Rita Gallagher (1922 - February 1, 2004)

Rita Gallagher (1922 - February 1, 2004) a founding member of the Romance Writers of America, was a noted writing instructor by romance novels, she also wrote three romance novels from 1982 to 1986. She is the mother of the writer Rita Clay Estrada.

Rita Gallagher was born in 1922. She was a Miss Michigan, who married with a U.S. Air Force pilot. She is the mother of the writer Rita Clay Estrada, they and others writers created the Romance Writers of America (R.W.A.).

From 1982 to 1986, she published three romance novels, and later she decided be a writing instructor by romance novels. She also published with her daughter the books Writing Romances and You Can Write a Romance.

Rita died February 1, 2004 in Houston at age 82.

Rita Gallagher's Books on Amazon: Rita Gallagher

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Gallagher

Patricia Robins (February 1, 1921)

Patricia Robins (born 1 February 1921 in Sussex, England) is a British romance novelist, also known as Claire Lorrimer.

Robins comes from an artistic family. Her maternal grandfather was Herman Klein, a musician and her maternal grandmother was the also writer Kathleen Clarice Groom. Her mother was the popular romance writer Denise Robins, who was the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960-1966). Her maternal uncle was Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, who wrote books on photography and cinematography, another uncle was an artist, as is her daughter.

Born Patricia Denise Robins on 1 February 1921 in Sussex, England. She is the daughter of Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange. She has two sisters Anne and Eve.

Her mother encouraged her to write, and at 12, she published her first children's novellas. She worked with a woman's magazine editorial team and published more children's novellas, she went on to write romance novels like her mother. In the 1960's she started to use the pseudonym Claire Lorrimer.

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Patricia Robins's Books on Amazon: Patricia Robins

Claire Lorrimer's Books on Amazon: Claire Lorrimer

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Robins

With These Rings by Terry O’Reilly

I remember that, when I read One Night in December, I liked it a lot but I did wonder if it was really possible such pink glasses perspective. I also remember a very polite email from the author, Terry O’Reilly, explaining how the plot was not so far from his own personal experience, and so proving me that, yes, sometime dreams come true.

Andy was not gay; David was officially a straight widower, unofficially a married gay man in the closet, and basically without sex at all since the death of his beloved wife. David really loved his wife, but he has also always had sexual desires for other men, even when he was married, and now that he is a more than 40 years old widower, he fell in love for another man, Andrew. Andy is not replacing his wife, their relationship is completely different, as it’s completely different the life they are sharing: in the end, passing the middle of his life (Dante said 35 years old is the middle of one path’s life), David changed it completely.

In a way the same happened to Andrew, even if he is not as old as David; he fell in love with David not since he is a man but since he is the one who helped Andrew when no one else would. Andrew’s love moved from gratitude to passion in a smooth and natural way, and in this second chapter of their life, it’s Andrew who takes the role of the mainstay. Andrew seems to be more comfortable in his new role of gay husband, step-father of a gay teenager kid and even grand-dad of a whole bunch of children (David’s grandsons and granddaughters). Moreover, even if Andrew is more or less same age with David’s sons and daughters, he seems to be more comfortable with their May/December relationship than David, and he is the one who takes the idea of getting married with more enthusiasm than David, even if David agrees to that.

The novel is like a series of vignettes in their life; the plotline is very long, but the years seem to pass in a blur: chapter after chapter we read about summers, Thanksgivings and Christmases together, and through them all, David and Andrew have to face the classical issues of a family bringing up a kid; the first sexual explorations, the first questions. But it’s not only serious issue that we read about, there are also stupid little things like trying to find a way to have quality time together when respective works and hobbies seem to overtake all your time. Even if the even in the title, the gay wedding, happens almost at the beginning of the novel and it seemed to be over almost too soon, the author indeed is going through the wedding vows all along: “I take you to love for the rest of my life. I will rejoice with you in good times. I will suffer with you in bad. I will take care of you if you are sick as you have done for me. I will stay with you no matter what happens in our lives."

http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=446

Amazon: David and Andrew Book 2: With These Rings
Amazon Kindle: David and Andrew Book 2: With These Rings
Paperback: 164 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (February 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1468137654
ISBN-13: 978-1468137651

Series: David & Andrew
1) One Night in December: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1292638.html
2) With These Rings

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

Permanently Legless by J.L. Merrow

I can find only a defect to this story, that is “only” a short story. The plot, the characters, the setting, they are all so nice that it seems a shame to relegate them to few pages. Nevertheless it was a pleasure to read this short story, and maybe the author will consider to go back to these characters and give them some more life for us to enjoy.

Chris is a former English soldier who lost his legs in a mission gone wrong in Afghanistan. Now he is back home and he pretty much managed to build a life again, friends, places, everyday moves. But he has one regret, Josh, the cutie he had a one night stand just few nights before leaving for Afghanistan and who asked him to call when he was back home. Chris didn’t call. Already before leaving he was thinking Josh was too good for him, beautiful, young and pretty in a boyish way, wherelse Chris was stocky and plain not in a “fashionable” way. Now, with a disability atop of it, Chris doesn’t want to take the chance of a refusal. But temptation is strong, and maybe going the same place where they met, letting Josh see what happened, and having him deciding if they are worth another try, that is not risking much.

Josh will surprise Chris; of course he is upset, of course he is hurting for what happened to Chris, but that is not a reason for him to forget they were good together and they can still be.

Chris is more well-rounded than Josh, and we have even some insight in his day-to-day life, in his friends and in the places he likes. Josh is more hinted than fully developed, but we know he has some Cassandra’s complex, that he is trying to replace his father, a man he loved and lost, with a lover. The disability of Chris should have written him off from the possible right partner list, but Josh is really not considering Chris’s disability as an obstacle, and maybe that disability makes him more real, less near to the “daddy” picture Josh has in mind for his lover, and thought their relationship will be truer than a role-play.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/PermanentlyLegless.html

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

Permanently Legless by J.L. Merrow

I can find only a defect to this story, that is “only” a short story. The plot, the characters, the setting, they are all so nice that it seems a shame to relegate them to few pages. Nevertheless it was a pleasure to read this short story, and maybe the author will consider to go back to these characters and give them some more life for us to enjoy.

Chris is a former English soldier who lost his legs in a mission gone wrong in Afghanistan. Now he is back home and he pretty much managed to build a life again, friends, places, everyday moves. But he has one regret, Josh, the cutie he had a one night stand just few nights before leaving for Afghanistan and who asked him to call when he was back home. Chris didn’t call. Already before leaving he was thinking Josh was too good for him, beautiful, young and pretty in a boyish way, wherelse Chris was stocky and plain not in a “fashionable” way. Now, with a disability atop of it, Chris doesn’t want to take the chance of a refusal. But temptation is strong, and maybe going the same place where they met, letting Josh see what happened, and having him deciding if they are worth another try, that is not risking much.

Josh will surprise Chris; of course he is upset, of course he is hurting for what happened to Chris, but that is not a reason for him to forget they were good together and they can still be.

Chris is more well-rounded than Josh, and we have even some insight in his day-to-day life, in his friends and in the places he likes. Josh is more hinted than fully developed, but we know he has some Cassandra’s complex, that he is trying to replace his father, a man he loved and lost, with a lover. The disability of Chris should have written him off from the possible right partner list, but Josh is really not considering Chris’s disability as an obstacle, and maybe that disability makes him more real, less near to the “daddy” picture Josh has in mind for his lover, and thought their relationship will be truer than a role-play.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/PermanentlyLegless.html

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