Admit One
When high school teacher Tom Smith meets Kevin Bannerman at a gay club, he violates his own rule: one-night stands only. But when the weekend is over, he walks away, reminding himself that he lives a deeply closeted life for painful, compelling reasons. He keeps his secrets, his heart, and the cause of his crippled arm to himself, but almost immediately he bitterly regrets leaving Kevin.
Months later, while Tom serves as reluctant assistant director for his school’s production of Rent, he fears that the show’s same-sex love angle will somehow out him. Protests against the play begin, one of the student actors is harassed, and during a parents’ meeting, Tom encounters Kevin again. This time Tom can’t fight the attraction between them, and he and Kevin begin a tentative relationship. Within Rent’s message of acceptance and support, and as local churches oppose the play, Tom struggles to find the strength to admit one man into his heart.
Jenna Hilary Sinclair
A long time ago, Jenna Hilary Sinclair used to tell her siblings stories about a headless knight who rescued rabbits in the woods. Mom was grateful, the kids were unaccountably absorbed, and somehow this morphed into writing gay romance. Life is strange, isn’t it? Now Jenna dreams of a little cabin in the woods with a big back porch, a hanging swing, and a laptop that never loses power. There, she won’t sneeze from her allergies, her husband will be happy with an enormous garden, her children will visit but only at the most convenient times, and words will flow from her racing fingers all day long. Most of all, characters will cooperate! What she has instead isn’t so bad. As a matter of fact, it’s wonderful. Making a happy fool of herself dancing at a Queen + Adam Lambert concert. Hiking and camping at Rocky Mountain National Park, hefting a backcountry pack for the very first time. Touring through the gorgeous American Southwest with her beloved spouse and their incomparable friend. Jenna will probably always dream of that cabin, but she'd trade it in a second for marriage equality -- and respect for all differences -- across the United States.
