I am delighted to report that my romantic little story of a boy and a dog (and, too briefly for Charlotte and Jane’s liking, an irascible cat), “Shep: A Dog,” will appear early next year in Cleis Press’s annual Best Gay Romance, edited for 2014 by Timothy J. Lambert and R.D. Cochrane.
I’ve known about the likelihood of this for some time but held off on the announcement until Lambert and Cochrane could finalize the anthology’s table of contents. And here it is:
Introduction • Timothy J. Lambert
Strange Propositions • Eric Gober
My Adventure with Tom Sawyer • Jameson Currier
True In My Fashion • Paul Brownsey
Sight • Jordan Taylor
Falling • James Booth
Thanksgiving • Shawn Anniston
The Invincible Theatre • Felice Picano
Carver Comes Home • Rob Byrnes
Spill Your Troubles On Me, Love • Georgina Li
Quality Time • Lewis DeSimone
Brooding Intervals • Kevin Langson
Dandelions • Tony Calvert
Shep: A Dog • Alex Jeffers
There’s No Question It’s Love • N.S. Beranek
Save the Last Dance for Me • David Puterbaugh
Afterword • R.D. Cochrane
Besides my own and the editors’, I only recognize two names. Yet another proof of how underread I am these days.
In other, more discomforting news, the long story “Lamp Night,” which I reported being thisclose to completion a few weeks ago, proved too complex and difficult to bring off so easily. As is often the case, alas. And so it has been set aside to stew in its own iftar-feast juices for a bit. I have two or three other stories in the works but, with that bad example in front of me, will refrain from talking about them yet.