Happy One Year Anniversary Unbroken: What a Year it's Been

Today marks one year since my Beaten Track Publishing released of my third book, the gay coming-of-age/romance novel, Unbroken. And what a year it has been. Unbroken was both a 2014 IPPY (Independent Publishers) Gold medalist and a Lambda Literary Award finalist in the Gay Romance category. That lead to the opportunity to join other finalists at readings in New York and Philadelphia.

But perhaps most significantly, the publication of Unbroken allowed me to reconnect me with my childhood crush, Jose, who is the real life basis for the character of Jose, Lincoln de Chabert’s lifelong love in Unbroken. Getting to know him as an adult, confessing that long ago first crush has been both cathartic and illuminating.

Now seems like a good time to thank reviewers who read the book and wrote reviews, as well as the readers who not only spent their hard earned cash to buy the book but who also took the time to read the book and post a review here on Goodreads, or Amazon, or drop me an email sharing their thoughts on the story. One 75 year old woman said that she’d always loved her gay son but until she read Unbroken she had never truly understood. Another woman was reading the book because her 12 year old son had confessed to her that everyone at school kept asking him if he was gay. He, himself, was unsure, but she wanted to prepare herself to support him if he was.

My goal in writing Unbroken was to take the reader by the hand and carry him or her on my journey, down a road that was often unpaved, unlit, and which passed through enemy territory and unexplored lands but which was the only road open to me. I thank everyone who travelled that road with me by reading the book.