melancholic - Stories

Sugar, butter, flour. Love.

After losing their parents, 20 year-old Chase Hollow juggles odd jobs and late-night baking to care for his little sister, Prunella. He dreams of more — but dreams don’t pay bills.

When a job opens up as a bakery assistant at the upscale Keysbridge Inn, Chase applies on a whim… and finds himself clashing with the grumpy, polished Assistant Manager with a sharp tongue and colder stare.

But cookies and time have a way of softening edges.

Original story based on characters in “Cinderella Boy“ by Punko.

Brick has a husband and a man on the side, Vincent, the client across the table. On a trip in Italy for a conference, Pompeii is not on the original itinerary, but Brick needs the distraction. Somewhere between the Forum and a tree off the path, he tries to remember which fire he came here to let burn out.

Nate may have found the one. Cal is built like a farmboy, has the wholesome looks of a vintage baseball card, is amazing in bed, and actually texts back. Nate keeps waiting for the catch and not finding one.

Cal even invites Nate out to his family's timeshare at the coast to meet his mother. Diane is progressive, supportive, and fiercely, fiercely devoted. And that's the catch.

Ly was different. He saw his surroundings differently. There were way too many worlds he had to belong to. His train of thought had no breaks, and his emotions got too loud at times. Sometimes he simply wanted to disappear.

Welcome to the world of Ly trying to figure out how to breathe in his chaotic life without losing himself or the man he loves.

Yorkshire, 1901. A baronet's younger son learns the duties of an estate he will never fully inherit. A groom who survived the Boer War tends horses he has known longer than the young master himself.

Between them: the precise distance that rank requires, and everything that accumulates in the space it creates.

Loose Box is a quiet story about two men who never say what they mean — because one has no words for it, and the other already knows.

Yet another collection of poetry, added to as the mood or fancy strikes me. I hope you enjoy at least some of it.

Sam never expected to abandon his modest life as a blacksmith’s apprentice, yet the harrowing death of his parents leaves him no choice. When the reserved knight errant Ser Graeme proffers him a place at his side, Sam grasps at the chance for escape, despite having no clear destination.

With winter closing in, they aim to reach the city of Langscott before the roads become impassable. Their journey, however, is delayed by a chance encounter: an offer of coin too tempting to refuse. The task is far beyond their expertise, but to earn a living on the road, risk often becomes a matter of routine.

After losing his twin brother in a violent tragedy, a former U.S. Marine returns to his roots in Bangkok, hoping distance might quiet the past that refuses to let go. Haunted by memory, guilt, and a love he was never allowed to name, Kent struggles to rebuild a life that no longer fits the person he used to be.

Across the hall lives Marvin—steady, observant, and patient in ways Kent doesn’t yet trust. What begins as proximity slowly becomes choice, forcing Kent to confront a different kind of fear: not losing the past, but moving forward without it.

Today, with modern treatment and prevention, we often forget about AIDS and the toll it took upon the gay community. At the end of a long trip, Robert's final stopover is Minneapolis. There, he encounters a friend of a friend who had fallen to AIDS twenty-five years earlier. This is a sad story, and was difficult to write, and I've kept it on the back burner for over a year. Dedicated to a close friend who passed thirty-two years ago on his favorite holiday, Halloween.

This story completes a trilogy, following "A Class Reunion" and "Love, In the Ashes of Time."

While vacationing on the Outer Banks, Killian Kendall stumbles across a glimmering class ring buried in the surf — a ring lost in 1958. When his search to return it leads to an elderly woman named Elizabeth, he learns of a hidden love, a tragic drowning, and a secret that’s waited decades to surface. As memories stir and ghosts awaken, Killian begins to confront his own grief and guilt over a recent loss. But some stories don’t stay buried forever. In the echoes of the past, he just might find the path forward. What the Ocean Keeps is a quiet, haunting tale of love, loss, and the mysteries we carry.