Out by Laura Preble
Kindle edition, 1st edition, 266 pages
In a society where “perpendiculars,” opposite-sex couples, are forbidden, persecuted, freakish…Chris Bryant, a preacher’s son, finds himself in love…with a girl.
Chris has always been faithful to his Anglicant religion – even though he’s never felt like everyone else, never felt…parallel. And then it happens: he meets her. Carmen. Daughter of one of the leading
Perpendicular prosecutors…the girl he knows he can’t live without.
Carmen has always thought the treatment of Perps is barbaric – but to actually be one? To fall in love with Chris and openly admit to it is suicide.
Their only chance to be together is the Underground, a secret society Chris’s sister introduces him to that is determined to mount an attack against the social restrictions of the Anglicant church. They want to make an example of Chris and Carmen, two Perps from high social families, to become the catalyst for an uprising that will threaten the traditions of their society’s families and church.
But the cost of involvement just might be death for them both.
San Diego author Laura Preble’s fifth book, Out is now available on Kindle. Described as speculative fiction it portrays a world where same-sex couples (Parallels) are the majority (and they run a powerful theocracy) and opposite-sex (Perpendicular) people are criminalized. Chris, a minister’s son, falls in love with a girl, and must decide whether or not to go against what he’s been taught and follow his heart, or conform.
Preble states, “My goal was to give people who are in the lucky majority, the opposite-sex couples, a glimpse of what it would be like to be told that who you are and whom you love is deviant and unacceptable. LGBT people live every day with discrimination, both subtle and direct. I’ve seen it happen at my school, with my son, and with other people less close to home. I’ve done research; there are still people who believe in reconditioning LGBT people, or ‘praying the gay away.’”
Preble continues, “This is why I had to write Out. Until those who condemn LGBT people see that love is love, these things will continue to happen, innocent people will suffer, and our world will be poorer for it. The only way I can see for them to understand is to picture themselves in the shoes of the LGBT minority, to feel, through the love story of Chris and Carmen, the wrenching horror of being denied the person you love.”
