Tom Spanbauer (born 1946)

Tom Spanbauer is a Critically Acclaimed author and the founder of Dangerous Writing. As a writer he has explored issues of race, of sexual identity, of how we make a family for ourselves in order to surmount the limitations of the families into which we are born.

His three published novels Faraway Places, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for best fiction, and In the City of Shy Hunters, and the last published, Now Is the Hour, are notable for their combination of a fresh and lyrical prose style with solid storytelling.

As a teacher his innovative approach combines close attention to language with a large-hearted openness to what he calls 'the sore place'--that place within each of us that is the source for stories that no one else can tell. His introductory workshop is an underground legend among emerging writers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The community of writers that has formed around him is dedicated to the proposition that "Fiction is the lie that tells the truth truer."

Tom lives, writes, and teaches in Portland Oregon.

Source: http://www.tomspanbauer.com/

Further Readings:

Now Is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer
Amazon: Now Is the Hour

Rigby John Klusener is hitchhiking to San Francisco. The year is 1967, the town is Pocatello, Idaho. Fresh out of high school, Rigby John is leaving behind his bohemian ex-girlfriend, his prayerful mother, his distant father, and the hay dust of his harsh farm town Catholic upbringing. As he stands by the side of the road desperately waiting for that one ride out, he reflects on the events that brought him there: the discovery of love, friendship, literature, and all the small joys that set him free. At once a tale of sexual awakening, racial enlightenment, and personal epiphany, Now Is the Hour is the disarming and sweetly winning story of one unforgettable teenager who dares to hope for a different life.

A risky assay into the traditional bildungsroman, with this straightforward, but luminous tale. - Publishers Weekly

Spanbauer writes this fairly traditional coming-of-age story with a raw energy that makes it compelling. - Kirkus Reviews

Sophisticated, funny, poignant, sexy coming-of-age novel... - Booklist, ALA

Full of hope, sadness and humor, this is an extended ballad in the voice of an appealing narrator - People Magazine

Vividly reflecting...Grade: B+ - Entertainment Weekly

Spanbauer is a generous writer..."Now Is the Hour" is an engaging novel. - The Seattle Times

"Now Is the Hour" is at once beautiful and hilarious. - The Oregonian

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Learning to Love (Moment of Truth 4) by A.J. Wilde

All right, I'm sincere, I don't know if I personally like how the series evolved in the last chapter. Please take a good look to that "personally" word, this is an opinion of mine, and it's totally based on my personal taste, it's not a judgment on the value of the writer or the story.

The two cops in this series, Gary and Dan, both evolves in reverse flow. Gary starts like a very troubled man, who is not sure of his sexuality or his life at all. He was a molested child, he denied his homosexuality for a long time, and when he finally admitted his love interested to Dan, he found out that he probably was bisexual, not homosexual. At first both Gary than Dan probably thought that it was a remainder of that denial period, or maybe an hint that Gary was not ready or willing to seriously commit to only one person... but more the time passes, and more Gary realizes that he is not complete with both Dan than Kim by his side. If he is forced to choose, his love for Dan is stronger, and in book 3 he tried to commit to that love only, giving up his relationship with Kim.

On the other side Dan started like a very strong and self-conscious man. He was gay and proud, he was a cop by the book, he knew what it was right and wrong. He was the steady man that Gary needed to heal and flourish... or not? Being Dan so "straight" (no pun inteded), so convinced of his own idea, makes him quite inflexible. To live with Gary you have to comprimise. In the last three book Dan went through all the rollercoast that is a relationship, the happiness, the sadness, the denial of love and the realization that you can't live without. Now it's time for Dan to decide if he is willing to accept Gary as a faulty man, or if he wants to be alone with the icon of a dream man that is not real.

So, this is a menages... no way to avoid the definition. At least the author wrote it as I like it, with the male/male pair stronger, but nevertheless it's a menages. Kim is also a nice character, and in a way, the fact that she really is in love with only one of the two men, Gary, make all the story more real... Kim is in love with Gary, there is no competition inside her, like Dan is in love only with Gary. There is no relationship between Kim and Dan is not friendship... giving that, it's still a menages? Nice point of discussion.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=15&products_id=1999

Series: Moment of Truth
1) To Serve and Protect: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/560100.html
2) Choosing the Light: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/675731.html
3) Missing the Ocean: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/709828.html
4) Learning to Love

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Learning to Love (Moment of Truth 4) by A.J. Wilde

All right, I'm sincere, I don't know if I personally like how the series evolved in the last chapter. Please take a good look to that "personally" word, this is an opinion of mine, and it's totally based on my personal taste, it's not a judgment on the value of the writer or the story.

The two cops in this series, Gary and Dan, both evolves in reverse flow. Gary starts like a very troubled man, who is not sure of his sexuality or his life at all. He was a molested child, he denied his homosexuality for a long time, and when he finally admitted his love interested to Dan, he found out that he probably was bisexual, not homosexual. At first both Gary than Dan probably thought that it was a remainder of that denial period, or maybe an hint that Gary was not ready or willing to seriously commit to only one person... but more the time passes, and more Gary realizes that he is not complete with both Dan than Kim by his side. If he is forced to choose, his love for Dan is stronger, and in book 3 he tried to commit to that love only, giving up his relationship with Kim.

On the other side Dan started like a very strong and self-conscious man. He was gay and proud, he was a cop by the book, he knew what it was right and wrong. He was the steady man that Gary needed to heal and flourish... or not? Being Dan so "straight" (no pun inteded), so convinced of his own idea, makes him quite inflexible. To live with Gary you have to comprimise. In the last three book Dan went through all the rollercoast that is a relationship, the happiness, the sadness, the denial of love and the realization that you can't live without. Now it's time for Dan to decide if he is willing to accept Gary as a faulty man, or if he wants to be alone with the icon of a dream man that is not real.

So, this is a menages... no way to avoid the definition. At least the author wrote it as I like it, with the male/male pair stronger, but nevertheless it's a menages. Kim is also a nice character, and in a way, the fact that she really is in love with only one of the two men, Gary, make all the story more real... Kim is in love with Gary, there is no competition inside her, like Dan is in love only with Gary. There is no relationship between Kim and Dan is not friendship... giving that, it's still a menages? Nice point of discussion.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=15&products_id=1999

Series: Moment of Truth
1) To Serve and Protect: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/560100.html
2) Choosing the Light: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/675731.html
3) Missing the Ocean: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/709828.html
4) Learning to Love

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Last Night Stand (Dance Wars 4) by Sophia Titheniel

I believe this is the last book in the Dance Wars series, or at least it's a wrapping up book. It's three books already that Lachlan and Adair dance around each other (pun intended); it's a game of cat and mouse, of impossible attraction. They are enemies, they live in different place and are at the opposite side of law. They tried to find a place in the middle, but it was not enough: in the last book both of them realized that, sooner or later, living most of the time apart from each other will tear them apart.

Adair is really a good man inside the body of a very bad guy... he is faithful both to his lover Lachlan than his friends, the crew he dances with. He will never arrive to the decision to leave them, at least not by himself. Lachlan decides to win him over on his ground, with a Dance War... but Lachlan can't dance, at least not the type of dance necessary to defeat a good crew like the one of Adair. But love arrives with reason can't.

There is still a lot of sex, down and dirty, but I believe that this is the most romantic book in the series. Maybe since Lachlan finally admits that it's love what links him to Adair and not only sex. This decision to fight him in a Dance War gives also a sweet spin to the series, I don't know but I can't avoid to smile at the idea, it's almost the plot of a teen musical. Then it's true, they always end in bed doing monkey sex among the sheet, but again, I found it more romantic, maybe for the first time I notice also the aftermath and not only the moment. For the first time I saw and read intimate moments between Lachlan and Adair, moments that lead Lachlan to the decision that he has to win his man over to have the chance of a life together.

All in all I found that all the series moves according to the same tune: from the first book that was highly erotic and explice, and where love had little space, to this last one where Lachlan and Adair are still lusting after each other but sex is no more enough, they have to move to an higher level.

http://www.changelingpress.com/images/covers/fulls/1155.jpg

Series: Dance Wars
1) Left Side of the Moon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/464190.html
2) Ruled by You: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/512919.html
3) Bad Moon Rising: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/655356.html
4) Last Night Stand

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle