Gay Archives — The Third War

Posts Tagged ‘Gay’

How We Write – Not-So-Shiny Armor

Our prompts were: rusty armor and mysteries of the night. This immediately made Kyros think of the Night at the Museum movies. But that’s been done before, several times. So Kyros came up with the idea of one guy saving another from a bunch of homophobic bullies. In talking our way through the outline, we realized that it would work perfectly in our Third War universe. Once we figured that out, we knew exactly where the story was going. Checking our (extensive!) spreadsheet of characters from our Third War universe, we found one of Alex’s friends from college who perfectly fit the bill….

Writing the story required several Google searches, the main one being using Google Maps to zero in on the location for the story. Once we had that, we used Street View to fill in the details of the setting, like the placement of the storm sewer and the bench. Another source that we use pretty much any time we write is thesaurus.com, a great place to find just the right words we need to tell the story. Also, we diagrammed the setting, just so we could get a feel for the street scene and where everyone was.

NOT-SO-SHINY ARMOR

Whew, am I glad to be out of there, I thought, walking down Seventh toward Congress. It’s nice they still have live concerts, but the Iron Bear was standing-room-only tonight. I inhaled a deep lungful of the Austin night air. Ah, it tastes like fine champagne. God, Kevin, I giggled, when did you start to wax poetic?

A set of keys skidded into my view.

Sprinting, I captured them before they ended up in the gutter.

“Hey, you dropped your….” (more…)

How We Write – Eros Day

The prompt was: You bump into an ex-lover on Valentine’s Day—the one whom you often call “The One That Got Away.” What happens?

Orion knew immediately that her Farseeker character, Gayan Villson, had to be involved in this story, since he’s one of her favorite creations and he already had several past lovers. What’s one more? But who did he meet up with? Where did they know each other from?

And in marched Kieran Thorgood, complete with a new ship, Sun’s Glow, and several new characters (SEE next week’s story, The Cookie Conspiracy)! Given Gayan’s military background, it was a safe bet they’d been in the war together and had history. And the plot was off and running.

When we edited this, we knew we had to amp up the sexual tension between the two men, and move a lot of the expository information into our main character’s thoughts. We also added a couple of hundred words to the story, making it much stronger.

Photo by Jriphoto

EROS DAY

“Excuse me,” Gayan mumbled, as he shouldered through the cluster of people just inside the doorway of the crowded saloon.

“Is that all I get?” A deep baritone called from behind him. “After all these years?”

That voice! (more…)

How We Write – Vitandus

Orion was selling her jewelry at a small belly-dancing event in Tacoma, WA. While the dancing competition was going on, there wasn’t much to do, so she started writing. This story was the result.

The character of Brigid came out of nowhere and Orion just wrote down what she saw in her head. Bright, Brigid’s twin brother, coming out of the shadows was a complete surprise. Anyway, this is how and why the twins, around 14-15 years old, came to be living on their own in Port Town. When Orion first started working on this, it was sort of a Firefly fanfic, but as the stories kept coming and the characters took on lives of their own, with worlds and backstory that didn’t match up with Firefly, she realized her people and stories were in their very own universe.

Thus was born the Farseeker Chronicles. This work-in-progress, including stories, character sketches, and planetary system notes, now amounts to over 300,000 words!

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcbeth/

VITANDUS

“Brigid! Come with me! Now!”

A shape like a great bear filled the tent’s opening. Bright, in the shadows, heard the man’s roar proceed him as he strode towards his sister. The crowd parted before him like startled birds.

Brigid, lost in the heavy beats of dumbeks and djembes, and the melodies of the flutes, electronic keyboards, and fiddles, continued dancing.

The man came to a halt at the edge of the dance circle. He glared at Brigid, taking in her small slender body, from her bare feet up across her blue work denims. His gaze ended on her red hair, bound at the nape of her neck where a few escaped curls swung about her freckled face like children freed from school.

*Brigid, it’s Father,* the familiar voice of her twin, Bright, spoke in her head, insinuating itself into her reverie. She slowed to a stop, facing her father where he stood arms crossed, anger clouding his face. (more…)