Website: https://www.harmonyinkpress.com
Books Published By Harmony Ink Press
Word Count: 78000
Character Identities: Gay, Lesbian
Summary: Reading Loving Artemis by Janet Mason is a full-body immersion into the 1970s, with the smells of joints and musk oil, the tastes of beer and lip gloss, and the sounds of motorcycles roaring down a highway. It captures perfectly the days when young queers searched library catalog cards to find “homosexual” books, when teen lesbians felt they were the only ones in the world. More than a coming-of-age story, more than the love story of Artemis and Grace, the novel is also an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable journey through the decades. I cared about these characters and loved seeing their lives come full circle by the book’s end in the 21st century. – Kathy Anderson, Bull and Other Stories Loving Artemis, An Endearing Tale of Revolution, Love And Marriage (Thorned Heart Press, August 2022) by Janet Mason is a novel that comes just as the hard-won right of marriage equality is being threatened. Loving Artemis appeals to a wide readership, with particular interest to the LGBTQA+ audience. As a love story and a coming-of-age narrative, it holds universal appeal. It is also an important slice of American history -- enticing to those who have lived through it. It also attracts a younger audience who want to learn about the events that led to marriage equality. Artemis found the love of her life when she met Linda, but their passionate relationship fizzles when Artemis lands herself on the other side of the law. Pulling the pieces of her life together, Artemis rekindles her relationship with Linda, and together they raise a daughter. Meanwhile, Grace, running from her past, starts a life with Thalia. At a pride parade, Grace spots someone who reminds her of Artemis, who she was briefly involved with in her youth. Old feelings are rekindled. A lifetime of rejection, abandonment, and fleeing rears its head, Now she must come to terms with her past, put her relationship with Artemis to rest--or risk losing everything. Artemis and Grace embark on a journey of revolution, love, and marriage and discovery that love finds us when we least expect it. Janet Mason is an award-winning creative writer, teacher, and occasional blogger for such places as The Huffington Post. Her book, Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters, published by Bella Books in 2012, was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 Over the Rainbow List. Tea Leaves also received a Goldie Award. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (Adelaide Books – New York and Lisbon) was featured at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. Adelaide Books also published her novel The Unicorn, The Mystery late in 2020. She lives and writes in Philadelphia. Her novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage was published by Thorned Heart Press in August, 2022.
Word Count: 92000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Hollywood, the mid-1960s. President Kennedy has been assassinated, the country’s civil rights movement is in full swing, and teenager Nate Berrigan is a television sitcom star. But Nate’s onscreen life looks nothing like the real thing, which stars abusive, addicted parents instead of swooning teenage girls. On top of that, Nate’s questioning his sexuality, and his boss is a demanding monster. The pressure would get to anyone. Fortunately Nate has Tai Atua, his costar… and maybe the love of his life. As the boys slowly fall for each other, Nate tries to believe in the possibility of his own happiness. Tai could be his savior, pulling Nate away from the precarious knife-edge he’s balancing on. Of course, he could also be his undoing. Because if anyone finds out about their relationship, Nate’s whole life will come crashing down around him. If that happened, Nate couldn’t live with himself….
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Summary: Gabe Dillon’s life changes when he gazes across his new school’s commons and spies handsome Kerem Uzun, and he wants to know more. Kerem is senior class president. He is mostly very well liked. He comes from a family of doctors, is of Turkish heritage, and he is Muslim. At first Gabe doesn’t understand the ritual he sees Kerem performing. But as the boys bond, Gabe is eager to learn about Islam. He’s falling in love with a boy who may or may not be gay, a boy whose religion may condemn Gabe’s open homosexuality. Complicating the budding relationship is Timur, Kerem’s cousin, who has grown up alongside Kerem as his brother. A family tragedy left Timur homeless, and Kerem’s parents took him in. But as Kerem grows into his own way of looking at life and how it fits into his devout practice of his faith, Timur is becoming more fundamental in his practice of Islam. And he isn’t the only one opposed to the friendship between Kerem and Gabe. Can they forge a lasting relationship amid so many challenges?
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Summary: It's a summer of revelations for Houston high schooler Jake Hardy. Along with his estranged father, Jake embarks on a trip to Nova Scotia to visit the Titanic Museum and the cemetery where the victims are interred. There, Jake's father's biggest secrets are revealed. Hurt and confused, Jake flees--not only from his father's confession, but from his own feelings. Jake is gay. Back home, the proposed Equal Rights Ordinance is polarizing people. As Jake faces a difficult choice about where he stands--and how far he's willing to go for his beliefs--he soon discovers that he's not the only one in hiding. When confronted with how his actions have hurt those he cares about, purposefully or not, Jake must learn to accept his friend, his father...and himself.
Word Count: 113,000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary:
ελπίδα. Elpída. Greek. Meaning hope Hope. v. /ˈhōp/ to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true
Michael and Christy attended prom, graduated high school, and Michael leads the USATF tryouts. With Oxford University on the horizon, his future looks bright, and he believes life has returned to normal after Christy’s rescue. He couldn’t be more wrong.
Christy has been free from a life of slavery for more than a year and has made remarkable progress due in no small part to the love he found with Michael. But the recent prosecution of a past abuser has shattered the life he so painstakingly built out of nothing but a mountain of horror. He now faces the daunting task of building a new life—yet again. Twelve-year-old Thimi has been missing since Christy left Greece and, unbeknownst to everyone, has hidden out in a vacant mansion in Glyfada. Learning of Christy’s survival is the only thing that brings him out of hiding. People, open spaces, even the most common of sounds frighten him beyond reason. A mere ghost of a boy, Thimi arrives in the US with no knowledge of the outside world—the only constant in his life a purple marble. Lost, shattered, and afraid, only hope gives them the strength and courage they need to begin anew. Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.~Herbert Ward
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Character Identities: Gay
Summary: It is 1969 when Dewey Snodgress, high school theater star, meets irrepressible hippie Jeep Brickthorn, who quickly inserts himself into Dewey’s life—and eventually, into his heart. Meanwhile, Dewey prepares to appear in a production across town, a play about protestors of the Vietnam War, where he befriends the wild and wonderful Lucretia “LuLu” Belton, who is also determined to follow her dreams and become an actress—whether her parents approve or not. The show has a profound effect, especially on Dewey’s father, who reconsiders his approval of the war after his son’s performance. But Dewey knows his dad won’t be so accepting if he reveals the love he’s developing for Jeep, so he fights to push his feelings away and keep the peace in his family. Still, Dewey can’t ignore the ripples moving through society—from the impending Woodstock Festival to the Stonewall Riots—and he begins to see that the road to happiness and acceptance for him and Jeep might lead them away from conservative Fort Worth, Texas—and Dewey’s dad.
Word Count: 5,000
Character Identities: Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Non Binary, Questioning
Summary: Harmony Ink Press is delighted and honored to showcase the short fiction of some of the best up-and-coming authors working in the LGBT genre. The stories in this third volume of Harmonious Hearts represent the winners of our Young Author Challenge—a group of talented writers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. The stories in this anthology are as diverse as their creators and range from the speculative to snapshots of everyday life for people growing up in a society in flux. They confront many issues facing young adults, and they celebrate the joys of this sometimes rocky period of transition: friendship, loyalty, first love, and learning to feel comfortable in one’s own skin. These experiences are universal, and thanks to the courage and talent of authors such as these, young people of all gender identities, expressions, and orientations are starting to see themselves included. Everyone deserves a story that speaks to them, and in these pages, they’ll find that story. Dani Anderson—To Lauren Nick Anthony—Scrapyard Sunsets Hilda Friday—A Progression of Love Arbour Ames—You Saw Blue Chloe Smith—Plenty of Fish Caleb Andrews—I Am Logan Sarah Caulfield—Make Mad the Guilty Xoe Juliani—Loving You Through the Years Irene Grant—Jordan and A.J. Latitude Brown—Equinox Anika Olivo—Melodimensional Frisk Gillespie—Ten Words
Word Count: 110,000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary:
Θάρρος. Thárros. Greek. Meaning courage Courage. n. /ˈkərij/ 1. The ability to do something that frightens one. 2. Strength in the face of fear, pain, or grief.
High school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. Almost.He has great friends, parents who love him just the way he is, and he was a champion hurdler until someone took out his knee when they kidnapped his boyfriend. Yet, Michael is determined to make the USATF tryouts in spite of his injuries.
Christy Castle is Michael’s entire world. Healing from years of abuse, his abduction by a predator has left him hiding a new secret as he tries to start his life again. Together, Michael and Christy work to recover from their wounds in time to make prom and graduate high school. To complicate matters, Christy is astonished to learn a fellow victim from his native Greece has survived. Christy will stop at nothing to bring him to the US to keep him safe. But the prosecution of Christy’s kidnapper looms large in their futures and the struggle to return to normal only worsens. Christy's past continues to haunt them and, when the prosecution turns ugly and Christy’s new life is torn apart, only their unrelenting courage and determination can save them from the nightmare that threatens to destroy their future together. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.~Mark Twain
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Character Identities: Gay, Bisexual
Summary: High school senior Neil Darrien is a budding musical theater star. He has it all—a beautiful girlfriend Melissa Watt, a scholarship at a prestigious musical theater school, and a new friend Zane Jeffrey, the boy who has just come to town and immediately lands a spot in the school show choir. Neil is jealous of Zane at first, but they soon become fast friends. Neil harbors a deep dark secret. If it comes out, he is sure that it will destroy his future. But as he gets deeper and deeper into Melissa’s church, he sees a situation that he is sure he needs to fix, but if he does, his secret may come out. Meanwhile, his relationship with Melissa becomes rocky, and Neil finds he may be drawn to Zane in a way that is more than friendship.
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Summary: Ethan Harker is the son of The Prophet, the stern, demanding leader of a small Southwestern polygamous community. Ethan has had a lifetime of warnings that the world outside his “safe haven” is evil. One day he is to take his place as the leader of this confined and confining religious group. But things happen—as they do in life—that propel Ethan to flee his stifling community and find his way in the outside world. There he is sheltered by a remarkable group of loving people, thus learning that family is those who love and accept you, not those who try to control you. And amid all this, Ethan once again comes upon black rapper Kyan, a boy his own age. On a rare trip into town a few months before, Ethan caught a glimpse of this exotic creature, a member of a race he has been brought up to fear and hate. Slowly Ethan realizes what “gay” is and that he has fallen in love with Kyan. Fueled by this new love and his new friends, Ethan gains the strength and courage to conquer this confusing world he has been thrust into.
Word Count: 139,000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing. Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed.
Word Count: 6000-
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Max Shaw is dead. kWell, sort of.After dying on prom night, Max was recruited by a mysterious tattooed angel named Slade to join a group of teenage reapers. Cocky and sarcastic, Max thinks he has his afterlife together, but the moment Slade assigns him to his first suicide case, everything changes.Christian college student Kody Michaels is struggling to make sense of his life and his faith. After a failed suicide attempt at an antigay camp, Kody is determined not to fail again. Tired of disappointing his family and God, he is going to end his life once and for all.But in a split-second decision, Max saves Kody—defying the rules of a reaper.Max believes his only concern is convincing Kody that God loves him just the way he is, so he can save him from a hellish afterlife as a shade. Little does Max know, some shades have found a way to walk among the living as wraiths. These evil wraiths know Kody has been slated for death, and they have another, darker purpose for him.Max has only one night to save Kody before one of Slade's team finishes the job Max lacked the courage to complete.
Word Count: Information not available
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Graduating senior, theater lighting wunderkind, and closeted gay, Nick Fortunati volunteers with The Streetwise Players in the dark corners of The Laughton, a creepy old movie palace decorated in Grand Guignol style. But his father wishes Nick would use his intellect and his scholarship to become a biotech engineer and earn a prosperous living for his future family. Nick loves his dad and wants to please him, but he dreams of a career in theater. And he wants a male lover. Unfortunately, his homophobic father won’t approve of either. When Nick’s at his loneliest, out of the corners of the theater and into his life comes trouble-laden Steve Stripling, a man with little memory of his past other than his name. Meanwhile, Nick’s introduced to the dashing Wash Vitek and is torn between the two men. His situation is further complicated because he doesn't know if Wash is gay. Nick resolves to solve the mystery surrounding Steve and help the young man recover his memories, even though by doing so, he risks losing the first love he’s ever found.
Word Count: 22,000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: They met at ten, they kissed at twelve, and were madly in love by eighteen. Caleb Deering is the captain of the swim team and the hottest senior in school. He comes from a loving home with a kind father and a caring, but strict, mother who is battling breast cancer. Nico Caro is small and beautiful, and has a father who rules with an iron fist--literally. One morning Caleb forgets himself, and he pecks Nico on the lips at school. A teacher sees them and tattles to the Headmaster. The accidental outing at school might be the least of their problems, because the ball set in motion by the school’s calls to their parents could get Nico killed. In the face of that very real danger, Caleb knows he has only one mission in life: to keep Nico safe.
Word Count: 178000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Όμορφη Όμορφη. Ómorphi. Greek. Meaning pretty Pretty. adj. /pritē/ Pleasing by delicacy or grace High school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. He’s a star athlete, has great friends, and parents who love him just the way he is. What’s missing from his life is a boyfriend. That’s a problem because he’s out only to his parents and best friend. When Michael accidentally bumps into Christy Castle at school, his life changes in ways he never imagined. Christy is Michael’s dream guy: smart, pretty, and sexy. But nothing could have prepared Michael for what being Christy's boyfriend would entail. Christy needs to heal after years of abuse and knows he needs help to do it. After the death of his notorious father, he leaves his native Greece and settles in upstate New York. Alone, afraid, and left without a voice, Christy hides the myriad scars of his abuse. He desperately wants to be loved and when he meets Michael, he dares to hope that day has arrived. When one of Michael’s team-mates becomes an enemy and an abuser from Christy’s past seeks to return him to a life of slavery, only Michael and Christy's combined strength and unwavering determination can save them from the violence that threatens to destroy their future together. For all who endure, may your freedom and happiness increase every moment of every day. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdxArVxAZZ4&list=PLEbLIyCiBFQ0erDdhNSS1bd-I_tHEcokY[/embed]
