Tom Spanbauer's first novel in seven years is a love story triangle akin to The Marriage Plot and Freedom, only with a gay main character who charms gays and straights alike. I Loved You More is a rich, expansive tale of love, sex, and heartbreak, covering twenty-five years in the life of a striving, emotionally wounded writer. In New York, Ben forms a bond of love with his macho friend and foil, Hank. Years later in Portland, a now ill Ben falls for Ruth, who provides the care and devotion he needs, though they cannot find true happiness together. Then Hank reappears and meets Ruth, and real trouble starts. Set against a world of struggling artists, the underground sex scene of New York in the 1980s, the drab, confining Idaho of Ben's youth, and many places in between, I Loved You More is the author's most complex and wise novel to date.

1967. Rigby John Kluesener stands in the moonlight, a flower in his hair, his thumb out trying to hitch a ride on the road to San Francisco. The story of how he came to be there - of an adolescence spent on his parents' farm in Nowheresville, Idaho, of his father's misanthropy, his mother's strict Catholicism - is utterly real and totally unforgettable.

During a fateful summer, 13-year-old Jake Weber witnesses the brutal murder of a Native American woman by the town banker. Jake's parents forbid him to speak of the killing or name its perpetrator, even as the woman's African American lover stands falsely accused. The crime and what follows it forever alter Jake's view of his parents and the world around him. Faraway Places won widespread praise for its vivid narrative and incantatory style, and Spanbauer displays singular skill in inhabiting the mind of a troubled adolescent boy.

Shy, afflicted with a stutter, and struggling with his sexuality, Will Parker comes to New York to escape the provincial western towns where he grew up. In New York, he finds himself surrounded for the first time by people who understand and celebrate his quirks and flaws. He also begins an unforgettable love affair with a volatile, six-foot-five African-American drag queen and performance artist named Rose. But even as he is falling in love with Rose and growing into himself, Will must watch as AIDS escalates from a rumour into a devastating tragedy. When a vicious riot erupts in a local park, Will seizes the chance to repay the city for all it has taught him, in a climax that will leave readers shaken, fulfilled, and changed.

He’s saved her. He’s loved her. He’s killed for her.

Eighteen-year-old Archer couldn’t protect his best friend, Vivian, from what happened when they were kids, so he’s never stopped trying to protect her from everything else. It doesn’t matter that Vivian only uses him when hopping from one toxic relationship to another—Archer is always there, waiting to be noticed.

Then along comes Evan, the only person who’s ever cared about Archer without a single string attached. The harder he falls for Evan, the more Archer sees Vivian for the manipulative hot-mess she really is.

But Viv has her hooks in deep, and when she finds out about the murders Archer’s committed and his relationship with Evan, she threatens to turn him in if she doesn’t get what she wants… And what she wants is Evan’s death, and for Archer to forfeit his last chance at redemption.

Ford McKinney is a devastatingly handsome, successful doctor, raised in an old Savannah family among good breeding and money. His longtime boyfriend, Dan Krell, is a shy hospital administrator with a painful childhood past. When the holidays arrive, they decide it's time to go home together. But the depth of their commitment is tested when Ford's parents cannot reconcile themselves to their son's choices, and Dan's secrets are exposed.Comfort and Joy is a poetic and finely-wrought novel that explores the difficult journey two men make toward love.Amazon.com ReviewQuestion: What could be more terrifying than bringing your significant other home for Christmas? Answer: Bringing home your significant other of the same sex. From the start, it's clear that Jim Grimsley's vision of the holidays holds as much darkness as it does light. Ford McKinney first lays eyes on Dan Crell when he's singing carols at the hospital where they both work, the mournful minor-key tones of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" seeming to broadcast "the sadness of Christmas" in contrast to the lights and decorations around them. Their attraction is immediate, but the couple must face down several obstacles. For one thing, Dan is a hemophiliac who's HIV-positive. And Ford, a rich doctor from a prominent Savannah family, doesn't even think of himself as gay. That the two manage to meet, date, and fall in love is something of a miracle in itself--perhaps the only one that can sustain them through the season of miracles.Comfort and Joy alternates scenes of Ford and Dan's courtship with their trip to North Carolina to meet Dan's family. Like any couple anywhere, they argue about money and their families; unlike some couples, they also argue about Dan's health and Ford's reluctance to kiss. In chronicling their history, however, Grimsley gets at something fundamental: the strange mixture of love and hate and anxiety at the bottom of every relationship, gay or straight. "You're really not as bright as I am and that's a problem," they both think, being "honest" with themselves, then wonder: "Why do men stay together?" The easy answer, of course, is that they love each other. The more complicated one is that, in living together, they've begun to dream the same dreams, breathe in rhythm, lay down "crevices" inside themselves in the shapes of each other. This, Dan thinks, is enough: "enough, without words, to keep them silent about the fact of their hates and their fears, their deep concerns about each other, and the certainty that one of them would die first and neither of them knew which one it would be."The novel's prose is workmanlike at its best, but Grimsley's understanding of the human heart is deep and rich. His book refuses easy answers and stereotypes; for example, the mysterious trauma in Dan's childhood stays in the background, where it belongs. A lesser writer would have chosen to make its revelation the book's climax--the epiphany that explains Dan's character--but Grimsley knows that childhood pain is only one of many things that make us who we are. Such is the difference between fiction that seeks to tell us who we are and fiction that knows what a mystery we are at our core. Comfort and Joy is not just a book for gay readers: it's a book for everyone who's ever been in love, who's ever had a family, who's ever wanted to find some kind of refuge from the world. --Chloe ByrneFrom Publishers WeeklyContinuing to follow the life of Danny Crell, introduced in his debut, Winter Birds, Grimsley has written his fullest and most humane novel yet, a work whose commendable restraint does not impede its emotional impact. Opening with Danny's plans to visit his family over Christmas holidays with his lover, charismatic pediatrician Ford McKinney, the narrative flashes back to the first meeting between the two men, three Christmases earlier, and evokes the difficulties of their relationship as well as the bonds between them. Both men are survivors who hide their true emotions behind an air of detachment. The novel chronicles their efforts to break through their protective facades, as each slowly realizes that the only way their relationship will endure is through a courageous decision to risk rejection. One source of tension is their vastly different backgrounds. Home for Danny is a trailer in the pungently evoked backwoods of eastern North Carolina. Dan and his mother retain their wounding memories of Dan's father, an abusive alcoholic, and of Dan's dead brother, Grove. Native ground for Ford is patrician Savannah, where his handsome, chilly parents are hardly pleased to find their accomplished son indifferent to the woman they have picked out for him to marry. Further flashbacks show Ford's slow coming-out process and the pair's cautious courtship. But deeper issues intrude. Danny is a hemophiliac and HIV+, and Ford, as a physician, is well aware of the implications of Danny's disease. Scenes where Danny injects a blood-clotting mixture to prevent internal bleeding are bone-chilling and heartbreaking, as Danny rejects Ford's help because he doesn't want his lover to see the messy circumstances of his life. In the strong and moving denouement, Ford finally gains the courage to bring Danny to meet his familyAto disastrous effect, although the novel ends hopefully. Grimsley's survivor's tales are always compelling; this book promises to be his breakthrough to a wider audience. Author tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

More than sixty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that America's schools could no longer be segregated by race. Critically acclaimed novelist Jim Grimsley was eleven years old in 1966 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in the state and the school in his small eastern North Carolina town was first integrated. Until then, blacks and whites didn't sit next to one another in a public space or eat in the same restaurants, and they certainly didn't go to school together. Going to one of the private schools that almost immediately sprang up was not an option for Jim: his family was too poor to pay tuition, and while they shared the community's dismay over the mixing of the races, they had no choice but to be on the front lines of his school's desegregation. What he did not realize until he began to meet these new students was just how deeply ingrained his own prejudices were and how those prejudices had...

Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. On a snowy Thanksgiving day in North Carolina, a dreamy eight-year-old is pushed headlong into the adult world by a violent quarrel between his parents. Jim Grimsley's brilliant first novel unfolds in a strikingly unconventional way—as the boy tells himself his own story. A shattering story of heartbreak, violence, and the endurance of the spirit. "Tell everyone."—Dorothy Allison, author of BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA.

A woman looks back to her painful childhood in the rural South to solve a family mystery: "Magnificent . . . just masterful" (Ann Patchett). Ever since Ellen Tote can remember, she has dreamed of her mother slowly drowning. Now, with her own children all grown and her siblings long gone, Ellen is still haunted by her half-remembered past, and finally journeys back to her childhood for answers. Piecing together her memories of growing up among North Carolina tenant farmers in the 1940s, she articulates a story so shattering, it had long been silenced by fear and shame—in a heartrending and emotionally powerful tale from a PEN/Hemingway Award nominee and "one of the finest Southern novelists to appear in a long, long time" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). "There's a lyric intensity and a quiet authority in Ellen's narrative voice, and thoughtful consideration has been given to the question of how one makes peace with the griefs of the...

In Aeryn, where science has never developed but magic is powerful, the Blue Queen, a usurper aided by a very powerful wizard, has ravaged the land. A boy is called out of his own life on a farm to enter a legendary forest and learn magic in order to help Kirith Kirin reclaim his rightful throne to maintain the balance of order. Jessex grows strong in his magical studies and fighting skills discovering his crucial role in the battle against the evil that overshadows his land. First of a trilogy the others of which are science fiction novels.

Jim Grimsley's previous science fiction novel, The Ordinary, was named one of the Top Ten science fiction books of the year by Booklist and won the Lambda Literary Award. His novels and short stories have been favorably compared to those of Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack Vance, and Samuel R. Delany. Now Grimsley returns to the richly complex milieu of The Ordinary with a gripping tale of magic, science, and an epic clash between godlike forces.Three hundred years have passed since the Conquest, and the Great Mage rules over all of humanity, even as cybernetic links connect the varied worlds of the empire. Vast Gates allow travel from one planet to another, across unimaginable distances. Choirs of chanting priests maintain order, their songs subtly shaping reality, while the armies of the empire have known nothing but total victory for centuries.But on the planet Aramen, where sentient trees keep human symbionts as slaves, a power has arisen...

ALA Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual Book Award. DREAM BOY confirms the immense promise of Jim Grimsley's award-winning debut, WINTER BIRDS. In his electrifying novel, adolescent gay love, violence, and the spirituality of old-time religion are combined through the alchemy of Grimsley's vision into a powerfully suspenseful story of escape and redemption. "I've never read a novel remotely like DREAM BOY; and my admiration for Jim Grimsley's power is widened and deepened."--Reynolds Price; "Translucent prose and emotional authenticity."--Out. A QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB SELECTION.

In the satirical vein of writers such as George Saunders, Terry Southern, and Brett Easton Ellis, Jim Grimsley tells a darkly comical story about a man wiped out in the crash of Enron whose life is primed to become a made-for-TV movie.

When the little boy—now a man—from the end of the lane returns, can Ox ignore the song that howls between them?

1954. Something's happening in the idyllic town of Amorea—Mike hears voices and sees shadows and flocks of birds invisible to everyone else. And no matter what, Mike must protect the man he loves.

Sam of Wilds and his band of misfits travel to the mountains in the North to convince the remaining dragons to stand against Myrin. Along the way, Sam learns secrets of the past that will change the course of the future.

Sam of Wilds emerges from the Dark Woods to find the dark wizard Myrin has overthrown the kingdom. But a brave knight, a defiant prince, a pissed-off unicorn, and a half-giant have formed a resistance in Sam's name.

Old wounds reopen and new secrets are revealed when Tyson crosses paths with his childhood friend and first love, Dominic.

On a cold winter's night, David and Phillip come together to sift through the wreckage of the memory of a life no longer lived. Can they find redemption?

Sequel to Tell Me It’s Real Do you believe in love at first sight? Sanford Stewart sure doesn’t. In fact, he pretty much believes in the exact opposite, thanks to the Homo Jock King. It seems Darren Mayne lives for nothing more than to create chaos in Sandy’s perfectly ordered life, just for the hell of it. Sandy despises him, and nothing will ever change his mind. Or so he tells himself. It’s not until the owner of Jack It—the club where Sandy performs as drag queen Helena Handbasket—comes to him with a desperate proposition that Sandy realizes he might have to put his feelings about Darren aside. Because Jack It will close unless someone can convince Andrew Taylor, the mayor of Tucson, to keep it open. Someone like Darren, the mayor’s illegitimate son. The foolproof plan is this: seduce Darren and push him to convince his father to renew Jack It’s contract with the city. Simple, right? Wrong.

Sequel to Withered + Sere Twenty-one days. In a world ravaged by fire and descending into madness, Cavalo has been given an ultimatum by the dark man known as Patrick: return Lucas to him and the cannibalistic Dead Rabbits, or the town of Cottonwood and its inhabitants will be destroyed. But Lucas has a secret embedded into his skin that promises to forever alter the shape of things to come—a secret that Cavalo must decide if it’s worth dying over, even as he wrestles with his own growing attraction to the muted psychopath. Twenty-one days. Cavalo has twenty-one days to prepare for war. Twenty-one days to hold what is left of his shredded sanity together. Twenty-one days to convince the people of Cottonwood to rise up and fight back. Twenty-one days to unravel the meaning behind the marks that cover Lucas. A meaning that leads to a single word and a place of unimaginable power: Dworshak.

Sequel to The Lightning-Struck Heart Once upon a time, the wizard’s apprentice Sam of Wilds got his happily ever after in the arms of his cornerstone, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. A year has passed, and while Sam’s been captured five or six more times since then, things are pretty great. His parents are happy, Gary and Tiggy still eat sass for breakfast, Randall is somehow alive despite being older than the gods, the King rules with a gentle hand, Kevin the dragon is as gross as ever, Morgan sighs a lot, Ryan continues to be dashing and immaculate, and Sam is close to convincing Prince Justin they will be best friends forever. Life is good. Until it’s not. Because Vadoma, the leader of the gypsy clan and Sam’s grandmother, has come to the City of Lockes with a dire prophecy written in the stars: a man of shadows is rising and will consume the world unless Sam faces his destiny and gathers the five dragons of Verania at his side. And she brings along her second-in-command, a man named Ruv. Ruv, who Vadoma says is Sam’s true cornerstone.

Five years ago, Benji Green lost his beloved father, Big Eddie, when his truck crashed into a river. Everyone called it an accident, but Benji knows it was more. Even years later, he’s buried in his grief, throwing himself into managing Big Eddie’s convenience store in the small-town of Roseland, Oregon. Surrounded by his mother and three aunts, he lives day to day, struggling to keep his head above water. But Roseland is no ordinary place. With ever more frequent dreams of his father’s death and waking visions of feathers on the river’s surface, Benji finds his definition of reality bending. He thinks himself haunted; by ghosts or memories, he can no longer tell. Not until a man falls from the sky, leaving the burning imprint of wings on the ground, does Benji begin to understand that the world is more mysterious than he ever imagined—and more dangerous. As uncontrollable forces descend on Roseland, they reveal long-hidden truths about friends, family, and the stranger Calliel—a man Benji can no longer live without.

In this final chapter in a tale of family, love, and sacrifice, the events of the past pave the long and winding road toward a future no one could have imagined.

Zach lives with his grandparents on a remote island in Puget Sound in Washington State. With only his little brother, Gilbert, to keep him company, Zach feels cut off from the world. But when Gilbert is kidnapped, Zach tries the only thing he can think of to find him: astral projection. Soon, his spirit is soaring through the strange and boundless astral realm—a shadow place. While searching for his brother, Zach meets a boy named Emory, another astral traveler who's intriguing (and cute).As Zach and Emory track the kidnappers from the astral realm, their bond grows—but each moment could be Gilbert's last. Even worse, there's a menacing, centuries-old creature in their midst that devours souls and possesses physical bodies. And it's hungry for Zach.From Brent Hartinger, the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of Geography Club

A weekend retreat in the woods and an innocent game of three truths and a lie go horribly wrong in this high-octane psychological thriller filled with romantic suspense by a Lambda Award–winning author.Deep in the forest, four friends gather for a weekend of fun. Truth #1: Rob is thrilled about the weekend trip. It's the perfect time for him to break out of his shell...to be the person he really, really wants to be. Truth #2: Liam, Rob's boyfriend, is nothing short of perfect. He's everything Rob could have wanted. They're perfect together. Perfect. Truth #3: Mia has been Liam's best friend for years...long before Rob came along. They get each other in a way Rob could never, will never, understand. Truth #4: Galen, Mia's boyfriend, is sweet, handsome, and incredibly charming. He's the definition of a Golden Boy...even with the secrets up his sleeves. One of these truths is a lie...and not everyone will live to find out which...

"I think gay guys like weddings more than anyone. And it's not because we want to destroy marriage, like some people say. It's because we really, really want to get married!"Russel Middlebrook is gettin' hitched!The wedding is taking place in a remote lodge on an island in Puget Sound. Russel and his husband-to-be have invited all their close friends to spend the whole weekend together beforehand.And for the first time in his life, Russel is determined to not be neurotic, and not over-think things.But that's before things start going wrong. Who expected a dead killer whale to wash up on the beach below the inn? Something strange is going on with Russel's fiancé too. It couldn't possibly be that he doesn't want to get married, could it?Meanwhile, the wedding is taking place near the ruins of a small town, Amazing, where, a hundred years earlier, the people supposedly all disappeared overnight. Why does it feel like the secret at the end of the road to Amazing has something to do...

If 'all the world's a stage', then a star should never be bored!Once Stephen Spear's destiny as an actor seemed so assured – but after he was throttled to death on prime time television, his prospects seemed to shrivel up and die. Yet, true talent can't be crushed. For if all the world is truly a stage, then why shouldn't Stephen create and become a new character whenever he felt like it? Given the ghastly turn his personal circumstances had taken, it was a sheer relief to pretend to be someone else. Of course some sticklers might call this lying, but Stephen considered it the flourishing of his creative gift.This imprudent artistic experiment takes Stephen to some surprising places. Though he does find himself back on stage, in the spotlight, and winning prizes – just not quite as he had imagined. While along for the ride, is the most unlikely new partner in crime.This highly original conclusion to 'The Indignities' e-book trilogy is a wicked, witty depiction of the gay Sydney...

Sweet, fat, theatrical Billy-Boy was never cut out to be a farmer, but as his father's only son he's obliged to try. The cows are wayward and the chores are gruelling, but Billy finds escape in a fantasy world. A place where the turnip paddock becomes a lunar landscape, a lavender bed jacket a slinky space suit, a cow's tail a head of beautiful blonde hair, and where Billy can become Judy Robinson, heroine of TV's 'Lost in Space'.But in an isolated conservative farming community in 1970s New Zealand, not everyone approves of Billy's transformation. On the brink of adolescence, Billy is beginning to discover that growing up is far more complicated and confusing than he could ever have imagined. While the mysteries of sex confound him, emotions are unleashed which urge Billy to betray those closest to him.'50 Ways of Saying Fabulous' is a poignant and endearingly comic novel. Anyone who grew up in a small town, grew up feeling that they didn't fit in, or simply grew up will find...

This sequel to 'Vanity Fierce' continues the misadventures of Stephen Spear. 'Time to Upsize' is Book One in a three book series.

Billy-Boy has always loathed farm chores, until his father employs Jamie, a sexy farm worker, for the summer. Suddenly Billy has not just a work mate, but a buddy, who is cheerful and enthusiastic company. Being with Jamie completely eclipses the burden of the chores. They even become a pleasure. After all Jamie looks like David Cassidy and likes to work shirtless!But Billy's idyll with Jamie proves all too brief as other people intrude and interfere. Belinda Pepper, the most notorious girl in the entire district, utterly enthrals him with her wicked ways. Then Lou, Billy's estranged cousin, discovers Jamie and goes all-out to win him away from Billy for herself.But Billy is not the only one who feels lonely, jealous and frustrated...With something illicit growing in an abandoned toilet, clandestine goings-on down at the old gaol, a bloody murder, and a theatrical finale with a dozen costume changes, Billy-Boy's life is even more dramatic than his favourite TV show 'Lost in...

You're invited to a very private party!It's an intimate affair, men only, with a dress code of get undressed! And who's the host? Why, it's Stephen Spear, who is certainly shaking things up now that he's suddenly single.Poor Stephen has discovered that the gay scene has changed - dramatically! The boys are a generation younger and he no longer commands the attention he once did. Besides, everyone is hooking up online. It's a technology Stephen is completely clueless about - though apparently, his ex, Blake, was quite the authority!As Stephen explores and experiments online, he becomes entangled with a very eloquent but elusive guy - whom he seems destined never to meet. Exasperated, Stephen cuts loose and inadvertently ends up hosting a party where the guests have no clothes - and no inhibitions whatsoever!This is a party like no other - sexy, amusing, entertaining, and with a truly unforgettable climax!Go on. Accept your invitation! Buy 'The Indignities #2' and join the...

Sequel to Put a Ring on ItReady or Knot: Book TwoFormer child star and deeply closeted adult actor Jax Conlon needs a boost to his flagging career. He promised his mom, just before she died. He hopes he's found it in a guest spot with the latest directorial prodigy, but his research for the role gets derailed by an encounter with a handsome stranger with more... hands-on experience.Oz Parsons is a devoted dad to two amazing little girls. Maybe a little too devoted—he hasn't had anything resembling a personal life since his ex left, leaving Oz and the girls with broken hearts and abandonment issues. So a hookup with a hot guy is just what he needs to let off some pent-up steam without any complications. There's something about Jax, though, that's got him finding reasons to draw things out.With their goals and families pulling them in two different directions, Oz and Jax have to figure if white-hot chemistry and desire...

Blindfolds. Handcuffs. Submission. There’s so much Jonah Kendrick hasn’t tried, and so much he wants to explore. But just before Christmas he finds a ring box in his boyfriend’s desk. Jonah panics. He loves Evan and their sex is hot, but how can Jonah be ready for forever, when there are so many items on his Naughty Bucket List? Desires that might drive Evan away. Evan’s noticed Jonah has been distant. His usually talkative and cheerful boyfriend is preoccupied. The seemingly straitlaced Evan stumbles across Jonah’s wish list of sexual kinks, and Evan realizes he may not have to hide his true nature from Jonah after all. The Dom in him wants to see Jonah on his knees, begging, submitting, but Evan isn’t sure Jonah’s ready to accept what being Evan’s sub would mean. The two lovers must figure out how to share their hidden desires with each other before their secrets permanently damage their love.

Kellan's father destroyed Nate's family, and Kellan broke Nate's heart. Now Kellan wants to stick it to his homophobic father by pretending to have a boyfriend. Can he convince Nate to play along?