3 things.

Three things today, good news, bad news and a glimpse of things to come. 
Let's start with the bad news. 
Due to a really heavy summer schedule, I have decide, reluctantly, to suspend my blog over the summer. This means that I won't be posting stories or poems on a daily basis for at least the next eight weeks. During this time I will post an occasional video or two of me telling traditional stories and I'll suggest some archive stories on my Facebook page. (Feel free to suggest your favourite stories for archive stories). I hope to come back stronger and better and nicely refreshed in September. 

(By the way someone left a comment asking if there will be more Saz and Debs yesterday, but I deleted it by accident. The answer is, maybe, in 8 weeks' time. :) )

So the good news. 
As you know I have two novels available on Amazon and Smashwords as ebooks. For the next 8 weeks these are both going to be available to buy as physical books from a company called Lulu. So, if you fancy owning one of my novels click on the links below and get your credit card out :-). If you would like a signed copy, for ten pounds each, contact me. 

Maggie's Milkman
http://www.lulu.com/shop/gareh-davies/maggies-milkman/paperback/product-23248753.html

Extraordinary Rendition.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/gareth-davies/extraordinary-rendition/paperback/product-23248768.html

And I thought I would leave you with a glimpse of things to come, so here is a short extract from my latest novel, Humans. Being. If you are a regular reader, you will recognise the character. 
For audio click here

Ice Cream 

“Hey, what’s wrong, kiddo?” Vic scooped his boy off the carpet and into the air, the iPad nearly whacking him in the face. “Jesus, you’re heavier than I remember you.” He plonked Elis on the sofa and sat down next to him. He put his arm around his son and let him sob for a moment while horrible thoughts about what might be upsetting Elis ganged up in his mind.

“Ethan Matthews calls me a freak,” Elis said before wiping his nose on Vic’s sleeve.

“Who’s Ethan Matthews?” Vic said.

“He’s a boy in the year above me. Carys’s bother. He said I was a freak cos my mum has a girlfriend. He says it’s disgusting, unnatural.”

The open goal yawned in front of Vic. All he had to do was tap the ball into the net and wheel away to celebrate. How easy would it be to build on an ignorant ten-year-old bully’s prejudice and turn Elis against his mother and Natalie?

“Okay,” said Vic. “Does it feel unnatural when you are with them?”

Elis didn’t say anything.

“Does it?”

“No,” Elis said.

“Do you think they love each other?”

Elis nodded.

“And do they love you?”

Elis nodded again, “they give me ice cream.”

“Well there you are then,” Vic said, “if they give you ice cream, they must love you.”

“And they give me cuddles and they help me with my homework,” Elis added, as if realising there was more to love than frozen milk.

Vic squeezed him. “So, you’re a lucky boy then.”

A cartoon mouse dropped an iron on a cartoon cat’s head on the screen in front of them.

“Listen, next time he calls you a name, why don’t you ask him to go to your mum’s for tea. Let him meet your mum and Nat and maybe he’ll see it’s perfectly normal.”

“No way, he’s horrible.”

“Maybe he just needs someone to be nice to him,” Vic said.

“He should be nice to people then.”

The cartoon cat’s face stopped being iron shaped

“Sometimes it’s not as easy as that,” Vic said.

They sat in silence for moment.

“Why does mum have a girlfriend?”

Vic sighed. What to say?

 “Some women love men, some women love women, some love both. Some men love men, some love women, some love both. It’s just the way the world is. Your mother loves women.”

“So, do you love men?”

Vic laughed. “No, I’m in the loving woman camp. What about you?”

“Boys are more fun, they play football but Isabella Macintosh gives me butterflies.”

“Ah and who is Isabella Macintosh?”

“She’s Dylan’s older sister, and she plays football.”

“Does she know you like her?”

“No,” Elis hid himself in Vic’s side.

“You should tell her.”

“Dad.”

The cartoon cat held the cartoon mouse by its tail.

“Dad, did you and mum love each other?”

“Yes, very much. Especially around the time you were born.”

“So, she used to love a man and now she loves a woman?”

“As I said, some people like both. And there are no hard and fast rules, maybe one day you will meet a boy who makes you feel how Isabella does now. Maybe, I’ll meet a man who made me feel like your mother did. You never know.”

Elis stared at the screen, Vic could almost see his brain churning.

“If you and mum loved each other so much, why don’t you anymore?”

To be continued.

Thank you so much for supporting my blog over the last few years and don't forget to look out for the bonus posts over the next few weeks.