“The Brothers” is a the working title of my novel, a story striving to dismantle the myth that there are no gay people in rural settings. Based on my experiences as well as acquaintances’, this project also aims to adumbrate the social forces which can make queer rural existences fragile. This project began as “The Zombie,” inspired by Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. Over the semester, this idea shifted into “The Brothers,” a novel that would be set in contemporary small-town Indiana. This transition allows for a dissection of modern male-male relationships that situates itself within the recent explosion of stories on that theme. Featuring a recently-married couple, “The Brothers” will explore subjects of family, employment, and the law as they relate to queer people, a continuation of the aims of “The Zombie.” This project follows the journey from refining this idea as “The Zombie” through its inception as “The Brothers.”