The Liar

Cheats…

Milo’s Dilemma

If only it was as obvious as an ace in your pocket, cheating, that is. How do you have faith in your partner when you like faith in yourself? How many times do you tell yourself, it isn’t true? He wouldn’t do that to me, while the devil whispers…he could. He had opportunity, you are enough of a prick to give him motive…and the devil says he saw him.

In Shattered Glass, Milo Stamis has to decide whether or not to believe his lover, or his friend.
He makes the wrong choice. Milo, like so many of us when confronted by possibly cheating lover, could-be lying friend, are faced with the choice to believe or disbelieve. The choice we make tells a lot about our personality. Milo was ashamed of who and what he was. He hid his true identity. Because he hid his true self from everyone, it was easy for him to fall into the trap of believing that Liam could do the same.

Rick Stein knew his friend had lied to him before, many times. However Rick chose to believe the lies because the lies gave Rick convenient cover for actions that in reality, without pretending to believe the lie, he knew would bring people he cared about into harm’s way. For Milo, lies were the enemy, for Rick, they were a friend offering false comfort and cover.

How do you know who to believe? I’ve guessed wrong more than once. But I can give you an old adage my Grams taught me on her knee, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Both Milo and Rick should have listened to their grandmothers..

Shattered Glass is available from Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com and in Kindle format at Amazon.com. For additional information on AC Katt or Shattered Glass, go to www.ackatt.com or www.shattered-glass.com.

Shattered Glass – Biographies of the band

Milo Stamis was the founder and leader of the band, Shattered Glass. He admitted to his best friend, Sam Stein,that he was gay, at the age of twelve , the day before he met Liam O’Shea.

The band practiced in Sam’s garage with the original singer “Mike the Deserter.” On Milo eighteenth birthday, Mike left the band and Liam volunteered to take his place. Liam, although six years younger than Milo, seduced the band with his voice and from that time on, Liam became the lead singer of Shattered Glass.

Liam O’Shea met Milo Stamis at the age of six. He moved to Hazlet with his mother, Lily, after an auto accident killed his father, Frank. Liam felt an instant connection to Milo as soon as they met. Milo, Sam and Rick let Liam follow them around in the position of adopted kid brother for six years until he replaced Mike as the lead singer. Liam was a brilliant musician and composer and impressed the band with his rendition of Johnny Borchoi’s Turn Around, which he re-arranged for two voices as a gift for Milo on his eighteenth birthday. After Lily died of cancer, Milo became Liam’s Guardian until Liam turned eighteen.

Rick Stein is the younger brother of Milo’s best friend, Sam. Rick was a talented bass guitar player and was an original member of the band. Originally, Rick was one of Liam’s strongest supporters in Shattered Glass until he acquired an expensive drug habit. Rick was responsible for bringing Bart Hedge into the band to replace his brother, Sam, when Sam elected to take the bar exam and become an attorney rather than continue as Shattered Glass’ drummer.

Sam Stein was Milo’s best friend and the original drummer for Shattered Glass. Sam was Shattered Glass’ drummer. He left the band after its first hit album to become an entertainment lawyer. Sam remained with Shattered Glass as their manager and lawyer. When the band broke up, Sam remained the one contact that all of the concerned parties trusted.

Bart Hedge met Rick Stein and became his friend and drug dealer. He was the drummer in the house band of the local bar, Lucky’s. When it became clear that Sam was leaving Shattered Glass, Rick asked his friend to audition for Sam’s spot as the drummer. Bart deliberately hooked Rick on hard drugs and used Rick’s addiction for his own purposes. Bart hates Liam and is out to destroy him.

Read the story of the band in AC Katt’s Shattered Glass, available from Captiva Press atwww.captivapress.com. For additional information visit AC’s website at www.ackatt.com or theShattered Glass website at www.shattered-glass.com.

Above all, Shattered Glass is a love story…

Shattered Glass as a novel is classified as Romantic Intrigue.  It has all the classic elements, an unknown enemy, lies, treachery, but above all, it is a classic romance where two lovers are torn apart by treacherous forces and have to find their way back to one another.

Milo eschewed the colors of the ocean. The ocean belonged to Liam, and that reminder brought pain. Milo claimed the mountains and high desert country. Liam was his sun. Without him, Milo’s subconscious sought him everywhere. He knew why Conchita laughed. His furniture, the door, the garden, the ocean room, all done for a man he supposedly despised. He was such a fool.

He sat holding the brandy glass in his chair, his erection straining against the soft cloth of the light drawstring pants. Liam never lied to him, never cheated. Everyone’s pain—Liam’s, Sam’s, and Rick’s, as well as his own—lay wholly on his head.  He now solely owned the title of  the asshole who’d torn his own beating heart out of his chest because he possessed too much pride to listen and too little self-respect to believe.

Milo’s soul needed music. He flipped the switch that turned on the CD player. It started to play the song he’d listened to throughout last night. Liam’s clear tenor came in right after his. “Turn around… The song that was Liam’s first gift followed by the greater gift of his virginity. Even on that night, Milo couldn’t form the words “I love you.”

Milo heard a noise, a thud from Liam’s suite. It shook him from his reverie. The song played in an endless loop. He felt as if Liam called his name. The door drew him. The suites connected. Liam stood somewhere on the other side, physically accessible for the first time in over six years. He held the key in his hand. His baby sat somewhere on the other side of the door.

Milo couldn’t think anymore, his body filled with emotions he didn’t want to feel. Oh Lord, I know Ipromised, but how can I let him go? How will he ever know how much I love him, if I don’t tell him? Even if he walks, now, tonight, at least for once in my goddamned life, I will have stopped hiding who and what I am and what I really feel. I’ve got to tell him now, while I have the courage.

His body pressed against the door as his own memories of kisses both sweet and hot, made his cock leak. He grabbed it and pulled, imagining the touch of Liam’s hand rather than his Liam and Milo are meant for each other. But how do they find their way back to love from six years and twelve hundred miles apart. Can they overcome the lies? The stalker?  Find out the full story in Shattered Glass, available  from Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com or visit my website at www.ackatt.com.

Shattered Glass – Location, Location, Location

The Jersey Shore

When a realtor is trying to sell you a house he says that the three most important things to consider are: location, location and location. Location is just as important in a novel. The setting of a novel should be as fully described as the characters. In Shattered Glass, there are two primary locations for the novel. The first is the Jersey Shore. Liam is a child of water. He loves the ocean, the waves, sand and beach.

When Milo and Liam part ways, Milo wants to go as far away from anything that reminds him of Liam as he can get. Driving aimlessly through the United States, Milo comes upon the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. Their beauty leave him breathless. Although it is as different from the Jersey Shore as it can be, Milo finds some peace in the home and garden he makes for himself in New Mexico. When Liam is forced to join him there to write a song for Rick, Liam also falls in love with the Sandias.

The Sandias

Milo’s home is built into the side of the foothills with numerous terraced gardens where he can tend his beloved flowers, but even his garden can not replace Liam. Here is an excerpt from the novel where Liam finds something he didn’t expect wandering through Liam’s New Mexican garden.

Outside of the bedroom suites, he saw strolling paths, which branched off into private arbors. He stepped off the balcony onto one of the slate pathways. A security guard startled him, but not before he noticed the tulips, daffodils, and snow crocus in full bloom, along with lilies of the valley and some native plants he could not name. Liam figured Sam must have arrived because the security was out in full force. He felt safe for the first time in what seemed like forever. He nodded to the guard and continued fifty feet down the path when he saw something that stopped him cold. There sat their bench from the Red Bank Antiques Center, displayed prominently

Liam walked up to it and noticed something different about it. A small gold plaque on the back read “Liam’s bench.” Liam sat and started to cry. Every time he thought he had no tears left, Milo managed to pull out some more. Happy tears though, this time.

If you would like to find out more about Liam and Milo, Shattered Glass is available from Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com and on the buy link from www.shattered-glass.com.

Shattered Glass

The biographies of the members of the mega band Shattered Glass as portrayed in the book, Shattered Glass, by AC Katt.

Milo Stamis was the founder and leader of the band, Shattered Glass. He admitted to his best friend, Sam Stein, that he was gay, at the age of twelve , the day before he met Liam O’Shea.

Liam O’Shea met Milo Stamis at the age of six. He moved to Hazlet with his mother, Lily, after an auto accident killed his father, Frank. Liam felt an instant connection to Milo as soon as they met. Milo, Sam and Rick let Liam follow them around in the position of adopted kid brother for six years until he replaced Mike as the lead singer. Liam was a brilliant musician and composer and impressed the band with his rendition of Johnny Borchoi’s Turn Around, which he re-arranged for two voices as a gift for Milo on his eighteenth birthday. After Lily died of cancer, Milo became Liam’s Guardian until Liam turned eighteen.

	Rick Stein is the younger brother of Milo’s best friend, Sam. Rick was a talented bass guitar player and was an original member of the band. Originally, Rick was one of Liam’s strongest supporters in Shattered Glass until he acquired an expensive drug habit. Rick was responsible for bringing Bart Hedge into the band to replace his brother, Sam, when Sam elected to take the bar exam and become an attorney rather than continue as Shattered Glass’ drummer.
	Sam Stein was Milo’s best friend and the original drummer for Shattered Glass. Sam was Shattered Glass’ drummer. He left the band after its first hit album to become an entertainment lawyer. Sam remained with Shattered Glass as their manager and lawyer. When the band broke up, Sam remained the one contact that all of the concerned parties trusted.
	Bart Hedge met Rick Stein and became his friend and drug dealer. He was the drummer in the house band of the local bar, Lucky’s. When it became clear that Sam was leaving Shattered Glass, Rick asked his friend to audition for Sam’s spot as the drummer. Bart deliberately hooked Rick on hard drugs and used Rick’s addiction for his own purposes. Bart hates Liam and is out to destroy him.

Read the story of the band in AC Katt’s Shattered Glass, available from Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com. For additional information visit AC’s website at www.ackatt.com or the Shattered Glass website at www.shattered-glass.com.

Shattered Glass – Lyrics

I started to write Shattered Glass for NANOWRIMO in November of 2008.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with NANOWRIMO it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it is held every November.  The object of the contest is to write a fifty-thousand word novel within the month of November. Winners are simply those who finish the task.  Shattered Glass eventually became over ninety-thousand words, but the basic book started small, before extensive revisions at fifty-thousand for NANOWRIMO.

Initially, I had structured the as a series of flashbacks, but that didn’t work.  After several attempts ending in failure, to shore-up that approach, I was advised by my stalwart Beta Reader, Crossthebar, to put it in chronological order.  This worked well and with the exception of a single event, all of the novel’s action now takes place in sequence.

I realized soon after beginning the novel that since Shattered Glass was a band, the band needed songs, or, at the very least lyrics.  After a bit of soul-searching, I decided to write the lyrics myself.  As portrayed in the novel, Milo and Liam wrote music together with Liam as the composer and Milo as the lyricist.  While separated from Liam, Milo wrote a book of poetry entitled Words Without Music. Liam wrote songs for two solo albums. All of the lyrics I wrote for the book are credited to Milo’s book, Liam’s albums or the albums that Shattered Glass recorded prior to the breakup.  Here are some sample lyrics.  Shattered Glass will be available June 30thfrom Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com.  If you want to know more about me and my writing come visit my website atwww.ackatt.com.