Stories

When humans make deals with demons, it doesn't usually end well for the human. Unless they've made a side deal with an even more powerful demon.

If life was there for the taking, then it might look a lot like Kay Walker’s life. A good family with liberal and accepting attitudes, doing impressively well at college both on and off the field, a big circle of friends, and a promising future.

Of course, there are a couple of problems with this picture. Firstly, it wouldn’t make a very interesting story. And secondly, perhaps more importantly, it’s not quite true. Or at least, it’s not the whole picture.

Thirty-year-old Greg Beaumont is still fleeing the ruin of his life fifteen years ago. Now he's sharing a new home with his best friend Nate Sawyer, pouring himself into his work, and avoiding romantic entanglements while claiming he's just taking his time. But when he meets Kyle Wakeham, a fifteen-year-old neighborhood boy, he'll not only face the wreckage of his past but he'll also discover he's not defined by the torments and tragedies of history.

Aeriol and Max share an apartment, a relationship, and their friends. Jules always seems to be there. Mayaan, Nadia and her brother Alex interweave into the complex matrix. Geoffrey is Max’s confidant, but he's not always around. Then there is Reuben, Jonathan, and Davy, not forgetting Nate. Sex, drugs, and spirituality float around in the cauldron that is the life of these young adults. People flow in and out of their lives, but no one is left untouched. They all need to discover who they are, the 'good' have their defects, and the 'not so good' have their merits. Life is complicated... Camp Echo is not a place, it's a state of mind!

When writing the fictionalised biography Camp Echo I had to make choices about what to include and what to leave out. Rather like a director's cut I decided that some of the story omitted deserves its place, for those of you wanting to know more.

This is a collection of my flash fiction, stories looking at modern day gay life (and life from a few years ago). Each chapter is a different story.

So sit back, put your feet up, and read some of my “case studies”.

Ethan has a plan. No dating, nose down and get good grades so he can go to college on a scholarship and get away from his drugged zombie mother, criminal father and what's left of his siblings. He's going to drag his best friend Mason along with him because someone has to look out for the moron. The best laid plans are broken up by his greedy father, and someone who cares enough to defend Ethan.

As life moves on we remember times both good and bad. For Kyle, Jacob and the others, memories from the past are a bounty of the defining moments in their lives.

The following is a series of moments, past and present that help guide their steps towards the future.

Some days go right

Some days go wrong

Some days don’t go at all.

Simon is sixteen and on the edge of everything changing, his world changing from adolescent to adult, to facing up to his sexuality and coming out, but not just yet.

Now, his boyfriend is late and he’s sat on a cold, concrete bench waiting, waiting, waiting…

Over twenty different days, during four weeks in spring, this story follows Simon as he navigates the difficult journey of his coming out. Like all journeys, this one will change him but in ways he doesn’t imagine, taking him places he didn’t expect to go.

Modern gay life is hard enough, with homophobia, bar culture and dysfunctional relationships, but how do you navigate it carrying the baggage of the ex-gay movement?

Chris was involved with an ex-gay organisation as a teenager, after a breakdown he broke away from them. Now, as an adult, Chris is trying to live as an out gay man but the baggage of his past keeps pulling him back.

So often the damage does not stop when the abuse does.

This six-part story asks how does someone come to terms with the aftermath of the ex-gay movement.