Book Title: Colton’s Terrible Wonderful Year
Author: Vincent Traughber Meis
Publisher: Spectrum Books
Release Date: March 4, 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction
Tropes: First love
Themes: Coming of Age, Racial identity, Gay parenting
Heat Rating: 2 flames
Length: 58 000 words/ 231 pages
It is a standalone story.
It is the third book that focuses on the Burd siblings:
Four Calling Burds, First Born Sons, Colton’s Terrible Wonderful Year.
The book does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Colton searches for the surrogate mom he hasn’t seen since the day he was born
Blurb
Colton is on a quest to meet his surrogate mom who might help him navigate being a Black teenager in today’s America. The woman who gave birth to him is Black. His dads are not. His diverse community of family and friends includes lots of LGBTQ+ people, though his first love is a girl of mixed race like him. Colton’s dads reluctantly introduce him to his birth mother, but she doesn’t turn out to be the person he hoped for. On his journey of falling in love, nearly losing one of his dads, and confronting a racist cousin, he learns about love, non-traditional families, community, and what is important in life. The biggest challenge of all is something he discovers about his birth, causing friction with his dads. But like every difficulty in his life, the love of his dads ultimately carries him along and lifts him up.
The Airbnb we rented was a cottage behind a large Spanish-style house in West Hollywood, a couple of blocks from Santa Monica Boulevard. Papi was excited to be in Southern California where he grew up, staying a short distance from the clubs where he had been for a few years a party boy. “Before I met Augie,” he assured me.
“I bet you were really popular,” I said. “Did you have lots of boyfriends?”
“All right,” said Dad. “Enough of that.”
I was a bundle of nervous energy at the prospect of meeting my mother. On the night before we left, I talked to Olivia about it on a WhatsApp call. I told her how Joy was a singer, and she was working on an album, though, okay, I made the last part up.
Joy suggested lunch at this Mexican place on Santa Monica, which she described as a quirky taqueria and agua fresca bar. We arrived first, and my dads ordered margaritas, and an horchata for me. A half-hour late, Joy made an entrance as if she was walking on stage to hella applause. My eyes about popped out of my head at how beautiful she was. Her head was wrapped in a red turban to match the red in the knee-length dashiki she wore over a pair of tight jeans. Dangling earrings caught the light while her wrists were heavy with metal and beaded bracelets. She was like an African queen, and I felt so proud.
Her entrance was so striking we almost didn’t notice a shorter, brown-skinned woman who looked to be about ten years younger follow her into the restaurant. She had short-cropped hair and multiple ear piercings. We stood up from the table and Joy introduced her friend as Simone. Simone’s eyes darted around like she wasn’t too pleased at the awkward gathering. Dad was immediately tense. I could feel my initial excitement fading away. Please, Dad, don’t ruin this for me.
Dad and Papi had told me they hadn’t seen Joy since the day I was born, though Papi had talked to her several times over the years. They had all agreed it would be best not to have contact, but Papi didn’t like the idea of not being in touch with his old friend and biological mother of his child. Every few years he would track her down, and they would talk. In the time after my birth, she lived in Los Angeles, followed by several years in New York, and then there was a period of time they had no idea where she was. A few years ago, Papi had learned she was back in Los Angeles. I know the music industry is tough, and she was probably working really hard to make it.
Joy turned to me and shook my hand. “My, what a handsome young man you are! How old are you now?” That really threw me. I think you were there when I was born.
But I forced myself to smile. “Uh… fourteen.”
I hoped she wouldn’t ask when my birthday was because Dad looked like he was ready to have a fit.
“What? You two never met?” said Simone. Her eyes twinkled.
Papi let out an uneasy chuckle. “They met on the day of his birth.”
Dad waved his hand toward the table. “Let’s all sit down. I guess we’ll need another chair. We didn’t know you were bringing someone extra.” His voice had a bite to it. Come on, Dad, be nice.
“She’s not extra. She’s my partner.”
“It would have been nice to know.”
Joy ignored the comment and grabbed the two nearest chairs on one side of the table for her and Simone. Papi asked the people at the next table if he could take a chair while I stood dumbfounded, not knowing where to sit.
“Why don’t you sit here, Colie?” Dad indicated the chair at the end of the table.
I groaned. “I wish you’d stop calling me that.” Now that I had a girlfriend and was meeting my mother, I had asked my parents not to call me Colie anymore.
Joy rose up in an exaggerated stiff-backed posture. “Colie does sound a little childish for a young man like you.”
“My girlfriend calls me Cole. I like that,” I said.
“Oh, you have a girlfriend.”
“Yeah, I met her in Thailand.”
Simone let out a disapproving “Hah.”
“A girlfriend in Thailand? So far away,” said Joy.
“Noooo. She’s British. She lives in London. I mean, that’s far away, too, but we talk every day.”
Simone put her hand over her face to stifle a giggle. We were definitely not off to a good start.
The server came and took our orders.
Vincent Traughber Meis grew up in Decatur, Illinois where he got his start writing plays for his younger sisters to act in for a neighborhood audience. He graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and worked for many years as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, publishing many academic articles in his field. He published travel articles, poems, and book reviews in publications such as, The Advocate, LA Weekly, In Style, and Our World in the 1980’s and 90’s. He finally arrived at his true writing love: novels and short stories. Five of his seven published novels are set at least partially in foreign countries and his book of short stories focuses on countries around the world. Several of his novels have won Rainbow Awards and The Mayor of Oak Street was awarded a Reader Views Silver Award. He has published short stories in a number of collections and has achieved Finalist status in a few short fiction contests. He lives in San Leandro, California.
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