Gay men have served in our nation’s military since the beginning. Lance Ringel’s historical novel Flower of Iowa centers on the unexpected romance between a young American soldier and his best buddy, a British soldier, in 1918 France during the final months of World War I. Ringel and his spouse, actor Chuck Muckle, will read selections from the eBook and Muckle will perform music from the Great War. Kirkus Reviews declared Flower of Iowa “accomplished, touching historical fiction” while Stephen Fry called it “a truly wonderful WW1 novel … so truthful and touching.”

A journalist and writer for four decades, Lance Ringel has penned five novels and three plays. He served as principal writer for Vassar Voices, a staged reading honoring Vassar College’s sesquicentennial, which made its debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center starring Meryl Streep, Lisa Kudrow and Frances Sternhagen. Ringel also wrote the narrative for At Home in the World, a music-and-words collaboration directed by John Caird that played across Japan last year and will debut in New York and Washington next month. Flower of Iowa is his first published work. He and Chuck Muckle have been together for 38 years.

Chuck Muckle will appear in the feature film X-Mas starring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, to be released this November. His many theater credits include Four Play the Musical (world premiere tour); the solo show At Wit’s End (An Evening with Oscar Levant); Paradise Lost, directed by Hal Prince with Judy Kaye and John Cullum, at NYC Opera Workshop Project (music arranger Jonathan Tunick); and The Golden Apple with Howard McGillin and Nancy Opel at Bard Summerscape (music director Jonathan Tunick). He has toured in South Pacific and Camelot with Robert Goulet, and A Christmas Carol with John Astin.