Enter to win Iguana!

Enter to win Iguana! To enter the contest, fill out the form below between Friday, October 3, and Friday, October 24.

Reeling from the end of a long-term relationship and the death of his parents during the COVID years, Dawson Wozniak attempts to reinvent himself in Mexico. He is able to continue his job, working remotely as an editor for a West Coast publisher. He dives into this new world, making friends with ex-pats and Mexicans, including a best-selling author who has abandoned writing, the author's wife who guides him along the path of his new life in a fun-loving seaside town, and a quirky repatriated Mexican with new-age ideals. One night during a raging thunderstorm, Dawson has an encounter with an iguana and then steals a kiss from a young man unsure of his sexuality. A minute later the two men witness the death of a young Mexican falling from the roof of Dawson's building. These events are forever connected in his head, charting a course for a rocky relationship with Ivan, the divorced father with whom he shared the kiss. Dawson is forced to take a hard look at himself and what it means to be a foreigner in Mexico, causing him to make decisions that complicate his life and Ivan's. They are thrown into a web of emotional, psychological, and moral dilemmas. Despite the complications, Dawson believes his new life is the antidote to the unfulfilling life he left behind in the States. The enigmatic attraction between the two men finds its own tempo and they keep coming back to each other against all odds while Dawson's other friends alternate between warning him about and applauding his new relationship.

Author Vincent Traughber Meis

Author Bio:

Vincent Traughber Meis was born and raised in a large family in Decatur, Illinois. From an early age, he wrote plays-often cajoling his sisters into acting in them-as well as poems and short stories. In high school, he continued to write and won a local contest sponsored by the newspaper.

After graduating from Tulane University, he wrote numerous short stories and a couple of novels, which initially gathered dust on the shelf. It wasn't until the 1980s that he began to see his byline in print, publishing travel articles, poems, and book reviews in outlets such as The Advocate, LA Weekly, InStyle, and Our World.

His passion for travel led him to live abroad in Spain and Saudi Arabia, where he taught English as a Second Language. These international experiences deeply informed his writing, with many of his articles, stories, and later novels exploring the gay experience across different cultures.

In 1991, Meis began teaching English at City College of San Francisco. There, he also served as the Publications Coordinator for Union Action, where he wrote member profiles, feature articles, and edited numerous pieces. The publication earned several awards from the California Federation of Teachers.

He took early retirement in 2011 to focus on his writing and has since published ten novels, including Eddie's Desert Rose, Tío Jorge, Down in Cuba, Deluge, Four Calling Burds, The Mayor of Oak Street, First Born Sons, Colton's Terrible Wonderful Year, and The Long Journey to You.
Several of his books have received critical acclaim: Tío Jorge, Down in Cuba, and Deluge each won Rainbow Awards, while The Mayor of Oak Street and First Born Sons earned Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Awards.

His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and online publications, often reaching finalist status in short story competitions. His work frequently centers characters across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and reflects a rich tapestry of racial and ethnic diversity. A collection of short stories, Far from Home, was published in October 2021.

Vincent lives with his husband in San Leandro, California, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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