Shorts
Embedded
Coming Soon in Anthology Love is Free
I'll have a story in the charitable anthology Love is Free.
Available January 25th 2025
From JMS Books
Lucy, a young lesbian woman, is visiting her married uncles, Mike and Baz, once radical queer activists. About to start university, she wants to learn about how to fight for LGBTQ+ rights, as they did for so long. But Mike and Baz seem so domestic now. So settled into the life of a quiet village. Have the two former radicals sold out and given up the fight?
Role Model
Journalist Paul is keen for an indepth interview with heroic paramedic, Drew. And not only because it’s a great story. But Paul’s not out and when he confesses his feelings Drew says he won’t date a closeted man, not with all the pain that can bring. Paul needs to decide if his fear of losing his career is stronger than his feelings for Drew.
99 Problems
Ice cream seller Rob Catteneo, wants to get closer to rival Chez Bianchi, in both the business and personal sense. But Chez fears his very traditional family finding out he’s gay, so despite one night together, he resists Rob’s overtures. Only Rob’s help with an ice cream emergency on an important summer weekend brings Chez around to reconsidering Rob’s business — and personal — propositions.
Loose Cannon
Teamed with unconventional agent Taya, Lieutenant Barb Carolus is both irritated with and attracted to her temporary partner. She’s conflicted about her orders to bring down a rogue officer who’s a hero of her home planet and feeling bitter enough to give in to desire. Barb’s by-the-book approach won’t work when she’s forced to improvise a solution to save their lives after the mission goes bad.
Wake-up Call
When you live beside a cat café, it’s inevitable the fur will start flying eventually. Derek “Dez” Walker, a police officer wounded in a shooting, feels adrift and isolated as he makes a slow recovery. Others call him a hero, but it’s a title he doesn’t think he deserves.
When Dez intervenes in a burglary at the cat café near his apartment, he meets the owner, Francis “Fran” Green. Though he’s a hero to Fran for his intervention in the burglary, it’s Fran who becomes a strong source of support for Dez. Fran offers friendship to his vulnerable neighbour and, as they spend more time together, Dez comes to rely on Fran … and his cats.
He begins to find the way out of his isolation, but does he deserve everything Fran offers?
Me and My Big Mouth
Max Sagan’s mouth is always getting him in trouble. His special talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person makes it hard to hold onto either a job or a boyfriend for long.
When Max is fired yet again, his best friend Noah reluctantly gets Max an interview where he works. Max is grateful, but unsure if a party boy like him will fit in at a stuffy law firm. Then he meets Noah’s gorgeous boss, lawyer Owen Hart, and becomes determined to keep this job.
Others say Owen is far too professional to date an employee, but Max has a plan — keep his fingers crossed, look cute, and hope it works out. Meanwhile he’s working hard to keep his big mouth shut so he might last an unprecedented entire month at his new job — long enough, he hopes, to catch Owen’s eye.
Wedded to Calamity
Whose silly idea was it to get married in a remote Scottish castle in the middle of winter? But before they can get married, Londoner Kim and her fiery Brazilian fiancée, Gabi, first have to get there.
The trip from their home in London involves rain-a lot of rain, hire cars, trains, disapproving B&B landladies, and snow. So much snow that even when the brides reach their castle, not in a limo, but in a Landover smelling of sheep, they fear the caterer, their families and friends, and, most importantly, the celebrant to marry them, will never make it.
Will the guests arrive? Will the power stay on? Will the cake make it safely? Will the wedding even happen at all? Gaining the right to marry was a long struggle. Now the struggle is to get the brides to the church on time.
Smoke In My Eyes
After a decade together, death took Daniel’s lover away in an instant. A year of grieving kept him from thinking about the future. But now fearing loneliness, fearing ageing and its effects, he’s ready to find someone new before it’s too late. Filled with good intentions, Daniel joins a gym. He plans to work hard to keep what time is all too quickly taking away from him. But are good intentions enough against the many distractions and temptations of life? Is he really prepared to make the sacrifices required? Meeting gym owner Chris may be the extra boost his motivation needs — if only he could figure out why Chris keeps blowing hot and cold on him.
Reclaiming Territory
Many years ago the events of a weekend at the seaside drove Jim to make a choice he’ll always regret.
Now Jim and his lover Andy return to the place that once ended their relationship. Only there can they reconcile the past with their future together.
Available Free