Father's Day Stories from MLR Press

Alas, I've been busy with work and haven't had much time to update (or write, for that matter). I am, however, hard at work on the third International Relations story, a Seattle Marauders short story, and a sci-fi book. While I can't give a lot of details on my current projects, I am excited to announce a few other authors' upcoming releases.

I love a good holiday story and next Friday (June 15th), MLR Press is releasing six Father's Day stories. Check out what Diana DeRicci, K-Lee Klein, Anna Lee, N.J. Nielsen, Neil Plakcy, and George Seaton have in store for readers:

Chad Rarig and Sonny Phillips have been friends since skinned knees and after school homework. Life is pretty normal, if a bit bland for Chad, until he recieves a phone call that changes the rest of his entire life. With Sonny's strong shoulder in friendship and his mother's support, he cautiously embraces his fate, one that includes binkies and an utter loss of sleep.

Sonny offers a chance to let Chad settle into this new wilderness of parenthood, sharing his home with his best friend. Only he definitely hadn't anticipated having to deal with an attraction that left him panting and hungry as a starving man for his best friend. His gay best friend who thinks Sonny is straight, because he's never told him the full truth to preserve their friendship above all else.

Can Chad come to terms with all the challenges of fatherhood and still keep Sonny's friendship? Will either be willing to take the risk to cross that line from friendship to something more?

Even gay dads have pregnancy pains.

Matteo and Gabe have everything they could ever want out of life, except for a family all their own. When Gabe's twin sister offers to be their surrogate, it's a dream come true until she insists they be completely involved in the pregnancy. The new dads quickly realize they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

While making a gift Charlotte asks her Daddy why he and Papa aren't married, leading Landon with the help of his daughters to make Father's Day one that they and Devin will never forget.

Landon and Devin have been together since Landon a children's writer read to Devin's second grade class. Now eight years later they have two beautiful daughters, Charlotte and Gracie. While making a gift for Devin for Father's Day, a happily ever after story of her Daddy and Papa, Charlotte asks Landon why her parents aren't married leading Landon and the girls to put together a special proposal in Devin's classroom on Father's Day.

Question: What is the stupidest thing an openly gay man could do?
Answer: Move to Texas and marry a woman.

Tossed off the Golden Spur with nothing but the clothes he was wearing and his newborn son. Riley Stuart contemplates his life. He gave up everything he knew to come halfway around the world to find things don't always work out like you planned. On her deathbed his wife outs him to her family -- her very bigoted family.

Noah Johnson finds a naked man and infant in his barn. What are they doing there, and where did they come from? In the course of helping Riley get back on his feet somewhere along the way he felt their souls collide.

Richie and Gabe meet by accident---when one of Richie's two adopted sons beans Gabe in the head with a soccer ball. There's an immediate attraction---but Gabe, who's still a boy at heart, though nearing thirty, is reluctant to take on a ready-made family. That is, until he runs into Richie again and their mutual attraction takes over...

The dynamic between fathers and sons is complex, most often least understood by the players themselves. But is it the father who does not know his son, or is it the son who does not know his father?

The discovery of a Father's Day card in a box---long ago shoved into a dark corner in a cellar---provides a revelation to a son, a gay son that shatters all previous conclusions about his father. Set in Denver, the ravages of a massive flood, and the disappearance of a nine-year-old girl, provide the background for a son's coming of age, and a father's eerie ability to "...read the hunch...," that is essential to his prowess as a cop.