Friday, October 30, 2015

It's in the Bag - A Loving Sarajevo Halloween Treat

As promised here's my little Halloween treat featuring Gage, Nikola, and Hana from Loving Sarajevo.  I hope you all enjoy it!

It's in the Bag


Nikola walked slowly down the street next to Gage.  The fallen leaves crunched under their shoes and there was a definite hint of the long winter to come in the air.  Nikola shivered because Gage hadn’t let him wear a coat.  He was sure that the three thermals under his costume were the only things that kept him from succumbing to hypothermia.  Nikola would suffer through it though because it was Halloween night and Gage was having the time of his life taking Hana from door to door begging for treats. 

Nikola reached up and scratched his head for the hundredth time that night – the temporary hair dye Gage had talked him into using was making his scalp itch.  Nikola decided that he really didn’t care for dressing up.  At least he’d talked Gage out of making him dress up as Dracula.  If he had to hear Gage beg him to say ‘I vant to suck yer blood’ one more time he’d kick the man’s ass.  Nikola swore his accent sounded nothing like the Count’s but Gage got a kick out of it none the less.

“Want to try this one, B?” Gage asked Hana who was walking at his side.

“Sure that looks like a good one,” Hana said eagerly.

Nikola snorted.  Hana thought every house looked like a good one.  Why wouldn’t she?  They all gave out candy by the handful.  Nikola followed them up the porch stairs.  Gage waited for Nikola to step up beside him before he rang the doorbell.

Nikola fidgeted while Gage stood with his bag positioned in front of him waiting for the unsuspecting homeowner to open the door.  It took only a moment, most people were ready and waiting to hand out their treats as quickly as they could so they could shut off their light and have some peace and quiet for the rest of the night.

The door swung open and an older lady stood there frozen in shock after just a glimpse of them.  Gage elbowed Nikola, “Trick or Treat,” they chorused.  Gage’s rendition of the phrase held much more pep than the lack luster version Nikola muttered out. 

Nikola waited for the inevitable to happen.  “Aren’t you boys a bit old to be trick or treating?” the lady asked as she took in the two giant Oompa Loompas on her porch.

Gage smiled as he said, “But I got all dressed up and I’m lugging around this huge bag.  It’s practically empty.  See?” he said as he pulled the bag open. 

The lady looked inside – they all did.  “Trick or Treat!” Hana yelled from inside the bag making the poor woman jump in surprise.  Hana giggled at her trick that kept on working.

“Oh my!” the woman exclaimed.  “That was some surprise.  You tricked me so I guess that means I have to give you a treat,” she said with a big smile at the little girl in the giant bag.  She reached into her bowl and brought out three full sized candy bars and put them in Hana’s bag.

“Wow thanks!” Hana said with big eyes for all that candy.

“Thanks,” Gage said, all puffy chested.  He was damn proud of himself and his crazy idea for Hana’s costume.

Nikola also thanked the lady before the three of them made their way down the stairs and back out onto the sidewalk.  Gage put his arm around Nikola’s waist immune to the stares they got from the other parents walking their own little ghosts and goblins around the neighborhood.  “See, we’ll have that bag full in no time and then we can go home and I’ll do exactly what I promised you I’d do if you dressed up with me,” Gage said.

“She gave me three big chocolate bars,” Hana said interrupting the images that had just started forming in Nikola’s mind.  She was looking into her bag, inspecting her haul not paying any attention to her babo and daddy.

“I know, that’s the third house in a row that’s given you extra treats.  Told you my idea would work,” Gage said with a wink.

Nikola shook his head.  Gage had come up with the idea for him and Nikola to dress up like they were the ones trick or treating.  It had also been his idea for Hana to go dressed as a giant trick or treating bag that Gage appeared to be carrying.  Gage had wanted to just tape a bunch of paper bags together but Hana had blanched at going as a brown paper bag for her first Halloween – she wanted to be Cinderella.  Gage’s mom had thought up a much better idea of making a decorated bag out of purple felt and glued on Halloween images.  The design had convinced Hana that being a bag was as good as being a princess plus she loved a good prank as much as Gage did.

Nikola scratched his head again.  “You’d better make good on that promise, this hair dye is eating my head and I’m pretty sure that orange isn’t my color,” Nikola complained while looking at his orange tinged hand.

“I told you I’d make sure every inch of your body is clear of green dye and orange paint.  I’ll keep my word… even if it takes all night,” Gage said.  His husky voice promised a long shower and much, much more when they got home. 

Nikola’s shiver had nothing to do with the chill in the air.  He decided that maybe dressing up wasn’t so bad after all.

Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!

CL


Sunday, October 25, 2015

EEK!! Who Knew One Person Could Get So Busy?!?

So like the title says:  Who knew one person could get so busy in such a short period of time?  I mean really, I went from having nothing to do but sit and write, to having a zillion and one things to do on any given day.  Admittedly, most of the things that I have to do are things that I've committed myself to so you could say they're self imposed so therefore I shouldn't complain.  I'm not going to complain but since I know some of you out there are actually waiting for me to get something written, I thought I'd give you all an update on all the stuff I'm doing right now since it mostly has to do with my writing.

First and foremost, as most of you who are following along know, I'm trying to find a publisher for Falling For Him.  So far I've gotten one rejection because the publisher doesn't publish fanfics (so not a fanfic but if they can't be bothered to do their research I'm not sure I want to publish with them anyway), one revise and resubmit (this is good because it means they're interested, the story just needs some tweaking), and I've yet to hear back from another.  So I'm still working on that, doing some editing and also tweaking so I can resubmit to the interested publisher.

Second and probably not something that anyone thinks is a priority, I've been doing an overhaul on Loving Sarajevo.  I decided that I really didn't like the story told from the first person point of view so I'm working on converting it to third person and also fixing some issues I have with it, both in the story and in some of the writing quirks I had when I first started writing.  All in the hopes that the end product will be something that I can maybe, possibly self publish in the near future.

Third and boring as all get out, I've been doing research on self publishing.  Although I feel like Falling for him is just as good as some of the dreck out there that I've read from the predominately M/M publishers, I have to have a back up plan in case I'm totally delusional.  That's why I'm thinking about self pubbing Loving Sarajevo as a sort of test, getting my feet wet so to speak.  There's a lot of work that goes into self publishing so if I go that route, I want to make sure I know what I'm doing.

Fourth and you guys are going to hate me for this, I have other stories that want to come out before the ones that I'm supposed to be working on.  I've said this before and it bares repeating - I can not control the voices in my head.  If I can't get one of my MCs from one of my current WIPs to talk to me their story doesn't get updated.  So although I've still been writing, there's been nothing for you guys to read.

Fifth and yes this one is something I want to do but will delay my updates another month or so, I've decided to do Nano this year.  I had two ideas running around my head and they won't leave me in peace to write anything else.  One was Spence's story, which would have involved Gage and Nikola's wedding.  The other is about Henrick, the twink that Gage met in Sarajevo, and a pro soccer player.  I decided to go with Henrick's story because Gage and Nikola's wedding is going to include the whole cast of characters that I've created so far and it will be a bit of an undertaking.  Anyway, I've decided to put my Nano Novel on Smashwords so you all can follow along with my progress if you want.  I'll update after Nov. 1st with a link to it for anyone that's interested.

So as you all can see I've been busy.  One of the ideas that wouldn't leave me alone, I blame the upcoming holiday for this one, was a short and by short I mean very short scene with my characters from Loving Sarajevo.  I had to write it out and I've decided since it's written, I may as well share it.  So if you're interested, stop by here on October 30th for a little Halloween treat.

That's all I have for now so until I post again... Thanks for stopping by.

CL