QSFer Andrew J. Peters has a new gay fantasy short out:
Based on one of the most popular stories from classical mythology, “Theseus and the Minotaur” is a short story retelling by award-winning fantasy author Andrew J. Peters (The City of Seven Gods, Poseidon and Cleito).
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.
Excerpt
“He would be bold, for he alone stood for Athens in this house of tyranny. These foreigners had butchered his countrymen, raped their women, taken their daughters and sons as slaves, and burned their fields. He alone would end the war, and in truth it did not matter if he returned to Athens on a white-sailed galley to herald a hero’s return or if a black-sailed ship should come back to his father, signaling that Crete had been his final resting place. So had he decided. He looked to King Minos to begin.”
Author Bio
Andrew J. Peters is an author, an educator, and an activist. His young adult fantasy series on the legend of Atlantis (The Seventh Pleiade, Banished Sons of Poseidon) garnered honors at the 2014 and 2015 Rainbow Awards, and Banished Sons of Poseidon was a Best of 2015 pick at All Our Worlds Diverse Fantastic Fiction.
On the adult side, his Werecat series was a finalist in The Romance Reviews’ 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards. His latest novel The City of Seven Gods was a shortlisted as a 2016 Foreward INDIES Book of the Year. He is also the author of Poseidon and Cleito, which explores the origins of the Atlantis legend. In 2016, Andrew was included in Loop Magazine’s “Four Must-Read Authors with Buffalo Ties.” (That’s the city of Buffalo; Andrew doesn’t wear ties with buffaloes).
Andrew grew up in Amherst, New York, studied psychology at Cornell University, and has spent most of his career as a social worker and an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.
Most of Andrew’s work takes inspiration from mythological themes, but as a young writer, he adored Agatha Christie. At Smallwood Elementary School, he was briefly a literary celebrity when his school principal invited him to read from his novel Murder at Moosewood Mansion over the P.A. system at lunch.
In the 90s, Andrew founded a ‘Coffeehouse’ in suburban Long Island to provide a safe place for LGBT teens to make friends, express themselves through the creative arts, and get help if they needed it. While he writes about fantasy worlds, his work tends to feature LGBT characters, and he is proud to write gay fiction for readers of all ages.
Andrew lives in New York City with his husband Genaro and their cat Chloë. Outside of writing, he is an administrator and an adjunct professor at Adelphi University School of Social Work.