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Stroking the Flame 2. The Croxburgh Chronicles

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Ben and Colin are comfortably in each other's lives, but the path of true love is never an easy one, and a mistake throws Ben's loyalties to the wind. Not only that, but the mystery behind the deaths of Denny and the rent boys remains unsolved. Carter only had a list of hits. Were Colin a different person he might leave things well alone. But the thing about sleeping dogs is that some people can never let them lie. 

NOTE: Although this follows on from Kissing the Dragon, this can be read independently of the first book. The framework is already mapped out, but this is a work in progress, so will be slow in coming.
For those who have read Kissing the Dragon, there are some significant changes to the original story I posted. Rather than repost the updated story, I had added these changes into a forum (as hidden spoilers) CLICK HERE. Please feel free to click and view them, and, of course, add any comments you may have.
 
Copyright © 2017 lomax61; All Rights Reserved.

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It's nice to get a view into Martin's life. He is a nice guy as we've already seen and he's had a rough time. Dealing with his partner's death and then his mother's slide into dementia right afterwards on his own had to have been emotionally taxing. This time away is his means of dealing with that. The young men he is thrown together with on this first day are an eclectic and dynamic group. It will be interesting to see where the story goes from here. The last teaser at the end with a policeman showing up promises a good plot twist ahead. This was an excellent beginning for Book 2.

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Hi all, I've changed this storyline because there was so much unfinished in KTD. Hope you don't mind. The story is already plotted out but I still need to fill in many of the gaps.

 

I've added a Prologue and amended the first chapter.

 

Brian

Edited by lomax61
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I really enjoyed this story, Brian, so it's good to hear there will be more to read.

 

Somewhat soon, I hope...

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6 minutes ago, Reader1810 said:

I really enjoyed this story, Brian, so it's good to hear there will be more to read.

 

Somewhat soon, I hope...

Thanks Reader1810. 

 

I've been working on this for the past six months but didn't want to post until I had some chapters to post.

 

So here goes....

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I'm gonna come across as hypersexed, but I'm bummed the story retained its "Everyone" rating. The sex scenes in the first book were yummy. But I'll read this one, anyway. LOL

Edited by Geemeedee
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4 hours ago, Geemeedee said:

I'm gonna come across as hypersexed, but I'm bummed the story retained its "Everyone" rating. The sex scenes in the first book were yummy. But I'll read this one, anyway. LOL

Oops, that's my mistake actually. Thanks for pointing it out. Changed to mature now. Although the first book set up the relationship, there's still going to be some heated moments in this one.

Edited by lomax61
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7 minutes ago, Geemeedee said:

Hi! Just wondering — do you plan to finish this story?

Hey @Geemeedee - absolutely. I'm pinning everything on The Croxburgh Chronicles. 

 

I employed (paid for) an editor for Kissing the Dragon and had some very 'constructive' but frighteningly honest and lengthy criticisms that I really needed to take on board. I decided a while ago that this is going to be a three-parter and, like the other things I've written, wanted to have the whole thing make complete sense and be mapped out before I continued posting (I read a very fair comment in a post here recently where someone was complaining about 'in process' stories being annoying). I was in two minds whether to take this down, but it's also a dangling carrot for me, a constant reminder to keep writing. 

 

Second Half and Twelve Gays were already pretty much mapped at the time of initial posting, and both are standalone stories (although watch out for a link-up between the two). Stoking the Flame (KTD2) and Chasing the Demon (KTD3) being linked crime stories need to be carefully managed for sense-checks and originality, and will be slower coming together, but I promise to dive back into them and give them more air time early next year.

 

From a personal perspective, a lot of challenging life events have happened to me this year, and if there's one thing positive that's come out of that, it's that I really enjoy creating stories and that I need to spend more time doing exactly that. At the moment, I'm trying to work out how that's going to happen.

 

All I know is that it will.

 

Brian

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Dear all,

I'm opening up the second book in the Kissing the Dragon series again and, at the good advice of @Timothy M., will be resurrecting this story of Colin and Ben.

It may be slow going, because the story is deeper and less whimsical than my recent stories, but I'm going to persevere.

Thanks for being patient.

Brian

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There have been years since your last posting @lomax61 but I sincerely hope that you will find inspiration and time to continue and conclude this story. Colin is such a great character - witty, inelegant, detective (Sherloc, Morse, Poirot...) discase in history teacher (or vice versa). In future, I can imagine developing his and Ben's love story, Colins's rose on some significant position, his friendship with Darek and Hugh putting head out of his own ass (ass saved by the very same Colin btw) and, of course, appearance and final confrontation with his nemesis (you have written such a special connection between them that I would enjoy reading this resolution). Cheers and good luck.

Cane

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