About Animal Attraction
Edited by Vincent Diamond
190 pages / 76000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-103-7, 1-60370-103-6
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
Fuzzy, feathered, furry or funny, the stories in Animal Attraction pop with memorable characters- animal and human. From the cuddly gerbil, the lush jaguar to the wise eyes of an Indian elephant, beasts abound in the Animal Attraction anthology from Torquere Press. The animals in these stories have a way of making men come together—in all sorts of sexy ways.
Some of your favorite Torquere authors are here - Kiernan Kelly, Sean Michael, CB Potts, B.A. Tortuga, along with the new voices Shanna Germain, Aaron Michaels, and Elazarus Wills.
Readers will journey from the jungles of India to the mountains of Colorado to the humid streets of South Beach. Cowboys, veterinarians, doctors, scholars, bookstore owners, and cops mix it up with dogs, cats, horses, owls, and even eagles in these sexy tales of raw animal magnetism.
Review
Alexa Snow, author of Clear Cut and Sleeping Stone, writes: The first word that comes to mind about this collection of short stories is fun. It's many other things, as well, of course, including hot and sweet and sometimes sad, but there's just something about animals that a lot of people are drawn to, and that makes this anthology particularly enjoyable.
No matter what type of animal is your favorite, there's something for you among these stories. There are pets -- dogs, cats, and even hamsters -- as well as wild animals, birds and horses. What, you say? What about the <i>men?</i> Oh, not to worry. There are plenty of those, too, and again variety is the word of the day. There are established lovers finally admitting the depth of their feelings for each other, estranged lovers reconnecting, and glorious first times. Whatever you're looking for, you're sure to find it here.
Personal favorites among the stories were "A Hound, A Bay Horse and a Turtledove" by Elazarus Wills, gorgeously written, like poetry, and Kiernan Kelly's "Chasing Samson," which is fun and thoughtful and beautifully romantic, but every story in this collection is worth reading.
Sample
From “Horseplay” by Sean Michael
Micah Orion cleaned out Daisy's stall while she was busy in the ring with Lucy and Heather, Dr. Hamilton's patient. All the horses were gentle, but Daisy was a real sweet paint, and he put some extra hay in her box before grabbing a handful of carrots and giving the rest of the horses a treat.
"How are you doing, Miss Ellie? How's that back leg of yours?" He rubbed her nose, and she snorted at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm stalling. But that pretty man is out there, and I'm gonna watch him more than I watch Lucy walk the kid around the ring, and he's going to watch me back and then leave without a word. Just like always."
She snorted again, nose soft as she nipped at his shirt. "All right, all right, I'm going."
Chuckling to himself, he headed out and took up a place at the fence, a few feet from Dr. Hamilton. He watched Daisy trotting in a slow circle, Heather's face all lit up. It made him smile. That's why he ran the farm, had the kids come in and ride. When that connection between rider and horse was made, it was a beautiful thing.
His gaze cut away to the man beside him. Now that was another beautiful thing. Dr. Hamilton was pocket-sized, quiet, nut-brown from top to bottom with the softest, deepest voice he'd ever heard.
Jesus.
"So," he said casually. "You've been coming here once a week for what? Six months? Nine?"
“Almost a year.” Dr. Hamilton’s gaze dragged over him, almost a touch.
Micah nodded, and tried not to react to that voice, that almost touch. And he figured after almost a year it was pretty clear Dr. Hamilton wasn't going to be taking the first step. "Almost a year. And every time you come here you watch me, but you never say anything beyond the usual pleasantries."
Dr. Hamilton looked like he'd just been beaned by a line-drive. "Pardon me?"
Micah closed some of the space between them. "I mean I've seen you more than any of my last dates and I don't even know your first name."
"Byron." Dr. Hamilton swallowed, licked his lips. "My name is Byron."
From “What We Leave Behind” by Shanna Germain:
There is a dying dog the size of a small horse in my kitchen. She is nearly as tall as the kitchen table. Nearly as wide. A hell of a lot more long white hair.
“I’m sorry,” I say to the man who brought her here. “There’s been a mistake.”
The man who brought her is on his knees on my kitchen floor, rubbing the dog’s brown- and grey-tipped ears. He has bits of grey in the dark hair above his own ears.
“It’s okay, Annie,” he says to the dog, who lets her tongue fall from her mouth and tilts her head sideways to listen. “This is gonna be sooo good for you. Okay, girl, it’s all good.”
He doesn’t seem to care that he’s talking baby-talk to this polar-bear like creature in front of me. He doesn’t seem to hear me saying that the polar-bear cannot stay in my kitchen.
When the man stands, his knees pop on the way up. “Ack, getting old.” He shakes his legs out and laughs. “Too much bending down to dogs is more like it.”
Even standing, he can’t seem to keep his fingers out of Annie’s fur. His fingers nuzzle the pads of her ears while he pulls a clipboard from his shoulder bag.
I want to touch Annie too. She’s almost all white, except for those ears. From here, her fur looks like soft fuzz all over. But I don’t touch her. I can’t. It’s not that she’s dying. That, I’m used to. It’s that she looks so damn healthy.
By the time Bella came to us, she was already missing her back leg from the knee down and was getting oral pain meds twice a day. Her owners had tried to save her by cutting off the tumored foot. But when the cancer spread, they decided it was too much and turned her over to the shelter. That’s when she came to Thom and me.
It had been Thom’s idea to take in a dying animal. A few years back, our local shelter had joined up with a group of vets to start a hospice program for animals—some strays, some abandoned—who were dying, but still have quality time left in their lives. The goal is to get the animals into a good final home, a place where they can die with love and compassion. “We can still do something good,” Thom had said when he’d heard of it. “Think of it, these animals, having to die alone.”