Cub

Not every gay teen yearns for fashion and popular culture. Some boys are pure country folk and like the feel of flannel and the smell of the farm. And they’re neither lithe nor muscle-bound but stocky boys, the ones who develop hairy chests, arms, and faces years earlier than their peers. One such seventeen year old is Travis Ferrell, shy among most of the other kids at school but proud of his West Virginia roots. He has not yet admitted his passion for handsome guys—and his idea of what handsome is and what handsome does is not much different from him. Soon he’ll learn that he’s not unique; gay culture has a name for young men like him. Cubs.

Lambda Literary Award-winning author Jeff Mann has written a touching romance for the outsider in us all.

''It's a book for those boys out there who have discovered that they are different from many of their friends, but who also feel the division within the subculture they thought they could identify with. Their aloneness does not cease once they ve figured out their sexual proclivities, but knowing who they are brings even more compartmentalization. Cub lets them feel there's room at the table for them. And I can think of no one better to write this story than Jeff Mann, whose table is as broad and wide as his heart. If this doesn't become a classic, there's no justice.''--Jerry Wheeler for Out in Print

''Finally, a young-adult romance that features Bears and their friends. Travis has, with the aid of his now-off-to-college friends, come out. Living on the West Virginia farm that is a part of him, he dreams of finding his one true love. But wait! Travis is no ordinary country boy. He is a Wiccan leather bear who is going to be true to himself, no matter what. Travis meets Mike; they fall for each other and then have to learn one of life's meanest lessons together. Cub is another great read by Jeff Mann and another beautifully designed book by Bear Bones Books.''--OutSmart Magazine

"The vast majority of small-town gay young tales generally involve the city as the goal. In Cub, you won’t find the typical gay kid desperate to escape the farm for the bright lights of the city. Instead, you meet Travis: someone not at odds with his rural upbringing, a poet and a passionate young man who isn’t like any youth I’ve read in gay young adult literature before."--'Nathan Burgoine