LGBT/DYSTOPIA: Luke and Aiden escape the small community they helped build years after an apocalyptic event devastated the world, leaving the survivors to endure the wrath of their new leader, Santos. But with Santos and his men tight on their heels...
During the annual Don't Read in the Closet (DRitC) event hosted by the "M/M Romance" group on Goodreads, readers write prompts, and authors write a story from those prompts. Wounded Beacon is a story written for inclusion in the Love's Landscapes event.
I wrote Wounded Beacon not only as a way to show my appreciation for post-apocalyptic and dystopian romance but to also find my audience and gain promote this sub-genre. My aim was to create a world and characters that were the opposite of what traditional romance readers are familiar with. And so I selected the prompt below and brought Wounded beacon to life.
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Prompt from Reader:
Dear Author,
It seems to me that there's something both sweet and sad about this embrace, like there's an underlying sense of desperation on the part of the man on the left and acceptance on the part of the man on the right. What's the real story here? Has the man on the right just passed on bad news that his partner can't handle? Are they saying good-bye before leaving for different parts of the country, the world, or maybe the universe? Or is this the reunion after a long time apart, with neither half of this couple quite sure yet how they fit back together?
Photo from prompt:
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Photo Description:
Two silhouetted men embrace in a passionate kiss laced with a bit of sweetness and sadness, inside a dimly-lit room near a closed window where the branches of a tree are visible. One man seems to be determined, near desperate, and the other seems to be coming to terms with or accepting a situation.
