Play It Safe

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Year of the Lads Month 4, Post and Giveaway #1

The fourth and fifth Year of the Lads books, for the month of November, are Play It Safe and Playing With Fire. We’re doubling up this month and next to accommodate the series’ holiday books.

This week is all about Play It Safe, Fergus and John’s happier-ever-after short story!

Text: “Year of the Lads” and “Mythic Journey” Image: Book cover: Book cover: Play It Safe: A Glasgow Lads story by Avery Cockburn. Image of two men holding hands visible from forearm down. A soccer ball appears in the foreground, and the background is a sky with bright sunshine beneath heavy clouds over distant hills.

Quick aside: I’ve expanded the interactive Lads’ Guide to Glasgow (and beyond!) to include the three new locations we meet in Play It Safe: Kelvin Walkway, the Barras market, and the real-life sauna I semi-based Club 212 on. 🔥

Now for the main feature:

Fergus’s hide-and-seek search for John downstairs in the “men’s leisure centre” was a blend of the 12 Labours of Hercules and Orpheus’s descent into Hades to retrieve his beloved Eurydice. Fergus meets an overbearing man with a “mane of ginger-blond hair” (Nemean Lion) and later a “muscular man with a long, dark mustache that ended in a pair of upturned points” (Erymanthean Boar). And then there’s the Cretan Bull and the 9-Headed Hydra:

The lights on the lower level were dimmer and redder, and the tranquilizing chillout music had switched to a throbbing dubstep that shook Fergus’s bones. As he stepped into a foyer that branched into two corridors, he realized this level even smelled different—of earth and sweat and…

Sex.

“Can I help you?” asked a deep voice.

In a shadowy alcove to Fergus’s right, another young man in a Club 212 polo shirt sat on a stool before a small podium, looking like a restaurant maître d’. Unlike the harmlessly cute front-desk clerk, this guy was beefy as a Highland bull, his frame filling the alcove and his hand dwarfing the pen he held poised above a clipboard.

“We’ve got an opening for a sugar scrub in five minutes.” The man gestured to the door behind him marked Massage Suite. “Only thirty quid on a Tuesday.”

“No…thank you.” Fergus considered asking the giant if he’d seen John, but that would be cheating.

“Steam sauna’s through there.” The man extended one sausage-thick finger toward the hallway to Fergus’s left.

Ah. That seemed a likely place to find John, given his love of hot water.

Fergus thanked the attendant, then hurried down the hall. Like the dry sauna upstairs, the steam room had a glass door, but a thick fog cloaked the interior. Swallowing his nerves, Fergus opened the door and entered.

When the steam parted, he stopped short. What the—

Intellectually, he knew that this…creature consisted of more than one body. Its shifting limbs varied in length and skin tone. The sounds from its throats varied in pitch and volume. The hair on its eight (nine?) heads varied in color, length, and location.

But at first glance it seemed all one continuous form, writhing upon splayed white towels like a dying deer in a snowbank.

“Don’t just stand there, ya big ginger beauty,” slurred a voice to his left. “Come and join us.”

I’ll let you figure out the rest (not all Labours included)!

To be entered into this week’s giveaway and the monthly giveaway, leave a comment on this post. Tell me your favorite myth or your favorite use of mythology in a modern setting.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

  • Comments from all weekly posts will be automatically entered to win the monthly prize.
  • THIS WEEK’S PRIZE: a free ebook of mine, winner’s choice. Open through Wednesday 11 November. 
  • THIS MONTH’S PRIZE: An autographed copy of the Playing With Fire paperback. Open through Sunday, 30 November.
  • Pool of entrants will consist of comments on this post, the Rainbow Regiment post, and replies to my newsletter. 
  • One entry per person per weekly drawing.
  • International entries welcome

“Fancy a game of hide and seek?”

After living together for three months, Fergus Taylor and John Burns have come to love each other’s quirks, and the bond between them is starting to look permanent. But when John wants to take things to the next level, Fergus balks, haunted by the betrayals in his own past.

John knows if he’s not careful, he could lose Fergus. If only he weren’t so bad at being careful.

To overcome his fears, Fergus must embark on an epic journey, a journey that will test his faith, his trust, and his ability to keep a cool head in a hot, hot place.

A must-read for Glasgow Lads fans—and for new readers, a short ’n’ sweet intro to this Scottish gay-romance series!

Note: “Play It Safe” features the heroes of Playing for Keeps, but like all Glasgow Lads books, it may be read as a stand-alone story.

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The Wee Things kickoff: Robert’s rubber duckies

I’m starting a feature here called “The Wee Things,” where I and other authors will spotlight specific objects in our books, talk about their origins, and what they mean to us and to our characters. Fun stuff!

In Play It Safe, Liam and Fergus are shopping in the Barras market when they come upon a toy merchant selling rubber duckies that light up when you put them in water.

Liam stopped in his tracks in front of a toy seller. “Rabbie used to love these.” He darted over to a small tub filled with floating rubber duckies. Two of them were blinking lights of every color.

Fergus was confused for a moment. Liam had so many younger siblings, it was hard to keep track of their names. “Our Rabbie? As in McKenzie?”

“My Rabbie,” Liam said with a growl. “You know he hates anyone else calling him that.”

Play It Safe, Chapter 2

The duckies feature in two scenes in Playing With Fire, including a very touching–literally and figuratively–scene near the end.

They undressed in silence, fingers trembling on buttons, buckles, and zippers. As his last bit of clothes hit the floor, Liam said a silent thank-you that Robert’s flat was well-heated.

He paused for a moment at the foot of the bed, taking in the sight of his naked boyfriend, as the rubber ducks’ lights flashed every color over Robert’s smooth chest and abs.

Playing With Fire, Chapter 30

To find out how Robert’s obsession with rubber duckies began (maybe), check out this interview at Gay Book Reviews. Liam spins quite a yarn about it!