-wife, and as I have told him many times, without him believing it, he's technically an asexual. No lover before or after their marriage/divorce for him, he's doesn't even consider any relationship anyone else possible. My mother has wild swings depending on who she is around. An ex-husband may be open minded and doesn't care, another husband may be an evangelical Christian and she preaches salvation. I try not to believe in half what she says or does around me, except possibly one time when we talked about marriage and love in-between one of her marriages. She said, "You should find someone who can take care of you. Love is just an empty promise, look at me." I think out of all my conversations with my mother, she was her most genuine and honest about her actual views on sexuality and relationships during that brief interlude. Family is complicated, whether you're being accepted or rejected or somewhere in-between, I don't think there's ever an easy way of approaching the question of coming out.

With the 5th and final story in the series with @Talo Segura, my beta and editor. I am thinking now of what I have accomplished in such a short period of time. I am surprised I had the energy, the motivation, and the stamina to write a 70K+ word story series like, Comforting Touch even after 4 years of hiatus from writing in general. I know my writing style is imperfect, my prose is too long for easy digestion at 13-16K words per short story within a series of 5 stories, and obviously my subject matter may not be interesting to all readers. Even with all my internal doubts and all the possible ramifications of writing a story like this, I still did it and I wrote it in record time for me. I'll post the 3rd story "Fanning Flames" after New Years.

@Talo Segura and @Zombie Well, I hope a US cable network like showtime or HBO steals the idea and make it over the top UK series are good for breaking ground, but I feel like when they come over to the US, there's a certain up-scaling to the shows gay dynamics: Queer as Folk and Shameless were okay UK series, then went over the top in the US. I think the US QAF is still amazing even decades later (the scene of Brian and Justin going at it in the 1st episode is still sexier in 30 seconds than most adult entertainers in 30 minutes ), I still hate the series finale and it's open-ended devolution down to a lonely dance.

Today, I posted 2 short stories in a new series, my first in 4 years. Comforting Touch is the combination of an idea I received from a vivid dream after Thanksgiving and my own life experiences. I admit I am very rusty at writing nowadays. While I still have ideas and inspiration, I need the patience of a good editor like @Talo Segura For those who have known me or met me from GA, you know who Ben is and if you've ever wondered why he is still single, I think this story will explain it. Being gay is one part of sexuality, the other is the method attraction. Demisexuality is not something we talk about on GA much. Part of its application is known but not truly understood in fiction, too. A Demisexual being passed off as being "romantic" to me is kind of offensive, but I don't blame people for being ignorant about the complex emotional connections and needs. I don't know if the Demisexuality that I describe in my story is unique or if others share it with Ben, but I just want to put it out there in case anyone else is lost in the nebulous world of sexuality. Ben has related to world through his visual disability, too. He has a measured routine, a scientific assumption based on results, and consequently attempts to gauge life through both the physical and emotional experiences under similar auspices. He may seem controlling at times, but it's not control he seeks just understanding and relating in his own way to someone he wants to connect to. Most of all to remember about Ben as the story continues, he is human and can be selfish, prone to make bad decisions, and generally tries too hard to give support. The biggest difference in my story series to other gay romance stories is probably the concept of being completely open; Ben doesn't like filters and doesn't like nuance as he has to deal with that in his professional life. In a relationship, Ben and Jason are pushing for complete open communication, no secrets or hidden agendas. Being disabled, Ben needs this approach, which Jason realizes, because it's a matter of absolute trust to coexist in Ben's world. If there's even a little hidden agenda, their relationship will fail immediately as Ben noted with his past boyfriends. They both must make the sacrifices and compromises of privacy in order to be together with each other. To some, it may be mistaken with BDSM rules and mastery concepts, but even though it shares some aspects, it really is a unique form of relationship. Personally, it's my ideal version of romantic relationship, reflecting on the concepts of Trust through complete openness. Lastly, if there are other gay Demisexuals on GA, you can counter me as you see fit. maybe I am not representing this part of the spectrum well like I am merely a lone voice in the wilderness. However, if you find yourself comparing your beliefs and your instincts with Ben's aspects in the story, I am more than willing to listen and talk. No one should feel alone for who they are.

In Finding Warmth, Ben took in Jason, a homeless young man with a lot of potential for good and love. Now, we explore Ben's background and learn more about his unique sexuality, Demisexual attraction. Jason has to decide if he accepts what Ben's needs would entail in order to create a relationship.

Merry Christmas @Myr ! Hope you get everything you want!

Ben is a visually impaired gay demisexual, who encounters Jason, a gay homeless young man. Though they both have their own issues and background, they grow closer with each encounter.

Comforting Touch Series, Story # 2 Ben Waking up with a naked guy after he and you professed a mutual desire to start some kind of relationship should have been amazing, this should have been the happy ending to a fairy tale romance. Too bad, the happy ending in those stories doesn't actually explore the reality of life that exists in the rest of the story. I loved gay romance novels and stories, they gave me hope and lifted me out of despair more than once in my life, but there

Comforting Touch Series, Story # 1 Ben I love the holiday season, after Cyber Monday sale thru New Year’s Day specifically. I know most people would include Thanksgiving into the mix of the holiday season, but personally, I am not a huge fan. Thanksgiving for me has lost its meaning as a day of endless gluttony amid the modern fad diets, political discourses during these meals, and consumer interests from the notorious “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” sales that start