Rollercoaster Week but not of Love*

This week’s entry is more than a little bipolar. I had been struggling with the content and tone for a while, then decided to forge ahead. My family has always been more than irreverent in the face of loss. In fact, both sides has seen more than their shares of funerals filled with seemingly inappropriate hilarity. Who am I to tinker with tradition?

New Title from Sybpress

I’ll put on my publisher’s hat for a moment to make a long anticipated announcement.

Seilschaft by Jo Perridge & Cliff Morten

The best selling gay erotica title from Germany is now available in English!

When two rough and ready men get caught in a snow storm during a mountaineering trip their first instinct is simply survival. However, when cold and danger force them together neither man is fully prepared for the consequences, and conflicts soon begin to flare to the surface. Seilschaft is a harrowing, passionate, and sometimes dryly humorous tale of dominance and submission, denial and acceptance, and an intense battle to keep an altered relationship alive despite the odds.

"Mountaineering can be so sexy!... With much psychological sensitivity the authors show the 'walk on the edge' between deep friendship and hurt pride. Surprising turns happen, but one thing stays the same: the hot and hard, uncompromising sex they share."
Translated from a review for Seilschaft in the biggest Germnan gay magazine, "Maenner aktuell", June 2006

Follow this link to the ordering link and a look at the gorgeous cover.

Writing and Distractions

I spend most of my day job writing in my head. Usually it works really well. I can refine a segment or a whole chapter in the course of a shift, then write it all down once I get home. This week was difficult because of my co-worker and long time buddy, Craig. First there was the story about General Giggles that was somehow connected to his studies of Father Yod. But the worse part was the tune he planted in my head. It was The Theme from A Man and A Woman (I had the audio file here, but it made the blog impossible to load, so go to this site instead). Now, I’ve gotten annoying songs in my head before. This job makes me particularly suspeptible, it seems. I’ve had odd things like The Cover of the Rolling Stone running in my head for days. Last week, the naughty boys in this complex were singing Viva Viagra by the pool (a really stupid ad, if you ask me), and I couldn’t get that out of my head for a while. But the tune Craig implanted was insidious. My writing ground to a halt for a couple of days. I rallied late in the week though. I’m better than 3/4s through A Soldier’s Fate. I’ll be creating a web page in the next week or so with a full chapter and other excerpts for readers to check out.

On top of distractions in my head, we are living in limbo with the film projects. I don’t know what film we’re be working on or even what country we’ll be in next month. This makes me, the anal retentive traveler, very, very nervous. More on this as it develops.

Change and Sadness

It’s been a week of sharper ups and downs than even my normal LA roller coaster ride. I have some people that I’m fond of mover out of my every day life. Change is the only constant here, it seems. Still, the change in a comfortable routine is difficult. Our stalwart set guy and Sybpress driver, Randy, has returned to his ancestral homestead in Dayton on family business. It wasn’t a goodbye, but he’ll be away for some time. As he’s become a fixture in many of our activities, it’ll be strange not seeing him. However, he is being a good son, so we wish him well.

And there has been another death in my family. This time, it was a favorite Aunt and the last link to my mother. My Aunt Eleanor was always a lovely and stylish woman. I’ve always admired her. She dated Bill Cosby while in High School and he never really got over her. While he was on the Cosby Show, he sent her a beautiful blown up photo of her has a teenager. A copy of it ended up on the set. Late in life, he contacted aunt Ellie himself to invite her and her family to dinner when he was in town. I’ve been thinking a lot about her, my Mom and their older sister, Elizabeth. They loom large in the series of short prose I’m working on now. The memories make me sad, but the stories are all quite funny. So, I’ll cry a little bit today, then have a glass of wine in honor of the Harris sisters. Then, it’s back to work. Hopefully, those stories will bring them to life for those not fortunate enough to have known them.

*Love Rollercoaster by The Ohio Players