How is it Saturday again? This year is in hyperdrive. And since it’s an insanely busy weekend where I should be saying I’m going on a steampunk train ride (but I’m not because a) too freaking hot, 90+ in Sept in Ohio??? and b) too busy), I’ll get right down to it.

Continuing with These Haunted Hills and you finally get to learn what terrified Brendan in the woods (if Josh can stop chuckling at him that is). It’s longer than it should be just so I can close out the reveal.

“Man, now I just want to come to your place at night.” Joshua bounced in his chair, and then – as Brendan sputtered into his coffee – went redder than the morning’s sunrise. “God! I didn’t mean it like that. Why can’t I talk around you? I swear I don’t normally blurt out inappropriate shit.”

Joshua hit the next recording. The howls gave way to rapid fire yipping. “That’s gekkering. You have at least two foxes out there. Could be a territorial dispute though they sound youngish. Could be pups at play. I wonder if they’re any of mine.

If you want to hear what Brendan heard, here you go, fox howls and gekkering are both on here.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

It’s been such a hellish week that I’m not even sure if I did or didn’t finish everyone’s post last week. If I missed you, I apologize.

Today was good. I met friends at the Mothman Festival. Had fun as always but this festival is getting huge. I did get to talk to Rosemary Ellen Guilley as usual. Her talk was packed but probably because one of the dudes from TAPS was following her.

Maybe Josh should take Brendan out to the TNT site (I went today). Speaking of These Haunted Hills I’ll be continuing with them. Last week Brendan was spooked by something screaming in the woods. This picks up the next day. He’s met Josh in a diner and Josh has asked why Brendan looks so exhausted and that’s where we’re at (and six sentences means you still don’t get to learn exactly what happened yet).

“You promised not to laugh!”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

I feel guilty about how beautiful it is here knowing how bad both coasts are. Still don’t know what’s happening to family members in FL (they don’t communicate nearly as well as my friends who are still safe but the worst is yet to come).

I’m still working on These Haunted Hills. This is over 6 lines but I wanted to capture the moment. At this point Brendan is standing in the clearing in the woods around his cabin, looking at the stars after his conversation with his ex-wife who gave him a gentle nudge to not just look at Joshua as a tour guide to ghosts but rather as an available man. Next week they’ll be back together (and dammit, I want to write more but I have 4 exams I have to write. Sigh).

“Beautiful,” he murmured, thinking this needed worked into his story somehow along with how noisy the woods were. It hummed with insects and something that sounded bigger than that. He had no idea. He pulled out his phone and tried to take a picture of the full moon.

A strange cry split the air catapulting him from the chair which spilled over. His heart pounded. More strange cries followed the first. Brendan thumbed on the recorder, jogging toward the house. If whatever screamed in the woods didn’t kill him, maybe Joshua would know what the hell it was. Brendan raced inside and bolted the door. He shut the windows he’d opened. He’d use a fan if he got too hot.

Shaking, he turned off the recorder then eyed the loft. He wasn’t going to sleep after that. He grabbed his computer and turned on the TV. He’d write the night away and maybe the creature in the night would leave him be.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

I’ve settled into this semester’s new swing and can relax a little now that I’ve heard from my Texan friends (all of whom have been very lucky). So now I hope I can get myself writing more. I’m noodling with Chuck Wendig’s flash fic challenge this week and of course, I’m getting back to These Haunted Hills.

I’ll be sharing more of that today. I’m glad that Brendan’s still close relationship with his ex seems to be working for people. I was a bit surprised that enjoying Stephen King’s books equated to being morbid by nature which is definitely not what I’m going for so I’ll have to think on that, so thank you.

For today’s snippet I’m skipping to the end of their conversation (you’ll miss her teasing him about getting Josh to do a tick exam). It’s a few lines over to complete the passage but I think I’ll be forgiven for that.

But seriously I’m glad you’re out there working again, Brendan. I know how hard it’s been for you to take that step.”

“The hotel is in the woods. I know what you’re thinking but you don’t have to worry.” Last night that would have been a lie, maybe it still was, but after meeting Josh, he honestly felt the mountain roll off his chest. The old familiar energy he used to feel when writing ebbed back in through the cracks in his armor.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

It was a completely traumatic first week back to school, not only for me but for our two new hires. I hope to hell they don’t think it’s always like this or we’ll be looking for new ones again.

So I didn’t write as much as I wanted (also I had edits to do which were easy so that made me happy, I’ll talk more about this one closer to the holidays) and I’m looking forward to reading all your snippets to get my mind off this.

I’m picking up right where we left off with Brendan talking to his ex wife (still a good friend) Kirsten. They’re talking about him meeting Josh.

I’m looking forward to working with him.