I remembered black eyes and bruised ribs and hands heavy with prayer like fists raining down.Preacher's kid Jackson and orphaned Oren grow up in the same dusty, poor, Bible-thumping farm town. When they meet at sixteen, they discover they have more in common than just their roots and brutal upbringing. Together, they begin to explore their orientation and their burgeoning love for each other. When they are threatened with consignment in conversion camp, they abruptly leave town tog...

When seventeen-year-old Thomas arrives for his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, he thinks he is ready for anything. Anything arrives quickly in the form of Dondi Whyte. Dondi is handsome, glamorous, and rich—everything Thomas is not. Is Thomas really ready for anything?Thomas falls helplessly in love with Dondi and the two begin a love affair. When it ends abruptly, Thomas is devastated. To make up for breaking his heart, Dondi invites Thomas to spend the summer at ...

My parents, unable to change me, had instead, silenced me. When they'd stilled my hands, they'd taken my words, made me lower my voice to a whisper. Later, I remained silent in defense, refusing to acknowledge the hateful words: Brainiac. Sissy. Antiman. Faggot.Lincoln de Chabert's life is pretty unremarkable until he comes home from kindergarten and announces he will marry his best friend, Orlando, when he grows up.His parents spring into immediate action, determined to fi...

"Still teenagers, we had started to build the foundation of an eternal love, one kiss, one smile, one caress at a time. And in my youthful arrogance, I'd been sure the house of love we were building would be impervious to the world's disapprobation, no matter how mightily it huffed and puffed and blew."Tristan and Max are a pair of Asian-American high school students who find themselves unexpectedly in love in post-Columbine America.Tristan works to balance what it means to...

"When you boys fall in love, fall in love with his smile—because his smile will never age or change—and his eyes because in his eyes, you will always see the truth." That advice launches two young men on the journey to adulthood.Told in 139 "vignettes," each dedicated to a single event, this is the story of four young men who meet in college, and follows them for more than two decades as they navigate the landscape of modern gay life.Often playful and imaginative, but firml...

A story from Boughs of Evergreen: A Holiday AnthologyTHE CHRISTMAS PRESENTby LARRY BENJAMINAt Christmastime, a mother, unhappy her son is gay, turns to an Obeah practitioner to change him with surprising results.* * * * *ABOUT BOUGHS OF EVERGREENBoughs of Evergreen is a two-volume collection of short stories celebrating the holiday season in all its diversity. Penned by authors from the UK, the USA, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, these are ta...

"To be a Vampire is to know your pale skin and red lips offend others."-Malcolm VIt's the mid twenty-first century. Anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and homophobia have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The world is run by "the state," and Christian zealots, whose chief governing tools are fear and oppression. It's a wonderful time to be alive—unless you're a Vampire. Vampires are despised, and feared, and subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence.Con...

'Get your black ugly ass up outta that bed!'That's how his mother had woken him every morning. 'Get your black ugly ass up outta that bed!'Later, the adjectives multiplied. Tar baby. Faggot. Queer. Tar baby faggot queer. And still later, when he'd started to achieve, started to make friends with white guys, 'Oreo' and 'snow queen' were added to the vocabulary of hate.When he was young, he'd learned that words hurt, maimed, scarred. When he got older, he'd learned th...

This book charts the evolution of Islamic dialectical theory (jadal) over a four-hundred year period. It includes an extensive study of the development of methods of disputation in Islamic theology (kalām) and jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries. The author uses the theoretical writings of Islamic theologians, jurists, and philosophers to describe the conceptOverall, this investigation looks at the extent to which the development of Islamic ...

The long-awaited sequel to The Way Back. Eric Walker has learned hard lessons from his past. He’s no longer the alcoholic husband hiding in the closet. He’s no longer the guy who tried to steal his brother’s boyfriend. He has two items on his agenda: fix his relationship with his brother, Jason, and find his own soul mate. But when it comes to relationships, Eric's track record looks more like a train wreck. He craves intimacy almost as much as he fears reverting to his old ways.

A childhood of abuse has left Avery so physically and emotionally scarred he believes he shouldn't be alive. His only sanctuary has been his relationship with his older foster brother Sam. Avery finally lets Sam convince him to start therapy to help overcome his crippling anxiety, but even that can't prepare him for the upheaval caused by meeting Noah Yates. Noah is everything Avery fears. He's large and physically powerful—and undeniably capable of destroying Avery's hard-earned progress....

Cal McCorkle has lived in Bluewater Bay his whole life. He works two jobs to support a brother with a laundry list of psychiatric diagnoses and a great-uncle with Alzheimer’s, and his personal life amounts to impersonal hookups with his boss. He’s got no time, no ambition, and no hope. All he has is family, and they’re killing him one responsibility at a time.Avery Kennedy left Los Angeles, his family, and his sleazy boyfriend to attend a Wolf’s Landing convention, and he has no pl...