Title: Sand-Man’s Family: An M/M Coming of Age Romance
Series: Wild and Precious Book 3
Author: CJane Elliott
Publisher: CJane Elliott
Release Date: 8/24/20
Length: 36,800 words
Genre: Romance, New Adult, Young Adult, Coming of Age, coming out, family drama, bisexual, college, hurt-comfort
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Synopsis
It isn’t easy to leave a family that hurts. But what if it’s the start of finding a love that heals?
High-school senior Sandy’s Catholic parents are furious to discover he’s had sex before marriage. But when he blurts out he’s bisexual, they go ballistic. To avoid conversion therapy, Sandy runs away from Rockford, Illinois to move in with his gay uncle in Portland and start a new life.
He leaves behind Jade, the fabulous out gay kid in their Catholic high school. They hooked up—once—to confirm Sandy’s bisexuality. Jade had never expected to get that far with star athlete and altar boy Sandy. But he was crushed when Sandy disappeared without even telling him.
A year later Jade and Sandy run into each other on the train going home to Rockford for Thanksgiving and form an alliance to help Sandy confront his parents. Will they keep building where they left off or will their spark turn to dust?
If you like coming of age stories, queer kids finding the courage to be themselves, and the comfort of found families, you’ll love Sand-Man’s Family.
Hi there! CJane Elliott here to share the re-release of my 3rd Wild and Precious novella, Sand-Man’s Family. First time in KU! One of the joys of self-publishing my re-released titles is the opportunity to look at all my stories again. I’m particularly fond of Sand-Man’s Family because of its coming-of-age theme. Sandy is only eighteen at the start of the story and he shows a lot of courage in leaving his old life behind. I’m bringing you an excerpt from when Sandy returns home for Thanksgiving and comes out as bisexual to his brother and best friend.
Sandy, Connor, and Josh would have stayed up half the night talking if it hadn’t been for Mom coming in and shushing them. They wanted to know every detail of Sandy’s time in the Pacific Northwest, and before being shut down, he told them a few of the cool adventures he’d had with Dare, leaving out the detail about them hooking up.
Sandy thought about that now as he contemplated a crack in the ceiling. Back when he’d split, he hadn’t told Connor and Josh that the final showdown with Mom and Dad had actually been about him being bi. The parents taking away U of C had been enough of a reason for them. Once Sandy had plunged into life in Portland, he didn’t think about coming out to his Rockford friends and family. Rockford was out of sight and practically out of mind. But here he was, and it was past time to let them know.
Lord, this coming out thing never stopped. He was struck that he’d told Jade on the train without a second thought. Well, that was because Jade was queer too. And everyone knew about Jade being gay. Jade was brave. He didn’t give a fuck. So why should Sandy?
“Hey. Dudes.” Sandy stuck his foot out from the bed and jiggled Josh, who grumbled and tried to twist away from him. “Wake up. Josh. Connor.”
“Wha…?” Connor, always easy to rouse, sat bolt upright. “What’s going on?”
“I wanna tell you guys something.” Sandy gave Josh another firm shove with his foot.
“Screw you.” Josh sat up slowly, passing a hand over bleary eyes. “What?”
“You know when Dad socked me right before I left?”
“Yeah,” they both replied.
“It was because they found out I’m—”
“You’re not a virgin. Dude, we already knew that.” Josh yawned.
“No. I mean, yes, that was the first thing they found out. But then they found out about the gay thing.”
“What?” Connor’s eyes got wide.
“Um, not exactly gay, but bi. I like it with both guys and girls. I was sick of Mom and Dad and wanted to piss ’em off, so I left a gay magazine out for them to find.”
“Bi?” Josh yawned again. “There you are, having sex with both girls and guys, and I can’t get no one interested. Lucky you. So how’d you find out you like guys?”
“Well… Jade Byrne helped me figure it out.”
Josh laughed. “He would.”
Sandy couldn’t get over how underwhelmed Josh was acting. He turned his gaze to Connor, who still looked thunderstruck. “Cons? You okay with this?”
Connor swallowed visibly, then nodded. “Yeah. Sure. I can’t believe you told the ’rents, though. Jesus Christ, Sands.”
“Yeah. That was why the big blowup. Then they took away U of C, and they were going to send me to a ‘pray away the gay’ camp.”
“I knew about U of C, which sucked, but ‘pray away the gay’? That’s a bunch of bullcrap,” Josh proclaimed, then burped. “’Scuse me.”
“Totally. But it’s cool. It gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get out of here.”
“Are… are you really happy out there?” Connor huddled under his covers with a wistful expression.
“I really am.”
“Maybe I can come West after I graduate.”
Sandy grinned. “Absolutely. Cons, it’s so awesome.”
Josh leaned forward. “Dude, is it really like that show Portlandia? And everyone’s a vegan?”
As he answered their eager questions and told them more, Sandy knew where his home really was—Portland, with Uncle Phinney, Cody, and all the rest. All he had to do was survive the next two days, and he’d be headed home where he belonged.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this series. To keep up with what’s happening in my writing world, sign up for my newsletter at http://www.cjaneelliott.com/newsletter-sign-up.
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Get the whole series! Book 1, Wild and Precious, is on sale for just $0.99 for a limited time. Find the entire series HERE.
After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, award-winning author CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane writes sexy, passionate LGBTQ romances that explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.
CJane is bisexual and an ardent supporter of LGBTQ equality. In her spare time, CJane can be found dancing, listening to music, or watching old movies. Her family supports her writing habit by staying out of the way when they see her hunched over, staring intensely at her laptop.
CJane is the author of the award-winning Serpentine Series, New Adult contemporary novels set at the University of Virginia. Serpentine Walls was a 2014 Rainbow Awards finalist, Aidan’s Journey was a 2015 EPIC Awards finalist, and Sex, Love, and Videogames won first place in the New Adult category in the 2016 Swirl Awards and first place in Contemporary Fiction in the 2017 EPIC eBook Awards. Her contemporary novel All The Way To Shore was runner up for best bisexual fiction in the 2017 Rainbow Awards.
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