Truth or Lie by Lynn Lorenz

So where did I get the idea for this story?

Like most of my ideas, I ask “what if”? My son taught me that trick when he was a little kid. Good Lord, that kid could ask the most amazing questions – “What if the fan came off the ceiling? Would it spin and cut my head off?” “What if a bear got in the house?” “What if the world stopped spinning?”

It was tiring. Seriously. But I learned to deal with it, not by quieting his fears, telling him “Shh, don’t worry, that would never happen!” but by saying, “I’m not sure. Why don’t you look it up on the internet and see what you can find out.” Sometimes, I’d tell him, “Think about it and then make up a story.” And he would. It kept him quiet, helped him build problem solving by using information, and how to write a story.

So when I started writing my own stories, the what if questions would come to me – What if this guy meets the guy he fell for in summer camp, then dumped? What if two childhood friends fell in love, separated and then found each other again, in the middle of Hurricane Katrina?

So for this story – write about an immortal living here on earth – I thought, “Cool. What superpower would he have? He’d need to have something that didn’t really stand out, because I didn’t want a superhero. I love those “everyday” heroes, the ones that move quietly in our lives – cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers, moms and dads. So what if I gave him the ability to know when someone is lying? What if he were a teacher? He’d be able to know when those little kids were lying.

That’s a double-edged sword. Yeah, sounds cool at first, until everyone around you started to lie, not just about the big things, but about small things. It would seriously damage your ability to trust. And if you’re boyfriend lied? Or some guy you meet at a bar tells you he has some great job, when he doesn’t? I think that power would get to be a real drag after a while.

So, that’s what got me going. Anthony is a descendent of the goddess Artemis (wisdom) and Socrates (philosopher and teacher). He teaches second grade and for now, he’s sworn off getting involved with men. Too much lying. But when he meets Travis at the Bring Your Dad to School day, sparks fly, igniting long buried desires and needs in Anthony. For Travis, someone who barely made it out of school, falling for a teacher is the last person he thought he’d fall for – seeing as he really hates school. But there’s something about Anthony that pushes all his buttons.

For both men, being lied to is the deal breaker. But lying is inevitable, isn’t it? It’s human nature, right?

I hope you’ll read Truth or Lie and find out how Anthony and Travis’s relationship turns out.

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Truth or Lie by Lynn Lorenz is now available at Amber Allure.

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