COUNTERPOINT: DYLAN'S STORY

The gorgeous cover is by the multi-talented Alex Beecroft. I love it, love it, love it. Don't you?

And wait until you read what these familiar names think of the story: Victor Banis, Peggy Ullman Bell, Jameson Currier, Tobias Grace, Dorien Grey, Michael Halfhill, Nan Hawthorne, William Maltese.

And now... enjoy the cover art. After you have finished...you do have to stop looking at it eventually, you know...you can read the tantalizing excerpt that follows!

Next step: Mark July on your calendar!

And just to be mean, here's an itty bitty scene to torment you.

Excerpt setting: the French countryside. To further tantalize you: Laurence, who is in this excerpt, is NOT one of the images on the cover.

They swam in the spring-fed pond behind the cottage and then spread old towels on the warm grass and let the sun toast their naked bodies to the marrow of their bones. "This feels almost like Greece," Laurence said.

Dylan's eyelids grew heavy and then suddenly popped open. He raised up on his elbows, and poked Laurence's arm. Laurence did not respond and Dylan poked him again. "I know you're awake. Hello? Are you in there? You're not asleep, are you?"

"Yes, I am. Stop being a nuisance."

"I've been thinking."

"Heaven help us."

"Laurence, there's a great deal of difference between what I did with Rob-" He was momentarily taken aback by Laurence's slight flinch at Rob's name. "- what I did with Rob and what you and I do. Why? I mean, I never really cared, too much, whether Rob and I ... I mean ... well, I cared, or at least my Old Nob did, but if we didn't, we didn't." He thought he saw Laurence's lips twitch as if he were trying not to grin. He persisted, "But you and I, well, you know. It's more than just a quick frig and footle with us. What's the difference?" A third poke elicited a grunt and the suspicious twitch of the lips. "Well?"

"I'm still trying to unravel that Gordian knot of a question. 'Frig and footle,' indeed!" Laurence snickered and then burst into roars of helpless laughter that made his belly hurt and tears cluster his lashes.

"You don't know the answer either!" Dylan sat up, snatched up a weed and tickled Laurence's nose. "You-Laurence Hanley Northcliff-do not-know-everything! The disillusionment has crushed my boyish heart!"

Laurence sneezed and wiped his eyes. "Your boyish heart can go to Perdition. Why didn't you ask something simple, such as 'What is the meaning of life'?" Then he wheezed, "Frig and footle," and set off laughing again. Finally he hiccoughed to a stop and dried his eyes. "I have a theory," he finally said, "if you want to hear it."

"Theorize, O Great Teacher," Dylan said. With a self-satisfied smirk, he stretched out in the grass again and turned his face once more to the sun.

"I think the difference is that it's not something I do to you or you to me. It's something we share because we care about each other."

"But that's it! I just couldn't put it into words," Dylan said, sitting up. "You really are wise."

Laurence chuckled. "You doubted?"

"You're also a conceited ass." Dylan thought how perfectly Laurence's eyes matched the sky that day. He bent over to kiss the vertical vein in Laurence's forehead, the small brown mole beside his right eye, the one beside his mouth, and his lips. "But I don't care that you're a conceited ass. You are wise and I love you. Just don't let it go to your head."

The Phoenix (Lethe Press) received a wonderful 5-kisses review at MichelenJeff's review blog: http://michelenjeff-reviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/phoenix-by-ruth-sims.html

There's also an interview with me on their blog…if you can find it. It's archived somewhere, I'm sure, though it has eluded me.

And don't forget the short stories at Untreed Reads! My offerings are "The Lawyer, The Ghost, and the Cursed Chair"; "Mr. Newby's Revenge"; and coming soon, "Burma Girl". http://www.untreedreads.com/?page_id=1164

Remember the charity anthology, I Do Two! which benefits marriage equality. My story is The Legend of the Mountain Ash. Three others are due out in print anthologies next year.

Copyright © Ruth Sims 2009-2010

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