My High School Boyfriend a novel by Gary Cottle

My High School Boyfriend is now available as an ebook at Amazon and Smashwords.

This is the book I dreamed of writing when I was still in high school. I tried several times but I just couldn’t get it to work. I imagined having a special friend, and I could picture us agreeing to meet at a scenic, romantic spot after we had graduated and leaving town in search of a place where two young men could make a life together. The trouble is I couldn’t get past that basic concept because I couldn’t actually imagine having a boyfriend. It seemed impossible. I didn’t know any out gay men, and rarely did I come across gay characters in books, TV shows or in movies, and when I did, they were usually pathetic and sad. Being gay was almost always presented as a tragedy, but I wanted to write a sweet romance. 

I got older, and the need to write that teenage romance became less intense, but the premise has always stuck with me, and last summer, I decided it was time to give my little hopeful love story about two West Virginia boys falling for each other one last try.

Now and then, someone will ask, if it were possible, what would you say to your teenage self. In a sense, My High School Boyfriend is the letter I would send to myself at 17 if I could.

In 1983, Glen Farris, a poor teenager who was bullied at school and ignored at home, believed he was destined to lead a life of loneliness and solitude until Shannon Dupree, a handsome and stylish young man from the city, moved into the abandoned house next door. Shannon lived alone because his recently divorced mother liked to travel, and the rambling old mansion near the ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia, built with coal money by Shannon’s great grandfather, provided a refuge, a place where the boys could relax and not worry about those who would judge them. They became close during the summer between their junior and senior years of high school, and in the fall, they became boyfriends. They planned to run away together after graduation, but their dreams were almost destroyed when Glen’s father, a fundamentalist preacher, discovered they were more than friends.