I wrote Giving Chances to submit to a Christmas anthology. The theme for the anthology was “gifts” which I incorporated into the book in two ways. First, our heroes meet while grabbing for the latest must-have toy off the shelves of a toy store at the mall. Mitch wants it for his sister, Jackson for his niece, and so a gift is literally the way the story starts.
But the best gifts we give each other don’t come in a box. Mitch has been estranged from his Catholic parents since coming out. Now they want to reconcile and he’s uncertain about it. Jackson talks him into giving his parents a second chance.
A lesbian friend of mine saw Bohemian Rhapsody over the weekend. I asked her what she thought of the bisexual representation and she was OK with it. (I know there are are people with harsher opinions, but she enjoyed the movie—thought it was shallow but entertaining and especially loved the music.) The one thing she wasn’t buying was the way Freddie Mercury’s parents reconciled with him at the end. She doesn’t believe parents ever change their minds like that.
Some mutual friends of ours just got married in Vegas after what we thought might be a permanent engagement because the mother of one of the brides is so dead set against it that she refuses to be in the same room as the other bride. Our friend finally decided she wasn’t waiting for her mother to come around anymore and committed her heart where it belonged. Yay for them.
Do parents ever come around? I don’t have any personal experience because in my family coming out announcements don’t cause rifts. Even my ultra-traditional Mexican-American cousin-in-law constrained himself to disgruntlement when his son came out because that’s what being a parent fucking means. But I like to think people can outgrow their prejudices, and I hope we can forgive them when they do.
All that probably makes it sound like Giving Chances is a deep and angsty story, but it’s 90% fluffy fun—snowball fights, dirty massages, sweet sex, and Christmas cuddles between two guys who deserve the best love can give them. The story wasn’t picked up for the anthology, so I published it myself and you can buy it for $0.99 or read it with KU or look for it to be free from November 20th through the 24th (2018).
Merry Christmas-coming-much-too-soon.