Johnny Murdoc

I’m proud to announce that Natty Soltesz is releasing the original, unexpurgated edition of Daddy/Boy through Queer Young Cowboys:

As I previously mentioned, Amazon.com wouldn’t release Daddy/Boy as Soltesz intended it to be, including four stories that contain incest themes. As an opponent of censorship in any form, and as a friend of Natty’s, I gave him the opportunity to release it through Queer Young Cowboys, and we’ve been working together to create a new edition (including a revised cover) that better reflects Natty’s intentions.

Daddies. Big and butch, suave and sexy, handsome and hot. Here are fourteen stories of steamy encounters between older and younger men by veteran erotica writer Natty Soltesz. Hung bosses, sexy teachers, horny executives – they’re all here.

As with any ebook in the Queer Young Cowboys store, the download includes the ebook in .epub, .mobi, and .pdf formats to give you the greatest flexibility for enjoying our stories!

From Soltesz’s announcement:

Here ’tis: the original version of my most recent ebook, originally rejected by Amazon and now released in all its incest-laden glory. Includes fourteen of my best intergenerational fuck stories, plus a brand-new story (“Chuck and Skippy”), a preface and a section of annotations detailing story inspirations and other randomness…

This is the best ebook I’ve put together so far, if I do say so myself. I’m grateful to my friend, fellow writer and publishing enthusiast Johnny Murdoc, who is releasing it under his Queer Young Cowboys micro-pub. I have to say, Mr. Murdoc has outdone himself with the cover and promotional aspects – he was the one who slapped the word ‘unexpurgated’ on there, which I love. It reminds me of one of my favorite writers, Anais Nin, whose unexpurgated diaries were released after her death. In fact, one of those volumes detailed her sexual relationship with her biological father – and that book is available on Amazon. Irony! Stupidity!

Buy it today at Queer Young Cowboys!

It’s Valentine’s Day, one of the few holidays I enjoy celebrating. I’ve always said that D. and I are happy to celebrate holidays that are about us: birthdays, anniversary, Valentine’s.

Unfortunately I’m at work and D. is at home, so any sort of celebration is going to have to wait until I can traverse half of Missouri and get back to him this afternoon.

In the meantime, I have a sort-of Valentine’s Day Gift for you:

My ebook, Hard Lessons, is currently free on Amazon.com:

I do hope you’ll enjoy it.

(click here for Excerpt 1)

“I’m up for anything,” Perry said. They helped each other up. Perry savored the feeling of Logan’s warm hand in his own. How many more times would he get to feel that hand? He wasn’t holding too strongly to the idea that the three of them would always be friends. He knew that high school bonds were fickle things. Tim and Logan were going to move up to the city while he stayed in this little hick town and any attempt that they made to hang out together would be idealistic at best.

“Snap out of it, dude,” Logan said, clapping his hand onto Perry’s cheek. Perry smiled.

“Go long!” Tim shouted, still running away from the two guys.

“I got your ‘long’ right here,” Logan said, cupping his junk with his free hand.

Tim launched the ball in their direction. Logan gave Perry a shove that almost knocked him down, and then leapt into the air a little to catch Tim’s toss. With just three guys, keep-away was the best game they were going to get on the field that night. Perry lunged at Tim, but Tim had always been quick on his feet and he side-stepped Perry’s reach and took off running. He made it fifteen yards before Tim tackled him, the two lovers spinning to the ground and tangling together. Perry swooped in and grabbed the ball for himself.

As Perry ran toward the fifty-yard-line, he recalled the light and thunder of a Friday night game, the roars from the crowd and the horse-hoof sound of being chased down the field. The sound had been fuel for Perry, giving him what he needed to cross the lines for a touchdown.

Tonight he let himself slow down, though. He didn’t want to get too far from Tim and Logan, he didn’t want to be alone on any part of the field. He didn’t need to worry, though. As he slowed, he heard the sounds of Logan’s quick feet and chuffing breathe. Perry turned and launched the ball in the air in what he thought was Tim’s general direction, the ball barely leaving his hand before Logan crashed into him, driving him into the ground. Logan was holding back, that was for sure. Perry had seen guys railroaded by Logan, entwined bodies crashing into the ground and sliding through the grass with the impact. Here, Logan managed to catch most of the crash with his arm before the boys hit the ground, arranging them in something spectacularly close to spooning. Perry laughed as his tailbone bounced in the grass.

And then Logan’s mouth was close, painfully close, his face just inches from Perry’s, his breathe, bright in the moonlight, clouding the air around them. Perry wanted to kiss him, wanted to swallow the way his friend breathed and tasted and spoke, wanted to keep him close, keep him inside. Perry cursed himself for letting things get to this point, this place where so few days stood between him and the end of an era.

Then Tim laughed and shouted from across the field, “Who the fuck did you think you were throwing that ball at?” Logan climbed off of Perry and they turned to watch Tim running down the thirty-five yard line toward the football. Perry had thrown the ball completely opposite to where Tim had been waiting for it. The boys laughed and then Logan stood and Perry was alone on the cold ground.

“Good thing there are usually more guys in the field, or everyone might’ve figured out what a shitty ballplayer you are,” Tim said, scooping the ball up and running away from Logan.

Perry sat up and watched the two best friends he had ever known run around the field. Tim’s blonde hair caught the moonlight, streaking like lasers in the darkness. Tim was the taller and skinnier of the two, even though Logan was quicker on his feet.

Perry stood up and chased after his friends.

Logan tackled Tim. They fumbled for the ball but it bounced free from their grip just as Perry caught up with them, so he scooped the ball up and took off again. He heard them take chase behind him and he was determined to make a touchdown. His lungs burned. Perry kept in good shape even though he hadn’t played any other sports since the football season had ended, but it had been a long time since he’d run in the cool, wet air of a September evening.

Tim and Logan caught up with him at the fifty-yard line, Logan’s arm wrapping around his waist and pulling them both crashing to the ground yet again. This time they had the additional weight of Tim coming down with them. Their bodies twisted into a playful wrestling match. Perry squirmed between the indistinguishable limbs that, when all was said and accounted for, made up his favorite people in the world.

Favorite people in the world. Think about that. Even here, tangled in their limbs, Perry could only think about them slipping away.

And then Logan’s face hovered over his again, his face cut wide with a toothy smile, his breathe smelling of cheap beer and cheaper wine.

“Hail Mary,” Perry said, and then he kissed Logan.

Buy it:

Direct from Queer Young Cowboys
(.epub, .mobi, and .pdf in one download)
Amazon.com
(.mobi)
Barnes and Nobles
(.epub)

Perry took a swig from the bottle, lifted it high into the air and let the tangy cheap wine splash into his mouth. He swallowed. He’d swiped the bottle from the linen closet, where he could always count on his Mom having tucked away a bottle. He looked down at his cell phone. 12:14 AM he read.

He sat in the middle of the football field, home to the Dunway Dragons. The grass was cold and wet beneath his ass. He could already feel the moisture soaking through his shorts and his underwear. A light, chilly breeze made the grass dance around him, but Perry was warm enough in his hoodie. He took another drink of wine and checked his phone again. 12:15 AM.

Thirty minutes ago he’d received a text-message: “Meet us down at the field.” His buddy and former teammate, Tim, had sent it. He started typing in a new text — “where the fuck r u?” — but before he hit send, he heard footsteps behind him.

“Perry!” Tim shouted, drawing the name out like a foghorn in the night. His voice echoed off of the empty bleachers. Tim carried a six-pack of beer in one hand, a football in the other.

Logan followed closely behind Tim. The two guys were dressed similar to Perry: shorts, tennis shoes, and school-issued hoodies. Logan had the green hood pulled up over his head, but Perry had no trouble recognizing him. Tim and Logan were damn near inseparable.

Perry pushed himself off of the ground, careful not to spill any wine as he did so. He locked hands with Tim and they pulled each other into a half-hug. Perry did the same with Logan and handed off his wine bottle. “What’s up, boys?”

Tim pulled a beer free from the plastic rings and handed it to Perry. Tim’s older brother worked at a convenience store off of Main, so cheap beer was easy to come by despite the fact that the three guys on the field were only eighteen. “We figured we’d come down here and play some ball.” Tim handed a can to Perry. “Last chance any of us will have to play here together. Figured this field brought us all together, we should give it a proper goodbye.”

Perry popped the tab on his beer can and raised it into a toast. “Here, here,” he said.

Tim opened a beer for himself. They each drank deeply, Tim and Perry from their cans, Logan from the wine bottle.

The three guys sat down. Tim and Logan sat close, their bare legs touching one another. Perry tried hard not to be jealous, and it was difficult to distinguish that feeling from the others that were suddenly mixing with the wine in his stomach. Nostalgia and a little bit of sadness that their reign at Dunway was coming to an end. Uncertainty at the future. Jealousy fit right in.

When Perry had first moved to the small Missouri town from his home state of Texas just two years earlier, he’d been thrown off by the fact that two of the football team’s players were a couple. Like, a couple-couple. His first instinct had been to pick on them just like the other boys. This served a double duty; it was an easy way to entrench himself with some of his new teammates—tyranny loves company—and it helped him lie to himself about how he really felt.

It didn’t take him long, though, to realize that his new friends were assholes, and maybe those two homos were pretty damned cool. While it would be some time before he’d let himself acknowledge anything more than friendship, Tim and Logan were sweet and funny and damned good football players. Halfway through the season, the boys were hanging out at lunch, and soon after, they were together most weekends, too. Tim and Logan showed Perry all of their stomping grounds and brought him along to house parties. Perry took some flak for hanging out with a couple of homos, but he didn’t care. Cool was cool.

Senior year, the three of them were among the best players Dunway had seen in decades. That made it pretty hard to pick on any of them.

That was all in the past, though. Graduation had come and gone, and in a few weeks the three of them were off to college; Tim and Logan to St. Louis University, while Perry was hanging back at the local Community College. Perry’s grades weren’t so great and he was intimidated by the thought of taking a partial football scholarship that he might lose if his grades dropped. No way his Mom could afford to keep paying tuition without assistance.

“Hey pretty boy,” Logan said, tapping Perry on the arm. “What’re you thinking about?”
Perry smiled. Two empty cans sat next to him. “Stuff. You guys, football.” He wanted to say more. Tonight had taken on an air of finality. Looking back meant something was over, and Perry wasn’t sure he was ready to let it go.

“Why so serious?” Tim asked. He took a swig of beer. “Fuck that. Why don’t we play some ball?”

Without waiting for either Perry or Logan, Tim hopped up. He slapped the football between his hands and started to run away from them.

“You up for this?” Logan asked.

Buy it:

Direct from Queer Young Cowboys
(.epub, .mobi, and .pdf in one download)
Amazon.com
(.mobi)
Barnes and Nobles
(.epub)

For Perry, the end of summer represents the end of his high school glory days and the beginning of an uncertain future. When two of his former teammates, Logan and Tim, invite him to a late-night game of catch on their old high school football field, Perry recognizes that this may be his last chance to let his best friends know that he wants something more than friendship from them.

In this tender erotic tale, Johnny Murdoc explores an arousing mixture of love and lust between three young athletes. With the ball long forgotten, this is a huddle the likes of which Dunway High’s football field has never seen.

“One Last Play” is a brand new short story!

Buy it:

Direct from Queer Young Cowboys
(.epub, .mobi, and .pdf in one download)
Amazon.com
(.mobi)
Barnes and Nobles
(.epub)

Cover photograph by Marlen Boro.
Cover design by Johnny Murdoc.

“One Last Play” isn’t much of a Super Bowl story, but it’s origin lies in the submissions call for an anthology from Ravenous Romance for Huddle, a threesome-oriented Super Bowl anthology. When I first read the call, I thought “What? I don’t want to write a football story!” but by the time I was done thinking that, I had all the core elements I needed for what became “One Last Play.” And while the story is included in Ravenous Romance’s anthology, I thought I’d make it available to you guys as a standalone ebook download!

Be sure to hop over to the newly-redesigned Queer Young Cowboys store! I spent the weekend updating the website and updating nearly every edition of my ebooks, making sure that each is formatted to work well across a number of different ereaders and formats!

I have big plans for the Queer Young Cowboys micro-pub, and big announcements coming this week!

Natty Soltesz has a new book out today:

Daddies. Big and butch, suave and sexy, handsome and hot. Here are ten stories of steamy encounters between older and younger men by veteran erotica writer Natty Soltesz. Hung bosses, sexy teachers, horny executives – they’re all here.

“The king of intergenerational erotica.” – Kevin Killian

(Soltesz hired me to design the book cover.)

Unfortunately, Daddy/Boy is presented in a slightly censored format, as Amazon initially rejected the anthology when it contained four incest-themed stories. You can read about that over on Natty’s blog. Incest doesn’t really turn my crank, but I certainly support Natty’s right to publish the stories that he would like to, and readers’ rights to choose what they want to read. Soon, Natty will have the un-censored version available through other webstores.

Crime writer George Pelecanos has a new book out this week, and he and publisher Reagan Arthur are doing something interesting with the release.

There are three editions of What it Was. A limited edition hardcover:

As well as a cheap trade paperback ($9.99) and an even cheaper e-book (.99 for the first month, $4.99 after that):

The hardcover is a beautiful piece of design:

Small publishers have been experimenting with this type of release, and with focusing on creating beautiful print editions that you would want to have on your shelves, and it’s nice to see a more mainstream author and publisher (Reagan Arthur is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company) try this model out.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet (I pre-ordered the ebook last month), but I’m definitely looking forward to it, and I have to admit that I’m tempted to spring for the hardcover edition.

It’s a good problem to have.

I made the above graphic yesterday, when I fully intended to blog. It still reflects well on today, though in a slightly different way. I find myself having the first snow day of the year. Snow days are interesting, nearly as exciting to me now as they were when I was in school. It’s nice to have an open day that wasn’t planned for, wasn’t scheduled away.

The latest issue of Handbook Magazine is out:

It contains a new essay that I wrote, “Part of that World:”

I have to admit I have a thing for redneck boys in pickup trucks. With cut-off sleeves and fucked up noses. It gets better if they sneer, if they’re just a little bit ignorant. I have to admit I have a thing for the smell of grease and cigarettes. For dirty jeans and workman’s boots. For guys driving shirtless in souped-up shitty cars with shitty music pouring out of their open windows.

It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to tell you where these desires come from. Where I grew up, in a small town an hour south of St. Louis, MO, there are no gym bunnies or go-go boys. There are no twinks or bears, only lanky guys and big-boned men.

You can buy it at HandbookMen.com.

Last week I finished a story I wasn’t planning on writing. Lately, it feels like everything that I’ve been working on has been in planning stages for quite some time. It’s a natural evolution of my writing career. Stories are getting longer, my plans are getting bigger. The tendrils of friendships that I’ve built have resulted in The Making of Plans with Others, and so the work of writing has to reflect my promises, my intentions, my responsibilities.

But last week, for a few glorious days, I had a new story pop in my head and I found myself with the two or three days it took to write it free. There’s nothing quite like the rush that I get from having pieces tumble together in my brain, to have characters pull together out of almost nothing.

On that note, I should be writing.

Stay hard,
-Johnny Murdoc

Today and tomorrow only (January 3rd and 4th, 2012), my short story “Bodies in Motion” is available as a free ebook from Amazon.com!

When young science teacher returns to his neighborhood high school, he finds himself capturing the attention of Nathan Derricks, the new assistant coach. Is this history—jock vs. nerd—repeating itself, or does Derricks have something else in mind?

For those of you who got new Kindles for Christmas, this is a great chance to try out my work! (There are also numerous apps for reading Kindle books on your smartphone, laptop, or tablet, so no one’s left out!)

Previously published in Best Gay Erotica 2011 and currently available exclusively from Amazon.com in my ebook anthology Hard Lessons, “Bodies in Motion” is a personal favorite of mine.

From Best Gay Erotica 2011‘s guest editor, author Kevin Killian:

And now, for two whole days, everyone can ruin their suits!

And just in case you’re wondering why I’m doing this exclusively through Amazon, and/or shilling for them so much, check out this post.

I am not traditionally a Christmas person. As a gay/vegan/atheist/occasional-anti-capitalist, the holiday just presents all sorts of personal dilemmas and opportunities for grousing.

This year, I decided that I was done grousing, though. Sure, I’ll still calmly explain why I think the way my fellow humans behave during “the holidays” is something to be concerned about, why I don’t buy gifts for anyone over the age of thirteen, why the general assumption that everyone in America is Christian causes undue stress on those of us who are not, and more, but only if I’m asked. Otherwise, I’m tired of getting rankled every time I see a Christmas tree or hear “Jingle Bells.”

Still, even I was surprised when I decided to read a Christmas-themed novella. I happened across it (as much as anyone “happens across” anything on the internet), decided it sounded like a fun, possibly nostalgic read. And it was.

I’m referring to Lone Star, by Josh Lanyon. I’ve never read any of Lanyon’s other works, but he’s a pretty big name in gay and M/M romance/erotic fiction. If Lone Star is any indication, he deserves the acclaim.

Lone Star tells the story of Mitchell Evans, a ballet dancer who returns to his home in Texas to take care of his father’s estate. When a freak (and possibly imagined) encounter with a reindeer causes Mitchell to wreck his car, who happens to be following close behind him but his old flame, Web Eisley? Web, now a Texas Ranger, helps Mitchell get home and reestablishes the connection between Evans and the friends and family he knew before he moved away.

It’s a sweet, short story that doesn’t rely too much on Christmas miracles, but is driven instead by the long-suppressed feelings between the two characters. While Mitchell is certainly flawed and occasionally annoying, Web is a solid, caring character and you can see how the two would fall in love.

Lone Star is available as a standalone novella or as part of a collection, Men Under the Mistletoe. There’s a review of the anthology over at USA Today’s Happily Ever After romance blog, and according to them, the other stories might be worth checking out as well. I am about to spend the weekend in Tennessee with my partner’s family, and maybe a few more gay romance stories is just the tonic I’ll need to get through the weekend.

Also: whiskey.