Charles Boyd
Bio
I'm a dog dad, historian, activist, and writer. I taught for 3 years and am starting a History PhD program. I write fantasy, mysteries, and historical nonfiction. I'm proud to get blocked by white supremacists, antigay activists and TERFs.
Stories (12/0)
Sunshine Injection, Chapter 5
Content warning: this story contains direct depictions of racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, as well as various forms of police violence/misconduct. In this capacity, for the purpose of realism, it includes certain villains using slurs against various groups. It also contains references to incidents "off-page" that involve pedophilia, other abuse of children, and torturing of animals. There is also a level of profanity similar to a typical R-rated film. Reader discretion, especially for readers under 17, is advised.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
The Anxious Hero, Chapter 5
Content warning: The fact that this story features an under-18 protagonist does not mean that it is necessarily suitable for younger kids. It contains strong profanity, sexual humor, significant violence, and depictions of bigotry by unlikable characters.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
Sunshine Injection, Chapter 4
Content warning: this story contains direct depictions of racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, as well as various forms of police violence/misconduct. In this capacity, for the purpose of realism, it includes certain villains using slurs against various groups. It also contains references to incidents "off-page" that involve pedophilia, other abuse of children, and torturing of animals. There is also a level of profanity similar to a typical R-rated film. Reader discretion, especially for readers under 17, is advised.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Criminal
The Anxious Hero, Chapter 4
Content warning: The fact that this story features an under-18 protagonist does not mean that it is necessarily suitable for younger kids. It contains strong profanity, sexual humor, significant violence, and depictions of bigotry by unlikable characters.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
The Anxious Hero, Chapter 3
Content warning: The fact that this story features an under-18 protagonist does not mean that it is necessarily suitable for younger kids. It contains strong profanity, sexual humor, significant violence, and depictions of bigotry by unlikable characters.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
Sunshine Injection, Chapter 3
Content warning: this story contains direct depictions of racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, as well as various forms of police violence/misconduct. In this capacity, for the purpose of realism, it includes certain villains using slurs against various groups. It also contains references to incidents "off-page" that involve pedophilia, other abuse of children, and torturing of animals. There is also a level of profanity similar to a typical R-rated film. Reader discretion, especially for readers under 17, is advised.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
Sunshine Injection, Chapter 2
Detective Raoul Garcia entered Chief Walter Fairfield’s office feeling shaken. Age twenty-nine, he was a fit man of medium height with black hair and a thick mustache. Three months after Garcia attained the rank of detective in the TPD, his partner had committed suicide. During the time that they had worked together, Claude Evans had been a generally patient mentor, showing the younger detective the ropes. They had not been close friends off the job, but they had built a good professional rapport. Evans had maintained a reputation in the department for generally being an affable man, rarely losing his temper with coworkers, even relative rookies like Garcia. Garcia had joined the department five years ago, spending over four and-a-half as a patrolman before passing the detective’s exam. Also, unlike some of the other middle-aged cops on the force, Evans had never seemed to demonstrate any bigotry toward Garcia for being Cuban American. In Garcia’s experience, many white Floridians had a conflicted attitude toward Cuban Americans, holding their Hispanic heritage against them while appreciating them as proof of Castro’s brutality. Not that Garcia or his family had anything positive to say about Castro—his grandparents had left the country for a reason. But in Garcia’s experience, a lot of white Floridians liked to use Cuban Americans as foils for minority groups like Mexican Americans, Native Americans, or African Americans whom they saw as lazy or ungrateful. Some of Evans’s comments might have veered dangerously close to this kind of “model minority” thinking, but he had never displayed the kind of anti-Hispanic racism that Garcia experienced from certain other cops. Now, he needed a new partner and had been told he was being paired with the cop who had partnered Evans during Evans’s earlier years on the force: Holland Smathers. Holland had a different reputation in the department than Evans; he was popular and respected but known for being very abrasive. And his views about Hispanics were rumored to be less benign than Evans’s.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
The Anxious Hero, Chapter 2
Content warning: The fact that this story features an under-18 protagonist does not mean that it is necessarily suitable for younger kids. It contains strong profanity, sexual humor, significant violence, and depictions of bigotry by unlikable characters.
By Charles Boydabout a month ago in Fiction
Sunshine Injection, Chapter 1
Content warning: this story contains direct depictions of racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, as well as various forms of police violence/misconduct. In this capacity, for the purpose of realism, it includes certain villains using slurs against various groups. It also contains references to incidents "off-page" that involve pedophilia, other abuse of children, and torturing of animals. There is also a level of profanity similar to a typical R-rated film. Reader discretion, especially for readers under 17, is advised.
By Charles Boyd2 months ago in Criminal
The Anxious Hero, Chapter 1
Content warning: The fact that this story features an under-18 protagonist does not mean that it is necessarily suitable for younger kids. It contains strong profanity, sexual humor, significant violence, and depictions of bigotry by villains.
By Charles Boyd2 months ago in Fiction
Sunshine Injection, Prologue
Content warning: this story contains direct depictions of racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, as well as various forms of police violence/misconduct. In this capacity, for the purpose of realism, it includes certain villains using slurs against various groups. It also contains references to incidents "off-page" that involve pedophilia, other abuse of children, and torturing of animals. There is also a level of profanity similar to a typical R-rated film. Reader discretion, especially for readers under 17, is advised.
By Charles Boyd2 months ago in Fiction
The Anxious Hero, Prologue
June 14, 1999, Portland, Maine Witches and wizards often, though not always, went to special hospitals. There were a couple of reasons for this. For one thing, while most magicians lived a normal human lifespan, a few could live thousands of years. For medical reasons, it was most optimal for a doctor to know that a patient was millennia old. Some “regular” doctors could be trusted with this kind of secret. (“Regular” was a neutral, non-derogatory term that magicians used for humans without magical powers.) Others could not. Another reason was that those with supernatural powers tended to attract enemies with supernatural powers. One of the traditional roles of good witches and wizards was to protect regulars from malevolent witches and wizards and other dangerous supernatural entities. Not all witches and wizards embraced this kind of calling and instead preferred to focus on working as stage magicians or pursuing a life of solitude and simple pleasures. But most magicians either focused on protecting—or victimizing—regulars. Magicians who focused on protecting regulars often had to deal with attempted attacks from whatever dark supernatural entities saw them as an obstacle. This meant that going to a normal hospital could put regular patients and staff in serious danger. It was far safer for everyone for them to go to a hospital with magical security. Today, three magicians and three regulars were at the only magical hospital located in the town of Portland, known as Burr Hospital. It was named for Aaron Burr who had been both a prominent American politician and a secret wizard who used his powers to make Alexander Hamilton’s gun malfunction, allowing him to win a duel against the former Treasury Secretary.
By Charles Boyd2 months ago in Fiction