“Not fast enough.” As he pushed himself to his feet again, Jay’s knees protested the hit even through the pads. Damn it. He’d have to ice them tonight. And probably every night for the rest of the season. He bounced the puck in his glove before tossing it back to Crake. “You can’t do it all by yourself, kid. Try passing once in a while.”

“Yeah?” Crake sneered, snatching the puck out of the air as his cheeks flushed red behind his facemask. “I’m supposed to listen to you? Some washed-up old goalie who couldn’t hack it in the big leagues so they sent him back to the minors?”

“You little shit.” Jay’s gloves and stick hit the ice with a clatter and he dove at Crake. Surprise was on Jay’s side; the kid went down hard, his helmet crashing against the ice and sliding off his head. It skittered across the ice, spinning, until it came to a stop near the penalty boxes.

Jay got in one good hit, knuckles smashing against soft cartilage, sending blood spraying from Crake’s nose and mouth, before Remi and Nick dragged him off. Jay struggled against their grip, his skates scrabbling on the ice. That little shit.

You can find it here.

Tatterdemalion’s revisions are also complete. I sent them off to Anah, and she’ll be doing her revisions next. And then it’s a final proof, before we send it off to find a home.

Next up? “Percussion”, I think, until Anah is ready to work on the last two Renovations stories.

To Do
Write “At the Corner of Fourth and Honesty” (for Kit Zheng’s project)
Finish “Percussion”
Outline intersex ghost story
Outline “Safe”
Revise “Becoming Us” (with Anah Crow)
Write Renovations 5 (with Anah Crow)
Write Renovations 6 (with Anah Crow)
Write Pit Road 6 (with Anah Crow)

Hooray!

My favorite line that I’ve written so far today: “…you can kiss your damn pro career goodbye and wave while it circles the fucking drain.”

*********

Also, Anah and I were over at the Torquere Social LJ yesterday and the day before, doing all sorts of nifty things. We also wrote a little story, “The New Normal”, in our Pandora Project universe, featuring Tal and Ceb from “Cerebus Tres”, a story we wrote back in November. Here’s what Anah had to say about it:

Talfryn Milburn and Cebrian Agustin are stuck with each other out on an observation station on the edge of a black hole, Cerebus Tres, watching it slowly devour a star. Life was a routine of information gathering, equipment repairs, and bickering until an accident nearly left Tal dead in space (see: “Cerebus Tres”). Now nothing is quite right on the tiny station and Ceb has find out what the new normal is going to be.

Cerebus Tres (m/m, explicit, 3661 words)

The New Normal (m/m, explicit, 3430 words)

Ceb & Tal’s stories are set in the Pandora Project universe. The first novel in that series — Runaway Star — featuring two other characters, Sender Kinnison and Elios Campbell, will be available next Wednesday, January 28.

To Do
Finish “Slapshot”
Write “At the Corner of Fourth and Honesty” (for Kit Zheng’s project)
Finish “Percussion”
Outline intersex ghost story
Revise “Becoming Us” (with Anah Crow)
Revise “Tatterdemalion” (with Anah Crow)
Write Renovations 5 (with Anah Crow)
Write Renovations 6 (with Anah Crow)
Write Pit Road 6 (with Anah Crow)

…erm.