NEW For Pre-Order: ROUGHING IT. M/M Erotic Medical Thriller

Coming April 24! Pre-Order now at the JMS Books LLC web site.

Roughing It By Elizabeth Black

ISBN: 9781634860956

$1.99  $1.59
Save: 20% off

GENRE: Gay Science Fiction Mystery Erotic Romance
LENGTH: 9,734 words
RATING: 

When a strange outbreak occurs at a lakeside campground, Jake Walker and Lance Cameron investigate. Not only are they biologists, they’re lovers who share a passion for science.

The outbreak has locals terrified. Nine campers become sick; four die, and one victim reports an increase in her sex drive so serious, she attacks her best friend's husband. Is this lustiness caused by the disease? What’s behind the odd rainstorm that falls over a small geographic area and the strange red dust around the cabins? Is this outbreak a new disease or something much more dire?

Together Jake and Lance must find the cause before others are infected ... and before they come down with the plague themselves.

EXCERPT:

Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

Once back at the chalet, Jake sat at the kitchen table, spooning hot turkey soup into his mouth. "Your soups are to die for. And this one is one of your best. Just the thing I need to help me feel better."

"Comfort food."

"Exactly."

"How are you feeling now?"

"A bit better. The dip in the hot tub helped." He took Lance's hand and gave it a squeeze. "As did your private, special ministrations."

"I could repeat therapy if the patient deems it necessary."

Jake spooned the last of the soup, stood, and took the bowl and spoon to the dishwasher. "I'm afraid I'll have to pass. If you don't mind, I'd like to lie down for about an hour to sleep this bug off. Then we can get back to work."

"Sounds like a good idea. I'll join you."

"No groping. Sleep only."

Lance smiled. "I can't promise that."

* * * *

Lance awakened in the dark with a start in a cold sweat. Once the chills took over, Jake stirred at his side, and then woke up.

"I can't shop shivering." Lance curled up into a ball, wondering what was happening to him. He hadn't felt this sick in years. Was this how Jake felt? Did he somehow expose himself to what the campers caught? He shook so hard his back seized. Pain shooting from his shoulder blades to his hips brought tears to his eye. He groaned in agony.

Jake grabbed the blanket bunched at the bottom of the bed and brought it up to wrap around Lance, who grabbed it as if it were a life preserver. Anything to get warm.

After what seemed like hours, the chills passed. Lance relaxed, exhausted but wide awake. He glanced at the clock. 4:30 am.

"I have a scorching headache." Lance said. "Could you please get me some aspirin?"

"Of course. Would you like some cold medicine, too? It's only 4:30. You could sleep for a few more hours."

"Sure. It might help. This sure came on suddenly."

"I feel terrible. You got it from me. We're playing volley-germ."

"You didn't have the chills, though. And it's all in your head. Every joint in my body is on fire, and my ears are ringing. I hope it's not the camper's disease."

"I doubt that's what it is. Maybe it's the flu manifesting itself differently. You have the headache to end all headaches, though, just like me. Let's keep an eye on it. We haven't drunk anything except bottled water, and we've used gloves and masks at the cabin. We thoroughly cook our food, too."

Jake returned with Tamiflu, aspirin, and a bottle of water. After Lance took the medicine, he lay back in bed, wondering how whatever-it-was could slam him down flat on his back like this. Lance took pride in his healthy way of living. Fit and athletic, he worked out, ate organic, fresh food, and avoided too much alcohol. He neither smoked nor took illicit drugs. No prescription drugs, either. His body was a temple, and he hated so much as defiling it with aspirin and cold medicine, but now he had no choice. He rarely got sick, and when he did it was usually only a mild head cold.

This was different, but he couldn't let it stop him from doing his job. What if I attack Jake with a dildo? Did I catch it from Emily Vanderness? He worried a stray thread on his T-shirt. Damn, he'd been careful! And he had work to do. A few more hours of sleep might be enough to get the bug under control so he could get back to the cabin. Before he knew it he drifted off into a fitful, dreamless sleep.

From Fan Fiction To Hot Gay Male Erotic Medical Thriller

I admit it. I have written fan fiction. Stop laughing!

The first fan fiction I wrote was when I was in college. I used to write Star Trek fan fiction with my cousin, who was five years younger than me. She lived in Iowa and I lived in Maryland, and we scorched the pages of letters to each other with this crap. My favorite characters were Spock and Scotty. Her favorites were McCoy and Kirk. We wrote long-winded and dreadful letters where we were the stars of our own fantasies and the Trek characters actions revolved around us.

Yes, we wrote Mary Sues. You're laughing again!

We were perfect in every way. We were beautiful, genius-level intelligent, vivacious, talented, knowledgeable in our fields (whatever the hell they were), and the entire Enterprise crew was in love with us. Of course, the bridge crew couldn't get enough of us. Typical Mary Sue. I had no idea the concept of the Mary Sue even existed, let alone we were splendid at it. We kept these letters going for over a year, and both of us were hooked on classic Trek.

I had a blast writing those letters. Sadly, I never saved them. I wish I had. I could laugh and cringe over them while downing a bottle of bubbly. I went another ten years before I wrote fan fiction again. In 1993, I became hooked on The X Files. I wished I could have worked on that show. I was in an AOL fan chat that show writer Glen Morgan used to stop in, and he gave me the contact information to send my resume. That was very nice of him. At the time I was working local crew in Maryland doing lighting, scenic art, and makeup (including prosthetics) for movies, TV, stage, and concerts. I worked on Die Hard With A Vengeance, Homicide: Life On The Street, and the movie 12 Monkeys. I loved my work. I had enough of a background to qualify for union work in Vancouver, British Columbia and I was willing to move not only across the continent but to another country. I thought I could live in Vancouver, Washington in the U. S. and commute to British Columbia but that wasn't allowed. I'd have to move there and become a citizen. It was a long shot, but I wrote. Never heard back. But I tried. I loved that line of work and being in that fan chat.

Anyway, a couple of years later I attended a science fiction convention as a guest panelist and I met a guy who was helping to put together some anthologies. One was gay, one was lesbian, and one was TV fan fiction. None of the books were ever published to my knowledge. It was a good thing, too, because I didn't know at the time I could have been sued for publishing and getting paid for a short story based on The X Files without first getting the show's permission. I did start the story but didn't finish it. However, I saved my file. I also wrote a lesbian story for the other book and I saved that file as well.

Count about a decade into the future. I rewrote the lesbian story and submitted it to Torquere Press for their Vamps anthology, and it was accepted! I was delighted. I had worked on the X File for another half dozen years or so. I changed Mulder and Scully to two gay men working on an outbreak at a camp around a lake. I finally finished it a few weeks ago, and I submitted it to a Men At Work call I saw at – get this – The Erotic Readers And Writers Association's Submissions Web Page.  Funny how things come full circle. The story was accepted! I called it Roughing It, and it's due to come out in the spring. Although Jake and Lance are two scientists, you can hear Mulder and Scully in their conversations. The story is a cross between The X Files and The Andromeda Strain with a little sex thrown in. The sex works, too. It doesn't seem out of place. I like this story very much, and it's special to me since I have worked on it very hard for nearly 20 years. The story in the Vamps anthology is called Neighbors, and I took the two characters in it – Charlotte and Lina, who could pass for identical twins – and placed them in my work-in-progress Full Moon Fever. I hope to sell it to the same publisher that is publishing my novel Alex Craig Has A Threesome. Xcite Books is publishing that book late summer. If it sells well, I hope to pitch Full Moon Fever to them. I'll do what I can to make Alex Craig sell. I'm very happy to be with Xcite. Xcite has published four of my short stories in anthologies so I'm not a stranger. This is my first novel in several years and my first with Xcite. I need the boost. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I find it amusing I've written a story that originated as fan fiction, and the final result is getting published. Hey, if it worked for E. L. James, maybe it will work for me. Everyone knows those 50 Shades of Grey books started out as Twilight fan fiction. I can only dream of selling as well as she has.

I've also written Once Upon A Time fan fiction, but that's another post. At least I stuck to Belle and Rumpelstiltskin. No Mary Sue in those stories. I won't give links. I'm too embarrassed. LOL Look for Roughing It in April and Alex Craig Has A Threesome in late summer.