Danube Divide is Free

This week's free e-book read at MLR Press is Danube Divide, my homoRoman historical set in the Eastern Empire of 378 CE.

There's an epic battle between Goths and Romans, a mass migration of refugees crossing the Danube, a pretend crucifixion for purpose of mansex, a real crucif... WTH is wrong with me? IT'S FREE! No need to pester you with my sales pitch.

Get Danube Divide now until Sunday June 5th at the MLR PRESS SITE.

Look at top of MLR's page for a small picture of this big picture:

Right click on the little picture, save the file to your hard drive and it's yours forever.

Jasper McCutcheon interviews Halsey Pearson

Near the end of October, I sat down with WWII veteran Halsey Pearson, one of two characters in the Jardonn Smith short story, The Caricature. A summer-like day allowed us to chat while on the screened-in porch of Halsey's Appalachian Mountains cabin, where he likes to relax by singing folk tunes.

Jasper: So, Halsey, what made you take up the guitar and singing?

Halsey: Just a late-life hobby for the most part. I wanted to learn songs from the 1930's, my growing up years. Tunes like the Delmore Brothers were doing. The Blue Sky Boys and the Monroe Brothers, you know, Charlie and Bill, before Bill Monroe started up his bluegrass sounds.

J: Are they easy to learn?

H: Some are, some aren't. A lot of them sound simple enough, but they'll throw in an awkward chord to the progression, like a minor third or augmented seventh.

J: Does Floyd enjoy listening to you play?

H: He's usually reading in another room, but if he hears me make a major mistake he'll let me know I hurt his ears. Jokingly, of course.

J: Did the cricket really synchronize its leg rubbing with the tempo of your song?

H: It did, and that's a fact. Exactly on the date of our 25th Anniversary. Next day, he rejoined his other crickets, rubbing legs any old way they liked.

J: You and Floyd first met in 1944, correct?

H: Well, we never met. Never spoke. I just saw him after we rescued him from that Japanese camp, and he was in no condition to be socializing.

J: Did you ever dream it would be forty years before you'd see him again?

H: At the time, I didn't give it a thought. And I sure as hell never entertained any sort of physical attraction to him, just a curiosity as to what the Japanese had done to him during interrogations.

J: What about later?

H: Hmm... well, I suppose it did begin to gnaw at me through the years. Look, homosexuality wasn't part of my thinking. Not overseas. Not when I came home to the States. I got me a job and started ladder climbing. Found me a woman who was beautiful inside and out, and we got down to the business making a home and raising a family.

J: And you never thought about Floyd?

H: All right, you pushy son of a gun. Sure, I thought about Floyd, but in my subconscious. That's where he needed to stay, but then after my wife died, well, I got to thinking that maybe thinking about him wasn't such a bad thing.

J: Still, you never took the initiative to find him?

H: What for? I figured he'd married and done what I'd done. What reason would I have to think that he'd be looking for a boyfriend?

J: And then you saw him at the forty-year reunion?

H: Yep. In 1984.

J: What did you think when you first saw him?

H: I thought, Halsey, you better find out what he's doing here and what his situation is.

J: And what was his situation?

H: Ha! Let's just say he was available, after we worked out a few kinks.

J: And the rest is history.

H: As they say.

J: All right, Halsey, you and Floyd were in your sixties when you hooked up. Right?

H: Correct.

J: Now, you're in your eighties. Do you and Floyd still, you know, do it?

H: Like rabbits.

J: Rabbits in lust?

H: No, rabbits in love. Without that, I doubt either one of us could even get it up.

J: Well, thank you for giving up your guitar-playing time for this little chat.

H: Stay right where you are, mister. The price for this little chat is that you have to suffer through my singing.

J: Gladly.


The full story of Halsey Pearson and Floyd Strick is told by author Jardonn Smith. It's called The Caricature, is available in ebook formats and can be viewed at either the author's web site HERE, or the publisher's web site, MLR PRESS.

Past Shadows

A MISTICAL BOOK

 

Jardonn Smith

 

Just in time for the haunting season, MLR Press releases Past Shadows, an historical ghost anthology with three distinct stories from three diverse authors -- with one element in common -- spirits from the past will unite lovers in the story-present.

 

We're talking manlove here, male to male encounters brought on by suggestions from the dead. Sometimes a subtle whispering in the ear will do; others require shouts; some demand physical contact from the ethereal to the living flesh of a man's arm, his cheek, or parts of him where the message certainly will get through.

 

We're also talking PAST shadows, because when I said lovers in the story-present, that time could be the 18th Century of our first tale, Death's Desire by author Stevie Woods, the 19th Century of The Shade on a Fine Day by Charlie Cochrane, or the 1930's Depression of my Green River, with settings in same order of Stevie's English manor, Charlie's parish of Saint Archibald's, and my Works Progress Administration work camp.

 

Hmm... either one of our ghosts is trying to say something to me, or it's the sound of you wringing your hands. Yes, yes, it is you moaning. "Jardonn! How can I learn more about this book? Where can I read excerpts and consider whether or not these ghosts and their manloving beneficiaries deserve my investment of time and expense?"

 

Great. Now you've done it. Our gaseous smart-alecks are going to intercede. They say for me to tell you, "Fear not, faithless mortals. We charge Jardonn to present you with all you require."

 

With a mysterious pressure causing discomfort upon my testicles, I give you green links for two excerpts:

 

For Stevie's Death's Desire, and then scroll to bottom of the MLR Press page for your excerpt link.

 

For my Green River , where you'll find a picture I made related to my story. See that greenish form beside the pier? That's my mistical instigator.  

 

Ah, I am now being rewarded for presenting my useful information. Do you want to know how? I didn't think so.  

 

Through the excerpt links you will find purchasing options for paperback or e-book versions of our Past Shadows, and I also suggest you look very closely at the details and subtle messages within our incredible (in my opinion) book cover, courtesy of MLR Press's Deana Jamroz. Also deserving credit, at least for working with me, is my editor at MLR, Kris Jacen. As always, she pointed out my obvious false-assumptions while skillfully schmoozing my sensitive areas.  

 

Thank you, Kris, Deana, MLR Press (meaning mostly Laura Baumbach), Stevie and Charlie for a book of which I'm proud to be a part. 

 

Jardonn Smith