“Theseus and the Minotaur”
A short story retelling based on one of the most popular stories from classical mythology. Eighteen-year-old Theseus is heir to the kingdom of Athens, but he has only known of his origins for half a year. Meanwhile, Athens has been crippled by war with Crete, a much more powerful adversary whose cruel king demands seven boys and seven girls to challenge his stepson the Minotaur. To stand for honor, to prove his worth, Theseus demands that he take the children’s place to kill the monster of Crete. When he arrives in King Minos’s city, he quickly realizes the legend is even darker than he had been told. There are deadly traps and conspiracies that could change his mission entirely, if he can survive his visit to Crete.
A heroic fantasy in the tradition of David Gemmell with a twist for fans of gay fiction. Available for just $.99 at Smashwords, B&N, and iTunes.
“The Vain Prince”
An anthology of retold fairy tales, Myth and Magic includes my short story “The Vain Prince,” which is a mash-up of The Frog Prince and Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot. It’s the story of Adalbert, the legendarily beautiful and legendarily obnoxious son of King Heinrich of the land of Evermore.
Originally published in Ganymede Literary Journal, the story earned praise from Chroma Journal: “An adorably amusing fairy tale. Peters’ fairy tale anti-hero, Adalbert, is rather like a queer Turandot, and his prose swaggers along like a drunken queen in a nightclub, the very antithesis of what a fairytale should be.”
Buy it at Bold Strokes Books webstore.
“The Trouble with Finklesteins”
A monthly gathering of two friends from Kew Gardens, NY exposes long suppressed jealousies and a terrible secret.
You can read “The Trouble with Finklesteins” in Newtown Literary Issue 2 – Spring/Summer 2013.
“Mike’s Pond”
When a twelve-year old takes a dare to go down after dark to an abandoned lot, steeped in horror-style urban legends, he discovers something much more frightening than he had imagined.
“Mike’s Pond” is a fictionalized memoir about growing up in Amherst, NY. The story originally appeared in Wilde Oats Issue Nine and is available for free at Smashwords.
“In A Wine Phase”
My short story “In A Wine Phase” originally appeared in Wilde Oats Issue 5, and was selected for the five-year anniversary “best of” anthology Wilde Oats Issue 14. “In A Wine Phase” is a contemporary tale of a gay couple in trouble, temptation and what constitutes family.
