Historical - 20th Century Genre

Word Count: Click here to reveal85000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A steamy, queer retelling of The Postman Always Rings Twice After a beef with the mob, Sal Minovich has to get out of New York City pronto. He gets as far as Beacon, New York, otherwise known as Nowheresville, and talks his way into a situation working as a handyman at a fading motor lodge. It’s not a bad place to hide out for a while and sock away some cash until he figures out his next step. Then Sal meets the young manager, Will, and things get a whole lot more interesting. Pushed out by his homophobic father, Will hooked up with a small-time real estate investor, and now, six years later, he’s trapped in an unhappy relationship that might also be abusive. Sal thinks he and Will should run away together and leave their pasts behind. But Will won’t leave without a payout for all the time he’s put in. Do they have to get George out of the way to have their happily-ever-after?

Word Count: Click here to reveal138500 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: It’s 1942 and after a sexual indiscretion, US Navy pilot Zachary MacKenzie is sent to serve in the Royal Navy’s submarine service—a shockingly harsh punishment for a man who loves to fly. The submarine is oppressive and frustrating for him, and he’s marked out from his peers, publicly by being American, and privately by his attraction to men. The only bright spot is the company of his steward, sonar operator Gethin Llewelyn. Despite the differences of rank and background, they’re drawn to each other. Gethin’s integrity complements Zach’s casual joie de vivre, and soon the friendship develops into something much more. As the threats of war increase, the submarine is plagued by potentially hostile vessels, and circumstances lead them to suspect there’s a spy amongst their own crew. Being forced even closer together as they work for the greater good reveals a new awareness, and Zach doesn’t know what is in more danger, the vessel under his charge or his heart.

Word Count: Click here to reveal13700 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Lesbian, Straight, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Seven queer stories about our favourite literary figures. Lord Byron encounters a gorgeous ghost in Verona. An author seeks to share her truths. Feste discusses love and revenge. Oscar Wilde discovers more than he expected in a deep Colorado mine. La Belle Dame sans Merci shares her perspective. An engineer is astonished to find a lost manuscript in an old cellar. While Virginia Woolf contemplates peace during another world war…

Word Count: Click here to reveal104842 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Lesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: A linguistic genius, Portia Sebring is recruited to decipher Russian codes for the Venona Project. While at Arlington Hall, she meets Nigel Mann, a CIA officer known as Mr. Freeze. Portia’s father is behind the meeting. Rumor has it she’s a lesbian, and in the late ’50s, her sexuality could negate any veracity to the codes she deciphers. A match with an equally cold man who won’t distract her from her work seems the ideal solution. But Portia and Nigel develop strong feelings for each other and marry to start a family. However, the lifetime together they anticipate is cut short when Nigel’s jet crashes. Devastated, but with a young son depending on her, Portia has no choice but to go on after Nigel’s death. Her son Quinton joins the US Equestrian Team for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but doesn’t compete due to the government’s boycott of the Games. To distract him, Portia takes him to France, and it’s there that Quinton first feels an attraction for someone of his own sex. Since Portia herself had a same-sex affair in her early twenties, she’s very accepting of this. Along with her trusted bodyguard Gregor, she watches as Quinton finds a career in the intelligence community, following in her footsteps, and also finds a partner worthy of his love. She’s happy for her son, but sure that she won’t love again, since Sebrings have their “one” and she's lost hers. But is she right?

Word Count: Click here to reveal91,916 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Johnny Smith's luck has been bad from the moment the Stock Market crashed and he'd been forced to leave an exclusive boarding school, and he sees no reason to believe it will ever change. But then he meets Church Chetwood, a dashing, devil-may-care director of motion pictures, and his life is turned topsy-turvy when Chetwood takes him along on what the man promises will be the adventure of a lifetime. Johnny doesn't care, as long as he's with his Mr. Chetwood. The year before, Church had hired Captain Johansen to take him to the mysterious island of Iwi Po'o on the tramp steamer August Moon. There he'd found and captured a sabretooth tiger and brought the animal back to the States. "Chetwood's Kitty," so dubbed by the press, is the reason he has to leave New York so precipitously -- people had died and the law is after him. The only bright spot is the kid he'd come across in a saloon. Church thinks he's had the best idea of his life when he decides to take Johnny along with him to the South Seas. He and Captain Johansen plan to make a living transporting goods from one island to another, and they have every intention of avoiding Iwi Po'o. But a treacherous stowaway has plans to take the August Moon for himself, and convinces the men to mutiny. Johnny, Church, the skipper, the ship's cook, and the wireless operator, accompanied by the little girl Johnny had rescued from prostitution, find themselves in a lifeboat, with Iwi Po'o the only spot of land. The last time Church was on this island, twelve men lost their lives to what lived there. Will Johnny, Church, and their friends somehow manage to make it our alive this time?

Word Count: Click here to reveal73994 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealDemisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Who do you trust when no one is who they seem? Germany 1944 Fleeing German physicist Dr Kristopher Lehrer and his lover, Resistance fighter Michel, are caught up in an Allied bombing campaign.  Separated from Michel after discovering an injured RAF pilot in the Black Forest, and pursued by the SS for the information he carries, Kristopher is frantic to reunite, unaware that Michel has been recruited by the Allies for a rescue mission. Time is running out. The Gestapo is closing in. How can they decide who to trust, when the dagger pointed at Kristopher’s back could be wielded by a friend? Author’s note: This is the third edition of Winter Duet. The first and second editions were released by another publishing house.  This story has been re-edited, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.

Word Count: Click here to reveal127000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “There’s no deal unless you tell me who killed Lucretia, Thomas! For the love of God, I have to know—” “She was shot by an assassin.” “But who was this assassin? Who shot her?” he demanded again angrily, leaning forward over the table. “I did,” I said, after a suitably dramatic pause. He threw his head back and laughed loudly, his arms crossed on his chest. “You?” he said once he’d regained his breath. “You? Thomas Haupner, the violinist? The would-be army officer from some stupid, derelict relic of the British Empire, a trained assassin?” After returning from a secret mission in occupied France for His Royal Highness, George, the Duke of Kent, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Haupner is looking forward to a cup of tea, a hot bath, and the sleepy head of his American lover, Major Henry Reiter on his shoulder when he wakes up the next morning. However, along with items Tommy has recovered for the duke, he has also discovered a secret stash of documents, which, when opened, prove to be a poisoned chalice. Tommy and Shorty find themselves caught up in a dangerous web of lies, enemy agents, assassins, and traitors. In an effort to save the reputations of not only their friends, but men and women high in both society and in the government, they themselves become victims of I.K.S., a former World War One international extortion ring, which has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of bomb-devastated London.