AC Benus - Stories

An itinerant photographer stops by the one town he’s avoided for the last twenty years. What is it he hopes to encounter there? What is this ‘one last thing’ he feels he has to do?

Times of environmental disaster, political upheaval and endless wars . . . . 1816 is relevant to the world we find ourselves navigating today. Antonin Carême, the world’s greatest celebrity chef — with his rockstar salary and good looks — heads to an open-ended engagement at the Prince Regent’s seaside home. What, though, are his true motivations for going? What about all the deaths and attempted killings unfolding at the Pavilion while he’s there? Who is this mysterious doctor who draws him into the investigations?

Never has an attempt at ‘self-editing’ gone so awry.

Poems of suffering and peace from a nearly forgotten master. Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele was killed in action in July, 1915, 26 years of age. His partner and friends brought out his Das tausendste Regiment ("The Thousandth Regiment") posthumously in 1917. Whether or not his work has been ignored because he was Gay, it's time to bring his name forward and place it with the other great WW1 poets, where he has always belonged.

Eleven-year-old Simon has a chance meeting, and spends time with an out couple. He is forced to deal with society's fears, and his own prejudice, on what Gay people are supposed to be like. This is pitted against the reality of Greg and Joey as a happy, and ordinary pair.

Remembering summer nights and lakeside settings, best friends come together to renew their camping traditions one year after graduating high school. Lee is nervous his drunken coming out via Skype has ruined everything. But an invite and the glimmer of hope they can repair their friendship is impossible for him to turn down, especially after Lee spent a lonely year at college.

Denys, a journalist, drifts through his days sad and desperately alone. By a stroke of unexpected chance, a runaway appears in his life. However, teenage Theo carries a lot of anger in him, and his feelings of loss are just as palpable as Denys’.

Yet, perhaps – somehow – man and boy can help fix what's broken in the other. That is, if they're able to survive what the Russians have planned for their city.

A couple arrive at a crossroads in their relationship, with one of them poised to end her postdoctoral education and "start life". She's not so sure about the baby her wife wants though, working with kids and their parents facing huge health issues as an MD, but she starts having a series of mysterious dreams involving a wise little girl.

**This story touches upon issues of difficult pregnancies and miscarriage. Please proceed with caution if you find these topics upsetting.**

Poems to explore the end of our songs.

In this send-up of Trump's America, grifters, drifters; liars, cheats and lovers; rapscallions and wags; pathicks, punks and pornstars all collide in a SoCal, Vegas and Baja California adventure to restore one man's sacred libido.

But will he still have his twink boyfriend by the end of it…?