BEST GAY LOVE STORIES: NEW YORK CITY
Stroke Of Luck by Arthur Wooten

Alyson Books has invited Arthur to contribute a short story for their November 2006 release.
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FRUIT COCKTAIL
(Sequel to On Picking Fruit)

The further adventures of Curtis Jenkins -
Alyson Books - Available in bookstores nationwide and online.
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BIRTHDAY PIE (Adapted from Mr. Wooten's award winning play)


When Lex Martindale, a writer from New York City, travels home to Ragland, North Carolina, to celebrate his 36th birthday and say goodbye to his dying father, he struggles with whether or not to tell his family of his own life threatening health situation. One would think that being a gay man Lex has been infected with HIV or even worse, AIDS. But no one is more surprised than Lex himself to find out what is truly going on.

Ironically, it's his 10-year-old niece Mattie Lee and his blind grandmother Anastasia Battles, who sense Lex is not well. And although he spends only 26 hours with his eccentric Southern family, we travel through almost 70 years of improbable, enlightening, shocking, unpredictable challenges and tribulations that are heartwarming, heartbreaking and hilarious.

When not running around Ragland late at night as its unofficial peeping tom, Lex is the long-standing saint and definitely the referee in this family. One by one he consoles, confronts and conforms to each clan member and their needs. One chapter after another, as we learn each Martindale's secrets and a whopper of one from the Battles side of the family, we are reminded that every family is unique and yet still recognizable to all of us.

Then there's Lex's mother, Trudy Lee. A strong yet infuriating woman at times, she manipulates Lex into being her playmate, therapist, father and confidante. She's everything for him except what he needs most right now, a mother. When she looks into her mirror each day she sees Marilyn Monroe's twin looking back at her, while everyone else sees the last five minutes of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Birthday Pie reflects everyone's own lives and families, as these characters take on life's most difficult trials and embraces them with biting humor and compassionate understanding and, yes, the All-American skill of avoidance.

Love, laughter, fears, tears, secrets, confessions, reunions, farewells, the All-American family, a dash of comedic edge and a dollop of Southern charm are the ingredients for Birthday Pie.