Identity & Authenticity
Bear has spent years becoming the son, teammate, and hometown star everyone recognizes. Senior year asks whether that version of him leaves room for the truth.
The Bear Houston Chronicles · Book One
High School
Lineman
The whole town knows Bear Houston. Almost no one knows who he really is.
Published · Available now
About the Book
Where Bear’s Story Begins
In the heart of Kansas, Bear Houston is a powerhouse on the football field, a star athlete in a town that values tradition above all else. But beneath his imposing exterior lies a secret that has shaped every step of his high school journey.
As Bear navigates the pressures of senior year, he finds himself torn between the safety of conformity and the courage to embrace his true identity. When he meets Kyle Wilson, a confident and unapologetic transfer student, everything begins to change.
Amid Friday night lights, whispered conversations, family expectations, and the bittersweet promise of graduation, Bear discovers that being true to himself comes at a cost—but it also opens the door to love, hope, and the freedom to live on his own terms.
Inside Book One
What Shapes the Story
Football & Masculinity
The football field gives Bear confidence, status, and brotherhood—but it also places him inside expectations about masculinity that do not always leave room for who he is.
First Love
Kyle Wilson’s arrival turns feelings Bear has tried to suppress into something immediate, personal, and impossible to ignore.
Family & Belonging
Bear’s journey is not only about coming out. It is about discovering which relationships can grow with him when he stops hiding.
From Chapter One · First Light
“Senior year,” he mumbled. “Here we go.”
Morning in Redfield begins with an alarm clock, the smell of coffee and freshly tilled fields, and seventeen-year-old Bear Houston preparing to step into the final year of a life everyone around him assumes they understand.
Meet Bear at Seventeen
He is six-foot-two, built like the offensive lineman he has spent years becoming, and known throughout town by a nickname that fits his size and appearance. Outwardly, he is dependable, friendly, and familiar. Inside, he is beginning to realize that the role he has learned to play cannot contain everything he is becoming.
Read a SampleContinue Bear’s Journey
Freshman Year
Bear leaves Redfield behind for Eastern Missouri University, where independence, art, friendship, and a much larger world force him to decide who he wants to become next.
Discover Book Two