Bended Knee

By Rodney Ross

When restaurateur Hugh Neumann rebukes Oliver Nicholas’s very public proposal to his boyfriend during a Valentine’s Day dinner, the diverted Cupid’s arrow strikes Hugh not in the heart, but in the ass.

After a media storm of commentary, ironically pro and con, gains national steam, what Hugh begins to refer to as his personal “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” begins to affect home life with his partner, Dominick Brodie.

Was Hugh’s overreaction pandering to his largely heterosexual clientele? Or did the incident trigger his own panic about same-sex marriage? Will the public scrutiny threaten his decade-long commitment to Dom?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Feb 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646562671

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

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