Stories

Debbie and Cathy juggle married life, raising an infant and classes as they start life anew. A fortuitous find in housing must be balanced when they confront demons from the past. (January, 2010)

This is the 26th story in a the Naptown Tales series, which can also be found at Awesome Dude and Nifty. Please see the Introduction for important background on the series.

A funeral is the end of a life and the start of grieving for many of us. But what do you do when your emotions don’t fit into this? The narrator of this complete short story asks this question.

A simple poem has inspired generations of women to don their red hats and embrace growing old. However, when James, a husband and father, reads it, he embraces something more.

“Shoulder Season” is the sequel to “The Boys of Summer.” Pate and Timmy explore what it means to be in a relationship over the fall and winter months on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This book commences on Labor Day weekend after Pate has sent Timmy home with his grandmother to protect him from a possible drug investigation. The ying and yang of their shared life plays out in both challenging and revelatory ways as they figure out what it means to be a couple.

Jim and his partner Michael live in a socially-oppressed town where being gay is a sheer moral death sentence. At the dawn of the computer era, and in an age where work seems to find him little money or pleasure whatsoever, Jim decides to venture into the world of computer sciences, all the while supporting a man who seems all the more removed from society as time goes along.

Two young men come out.

Three years ago, Reed's bad decisions cost him his relationship. Now, does he have the courage to try again?

Adam comes home one evening to a very unfortunate surprise...

Sometimes a scrapbook can tell us everything we need to know.

The thing about monsters, is that not all of them appear as monsters. Some come in the form of Prince Charming.

Luke is on the run. In his past there is a man…a man willing to do anything and everything to find him and control his life once again. And as the Deputy Director of Interpol, he has all the resources to make it happen. Luke has succeeded in escaping him for a few years, but his luck runs out when he settles in Spain for too long, after falling in love with a handsome local. When his cover is blown, Luke wants to disappear once again, but he knows he can’t run forever.