#truehearts

[lee-cameron]

Character Aesthetic Tag: Tommy Marsh

I wanted to do this for Tommy, too, apparently.

Spilled beer. Rough kisses in a dark alley. Sitting down after a long day on your feet. Braces over flannel shirts. The softest caress. Fresh apples and honey. The smell of horse manure. Words of reassurance. A fist to the stomach. Library books. Shutupshutupshutup.

Tagging: @writerofwriting, @jaimistoryteller, @measured-words, @frankieonye and anyone else who feels like taking part!

[lee-cameron]

Character Aesthetic Tag: Peter Belrose

Tagged by @writerofwriting - hello and thank you for the tag!

Using Peter because he is top-of-mind at the moment.

Inky fingers. Acid off-the-cuff remarks, carefully-worded refutations, long-winded passionate arguments. Exquisitely carved chess pieces. Many-paged, cramped letters that stink of cigarette smoke. Gasps of breathless laughter. Being wrapped in three blankets in front of a blazing fire, but still being cold. A saucer of milk outside the back door. Sweet tea and dry white wine. Brightly-coloured waistcoats and a red tie.

Peter is also a writer! But he is more sharp, cool and confrontational than warm and cosy...

[lee-cameron]

Introducing Tommy Marsh

Barman. Soldier. Healer. Survivor.

Tommy’s life revolves around the south London pub in which he lives and works. It might be nothing to write home about, but it’s sedate, ordered and perfectly satisfactory, and Tommy sees no reason for anything to change.

Then his father dies.

That by itself would be no reason to change either - Tommy hasn’t seen his father since he was six years old - but his father’s only bequest is strange and puzzling: a piece of card, ornately embossed like an invitation to a party several social tiers above Tommy’s, with a single, cryptic word inscribed on one side. Even Tommy, with his disturbing and untrained talent, can feel the magic bubbling under the surface. But he can’t tell what it is.

The one man who might be able to help lives far away from anything that might be called civilisation - and is not what you might call polite. But Tommy needs this mystery solved.

Between them, that card and Peter Belrose might very well turn Tommy’s simple life upside down.

[lee-cameron]

Introducing Natasha Clarke

Genius, queen of fashion, frustrated dancer, lonely heart.

Natasha Clarke was brought up to be a New York society girl. She never expected to be a country wife - never mind, in her neighbours’ eyes, a country mistress.

Luckily for her, she was once the only woman in a Bohemian menage-a-trois; she’s very used to being at the centre of a scandal. But her husband did not survive the War, and together, she and Peter Belrose, her late husband’s lover, made a terrible mistake. The consequences have trapped Natasha in the English countryside with Peter. As living arrangements go, it’s far from ideal, but there’s no hope of undoing what they did. No hope of escape.

Until Peter is visited by a new client with a problem that shakes Peter out of his boredom and complacency - and presents their dull but safe life with new, potentially deadly threats. Soon it turns out that Peter isn’t just intrigued by a job that’s far from run-of-the-mill. He’s falling in love with the new client, and he’s beginning to take unwise risks with his health.

Peter is Natasha’s best friend, her confidant, and the only remnant of her New York life. But when he runs headlong into danger, is her love for him - or her guilt - strong enough to make her follow?

[reallove-truelove]

The stain of rejection is poor self image and low self worth. Photos don’t always show the baggage people hide, or the battles they fight, what they have been through or the wounds that don’t heal.

The baggage of sin people create in their lives, others have to carry.

[lee-cameron]

Introducing Ed Chauncey

Officer, radio announcer, heartbreaker, jazzman.

Ed Chauncey lives his life at top volume. Large in body and spirit, loud in voice and demeanour, unapologetically queer, he divides his time between the radio studio, London’s most fashionable clubs, and his cosy bachelor pad. Above all things, he takes pride in his wide and varied social circle: whether in among jazz fanatics or raging queers, high society or the magical underworld, Ed knows everyone.

Among his friends, Ed counts Tommy Marsh, a young South London barman with whom he had a fling several years ago. Despite the enormous gulf between their social circles, Ed is rather attached to Tommy, so when Tommy is faced with a troubling magical problem, Ed feels obliged to help. But it’s with some trepidation that he refers Tommy to Peter Belrose.

Belrose is a Trueheart, a member of a secret magical order about which - despite his insatiable curiosity and excellent connections - Ed knows very little. The Truehearts are notorious for their eccentricity and their involvement in dangerous matters, and Belrose, sequestered in the countryside far away from London, might be more eccentric than most.

Ed doesn’t trust the Truehearts. But when Tommy’s problem turns out to be much greater than anticipated, can Ed bring himself to join with them long enough to help?

[lee-cameron]

Last Line tag, round two!

Tagged by @jaimistoryteller, this time!

I’ll share the last line of Truhearts #1 this time:

“He didn’t like to dwell on it too long.”

Tagging: @sapphicauthor, @quecksilverwrites, @m0th3rw4r (tags 100% optional, let me know if you’d rather not be tagged!)

[journey2anewyou]

The heart that’s meant to love you will fight for you when you want to give up, pick you up when you’re feeling down, and will give their smile when it’s hard for you to find yours. They will NEVER get strength from seeing you weak, power from seeing you hurt, or joy from seeing you cry. The heart that’s meant to love you wants to see the best of you, not the hurt you! Never forget that. –Trent Shelton #Thoughts #Real #TrueHearts (at Journey 2 A New You Nutrition)