Stroking the Flame 2. The Croxburgh Chronicles

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.

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

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

Somewhat soon, I hope...

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....

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

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.

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

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

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