Announcement: The Goat, by Bill Kieffer

QSFer Bill Kieffer has a new dark urban fantasy book out:

This is the story of Frank, a self-loathing gay/bisexual 40-something man, having a mid-life crisis ‘affair’ with his high school bullying victim.

Glenn is a Furry, human in real life but online, he plays a sexually active Goat in several Furry communities. Glenn not only allows Frank’s abuse, but he seems to encourage it in order to get what he wants.

Still, Frank is what our HS teachers would call an “Unreliable Narrator.” So, it’s up to the reader to decide who the real victim is in the story.

It’s set in an Urban Fantasy world where computers and magic exists side by side. iMacs and Werewolves. Muscle Cars and Shape Shifters. Micro Brews and Healing Potions. The society resembles pre-cell phone America and people are more afraid of the LGBT community than they are of werewolves. Well… some people.

The Goat touches on abuse, secrets, desires, shame, denial, and the agendas we sometime bring into a relationship.

Contains graphic bdsm content.

Giveaway

Bill is giving away an autographed soft cover version of Roar #7, a SF/F anthology from Bad Dog Books. It contains my story Unbalanced Scales, about a bisexual rapper so on the down low, even he doesn’t quite know it. Shipping limited to the United States.

Buy Links

Excerpt

Glenn drank from the bottle greedily, but he was still drained and a bit disorientated. “It worked? It worked?”

I smiled and nodded. I stroked the back of his hair, wondering if I could get one for the road. “It worked. You were a beautiful brown Goat. We went for a nice long drive, don’t you remember?”

Glenn began crying and shook his head, no. I held him, marveling at how fragile he now seemed. I kissed the top of his head gently. “I washed you, like I do sometimes.”

Glenn sniffled. “You did? Why don’t I remember?”

I smiled widely. “I did.” I helped him to his hind legs… I mean feet. “You passed out, but I can fix that. I have wards that’ll keep you aware… they’ll only work when I am near you… when I am not you, you’ll be mindless… I figure it’ll be easier that way.”

I could see the gears turning in his head. He wanted to get word out to North Star, to come rescue him, but he didn’t want to be totally mindless, but he would prefer that over being human. “Only when I am a goat, right?”

I had to laugh at that. “Yes, when you are human again, you’ll never be more helpless than you are right now.”

Glenn smirked gently at the playful tone in my voice and then nodded.

I cast the ward I’d been working on all week. It was rather simple, really. No matter the pain, Glenn would simply not pass out, nor would he go mad. It settled over the spell that permeated every last cell in his body and, as I promised, it would only become active when Glenn was transformed or being transformed.

He almost collapsed under its weight. “I never felt a ward like that before.”

“It’s an olden ward,” I said casually, “used by torturers to keep the subject alive and awake as they were disemboweled.”

Glenn smiled weakly. “Lovely. I think I used that ward in a rave once.” He leaned into me and then kissed my chest gently. “Thank you. For everything.”

“If you really want to thank me, you know how.” And, indeed he did, moving down my chest with his lips and eager fingers. I knew he was truly grateful to me, just as I knew he thought he could still get away from me. I let him thank me and I did not rush him. I did allow my hand to grasp that sweet back of his skull and steer him where I wanted him to go.

It was something he was going to have to get used to.

Author Bio

Bill Kieffer was born in Jersey City, NJ. He never fully recovered.

A brain injury at an early age left him with some mild issues and just enough aphasia to be amusing at parties. He tries to be very open about these. He doesn’t drink, having the bare minimum of inhibitions to begin with. He also tends to describe himself in negatives.

He’s happily married to a woman who encouraged him to discover and explore his sexuality. She also encourages him to keep on his meds. They both dabble in writing erotica. He is bisexual but does not stray. She is straight and the relationship is only open in the sense that he tells her everything (they blame rumors to the contrary on his aphasia).