Through the Years by Brynn Stein

Today, I'm joined once again by author Brynn Stein.

Blog Tour for Through the Years

Thanks Emma, for hosting me today. This is the fifth stop on blog tour for Through the Years.

On my last stop, I mentioned Nick. Nick is one of those characters that was supposed to be a minor period in a much larger story but he became so real that I almost could have written a story about him and Gene alone.

Gene is basically in love with Edward, but knows he’s unavailable (in a number of ways) and is truly content with just being friends with him, being an integral part of his life, being “Uncle Gene” to his girls. He wasn’t looking for another relationship.

Nick sneaks up on him.

It’s obviously that Nick is desperately in love with Gene, but he also knows that even though Gene loves him back, part of Gene’s heart will always belong to Edward. Nick loves Gene enough to stick around anyway.

Nick not only surprised Gene with his intensity, he surprised me as well. Up until this story, I hadn’t really written ‘hot sex scenes’. Nick insisted that a ‘fade to black’ just wouldn’t work here. There is one scene in particular that is the absolute hottest sex scene I’ve ever written. Nick is a passionate creature and insisted that I let the readers know that.

Writers, how do you handle sex scenes involving a main character and someone other than the other main character? Readers, how do you feel about other relationships for the main characters before they get together with each other?

Comment below to be entered into the raffle.

Here’s how the raffle works:

I’ve listed the tour stops below and have given either the link to the blog in general or to my post specifically. Feel free to stop by as many as you want. For each stop that you comment on, you will receive one entry to the giveaway. I’ll check all the stops numerous times throughout the tour and will draw five winners on Thanksgiving Day, so even if you come in late to the tour, you can go back through the list and comment on past stops.

I’m giving away five prizes. 1) a signed paperback copy of Through the Years; 2 and 3) electronic copies of Through the Years, 4) your choice of either a signed paperback copy or an audiobook of Living Again (the audiobook won’t be available until December), and 5) an electronic copy of Haunted.

Blog Tour Stops for Through the Years

Blog Stop	Date	Blog Owner	Blog Address
1	October 6	Anne Barwell	http://annebarwell.wordpress.com
2	October 7	Grace Duncan	http://www.grace-duncan.com/
3	October 8	Jessica Skye Davies	http://jessicaskyedavies.blogspot.com
4	October 9	Shira Anthony	www.shiraanthony.com
5	October 10	Emma Tett	http://emmy-j.blogspot.co.uk
6	October 11	Kim Fieldings
7	October 12	Bike Books Reviews	bikebookreviews.blogspot.com
8	October 13	Tempest O’Riley	http://tempesteoriley.com
9	October 14	Sean Michael	http://seanmichaelwrites.blogspot.ca/
10	October 15	Allison Cassatta	Allisoncassatta.blogspot.com
11	October 16	Jana Denardo	http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/
12	October 17	Louise Lyons	http://louiselyonsauthor.wordpress.com
13	October 18	PD Singer	http://pdsinger.com
14	October 20	Shae Connor	http://shaeconnorwrites.com
15	October 21	Suki Fleet	http://sukifleet.wordpress.com
16	October 27	Charlie Cochet	http://purpleroseteahouse.charliecochet.com
17	October 28	Elizabeth Noble	http://www.elizabeth-noble.com/my-blog
18	October 29	Tara Lain	http://taralain.com
19	October 31	Sophie Bonaste	http://sophiebonaste.blogspot.com
20	November 4	Kit Moss	http://kitmossreviews.blogspot.com
21	November 10	Lane Hayes	lanehayes.wordpress.com
22	November 13	Mike Rupured	http://rupured.com

Thanks again Emma, for letting me stop by today.

Click here to buy

Blurb for Through the Years

Edward and Gene were instantly drawn to each other when they met at college in Maryland. Fast friends, they developed a "closer than brothers" relationship. But then Edward began to feel more for Gene. In 1967, those kind of feelings would not be tolerated. Not even by Edward himself.

Gene always thought he was asexual. He had never been attracted to anyone... until he met Edward. He dreamed of Edward as more than a friend throughout college, but he knew Edward would not welcome that kind of attention. So Gene wasn't surprised when Edward reacted badly to a drunken kiss just before Edward's graduation. He was surprised when Edward moved to Florida and had little to do with him for years afterward.

When fate finally brings them back together, Edward is married and has a little girl. Gene gladly accepts the role of "Uncle Gene," happy to have Edward in his life in any capacity. Together, they face all the trials and tribulations life throws at them, including the death of Edward's wife, and as each grows and matures, their life views change. The relationship they've secretly wanted all along is closer than ever, and if Edward can break free from his homophobic upbringing and admit his feelings for Gene, there might still be a chance for them to share their lives in the way they both desire.

A Bittersweet Dreams title: It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

Brynn Stein has always loved to write. Fan fiction, original fiction, whatever. While Brynn wrote in numerous genres – everything from mystery, to contemporary, to supernatural – she had always tended toward strong male characters. And then she discovered ‘slash’, male/male romance, and all those strong male characters were finally allowed to express their love for one another. It seems that there are always at least two characters clamoring to tell Brynn their story.

Brynn lives in Virginia with one of her two two-legged children, and two four-legged ones. Her supportive family encourages her writing and provides a sounding board for fledgling stories. When she isn’t writing, Brynn teaches children with special needs. In free time, when such a thing exists, she reads anything she can get her hands on, and haunts bookstores. She draws and paints, and enjoys the outdoors—especially if she can get to the beach—and is always thinking about her next story.

Please feel free to contact Brynn at any of the following:

https://twitter.com/BrynnStein
http://brynnstein2.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/

or

brynnstein2@gmail.com

Painted Lady

I finally saw my painted lady! I think this is the last (new to me) species of butterfly I'll see this year. It's coming to the end of the season and all I see lately is speckled woods, commas, small coppers, and small and large whites. I'd still like to get a better photo of a small heath, small white and large white. You'd think the whites would be easy as they're so common, but they never seem to land for very long for me!

Anyway, so I happened to stumble across two painted ladies while out walking Beau. Again, no camera, but as I was waiting for a phone call, I had my mobile phone on me. So while the quality isn't great, I do have record shots.

 

 

 

 

Painted Lady

plume moth

And as this blog isn't very long, here are two bonus moth pictures. The plume moth came up out of my flower beds as I was watering the garden, and the angle shades moth I spotted (somehow!) roosting while I was out walking with Beau on Ham Hill. I love the angle shades moth.

angle shades moth

Butterflies Part 2

So... I have since seen four new (to me) butterflies since my last blog post and actually managed to get photos of them all!

brown argus

First  up, the brown argus. Spotted this one at Ham Hill in Somerset, it just came and landed on the ground right in front of me. I knew straight away it was a brown argus, even though they can be quite similar to female common blues. Managed to get some good shots before my dog Beau charged over and it flew away.

small copper

A small copper - just what I wanted to see! I hadn't expected to see this - I just came across it feeding on this plant and it stayed for a very long time, allowing me to take lots of photos. I hadn't realised how small they are. Super pretty.

small heath

This is a small heath on the right - just took this photo today actually, and as the weather's quite poor, I didn't even have my camera on me as I wasn't expecting to see butterflies. Luckily, I had my mobile phone. So the picture quality isn't great, but at least I do have a picture.

This is a holly blue. Bit of a scraggy one! Small blue butterflies with black around the edges of their wings. Photo taken at Thurlbear wood, Somerset.






On the right is a comma! Seen them before, so not new to me, but first time I've managed to get a photo.You can see the little white 'comma' mark on the underwing which gives them the name.

Bonus moth pics!

heart and dart

Heart and dart moth on the left. Big-ish. Has heart and dart markings on the wings, hence the name. You can just see the darts in this pic.

The photo below is of a garden carpet moth that came into our kitchen.

garden carpet

The World is Made up of Boxes I Don't Fit In.

I've just been out on a walk with my dog and, as dog walkers know, you usually see the same few fellow dog walkers and you have to stop and have a chat and let your dogs have a play. There's one guy with several Jack Russells who I often see and the dogs have to sprint over to say hello (and they're adorable). I saw him just now and we were having a chat and got talking about work and he said to me, "I can't place you." Meaning, he couldn't work out what I did for a job. I get this a lot - people not being able to place me, as if everybody fits neatly into a box. I've had a similar comment from another old dog walker. I guess it's because I'm (reasonably) young, I rarely wear make-up, I don't mind looking like a scruff or bellowing across the field for the dog, I don't mind wearing wellies and getting wet. I don't have children, I'm clearly not pregnant and I'm always on my own. I'm reasonably intelligent, yet I have a farmer's accent (not that farmers aren't intelligent, but whenever books/film/TV wants to portray a stupid, working class person, they usually get given a west country accent).

When I say I work in an office, it surprises people. I don't know if they were expecting 'kennel worker' (done that) or 'house keeper' (done that, too) or, I don't know. Farmer. Horsey person. I have no idea what's expected of me.

And it got me thinking about other things. How I am and what I like in general often surprises people. I don't fit with people's perceptions. I remember having The Shanklin Freakshow playing quite loudly in my car, pulling up to park and, when I turned the engine off and got out, having a guy come up to me to ask for a light. When I said I didn't smoke and had no light, he accused me of lying and said, "You can't listen to music like that and not have a light." I'm not sure what the implication was!

I watch Hollyoaks. Apparently, that surprises people. I have tattoos - again, something that's given people pause. I loved the OC. I hate horror films but love Most Haunted, or documentaries about autopsies. I listen to opera and classical music. And I bloody love Robbie Williams's 'Candy' song.

I have been to watch Shakespeare plays and cheesy musicals and The Circus of Horrors.

my eye

Psychics can't read me, Derren Brown can't fool me. I've got green eyes, along with the other 1-2% of the entire human population. I'm INFJ, says Myers-Briggs. I'm a supertaster, and I'm immune to the common cold. My surname is so rare that there's apparently one Tett per million people in the UK.

I don't smoke, I don't drink. I'm agnostic, anti-social, too-honest and too-angry. I love making people laugh. And I'm a blue belt in karate.

I have been called weird. And quirky. And "Not like anybody else I've ever met," but doesn't everybody think they're different? We're all special snowflakes.

The world is made up of boxes that I don't fit in ~ I Keep Myself to Myself by The Boy Least Likely To

Butterflies

This year so far has been amazing for butterflies. I've even seen my first ever clouded yellow! I made the decision to try to document all the different butterflies I'd seen by taking photos of them. I'm doing okay so far, but didn't do so well with the clouded yellow (more later!) and have yet to see another comma (usually they're pretty common here) to take a photo of it.

It's turned me into a bit of a butterfly geek. I can ID them, and in some cases, sex them. If you're interested in spotting butterflies in the south west, the best places I have been so far are Wych Lodge, near Staple Fitzpane (near Taunton) and Ham Hill (near Yeovil). Wayford Woods (near Chard) is also pretty good.

So, photos!

This is a brimstone butterfly. Photo taken at Wych Lodge. I just saw a flash of yellow and had to chase it for a bit before it would land. Apparently they're more attracted to purple/blue flowers. Their wings look just like leaves.

To the right we have a five-spot burnet. Which is actually a moth, not a butterfly, but they're so pretty I'm including it anyway. This photo was taken at Ham Hill. I'm fairly confident this is a five-spot and not a six-spot...

A common blue (male). I think this is my favourite butterfly - they're so small and really pretty. The males are this lovely blue colour and although the females are brown, they're just as nice, often having blue on them as well as the orange patches at the edges of their wings. Also, the undersides of the wings on these guys are super pretty too. Pic taken at Ham Hill.

Now I'm hoping this is an Essex skipper and not a small skipper. I've had a couple butterfly geeks agree with me on the ID. Super similar to the small skipper, but these guys have a splodge of black right at the tips of their antennae. Ham Hill, I think.

This is a male silver-washed fritilary. Pic taken at Wych Lodge. Really easy to spot as they're quite big and bright orange. Females aren't quite as bright and have slightly different markings on their wings - more spotty, less stripy. Both have a silvery sheen on the underwings.

On the right - a female gatekeeper. Females are prettier than the males, I think. They're more orange - males have brown marks on their wings (I think they're scent marks?) I don't actually remember where I took this photo. Possibly Wayford Woods. I also have a pic of a male gatekeeper with extra wing spots. So that's exciting.

A green veined white. Common as anything. This photo shows off the green veins on the underwing nicely.

This is a male large skipper, on the right. Bigger than the small skipper and they have patterned wings, rather than plain. Also, their antennae are hooked. This photo was taken at Powerstock, Dorset.

Female small white. Again, super common and responsible for eating my cauliflowers. (Also known as cabbage whites). Females are better looking than the males as they have these nice black wing spots. This one was trapped in our conservatory, so I took her photo before sticking her back outside to have another munch on my caulis.

A marbled white. Another fave. Look how pretty!! More common in the south west, apparently, so we're lucky. This one was taken at Ham Hill.

A boring old meadow brown. These are really common, along with the whites and the gatekeepers and ringlets. Brown mostly, but with orange patches on their wings. Females are prettier because they have a touch more orange on them. I do like this photo though. Taken in Ham Hill.

On the right is a peacock butterfly. Big and blousy, you can't miss them! Unmistakable. Very pretty, but quite dull (and very well camouflaged) when they have their wings shut. I think males and females are pretty similar, the females aren't quite as bright. There have been an absolute ton of these around this year. Pic taken at Wych Lodge.

A red admiral on the left. Also pretty unmistakable. Nice looking butterflies, fairly common. This one decided to wander around next to me on the ground for a bit, so I took about a hundred photos of it at Wych Lodge.

A ringlet. Plain brown butterflies, but they do have nice eye spots on the wings. Very common, not very exciting but I think they have a nice shape. I don't remember where I took this photo as I have a lot of ringlet pics!

Not sure if you can see this little one! A small skipper. Tiny and super cute. These little dudes have really sweet faces too.

Small tortoiseshell on the right. Very recognisable, garden butterflies. Will probably be all over your buddleia, next to the peacocks. Pretty. I have no idea how to sex these.

A speckled wood. Again, I can't sex these, they all look the same to me. Brown and spotty. Lots around this year - I see them all the time when walking the dog. This photo was actually taken in Boscastle, in Cornwall.










On the right is a male large white (these are also called cabbage whites, same as the small whites, and they look very similar!) Not a great photo and he's a bit scraggy too!






And... just to prove I did see a clouded yellow...

I chased this bloody butterfly all over the field, even ran through a bog, but couldn't get close to it. In the end I randomly fired the camera while it was flying away and managed to at least get the butterfly in the shot! The day after, I saw one sitting in a hedge just where I walk the dog - it even let me pick it up and then just sat calmly on the leaf again - and I didn't have my camera with me. Grr.

So, that's all I've seen so far. I'd like to get a better clouded yellow photo. I'd like to get a comma pic. And I'd love to see small coppers, any of the hairstreaks, pearl-bordered fritilary and painted lady. We'll see...

The Angler Fish, or, Sometimes Ladies are Larger

I watched the film John Carter recently, and was quite pleased with the female alien characters because they didn't have boobs. (Boobs are great, but bear with me...)

But, my mind was wandering and I was thinking about it and yeah, it did annoy me that these female aliens were still weaker than the males.

When I went to BristolCon last year, I attended a panel called Humans are Weird. The woman running the panel (a doctor) spoke about all the ways that humans are biologically different from animals and was discussing the ways we could apply this to fantasy races or sci-fi creatures, but said that often, we as writers, still base our non-human characters on humans. So the females will still have boobs, the males will still be bigger and stronger.

I wish more writers would stop thinking 'human'.

There are loads of animal species on Earth where the female is the big, strong one. So even all these 'but it's realistic for the women to be smaller and weaker!' arguments I hear are just lazy nonsense.

One of my favourite animals is the angler fish. You know the big deep-water fish with the scary teeth and the light dangling over the front of its face like bait? Yeah. That's the female. Male angler fish are teeny tiny. They're basically just a pair of testicles. A male angler fish will attach itself to a female and she'll basically absorb it and just use it to make babies.


Hyenas are interesting too, if we want a mammalian example. It's difficult to tell males and females apart because the females have psuedo-penises (which they give birth through, ouch!), and they're as aggressive and nasty as the males. Hyenas are matriarchal animals - like elephants and bonobos..

So, next time you write a non-human fantasy character, or an alien, please be aware that even on our planet, there are species where the female is the big scary one.

Blog Hop

These questions are hopping over to my blog from the gorgeous and sexy (she told me to say that) Jo Zebedee who answered them just last week on her blog. Jo's represented by Molly Ker Hawn of the Bent Agency and her first novel is out in Autumn from Tickety Boo Press. Go check it out.

What am I working on?

I'm currently working on an urban fantasy which is possibly the most complex thing I've ever written. So it's slow going! Lots of angst and real-life problems mixed in with the supernatural.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Well, the MC is an immortal lesbian, for a start. It's like Hollyoaks meets Lost meets Buffy, I guess. My style of writing is easily read and I'm hoping to get some humour in there too, I don't want everything to be all dark and depressing.

Why do I write what I do?

I write lots of supernatural and paranormal stories because I love that sort of thing! As you can see from my blog, I go on ghost hunts quite a lot. I'm not necessarily a believer, but I'm open minded and would love to see something for myself. My cousin's a medium too, and a few years ago now I used to sit with a group and we'd all learn about tarot and crystal healing and various things that I wasn't very good at.

How does my writing process work?

I usually get a feel for a character come into my mind and then I just sit down and start writing. I don't plot. I might scribble down ideas for future scenes in my notebook though. I have to have silence when I'm writing - no music, and the dog has to be asleep!

Who's next on the blog hop?

Stephen Palmer is the author of eight novels: Memory Seed (Orbit 1996), Glass (Orbit 1997), Flowercrash (Wildside 2002), Muezzinland (Wildside 2003), Hallucinating (Wildside 2004) and The Rat And The Serpent (Prime Books 2005). In 2010 PS Publishing published Urbis Morpheos. In 2014 Infinity Plus Press published his surreal slipstream steampunk novel Hairy London. Ebooks of Muezzinland, Hallucinating and The Rat And The Serpent are available from Infinity Plus, who also recently acquired the ebooks of Memory Seed, Glass and Flowercrash. His short stories have been published by Wildside Press, Spectrum SF, NewCon Press, Mutation Press, Eibonvale Press, Solaris, TFQ and Unspoken Water. Further short stories will appear in 2014.

Thaddeus White is the author of fantasy novels Bane of Souls and Journey to Altmortis, as well the fantasy comedy Sir Edric's Temple.

Hunter Frost is the author of What Can Brown Do For You? which features in Torquere Press's Men in Uniform anthology. Visit her site to see what else she's up to.