frogs_of_war

When I was composing the why-I-wrote-this-story for the master list I didn’t remember an important part until I was answering the comments. I’d forgotten the epiphany I felt after reading this article.

( snip )

Reading that article and this one, about a femme boy in the American South who is loathed by those around him but can’t (or won’t and why should he?) become someone else for their approval, I started to wonder if I was doing my characters a disservice. Stereotypes exist for a reason. Would I give a character all of the stereotype? No, even though such people exist. But should I continue to toss out these character traits when I form new characters? No.

I am opening my catalog of human characteristics up just a bit further.



Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 10 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: kisses, last things, guidance, names, sleeping, morning, showers, coffee, child logic, pancakes, a call, more breakfast, an invitation
Length: about 2,400 words

Master List

Diemen turned in Pavel’s arms. This really was a dream come true, even if in Diemen’s dream there wasn’t a kid sleeping in the other room. Pavel’s next kiss took Diemen’s breath away. Diemen leaned into it. He wanted tonight to be wonderful. He hoped he was good enough.

( You already have me convinced. )

I read an interesting article today about why gay men exist from evolutionary standpoint. One study by Italian geneticists found that maternal relatives of gay men had a higher reproductive success (more fertile and fewer complications in pregnancy) than women born into families without gay men. Then they did another study to find out why. It turns out these women tend to be “more extroverted, as well as funnier, happier and more relaxed; and they have fewer family problems and social anxieties.”

They (and their brothers and sons) are more attractive to men. They get their choice of the pick of the litter. And who in that situation would pick less that the best (whatever the best might mean to them)?

Of course one gene does not tell anything close to the whole story, “But as for why genetic factors would exist that make men gay, it appears that these genes make women, as well as gay men, alluring to other men.”

Now I have to put that in a story. Maybe Pavel’s sister if I ever write that far…



Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 8 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: traffic, tea, unhappy news, tears, Goldie, a call, movies, a hidden treasure, questions, a dress
Length: about 2,700 words
Note: mentions of self harm

Master List


The traffic was even worse than before, but that was to be expected on a Friday afternoon. Courtney and her husband lived in a tiny, probably rented, house further into the suburbs than Diemen. Amelia was particularly ecstatic to see Em. They ran off into the house. Courtney invited Diemen inside and asked lots of questions about how Em had acted and whether that was normal and how people got on with nem. Diemen told the total truth. “Everyone that met Em loved nem.”

( I’m five. )

My daughter suggested that since I didn’t work today and her classes were over that we go to see Snow White and the Huntsman. Since it was all movies are $5 on Tuesdays, I agreed. I had a 20 so I sent her to the concession stand with the leftover $10, which turned out to be a mistake because the smallest popcorn and soda are $10.75 together. But we didn’t finish the soda and I doubt we’d have eaten more than half the popcorn. It was a fun movie, overacted in all the right ways. And I like the
ambiguous ending. Expect to see Snow White/Huntsman/William threesome or harem fanfics in the near future. In my opinion William would make the better king, while the Huntsman would make the better husband.



Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 6 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: childproofing, cleaning, a note, a call, Pavel, info, plans
Length: about 600 words

Master List


Diemen decided not to stop at the store on the way home from Autumn and Zan’s. Em was asleep and managed to stay asleep through being taken out of the car seat, carried inside, and being bedded down on the couch. The spare room wasn’t childproof enough.

( I’ve been thinking about you. )

A lady walked into the store yesterday with her four kids. She started to walk around the table in the lobby, but stopped and looked at something on it. Her older two girls (10 & 8 or so) followed her. Her two youngest (twins I think of about 6) walked on in. The girl stepped into the floral department (on the other side of the table), realized the others weren’t following, eeped, and hurried back to her mother. The boy twin walked about twenty paces along a walk parallel to the table and looked at the stuffed animals.

His mother looked up and started calling for him. He walked towards her but only until she could see him. (Which she could have simply by stepping around the table.) Then she called him over and gave him a talking to about being out of her line of sight. He plainly could not understand the fuss and thought she was overreacting. (I could tell not only from his face, but from his swagger.)

I got the feeling that she thought his behavior was because he was a boy, but I think it’s because after having two ducklings and a puppy, she had a kitten.

I also really hate parents saying ‘stay where I can see you’ because as a child you can’t understand what your parents can and can’t see. I prefer ‘stay where you can see me’. You are less likely to lose sight of your kid that way.


Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 5 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: kisses, frozen peas, wisdom, pronouns, measuring, a bib, dinner, a bath, shock, hope
Length: about 1,400 words

Master List


Zan and Autumn couldn’t get enough of Em. The child probably hadn’t had so many kisses in his life.

Autumn had two cloth cart covers to keep Em in the shopping cart. The finished one was pink astronaut/jet pilot contraption with a five point harness. The other was going to be a unicorn head and tail in rainbow colors and if Em was strapped in correctly, he would look like he was riding the unicorn.

( If you don’t mine me saying… )

When my husband and I were in the room, my daughter read aloud post about a lesbian couple who took a hetero-normative relationship survey for a friend . The purpose of the survey was to see how many yes-no questions both members of the couple answered the same. The woman who wrote the post said the worse thing was how boring the survey was, so she came up with some questions with allusions to comic books and other geeky things like: if you were sent to an alternate universe, the first thing you’d do is find your significant other? Even if this was an evil mirror universe and your significant other was evil? Stuff like that.

I asked if your significant other had an analogue, then did you have one? I believe if you get together with someone who was dating someone else, even if that other person was your analogue, then it’s cheating. My husband agreed with my thought before I could articulate it properly. So I think we are doing well couple-wise.




Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 3 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: carrying, clothes, changing, a mirror, good friend, a solution
Length: about 1,300 words

Master List


Diemen looked at Em then at all the stuff in the car’s trunk. How many trips back and forth would this take with a toddler? Maybe Diemen should only bring the grapes in for now.

( Yard of pins and toddlers didn’t mix. Or they did with painful consequences. )

My local independent bookstore (Powell’s) recently got an Espresso Book Machine (print to order), so yesterday when I was downtown I watched a demonstration. The book it made was slick and neat, but I did a quick calculation: To print Are You Together? (525 pages) would cost $29 a copy without taking the $25 set up fee into account or the $1 commission per book they charge for putting your book up for sell. If I wanted to sell my stories, I think it would be cheaper to go eBook.


Title: For an Uninterrupted Date
Status: Part 1 of 10
Universe: (A Balance of) Harmonies Portland
Genre: m/m romance, family, city life, businessmen, kids
Content: coffee, questions, texts, and a kiss
Length: about 1,900 words
Note: Kurt met these guys at Zan’s birthday party.

Master List


Diemen squared his shoulders and opened the door to the coffee shop. He’d met Pavel for coffee before and although sitting across the table from the hottest guy imaginable made Diemen want to date Pavel more than ever, something Pavel had said last time left a foul taste in Diemen’s mouth.

( Pavel had seen right through him. )