Today marks eighteen years I’ve been with Mike. Or as I sometimes joke, eighteen long years. We often ask each other, “When we met did you think. . . . ” I can’t say when we met I ‘knew’ we’d be together this long. That’s just being honest. Eighteen months can be forever in the gay community, so eighteen years almost doesn’t have any meaning, or didn’t at the time. But I can say I hoped we’d be together this long. (more…)
Author: Andrew
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Busy Weekend And Upcoming Week For My Book
When it rains, it pours or as poor New England and the rest of the Northeast would say, when it snows, it blizzards.
The Babes in Boyland blog was super nice and agreed to hold the first give away for The Last Grand Master. Piper and MJ took pity on me and walked me through the process. That giveaway is running until Feb. 11, 2013 at 9:00 pm Central U.S. time. Just leave a comment to be entered.
Babes in Boyland: Guest Post & Giveaway: “The Last Grand Master” by Andrew Q. Gordon
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First eBook Giveaway For The Last Grand Master Is Underway Now.
Babes in Boyland were good enough to allow me to host a book giveaway on their site. All you need to do to win is click the link below and post a comment at the end of the post. Be sure to leave your email. Easy right?
Guest Post & Giveaway: “The Last Grand Master” by Andrew Q. Gordon
Thanks MJ and Piper for letting me host this on your site.AQG -
The Armchair Reader reviewed The Last Grand Master. See Cole Riann’s thoughts on the book. AQG
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Pixie at MM Good Book Reviews gave the first review of my latest book, The Last Grand Master.
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Worldbuilding Blogfest Post 5 – Excerpt from The Last Grand Master.
Since yesterday’s entry was about the culture of Nendor and much ink was spilled discussing the festivals, I thought it would be fun to show how Farrell dealt with the preparations for his union ceremony. For the sake of better understanding the excerpt, Horgon is Miceral’s father and the First Minister of Haven – meaning he runs the day to day operations in Farrell’s name.
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STARING at the parchment, Farrell rubbed his eyes. “Are you sure all of this is necessary?”
Horgon gave him a brief smile before nodding. “I’m afraid so. As Prince, you can’t sneak off and get joined. All this…” He waved at the papers. “…is just part of what’s involved. I’ve left the more mundane things out, figuring you don’t much care about things like color of the invitation or which flowers will be on the altar.”
“Unbelievable.” Farrell shook his head, lifting another sheet from the stack. (more…)
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Holidays, Food and Culture of Nendor
I suppose it is somewhat obvious that when world building, one should give the inhabitants something uniquely their own, but it wasn’t to me. Although I like to cook, I’m hardly a foodie. To me, reading a description of what the characters are eating is boring. Generally I skip over these parts, especially if there isn’t anything unique or important in the description. Example of important food would be Lambas bread in the Lord of the Rings or Aliantha berries in Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Thus far, Nendor doesn’t boast any such miracle food.
Like any other author, I bring to the table what interests me most. I really don’t care what people eat. The fact that characters eat is sufficient. That is probably a bad attitude and given the feed back from the editors at Dreamspinner, I suspect future books will need to highlight something unique to Nendor and I’ll need to pay a bit more attention to what the characters are eating. (more…)
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Religion and Culture of Nendor
Religion and Culture of Nendor
The world was created by the seven gods and goddesses of Nendor. Siblings, they are in order of age:
Honorus – Lord of the gods; Lenore – Goddess of the earth; Neldin – Lord of the underworld; Arritisa – Lady of the ocean; Khron – God of war; Seritia – Goddess of love; and Falcron – God of wisdom. Each deity has it’s own temples, clerics, and followers. Although there is no prohibition against following more than one, most people choose a specific god or goddess to primarily worship. Of course prayers are offered to different gods or goddesses depending on the need, no matter who a person follows.
The seven gods worked together to create the world and it’s inhabitants. Neldin, however, chafed under his brother Honorus’s rule and plotted to over throw his brother and rule in Honorus’s stead. A fierce and bloody war was fought which ended with Neldin’s defeat. The Six declared Neldin the God of Evil, razed his temples all across Nendor and forbade any to worship him. In the aftermath of the war, Neldin’s few remaining followers hid their devotion to avoid persecution and death from those affected by the war. Within a generation, the world believed worship to Neldin as an organized religion had disappeared. But his followers survived and created an underground hierarchy, planning for their god’s revival.
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We’ve Come So Far, But We’ve So Far To Go
I saw this article today and it struck me hard.
Gay Oregon Teen, Taken Off Life Support After Hanging Himself
I read about this young man and wondered how he must have been hurting to do this. I thought about how much he left behind, how much he’ll never do. Never fall in love, get married, have a family, laugh and cry with his friends, celebrate his triumphs, and pick himself up from his setbacks. I think of how much I’d want to say to him, because when I read this, I immediately wondered what I can do to be sure my daughter never feels so despondent that suicide seems the only avenue left.
I want to cry with his family, because even though it is not my child, it is still a child and being a new parent makes me more sensitive to how much every child matters, how we need to watch over all the children, not just our own. I want to find the kids who did this and do things I shouldn’t even thing about. Anyone who would drive someone to do this isn’t anyone I want around my child.
I worry that with time, my child could be one of those who doesn’t see how much her words hurt and what effect they can have. Will I be a good enough parent to teach her to be a kind, compassionate person, or will I fail and she’ll end up a bully, joining in when others tease the ‘different’ one.
And I’m sad we still read about this, far too often. As we celebrate the success of gay marriage at the ballot, the president declaring we deserve equal rights, and the shifting public view towards tolerance, we forget in that instance how much we still need to do. I have no answers, just a mountain of questions. I don’t want to fail as a parent, not for my daughter, or for any of the other young people she’ll associate with. This just reminds me how much harder I need to try, because failure is awful beyond words.
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History and Politics of Nendor
The Seven Gods of Nendor created the world. After a time, Neldin – third eldest – decided to try to rise above his eldest brother Honorus and rule the world. Neldin tricked the dwarves of Trellham to unleash the hordes of Neblor upon the world. The other six gods rallied their followers and the two sides fought to a stand still. After a short but bitterly fought war, a young wizard from the island of Dumbarten, named Kel, followed the will of the gods and sealed off Neldin’s foot hold into the world and ended the war. For the next three millennia, Neldin retreated to the underworld and was rarely heard from.