#amwriting #amediting #amreading

I’ve had a killer week, writing-wise, what with #SonofaPitch, then #PitchCB and #PitchMadness. Been knee-deep in revisions of the pitches, and the MS, but it was all great fun. And I made it into the final round for Son, so yay!

Despite all this I’ve been trying to keep up with my reading. I’ve discovered the delicious L.A. Witt. This is the sort of comfort reading I do when I need to not think about my own boys but still wanna think about boys, if that makes sense. 😉 Two other writers are on that same comfort reading list, and I’ll get to them next: Laura Gomez and Anna Zabo. I can’t wait!

I’m also making my way through a few of the classics of gay (and LGBTQI) literature. I tried to read Giovanni’s Room, but I got very depressed over it and stopped. Currently I’m halfway through Dancer from the Dance (Andrew Holleran) and I really like it. And I finished Val McDermid’s latest this week, too. It was really good!

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My first twitter pitch party #SonofaPitch

Thank you to everyone for your feedback!

-.-

Title: A World Apart

Category and Genre: Gay romance

Word count: 47,000

Query:

February 13, 2017

Dear editor,

A WORLD APART is a gay romance novel dealing with illness and crime – themes not often explored in the world of “happily ever after”.

BEN GRIERS is the darling of Corinth’s Georgia Police Department – intelligent, handsome and hardworking. Thanks to his beautiful wife Helen and clever daughter Laura Ben’s family is the envy of the town. Yet desperate unhappiness is hiding just below the surface.

When DONNIE SAUNDERS, a deadbeat redneck with a temper, is brought to Corinth PD as a suspect in a hit and run, Ben finds himself strangely intrigued by the man. He is quick to establish Donnie’s innocence, but can’t shake the feeling that Donnie is hiding something. They encounter each other again in an unlikely place, and soon sparks begin to fly. As their mutual attraction draws them ever closer both men are forced to confront their most painful secrets.

Please let me know if you would like to see a detailed synopsis or the manuscript. In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to read my query.

Sincerely yours,

Mel Gough

 

First 250 words from Chapter 1 (there’s a Prologue before this)

“What have we got, Lou?”

Ben stepped up to the reception desk at Corinth Police Department and glanced at a handcuffed man on the bench off to one side by the clerk’s station. The man was staring down at the scuffed linoleum floor, and Ben was looking at the top of a head of strawberry blond, disheveled hair. One of the man’s knees was jiggling nervously, and Ben could see his jaw working as he bit the inside of his mouth repeatedly.

“Guy was driving the vehicle involved in that hit and run yesterday,” Lou the desk clerk said, pointing unnecessarily at the man on the bench. “Browne and O’Donnell brought him in. They’re in with the boss right now.” Lou nodded towards the captain’s office. Ben glanced around and saw his partner Jason Browne striding towards them.

“How was court, brother?” Jason sounded cheerful, but his eyes were cold. That was never a good combination. Ben frowned, then shrugged.

“As expected.”

“You missed all the excitement.” Jason indicated the man on the narrow bench who was still staring at the floor. “Saunders here knows some pretty colorful language, and he wasn’t none too happy to accompany us, neither.”

“Hence the handcuffs,” Ben said drily, and it wasn’t a question. Jason answered it with a smirk anyway.

“Wasn’t me that hit that kid,” the man Jason had called Saunders muttered. “Told ya I wasn’t in town.”