Tell Me I'm Home — Emily Carrington

Blue Ticket:
Small town New York, 1946: Fresh from the horrors of post-atomic Hiroshima, all Don Chesterfield wants is to forget what he saw, and grieve the friend and almost-lover he lost. Back in the States after receiving a blue ticket discharge, he finds shelter a few days before Christmas with Will Jefferson, a black man who immediately sparks Don's sexual fire and imagination.

Will refuses to accept their powerful attraction, because of trouble he's had with white men in the past, but try as he might, he can't resist the pull to get to know Don. They grow closer, revealing their struggles and bonding over their unfair discharges, until their sexual attraction explodes into violence and tenderness.

As each seeks for a way to reunite with his family, he wonders: could this man be the answer to something he wants even more than the family into which he was born?


Adeste Fideles:
As half of the first gay couple on his Air Force base, Xander Tsoukatos feels like he's being studied--like a bug under a magnifying glass--by the base community. His lover, Sergeant John Tsoukatos, doesn't help when he directs Xander like he would any fellow soldier.

After seven years together, in which Xander follows John through transfer after transfer, from base to base, they are finally settled in one place and married. Without all the upheaval, they learn quickly they've lost any connection between them beyond sexual attraction.

Now they must either explore the virtues of Christmas--hope, faith, and fidelity--to bring them closer, or give up each other forever.