DeeJay Arens
For as long as I can remember, I was driven to tell stories, whether it was making my friends and family act out certain scenes or, later in adolescence, putting pen to paper and creating a new work. Literally. I’m old. The thing about growing up in the Midwest, though, is that you were taught to be practical when it came to choosing what you spent your time on as an adult. When I went to college, I started in social work, then went to psychology, then philosophy, a brief stint in world religions, and finally ended on a theatre degree. That was my one moment of “rage against the machine”. Well, the Midwest version at least. However, try as I might, I couldn’t stay away from my creative side. When I took the rare moments of free time as an early adult, I’d work on writing. One day a story took hold in my head and became the story I needed to tell. Even if it took me over a decade to finish, “The View From a Rusty Train Car” realized my longtime dream of becoming a published author and will forever hold a special place in my heart. That is the only work I’ve finished for publication. I’m definitely not what you would call prolific, though I do have several books in various states ready for me to one day finish. I’m hoping that day comes sooner rather than later. Until then, I am very lucky to be involved as an actor and director for our local community theater, a sometimes filmmaker, and active in my local Unitarian Universalist church. Oh, the practical job that pays the bills for me? Being a paralegal, because I’m also a huge legal nerd. If you are new to my work or the work of the other talented, amazing writers with whom I have the honor of sharing this site and calling dear friends, thank you for taking the time to check us out. If you are a longtime supporter, thank you so much for all the love you’ve shown me and continue to show.
The View From A Rusty Train Car
“No one talks about what happens when you fall in love with the boy next door -- not when you’re the boy living beside the boy next door.”
Jared didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. Someone had to sit before the government hearing to explain why a gay man was nothing to be vilified, nothing to be hated or feared... that he was just a man. That is what Jared Montgomery is determined to do. He does so by sharing his story – his and Luke’s story – in the hopes that perhaps even just one more person could understand.
Luke and Jared were battling the odds from the beginning. Growing up beside each other, being best friends, they soon learned that if they wanted to share each other’s company, it had to be done in secret, in the confines of the old train car behind the junkyard. There, they were free of the taunts and jibes, the ridicule and hatred... or were they?
Unable to embrace who he is, unable to deal with the tactics used by his family to ‘cure’ him, Luke forces himself into a traditional marriage that is doomed from the start. His true, self-denied love for Jared, and the hatred surrounding it, is killing him. The question is, can Jared get to him before it is too late?
The View From A Rusty Train Car was featured at the Author Book Expo America May 2013.
This book was a finalist in the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards for the GLBT category, Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Finalist in the NIEA Indie Excellence Awards in the same category.
Jared didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. Someone had to sit before the government hearing to explain why a gay man was nothing to be vilified, nothing to be hated or feared... that he was just a man. That is what Jared Montgomery is determined to do. He does so by sharing his story – his and Luke’s story – in the hopes that perhaps even just one more person could understand.
Luke and Jared were battling the odds from the beginning. Growing up beside each other, being best friends, they soon learned that if they wanted to share each other’s company, it had to be done in secret, in the confines of the old train car behind the junkyard. There, they were free of the taunts and jibes, the ridicule and hatred... or were they?
Unable to embrace who he is, unable to deal with the tactics used by his family to ‘cure’ him, Luke forces himself into a traditional marriage that is doomed from the start. His true, self-denied love for Jared, and the hatred surrounding it, is killing him. The question is, can Jared get to him before it is too late?
The View From A Rusty Train Car was featured at the Author Book Expo America May 2013.
This book was a finalist in the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards for the GLBT category, Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Finalist in the NIEA Indie Excellence Awards in the same category.
