QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth has a new MM paranormal/horror book out just in time for Halloween: Gargoyle.
James Matson – Mattie to his friends – has it bad. It’s 1974 in Alabama, not the best time or place for a young gay guy to have a crush on his college football quarterback. But James can’t help himself.
Randy Paxton is a football player with needs. His girlfriend isn’t putting out, so he takes what he can get. A warm mouth is a warm mouth, after all.
And Daniel O’Malley has a crush too… on James. But James hardly gives him a second glance. What’s a guy to do?
It’s Halloween night, the time when the veil between this world and the next thins, and anything can happen. And tonight, something will happen, something that will change all three of their lives forever.
Get It On Amazon – 99¢
Giveaway
Scott is giving away a set of his earlier 99¢ eBooks with this post: “The Bear at the Bar,” “Morgan,” “Tight,” “A New Year,” and “Avalon.”
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d4735/?
Excerpt
James Matson—Mattie to his friends—sat in the football stands and watched the Jaguars practice. Helmet crashed against helmet, and a cheer went up from the scattered students in the stands at a long pass into the end zone.
“Which one you looking at?” Candy sipped her Mountain Dew, her perfectly manicured pink nails making a flawless contrast with the green can.
James grinned. “That one. Number twenty-three.” Strong and handsome. Short-cropped dark hair. And blue eyes. Pouring water over his head and shaking it off like some kind of god.
Candy shaded her face with her hand. “Yeah, he’s a real hunk.”
James snorted. “I’d give him a ten-point-five.” Candy was the only one on campus he’d told.
She’d been cool about it. They’d made a pastime of guy-watching together and rating their crushes.
She scanned the team roster. “Number Twenty-three. Twenty-three.” She brushed her feathered blonde hair back from her face.
“That ‘do looks better on you than on Goldie Hawn.”
She laughed, a deep almost-grunt that was one of her most endearing qualities. “Thanks. Here he is! Randy Paxton. He’s from Orlando. Junior.”
James put his hands on his chin, sighing happily. “Ms. Randy Paxton. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Ow!” He rubbed the back of his head. “Hey, you didn’t have to smack me.”
“Don’t be an idiot.” She put the program down and sat back on her hands, staring at the players. “He’s not your type. He’d beat the crap out of you as soon as look at you.”
“A boy can dream.” He held his hand out, looking at an imaginary ring.
She snorted. “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen in our lifetime.”
“It could.” He was full of hope today. Maybe it was a combination of the cooler temperature and the breeze blowing in off the Gulf. Maybe it was the fact that it was Halloween, and he was going to his first Greek party that night. “Just last year, they removed it from the mental illness list, you know.”
“You told me. Like twenty times.” She rolled her eyes. “But not everyone’s as open minded as me. Especially in Alabama.” She pulled out her candy apple pink nail polish and touched up her nails.
“Hey, watch out!”
James looked up just in time to see something dark flashing down at him from the sky.
He fell backward as it slammed into his stomach, flailing his arms and banging his head on the bleacher seat behind him.
Laughter erupted all around him.
He got up sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, his cheeks reddening.
“You okay, sport?”
James looked down at the field.
It was him. Number Twenty-three. “Um, yeah.”
“Throw me the ball?” Randy’s teammates had gathered around him.
James looked around and found the ball at his feet. He picked it up and executed a perfect pass.
“Thanks!” Randy saluted him with the ball and ran back out onto the field.
Candy was staring at him, her mouth hanging open. “Seriously?”
“What? My daddy taught me how to throw.”
She grunt-laughed again. “You freak me out sometimes.”
James grinned. “Go back to your nails.”
He spoke to me. It really was his day.
Author Bio
Scott lives with his husband of twenty five years in a Sacramento suburb, in a cute little yellow house with a brick fireplace and two pink flamingoes out front.
He inhabits in the space between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into science fiction and fantasy by his mom at the tender age of nine, he quickly finished her entire library. But he soon began to wonder where all the queer people were.
After coming out at twenty three, he started writing the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Crown Books. If there weren’t many queer characters in his favorite genres, he would will them into existence, subverting them to his own ends. And if he was lucky enough, someone else would want to read them.
His friends say Scott’s mind works a little differently than most – he makes connections between ideas that others don’t, and somehow does more in a day than most people manage in a week. Although born an introvert, he forced himself to reach outside himself, and learned to connect with others like him.
Scott’s stories subvert expectations that transform traditional science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something different and unexpected. He runs both Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark.
His romance and genre fiction writing brings a queer energy to his stories, filling them with love, beauty and power. He imagines how the world could be – in the process, he hopes to change the world, just a little.
Scott was recognized as one of the top new gay authors in the 2017 Rainbow Awards, and his debut novel “Skythane” received two awards and an honorable mention.
You can find him at Dreamspinner here, Goodreads here, on Amazon here, on QueeRomance Ink here, and on Facebook here.