Stories

Essays inspired by readings from a collection of short stories – with lots of sexy details...

There are leaps of faith. Is there a leap of hope? Originally written as a response to Prompt#448:" What did he just say?" It just kept growing.

Jason and his younger brother Matt lost their parents. After two years in the foster-care system, they start their new life with the Benets. Suddenly presented with a non-hostile environment, can Jason overcome his past and regain his ability to trust?

Lots of ordinary things pass us by while we're busy doing other stuff. However, sometimes the veil gets thin and glimpses peek through of something brighter.

Harry and his buddies go downtown for a day of hanging out. They're seventeen-year-old guys with a lot on their minds, although by their take-life-as-it-comes attitudes you'd never know it.

Betrayed by his husband and his best friend, Mason finds himself alone, living back at home with his mom. When his husband's friend Alex stops by to take him to lunch to talk, Mason finds he can't resist getting to know the other man.

Fourteen-year-old Simon is getting a haircut. He has choices: a crew cut or a mullet; to continue his isolation, or to murmur a personal 'open sesame.' Later, with a little help from his friends, he finds out he is not nearly as alone as he imagined. And he suddenly can face the prospects of a long summer and entering high school in the fall with hope.

Twelve-year-old Simon stands in the play yard breaking his best friend's heart, and is doing it for all the 'wrong reasons' – reasons of fear-based bigotry and homophobia. He must decide whose side he is on, and remembers the school year as a series of ups and downs, and of joys and sorrows. One memory may be able to make him do the right thing after all, if he can accept its message.

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.

Tait is a model married to a famous artist. Things were wonderful but things change.

After a bad relationship ends, Noel is closed off and trying to focus on other things. But along comes someone that opens his eyes to other possibilities...the Facilitator.