50s Mixed Tape Anthology / Totally Bound Publishing (ePub)

'Chantilly Lace' by Em Woods

When appearances aren't everything...

Shea Laporte is a twenty-four-year-old professional twink. He gets his way with a bat of his eyelashes and a swish of his hips. Coffee bars, nightclubs and late, lazy mornings in bed are routine for him. He's never regretted being who he is-after all, his lovers know what they're signing up for-but he's keeping a secret. One he's more than happy to keep to himself until he meets Murdock 'Murk' Rouse, the new tenant in his apartment building.

Murk has been watching Shea flounce in and out of their shared complex for months. At first glance, he thought Shea was nothing better than the whores down on Eight Mile, but after one brief run-in with the spunky blond, he knows all Shea needs is a firm hand and a man who sees him for everything he is-smart, kinky and sexy as hell.

'Rush Around the Clock' by Silvia Violet

Finn McMurphy convinces himself his spoiled dogs are all the company he needs. Then he meets Crawford, his sexy new neighbour, and everything changes.

Patient soul Finn McMurphy teaches music and drama to middle schoolers. By the time he's finished with after-school rehearsals and the private lessons he teaches to make ends meet, he's too exhausted to think about dating or even hanging out with friends. He's resigned to life with his music, his students and his ludicrously spoiled Yorkies.

Then he meets Crawford Bixby. Crawford may be the most perfect man Finn has ever met-kind, good with kids, gorgeous and completely unconcerned with Finn's lack of ability to be coherent around him. Finn falls hard for him, but he's terrified of what he feels. Will he be able to step out of the controlled world he's created for himself and take a chance on love, or will he keep making excuses-rehearsals, papers to grade, dogs to walk-and push Crawford away?

'It's Only Make Believe' by Havan Fellows

Dyer's whole life is nothing but a game of play pretend. When he attempts to drag Derrick into his make-believe world, it tips on its axis. Suddenly Dyer doesn't want to play anymore.

Dyer Cambell could escape all his troubles with a starring role in a new gay dramedy. At least he thinks so. Unfortunately, the producers want to cast true to script actors. Simple enough, Dyer will make them believe he's gay. Problem solved.

Enter his best friend's brother.

Derrick Verns had no intention of being Dyer's personal show and tell prop. But there is something about Dyer that is oddly compelling. Derrick wants to find out who the real Dyer is-the one that doesn't play make believe all the time.

'Walkin' After Midnight' by Hank Edwards

Floyd has trouble staying interested in men, but meeting Gavin changes everything. Until Floyd learns his boss is dating Gavin. Now Floyd wants him even more.

Floyd Burland tends bar at Dudebaker's, one of the city's hottest nightspots. He's something of a serial dater, but nowhere near as bad as his boss, club owner Shawn Frost. Floyd is trying to figure a way out of an entanglement with Trevor, a Dudebaker's bus boy, when Gavin Hunt steps into his life. Handsome, outgoing, and just Floyd's type, Gavin is there to talk with Shawn about a singing gig.

On a moonlit night, Floyd discovers Gavin in the club's parking lot with a car that won't start. He walks Gavin home and during their conversation, Floyd realises he could very easily fall in love with the man. Later, however, Shawn begins to brag that he and Gavin are dating, and Floyd, in a rash moment of jealousy, kisses Trevor the bus boy right in front of Gavin. Soon everyone is pointing fingers and demanding answers, and before Floyd can even try to fix things between him and Gavin, the singer leaves town to pursue his dream of cutting an album.

Will Floyd follow his own dream and pursue Gavin in an effort to win him back? Will Gavin even give him the time of day if Floyd shows up at his door?

'His Dream Lover' by Lee Brazil

Through the gates of the sun lies the land of dreams, and beyond that...the realm of the lost.

In a private hospital room, motionless and still beneath a sheet, lies Joseph Caldwell. His surgery has passed, to all intents and purposes, successfully. The doctors offer no explanation for why he hasn't awakened from the medically induced coma. The stream of visitors trickles down to nothing, and still he lies in endless sleep. Nearly everyone has given up any hope for his recovery.

Anaesthesiologist Oliver Gideon is racked with guilt and confusion. Could he have somehow done something wrong? His superiors assure him he is not at fault, the science he reviews tells him his dosages were correct, but the longer Caldwell sleeps the more Oliver is haunted by the loneliness of the figure in the bed.

He spends every possible moment with the patient, reading, talking, trying to fill the little room with sound, to stir a response that science isn't sure is possible.

Morpheus, King of Dreams, has welcomed Joseph to his realm. Some dreams, he explains, are true, and some are false. There's only one way tell. Joseph loves the dream world Morpheus has woven for him, for in it, he's found something he never found in reality: a soul mate. For the first time, his life is perfect.

In the end, he has to choose. He cannot stay in the Realm of Morpheus forever. It's either back to the land of the sun, and potential loneliness, or on to the realm of the lost.

'The Line' by Angel Martinez

Rafael Schiller, vampire and sexual god without peer, believes himself the top of the food chain, until a bizarre creature feeding in an alley scares the deathless hell out of him.

Rafael Schiller's had a long road and he's forgotten the meaning of several human words along the way. Commitment? Relationship? Love, for all the gods' sakes? What does a vampire need those for? He's completely content treating his long string of one-off lovers as midnight snacks. He makes it good for them and has no reason for guilt or grief. Some nights still induce an odd, hollow ache, but he can just drown it in the next conquest. Master of his universe, he lives without a care...until he encounters a bizarre creature feeding in an alley.

It's caught his scent, and now that it's hunting him, Rafael remembers a word from his childhood. Krsnik-the hunters, the monsters who feed on the blood of vampires. He could run, but he'd be running forever, and that would sure as hell take the fun out of life. Time to figure out what the creature really is, what can defeat it, and why he feels so drawn to it.