Jeff Irwin is a fourteen-year-old boy who grew up in a small Northern Michigan town. Jeff is short for his age, timid and studious, never yet having dared to take any chances for fear of ultimate rejection or failure. He is a bit of a social outcast and lives quietly in the shadows of the popular kids at his school. One lucky day, he is afforded the rare opportunity to assist the town’s high school football hero Brett Willson in their English class. Having failed twice in English grammar, Brett needs Jeff's help to pass this subject in order to retain his quarterback position in the school's varsity. As Jeff embarks upon the challenge of educating the world’s dumbest jock, a romantic relationship between the two ensues – far more challenging than any tutoring session. Their budding friendship helps bring Jeff out of his shell and reveals a much deeper side of the dumb jock. Tragedies befall the ill-suited young couple, and the losses they endure are unthinkable. Will they be true to the dictates their hearts – or will they choose to return to the previously held conformity of their comfortable stereotypes? Dumb Jockis a wonderful saga that demonstrates a blossoming same-sex love, admiration, and genuine friendship.
Matt is everything that Petey is not. He is self-confident and brave. Matt is tall and masculine and athletic. He is a natural-born leader. Puppy Love is their love story, their romance. It is both a coming-of-age and coming-out story, but sexual orientation is not the primary focus. Petey struggles with his identity both as a homosexual and as a submissive. What do you do when you love someone who is truly superior to yourself in every meaningful way? How do you feel, and what if these feelings are not what everyone tells you you're supposed to feel? We are taught that every individual is equal, but what if you know, through experience, that this is not the case? What if, in a society in which everyone is supposed to be a leader, you discover that your passion, your destiny, is to submit? In Puppy Love, Petey Drinkell discovers the true nature of power, its role in sexual relationships, and his own role in the power structure. Puppy Love is perhaps the world's first gay BDSM coming-of-age novel. This erotic epic is more than classic erotica; it also challenges the fundamental assumptions we make about human relationships and democracy.
Every day, all over the country, teenagers struggle with the realities of bullying. Tormented, ridiculed, and beaten—simply for being who they are—these teens face alienation, humiliation, and even the explicit assertion that they have somehow brought this upon themselves, that they should just blend in. Bullied is a series of short stories exploring the world of these teens from several different viewpoints: the victim, the bully, the gay bystander, the straight friend, the concerned parent. Closeted Bryan wonders why Christian Michaelson doesn't just try to blend in if he hates being bullied so much. Star athlete David isn't a homophobe—after all, he's not afraid of anything. Jonathan, a Christian fundamentalist, must weigh the Bible against peer pressure and what he knows is right when he discovers his childhood friend is gay. Bully victim Chase Devereaux finds an unexpected ally in a brave fellow student. A single mom struggles to accept the reality that her only son is gay. Two tough gay teens are forced to confront their own inner demons when tragedy befalls a classmate they failed to help. And overweight Kirby finds the strength of character to make a friend, which leads to a lifestyle change and a chance at love. Each character grows as an individual as he or she comes to terms with what it means to be a gay teenager in America
Harold Wainwright is dying. At seventy-nine, stricken with cancer, the
billionaire insurance mogul has much to regret. In his youth he rejected
his only true love, Jacob, because the young artist was distracting him
from the pursuit of wealth and success. Now Harold is alone, rich
beyond his wildest dreams … and his life is over. Doctor Timothy Drayton
has found a way to prolong human life. He has created a computer chip
that can be implanted into the human brain, allowing consciousness to be
transferred from a dying patient into the mind of a donor subject.
Jesse Warren is eighteen years old. He’s a track star, model student,
and the typical all-American kid. Then tragedy strikes. After a terrible
accident, Jesse is pronounced brain dead. His devastated family is
ecstatic when Dr. Drayton offers a “new treatment” for brain injury.
Convinced that God has sent a miracle, the Warrens are overjoyed when
their son wakes from his coma. They hope and pray the amnesia is not
permanent. But the real Jesse is gone, his consciousness replaced by
Harold Wainwright’s. Will Harold make the same mistakes this time
around? Or will he take advantage of this rare second chance to find the
love that was missing from his former life?
In Dumb Jock, Jeff and Brett fall in love, but their relationship is not
without challenges. Brett’s a football star, and Jeff is the classic
nerd. Their coming of age and coming out story is set in the 1980s, and
they face many obstacles. Yet their love for each other is strong, and
they finally get their happy ending. Now, almost three decades
later, their children are teenagers. Adam, their fifteen year old son,
is the star pitcher of his high school baseball team. He has grown up
with two dads, in a loving, non-judgmental environment. Yet Adam has
challenges of his own. He’s failing two of his classes at school, and
he’s been suspended for fighting. He resents being labeled and insists
that just because he has two dads, it doesn’t mean that he is himself
gay. When he is forced to accept help from another student in his
algebra class, Adam starts to have feelings that cause him to question
his very identity. He’s got to decide whether to follow his heart or to
maintain the image he’s worked so hard to portray. Will he have the
courage to take a stand for what he knows is right, or will he end up
being just another dumb jock?
