meredith_shayne

I break my accidental blog hiatus to say that I've updated my book pages with some changes. First of all, my novella Rust Red: Galvanized, which is a sequel to my free read Eyes Wide Shut, has now gone out of print. So if you wanted to grab it, you're out of luck, I'm afraid. At least until I decide what I'm going to do with it.

Second of all, the first M/M meetup in Australia has come and gone. I flew over to Sydney to attend it, and had a fab time, which I will attempt to put into words sometime soon. To commemorate that event, an anthology with six stories from some of the attending authors has been produced. Called Blokes in Love, it's available for free from Smashwords and All Romance ebooks. All the stories have a common thread, in that they're all set in either Australia or New Zealand, to showcase life down under. As is fitting for a bunch of bods who love M/M and got together to celebrate being from the southern hemisphere!

Contributing authors were AB Gayle, NJ Nielsen, Jess Buffet, Pelaam, Susan Beck and me. My story is called "Cutting Out", and it's the story of Shane Cooper and Lachlan Moore, shearers who work the runs of New Zealand. Serena Yates of Rainbow Book Reviews - who came all the way from the UK to attend the Meet, how good is that? - has reviewed the anthology and loved it.

Of Cutting Out, she said:

"...this story about two sheep shearers, one much older than the other, touched me deeply. Shane so desperately wants more than casual encounters with the much younger Lachie, and is devastated when Lachie rejects him. Shane's situation had me up in arms, railing against the injustices of fate. That was until I got to see things from Lachie's side, and his reasons for turning down Shane almost made me cry. Be ready for an intense emotional roller coaster as these two men battle their pride and their circumstances!"

Below is an excerpt, for your reading pleasure. The lovely cover is courtesy of Jess Buffett, who went the extra mile and made all contributing authors individual covers, in addition to the anthology cover.



He’d half expected it, but his heart still jolted when he came face to face with Lachie, his shaggy black hair poking out from under the beanie he wore, his dark brown eyes fixed on Shane’s face.

Lachie offered Shane a tentative smile. “Morning, Coop.”

“Morning,” Shane said gruffly, his heart aching as he stared at Lachie for a few seconds longer before picking up his gear and stowing it in the trailer. When he turned around he didn’t look at Lachie again, directing his gaze somewhere in the vicinity of Lachie’s booted feet. “We’ll be leaving in a minute.”

Lachie said, “Okay…” and Shane stepped around him, heading towards the bus’s sliding door, which was now standing open. Don was there, chatting to the team, and the last-minute instructions he had for Shane were a welcome distraction. Being the first one in the van, Shane folded himself into a seat at the front, slouching down as Jade and Di took the driver and passenger seats and the others piled in behind Shane. Shane’s neck and shoulders loosened just a tiny bit as the new rouseabout—Pania—sat beside him, Lachie casting them a look Shane refused to believe was disappointed as he climbed in after her.

Shane slouched down a bit more as they set off and the others started chatting around him. He knew he wouldn’t be allowed to sit quietly and mind his own business straight away, so he wasn’t surprised when someone grabbed the back of his seat and shook it.

“Coop, did you watch the game over the weekend?” Maaka asked, his voice triumphant. “We thrashed the Wallabies good, didn’t we? We thrashed you good and proper!”

“Didn’t watch it,” Shane said, which wasn’t exactly true. He’d watched it, sitting in the corner of his local pub on his own, surrounded by Kiwis and trying not to let anyone hear him say anything like “six” or “fish and chips” while the Aussies were soundly thrashed by the All Blacks. He’d left at half-time, when all hope was lost. It didn’t matter too much; he’d get his own back when the cricket started, because the Black Caps were the shittiest cricket team in the world, and everyone knew it. He’d let his gang take their victories while they could.

Before Maaka could gloat any more, Pania turned to him. “You from Aussie, then?”

Shane had given up trying to get the Kiwis he knew to call Australia the right nickname—Oz—years ago. It was a losing battle. “Yep. South coast of New South Wales,” he said. “Been here about ten years.” Braced for the question they always asked, he wasn’t disappointed.

“What the hell did you come here for? Isn’t it always the other way around, us going there?”

Shane sighed internally. They never got it. “I’m a shearer,” he said, like he always did, because nobody ever seemed to realise that wasn’t an actual answer before he distracted them with another thing he always said. “I like New Zealand, it’s beautiful. You lot don’t appreciate what you’ve got here. You just focus on the bad things and forget about the good.”

That shut them up for a while, and when they’d all mulled that over and started talking again, the conversation turned from him to other, safer topics. Glancing over his shoulder to find Lachie watching him, he turned back around without acknowledging it. Slumping in his seat some more, Shane settled in to brood for the rest of the trip.

A little while ago, Ms Melanie Tushmore announced that what she would really love for her birthday was some fic, written by her writerly friends. Because she is a considerate lass, she left us some prompts to choose from, and when one of the prompts is something that looks like this:



how could I possibly resist?

Scraping in under the deadline by the skin of my teeth, here is some rockstar m/m for your reading pleasure. It features new, never before seen characters, but there is a cameo by everyone's favourite band manager, for those of you who have read Metal Heart. :) Do I need to warn for swearing and sexual situations? There you go, I just did.

~

( Truce, by Meredith Shayne )

Copyright © Meredith Shayne

All the usual disclaimers apply - this is a work of fiction. Any names, places, incidents and events are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, incidents or events is entirely coincidental, etc etc.

Thanks to LJ LaBarthe for the read through.

To celebrate the release of Equilibrium on the 24th, only a few days away now, I've got a little freebie story for you all. This one starts about a week before Equilibrium does, and continues on through the first meeting of our heroes, Michael and Ryan. This time, though, we get to see things through Ryan's eyes. We also get to meet Murphy the Labrador. :)

Thanks to misslj_author and empty_tea for the read through.


These Days, an Equilibrium short

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Eleven o'clock was too early for lunch, but Ryan had been up since five and he was starving. There were no parks in front of the pub when he drove past, and the supermarket was his final destination anyway, so he parked there instead and walked down Burreela's main street to get back to the pub. It was a stupid decision, because it was stinking hot, like it always was in January, with the new year barely a week old. There wasn't a cool breath of air to be had, and he was only saved from the beating sun by his battered old Akubra hat and the shop awnings shading the footpath. Even with the shade, by the time he reached the door of the pub his face was damp and he could feel his t-shirt sticking to his back. He closed his eyes when he opened the pub door, stepped inside, and was hit by a blast of cold air from the air conditioners. He took his hat off and swiped the back of his arm over his forehead before walking toward the bar. At that time of day there was only a handful of patrons scattered around the bar, and there wasn't a single stranger among them.

"Well, well, Ryan bloody Mitchell."

"Jonesy," Ryan said as he took a seat at the bar. Peter Jones had played on the footie team with Ryan at school, almost ten years previously; when Ryan became a policeman and moved to Sydney, Jonesy had stayed to help his dad run the family pub. He was built like a brick shithouse, a volunteer fireman when he wasn't at the pub; he was also one of the most heterosexual men Ryan had ever known. Sadly. "How's it hanging?"

Jonesy grinned. "Down to my knees, matey, down to my knees."

At the other end of the bar, Alison, Jonesy's wife, made a disbelieving noise as she wiped down the bar.

Jonesy laughed. "Take no notice of my missus, she just doesn't want you to be jealous. What can I get you?"

Ryan laughed. "Just a Coke and a menu. The kitchen's open, right?"

"Yep," Jonesy said, and handed him a laminated menu. "Coke coming right up."

Ryan studied the menu until Jonesy brought him his drink. "Thanks." He picked it up and took a large mouthful.

Jonesy watched him. "You met the new vet yet?"

Ryan put his glass down and shook his head. "No. The only thing I've heard is that there is one." Ryan tried not to involve himself in gossip. "Girl or guy?"

Jonesy leaned on the bar. "Guy. I heard he came up from Sydney."

Ryan's stomach flipped, but he ruthlessly shoved down any spark of hope he felt. The likelihood of the guy being gay was slim. Not everyone from Sydney was gay, or even open-minded about gays. He took another mouthful of his drink. "What's he like?"

Jonesy shrugged. "Dunno. Okay, I suppose."

Alison, who'd moved closer with her cleaning cloth, rolled her eyes. "Honestly, babe, God help us all if you ever have to give evidence in a court case." She looked at Ryan. "His name's Michael, and he seems nice enough. A bit shy, maybe, and nervous, like he's just about to bolt for the door all the time, but I suppose it's hard moving somewhere like here when you're used to Sydney." Her gaze sharpened, turned calculating as she sized Ryan up. "He's a little shorter than you, I reckon, about six foot, and he's got dark brown hair and eyes that are that blue-grey colour. He's a little on the thin side, and kind of nerdy-looking, like he's done nothing but study chemistry all his life. Even if he hasn't, I don't think he's spent much time outside, because he's as pale as pale can be." She smiled. "He's pretty though. Really pretty. So he's just the sort of fresh meat we want around here." Her smile turned into a grin. "Anything else you want to know?"

Ryan felt a little wide-eyed, and when he looked at Jonesy, he looked that way too. "Ah... No. I don't think so. That's... Wow. He's only been here a few days, hasn't he? That's a lot to notice in such a short time."

Alison shook her head at him. "No, it's not, it's just that you men don't notice anything at all about anyone. If it were up to you lot, we'd have to get around in total ignorance." She gestured at the menu he held. "Decided what you want yet?"

"Oh. Ah..." Ryan looked down at the menu again, and chose the first thing that he saw. "I'll have the steak sandwich, thanks. Medium rare."

"Medium rare steak sandwich," she repeated, taking his menu and walking through the door to the kitchen.

Ryan and Jonesy stared at each other for a minute. "Wow," Ryan said again. "Fresh meat, huh?"

Jonesy nodded. "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Ryan took another mouthful of Coke, suddenly wishing it was beer. "Mate. You can say that again."

( Read more... )




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Copyright © 2011 by Meredith Shayne – All Rights Reserved