The Search for Soaring Hawk by Terry O'Reilly

The Search for Soaring Hawk by Terry O'Reilly is now available in e-book format!

Son of an Indian brave and a white captive, Soaring Hawk is raised in the native customs. As he grows into manhood, he discovers his desire for the love of men. Knowing the fate of those of ‘two spirits’ within his tribe, he leaves the Indian village, disguises his heritage, and enters the white man’s world as Samuel Hawkins.

He soon discovers life is difficult for a man who prefers men. While he finds companionship, and forms bonds with many of the men he meets, he is unable to find a relationship which satisfies his deepest need. He also discovers much of what is in the world outside his village conflicts with the values of his native upbringing.

He embarks on an odyssey which takes him across the continent and into the arms and beds of many lovers. As he travels, he comes to realize love has many forms. But the one he seeks most continually eludes him.

Where will his odyssey lead him? Will he ever come to the end of his search for Soaring Hawk?

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Wayne Mansfield on On Love and Punishment

Guest post by Wayne Mansfield

As a non-believer I have always found the idea of Hell very intriguing. There is the commonly held notion of Hell as being an inferno of eternal damnation, but I wonder. Since most of the Bible has been changed, rearranged, bits added, bits removed, we can't know what Hell is really like, or even if there is a Hell. At least, not until we die, but then who is going to come back and report? Dis is not an inferno, at least not all the time. It is a dark, barren world constantly capped by thick, low-hanging clouds and scorched black by roaming wildfires.

Of Love and Punishment explores the lives of two demon in love -- a high ranking demon, Raum, and his partner, Charam. They live together in a rocky abode on the outskirts of Dis and have what can only be described as a stormy relationship. Charam is younger and is unusually attracted to sex with human males -- and who can blame him? However, his taste for the carnal is at the root of all his problems.

I often, but not always, write my main character with at least something of myself in him. It's a great way to do all the things I dream about without actually having to do them. Or I can exaggerate the experiences I've had in real life. I am not one for authority and so I liked the fact that Charam does what he wants. He's a bit of a free spirit. He is also immature and a tad spiteful. Yet, in the end his experiences teach him the lesson he needs to learn. This is also my preferred way of learning. Let life be the teacher.

When Raum finally reaches the end of his tether and punishes Charam, he comes up with a unique way of shaming his beloved. The punishment was the first idea I had for the story. I can't remember how it came to me, but these things usually materialise as I'm falling asleep, when I'm dreaming or when I'm under the shower. I thought it was a great piece of imagery and the cogs and wheels of my mind immediately began to concoct a story around this one idea. As the story progressed I knew I wanted the theme to be one about the nature of love; more particularly the idea that despite the fact we truly and deeply love someone, we can do some pretty stupid things. We don't mean to hurt anyone. It's just that when we do have a moment of weakness, a moment of stupidity, or even a few moments of either, we invariably do hurt someone and its a long hard road back to Trust.

Wayne Mansfield
http://waynemansfieldwrites.weebly.com

Of Love and Punishment by Wayne Mansfield

Of Love and Punishment by Wayne Mansfield is now available in e-book format!

Dis, the ancient word for Hell, is a world parallel to our own, close enough for its inhabitants to pass back and forth from their realm into ours, collecting souls and tormenting believers.

Charam is a handsome devil who can easily pass for human. It’s an ability that brings him both pleasure and punishment. He loves his partner, Raum, a minor member of Dis aristocracy, but sometimes he slips. He can’t seem to control himself and he strays. It’s what he does. And why not? Apart from the fact he is a demon, the human male form is just too deliciously tempting.

When Raum discovers Charam’s infidelities, Charam vows to mend his ways, but it isn’t long before he's at it again. Ah, the delights of the human cock! The feel of a muscular body, the aroma of male pheromone, and the bittersweet taste of cum!

When his infidelity is discovered a second time, there is no forgiveness. In a rage, Raum conjures up a unique punishment. No scarlet letter ‘A’ for Charam. Oh no. He has something much more beastly in mind.

A lover humiliated is a dangerous thing, and Charam wants revenge. But his little plan goes too far. At first he doesn’t care what happens -- he is hurt and angry -- but a journey into the Wildlands soon changes that.

Is it too late to rescue his beloved Raum? The matter may well be out of his hands.

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Brittany Fonte on Fighting Gravity

Guest post by Brittany Fonte

Readers often ask writers: Is this work autobiographical? When I started writing Fighting Gravity, I was working from the point of view of a protective parent and aunt, the kind of obsessive helicopter parent who has decided she will never let her children cruise the Internet or questionable chat rooms -- as she did as a child. And so, in creating Calliope and Farrah, I had to include who I had been as a teenager in some capacity, yes; I didn’t want either character to come across as naïve, or ignorant, or as a victim. Callie and Farrah choose the Internet to find other halves for very logical reasons: Callie chooses it because she feels there is no one in her high school who A) hasn’t known her since elementary school (and therefore is like a sibling) and B) isn’t already linked to another thespian/band geek/pot head. Farrah journeys online because she feels alone and isolated as a newly-identified lesbian in a high school setting seemingly filled, only, with heterosexuals.

As an adult, I can say that I met my spouse of ten plus years (and two kids) online; it isn’t so taboo, today, with Match.com and EHarmony commercials flooding late night tv. This, too, was logical. I taught middle school in a conservative county, then. I didn’t go to bars and the “ladies nights” at local gay establishments were few and far between. My options for meeting other like-minded women was whittled to, maybe, weekend trips to PetSmart and city Starbucks locations where I would obviously read My Antonia. In an HRC shirt. With rainbow socks. I understood that I had to take a chance on love, and this isn’t so very different than I felt as a high schooler in the same situation -- looking for companionship.

As a parent and aunt, I wanted to show readers the reality of SOME interactions online, because safety comes first. My niece was thirteen when I wrote this book. Oprah Winfrey had just done a scary show on pedophiles and how they groom their victims for abuse. Dateline had shown innocuous-looking rabbis, teachers, coaches, etc. luring children to their homes with white picket fences and family pictures adorning the walls. Too many teachers had made headlines for sleeping with sixth graders. This, too, is real. This, perhaps, is more real than vampires and werewolves and zombies, oh my!

In addition to the online predator storyline, I wanted to breathe life into the world of family. Young adults, like grown-ups, have little control over their families and home environments. Sometimes they complain, wish they had a different home universe. And I am a lesbian mom; my son, at almost seven, has never questioned how he got here, but he feels a bit different, I’m sure, having two moms. Who are still together. Who only have one house to choose from. He has friends who have divorced parents and two houses, which they ping-pong back and forth to every other week. This is confusing for a first grader who simply wants to fit in. He asked my wife and I why he didn’t have two houses, once; we thought long and hard about how we could get every-other-week breaks without divorcing, but the answer has yet to appear. So I birthed as many different family situations as possible into this story: a single mom who parents both her child and her terminally-ill mother, a pair of gay men looking to adopt, an Evangelical couple who has a hard time with their child’s sexuality, but ultimately embraces the daughter they love, and a devoutly Jewish woman who is married to a husband with two children -- and becomes a Christ-like savior for Callie. This is our beautiful patchwork of family diversity in this country; we should teach young adults to value their families, whatever their make up, however they are formed, however loud the Westboro Baptist Church should scream against them.

Finally, I abhor stereotypes. I don’t believe that all high school cheerleaders are dumb, or that teenagers with disabilities are conclusively less popular than those with all of their body parts/mental capacities/learning abilities. Callie is not a popular kid; she is a thespian and show choir girl. In this way, Callie is autobiographical and delightfully quirky. (My jock wife has, on occasion, told me never to share that side of myself, however.) Farrah is a Buddhist despite her parents’ Christian obsessions; this, too, is close to my heart. Lynn has a disability, and tries too hard to get people to like her. She is not a “slut” or “easy”; she is a teenaged girl, worried about her body image as we all were -- and still are at 35 -- when we eat an entire pizza and a bag of M&Ms before trying to squeeze into that new dress for an important event. Lynn, in many ways, is the epitome of what I see all human beings as: vulnerable, complicated, instinctive, fragmented. And yet, she is utterly gorgeous. These are the characters, and parts of myself, who can tell young readers: Be who you are. It’s simply perfect.

So, yes, I am that young girl, inside, who desperately wants others to like her. I am a woman who was once severely irritated by her mother when rules kept her from putting herself in danger, i.e. fun. I am a practicing Buddhist -- practice being the most relevant adjective. I am a dorky thespian and show choir participant who knows every word to every contemporary musical song. Ever. I am in love with that statue of Gandhi in DuPont Circle, Washington, D.C., and non-violence; I would toss a gun away if handed to me, too. I love my grandmother more than life, itself. And, perhaps most importantly, I know what it is like to seek love, as complicated, messy, and devastating as it can be.

Brittany Fonte
facebook.com/brittany.fonte
twitter.com/PoetBFonte

Fighting Gravity by Brittany Fonte

Fighting Gravity by Brittany Fonte is now available in e-book format!

Nearly eighteen, Calliope Pratt knows her rank in the hierarchy of dorks in high school -- just above the band geeks. With a love life as laughable as her name, she still wants a boyfriend. Her best friend Farrah is a Buddhism-dabbling, left-leaning lesbian who has just come to terms with her sexuality. When Callie is humiliated by her crush in front of an auditorium of thespians, she and Farrah turn to the Internet to find their soul mates.

Unfortunately, what they find there isn't what they hoped for.

Amidst family secrets and tragedies, Callie finds and nurtures an online love, the mysterious Kevin. This chat room relationship blossoms and pushes her to the unthinkable: to run away from her mother, grandmother, and newly-introduced father so she can be with her unknown Prince Charming.

But she soon learns nothing is what it seems in the virtual world, and blind trust can be dangerous.

Read an excerpt or buy a copy today!