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Forbidden Friends: Memoirs of a Mixed Orientation Marriage

by Lester Leavitt

112 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1113; ISBN 1-4120-9359-7; US$14.00, C$16.10, EUR11.50, £8.05

Probably the most honest account ever written about "coming out" late… and married. This story will educate and inspire anybody who has ever known, or been, a closeted gay man.

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About the Book

Reviews

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

In August 2004 a lonely married man with four children made an anonymous post to an on-line forum that he was gay. A month later he came out to his wife.

Unflinchingly honest, Lester writes his memoirs of the following 22 months. He knew that by simply removing the barriers that had kept him closeted for over 30 years he would most likely destroy his marriage and alienate his children as he navigated the risks associated with a typical 'gay adolescence'.

Lester describes in detail how he relied solely upon his core values and used boundaries instead of barriers to define his new life. In the end, it would appear that nothing had changed. He was still married, still had a tightly knit family, and was still gay. But nothing was the same. His relationship with his wife is so vastly improved that he no longer considers it the same marriage, his relationship with his children has been redefined, and the allure of gay sexual activity has abated and been replaced by healthy friendships with several men, both gay and straight.

He no longer has Forbidden Friends.

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Reviews

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About the Author

Lester Leavitt was born in the small, strictly religious farming community of Cardston, Alberta, Canada in 1959. He is the youngest of six children. After graduating from high school he attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he met his wife, Barbara. They have been married for 25 years and have four children, ranging in age from 16 to 23.

Lester has worked most of his life as an accountant with a penchant for entrepreneurship. He currently assists in the development of franchises for a national window cleaning and pressure washing franchise and makes his home in Bonita Springs, FL. He and Barbara divide their time between writing, creating art, window cleaning, and the beaches that are a short walk from their home.

Lester 'came out' and admitted anonymously to an on-line forum that he was struggling with 'same-sex attraction' in August of 2004. By September he came out to Barbara, and by February 2006 he was finally able to say out-loud that he was 'gay'. Slowly, Lester and Barbara adjusted to their new reality. His first book, Forbidden Friends, is a memoir of that journey.

Lester is currently working on a companion non-fiction book for Forbidden Friends entitled Coming Out Late... With Dignity. Two mystery novels that were almost completed before he wrote Forbidden Friends should also be released by late 2006. His first features a young gay man who needs to decide whether it is right to marry the girl that he has dated for the past three years while at the same time unraveling an embezzling scheme within the Church of England. In Lester's second novel, a 17-year-old boy who is coming to terms with the effects of being raised in a strictly religious community finds himself alone in Brazil when his father is arrested.

To follow Lester's complete story, visit his web page at www.QuintonReedBooks.com

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Excerpts

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