urban - Stories

A little over a year after graduating from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, the State department posts CJ Abelló to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. CJ, his husband Owen Liston, and their daughter, Elizabeth Liston Abelló, immediately make themselves at home south of the Rio Grande.
Until disaster strikes and their lives are forever altered.

It is Sunday morning. Liam sits alone in his room, at the top of the building, and hides himself away. The world outside has suddenly become a dangerous place and he must stay away from it, and he must also remember that his name is now Leo.

This story follows Liam through one fateful Sunday and, through flashbacks, tells the story of how he came to be there.

A man is woken up by a strange voice and finds his mirror not only can talk but also has a message for him.

James Toranaga is a twelve year old boy dealing with the aftermath of sexual assault. He’s doing okay. The memories are tough, and the world feels a little rougher than it used to, but he’s a strong kid with a loving family to support him.

It sure makes his emerging sexuality harder to deal with, though. He doesn’t want to think about it.

Luckily, he has the perfect distraction: he can fly.

But these strange new powers may bring dangers of their own. He is not the only one who has them.

A new collection of prompts and shorts.

Ed has a story to tell about survival. It begins with an incident so horrible you may think Ed isn’t going to come out okay at the end. There are many low points in his life, but Ed keeps trying to make things work no matter how bad it may seem. Just when he thinks he’s finally in the clear, we’ll let him tell his story.

The family farm is for sale. It holds many memories. Connor doesn't want to lose it, but can it be saved?

Gay lawyer Ben Carleson – from In The Plan – is back, this time in 1985, near the beginning of his career and soon after he finished law school and passed the California bar exam.

He and Gene De Wijk met over a different kind of bar several years earlier, and since then, Ben’s given Gene incidental legal advice – for a business agreement, a will, and helping Gene close on the sale of his new house. Now, they’re both up against something much bigger.

When Josh and his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he knew he'd be helping his dad to renovate their new apartment. It hadn't been touched since the building opened in the mid-1950s and it needed a ton of work. Even so, it cost as much as they got for their old matchbook house in Brooklyn - close to a million dollars - and the only way they could afford it was to gut it and renovate it themselves. Josh was no stranger to handiwork, having helped rebuild after Hurricane Sandy, when he was just seven and could barely hold a drill. Little did they know that this time they'd face a hurricane and a global pandemic.