Boys Like Us: Dave Pallone (born October 5, 1951)

David Michael Pallone (born October 5, 1951 in Waltham, Massachusetts) is a former Major League Baseball umpire who worked in the National League from 1979 to 1988. During Pallone's career, he wore uniform number 26.

Pallone umpired his first game at the age of 19 in the New York-Penn League in May 1971. He remained in the league for the 1972 season before being promoted to the Carolina League for the 1973 season. He spent half a season there before again being promoted on June 27 to the Eastern League. He umpired in the EL through the 1975 season, when he was brought up to the International League. Pallone spent the 1976 season in both the International and Eastern Leagues before being called up for good to the IL in 1977. He stayed in the league until 1979, when he was one of eight umpires hired during that year's strike by major league umpires.

Pallone remained in the NL for ten years, and umpired in the 1983 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the 1987 National League Championship Series. He was the home plate umpire when Pete Rose tied Ty Cobb for the most hits (4192), Nolan Ryan's 4,000th strikeout on July 11, 1985, and on September 25, 1986 he was the second base umpire when Mike Scott of the Houston Astros pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants to clinch the NL West Division championship.

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

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James Courage (1903 – October 5, 1963)

James Francis Courage was born in Christchurch on 9 February 1903, the son of Frank Hubert Courage, a sheepfarmer, and his wife, Zoë Frances Peache. He grew up on the family farm, Seadown station, near Amberley, becoming a boarder at Mr Wiggins’s preparatory school in Christchurch and later, from 1916 to 1921, at Christ’s College. In October 1923 he entered St John’s College at the University of Oxford; after taking a second-class BA in English, he came down in June 1927.

For the rest of his life Courage would live mainly in England, although he made one extended visit back to New Zealand from about 1933 to 1935, following a lengthy period of convalescence in a tuberculosis sanitorium. Classified as medically unfit, he became a fire warden during the Second World War and from 1940 to 1950 managed a bookshop in Hampstead. Although regarded as excellent company and a ‘lively witty talker’, he nonetheless suffered from depression and from 1951 was nearly always under psychiatric treatment. He kept up with New Zealand friends, especially Charles Brasch and Basil Dowling, and whenever possible played his grand piano daily. He never married.

Courage had begun writing at Christ’s College, and during his time at Oxford he contributed prose and poetry to student publications such as Oxford Outlook and Oxford Poetry , and musical criticism to Isis , a London weekly. His first novel, One house (1933), was written in St Ives, Cornwall, where he lived after leaving Oxford. In October 1938 his only staged play, Private history , was produced in London at the Gate Theatre off the Strand. Despite its encouraging reception, the production was closed by the censor after a brief season, presumably because of its homosexual themes.

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Source: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5c40/1

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Robbie Ross (May 25, 1869 - October 5, 1918)

Robert Baldwin "Robbie" Ross (May 25, 1869 – October 5, 1918) was a Canadian journalist and art critic. He is best known as the executor of the estate of Oscar Wilde, to whom he had been a lifelong friend. He was also responsible for bringing together several great literary figures, such as Siegfried Sassoon, and acting as their mentor. His open homosexuality in a time when homosexual acts were illegal brought him many hardships.

As a young man, Ross moved to England to go to university. He was accepted at King's College, Cambridge in 1888, but was the victim of bullying, probably due to his sexuality (of which he made no secret), and his perhaps outspoken journalism in the university paper. Ross caught pneumonia after a dunking in a fountain by a number of students with, according to Ross, the full support of a don, Arthur Augustus Tilley. After recovering he fought for an apology from his fellow students, which he received, but more fiercely, for the dismissal of Tilley who, he argued, had known about and supported the bullying. The college refused to punish the man and Ross dropped out of university. Soon after this event, Ross decided to 'come out' to his family, a serious matter in the 1880s. He gathered them to hear the announcement not long after he left university.

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

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GayRomLit Ebook Giveaway: Kerry Freeman - What We Deserve

I asked to all the authors joining the GayRomLit convention in Albuquerque in October (http://gayromlit.com/authors.php) a personal favor, a special Ebook Giveaway: every day I will post 1 book from each author, and among those who will leave a comment, I will draw a winner. Very easy and very fast ;-) I will send a PM to the winner, so remember to not leave anonymous comments! (comments close on October 7)

and the ebook giveaway goes to: Tina Adamski, please contact me.

Today author is Kerry Freeman (http://www.kerryfreeman.com/)

What We Deserve by Kerry Freeman
Publisher: Loose Id LLC (October 25, 2011)
Amazon Kindle: What We Deserve

Years after Sean’s heart was broken by his first love Jamie, he is ready to try his hand at love again with Tyler, his handsome, perfect-geek-for-him boyfriend. But when Jamie returns home after twelve years in the Army, Sean finds himself unable to choose between his passion for Tyler and his still smoldering desire for Jamie.

But if Jamie and Tyler get along, maybe he won’t have to choose after all.

Selling It by Sara York

Interesting gritty cop novel about a serial killer who is targeting young hustlers and the DC police detective who is the only one who can find him, since he was a victim himself. This is probably the point I struggled with, how a teenager hustler can become a police detective, but then I remember that the criminal record of underage kids are wiped out once you are 18 years old, and then Blaine was never arrested.

At the same time of when Blaine is starting this investigation, he also meets Andy, a performing artist with absolutely no issues in being out and proud; not the same for Blaine, who, even if not in the closet, has always avoided to be open with his sexuality at his job’s place. But both the investigation than the meeting with Andy, push Blaine to come out at work.

I also like the character of Nate, the young hustler who helps Blaine in his investigation; I liked the author didn’t make it a fallen angel, but actually a kid with big trouble, a messed up mind, and someone who would grasp every chance to stability, true or false as it could be. I hope the author has in mind an happily ever after also for him, maybe different than what he is hoping, and later in age, when he will be able to distinct true from false.

Even if there is a romance between Blaine and Andy, I found this novel to have a bittersweet aftertaste, as if the happiness for their new-found love was marred by a dark shadows; I felt as if not everything was settled for them, like there was something to patch to be really happy.

Amazon: Selling It
Amazon Kindle: Selling It
Paperback: 206 pages
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing (September 24, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 178184531X
ISBN-13: 978-1781845318

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