The Primrose Path

About the Book

Fired from the faculty of Primrose University (PU) because he is not gay, Cyril McCoy, with wavy red hair and green eyes, is an artist whose artwork is prized by the very people whose taunts and jeers make his life miserable. A regular contributor to the Primrose Sperm Bank, Cyril takes consolation from the large number of red-haired children—many with green eyes—in Primrose, a majority LGBT city. When his wife Joyce Coral was out of town, Cyril’s brother-in-law Joseph Aerie came over to show off his latest thirteen-year-old boy companion, red-haired, green-eyed Craig Kerjack, to stay overnight. While Cyril was humiliated by Joseph’s visit, he found Craig charming and intelligent, and the two formed an immediate platonic friendship. When the ex-husband of Joseph’s sister claimed that his ex-wife was “not much of a woman, possibly not a woman at all,” Joyce Coral, Cyril’s former girlfriend, was plunged into a deep depression. To rehabilitate her and prove the ex-husband wrong, Cyril married her. Years later, when Joseph Aerie remarked to Cyril that Joyce Coral was a transexual, the result of a botched circumcision. For Cyril, who had spent his life trying to be straight in a predominantly LGBT society, this was the ultimate humiliation. He then suffered a mental breakdown resulting in an extended coma. Eventually regaining consciousness, Cyril found Craig at his bedside, and both realized that Craig is Cyril’s biological son.

About the Author

Dr. Robert John Remington Rockwood has a BA in English and German and an MA in English and Russian from the University of Miami and a PhD in English and linguistics from the University of Florida, and he has done advanced study in historical linguistics at the University of North Carolina. From the years 1973 to 1974, he was a fellow of the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University. Dr. Rockwood has studied the following languages and dialects: Latin, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Middle High German, Middle English, German, Russian, French, and Icelandic. Dr. Rockwood has served as a full-time faculty member at Florida Southern College, University of Florida, and Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1978 through 2001, he worked as an industrial technical writer, editor, and web designer at companies such as Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin), Unisys, and NCR. From 2002 through 2013, he taught online courses for the University of Phoenix. The Primrose Path (2017) is Dr. Rockwood’s seventh book published by Xlibris. The others are the following: —Leopardo da Gotcha (2002) —The Passing of Merlin Zauber(2005) —The Last Ant (2007) —Dillon’s Rocking Bear Invisibility Chair (2013) —I Don’t Talk to Earthlings (2016) —Owen Often Beside Himself (2016) Dr. Rockwood lives in Roswell, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. His e-mail address is rockwood@mindspring.com. To learn more about him, visit his resume website, www.rjrrockwood.com.