The Nature of the Game

by Vincent Berg

The athletes at Windsor High are aiming for big careers in professional sports. They don't like making waves, so don't like to stand out. However, when Taylor meets the flamboyant Jacob in the drama department, there's a distinct clash of cultures. The out-and-proud attitude of someone unable to hide imperils the futures of someone who can. Casual meetings under the bleachers risk not just public embarrassment, but the loss of millions in future earnings.

Yet two figures can't keep their hands off each other. Jacob, the drama queen, and Taylor, the guy all the girls are after, keep rubbing each other the wrong way while doing it the right way. Will Jacob’s freedom to be who he is imperil Taylor's future, or can the two resist each other long enough to survive high school?

76 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2016

About the author

Vincent Berg (1957) was born in New Jersey but, being a military dependent, grew up on 'more or less the East Coast'. Working in Systems Engineering in the Financial Services in Chicago and New York City, he never considered himself a writer, but after retiring and moving closer to his family, he wanted to explore the kinds of books he enjoyed.

His writings aren't typical, with the writing style harking back to the early twentieth Century, and the stories being complex and meandering. Without action heroes, antiheroes or even clear conflicts, the stories are more character based, as the central characters try to figure out where they are and where they're going. The reader gets sucked along, as they try to piece together where they fit in the world.

His work includes 5 series (ranging from 2 to 6 books), for a total of 16 original books published to date.

Reviews

[Vincent Berg]

This book is a bit of a stretch for me. I doubt many of my fans will read it, but it was one I felt compelled to write. After having lived in Chicago's North Side and in Manhattan, and spending a lot of time in SoHo and Greenwich Village with my brother Copy Berg, a seminal figure in the Gay movement until his death, I was thoroughly enmeshed in this world. The focus of this book, the internal conflicts within the gay culture between who advances and who pulls the movement back, were important to Copy, who frequently spoke out about it. Even today, decades later, the issues still arise whenever I meet someone who laments how far we'd be if only we didn't have those ...

So I wrote this story in my brother's honor. I hope he'd be proud of my effort, as he and his partner's lives revolved around books, art, literature and design.

Writing the story was another interesting story. Finding editors was a challenge. I had to search to find editors, proofreaders and/or betareaders, as the majority of those I've relied on over the years wanted nothing to do with it. Hell, out of my own family, only my 86-year-old mother was willing to read it. You think a general acceptance if okay, but then you hit something like this, and realize just how stacked the deck is, and it makes you wonder. It's also made me step up, reaching out to help other struggling authors.