Early twentieth century:

Lessons in Love November 1905

Lessons in Desire August 1906

Lessons in Discovery November 1906

Lessons in Power Spring 1907

Lessons in Temptation July 1907

Lessons in Temptation missing scene July 1907

What the Mathematician said to the Statue Summer 1907

Lessons in Seduction September 1907

What the Mathematician said to the Engineer November 1907

My true love sent to me December 1907

Lessons in Trust Summer 1908

Resolution January 1909

On the occasion of their anniversary November 1909

Bloody Mathematicians Spring 1910

May our days be merry and bright Winter 1910

A fit employment for a gentleman Summer 1912 (crossover 'fanfic')

Once we won matches Aug 1912

Ring in the New December 1913

All Lessons Learned Spring 1919

The Boy from Kings, early 1930's.

A random collection of silly things:

Drabbles 1 Edwardian

Drabbles 2 Edwardian

Splitting Infinitives Edwardian, crossover 'fanfic'

Ten plus five plus eight = twenty three Edwardian crossover 'fanfic'

Love Letters, 1911 to 2011

Lessons in Disco 2010

Apologies for being quiet and not terribly interactive, but jury service is eating the time, eating my brain and giving me too many plot bunnies!

News
Am up to eyeballs in edits for Lessons for Survivors, (Tracey is a hard taskmistress but she edited This Ground which was Secured at Great Expense which is possibly my best story, so she’s worth it.)

Cover art is by the wonderful Alex Beecroft



Edits always make me cringe at my own errors. How could I have mistaken discrete for discreet? How did that phrase appear in 1919, ten years too early?

Here’s a snippet in which I didn’t make too much of a mess. The boys are talking about Orlando’s upcoming inaugural lecture, about which – surprise, surprise – he’s fretting.

“Anyway, make the most of that kiss. There may be no more forthcoming before I give my lecture.”
“That’s hardly the spirit I expect, Orlando. If I were ever to gain a Chair in Tudor Literature or some such wonderful thing, I’d insist on regular romantic activity to fortify and inspire me. A man can’t live by hair pomade and computation alone.” Jonty made good the knot in his lover’s tie for what seemed the umpteenth time. “How far have you got with your first draft, by the way?”
“First draft? At this rate, it’ll never get written. Too many distractions. You being at the top of the list.” Orlando screwed up his face. “Perhaps I should simply write it on the subject of ‘Equations quantifying the known nuisance values of Jonathan Stewart’.”
“That would be impossible to quantify, I’m afraid. Didn’t you tell me there are no numbers bigger than infinity?” Jonty pulled down his lover’s brow to reachable level, but had second thoughts about kissing it, just in case hair and tie both got mussed up again. “If you’re that distracted, we should deem it protocol to sleep in separate beds the next few nights. Then you could scribble away to your heart’s content.”
“It could be done. And the thought of resumption of bed-sharing would be a positive incentive to get the wretched thing sorted out. I need something to give me the proverbial boot up the backside.” Orlando deliberately moved away from the mirror. “Right, that’s it. If I’m not fit for public view now, I never will be. Thank goodness it’s just the official bit today and the lecture’s all of a fortnight away.”
“At least that’ll give Lavinia the chance to buy a dress suitable for the occasion. She’s dragging her heels about getting the right outfit. Worse than you. And she’s almost as nervous as you are. Feels she’s representing all the Stewarts and has to be on her best behaviour.” Lavinia Stewart, Jonty’s sister and the matriarch of the family now her formidable mother had died, was developing into the role with surprising dignity and good sense.
“She’s bound to be better behaved than you, so everyone will be relieved.”

Inspiration

What could be more inspiring than this gorgeous lot, as seen not just on the bus but up close in the “meet the players” zone at Twickenham. I have dibs on Richie Gray.

Flyby post, because of the jury service. Interesting but knackering! This lad, Jason Smyth, is another Paralympian trying to break into the Olympics. I must be slipping - only heard of him this weekend!

And talking of Olympics, don't forget to follow the torch.

Yesterday was great. Easy run up and down from Twickenham, great atmosphere, brilliant match, only one negative thing, of which more later.

The day started as was due to go on, with me misbehaving.



This was before Guinness drinking, having face painted and chatting up these lads:



Only downside was the pre-match on-pitch entertainment. I hope the organisers of the Olympic opening ceremony were watching and taking notes that this is what we DO NOT WANT!

Big few days of sport hit a new high yesterday when I got a virtual kiss from Nige over twitter. In the immortal words of Elin Gregory, I'll never wash that tweet again.

Amlin final last night brought out the worst in French rugby. Ill tempered, nasty at times, and some cheating which should have led to a yellow card and maybe then to a Toulon victory. Neither side deserved to win. Just hope today is better - we're shouting for Ulster (hence the SUFTUM), especially as they have a hobbit playing at number ten. Don't believe me? Google Paddy Jackson.

And then, to crown it all, THE TORCH is here! (I can has a Ben Ainslie of my own?) First post should be appearing later today at our torch relay GLBTQ fiction related blog site. Looking forward to reading it whenever we get home.

Stand up for the Ulster men!

Yes, I know that sounds like a non-sequiteur. It is.

Cheyenne is having a sale of now out-of-print titles The Filly and Hidden Conflict: Tales from Lost Voices in Battle. Get them for $4.99 each at TLA. When they're gone, they're gone!

And I've been a-blogging at Samhain, about which real people inspired book characters. Come and tell me about any I've missed.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia.

There are times I’m really proud of my country and the steps it takes to ensure that everyone matters.

In my ‘other life’ I do some freelance training and one of the courses I deliver is about the UK Equalities Act, which came into force in 2010. We’ve always had legislation to cover discrimination of one form or another – the Race Relations Act, the Disability Discrimination Act etc – but this law amalgamates them all into a logical, unified whole.

There are nine ‘protected characteristics’ against which you can’t discriminate if you are an employer, a public body or a service provider. That discrimination could be in any form: directly (e.g. refusing someone a place at University); indirectly (e.g. stacking the odds to make them less likely to be given a job they’re qualified for); by association (e.g. not promoting someone because they have a disabled child); by perception (e.g. not allowing your employee to come on a business trip with you because you think he’s gay).

Two of the protected characteristics are sexual orientation and gender reassignment. There have already been some notable cases under this law, particularly involving Bed and Breakfast establishments.

The discrimination claim has to be reasonable. So a gay pupil couldn’t claim that excluding them for fighting is direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation unless they could show that a heterosexual or bisexual pupil wouldn’t be excluded for doing the same thing. And clearly there are times when a particular characteristic can be justified as an occupational requirement – a Muslim women’s refuge could specifically recruit a Muslim woman as their manager and that wouldn’t be discriminating against candidates without those features.

When I’m delivering this training (or other courses, like Selection and Interviewing, which have similar elements) I always tell delegates that what’s in their heads – the baggage of preconceptions and fixed ideas we all carry – which will most affect their discharge of duties and responsibilities. If they go with gut feelings and prejudices they’ll risk both breaking the law and making poor business decisions. With a smile on my face, I say something like:

“That candidate you reject (covertly, because he’s gay and you don’t think the parents will approve of a gay headteacher at a church school) might just have been the best thing that could have ever happened for your school. Some other school will nab him and go soaring up the Ofsted ratings.

“And talking of Ofsted (our school inspectorate) when they come to your school they’ll be looking for whether all groups of pupils perform equally well – including GLBTQ pupils – and they’ll want to know if there’s any homophobic bullying going on. If you don’t believe me, look in their inspection schedule. If they get wind of it they’ll start digging. You don’t want Ofsted to dig.”

I'd like to offer a prize of an e-book/print book (winner's choice) but I'll make you work for it. Mail me at cochrane.charlie2@googlemail.com listing any six of the nine 'protected characteristics' (very easy to google!) for a chance to win.

The list of other 'hoppers' can be found here.

With Syd McGinley taking the Ben Ainslie role and leading the first stage, up through Cornwall. On subsequent days, as the torch wends its way along the West Country and into Wales, we have:

Day Author
2. Clare London
3. Anne Brooke
4. Jo Myles
5. Chris Quinton
6. Bruin Fisher
7. K C Warwick
8. Elin Gregory
9. A celebration of British Flash
10. Becky Black

Gonna be great. (Such a great crowd of hooligans!) Posts will appear here.

Elin Gregory, who won the random draw of commenters at Coffee Time Romance. She's chosen a copy of Sail Away, which features my official fanfic of Lee Rowan's lovely Royal Navy series lads.

Am delighted to be a guest today at Melissa Schroeder's blog, talking about writing about heroes who are gay. And disabled. Do drop in and share you thoughts - are there any physical factors in a hero which would put you off reading a story?