Queen City Memoirs

"Not everything is what it appears to be," John Benedict, a gay man, learns the hard way after moving to youth and beauty-obsessed Southern California. He hopes to find love after the breakup of his eleven-year relationship but wonders, At forty years old, is it too late for me? A fun, carefree life as a writer with new friends, country western dancing, and romance is soon shattered when a love-triangle betrayal along with financial disaster lead to life-changing consequences. Several men come and go in his life, each bringing their lessons. He loves fearlessly, always searching for spiritual answers and happiness, along the way finding out that he has a lot of growing up to do.John struggles against sex and relationship addiction and works hard to heal himself while building a new life. But disillusioned by go-nowhere dates, painful traps, and abortive relationships, he makes a choice to stop looking for love but instead revels in the single life of sex clubs and party drugs. Though independent and living life to the fullest, he eventually realizes that something is missing. Will he ever find lasting love and the elusive healthy relationship he has been longing for?Queen City Memoirs is a chronicle of our times around the turn of the twenty-first century and beyond. It is set against the backdrop of the history of same-sex marriage--from an impossible dream, through a growing global consciousness, then culminating in 2008 when gays and lesbians were at last able to marry in California, only to have our civil rights voted away.

-- John Bendt