Stories

A misfit from an upper class community discovers his love for just plain folks, and one in particular.

Some days go right

Some days go wrong

Some days don’t go at all.

Simon is sixteen and on the edge of everything changing, his world changing from adolescent to adult, to facing up to his sexuality and coming out, but not just yet.

Now, his boyfriend is late and he’s sat on a cold, concrete bench waiting, waiting, waiting…

Over twenty different days, during four weeks in spring, this story follows Simon as he navigates the difficult journey of his coming out. Like all journeys, this one will change him but in ways he doesn’t imagine, taking him places he didn’t expect to go.

Eight centuries before Salidar thulu-Khant's reign, the world was much different. Technology, not magic, defined the world, though political machinations and civil unrest had pushed the world to the edge of destruction. Two young men, embark on a journey of self-discovery while dealing with the consequences of a broken society. Meanwhile, an ancient force seeks to unleash a Trial of Destruction on the world.

Short stories are definitely not my strong suit, and this attempt soon became a continuous story inspired by the challenge of First Line prompts.
Constructive criticism and kind encouragement are more than welcome.

Young singers Ash and Samson are already established in the music business. Ash is still in the closet, caught between his label’s demands and the desire to be with his lover Marcus. Meanwhile, Samson is a proudly out gay singer who strives to be taken more seriously.

When Tyler, a rising star with a powerful voice, breaks out onto the scene, the competition becomes fiercer than ever. Even though he becomes an overnight success, he quickly learns the fame has its price.

How will the three guys balance their personal lives with their music aspirations and growing demands from their record labels?

A mother sends her rebellious teen son to live with his father who abandoned him years earlier.

There is personal, and then, there’s stuff that’s not personal. Boundaries are good to have, and Mason Knight believes he knows the difference well, as he has known for a long time. That, until one weird day, he finds himself moved by music, jumped by a man who could make the heavens sigh with his looks, and … what else? Ah, a ghost suddenly wants to keep him company. Mason doesn’t believe in ghosts, except this guy, well, he seems pretty much real.

The sleepy village of Crumbington is about to get a wake-up call.

When the new chairperson of the Summer Fête Committee pushes to create a naked calendar of the Crumbington football team, mouths drop open. Her further pronouncement at having snagged a celebrity host for the fête—rising television and movie star Clifton O’Keefe, and ex-resident of Crumbington—is met with indifference.

Not by Nathan Fresher, though, local baker and captain of the football team. He had been Clifton’s boyfriend in high school, until Clifton and his family disappeared into the night over ten years ago.

In the depths beneath the Everbright City lies a vast complex of caves known as The Shade. The Underking of the Shade, Salidar thulu'Khant, seeks to free the demons imprisoned in the city above and use them to unseat King Neredos, the immortal ruler of humanity. The future of the world rests in the unwilling hands of young thief and Shade native, Styx, who is thrust into the middle of a conflict which has perpetuated for centuries.

"Tragic Genius" is the fourth and penultimate book in "The Trial", a series beginning with "Shadow Honor". In this book, we follow the early days of the Demon War, and focus on the stories of Neredos and Veil predominantly, but with many other familiar faces as well. What does it take to make a leader, and how do the horrors of war twist a person's mind? How do we fight for good, life, and peace in a world full of evil, death, and pain? This is the heart of what The Trial means.