Catching up . . .

Yeah, I know . . . I’ve been a bit slow letting you guys know what has been happening. Sorry about that, but you should know me by now!

So, what HAVE I been up to, I hear you ask? Well, I have managed to get a bit done over the past few months, you’ll be pleased to know 🙂

Some of you may recall a Challenge story I started some time ago for the IOMFATS site, which was called ‘A PRINCE AND HIS PAUPER’. At the time it was just a single chapter, but I’ve been working on fleshing that out into something more than that, and the remaining chapters have now been posted on that site. With that out of the way I figured it was now time to share it here with you all as well.

I hope you enjoy it! Chapter links are below.

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three / Chapter Four

Chapter Five / Chapter Six / Chapter Seven / Epilogue

And in other news, I have also thrown myself into one of my older, unfinished stories, which I have been asked about from time to time: THE PRISONER OF CARRONNE.

With the original 10 chapters getting a fresh edit, I then started work on the continuation, and an additional 8 chapters have been finished, with a few more set to be added to wrap up this particular story in the next few weeks.

GA INDEX PAGE

Today I have also been catching up on some reading of late, and have just finished a review of KING OF DIRT by Australian author Holden Sheppard … who I’m sure I have raved about on here previously. 🙂

CLICK HERE

Okay then … I think that’ll have to do for now. I know I have some tidying up to do on this site and will try to do some reorganisation as I get the chance.

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy!

Happy reading!

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Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s that time of the year again!

Well folks, it seems that another year has almost passed us by! Where the hell did that go?

Just wanted to drop ya’ll a line to wish each and every one of you my best wishes for the holiday season, and to thank you all for your support and messages throughout the year, whether on here, or through the various other means by which we connect!

Christmas is going to be hot, and possibly wet in our part of the world, so no matter what it is like where you are, I hope it is a safe one for you.

The past year has been quite a busy one for me, what with writing and working and just trying to get by. Changes in my workplace have been quite a challenge, as has finding time to write. I have managed to get some things done, however, and there is more on the way.

I wrote and posted a story on the Gay Authors site called Kandanga Falls (I’ll provide some links for you as soon as I can), as well as written some additional chapters for my previous Christmas tale, Traditions. And this week I’ve come up with another sweet little Christmas tale for you, titled, Howzat?, which is kind of a prelude to an idea that I figure might just end up as a full blown story in the future . . . a short, Aussie Christmas tale, about summer, backyard cricket and coming of age.

You can find that one HERE. Please enjoy!

I’ll be back with more in the New Year.

Take care everyone!

MP

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Cover reveal…

…for the updated edition of The Mardi Gras Murders.

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The Latest . . .

So, recently we finished doing the re-edits on The Mardi Gras Murders, with a view to it being posted on Gay Authors, IOMFATS and elsewhere. I have now just started posting the revised story to Gay Authors, as a start, but I also wanted to make it available as an e-book, and hopefully a printed book as well (in the near future).

I am please to say that it is now available in e-book form on a number of websites!

Please check it out! More news later once I find out what is happening with the printed version!

Click here: https://books2read.com/u/bWJk8Y

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement!

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A few updates . . .

Okay folks, I’ve managed to make a few updates today, starting with the removal of some broken links on my Recommended Readings page. Sadly those stories / websites don’t appear to exist any more so I have removed the links. I’ll try and add a few more links shortly for you to some other stories I’ve really enjoyed.

Recently I was playing with an idea relating to my Thompsonville universe, and just how that came about. This resulted in my writing a piece called A Figment of My Imagination, which basically just outlined my processes surrounding the dreaming up of this little world of mine, and more importantly, something with which I can try to keep all the little details straight, in my own mind at least! There’s nothing worse than writing something and describing something, then realising that’s NOT how it was the last time I used that particular feature of the town or environs.

Anyhow, I’ve written this in two parts, the first being the processes side of things. The second is a fictional history of the fictional town.

A Figment of My Imagination – Part One (some background behind the process of creating this world)

A Figment of My Imagination – Part Two (a fictional history of my fictional world)

I hope you enjoy!

MP

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Missing in action?

Well, not really! But I will admit to neglecting this page, as I’ve been rather busy elsewhere! You see, as you may recall I mentioned joining the Gay Authors community a year or so ago, and this has meant that I have been somewhat busy with posting my back-catalogue to that site.

So, with re-editing and re-posting my earlier stories, as well as chipping away on some new stuff, and then getting a promotion at work, you can probably imagine just how busy this year has been.

Please don’t fret though. Even while re-editing and re-posting my earlier stories, I have also managed to post several new chapters of my story “Traditions” on Gay Authors, while also planning to continue with some other stories, in addition to mapping out some new stories!

I can also see that I need to do some updates here and finish posting some stories here that seem to have been stalled, so I will get onto that!

Thank you all for your patience! And please keep an eye out for future updates!

Happy reading

MP

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Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .

Hello All. Just a short post to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. And if these aren’t holidays that you observe I wish you nothing but best wishes over the holiday period!

Above all though, I would like to thank you for sticking around and reading my stories, offering your feedback and asking questions! I very much enjoy our interactions and I look forward to this continuing in 2025. I know that my output of new stuff has been a little sporadic of late, but I promise you there is new stuff coming. This has been in part due to my working on re-edits and re-posting of my older stories on IOMFATS.org and GayAuthors.org, but also the fact that life has been getting in the way.

Hopefully 2025 will see all this settling back down and I’ll be able to really get productive again . . . I have so much that I want to give you!

Anyhow, in the spirit of what has been happening lately, I thought I would offer you this little piece . . .

I think you get the picture! haha

Anyhow, all the best for the days ahead. Thank you for being there, and I’ll see you on the flip side!

Take care now

Mark xxx

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Where we’re at . . .

Well, tomorrow is something of an important date . . . November 11th! So, in commemoration of this I thought I might just pop up one of my earlier stories, which is directly related to this event, just as a reminder. Please take a look at, and hopefully enjoy, Armistice.

I thought this was particularly relevant given the uncertain times we are living in.

And in other news, let’s see now . . . I’m still working on re-edits and reposting of stories for the GayAuthors and IOMFATS websites . . . I’m working on an Epilogue chapter for The Seventeenth Summer (before I delve too deeply into work on the sequel) . . . I’m working on additional chapters to my IOMFATS challenge story A Prince and his Pauper . . . plus some new chapters to a couple of other existing stories . . .

So, yeah, I know I haven’t added much new stuff lately, but it is coming. Thank you all so much for your comments and reactions to my stories, and above all, thank you for your patience! I’ll let you know of any new postings just as soon as they are ready to go!

Take care!

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Just a little Word challenge…

I was having a discussion recently amongst the small group of writers I belong to and correspond with almost daily, and an email was circulated containing a meme that listed words that seemed to be rarely used these days.

The conversation was interesting, and of course someone made the statement that it would be an interesting challenge to see how many of these old words could be used in a story.

Then of course that got my brain ticking over, and before I knew it, I had a story forming!

You can find it HERE.

Please enjoy!

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All the latest goss . . .

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve commented on here folks. I haven’t been idle though. I’ve been busy working on a number of things, including edits to my existing stories so they can be posted on IOMFATS.org and GayAuthors.org, as well as writing some new stuff, and planning for other new stories (including some continuations of old favourites).

At any given time I might have three or four stories I am either seriously working on, or tinkering with, so even though it might sometime seem like I haven’t been doing anything, I really am still working on something LOL

So, where are we at?

So far my first three stories, After We Danced, The Rip and Song For Guy, have been re-edited and posted on both IOMFATS and GA. Part of the reason for this is to try and expand my readership, and the response I have received so far, from both new and old readers has been awesome, for which I am extreeemly grateful. 🙂

I will update the versions of these stories on this site, as well as add a few new links to the Recommended Readings list and make a few other changes, just as soon as I get a chance.

I am also working on re-editing the remaining stories in that series (Thompsonville and A Good Place), as well as doing some more development on the next in the series (Out of the Blue).

A little while back I wrote a Challenge story that appeared on IOMFATS, which was titled A Prince and His Pauper (please visit iomfats.org/storyshelf/contests/2024-better for the list of stories in this Challenge) . . . and naturally I couldn’t stop at just one chapter, so that is the new stuff that I have been working on of late.

For the immediate future the next task will be to start posting The Seventeenth Summer to both IOMFATS and GA, while I am still working on the re-edits for Thompsonville. At least it doesn’t need another round of edits, as my editor, Mike, and I did that as I was re-writing it from its original form (where it was posted as Sandmen). Of course, it also has a sequel that I need to get back to soon as well! 🙂

So, as you can see, there is quite a bit happening. If it’s new stuff your waiting on, please be patient for just a little while longer!

Thanks for all your feedback and support!

Happy reading!

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