Novellas by Gordon Phillips

The Pugilist at Rest

Published by JMS Books.

This novella is an attempt to explore what might be called rough trade and domination / submission erotic romance.

The relationship begins in a purely contractual manner, but after morphing into a dom-sub fantasy situation, arouses deeper aspects of the two characters, and the gradual development of love.

The Haunted Caretaker

Published by JMS Books.

This is an exploration of love and eros between the haunter and the haunted. But as is generally the case, the haunting arises out of a human tragedy, and it is this reality that reaches out and touches the lovers, challenging them and bringing them together.

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The Fool

Published by JMS Books.

This story was written in response to a call from J.M.S. Books for romance stories that involve the number nine, to celebrate the publishing house’s ninth anniversary.

The story centers around a curious phenomenon that keeps appearing in the main character’s life, for no reason he can understand. And it all begins with a tarot card reading in which the number nine is oddly prominent. But the cards of death and love appear as well.

The main character faces the challenge of deciding whether and what to believe in these portents and discover what they mean: in which he must face the death of a friend and discover love in an unexpected place. He also must figure out what the persistence of the number nine in his life means.

Bliss

Published by JMS Books.

This novella was written for a “trio” call from JMS Books: Just the Facts, Vol. 2, which contains three mystery novellas.

I applied the “trio” theme to the romance aspect as well, exploring the possibilities and challenges of a ménage à troi involving the three main characters of the story.

This was my first mystery story, which was a challenge in terms of its construction, but quite delightful as well.

Renegades from the Time War

But some of the technologists who had developed these gates used them to escape this totalitarian state authority, creating “bubbles” in space-time, which they call “ships.” These move independently of the ordinary world and are used to undermine the established Order. And so, the Time Pirates, and the beginning of the Time War.

The story is about a cadet in the Time Corps and a Time Pirate who are thrown together in one of the military operations, only to discover a mutual interest and regard that forces them to challenge their established loyalties. They must come to terms with their situation. But there are only limited options. One of these is escaping the Time War entirely, to become in effect Renegades from the Time War. The only question is, how

Published by JMS Books.

This novella was written to be part of a trio volume on science fiction MM romance, Love Among the Stars. I employed the “trio” concept in the romance, making this ménage à troi.

This story involved a full and rather detailed world-of-the-future, in which technology had developed Time Gates, which open between different times and places. This allowed the possibility of going back in time to change undesirable events. The upshot of this, and the dangers of mangling history, has led to the rise of a fascistic state: the Ordered Society, which uses a Time Corps to police and protect the time stream.

Renegades from the Time War

Gym Slave

Published by JMS Books.

This novella was written as part of a trio volume on S&M romance, Hurts So Good. I employed the “trio” concept in the romance, making this ménage à troi.

The novella follows the main character’s exploration into the world of gym etiquette, where his desire for both excitement and passion leads him to dangerous places, places he never would have chosen consciously. He loses his autonomy in the process, but discovers a new side of himself, one that challenges his view of what constitutes not only a meaningful and satisfying life, but the nature of relationship as well.

Marooned with a Marine

Published by JMS Books.

This novella was written on a theme of military romance. In it I took the old standby: two people stranded on a deserted tropical island and went from there. It was a lot of fun and the challenge of survival and rescue, interleaved with interpersonal sharing and bonding made an exciting adventure tale of which one reader said I “really channeled the story-telling muse.”

The stranded pair are a marine and a psychologist embedded in a military action that was attempting to keep a peace and which breaks out at last in a local civil war. While being evacuated, both characters are in a plane that is shot down. They are the only survivors, and making it at last to a tropical island they must combine their skills and knowledge to survive, and be rescued.

The Man with the Big Gun

Published by JMS Books.

This novella was written in a four-day window, since I only found out about the call for post-apocalyptic romance stories from JMS Books days before the submission deadline. In the process I discovered that being forced by a deadline helped to focus me and change how I approached the story. Rather than my usual painstaking (and joy-killing) care, I simply plunged in with the attitude, “I’ll just do my best and see what happens.”

The story grew from a series of crisis scenes that I found interesting and compelling. I then only had to fill in connective bits. For example, the novella began with a case of mistaken gender, and moved to a shoot-out in the underground passages where survivors from the city apocalypse battle for resources and survival.

One consequence of the four-day limitation, however, was that there were lots of things that occurred to me later that I might have included and which would have been fun to flesh out in the story arc. The limitation is suggested by the rather too-on-the-nose double entendre of the title.