Stories

After a few days’ stay on a remote and bleak island in the sea, a writer finds that the boat he arrived in has been torn from its mooring by a storm. None of the locals will take him to the mainland, afraid to brave the waters after the storm, and as he struggles to make his way home, it seems more and more as if something doesn’t want him to leave.

Cezar Cozman is resigned with the fate drawn for him by his parents. Pulled from his never-ending abroad studies in which he has never excelled, duels, gambling, and scandalous affairs aside, he is to be married within a few months’ time to a woman he has no feelings for.

There is little comfort in knowing what the future holds. Cezar also knows well that he will never have what his heart truly desires, but he sees no other way. That, until one unbearably hot day, a beautiful horse thief enters his life, impetuous and unexpected like a summer storm, and powerful like a force of nature, bent on stealing his heart away.

Stephen must make a decision, live or die.

It is the year 1690 and Europe is at war. In the East the Great Turkish War still rumbles on and in the West the Empire is barely holding off the hostile Christian power of Louis XIV's France. In the middle are the divided Rothenian lands, its two rival realms in uneasy peace. Through all this human conflict young Sergius von Tarlenheim seeks to make a career at the Ruritanian court, where he finds unexpected friends and mysterious enemies. But unknown to him greater conflicts by far are beginning in the World Beyond, where notice is being taken of the changing nature of humankind and rival factions are forming in response.

A modern gay, but explicit, romance involving gentlemen over 30. One of our heroes has finally found the courage to act on his self-knowledge of being gay - but it was far from easy as he explains with much humour to the man with whom he falls in love. The story covers several years, with some of life's ups and downs along the way including a dash of personal trauma and some intrigue.

A young American finds family and love on the Emerald Isle.

Following Jan Hutchinson's suggestion I'm writing postcard poems to answer Val's.

The Peacher empire needs Justin Peacher-White and he rises to the challenge. But it means moving job, partner and child to the Rothenian capital, Strelzen. It goes off better than he has a right to expect, but what he doesn’t realise is that an implacable enemy is on his trail, and the very existence of Rothenia is in the balance. Fortunately he has unlikely allies in the shape of two way-out monks and a fifteenth-century countess.

Collection of stand-alone prose prompts and other shorts. Quick bites, in other words. A tasty snack or two.