William
West

In Development

Outliving
the Fire

Requiem for a Quiet Violence

It's 1984, and some loves cost everything.

Alex Povanno is a college sophomore hiding two truths: his desire for his roommate, Evan Morningstar, and the abuse simmering in his own bigoted home. When Alex follows Evan into a fraternity to stay close to him, hazing turns into a nightmare of violence that leaves him broken — and when his parents discover the truth, they hand him over to a "conversion therapist" determined to torture the gay out of him.

Alex escapes into the neon glow of Vivienne's, a nightclub run by the magnetic Sergio Volkov — by night the breathtaking drag queen Vivienne, by day a man fighting to protect the family he's built from society's castoffs. Under Sergio's protection, Alex finds work, friendship, and slowly, an unspoken love neither man was looking for but couldn't resist either.

As the AIDS crisis tears through their community, claiming friends one by one, and an old flame resurfaces with a glittering, poisoned world of wealth and secrets, Alex must decide what kind of life — and what kind of love — is worth fighting for.

Spanning a decade defined by fear, loss, and the fierce joy of chosen family, Outliving the Fire is a story about surviving the unsurvivable, and finding that love can still burn bright in the ashes.

Release — Mid 2027

The Men
We Became

William West and Rob Greco meet as teenagers and fall in love with the certainty only the young possess — the kind of love that feels destined, impossible, and eternal all at once.

But growing up has a way of testing even the strongest bonds.

Over the next two decades, Will and Rob navigate desire, ambition, betrayal, loss, and the relentless pressure of becoming themselves in a world that rarely offers simple paths for two young men in love. Their relationship survives secrets, temptation, heartbreak, and the painful choices that shape adulthood. Again and again, life pulls them apart. Again and again, something stronger draws them back together.

As friends become lovers, lovers become strangers, and strangers find their way home, Will and Rob must decide whether the life they imagined together can survive the men they are becoming.

A sweeping story of first love, second chances, and the enduring power of choosing one person over and over again, The Men We Became is an unforgettable novel about growing older, growing wiser, and discovering that the greatest love story is the one that survives.