Stories

This story starts in June of 2003. The invasion of Iraq is over, George Bush has landed on the aircraft carrier and proclaimed "Mission Accomplished", and the insurgency has yet to begin. Some may think America is at the height of its power.

Meanwhile, in the CAP world:

JJ and Will, both in doomed relationships that seem to be working. Will they unravel, and if they do, who is behind it?

Robbie and Mark are young irish musicians playing in a band with their three best friends and becoming more and more successful.
Robbie is so in love with his best friend that he'd rather hide his feelings and his homosexuality not to lose him and not to fuck up their future within the band. But when Mark starts to notice that Robbie might be gay, he can't help but feel bi-curious and starts to feel attracted to him. When Mark finally works up the courage to talk to Rob about how he feels, their friendship suddenly takes a new turn and Mark seriously questions his sexuality.

A two-part story about a journey to discover exactly how far two people can push their limits. David runs into TC, an old friend who helps him discover a side of himself he never knew existed. Their renewed friendship is put to the test when they cross a line that probably never should have been drawn in the first place.

Alex and Jeremy meet at a summer camp at the age of thirteen. After a week, the camp is over and the boys go their separate ways. Ten years later, Alex is a prodigal son who let his family down. He returns to his hometown where he meets a young bakery owner named Jeremy, who seems to have his life figured out.

I'm Ian Wright I lost heart ten years ago, when my James died from illness. We were only 25 years old. I was devastated, sinking into a crushing depression for many years. I'm now 34, I took a job as a science teacher at a high school and moved from Florida to Kentucky for a fresh start, never dreaming my life would improve or that I'd ever be happy again.

Adam was a detective in Florida, his life was turned upside down when his pregnant wife up and deserted him without a trace. Unable to locate her after time, he was offered a position with the FBI on a task force. With nothing left to lose, he took the job and moved to Kentucky.

Ember McCain is a mechanic in his late thirties, he's closed off and bitter about his teenage years. His biggest problem is not being able to let go of the anger he feels from the bullying he received in high school. Despite his own short comings he's managed grow a successful mechanic business, most of his employees are strong confident gay men. He's finally in a place in his life where he feels happy, confident, and content being himself. That is until Brady Douglass, his high school bully moves back to town and is everywhere, including his own workplace turning his world upside down.

When fourteen-year-old Daniel and his mother are kicked out by his stepfather, they have to move to a housing estate in a different part of town, and Daniel has to change schools. He has a hard time making friends, and it only gets worse when one of his classmates takes a rather unhealthy interest in him. His only comfort, to his great surprise, turns out to be the last person he could have expected; the popular and gorgeous Michael Storm.

Ben and Colin are comfortably in each other's lives, but the path of true love is never an easy one, and a mistake throws Ben's loyalties to the wind. Not only that, but the mystery behind the deaths of Denny and the rent boys remains unsolved. Carter only had a list of hits. Were Colin a different person he might leave things well alone. But the thing about sleeping dogs is that some people can never let them lie.

The sleepy village of Crumbington is about to get a wake-up call.

When the new chairperson of the Summer Fête Committee pushes to create a naked calendar of the Crumbington football team, mouths drop open. Her further pronouncement at having snagged a celebrity host for the fête—rising television and movie star Clifton O’Keefe, and ex-resident of Crumbington—is met with indifference.

Not by Nathan Fresher, though, local baker and captain of the football team. He had been Clifton’s boyfriend in high school, until Clifton and his family disappeared into the night over ten years ago.

Events on a small New England college campus, following an exceptional one. Gil Andrus and his husband, Pete Sordan, follow through the usual faculty politics and the unexpected mystery. And Don Burris, the detective from The Pendleton Omens, reappears.

Note: this book shares roots and occasionally overlaps with my other book, Quabbin, which is also set in Waldron, Massachusetts, though in a national clothing company. But they're different books with different sensibilities.