Dutiful

Picture via ABC News

I got the news last week that my short story "Dead On Her Feet" was accepted for Duty and Desire, an anthology of military-themed erotic romance! Any acceptance is good for a squee, but this is the second piece I've written that will appear in an actual, hold-in-your-hands dead-tree book, which makes it double-squee!

Better yet, I'll be sharing the Table of Contents with some really talented writers, including my dear friend, Lynn. Check out this Table of Contents:

The Long Ride Home by Delilah Devlin
Night Witch by Sacchi Green
Shattered by Shanna Germain
The Grunt and the Ditty Bop by Craig J. Sorensen
Fighting for Fresno by Ericka Hiatt
Homecoming by Kelly Maher
Passing Out Passion by Lucy Felthouse
Against the Wall by Catherine Paulssen
The Thunder of War by Anya Richards
Sergeant Rae by Toby Rider
Dead On Her Feet by Elizabeth L. Brooks
Out of Time by J.K. Coi
Done by Charlotte Stein
Wilco by Christine d’Abo
Christmas Presents by Mercy Loomis
Snake Dance by Lynn Townsend
Home by Michelle Augello-Page
For Better or Worse by Kristina Wright

This is from Cleis Press, so the stories are female-centric, either m/f or f/f. My story, "Dead On Her Feet" is about Jamie, a soldier on her way home after two years in the Middle East. Shall I give you a small taste? Sure, why not (though bear in mind that I haven't gotten editing comments back yet, so what I'm offering here may change before press):

Thirty-four hours on the move, now, and counting, dead on her feet, but this was the last flight, and her ears were popping with the descent. Maybe another hour, now, and then she'd step out of the Atlanta airport into the lush thick humidity of proper Southern air, maybe even one of those summertime afternoon deluges and she would stand there and just let the rain soak her right to the skin. And then she'd take a bus a couple of hours down into Georgia, to a tiny little town that no one had ever heard of who hadn't been born there, and then it was only a couple of miles from the bus depot to Casey's mama's house. To Casey.

Eyes still closed, Jamie's hand stole up to her shirt pocket where she kept the most important things: her passport, and the receipts for all those planes and busses, and her ID cards, and the cash she'd drawn to pay for food... and the picture of her and Casey at his sister's wedding two years back. She'd looked ridiculous in that bridesmaid's dress with her fresh-from-basic close-cropped hair and those mannish muscles on her bare shoulders, but Casey had looked so very, very fine in that tux, and he'd pulled her close while they danced and told her she was the most beautiful woman there, and they'd snuck off down to the basement and almost not made it back in time to see the cake cut, and luckily the tux jacket had covered where she'd got lipstick on his cummerbund.

Duty and Desire is due out sometime this fall -- I'll post a more precise date when I have one, and of course the cover when I get it.