My Strange Little Oasis Book 1

Ren Gallagher had it all. He was a good looking, charismatic gay man with a successful career in public relations. However, he had also been HIV positive for over a decade when he noticed the first mysterious signs of facial disfigurement, an alarming process which accelerated in 2000. He was unaware that others were also experiencing the same devastating side effect of HIV "drug cocktail" medication, a condition called lipodystrophy. Certain that his worsening facial disfiguration would lead to the loss of his job, complete social isolation, and end his chance of ever finding love, he decided to quietly end his life. However, his friends Audrey and Adam, and a feisty, determined spirit from the "other side", that of a young Native American man who had died of AIDS in the early '80s, were determined to intervene and help Ren through his daunting crisis. The spirit "Night Cloud" effectively and sometimes hilariously manages to thwart Ren's efforts to kill himself, then plans to lead him out of his social isolation to an obscure, private club for gay men called The Oh Aces, where he will find unconditional acceptance and learn he is not alone. However, Ren is afraid he will only be rejected for his appearance, and getting him to leave the safety of his self-imposed social isolation proves a challenge. Part One of My Strange Little Oasis draws the reader into the despair and hopelessness of Ren's self-image-shattering personal crisis. Certain his life is over, Ren is unaware he is about to embark on his greatest adventure, the discovery of the man he really is beneath his embattled skin and disfigured appearance.