Coming of Age - Stories

The new kid in town was quite the looker, but for Tim Patterson: gay, seventeen years old and single, he didn't think he'd stand a chance . . . even with his best mate, Ben Walker doing his best to interfere! What he didn't count on, however, was that the new kid in town had a secret of his own, and that the two of them were more alike than anyone could realise. And so it begins. Boy meets boy . . . and everything that they both hoped for looked like it was falling into place. Can they truly make it work? Can they avoid the pitfalls that seem to come with young love? Will they be able to find a way to work it all out?

Jemya Hanlon was born on Benteen, a planet settled 500 years earlier from Old Earth. But the lines of communication with the mother world were broken after only 200 years, and the colonists have been on their own ever since. Jem was raised in the cold northern lands of New Australia, the only continent where the settlers have a foothold. The nearby town of Nocksic Bay is a seaport, where the ships sail forth to hunt the great orx, a staple seafood of the settlers. Jem has longed dreamed of going to sea, and now he has his chance. And he is just in time to encounter a new mystery, one that may change the settler’s lives forever!

Following the death of his mother, fifteen-year-old Robbie is forced to move from England to start a new life living with his uncle’s family in Canada. Homesick, confused, and missing his close friend, it soon becomes clear to his new family that Robbie is carrying more than a suitcase of baggage.

Lysander - Andy to most people - got saddled with a strange name from a mom who is a little...off. Looking forward to college where he can leave mom behind and find boys who actually like kissing boys is his biggest goal in life, for now.

Kai just wants to slide by in this new school. He's a senior and only has to get by unscathed for 10 months so he can move on and figure out...well, whatever comes next. He's had enough drama and heartache to swear off the human race.

Even if we don't want to change, we do. We wear different faces at different ages, different faces for different crowds.

14-year-old Bryan Padilla is caught between worlds he doesn't feel connected to. Having been abandoned by their birth parents at a young age, Bryan and his younger brother, Caleb, were adopted by a family friend, Diego Padilla, and raised in a culture not of their own. Though it is the only life Caleb has ever known, Bryan inwardly struggles with his feelings about life, death, race and sexuality. Things escalate shortly after the death of his birth mother. Can Bryan come to terms with his situation as a figure from his past tries to upend his entire life?

"My grand-father always used to say that everything that happens to us in life happens for a reason. And when we look back on our lives there are some moments that just seem to stick in our minds forever and I can now see what he meant by that."

For Scott Fraser there was one such moment that he remembers well. It was the time when, as a teenager, he saved the life of a young boy who was about to be swept out to sea.

What he couldn't have prepared himself for, however, was what would happen when that same boy comes back into his life some years later . . .

Boy meets boy, leaves boy, meets another boy. All the usual things happen to someone with a thankfully less-than-usual life.

Adam Walsh is a popular small-town Irish boy who gets paired with the new arrival in town. Ross, however, is a city boy, hailing from London. Being total opposites, they somehow manage to cross paths. What starts as nervous giggles and jittery speech turns into a bond that will forever change both teenagers, as they'll experience something more than friendship. How will the boy's parents, friends, and love for each other come together? Will it either work in their favor or wedge them apart forever?

Mike finds himself in an unexpected and uncomfortable situation. New school, new town, new family, and most notably, new roommate. And life seems to only get crazier every day.

Khurtschono is a bigender neko living in a blended family of werewolves. Soren Eilan has lived a solitary life for the last eight years. An unexpected friendship flourishes when they meet.
But their friendship is based on a lie. That lie will be put to the test when they meet the son of two Wolf Patrol guards.
Can their friendship survive the truth?