Crimson Souls

In 1920, Phineas Nathanial Roberts fought back against the “Secret Court” of Harvard’s elite and their unjust purge of homosexual men. The members of the court, fearing his influence, attacked him and threw him off a bridge to look like a suicide. As Phineas lay in the river dying, he was given the chance of eternal life, a life that would allow him to seek out the men who had murdered him. He accepts the offer and becomes Nate, The Midnight Barke, a shadower ruling over the dark realm of his Netherworld. Now, over eighty years later, Nate has tracked down the last remaining descendants of the members of the Secret Court, and for one night will gather them together for a final confrontation of lust, desire, and revenge.

Originally from Detroit, William Holden now lives in Cambridge, MA, with his partner of eighteen years. He has a Master's in Library and Information Science from Florida State University. Over the past decade, he has focused his work on collecting, and preserving, GLBT history and is a volunteer archivist at Boston's History Project.

William has been writing fiction for over fifteen years, accumulating more than seventy published short stories in the genres of erotica, romance, fantasy, and horror. His titles include the Lambda Literary Award finalists A Twist of Grimm (Lethe Press), Secret Societies (Bold Strokes Books), and its sequel, The Thief Taker (Bold Strokes Books), as well as Words to Die By (Bold Strokes Books), a Finalist for the Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for Best Horror and 2nd place in the Rainbow Book Awards for Best Horror.

Crimson Souls, his forthcoming horror novel from Bold Strokes Books, is based on the 1920 purge of homosexual students at Harvard.

William has also written encyclopedia articles on the history of gay and lesbian fiction and has authored five bibliographies for the GLBT Round Table of the American Library Association.