Lori L. Lake (born February 9, 1960)

Lori L. Lake (born February 9, 1960) is an Oregon writer, teacher, speaker, and author of mystery, drama, romance, and general fiction, most of which is about lesbian protagonists. Her work includes the "Gun" police quadrology, The Public Eye Mystery Series, three standalone drama/romances, two short story collections, the Lambda Literary finalist anthology The Milk of Human Kindness, and the WWII novel Snow Moon Rising, which won the 2007 Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award, a Golden Crown Literary Award, and The Alice B Readers Award. Lake teaches fiction writing, most recently at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She frequently gives talks about the craft of writing, serves as a coach to many up-and-coming writers, and is a founding mother of The Golden Crown Literary Society. (P: Lori L. Lake in June 2009)

Lake was born in Portland, Oregon, the oldest of five daughters, and spent her early years with her family in Seattle and Portland, then lived with an aunt and uncle in Tigard, Oregon, during her teen years. She graduated from Portland's Lewis and Clark College in 1983 with a double major in English and Political Science and moved to the Twin Cities shortly after. She attended Hamline University where she studied with Carol Bly and received a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on Literature and Ethics in 1989. She resided in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area until August 2009 when she moved back to Oregon. She now lives in Portland.

In recent years, Lake has become a mentor and coach to many young and aspiring writers, especially through her work at The Loft Literary Center and in her work as an organizer or program director of literary conferences, particularly for the Oregon Writers Colony, and for the Golden Crown Literary Society, where she was most recently the Chair of the Board and the Director of Organization & Recordkeeping.

A Very Public Eye and Jump the Gun won a 2013 Rainbow Award as Best Lesbian Mystery / Thriller. Eight Dates won a 2014 Rainbow Award as Best Lesbian Romantic Comedy.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_L._Lake

Further Readings:

A Very Public Eye by Lori L. Lake
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Quest by RCE (November 10, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1619290766
ISBN-13: 978-1619290761
Amazon: A Very Public Eye
Amazon Kindle: A Very Public Eye

Greed? Hatred? Retaliation? Or a Cover-up? Winter has set in, but young Eddie Bolton will never see another snowfall in Duluth, Minnesota. Someone has killed him in what should have been a secure juvenile detox ward at the Benton Dowling Center. Police Officer Leona "Leo" Reese is working temporarily as a state investigator of fraud and licensing infractions, but has been out of commission due to surgery. On her first week back on the job, she is faced with the aftermath of the 17-year-old's death. Working with the local police, Leo discovers precious little evidence and far too few people with motives for the killing. As she uncovers long-buried secrets, someone else is murdered, and Leo realizes that she, too, is in danger. In the midst of her own emotional turmoil, is Leo strong enough and smart enough to confront and catch a clever and ruthless murderer?

Jump The Gun: Book Four in The Gun Series by Lori L. Lake
Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Quest by RCE; 1st edition (July 10, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935053507
ISBN-13: 978-1935053507
Amazon: Jump The Gun: Book Four in The Gun Series
Amazon Kindle: Jump The Gun: Book Four in The Gun Series

Dez Reilly, a patrol sergeant with the Saint Paul Police, is trying to decide which direction to go with her career: To SWAT? Or to Investigations? Or does she continue with the patrol supervision she is heartily tired of?

Jaylynn Savage cheerfully patrols the city's skyways and is happy with Dez, who is the love of her life. But when a colleague is murdered on duty, Dez and Jaylynn are both stunned. Before they can even process the loss, a witness is killed, Dez is targeted by a dangerous killer, and nobody the two of them knows is safe. Can Dez protect those she loves and also stop a heartless, face-less murderer?

Lori L. Lake's fourth novel in The Gun Series is full of twists and surprises. Don't miss this one if you enjoy a suspenseful and entertaining mystery/thriller.

Eight Dates: A Romance by Lori L. Lake
Paperback: 250 pages
Publisher: Launch Point Press; 1st edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1633040003
ISBN-13: 978-1633040007
Amazon: Eight Dates: A Romance
Amazon Kindle: Eight Dates: A Romance

Skylar Cassidy has been on her own for less than a year after a disastrous breakup. She's found that meeting women is difficult - kind of daunting, actually. She feels like she's been run through the mill and doesn't want to go through it again. But when her best pal and business partner Mitchell signs her up at the GirlsGaylore.com dating website and characterizes her as a happy-go-lucky, amorous, risk-taking single, strange women suddenly come out of the woodwork and Sky hardly knows what to make of it. EIGHT DATES is a comical story of a woman's search for Ms. Right-and how she finds quite a few Ms. Wrongs along the way.

More Rainbow Awards at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2013 & 2014

Ada Dwyer Russell & Amy Lowell

Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.

Lowell was born into Brookline's prominent Lowell family, sister to astronomer Percival Lowell and Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell.

She never attended college because her family did not consider that proper for a woman, but she compensated with avid reading and near-obsessive book collecting. She lived as a socialite and travelled widely, turning to poetry in 1902 after being inspired by a performance of Eleonora Duse in Europe. (P: Ada Dwyer Russell)

Lowell was said to be lesbian, and in 1912 she and actress Ada Dwyer Russell were reputed to be lovers. Russell is reputed to be the subject of her more erotic work, most notably the love poems contained in 'Two Speak Together', a subsection of Pictures of the Floating World. The two women traveled to England together, where Lowell met Ezra Pound, who at once became a major influence and a major critic of her work. Pound considered her embrace of Imagism to be a kind of hi-jacking of the movement, and among his friends he referred to her as the "hippo-poetess". Lowell has been linked romantically to writer Mercedes de Acosta, but the only evidence of any contact between them is a brief correspondence about a planned memorial for Duse.


©Time Magazine. TIME Magazine cover from March 2, 1925 featuring Amy Lowell (©26)
Ada Russell was a Mormon actress of the stage. She performed on stage in Broadway and London. In 1909 Russell met writer Amy Lowell. The two entered into long-term lesbian relationship, or a "Boston marriage" (the term for a 19th century romantic female relationship) beginning in 1912, which would last until Lowell's death in 1925. Russell was the subject of many of Lowell's explicit poems, such as the Taxi. Russell was the executrix of Amy Lowell's will, and burned all her items upon request.

( Read more... )

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

Ada Dwyer Russell (February 1864, Salt Lake City – Jul. 4, 1952, Chevy Chase, Montgomery County), was a Mormon actress of the stage. She performed on stage in Broadway and London.

Dwyer married Harold Russell in 1893 but entered a lifelong separation a few years after their marriage. The couple never sought divorce. In 1909 Russell met writer Amy Lowell. The two entered into long-term lesbian relationship, or a "Boston marriage" (the term for a 19th century romantic female relationship) beginning in 1912, which would last until Lowell's death in 1925. Russell was the subject of many of Lowell's explicit poems, such as the Taxi. Russell was also the executrix of Amy Lowell's will, and burned all her items upon request.

In The Taxi, Lowell conveys a strong sense of her separation from Russell and her pain. Collected in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (published in September 1914), The Taxi serves as an excellent example of Amy Lowell's "polyphonic prose", in which she experimented with different "rhythmic units".

Lowell left her fortune in a trust to Ada Russell.

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

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Henry Krieger & Robert Joy

Henry Krieger (born February 9, 1945 in New York City) is an American musical theatre composer. He most notably wrote the music for the Broadway shows Dreamgirls (1981, with lyrics and book by Tom Eyen),The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997). Krieger lives in New York City's Greenwich Village. He has been romantically linked to actor Robert Joy since 1995.

Krieger was nominated for the Tony Awards for Best Score for both Dreamgirls and Side Show, won a Grammy Award for the cast album of Dreamgirls and received three Academy Award nominations for the songs he wrote for the 2006 film.

Born in New York City, Krieger grew up in Westchester County, New York and attended school in Scarborough, New York, which had a theatre that was a replica of the Helen Hayes Theatre. There he played in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe and Ruddigore. He became interested in theatre and the dramatic arts, and he later studied creative and liberal arts at the American University in Washington, D.C., and Columbia University in New York.

While still in his twenties, Krieger began composing for Off-Off-Broadway. Eyen and Krieger first worked together on the 1975 musical version of Eyen's revue The Dirtiest Show in Town, called The Dirtiest Musical in Town. Nell Carter's performance in that musical inspired Krieger and Eyen to craft a musical about black backup singers, which they workshopped for Joe Papp but shelved when Carter dropped out in 1978 to appear in Ryan's Hope. A year later, the project caught the interest of Broadway director/producer/choreograher Michael Bennett, who sponsored a workshop production of Big Dreams, as the musical was then known, with Devine and twenty-year-old gospel singer Jennifer Holliday as Carter's replacement. After several workshops, numerous rewrites and various roadblocks, the show, now called Dreamgirls, came to Broadway in 1981. It was a success, and was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards (including Best Score), winning six. One of its songs, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" became a top hit, and others became popular songs. The original cast album won Krieger a Grammy Award.


Henry Krieger is an American musical theatre composer. He most notably wrote the music for the Broadway shows Dreamgirls (1981, with lyrics and book by Tom Eyen), The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997). Krieger lives in New York City's Greenwich Village. He has been romantically linked to actor Robert Joy since 1995. Robert Joy is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Dr. Sid Hammerback in CSI: NY, Charlie in Land of the Dead and Lizard in The Hills Have Eyes.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Krieger

Robert Joy (born August 17, 1951) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Dr. Sid Hammerback in CSI: NY, Charlie in Land of the Dead and Lizard in The Hills Have Eyes. Joy has been with Broadway composer Henry Krieger since 1995.

Joy was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and grew up in St John's, Newfoundland. He is the son of Flora Louise (née Pike) and Clifton Joseph Joy. He attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship and Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Joy played Madonna's punk musician boyfriend Jim in 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan, and the Dutch-Israeli Hans in the 1986 Alliance/CTV production Sword of Gideon, an adaptation of George Jonas's book, Vengeance.

In 1998, he appeared in Gregory Hoblit's thriller Fallen, where he fit into the all-star cast that included Denzel Washington, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, and John Goodman. In 2005, he had a lead role as the simple-minded sharpshooter Charlie in George A. Romero's latest zombie movie, Land of the Dead.

In the fall of 2005, Joy joined the CBS television show, CSI: NY, during its second season as a recurring character, Dr. Sid Hammerback, the Chief Medical Examiner, and became a main cast member in season five. Joy stated, "I basically read the script and then look up everything on Wikipedia that I don't know, and try to find out how to pronounce all the long words and get my head around actually what it is that I'm conveying, because often my character has a lot of explaining to do."

( Read more... )

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

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Book Blast: A New Man by PD Singer

A New Man by P.D. Singer
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press; 1 edition (February 9, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: A New Man

Senior year of college is for studying, partying, and having fun before getting serious about life. Instead, Chad’s days are filled with headaches and exhaustion, and his fencing skills are getting worse with practice, not better. Then there’s his nonexistent love life, full of girls he’s shunted to the friend zone. Is he asexual? Gay?

Grad student Warren Douglas could be out clubbing, but his roommate is better company, even without kisses. He’s torn up watching Chad suffer, gobbling ibuprofen and coming home early on Friday nights. If Chad weren’t straight, Warren would keep him up past midnight. They’re great as friends. Benefits might answer Chad’s questions.

A brief encounter with lab rats reveals Chad’s illness—he needs surgery, STAT, and can’t rely on his dysfunctional parents for medical decisions. Warren’s both trustworthy and likely to get overruled—unless they’re married. “You can throw me back later,” Warren says, and he may throw himself back after his husband turns out moody and hard to get along with, no matter how much fun his new sex drive is. Surgery turns Chad into a new man, all right…

…but Warren fell in love with the old one.

( Excerpt )

Author Bio: P.D. Singer lives in Colorado with her slightly bemused husband, two rowdy teenage boys, and thirty pounds of cats. She's a big believer in research, first-hand if possible, so the reader can be quite certain Pam has skied down a mountain face-first, been stepped on by rodeo horses, acquired a potato burn or two, and will never, ever, write a novel that includes sky-diving.

When not writing, playing her fiddle, or skiing, she can be found with a book in hand.

Most memorable moment as an author?
Getting a second rejection letter from a publisher on the same novel. I knew that was the last of the chances for that book with that house, and I wasn’t quite up to snuff yet. That was very humbling, and very instructive, and probably the best thing anyone ever did for my writing. It hurt like hell at the time. The book, after much more work, went on to be rather popular.

How do you deal with interruptions from family and friends – how do you find the balance and mark the space you need?
I’m the early riser in a household of late sleepers, which takes care of much of the problem. I also make creative use of voice mail.

Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pd.singer.9
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/PDSingerbooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PD_Singer
Blog: http://PDSinger.com



Tour Dates: February 9, 2015
Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Bike Book Reviews, My Fiction Nook, Kimi-Chan, Inked Rainbow Reads, Prism Book Alliance, Molly Lolly, Bayou Book Junkie, BFD Book Blog, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Kristy's Brain Food, Cate Ashwood, Fallen Angel Reviews, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Queer Town Abbey, MM Good Book Reviews, Wicked Wolves and Dreaming Dragons, Inked Rainbow Reads, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, Kristy's Brain Food, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, Nic Starr, Velvet Panic, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Nephylim, Multitasking Mommas, Elin Gregory

Rafflecopter Prize: 1 copy of ‘A New Man’ plus one copy from P.D. Singer’s backlist
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