Lost and Found in the Pacific

That's its tentative new title. Torquere accepted the story, but they already had a "Lost and Found".

Nice to know I can knock something out in four days and still make it work!

This is for a charity anthology, and I'll just quote from the Torquere site:

For the 2013-2014 Charity event, which will premiere in September 2013, we've chosen OutServe-SLDN as our donation organization. OutServe is an non-profit that provides legal services and support to LGBT military individuals and families, working toward equal representation and benefits.

Depending on how fast Storm Moon gets their release schedule back on track, this may in fact be the first of my pieces that sees print.

Four for four, so far, with #5 still waiting for an answer. Not. Too. Shabby.

Definitely need to work on the next novel, whichever one I pick. And SOMEHOW make two new spaces for bookshelves, because I'm going to have to dedicate one to the Wars of Religion in France and another one for post-WWII queer history of NYC. Harry and Andrew from this story aren't content with a mere 6500 words. They told me about their lives right up into the 21st century, where they were one of those same-sex couples in their eighties lined up at City Hall, and they want me to keep writing.

I still don't know if this was a good idea

But, since my story got accepted, I sent this to the author of the super-helpful B-24 page:

Dear Mike,

I'm proud to say that my story, "Lost and Found in the Pacific", will be appearing in September in a Torquere Press charity anthology - I just got the acceptance today! The proceeds from the anthology will support Outserve SDLN, a non-profit that provides legal services and support to LGBT military individuals and families, working toward equal representation and benefits.

It's a romance between two airmen, and I based the background on the events of the Green Hornet crash that Laura Hillenbrand wrote about in Unbroken, which is an amazing book. Of course, I had my pair get rescued instead of captured by the Japanese - it's only a short story, not a novel.

I'd be happy to send it along to you if you don't want to wait for the anthology to be released.

Yours,

Julian

I figure, this makes me a voice for equality without filling his mailbox with surprise!sex scene, which... strikes me as a bit rude. If I get an unpleasant response, I can set up a filter in Gmail to dump any further mail from him into a folder I'll ignore. If he turns out to be more broad-minded than I'm giving him credit for, I'll send the story as an attachment, with a note in the body of the email that says it's got a mild sex scene in it along with the crash and the rescue.

Because, honestly, a lot of my doubts about sending it didn't really come from "what if he's a jerk about romance between men", but from "I really don't think a straight guy will react well to finding a story with a gay sex scene in it when he's probably expecting Wartime Adventure."

So yeah. This may end badly, or it may end better than I expect, but at least the idea is out there beyond the m/m romance readers and writers bubble.

My very first interview

 I'm appearing today at Top 2 Bottom Reviews as part of their Storm Moon Press July blog feature. Go have a look!