Upcoming: Valentine’s Day M/M flash fiction blog hop

(Warning: links will take readers to an assortment of M/M writers’ blogs, with varying amounts of adult material. Click responsibly.)

A couple of my fellow M/M authors from AbsoluteWrite.com convinced me to sign up for this shindig. It’s sponsored by their writing critique group, The House of Manlove, and will be coordinated from this site between 2-14-2014 and 2-20-2014.

Valentine's Day M/M Flash Fiction
Valentine’s Day M/M Flash Fiction

The basic idea was ‘M/M flash fiction 1200 words or under, with a Valentine’s Day theme, and featuring established couples from authors’ published works or works-in-progress’.

I didn’t sign up until I had a piece ready. As a long-form writer, it can take me 1200 words to set a scene. I’ve rarely tried to write original flash fiction. I have been honing that skill via fan fiction for a few years. This challenge finally seemed the right inspiration at the right time.

My entry will be a little different. I haven’t written that much contemporary M/M, though I’d love to. But I did find some notes about a pair of Sirrithani rogues rolling around in my Lonhra Sequence universe, on some daft quest about an ancient book and the end of the world. I asked the question every writer should dread to ask: ‘How did those two boys meet up?’

Dammit, they told me. Which probably means that at some point, I’m going to have write more about them.

So until Valentine’s Day, here’s a tiny teaser of a tiny story:

The bribed bailiff walked around a corner, her sandals slapping on dusty pavement.

 Under the least-frequented white stone archways and porticos of Abar Omiesh’s flesh market, the mercenary Ralseur Evini stared down at his new slave.