So I’ve opened one :D.
My Cafe Press shop is now open! There’s just one design available at the moment but I’ll be adding more. I’ll also take suggestions for products (depending on what’s available from Cafe Press, of course) and designs to add.
My favorite is the barbecue apron.
And now, have a little excerpt from Something Beautiful. The countdown to the release date is on!
On his walk back to Russian Hill, he stopped at a coffee shop for a mocha to bring home, and when he reached his loft popped some bread into the toaster to go with it. He opened all the curtains in the loft that covered the big, square windows, and turned on his stereo. All this contemplation didn’t change the fact that he’d been dumped, for reasons he understood — sort of — and that he still was looking at a Sunday on his own.
He would be all right, of course. He’d been raised to be resilient. There was always work to occupy him, books to read, movies to watch, and tomorrow he’d be ready to be around his friends again.
Or perhaps sooner, he thought when the front buzzer rang. He pressed the intercom button. “Hello.”
“Dunie, it’s me,” said Micah, his voice tinny from the intercom, and Dune smiled and pressed the button to open the front door.
Micah was upstairs in a few minutes, looking tired from his travels but cheerful as he wrapped himself around Dune and noisily kissed his cheek. “I thought you’d be sleeping today,” Dune said.
“I did for a while, but now I’m awake and I didn’t want to hang around the house all day. Everybody else is at church and I wanted to be someplace else.”
“I’m glad you chose here,” said Dune and closed the door. Micah held onto him, slim strong arms around his neck. “You’re much less likely to be pestered.”
“Exactly. You’re like — my laughing place, you know?”
Dune tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Like in the story. It’s a place to be yourself.”
Dune looked at Micah a moment more, and then kissed the top of his head. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me, I think.”
Micah smiled and ducked his head. “I missed you a lot this summer.”
“I missed you too. It was much too quiet around here without you.”
“Are you saying I’m noisy?”
“Yes,” Dune said and laughed when Micah pounced on him and tried to tickle him. They wrestled, laughing. Dune was taller by nearly half a foot but Micah had a lot of wiry strength in his slender body, and soon had him pinned to the floor, hands over his head.
“I win, I win, I win!” Micah crowed.
“Oh yeah?” Dune said, still trying to pull up his hands — but not very hard. “And what are you going to do about it?”
Micah grinned down at him and bit his lip. There was something in his face like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what — but he only laughed and released Dune’s hands and flopped down onto the floor. “I’ll let you know when I think of something. C’mere, Dunie. I missed you.” He put his arms around Dune and pulled him close.