DADT Repealed, Jack at Work, Snooping & Writing

Okay so unless you live under a rock (which would be weird because you're reading my blog and I don't think you can get internet reception under a rock) you know that Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been repealed (YIPPEE!).  Now as you all know I am an Army vet (yes, I love to point that out to people) and when I served in the Army one of the things that they hammered into us was the USMCJ (United States Military Code of Justice) and how violating one of those "codes" could get you an Article 15 (which is like a misdemeanor), an Article 17 (which is like a felony) or an Article 13 (which will get you dishonorably discharged-I believe those are the numbers, can't really remember.  I remember the Article 15 though, I got threatened with that....A LOT).  So if someone brought charges or made a complaint that you approached them to have homosexual relations or if you were caught have homosexual relations (yes, it says relations and not sex in the book, because the word sex is too vulgar...you know for the officers that make you say "fuck you" when doing pushups) you got an automatic dishonorable discharge, after the bogus trial you'd have to endure.  Now, it was the same thing for those who committed adultery as well.  The MPs (Military Police) would come and arrest you and put you in holding (the Navy calls it the brig) until your trial where you'd be court-martialed.
Now when I served, I would say that 65% of the females in my barracks were having sex with each other and about 50% of the males.  How do I know?  Well, I would hear the girls, I'd see them in the shower, washing each other, they'd sneak off to the showers while everyone else was sleeping (I'm a light sleeper, it's what made me such a good soldier) and have sex.  It was the same for the guys.  How do I know that?  My Army boyfriend.  He was half Italian, half Sicilian *shiver*, he was the only one who knew about my strap-ons that I'd smuggled onto base and into the barracks (they are considered contraband) and he was the first guy that I slept with in basic training (what?  You think we didn't?  There's a very nice SSG out there who still smiles at the mention of my name.  LOL).
The point is, covert "homosexual relations" have been going on since the inception of the the fucking military, but, there's no threat of punishment.  Now they can be just as open and free to love and fuck around as everyone else without that stupid USMCJ hanging over their heads.  I am SO excited for them all!!  And I'm going to share with you the email I got from said Army boyfriend from ^:
                  B*****(he used my last name, sorry you don't get that)!!  Did you hear?  Tell me you heard!!  I'm so excited I feel like wrapping my flag around me and running through the base and I'm not talking about the American flag!  I wish you were here to celebrate with all of us.  Sucks that you're not, but I heard through the grapevine that you're becoming a man.  That's great!  When you do, you should get surgery on your back and hip and reenlist there are some GORGEOUS guys that are enlisting these days.  Love you honey!  And here's one for the road!
Then he sent me a very special picture.  LOL.  Which is of course when Jack walked out of the bathroom and saw what I was looking at.

So,as you all may now, after my scary Sunday, I've been at Jack's, he's been taking very good care of me and reading blogs, reading m/m books, watching LOGO, it's been great, but he had to go to work today, so I'm left at his place while he goes to make money (Woohoo!).  Anyway, this morning I woke up to Jack working out.  He was doing push-ups on the floor.
With one hand.
The man is a fucking god....well, that too.  LOL
Anyway, apparently I make audible noises when I'm turned on (who knew?) and I like moaned and he heard me, which led to a wonderful morning, but I fell back asleep immediately afterwards (it was a quick doze) and by the time Jack came out of the shower I was commenting on blogs, checking on GR, responding to emails and procrastinating on my writing (I get better at that every day).  So Jack sees the picture and he says: "That's not mine."  LOL.  Um...duh!  So I tell him whose on it is and he says "Does he know you have a boyfriend?"  And I'm like "Do I?"  I was TOTALLY just teasing!  Jack didn't know that and he just sort of looks at me, so I apologize, tell him I was joking and he just sort of nods, grabs his stuff for work and says he'll see me when he gets home.
*Sigh*

So after he leaves I decide to do a bit of snooping.  I'm going into every room and looking around, checking out the kitchen, the living room, the backyard.  Nothing interesting.  I mean I wasn't like doing a FBI search or anything, just sort of walking into each room, standing in one spot and then turning to check out everything.  I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  So I gave up and now I am laying on the couch in the living room, the tv on mute, Billie Holiday playing on the stereo and blogging you guys.

I should be writing.  I wrote some new stuff for "D & R" on Sunday but today?  My brain has gone silent.  It's quite unnerving.  So I'm going to read Clear Water by Amy Lane and hope that the juices start flowing soon, because I promised Jack I'd get some writing done today and I always keep my promises.

Book Review of Amy Lane's "Living Promises"

Okay, I'm going to see if I can get through this book review without sobbing my eyes out, but seeing as how I'm already crying, I have no hopes for that.

By the end of the Prologue I was already identifying with the MC of Collin, having lost two cousins in a car accident on the same night I lost my favorite cousin (the first person I told when I started having sex who went and got me tested and told me about condoms, HIV and STDs) to cancer.  Soon after that I became fearless and reckless until I met Christopher a year later.  He gave me something to live for and helped me to heal.

This is when I begin to identify with the MC of Jeff (who I fell in love with in Book One) who lost someone he loved in the military, very unexpectedly.  That sense of grief and feeling as if you don't want to live if that person isn't alive to be with you.  I cried when I read that Jeff's lover, Kevin, died while serving overseas and he found out that he had contracted HIV (readers will remember that we found out he had this from the first two books).  Having served in the Army and having lost friends overseas, my best friend to AIDS and my fiance to brain cancer, I felt as if Mrs. Lane had gripped my heart and was crushing the life out of it.  I actually had to walk away from the book for a while to compose myself, the description of the haze Jeff went through was so wonderfully written.

However, the story is not all sadness and grief and "Oh-My-God-Somebody-Just-Put-Me-Out-Of-My-Misery" heartache.  Mrs. Lane mixes in a wonderful blend of laughter, surprise, love, realistic life situations, disappointments and heart-stopping, breath-stealing sex as to make this book my favorite one of this year (and that says a lot because I LOVED "Viking Lore" by Stormy Glenn).  By the time I got to the end of this book I'd gone through an entire box of Kleenex, two bottles of water and felt so emotionally drained that all I could do was lay on my bed trying to get my head together.

Collin and Jeff are so beautiful together, both helping each other to heal, to become better, to believe and hope again, loving so deeply and strongly as to be almost supernatural.  This is one of the greatest stories of love lost, love found and life rediscovered.

Thank you [author:Amy Lane|151973] for writing such an amazing story and for your dedication at the beginning of the book.

New Story/Book

So I have one book that's almost finished (about four chapters left) that is an interrcial historical romance book set during the Renaissance period between an English duke and an African princess entitled The Duke's African Bride, but I have recently gotten an idea....or two...because that's just how my mind works, for two completely different gay romance/erotica fiction stories.  One is contemporary and one is paranormal/futuristic.  They've both been swirling around in my head and I have the idea/outline for both, the title for one (Unthinkable), and even started writing the first one.  It's just a matter of me deciding if I'm going to actually go for it...I probably will...yeah, I will.

*Sigh* Now that that decision has been made.

I have become addicted to a few writers and I guess you could say that I'm like "reader stalking" them: Mary Calmes, T.A. Chase, Stormy Glenn, Amy Lane, John Simpson, Stephani Hecht, Ally Blue, JL Langley, Madeleine Urban, and Rhianne Aile.  I spend a few hours, and a few dollars, finding, buying and reading whatever books that they have, reading their blogs, their sites....it's because I truly do love their stories/books (but to be honest, I'm the same way with Susan Mallery, Lisa Kleypas, Brenda Jackson, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Janette Oke and Lori Wick...I don't generally stalk celebrities or obsess over them or drool over them-well, except John Barrowman, David Tutera, Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler and Michael Ealy-but they're the exceptions), I'm different, I'd rather read a really good book, especially a steamy gay one, than watch  a movie any day.

I'd rather write one too.

So I guess I should get to it.