I love that this is the top hit when I type in “FAMILIES ARE FOREVER” in Google search.
(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
Queer Mormon Stuff
This is where I occasionally write about queer stuff, Mormon stuff, and queer Mormon stuff. If you’re mildly curious to obsessed about the intersection of those identities, welcome!
Have an LGBTQ2IA Mormon book you want to talk about here? Use my contact form.
New Release: Mix ‘n’ Match
Remember when I said I wasn’t going to stop writing about gay Mormons anytime soon? I didn’t lie. In one week, on March 24, my next gay Mormony story comes out from Wayward Ink Publishing as part of its Mix ’n’ Match anthology: The heart wants what the heart wants. Race… Culture… Creed… Become little more … Read more
Love Bytes gives “All Is Well” 5 stars
“My only daughter had converted to Mormon a few years ago and recently married her sweetheart, a recently returned Mormon Missionary. Both of them were virgins and I was worried how this would be written, as they have openly shared their beliefs. I want to say, straight up, that this short story was done in … Read more
Review: “All Is Well” by Dale Cameron Lowry – Alysia Constantine
“All Is Well” is about a young Mormon missionary man who gets paired with another Mormon missionary man during their service and, well, all could be well if things didn’t get in the way of them being in love, but they do. One of the men is a brilliant cook and a somewhat seasoned (pardon … Read more
New Release: Simmer
My first release with Dreamspinner Press is now available for pre-order as part of its Simmer anthology. This will be my first published sweet romance (read: no explicit sex scenes, although there is frank sexuality). Here’s the summary:
When Kyle Pratt cooks a feast for his fellow Mormon missionaries near Lake Migisiwauk in the Upper Midwest, nineteen-year-old Tanner Jensen falls in love at first taste. But the church teaches romantic love between men is wrong, and Tanner knows the only way to get to the highest level of heaven is by marrying a faithful woman in a Mormon temple. Tanner is forced to reconsider his beliefs as he gets to know Kyle better and the two develop a deep connection based on their shared spirituality. The two missionaries must navigate uncharted territory, figuring out how to be true to both their faith and their love for one another.
It’s a 10,000-word piece, but if you think this is the last fictional word I have to say about gay Mormon experiences, you are sadly mistaken.
Working with Dreamspinner has been lovely—a well-oiled editing process, delightful copyeditors and proofers, and clear communication throughout. I’m looking forward to getting the book into my grubby little hands on Feb. 24!
Teaser: Mi Alma
Ex-Mormon Alma Larsen doesn’t know the first thing about alcohol, so he hires bartender Damian Banks to help with his winter holiday party. They build a friendship that simmers with sexual tension—and possibly something much deeper. Will this Christmas bring them both a love that lasts?
A little teaser for “Mi Alma,” coming from Torquere Press on December 9. Contact me if you’d like to review.
Photo by Alexey Kljatov. Used under a Creative Commons License.
Update 3/17/2017: This edition is no longer available, but you can find “Mi Alma” in Falling Hard: Stories of Men in Love.
Book Review: The 19th Wife
I spent the last few days listening to The 19th Wife
Jordan, gay son of the accused wife no. 19, was thrown out of the community as a young adolescent for holding hands with his step-sister. (Boys in dysfunctional polygamist communities frequently get kicked out for petty reasons in order to keep the ratio of adult men to adult women low, enabling any remaining adult men to have more wives. You can learn more about this downside of dysfunctional Mormon fundamentalist polygamy in the ‘Lost Boys’ episodes of Mormon Stories.) His mother woke him up in the middle of the night, drove with him out of the community, and dropped him alongside a highway. He survives on hustling and carpentry and remains estranged from her for years, until she’s accused of his father’s murder. While trying to get his mother exonerated, he accidentally rescues another Lost Boy and falls in love with a young man who was raised in the mainstream LDS church. I didn’t come to this book expecting a gay romance, but once I knew it was there, I desperately wished it was longer.