Over and Done

Yesterday, my short story Over in Sixty Seconds or So was published on the GFF website, read it here.

It’s another one of those sideways looks at life I write about, so often. This time it’s about a man suffering from premature ejaculation, hence its title. I know it’s not the most upbeat of subjects but it’s certainly one typical of me. I do have a desire to understand these subjects and then write about them in a real-world way. In this story I look at why it happened and how it made the guy in the story feel.

There is some colourful language in it, it’s a very adult story, but don’t let that put you off.

Happy reading.

Drew.

Silent Too Long

I’ve been silent on this blog for too long now. My excuse isn’t original but I’ve been so busy and distracted. Back in April I was made redundant. The company I worked for went into financial crisis. They did a lot of work for the NHS and weren’t being paid, because of all the NHS cutbacks. All this lead to me taking redundancy. Since then I’ve been looking for a permanent job, and that hasn’t been easy but has taken up so much of my time. Must employers only seem to be taking casual staff. At the moment I’m working as a Bank Community Nurse, in Central London, but fortunately there’s plenty of this work to go around. I’m still looking for a more permanent/long-term job though.

Enough of my woes. I have still been writing and fortunately have been having quite a bit of success with it.

I’ve had several articles and reviews published in Nursing Standard magazine, I’m so fortunate to have such a good relationship with them. The most recent article of mine they published was a nurse’s guide to the Equality Act. To me, this is such an important piece of legalisation, not the “political correctness gone mad” as our media likes to call it. For nurses, too, it’s very important because nurses are called to respect equality, it’s in our code of practice. Equality is far more than just “treating everyone the same”, it’s about creating a level playing field for everyone, and unfortunately we need laws to ensure this.

I had a short story included in Gazebo (No 11 Summer 2011) magazine, it was called Appetite. It was about a gay man who’s suffer from anorexia, though he just feels he needs to lose weight to do attractive. It’s another of those subjects that I feel important about, mental health, and how it affects people’s lives. It was certainly one of my tragic themed stories.

My biggest writing success has been The Treason Show, a monthly Brighten satirical review. So far I’ve had sketches in the two most recent shows. I started writing, back as a teenager, writing sketches and now I’m back to it again. It has also re-fired my desire to write plays, so watch this space, as they say.

My short story, Love & Need, can be read here. It’s about a man whose boyfriend is needy and demanding, but this makes their relationship instead of breaking it. My twisted take on everything.

Also, watch this space because I’m going to be trying to post a short story on this blog each Friday. This is so I can enter the Mad Utopia’s Flash Friday writing. It all sounds complicated but it’s another showcase for my writing and I can’t turn my nose at that. You can read more about it here.

Drew.

“The devil made me do it.”

My feelings for the Christian Church aren’t a secret or positive thing (Just check out some of my previous blog entries), so it won’t come as a surprise that I’ve had a short story published about the uneasy relationship between sexuality and Christianity.

The Devil To Blame (http://tinyurl.com/2bs5awu) is about a young gay man who’s caught, mid-love-making, with his boyfriend by the pastor of his church. That said don’t expect the usual “Nasty Christian” and “Poor, Helpless Gay Man” story. This is one of my short stories with my usual jaundiced view of life.

It is published on the Gay Flash Fiction website (http://www.gayflashfiction.com/), one of the several stories of mine to appear there, and I’m so happy about that. They “get” my writing and I’ve only had positive experiences working with their editors. So many other publications want you to have jumped through many hoops before they’ll even look at your work, that it’s such a pleasure working with a publication that actually wants to get the best out of your writing.

Do let me know what you feel about this story, I value any feedback.

Drew

Some More Examples of Me.

Last week I had another review published in Nursing Standard magazine. This one was of The Coalition on Men and Boys website. There was an interesting premise behind it, looking that the unique problems faced by men in this society (whether that is health, emotional or physical), unfortunately there was little resources on the site. I had fun stretching that to 200 words.

Here’s some more of my writing that has been published in the last few months.

Boxing Day 1975

http://www.gayflashfiction.com/Story_Archive/Boxing_Day_1975.html

This story is a coming of age story about a seven year old boy. On the day in question, he realises he is far more attracted to handsome men then pretty women, thanks to a television showing of the film One Million Years B.C.

The Pizza Boy Cometh

http://www.gayflashfiction.com/Story_Archive/PizzaBoyCometh.html

A cautionary tale about a man who is faced with the reality of his sexual fantasies. He works delivering pizzas and has that porn story fantasy about a customer giving him that “extra large” tip, but the reality is far different...

Saying Goodbye To Mickey

http://newfleshmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/10/right-ill-get-our-after-dinner.html

This horror story uses that old cliché of the Ouija Board, but this time it isn’t about a group of teenagers. Four friends gather for a dinner party. One of them, George, has recently lost his partner, Mickey, to cancer. The Ouija Board is used to help George to say Goodge to Mickey, but some things should be left unsaid…

His Story

http://www.abctales.com/set/drew4payne/his-story

This story, of linked shorter stories, follows the experiences of one gay man as he tries to come to terms with his past. As a teenager he was involved in the Ex-Gay movement, Evangelical Christians who believe they can change gay people’s sexuality by questionable means, and the long damage that they have left within him.

The full story of how I came to write this story can be found in my earlier blog, Based on A True Story (http://drewpayne.blogspot.com/2007/12/based-on-true-story.html). It was originally published on the Rainbow Network website, but since they folded I was able to move this story to the above link.

Drew

Some More and More of My Writing

Here are some links to pieces of writing that I’ve had published, some of the recently. Most of them are short stories, my non-fiction writing is usually published in print format and takes longer to get onto the internet, but I have managed to include one of my opinion pieces.

Praying in The Stock Cupboard
http://www.gayflashfiction.com/Story_Archive/Praying.html
This story features one of my favourite themes, the clash between Christianity and homosexuality. This one revolves around Joe, a gay officer worker, who finds one of his colleagues praying in the office’s stock cupboard and the effect it has upon him.

One New Message
http://www.authspot.com/Short-Stories/One-New-Message.446401
Receiving emails can be a joy or a chore, a personal email from someone can be so enjoyable and a pain when it’s scam. This story is about a man who posted a profile on Friends Reunited and then gets a message from the only person he would want to contact him...

Goodbye
http://www.authspot.com/Short-Stories/Goodbye.320077
The ending of relationships is another subject that fascinates me; I’ve been on the receiving end of it enough times in the past. This story features a man who has finally decided that the time has come to end his relationship with his girlfriend, they are so very incompatible, but he also doesn’t want to hurt her. He hasn’t set himself an easy task...

Things You See in the Dark
http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=20525
This story has a special place in my affections. It was published in the Spring 2006 edition of Chroma magazine. Chroma is a lesbian and gay literary publication and it was an amazing honour to get one of my short stories accepted by them. This one traces the growth of one gay man’s self-identify, during the seventies and eighties, through the films he watches and the different images of gay men he’s exposed to.

'The NHS should help obese people change their lifestyles to lose weight – blaming patients is dangerous'
http://www.nursingtimes.net/This_weeks_issue/opinion/Hot_topic/2008/12/the_nhs_should_help_obese_people_change_their_lifestyles_to_lose_weight__blamin.html
This is an opinion piece I wrote for Nursing Times magazine. The subject here is very plain from the title but it was based on something that actually happened to me. I was bluntly told, by a doctor, that I was overweight and had to lose weight but that was all the help I got. He bluntly told me that and then I was expected to leave, no further help or advice offered. So this was one of my responses.

Happy reading.
Drew.

It’s Me Again.

I’ve finally found some time away from working (the non-creative world of audits) to do some writing of my own, and some of it is getting published.

I’ve had another very short story published on the Gay Flash Fiction website (http://www.gayflashfiction.com/ ). Its a very brief short story, called Once More With Feeling, about a man who find his lover is being unfaith but does behave in the expected way. Unfortunately, I can’t post a direct link to the short here, because of the format Gay Flash Fiction all the pages have the same address, if you go to the Stories Page of the website the story is about halfway down. Enjoy.

Nursing Times has accepted another of my comments pieces, which is due for publication in December, and Nursing Standard has commission me to do another book review.

I have also started to post articles on Shvoong website, which is like a showcase for free lance article writing. Editors can view abstracts of my articles and buy them if they want to publish them. I have one article already up on it (http://www.shvoong.com/medicine-and-health/1696951-step/ ), so fingers crossed that can generate some more publishing chances.

Drew.