Nuclear Sunrise

By Jo Carthage

It's 1951, and US Air Force Captain Brian Flynn hails from Roswell, New Mexico. He's twenty-six, queer, and back in the closet thanks to his homophobic father. And he's deeply tired of alien jokes. But Brian has bigger worries than his hometown's recent extraterrestrial reputation. Brian's the new security director at a top-secret atomic energy research facility in the sage-dusted plains of Idaho. His job is simple: keep any plutonium from walking out the door, keep the scientists safe from themselves, or, failing that, keep them from killing anyone else.

Nuclear physicist Dr. Aaron Antares is a cowboy in every sense of the word: the boots, the attitude, the homoerotic overtones. But in addition to gleefully violating every security procedure Brian can come up with, he's also keeping a secret.

Brian knows Aaron is dangerous long before he discovers his out-of-this-world secret. The man flirts too freely, laughs too loudly, and can't play straight to save his life. But Aaron's amber eyes and gen-tle offers of a ride home in the flurrying Idaho snows are wearing down Brian's defenses.

Will these two men find love in the high desert, or will they be kept apart by the cruelties of the Atomic Age?