2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Cari Z. - Cambion, Dark Around the Edges

Dark Around the Edges (Cambion) by Cari Z
Publisher: Storm Moon Press LLC (February 8, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: Dark Around the Edges (Cambion)

Devon Harper is a cambion, the offspring of an incubus and one of his female followers. Discovered by those who could've helped him too late to be saved from his nature, he barely survived a brutal childhood before getting a handle on his powers of seduction. Lust, sex, desire: these are second nature to cambion, and are their road to both riches and ruin. Devon has the power to bring people to their knees with a glance, to drive them so crazy with pleasure that they forget their names, and occasionally forget to breathe as well. He could use his birthright to force the world to worship him, but Devon is trying to fight against the pull, to do what he can to track down people with the power to summon a demon and stop them before more cambion can be made.

But Devon doesn't realize that the path he and his friends are following is only one strand of a web laid in place by a demon who's not content to wait on the whims of humanity to get out of Hell. Devon is this demon's key to staying above ground permanently, and when he finally catches up with the cambion, he's not taking no for an answer.

John Megna (November 9, 1952 – September 5, 1995)

John Megna (November 9, 1952 – September 5, 1995) was an American actor whose Broadway success at the age of seven in 1960's All the Way Home led to his being cast as Charles Baker 'Dill' Harris, the toothy young summer visitor in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird.

A half-brother of actress/singer/businesswoman Connie Stevens, Megna appeared in many television programs throughout the 1960s and 1970s; he played a small role as one of the "Onlies" in the "Miri" episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and starred as Little Adam in the NASA-produced animated shorts The Big World of Little Adam. As an adult, he turned to stage directing. He appeared in two car chase films starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Hal Needham in cameo roles: Smokey and the Bandit II and Cannonball Run.

John Megna later became a high school English teacher, and last taught at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California. On September 5, 1995, in Los Angeles, California, he died from AIDS-related complications at the age of 42.

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

( Further Readings )

Tom Tryon (January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991)

Tom Tryon (January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991) was an American film and television actor, best-known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal (1963) and the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter (1958–1961). He later became a writer and authored several science fiction, horror and mystery novels.

He was born Thomas Tryon in Hartford, Connecticut.

Tom Tryon is often erroneously identified as the son of silent screen actor Glenn Tryon; his actual father was Arthur Lane Tryon, a clothier and owner of Stackpole, Moore & Tryon. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific from 1943–1946 during World War II.

Disillusioned with acting, Tryon retired from the profession in 1969 and began writing horror and mystery novels. He was successful, overcoming skepticism about a classically handsome movie star suddenly turning novelist. His best-known work is The Other (1971), about a boy whose evil twin brother may or may not be responsible for a series of deaths in a small rural community in the 1930s. The novel was adapted as a film the following year, starring Diana Muldaur, Uta Hagen, and John Ritter. Harvest Home (1973), about the dark pagan rituals being practiced in a small New England town, was adapted as The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978), a television mini-series starring Bette Davis. An extensive critical analysis of Tryon's horror novels can be found in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001).

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings  )

Ted Gideonse & Rob Williams

Ted Gideonse is currently a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine doing HIV/AIDS prevention research; in June, 2013, he received his PhD in anthropology from UC San Diego, where he specialized in medical and psychological anthropology. For many years he was a journalist and an editor, he is currently a film critic for Maisonneuve and has written for Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Salon.com, The Advocate, and Out.

Rob Williams teaches English in San Diego, and his writing has appeared in M2M: New Literary Fiction, Fresh Men, I Do/I Don’t, The Gay and Lesbian Times, and Maisonneuve.

Further Readings:

From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up edited by Ted Gideonse and Robert Williams
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 4, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786716320
ISBN-13: 978-0786716326
Amazon: From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up
Amazon Kindle: From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up

More than an anthology of coming out stories, From Boys to Men is a stunning collection of essays about what it is like to be gay and young, to be different and be aware of that difference from the earliest of ages. In these memoirs, coming out is less important than coming of age and coming to the realization that young gay people experience the world in ways quite unlike straight boys. Whether it is a fascination with soap opera, an intense sensitivity to their own difference, or an obsession with a certain part of the male anatomy, gay kids — or kids who would eventually identify as gay — have an indefinable but unmistakable gay sensibility. Sometimes the result is funny, sometimes it is harrowing, and often it is deeply moving. Essays by lauded young writers like Alex Chee (Edinburgh), Aaron Hamburger (Faith for Beginners), Karl Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys), Trebor Healy (Through It Came Bright Colors), Tom Dolby (The Trouble Boy), David Bahr, and Austin Bunn, are collected along with those by brilliant, newcomers such as Michael McAllister, Jason Tougaw, Viet Dinh, and the wildly popular blogger, Joe.My.God.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

GayRomLit Ebook Giveaway: Lex Chase - Pawn Takes Rook

I asked to all the authors joining the GayRomLit convention in Atlanta in October (http://gayromlit.com/grl-authors) a personal favor, a special Ebook Giveaway: everyday 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!

And the ebook giveaway goes to alishead

Today author is Lex Chase: Lex Chase is a journalist by day and a writer by night. Either way you slice it, she makes things up for a living. Her style of storytelling is action, adventure, and a dollop of steamy romance. She loves tales of men who kiss as much as they kick ass. She believes it’s never a party until something explodes in a magnificent fashion, be it a rolling fireball of a car or two guys screaming out their love for one another in the freezing rain. Lex is a pop culture diva, an urbanite trapped in a country bumpkin’s body, and wouldn’t last five minutes without technology in the event of the apocalypse. She has learned that when all else fails, hug the cat. She is a Damned Yankee hailing from the frozen backwoods of Maine residing in the ‘burbs of Northwest Florida where it could be 80F and she’d have a sweatshirt on because she’s freezing.
Website: http://lexchase.com
Most recent title : Pawn Takes Rook (Checkmate #1)
Publishers: Dreamspinner Press

Pawn Takes Rook (Checkmate) by Lex Chase
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press; 1 edition (March 13, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: Pawn Takes Rook (Checkmate)

Checkmate: Book One

The first time Hogarth Dawson sees superhero Memphis Rook, he comes to Hogarth’s rescue by cracking the heads of two thugs like eggs into a skillet. Hogarth is utterly smitten, but he soon discovers the superhero Power Alliance has ejected Rook for failing to protect a civilian.

Hogarth devises a plan that will reinstate Rook and might even earn Hogarth a place in Power Alliance roster. But what he expects to be a simple few missions rescuing kittens and helping little old ladies cross the street turns into a shocking reality of citywide chases, foiling robberies, and facing his ex. Then Hogarth discovers the beating Rook saved him from wasn’t a chance attack. It’s possible Hogarth is just a pawn in Rook’s game….

Kindly offered by Dreamspinner Press

2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Joel Gomez-Dossi - Pursued

Pursued by Joel Gomez-Dossi
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (December 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602827699
ISBN-13: 978-1602827691
Amazon: Pursued
Amazon Kindle: Pursued

Nestled in upstate New York, Stratburgh University has a problem. Three sorority sisters have disappeared, and the police say they simply ran away. The students are outraged. Even openly gay junior Jamie Bradford is concerned, only he has other worries. He doesn’t have a boyfriend and is willing to disregard the troublesome news on campus to find one.

With hopes of finding a lover, Jamie attends the party of the year and becomes involved with two men at the same time. One is the man of his dreams; the other is a man of his nightmares and a police officer. And Jamie’s hell begins.

The cop has another goal and will stop at nothing to achieve it. He’s even willing to track Jamie through the Catskill Mountains and New York City to get what he wants. Jamie’s life.

2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Joel Gomez-Dossi - Pursued

Pursued by Joel Gomez-Dossi
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (December 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602827699
ISBN-13: 978-1602827691
Amazon: Pursued
Amazon Kindle: Pursued

Nestled in upstate New York, Stratburgh University has a problem. Three sorority sisters have disappeared, and the police say they simply ran away. The students are outraged. Even openly gay junior Jamie Bradford is concerned, only he has other worries. He doesn’t have a boyfriend and is willing to disregard the troublesome news on campus to find one.

With hopes of finding a lover, Jamie attends the party of the year and becomes involved with two men at the same time. One is the man of his dreams; the other is a man of his nightmares and a police officer. And Jamie’s hell begins.

The cop has another goal and will stop at nothing to achieve it. He’s even willing to track Jamie through the Catskill Mountains and New York City to get what he wants. Jamie’s life.

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2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Joel Gomez-Dossi - Deadly Cult

Deadly Cult by Joel Gomez-Dossi
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (August 20, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602828954
ISBN-13: 978-1602828957
Amazon: Deadly Cult
Amazon Kindle: Deadly Cult

Jamie Bradford, the hero of Pursued, is now the pursuer when he receives a mysterious package containing a class ring from his alma mater, Stratburgh University. Wrapped inside the ring is the address to a Rhodes Petroleum corporate office in Boston and the name of an ultra-conservative religious cult based in the Adirondack Mountains. To solve the mystery, Jamie and his husband, Eddie Delgado, infiltrate the cult and discover a paramilitary-style inner circle hell-bent on making the cult’s beliefs everyone’s beliefs. When their best friend, Ellen Rhodes, ferrets out the Boston connection, the three end up on a perilous mission to save the cult's archenemy, a group of religious fundamentalists whose views regarding homosexuality are just as archaic as the cult's.

2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko - WAAFRIKA

Waafrika by Nick Mwaluko
Paperback: 234 pages
Publisher: UnCUT/VOICES Press (June 25, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3981386329
ISBN-13: 978-3981386325
Amazon: Waafrika

Nick Hadiwa Mwaluko’s play _WAAFRIKA. 1992. Kenya. Two Women Fall in Love_ A global movement to end female genital mutilation, a human rights violation of extreme complexity and tenacity, needs stunning, original art like Nick Mwaluko's WAAFRIKA to open new avenues of understanding. WAAFRIKA, by illuminating the background to the custom in inflexible gender roles and sexual norms, is probably the issue's first lesbian play with a transgender impulse. As Harvard's Tracie Jones attests, "WAAFRIKA will certainly dispel the idea that same-sex relationships are foreign to Africa," and in doing so, it suggests that broader sexualities and identities are possible..

2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: Emma Lanner - A Margin of Promise

A Margin of Promise by Emma Lanner
Publisher: Less Than Three Press; 1 edition (August 20, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: A Margin of Promise

Packed off to London with orders to obtain a wife, Isaac arrives at the home of his benefactor, Lord Edmund, with whom he has corresponded for several years. Upon his arrival, however, Edmund proves to be less warm and welcoming than Isaac had expected, and is eager to see him married off.

Distraction comes first by way of Gideon, beautiful and charming and eager to show Isaac a different sort of society, then Patience, smart and marriageable and a talented matchmaker, who decides to help Isaac woo Edmund and bring out the passionate man Isaac knows from their years of correspondence.

But Edmund seems bent on ignoring him, and Gideon determined to draw him closer…

2013 Rainbow Awards Submission: JC Calciano - The 10 Year Plan

JC Calciano - The 10 Year Plan
Screenplay of Calciano's 2013 featured movie

About two friends who make a pact to be boyfriends if they are still single by the time they are 35. It’s a sweet and funny script that I think most people can relate to and it deals with the question of “where does friendship end and love begin?”