WHAT I WRITE… AND WHY
I’m the author of novels and stories about people who identify as gay, bi, transgender, intersex—in other words, anyone under that colorful umbrella known as “queer.”
My writing motto is the only thing wrong with being queer is how some people treat you when they find out.
I feel I should come out as straight, female, and cisgender. Some people want to know why I don’t write what I know. My answer is that if authors stick only to what they’re personally familiar with, they will be severely limited in what stories they can tell. I want to write both what I know and what I need to find out more about. I particularly wanted to know more about why queer people are so often not accepted, or ostracized, or—even worse—persecuted, both legally and personally. It seemed to me that in order to deny someone the same human and civil rights afforded to the population in general, you’d have to see that individual as somehow not quite human. Also, when I started writing, most LGBT (as it was called then) literature ended in tragedy and heartbreak specifically because the characters were gay. Think Brokeback Mountain, and you’ll know what I mean.
I decided to write stories in which a character’s destiny was not determined solely by their sexual orientation. And I wanted to do it convincingly. It worked. Reviewers and readers of my early novels thought I was a gay man. I took that as a high compliment. So I wrote some more.
Check out my portfolio to see where else my characters have been and how they’ve managed the challenges in their lives
My latest work
From New Hampshire to Hawai’i to Maine
In On Chocorua, Nathan begins his journey as a college freshman. He makes a life-long friend, feels the pain of losing a lover to addiction, and loses his adored older brother Neil in a tragic accident. Although Nathan steps figuratively into the hiking boots Neil can no longer wear, he can’t leave behind him the guilt he feels that he didn’t know Neil—or his other family members—as well as he’d thought. He also can’t seem to find the sense of being loved, the sense of belonging that Neil had given him, no matter how many mountain peaks he claims, no matter how deep the existential forgiveness he feels hiking on the island of Kaua’i (On the Kalalau Trail). He’s had his fill of relationships that go nowhere, of men who’ve led him astray emotionally and on the mountains he climbs in memory of Neil.
Then, in On The Precipice, Nathan meets Drew Madden, a true mountain man who fell from a cliff and now uses a wheelchair. Nathan’s relationship with Drew helps him realize he’s been looking for himself in all the wrong places and guides him toward his own personal trail, which includes a career in addiction recovery.
Putting it all together: The trailblazer series
What if your first love turned out to be addicted to fentanyl?
What if you fell in love with someone who wanted no ties?
What if you, an athlete, fell in love with someone in a wheelchair?
Although each book in the series can be read separately, reading all three will take you on Nathan’s journey with him. Get all three stories together in this ebook package at a lower coast than buying all three books individually.
Nathan is a trailblazer on his own journey. And his success will be measured not by how well he follows someone else's path, but by whether he can forge his own. This doesn't mean he finds all the answers. It means he identifies the questions that matter.
Once upon a time, I did a lot of hiking. An injury that happened several years ago means I’ll never hike again. But I have memories of mountains and trails and beauty and danger and struggle and exhilaration. As I wrote, I relived all that in Nathan’s journey.
Walk with us.