I am delighted to share a guest post by author Kaje Harper who tells us about...
Discovering
my guys
by
Kaje Harper
by
Kaje Harper
When I write, I
usually start with only a vague idea of who the characters are. As I began Love
and Lint Rollers, I knew that Dean was a veterinarian with a big heart, and
that Thom loved his cats and had been challenged with his Crohn's disease at
times in his life. But for me, it's while I'm doing the writing that I discover
other parts of the characters. For instance, I wasn't aware Dean was bisexual
up front, but came across both that fact, and the idea that it might be one of
the themes in this story, while writing the following scene.
The little
thought he has about his friends reminded me of comments from bi and pan
friends online, about how they still, in 2018, face bi-erasure, even within the
community. That attitude bugged Dean, and I realized it was going to come up
again. He also thinks about his mom, and in so doing told me new things about
his family life. I admire people who plan out their books in detail and stick
to it. But I have a lot of fun coming across new facets of my guys as I write.
It makes writing an adventure, and one that doesn't get old or routine.
Hopefully that works for my readers, as well as for me.
************************
by
Kaje Harper
Blurb:
Even with six beloved cats at home, Thom Fletcher can't help opening his
heart to a little injured stray he finds at Pride. Luckily, the
generosity of the veterinarian who helps him means he doesn't have to
open his wallet. Thom's budget is stretched pretty thin, between his
struggling start-up and medical expenses for his Crohn's disease, so the
free cat care helps a lot. Thom may have fallen for the little feline,
but he's also intrigued by the attractive vet in the bi-pride bracelet.
Dean Edwards went to Pride with his colors on his wrist, hoping to find community after his divorce. Instead, he's pulled into a cat rescue by an appealing man. Dean likes Thom's kindness to strays, his blue-gray eyes, his intelligence, and his perspective from decades as an out gay man. Maybe with Thom, Dean will finally feel able to explore his long-neglected attraction to men.
They're not a perfect match. From Dean's cat-hating dog to Thom's chronic health issues and preferences in bed, going from a casual date to something more will be a challenge for both of them.
Dean Edwards went to Pride with his colors on his wrist, hoping to find community after his divorce. Instead, he's pulled into a cat rescue by an appealing man. Dean likes Thom's kindness to strays, his blue-gray eyes, his intelligence, and his perspective from decades as an out gay man. Maybe with Thom, Dean will finally feel able to explore his long-neglected attraction to men.
They're not a perfect match. From Dean's cat-hating dog to Thom's chronic health issues and preferences in bed, going from a casual date to something more will be a challenge for both of them.
************************
Excerpt
Dean locked up
the vet clinic and headed out into the sparse Saturday afternoon traffic.
Saturdays always felt a bit odd, driving home in the midday sunshine after
working a half-day. Most weeknights he didn’t get to see bright daylight, even
this time of year.
As he entered
the house, his mom’s old Shepherd, Tig, trotted over to meet him like always.
“Hey, boy.” He delivered the required head scritchies. “Did you have a good
morning terrorizing squirrels and snoozing in the sun?”
Tig’s tail waved
in a gentle arc. It wasn’t the ecstatic wagging that used to greet Mom before
she passed.
“Sorry, baby.
She’s gone. You have to make do with me.”
Tig’s sigh was
surely due to his arthritic joints, not Dean’s words. He walked stiffly back to
the kitchen, and Dean followed behind.
As he reached
for his phone charger, his rubber Pride bracelet, sitting in the dish on the
counter, caught his eye. Pink, purple, and blue. The first time he’d made that
kind of public declaration. He imagined Mom looking down from heaven, no doubt
demanding he get that blasphemous thing out of her kitchen.
Picking up the
loop of rubber, he turned it around and around between his fingers. Maybe she would’ve understood? Probably
not, though. In any case, it was too late to come out to her now. He flicked a
look upward. “Sorry, Mom. I hope you’ve met some nice gay folk there in Heaven,
and they’ve taught you differently.” He missed her with a sudden pang. Despite
her narrow-mindedness, she’d been a generous, kind woman, the sort who’d have
helped out a gay person, while trying to gently “bring him to the Lord.”
She’d loved him,
raised and encouraged him despite their differences. Two years later, her
kitchen still surrounded him with warmth. His eyes stung. “Wish you were here.
Even though we’d fight about this, and this time I’d stand my ground.”
He could almost
hear his father, a few years further back, saying, “Respect your mother,
Dean. You owe her that.”
Wow, getting
maudlin. A downside to still living in the family home. He opened a drawer to
put the bracelet away, then paused, and slipped it back over his wrist. Mom and
Dad were gone. He’d decided to move on with his life. No back-sliding.
In that
spirit… He grabbed his phone and
texted Thom before he could chicken out. ~Hey there, it’s Dr. Edwrads, just
wanted to check on our girl
He sent it. Then
saw his typo and had to rub his eyes. ~*Edwards. I do know my own name
There was a long
enough pause that he’d set the phone down and was checking the fridge when he
heard the chime. He fumbled it on, trying not to expect too much.
A laughing emoji. Then ~She’s doing
well. One sore spot on her neck that she scratched up. Hang on, I’ll send a
picture
After a minute,
a photo of the cat’s head appeared. Her fur was starting to grow in where he’d
shaved it, but he could see a knot of scabs along her neck. He enlarged the
picture. It didn’t look too bad. ~Is it getting better or worse?
~Just not
healing. She keeps scratching it open. It’s the wrong place for a cone collar
~You could
put nail caps on her
~Ha. Been
there, tried that on another cat. Not good
~I could
bring some over. We might manage it together
There was a
longish pause.
~I can bring
some ointment too, he added. Cats could be a bit of a challenge, although
they often had ninja healing skills.
~Sure. Can’t
hurt to try. Do you need my address? Or should I just bring her to the clinic
tomorrow?
He breathed a
sigh of I-didn’t-sound-stalkery relief. ~No need to stress her with a car
ride. Your address is in her file
He’d put Thom’s
phone number into his own cell, skirting the border of appropriate. Address
info was in the clinic records, though, a password and a couple of clicks away.
~OK. When
works for you?
~An hour? No,
make it two. He needed to shower, eat, give Tig a walk, and run by the
clinic for nail caps.
~Around four
then?
~Sounds good.
He set his phone down and reminded himself he shouldn’t let it sound too
good. Cat first. Anything else, if there was anything, afterward.
He couldn’t even
be sure Thom was gay or bi, despite the string of rainbow beads he’d been
wearing and the Pride flag. Everyone and their allies went rainbow at Pride. He
might be ace or intersex and straight. And even if he was gay, he might have no
interest in expanding the horizons of a forty-four-year-old bisexual
veterinarian.
Dean tugged at
his bracelet, snapping it against his wrist. He’d played the straight ally for
so long, this all felt weird. Like a Halloween costume he was trying out.
In the years
before his best friends Shawn and Jonah had moved off to Colorado, the
bastards, they’d spent more than one drunken night telling him about the sins
of being bi. How bisexual was really liar’s code for someone too chicken to
come out, too greedy to be faithful, or certain to cut and run if things got
tough. As the straight-acting bi guy married to a woman, he’d nodded and held
his tongue. A lot. He had a degree in hold-your-tonguing after decades with his
friends and family. Graduated Maximus Claspus Linguous.
Maybe he should
put that on a plaque. Or maybe it was really, finally time to stop…
~*~*~*~
Book links :
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Bio
I
get asked about my name a lot. It's not something exotic, though. “Kaje” is
pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname. I’ve been writing far
longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty years*), mostly for my own
entertainment, usually M/M romance (with added mystery, fantasy, historical,
SciFi…) I also have Young Adult short stories (some released under the pen name
Kira Harp.)
It
was my husband who finally convinced me that after all the years of writing
just for fun, I really should submit something, somewhere. My first
professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out from MLR Press in May
2011. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks and print, both free and professionally
published, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow
Award Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact. A complete list with
links can be found on my website "Books" page.
I'm always pleased to have readers find me online at:
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My review:
4 out of 5 stars
Love and Lint Rollers by Kaje Harper is an adult
contemporary m/m romance that features Thom Fletcher, whose fortuitous
encounter with veterinarian Dean Edwards results in…a new houseguest. Each man
has a painful past that threatens to prevent him from forming a lasting
relationship and will have to decide whether to fight for happiness.
I love that this author's characters
are so real, with their attendant challenges and sometimes imperfect solutions.
Having been temporary house-slave to a household of 10 cats, I was entertained
to read about Thom's routine which evokes memories of being “trained” by the
felines and their preferences. The challenges of dealing with a medical
condition that controls one’s choices are sensitively described and I couldn’t
help but ache for Thom even as I regretted how much that makes him prickly and
pessimistic about the chances for a permanent romantic relationship.
The challenges that Dean faces as he
reveals his life choices were surprising and enlightening to me as I hadn’t
really considered how bisexual folks are judged and sometimes criticized by
folks who really should mind their own business. There are some elements of
this story that were a little sticky for me, but I think they reflect that
folks have blind spots and are imperfect. As always, the theme of “love me for
who I am” is artfully depicted and as usual with this author, I consumed the
story in one delightful gulp.
A copy of this story was provided to me
for review
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