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By day, Weston Davies designs mascots for Sanderson Designs and avoids the new productivity consultant, Sidney Romero, who has been hired to ensure maximum efficiency. In the evenings, Weston writes. Fantasy, detective stories, science fiction—he’s tried it all, and he isn't very good. All his attempts are riddled with clichés, and his characters become mouthpieces for scathing commentary on overused literary stereotypes. Though fantastical dreams that inspire his stories haunt his nights, Weston can’t put words to paper without cringing.

Worse, Weston’s work has begun to invade his sleep. Everybody in the office thinks Sidney is strange, quiet, and out to destroy the company. But in Weston’s dreams, Sidney is a mysterious dragon, a street-smart law enforcer, and a rebellious agent of the future government. While Weston reluctantly gets to know Sidney better in the real world, he struggles to reconcile him with the Sidney of his subconscious.

What are his dreams telling him? Is Sidney being wrongly vilified? And what if Sidney recommends Weston’s boss fire him? Weston must learn to pick through the clues his dreams are giving him, or he will never understand Sidney’s role in his life—professional or otherwise.

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After nine years, Bradley Moore and Dr. Matt Sharp are a little too secure in their relationship. In fact, they’re in a rut. But when the founder of Bradley’s law firm asks him to establish a branch office in Los Angeles, their predictable lives take a sharp left turn. Matt can’t just pick up and follow—there’s seniority and tenure to think about. If Matt stays in New York, they need a way to keep the spark alive. After racking his brain for a way to save their marriage, Matt finally suggests they cheat—with each other.

Before Bradley leaves, he and Matt take on New York City. They meet in unusual locations, play dress-up, and pretend to be strangers, all in the interest of spicing up their sex life. Their senses of humor and vivid imaginations lead to some interesting “cheating”—and occasionally get them into trouble.

Then Bradley moves to LA and becomes distracted by the lights of Hollywood. With him gone, the opportunity is ripe for Matt’s stalker to step in. Matt thought he and Bradley were doing well, but now Bradley’s gone when Matt needs him most.

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A Harmony Ink Press Title

Soon-to-be high school junior David Harper hates his family’s move to the country. There’s nothing to do, and he misses his friends in the city. But he doesn’t have a choice. His mother’s job is in Mason County now, so David and his mom are too, and he has to make the best of it.

At first, the only redeeming feature of David’s new home is the swimming hole across the field from his house. Then David meets Benjamin Killinger, and suddenly life stops being so dull.

Benjamin is Amish, and cooling off in the swimming hole is one of the few liberties he and his brothers enjoy. A friendship with an English boy is not—but that doesn’t stop him and David from getting to know each other, as long as it's on the neutral ground by the creek. After David risks his life to save Benjamin’s father, the boys’ friendship is tolerated, then accepted. But before long, Benjamin’s feelings for David grow beyond the platonic. Benjamin's family and the rest of the community will never allow a love like that, and a secret this big can’t stay secret forever….

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A Beneath the Palisade Book

Theodore Engdahl’s sexual identity crisis clashes with his faith. Raised to believe homosexuality is a sin, Theo finds himself on the ropes with his girlfriend as well as his straight coworker, whom he can’t stop staring at. Luckily, before he can panic too much, Theo discovers the support system provided by the Men’s Center.

At the center, he meets Alex, and the two hit it off. Unlike Theo, Alex wears his sexuality like a favorite shirt. Alex is also easy on the eyes, but for Theo, following his example is anything but uncomplicated.

With a little help from Alex and his mentors, Ian and Harper, Theo realizes that living well requires courage. While he struggles to take the next step with Alex and to come out to his conservative parents, life beneath the palisade goes on. But when Alex and his boat disappear during a terrible storm, Theo must find the strength to hope.

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After twenty years with Nathan, pro baseball player Bobby Lane doesn’t know how to be single. His husband’s death hits him hard. Bobby thinks his life is over—so the cryptic postcards from his dead husband come as something of a surprise.

The postcards lead Bobby on a quest into the heart of Texas and to the doorstep of Odis Vorleik, a sculptor who hasn't stepped foot inside his studio in nearly a year. But as Odis and Bobby grow closer, it becomes clear that Bobby didn’t know Nathan as well as he thought—and that Nathan foresaw some of Bobby's future.

After a trip back home to sort out legal business, Bobby returns to Texas only to be confronted by Tuck Krickson, a local sheriff. Apparently Bobby isn’t the only one carrying a torch for Odis, and Odis isn’t the only one who makes Bobby feel alive again. This can’t be what Nathan intended….

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The Battle for Jericho

2013 Award Winners

A Harmony Ink Press Title

A battle is brewing in the conservative little town of Webster’s Glen. Gay activist Dylan Cussler stirs up the establishment when he moves in with his boyfriend and sues the state over its gay adoption ban. Sixteen-year-old Jericho Jiles and his best friend, Mac Travis, decide to do their bit to convince Dylan and his boyfriend to leave town. But when Dylan turns up before they can finish trashing his house, Jericho panics, leaving Dylan unconscious and wounded.

Drowning in guilt, Jericho returns to Dylan’s home to make amends. He is surprised when Dylan forgives him and opens his eyes to the world around him. Soon Jericho comes to a life-changing realization: he is attracted to boys as well as girls. That’s a problem, considering Jericho has a girlfriend and very strict, very religious parents. Accepting his sexuality means he must question not only his identity and his place in the world but his relationship with his girlfriend, his parents, and with God.

And so begins the battle for Jericho’s soul.

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My Roommate's a Jock? Well, Crap!

The JOCK Series
2013 Award Winners

The JOCK Series: Book One

It’s easy to become cynical when life never goes your way.

Cole Reid has been a social recluse since he was fifteen, when he was outed by his high school baseball team. Since then, his obsessive-compulsive behavior and sarcastic nature have driven away most of the population, and everyone else hates him because he’s gay. As he sees it, he’s bound to repulse any prospective friends, let alone boyfriends, so why bother?

By the time Cole enters college, he’s become an uptight loner—but it’s not a problem until his roommate graduates and the housing department assigns Ellis Montgomery to move in with Cole. Ellis is messy, gorgeous, straight, and worst of all, a jock!

During a school year filled with frat buddies, camping expeditions, and meddling parents, Cole and Ellis develop a friendship that turns Cole’s glass-half-empty outlook on its head. There must be more to Ellis than a fun-loving jock—and maybe Cole’s reawakening libido has rekindled his hope for more than camaraderie.

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When One Door Opens

2014 Award Winners

Logan Sellers's parole officer has issued three commandments: stay sober, stay employed, and stay out of trouble. At first Logan thought those three simple rules would be easy to follow. But that was before he accepted a side job assisting his boss’s housebound agoraphobic nephew, Caleb.

Caleb is deceptively normal for a guy who hasn't left his apartment in three years, and his friendly, caring personality tugs on heartstrings Logan didn’t know he had. But hitting on his boss’s nephew is asking to be unemployed. Logan has enough problems with booze on every corner and a supervisor trying to jump into his bed. He doesn’t need to work out how to free Caleb from the anxiety that keeps him in his apartment; he needs to keep his nose clean, attend his AA meetings, and make a fresh start—alone.

If only his heart would get with the program.

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Aria

Blue Notes

A Blue Notes Novel

Five years after a prestigious scholarship jumpstarted his opera career, Aiden Lind has it all: fame, choice roles, and Lord Cameron Sherrington to share his life with. Maintaining his façade takes effort, but under his poised, sophisticated mask, Aiden is still the insecure kid from rural Mississippi. Then he walks in on Cam with another man, and the illusion of perfection shatters.

Philadelphia attorney Sam Ryan never moved on after his partner died, though he tried. Instead of dating, he keeps himself busy with work—but when he unexpectedly runs into ex-lover Aiden while on a rare vacation in Paris, he’s inspired to give their love a second chance. First, though, he’ll have to get Aiden to forgive him. Because when Sam was still grieving five years ago, he broke Aiden’s heart.

When rekindled lust blossoms into a true romance, it seems like the start of something wonderful. But Aiden’s career has him on the road much of the time, and the physical distance between him and Sam starts translating into an emotional disconnect. If Aiden and Sam can’t learn to communicate, their separation may prove more than their love can bear.

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Sinner's Gin

Sinners Series

Sinners Series: Book One

There’s a dead man in Miki St. John’s vintage Pontiac GTO, and he has no idea how it got there.

After Miki survives the tragic accident that killed his best friend and the other members of their band, Sinner’s Gin, all he wants is to hide from the world in the refurbished warehouse he bought before their last tour. But when the man who sexually abused him as a boy is killed and his remains are dumped in Miki’s car, Miki fears Death isn’t done with him yet.

Kane Morgan, the SFPD inspector renting space in the art co-op next door, initially suspects Miki had a hand in the man’s murder, but Kane soon realizes Miki is as much a victim as the man splattered inside the GTO. As the murderer’s body count rises, the attraction between Miki and Kane heats up. Neither man knows if they can make a relationship work, but despite Miki’s emotional damage, Kane is determined to teach him how to love and be loved — provided, of course, Kane can catch the killer before Miki becomes the murderer’s final victim.

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Under the Rushes

2013 Award Winners

Ten years after Dorjan trusted a boy’s word over his superior officer’s, he and his best friend, Areau, are still living the aftermath—and trying to stop the man responsible. Locked in a careful dance to bring down a corrupt government, Dorjan struggles to balance his grief with Areau’s anger. Just when Dorjan reaches the end of his rope, he sees a familiar face in the shadows, and the boy he trusted a decade before offers him unexpected kindness.

Taern remembers the soldier who found him under the rushes and listened to his pleas to save his family. When Dorjan reappears in his life, Taern is both captured by his commitment to justice and terrified by the risks he takes. All Taern wants to do is fix him, but the oncoming destruction has been ten years in the making, and Dorjan doesn’t want his help. Not if it puts Taern at risk.

Powers clash and a world's fate dangles between Areau's madness and Dorjan's nobility. While Dorjan fights to save the world, Taern joins the battle simply to save Dorjan, knowing everything hinges on the heart of a man in armor and the strength of the man who loves him.

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Frat House Troopers

Brandt and Donnelly Capers | Case File One

A Brandt and Donnelly Caper: Case File One

State trooper Brandt’s new assignment to infiltrate a sex-cam operation puts him in a very uncomfortable position, especially since he’ll have to perform naked on camera for his audition. Fortunately his partner and best friend, Donnelly, has his back—whether that means helping Brandt shop gay boutiques for sexy underwear or offering Jäger and encouragement while he researches porn.

Despite his mortification, Brandt gives the audition his best “shot”—and becomes an overnight sensation. But to meet the man behind the operation, he'll have to give a repeat performance, this time live on webcam opposite the highest bidder. Donnelly makes sure to win that auction for his partner’s sake, but their plan has a flaw: faking it is not an option.

In the aftermath, Brandt is a humiliated mess trying desperately to come to terms with what he’s had to do for the job and his own mixed feelings. But Donnelly has been on a journey of discovery of his own. Suddenly everything the two men thought they knew about themselves and each other gets turned inside out. Meanwhile, they still have a case to solve… but it may not be the case they thought it was.

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Until Thanksgiving

Philip Potter Series

Philip Potter Series

Josh Freeman knows his best days are behind him. After his partner of seventeen years has an affair with a younger man, Josh buries himself in takeout boxes, half-smoked joints, and self-pity until his best friend gently kicks him in the ass and encourages him to try out a new job in Washington DC—at least until Thanksgiving.

Though DC has its share of troubles, specifically in the form of a murderer targeting gay men, Josh soon discovers its charms as well. Unlike his old home, DC is crawling with men who want to date him—apparently he's not as overweight, out of shape, or over the hill as the man he once loved made him believe. In particular, Josh would love a chance with relocation expert Thad Parker, but Josh is sure Thad is seeing someone, so he looks for love elsewhere. He tells himself he and Thad don't have anything in common anyway.

Then Josh learns Thad really is available. Maybe they can work it out after all. Suddenly the future seems bright again. Of course, Josh doesn't know he's the murderer's next target....

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Cover Up

Toronto Tales

Toronto Tales: Book Two

Detective Ivan Bekker has hit rock bottom. Not only is he recovering from a bad breakup with a cheating boyfriend, he’s also involved in a drug bust gone bad. Ivan had to kill a man, and his friend was shot and is now fighting for his life. Though Ivan is under investigation for his part in the shooting, his boss sends him on an off-the-books undercover operation to close the case. The timing is critical—this could be their chance to plug a leak in the department.

Off-balance and without backup, Ivan finds himself playing a recent divorcé and becoming Parker Wakefield’s roommate. He finds it hard to believe that sweet Parker could possibly be a criminal, much less have ties to a Russian mafia drug-trafficking operation, and Ivan lets down his guard. His affection is unprofessional, but Parker is irresistible.

When Ivan comes across clear evidence of Parker’s criminal involvement, he has to choose: protect their relationship, regardless of the consequences, or save his career and arrest the man he loves.

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Everyone needs a little help now and then. For gay Muslim Sayen Homet, that help first came from his understanding mother, who brought him to America from the Middle East. Now that he’s working his way through Stanford Medical School, his help comes from a secret sugar daddy. But Sayen might be able to end their arrangement soon now that he has a boyfriend he can depend on, A student Campbell Reardon. Campbell is more than willing to support Sayen, even if it means coming out to his conservative family.

But when Campbell takes Sayen home to meet his parents, everything falls apart. Campbell doesn’t realize how his boyfriend pays for school… and neither of them knows Sayen’s sugar daddy is Campbell's father, Blake.

While everyone involved struggles to overcome their shock, it becomes obvious Blake will do anything to keep Sayen. Campbell and Sayen love each other, but in the face of so much hurt and betrayal, love might not be enough to hold them together.

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Brown-eyed Devil

Brown-Eyed Devil and Red Rogue

Eighteen-year-old Myron Mitchell's small-town life is getting strange. First, a handsome, mysterious Native American man named Anoki appears in town, and Myron discovers they share a powerful affection neither of them understands. Second, people in the area have been disappearing. And finally, Myron’s body has begun to change in a deadly way. When Myron’s friend Bette becomes the latest abductee, he vows to bring her back—but his time is shorter than he knows.

A necromancer who possesses power over spirits, Anoki has come to stop the person behind the abductions. Unfortunately, he must also stop Myron, the victim of a curse that transforms him into an uncontrollable monster. Despite the inexplicable love he feels for Myron, Anoki will have to banish him to the spirit world to prevent disaster. But Myron wants enough time to find his friend, and Anoki needs Myron’s growing inhuman senses to track down the kidnapper. They agree to work together, but the clock is ticking: they need to find Bette and the kidnapper before Myron transforms completely. Then Anoki must banish the man who seems to be the missing part of his heart.

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An Isolated Range

2012 Award Winners
Stories from the Range | Book Five

Stories from the Range: Book Five

Marty Green has two loves in life: horses and basketball. But suffering a stroke during his first college game throws a wrench in his plans. After months spent in the hospital, recuperating under the zealous care of his overprotective parents, Marty realizes he needs to be on his own, so when he’s offered a job at a ranch owned by his doctor's good friend, he takes it.

When veterinary assistant Quinn Knepper sees Marty for the first time, his heart nearly stops. He's smitten, and Marty appears interested though shy. There are just two problems: Quinn's father wants him to hide his sexuality from the world, and Marty’s Wyoming Senator father is a homophobe with no idea his son is gay—which Quinn learns when the senator proposes an amendment banning gay marriage.

Dealing with two unsupportive families is a heavy burden, but Quinn vows to make it work. Unfortunately, that may mean putting his life on hold while Marty overcomes his emotional isolation—unless, of course, Marty sacrifices his happiness to his father’s political ambition and ends the relationship before it gets started.

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A Harmony Ink Press Title

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.

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