Stories

Wars have been fought over obsessions, and millions have died; but not all obsessions produce effects that severe or lethal. Most only affect a small group of people. But what personal obsessions often have in common is that trivial, careless remark, or an unknowing or uncaring act, that triggers them in someone of an impressionable age. A small thing, perhaps, but it can last a lifetime, as our narrator discovers.

Everyone who comes out has a different story to tell: with some, it comes with a sudden flash of revelation; with others it may have been a long, slow, sometimes painful process of unwinding internalized constraints. For some, it is a matter of recognizing what they have always enjoyed; for others, it is an entry into entirely new experiences. As college seniors in the mid-70’s, Robert and his best friend Paul come out, each with a different story.

Welcome to Philpott Towers! Ten years apart in age, living very different lives, the Phillpott brothers are not close, but their father’s death sees the two returning to share their grandiose family home. Gray Philpott is a successful poet but rather less successful human being, now living with Vince, his solicitor elder brother in their father’s shadow—what could go wrong?

Close proximity forces both brothers to reassess their lives, and the Summer wreaks remarkable changes as the two settle into a new relationship, with both their lives and their emotional lives going in new directions.

A compelling and unsettling coming-of-age short story about first love, deception, and the painful loss of innocence. The novel follows an unnamed narrator as he navigates the tumultuous landscape of his teenage years, a time made both magical and terrifying by his growing obsession with a boy named Jude.

A Summer in Iowa is based on two key times in the author's life. In 1968, the author turned 12 and began junior high. It was a tumultuous time in which protests rocked America and MLK and RFK were assassinated. Fast forward to 1972, when the author turned 16 and was in high school. The author experienced his first time on his own while attending a summer science program at the University of Iowa. Although the romantic aspects of the story are fictional, much of the rest of the story is based on real events. A Summer in Iowa also serves as a prequel to the modern-day story in the author's New York Stories series, Reminiscing About the Future.

A historical Age of Sail story about what it means to try to define yourself as a man on your own terms in a repressive closed world that denies you that self-determination.

Two rival soccer high schoolers duel it out one on one on the field with more than just a victory on the line.

Bob is bored behind the counter... but things heat up when a sexy biker pulls into the otherwise deserted gas station.

A short story about two gay teenagers in a small town where being different is frowned on.

Perhaps childhood memories are not always about what we think they are. Through a chance encounter, a young physician learns things he didn’t know about his late parents.