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Diversity Rules Magazine
June 2015
Doug Howery has been
writing both fiction and essays since 1990. His
essays and familial stories have appeared in The
Blue Ridge Lambda Press.
In many of his stories, as in "The Grass Sweeper
God," Mr. Howery's true lode, his font of inspira-
tion is in the passion and suffering he has experi-
enced.
Suspense author, Maggie Grace, with the North
Carolina Writers' Network writes about her co-
hort Mr. Howery: "What I like is the riskiness, the
cutting edge of the narrative voice we hear. The
moments when he lapses into descriptions of the
moon, of the horse, etc. are true poetry that offers
some relief from the coarseness of the story, and
he places them well. He has an ear for the rhythm
of the story, a natural sense of when to end--hangs
fire with a new way of looking at someone or some-
thing, turning the entire chapter on its ear. I like the
way he makes it impossible for the reader to stop
reading at the end of the chapter."
Mr. Howery lives in Virginia with his partner of 32
years where he is at work on his next novel.
While author Doug Howery has been blissfully hap-
py with his partner of thirty-two years, his strug-
gle for sexual identity has led to a relationship with
the wider world blighted by bigotry, prejudice and
tragedy. His own mother refused to accept her two sons'
truth, leading to her 1982 suicide and leaving behind
Grass Sweeper - Con't on page 6
The Grass Sweeper God
A Provocative Novel, Proves Mankind Really is Cruel to Those Who are Different
A Novel by Doug Howery
