Otis

By Rodney Ross

It’s Christmas Eve and it’s snowing, but at least one creature is still stirring: a tabby cat with white paws named Otis. He’s protesting from his carrier in the backseat of a rented Kia, en route to a veterinarian clink. Otis is neither ill nor in need of vaccination; Jaston Calderone has come out from assisted living to tie what few loose ends his gay son Mitchell’s suicide left behind, and one of them is Otis.

As the wind whips up bluish columns of white, Jaston navigates the clogged streets in a town he doesn’t know, looking for someone to swiftly euthanize Otis. He doesn’t suspect something spectral is already at work ... that a guardian angel has crafted a plan not for Jaston’s redemption, but for Otis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646561940

Rodney Ross

Author Rodney Ross lives, writes and sweats in Southern California. His new novel, 'Diversionary Fires', debuted mid-Summer 2021 from Amazon KDP Select. 'The Cool Part Of His Pillow', his debut novel, was the 1st Place Winner in the GLBT Fiction category from both the Indie Excellence Awards and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards; Silver Medalist in the 2013 Global EBook Awards; and Honorable Mention in the 2012 Rainbow Book Awards. In 2020, it was re-issued in a 2nd edition by JMS Books. Other works include the forthcoming novella 'Smoking With Didi,' from JMS Books in the Fall of 2021; 'Signing Off' in the short story collection' Impact', from Other World Ink; 'Otis,' a short fiction about a Christmas Eve where lessons are taught and learned; 'Bended Knee', a short, bittersweet contemplation of same-sex marriage; and a non-fiction contribution to the 'The Other Man: Twenty-One Top Writers Speak Candidly About Sex, Love, Infidelity, Heartbreak and Moving On'. A trio of essays from this book are being adapted into a play by Chicago playwright Bernard Rice. Rodney's work is one of the three. Past achievements include an optioned screenplay and play, both currently unproduced. Other screenplays earned Honorable Mentions or runners-up citations in the Monterey County Film Commission, FADE-IN and the LGBT One-In-Ten Screenwriting Competitions. Ross was also cited as 'Most Creative' in the Key West Mystery Fest Writing Competition. Follow him @rodtross on Twitter; access his website at www.rodneytross.com

Book preview

Otis

By Rodney Ross

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2019 Rodney Ross

ISBN 9781646561940

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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For GWC and our family.

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Otis

By Rodney Ross

It had to be done.

He prayed for resolve and lit a candle at a church he’d come upon. The Yuletide worshippers, mostly families overdressed to compensate for under-attendance, made him uneasy.

The stranger in the puffy coat at the end of their pew seemed to make them equally suspicious.

He quickly joined those parishioners leaving the altar, since he had Otis in the car.

A little boy stuck his tongue out at him and snuffed his candle. A tornadic speck of gray spun