Short Stories

About the Universe:

Like with so many bands, it happened in a smoky bar in Los Angeles. Four men joined forces and changed the face and sound of heavy metal. Prog rockers with a grinding sound, lyrics that demanded thought, and band members who defied convention: Gay. Bisexual. Dying.

In 1999, Marc Gadling ruled the music world. His band, Time Machine, had survived the 80’s, navigated the 90’s and was pushing full steam ahead into the new millennium. He’d secured custody of his son from Luke’s drug dealing mother. He’d even met someone who, for the first time since the death of his partner, made him feel whole again. And then, the world stopped spinning when a test came back with a single word that changed everything: positive. Three years after his diagnosis, Marc was dead from AIDS related pneumonia and lesions on the brain.

Shadows in the Spotlight pits a young musician against his overbearing and outrageously religious father. It details how Marc financed the start of his career as a teen prostitute in New York. It grants him his final moment of glory, because when he died, he was worshiped by millions. It is the story of a single father, a recovering drug addict, and queer men in the hyper-masculine metal world.

Tsunami

Outside, in the blue light of dusk, the ground vibrated under her feet. Sasha paused for a moment, smoothing an errant strand of her black hair back into its ponytail. Dust blew past her bare legs, the wind blowing her short, pleated skirt up just enough to give the bouncers a good view of the legs that went all the way up. When they let her through the broken doors without searching her, she offered them another glance of her thighs before ducking into the dark, steaming room.