A Time Before Us: A Novel

In the follow-up to “A Time Before Me” and “Falling Into Me,” Michael Holloway Perronne explores how family is determined not by the blood that flows through us but by the love in our hearts.

Mason and Joey, a gay couple in their mid-thirties, have spent the past five years in post-Katrina New Orleans trying to keep Savannah’s, a drag queen cabaret and family legacy, alive amid challenging times. When the beloved French Quarter institution is threatened with closure, Mason and Joey are left questioning not just their relationship but also their life purposes.

Friends find themselves soul-searching, too. Katie, an Asian-American lesbian, has always struggled to feel part of her adopted traditional Southern family. Can her new partner in life, Catherine, help her bridge the gap and open her heart to her parents?

Former lothario Billy Harris is unexpectedly drawn back to New Orleans after experiencing a turning point in Los Angeles. What will happen when fate finds him crossing paths with Mason, the old flame he badly betrayed?

Drag queen extraordinaire Miss Althea reminisces about the sometimes painful path she took as a little boy in Three Rivers, Ala., to her true birth on the stage of Savannah's. Does she have it in her power to be the one to save the cabaret for a new generation?

Discover in “A Time Before Us” that life’s dilemmas are best solved when you finally listen to your heart and become honest with yourself — and those you love.