NEW RELEASE: LEGALLY WED!

UPDATE: We have a winner. Tom Scruggs, your book is on its way. I have e-mailed you.

Got gay marriage? Got Legally Wed? If you want to win a free, signed copy, read on....

I'm thrilled to introduce you to my newest book, Legally Wed, which was inspired by my own historic wedding day, which took place on the first day same-sex couples in Washington state could marry.

BLURB

Love comes along when you least expect it. That’s what Duncan Taylor’s sister, Scout, tells him. Scout has everything Duncan wants—a happy life with a wonderful husband. Now that Seattle has made gay marriage legal, Duncan knows he can have the same thing. But when he proposes to his boyfriend Tucker, he doesn’t get the answer he hoped for. Tucker’s refusal is another misstep in a long line of failed romances. Despairing, Duncan thinks of all the loving unions in his life—and how every one of them is straight. Maybe he could be happy, if not sexually compatible, with a woman. When zany, gay-man-loving Marilyn Samples waltzes into his life, he thinks he may have found his answer. 

Determined to settle, Duncan forgets his sister’s wisdom about love and begins planning a wedding with Marilyn. But life throws Duncan a curveball. When he meets wedding planner Peter Dalrymple, unexpected sparks ignite. Neither man knows how long he can resist his powerful attraction to the other. For sure, there’s a wedding in the future. But whose?

Read an excerpt
BUY from Dreamspinner Press in ebook or in paperback
Amazon Kindle

CONTEST
If you want to win a free, autographed copy of Legally Wed, you gotta play the game. Here are the simple rules:

1. Go to the Amazon Kindle page for Legally Wed and click on "Click to Look Inside!" just above the books cover image. Read the excerpt and answer the following questions.

A. On what month, day, and year could same-sex couples in Washington state first obtain marriage licenses?
B. What were the names of the first couple to get their marriage license on that day?
C. What was the name of the jeweler Duncan goes to to buy an engagement ring for Tucker?
D. What unusual type of dwelling does our main character, Duncan, live in?

2. E-mail me your responses at jimmyfels@gmail.com
3. If you're on Twitter or Facebook, send out a message to your followers, urging them to enter the contest. You could say: Rick Reed is giving away copies of his latest book, LEGALLY WED! Details: http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/ 

That's it! I will pick draw one winner on Friday, January 10. Unfortunately, because of the prohibitive cost of mailing, this contest is open only to US residents. If you're outside the US and would like to win an ebook of Legally Wed, simply follow the steps above and I will enter you for the digital version.

Feel free to repost this blog!

Am American Gay Wedding

Jeff and Chris say their "I do's."

So last night, Bruce and I were honored to be among the guests celebrating the nuptials of our dear friends, Chris Lopez and Jeffrey Martel. We have known the couple since they first met and couldn't have been happier to be a part of the joy, love, and happiness that was part of this special day.

The wedding had several unique things going for it. For one, the setting: groom and groom stood said their vows outdoors, within the wolf and elk habitat of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo as their backdrop. Seeing big-tusked elk meandering about behind Jeff and Chris and the minister was a bit surreal, but somehow fitting: the wildlife setting complemented what was a very natural joining together of two people in love, committed to the other. When the ceremony paused for the classical quartet to play a lovely rendition of "Ave Maria", it seemed the wolf pack to the right of the ceremony actually paused to listen. They had been restless before and, honest to God, they all quieted and became still as the music floated out on the summer night air.

I wanted to list a bunch of other things that made this wedding unique, but you know what? I can't think of another one. And that's a good thing.

Two weeks ago, Bruce and I went to the wedding of his niece in Minnesota to her groom and the thing that struck me about these two weddings--one gay and one straight--was not their differences, but their similarities.

Jeff's nieces were the flower girls

Both were held outdoors in a gorgeous setting (our niece was married to her husband in a botanical garden), settings one might say were blessed with both temperate weather and an abundance of natural beauty. Both had a misty-eyed captive audience, united in witnessing the joining of two lives as they began their journeys together down life's highway. Both, and this one is the most important, displayed a palpable feeling of love and happiness as not only the couple getting married was swept up in the joy of the moment, but also their friends and family.

After the wedding, we headed inside for dinner, where a Grizzly bear, not three feet away in his sanctuary, watched from behind a glass wall (a heavy glass wall). We then all moved to another building for dessert and dancing (cupcakes replaced a wedding cake at this reception, which I thought was a nifty idea, one I filed away to steal later for Bruce and me, when our day comes).

At the reception, the same feeling persisted: the atmosphere of love and commitment, strong enough to be like a scent in the air.

I said to Bruce, "You know, if some of those people who opposed gay marriage could be here tonight and see all these people--friends, family, wedding party--coming together with such happiness and deep love, I think they might see this day as not something to be opposed, or hated, or feared, but exactly what it is: two people who love one another and want to make a lifelong commitment to the other and have that promise witnessed by the people they hold dear."

Cupcakes!

I'd like to believe that the folks who oppose gay marriage do it out of fear or ignorance. I'd like to think they've never had the privilege of witnessing what we saw last night--the spiritual uniting of two people. How, I wonder, could anyone be opposed to something as pure and simple--and profound--as love.

Because marriage--gay, straight--is really just about that: love. And it's not about what's between our legs, but what's between our ears...and in our hearts.

Love is love. Why on earth, or in God's name, would anyone want to deny that to their fellow man or woman? We can only be strengthened, as families, as a society, by encouraging and celebrating love and commitment.